Thoughts Stimulated by Kathy McTavish's "Ticket" @ the Joseph Nease Gallery

G.R. Swenson: What is Pop Art?

Roy Lichtenstein: I don’t know—the use of commercial art as subject matter in painting, I suppose. It was hard to get a painting that was despicable enough so that no one would hang it—everybody was hanging everything. It was almost acceptable to hang a dripping paint rag, everybody was accustomed to this. The one thing everyone hated was commercial art; apparently they didn’t hate that enough either.

--ARTnews, The First Word on Pop (1963)*

Yesterday I stopped in again to meander through the Joseph Nease Gallery (23 West 1st Street, Duluth) and grab a few snapshots of Kathy McTavish's installation ticket. I'd been thinking about the bad rap commercial artists get, and also wondering about bridging the gap between the fine arts and commercial art.

While reading a 1963 ARTnews interview with several leading voices in the Pop Art movement (Warhol, Lichtenstein, James Dine, Robert Indiana among them) I saw that the belittling of commercial art probably had its origins mid-century past. Have attitudes moved away from such harsh indictments today?

The Balance published an article inquiring about and attempting to define the difference between Fine Art and Commercial Art. In essence, it has to do with intent, they said. Yet when I posted this article for discussion on a Facebook forum, the first comments noted that this was overly reductive. UMD Art History professor Jamie Ratliff pointed out that "so-called 'fine' art, even when it's in a museum like the Louvre, is still part of the commercial art market. Just look at the 'Leonardo' that just sold for $450 mil. The Louvre is in negotiations to get that on indefinite loan."

To which Kathy McTavish, whose work is displayed above, added, "I know of few artists that don't feel engaged with the struggle of sustenance. I think also that for an artist to feel that they are doing a 'pure' form of expression devoid of context would be quite delusional. Creative expression whatever its form, if it has power, "sells" something::: enhances / strengthens or disrupts something. It is our job to reflect / uncover / honestly reveal those impacts / motivations & to hone / wield that voice responsibly & articulately even if what it is articulating is below the surface / un-utterable / non-verbal. I think we have to try to understand what it is our work is 'sell- ing or breaking."

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The photos fail to capture the full impact of ticket,  in part because there is an audio component as well as the fact that it is a series of Chrome monitors plus projectors in continuous motion, animated graphics as it were. One "commercial" application I envision would be as intro to a Hollywood film about AI, the soundtrack included, as the opening credits roll. Fade out at the film's end would repeat the opening and fade to black. Other commercial apps, less ambitious, might include the myriad business and educational videos dealing with technology, philosophy and science that have been accumulating on YouTube in recent years. The work is original and not a copy-cat of anything else, hence its appeal to the creative spirit. 

The gallery hours begin at noon, Wednesday through Saturday. Their inaugural exhibition is titled Three States, with Matthew Kluber, Kathy McTavish, and James Woodfill. 

Care to join the discussion? Leave a comment.

* ARTnews: The First Word On Pop

Three States Reveals Aims of the New Joseph Nease Gallery

Whirl Signal iPad, James Woodfill

Thursday we shared a few moments from the ribbon-cutting at the Joseph Nease Gallery. James Woodfill's Wayfinding exhibit had failed to completely find its way here at the time, but there was enough in place for early visitors to grasp the caliber of Duluth's newest gallery space. Saturday afternoon Joe and Karen Nease officially opened their doors for the public opening reception.

This first show was titled Three States, a reference to the three geographical regions the featured artists hailed from. The artists getting top billing were Matthew Kluber of Iowa, Kathy McTavish or Minnesota and James Woodfill of Missouri. A dozen other artists, however, were also represented throughout the gallery.

James Woodfill has been a painting professor at the Kansas City Art Institute from 15-20 years. A 1980 grad he entered into a commercial art career before getting into studio art. His works demonstrate an interdisciplinary approach that in this particular show features movement and light kinetics. Interestingly, all three featured artists incorporate the same central concept but with totally different outcomes. Woodfill's gallery installations have received national recognition in numerous publications including Art In America, the New Art Examiner and Sculpture Magazine, among others.

