Exhibition

     For the exhibition review I checked out the 'Day of the Dude' exhibition at the front door gallery downstairs.  The gallery features works by four artists: Richard Jackson, Ed Martinez, Fred Reid, and Michael Sarich.  The name of the show is an obvious play on the Mexican holiday of Dia de Los Muertos, or day of the dead.  The holiday is about honoring dead loved ones, and this show touches on that.  Almost all the pieces have skulls in them, and a few few like memorial pieces.  One such piece is a set of mounted boxes with a glass window showing a plaster skull and name inside each one.  Each box is also decorate with crosses, pictures of more skulls, and flower designs.  It definitely has the feel of a memorial, but aesthetically it matches every other piece in the show in color, skull integration and style.  Another piece is a set of 12 small heads, each painted different colors and with different designs.  Each has at least one heart on the forehead, and the face of each head is noticeably different.

     The exhibition is very aesthetically pleasing.  There is a nice mix of colors between the different pieces, but they all fit together nicely.  There is a lot of brown from various wood pieces, and various shades of green and red.  I only know generally about dia de los muertos, but from that very limited knowledge, this show does seem to use it nicely as an inspiration.  It's not clear whether or not the exhibition, or more specifically the set of memorial like box pieces, is a tribute to people the artists knew that died, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was.  Considering the high amount of foot traffic near the front door gallery, and the eye catching aesthetic of the exhibition, I'd imagine the artists are happy with the placement and potential for a lot of people to see their work.