Jim Dulz is not only an artist, but also a curator, who often brings fun group exhibits to the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts in Carmel, where he serves on the board. This time, it’s an 11-artist show united in their exploration of the role of books in art. The works come from a range of artists, from Anna Rheim – a Salon Jane photographer with over 40 years of experience – to Youth Arts Collective student Raven Cook, who is 24.
“Taken together, this exhibition celebrates the ingenuity, style, humor, pathos and individual aesthetic of 11 remarkable artists,” Dulz wrote to explain the Book / Art show.
Naturally, literature and visual arts have been inspiring one another for thousands of years.
Books also often find themselves considered an aesthetic object, starting with never-read home libraries full of leather-cased books we all know too well.
In Book / Art, books serve both as decorative objects and material to create art. They can open and unfold in unexpected ways, inspire storytelling and particular narratives or become elements of collages.
San Francisco-area artist Julia Nelson-Gal comes with a series made of book covers. (She gives titles to her art pieces from the books.)
Colorado-based Tracey Harris has been showing her book stack paintings in the Wakefield Gallery in Carmel. With titles visible on the painting, Harris leans toward the provocative, with The Encyclopedia of Bad Decisions and Why Crazy People Love You.
Carmel Valley-based Pamela Takigawa of “fine art and flying poodle designs” participates in the exhibit with her political book pages commemorating WWII.
Susan Giacometti, a mixed-media artist known for her paper works and etching prints, is showing, as is Pacific Grove-based fabric-explorer and nature artist Joy Colangelo, who creates three-dimensional art books.
Featured artists also include Jamie Dagdigian, an artist, designer and instructor (and Art Department chairman) at Monterey Peninsula College; Carmel Valley-based painter and assemblage artist Robert Armstrong; and San Jose artist and art instructor Ingrid Brook-Kothlow.
Book/Art opens with a reception from 5-7pm on Friday, May 29. Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, 4th and Guadalupe, Carmel. Free. On display until June 28. (831) 624-7491, carlcherrycenter.org.