3 Artists Featured in 3 Settings

3 Artists Featured in 3 Settings In Pasadena 

If three is your lucky number, you’re in luck. Three different artists with three different views of art will have their opening receptions at three settings (in two separate locations) in Pasadena on Saturday, July 7.

The three artists are David Askevold, Gregory Michael Hernandez, and Nate Page. The settings and locations are Caldwell Gallery of the ArmoryCenter for the Arts, The Artist Studio @ Colorado One, and the Armory’s Main Stairwell (respectively). The views will be on display for Pasadena art lovers to appreciate in the months ahead.

David Askevold: Once Upon a Time in the East

Armory Center for the Arts will host David Askevold: Once Upon a Time in the East, a traveling retrospective exhibition organized by David Diviney, Curator of Exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. The exhibition features works that consider the four strains of Askevold’s exploratory journey: sculpture/installation, film and video, photo-text works, and late digital images.

It includes key pieces from each stage of the artist’s career. David Askevold: Once Upon a Time in the East will be on display in the Armory’s Caldwell Gallery and Mezzanine Galleries from July 8 through September 15, 2012. A reception, free and open to the public, will take place from 7-9 p.m.

“It is very exciting to be bringing this show to the Los Angeles area – aside from some small works the recent group exhibition She Accepts the Proposition, David’s work hasn’t been seen in LA since its inclusion in the Getty’s California Video show in 2008,” notes Armory Chief Curator Irene Tsatsos, “and not on a large scale since the show at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) in 2002. There is considerable enthusiasm for this exhibition, identified by Artforum as one of the top 50 shows of the year.”

Born and educated in the United States, Askevold (1940-2008) spent much of his career in Nova Scotia. Recognized as a pioneer in the development of conceptual video and photo-based art, he broke into the international art scene in 1970 when his work was included in the seminal exhibition Information at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Askevold made his way to Southern California, teaching at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, and the University of California, Irvine, and participated in exhibitions at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), and Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (LAICA). He had a rich career in Southern California as an artist and teacher.

Once Upon a Time in the East begins with Askevold’s early, ground-breaking video works from the early 1970s, considered to be the first conceptual video art ever made in Canada. It includes The Nova Scotia Project, a large-scale, multi-disciplinary work from the mid-‘90s in which Askevold systematically documented the thousands of harbors along the rocky coast of Nova Scotia.

This epic project comprises four elements: Once Upon a Time in the East, a series of aerial photographs of small craft harbors taken by the provincial department of fisheries and oceans; The Road Journal, photographs taken at road level on the way into the harbors; the End of the Road Matrix, photographs of structures such as fishing sheds from each harbor; and, Don’t Eat Crow, a garden shed housing a video installation.

The exhibition also offers a mix of later pieces, primarily photo-based, and a video installation entitled Two Beasts, which was to be his last work. Askevold was collaborating on Two Beasts with his former student and New York artist Tony Oursler when he died in 2008; Oursler completed the project in 2010.

Gregory Michael Hernandez: A Bridge Between Landscapes

ArmoryCenter for the Arts and One Colorado present Los Angeles-based artist Gregory Michael Hernandez as the Artist-in-Residence at The Artist Studio @ One Colorado. The residency will run from July 2 through October 27, 2012. The Artist Studio, located at 24 Smith Alley in Pasadena’s One Colorado complex, is an interactive artist space in which visitors are invited to engage with artists as they work. His reception is on Saturday, July 7, from 6 to 9 p.m.

While in residence, Hernandez will maintain open studio hours on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 10am-5pm, and on Saturdays from 11am-5pm. Studio visits are free and open to the public. Armory and One Colorado are continuing their over ten-year collaboration presenting innovative programs that introduce the arts and artists into daily life.

In his residency entitled A Bridge Between Landscapes, Hernandez will create hybrid forms, images, and projects that metaphorically bridge two or more locations, combining his working materials and influences and mingling images from both desert wilderness and urban built environments. While at work in The Artist Studio, Hernandez will be preparing a solo exhibition at Roberts and Tilton Gallery, Culver City in 2013.

Hernandez considers his work to be an ongoing, slow evolution from one body of work to the next, using preceding projects as conceptual stepping stones for those in the future. In accordance with his mission to construct a grander, hybrid art form, visitors will have the opportunity to both experience and witness this interactive process. Therefore, The Artist Studio will be used as an intersection between a gallery, a workshop, and a think-tank for the germination of future projects. Hernandez invites discussions with other artists and the public in order to cultivate inspiration for future work.

In conjunction with his residency Hernandez will make his signature Captive Universe pieces available to visitors.  These photographic collages are comprised of 26 individual photographs that, when assembled, offer a panoramic, three-dimensional expansion of Renaissance one-point perspective. Visitors will be provided materials to cut, fold, and shape these photo-globes, which may then be taken home or given to the artist to be integrated into a future exhibition.

A graduate of BiolaUniversity, Hernandez lives and works in Los Angeles and has had solo shows at LAX Art and Emma Gray Headquarters, both in Culver City. He has participated in group exhibitions at the TorranceArt Museum, Gallery 727, and the L.A. Municipal Gallery. The artist is a 2011 recipient of the California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists and received a grant from the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department for a project at LAX Airport. He is preparing for an upcoming solo exhibition at Roberts and Tilton Gallery, Culver City, in 2013.

One Colorado is an outdoor shopping and dining destination on one city block in the heart of Old Pasadena. The property unites 17 individual historical buildings. In addition to its retailers and restaurants, One Colorado offers public art programs, cultural events, and entertainment. For more information please visit www.onecolorado.com.

Nate Page: Instituted Angles of Path and Display

The Armory’s Main Stairwell will feature Nate Page: Instituted Angles of Path and Display from July 8, 2012 through June 30, 2013. The opening reception will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, July 7.

Considering the ultra functional and prescriptive design of the Armory’s main staircase, the artist has created an installation that challenges the authority of the existing architecture and also encourages users to re-examine their passage through this transient space.

The ArmoryCenter for the Arts is located at 145 North Raymond Avenue, Pasadena. Gallery hours are Tuesday – Sunday, noon-5 p.m. Admission is free with a $5 suggested donation. Armory members, students, and seniors are free. For information about Armory exhibitions and events, call 626-792-5101 x122 or visit the Armory online at www.armoryarts.org.

Copyright 2012 by S. R. Morris