Traditions Transfigured: The Noh Masks of Bidou Yamaguchi

Traditions Transfigured: The Noh Masks of Bidou Yamaguchi is an exhibition in the University Library Gallery at Sacramento State that is showing from February 11 - May 21, 2016.  The masks of Yamaguchi are showcased throughout the space of the gallery in addition to displays that explain the process of making Noh masks.  The front part of the exhibition also offers some footage of actual Noh performances. 

Noh is a classical form of Japanese musical theater dating back to the fourteenth century that is very complex and "ritualized" in the sense that great skill and precise steps are needed for a proper performance.  Even the slightest tilt of a Noh actor's head conveys a wide range of emotions when he or she wears an iconic Noh mask.  All of Yamaguchi's masks are made out of the traditional Japanese cypress used for carving the masks.  An accompanying video showing one of Yamaguchi's masks of a middle-aged Japanese woman offers a visual for the wide range of emotions that can be conveyed through a slight tilt of the mask.  A mirror with masks allows viewers to try on a couple Noh masks.  Nearby is a display and projector screen also showing the step-by-step and painstaking process of creating a Noh mask.  The video of the Noh performances near the show's entrance is also informative of how a Noh performance looks, sounds, and "feels" like (also helped by the ambient Noh music that played in the gallery space).  Additional woodblock prints relating to Noh theater are also hung near the show exhibition entrance to help establish the context of Noh and the "atmosphere" of this particular exhibition.

 Tsukioka Kogyo, Pictures of Noh Plays: Noh Stage, 1910, colored ink woodblock on paper.

 A display showing the steps for carving a Noh mask.

However, Yamaguchi's masks are the real standout pieces in this exhibition, which are immediately noticeable with their haunting and spectral forms in clear display cases.  Most of Yamaguchi's masks in Traditions Transfigured carry a contemporary connotation, but some near the entrance, such as Shojou (Drunken Imp), 2003, seem to carry a more "traditional" perspective with their subject matter and characters they represent.  Other masks, such as Edobei, relate to Japanese culture but do so with from a contemporary perspective because the character of Edobei is from kabuki, which is highly stylized dance-theater (less "conservative" than Noh) where the actors wear elaborate make-up.  Although both kabuki and Noh actors use masks, Yamaguchi adds his own personal touch by portraying Edobei as the character from Toshusai Sharaku's iconic woodblock print.  Sharaku, a renowned eighteenth-century woodblock portraitist, and his "persona" seem to fit well with the ghostly Noh masks because his true identity was never known.  Sharaku portrayed the kabuki actor, Oniji Otani III, as the villainous servant with a menacing, exaggerated scowl to show Edobei's questionable character.  Edobei is also notable because most of the masks in this show are of European women in European art.

 Bidou Yamaguchi, Shojou (Drunken Imp), 2003, Japanese cypress, seashell, natural pigment, and Japanese lacquer. 

 Yamaguchi, Edobei, 2011, Japanese cypress, seashell, natural pigment, and Japanese lacquer.

Toshusai Sharaku, Oniji Otani III in the Role of the Servant Edobei, 1794, colored ink woodblock on paper.  Sharaku's print is the inspiration for Yamaguchi's Edobei mask (a reprint of the original woodblock appears in the show).

In addition to his portrayal of Edobei (and even his reference to the mysterious artist, Sharaku), Yamaguchi seems to emphasize a dialogue of identity.  The masks of women are grouped together in a way that paintings might be organized.  However, while Dr. Kendall Brown acknowledges how Yamaguchi is combining a contemporary perspective with Noh tradition, he adds that identity is another key aspect of Yamaguchi's work, particularly that of the female portraits.  Noh might even be considered a gendered realm because most of the actors are men, who play both male and female roles on stage.  In Traditions Transfigured, Yamaguchi not only addresses the role of gender in traditional Noh theater and Japanese culture but also that in European art and Western culture.  Female icons, such as Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Jan Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, are now portrayed in three-dimensional form.

 Yamaguchi, Mona Lisa, 2007, Japanese cypress, seashell, natural pigment, and Japanese lacquer.

 Yamaguchi, Girl with a Pearl Earring, 2005, Japanese cypress, seashell, natural pigment, and Japanese lacquer.

  
Brown noted how the masks in this exhibition are supposed to imbue these female icons with a sort of "life," so they at least convey the "ghosts" of these female characters.  Central to the theme of identity in this exhibition is the idea that all of these women have been relegated as historicized, inanimate icons whose actual identities (or corresponding sitters) are unknown, much like how the separation between Noh actors and the characters they play becomes tenuous.  Yamaguchi's inclusion of a "pop culture" mask showing Angelina Jolie as Maleficent draws connections between past depictions of women and the ones that prevail today.

 

Yamaguchi, Angelina, 2007, Japanese cypress, seashell, natural pigment, and Japanese lacquer.

Traditions Transfigured was an immersive exhibition that succeeds on many levels.  The gallery layout was cohesive and allowed for easy perusal and observation of the artwork and information.  It also shared a part of Japanese culture that is not necessarily familiar to Western audiences, showcased Yamaguchi's finesse, craftsmanship, and originality for creating Noh masks, and established a complex dialectic between gender, culture, identity, and representation.

