Anya M. Wassenberg's Blog: Art & Culture Maven, page 6

Multi-Flutist/Composer/Producer NTHNL: Ontogenesis (Independent / 12 July 2024)

Multi-Flutist/Composer/Producer
NTHNL: Ontogenesis
(Independent / 12 July 2024)

Stream It On Spotify

Classically trained composer and pianist Jacob "NTHNL" Rudin is known today as a multi-flutist, producer and sound-healing practitioner.

His debut album, Cosmic Flute, garnered enough interest for a follow-up, Cosmic Flute Rides Again. Over the last five years or so, he's built on that recording catalogue, with Ontogenesis as his latest release. In it, he hopes to offer both a musical and scientific approach.

Ontogenesis is the third in a series of albums called the Tranquility Studies. The idea was born in 2020 around the beginning of the pandemic as a way to formalize my explorations into making music to affect feelings of peace and introspection in listeners. This music combines electronic binaural frequencies with performances on a variety of instruments to create soundscapes that are at once calming, poetic and musical. The music uses a technique called brainwave entrainment, which uses certain frequencies to sympathetically vibrate the mind.

NTHNL is a meditation practitioner and "lover of expansion and healing", and the newest album was originally to be titled "Music of the Body"

"Music of the Body" (the original title) was conceived as a meditation on and through the body. Over the course of the next year, as I spent more and more time with the material I realized that the album's progression should exist in time as much as in space.

What to make of the title?

I came upon the word 'Ontogenesis' in Erwin Schrodinger's 'What is life?' A book written before the discovery of DNA which attempts to find the physical basis for life existing and reproducing itself and coming upon many deep and beautiful ideas. Ontogenesis means the progression of an organism from conception through death. As we move up the body, we move through a life: from before the beginning to after the end, reflecting and accepting at every stage. 

The Music

The track titles give you an idea of what to expect:

1. Welcome procession 2. Straightening, dispersing 3. Nourishing, holding 4. Reaching, striving, praying 5. Processing, detoxifying 6. Assurance, rising 7. Heart 8. Aerating, billowing 9. Transmitting, unraveling, communion 10. Synthesis, memory 11. Return to the cloud, thank you

However, while may think you know what you're getting, the composer and musician offers a new approach with each track. His compositions are layered, and build on movement in waves. In some, like nourishing, holding, he uses natural sound of watery waves to add to the effect he creates. While nourishing... washes over you in undulations of sound, in heart, the piano takes over the emotional narrative.

The album, I think, is probably best experienced from start to finish, where the shifting moods provide a constant movement that reassures and calms. Even reaching, striving, praying, which builds and builds, does so without creating tension or dissonance.

In return to the cloud, thank you, a moody melody opens, leading to shimmering bubbles of sound, children laughing in the distance, and a kind of sonic awakening. He has a nice sense of how to interweave the various elements of each track in and out of each other.

It's an effective approach.

Musician Names/Instruments: NTHNL: flutes, piano, synthesizers, vocals, clarinet, accordion, guitar, percussion. Leslie Graves: backup vocals

Websites: 

Official Website: https://www.nthnlsound.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nthnl.soundTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nthnl.soundInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/nthnl.sound/

Genre Fluid | Pretty Crimes: Every Moment All At Once (Independent / 2 February 2024)

Genre Fluid
Pretty Crimes: Every Moment All At Once
(Independent / 2 February 2024)

Buy/Stream It On Bandcamp

'Every Moment All at Once' is about the threads of connection people have with each other, and how all of these threads come together to form the sum of one's identity. We wanted to explore how, through the relationships in our lives, we discover different facets of ourselves; some that we love, and some that are hard to grapple with that we wish to change.

That's how Pretty Crimes describes their 2024 release, Every Moment All At Once.

Based out of Raleigh, NC, the band consists of Dan Irving, Em Edgerton, Mike Freeman, and Alan "Chico" Marines. Their first album, You Have Your Mind, explored the nature of belief and its relationship with reality. Every Moment All At Once is their second album.

Who knows what these spirits circling in my head have to say? (from Still Waiting by Pretty Crimes).

Distinctive vocals and a poetic sensibility characterize the sound of Pretty Crimes. Musically, the band calls themselves genre fluid, which is an apt description.

The sound veers from the jazzy retro pop of Still Waiting to catchy alt-rock on New Years and electronica/ambient-ish on If You Are There. It creates a sense of anticipation as you listen - what will the next one be like?

