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.

2008 Short North gala

The 2008 Short North Gala was held at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral Ballroom. The Chefs of the Short North were the true stars of the day. The area has the greatest concentration of Columbus's best restaurants and the 6 course meal served October 12th proved it.
Starting off with octopus from Haiku (above left) started things off. A 6 onion cappucino soup from Rosendales was to die for. Hyde Park prepared an amazing salmon and potato cake, while Cameron Mitchell's restaurant provided a tasty roast beef and ravioli. Rigsby's and Jeni's (ice cream) topped things off with a spiced pear cake with olive oil and sea-salted pepita seed ice cream. Many glasses covered the tables.
Two Luminaries were honored. John Allen of the Short North tavern (top) and Maria Galloway of PM Gallery were honored for their 3 decade-old businesses. Maryellen O"Shaughnessy and Sandborn Woods presented the awards. Four Unsung Heros got awards as well: Christie Nohle of the Urban Gardner, Greg Maynard who takes care of Goodale Park flowers, Katie Reider who embodied the art, community, diversity, and Spirit of the neighborhood, and........ yours truly.

Before the event, everyone smoozed in the courtyard. That's John Angelo facing the camera in the photo at right. He's the dynamo promoter of the Short North. He says the Short North will be featured in the November 9th New York Times.

October surprise

Andy Warhol looks over the Short North. The only North American stop for a major Andy Warhol exhibition is at the Wexner Center up on N. High Street Campus area.
RoyGBiv had a playful exhibition of  small works with triangles of string crawling along the inside wall. Lindsay Gallery had folk art aplenty from the collection of the late Maggie and Dick Wenstrup of New Richmond, Ohio. It is a great show of figures, some of them carved out of walking sticks. Let's hear more for the art collectors! Mahan Gallery had a group show around "The Allegory of the Mountain" where the artists tried to show new techniques and style more than much about a mountain.
October is a month of changes. G & Co. is remodeling... or are they leaving for bigger cities? I guess they are taking this time off to stock up on these top cutting edge brands of clothes. B.J. Snappers has given up the ghost at 700 N. High making it one of the few restaurants to quit the Short North. 
Barrel 44 has opened. A genuine whiskey bar has landed next to Surlygirl at 4th and N. High St. They must of liked the facade of the old school pub that used to inhabit this location. But, where else would you like to swig a shot of whiskey? Up the street are crains beginning work on the Jackson Condo tower. Further up are two other condo projects nearing completion. Hopefully, great new storefront businesses come with these new residential projects.

This Is Independent Festival 2008

The first art festival in the bubbling Gay Street strip happened Saturday, September 20th. Called "This Is Independent" it was one of two art festivals downtown that weekend and was mostly ignored by the local media. Yet, great weather and a sizable crowd made it a memorable laid-back affair to showcase the great downtown buildings being transformed by creative people a block from the statehouse. This used to be part of the main shopping area for Columbus with a few old bank building with tall decorative lobbies. Stone buildings with classical columns abound. There's a new 12 story hotel right in the center of the block and many recent updates, like a rain water garden to filter run-off from the street, make this a comfortable place to hang-out. 

Yet, this first try at a festival suffered from the same attitude as the Short North's first Art al Fresco in August. Many people treated it as an afternoon event. Most of the artists had left their booths long before nightfall. Those that stayed found that lighting was lacking unless you brought your own. But the entertainment continued on into the night on two outdoor stages and a couple of indoor ones.
Half of the festival was in Pearl Alley where a mural was being painted, but other murals are part of a small nightlife and bar scene that has kept century old pubs going in the center of downtown. The crowd were mostly young artsy types that probably either go to C.C.A.D. or live downtown. Mainstream people had the Riverfront Art Festival along the river at COSI that featured the last Fire Walk on the Mile.
Sky Lab art gallery is on the Fifth Floor of an old loft style building which included a 4th Floor gallery and an active group of people shouting out of the window to the festival below. 
The Vault is an old bank with an amazing lobby that was used for a few concerts during the festival. The front lobby had a sky painted ceiling while the main lobby must have 20 foot ceilings and colored lighting that could have held hundreds of people. The Vault itself was mostly empty but for a handful of paintings.

There was a big break between daylight and late night activity. It seemed like two different events. The best performances were inside the  Due Amici restaurant, which seemed to short change the street fair as the two outdoor stages seemed to spend most of their time tearing down and setting up for the next band. But then, if it was raining the indoor stages would have won the day.

