Does Music Enhance Art?

Olga and Kristijan at the Opening Reception

At last night's The Five Artists Project opening reception, the soprano Olga Bojovic, accompanied by pianist Kristijan Civljak, gave a stirring musical performance. In the intimate setting of the gallery, we were close enough to touch them physically, but it was the virtuoso piano performance and Olga's singing voice that captivated us and touched our hearts instead. Someone came up to me later and said the performance elevated/complemented the art in the show.

A few weeks ago, I remember talking with Kristijan about their program,and I sent the following quick sketches of the artists to him.

If I had to describe the art for the show: They are all contemporary abstract pieces based on the themes of nature, landscape, cityscape, geography, and spirituality.

Frank at the Opening Reception

Frank Connet. He uses Japanese dyeing techniques and natural dyes on natural fabrics, so his colors are mostly indigo with grays and browns. He uses reds and yellows sparingly. His art consists of cut-up fabric pieces sewn together in geometric shapes, like a mosaic painting. The work is very meticulous and well thought out. The art looks very Asian, like a Japanese kimono.

Iris at the Opening Reception

Iris Goldstein. She creates low-relief sculptures out of wire screen and plaster. Her abstract pieces look very heavy like wood, ceramic, or metal, but they’re very light in weight. After she shapes her sculptures by hand and the plaster dries, she then paints the pieces with acrylic paint. She uses interesting color combinations and sometimes paints lines in different widths and creates different textures on the surface. The pieces look like they’re moving, flying, or transforming. Sometimes they look like alien creatures or places.

Darrell at the Opening Reception

Darrell Roberts. He paints canvases with oils with pumice mixed in. He uses very bright and vivid colors and paints several layers on canvas. When he’s finished, the paint looks almost sculptural. His paintings are bright, lively, and energetic.

Mirjana at the Opening Reception

Mirjana Ugrinov. She uses acrylic paints and mediums in her paintings. She is going to create an installation for the show. She will be using text from a poem about stones as her inspiration and will be adding real stones embedded in boxes. She uses contrasting colors on her canvas. They are usually very vivid but there’s a mysterious quality associated with them but not melancholy. She usually has what looks like a doorway to another world in her paintings.

Dale at the Opening Reception

Dale Washington. He’s a very versatile artist. He draws, inks, paints, collages, assembles, and uses different mediums. His series has to do with portraits of people but in different styles and mediums. He tries to capture their personalities in their art. His art is very natural, flowing, spontaneous, and energetic.

Based on my descriptions and considerations for their repertoire, Kristijan and Olga came up with a program that included selections from W. A. Mozart, F. Poulenc, S. Rachmaninoff, A. Dvorak, G. Puccini, F. Lehar, and G. Gershwin.

We were so impressed with their performance that we invited them back for the show's closing reception on Saturday, November 1st. Don't miss them.