Showing again at Smithsonain annex/partner site


At the Smithsonian Institution's annex/partner site in Maryland, Ward's OmniDirectional art from various series groups, mixed together in mashup display at the group show "Elements In Balance: Earth, Air, Fire, Water." The Annmarie Garden art center and sculpture park hosted the exhibit from June-August 2013.



(Left to right) A George Rickey [ wiki ] cube sculpture (visible in window outside) on loan from the National Gallery of Art, Ann Crain's found object wall piece, Ward's exhibit-specific mashup.


(Left to right) Ann Crain's wall piece, Smithsonian NMAI [ wiki ] curatorial staffer (and exhibit juror), Ward's exhibit-specific mashup.


Down the stair view. The George Rickey [ wiki ] sculpture is barely visible outside the window. The floor piece is an array of molded-sugar lights by Garrett Zopfi.


View through the stairs. In the foreground is a Benjamin Gage stone piece.

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Midway thru the exhibit run of this group show, the gallery invites flower arrangers to respond to the art. Here, arranger "Sue B" reacts to Ward's 7-panel mashup piece. Sue B outdid herself; since each panel is 6.5 feet high, her arrangement must be nearly three feet tall. With care she positioned verticals, swirly elements, and whomps of yellow yarrow-flower.

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Show prep / behind the scenes.




Holding a Ward panel during load-in and tribute-posing with a sculpture by the great Kenneth Snelson [ wiki ] in the background (on loan from the Hirschhorn Museum).


Similar tribute-pose with the George Rickey [ wiki ] cube sculpture on loan from the National Gallery of Art.


Exhibit jury-submission photo and the explanation:
FloodFireFeedDrown (multi-unit remix of omnidirectional art panels). Your "meaning" may vary; artist thought about: tsunamis, floods, fertile valleyland soil, SuperStorm Sandy, Katrina, Rockaway, Sendai, water nourishes life or can drown it, nature is alternately cruel or life-giving --the timeless duality. In a "happy accident," the panels with the full-length single drip-line of paint became a natural cardiogram: to let the paint fall into a long thread without breaking into individual droplets, an achingly slow hand-pace was needed --so slow that the artist's pulse was recorded as subtle wobbles in the line. (Those two panels were exhibited at the New York Mercantile Exchange.) The panels with the pinkish areas let Mother Nature assist: the thick green paint's strange texture is from letting "frost heave" interact with water in the paint as it dried into place. Artist's process uses streams of water and air to disperse pigment, to make color washes, and to blast away certain details (thus leaving only traces). Some of the artist's unusual processes like ExPaint and SPOW appear. Artist active in Brooklyn and in Virginia. To find artist's blog, google: GrumpyVisualArtist. Though for this exhibit vertical hanging and close-spacing is encouraged, Ward panels are composed and wired to hang at any angle, in any arrangement, in any "number" (exhibit and sale of single panels is fine). Ward art is able (encouraged!) to be remixed with other Ward art --whether mixed by the artist, curators, or patrons. Ward is "okay" with the idea that many people might not "get" this unusual "relational aesthetics" approach to painting. *Typical price/discount range: (redacted on internet).

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Exhibit jury-submission detail view photos



This exhibit-specific mashup combined panels from Ward's series 336, 340, 332, and 347,



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More WARD ART here.

Exhibit views.

Unusual art processes.

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