Do it Now! Watch it Now!

Meg Linton, Director of the Ben Maltz Gallery and Public Programs at Otis was featured in a news story on KCAL 9 news this afternoon. Reporter Dave Malkoff did a walk through of the Do it Now:Live Green show, which opens tomorrow with a public reception from 4 to 7PM.

The interview will run again on the cbs2 8PM newscast.

You can read a blog entry about the show and watch the interview on-line:

Dave Malkoff's blog

Live Green interview

Silver Success for Koplin Del Rio

Christopher Knight found a lot to be happy about in his Los Angeles Times review of Koplin Del Rio's 25th Anniversary show. Titled "Light and playful, solemn and deep" the piece calls out two Otis alums for praise- "...Peter Zakosky's ('81) hauntingly lovely 'Aboriginal Skull'... positions art- and anniversaries as earnest, ritualized hedges against mortality." -and- "The show's most mesmerizing work is Kerry James Marshall's ('78) black ink-wash 'Study for a Portrait of John Punch (Angry Black Man Year 1640).' The story of John Punch represents a turning point in the nation's history- one of the cruelest imaginable. Sentenced to slavery 467 years ago by a Virginia court, he marked the passage from an already evil system of indentured servitude to hopeless, permanent bondage...the artist gives the otherwise anonymous figure a sharply drawn, indelible countenance."

The exhibition closed last weekend but work from the show can still be viewed on the gallery's website. Koplin Del Rio is owned by alum Eleana Del Rio ('89).

Green Garners Great Gab

Do it Now:Live Green, hasn't even opened yet (it will this Saturday 08/5 at 4PM) at Otis' Ben Maltz Gallery but it is already getting a lot of buzz in the blogosphere. Sites highlighting the exhibition include:

Green LA Girl
Art Daily- including a nice plug and a photo by Amanda Lovelee
LAist- featured the show in its "Do Goooding" section
Vincenze's Pit- from all the way down under, noting that there will be another Live Green show the same day in Australia
A Little Birdy Told Me
Yahoo events
Backpage.com
California Green Solutions
H3 Environtmental
Knoend-which has products in the exhibition
outside.in
ArtScene
Bio-Diesel Action Center-they are helping organize the bio-diesel parade
Atelier Zero Event list
LA Weekly
Juxtapoz Event List
Craig's List
Yelp

And the list could go on...Come out and see the show!

Info Lit is a Hit!

This week two blogs focused on the world of libraries (PLAI and Ames Chat) picked up on Otis' novel approach to information literacy, applauding the College in particular, for its video on how to cite your sources.

"Information Literacy:Identify Your Sources" stars our own Dr. Parme Giuntini, Director of Art History. She takes us through the basic categories of information sources, highlighting the benefits and drawbacks that each type brings to academic writing. It was produced through the Teaching/Learning Center in the Millard Sheets Library, which also maintains Otis' YouTube profile and ITunesU presence. My favorite part of the video is the discussion of "substantive news," a term I must admit I was not familiar with prior to watching this piece.

Vernissage TV Touts Timothy Tompkins

Switzerland based Vernissage TV, the online art blog and video site, is highlighting Otis alum Timothy Tompkins' ('03) latest exhibition at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects. Featuring an interview with Vielmetter, the piece provides background on Tompkins' body of work "Left Over" and footage from the August 4th opening reception.

According to Vielmetter's comments Tompkins' pieces start with the orphan goods that haven't sold when their "seasonal" life span is over. Visiting surplus stores (think Tuesday Morning or Big Lots) Tompkins arranges the pieces into a still life, clearance tags and all. The resulting compositions are then documented in his paintings.

You can view "Left Over" at Vielmetter's gallery in Culver City through September 1st.

WWD Points Out What Makes Otis So Good

Women's Wear Daily, the highly respected fashion industry daily, carried a feature story on Otis' Fashion program in its August 7th national edition.

The story covers both the program's innovation in using new technology and materials to create apparel and several "outcome" examples and quotes from industry heavyweights on why they prefer our graduates.

