Childrens Art Party & “Prescience” Photo Exhibit
By Deogracio Secretario
The Second Saturdays Art Walk at the Perez Road Art + Design District in Cathedral City continues through the summer at Simeon Den Gallery with two art “happenings.” The Gallery will host it’s monthly Children’s Art Party in the afternoon from 1-3pm and the opening of “Prescience,” a photo exhibit showcasing select and extraordinary Coachella Valley photographers from 5-8pm.
The Children’s Art Party is a monthly, free event sponsored by the Agnes Pelton Society and S.C.R.A.P Gallery, directed by Karen Riley. It is a family activity for parents and children to create art utilizing recyclable materials in a playful, party atmosphere and culminates with the young artists signing their work and hanging them on a professional gallery wall. The guest artist is week is interdisciplinary artist, Nalani Hernandez, who will guide participants making watercolors.
“Prescience,” is the invitational exhibit that showcases new works by celebrated desert photographers, Stephen Baumbach, Gary Borgstedt, Peter Palladino, Heather Sprague, and Simeon Den. The title, “Prescience,” attends to the other-worldly powers of artists to intuit, tap into inner workings of the psyche and create works that go beyond the self-evident physical world, going past the pragmatic properties of Science, and manifesting a kind of “pre-Science” art. It attends to the balance between the literal representational image that is captured by a camera and then the photographer’s reinterpreting of that reality to bend the context. Each of these photographers produce thoughtful, insightful images that exceed the decorative and explore deeper perceptions of the commonplace.
Recent works by Stephen Baumbach speak to his romance with the desert but in regard to his portraiture work, both he and Peter Palladino are masters at capturing the elusive, sought after “in-between” moments of portrait photography. Both artists are coincidentally and notably influenced by the edgy, oftentimes disturbing images of the inimitable Joel-Peter Witkin and their offerings bear that out. Palladino will show gritty, ironic 1980’s portraits from his archives of “night life” transgender women glamorously made-up, costumed, styled and lit in the distinctive, signature George Hurrell-style of 1950’s films known as Hollywood “glamour lighting.”
On the other end of the spectrum, Gary Borgstedt creates visual tropes capturing images of fabric in his studio and producing conceptual landscapes that express the virtual to the abstract.
The litany of Heater Sprague’s art productions have all to do with her “connectedness to our world.” Her ongoing projects continue to explore the ways in which she navigates the connectedness whilst maintaining Balance and staying ahead of the curve. What’s next is what’s Next.
The photography of interdisciplinary artist, Simeon Den, samples the Zen aesthetic and not unlike his dance, performance, and video pieces, he applies the strategies of re-conceptualizing and contextualizing Time, Space, fragmentation, implied movement, visual metaphors, and the humor of double-entendres.
Simeon Den Gallery is located at 68895 Perez Road, #I-27, Cathedral City in the Perez Road Art+Design District. Second Saturdays Childrens Art Party is from 1-3p and the Art Walk, that includes Perez Road galleries and design shops is open from 5-8pm.
Info at www.simeondengallery.com
