Finance class was cancelled Thursday, so I took the opportunity to join Sam downtown for the Art Walk.
This art walk felt a little lackluster. There was still a lot of street bands and DJ’s, street artists, etc, but not as many as we’ve seen in the past.
The “upstairs” gallery had a lot of mediocre abstract art, but every time I go they seem to be expanding the space. Way around the corner in a “back” room was a DJ. I noticed the singer in the song, but I’d never heard the song before. So I came home and researched it and discovered that Antony Hegarty is now doing vocals for some technodisco group called Hercules & Love Affair. The video below is the song that the DJ was playing, although it sounded much better loud and EQ tweaked so you could pick up on that bassline.
Phartika wasn’t as crowded as usual (but we were there early). At the back were three medium sized paintings that I at first wrote off as photo collage, and then I realized that the photos were actually paintings… really good paintings. Don’t know what is going on these Doro pieces, but the oil work is amazing.
Phartika also had two pieces by John Scane. I like this piece because of the subdued green and gray color scheme. However, I think the foreground figure should be slightly more vibrant.
At one of the larger galleries was a makeshift barber shop. There were barber shop paintings hung nearby and all the barbers were wearing shirts that said “BOLT”… I’m pretty sure they weren’t trying to sell crappy animated movies from last year – but I wasn’t sure what they were trying to sell/do.
The hive had some great paintings by Chrystal Chan. I wish I could use color like her. She gets dangerously close to hackneyed Mark Ryden territory at times, but she gets a pass because her subject matter is often intelligent commentary on religion or the supernatural (unlike Rydenwhich is basically just…silly nonsense). Also, nothing in any Ryden I’ve seen is as beautiful as the brush work on that green and brown riverbank in the painting below…check it out:
This next one wasn’t at the show, but I wish it was… because it’s awesome:
Back down on the main drag there was a really good prog/funk/jam band next to the Regent in the parking lot.
There was also a person in a giant nose walking around. What was that commercial with the giant noses?
no, I don’t know those people.
Inside the Regent were some “recent paintings by Vargas” (although I swear I saw some of those A LONG LONG time ago on the artwalk last year) and in the main hall, a lonely DJ on a lonely stage:
awwwwww….wassamatta? Nobody liked your idea to charge admission for the same shitty art and bands? A year ago they had a decent thing going in this space… and then somebody came in and told them they should be charging admission and serving alcohol. Now you’ve got one guy (ONE GUY) dancing around to a lonely DJ…. well done….
