Scene4 Magazine | Que Pasa

Private View 27th June 6 - 9pm
Open 28th June - 13th July 2013
Andrew Kinsman is one of those fortunate people who are very talented indeed practioners in more than one art form. As well as being a hugely accomplished artistwith a burgeoning career, he is also a very successful saxophonist, performing with some very big names such as Noel Gallagher and Kasabian.
 
However recently Andrew has been devoting the bulk of his time to his painting in the build up to his first solo show at Signal and also in response to an extremely prestigious commission from the Royal Mail. The brief for this commission was to paint a large group portrait of the 'Dream Team' to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Football Association. The individual players were then featured in a set of commemorative stamps, which were released in May 2013. This has led to a lot of media attention and press interviews for the artist, proving to be an ideal springboard for his first major solo show in London.
 
The new show is called 'Fragile' and finds the artist exploring a theme that has fascinated him for some time - the painting of bubbles. As well as the technical challenges posed for the painter, Kinsman sees the potent symbolism represented by the beauty and the momentary existence of bubbles, as echoing our own 'fragile' lives. To set the scene for the body of work the artists says - I felt that to have a chance of capturing some worthwhile moments, I would need to escape from my everyday environment. The bubble itself seemed to convey a sense of escapism and ephemeral beauty, so rather than having my subjects visit my studio for a series of formulated images, I decided to relocate to Paris. This relocation helped the artist dislocate from familiar patterns in his own life and seek out a new poetry and meaning in his painting.
 
In this new body of work, Kinsman's photorealist style has moved away from the purely representational. A wide variety of settings have been used, which creates a richly textured backdrop for the portraits. Some of them have the spontaneous feel of a chance encounter, while others imply a more intense relationship between model and artist. Weaving their delicate way through all the pieces, are the ever-present bubbles.
 
Please contact us for more information.

Rochelle Marsh
Rochelle@AbstractPR.com
www.signalgallery.com

Cecilia Berkowitz 2014 Mayoral Candidate and Kay Riviello
Animal/Advocate/ Activist/ Leader Join Forces To Speak Out
Against The Cruelty Of The NYC Animal Pound System And
Demand NYC To Build NO KILL ANIMAL SHELTERS!!!!!

PROTEST AND RALLY
NY ANIMAL CARE & CONTROL
NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL
REPEAL O655/059

Date: Saturday June 22, 2013!!!
****WEAR RED TO SHOW YOUR COMPASSION
FOR SUFFERING ANIMALS****

4PM- 6PM OUTDOOR RALLY/PROTEST
6PM- 11PM INDOOR KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Purchase Tickets: $45 Paypal.com Kay@radicalphotos.com
Where: Five Star Hall 1305 43rd Ave,(21st Street),Long Island City, Queens, NY

Over 25,000 people on Facebook have been sent invites. New York Animal Rights Alliance America, a strongly dedicated global group of animal rescuers, advocates and activists plan the largest Rally and Protest for NYC and is slated for Saturday June 22, 2013 from 4pm - 6pm for the outdoor rally and protest. Then animal advocates from 6pm- 11pm will then congregate at the Five Star Banquet Hall located at 1305 43rd Ave, (21st Street), Long Island City, Queens, NY to hear various animal activists and expert speakers educate the public about the costly and inhumane treatment animals endure in the NYC animal pound system, including the fact that there are no shelters for the homeless, abandoned and abused animals for the Queens and Bronx communities. The message is stop killing our innocent animals. These precious animals need laws for their rights to humane care and treatment, sanitary facilities, competent human care, vetted treatments on site and a call out to our legal system to put in place laws that protect and give animals their own legal right and to have any group and. or individuals who abuse, neglect, harm, maime, torture and or kill innocent animals should be punished to the highest degree by our legal system.

Come meet and join animal activist, rescuer Kay Riviello, founder of New York Animal Rights Alliance America on June 22, 2013 from 4pm-11pm, as she sets out to create the largest gathering in the NYC area of animal lovers, advocates, rescuers and activists for a day of education, entertainment and solidarity for " the awareness of " " the protection of " " the demands of " a society that is broken by the costly, ineffective, antiquated and inhumane care of our homeless, thrown away precious innocent animals.

