SRAC hosts night supporting three events at artspace

SRAC draws in crowds to showcase “OBJECT,” PRESENTS and honor fellowship recipients Nov. 8.

Shreveport Regional Arts Council held three events to support local artists, making for a big night Nov. 8 at artspace.

SRAC presented awards for the 2013 Fellowship Awards, which recognize exceptional work by artists across a wide range of categories. PRESENTS, a biennial holiday gallery exhibition opened, featuring artwork created by artists from 10 parishes in Northwest Louisiana. “OBJECT” was also a part of the night, holding a reception in the mainspace showcasing art by Adam Volker and Joe Bluhm.

The Fellowship Awards are funded by the City of Shreveport and the applicants are juried by esteemed art jurors from various art disciplines. The categories are dance, literature, music theater and visual arts.

“The City of Shreveport takes great pride in recognizing the outstanding artists living here and cultivating their creative talent right here in our community,’’ Mayor Cedric Glover said. “I know they don’t do this for the recognition but rather for the love of their respective crafts. Still, I applaud this effort because our artists deserve to have time set aside so we all can praise the work that they do.’’ Following the presentation of the fellowship awards, were receptions for PRESENTS and “OBJECT.”

The artwork displayed for PRESENTS included a diverse mixture of holiday ornaments, specialty food products, paintings, sculpture, ceramics, jewelry and more created by professional artists PRESENTS runs through Jan. 18.

“OBJECT” drew attention to the works of Volker and Bluhm who work at Moonbot Studios, where they work creating games and film through animation, illustration and storytelling. Both said their passions also lie in fine art and painting.

“‘OBJECT’ represents a way for us to step back from digital where you can just click and change a color,” Volker said. “We had no expectations with this show. We wanted to get feedback and responses to let this experience inform our next show. Feeling is important.”

Volker said he is interested to see the reaction to the artwork.

“This is one way for us to break the ice for other gallery shows. We are curious to see how the audience responds to this work. This is not the end but just the starting gun. I am eager to explore doing things more representationally,” Volker said.

Before landing at Moonbot, Volker, originally from Minneapolis, had also spent time living and working in Florida and Austin, and Pennsylvania native Bluhm had spent time in Cleveland, New York City and Spain.

Among Volker’s eclectic influences have been Alberto Breccia, New York illustrator Frank Stockton and master artists such as Toulouse-Latrec, Degas, Picasso and Velasquez. For Bluhm, his influences include German artist Sebastian Kruger and Jenny Seville, who works in large scale projects. “Also, filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson (“Boogie Nights,” “There Will Be Blood”). “Certainly Anderson’s films inform my current work,” Bluhm said.

For this exhibit, the two artists painted separately but kept getting continuous feedback from each other as the work evolved.

The two friends also shared paints and materials. The varied work in this exciting two-man show included acrylic on canvas, oils and graphite.

“We want to keep a child-like joy, the sense of creating a carnival. We would like to encourage a fine art discussion within the community and seeing even more community support than the area already enjoys,” Bluhm said.

The show runs now through Jan.18.

–Karl Hasten

THE WINNERS ARE

2013 Artist Fellowship Award Winners

Dance: Luther Cox, Jr.

Literature: June Rose Dowis

Music: Brenda Wimberly

Visual Arts: Rachel Stuart-Haas

Multi-Discipline: Alan Dyson