Monday, November 03, 2008

November Gallery Hop 2008

Yet another great weather gallery hop! The November, 2008 hop started real early, like in the afternoon early, and kept going well into the night. Musicians seemed to be everywhere. [top left:) a rousing brass band kept things jumping early on. [top right:) Even a child with a violin found a place to play on the street. [lower left:) For what must have been a first, Phia Gallery had an opera singer... along with a rock band, art on the walls, hair being done, and art being made by an artist outside. [lower right:) Good to see a steel guitar musician on High Street.
Windows were central to the November Gallery Hop. Halloween and Day of the Dead holidays were both associated with the weekend. Beautiful art gave way to artists' darker side.
Utrecht Art Supplies (top of three) really wants to sell you canvas, as Vincent looks on. Thia Bella and partner Alan had a big show at Norka Futon (center). Her circus side show characters look appropriate this scary time of the year. Norka Futon also had winners of a fancy costume contest around the store. Rivet Gallery (bottom of three) had another talented artist who does art related to their plush and vinyl toy art.

G & Co. was back from their renovation with red faced mannequins.
Of course, the Halloween window displays were the best in the North Short North. [top picture:) The best effort has to go to What The Rock's punked-out scarecrows. [bottom left:) The Garden certainly had the most exciting and colorful window. [bottom right:) and The Surly Girl Saloon brought in mexican circus posters, probably from Zona Cora Zon Galeria, which opened up again for Dayof the Dead.

November 2008 Gallery Hop: The Art

The Short North is always coming up with new small wheeled vehicles. (above:) Three brand new bikes pulling triangle trailers try to sell ad space under the rainbow arches.
A new place to watch is Kick Start in the shopping strip at First and High St. Kick Start sells motor skooters, but they have now started a coffeeshop in their cool storefront. Is this the new creative hang-out ?

Yes, it is autumn and it is time to take the harvest in. Agrarian art is always popular this time of year. This was seen on Lincoln Avenue.
RoyGBiv Gallery (below) and the Ohio Art League provided subtle abstract art. Mahan Gallery had an abstract art show where all the paintings were figurative works.The subject of the paintings were "abstracted out" to where you could just barely make out a figure.
Gallery @ 83 was a blast from the past a "seat of the pants" type of gallery. It was held in a basement room of an apartment building at 83 First Avenue. The room was probably a laundry room many years ago that got turned into a cheap bare-bones apartment or something. An artist was working out on the lawn in front. Cool young people wondered through this makeshift gallery. This was not unlike the High Street gallery scene 20-25 years ago. One of the patrons said that he used to live there and the bathroom was the worst bathroom on the planet. It was so bad it was a serial killer bathroom, and it was decorated for Halloween weekend.
One Gallery off of High Street is still being run by Zen Genius eventhough they have most of their operations downtown now. The 44 East Prescott Alley gallery is in a 19th century duplex that is only open on Gallery Hop Evenings. Jen Graven (above) had her subtle drawings of the essenses of human faces for November. Not to worry if you haven't stopped by Zen Genius Gallery this year. The December, 2008 Gallery Hop will be a group show of 2008's best artists.

The Sherrie Gallerie had jewelry artist Kiwon Wang for the gallery hop and between 5-7pm members of the Ohio Rollergirls put on black dresses and modeled Kiwon's creations. It looked like a mini beauty pagent in the middle of the crowded gallery. Also, more and more people are wanting an afternoon gallery hop. The crowd and parking isn't so bad during daylight hours.

Looking back 30 years you have to mention artist Linda Apple. She just happens to have a show at The Center on High this month. Linda opened the first art gallery in the Short North strip in 1977. This was even before the non-profit gallery ARTreach opened in the Yukon Building. Her Apple Studio was a hit with the artist community from the start, but faded away in the early 1980's. Now, she's back for the first time in a decade with a new show.