Visual-art lovers were left hanging this year

The extended shutdown of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art and the extended downturn in the national and local economies loomed large among factors that rendered 2009 a bummer for visual-art lovers in Winston-Salem.

Although there were some interesting shows in the city this year, only a handful of them were compelling enough to merit a special year-end mention.

The first of these was Charles Searles' "Universal Reflections of Color and Rhythm," which opened in January at Winston-Salem State University's Diggs Gallery. Searles' refined channeling of traditional African-art influences was evident in about 60 paintings, sculptures and drawings he made in the 40 years before his death in 2003. This was a welcome opportunity to consider the formidable career of an artist whose work continues to merit wider exposure. After closing in March, the show was reinstalled at the Diggs from June into late September. The gallery had been scheduled for renovation work during that interval, but that was put on indefinite hold because of financing problems related to the faltering economy. The Diggs' relatively sparse 2009 exhibition schedule probably factored into the dearth of first-rate exhibitions in the city.

Also early in the year was "Artists Reaction to War," a war-themed group show in February and part of March in the Salem College Fine Arts Center. Organized by artist and Salem art professor Kimberly Varnadoe, it brought together works by nine artists, including two from Winston-Salem and others from as far afield as New York, Detroit and San Francisco. These works collectively advocated peaceful negotiation as a more sensible, humane alternative to government-sponsored violence. The show was memorable not only for the quality of the art but also for the welcome note of feisty, topical controversy it injected into the local visual-art scene.

Buzz-worthy

Generating more controversy than any other exhibition or art-related event was Mark Jenkins' series of site-specific sculptures in public settings. Jenkins was one of several internationally known artists commissioned to create temporary public artworks citywide through SECCA's program "Inside Out: Artists in the Community II," an effort to maintain the center's visibility while its galleries undergo a $1.5 million renovation. SECCA's Marguerite Drive building has been closed to the public throughout this year for the renovation, originally scheduled for completion next month but now expected to take until next summer. The "Inside Out" program was co-organized by SECCA exhibitions curator Steven Matijcio and education curator Cliff Dossel.

Jenkins created eight life-size sculptures of human figures from packing tape and dressed them in ordinary clothes, intending to install them in six pre-selected public locations. In late September he installed three of the figures, but two of those -- one lying atop a downtown billboard, the other encased in a big transparent cocoon suspended in a magnolia tree outside Reynolda House -- prompted calls to the police, at whose request SECCA promptly removed them.

The third figure, sitting cross-legged and sprouting flowers from its neck in Tanglewood Park's Arboretum, evidently caused no alarm. Nor did a fourth, standing with a sleeping bag covering its head and most of its body at the downtown bus terminal for about a week in November. SECCA was only allowed to install the latter piece after weeks of negotiations with city officials -- a consequence of the earlier police calls. The resultant publicity substantially diminished this work's surprise element, a key aspect of Jenkins' art. Jenkins created his four remaining figures for two sites on Liberty Street, but three months later the sculptures are still in storage. Matijcio recently said that the Liberty Street sites presented liability and insurance problems, but he hopes to eventually have those pieces installed at "alternative sites that would stay true to the original intent of the works."

Jenkins' project had a bigger audience impact than any of the other "Inside Out" commissions, and it raised some timely questions about public and official receptivity to unconventional art in the so-called City of the Arts. Unfortunately, SECCA's handling of the police matter didn't bode well for its future presentation of challenging, unconventional art. It would have been encouraging to see SECCA Director Mark Leach take a stronger stand on behalf of Jenkins' project. In the absence of an official defense of the work, the lesson appears to be that in Winston-Salem, all it takes to have a piece of art removed from public view is one or two complaints from easily offended individuals.

Milestones

Finally, this year was marked by two very different milestones on Winston-Salem's visual-art scene.

Local artist and art-community activist Kelly Petersen, only 41, died Jan. 10 after a four-year struggle with breast cancer. Much of the city's arts community attended a spirited gathering in her memory a few days later at the Millennium Center. And in late October Urban Artware and 5ive & 40rty co-organized a group art show and sale that raised $3,000 for a student scholarship in Petersen's name at UNC School of the Arts' school of design and production.

On a happier note, 2009 marked the 25th anniversary of Artworks, the artists' co-op that pioneered the downtown Arts District when it opened Artworks Gallery in 1984. An important presence in the district and the local art community ever since then, Artworks is celebrating the anniversary with a year-end, all-members show at the gallery through Jan. 2.