Slow Dialogues: Time, Space, and Scale

Slow Dialogues: Time, Space, and Scale is an exhibition at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) in San Francisco.  The show is open from April 22 - July 10, 2016.  The exhibition was curated by Slow Research Lab (an interdisciplinary research and curatorial group based in the Netherlands) and features the work of three artists, Jorge Oteros-Pailos, Megumi Matsubara, and Maria Blaisse.

 Show title.

All of the artists' work is located on the top floor of the YBCA, but the show is organized in a way where the artworks were in and created their own space.  Although I felt the partitioned layout of Slow Dialogues somewhat diminished the cohesion of the artworks, it also seemed strategic in that the three artists covered different subject matter.

Beginning with Jorge Oteros-Pailos's The Ethics of Dust: Old United States Mint, San Francisco, viewers are confronted with a fact of modern society: pollution.  In a stark and haunting portrayal of human-made detritus and debris, Oteros-Pailos created several floating sheets that manifest as half-formed brick buildings.  The two "buildings" are really cast sheets of latex that picked up the pollutants and dust from two chimneys of the Old United States Mint, which originated during the Gold Rush era.  Upon entering the room that houses Oteros-Pailos's artwork, one is also confronted by the caustic smell of the materials.  This seemed intentional by the artist to further emphasize the theme of pollution and to create a multi-dimensional viewer experience.  The Ethics of Dust as an entire series not only addresses pollution but also many concepts related to it and to Oteros-Pailos's art.  For example, his art prompts discussion on industrialization, urban development, decay, and redevelopment, global capitalism, and preservation.  The preservation component of Oteros-Pailos's work is particularly complex because through his process of laying latex sheets on old, pollutant-laden building walls, he is preserving both the walls, by cleaning them of dirt and grime, and the actual pollutants because they are now stuck on his latex sheets.  The artist notes how they are "time-stains" that show the history of the building.  Although Oteros-Pailos's work may seem like a critique of pollutants in human society, he notes that his art is more ambiguous because "pollutants are part of our cultural heritage."  Overall, his work intertwines time, space, and scale with the multi-faceted histories and implications of pollution.

 Oteros-Pailos cleans a wall at the Alumix Factory in Bolzano, Italty (2008).  By laying latex sheets over dirt-covered walls, he can create a cast of the wall that is also laden in dirt.

 Photographs taken from Oteros-Pailos's exhibition, The Ethics of Dust: Doge's Palace, Venice, 2009.  The left scene shows the original palace wall, while the right shows the latex casting.

 Oteros-Pailos, The Ethics of Dust: Old United States Mint, San Francisco, 2008 - 2016, latex, pollution.

Another view of the latex "architecture."

Outside of the gallery room with The Ethics of Dust are Megumi Matsubara's artworks that address the concept of a garden and what factors into its presence, such as the upkeep and maintenance, the climate, and social elements.  Matsubara also chose the garden theme due to the YBCA's proximity to the Yerba Buena  Gardens.  Her collection of work, titled It Is a Garden, is a mysterious representation of the garden and its culture.  In various corners of the gallery and a corridor, Matsubara uses various media, such as archival prints, film, and mirrors to create a complex yet open dialogue on gardens and what part they play in society.  Like Oteros-Pailos's work and the theme of the exhibition, Matsubara clearly engages with space, both in the gallery and in a metaphorical garden.

Example of Matsubara's work, The Blind Dream, 2014.

The last artist of the group show is Maria Blaisse.  Like the other two artists, Blaisse also plays upon the thematic elements of time, space, and scale.  In her series, Traveling Geometry, Blaisse showcases latticed structures of bamboo (held together by silicone rubber joints) as a multi-purpose medium.  For example, two of the bamboo forms are presented as stationary sculptures; however, a video playing behind the two shows how those same sculptures can be taken apart and reconstructed into different forms in different contexts.  For example, the bamboo might be a net-like nest that encases the dancer, a "partner" that accompanies the dancer, or even a skirt.  Blaisse seems to emphasize how the bamboo structures can change over time, how they can change shape and size, and how they can change and create their own space through transformation.

 Blaisse, Traveling Geometry, 2008 - 2016, bamboo, silicone rubber, arduino.

 Video showing a dancer with one of Blaisse's "moving meshes."

Video that shows a dancer using one of Blaisse's meshes.

Slow Dialogues was a very interesting exhibition with its wide range of subject matter and media.  However, their work was united by the themes of time, space, and scale.  These themes were important focal points of each artist and their work, and they also offered an entry dialogue into the various societal, environmental, and cultural factors relate to the "worlds" created by the three artists.

Bay Area Exhibition Review: Architecture of Life at the New BAMPFA

Architecture of Life at the New BAMPFA

 2155 Center Street, Berkeley, CA 94704
January 31 - May 29, 2016
Museum Hours: Wednesday - Sunday, 11am - 9pm

Architecture of Life is the inaugural art exhibition of the new University of California, Berkeley Art Musuem and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA).  The show debuted on January 31, 2016, the same day BAMPFA was first opened to the public.  It was organized by Lawrence Rinder, director of BAMPFA.  The title of the exhibition seems appropriate as it opened alongside the actual BAMPFA building, which is an artwork in itself, and examines the various meanings of architecture, both literal and metaphorical.  Architecture of Life is massive yet inclusive, with over 250 artworks spanning approximately two millennia, and a marvel to look at and experience just like the actual building.