James Woodfill

The artist whose work you encounter upon entering the gallery is Matthew Kluber. The first eye-catching piece, titled No Place Like Utopia, is the one featured in Thursday's blog post with it's sequence of photos depicting Kluber and Mayor Larson engaged in conversation. Another large piece title Parsing the Lingo is comprised of alkyd on aluminum. Then there are a series of small gouache paintings on Arches watercolor paper. When you visit his website it's apparent that the Iowa artist is fascinated with color and light.

A captured moment in time from ticket by Kathy McTavish

Kathy McTavish, the third featured artist in this show, has assembled her composition, titled ticket, in an isolated room in which code-generated animations are being projected on the walls along with random numbers and sounds, a visual-sensual experience generated via wireless network, chrome browsers, projectors and the cloud. While different from Chance, the current Tweed show, it has many similarities and seems to raise some of the same issues, while toying with the same fascinations. 

In addition to the three featured artists, the JNG also showed 1-4 works by a dozen artists in a variety of media that included oil, acrylic, gouache, photography, crayon & ball point pen, and solid-case earthenware with slip. The 25 pieces were evenly distributed throughout the gallery in such a manner as to almost be deceptive. That is, a visitor to the gallery might easily assume there aren't that many pieces here, but then the spaciousness surprises you. This hall here, that room there, with nothing competing and all pieces getting their deserved attention. 

Here are the other artists with work currently on display: photographers Raissa Venables and Tim White, Warren Rosser, Peter Granados, James Brinsfield, Marcus Cain, Heidi Pollard, Eric Sall, Don Kottmann, Warren Rosser, Carey Esser and Eric Sall. 

And here are some additional views:

Blue Hall, by Raissa Venables, Archival Pigment Print, 2009

Several Woodfill sculptures

Before moving to Duluth with his wife Karen, Joseph Nease, a civil engineer by profession, ran a gallery in Kansas City devoted to cutting edge art. They call this gallery Joseph Nease Gallery Version 2.0, integrating the many lessons they learned from their first gallery experience. One feature of the new space is that some of the walls are on wheels so that gallery configuration does not have to remain locked in a single patten.

The gallery brought on board a curator, Amanda Hunter, to assist in managing all the behind-the-scenes matters that others might take for granted. This particular show, Three States, will remain installed until early January 2018.

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To Visit the Artist's Websites:
James Woodfill -- https://woodfill-archive.herokuapp.com/
Matthew Kluber -- http://www.matthewkluber.com/
Kathy McTavish -- http://www.mctavish.io/

Better yet, visit the gallery in person: 23 West First Street, Duluth MN

Nease News: Two Openings In Two States

When Karen and Joseph Nease moved to the Northland a couple years ago you knew right off that they would become a welcome addition to the Twin Ports art scene. Artist/painter Karen Nease, finding inspiration in the natural beauty that ebbs and flows around us, was quickly at work on her first Northland show. Husband Joe, meanwhile didn't waste any time doing the essential footwork necessary to locate the ideal space for a new gallery. The Joseph Nease Gallery in Kansas City had gained the attention of national art magazines and in a relatively short time established itself as a serious player in the region.

Well, the Neases are in the Northland now, and it is with pleasure that I share this blog post announcing Karen's new show at the Kruk Gallery in Superior, and the premiere show in the new Joseph Nease Gallery in Downtown Duluth. Anticipation is running high for both these events.