Pretty Crimes by photographer Rebekah Velazquez (rebekahv_photography on instagram)

Then, there are tracks like Madeline that themselves defy easy genre description. It's atmospheric, with an electric/orchestral arrangement, and the rhythmic bones of a pop song that drives on underneath the layers of synth and vocal harmonies. It's a standout on the album.

The blend of synth and classic guitar rock elements works well when it's used with this kind of ingenuity. It's an album of thoughtful music for musical iconoclasts. 

Musician Names/Instruments: Alan "Chico" Marines - lead guitar. Dan Irving - guitar, keys, vox, drum machines. Em Edgerton - bass, guitar, vox. Mike Freeman - drums, guitar.

Websites:

Official Website: prettycrimesband.comFacebook: facebook.com/prettycrimesbandInstagram: instagram.com/pretty.crimes (@pretty.crimes)

Atmospheric EDM | Gianfranco Pescetti: Daystar Nocturnal (Independent / 25 January 2024)

Atmospheric EDM
Gianfranco Pescetti: Daystar Nocturnal
(Independent / 25 January 2024)

Stream It On Spotify

“Music, for me, is something fluid. There has always been an ambivalence that I can't get away from. “Daystar Nocturnal' is my attempt to explore the depth of emotions and create a profoundly personal and evocative sound without conforming to the rigid specifications of a particular genre, all while keeping an eye to the dance floor,” says Gianfranco Pescetti of his latest release, Daystar Nocturnal.

Daystar is the first full length release for the EDM artist in a decade, and follows up on a successful string of singles in 2023. Pescetti does it all on the track, including bass as well as keyboard and programming.

Naturally, EDM is about danceability, but Gianfranco's layered approach also creates endless possibilities. Patterns emerge, and then merge into a different beat, building intensity with each swirl into a different mode. 

There's a nice sense of invention that cuts through the release. Each track offers something a little different. Macchia, I'll See You... offers a moody melody and guitar sample that blends seamlessly with ethereal synth. It's atmospheric and he keeps it interesting with small variations throughout.

Obsidian has a classic arc that takes you from hypnotic to an irresistible groove, then back again in an addictive loop. Pescetti has a nice sense of structure that allows for a nice degree of variation and momentum in each track.

Be My Ghost, in contrast, has a kind of playful robot vibe, softened with bell-like synth tones and an upbeat mood. Wordless vocals add a human touch to the electronic beats. 

Daystar Nocturnal is inventive EDM for listening, partying or dancing.

Online:

Official Website: gianfrancopescetti.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/gianfrancopescettimusic/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GianPescettiInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/pescettimusic/

Jazz Meets Classical | Peter Jonatan & Metropole Orkest: Psalms Symphony (Independent/19 January 2024)

Jazz Meets Classical
Peter Jonatan & Metropole Orkest: Psalms Symphony
(Independent/19 January 2024)

Listen On Spotify

Pianist, composer and arranger Peter Jonatan has an impressive resume. Playing piano since the age of four, he earned a Doctorate in Musical Arts in Jazz Studies from the New England Conservatory, where he is currently a faculty member. He's also an Associate Professor at the Berklee College of Music. 

The native of Jakarta, Indonesia, adds a background in classical music composition.

The Psalms Symphony bears traces of Jonatan's dual background in jazz and Western classical music. It's performed by a 60-piece orchestra (the Netherlands-based Metropole Orkest) with a jazz trio, a choir and solo vocalists. The work passes through sections that are flavoured by each in turn.

Overall, it's melodic music that is expressive, and cinematic in its scope. There are passages, particularly in the first and third movements, that also edge towards experimental in his use of unusual harmonies and progressions. 

The shifts in mood often turn on a dime, as they do in the third movement, where an edgy opening eases into a jazzy, piano-fuelled section, then goes around another turn into a section with classical and baroque era inspiration...that finishes by blending all three modes into one stream. Jonatan handles the changes seamlessly, cutting baroque-style piano and brass with jazzy drums in one section.

He adds a chorus, with a soloist in sections, in the fourth movement, twisting baroque into jazz piano.

His technical mastery at the piano lights up the work throughout. It's a mix of genres and influences that doesn't sound like it should work, but succeed it does as a lovely flow of music.

