2008 December Holiday Hop: let it snow

Galleries have traditionally offered lots of small, low priced artwork during the December Holiday Hop, and 2008 was no exception. RoyGBiv Gallery  (above) offered a diverse group show of small works, including these ceramic treats by Emily Hutton. Don't you just want to pop one into your mouth? A string ensemble presented music next to these delicacies later during the hop.  The Ohio Art League did the same kind of "members' small work show". Both of these non-profit galleries ask their artist membership to submit a special small piece for the December Gallery Hop.  Zengenius Gallery had a group show of artists who have shown in this Prescott Alley gallery in 2008. Of note were large color photographs of assemble junk sculpture in the dessert by Joe Baer. The Sherrie Gallerie continued with its recent featuring of artists who make fine artist jewelry. 
Mahan Gallery had a Holiday feel with decorations and an electronic piano player out front. Bar 23 on the I-670 "Cap" decided to put a tent over its stainless steel outdoor seating. The Greek Orthodox Church was selling baklava .
Anna and the Annadroids were doing one of a couple of mannequin window shows during the Holiday Hop. Anna & A was in the windows of G&Co. and offered robotic activity by the dance team. Waldo's on High hair salon found time to put together five young models with amazing hair posing in a lifelike show. The snow sent more activities indoors this gallery hop. The restaurants bring a large crowd regardless of the weather to the Short North. Most of their diners will walk around after dinner, hopefully to see some art.  New to the district is a Thai restaurant across from White Castle.
Santa was found in front of Flower Child collectible furniture store. Actually, a number of people were sporting christmas red hats in the after 8 pm crowd that formed. The early hours of Gallery Hop Saturday were lightly attended. The announced light show by the arches over High Street didn't look any different than a normal Saturday. Missing were the traditional burn barrels on the street corners.  Then what happen to the small strings of christmas lights on the trees and poles along the sidewalk? None of them were on all along High Street. 

It didn't help that the first real snow of the season hit Columbus for the entire afternoon and evening. After what seems like a year's worth of sunny and warm gallery hops, the Holiday Hop gets hammered. However, the vegetarian hot dog vendor in front of Rivet's plush toy show pointed out that the snow is just as beautiful as a sunny day. It was quite an experience trudging through the snow like we haven't seen since March. From the look of the crowd at times, there were groups of people being dropped off by the short bus load. Some of these were probably from the Wexner Center's shuttle to its Andy Warhol Show.

This past month  the Wexner Center has been reaching out to other artsy venues in town to celebrate its big Warhol Show (that will be seen nowhere else in the United States). I question whether Andy is really being understood or being used to explain any agenda in contemporary art. Hopefully, some local artists will be inspired to make it rich with their art.

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.

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.