Exterior view of the new BAMPFA.

The relationship between Architecture of Life and the BAMPFA building is collaborative with the show's overarching theme of architecture.  The building makes an impression even from the outside, with its abstract and organic form and steel-plated exterior that houses the theater within.  The history of BAMPFA is an interesting one and may very well be one of the artworks in the exhibition due to this history and the technical and artistic achievement of the complex.  The first location of BAMPFA was originally on Bancroft Way (also in Berkeley) within Mario Ciampi's Brutalist-style structure.  The museum opened in 1970 but was deemed unsafe in 1997 due to it being constructed mostly out of concrete (Berkeley has a relatively high earthquake risk).  In 2001, iron braces were placed on the exterior of Ciampi's building, but the final decision was to move BAMPFA to where it stands today on Center Street.  The design of the new BAMPFA was created by the design studio and architectural firm, Dillor Scofidio + Renfro (DS + R), and unveiled in 2011.  The design reused a UC Berkeley printing plant that was built in 1939 under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which was in disrepair and in need of renovations.

A view of the former location of BAMPFA at the Brutalist-style building designed by Mario Ciampi.

 

A view of the abandoned 1939 printing plant that was renovated for the new museum on Center Street.

The former Art Deco-style plant is no longer recognizable with the new BAMPFA and its "contemporary" appearance on both the inside and outside.  The architecture is also impressive on the inside.  Upon entering the building, viewers can take in the entrance of the first floor, which has a "contemporary" look with a high ceiling, concrete floors, white walls, and bold accents of red that appear in the stairwell and some places on the ceiling.

A view of museum's entrance near the ticket counter (a wall installation by artist Qiu Zhijie is located to the left).

The BAMPFA building might be considered the first "artwork" in Architecture of Life that is noticeable and makes a strong impression, but the artworks that are officially part of the exhibition are by no means diminished by it.  For example, artist Qiu Zhijie was commissioned to make a wall drawing near the entrance inside the building.  The World Garden is situated near wooden bleachers and covers the entire wall.  The large-scale drawing alludes to the tradition of Chinese literati paintings that were commonly make by the upper-class literati (gentlemen-scholars) from the Tang to Ming Dynasties.  For this artwork, as with most of the others in this exhibition, an accompanying didactic panel helps shed light on the artist's intent for his or her creation.  According to the panel, The World Garden specifically refers to shan shui ("mountain and river"), which is a style of landscape painting that uses natural features as metaphors for various parts of the human experience.  The formal elements of The World Garden are inspired by Chinese landscape paintings, but terms such as "The Lake of Lonely Happiness" and "The Logic of the Zig Zag Bridge" reveal Qiu's whimsical and even critical take on the tradition of Chinese landscape painting.  The "world garden" is also a composite of gardens from around the world and range from Italian Renaissance gardens to Japanese tea gardens.  The panel further elaborates on how Qiu questioned the tradition of Chinese landscape painting in that the majority of these paintings were created only by upper-class individuals who worked in seclusion.  Qiu's seemingly playful phrases that identify the landmarks and natural features in the mural and his inclusion of gardens from different cultures allude to his vision of a more cosmopolitan world where all kinds of people interact with one another instead of being isolated and secluded.  Qiu's mural is a great introduction to the rest of the exhibition, as it encapsulates and envisions both the physical world and the human experience as complex structures.

 

Qiu, The World Garden, 2016, ink on wall.

  

Also on the first floor is an exhibit within a small gallery.  Argentine artist Tomás Saraceno and his work pay homage to nature's own rendering of architectural forms.  Within the dimly-lit gallery space are four suspended glass boxes that contain spider webs made from "semi-social" and "social" spiders.   Drama is added to the entire space with lights placed underneath the boxes, lending a ghostly quality to the four boxes and web structures.  The title of Hybrid solitary semi-social musical instrument Ophiuchus: built by Parasteatoda lunata--two weeks--and a Cytophora citricola--two weeks has a documentative quality that maps out Saraceno's process for making this particular artwork.  The spiders are truly the architects here, but Saraceno also added his own touch by using carbon meshes to aid in resulting look of the "finished" web.  The artist also contributed to the musical instruments by using different species of spiders, which means the webs would probably not exist in nature.   Overall, Saraceno's work showcases the architecture (the webs) created by spiders and how man and nature can work together to create something unique and unexpected.

 Saraceno, Hybrid solitary semi-social musical instrument Ophiuchus: built by Parasteatoda lunata--two weeks--and a Cytophora citricola--two weeks, 2015, spider silk, carbon fiber, glass.

