| |
|
|
Local musicians get stuck between rock and an art place, again
BY TED DROZDOWSKI
|
|
|
|
|
Hell, they’ve made sequels for movies as crappy as Dracula 2000 and The Fast and the Furious, so why not do the same for an art show that had a zero-percent suck factor? Early this year, "Between Rock and an Art Place" displayed visual art made by Boston-area rock musicians at Zeitgeist Gallery in Cambridge. The show was a diverse collection of painting, sculpture, mixed-media work, and photography that showed evidence of real talent. So Ami Bennitt, one of its curators, collected even more works for another edition. Next Thursday, "Between Rock and an Art Place, Part II" will go up at the Paradise Lounge, which has established itself as a legitimate presence in the city’s underground art community since the arrival of new manager Jeff Marshall and Bennitt’s installation as the art maven for the Paradise’s spacious lounge and gallery. Finding the two dozen artists who showed in part one wasn’t easy. Many were displaying their work for the first time. "For this round, I had to do a lot of digging to find out that Blake Hazard and [Dresden Dolls frontwoman] Amanda Palmer did line drawings, or that [Buffalo Tom’s] Chris Colbourn is a photographer," says Bennitt. "But I asked around. I’m a motormouth. I get information." And after "Between Rock and an Art Place, Part II" comes down, Bennitt is planning to broaden the Paradise’s gallery shows. "This year a lot of what we did — like the concert-poster show and the rock-photography show — was driven by the Paradise’s 25th anniversary. Next year we don’t have anything to drive the shows other than showing good art. The first show will be all-metal — sculpture, painting, etcetera, on metal. There’s going to be a group show of skateboard art, with skateboards hanging on the wall." A third show will feature New York City–based installation painter Steve Keene, who has worked with Apples in Stereo and other bands. As for "Between Rock and An Art Place, Part II," it will also be part of this year’s First Night, with an installation on Boston Common. "What’s great about the shows I’ve been working on at the Paradise is that it really is art for the people," Bennitt says. "You can go to the Paradise and see something intriguing, and maybe you can afford it, and you don’t need to know anything about art to appreciate it." Much like the Paradise, a venerable rock club that celebrated its 25th anniversary this year in part by transforming its lounge into a welcoming hangout and art space, Bennitt is in a state of transformation. The respected band manager, publicist, and promoter, whose résumé includes work with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Punk Rock Aerobics, has been backing off from the music business and getting more involved in art, curating, and taking on visual artists as clients. "I love music and I love musicians," she says, "but there are things about working in the music industry that have become difficult. I’ve lost some interest." Among her current crop of clients is Asa Brebner, a fixture of the Boston music scene who is also a brilliant and eccentric sculptor and illustrator. Next Sunday at 7 p.m., a show of Brebner’s line drawings, some dating back 20 years, opens at the Middle East Café bakery. Much of Brebner’s work seems to revolve around human chaos — or, as Bennitt sums it up, "sex, ecology, war, religion, and more sex." The show — which is curated jointly by Bennitt and Out of the Blue Gallery’s Carly Weaver — is called "Linear Representations of My Fantasies, Neurosis and Observations," but "I wouldn’t draw too many conclusions from that," Brebner says. "I just think I do stuff that’s interesting, and a lot of that is public spectacle," like the drawing of a hanging that illustrates the show’s poster. "A lot of my stuff is caricatures of emotional issues or things that are relevant to our fragile existence. If you examine a meaningless jumble of things, or a scene of chaos, closely enough, it becomes meaningful, because it’s our nature to imbue it with emotions and context. That’s part of the human condition." "Between Rock and an Art Place, Part II" opens at the Paradise Lounge, 969 Commonwealth Avenue, with a reception next Thursday, November 13, at 7 p.m.; call (617) 562-8800. "Linear Representations of My Fantasies, Neurosis and Observations" opens at the Middle East bakery, 472 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square, next Sunday, November 16, at 7 p.m.; call (617) 864-EAST.
|
