Se(x)nsuality

Last Friday was Unblurred on Penn Avenue. It was a lovely night to be out and about the city, with mild weather and a beautiful sky. A lot was happening around the city. Life on Mars opened. Which explains why there weren't a lot of people out and about on Penn Avenue. I opted for Penn because, generally, the only time you can get in to see some of the exhibits is on first Fridays. The downtown galleries have regular hours and Life on Mars will be open through January.

Maybe if there was enough interest, these venues could consider extending their hours. It's always a mixed bag, with a wide range of disciplines and aesthetics You are likely to run into NOISE and poetry readings as you are examples of the plastic arts.

Some of the spaces, like the International Childrens Art Gallery, are difficult to pindown. ICAG is a recently opened venue; I have seen a couple of exhibits there. Neither were of work by children. Go figure.

At any rate, Lauren Toohey was exhibiting work at ICAG this past Friday. The works were blatantly ribald and fun.


The above mural was painted on-site by Lauren expressly for this exhibit. Pretty large undertaking for this exhibit.


There were several paintings like the one above, kind of a modern take on the traditional woman-at-toilet paintings. What I found interesting about these was that Tooey is using contemporary content in this context. Also, and this doesn't come through well in the images, the color in these was amazing.

Actually the night for me was all about color and sensuality. Down the block at Metamorphose, another young artist, Joana Ricou, was exhibiting these gloriously erotic paintings --




If you get a chance, please drop by her site and check out the drawing portfolio. Very nice stuff there. I liked the paintings that I saw on Friday, and the drawings are really fresh.