SECCA closing for renovations
The museum is scheduled to reopen in early 2010. However, that doesn’t mean that the arts center will cease operations for an entire year, said Ellen Wallace, SECCA’s director of marketing and communications. SECCA will continue to conduct exhibition and education programs throughout the Winston-Salem community. SECCA will present Inside Out: Artists in the Community II, in which it will stage seven commissioned site-specific art works or events throughout Winston-Salem, Wallace said. The first week in March, SECCA will collaborate with Old Salem to present an outdoor art installation by artist Charles Brower entitled, Rise Up, Winston-Salem. Brower’s exhibit will be composed of ladders donated by members of the community. SECCA will issue a call for ladders in mid-February, Wallace said.
“The city of Winston-Salem has been extremely supportive of our efforts,” Wallace said. “We’re bringing the art of SECCA to a broader audience and making public art accessible.” However, the imminent closing of SECCA’s doors does mean that time is short for art enthusiasts to enjoy three new video works by Mexican artist Carlos Amorales, a quilting exhibit entitled Structure, Surface and Expression: Quilt Directions Today and an exhibition of more than 40 photographs and three short films by Dutch artist Erwin Olaf. Amorales’ film, “Manimal,” begins showing on Wednesday and runs through the art center’s closing on Jan. 4.
Amorales’ film is part of a larger video exhibit entitled, Psychedelic, which was assembled by SECCA curator Steven Matijicio. “Amorales’ worlds are inhabited by shadows of humans, birds, animals, and insects that live and move in ambiguous, but invariably severe surroundings. In these dark, fluid fantasies, the metamorphosis of humans into animals and of animals into humans speaks to a civilization that is simultaneously progressing and regressing,” Matijicio said. Olaf has been widely praised for his innovative photographic technique, which centers on building sets, or worlds, for his models to inhabit. Olaf’s sets resemble the work of a production designer on a big budget Hollywood movie. He then places models in those elaborate sets and begins shooting. The hyper-realistic nature of Olaf’s photographs has drawn comparisons to Edward Hopper and Norman Rockwell, Wallace said. Matijicio selected a broad range of Olaf’s work to show off his wide range of influences, from the Dutch Masters to science-fiction films of the 1960s and 1970s.
The exhibition also includes three short films by Olaf, including one that builds on the artist’s Le Dernier Cri series, which features beautiful models wearing strange, futuristic appliances on their faces. Wallace said the overarching theme of Olaf’s work is a commentary on the American Dream. Amorales, on the other hand, fuses Latin mythologies and urban folklore with personal experience and digital technologies, said Matijicio. Amorales creates a fluid world where familiar images are capable of invoking anxiety, wonder and fear. In so doing, he questions the nature of our daily certainties.
To comment on this story, e-mail Keith T. Barber at keith@yesweekly.com.
The museum is scheduled to reopen in early 2010. However, that doesn’t mean that the arts center will cease operations for an entire year, said Ellen Wallace, SECCA’s director of marketing and communications. SECCA will continue to conduct exhibition and education programs throughout the Winston-Salem community. SECCA will present Inside Out: Artists in the Community II, in which it will stage seven commissioned site-specific art works or events throughout Winston-Salem, Wallace said. The first week in March, SECCA will collaborate with Old Salem to present an outdoor art installation by artist Charles Brower entitled, Rise Up, Winston-Salem. Brower’s exhibit will be composed of ladders donated by members of the community. SECCA will issue a call for ladders in mid-February, Wallace said.
“The city of Winston-Salem has been extremely supportive of our efforts,” Wallace said. “We’re bringing the art of SECCA to a broader audience and making public art accessible.” However, the imminent closing of SECCA’s doors does mean that time is short for art enthusiasts to enjoy three new video works by Mexican artist Carlos Amorales, a quilting exhibit entitled Structure, Surface and Expression: Quilt Directions Today and an exhibition of more than 40 photographs and three short films by Dutch artist Erwin Olaf. Amorales’ film, “Manimal,” begins showing on Wednesday and runs through the art center’s closing on Jan. 4.
Amorales’ film is part of a larger video exhibit entitled, Psychedelic, which was assembled by SECCA curator Steven Matijicio. “Amorales’ worlds are inhabited by shadows of humans, birds, animals, and insects that live and move in ambiguous, but invariably severe surroundings. In these dark, fluid fantasies, the metamorphosis of humans into animals and of animals into humans speaks to a civilization that is simultaneously progressing and regressing,” Matijicio said. Olaf has been widely praised for his innovative photographic technique, which centers on building sets, or worlds, for his models to inhabit. Olaf’s sets resemble the work of a production designer on a big budget Hollywood movie. He then places models in those elaborate sets and begins shooting. The hyper-realistic nature of Olaf’s photographs has drawn comparisons to Edward Hopper and Norman Rockwell, Wallace said. Matijicio selected a broad range of Olaf’s work to show off his wide range of influences, from the Dutch Masters to science-fiction films of the 1960s and 1970s.
The exhibition also includes three short films by Olaf, including one that builds on the artist’s Le Dernier Cri series, which features beautiful models wearing strange, futuristic appliances on their faces. Wallace said the overarching theme of Olaf’s work is a commentary on the American Dream. Amorales, on the other hand, fuses Latin mythologies and urban folklore with personal experience and digital technologies, said Matijicio. Amorales creates a fluid world where familiar images are capable of invoking anxiety, wonder and fear. In so doing, he questions the nature of our daily certainties.
To comment on this story, e-mail Keith T. Barber at keith@yesweekly.com.