Architecture of Life featurs a large amount of work that covers not only the first floor but the basement floor as well (the top floor contains the café).  If viewers continue into the main galleries on the first floor, they are greeted by an dizzying array of different artworks by artists from a wide variety of backgrounds.  All of these works, like Qiu's and Saraceno's, are a different interpretation of architecture (or are interpreted as such).  Several "star artist" paintings are featured in this area, including Fernand Léger, Johannes Itten, and Georgia O'Keeffe.  Léger was known for his Cubist and Futurist style, which is seen here in Study for Nude Model in the Studio.  The panel next to Léger's painting offers an interpretation of why it is in the show; it notes the fragmented figure as being inseparable from its surroundings to create an "all-over architecture of being."  Itten's Encounter is similar to Léger's in that it portrays a space with a human figure in it.  However, the space and figure are not recognizable and manifest instead as a spiral of colors.  Itten's relation to the exhibition's theme of architecture appears not only in this painting with its structured forms and carefully planned composition but also in his ties to the Bauhaus, which was a German art school that specialized in architecture among several other art disciplines.  O'Keeffe's Wall with Green Door literally portrays an architectural element of a door, but the accompanying text proposes that her painting relates to Taoist mandalas, a subject covered in a book given to her by her mentor, Arthur Wesley Dow. 

 Léger, Study for Nude Model in the Studio, 1912, ink, oil, and charcoal on paper.

 Itten, Encounter, 1916, oil on canvas.

 O'Keeffe, Wall with Green Door, 1953, oil on canvas.

Hyun-Sook Song's work offers a meditative and ethereal counterpoint to O'Keeffe's Door.  Her work, such as 4 Brushstrokes over Figure, quantifies the number of white brushstrokes that overlay the figure against the black background.  Her work relates to architecture not only with her structure of placing brushstrokes in a specific manner and number but also with her reference to her native Korean life with the figure clad in white holding a stick.

 Song, 4 Brushstrokes over Figure, 2012, egg tempera on canvas.

The writer standing next to Song's painting.

Other artworks on the first floor are similar to Saraceno's in that they portray structure and architecture in nature, such as microscopic views of radiolaria (marine organisms) and snowflakes.   The front part of BAMPFA also includes work that are literal architectural models, such as the "Home for All" project undertaken by Japanese artists after the devastating Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011.  Other artworks on the first floor also tackle serious global problems.  Several drawings by Lebbeus Woods propose a rebuilding of the destroyed buildings and towns that were the aftermath of the Bosnian War and Genocide of 1992 - 1995.  One of his drawings titled SCAR Construction refers to the devastation of war and the atrocities that were committed during this particular conflict. 

 Nipam Patel, Radiolarian Confocals 1x - 10x, confocal microscopic imaging.  This video artwork shows a revolving radiolarian with its very structured form.  

 Yuji Obata, Homage to Wilson A. Bentley No. 12, 2005 - 06, pigment print (edition 1/5).  Obata's snowflakes were photographed in Hokkaido, Japan.  Bentley was known for his images of individual snowflakes captured using a camera-microscope.  

Toyo Ito, Kumiko Inui, Sou Fujimoto, Akihisa Hirata, "Home for All" in Rikuzentakata, 2011 - 12, wood, styrene board, plastic, styrol, flowers (five miniature models).  The "Home for All" project aimed to rejuvenate and inspire the community of Rikuzentakata after the earthquake and tsunami through architecture.

Woods, SCAR Construction, 1993, graphite and colored pencil on board.

View of the first floor galleries.
 

In the basement level is also a vast collection of artwork.  Work by "architectural greats" such as Buckminster Fuller and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe appears on this level.  Fuller's downstairs drawings show geodesic domes, which he helped popularize in the public mind, and Mies was another prominent figure associated with the Bauhaus school.  Mies's drawing shows his plan for the the Barcelona Pavilion of 1929.  Similar to the BAMPFA building, Mies's vision was to have the Pavilion be an experience in itself.  Both his and Fuller's work are examples in this show that relate directly to architecture as a practice.

 Fuller, A Geodesic Hangar: Plan Projection, Geodesic Dome, Styrofoam or Tubular Aluminum, 1951, graphite on tracing paper.

 Mies, German Pavilion, International Exposition, Barcelona, Spain, Interior Perspective, c. 1928 - 29, graphite on illustration board.

Other highlights downstairs in the BAMPFA include the detailed Pomo baskets that rely on the artist's meticulous ability to coil plant materials and count the number of stitches that are used to make intricate patterns.  Two structures made of paper by Norioko Ambe are also highly detailed in that he meticulously stacked pieces of paper to make his own terrains that merge the man-made with the natural.  Iannis Xenakis's sketches of his musical work creates a link between architecture, art, and music.  One sketch portrays music as a visual.  In this sketch, Xenakis outlined how sound waves from one of his music compositions created architectural arcs mirroring the structure of the Philips Pavilion as the music was played.

Artists unknown, Pomo baskets, no date (n.d.), coiled plant material.  Some of the baskets have feathers and shell beads, which typically adorn "gift baskets" that the Pomo were renowned for making.

Norioko Ambe, A Piece of Flat Globe Vol. 12, 2010, cut YUPO (paper).

Xenakis, "Sound as Lightning," 1958, sketchbook with colored pencil on paper.  The sketch describes the acoustic qualities of the Philips Pavilion, which was shown during the World's Fair of 1958.

