Critical MAS 2020
Art writing serves as a cord of communication, extending from the art to the viewer. During a time when our viewing must be mediated by a screen and we miss the solid presence of art, writers bring us gifts of insight and connection to the work. A project called Critical MAS (acronym for Mayor’s Art Show) launched last year as an effort to generate more art writing in Eugene. You can find that writing here.
2020 brings us a mostly virtual Visual Arts Week and a new adaptation of Critical MAS. Curator Chanin Santiago, Eugene Cultural Services, Eugene Contemporary Art, and I partnered once again to continue the project. I could not ask writers to respond to a single digital image in a meaningful way, so in order to delve deeper, the writers reached out to three awarded artists from the Mayor’s Art Show: Jurors’ Choice, Mayor’s 3-D Choice, and Curator’s Choice. The three writers — Leah Wilson, Sandra Honda, and Agnese Cebere — are also accomplished visual artists. They contacted the awardees in late July to conduct interviews and visit the work in person.
Critical art writing reflects careful viewing, to describe something well is to look critically. Art writers do the sustained work of examining and questioning; they illuminate pathways into art for the reader and our personal viewpoints are widened due to the efforts of their study. We respect artists by paying attention to the worlds they open.
— Vicki Krohn Amorose, Director and Editor for Critical MAS
Mayor’s Choice 3-D: “Painting in Isolation – Covid19” by Rob Varela
Written by Leah Wilson
Curator’s Choice: “Inevitable Transition” by Kum-Ja Lee
Written by Sandra Honda
Jurors’ Choice: “Survivalist Perspective” by Stormie Loury
Written by Agnese Cebere