Art

BOSTON, MA – Meeting Lana Z. Caplan, as I did at the Chicago Underground Film Festival, is to meet a variety of perspective all in one dynamic artist. The veteran “lens based” media visionary has single-channel films, video, interactive installations and photography on her palette. Her latest exhibit – through September 29th, 2918 – is at Gallery NAGA in Boston, and it is entitled “Dunites.” The presentation will include photography, video, 35mm slides and a VR (Virtual Reality) installation, all inspired by the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes south of San Francisco.

CHICAGO – The British artist Andy Goldsworthy is a true “outsider” artist, because many of his works are rooted in the grown-and-death cycles of the great outdoors. He is described as a sculptor, photographer and environmentalist, but many of his art creations use materials available in any wooded area, based on a connection to nature combined with a creative soul. This is profiled in the second film about him from the same director, “Leaning Into the Wind - Andy Goldsworthy.”

CHICAGO – Recently, the record for highest bid ever on a work of art was shattered – $450 million for Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Salvador Mundi’ – and the ownership of a canvas, for the price of supporting a small country, calls into question the meaning of art and collecting. All of this, and everything more, is generated in the cinematic rendering of “The Square.”

CHICAGO – The 24 year-old Lena Dunham is a new and notable voice for her generation of filmmakers, breaking in with her first feature, the memorable “Tiny Furniture.” Dunham wrote, directed and portrays the main character Aura, a newly minted film theory graduate who is going through the time honored process of what to do with her post collegiate life.

CHICAGO – The coming-of-age film has evolved over the years, from Andy Hardy to “Splendor in the Grass” to “The Graduate,” up through “American Pie.” Filmmaker Lena Dunham offers her own post-collegiate transition narrative, in the archly realistic and perversely funny “Tiny Furniture.”

CHICAGO – One of the great overlooked films of 2009 was the slyly titled “(Untitled).” Jonathan Parker, the writer/director of the film, fashions a sharp yet human tale about the world of art galleries and the next-big-thing. The (Untitled) DVD and Blu-Ray is being released on September 21st, 2010.

CHICAGO – One of the best and most exciting surprises of the 2009 film year is a smaller, claustrophobic film starring Adam Goldberg and set in the art gallery world of New York City. “(Untitled)” is an honest, uncompromising character study.

CHICAGO – The Adam Goldberg character is well known to fans of TV’s “Friends” and the movie’s “Saving Private Ryan.” With his heart-on-his-sleeve persona, he takes that character to rarified heights in the new film “(Untitled).”