Up & Coming Weekly

Graffiti Exhibit Evidence of Changing Gallery Landscape by SONI MARTIN The art gallery and art museum landscape in Fayetteville continues to transform. Galleries have closed their doors, new ones have opened and recognized landmarks are fine-tuning their approach to the place, quality and type of work exhibited. The Fayetteville Art Museum, an important cultural landmark, wrestles to redefine itself and find a location that reaches more people. At the same time, young artists in the area are involved in making a place for themselves — actively pursuing places to exhibit their work, looking for gallery spaces open to the nontraditional. A 40-year art organization, the Fayetteville Art Guild, is in its first trial year of op- erating a gallery. Methodist University is undergoing the building of a new art depart- ment and art gallery. Then there is Fayetteville Technical Community College’s relatively new AA program in the Fine Arts, an art gallery at FTCC followed. First spearheaded by the program’s chair, Sean McDaniel, the FTCC art gallery is now under the direction of a new member of their art faculty — Chuck Lawson. Graffiti and Related Styles, curated by Lawson, is the present exhibit, celebrating region- al artists and artists from as far away as California who integrate graffiti in their work, are graffiti artists or artists whose style is similar to mixed media signage. San Francisco graffiti artist Alan Misknis is exhibiting small collages that resemble the way his actual outdoor graffiti would appear. An example by Misknis, Jeffy Got Knifed, a mixed media image, shows figures standing around a shaped coffin in gold leaf. The figures around the coffin and the figure in the coffin are pasted onto the surface, then scratched or rubbed off to appear as if aged, reduced to process. The artist integrates a technique of reduction, and then adds a water medium to the figures. In Jeffy Got Knifed, Jeffy transcends into a cartoon drawing. One three-dimensional art object by Misknis is a skateboard, the wheels removed; the bottom of the board became his creative surface. Images are layered then distorted by being painted over, leaving ghosts of the images; the artist scratches a narrative cartoon-like story across the board. Lawson invited Mickey Thomas, from San Francisco, to exhibit photographic im- ages of the artist’s actual work in the environment. Other artists in the exhibit include graffiti or related graffiti-style artists he has met since moving to North Carolina. Lawson met the Labadie couple, John and Margie, who are computer graphics Art by Bucky Benson, Untitled artists from Pembroke. Both artists integrate a mixed-image, graphic style on a tradi- tional Eastern hanging scroll surface. The entire object has been generated by a com- puter to appear like a six foot scroll, signage has been mixed to create a collage image; meaning is layered. The scroll illusion is created by printing on thin canvas suspended on two wooden dowel-like ends to support and imitate the scroll form. A supporter of the influence graffiti has had on mainstream art; Lawson refer- enced the affect of graffiti during the 1980s. He stated, “Several artists helped to bridge the gap between graffiti and fine art. Artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring were two artists who had an important influence to help bridge graffiti and fine art.” The David Varnedoe Greenwing Adventure Ducks Unlimited presents Celebrating Our 20th Anniversary “QUACKY ART CONTEST” CONTEST RULES OPEN TO ANY PERSON UNDER THE AGE OF 17  USE NO MORE THAN 8 COLORS SIZE OF ARTWORK NEEDS TO BE ON 8.5 X 11 PAPER  NEEDS TO PERTAIN TO FISHING, KIDS, OUTDOORS (Artwork will be printed on over 700 t-shirts.) CONTEST FROM APRIL 15th through MAY 15th, 2010 Promoting conservation through our kids. WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED THE DAY OF THE EVENT. SEPTEMBER 12, 2010 at JOHN PECHMANN FISHING CENTER. CONTACT INFORMATION: KEN BARNARD (GREEN WING CHAIRMAN) MAIL TO: DUCKS UNLIMITED, P.O. BOX 58183, FAYETTEVILLE, NC 28305 E-MAIL: PBARNARD3@NC.RR.COM OR CALL 910-237-5951 FOR DETAILS 20 UCW APRIL 14-20, 2010 Lawson also noted the history of graffiti can be traced to messages scratched on public buildings in ancient Rome. “More recently, he stated, this act can be found in artists that have gone from the public forum to the gallery setting. This is more evoca- tive of materials and methods from the ‘street’ yet applied to conventional supports.” One of my favorites is the four panels created by Danielle Benson. On the untreat- ed surface of birch veneered plywood, the artist has drawn and written with a pen or pencil, marks and blobs of color become notation from a child’s workbook, a journal, parts appear similar to a Surrealist’s approach to automatism. Bucky Benson, from Lumberton, has several untitled paintings influenced by the graffiti style. In all his work, bold shapes and colors are outlined in black; the images are reduced to puzzle parts, parts integrated into the whole. Immediate and strikingly colorful, Benson’s palette is limited to primary and sec- ondary colors, white and black. A fanciful cartoon element emerges among hard edges painted in black or in the splattered surface. Although Graffiti and Related Styles opened April 2, the exhibit will remain up until April 23, so there is still time to visit FTCC’s art gallery at 366-A Cumberland Hall. The gallery is located directly across from FTCC’s theater. Gallery hours vary, for operational hours call 910-678-0042. SONI MARTIN, Columnist COMMENTS? 484-6200 ext. 222 or editor@upandcomingweekly.com WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM

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