On the innovation side:

Rosemary Brantely, founding chair of the department is quoted- "We're focusing on new technology, new ways to see clothing in the world" and the writer reports about Otis' work with Nike- "the college recently worked with Nike in incorporating metal-plated fabric with stretch, used for the first time in apparel."

On the outcome side:

"Industry observers say Otis is one of the top four fashion schools in the country..."

"Otis differentiates itself from Parsons and FIT with the mentoring program for students."

Marla Schwartz, a senior recruiter for several Liz Claiborne lines (C&C California, Juicy Couture and Lucky Brand Jeans) is quoted- "I feel that their students are well rounded, with beautiful illustration skills. They are innovative, creative and willing to take some risks while still producing collections that are wearable..."

Noted designer John Varvatos, who served as a mentor in 2006 and hired two alums from the program. He said "I loved their sensibility and personalities and they have fit in wonderfully on my team."

The article is available on WWD's website but you must register to see the whole thing.

Book Blog Says Bully on Otis

Robotic Librarian, a blog that seems to be concerned with all things "library" cited Otis the other day as home to one of the best artist book collections around-

"Luckily, there are valuable portals online for armchair book-lovers. The Otis College of Art and Design Collections Online has a remarkable sampler of artists’ books, digitized and ready for browsing."

The post in which Otis is mentioned focuses primarily on the book binding process and is worth a read. Some of the language was complex enough that I found myself rereading some of the paragraphs but quite interesting with a nice primer on the history of binding books and some great examples of, well let's say unusual binding materials-

Human skin found book found in West Yorkshire
(image taken from Robotic Librarian blog)

Passionate about Perspectives in the Crowd

Art Forum's influential web section "Critics' Picks" is currently featuring a review of Perspectives in the Crowd, the video installation piece by recent MFA grad Tucker Neel. Drawn from video shot by audience members at Daft Punk's 2006 Coachella Music Festival performance, Neel created a compilation video, presented in an endless loop along with sound from the performance. On view at Otis' Bolsky Gallery through August 29, it has received high praise from Christopher Bedford-

"The effect of this unlikely project is mesmerizing and variously suggestive. Like much of the best performance documentation—think of Chris Burden’s early performance photographs or the Viennese Actionists’ fastidiously composed performance stills—this video compilation immediately establishes itself as ontologically distinct from the live source event."

Bedford goes on to compliment Neel's curatorial efforts- (his) "work has a presentness entirely absent from most performance documentation. This presentness derives chiefly from that fact that Neel accepts the formal limitations of the medium he is working with, as well as the serendipities of novice camerawork, and exploits those characteristics to create a shimmering, largely abstract audiovisual spectacle that offers the viewer an entirely self-contained, entirely gripping experience."

Having seen and enjoyed the installation myself, I wonder if Neel will consider returning to the piece's origins and place it on YouTube after the exhibition closes (of course most of the source video resides there already). Some of the sensory experience would certainly be lost but it seems a fitting way to close the loop on the project.

Heard it on the "Close" Radio

Doug Harvey's review of the "Evidence of the Movement" exhibition (currently on view at the Getty and part of a larger story about John Duncan and Paul McCarthy) provided a detailed account of the Close Radio archives from radio station KPFK, which are prominently featured in "Evidence."

The piece appeared in the July 27 edition of the LA Weekly and included mentions of Otis faculty members Suzanne Lacy and Paul Vangelisti. The latter being cited as "Otis' poetry guru..."

Vangelisti was program director for KPFK during the time of Close Radio- "There was a group at the radio station- myself among them- that believed what was progressive artistically was progressive politically."

Lacy was a frequent contributor to the program, one contribution noted in the article as "Suzanne Lacy reading police-blotter reports or recent sexual assaults on woman in LA..."

The entire article can be read here- Doug Harvey LA Weekly July 27

Information about the exhibit at the Getty- Evidence of the Movement

Audio excerpts from Close Radio- Close Radio Audio