One last gallery space that I will cover perhaps best represents one of accomplishments of Architecture of Life, its ability to make connections between different artworks, disciplines (art, science, and music to name a few), and media to create a dialogue that moves beyond architecture as a literal practice.  Marcel Duchamp's Boîte is placed in a space filled with mandalas, paintings, and sculptures from different Asian cultures.  The Asian artworks create a space different from the others (but this may also be due to the notably different floor that is made of wood not concrete), but they are not culturally separated either from the rest of the works in the show.  This is helped by the fact that the layout of BAMPFA is open and the rooms flow into one another, but works like Boîte create a dialogue between Eastern and Western art.  Boîte relates to Architecture of Life because it represents a mini-museum that Duchamp made in Dadaist fashion.  He painstakingly recreated some of his notable two-dimensional paintings by using a stenciling process.  His Large Glass is also seen in miniature in the center of the box along with his infamous Fountain (a urinal turned on its side).  The didactic panel explains his work's placement next to the mandalas in that it could be interpreted as its own kind of mandala; the "museum" has a red color not unlike that seen in actual mandalas, and it has a circular shape.  Like a mandala, Duchamp's Boîte might elicit a kind of meditation from the viewers as they observe all of the detail in this artwork and try to figure out its meaning, if there is any.

Duchamp, Boîte, 1966, leather, linen, miniature replicas, photographs, and color reproductions.  Mandalas can be seen behind the display case.

 Architecture of Life is truly about life as whole because it encompasses art, science, music, and other disciplines.  It showcased the structures made by nature.  It also showcased the structures made by man, but its main strength was bringing together so many artworks and artists from different cultures and time periods in a complex, cosmopolitan dialogue.  The show did not just look at art; it looked at the connections between art.  The strength of the show may also be its only weakness, its almost overwhelming number of artworks.  However, the number of work mirrors the way art currently is in the contemporary world.  In the diverse, postmodern era of today, such a global interpretation of the "architecture of life" seems especially relevant.  Architecture does not just exist in buildings, it exists in nature, in the human mind, and anywhere there is structure or a network of connections.

"Hear and There": Artist Lecture by Mike Henderson

"Hear and There" was an artist lecture by artist Mike Henderson that took place on April 12, 2016 from 4:00 - 6:00pm in Room 108 of the Art and Sculpture Lab (ASL) at Sacramento State.  Henderson is known for being part of the Bay Area artists group of the 1960s, but he had an upbringing that was far removed from the California art scene.  In 1943, Henderson was born in the small farming community of Marshall, Missouri.  Henderson has described the town as "predominantly white," and he felt he could not relate to many people there.  His family was also financially disadvantaged, so he elaborated on how this background was another obstacle to his career as an artist.  Growing up in Marshall, Henderson had several occupations, including a bellhop and a shoeshiner.  Despite his parents' disapproval of him pursuing an artistic career, Henderson posted his drawings on the wall near his shoeshine stand.  It was here that people first began to commend his artistic work, and this eventually led to his enrollment at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Although many of Henderson's contemporary paintings may be classified as being Abstract Expressionist, the artist described himself as being a "sponge," even in the early days of his career.  He was influenced by many different artists and art movements and absorbed various styles.  Henderson felt no need to follow a single style and felt that adhering to only one was a limitation.  During the lecture, Henderson showed two reels of slides on a slide projector and showed his work in roughly chronological order.  His earlier work consisted of the same gestural brushstrokes that are apparent in his current work but included figuration as well (now mostly absent).  Many of his earlier paintings have a rough-hewn appearance, where crowds of people have contorted expressions in a scene of cacophony.  Henderson discussed how his subject matter during this time was intentionally political, where he tackled issues such as racism, drug usage, and abortion in his paintings.

The political and figurative nature of Henderson's changed when his studio (and all of the unsold paintings within it) burned down in 1985.  From this point onward, Henderson focused less on a political message and more on the actual medium.  His non-figurative paintings still include the tactile, gestural application of paint seen in his earlier work and continue to show his preference for working large-scale, but the "style" completely changed.  Henderson showed several examples of his non-figurative paintings, and within that category, there was plenty of stylistic variety.  In one group of paintings, Henderson showed interior domestic spaces with different representations of light.  One scene might show a room with yellow lamplight.  Another shows yellow sunlight coming in through the window.  In these paintings, I was reminded of Paul Gauguin's cloisonné paintings, with their large swaths of uniform color and dark outlines, reminiscent of cloisonné jewelry.

For another series, Henderson said he was inspired by the "Sci-Fi" genre and painted color-blocked sections on canvas with bold, uniform colors, not unlike the these Minimalist artists during the 1960s.  Within some of these futuristic, space-themed artworks, Henderson applied silver paint, which he said represented people reflecting each other.  What stood out to me for this series was how "clean-cut" the paintings looked, almost in complete opposition to his prior work with gestural brushstrokes.  Ultimately, Henderson's paintings outline a complex chronology of the artist's "stylistic changes" and question if "style" really matters.

