Calling you....artmelt is a BOOK

artmelt is really excited to announce that we are making a custom, hand-bound, book of awesomeness, and we want you to be in it! See the call to artists at the end of the post.

When notions of artmelt first emerged 3 years ago or so, the idea was for it to be a print gallery. So every First Friday there would be this gallery that existed in print.  However, due to procrastination and lack of time and money we figured a blog would be the most tangible way to begin the melting of art.

But alas, the times have changed, and procrastination doesn't stand a chance.  artmelt will be releasing a custom made, hand-bound book, with multiple types of printing and original artworks scattered throughout. Yet, we need your help to fill it with great art, writing, information, rants...you name it we want it.

So here we are, doing the typical...we are posting a call to artists, and we might even be able to pay you...maybe. Click on the link below to read the full call to artists.

Link to full call to artists

Deadline is July 30th, 2011 for submissions and you can email your proposals and works to artmelt@gmail.com.  If you have originals to put in the book then we can arrange a drop off.

2011 University of Montana BFA Senior Thesis Highlights

Adam Lynn - Detail

Check out some of the highlights from this years UM Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Thesis Exhibition at the Gallery of Visual Arts.  Good work BFA'ers! I would like to tell you to go see all the great works that I didn't photograph, but sadly the show was only up for a terribly short period of time : ( x 1000.

Rachael Jones

Ellie Weber - Let Go

I really liked Hannah Spry's rendition of Little Red Riding Hood

Jose Chavez - "What Some Do For Others" - Detail

Love the surface and character.

Nice landscapes by Riche Carter and a snail by Louis Habeck

Didnt get this guys name but I like the root sound system

El Rico.  The painting skill here is great and the artist statement is one of the best I have ever read by a student

A great little figure. part of the piece title "Shooting at someone who outdrew you" by Rachael Marne Jones

Big truck - vrrooooooom

Adam Lynn - detail

Rachel Marne Jones

Ellie Weber's ceramic sculptures were some of my favorites works in the show.

Hannah Spry

Jose Chavez

Richie Carter

Adam Lynn

CLAY!

Two Clay Studio resident artists, Danny Clump and Lauren Sandler, throw down some clay this March. Clump at The Brink and Sandler at The Clay Studio. You won't find any cups or bowls as both artists are presenting large sculptural works.

Clump's show is titled Seeing Constructs. I like Clump's tangled, wood-fired constructs. The structural forms appear strong and sturdy but at the same time vulnerable as if they could collapse at any moment  The shows up for the month so stop by the Brink and see it.

Danny Clump

Temenos by Sandler, a clay studio artists-residence, is elegant display of clay meeting other materials.  The scupltures are made from materials ranging from wire, rubber, clay and paper. These works intimately invite you to move around and witness them from all vantages.  In the small space these large works really meet you face to face. Temenos  is up at the Clay Studio throughout the month...go witness it.

Lauren Sandler

Find a bunch more photos after the jump

Another First Friday - May 2010

 This First Friday was pretty big for the University of Montana.  The National Western Cast Iron Art Conference was brought to UM with the aid of sculpture professor Brad Allen.  A number of Missoula galleries also hosted cast iron artworks in correlation with the conference, including the Missoula Art Museum.  Right out of the BFA exhibition, The UM undergrad art students threw down with a showing at a temporary space dubbed "Gallery 48" denoting the 48 hrs of its existence.  It really excites me when I see students working hard and making art happen.  This town certainly lacks adequate exhibition space for younger artists, so mad props to the BFA'ers for fearlessly making it happen.  Not to mention, a hand full of UM ceramic students displayed their work in the alley next to New West...damn it is good to see energized and prolific young artists making strong & engaging work.  I think students are often thought of as simply "students" but from my experience they make some of the most engaging artwork.  Also the newly founded and fabulous Brink Gallery hosted artworks by, adjunct UM art professor, Edgar Smith.  His works are bold, simple, yet conceptually complex with a natural elegance.  As usual there was a lot of other great art, like the fifth annual installment of "On Deck" at the Badlander.  And for the most creative & ephemeral gallery space I vote for the guy who pulled up in a Budget moving van out front of the Dana Gallery.  Great work Missoula, and now for less chatter and more pictures.