Ms. Riviello has been rescuing animals in distress, mostly dogs and cats, for over the past two decades, putting herself in harms way to save severely abused, exploited, inhumanely discarded innocent animals, even those left dying or dead. With the realization that animals have no legal rights set in place in our United States legal system, Ms. Riviello has set out to became the voice for the countless helpless voiceless animals as she follows case after case of legal investigations through our court system and her personal involvement with rescues that leads to her discoveries that animal abuse and animal abusers are a pervasive and hidden atrocity which is clearly against our deepest humanity, especially for the American population who view their domesticated pets as an important deeply loved part of their family unit- as a part of their beloved family. Crimes against innocent defenseless animals mostly go unpunished, ignored or deafened. But some still hear their screams.....

Advocating for not only stronger legislation for animal abuse and their humane rights, but adherence to place such laws in our governing and court systems is Ms. Riviello's focused unrelenting goal, which a very complex task, if it wasn't wouldn't there be an end to the endless thousands of unmerciful exterminations of our cats and dogs who are held hostage in hallways of hell. It is easy to turn our eye's away from unspeakable hidden crimes of what is considered a lesser species- isn't it....???

Ms. Riviello will not let that continue any longer. She continues to gather the people and speak out and campaign for the rights of all living animals and bring to light the hardships that these innocent beings endure at the hands of their trusted owners- us- human beings- and the despicably run New York City pound system, including the lack of shelters desperately needed in boroughs of Queens and the Bronx. There has to be a better way and Kay Riviello is determined to find that way.

Facebook invite: https://www.facebook.com/events/411985078872580/?ref=22

Private View 18th April 6 - 9pm
Open 19th April - 11th May 2013
The artist known as TRXTR, in his second solo show at Signal Gallery finds himself looking at a world gone mad with excess. For him the problem is that 'in every way the Genie is out of the bottle and has become so bloated and addictive there is no way it will go back and our wishes are all used up'.
 
The visual imagery he uses to expresses his feelings about this complex situation we find ourselves in is overloaded with apparently random detail. The effect is seductive nearly to the point of no return. But as the artist says 'what ever you invent has implications with teeth. I don't even pretend to know what to do about it, it's a mess and all I seem to be able to do is make pictures about it. It's like sketching a train crash'. 
 
TRXTR's use of digital media, combined with traditional paint application, gives him the freedom to explore the varied visual material he identifies as representing his apocalyptic vision. The focus is undoubtedly on women, who are represented as glamorous puppets or robots surrounded by military hardware and general chaos or are seen infected by psychedelic patterns, as if from a regurgitated Sixties fantasy. An underlying sadness can be felt, despite the superficial playfulness of the works. This new series works is a tour de force of colour and strong imagery and sees TRXTR moving on to a new level of imaginative mark making.
 
TRXTR continues to develop his reputation as an artist of note both nationally and internationally, with this second solo show at Signal Gallery. He had his first solo show in the USA last year and has had considerable auction room success both at Bonhams and Dreweatts.  
 
For more information.

Chris Garlick
020 7613 155007766 057 212
Chris@signalgallery.com  
or
Rochelle Marsh
Rochelle@AbstractPR.com
www.signalgallery.com

A new book of poetry, The Green Light by Kathi Wolfe, will be published in June by Finishing Line Press.

'In The Green Light, one mid-century New Jersey family comes achingly to life, their struggles, our struggles: how to love, how to live fully, despite illness, in spite of disability.  Kathi Wolfe brings us a novel's worth of unforgetable characters in this stunning collection, each circling the bright star of Rita, girlfriend, then wife, then mother, "so sweet, so diseased."  "I've never wanted to change my address," declares daughter Kate, in the closing poem, and neither do we, in thrall to these voices, this family so eager for one another, so willing to "baptize" their lives, "new sneakers in the mud." '
Sarah Browning, Director, Split This Rock
 
'Kathi Wolfe traces the story of Stan and Rita through the "Happy Days" of post-war America when swing was still strong and the marriage of a Christian and a Jew was a "mixed marriage."  Importantly, it brings to the forefront the choices that were made in those times about children, family and lifestyle ba a woman with diabetes.  Wolfe, who knows about disability firsthand, imbues her poems with a playfulness and energy that not only entertains, but makes clear that despite its difficulties such a life is fulfilling and well-worth living.'
Michael Northen, Beauty Is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability
 
'Poet Kathi Wolfe is a combination of Emily Dickinson and Roseanne Barr.  She's funny, she's sad, she's imagistic, she's wise.  I love the way humor sneaks through meaning, turning dark to light.  She lets story comes through characters, so that family members become messengers of transformation.  Rather than being exhausted by memory, this poet gives us nerve bundles of the past.  The Green LIght is an exhilarating set of poems and its mischievous intelligence has the sweet smell of success.'
Grace Cavalieri, Producer, The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress.

