Exhibit Reveals The Faces Behind Unique Projects

FOR THE RECORD: October 27, 2000: Story wrong: Phil Corlis is one of the photographers whose work is on display at the Art Spirit Gallery in Coeur d’Alene in an exhibit running through Nov. 25. His name and the closing date were reported incorrectly in a story in Thursday’s IN Life section.

Remember that environmental art installation involving miles and miles of white diaphanous fabric running across the rolling coastal hills of California? Or the colossal pink luminous floating fabric pieces surrounding 11 Florida islands, transforming them into giant waterlilies in a homage to Monet?

Well, the people who have brought the world those and other enormously complicated public art projects since the ‘60s are coming to the Inland Northwest to tell how they did it and what they are planning next.

Internationally known environmental artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude will speak in Moscow next Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the University of Idaho Administration Auditorium.

The presentation is in conjunction with their current exhibition at the school’s Prichard Art Gallery, “Two Works in Progress: Over the River Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado, and The Gates Project for Central Park, New York City.”

The exhibit features drawings, maps and photographs of the two proposed projects.

The Over the River project calls for the installation of seven miles of intermittent canopy of translucent fabric which will hang high above the water.

Conceived 20 years ago, the Gates project involves saffron-colored fabric panels suspended from the top of 11,000 rectangular steel gates, each 15 feet tall, placed along 27 miles of Central Park walkways.

“These monumental projects evolve through a process of collaboration between the artists, private citizens, landowners, government agencies, construction crews, and finally the audience or viewer,” says Gail Siegel, director of the university’s galleries.

“The ultimate realization of each piece requires a unique combination of artistic vision, passion, perseverance, political savvy and engineering know-how; each component is necessary to take the process to completion,” Siegel says.

Such site-specific, time-limited installations take years of planning. While the actual finished pieces exist for only a few weeks, the work continues on through media documentation in the form of photographs, books and films.

The exhibit runs through Nov. 17 in the Prichard Art Gallery, 414 S. Main St. in Moscow. Gallery hours are from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is free.

Art Spirit Gallery

The black-and-white photography of Phil Korvas and Ernest Folkes is on display at the Art Spirit Gallery in Coeur d’Alene. “Time, Space and Texture” includes landscapes and still lifes.

Korvas, a longtime photography instructor at North Idaho College, works with a traditional wooden field camera shooting 4-by-5-inch sheet film. His images are printed on archival fiber-base paper toned in a selenium bath. “My best explanation for why I have chosen these time-honored work processes can only be that they fit,” says Korvas.

Folkes, a retired surgeon, has devoted himself to photography for the last few years. His work in this show reflects his travels to France and the “beauty in the ordinary subjects,” he says.

Meet the artists Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. at the gallery, 908 Sherman Ave. They will give a gallery talk about their work on Saturday at 11 a.m. Both events are free.

Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The show runs through Nov. 30.

Stanek House Artists

On Saturday, the Stanek House Artists are holding their “Open Studio Art Show” from noon to 3 p.m. in the stone building just east of the Manito Park greenhouse.

The show features more than 100 works by 10 Spokane artists. Among the paintings are watercolors by Jean Toone, and gouache florals by art instructor Sue Rorhback. Also on display are images by national award-winning watercolorist Olivia Waterman and sumi-e painter Keiko Von Holt.

The show is free and open to the public.

E Gallery

Beginning Wednesday and running through Nov. 9 at the E Gallery is a special exhibit, “Secret Adoption Grief Art Show.”

“The show will feature artwork depicting the sorrow that is an integral part of the adoption process by those whose lives have been affected,” says Kay Russell of Spokane, Washington state coordinator of Origins USA, a national advocacy group.

There will be a dinner on Nov. 3 with guest speakers including authors Christina Crawford (“Mommie Dearest”) and Sandy Musser (“To Prison With Love”), and Jessica Del Balzo, president of Adoption: Legalized Lies. Tickets are $40; call 325-6698.

Eastern Washington University

Walla Walla artist Brad Rude is showing a dozen small and medium-size bronze sculptures at EWU’s Gallery of Art beginning next Thursday.

“Rude has a profound mastery of materials,” says Tonya Turner Carroll, owner of the Turner Carroll Gallery in Santa Fe, N.M., which carries Rude’s sculptures. He also has “the ability to create a sense of wonder using elements from the world we know,” she says.

A Montana native, Rude worked at the Walla Walla Foundry before focusing solely on creating his own work. The sculptures in this show are oddly mythic animals made from bronze and found objects, says his wife, Jayne Rude.

An artist’s reception is next Thursday in the Art Building, 526 Fifth, Cheney. The show runs through Dec. 1. Regular gallery hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

WSU, Pullman

Two new exhibits are opening at galleries on WSU’s Pullman campus.

Beginning Monday in the Compton Union Gallery is an exhibit of paintings by siblings Vicki and Susan Kallies. “Two Sisters Did Was” runs through Nov. 18.

Both painters have “strong personal visions influenced by their Wisconsin dairy farming roots,” says Sue Hinz of the WSU news bureau. The title comes from the fractured English of European immigrant farmers.

The CUB Gallery, adjacent to the auditorium lobby, is open from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday and on two Saturdays: Nov. 4 and 18.

In WSU’s Gallery II from Tuesday through Nov. 3, the “Day of the Dead” exhibit features that traditional Mexican celebration. The gallery is in the Fine Arts Building and is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.