Links to Ink

Abigail Goldman "Family Planning" (Detail) I Photo: Paint This Desert

Art in public space is a challenge of senses, but in "Home Sweet Home" Abigail Goldman warns us that private space is sanctuary for fear. The former crime beat reporter’s “die-oramas” sets up scenes that has limbs ripped from the victim, but not from stories ripped from the headlines. The scenes come from her mind and the morbid miniatures leave dark epic tales in the viewers head. The artist will explain more at “Conversation with Abigail Goldman” co-hosted by Adam Burke this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Bring a witness. I Trifecta Gallery. 

"The green and the gore, and the contrast between the two — that might be the secret superpower of Goldman’s work." - Adam Burke for KNPR

"Works depict the kind of high-def, spoon-fed media quenching our bloodlust nightly, where blood is spilled, the unmerciful have taken over and we the voyeurs peer into the salaciousness of it all—scenarios so over the top you want to laugh and so real you want to cry." - Kristen Peterson for Las Vegas Weekly

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Next up for UNLV Visiting Artist Lecture Series is Jenni Sorkin and “Thinking Through Craft and Criticism." She will look at how the past decade of contemporary craft practices has become mainstream “and appropriated by the art world at large.” Not unlike street art, I say. The audience can also expect gender, material culture, and feminism to be topics. The lecture is Thursday at 7 p.m. at Barrick Museum Auditorium on the UNLV campus. It is free and open to the public.

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For UNLV’s Rebel Yell, Audrey Barcio interviews Patrick C. Duffy, Chairman of the UNLV Galleries Board, a few weeks out from curating The Western for Life is Beautiful.  “What role do the UNLV Galleries play in the Las Vegas art scene?” Barcio asks. Duffy says" “Their role, currently, is to serve the university student body and community with a reason to visit, not a self-serving role for individuals or special exhibitions that offer persons a grandstand. Less of that, and more of listening to the community and what they want. What is current and relevant? Not from a few people’s perspective, from the community — their artistic hunger, visual and visceral thirst for the ‘I have to see that show’ moment.” More at Rebel Yell.

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douwestudios.com

The Veterans Day Parade in downtown Las Vegas previewed three statues that will be part of a tribute for servicemen by Douwe Blumberg, who is based in Kentucky. The three are the first of eighteen to be sculpted on behalf of the Las Vegas National Veteran's Memorial. "The statues, 18 in total and standing over 7 feet tall, will collectively contribute to the dual themes of the memorial’s design.  The 10 historical statues will be cast in aluminum magnesium alloy.  The center piece and family statue will be cast in bronze" says the project website. Almost half of the $2.2 million needed has been raised. More at DTLV.

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Dublin muralist Graham Knuttel began a two-week project with Las Vegas Academy in April. Some adjustments were made, but now it’s ready. The work was unveiled Wednesday and “features Knuttel’s trademark bold colors and whimsy and captures many of the odd characters of Fremont Street,” reports Las Vegas Review-Journal