His most recent work continues his "signature" abstract, gestural "style" in a patchwork manner.  The overall appearance of some of his canvases is like that of a quilt, with carefully placed brushwork in rectangular sections with mostly horizontal or vertical strokes.  Critics have described Henderson as being gifted with a knack for "improvisation," which can be seen in his both his earlier and more recent artwork.  In a video with Henderson addressed how his figurative paintings had simply "come out, through him," and how his paintings were never really "within him."  He is well-known for being a prolific artist with a strong work ethic, and he described in interviews how it was important for him to not concentrate on history, people, and other things he said were "distractions" because it would inhibit his workflow and the actual paintings.

Just as Henderson does not have a single painting style, he has more than one occupation.  Henderson is also a blues musician.  Henderson wanted to play the guitar was he was a child and continues to play and sing blues music today.  His music background and experience could explain his skill for improvising with paint.  Critics have also noted how his paintings are a reflection of and are inspired by blues music with their "rhythm."  Yet another credential of Henderson is being a filmmaker.  Although his films are not as well-known as his paintings, Henderson produced several 16mm films.  During the lecture, Henderson showed his approximately seven-minute, color film, King David (1970), which he co-produced with Robert Nelson, a prominent Bay Area "underground" filmmaker of the 1960s.  He also showed several video clips he shot of a female friend, a renowned blues singer, during the annual San Francisco Blues Festival.  "Hear and There" was an incisive and personal look into the life of Henderson, whose work reflects his multi-faceted role as artist, musician, and filmmaker and how painting, music, and film can overlap and inform one another.

 

 Sac State flyer for the lecture.

The lecture was split into two parts.  First, Mike Henderson's paintings were shown, then his film work was shown afterward.  This image shows Henderson (front and center; sorry about the view!  I was seated in the back) as the film part of the presentation is prepared.

 Example of Henderson's earlier work.  This one relates to abortion.

 Henderson, Broken Core, 2009, oil on canvas.

Example of his more recent, non-figurative work.

Henderson, My Kind of Blue, 2014, oil on canvas.

Example of Henderson's "patchwork" paintings that use angular brushstrokes.

Video showing Henderson and his work.

Dalbert Castro: A Retrospective

Dalbert Castro: A Retrospective was an exhibition held at the Maidu Museum and Historic Site in Roseville, CA.  The dates of the show are listed as November 21, 2015 - April 8, 2016, but the dates for the show may have been extended until June 2016.  As suggested by the show's title, Retrospective includes a collection of Castro's paintings from 1970 - 2015.

Castro was born in 1934 in the village of Holakcu in Auburn, CA.  During his childhood, he was surrounded by his native Nisenan Maidu culture and learned from the tribal elders many stories and traditions of the Maidu people.  His grandfather was Jim Dick, the last chief or headsman of the Auburn area.  Castro did not begin painting until 1973 when, after serving in the U.S. Navy and working briefly in the logging industry and at a firm that made clay pipes, he was unemployed.  It was at this point that his wife, Betty Murray Castro, urged him to begin painting.  Betty is a very a notable figure in regards to Castro and his work because her skill as a storyteller and knowledge of Maidu language and history gave insight on the people, subjects, and content in many of Castro's paintings.

Castro has been classified as a folk artist and even a "Primitive" artist, the latter of which seems like an unfair label as his work is highly detailed and shows mastery of his medium (acrylic paint) as well as the subject and content he portrays in his paintings.  Much of Castro's subject matter comes from his native culture, such as myths, stories, and portraits of actual people.  At the Maidu Museum, Castro's work was primarily displayed with the Myron-Zentz Gallery downstairs, but a few were located upstairs as well.  The retrospective included a variety of subject matter, such as Castro's portraits, his depiction of roundhouse ceremonies, and historical events.   

Upon entering the main entrance of the Myron-Zentz Gallery viewers can see Nish-a-Nan Baskets, one of Castro's paintings that shows elements of Maidu culture.  Nisenan baskets and other items colored in red and white (perhaps musical instruments or ceremonial items) are depicted against a blue background.  Nish-a-Nan Baskets is representative of Castro's work in that some parts of the painting look simple and two-dimensional (namely the blue background in this case), while other parts are extremely detailed, such as the baskets.  For the baskets, Castro carefully delineated both the overall form of the baskets and the stitches within them.  His meticulously painted baskets allude to the painstaking process of actual basket-weaving where detail is also essential.  Two of the baskets in the foreground might have been painted from references as the designs of both are fairly common in Maidu baskets (at least in their general form because variations often occur), such as the "lightning" or "zig-zag" pattern seen on the left basket and the "V" pattern on the right basket.  Pictured below are images of actual baskets that have designs similar to those in Castro's painting.

 

 Dalbert Castro, Nish-a-Nan Baskets, 1992, acrylic on canvas.

(Apologies for the low-resolution image; it was originally posted on http://lessons.ctaponline.org/~ccasner/artisan1.htm.  Similar to the Symbols: The Door Opens exhibition I reviewed earlier, I do not have many images of Castro's work because photography is generally not allowed in the museum.)

 A coiled basket with the "lightning" or "zig-zag" pattern.

