BY: AMANDA LAPLACA
A week or so ago, I volunteered and then attended the CAC’s Art for Arts Sake event. Well, here are a few things worth noting that are still up and if you haven’t seen them…you should. Skylar Fein’s art is exactly what I love to see: conceptual collage, intentional pixelation, and homo-eroticism. On top of that, he’s a Quaker! Who doesn’t love a Quaker?
“Skylar Fein’s work is informed by his past. Born in Greenwich Village, raised in the Bronx, Fein has taught nonviolent resistance for the Quakers, written for newspapers, run a gay film festival and pursued a medical degree.Art came late to Fein, but he has made up for lost time. Now, Skylar Fein lives and works in New Orleans, LA.”
With titles like, “You Don´t Have to Be Stoned But It Wouldn´t Hurt” (2011), “Car Trip” (2011) & “Devils Tower Study No. 1″ (2011), I can’t help but be intrigued. Go check it out for yourself- 400a Julia Street, New Orleans, LA 70130, Gallery Hours: Monday – Saturday 11am – 5pm and it up until Nov 19, 2011.
Then, just down the block, you walk into the Arthur Roger Gallery. Upon entering, it becomes apparent you are walking into a (most likely) stoned gay man’s wet dream…and love it (John Waters: Catholic Sin). From a giant Rush bottle leaking on the floor to film strips of projections on buttocks, it’s a very eclectic and smile-worthy.
“Using an insider’s bag of tricks and trade lingo, Waters celebrates the excess of the movie industry. Word and image play permeate Waters’ work, and the movie industry and its various sleights of hand are a common target. Always ambitious and playful, some of the works are condensed narratives or “little movies” as Waters calls them. Waters wickedly juxtaposes images from films and television that he captured by photographing his television set as they play.”
It is absolutely worth seeing (preferably after having a splif) at 432 Julia Street, New Orleans by October 29, 2011. And while you are at the Arthur Roger Gallery, fill your video art appetite with Dave Greber. You will take a walk on the wild side.
“Dave Greber believes that the conscious exploration of our own personal cosmic DNA through art unearths all sorts of seemingly unassociated pieces of ideas. He feels that making new work is an archeology of the sub-conscious—it turns up fragments of broken ceramics and jaw bones, and the scientist pieces them together to discover a ‘new dinosaur.’”
And last but not least, the icing on the cake: the Contemporary Arts Center’s third floor: NOLA Now: Swagger for a Lost Magnificence (http://nolanow.cacno.org/). No photos or previews, you just have to see it: CAC, 900 Camp St. New Orleans by January 29, 2012.