Websites:

Website / Official Website: www.peterjonatan.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/pjonatanInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/peterjonatanmusic

Don't Be Afraid Of Atonality | Aaron Wyanski - SCHOENBERG: Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11 (Speculative Records/2 February 2024)

Don't Be Afraid Of Atonality
Aaron Wyanski - SCHOENBERG: Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11

Speculative Records
Release: 2 February 2024

Stream/Buy From Bandcamp

Composer pianist, educator and speculative musicologist Aaron Wyanski who explores memory, vulnerability, and perspective in his work. Along with his work as a composer, and professor of composition, he's toured with a jazz big band, and performs as a recitalist.

In this release, he takes on one of Arnold Schoenberg's lesser known works. 

“Since the presence of complicated dissonances does not necessarily endanger tonality, and since on the other hand their absence does not guarantee it, we can ask now, what are the characteristics of that music which is today called ‘atonal’? Permit me to point out that I regard the expression atonal as meaningless… I am not usually a coward; but if I should be asked to give this phenomenon a name, I would prefer—to avoid it entirely.” — Arnold Schoenberg 

The three pieces that make up Schoenberg's Op. 11 are an early expression of atonality, composed in 1909. 

Just What Is Atonality, Anyway?

Atonality, in simple terms, ditches the rules that had governed Western/Eurocentric harmony as a common practice for centuries.

Oh, but I hear bits of melody in it, you'll say.

Sure, you do. But, do they go where you expect... at all? Lyrical melodies do still surface in the piece, as bits and pieces, flotsam and jetsam that bob up and down over the movement of the composition.

That movement has defied any tonal analysis for more than a century. Some experts believe the piece is in the key of E, but there's no consensus. 

Another analysis says the piece is based on hexachords.

Composer Aaron WyanskiWhat To Do?

Listen, and enjoy. The piece moves through various moods and shifts of tone and tempor. The liner notes describe it variously as "classical, lounge, jazz" - it is all those things and more.

There's a playfulness underneath it, and sections of cinematic bravura and drama, along with quirky passages. The end result is a moving target of music that winds its way in and out of melody.

The piece is written for piano, but Wyanski arranges it for chamber orchestra. 

Aaron Wyanski performs all the instruments, by which I assume midid, expertly handled to convey the colours of orchestral instrumentation. He makes good use of the wind section to add texture to the piece, and underscore its melodic sections.

It's an interesting and engaging take on the kind of music many people claim to dislike.

Here's hoping Wyanski can change some minds with this imaginative series of bite-sized releases. This is one of several short EPs of Schoenberg he's been releasing since late 2023. You can check them out on his Bandcamp page, below.

Websites:

Official Website: www.aaronwyanski.comFacebook: www.facebook.com/aaron.wyanski/Instagram: www.instagram.com/awyanski/Bandcamp: aaronwyanski.bandcamp.com/SCHOENBERG: Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11 by Aaron Wyanski

Jury Reveal: I Was A Polaris Music Prize Outlier

Jury Reveal: I Was A Polaris Music Prize Outlier

I was asked to be part of the Polaris Music Prize Jury this year, which has been a great experience because of all the wonderful Canadian music I was introduced to.

There were 209 jurors, and more than 200 recommendations. 

Image by Victoria from PixabayMy 2024 Long List Recommendations.

You'll note that none of them made it to th actual Long List. :)

But, I like to think I may have introduced at least a couple of people to some of my favourite albums of the year from Canadian artists. 

Artist - Album1. Frank Horvat & SHHH!! Ensemble — An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene

A sense of invention goes a long way towards establishing artistry in my book, and his electro-chamber work is performed by the piano percussion duo known as SHHH!! Ensemble. It's a bold concept - to portray our auditory environment, along with a sense of its degradation due to misuse. Recordings of traffic, drilling, fracking, and other machinery are the backdrop to musical responses that journey through hostility to peace.

 2. Pip — Every City Just when you think you know where one of the songs on this release by Pip aka Philip Pip Kummel is headed, it veers off into unexpected territory. The award-winning musician and songwriter is adept at giving you just what you didn't expect in a vein that you'd describe as singer-songwriter/Americana-ish.
 Every City by Pip 3. India Gailey — Problematica India Gailey is a multi-hyphenate artist - she wrote and directed the film, below, for the piece "Grotesquerie" composed by Nicole Lizée, which appears on the album (People Places Records). She vocalises as she plays the cello, and the result is unlike anything you've ever heard. Problematica includes several pieces by contemporary Canadian composers.
  4. Meredith Bates — Tesseract Meredith Bates' Tesseract is an album of rather dense music composed for, and performed on violin and FX by Bates. The JUNO Award-winning violinist's music is abstract, yet here and there, a melody emerges. It's atmospheric and haunting.
  5. National Arts Centre Orchestra — Truth In Our Time The NAC Orchestra commissioned a work from American composer Philip Glass that forms the heart of this album. It's meant to commemorate Canadian American journalist Peter Jennings, even as it delves into the nature of truth - a seminal issue of our time, and one that runs through all the other selections. The album is rounded out by James Ehnes performance of the Korngold Violin COncert, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9, and Nicole Lizée's Zeiss After Dark. Francophone star YAO adds his Strange Absurdity / Étrange absurdité to the unique release. Alexander Shelley conducts the National Arts Centre Orchestra.
 

