Catalogs document contemporary artists’ works

Several recent catalogs documenting the work of contemporary artists are worth checking out.

“Sarah Charlesworth: Doubleworld” (New Museum) collects several essays and an interview with the artist whose photographic works were slyly, and not so, subversive, one who made rather than took photographs. The catalog and exhibition were the first major New York survey of her work over the course of more than four decades.

By isolating, re-photographing and re-presenting portions of images from mass media sources, and juxtaposing them with other seemingly incongruous images, she questioned the roles images play in our culture.

The beautifully produced catalog includes selected images from all of the major series she worked on before her untimely death in 2013.

“Toxic Beauty: The Art of Frank Moore” (Grey Art Gallery, New York University), by Klaus Kertess, Susan Harris and Gregg Bordowitz examines the work of this New York artist who passed away in 2002.

The skilled painter was known for inventing new worlds that both contained incidents from his own life and transcended them through creating fantastic images often in elaborate frames that he manufactured himself. Comparisons to the works of Hieronymous Bosch are not misplaced.

Through a personal iconography, the works often tackled “big subjects” such as life and death and told stories commenting on the battlegrounds of gender, race, genetically modified foods and class that were so prominent in the 1980s and early 1990s.

The catalog reproduces more than 50 paintings and similar number of works on paper and offer up a compelling overview of this unique artist’s work.

Evening with the Arts

The Arts Council’s 30th anniversary fundraising dinner and silent auction, which raises money to support performances, exhibitions and films throughout the coming year is coming up on March 5.

The theme is “Pearls and Pirates” and festive and or pirate attire is encouraged. A gourmet dinner — fillet and lobster or butternut squash cannelloni — will be prepared by the Slanted Porch. Tickets are $70 per person and include dinner, wine and admission to the auction. For $80 per person you also receive $20 worth of raffle tickets.

Seating is very limited and is filling up, so contact CAC to make your reservations at 775-423-1440 or charts@phonewave.net

Kirk Robertson covers the arts and may be reached at news@lahontanvalleynews.com