Spotted at the Lafayette Clocktower in downtown Lafayette next to Patxi’s Pizza.
Recently I checked out a new exhibit at the Bedford Gallery in the Lesher Center for the Arts in downtown Walnut Creek and as expected it’s fascinating. Titled, Home: Shelter and Habitat in Contemporary Art, there are sculptures, paintings and other works of art that “investigates the role that home, habitat, and environment play in our modern lives.”
From the exhibit webpage:
From traditional notions of the hearth, to mobile, alternative, and eco-conscious abodes, this exhibition will address the way our interpretation of habitat has shifted over the past century.
This show features a national group of artists working in diverse mediums including painting, sculpture, video and photography. These works investigate everything from interiors and abstract concepts of what makes a home, to scenes of devastation and abandonment. Artists completely deconstruct the four walls we build around ourselves, producing art that is playful, surreal, familial and at times, disturbing.
No matter what form they take, our homes provide both physical shelter and emotional protection. They can comfort us, help define us, and in some cases become monuments to our lives after we’ve left.
Gina Tuzzi:
Check out more photos of the exhibit after the jump…
Back in early July I noted that the Lafayette Art Gallery Sculpture Garden was getting paved over for a parking lot to handle customers to the new restaurant Cooperage and as you can see from the photo above the sculptures are completely gone and the new boundary has been marked. There is hope that some of the sculptures will be moved the front and you can see one of them there now:
1345 Locust Street, Walnut Creek
Back last January I posted about the Diablo Actors’ Ensemble Theatre in downtown Walnut Creek on Locust St. next to Peet’s and I just noticed that it has closed. It turns out that it closed in May according to the Contra Costa Times:
The jewel box of a theater, home to Diablo Actors’ Ensemble for the past five years and Lois Grandi’s Playhouse West for 13 years before that, will close at the end of May. The property at 1345 Locust St. has been sold, and the new owner envisions a restaurant where the theater, the Paint Palette and The Bead Store currently reside.
Recently I checked out an art exhibit at the Bedford Gallery in the Lesher Center called, “Larger than Life: Exploring Scale in Contemporary Art”. It’s on display through August 18th and is really cool. I think everyone including kids will enjoy this exhibit. Although it’s hard to tell from the photos, most of these art pieces are massively huge.
From the Bedford Gallery exhibit page:
Since the Egyptians, art has played with the limits of its medium, stretching its size and scope to unfamiliar and unbelievable proportions. From the Great Sphinx of Giza, to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, artists have realized large-scale projects that have pushed the dimensions of their work to new and spectacular heights (and lengths!)
Larger than Life will explore how contemporary artists have begun to use new materials and technologies to reshape the traditional scale of sculpture. Recently, artists have focused of unfamiliar materials and methods of construction, using these elements to investigate the oversized, overstuffed, and uncanny elements in art. This exhibition will encourage viewers to reconsider what they have come to know about the role of art, and the way in which subjects and themes can be represented.
Viola Frey, Fallen Man:
See more art after the jump…
As I passed by Bank of America on N. Main St. in downtown Walnut Creek I glanced at this beautiful work of art hanging next to the ATM. I read the sign next to it wondering who the artist was when I learned it’s actually an abandoned night drop. How funny is that?!
Spotted at the Lafayette Whole Foods, it’s huge! I bought the TJs kit and plan on making it soon. Who else is making one?