Rothko meets Morrisseau, as AGO celebrates great Moments in Modernism - Opens June 14

From a media release:

Rothko meets Morrisseau, as AGO celebrates great Moments in ModernismMark Rothko’s No.1, White and Red on view when exhibition opens June 14

In advance of new Dani Reiss Contemporary & Modern Gallery, exhibition features Canadian, American, Indigenous and Brazilian modernist artists in dialogue

Check It Out

TORONTO — Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, from Toronto to São Paulo, painters began rejecting figuration and perspective, embracing colour, scale and line, in pursuit of a more expressive and immediate experience. Opening on June 14, 2024 at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Moments in Modernism presents more than 50 works from the AGO’s collection of modern art, ranging from Minimalism to Pop Art, by some of the era’s most influential artists, including Jack Bush, Alex Colville, Jim Dine, Helen Frankenthaler, Ellsworth Kelly, Rita Letendre, Norval Morrisseau, Tomie Ohtake, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol.

L-R: Artists Rita Letendre taken by Misterlobat (25 March 2014/cropped/CC BY-SA 3.0); Andy Warhol at the Jewish Museum, 1980 (Library of Congress Call Number: LC-GB05- 4532.This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID gtfy.04532.digital ID gtfy.04532.); Photograph of Mark Rothko, painter, by Conseulo Kanaga, circa 1940s (Gelatin silver print/Public domain/from the Brooklyn Museum collection)

Offering visitors the unique opportunity to see influential Canadian, American, Indigenous and Brazilian artists in dialogue across time, Moments in Modernism is organized as a series of encounters, between individual artists and styles. Co-curated by Stephan Jost, Michael and Sonja Koerner Director, and CEO, AGO and Debbie Johnsen, Manager, Modern & Contemporary Collections, AGO, highlights of the exhibition include conversations between Agnes Martin and Kazuo Nakamura, Rita Letendre and Jack Bush, and a meeting of Mark Rothko and Norval Morrisseau’s signature styles.

Moments in Modernism, marks the return to view of several AGO masterworks, including Mark Rothko’s No.1, White and Red, which since last fall has been on view in Paris, a jewel in the celebrated Rothko retrospective at The Fondation Louis Vuitton. Also, back on view for the first time in more than a decade are large scale works by Jack Bush, Robert Motherwell, Jules Olitski and Gerhard Richter.

"Seeing a great Warhol, Rothko or Letendre in person can be a very powerful experience,” says co-curator Stephan Jost. “When we look back, it is clear that the AGO acquired the right works by the right artists.”

“In pursuit of a new, expressive style of painting, these artists pushed the limits of what we think of as art,” says co-curator Debbie Johnsen, AGO Manager, Modern & Contemporary Collections. “Modernism takes many forms and it’s a privilege to showcase that here, through these larger-than-life paintings from Brazil, New York, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Toronto. The brilliance that produced modernism’s biggest moments, requires so much space and thought – we so are excited to share these landmark paintings with audiences.”

On view through autumn 2025, Moments in Modernism anticipates the forthcoming Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery, which is currently in the initial stages of construction. When completed in 2027, the expansion will increase exhibition space for the museum’s growing modern and contemporary art collection.

The Details

Moments in Modernism opens to AGO Members on Friday, June 14 at 5 p.mFriday, June 14 at 5 p.m., and to Annual Pass holders and the public on Tuesday, June 18. 

Admission is free for all Ontarians under 25, all Indigenous Peoples, AGO Members and Annual Passholders. Same day tickets can be booked in person and online. For more details on how to become a Member or Annual Passholder, visit ago.ca .

Art Bash, the AGO’s signature fundraising event—and the city’s premier celebration of art, culture, and community—returns Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. Inspired by the energy and colour of Moments in Modernism, Art Bash is presented by Tricon Residential. 

