inspiration, etc...: December 2010

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Michele Guieu's 'Defragmentation' by Drew Snyder

Michele Guieu's Defragmentation
by Drew Snyder
San Diego Union Tribune / Visual Arts Blogs
December 21, 2010

"With their vague silhouetted bodies and landscapes, Michele Guieu's paintings have for some time been about memory and the past. Through a process of digitally transforming her own photography and translating it on to canvas, her work retains an old photographic quality, acting like a kind of monument to the family albums that serve as lock boxes for many of our most intimate yet estranged memories.

While nominally a painter, Guieu's solo exhibitions usually take the form of installations. In her latest show at Project X: Art in Solana Beach, she maps out a unified display built from a number of different parts, incorporating paintings on canvas, murals on the wall, and video components."

more

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Michele Guieu at Project X and Judy Chicago at SDMA by Patricia Frischer

From SDVAN / Peeked Raw Peeled / December 2010

Michele Guieu: Defragmentation comes back early to SD from SF to paint the walls at Project X: Art (320 So. Cedros Avenue, Suite 500, Solana Beach, 92075) for her opening reception: Dec 11, 6-10 PM and show until Jan 14. More info: Chris Martino 858.792.9685

Michele Guieu is now living near San Jose but has returned to Solana Beach for this exhibition. We have watched Ms. Guieu go from strength to strength and this latest show is the best ever and not to be missed. She has managed to balance her strong graphic design skills with the slightly abstracted selection of her intimate memories. Three walls of the gallery have been enhanced directly with her painting and a multitude of rectangular paintings are laid over this mural work. The fourth wall is a more balanced but no less interesting collection of similar works. The color palate is limited adding clarity to this vision. Various video frames have morphing colored images giving added information but still allowing us to make our own interpretation of the work. Or better, yet, just let the imagery wash over us. The large scale of this installation encourages this and I was happy to float in Michele Guieu’s world.

Judy Chicago lecture on Frida Kahlo on Wed. Dec 8, 7 pm at the San Diego Museum of Art (1450 El Prado, Balboa Park, SD 82101) More info: programs@sdmart.org 619.232.7931

The world of Frida Kahlo according to Judy Chicago is, of course, a study in feminism. Judy always delivers an education and what was wonderful to me was the audience for this lecture at the SDMA was way ahead of that game. In fact, the questions from the audience were stimulating and impressive and even Ms.Chicago commented on their quality. They were probing and brought a balance to the evening. We heard how history had viewed Kahlo through the eyes of her famous husband Diego Rivera until recently. Of course, San Diego’s cognoscenti has long been aware of the value of Kahlo’s art even it if it took the rest of the world time to catch up. There was lots of comparisons between Chicago’s own work and Kahlo as one would expect. But the interesting idea of how this in-depth study of Kahlo has influenced Chicago’s work is still unclear.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Timeline (video - part of the exhibition "Defragmentation")

length 9:30

"Defragmentation: Rearranging Bits and Pieces of Memory"
December 11, 2010 - January 14, 2011

Project x Art Gallery
320 South Cedros Avenue
Suite 500
Solana Beach, CA 92075

Open Monday – Friday, from 10am to 5pm
Also by appointment: Chris Martino (858) 792-9685

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Coming back from a week in San Diego

"Defragmentation: Rearranging Bits and Pieces of Memory"
The 3 main walls of the installation

The fourth wall

It took one week to install the show, I've got some great help from Janine Free and her husband Marvin, had the pleasure to drive every morning the 101 between Encinitas and Solana Beach. Amazingly, Janine and Marvin happened to be in the bay area a few days before the installation began in Solana Beach, and they transported almost all the paintings to San Diego in their truck. I brought myself all sorts of painting material, and I bought my favorite non-toxic paint at ACE in Hillcrest.

Tracing the large geometrical figure on the walls with a great ruler/level.
Using yards and yards of masking tape.
Painting with brushes, small rolls, large rolls. 2 coats.
Hanging paintings for hours, installing the videos (one flat screen, two digital frames).
Installing the very last series of paintings I've made on the fourth wall, which was already painted in dark gray.
Everything worked. Smoothly I can say.

mock up of the main part of the installation

It was interesting to see how the mock up I've made before coming to install the show at the gallery changed as I was working in the real space: they were transformed but not that much. I did not get the chance to do much else than installing the show. Everything was ready Saturday morning by noon, a few hours before the opening reception.

Another great experience for me. Another space, new paintings and new videos. I am very happy to have found a way to make videos which look like my paintings, with those shadowy/ghostly/round people. I'll post the videos soon.

Now I am back here, the show is up until January 14.