Friday, May 23, 2008

On the art front:

Haven't had much time to work on my own stuff, unfortunately, since I've been back home in NC - plus I have some portrait commission work to attend to before I can fully immerse in my own painty projects.

However, I did have the opportunity to see some great stuff while away... in addition to the 59 million trips we made to the Louvre, that is. I made a pilgrimage to a Paris-based gallery which is an off-shoot of a Danish gallery which I loved dearly, but which closed its Paris gallery in 2007. Anyway, so I went to the newly christened (as of this past fall, I believe) Galerie Susan Nielsen, conveniently located behind the Musée Picasso in the 3rd arrondissement. They were showing the French artist Patrick Cornillet, which was nice to see not only because his work was breathtakingly beautiful in an oddly bleak way, but also because it means that the Susan Nielsen place is branching out from the largely Scandinavian-only artists roster of Birthe Laursen’s gallery. Yeah!

Also refreshing on the art front was the Oisin Gallery in Dublin, which overall has a really great roster of contemporary artists, predominantly Irish and UK but definitely international. It was a shame that I didn’t get to see any works in person by my favorite artist that they represent, a French painter named Erwann Tirilly, but they had some good work on display from Stephen Forbes and Thomas Halloran, among other artists. Plus I made off with about 97 million brochures from past shows. Heh heh heh.

This painting by French artist Erwann Tirilly, image from Oisin Gallery's website. Image info:
Kit III
(20" x 20")
oil on canvas

And as for here on the home front, I'm happy to report that one of my studiomates down at 311 West Martin Street Galleries and Studios, Shaun Richards, will be exhibiting in the month of June at Flanders Art Gallery. He has some great new pieces prepared, I had a chance to see some in-progress. I'll post the exact info once I have the details...