Peter Santino: The Exhibition at the End of Time, at the End of the World

December 12, 2012 through January 20, 2013

Peter Santino (b 1948, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas) considers the year 1968 to be the beginning of his art making life and with the Exhibition at the End of Time, at the End of the World, he will mark his 44th year as an artist. On this occasion many who live on the North Coast will have the opportunity to see his work for the first time and be able to walk around, under and over installations of his art taking up an entire museum. Visitors will see several installations throughout the Morris Graves Museum of Art that will deal with the problematic end of time and the world as predicted by the Mayan Calendar or Mesoamerican Long Count calendar*. While Santino’s view of this is very oriented to his own artistic experiences, visitors may easily relate to his comprehensive exposition of our common situation on the occasion of the end of everything.

Since 1968, Santino’s work has been exhibited in many places in the United States and Europe. In Eureka, his home town, he is better known as a master craftsman and restorer of historic buildings and homes and as an associate faculty member at the College of the Redwoods. In fact, one of Santino’s most successful restoration efforts was the woodwork of the former Carnegie Library when it was re-adapted as an art museum and eventually named the Morris Graves Museum of Art (Tyler Holmes and Martha Jain, architects). In many ways ironic, Santino’s home town absence as a ‘local’ artist, is most appropriately remedied by the wholeness of this exhibition. Some people in this area may know of his excellent artist’s website, www.santino.tv, a place where we can see many examples from his body of work, his photo novella “Mount Shasta” as well as a proposal for a newer “Avenue of the Giants” as a solution for the problematic southern gateway to Eureka. Many visitors to the Humboldt Botanical Garden at the College of the Redwoods have been able to enjoy his monumental All Happy Now (2008), an earthwork mound 100’ in diameter featuring two interwoven walking paths patterned after Fermat’s Spiral.

The mound at the Humboldt Botanical Garden is actually the second All Happy Now that has been realized. The first, 66 feet in diameter, was made in Arnhem, Netherlands for the Sonsbeek 9 Exhibition in 2001. Few visitors to the garden realize that what they are really seeing in the massive All Happy Now is the culmination of many years of Santino’s European art installations in galleries, museums and outdoors.

A review of Santino’s website will give the viewer a succinct history of his European projects and of those works made in the United States, Seattle and New York City before his European period.

The current exhibition was first conceived in its present form in 2010. The rapidity with which it came to be a working concept was stunning and in a short time Mr. Santino was able to approach the MGMA with an equally stunning proposal for installing the entire exhibition utilizing all the museum’s exhibition spaces. It is hoped that this presentation will encourage others to see the museum as a versatile space and one where a multitude of artistic uses may be explored.

The museum will be open during the installation of the exhibition December 12, 2012 through January 20, 2013 so that visitors may see what is involved in such an endeavor. This aspect of observation is an integral part of the overall concept of inclusiveness and participation in the exhibition’s formation.

The exhibition will be introduced by Peter Santino at the “Opening at the End” on December 21, 2012 at 5:30 p.m. The public is invited and will be able to have an opportunity to hear how the parts to the exhibition have come together, the ideas behind the works of art, and to hear how the many wondrous installations were made.

12th Annual Northwest Eye Regional Photography Competition & Exhibition

April 3 through May 19, 2013

The Northwest Eye is a five-state regional fine art photography competition and exhibition highlighting the current trends in the art of photography. This exhibition showcases the creativity and beauty caught by some of the finest photographers in the Northwest.

Richard Gabriele:  Inward Visions of Man

April 3 through May 26, 2013

The unique style Gabriele developed reflects a deeply personal vision of the figure shrouded by ethereal and moody atmospheres of color. The figures, some purely figments of the artist’s imagination and others such as “Head of Buddha,” “Crowned with Thorns” and “Our Lady of Sorrows” influenced by an interest in the world’s traditions, appear like dreams embodying symbols that indicate the artist is evolving a personal iconography, and yet, the images awaken sentiments that are common to us all.

“The visions I paint are imagined like waking dreams,” Gabriele said.“They are my way of bringing meaning and passion into my life.I paint the figure because it allows me to communicate with a form that we, as humans, can strongly identify with.”

Richard Gabriele is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Receiving numerous awards, his paintings have been shown in museums such as the Woodmere Art Museum, the Delaware Art Museum and the State Museum of Pennsylvania. Previously, in October 2012, Phillips de Pury & Company in New York City included a selection from Gabriele's new series in the curated exhibition Watercolors.

