{"id":148,"date":"2017-12-04T23:14:32","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T23:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/?p=148"},"modified":"2017-12-11T15:57:58","modified_gmt":"2017-12-11T15:57:58","slug":"unsure-of-what-to-think-unable-to-look-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/2017\/12\/04\/unsure-of-what-to-think-unable-to-look-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Unsure of What to Think, Unable to Look Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sunni Pike<\/strong><\/p>\n

Curator and artist\u00a0Carrie Ann Baade\u00a0reeked\u00a0of mystery and curiosity\u00a0as she\u00a0expressed\u00a0her\u00a0passion\u00a0for\u00a0“monsters”\u00a0at\u00a0the opening\u00a0of the\u00a0“Cute and Creepy”\u00a0exhibition,\u00a0shown at the Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery\u00a0in October 2017. Her\u00a0dark Victorian Gothic\u00a0appearance\u00a0matched the surrounding artwork, intriguing the audience to learn more.\u00a0She was the speaker of the night, lecturing about her artwork as well as the other six artists. The collection included works from: Carrie Ann Baade, Jessica Joselyn, Laurie Hogan, Chris Marrs, Chet Zar, Lori Field, and Kelly Boehmer.<\/p>\n

\"Cute
Cute & Creepy, Original Exhibition Catalog<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was not the first exhibition of\u00a0“Cute and Creepy.”\u00a0Baade\u00a0is the curator and professor at Florida State University, where the first exhibition was held in 2015. She described the artwork as narrative and imaginative art\u00a0that hit the art world at just the precise moment. It was the beginning of the “mark” of\u00a0the movement\u00a0celebrating dark art and Pop Surrealism.\u00a0Through\u00a0each\u00a0piece there portrayed\u00a0a sense of reality, fantasy and purpose of each artist.\u00a0We\u00a0see the beauty\u00a0in freaks and in monsters\u00a0is a matter of\u00a0aesthetics.\u00a0Walking into the gallery, you can feel the works come to life in\u00a0their\u00a0own supernatural way.<\/p>\n

\"Soft
Kelly Boehmer, Pink Garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once you are in the gallery you\u00a0are\u00a0immediately greeted\u00a0with\u00a0works\u00a0in two and three dimensions of various sizes. These terrifyingly\u00a0intriguing\u00a0pieces capture your attention, especially\u00a0the large\u00a0soft sculpture\u00a0lurking in the center of the gallery.\u00a0Kelly\u00a0Boehmer creates her pieces with magical and\u00a0monstrous\u00a0personalities. Her\u00a0carnivalesque\u00a0depth and light create stories with a tragic sense of humor.\u00a0Pink Garden<\/i>\u00a0draws you in with her use of color\u00a0and its\u00a0large-scale\u00a0form.\u00a0Boehmer\u00a0mimics a palm tree with\u00a0an elephant sitting\u00a0underneath in her own\u00a0unconventional use of materials.\u00a0She\u00a0uses bright patterned fabric\u00a0to pull\u00a0you\u00a0in\u00a0and\u00a0your\u00a0attention is diverted to the many details. She\u00a0creates an illusion of\u00a0imaginative\u00a0creatures in her own way:\u00a0baby alligators dressed in lacey pink dresses, a fawn wearing sunglasses,\u00a0and monkeys in tutus. Her playful use of fabrics and\u00a0taxidermy\u00a0creates a curiosity on the viewer. They are no longer creatures to be feared but merely an expression of\u00a0imaginative\u00a0play.<\/p>\n

\"Joslin
Jessica Joslin, Max, Antique hardware and findings, brass, bone, painted steel, glove leather, glass eyes, 14″ x 8″ x 8″<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Across the gallery you are greeted with the\u00a0playful,\u00a0entrancing\u00a0pieces of Jessica Joslin. She uses real skulls to create sentimental\u00a0three-dimensional\u00a0pieces that captivate your interest.\u00a0Max<\/i>\u00a0stood out by being disturbingly cute. She portrayed an\u00a0adorable\u00a0household pet\u00a0in such a harmless way\u00a0that you almost do not realize it is\u00a0a\u00a0canine\u00a0skeleton. These creatures\u00a0reflect\u00a0real and imaginative animals, the living and the dead.\u00a0The\u00a0intricate details\u00a0of brass and bone\u00a0enhances\u00a0your\u00a0appreciation of her craftsmanship.\u00a0The curator did a great job with the flow of the three-dimensional pieces in the center, creating a\u00a0diagonal\u00a0line through the gallery. Going from\u00a0these eccentric\u00a0sculptures moving on to the otherworldly\u00a0two-dimensional\u00a0works.<\/p>\n

Moving\u00a0from three-dimensional sculptures\u00a0to paintings\u00a0and an artist video,\u00a0the gallery was well thought out in terms of placement. You move\u00a0fluidly throughout the room, stopping at each piece with more\u00a0curiosity\u00a0and questions than the next. The two-dimensional pieces range from\u00a0paintings to mixed media.\u00a0Artist conveyed their\u00a0own message through their artworks. They left much interpretation to the audience. Hogan wanted to desexualize the\u00a0femininity\u00a0of bunnies in her art,\u00a0whereas\u00a0Zar\u00a0wanted\u00a0to\u00a0rally\u00a0against\u00a0the\u00a0effects\u00a0of humanity.<\/p>\n

\"Zar,
Chet Zar, Chronic Anxiety, 2010, Oil on board, 18″ x 24″<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Overall “Cute and Creepy” was a successful show planned just around the time of Halloween. I encourage anyone to look into the whimsical monsters of\u00a0these artists.\u00a0The reflection\u00a0of our humanity is closely correlated with\u00a0the attributes of these creatures.\u00a0They\u00a0establish a question, what is the\u00a0monster? Who is the monster? And what\u00a0differentiates\u00a0us from them?\u00a0It is for a\u00a0daring\u00a0audience;\u00a0an audience open to exploring the strange beauty and the ecstasy inherent in our culture’s aversions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sunni Pike Curator and artist\u00a0Carrie Ann Baade\u00a0reeked\u00a0of mystery and curiosity\u00a0as she\u00a0expressed\u00a0her\u00a0passion\u00a0for\u00a0“monsters”\u00a0at\u00a0the opening\u00a0of the\u00a0“Cute and Creepy”\u00a0exhibition,\u00a0shown at the Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery\u00a0in October 2017. Her\u00a0dark Victorian Gothic\u00a0appearance\u00a0matched the surrounding artwork, intriguing the audience to learn more.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":433,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[38,53,11,9,46,58,36,40,59,45],"class_list":["post-148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-cuteandcreepy","tag-carrie-ann-baade","tag-chet-zar","tag-chris-mars","tag-cute-and-creepy","tag-dedo-maranville-fine-arts-gallery","tag-jessica-joselyn","tag-kelly-boehmer","tag-laurie-hogin","tag-lori-field","tag-valdosta-state-university","post_format-post-format-image"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/433"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions\/310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}