Body - from Merriam-Webster

Some food for thought - what is body?
Is body from head to toe & all parts in between - either as a whole or as parts?
The definition includes that but also other uses of the word.
Do we want to literally be the human body in an obvious, recognizable & direct manner?
Is a conceptual idea of (human) body included in our show?

Main Entry:
1 body
noun
Etymology:
Middle English, from Old English bodig; akin to Old High German boteh corpse
Date: before 12th century
1 a: the main part of a plant or animal body especially as distinguished from limbs and head : trunk
b: the main, central, or principal part:
as (1): the nave of a church
(2): the bed or box of a vehicle on or in which the load is placed
(3): the enclosed or partly enclosed part of an automobile
2 a: the organized physical substance of an animal or plant either living or dead:
as (1): the material part or nature of a human being
(2): a dead organism : corpse b: a human being : person
3 a: a mass of matter distinct from other masses
b: something that embodies or gives concrete reality to a thing ;
also : a sensible object in physical space c: aggregate , quantity
4 a: the part of a garment covering the body or trunk
b: the main part of a literary or journalistic work : text
2b c: the sound box or pipe of a musical instrument
5: a group of persons or things: as a: a fighting unit : force
b: a group of individuals organized for some purpose
6 a: fullness and richness of flavor (as of wine)
b: viscosity , consistency —used especially of oils and grease
c: denseness, fullness, or firmness of texture
d: fullness or resonance of a musical tone


I don't think we mean this meaning -
Main Entry:
2 body
Function:
transitive verb
Inflected Form(s):
bod·ied; body·ing
Date:
15th century
1 : to give form or shape to : embody
2 : represent , symbolize —usually used with forth

Film & Video

http://www.ubu.com/film/

"Painter" by Paul McCarthy

George Stone

Body Bags

Salomon Huerta

Here are some images of Salomon Huerta's paintings, and some information on him from the Austin Museum of Art (where he had a solo exhibition in 2001).

"The Austin Museum of Art (AMOA) is presenting the first solo museum exhibition of work by Salomón Huerta. Salomón Huerta: Paintings, on view through July 8, 2001 at AMOA-Downtown, features 25 paintings created between 1996 and 2000. The exhibition is organized by the Austin Museum of Art and is curated by AMOA Executive Director Elizabeth Ferrer. Born in Tijuana and based in Los Angeles, Huerta is best known for his enigmatic portraits of anonymous subjects who sit or stand with their backs to the viewer. His work was included in the 2000 Biennial of the Whitney Museum of American Art and has been exhibited in the United States, Mexico, and Europe. The Austin Museum of Art exhibition will be the first major exhibition of his paintings in Texas.

While his riveting works recall the bright palettes and streamlined compositions of earlier California painters Richard Diebenkorn and Edward Ruscha, Huerta reinvents conventional elements of Pop art, Color Field painting, and portraiture to engage the viewer in unexpected, ironic ways. By eliminating his subjects' facial features, their cultural origins and other attributes, Huerta creates a vacuum that viewers are compelled to fill with their own perceptions, biases, and experiences.

Huerta's subjects are people he encounters on the streets of Los Angeles and who agree to pose in his studio. His oil paint renderings portray his models without ornamentation in functional, utilitarian dress. Placed against glossy, colorful backgrounds in cool, contrasting colors that evoke contemporary fashion layouts and billboard advertisements, Huerta's austere subjects stand or sit squarely, heads close-shaved, arms at their sides, their bodies filling up the picture plane. The smooth surfaces of Huerta's works are characterized by a clean, hard finish, in which traces of the artist's hand are as elusive as the individuals he paints..."

Stas Orlovski

Stas Orlovski will send me jpeg images to be considered for the Body Show, but here are some samples of his artwork. Within his melancholy landscapes, he embeds various body parts. Below is his biography from Mixed Greens, his gallery in New York. NOTE: In 2008, he was in the prestigious COLA show (City of Los Angeles Artist Fellowship).


"The iconography of full moons, reflecting pools, garden statuary, songbirds, butterflies and flowers has long been associated with notions of nostalgia and sentimentality. I draw on inspirations ranging from Russian children’s books to Victorian illustrations, from Japanese prints to Dutch botanical paintings in an effort to explore the sentimental image as a vehicle for personal expression. I engage the bittersweet, the quaint, the melancholy and the picturesque to depict a world of glorious decay.

Often I employ paper mounted onto a stretched canvas to evoke a collage aesthetic associated with collections and scrapbooks as well as to achieve a delicate ground that registers every detail, brushstroke, stain, smudge, tear and deviant mark. Using a wide range of historical materials, methods and techniques, these works attempt to recreate the sensations and mechanisms of loss, memory and desire."

Body Parts Made Of Bread

Body Parts

From Here to There

click to enlarge

LAwn at DeAvy Gallery - Lisa Naruko

Come see my new LAwn (bigger, better, and "glowier") at DeAvy Gallery. It's located a few doors down from Utopia Restaurant in Downtown Long Beach's Art District. The opening is this Saturday, April 4, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

• The address is: 105 B Linden Avenue, Long Beach, CA, 90802

Bari Ziperstein lecture

In case you forgot, Bari Ziperstein is giving a lecture tmr night 7-8p at LBCC. Her new work is great www.bariziperstein.com

MOCA - Engagement Party

http://www.moca.org/party/knifeandfork/?page_id=14

Icy Spicy Leoncie!!

Creative Community Public Forum

Sorry for the late notice -
Saturday, March 28, 2009 ~ 9:00 am – 12:30 pm
Museum of Latin American Art ~ 628 Alamitos Ave. ~ Long Beach
www.createlongbeach.com

House on the Rock

http://www.thehouseontherock.com/index.htm

Here is a link to the house in Madison that Mariah was telling us about.

Before, After, and During "Drought"

Here is the "Drought" show, from its humble beginnings to its grand finale. My intent is to capture the hard work that went into the installation and cleanup, and most importantly, recreate the feel of the show -- and the buzz surrounding the gallery opening. All of the featured artworks are depicted. In retrospect, it is exhilirating (and amazing) to see how even though we had our differences, we were able to mesh our ideas and transform an empty space into a "real live gallery" in a single day.

If you would like to have any of these images, please let me know...I'm happy to share. (Lisa)