David Kimball Anderson: To Morris Graves

April 6 through May 19, 2013

David Kimball Anderson: To Morris Graves is an exhibition of sculptures inspired by the flower paintings of Morris Graves. “David Kimball Anderson: to Morris Graves” is a body of work, and an exhibition, that represents a sculptor’s response to a painter. In paying homage to American artist Morris Graves (1910–2001), David Anderson has focused on the flower still lifes that Graves painted later in his life. David Kimball Anderson was born in Los Angeles, California and received a BA from the San Francisco Art Institute. His awards include several NEA grants, a Pollock Krasner, and a California State University Research Grant. His work is in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Fine Art, the San Antonio Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe.

Celebration of the Arts Gala & Auction

May 29 through June 15, 2013

Beautiful artwork and inspiring packages will be on view prior to the Annual Celebration of the Arts Gala on June 15th. This year the Humboldt Arts Council will be honoring Peter Santino with the Outstanding Contribution to the Arts Award.

Melvin Schuler & Edward Oliver African Collection

May 29 through June 30, 2013

View a portion of the private collection of African Art & Artifacts from the many travels of Melvin Schuler & Edward Oliver.

The Left Edge

June 26 through July 21, 2013

The Left Edge is a juried ceramic exhibition that will encompass the vast array of contemporary ceramics in sculptural, installation, and vessel-making genres. This exhibit uses The Left Edge as a metaphor and encourages artists to submit work that pushes traditional boundaries of the ceramic medium in its treatment of material and subject. Jurors: Darrin Ekern & Sue Whitmore.

Click Here for Call for Entries Page 1

Click Here for Call for Entries Page 2

Gary Cawood: Excavation

July 6 through August 25, 2013

Excavation is an ongoing body of photographs began in 2006. Cawood says, “Since the natural landscape is considered expendable in our culture, the surface scars we create seemed like an intriguing subject to explore.” Cawood selected sites that were excavated long ago, and at first focused on the surprising forms and colors created by erosion. Soon he began adding throwaways to the compositions. Like the land, much of the stuff we buy is considered disposable and makes its way to sites like these. The photographs utilize the scarred landscape as a context for the stuff we abandon. The word excavation conjures up digging for some ancient ruin. And while archeologists try to reconstruct a logical narrative from discarded objects, Cawood’s purpose is to create a more poetic interpretation. He carefully selects the items to be included in the compositions, based on his intuitive sense of the contradictions inherent in our culture—a range as quirky and mysterious as our mode of existence.

Botanically Inclined

July 6th through August 4, 2013

Botanically Inclined is an exhibition that explores nuanced reverence for the diverse world of plants. Artists address our ongoing, symbiotic relationship with plants in a variety of materials. The artists included in this showtackle plant related images, themes, and concepts in unexpected ways from reductive, quiet drawings to bright, billowing wall sculptures, to formal structural abstractions. Participating artists include:

Kit Davenport, Arcata, CA

Theresa Stanley, Arcata, CA

Jessica McCambly, San Diego, CA

Susan Beiner, Tempe, AZ

Candice Briceño, Austin, TX

Ellen George, Vancouver, WA

On Being Human: Sculptures by Kristin Lindseth Rivera and Paintings by George Rivera

July 31 through September 21, 2013

The work of both artists is about the experience of being human, the depths and complexities of life and relationships. It is about shared experiences and connections with others, and also about alienation, about darkness and light. Moments of indecision, of confrontation and change figure prominently in the work of George Rivera, yet the paintings have a timeless quality due to the moments ofdecision that the artistcaptures. As he states, his subjects are on the brink of something--a discovery or a change in life.

The bronze sculptures of Kristin Lindseth Rivera are also about the inner experience of being human and becoming more fully human. The need for connectionwith others isbalanced againstneed for isolation, for the examined life. The focus on the current body of work is on inner growth and transformation, expressed through a series of human busts and wall pieces. The early pieces focus on identity, and the process of becoming an individual, and these are followed by works that address the journey inward toward growth and transformation. The combined works ofKristin Lindseth Rivera and George Rivera and represent a journey of faith and hope.

