Culturally Speaking

Everett Raymond Kinstler's exhibition Hollywood: paintings and Drawings was at the National Arts Club, NYC and will be opening at the Mountainsong Galleries in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California on June 7 running through July 7. The opening reception was packed with friends and students and collectors. It was also delightful to see so many people that I've known over the years. Ray, as I call him (he refers to himself as “the other Ray in my life”) is an old friend and someone we have profiled, reviewed and spoken about in ART TIMES for well over 20 years. The new work: film series, is, as Kinstler writes in the catalog “based on images new and old, real and imagined, invented and reinvented. Color and scale, text and context, are part of my attempt to pay tribute to “movies”. ” See the video (below) I made of the opening reception and Kinstler's remarks

Artwater Art Gallery in Rhinebeck New York is just upstairs from Rhinebeck Artist's Shop, both owned and run by Douglas Shippee. This group show with about 25 artists had nearly 50 works.

Cross River Artists held their most recent show of member's works at Montgomery Row in Rhinebeck, NY. The watercolors of Cross River Fine Art is an artitst's guild and includes eighteen watercolorists who have joined together to display their diverse, painting styles. The artists live and work in the Hudson River Valley and many of their paintings, whether they be still-lifes, botanicals or landscapes, reflect the beauty and sensibility of the region. These artists are all students of Betsy Jacaruso at her Studio and Gallery in Rhinebeck, New York.

On February 1st organizations across the globe hosted simultaneous Art and Feminism meet-ups to make sweeping corrections within Wikipedia. This event is aimed at editing Wikipedia for omissions and inaccuracies and will focus on the achievements of both historic and contemporary women artists. Activities will range from creating new articles, to editing existing content, adding new citations, and correcting broken links.  I attended the meet up organized by the Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY at Café East in Kingston, NY. Owner Deena Rae Turner welcomed all the “editors” with coffee and available were delicious, easy to eat lunches (didn’t want to spill food onto our laptops). We were shown how to edit and create new wikipedia entries. I met delightful new people and, as a person who works solo, I enjoyed working along side of so many interesting and talented women and men.

From the meet-up page: “Wikipedia’s content and community skews male, creating significant gaps in an increasingly important repository of shared knowledge. We invite you to address this absence in an all-day, communal updating of Wikipedia’s entries on contemporary art and feminism. There were tutorials for the beginner Wikipedian, digital and print materials to reference, childcare in many locations for the little ones, and light refreshments provided. Attendees are encouraged to edit any entry of interest related to art, feminism, gender studies, and LGBTQ issues. All are welcome: women, woman-identified, queer, and their allies. Meet-ups took place in: Adelaide, Australia - Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Austin, TX - Boston, MA - Brooklyn, NY - Calgary, Canada - Chicago, IL - East Lansing, MI - Halifax, Canada - Hong Kong, China - Iowa City, IA - Kingston, NY - Los Angeles, CA - Madison, WI - Montreal, Canada.”

Follow the action on twitter: #artandfeminism
Find the Google+ page here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/117429838464247932045/about 
and the event page here: https://plus.google.com/events/ckulvulieockdpenre93jeps89c

Organized by Eyebeam, (eyebeam.org) an art and technology center that provides a context and state-of-the-art tools for digital research and experimentation. Looking at their website I see that it is a lively incubator of creativity and thought, where artists and technologists actively engage with culture, addressing the issues and concerns of our time. Eyebeam challenges convention, celebrates the hack, educates the next generation, encourages collaboration, freely offers its contributions to the community, and invites the public to share in a spirit of openness: open source, open content and open distribution.