A Washoe degikup (a "fancy basket" that is typically larger in size and non-utilitarian) with the "V" pattern.

Kum is another painting by Castro that pays tribute to Maidu culture.  While Nish-a-Nan Baskets showcases individual Maidu objects, Kum focuses on Maidu ceremony.  "Kum" is Maidu term for "dance house," a circular building where important ceremonies take place.  The dance house or roundhouse is placed against the backdrop of the surrounding Californian valley landscape with grasses, shrubs, and trees.  The painting might even be considered a double portrait with its inclusion of two figures.  Kum appears to show a scene from real life, so there is also a documentative aspect.  The combination of "simple" and "detailed" representation continues in Kum, but they are not necessarily mutually exclusive to one another.  Specifically, the "simple" can be read as the overall appearance of this painting because there is not much highlighting or shadow or the building up of volume.  However, upon closer inspection, the details in this "simple-looking" scene become apparent.  Every brushstroke looks meticulously placed.  There is an almost mathematical precision to Castro's placement of the grasses, the shingles and boards of the roundhouse, and the yellow, frond-like objects on the post by the roundhouse.  The shingles include thoughtfully placed whites and browns, and the frond-like objects show hints of pink among the yellow.  The detailed and controlled appearance of the painting seems to suggest the thought and care that Castro put into representing this part of his culture.

Dalbert Castro, Kum, acrylic on canvas, 1990.  Showcard for Dalbert Castro: A Retrospective exhibition.

Around the World, Around the Corner

Around the World, Around the Corner was a photographic exhibition in the University Library Gallery that showed from February 2 - 27, 2016.  The exhibition featured the work of the Photography Exhibit Group from the Renaissance Society, which is an organization that collaborates with Sacramento State to promote learning and community involvement among older adults.  Currently, the Renaissance Society has over 2,000 members and eighty seminars, the material of which is decided by the members.  The Photography Exhibit Group has fourteen members and was led by Tom Monahan.  The photographs on display in the show were the result of classes and seminars hosted by the Society that covered digital photography, post-processing, printing, and the exhibiting of photographs.  As suggested by the show's title, the photographers centered upon a theme of viewing the world through photography to unify a wide range of subjects.

The layout of the exhibition felt organized and professional.  All of the photographs were matted and placed behind a glass frame.  Each of the fourteen photographers' work (a group of five or six photographs) was also separated by wooden dividers, which were noticeable enough to create a visual distinction between the different photographers yet were not so conspicuous as to ruin the visual flow and unity of the exhibition.

The exhibition's title card begins with six photographs by Stephen Levine (he also had a standalone photograph, Spirit of '76, underneath the didactic panel to the right, which showed men dressed in colonial outfits with the American flag who may be walkers in a Fourth of July parade).  The six photographs show macro perspectives of various flowers, one of which has a bee inside of it.  The "world" Levine presents is shown on a smaller level, which consists of flowers and insects that might otherwise be overlooked.

Photographs by Stephen Levine. 

Walking clockwise in the gallery, the next group of photographs belongs to Jackie Carroll, whose titles all include the word, "reflections," such as Golden Pavilion Reflections (upper-left), Repose and Reflections (upper-center), and Patterned Reflections (bottom-center).  "Reflections" in this group can be viewed in various ways.  First, there are literal reflections in the water in most of the photographs.  However, there is one photograph that stood out to me, Repose and Reflections, which is devoid of water but includes a stone sculpture of a Buddha in the grass, perhaps alluding to "reflections" in the introspective sense.  All of Carroll's photographs appear cohesive with their quietude and stillness, which are qualities often evoked by water reflections.  Her way of viewing as seen through her photographic lens are also meditative and seem deep in thought.  Patterned Reflections, for instance, takes a fairly ordinary subject of pond water, and turns it into a multi-layered and abstract mosaic.  With her focus on the water's surface in most of the photographs, Carroll appears to invite viewers to observe and contemplate reality from an alternative perspective, just as one can see "another world" reflected in the water from the objects and landscape above its surface.

Photographs by Jackie Carroll. 

Mike Macias's collection of photographs also focuses on nature with its inclusion of three birds, a close-up view of roots, and a scene in which an abandoned boat is being overtaken by water plants, appropriately titled as Derelict.  There is a sense of calmness in Macias's photographs much like Carroll's, but Derelict also has a sense of a quiet, steadfast force as the plants have both unassumingly yet noticeably reclaimed the boat on the Sacramento River Delta.

Photographs by Mike Macias. 

John Barry's oceanside photographs evoke nostalgia and whimsy with their picturesque views of coastal towns and cities like Capitola, Santa Cruz, and Monterey Bay in California.  Nostalgia is carried further with one photograph titled In the Style of Norman Rockwell, which shows an artist in front of an easel, busy at work by the sea.  Complementing In the Style of Norman Rockwell, is Beach Artist, which is located underneath the former, which shows another person creating art but this time directly on beach sand.  The other photographs show remnants of a human presence, such as beach chairs and boats.  Barry's photographs pay homage to both the oceanside and the people who inhabit it.

Photographs by John Barry.

