Showing posts with label Rodger Stevens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rodger Stevens. Show all posts

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Drawing on our experience to serve a well-sculpted meal






On August 1st at 8pm, Like the Spice fed the multitudes with Forming Bread Lines, the latest and most delicious installment of our Monthly Dinner Series. And if you didn't have those reservations, you were off to McDonalds, because we were SOLD OUT! Keep that in mind for next time.



Dinner was brought to us by Scottadito Osteria Toscana and we can't praise them enough. We also can't offer enough praise to our guests. Great company, great questions, hey, it was just great! We've enjoyed all our dinners but man, this one sure was something special.



Dinner began with our camera-shy host, Marisa Sage, discussing the concepts behind the show. She told us how it was assembled over six months of studio visits, and inspired by the way drawings and sculptures can influence and translate each other back and forth between 2d and 3d. It was great and we love her, but she wouldn't let us take any photos so let's move on.



Artist Rodger Stevens followed Marisa, sharing a little bit about the intricacies in his pieces and how most of the time, they are a bit more than meets the eye. For those not fortunate enough to have heard him talk, Rodger is very, very funny and his self-critique was more like standup comedy. This helped make it easy to understand the role of humor in his art. Rodger also pointed out how his kids had made him a stronger artist. A highlight of the night for sure!



Our pal Kathleen Vance from Frontroom Gallery was up next, telling us about her piece at the front of the gallery, which combines a drawing study of running water with the physical presence of a small semi-portable stream.



Kathleen's piece was intended to provoke discussion of how, regardless of what we might change in the environment, water always finds its way. And when you consider the way moving water shaped the planet long before we arrived, her piece becomes a much larger and exciting concept. We're always happy to have her visit.



Marc Andre Robinson closed the night, first by proposing a toast to this wonderful evening...



...and then by explaining his eye-catching piece. With Hurricane Katrina fresh in his mind, Marc's piece combines the ideas of devastation and rebirth, and the evolution of people as individuals and as masses. The connected chair sculptures are designed as a sexual being, just like they seem, and that connects well with the drawing that hangs on the wall. Marc's piece gave everyone a bit to think about and ended the night with an excellent discussion... but then, weren't they all?



Thanks to all our guests for making the whole experience the best we've had to date. So how are we gonna top it next time? We're still getting next month's dinner prepared, but save the third weekend in September. Dean Goelz will be with us and remember, the secret is to reserve your space early!


Jason Goodman, owner of 3rd Ward, showing off with Dean's work


Forming Lines runs until August 31st. If you haven't already, please stop by and take a look. And if you have, why not come again?

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Rodger Stevens Reviews Flip!















It's nice when someone else can tell you about how fabulous Like the Spice is. Rodger Stevens has reviewed Flip for WAGMAG and we couldn't agree with his opinion of us more.


“Flip”

Like the Spice
2008-03-04

Who would have thought that Rachel Beach’s architectonic reliefs and Nora Herting’s rollicking cheerleaders would make such a lovely couple? Evidently the good eyes at Like the Spice did, and, boy, were they right. Beach and Herting both take a reductive approach to their respective subjects, but rather than boiling the flavor out of them, they’ve distilled their complexities into singular, powerful ids. Beach’s sculptures, with their arresting silhouettes and precious interiors, are descendents of architectural design motifs – moldings, cornices, banisters, and the like – but they have evolved into sensual, almost living, creatures, with luscious contours and richly pigmented skins. Herting’s happy body clusters are reverse engineered. Aggregated figures and parts of figures that started as players in choreographed routines are here removed from their former public lives and presented as symbols or schematics of interaction frozen against static patterns. The effect is monumentalizing in a way: cheerful leapers take on the gravity of war memorials. But like Beach’s, her process too concentrates the vitality of a big theme into highly enriched little morsels, gobble-able in an instant but packed with sustenance. Taken together these artists offer a ravishing spectrum of animate form.

—Rodger Stevens

See the original posting at WAGMAG.