As Above, So Below.
Karen Nease Opening at the Kruk

Superior, Wisconsin - The Kruk Gallery, University of Wisconsin – Superior presents As Above, So Below. The exhibition features a new body of artwork from Karen Owsley Nease’s wave portrait series. Exquisitely painted, and dramatic, these oil paintings portray the waves as powerful, elemental forces. They are monochromatic in palette, ranging in size from small studies to the full size of a wave. The breaking multi-faceted waves create strong patterns of light and dark drawing the viewer closer. As Ann Landi describes, “ … this artist builds up her pictures in glazes until the surface reaches a seductive luminosity. “

Karen Owsley Nease is a contemporary landscape painter whose “…seascape painting draws from the traditions of Western landscape painting, and subverts those traditions as firmly as it refers to them. By doing so it encourages us to retune our way of perceiving the non-human world which surrounds and supports us,” states Ruth Henriquez. Throughout her career, Nease’s artwork has sought to extend the meaning of landscape beyond the Western European tradition. She achieves this by presenting the power of the waters with no reference to humans whatsoever except for the viewer’s own reaction. Her paintings present the forces of nature as entities in their own right, inviting the viewer to see the subject in new ways.

Nease's artwork has reference points in her own efforts toward habitat restoration, American transcendentalist landscape painting and the work of more recent artists such as Neil Welliver, April Gornik and Vija Celmins who are similarly engaged with both the landscape and its use as subject matter for formalist experimentation. Almost photo-realistic when viewed from afar, the paintings become more painterly and abstract as one approaches. From the catalog essay by Ann Landi, “the wave series keeps viewer pleasurably off balance, flirting with abstraction…”

Karen Owsley Nease, artist, states, “I am thrilled at the opportunity to introduce this new and ongoing series of artwork to the Northland. The Kruk Gallery is an ideal space to present my large scale wave paintings and it is important to me that this work can be seen at such a lovely space at the University of Wisconsin – Superior, whose programs play an important role in the protection of Lake Superior which is so nearby.”

OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, October 5, 2017, 5-7pm
Exhibition dates: October 4 – October 26, 2017.
Gallery Hours:
Monday - Wednesday 12:00 - 6:00 pm,
Thursday 9:00 am - 6:00 pm,
Friday 9:00 am - 1:00 pm

Three States
Joseph Nease Gallery Opening in Duluth

It is a little less than a month before Joseph Nease Gallery opens with its inaugural exhibition Three States on October 21, 2017 with Matthew Kluber, Kathy McTavish, and James Woodfill. If you are unable to make the opening the show will run through January 6, 2017.

So what is Three States?

Art critic, Dave Hickey once suggested “that all an artist needs is to decide where to live, how to live and what they want their art to look like.” Similarly, as a gallery, all you need to know is where you want it to be, how you want it run, and what you want the work you show to look like. Thus, we are in Duluth, Minnesota, with a thoughtfully run gallery showing artwork that we want (you) to see.

In our inaugural exhibition titled Three States, we feature artists from three states with work that is related by motion, technology and finally formed by the space it occupies. Each of these artists, Matthew Kluber (Iowa), Kathy McTavish (Minnesota), and James Woodfill (Missouri) share these commonalities, but through painting, projection, motion, and vantage point options give distinctly different viewer experiences. Matthew Kluber is an artist whose “painting (projection)” work investigates the intersection of painting and digital technology. Kathy McTavish is a media composer, cellist and installation artist whose work blends data, text, code, sound, and abstract, layered moving images. And James Woodfill, an interdisciplinary artist whose work is focused on direct experience through the composition of objects, occurrences and site.

In order to fully introduce the gallery during this inaugural exhibition, we also will be showing at least one recent artwork of each of the artists with whom we are currently working, including work by James Brinsfield, Marcus Cain, Cary Esser, Peter Granados, Rachel Hayes, Don Kottmann, Heidi Pollard, Warren Rosser, Eric Sall, and Tim White.

For more information, Follow the New Joseph Nease Gallery on Facebook.

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TONIGHT
Don't miss tonight's Opening Reception for IN SITU in the John Steffl Gallery at the Duluth Art Institute, on the fourth floor in The Depot.

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Meantime, art goes on all around you. Engage it!