FiRST FRIDAY RAMBLES

Posted by arts_reviews

Posted: July 3, 2009 - 10:55 pm

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By MIKE DUNHAM

If you like birds, get over to Stephan Fine Art's new 434 K Street gallery to see Kevin Crowley's ink portraits of (mostly) ravens. Crowley, from Detroit, came to Alaska in 1999, taught a season in Nunam Iqua (Sheldon Point) at the mouth of the Yukon, relocated to teach in Korea where he picked up some Asian approaches to art, came back with a wife and some ideas and now lives in Anchorage. Each of his birds has an undeniable personality and each image comes with a story -- a raven trying to fly off with a whale, a hapless owl futilely trying to guard his prey from a gang of theiving ravens.

Crowley's show opened on Friday along with several others downtown. The biggest crowd was at Artique, 314 G St. No surprise there, since the star attraction was new work by Byron Birdsall. Scott Switzer was also featured, with large oil paintings of bears. But his bruins pale next to his painting of a bull moose - not in the featured artist space on the north end of the gallery, but on the south wall at the opposite end.

I was most impressed with the photographs of Erica Hill, of Nenana. Hill has gained some note in the lower 48 with her multidisciplinary addressing of issues of ethnicity and identity. Twelve self portraits fill one wall, so different that you wouldn't necessarily know they were all of the same person if someone didn't tell you. Lord's show is displayed with the Alaska Native Arts Foundation's typical grace and spaciousness. Check it out at 500 W. 5th.

The group show at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art, 427 D St., in which 50 different artists address 50 years of Alaska statehood includes a number of familiar names and generally high quality work. Esther Hong's unusual photos in glass particularly caught my attention.

Another group show at Mixx's Grill in the Inlet Tower was harder to judge, mainly because the art lover feels a little awkward leaning over the plate of someone trying to enjoy their lamb to get a better look at the painting on the far side of the table. But I was struck by Cloud Medicine Crow's striking portrait of actress Allison Warden. The artist has her standing on an urban sidewalk, legs apart, one foot provocatively torqued, her hands in the pockets of her coat, and a guarded, piercing look to something outside the canvas.

Parking was not such a problem this Friday, perhaps because many people were out of town for the weekend. Besides, parking was free, though I did catch a family of out-of-state folks trying to figure out how much money to put into the meter at 7 p.m. and told them to save their change.

There were a few performance art type things underway. A guy named Hurricane Dave in a patriotically colored top hat played guitar and sang pop hits at Trail Maker Gallery, 415 L St., and at 4th and D the cast of Cyrano's upcoming production of "Messhugah-Nuns" drummed up business in costume.

That's what I saw. What'd you see? Tell us about it here.

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