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Douglas Pierre Baulos’ “Night’s Hand on your Shoulder”

https://dougbaulos.com https://www.instagram.com/doug_baulos

Curated by Lisa Alembik

Swan Coach House Gallery http://www.swangallery.org

August 4-September 8, 2022

Opening 8/4 6-9 p.m.

Artist Talk 8/20 3 p.m.

CURATOR’S STATEMENT

Nature is primary. We are always becoming her, and she is us. This fluid relationship is something that those of us living in metropolitan areas don’t necessarily tend to in our everydays. As we continue to evolve into a global culture that resides more outside of the body and in the webisphere, many of us neglect our connection to the natural world. Sometimes, with blinders or virtual reality on, we cease recognizing that she is us, one big old globe whose atmosphere we all depend on for our well-being. As our earth begins to melt around our feet, we cannot overlook how important it is to remain grounded and, with vigilance, strengthen our bond with the planet. Sometimes artwork offers a prompt to take action, providing a way to engage the environment with both body and mind. Night’s Hand on Your Shoulder, a solo exhibition of works by Douglas Baulos, can be that compassionate push.

Douglas Baulos’ art and life Baulos’ profound connection to nature. Their handmade books and extraordinarily crafted installations are imbued with the breadth of their experience, from cultivating dye gardens and working the land, to spending time in ancient sites studying the skies. Baulos observes, seeking out what is hidden, making visible what only the quiet, patient eye may find. Baulos’ queer identity, with consideration for how they perceive the world from growing up in rural Illinois, and the influence of their travels with meaningful time spent in places like the western United States, Mexico, and Japan—these all flow through their artwork, and the artwork is them.

Baulos’ installations can be mindful spaces that shift the viewer from the world of hard, inflexible thinking into soft, open intuition. Gathered natural materials along with their observations of plant and animal life are woven into their art, with additions of lost-now-found objects that through context are imbued with complex meaning. Baulos transforms and transmogrifies their materials into altars, wall pieces, and transcendent spaces with their devotional creative energy. Their works are raw and vulnerable, still often holding a sense of joy—a looseness and fluidity of thought that allows the viewer to symbolically slip into the artwork.

A perennial storyteller, Baulos utilizes the language of nature and their lived history to develop their sincere narratives. Night’s Hand on Your Shoulder acts as a palimpsest, recording gradual transitions and shifts that overlap and disappear. The artist pays attention to signs that express the essence of time, observing as light morphs into shadow only to cycle back again. As time moves and nature flows so can our sense of self and our relationship to the immensity of nature. Baulos remind us of our corporeality and inextricable link to the earth, how we are connected to the shifts in seasons, the rotations of the planet, and the pull of the moon and stars.

–Lisa Alembik, curator

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_____ The World

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CURATORS Lisa Alembik & Martha Whittington

Opening June 3, 7-9 p.m.

June 3- 24, 2022

Gallery 378   378 Clifton Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30307

404 530 9277 378artgallery@gmail.com

Hours   Fri and Sat from 1-6pm

The exhibition _____ The World is an expression of our times, in which artists are inspired by the too-real-not-fiction happenings of the last two years.   Artists were invited to offer up small works, sacrifices that are deceivingly quiet in their smallness, abstract or narrative, a balm, may be a wake-up-call. Curators Lisa Alembik and Martha Whittington, both artists and educators, felt the need to gather artists to respond to the absurdities and the beauties of this time.  _____ The World is an opening, not a prescriptive theme—not necessarily negative or celebratory. Its premise shifts and renews from artist-to-artist. The artists in _____ The World may not necessarily fall in line with this disagreeable statement, but they have agreed to be a part of this happening.

Artists are doing what they normally do, listening, thinking, and creating. Alejandro Aguilera works in a broad range of media. In this exhibition has carefully crafted an orange-face fiend from mango pits, along with drawings that wryly comment on the brutality of the abuse of power. Amandine Drouet mysteriously weaves everyday items and detritus together with sharks, butterflies, and other beasts, imbuing them with a vitality only restrained by the edges of form.  Craig Dongoski’s hallucinatory images disintegrate to reform into vibrations and an exquisite confusion of hands.

Barbara Schreiber anthropomorphizes the animals who haunt our concrete jungles, posing the dangers at play in every day interactions. Schreiber is the sole artist in the exhibition who no longer lives in the Atlanta area, residing in Charlotte NC. Sarah Emerson brazenly belies the chord of melancholy that sounds through her work with her intense palette and extreme-pop language that is surprisingly blended with the natural world. Doyle Trankina toys with idioms in bronze, and his ceramic decomposing fruit shows how even that which is nourishing can rot.  Coorain Devin’s sensibility twists domestic symbols into challenging knots so that they may never, ever, be seen the same again. 