National Iron Exhibit at the Missoula Art Museum

More from the National Iron exhibit at the MAM

2007 UM MFA Sculpture Graduate Kendall Mingey, graced us with her artwork and presence over the weekend.

BOAT LOAD OF MORE PICS AFTER THE JUMP

Kensuke Yamada @ the GVA

Well folks it is the holiday season, friends are in town, snowboarding to be done, and lots of art to be made for my upcoming show at the Ceretana in March/April. So all this means that this post is a bit late and the show is over and you cannot see it ever again, except for on artmelt.net, so HA!

Kensuke Yamada was or is a UM Grad Student with a emphasis in ceramics. All the work of his I have seen are very large, hand-built figures, including the MFA show at the UC Gallery. His recent MFA Thesis exhibition at the GVA, titled Empathetic, is no exception. The show contains about 7 large ceramic sculptures, most of which are glazed with an elegant yet simplistic patterning of stripes, polka dots, and pastel colors.  The alienated forms, patterning and color scheme reminds me of Picasso's early paintings of circus folk, such as the painting Family of Saltimbanques. His artist statement is simple and to sum it up he is interested in creating an emotional relationship between art and viewer.  I beleive that through the scale, isolation and emotive expressions of his figures this task is accomplished.

The sparse nature of the gallery layout with a few dark corners also reenforces the emotional landscape, however the question is "is the minimal amount of work part of the design or just a desire to move on from school?"  One of the most intriguing pieces was a sculpture containing an 8 foot figure with a 4 inch figure.  The contrast in scale certainly evokes an emotional response.  In addition, the large figure was actually wet to the touch...now is this some kind of way to ad to the emotive content by referencing the wet, the damp, the dank, the slimy? or was it simply not finished?  I think the sculpture is a succesful piece of art and I am all about an unfinished aestetic, but I also feel that this piece being the only one with out a glazed surface seems a little out of place with the rest of the exhibit.  Either way I was impressed by the show and rather enjoy Yamada's style.

Ultimately, as a 2005 UM alumni I certainly understand the desire for exodus from the education system.  Being in school from before we can remember us crazy artists get a little antsy and are ready to get out and emerse ourselves in the real world - where we get to find out what it really means to be a creative individual.  So good luck I say to Kensuke Yamada! He is off to reside at the Archie Bray so I am sure us Montanans will have the honor to see more work from this great ceramic artist.

More pics after the jump....

2009 UM Juried Student Art Show by the Madstinker

The greatest thing about walking into this jury show was the quantity of work, mad technical skill, and the well-executed concepts in one show. Every emphasis in the Art department should be proud of their students. With that said, I'm a 2D exhibitionist, so I'm giving a review based mostly in that field. Sorry 3D, I'm going to group counseling and working very hard to improve myself. Soon I hope to give you the mad props you deserve.

Four pieces stuck out to me the most in this show. The work was simple and sweet all the way down to the title. Titles were important in this show, either it was really bad, or it assisted the work like a wench's assistant. Sadly, I think there was a lot of pieces falling into the first category. The work I admired had titles that kept the viewer engaged.

"America" done by Adam Lynn had friction. The rhythm in this work was down right dysfunctional. And I like it. His painting is dirty and nasty. Adam engages the viewer and himself in a conversation with questions and no direct answers. Literally, this guy used dialogue bubbles in pre-elementary handwriting. The color field was off. His spatial plane and figure drawing had no aesthetic anchors. His application of paint along with the canvas itself was so raw and outsider that it imitated the works by Ed Templeton among other Sk8/Punk/DIY kids from the 90's. And why do I find this to be all wonderful? With the title "America", this painting could have easily been preachy, egotistical and just plain annoying. He could have patronized his viewer with a technical high art application. But he didn't do that. Instead he humbled himself as the protagonist, and with that he humbled the viewer.

The next piece that made me want to run into the bathroom with a box of Kleenex would have to be Kathryn Snugg. "B for Best?" with the pop icon of deer had me going. Her canvas was made by recycled bed sheets, quilted together to create it's own modern composition. Vertical stitching broke the space well by being graphically imperfect. She threw in the pop image of John Deere acknowledging the fact that she's trekking worn territory. Deer head drawings were empathetic, but also connoted taxidermy. This was a really smart move on her part. This piece is not just a feminine piece referring to past lady crafts, but speaks to a wider audience. She was throwing all of the images of "Deer" into one big pot, accompanied by a meticulous drawing hand, stitching and embroidery. And like Adam, her materials looked accessible to anyone that has the need to communicate.