THE WWII VETERANS PORTRAIT PROJECT: FACES OF AMERICAN HEROES

Portraits by Kathrin Burleson

August 7 through September 7, 2013

Humboldt County artist, Kathrin Burleson, is co-founder of North Coast Honor Flight, a program that has taken over 170 local WWII veterans to Washington DC to visit the Memorial that was built in their honor. Over the past year, her artistic focus has been drawing and interviewing these veterans, most of whom are around 90 years old. This collection of pencil portraits is a visual tribute and expression of gratitude to the remarkable men and women to whom this nation owes so much.

“We can’t all be heroes. Some of us have to stand on the curb and clap as they go by.” Will Rogers

Corey Drieth: Numina

September 5 through October 20, 2013

Inspired by daily life, art history and religious traditions such as Zen Buddhism and Quaker Christianity, Drieth’s paintings and drawings explore contemplative spiritual experience.Drieth’s work begins with the basic design and construction materials of gouache and wood.Through the economical use of line, color, texture, size and the illusion of light and space, he creates a visual dialogue between painted surface and wooden substrate. The resonance of this interaction is at once expansively mysterious and intimately familiar, an experience often associated with moments of contemplative insight. Due to Drieth’s content aspirations, this work belongs within the American tradition of small-scale non-representational abstraction, with artists like Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Martin and Richard Tuttle as some of its precedents. Drieth believes that experiences of subtle structural beauty can be incredibly valuable. Because they require quietude during a time of de-humanizing speed, clutter and noise, they serve as both a foil to the frenetic activity of contemporary life and as a method of sustenance within it.

Wayne Jiang: Night Meditations

September 19 through October 20, 2013

Wayne Jiang was born in Guangzhou China and came to the U.S. when he was 15. Jiang currently lives in Pacifica, a small coastal town a few miles south of San Francisco.

For two decades Jiang has worked as a graphic designer and fine artist. He holds a degree in illustration from San Jose State University. In Jiang’s paintings, he enjoys creating an ambience that reflects on stillness, solitude, and mystery. He believes in using simple, quiet scenes and objects to communicate deep emotion and relevance. In his work you might find influences from 17th Century Dutch genre paintings as well as 19th and 20th Century American Realism. When composing his paintings and choosing his subject matter, he draws inspiration from modern and documentary photographers like Walker Evans and Sally Mann.

16th Annual Junque Arte Competition & Exhibition

October 5 through November 17, 2013

Designed to celebrate artistic creativity on the North Coast, and heighten the awareness of renewable resources in the art making process, each artwork in this juried exhibition is made from 100% recycled materials…reclaimed, reused, recovered, secondhand, salvaged, anything un-new!

Humboldt Arts Council Annual Member Show

October 30 through December 15, 2013

The Annual Humboldt Arts Council Member Show is a juried exhibition designed to highlight the fabulous art being produced by our artist members. As always, this exhibition is eclectic, surprising and enjoyable.

Suk Choo Kim: Big Pictures

November 28 through December 31, 2013

For the last several years, Kim has been making very large images by stitching together many photographs, sometimes up to 200 separate exposures. The viewers can observe a large image at some distance and then come close to see details of the smaller elements and their relationships. Kim wanted to produce a simple, large image which contains complex interaction and relationship of elements within it. Sometimes this relationship creates chaotic friction not contained in either picture alone. Many of these stitched images are as large as 15 feet long.  The origin of the component parts vary widely geographically, from locally in Humboldt County, to Mexico, China, Great Britain, France, South America, Easter Island, the Andes and Patagonia and as far away as the Himalayas. Suk Choo Kim studied engineering and mathematics in college, but it was the photography classes he took on the side that stirred his passion. This passion was further stoked by spending the summers of 1971 and1972 volunteering for the Friends of Photography in Carmel, California, where he met and studied the work of master photographers like Wynn Bullock, Brett Weston, Morris Bear and Ansel Adams.

Kim continued with his other studies, ultimately making his living as an engineer and business executive, but his love of photography has remained a central part of his life. He worked as an army staff photographer during his military service in the 1970’s; founded Young Sang, a Korean photo magazine in 1975; and had major exhibitions of his work at Friends of Photography, the Oakland Museum, and the University of Florida in Gainesville, the Pacific Grove Art Center, and the Monterey Museum of Modern Art. His work was also featured in a USIS(United States Information Service) exhibit that traveled to eight cities in Korea and Japan. Kim later returned to school to earn a master’s degree in photography, enabling him to teach the medium that has come to define his life.