Through collage, found image and ceramics, Mario Petrirena’s contemplative sculptures cut to the heart with their intimacy, tugging at the arteries of emotion and strangely, patriotism. Selena Lillo, who seems to extract body parts in her work, here comments sans judgement on what we put into our bodies to make us feel more whole and less isolated from our surroundings.  Andy Moon Wilson rapaciously draws small works, many of which feel like intersecting universes slicing at and through each other with high key colors and complex patterns, infinitely hemorrhaging. Storyteller Raphael Bahindwa calls on his Congolese identity for symbolism, using arrows and masks in his dense drawings to act upon the powers of the warrior.  Stephanie Kolpy’s gorgeously layered prints with brilliant, devastating surfaces underlie the constant terror of warfare—and by the way, “Russian warship, go f*** yourself.” Terry S. Hardy, drew the mask he wore to work each day during the early days of the Pandemic, poignantly coinciding with the dates of this exhibit, two years ago. These drawings helped him stay grounded during the speed of Covid’s devastation. 

In his work in this exhibition, Steven L. Anderson articulates that “He’ll never stop making art.” If there is something that the last two years has shown us, it is that artists do not stop. Artmaking is a calling in addition to an occupation. One does not go on strike from one’s inner boss or seek out a union to identify healthy boundaries. _____ The World is a rallying cry to get engaged, to find passion, to  “LOVE ALL THE F***ING WAY,” as  Anderson writes.

_____ The World is inspired by a hopeful pessimism, by truths rolled up and deep fried with sarcasm, dipped into a heavy sauce of disillusion, swallowed while holding one’s nose. _____ The World invites visitors to check in with themselves and then consider what they’ll have for dinner and what will they do after the show? May be, we can all sing as the late great Patty Lee did–“If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing.” (Recorded first in 1969, written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and always relevant.)

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I will be interviewing Martha Whittington about her exhibition at the GSU/PC Clarkston Library Thursday October 8. Virtually view the exhibition from 4:30-5, interview begins at 5. Join us on YouTube Live: https://youtu.be/ivnmTjtVGHg

Poster for Martha Whittington Exhibition at GSU Perimeter Clarkston Library
Martha Whittington Exhibition at GSU Perimeter Clarkston Library
Gallery Shows

The Georgia State University Perimeter College 4th Floor LRC Arts Gallery presents 

WINNOWING’S DAUGHTER  

a sculptural installation of new work by  Martha Whittington 

with an installation work by Serena Lillo 

virtual artist talk online:  October 8, 4:30-6:30 pm 

CLICK ON THIS IMAGE ON THE GALLERY SITE
Gallery Shows

Exhibit dates: September – December, 2020 

The exhibit is free and open to the public.  Visitors must wear face masks while on campus. For information call 678-891-3562.

GPS: 3735 Memorial College Avenue, Clarkston 30021   (entrance to parking lot 3) 

Two women being swallowed by corpse flowers and AFrican corpse flower vines
Murder Ballad: I swallow the corpse flower, the corpse flower swallows me

Hambidge Art Auction + Virtual Performance Show

Online Event October 24 7:30-8:30

Online bidding is from 10/9-10/24

Visit www.HambidgeAuction.org for more information

The Samurai Exhibition

Some thoughts about

Braden Sadler & the Samurai Exhibition

August 13, 2023

We went to see the Samurai exhibit at the High Museum in Atlanta yesterday. If I absorbed the wall text correctly, local artist Braden Sadler was responsible for the creative vision of some of the exhibition design, including the entry room. There the walls were plastered with documentation of the Samurai in popular culture. You could watch video sequences that included expected excerpts from Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, in addition to quick peeks at Forest Whitiker working his sword as the title character from Jim Jarmusch’s film Ghost Dog. Whitiker played an assassin who lived by the Samurai Code and communicated via pigeon post. (Fantastic soundtrack btw, including Wu-Tang Clan and Whitiker reading from the Samurai Code.) A still image of larger-than-life Uma Thurman as The Bride from Tarantino’s Kill Bill stared out at us with murderous eyes. A portrait of Darth Vader was juxtaposed with that of a Samurai in full regalia in such a way that the similarities in their costuming became immediately evident. This compelling contemporary perspective was a good reminder of the global influence of Samurai culture and the continued significance of the artifacts that we were about to experience.

Somewhat off-tangent, I know, but this display reminded me of the last room of the Pirates Museum in St. Augustine, Florida which we had visited the week prior. I know this is not very high-brow, but still memorable and worth a comparison. After viewing heavy implements of torture, many maps, and treasure paraphernalia, the last room brought into focus the continued love of the idea of the Pirate. Every inch of wall in this small room of departure was covered with images of pirates in movies and visual art. Included was a promotional poster and sound recording from Hook with Robin Williams, who I always love to see in any role, and small reproductions by the “Pirate Painter” Howard Pyle. I did not know that he had been called that by some. This incorporation of current culture into a historical exhibition can make it feel more relevant for some of us.

