This Gritty City Needs More Color!!

voronoff — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:46:11 +0000

Walking down Broadway, I noticed an unusual burst of color projecting outwards from the Tollbooth video gallery. Upon closer inspection I discovered numerous stuffed animals of all shapes and sizes attached to the side of the concrete. Wow. Now this is what I’m talking about. Randomly strange explodingly colored stuffed animals, striking a whimsical chord of nostalgic childhood folly.

Turning away from the giddy stuffed animal collage, my eyeballs were immediately stricken with the latest offering of Tacoma Contemporary, proudly displaying a new art exchange with Art Connection Korea via the ever-changing Woolworth Windows. Joo Ahn Kwon’s geometric landscapes with transplanted zebras evoke a hyperspatial delicateness whose intricacy invites the viewer to get sucked down the rabbit-hole. Ji Eun’s floating condoms in mellow brown and grey inspire….condom use. Suok won Yoon exhibits abstract organic shapes, beautifully rendered in light pencil on 10 x 20 red grid paper, introducing a new ameobic language to the world. Jong Sook Lee takes us deep with flower-like mandalas, revealing a rich textural landscape of intricate tapestry. Sahm-Kwon Kim’s black and white photos demand a nostalgic, meditative calm, moving towards an introspective winter place of peace and solitude atop a mountain surrounded by mist enshrouded temples and trees.

Around the corner we find an attempt to top the previous month’s wood pallet and blue shadow minimalism. That’s right. The windows are covered in white rice paper. The obscuration of whatever if anything is behind the white rice paper is a challenge and an invitation, but ultimately, it’s just white rice paper.

Dear Tacoma,

voronoff — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:02:51 +0000

The Renaissance is OVER.

It ended a few years ago.

Did anyone notice?

Beware, gentle reader. Some of the following words written in combination together may cause some consternation, slight discomfort, or an itchy-foot sensation, like you’ve heard it all before or maybe you agree with me and you want to see some cool shit happen in this town. Or you disagree and you are an active celebrant of the Gritty City growing more grit and moss and slumping into a future of nondescript conservative conformity.

with that said, you have been warned. Read on, dear reader.

This city, with its fledgling, just-hatched arts scene is desperately in need of more than one artwalk, more surprise guerilla street performance, more public sculpture, and more critical art commentary.

In fact, I get the distinct feeling that Tacomans like everything just the way it is, but I must say, this ‘Renaissance’ that started 4 years ago is still moving at a snail’s pace and it’s time for some of you artsy people to raise the stakes.

If Tacoma ever wants to rise up to become more than a hazy afterthought of Seattle, residents of the City of Destiny must make the effort to take a few more risks and support young and emerging, starving, under-and-non-represented creative folk.

The most relevant, cutting-edge, thrilling, and challenging art of our times is very often disregarded because the artist does not have ‘fine art’ credentials, a mile-long resume full of high-end galleries and juried show awards.

Tacoma needs more collaborative art events, multimedia art orgies, carnivalistic Andy Warhol-Style Factory Freak Fests, Absurdist Dada Parties. Happenings happening in multiple locations at the same time for different, similar reasons.

Tacoma needs an Anti-ArtWalk at the beginning of the month. Seattle has at LEAST a First Thursday, a Second Friday, and a Second Tuesday ArtWalk. Portland has at LEAST a First Thursday, First Friday, Second Thursday and a Last Thursday.

Why can’t Tacoma do this too?

Why does Tacoma’s art world bow down so low to Seattle?

Why do Tacomans continue to keep as much as possible underground and hidden away, and then bitch about it?Tacoma needs a new home for starving, low-income artists to hang their paintings and play their music among peers, supporters, patrons, and the unwitting public. Tacoma needs a new Art Co-Op that is two-to-four times bigger and better than anything else ever. A Co-Op with little or no monthly fee that follows the RampArt model of cramming as many artists as possible onto as many available walls.

Not any kind of snooty high-end ‘gallery’ but an explosive, bombastic, interactive, 24-hour, 7-day, ongoing art happening, gritty and funky for the avant-garde anti-elite. A place that will open its arms to the underappreciated, carve new paths of opportunity for the unexposed, and above all things, be a fun place to kick it any time of day for all-ages.

Come on, patrons, I know you’re out there.

Hey, business and building owners with those empty storefronts all over Pac Ave, DownTown, MLK, and South Tacoma Way!! Why not take a risk and invest in the arts for a change? I dare you to become a real patron and support the starving artists of your fair City of Destiny and help to transmute the urban decay.

I DARE YOU.Tacoma needs more free, non-juried group art shows that recognize and support new talent rather than accepting artists based on their show history or art education.

Tacoma needs more challenging, critical visual arts-scene commentary; voices that aren’t afraid to offend or pull punches but let it all hang out and throw the cards down. It’s time for honesty that hurts.

Tacoma needs some serious critique, with all kinds of praise and hate mixed in.

Tacoma needs more patrons like the late Steve Craig, who risked so much by opening his Broadway antique shop to a host of little-known artists who joined forces together to create a genuinely unique, affordable gallery space and a meeting ground for so many.

Perhaps some of you remember the Summer of ’04, the heyday of RampaMonica’s, when the Artist Co-Op and the Restaurant/Gallery succeeded in kicking Tacoma’s art-ass into a new era with bombastic Third Thursday art events and afterparties. Panamonica’s continued the theme of featuring local undiscovered artists and hosting numerous events that celebrated Tacoma’s unique position as a breeding ground for creativity. Unfortunately Panamonica’s couldn’t last, kind of like everything else in this town. Doomed. Like the…Helm? Ah, the Helm, how I loved you way back in the day.

