Happy Hallowe'en!

My wife and I as Adam & Barbara Maitland from Beetlejuice! Papier-mâché, wigs, felt, screen door material, tempera paint and lots of patience.

Animalier: The Animal in Contemporary Art

Just received the details on the the show "Animalier: The Animal in Contemporary Art". My piece Le Mystere Lycanthropique will be on display for the duration of the exhibition. If you're in the Alva, OK area, be sure to stop by the gallery for the opening reception and support what the gallery is doing, looks to be a pretty amazing show, as the artists chosen are all top notch! Details below:
 
Animalier: The Animal in Contemporary Art
An exhibition of art focusing on the animal form, sponsored by the Studio Art Program at Northwestern Oklahoma State University. Curated by Brandice Guerra, Director of Studio Art at Northwestern. The show runs from November 2nd to December 2nd, 2012.

The exhibition will be held at the Graceful Arts Gallery and Studios, 523 Barnes Street, downtown Alva, Oklahoma. The gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM and Saturday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM.

An opening reception is planned for November 2 from 6:00-8:00 PM. Light refreshments will be served. That evening, the Studio Art Program will also host a free screening of Jean-Jacques Annaud's 1988 French language film, The Bear, in the Graceful Arts rear studio (parental discretion is advised).

An informational lecture by the curator on the history and symbolism of animals in art is planned for November 14th at 5:30 PM in the Graceful Arts gallery.
Admission to the gallery, opening reception, film screening, and curator's lecture is free and open to the public.

69 artists from 12 countries and 19 US states submitted 127 works for consideration. The exhibition will contain 27 works from 21 artists in 6 countries and 7 US states.
Robin Arnold, New Paltz, New York
Larry Ege, Skokie, Illinois
Lemeh Fortytwo, Monterado, Italy
Kirsten Furlong, Boise, Idaho
Gabriel Garcia, Chicago, Illinois
Flore Gardner, Avignon, France
Donald Gialanella, Topanga, California
Ronald Gonzalez, Johnson City, New York
Suzanne Jensen, Montgomery, Alabama
Kristina Knowski, Joliet, Illinois
Kimberly Kwee, Little Rock, Arkansas
Nicolas Lamas, Lima, Peru
Maria Lux, Champaign, Illinois
Heather MacDonald, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Elizabeth McGhee, Laguna Beach, California
Johnny Miller, Chicago, Illinois
Meghan O'Connor, Nashville, Tennessee
I Made Arya Palguna, Jogjakarta, Indonesia
Elisabeth Pellathy, Montevallo, Alabama
Christopher Reiger, San Francisco, California
Andrew Yang, Chicago, Illinois

An art critic first used the term "Animalier" as a derisive title for the nineteenth century sculptor of animal bronzes, Antoine-Louis Barye. The epithet was in keeping with the use of animal names as terms of reproach. The term gradually lost its original contemptuous intention and is now used specifically to describe nineteenth century animal sculptors and broadly to describe any artist who chooses to focus on the animal form. The description of animals, whether symbolic or scientific, has been a concern of artists since the dawn of recorded history. This exhibition is intended to present a variety of approaches to the concepts concerning the representation of animals in contemporary artistic practice.

If you have questions about Animalier: The Animal in Contemporary Art or its supplemental programs, please contact Brandice Guerra at beguerra@nwosu.edu.
If you have questions about the Graceful Arts Gallery and Studios, please contact Kay Decker, Gallery Director, at KLDecker@nwosu.edu.

Animalier: The Animal in Contemporary Art

Also, just got word that my piece "Le Mystère Lycanthropique" has been accepted into a show entitled Animalier: The Animal in Contemporary Art at Northwest Oklahoma State University. The piece deals with the shamanic aspects of bestial transformation and atavistic wisdom transmitted via our animal brethren. Aha!

Interested in reading this new book on the subject as well, Arcanus Bestiarum: Of the Subtil and Occult Virtues of Divers Beasts

Demdike Stare

Had the pleasure of spending some time chatting with Miles and Sean from Demdike Stare last night when they played at the Empty Bottle hosted WIRE: Adventurers in Modern Music Festival. Got some great insight into their process for music making, life in England, what the new album may (or may not) sound like, and the serious record digger's hunger for that one album no one has heard in 30 years. 

Oddly, their sound, which is always visionary and forward thinking, is completely dependent on the past for source material and inspiration (everything from ultra-obscure sound library records from France and Italy to a far-out 60's oud and modular synth duo from Turkey). To me, this is what makes their music so interesting amidst the vast plain of emerging electronic musicians, this reverence for the past. It's the new face of folk music. Compositions of crackling voodoo trance rhythms, earthy primal bass thuds and passages of adder-like tape hiss, all seem to be passed down and utilized in the folk tradition. They handle their found sounds with the veneration Cecil Sharp or Alan Lomax would have given one of their rural singers, or perhaps more aptly, considering their influences, the way a witch might apply the incantations in a magical Grimoire.

The hair-raising and erotic occult horror imagery spliced together in their live video projection is a sort of mask the duo wears as an homage to the witchy ritual nature of their music and aesthetic, but underneath the oh-so-alluring darkness, I was happy to find two very friendly fellows who were just excited to be traveling the world and hexing concert goers with their hoodoo rhythms.

If you haven't heard them, check out their music here.    

Thanks to seijinlee for posting the videos