The next piece that I loved was an aesthetic bad boy. The character in his story was caught with his pants down, exhibiting greedy consumption with crude imperfection. Richard Evan Holmstrom's "2-1-2-3" is on such a large wood canvas that you are exposed to hairy legs and tighty-whiteys from across the gallery. This character is humorous, misogynistic, and demanding. At the same time, he's a mere simpleton. The great thing that Holmstrom illustrates in this piece is also a sense of vulnerability. The use of color pink is seen more as Freudian reference then aesthetic. He's mixing comic book with Modernism. It's hot! The character and his many egos and desires are all isolated from each other while the background is a generalized abstraction. The painting is ironic conceptually and visually. When I look at this big guy I can't help but think that Richard is thumbing his nose at someone or something. His technical skills is exceptional and up to par in an academic world. Hell, he even made a nice canvas (that was also an obvious fault in this show: badly made canvases). Maybe it's the man getting him down, who knows.

And last but not least we have Sheilah Healow. So many students and artist around this town has tried to tackle the chaos/order subject and has failed miserably. Sheilah makes it look easy. A quaint little drawing "Transition" showed complexity, movement and engineered lines bottled up like an atom bomb in the middle of a raw piece of paper. The multi-media piece reminded me of the work of Julie Mehretu. Color and line patterns along with topography creates a organism made of unlikely elements. But unlike Julie's work who focuses more on engineering and networking as a global technological organism, we see Sheilah making hers more micro than macro. She keeps her organism in a round-up, dead center of the paper as if it's a petri dish observation. She makes it more humanistic with drawings of anatomical imagery like intestines and feet. I've seen Sheilah's work before, and what I like about her is that she is not afraid to try new mash-ups but at the same time she will always have her signature moves.

As you can see there was plenty of more great pieces in the show. So many were reminiscent of styles and movements that are going on this day and age. These four artists just happened to turn me on in that certain way. It takes all types. Congrats to all the ones that submitted their work. Congrats to all that got in. The show is only up until the 20th, so get on over there.

A bunch more photos from the show after the jump.

UM Graduate Student Art Show @ The UC Gallery

Whether the UM Art Department - cough cough - I mean the UM School of Art (recent name change) has been developing their grad program or if they just got lucky this year with some really great students , I dont know, but regardless this group really nailed it. This show has a great selection of wonderful and well-done works across many mediums.

Lisa Jarret

Walking though the door, one is presented with two abstract doll figures hung on the wall, made from fabric, cheese cloth and clothing tags. These two dolls made by the excellent artist, Lisa Jarrett, are both rich in physical appearance and in content making for a strong welcome.

Eva Champagne

Kensuke Yamada

My vision was then filled by two large hand built ceramic pieces by Eva Champagne and Kensuke Yamada. A bulbous flower in lime green and red topped with glitter by Champagne. While, Yamada's eight foot tall armless figure towers over the space watching with a steady gaze. The simple use of pattern and repetition interacts gracefully with the scale of this work.

Cathryn Snugg

On the wall next to Yamada's figure, is a lovely painting or is it? In closer inspection one will find the surface is stitched together on a stretcher using pieces of wedding gown material, and fabric (some with imagery and some without). Created by Cathryn Snugg and titled "After Expectation" this Mixed Media work includes images of a bride, a few bear scenes, a deer's rump, and a drawn progression of two deer copulating (my favorite part).

Two other pieces that demand attention are two figurative paintings. First off, is Emily Brown's piece titled "Siblings" it is a diptych with a figure on each panel. The mark making and layering effects are subtle, emotive and gorgeous. Textures made by carving and hammering into the wood surface top off the subtle color scheme and expressive handling of the figures.

Emily Brown

Emily Brown Detail

Last but not least is Rebecca Weed's oil painting, "Border Sleep" it is composed in one of my favorite layouts - a dense corner with the rest being empty space. This is the first fully painted piece I have seen of Weed's. Generally her pieces are drawn on to a translucent, tan colored wax paper fastened to the wall with the bottom edge unattached which allows the drawing to move and have an eerie spacial/atmospheric quality. In her drawings the characters seem to be more of a memory of the figure. In her drawings the edges of her figures are flowing and filled with movement. In this oil painting it appears she attempts to turn her figurative drawing style into a painting, however I believe it is not as successful as her drawings. The eerie spacial quality is replaced by a flat layer of paint and the figures seem a bit more solid and static. Nonetheless it is still a great painting.

Rebecca Weed