Arts reporter and critic Rosemary Ponnekanti keeps you in touch with the arts and culture scene with the help of other News Tribune writers, critics and editors.
Rosemary Ponnekanti is the arts reporter at The News Tribune, and has been a classical music nerd nearly all her life. Besides spending way too much time in galleries, museums and concert halls, she occasionally brings a whistle or double bass to Celtic jam sessions, and insists on singing "Happy Birthday" in four-part harmony.
Other contributors include:
> Arts & entertainment editor Craig Sailor
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The City of Tacoma Arts Commission has just announced the 17 recipients of the 2009-2010 Tacoma Artists Initiative Program, one of three funding programs managed by the Commission. Started in 1999, the TAIP supports artists in creating new work and presenting it free to the public. The $45,000 in grant money was split this round between 17 artists in all disciplines, with each recipient receiving between $2,000-$3,500.
“These awards provide artists the resources to explore and develop their artistry more fully. It is our intention that this investment in Tacoma ’s working artists will contribute to the on-going dialog about our city, our community and art itself,” said Robin Echtle, chair of the Tacoma Arts Commission.
Grant recipients were cartoonist R.R. Anderson, playwright C. Rosalind Bell, photographer Victoria Bjorklund, painter Becky Frehse, choreographer Robin Jaecklein, painter Matthew Johnson, mixed media artist Maria Jost, painter Fumiko Kimura, poet William Kupinse, photographer Steven McElrath, printmaker Chandler O'Leary, metalsmith Amy Reeves, ceramicist Claudia Riedener, poet Tammy Robacker, sculptor Mauricio Robalino, playwright Nicholas Stokes and Native American artist Chholing Taha.
Proposed grant projects include a poetry anthology, a new play, a dance piece, public exhibits of two-and three-dimensional visual art and a tile mural at the South Tacoma Public Library.
For more information on the TAIP grants and the Arts Commission, visit www.tacomaculture.org
On the walls right now: two great shows, one just up and the other about to come down.
At the Grand Impromptu is the best exhibit that the co-op gallery has mounted so far. "Evolutionary Tales" crams as much art as you possibly could, and then some, into their space next to The Grand Cinema--but don't be fooled. Quality and quantity do sometimes meet, and this is one of those times. The premise is good: Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. The concept's even better: exploring evolution both individually, and through a curatorial structure in which all eight gallery members choose another artist, who then chooses another artist, and so on. In each member's artistic "chain" there are up to five guest artists, which explains the huge number of works on the walls, floor and ceiling of Impromptu.
And the result? A strong, complex show, full of surprises and fascinating work that both stands on its own and hangs together in a unifying theme. It's also a great survey of 38 of Tacoma's best artists, and what they're working on: Most created work specifically for the show.
It's impossible to cover it all, of course. To take just one "chain": Dorothy McCuistion started off with "Darwin's Dream," a mixed monotype superimposing images of Darwin's face, drawings, writings and maps on swathes of blue and maroon paint. The juxtaposition's a little odd, but the sweeping movement is a creative counterpoint to upright scientific methodology. McCuistion then (naturally) chose her husband John, a UPS professor whose ceramic "Lucy Was a Bonehead, but She Still Believed in Evolution" is the perfect commentary for the show. The Neolithic head, painted in McCuistion's thick layers of multicolor blue, has pursed lips and three elegant white femurs as head-decoration.
Next in line was Otto Youngers, whose huge, angular sculptures of reclaimed wood deserve to be seen more often inside local galleries. "Bird Brains and other Evolutionary Tales" marks the ironic progress from stooped simian to upright, gun-totin' biped, with daffy-looking bird skulls for heads. Youngers then, naturally, chose his wife Amy McBride, a.k.a. our city arts administrator: her "Darwin Generations" traces a strange evolution from Protozoic bugs up through a glass vial and fuzzy copper frame into a weirdly deformed, Darwin-faced fetus. McBride chose printmaker Jessica Spring, who enscribed Darwin's statement that creation is as profound for humans as it is for dogs in a beautiful Italic font, complete with Darwin's dog Polly. Spring in turn chose Chris Sharp, whose sandpile of randomly lettered words pays homage to contemporary evolutionist Stuart Kaufman.
So you get the idea. There are seven more "chains", each worth following (they're printed on the wall, though a portable print-out would be handy.) Catch this show before it closes on Saturday.
Impromptu is open 4-8 p.m. Thursdays, noon-8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2-6 p.m. Sundays. 608 S. Fawcett St., Tacoma. 253-572-9232, www.grandimpromptugallery.com
Over at Mineral, the evolution's in a different direction. Sculptor and painter Malcolm McClaren (no, not the Sex Pistols' manager, the glassworker on Martin Blank's team) has produced a show that's both dreamily beautiful and disturbingly violent. "Troy," a meditation on war and homecoming, combines charcoal drawings and black ink paintings of bone-thin animals, sensual women and skull-like faces with swift, lovingly harsh strokes. In the center of the show, grotesquely mesmerizing, is a Galil assault rifle made of bread. The Galil is an Israeli weapon with ironically gentle curves, and McClaren (a former baker) has created it from a highly-salted dough that bakes up to a leather-like sheen. "There are places in the world where a loaf of bread will get you an AK-47," says McClaren.
"Troy" is up at Mineral through March 15. Open noon-5 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 301 Puyallup Ave., Ste A, Tacoma. 253.250.7745. www.lisakinoshita.com.
