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Art Reviews by Kevin Freitas
Kevin Freitas has been involved in the arts for most of his life (not in any particular order) as: a gallery dealer, artist, art transporter and now blogger and art writer. He constructs these occasional reviews of Visual Arts Exhibitions in the San Diego region.The views of this author are not necessarily the views of the San Diego Visual Arts Network. Comments about this column should be directed to Kevin Frieitas
Lee Puffer (NCIV): Being Human Now
Opening Reception Feb. 12, 6-9pm Show from Feb. 1 - March 6
Art Produce Gallery, 3139 University Ave, SD 92104
More info: Lynn 619.584.4448
The critic and philosophy professor Arthur C. Danto once addressed the issue of the Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art by premising his argument with a quote from renowned poet and writer Auden. It still gives us pause some 72 years after. “Artists and politicians would get along better at a time of crisis like the present, if the latter would only realize that the political history of the world would have been the same if not a poem had been written, nor a picture painted, nor a bar of music composed.”
If art truly has the ability “to do nothing” or at least effect no change on the world’s stage, what happens when you come across a work of art that does, if not politically, than by its personification of you Being [a] Human Now? Sculptor and La Mesa artist Lee Puffer fillets our personas into so many pieces our rather unflattering traits are exposed through some very simple means. Being Human Now is the title of Puffer’s latest body of work in ceramic (her preferred medium) and mixed-media elements that represent “a meditation on the emotional frailty in all humans.” It is powerful stuff. Truly.
Vomit is the only word that comes to mind when viewing these sculptures. Mainly busts of women, these floating and disemboweled heroines (their bodies disappear under veils of fabric, metal armature even stuffed-animals) regurgitate, throw-up, blast, confront, menace, scare, and intimidate the viewer with stares, half-smiles, and grimaces that make us feel rather tense and vulnerable. These women are pissed, but they are also strong and determined. They “knew something about life” as Charles Bukowski once said about his women.
Puffer knows something about life too or it seems. How can you tell? Look into their glassy eyes (don’t be afraid); observe their pale and maidenly skin, the souvenirs that enrobe them, this might be you. Or what’s left.
Kevin Freitas, Feb 2011
Past Post on Art As Authority are no longer available
Athenaeum 19th Annual Juried Show, Aug 21, 2010
North Parks for the Arts on ArtRocks! Internet Radio, Feb 22, 2010
Future of Art Publication, Dec 26, 2009
Patron, Dec 24, 2009
Kelsey Brookes at Quint Gallery, Dec 8, 2009
Clayton Llewellyn drawing show at Device Gallery, Nov 6, 2009
Stretched, Stiched and Stuffed at Palomar College Boehm Gallery, Oct 10, 2009
It is what it is - Quint at 30 at CCAE, Sept, 24, 2009
Bret J. Barrett, Transports of Form, Sept 14, 2009
Like a Rolling Stone, Aug, 12, 2009
Castles of Sand, July 31, 2009
Measured Resistance: May-ling Martinez, July 10, 2009
Brian Goeltzenleuchter at the Oceanside Museum of Art, July 2, 2009
Monkey See, Monkey Do, June 25, 2009
A Culture of No Nothing Boobs, June 18, 2009
Sign of the Times Part 2, June 11, 2009
Sign of the Times, May 29, 2009
"A rose is a rose is a rose" - Kim MacConnel and emerging artist Brian Dick, April 23, 2009
"Faite comme d'habitude" or the Culture of Me Me Me New Contemporaries II - Part 4 - March, 2009
"Faite comme d'habitude" or the Culture of Me Me Me New Contemporaries II - Part 3 - March, 2009
"Faite comme d'habitude" or the Culture of Me Me Me New Contemporaries II - Part 2 - Feb, 2009
"Faite comme d'habitude" or the Culture of Me Me Me New Contemporaries II - Part 1 - Feb, 2009
Cannon Art Gallery Juried Biennial 2009 - Carlsbad, Feb 2009
Becky Cohen at Noel-Baza Fine Art, Jan 2009
Best Blog Posts of 2008, Dec 2008
Stolen, Dec 2008
Tapout 2 at AgitProp Gallery , Dec 2008
News From the Front, Art Basil Miami, Dec 2008
Bright Lights, Big City, Frietas on TV, Nov 2008
350 Words for David Adey, Nov 2008
2009 SD Art Prize Emerging Artists Announced , Oct, 2008
Kevin is juror for the SDAI show opening Oct 17 to Nov 16
A World W ithout Art: Jim Yuran Oct 2008
Incoming 2 SD, Oct, 2008
W. Haase Wojtyla: A Coincidence of Paintings - Revisited Oct, 2008
A Response to Movers and Shakers, David White, Sept, 200 8
What San Diego Wants, Movers and Shakers at Art Exprssions Gallery, September, 2008
The Closing of Rubber Rose, August 2008
Art as Combustion: Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty" Part I, July, 2008
Art as Combustion: Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty" Part II, July 2008
Picks of San Diego, July 2008
Metacritic by Michael Greaves, June 2008
Lael Corbin at Luis De Jesus Seminal Projects, June 2008
Lions for Lambs - Art and Artists in the Public Discourse, June 2008
Art Tapout at Agritprop Gallery, June 2008
El Anatsui at San Diego State University, April 2008
“ Noyer le Poisson" & The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization April, 2008
SDVAN Performance Slam, CCAE, April 2008
A Critic Critques a Critic, with link to review by Robert Pincus of Copy, March 2008
Support Your Artist Survey, March 2008
Big Props, March 2008
We Came, We Saw, We Kicked Ass, March 2008
Freitas follows the rabbit down the hole, review of Copy by Robert Pincus, Union Tribune, March 30,2008
COPY Curated by Kevin Frietias opens March 7 at Simayspace, March, 2008
City Beat "Endeavor" at Art Produce Gallery, KAI1, Feb, 2008
Top Ten Artist: Kevin Freitas picks on ArtRocks! internet radio. Dec 2007
Best of 2007: Art Round Up Jan 2008
"Shims: Thousands of Uses - Use #3" by Christine Lee at Art Produce Gallery in North Park, Nov 2007 "Atomic Particulars" Art by David Adey, Spacecraft Studio Lands in North Park Part I, Sept 2007,
Part 2, Part 3, Oct 2007
New Contemporaries Part1, Part 2, Part 3 , Simayspace, July 2007
And the winner is... SD Art Prize unveils, August 2007
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