Art of Conversation lives! Continuing the project to document the working practice of SF Bay Area artists, Christine Wong Yap joined me in an email-based interview in the first half of May, 2010.  Three numbered sections mark initial, separate topics…yet intricacies weave throughout the conversation.  Enjoy!

1. Steven Barich: Hello Christine.  Thank you for taking this interview, on the eve of your solo exhibition titled Irrational Exuberance at Sight School in Oakland, CA.  I’d like to talk with you about this exhibition in particular, in order to get a “preview of the artist’s mind,” as well as some other topics related to the activity of being an artist/writer/designer in

Identifying the threshold, any threshold—the what, where and how of it all—begins with the challenge of identifying something other, something beyond what is current, what is given. Reaching that threshold, and furthermore crossing it, requires a certain…progression. Some say that a threshold—by its very nature—always remains just ahead, beyond, intangible and even attempting to cross it is irrelevant. There will always be naysayers…

In a recent panel talk titled Towards the Liminal, I had the chance to sit and speak alongside some eminent intermediaries of the Bay Area visual arts: David Huff of Pro Arts Gallery, Anuradha Vikram of… Continue reading...

Roberta Smith in the NY Times from Feb. 10th:

“Museum curators need to think less about an artist’s career, its breakthroughs and its place in the big picture and more in terms of an artist’s life’s work pursued over time with increasing concentration and singularity.

They have a responsibility to their public and to history to be more ecumenical, to do things that seem to come from left field. They owe it to the public to present a balanced menu that involves painting as well as video and photography and sculpture. They need to think outside the hive-mind, both distancing themselves from their personal feelings to consider what’s being wrongly omitted and tapping into their own subjectivity to show us what they really love.… Continue reading...

Julia Shirar—Oakland-based artist—joined me in a email conversation about her upcoming exhibition Wrath is Come at the Rowan Morrison Gallery, opening Saturday, January 16th through February 20th.  Enjoy, and if inspired, please comment below.  Happy new decade!

Steven Barich– Greetings Julia.  I asked you for an interview via Artopic.org because next month you will open an exhibition titled Wrath Is Come at the Rowan Morrison Gallery, in Oakland. Having followed your career over the last decade as colleague and friend in the Bay Area art scene, I’m immediately curious to know the derivation of these recent artworks, what you are planning for the exhibition itself, and where exactly does

Wallworks, on view now at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, delivers true to its name: eight commissioned artists have created near-monumental wall-mounted art that occupies the lower and upper floor galleries. The curatorial premieur of Bettie-Sue Hertz, Wallworks—as presented in the literature of the exhibition—is both an “illumination” of the architecture of the YBCA building, created by Fumihiko Maki in 1993, as well as showcasing how artists might address either of two thematic challenges in their artwork: “split landscapes and culture color.” In viewing Wallworks, there are two main threads in which to analyze the exhibition, namely: the success in which the artists illuminate/manipulate/decorate the building and/or galleries, and Continue reading...

Currently on display at the Oakland Museum of CA is a selection of paintings by Squeak Carnwath, curated by Karen Tsujimoto.

Let’s talk about the show, overall. This retrospective of Squeak Carnwath’s paintings covers the last 20 plus years of her career, grouping a few works from memorable series into individual rooms of the main visual art gallery at the Oakland Museum of California. Titled Painting is No Ordinary Object, the exhibition presents Carnwath’s work as (in Carnwath’s own words) “a philosophical enterprise.” Translated, the viewer is given an opportunity to witness Carnwath working through a combination of personal anecdotes, literary interests and thoughts on culture via grids, through surface/flat compositions of symbols and motifs Continue reading...

A Classified Ad seen in the New York Times:
SEEKING AN NEW ART-I/OFFICIAL LANDSCAPE WITHOUT CULTURAL PRECEDENT

It used to be possible to talk about the New Art, in a similar manner to the discussion of the new math, the new sciences or the new religion, i.e. something proposed, discussed and critiqued for merit and usefulness. I’m talking about the worthiness of artwork in our daily lives, as an instructive tool, a memory concretized, or a warning of what’s to come. The “New” artwork is delivered as a statement, a contribution, with an idea of progress, often logical, but sometimes arriving via the unconscious or even by spiritual means.

“Hey, its new! I think I’ll try it! I want that!” Have you overheard this said recently at a gallery opening? Continue reading...

Another entry in our interview series, with the artist Hannah Henry. Hannah has an exhibition at the Rowan Morrison Gallery opening on April 4th. It was a pleasure to speak with her and I hope you enjoy the interview!

Steven Barich: Hello Hannah. Thank you for taking this interview. I’m glad we have this opportunity to discuss your artwork and art practice.

Hannah Henry: It’s a frighteningly rare opportunity. Thank you!

SB: You have an upcoming show at Rowan Morrison in April and I believe you have just returned from the East Coast for a project in Belfast(?)…

HH: Yes, I was a participant in Project M, a boot Continue reading...

A few weeks back, an article in the East Bay Express titled Death of the Salesmen implied a looming economic downward spiral in the visual arts, here in Oakland. I, and a number of my colleagues, felt this article didn’t go far enough in taking a wider look at the alternatives to typical commercial art gallery business models, and this was most apparent by the non-inclusion of certain “alternative” art galleries here in the East Bay, such as Blankspace, the Compound Gallery, Rowan Morrison, 21 Grand, etc. These spaces—all run by artists with a vision to create their own publicly accessible art/business/social spheres—exemplify a Continue reading...

This is the question posed and debated during the radio program Intelligence Squared U.S., recently broadcast on KQED February 14th, 2009. Not only is this art topic (ha!) timely, the “oxford style” debate form used in the Intelligence Squared U.S. program created an exciting back-and-forth that is often missing in the talking and musing over the Arts.

From the Intelligence Squared U.S. web site:

“Critics say a lack of oversight in the art market permits manipulation — by dealers who can artificially inflate auction prices, for example. But others argue that the value of art isn’t determined by money — that the art world isn’t an industry and shouldn’t be treated as such.”

Six experts Continue reading...