Back to Samurais–about halfway through the procession of the exhibit, a narrow gallery appeared dedicated to a series of paintings by Sadler. These large works of ink and watercolor on paper (53″ x 108″), were commissioned for this exhibition. They illustrate a chapter from the story of Yasuke, the black Samurai. You can see them on Sadler’s website.

Sadler’s cultivated style, influenced by the stylized shapes and lyrical line of Japanese ukiyo-e printmaking and calligraphy, brought to life the Samurai garments on display in a way that made them come alive so that I could imagine the people who wore them to battle centuries ago.

I’ve admired Sadler’s work for some time as he created one of my favorite local mural experiences that can be felt when driving on North Ave, under the bridge of the Beltline, through his The Gateway to Change: Abhaya’s Way, 2020. It was insightful for the High to incorporate his versatile, fresh voice into the exhibition.

The Gateway to Change: Abhaya’s Way

Artist Talks at Gallery 378 in Atlanta for “FLOWER”

Sunday April 25, 2021 4pm

Artist Talks at Gallery 378 in Atlanta for “FLOWER” curated by Terry Hardy

drippy india ink orchid with hands emerging
Lisa Alembik “Gentlewoman Flower series: Orchid Absorption Flow,” 2021. Ink on Fabriano Murillo paper, 39” x 27”

378 Gallery presents the April exhibition, Flower, beginning Friday, April 2, running through Sunday, April 25. Flower features botanical inspired works by seven well established artists based in Georgia: Lisa Alembik, Terry S. Hardy, Pepe Paban, Jeffery Wilcox Paclipan, Mario Petrirena, Debra Baker Steinmann and Cindy Zarrilli .

The April exhibition, Flower, at 378 Gallery will follow public health safety and protocols advised due to the worldwide Corona virus pandemic. There will be an opening outside the gallery on Friday, April 2 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The exhibition can be viewed during regular gallery hours, Saturdays and Sundays in April from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and by appointment by calling gallery director Tom Zarrilli at 404-530 9277. Attendance is limited to six people at a time inside the gallery. Social distance of six feet between patrons inside the gallery and waiting in a queue outside is required. Masks are required without exception for anyone outside the gallery at the opening, inside the gallery and waiting to enter.

Flower is a colorful spring exhibition celebrating the flower in various mediums from beautifully layered textiles to paintings to body-part botanicals. Flowers symbolize the emergence of new life after the deep horticultural slumber of winter. They evoke vanity, fertility and the mortal coil, and in today’s culture the tending and gifting of flowers is heady with meaning: solace, support, sharing, sympathy, love and appreciation. The April Flower exhibition at 378, in turn, symbolizes the emergence of new connections after the inactivity, isolation and uncertainty of the ongoing quarantine from the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. The artists comprising the show create a riot of vibrant color exploding onto the skies of fabric, canvas and paper, capturing in reprieve the fleeting nature of the fragile beauty of flowers.

An artist, educator and curator, Lisa Alembik has exhibited her work extensively in solo and group exhibitions, curated exhibitions and spoken on numerous topics concerning fine art for the past three decades. She received an MFA and BA in fine art from Georgia State University and George Washington University, respectively. She is currently a faculty member in fine arts at Georgia State University.

Terry S. Hardy addresses themes of identity, human rights, sexuality and religion, examining social concerns through painting, sculpture, performance and installations. His most recent work focuses on the intimacy of loss and memorializing those who are forgotten. He received his formal arts education from the School of Visual Arts, New York City, the Art Institute of Atlanta, and Bevill State Community College, Fayette, Alabama.

Pepe Paban describes the works he presents in Flower as fine art photography using flowers and botanicals not as mere subjects but as inspiration to explore a sensual world of color, movement and abstract organic forms were lines blur between discovery and creation.

A native of the Philippines now living in Atlanta, Jeffery Wilcox Paclipan is a multidisciplinary processed based artist compelled to create objects with non-traditional materials to imbue them with greater meaning. He has shown his work extensively in solo and group exhibitions regionally and nationally for three decades. He received his education from the International Fine Arts College in Miami, Florida

A multi-media artist based in Atlanta, Georgia, Mario Petrirena has consistently created and exhibited his work for the past four decaddes. His studio practice includes collage, ceramics, assemblage and installation. He attended the Rochester Institute of Technology School for American Craftsmen and the University of Florida. His work is held in many private and public collections.

Fabrics are the artistic medium for Debra Baker Steinmann. She finds the focus required in design and execution of textile creations meditative. She rarely knows how a piece will evolve as the colors and textures come together. Her technique is ancient, and she feels a deep connection to those in the past who told their stories through their hands.

Particularly skilled with the creation of edges and dimension in her paintings, Cindy Zarrilli creates forms that spring from the canvas. She brings a refreshing approach to a variety of subjects from figures to fauna to flora. She has shown extensively in solo and group shows in the past 30 years. She has a background as a graphic artist with CNN and a courtroom sketch artist for NBC and CBS. She earned a BFA from Georgia State University.