THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2002
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN =11
Photo display attests to Cuba's rich past
By Katie Nelson knelson@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
While Michael Eastman says he isn't a political photographer, his images of Cuban architecture depict some of the sad ironies of Latin American culture.
"Cuba is a country that is stuck in the past," Eastman said yesterday in a phone interview from his home in St. Louis. "Much of it was built in the '20s and '30s, and as
grand as it was then, and as beautiful as it is now, not much has changed. I don't pretend to understand all the politics in the foreign relations with them, but I hope my work makes people think about what our trade embargoes are doing to those people."
Eastman's collection of photos taken in Cuba during 1999 and 2000, are now displayed in the Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art gallery in downtown Kansas City, Mo.
The 12 photos in the exhibit, narrowed
down from more than 1,000 original images,grandly display a dignified island stuck in time. Eleven of the 12 pieces are nearly six feet tall and more than four feet wide.The largest is eight feet tall.
—a yellow comb, a carefully folded wool blanket —hint that the decrepit buildings are still in use.
The photos show vibrantly painted blue, green and red walls, standing stark and peeling. Inside once elegant homes, ornate furniture and elaborate ironwork railings rust.
"I don't think his photographs are subdued in any way," said Sherry Leedy, owner and director of the gallery.
Cuban art
Leedy, a 1980 painting graduate of the University of
These large format pictures are saturated in vivid color, in a world where it seems pastels don't exist. Empty bedrooms look abandoned, although tiny details
Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art
2004 Baltimore Ave. in Kansas City, Mo.
For more information on the gallery call (816) 221-2626 or go to www.sherryleedy.com. For more information and to view Eastman's work, go to www.eastmanimages.com.
Kansas, has run her own gallery since 1985. She has shown Eastman's work before, and the quality and beauty of his photography is why she continues to follow his work, she said.
"Quality was really the only consideration," Leedy explained. "But at the same time there is sort of an interest in Cuba. It's as if time has stood still in regards to the architecture. It was once very wealthy, which contrasts with now, because that's no longer the situation."
Eastman is a St. Louis native who attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison in the '60s as a business major. He actually tried to switch out of the major, but was told by the government that he must either finish college on time, or be drafted into the Vietnam War. Eastman chose business. He never pursued it, however, and got into photography while in his '20s.
A Photo by Michael Eastman
Contributed art.
Now, Eastman is a nationally recognized commercial and fine arts photographer. His work has been displayed at galleries across the country. His Cuba collection will travel for five to 10 years, he said, and is making its debut now at the Sherry Leedy gallery. It will remain there until Oct. 18.
Gallery brings contemporary art to Lawrence
By Ron Knox
jayplay@kansan.com
Jayplaywriter
In a stark white gallery, Courtney Tramposh stood in the front of a crowd of people, staring at 11 television sets scattered on the floor. She quietly talked with other observers, whose comments ranged from fascination to confusion. Some of the TV screens leapt with color and light, while others created slow, dark images creeping around behind the glass.
The people stared at the screens. The screens stared back.
"Some of the artists have been talking about how television can make faces back at you," said Tramposh, Prairie Village senior, whose untitled project was repeatedly playing on one of the televisions. "It's always offering you something."
Tramposh, along with 10 visual artists and one audio artist, comprised the artists displaying works at the inaugural art show
"Some of the artists have been talking about how television can make faces back at you. It's always offering you something."
Courtney Tramposh Contemporary artist
at Paragraph, Lawrence's first and only public contemporary art gallery. The television sets were the artists' canvases, as they constructed their 10-frame clips to accompany Matt Campbell's abstract, electronic musical composition, Opens Fire.
The people huddled on one side of the freshly refinished rectangle of a room and studied the multimedia display, a quiet celebration of the art. Outside, on the corner of Seventh and Massachusetts streets, people near the gallery celebrated a different accomplishment, something vital for Lawrence, "City of The Arts."
204. 11
As with most gallery openings, the event required a name, something explanatory and simple, accurate yet oblique.
"The event kind of named itself. It's The Opening Paragraph'," Horst said.
"This is a needed addition to the city," said Shelly Horst, gallery director, as she spoke with patrons entering the gallery. "For a city with such a rich artistic history, this kind of venue is long overdue."
The simplicity of the name and the presentation, although accurate and necessary for the presentation's purposes, say little about the effort it took to get the space to where it is today, said Horst.
"We've been working constantly since we got the lease in July. The place was an old antique store before we got it, and everything had to be changed. We just finished last week," Horst said.
Reaping what they have sown, the
gallery will serve as home for KU students and local artists who otherwise would move their art shows to other cities. The gallery is already booked until the end of the year, including Tramposh and fellow multimedia artist Ben Steinbauer, who will present new work in mid-December.
Back inside, the crowd stood shoulder-to-shoulder, leaving a wide gap between themselves and the art. Proud parents, art connoisseurs, the Lawrence hip elite and passersby all whispered to each other, questioning exactly what they were seeing, the strange, sometimes unidentifiable yet simple images that lit up their faces in the dim light.
The televisions sat in a half circle on one side of the space, flashing their images steadily, persistently. The patrons stood in a half circle on the other side, examining, contemplating with arms crossed over their chests en masse. It was a relentless staring contest. The people stared at the screens. The screens stared back.