But that’s no reason to cry in my or your hard-earned PBR, all you prideful underdog hipsters. There are plenty of descendants of that era that is dead, very dead. Look over there, 100 Monkeys are still jumpin’, bringing the art community together every few months for nostalgic get-together reunions. And look over there, no wait, it’s gone again, but I think that was an UrbanAut Party, so slyly secretive about it’s location, with art, bands, and almost-naked ladies being painted by famous ‘dead’ artists. Wait a second.

Whatever happened to those ‘dead’ artists? Have they come back to life and all got day jobs or what?

No more painting naked ladies? awwww.

Now, thank the Gods, we have Monsieur Doriss, a.k.a. the Viceroy of Hilltop (self proclaimed? or the title City Arts has dubbed him?) to thank for the completely groovy Fulcrum gallery, filling the void where the Helm left off, providing Tacoma with her one and only happenin spot on a First Friday, full of drunken scenesters and pretty ladies. That January First Friday First Party of the Year was quite the knockout, with a trippy light show, DJ spinning his records like a zen priest, and yes the pretty ladies were there, drunk-dancing as only drunk dancers in Tacoma dance.

I have yet to witness the always amazing Monsieur Blue and his band Motopony tear shit up on stage, but their album is fantastic and I hope to hear more about their world tour in the coming months. Or are they content to play Tacoma until they’re old and grey?

I’ve heard many a wistful neo-beatnik claim, with a misty look in their eyes, that oh, yes there is definitely a scene here in Tacoma, where the people gather to celebrate life with mirth and intelligence, but you have to really seek it out, you have to scratch at the grit to find the shiny special parts deep beneath the crusty layer of orange rust. But what I must ask, is the point of having a scene that scuttles around in Tacoma’s gutters, tucked away in ratty buildings in shady shady shadier parts of this forlorn town. Poor Tacoma. And to think that the scene is secretly about to BOOM. And oh what a scene it is. Blossoming like a flower, our ‘South Sound Warehouse Scene’ is about to explode with a whole ONE WAREHOUSE called, yes, the Warehouse. The ancestry of this ‘scene’ is of course, Brooklyn, Oakland, and everywhere else that is way too cool and lacks a little love.

Well, Citizens of Tacoma, I know you’re trying, but you must try harder. I’ve been all over the world twice and looking at Tacoma I must say there’s still a lot that’s missing. Not to say that there are some things that aren’t. You’re off to a great start, but really, it’s time to take some more risks and dare to stand out. Do something different. Take a leap or three, see what happens. Be BOLD. Don’t wait for someone else to start doing something cool, be that person, and if you see something exciting and original happening, don’t be afraid to add your voice to the mix.

This is just the beginning of the critique, Tacoma. I have a lot to say, and I’m just digging in. You never know when or where I will turn up to scavenge more dirt on what Tacoma needs or what Tacoma already has.

If you are impressed, offended, inspired or incited by any of this, I encourage you to leave a comment; this contribution to the Blogosphere is meant to initiate a higher level of artistic discussion and if I don’t get a reaction well I guess I’ve proved a sad point of how much Tacoma is lacking. Stay tuned for more rippings and ragings at the ‘scene’ or the lack of one here, and taste my venom with a little hit of honey drizzled on the side………..

Don’t get me wrong, or, get me wrong if you think you’re right cause you might be; I love art no matter what kind, I happen to know what I like and have formed an opinion of what’s nice and what’s not. Artists, I don’t mean to hurt your feelings. I just want to stick you in the ribs with my paintbrush and get you out there making more art, performing more, writing more, creating, creating, acting, doing. Feel free to critique my critique. Or if you want to have your own page for your own rants, contact me and let’s make it happen.

I want more dialogue.

That’s why I started this foolish blog in the first place and making surprise, discreet appearances at gallery openings disguised as a critic in disguise.

~Voronoff the GhostCritic

award-winning and critically acclaimed~

Come on Tacoma. Impress me. I have low expectations.

!!!Tacoma Needs More Art!!!

This Gritty City Needs More Color!!

Dear Tacoma,

The Renaissance is OVER.

It ended a few years ago.

Did anyone notice?

This city, with its fledgling, just-hatched arts scene is desperately in need of more than one artwalk, more surprise guerilla street performance, more public sculpture, and more critical art commentary.

In fact, I get the distinct feeling that Tacomans like everything just the way it is, but I must say, this ‘Renaissance’ that started 4 years ago is still moving at a snail’s pace and it’s time for some of you artsy people to raise the stakes.

If Tacoma ever wants to rise up to become more than a hazy afterthought of Seattle, residents of the City of Destiny must make the effort to take a few more risks and support young and emerging, starving, under-and-non-represented creative folk.

The most relevant, cutting-edge, thrilling, and challenging art of our times is very often disregarded because the artist does not have ‘fine art’ credentials, a mile-long resume full of high-end galleries and juried show awards.

Tacoma needs more collaborative art events, multimedia art orgies, carnivalistic Andy Warhol-Style Factory Freak Fests, Absurdist Dada Parties. Happenings happening in multiple locations at the same time for different, similar reasons.

Tacoma needs an Anti-ArtWalk at the beginning of the month. Seattle has at LEAST a First Thursday, a Second Friday, and a Second Tuesday ArtWalk. Portland has at LEAST a First Thursday, First Friday, Second Thursday and a Last Thursday.

Why can’t Tacoma do this too?

Why does Tacoma’s art world bow down so low to Seattle?