You can pre-order the chapbook now.  
The price is $14 per copy, plus $2.49 for shipping.
 
To order online, go to Finishing Line Press
 
To order by snail mail, send a check to Finishing Line Press, P.O. Box 1626, Georgetown, Kentucky  40324.
 
Pre-order purchases ship on June 22.
 

The April 24 concert of the University of North Texas Symphony Orchestra will feature the premiere of internationally renowned composer Jake Heggie's Ahab Symphony, which will include the UNT Grand Chorus and celebrated faculty tenor Richard Croft as soloist. Heggie's first full symphonic work, Ahab Symphony expands on ideas he first explored in his critically acclaimed opera Moby-Dick, with text from Melville's novel as well as W.H. Auden's poem "Herman Melville." The work was commissioned by the College of Music and the Institute for the Advancement of the Arts, and written for the UNT Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Itkin; the Grand Chorus, directed by Jerry McCoy; and Croft, professor of vocal studies at UNT. The commission was part of Heggie's artist-in-residence award from UNT in 2010-11.

Photo - Karen Almond

The first movement, "Dawn," is the most heavily influenced by Moby-Dick, including direct quotes from the opera. The second movement, "The Wind," inspired by the challenges faced by both the character Ahab and Melville, explores the eternal battle of man versus nature, and the inherent powerlessness and frustration of this conflict. That leads to an aching third movement, "The Narrow Balcony," and a fourth movement, "The Pieces," that takes a tone of yearning simplicity and resignation. "The opera Moby-Dick pushed me into a new world of musical language and expression, and this is part of the evolution of my musical style," Heggie said. "In a symphonic work, you don't necessarily have to have action like in a staged drama - you can really go inside and meditate on the ideas. There was so much we couldn't touch on in the opera that I was yearning to explore further in a symphonic work." Based in San Francisco, Heggie said he is eager to return to UNT, where he made friends with students and faculty and was able to work with Croft. "The first time I heard his voice was in Otello at the Met in 1996," Heggie said. "He came on stage and I was blown away. At that moment, I had in the back of my mind that he was a person I would love to write for one day." Seeing Croft's performance as Ghandi in the Philip Glass opera Satyagraha sealed Heggie's desire to work with the tenor. Glass's minimalist style was also an influence on Ahab Symphony, itself, Heggie said. "I'm very proud of this piece," Heggie said. "It pushed me and forced me to explore different kinds of musical styles. Everyone at UNT has been so supportive. I'm very grateful."
Croft, the UNT Symphony and Grand Chorus will also record Ahab Symphony for commercial release. The recording is sponsored in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. "This concert represents a high point of pride and honor for the UNT College of Music - pride in the quality of our Symphony Orchestra, our Grand Chorus, its conductors and our faculty soloist; and the honor of presenting to the world the premiere of the first major symphonic work of one of America's most celebrated living composers," said College of Music Dean James Scott. The first half of the program introduces the "sea theme" of the evening with Felix Mendelssohn's Overture: Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Opus 27, and Benjamin Britten's Four Sea Interludes, Opus 33a, from the opera Peter Grimes.

The 8 p.m. concert in Winspear Hall at the Murchison Performing Arts Center is $10 for adults; $8 for seniors, UNT faculty and staff, non-UNT students, children and groups of 10 or more; free for UNT students with valid ID. For ticket information, call the box office at 940-369-7802 or visit www.theMPAC.com/tickets. The concert will also be streamed live online at http://UNTmusiclive.com. The concert is sponsored in part by the UNT Fine Arts Series.

Private View 27th March 6 - 9pm
Open 28th March - 13th April.
We are delighted to announce that Matthew Small and Fran Williams will be showing their work together for the first time in a two-man show at the gallery. The show called 'The Way We Were' finds the two artists in top form, producing powerful works in their distinctively intense styles. Both artists have largely concentrated on portraiture as their main stylistic medium. There is also an underlying melancholy and soulfulness in both their works, which sits very well together, even though the technical means of achieving this atmosphere is quite different.

