Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Last Saturday, 2nd Metro Night Out

Have you been to one of the last Saturdays? Well, there's lots more to do now. January was the first "Metro Night Out", which is like your typical gallery 2nd opening but with a few added features. The DPOA has brought the farmer's market, usually held on Wednesdays, to the Artwark and Last Saturday. This includes live music, fresh vegetables and fruit, gifts, info booths, food and other fun stuff. Also included in January was a car show. Several clubs brought out their shiny low-ridin tricked out cars for all of us to enjoy.
 
February's "Metro Night Out" promises to be just as exciting. People are catching on that it's a better night to see the art when 2nd Saturday might be too crowded or just to crazy to talk to anyone. We know that all too well here at Bunny Gunner.
I don't remember talking to anyone, so if I didn't say hello, stop by this Saturday and we can all get a chance to chill out. Remember it is "All U Can Eat" our biggest show of the year, we sold over 200 pieces, but there's still lots of great finds to choose from and some of the artists have replenished their stock. So if it was too crowded to see the art, or you just didn't make it to Pomona, this Saturday is a great chance to see art, do the walk, get some veggies, listen to the band and have a good time.
To find out who's and what's showing at the galleries go to Pomonaartcolony.com 
for the times and listings.
-Juan
All You Can Eat
At Bunny Gunner, Thru March 11
By: Stacy Davies

One of the feelings a great art show always elicits is a yearning for more art: sometimes the show is so wonderful that you just can’t get enough, other times, you just haven’t found that one piece to connect with—and looking for art that speaks to us is why most of us go to see art shows in the first place.

Susie and Juan have taken care of all of the above for you in their new buffet-styled show, a free-for-all of over 100 pieces that cover every wall and fill every corner in their petite gallery. The guidelines were basic—no theme, each piece must be 5x7 or smaller, and each artist could submit up to ten pieces—and the result is truly an artistic smorgasbord of color, shape and content of everything from Shag-styled bikini babes and wistful desert scenes to ceramic tiles and construction paper.

Manuel Ortega’s dual Mickey Mouse wood panels strip away the warm and fuzzy Steamboat Willie façade and give us a somewhat possessed and possibly anarchist rodent instead. Amy Bystedt offers up five funky “Polaroid” pictures of vintage suitcases photographed in random landscapes—under a bridge, on a grassy knoll, on a city street—as if the poor little luggage has lost its way, or perhaps has finally decided to travel alone (no more waiting in the hotel room for some dreary human!). Photography artists Leslie Brown and Sally Egan also go retro—Brown with a series of colored pencil treated pics of rockabilly chicks at a salon, heads under hairdryers and gossip flowing like beer, and Egan with a hilarious set of “JC Penny Portrait Studio”-type shots, you know, the kind that have both a frontal smiling face shot and a three-fourths pensive one superimposed up in the corner? Except that Egan put her three-fourths shots in sparkly orange wine glasses adding yet another layer of comedic kitsch.

Other notable pieces include Sarah Riedel’s four-toned cutouts of an angst-ridden woman, Finishing School’s black ski mask mini-mobiles (doesn’t everyone need a terrorist dangling from their rearview mirror?) and Peter Owens architectural graphite and blocked color drawings of industrial landscape and buildings. There really is something for everyone in this show—and a great overall collection of interesting and thought-provoking pieces. There’s also some high-calorie gluttonous fun, and what else would you expect with a title like this? (Stacy Davies)

All You Can Eat at Bunny Gunner, 266 W. Second St., Pomona, (909) 868-2808; www.bunnygunner.com. Open Tues.–Sat., 10AM–7PM. Thru March 11. Free
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As an extra bonus you get a tour of the Arts Colony with these Lovely Ladies ( The Red Cup Society) I'm a member,  but will be holding post at Bunny Gunner. Just meet at the dA at 7:00 PM on Saturday and soon after that the tour begins....I guarantee you will have a blast!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Red Show
Closing Reception: February 28, 2009 6-10pm
Exhibition Location: The dA Center for the Arts, 252-D South Main Street
Pomona, CA 91766. 909.397.9716 The Pomona Arts Colony.
www.dacenter.org
www.pomonaartwalk.com

The Red Show
At the dA Center, Thru February 28
By: Stacy Davies

The dA curator, Rolo Castillo, is a real anarchist. He doesn’t give a hoot about writing long, curatorial dissertations on why he’s put together a project, and really, I give him props for it. It does lend itself to a hodgepodge, anything-goes-mentality, but sometimes that can be refreshing, and Castillo certainly has a keen eye for art that works.

This weekend, on lovey-dovey V-Day, he’s put together everything red. Doesn’t have to mean Valentines, of course, there are other forms of red—some people might be engaged in bloody couple squabbling and single types may be tossing back too much pinot in hopes of snagging a midnight shag. Whatever your motive and agenda, The Red Show will certainly give you something to think about—and might even be a hotspot for acquiring a spindly or Rubenesque pickup.

Castillo’s piece, as usual, is a riot. In the large-scale Church Fight two multi-colored birds wearing rubber rooster caps square off in front of a house of worship. Each bird has a word bubble that reads “tomato.” One of the fowls is most likely pronouncing it toe-mah-toe, you see. And they’re fighting—two cocks in front of a church, about something petty. Love it.

Other works of note include Mark Lindley’s Deja Rouge—a canvas of layer upon layer of chunky red tones—and Eric Ward’s molten lava-y Rupture, a fiery piece of Plexiglas with protruding piles of pseudo-magma. Thomas Stubbi’s culty bizarre Dogma Eat Dogma in which a group of hooded pagans worship a red Fu Dog and giant banana split will no doubt keep your internal conversation pleasantly befuddled. CM Venice McCurdy’s vintage red book impaled with nails that spell out “read” and A.S. Ashley’s clever, goopy-red mouse trap Missed You Again are small treasures that are just too clever. Perhaps most intriguing pieces, however, are Richard May’s dual men’s room doors covered with repetitive stenciled text: “be a man”; each door is also painted up with a figure of Iron Man and Superman, as well as collaged clippings of a lynching, a black boy in tears, the Lone Ranger, Tarzan, and signs that read “thou shalt not cry” and “thou shalt not display weakness.” Harsh, jacked up, and fantastic—just what you need on such a sentimental day. (Stacy Davies)

The Red Show at the dA Center for the Arts, 252 S. Main St., Pomona Arts Colony, Pomona, (909) 397-9716; www.dacenter.org. Thru Feb 28. Free

2 comments:

Skrip said...

Is the Red Cup Society for ladies only? If so, maybe I can get my wife to join so she can share her cup with me!

pomona's art colonists said...

Hi Skrip, it is ladies only! but you can hang out with them on Saturday ;-)