Blog

As we enter the new year 2012 I am grateful for many blessings.  

One of them is the opportunity to share a new combine installation titled "It is well" in culver city at this upcoming exhibition.  Love to see you if you can come!

I am pleased to announce that the exhibition that I co-curarted  "Encountering Place" is now installed an opened last week to some encouraging reviews.  Here is the online catalogue.  The exhibition is housed in the public courters of Ambassador David Huebner's residence, and it is a talking point for visitors and guests.  NZ artist James Stephen Brown and myself were tasked with coming up with an exhibition of artist's from both countries and build a theme around it.  Through our conversations and our exchange trips to one another's countries, we developed a collection of works that deal with artist's responses to locations or places that are meaningful to them.  You can read more about the process on Ambassador Huebner's Blog

While places depicted in art are often noticed first for the location represented, artists whose investigation evoked an emotional tie to a location increasingly intrigued us. We appreciated artists who engaged with critical commentary about the construct of an image of a place, and others who used illusion, displacement, and intentional intervention in the space to draw attention to the “placeness” of the work.

The image on this blog is the painting that I made for the exhibition.  It hangs in the dining room which inspired the work, reflecting the red walls and chandelier.  Opening the ceiling to show the boats reflects my interest in the passage of time and encounters with other cultures that take place in the residence.  As a site for diplomacy, I hope that the work might contribute to that end as it provides opportunities to open and generate new conversations.

Janet Bothne, Nathan Huff, Asiyeh Khalilzadeh, 
Jeff Matsuno, Perry Okimoto and Alana Okimoto
Liminal Examinations celebrates the subtlety of moments seldom perceived. These five artists transcend the evident to give us a glimpse at the unnoticed, often appearing right before our eyes. Whether it is in the beauty of nature or a brick wall in the city, the works here ask their viewer to slow down and observe.

Artist Reception:  Tuesday, April 5, 2011.  6-9pm.

Gallery Hours

M/W/F: 10 - 5pm

T/Th: 10 - 9pm

Biola University Art Gallery

1300 Biola Ave.

La Mirada, CA 90639

I smile thinking about my experiences on this adventure so far—from the first invitation from Art for Embassies to participate in this project, and my eager involvement. Trying to envision what type of work myself and my “blind date” curator colleague and I might have in common.  Negotiating two young artists’ ideas of creative practice and making this up as we go along.  Pushing a relationship faster than natural and rather enjoying the growing friendship. 

I recall my first skype video call with James on a miscalculated time difference that pulled him out of bed at 6am.  James’s bleary eyes and unmade bed behind him led to a funny introduction.  There is earnestness in his person and work ethic that I find appealing.  He carries a warmth and down to earth nature that jumps on all types of projects and isn’t daunted by new tasks.  In the four days I spent with James our conversations wandered through discussions of politics, Flight of the Concords, spirituality and religion, Peter Jackson, tall poppy syndrome, creative practice, traffic, weather, Maori culture and craft.

Travelling always reminds me that despite our distances there is an earnest desire to connect, to show hospitality, to share experiences, and to compare and contrast experiences.  One of the great gifts of this trip was visiting the art studios of New Zealand artists.  As an outsider stepping into an artist’s creative process and private studio is a vulnerable place, one’s personal journey of creativity suddenly exposed to the harsh outside world of critique.  I considered it an honor to hold that vulnerability as one artist to another.  I’ve been less concerned about the exhibition itself and more intrigued by the relationships that are being built cross-continents. 

Other highlights included warm welcomes and personal meetings from the directors of major art institutions, and a willingness to go out of the way by the embassy staff to host and support.  Drinks on Cuba Street, endless cups of rich coffee, and watching Wellington youth launch themselves off the boardwalk and into the ocean. Kiwi specialty dinners made by my hosts, homemade trifle. Mmm homemade trifle. A fuzzy puppy named Darwin that climbed on my couch bed with me and licked me awake before another full day of art viewing.  There were some awkward conversations along the way with social anxiety and miscommunication with gallerists and clearing up expectations. Those normal hiccups that accompany any project where a new game plan needs to be established when unforeseen hurdles arrive.

My trip was a whirlwind education on NZ artists throughout the century of which I was nearly completely ignorant when I arrived. In the 10 days I was in NZ I visited over 35 galleries, 5 National museums, was invited into 10 different artist’s private studios in 3 different cities.  My initial impression and judgments of the art I saw was that it had an earnest engagement both with the local culture and history and with the global art scene.  A relatively young relationship to the broader art scene, but conversations that were nonetheless rigorous and intellectual and less cynical than those I observe in Los Angeles.  I am aware of the brevity of my exposure to a country’s history, but it wet my appetite to see more from this unique place and continue a relationship with those artists I encountered.

Finally it all comes back to the project.  The exhibition theme is coalescing; the curatorial decisions are daunting due to the fact that this is in a residence—not a gallery, a home, a heavily stylized home.  How do design and content come together to bring a sense of beauty and aesthetics? How might visual conversations appear between paintings in a space that is already predisposed to a certain aesthetic quality?

We are charged with the prospect of forming an exhibition that will not only  represent the conversations that James and I have developed but also function as aesthetic things of beauty as the art hangs on the walls of the residence.  We are halfway there.  The exchange continues as James arrives in Los Angeles in 2 weeks for a whirlwind tour of the art scene in LA.  I’m looking forward to sharing my turf!

 

 

Excavations and Constructions

Jonathan Anderson and Nathan Huff

 

Curated by Jeff Rau

 

Sixpack Projects at Phantom Galleries Long Beach
170 North Promenade
Long Beach, CA 90802

 

January 8 - February 5, 2011

 

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 8, 2011  6-9pm

Distinct by design, LAAA's annual Open Show has developed into one of the most potent survey exhibitions on the West Coast. The opening reception is 6 to 9p on December 11, 2010, and runs through January 7, 2011, at LAAA's Gallery 825.

Featured artists include: Max King Cap, K. Gring, Xi Hou, Nathan Huff, Flora Kao, Jillian Kogan, Christina Muraczewski, Dmitri Obergfell, Natasa Prosenc-Stearns, Hirotaka Suzaki, Haikuhie Tataryan, Joey Terrill and Marika Krissman Tsircou.

Oceanside Gallery

Village Faire Shopping Center

300 Carlsbad Village Dr. S/103

Come Visit my studio!!!!!