Lyn Bishop : Sharing Secrets

The arts in San Jose are gearing up for the summer months, and last night art lovers were shaking off the winter chill down at Anno Domini with outside live music, an urban street market and the opening of Stephan Doitschinoff’s solo show in the gallery there.

Doitschinoff is a self-taught Brazilian street artist a.k.a. †CALMA†, who is now hitting it big with shows in London, Germany and the US.

His work is highly symbolic, including religious and Alchemical forms that he has modified and repurposed into his own personal symbolism. His use of intertwining body parts and latin folk imagery hint at a Frieda Kahlo like personal suffering, while Asian elements like wave forms and lotus flowers reflect the artists own distant Chinese ancestry.

His solo show includes both small detailed pencil drawings and large elaborate paintings. In addition, he’s extended his symbolism beyond the canvas onto the walls and floor of AD, keeping him true to his street painter roots.

On Exhibit thru June 21 at Anno Domini, 366 South First Street, San Jose.

In my husband’s hometown of Kyoto, Japan, there are many places to enjoy contemporary art around the ancient capital. However, tucked quietly on a side street on the east side of Tetsugaku-no-Michi (Philosophers’ Path) sits the lovely Honen-in, it’s temple halls set back into the the woods surrounded by it’s carefully raked gardens and moss covered thatched San-mon gate.

Honen-in is an unlikely place to view art, and as such, presents the viewer with a surprising contemplative space to see a wide range of exhibits. Two of it’s halls offer rotating exhibitions, usually a week in length, that present art that ranges from the traditional to the contemporary. Many artists have exhibited their work in this space, including my colleagues Janet Echelman and Markuz Wernli.
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