Tickets go on sale June 18, 2024. For more details and to purchase, click HERE .

Additional programming – including talks and courses – will be announced in the autumn.

The Boca Raton Museum of Art presents "Myths, Secrets, Lies, and Truths: Photography from the Doug McCraw Collection"

From a media release

The Power of Photography
The Boca Raton Museum of Art presents
"Myths, Secrets, Lies, and Truths: Photography from the Doug McCraw Collection"On view June 12 through October 13, 2024

Featuring the work of five artists: Sheila Pree Bright, Liesa Cole, Karen Graffeo, Spider Martin, and Hank Willis Thomas 

The exhibition of 100+ works from the Doug McCraw Collection is an original presentation by the Museum, and was curated by Kathleen Goncharov, the Museum’s Senior Curator. The works explore themes of survival, exposure, concealment, exploitation, race, and cultural-defining design.

They include still photography and installations, capturing moments that transcend boundaries of insight, and reveal how fabricated myths can shape our perceptions and distort our beliefs.

Slack Power, by Hank Willis Thomas (Lightjet print). Original ad photo from 1969; re-conceptualized by Thomas in 2006 (from the Collection of Doug McCraw).


Doug McCraw is the co-founder of one of South Florida’s cultural gems: the FATVillage Arts District which is McCraw's project that promotes creativity, artist residences, exhibitions, research, and education. McCraw loaned these 100+ works from his collection to the Boca Raton Museum, for this new exhibition.

“Myths, Secrets, Lies and Truths presents five distinct voices that delve into and illuminate so many aspects of life," says Irvin Lippman, the Executive Director of the Boca Raton Museum of Art. "Our thanks to Doug McCraw who has built an extraordinary and stimulating collection that will facilitate insightful conversations.”

The Boca Raton Museum of Art is located at 501 Plaza Real in Mizner Park, a shopping, dining, entertainment, residential and arts district in downtown Boca RatonHank Willis Thomas (b. 1976)

Hank Willis Thomas is a conceptual artist based in Brooklyn whose work focuses on identity and popular culture. He was born in Plainfield, New Jersey and attended the Duke Ellington School of the Arts as a Museum Studies student. He received a BFA in Photography and Africana studies in 1986 and was awarded honorary doctorates from the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts.

Thomas’ work has been exhibited at the International Center of Photography, NYC; Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain; Musee du qua Branly, Paris; Hong Kong Arts Centre; and the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Netherlands, among others.

Thomas is included in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), Whitney Museum of American Art (New York); Brooklyn Museum; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; and the National Museum of Art, Washington, D.C. among others. Awards include the Guggenheim Fellowship (2018), AGO Photography Prize (2017), and the Soros Equality Fellowship (2017). Thomas is a member of the New York City Public Design Commission. 

Now there's a doll that can make a real difference in her life: Shani, the first Black Barbie, by Hank Willis Thomas (Lightjet print). Original ad photo from 1991; this ad photo was re-conceptualized by Thomas in 2007 (from the Collection of Doug McCraw).
From his series "Unbranded: Reflections in Black by Corporate America"

Hank Willis Thomas is known for exploring American consumer culture, and the history of how corporate imagery in advertising campaigns showed a lack of respect towards African Americans through the years via print advertisements.

His series investigates the subtle and not so subtle ways in which this influential imagery reinforced ideas about race and race relations. Most of the works in this exhibition are from his series titled Unbranded: Reflections in Black by Corporate America.

The series explores fifty years of ads that targeted a Black audience or featured Black subjects. Ads starting in 1968 (the year of social and political protest and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.), through 2008 (the year when the first African American president was elected). 

Now there's a doll that can make a real difference in her life: Shani, the first Black Barbie, by Hank Willis Thomas (Lightjet print). Original ad photo from 1991; this ad photo was re-conceptualized by Thomas in 2007 (from the Collection of Doug McCraw).

The end result is a re-imagined version of each original ad, showing how white ad executives at the time got away with creating these depictions for marketing campaigns.

Writing in The Guardian, the art critic Arwa Mahdawi stated: "Thomas's work 'unbrands' advertising: stripping away the commercial context, and leaving the exposed image to speak for itself." 

Thomas then pairs a befitting title for each re-imagined work, further underscoring how disrespect, stereotypes ‒ and, in some cases, outright racism ‒ were prevalent in advertising aimed at Black Americans.

