Disney-Britton

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton Bisa Butler's tribute to the four little black girls killed in a 1963 bombing of a black church We hung out with “Isabella Rossellini” this weekend for two super-charged art fairs in Chicago, the Expo Chicago, and The Other Art Fair. The later was intimate and energetic, and after a group of actors playfully crowned our artistic niece Tamara Smoot as “Isabella Rossellini," she met and chatted with dozens of artists like MFA’s  Lauren Zoll  and  Ramone Royce . It was great fun, while across town, the gallerists at Expo Chicago were conducting the serious business of closing deals. We saw work by old favorites with pricing ranging from $7,500 to $50,000. However, our new favorite is the fiber art by  Bisa Butler , and that makes her homage to the four girls killed in the  1963 bombing  of a black church, our art of the week.

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton 2018 Alpha Omega Prize Finalist:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XQ5S8WL "PULSE Nightclub: 49 Elegies" by John Gutoskey at Grand Rapid's Art Museum  for ArtPrize10 ArtPrize is dead. This news will not surprise the hundreds of professional artists who didn’t show up this year. The four perennially mega art venues were mega disappointments: DeVos Convention Center (nearly empty); The GRAM (reinstalled the winner from 2014); and UTICA and the Kendall School of Design (closed). What worked? Church installations and new restaurants. Christian imagery was strong this year including those taking on social issues. We also recommend the jambalaya at Leo’s, and the pheasant & cactus at MeXo. ArtPrize is taking next year off, and because we believe in resurrection, that makes  John Gutoskey's “ PULSE Nightclub: 49 Elegie ,” our ArtPrize entry of the week.

PAPER MAGAZINE By Michael Love Michael Courtesy of John Edmonds/Capricious Artist John Edmonds , who dedicates his practice to documenting the richness of blackness in journalistic, artistic, and inherently spiritual ways, is set to launch his new book, Higher. Higher is a retrospective 100-plus page, beautifully assembled, full-color monograph covering the first 10 years of his work as a photographer. Included among the photos are texts by Dr. Aaron Rosen and Durga Chew-Bose, and a conversation with renowned fellow artist, contemporary painter Mickalene Thomas . The duo candidly discusses everything from taking the time to illuminate the varying facets of blackness through art, to how Edmonds finds his subjects and his use of light to capture their inner glow, to curation of the self in the digital age. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton Fernando Baril, “Crossing Jesus Christ with the God Shiva” (1996) All of the work by Brazilian painter Fernando Baril  (b. 1948) is of a teasing nature.  This includes his "Crossing Jesus Christ with the God Shiva" (1996), a painting of the Jesus with 16 arms. The painting challenges you to open your brain and think about what you’re seeing. This particular painting is one of the more evocative works in Brazil's newly reopened Queermuseum exhibition. The exhibition of 263 other works at the Santander Cultural Center in Porto Alegre was shut-down last year following complaints from fascist fundamentalists. Last week , it reopened to record-breaking crowds, and that's why Fernando Baril's "Crossing Jesus Christ with the God Shiva" is our news of the week .