Fran Williams studied illustration at Swansea Metropolitan University and since graduating she has shown in across the UK solo and group shows and at a number of important Art Fairs, notably the London Art Fair. Her unique blend of ethereal beauty and painterly technique, have found her a place in the Urban Art scene as well as in the Fine Art community. The artists says about her work 'I relentlessly explore the emotive qualities of paint, surface and form. My ethereal figures that take the viewer on a journey within. The paintings are a visual diary of my life experience so far, as I aim to capture and trap my feelings and emotions in paint'.

Matthew Small also studied illustration, firstly at the University of Westminster and then at The Royal College of Art. He has shown extensively in London and internationally and has been a considerable figure in London's Urban Art scene for several years. Matt's unique technique, creating a colourful kaleidoscopic effect in a series of intimate portraits, mostly of young black men, has become an iconic trademark for the artist. He invariably paints on found metal objects, which adds to the intensely urban feel and beauty of the works.

For more information:
Chris Garlick
020 7613 155007766 057 212
Chris@signalgallery.com
or
Rochelle Marsh
Rochelle@AbstractPR.com
www.signalgallery.com

Wednesday, March 27th at 7:00 PM
To be performed at The Lark Play Development Center
Tickets are FREE
To make reservations go to www.eventbrite.com

In honor of World Theatre Day (March 27th) an Around the Globe Chain Play will be presented at the Lark Play Development Center. Starting and ending in NYC, a play will be written as it travels around the world making 16 stops with playwrights from across the globe. Each playwright will contribute the next one to five pages of text, moving the plot forward from where the previous playwright left off. The playwrights are Dominique Morisseau (USA, NYC), Bekah Brunstetter (USA, Los Angeles), Van Badham (Australia), Mixkaela Villalon (Philippines), Janice Poon (Hong Kong), Abdelrahem Alawji (Lebanon), Jeton Neziraj (Kosovo), John Freedman (Russia), Ulrike Syha (Germany), Enver Husicic (Netherlands), Zainabu Jallo (Nigeria), Beatriz Cabur (Spain), Sarah Grochala (UK), Sigtryggur Magnason (Iceland), Caridad Svich (USA, NYC) and one TBA.

The final script will be given a stage reading on World Theatre Day (WTD), March 27th at 7:00 PM. The reading will take place at The Lark Play Development Center (311 West 43rd Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10036). The reading will be directed by Doug Howe, Artistic Director of the NYC based theatre company The Internationalist. Casting will not be announced until the script is finalized after March 20th.

The reading will be followed by a World Theatre Day Reception where a number of NYC theatre luminaries will read the International Theatre Institute's World Theatre Day Message that will be written this year by Dario Fo.

"We are just so thrilled to bring playwrights together from all corners of the earth to collaborate on the creation on what we hope to be a really fun piece of theater. The staged reading on March 27th should be truly special event." says Amanda Feldman, Lead Coordinator of the NYC World Theatre Day Coalition.

Companies and artists can become a member of the NYC World Theatre Day Coalition, celebrate theatre and participate in WTD activities by going to www.nycwtd.com.

The New York City World Theatre Day Coalition was formed in 2010 to create a widespread awareness of World Theatre Day in NYC by connecting the NYC theatre community to other theatre communities around the world and encouraging audiences in NYC and beyond to celebrate with us by attending the theatre. The Coalition is lead by an eight member Steering Committee that includes: The Alliance for Resident Theatres - New York www.art-newyork.org, The American Theatre Wing- www.americantheatrewing.org, The Innovative Theatre Foundation - www.nyitawards.com, The Internationalists - www.theinternationalists.org, Lark Play Development Center - www.larktheatre.org, The League of Independent Theater - www.litny.org and The Theatre Development Fund - www.tdf.org.

About World Theatre Day: Created in 1961 by the International Theatre Institute (ITI), World Theatre Day is celebrated annually on March 27 by ITI Centres and the international theatre community. Various national and international theatre events are organized to mark this occasion, such as the creation and circulation of the World Theatre Day International Message through which, at the invitation of ITI, a figure of world stature shares his or her reflections on the theme of Theatre and a Culture of Peace. The International Message is translated into more than 20 languages, read for tens of thousands of spectators before performances in theatres throughout the world.

