BY DAVID M. BROWN

Coming October 28, 2011, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) will debut three new fall exhibitions at its annual Fall Opening Reception.

The first, Kirsten Everberg: Looking for Edendale, displays the work of a Los Angeles artist who explores the varying line between fiction and reality by focusing on the city’s architectural landmarks and their interiors, which have all been used as locations in numerous films. The second, Artists Tell Stories (Mostly About Themselves), includes five artists who incorporate autobiography, second-and third-person voices, truth and pretense, solemnity and levity in their narratives. The third exhibition, the traveling People’s Biennial, is a collaboration among five lesser-known American art institutions, and artists from each of the museums’ states. Seven local artists will be participating.

“The evening allows SMoCA to showcase its ongoing and upcoming exhibitions and introduce many of the artists to the community,” says Cassandra Coblentz, curator for SMoCA. “It’s a great opportunity for art lovers, and the art curious, to investigate the many facets of contemporary art.”

Organized and circulated by Independent Curators International New York, the project is guest curated by its founders, Harrell Fletcher of Portland, Ore., and Jens Hoffmann of San Francisco, Ca., who traveled nationwide seeking under-appreciated work, especially from people who may not be considered part of the “professional” art world. Coblentz explains, “Some of the artists were referred to the curators who then followed up with studio visits. Some were discovered though an open call and others were selected because I toured with Harrell and Jens around town when they visited, and they asked questions and poked around.”Coblentz continues, “People’s Biennial is in some ways about democratizing the categories of creative activity typically associated with an art exhibition…by designating something not necessarily framed as art with a capital A, the curators are attempting to level the playing field on creative production, in a sense making it more ‘democratic.’”

One artist they “discovered” is Avondale resident Andrea Sweet, who had her display on view at the Bruder-designed Burton Barr Library, where she works. Her “Negro-bilia” is an assemblage of African-American collectibles attempting to confront the ideology and “artistry” of racism. She purchased her first controversial but historical mammy doll in 1980. “I wasn’t ashamed or angry. Instead, I felt empowered, even slightly amused. Those ugly caricatures of coal-black faces, bulbous eyes, and protruding ruby lips filled me with a sense of the strength and resiliency of my ancestors,” she said. All of her collectibles are prominently displayed in her home. “I have no problem displaying them alongside the traditional artwork that fills my house,” she explains. “If that offends people, good! I’m more than happy to have my collection be the catalyst for provoking thought, creating dialogue and stirring emotions. Isn’t that what art is all about?”

For Phoenix muralist and artist Paul Wilson, art is about funneling energy into a particular concept. “I get obsessed with a concept, and find a need for a cathartic, artistic ‘release’ to satisfy and indulge that obsession,” Wilson explains. He has used video, photographs and 3D art pieces as means to bring his concepts to life. When Wilson focused on 1950s albums, he photographed himself as all the members of a fictional “nuclear family” and assembled these into montages. Another obsession surrounded The Poseidon Adventure. “I did a feature-length video satire and remake of it in my garage in the late 1990s, again playing every character,” he recalls.

Another featured artist, west Phoenix native Joseph Perez, aka “Sentrock,” breakdances with paint on his hands and shoe bottoms to create canvases, which he calls “Sound in Color.” His love for breakdancing and graffiti art began in high school. “I combined my breaking art form with my painting art form, and the music inspires my dancing, which then inspires the paint strokes,” Perez said. The People’s Biennial has helped validate his art form. “I have had so many inquiries about my art, and once they hear that I am working with SMoCA, it’s like they feel more confident in my art and who I am as in artist,” he said.

Jim Grosbach, a resident of Buckeye, began building cities with clay at age six. He finished his first city in 1955, constructing a “fantasy” around it, with a mayor, council and corporate leaders. He built two more major cities in the 1960s, and in 1977 began building ones that can be viewed at People’s Biennial. “While I generally eschew publicity about the cities, I felt it important to demonstrate what can be done with a seemingly simple hobby from childhood through adulthood,” says Grosbach.

Phoenix artist Gary Freitas actually uses current technology pieces to create his sculptures. “The works are an experimental art medium utilizing the hidden and common detritus of the modern high-tech world — the printed circuit boards and related components,” explains Freitas, a forensic psychologist from the San Francisco area. “I believe that these sculptures are among the first efforts to fully reveal the hidden nexus between science and art in this evolving consciousness. And, if current research trends hold true, these circuit board will disappear within the next decade, rendering these art pieces truly unique evolutionary artifacts as well.”

In the spirit of the Southwest, Beatrice Moore’s “Mutant Piñata Show” will be featured in the People’s Biennial. Moore, a Phoenix artist who owns the Kooky Krafts Shop on Grand Avenue, says the inclusion of her piñatas will benefit all nontraditional artists and projects. “Many of these projects benefit the community as a whole and strive for a more populist and autonomous approach to art-making and art-exhibiting,” she said.

As a child in Vienna, Austria, David Hoelzinger took one of his father’s paper calendars and began making notes and small drawings depicting the events of the day – and continued this for the next 25 years. “This gradually evolved into a pictorial diary, with meanings either apparent or hidden in my own symbols,” Hoelzinger recalls. “Every picture tells a story, most of which would now be otherwise long forgotten but now serve to remind me of who I am and the people and events that are a part of me. It was also a tool for meditation and contemplation; the day was not complete until it had been so summarized.” Today Hoelzinger, who is a cardiologist in Phoenix, hopes that calendars he created as a child will inspire his neighbors and exhibition visitors. “If just one person were inspired enough to believe that they, too, can create their own art, that would be my reward.”
Coblentz anticipates many rewards for the People’s Biennial exhibition. For one, the museums participating are not in mainstream art communities, and the artists showing are, for the most part, unknown. More importantly, the exhibition is an opportunity for everyone — artists, curators and community — to rethink basic concepts, labels and categories of art. “The People’s Biennial challenges the traditional semantics and hierarchies of art, exhibitions and exhibition-making in general,” Coblentz said.

For more information on the show and the fall schedule, see www.smoca.org.