Midwest Paint Group in Joplin, MO

Almost missed this one: Midwest Paint Group’s showing at Spiva Center for the Arts, in Joplin, MO, through February 21. Includes work by Bob Brock, Glen Cebulash, William Foust, Barbara Lea, Jeremy Long, Michael Neary, Ron Weaver, Megan Williamson.

(shown above: Bob Brock, Grounds at Linda Hall)

‘Buoyantgravity’ at Washington Art Association

Buoyantgravity, featuring the work of Stephanie Pierce, Sarah Norsworthy, and Heidi Leitzke, is on view at the Washington Art Association, in Washington Depot, CT.  MWC interview with Stephanie Pierce here. 

(above: Heidi Leitzke, Sheboygan, oil on canvas, 45×38″, 2009)

Another batch of links for the weekend

A couple of great posts at Two Coats of Paint this past week:  Reassessing Mercedes Matter and The Slaves to Facture vs. Tentative Doubters.  Two Coats should be required reading in art schools.  I just too many reviews, artist statements and interviews that try to pass off as new ideas that David Hockney, Gabriel Laderman, Studio School people or any number of other artists brought into the dialogue decades ago.  There’s always a broader perspective at Two Coats, and over there a lot of credit gets rightly placed with the names of a lot of under-recognized artists.

More on the subject of cultural amnesia:  Luc Tuymans in the NY Times.

A little bit on being memorious:  Jonah Lehrer on Borges’ Funes and Wilkins.

Q & A with Melissa Oresky

GR2, Franklinite, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 14″x18″

What follows is a remarkably generous and thoughtful interview with painter Melissa Oresky.  We will just get right to her words without a lengthy introduction.  See more of her work at Western Exhibitions website.

Please give our readers a little bit of information about yourself.

I am originally from Maryland, near Washington D.C. I came to the Midwest in 1992 to go to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and I stayed here to get my MFA at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I currently teach painting at Illinois State University in Normal, IL, and live and work between Bloomington-Normal and Chicago. I always feel a distinct pull back towards the east coast though I realize I have now

Stefanie Gutheil: Kopftheater

A few moments of entertaining craziness at Stefanie Gutheil’s show, Kopftheater at Mike Weiss Gallery in NYC, until February 20, 2010.

Q & A with Andrzej Zielinski

Andrzej Zielinski, 1!, 2005, oil on panel, 20″ x 20″

Andrzej Zielinski is a young painter who splits his time between Brooklyn and Kansas City.  He has recently had solo exhibits at the Dolphin Gallery in Kansas City and DCKT Gallery in New York.  Zielinski was kind enough to answer some questions for us about his work.

Please tell our readers a little bit about your background.

I was born in Kansas City and raised there.  I enjoyed art when I was young but never thought of being an artist.  After

Judith Raphael

Judith Raphael

Some links for the weekend

From The Edge: David Dalrymple, “Knowledge Is Out, Focus Is In and People Are Everywhere”

From Science & Creativity from Studio 360: “A Tale of Two Brains”

From Artcritical: Drew Lowenstein on  “Morphological Mutiny”

A fantastic artblog I’ve been meaning to link to,  Art Inconnu (sadly inactive for almost a month).

I’ve never figured out why minimal/geometric has such a strong presence in the blog-world.  There’s a lot of it out there that’s thought-provoking and fun to look at.  Joanne Mattera shows a lot of great stuff in that arena.   Visual Discrepancies is a recent discovery.

Also, Jonah Lehrer has an article about how the brain responds to music.  I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to link these findings of how music works on our brains to the way that a lot of exciting minimal/geometric does.

Two Coats has more Allison Schulnik.  Hello My Name is Art does too, but I think the more recent post considering influence as  an aspect of art is the one to look in on.

A fantastic non-artblog, Awesome Tapes from Africa.

UPDATE:  One more link, a Bronzino slideshow from the NYT.

Allison Schulnik at Daily Serving

Allison Schulnik talks to Daily Serving.

Joey Borovicka: Homesick Blues

Joey Borovicka:  Homesick Blues, Catich Gallery, St. Ambrose University, Davenport, IA, January 19-February 26, 2010.  More Joey Borovicka on MWC.