Brother in Arms, by Spider Martin (Archival digital print on exhibition fiber paper), 1965 (Collection of Doug McCraw).James “Spider” Martin (1939-2003)

James “Spider” Martin was an American photojournalist best known for his documentation of the American Civil Rights Movements, in particular, 1965’s Selma to Montgomery marches. He was born in Fairfield, Alabama. At 5’2”, he was nicknamed “spider” as he would climb trees and church towers to obtain optimal angles for his photographs.

Martin’s photographs were published in major national and international publications, including: Life Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, Time Magazine, Der Spiegel, Paris Match, and more. His photographs are in many permanent collections including the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, National Museum of American History and Culture, Washington, D.C., and the Dolph Briscoe Center for American Art in Austin, TX.

Martin’s historic images from the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March documented protests by African Americans demanding the right to vote.

While working as a young new photojournalist at The Birmingham News, Martin captured the historic photo Two Minute Warning (pictured below), showing state troopers about to attack peaceful marchers with batons and tear gas, after the marchers crossed Edmund Pettus Bridge from Selma into Dallas County. The incident was pivotal in the Civil Rights Movement, and is known as Bloody Sunday. 

Two Minute Warning Sequence Frame 1, by Spider Martin (Archival digital print on exhibition fiber paper), 1965 (Collection of Doug McCraw).

Three of Martin’s photographs from that day in 1965 were enlarged to serve as the centerpiece for this exhibition, providing a powerful large-scale emphasis that expresses the drama of this critical moment in history.

They are part of a series of photographs titled Selma Is Now. Martin's collection contains thousands of photographs, clippings and other notes — much of it previously unpublished before it was acquired by the University of Texas. The producers of the movie Selma used Martin’s photographs to recreate scenes for the film.

Dr. King himself credited his photos with playing a major role in passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. stating in his quote below:

“Spider, we could have marched, we could have protested forever, but if it weren’t for guys like you, it would have been for nothing. The whole world saw your pictures. That’s why the Voting Rights Act passed.” — Martin Luther King, 1965

Shanae Rowland, by Sheila Pree Bright (2007), chromogenic print (from the Collection of Doug McCraw).Sheila Pree Bright (b. 1967)

Sheila Pree Bright is an Atlanta-based award-winning photographer known for portraying large-scale works that combine a wide-range knowledge of contemporary culture. She received a BS from the University of Missouri in 1998. She moved to Atlanta in 1998, and received an MFA from Georgia State University in 2003.

She created a “clean room” in the museum – an enclosed, transparent box with two holes equipped with gloves used by the viewer to flip through a blank journal that visually transforms into a magic book and then into a spy craft technical manual before one’s very eyes. 

In 2006, Bright was awarded the Center Prize at the Santa Fe Center of Photography, and had her first solo show at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta in 2008 which featured the series Young Americans.

Her work has also been shown at The Wadsworth Atheneum of Art, in Hartford, CT and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH. Bright’s work is included in the collections of National Museum of African American History, Washington, D.C.; The BET Collection, NYC; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; de Saisset Museum, Santa Clare University, Sata Clare, CA; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland KS; The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; The Paul Jones Collection, Birmingham AL; and Spellman Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, among others.

From her series"Young Americans"

Sheila Pree Bright presents works from her Young Americans series, in which she invited young people, of all backgrounds and in cities across the country, to pose with the flag in ways that felt comfortable (while recording their personal stories of what the flag means to each of them).

Bright wanted this series to focus on diverse young Americans who are new to the voting system, and who are still exploring ideas of what it means to be American. In some ways, this series by Bright may be the most timely of the exhibition, due to the impending elections and the pivotal youth vote.

Shawn Ole T. Evangelista, by Sheila Pree Bright (Chromogenic print) 2006.

Bright has appeared in the 2016 feature-length documentary film “Election Day: Lens Across America.” The artist encouraged her subjects to use their own clothing, props and poses to "give them a platform to speak for themselves.”

The artist encouraged her subjects to use their own clothing, props and poses to "give them a platform to speak for themselves.”

Bright is often described as a "cultural anthropologist." She especially wanted to examine the attitudes and values of Millennials/Generation Y, (people born in the 1980s through the late 1990s, most often the children of Baby Boomers).

The photographs in this series respond to negative portrayals of Millennials in our culture. 

Museumgoers will hear audio recordings alongside each photo, recordings of her subjects expressing their personal feelings toward the flag. 