Mayor Coleman was seen checking out the festival. The deli and coffeeshop on the corner of High & Gay was giving out free espresso shots to promote themselves, their expert coffee roaster, and a local creamery. All in all, this is a festival we hope will return and grow. Try to spend the whole day if  Couchfire organizes this again.

Gallery Hop Sept, 2008: Great Weather, small crowd

With two gallery hops per months now in August and September (Art el Fresco on second Saturday in August and Via Colori on second Saturday in September function almost like the First Saturday Gallery Hops) the normal crowd seemed to be getting an overdose and the September Hop is taking a beating. Of course, Oktoberfest was downtown and the OSU/OU game kept campus a lively place for intoxication and red jerseys. Even Obama just sent a cut-out of himself (above) part of an annoying voter registration drive the spread along the entire two miles of the Short North. The mannequins at The Emperor's New Clothes (above right) took the place of real people to watch.
Art on Pick-up Trucks is becoming a new trend, what with the shrinking of indoor art displays. Waldo's wasn't open and the new coffeeshops and restaurants aren't changing their wall art. Above is art from the James Coleman Gallery of Upper Arlington that specializes in Disney inspired fine art. The dude in white is one of the street performers from Art el Fresco coming back for another street event.
The Franklinton Art District had a pick-up of working artists trying to promote their neighborhood for art. I don't know if there is enough commercial real estate on the Near Westside to do a gallery district. Maybe they can take over the Graham Ford property now that it is closing.
New Shops and moves: A new Yoga athletic wear shop opened in the Dakota Condo Building called lululemon.

They must like dogs as there was a water bowl on the sidewalk out front. A couple of shops moved to new storefronts like What The Rock which is now across from the Garden Theatre. It's old "tiny" space has a giftshop in it. Gallerie ZonaCoraZon has finally closed after opening in August and the death of its owner in April.

Sidewalks seems to be on everyone's mind including the many musicians found in every corner of the gallery hop. String musicians were everywhere, perhaps because the Columbus Symphony has disappeared for now. Art is essentially a social event, whether the visual arts or music. They call it "supporting" the arts. It isn't something people are buying. They want most to mingle with people richer than they are. It's about the audience. Provide a top notch social experience and people will buy paintings and join the Symphony. Maybe Ohio is too much into making products to sell and not seeing the service the arts are really about.

Sidewalks were also filled with booths and plants that made it slow to get around. Some sidewalks need to be fixed, like between 1st and 2nd Avenue on the East side of High Street.
Anyways, yes there are some galleries showing new work this September. The Mahan Gallery gave the space over to Maya Huyak to bring some day-glo colors to the Short North. In typical fashion, the art seemed to be produced in the gallery special for the event. RoyGBiv had small colorful abstract painting as well that seemed to be painted at the gallery. Yet, Rob Thompson's colorful squares looked small, event for RoyGBiv's space. Likewise, the video art by Mark Vanfleet also at RoyGBiv could have used a smaller gallery. 
The best of show has to go to the Ohio Art League's reliefs by Jules Knowlton. They seemed to be inspired by graffiti and motorcycle chrome. The reliefs were of two types, the type you see above that looked like strange motorcycle pipes on some, then another style which had just drops looking like chess pawns sticking out from the painting. You really can appreciate an artist who put lots of hours into his work, even if it is shown at a non-profit gallery.

 blackOther artists who put in the hours include the collages by Tom Kennaugh at the Lindsay Gallery where he filled his pictures with magazine cut-out, but traced around them with marker to hide the collage-ish look. Also, Tom Bartel's heads at Sherrie Gallerie shared a theme with Sam Drumgoole  at the Kiaca Gallery of making expressive human heads. Drumgoole made his of glass, but they looked like african wood sculpture. Then there was Renate Burgyan-Feckler who offered up bronze scultpure pieces of great detail at the Sharon Weiss Gallery. You can see some of her work at http://www.chrysalissculpturestudio.com  

Phia Salon is trying to pick up where Waldo's left off. It certainly is a more exciting hair salon right now with fashionable young women hanging around inside. Most people are put-off to venture inside as the art has only small slits of wall space between the mirrors and shelves. This artist was all about clear glass beer bottles, some of which were turned inside out made by the artist on wall reliefs. Didn't understand the red plastic cups on the table on the sidewalk.
The North Short North is more of a hip campus party scene. The Milk Bar (above) is a clothing store at 5th and High and their DJ was cranking it hour after hour. Foot traffic is increasing in this area more for bar hopping than art and shop hopping. This is the last downscale section left, and it may not last much longer.