study guide

Artists Up Close and Personal

2008 Rocky Mountain Biennial Juror: Michael Paglia


Michael Paglia (middle) awards Sami Alkarim (left) 2nd place in the 2008 Rocky Mountain Biennial (FCMOCA Executive Direxctor, Marianne Lorenz, right)

Michael Paglia has resided in Colorado for 43 years and is a graduate with a Master of Arts from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has been the art and architecture writer for Westword magazine in Denver, Colorado, for the past 13 years. And has contributed several articles for national arts magazines including Art News, Architecture, Modernism, Art & Auction, and Where/Colorado. As a long time art critic in Denver, Michael has a sustained and deep knowledge of regional art and artists. He has written several monographs on local and regional artists including Mary Chenoweth, Floyd Tunson, George Woodman, David Rigsby, Winter Prather and Rex Ray. He recently co-authored with Anne Daley of Landscapes of Colorado, a book on contemporary painting and photography for New Mexico’s Fresco Fine Art Publishers in 2007. During his years as an informed art viewer and critic Michael Paglia has developed a keen eye for new directions and innovative art in the Rocky Mountain region.

1st Place Prize Winner for the Rocky Mountain Biennial: Dave Phelps

Dave Phelps lives in Loveland, Colorado. After a career in exhibition design and installation, Dave left museum work to pursue creating art full time. Dave’s work is lighthearted and original, but comments on many important issues of contemporary life, particularly American consumerism and commercialism. Here is a brief statement by the artist about his work:
“My work is not meant to represent any grand theories, manifestos, philosophies or ideologies. I make things that reflect my subjective perceptions of our contemporary world; they are meant to give pause and amuse.”

2nd Place Prize Winner: Sami Alkarim

Sami Alkarim, an Iraqi artist, born in 1966 in Lebanon, has been practicing contemporary art for the last 20 years and is an established successful creator of design, emotion and expression. Living and working as an artist in America primarily in sculpture and painting, Sami comes from a life of culture and education. His father was a professor in American University in Beirut, Lebanon, where Sami Alkarim grew up. In 1974, Alkarim’s family moved to Baghdad, Iraq and he attend in the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad in 1985.

Alkarim has been influenced by Sumerian and Babylon civilizations, which clearly define his earlier works. Alkarim started to protest against the Albaath regime through his artwork which brought him into conflict with the Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. He was forced to leave the school and escape from his country, living as a refugee in several countries seeking security for his life. However, Alkarim has never stopped painting, using many techniques in the abstract expressionism style. His last body of work is called Baghdad Burned. Here is his statement about the Baghdad Burned series, of which Worn Out Memory is a part, now on view in the Rocky Mountain Biennial:
“Today when you look to the sky of Baghdad there are only bombs, smoke and death. This series of paintings demonstrate the beauty this city once had, and why the violence should be put to an end and replaced with something filled with love and welcoming. My work involves family, life experiences and a built up regression that must be expressed, Baghdad Burned brings me to a place of good memories of the sun, flowers and wonderful smells that this beautiful city once had to offer.

The primary elements of this work being gunpowder, it shows that the function of raw destructive materials can and will be used for things other than killing, like a specified act of rebellion. My art is a vehicle to convey a message to future generations, to live a life of purity, honesty, truthfulness, and unconditional love. My work is based on optical mixing theory and the study of light placement using hand made paper, resin, gel medium, multiple layers, gold powder, gunpowder, metal powder pigment and minerals pigment. Using different materials and techniques, I create the heavy texture and depth along the surface of this work. The pigments that I used in this series of paintings will absorb different lighting techniques such as blue and yellows differing from natural sunlight to artificial light behavior. The concept behind my artwork is not a message, but a statement that we as humans, good and evil, are all servants of love. This emotion can take even the darkest hearts and make them pure as the day of their birth. While I am creating my artwork and beginning to express myself, all sense of time and space fade. I fall into the canvas, leaving behind pieces of my journeys and memories for others to experience.”

3rd Place Winner: Gregory Gaylor

Gregory Gaylor was trained as a mosaic and mural designer and installer by the Center for the International Study of Mosaics in Ravenna, Italy. He specialized in the design and restoration mosaic floors, ceilings, walls, paintings and sculpture in churches, cathedrals, monasteries, convents, and temples. It is obvious in looking at Gaylor’s work that he was not only influenced by the materials of classic mosaics, but by the religious content of the churches, temples and mosques in which he has worked. An artist living in Rock Springs, Wyoming, Gaylor has received many honors in the form of artist fellowships, residencies, and art awards throughout his career. Here is a statement by the artist about his work:
“My mosaic bas-relief paintings are the product of great labor and single-mindedness of purpose. I work to create an illuminating richness. The style is majestic. The scale is massive and courageous. Disciplined craftsmanship enables me to construct space and suggest mass. Each work is created and painted on a grid, cut into dozens of pieces, applied to carved forms, routed to various depths, and reworked from all the pieces into a complete whole. Selected areas are inlaid with Italian Byzantine Mosaics to produce sparkling accents.
Beneath the elegant detail is the long, simple line, perhaps the most beautiful and powerful expression of the human hand. The integration of preciousness and beauty into the work reveals the sacred mysteries of ordinary life. My work is powerful, deep bodied and dazzling to all viewers.”