Surveying four decades of Polaroid's influence in fine art photography, April 12-June 30, 2013

 
To the public, it's a reminder of a bygone era of instant color snapshots at millions of family gatherings.  For historians, it's an obvious precursor to today's ubiquitous instant photos.  But from the time Polaroid's famed SX-70 camera was released in 1972, there were those who saw its ability to instantly produce color photos as an exciting new medium for fine art.  From April 12 through June 30 the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center will present The Polaroid Years: Instant Photography and Experimentation, a groundbreaking survey exhibition organized by the museum that will bring together Polaroid pictures by 39 artists and collectives from 1972 through the present.  Among the many well-known artists whose work will be featured are Ansel Adams, Chuck Close, Walker Evans, David Hockney, Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol and William Wegman.
 
Several related events will be held, including an exhibition opening lecture by New York magazine senior editor Christopher Bonanos, author of the 2012 book Instant: The Story of Polaroid; a gallery talk by the curator; a campus series screening films about Polaroid photography or where it plays an important role; a program of child-friendly activities in the galleries; and the curator discussing the exhibition catalogue at the main branch of the New York Public Library.
 
"Instant photography arrived in the hands of artists at a time when the world of fine art photography had recently become fertile ground for artistic experimentation," writes exhibition curator and catalogue author Mary-Kay Lombino, The Emily Hargroves Fisher 1957 and Richard B. Fisher Curator at The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center.  "In an examination of the phenomenon of instant photography - in particular Polaroid, a brand known for its innovation and responsiveness to artistic endeavors - we see how it has influenced and inspired amateurs and professionals for nearly forty years.  By juxtaposing early experimental work with more recent forays into the possibilities of the medium, The Polaroid Years tells a more complete story of instant photography than has yet been revealed."
 
The exhibit is the first of its kind since the founding of the Polaroid Corporation by scientist and inventor Edwin H. Land some 75 years ago, and will highlight milestones in Polaroid's history.  That history is bittersweet, in view of the fact that Polaroid stopped production of analog instant film in 2008.  Nevertheless, even today, as Lombino notes, "Polaroid continues to attract new devotees drawn to its luminescence, distinct color, and the happy accidents that occur in the imperfect developing process--not to mention the convenience of instantaneous, direct one-to-one prints."
 
The exhibition catalogue (hardcover, 224 pages with 230 illustrations) is being co-published by The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center and DelMonico Books/Prestel, and will be available in March.  Highlights will include color images of all works in the exhibition; statements by a dozen of the artists whose work is featured; a chronology from the 1920s to the present of Polaroid technology and its use by artists; essays by Lombino and Dr. Peter Buse, Cultural Theorist and Senior Lecturer at the School of English, Sociology, Politics and Contemporary History at the University of Salford in Manchester, England; and a foreword by James Mundy, The Anne Hendricks Bass Director at The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center.
 
After Vassar, The Polaroid Years will travel to the Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where it will be on exhibit from September 20 through December 1, 2013.  Research for The Polaroid Years was underwritten by a generous grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts.  The presentation at Vassar is made possible in part by the Smart Family Fund for Art Exhibition Support.
 
For additional information, call (845) 437-5632 or visit fllac.vassar.edu.
 

Saturday, February 16, 2013 - Doors: 7pm / Show: 8pm
at
The Emerald Tablet
A Creativity Salon
80 Fresno Street
North Beach, San Francisco

Featuring Poets:
Jack Hirschman, Sharon Coleman, Angelos Sakkis,
James Cagney, Grace Marie Grafton, Jonathan Hayes, David Beckman,
Lissa Tyler Renaud, Al Averbach & Nick Whittington
&
Muscians:
George Long, Saxophone
Steven Gray, Acoustic Guitar

* Wine & Refreshments Will Be Served *

There will also be a vast array of local publications on display,
including Amerarcana, Caveat Lector, Great Weather for Media,
Left Curve, North Coast Literary Review, Out of Our Poetry Magazine,
Over the Transom, RE/search Publications, The Occupy Anthology & many others.

For more information: please call: (415) 500-2323
or go to: www.emtab.org