Sugar Baby, by Liesa Cole (2019), dye sublimation on metal (from the Collection of Doug McCraw).Liesa Cole (b. 1965)

Liesa Cole is a photographer, cinematographer, and creative director. Liesa received a degree in Fine Art Photography at Louisiana State University, and enhanced her studies of Fine Art Photography at the University of Alabama.

Her work has been awarded numerous accolades including: the “International Photographer of the Year” award from London’s Photography Master’s Cup; Grand Prize at the International Photography Master’s Conference (Italy); and the International Photographer of the Year award from Photo District News.

Liesa Cole’s photographs, projections, and installations are about those who share secrets and those who keep them. Her works follow the theme that most people are uncomfortable sharing secrets unless they know they can trust someone to keep their confidence. Visitors will hear anonymous people telling secrets that can be funny, tragic, ridiculous, surprising, or sometimes raw and visceral.

The exhibition also features “Truth” (a blown glass neon sculpture by Cole, pictured right); her video titled "This is Life;" several archival photographs printed on metal; a projection video titled "Sharing Secrets;" and an installation room of foam and metal, titled "Secrets Room."

Havana XOX, by Karen Graffeo (2021), from the Collection of Doug McCraw.Karen Graffeo (b. 1955)

Karen Graffeo Based in Birmingham, AL, Graffeo is a multi-media artist working in the fields of photography, performance, and installation. She holds a BA from Jacksonville State University and an MA in art education from the University of Alabama, where she also earned MFA degrees in photography and painting. She is a Professor Emeritus of Art at the University of Montevallo.

Graffeo is the recipient of a Tanne Foundation award for humanitarian documentary projects within her art practice, and was awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholar appointment to Romania. She has also been awarded grants by the Warhol Foundation and the Alabama Arts Council. Her work is included in public and private collections in Japan, Paris, New York, San Francisco, Ireland, Italy, and Hungary, among others.

Karen Graffeo’s Cuba series is part of an ongoing project expressing the beauty and inventiveness of a culture experiencing many challenges, hardships, and poverty.

She photographs moments of everyday life in Cuba with an eye to the vibrant designs, colors, patterns, and textures that reflect the unique spirit and aesthetics of the islanders.

Graffeo has traveled extensively, choosing to make work within cultures that both match and contrast her ancestry. She considers her art to be “cultural diplomacy devoted to trust and intersectionality, in service of story and raw, honest visual truth.”

One of Graffeo’s works in this exhibition is titled “Santero: saint maker,” taken in Cuba in 2020 (pictured below). This photo was honored with the Boynes Artist Award. The striking image is about Afro Cuban worship and pilgrimage rituals. 

Santero: saint maker, by Karen Graffeo (2020), from the Collection of Doug McCraw.

Also featured is Graffeo’s photograph titled “Roma girl: no ticket, train of life,” (pictured below). Since 1999, Graffeo has been documenting Roma populations, sometimes called “Gypsies.”

Through the lens of her camera, Graffeo has documented their culture at caravans, slums, housing projects, and refugee camps.

“It is the poorest of the poor who most need a voice,” says Graffeo. These photos follow the lives of the Roma in Romania and Italy, living in homes they are forced to build by hand from scavenged materials. In her photos, the artist strives to portray the courage and inspiring humanity of the Roma peoples.

Roma Girl: no ticket, train of life , by Karen Graffeo (2015). From the Collection of Doug McCraw.

Toronto Summer | Canadian Stage Presents Shakespeare's Hamlet Dream In High Park

From a media release

Toronto Summer
Canadian Stage Presents Shakespeare's Hamlet
Dream In High Park

Tickets On Sale May 21 2024

TORONTO - Dive into the electrifying world of Shakespeare's timeless masterpiece Hamlet, helmed by Jessica Carmichael (Stratford, Shaw, Blyth) with a fantastic ensemble of players. Performances takes place July 21 to September 1, 2024 in Toronto's High Park. 

Set amidst the tumultuous backdrop of political intrigue and familial betrayal, this iconic tale follows the tormented Prince of Denmark as he grapples with existential questions of life, death, and revenge.

Director Jessica Carmichael

An artist of mixed Abénaki/Euro heritage, Jessica trained at the National Theatre School of Canada (Acting), the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art & King’s College London (MA Text & Performance Studies with Distinction), the University of Alberta (MFA Directing with Distinction) and the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction (Stratford Festival, 2014 & 2016).  

