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Written by James R. Nelson, visual arts critic for The Birmingham News
Written by Wallis Bolz, Publisher
South Seattle Star, Starlite column. Vol. 2, No. 6.
Written by Margie Slovan, Editor
South Seattle Star, Vol. 3, No. 9.
Birmingham News (AL)
McCall's Art Speaks of Inequality
August 12, 2007
Section: POP & CULTURE
Page: 3-F
James R. Nelson
UNSPOKEN REALITIES: Art and Observation by Paul McCall. Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Through Aug. 24.
Paul McCall's drawings are handsomely crafted and carefully articulated portraits of people, some with instant name recognition and some who are just folks that McCall found interesting. His acrylic paintings are, in general, deliberately harsh and crude. He uses vivid colors and textures to convey in his narrative works a deep-seated anger and frustration about neglect and ignorance.
Charcoal drawings include Rosa Parks, and portraits of a couple who treated McCall with genuine understanding after Hurricane Katrina turned common courtesy into a rare commodity. Several paintings and drawings deal with the aftermath of Katrina and they cover the gamut of hope and despair, stupidity and negligence. There is no doubt about the strong racial tone in these works, and they leave no question that the indicators are factbased.
In several works, McCall uses bold patterns of red, white and blue with a sketchy overlay. In the diptych, ''Heritage and Tradition,'' he paints a black swastika on one panel and the Confederate battle flag on the second, both panels having the background of an inverted American flag. The emotional dichotomy is simple and can be justified at the level of indicting all evil.
Several of his paintings convey emotional responses to inequalities and contradictions. A black man holds a mask of a white man's face to his own. Against the American flag, a muscular, semi-nude male kneels before a gargantuan white mask. In the painting, ''From one plantation to another,'' he shows a past with black people harvesting cotton, and then black people employed to collect trash along a modern highway.
McCall cannot be accused of subtlety, and he can be excused for his polemical stance, which eliminates comfortable rationalizing. Where his works are a social/political statement, McCall tends to strike out with fevered passion.
James R. Nelson is visual arts critic for The Birmingham News.
All content © 2007- THE Birmingham News (AL)
Paul McCall is a painter who lives on Beacon Hill , and I met him last year in a café I used to frequent on East Cherry Street called Seattle Central Grind . I had not seen McCall in some time when I spotted a postcard featuring some pretty spectacular koi taped to the counter of a Columbia City coffee shop—a teaser for McCall's upcoming show, "Nishikigoi." McCall tells me he began painting koi two years ago, on the heels of an encounter with a neighbor and a hawk:
"One evening I was walking my dog in my neighborhood when I heard the sound of trickling water and saw a Chinese man tending his garden. I asked him if he had a fountain because at that time I was interested in building water features, and he said no, he had a koi pond. He proudly showed me his pond and pointed out some of his most valuable koi. They were beautiful golds and fat oranges, and I was already interested in painting them. After hearing him go on and on about his koi, I asked him, "How much do they cost?" When he told me my mouth dropped [open]. He owned some fish that were worth two to three thousand dollars.
"Two weeks later, while walking my dog, I passed his house again. Instead of the serene sounds of falling water and an image of a man quietly tending his plants, I encountered a man with his hand up in the air raging at the sky. It took him a moment to notice me, but once he did he raced over and started yelling, "Did you see that? Did you see that? The hawk just got my koi!" Sure enough, I spot the hawk flying with the koi pierced in its talons.
"I could see that he was devastated so I sat with him for awhile until he calmed down. While sitting there we exchanged philosophies, and he gave me a little more insight on the social significance of keeping koi. The more he spoke about the differences between Ogon and Ki-goi, the more my mind began to translate his words into a visual language. I began thinking about what the koi represented. The fact that they are the same species and yet uniquely distinct [from one another] is, in my opinion, a mirror of humanity."
McCall's gorgeous renderings of koi will be on display in the Upstairs Gallery at U-Frame It on Broadway beginning Sept. 2 , with an opening reception for the show, "Nishikigoi," on Saturday, Sept. 6, from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m .... Written by Wallis Bolz, Publisher South Seattle Star, Starlite column. Vol. 2, No. 6.
Artists Give Us New Ways to Look at Race
Exhibit is first of a kind for Wing Luke Asian Museum
By Margie Slovan
Last Thursday, April 29, the Wing Luke Asian Museum hosted a reception for its very first multicultural exhibition, Beyond Talk—Redrawing Race. Twelve Northwest artists weighed in on what race means to them, expressing their thoughts through painting, mixed-media, video installation, dolls and even a collection of plates.
As you walk into the exhibit, one of the first things you see is a stainless steel table on which there are only three things: a chopping block, a meat cleaver and a woman's long black braid. It suggests that someone has just cut the braid off the woman's head. Artist Roberta May Wong says that her piece symbolizes all Americans who come here from other places. Her work, which is called "All American," suggests that when you emigrate to America you must give up part of your identity.
The assimilation theme is continued nearby. A miniature luggage trunk, transparent, is filled with photos. The people in the photos—children, babies, families, old people—all look Chinese. Instructions on the side of the exhibit ask you to look more closely at the contents of the trunk, using the magnifying glass provided. "Are there things in the trunk you would like to keep hidden?" the artist asks. "Why?" MalPina Chan created the piece, titled "Lin Heong's Trunk."
Filmmaker Wes Kim has contributed one of the exhibit's most thought-provoking entries. A series of large photographs are projected, one after the other, on a corner wall. If you stand in a certain spot you will hear a voice asking questions about the photographs. "Which woman would you prefer as a spouse for your son? Number one, or number two?" You hear a voice reply, "Number two." Then one photo is replaced with a new one, and the questioning continues. "Number one, or number two?" It feels like you are at the eye doctor getting your vision checked—the exhibit, in fact, is called "Vision Test." But what you are really doing is getting your prejudice checked, as the photographs are all of women of different races.
One of the simplest and most powerful pieces in the exhibit is a painting by Beacon Hill artist Paul McCall, "Committed to the Impending Arrival." It is a painting of a pregnant woman's belly. She is carrying twins—one looks African-American, the other indeterminate. McCall says the pregnant woman is his mother and the twins are his sisters, Josette and Francois. "One sister looks more European while the other looks more African," his artist statement says. "Often the fairer of the two sisters was given more opportunities."
Beyond Talk—Redrawing Race runs through December 12, 2004 at the Wing Luke Asian Museum, 407 7th Ave. S. in the International District. To visit the South Seattle Star website please click here.