I'm Becoming An Art Snob

Well, not really, but I do play one on tv....

Tonight I went to the second of three gallery openings this week. This was Sculpture Unbound at the Edison Place Gallery in the Pepco Building. The juried exhibit was put together by the Washington Project for the Arts/Corcoran and the Washington Sculptors Group.

I liked the show. This was a bit outside of my usual comfort zone, featuring big installation pieces and a lot of conceptual work. I think my favorite piece was this very tall welded bronze piece that was painted teal and blue. One of my companions is an artist herself and very knowledgable about sculpture and modern art in general. She didn't really like that piece as much, but I guess it's all personal taste. There were some sculptures that I just didn't "get" - like different kinds of dirt on the floor? But some were pretty interesting and appealing because of the technique and craftsmanship that went into them.

I like seeing pieces that spark a more visceral reaction - things that you want to touch or look at in lots of different ways. I may not always understand the concept or the emotion the artist was trying to convey but I can still love a piece for its shape, color, or texture. There was this really fun piece that was a huge ball of aluminum mesh held together with hot glue. I really wanted to bounce on it! :-)

It's also fun to check out the kind of people who attend an art opening. These big pieces were priced pretty high - from $1,000 - 9,500 from what I saw. So the packed gallery was filled with a mix of artists, students, people like us who like art and soak it up for free, and people who can afford to spend thousands on the art itself. A pretty eclectic group!