Selected recent directing credits:

Directing (select): The Clearing (Shaw Festival of Canada 2023) Grief (Concordia University Theatre Department, 2023), Middletown (The National Theatre School of Canada, 2023), The Rez Sisters (Stratford Festival of Canada's 2021 Season); Medicine Wheel, Dream Girl, Across This Body, Dark Matters all responding to the 2019 report on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls for New Harlem's commissioned Embodying Power and Place (New Harlem Productions in association with Nightwood Theatre and Native Earth Performing Arts 2021).

She is a past artistic associate with Native Earth Performing Arts in Toronto and was Program Director of their Creators Unit Animiikiig.

Canadian Stage - Dream in High Park (Photo courtesy of Canadian Stage)

The cast for Hamlet includes:

Prince AmponsahRaquel DuffyChristo GrahamStephen Jackman-TorkoffSam KhaliliehQasim KhanBreton LalamaBeck LloydDiego MatamorosDan MousseauAmelia SargissonJames Dallas Smith

Fast Facts

Most seating is on the grass; blankets and pillows are welcome. Limited accessible seating is also available (contacting the box office is recommended). Lawn chairs are available to rent.Audience members are welcome to bring along picnics, snacks, or enjoy concessions on site.The production is appropriate for adults and kids of all ages.In the event of rain or severe weather during the show, Canadian Stage may delay, pause, or cancel the performance. Please note: we very rarely make rain cancellations prior to 8pm.

Culture and Arts: Kassem Istanbouli brings cinema back to Beirut

From a media release:

Culture and Arts:
Kassem Istanbouli brings cinema back to Beirut
through the establishment of the Lebanese National Theater

BEIRUT - After the experience of rehabilitating and opening the closed cinemas in the south and north of Lebanon and turning them into independent and free cultural spaces, the Tiro Association for Arts and the Istanbouli Theater began rehabilitating the Le Colisée Cinema in Beirut, with the aim of transforming it into the Lebanese National Theater in Beirut. 

Le Coliseé theatre in Beirut (Photo courtesy of Kassem Istanbouli)

The goal is to create an independent free cultural space for people, in which training workshops, festivals, and artistic performances are organized, as well as the establishment of a public library and an artistic cafeteria.

The founder of the Lebanese National Theater, actor and director Kassem Istanbouli, comments, "The goal of the project is to establish a link between the south, the north, and Beirut, as it is a complement to our dream, which began with the establishment of the Lebanese National Theater in Tyre seven years ago -  the first free theater and cinema in Lebanon. 

Thanks to the efforts of young volunteers, we will achieve our dream that art is a right for all, break the virtual wall between the Lebanese regions through the arts, and link them together through cultural spaces. We are happy to live this dream in Beirut, which is considered the second-most cinematic city in the history of Lebanon. About 29 halls were located in Al-Burj Square and 16 halls in the Hamra area. That’s where many theaters were founded and witnessed by the most important playwrights in Lebanon and the world."

The Tiro Association for Arts (TAA)

Tiro Association for Arts (TAA) was established in 2014 as a non-governmental organization under license n° 2633, located in the Lebanese National Theater in both cities, Tyre and Tripoli, in South and North Lebanon. TAA works on encouraging the local communities to engage with culture and the arts outside of religious and political framework.

Led by youth and volunteers, the organization aims to establish free and independent cultural forums in Lebanon. That is, by renovating Al Hamra and Stars Cinema in Nabatieh and Rivoli Cinema in Tyre, which became the Lebanese National Theater, the first free theater and cinema in Lebanon, as well as Empire Cinema in Tripoli, which became the Lebanese National Theater in that city. 

TAA also implements artistic training workshops for children and youth; opens and renovates cultural forums; and organizes festivals, activities, and artistic exhibitions. In addition to this, the association screens artistic and educational movies for children and youth and works on maintaining partnerships with international festivals, as well as granting young directors the opportunity to screen their movies and letting people get acquainted with the history of cinema and local and international performances, as well as screening films for the blind and deaf and training workshops for people with special needs. 

The Lebanese International Theater Festival, the Watch Lebanon in Mobile Cinema Festival, the Tripoli International Theater Festival, the Tyre International Music Festival, the Lebanese International Theater Festival for Storytelling, the Tyre International Fine Arts Festival, the Tyre Cultural Days Festival, the Lebanese International Theater Festival for Women’s Monodrama, the Lebanese International Theater Festival for Contemporary Dance, the Tiro International Arts Festival, and the Tyre International Theater Festival are among the festivals that TAA implements.