Laurene Fitzpatrick also chooses nature as a subject, but this time, the actual marine life, not the landscape, takes center stage.  Like Macias's pictures of the three birds, Fitzpatrick's depictions of marine life are portraits that showcase the single animal in the frame, the color of the animal and the scene, and even the "character" and personality of the animal.

Photographs by Laurene Fitzpatrick.

 Jane Steele's photographic perspective is similar to Barry's in that she chooses waterside communities as her locale and subject.  However, whereas Barry's showed coastal communities in California, Steele has also included views of the ocean by the Netherlands and canals and locks in England. 

 Photographs by Jane Steele.

Melissa Green takes a perspective of an uninhabited and remote natural world with her photographs.  Within her group of photographs, Green has also chosen to display two of them on the far right as triptychs, which create their own interior dialog.  Both of these triptychs depict rocks as main subjects, but the relative lack of surroundings creates an interesting and disorienting view where the actual location of the subjects is unclear.  There is a surrealness to the triptychs because the subjects are real, but due to the ambiguous location of the subjects and where the viewer/Green stands in relation to them, both scenes feel like there is something otherworldly or "off" about them.  Further heightening the sense of surreality is that the sections of the triptychs do not exactly line up in a smooth panorama.  Additionally, the division into thirds could also allude to the "rule of thirds," which are guiding lines used to compose and frame a scene in photography.  

Photographs by Melissa Green. 

The adjacent groupings of photographs by Melissa Green and Marilyn Hodges create an interesting dialog because they both showcase the natural landscape and show a view of the night sky in the same place within each group (both may even show the Milky Way).  Hodges photographs are like an opposite to the macro photographs in this exhibition (such as Levine's) in that they show large-scale scenes of landscapes or space.  Green and Hodges both chose landscapes (and starscapes) as subjects, but Hodges leans towards the monumental.  For example, the clouds from a prairie rainstorm in Montana (lower-left) and the rising steam from where lava has reached the ocean (lower-right) show the power of nature, and the landscapes in Hodges's photographs evoke awe and wonder with their scale and presence.

 

Photographs by Marilyn Hodges.

Mary Henwood also looks to nature for her photographic subjects but more specifically to either culture of farming or ranching.  Henwood shows imagery associated with these occupations and lifestyles, such as bridles and saddles.  Farming and ranching is not complete without its associated animals as well, such as a cow in the upper-right (which is humorously paired with the photograph's title, In Yer Face), a longhorn in the bottom-center, and a horse in the lower-right.  All of Henwood's photographs pay tribute to the small town of Smartville, CA and its rural environment.  

  

Photographs by Mary Henwood. 

Ron Anderson offers another world view by exploring the cultures (and arts within those cultures) in Cuba, Italy, and Croatia.  For example, he depicts a lively atmosphere in the Santeria Church in Cuba, where he has captured a woman mid-dance in the two center photographs.  Anderson celebrates other cultures in Street Musician (upper-right), which shows a man in Italy playing what appears to be the violin, and Singers, which shows the title's subjects on a street in Croatia.  

 Photographs by Ron Anderson.

Tom Monahan, who was the lead organizer of Around the World, celebrates the local culture of Sacramento.  He shows different places and venues in Sacramento, such as the Crocker Art Museum in the upper-right, the Capitol Mall in the upper-center, and graduation day in the Memorial Auditorium in the lower-right.  

 Photographs by Tom Monahan.

Jeff Hendy, like Anderson, focuses on people and culture but looks not to the West but to the East in Japan.  Hendy shows many aspects of Japanese culture in his photographs, such as a dancer from the Awa Odori or Awa Dance Festival, shrines in Takachiro and Dainichi-ji (lower-left and bottom-center, respectively), and street vendors (lower-right).  Hendy and Anderson also share a photographic approach to both document people and cultures and celebrate them at the same time.

Photographs by Jeff Hendy. 

John Patrick Ryan also explores international culture by examining different locales, such as the Keukenkof Garden in the Netherlands (upper-left and upper-right), the Millesgarden in Sweden (lower-right), the Pompidou Center and Arc de Triomphe in Paris (upper-center and lower-left, respectively), and the Montreal Botanical Gardens of Light (bottom-center).

Photographs by John Patrick Ryan.

Photographs by Craig McCulloch round out the Around the World exhibition.  McCulloch also pays homage to the city of Sacramento like Monahan in Biker Dog, which features a veteran and his appropriately-dressed dog on the back of his motorcycle for the Veterans Parade, Tower Bridge (upper-center), and Sacramento Waterfront (lower-left).  However, whereas Monahan stayed in the Sacramento area for his photographs, McCulloch features subjects and places from the towns of Loomis and Folsom for his remaining three.

  

 Photographs by Craig McCulloch.

I enjoyed this exhibition because the viewing experience was like taking a trip around the world, which was the intent of the Renaissance Society members.  Specifically, the actual space of the library and the photographers' work as one collective could represent a world, and within that world, there are smaller worlds represented by the fourteen groups of photographs by the different photographers.  I felt that the theme of local and global travel and experiencing different cultures and "worlds" was an effective way to unify the photographs because there truly were a wide range of subjects within the show.