Page 542 - Demo

A r t s ? ___________________%u2018P e o p le * W o r t h S e e i n g a t G a lle r y 9 1BY JEANNETTE WALLSLinda Holland Rathkopf is an artist who creates in several mediums, but her subjects almost always follow the same line of emotion. She loves the subtleties of human nature. And though she has conveyed her infatuation through acrylics, sketches and clay sculpture, her latest tool is the most delightful yet.Rathkopf is trying her hand at fibre sculpture%u2014a medium with results that are not unlike the stuffing of panty-hose. Rathkopf creates slightly smaller-than-life people, which she brings to life with the addition ot wigs, fake fingernails, clothing and even tables and chairs, creating a true-to-life atmosphere.With dimpled knees and wrinkled, prune-like faces that are characteristic of this %u201c soft sculpture,%u2019%u2019 the intriguing menagerie of characters collect in groups as well as in isolated scenes. The figues range from a crew of true blue Americans wearing %u201cJimmy%u201d election buttons and white, red, and blue neckties to a theatre-going group (with too many jewels and Perrier water bottles).The emphasis on detail, which at times proves to be a little extreme, is probably what makes this show so enjoyable and worth viewing for hours. From their fingernails, eyelashes and men%u2019s hairy knuckles to the pointy old shoes, the personalities are worked through to perfection. Looking at the show, it would seem that Rathkopf has created the personalities screaming from each figure from her own life observations, sitting on park benches and riding the subway system.Valsami%u2019s GalleryFall Season UnderwayValsamis Gallery will feature a group of six American artists for its fall exhibition through October 28. The artists, Angelo John Grado, Olive Reich, Phyllis Rutigliano, Leon Paioff, Sylvia Sherman and Susan Sykes, exhibit throughout the metropolitan area and are represented in many private collections here and abroad.The gallery hours are noon to 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. The scene shifts at Valsamis on October 29 with the premiere of works by Otto Neal and Francine Davidson, which will run to November 4. For more information, call 875-8856.Xanadu to BringEntertainment to AreaA new nightclub offering major league musical entertainment is busy being born in downtown Brooklyn.The former home of Smucker%u2019s, a musical club that hit its share of sour notes before going out of business in September, 1977, will be re-born as Xanadu, and unlike its mythical namesake, Xanadu is scheduled to become a reality sometime in late November.Xanadu manager Jimmie Welcome said that the club, located at 376 Schermerhorn Street near Flatbush Avenue, will feature jazz and rhythm and blues artists as well as pop musicians and may include theater as well. The club, which will have a seating capacity of 550, is being renovated and redecorated.Welcome, a concert promoter and Fort Greene resident, indicated that the club would concentrate on presenting big name talent Wednesday through Saturday evenings with a talent showcase to be held on Tuesdays. Welcome also felt that the downtown site would be a %u201chealthy%u201dRathkopf%u2019s love and fascination for human nature is doubly confirmed by the only painting in the exhibition%u2014 an acrylic street scene by Rathkopf in which every person is involved in his own activity.%u201cGladys (The Housekeeper)%u201d is a perfect example of Rathkopf%u2019s amusing approach to human nature. With her net-covered hair up in curlers, Gladys%u2019 perfectly boring and disgusted face is donned with (wouldn%u2019t you know it?) rhine-stoned, horn-rimmed glasses. She is wearing a bright, flower-print dress and in her Playtex glove covered hands she holds a laundry basket, complete with a few pieces of laundry, the necessary cleaning agents (detergents, bleach, softener) and a book entitled %u201cThe Joy of Sex.%u201dOther %u201c people%u201d worth visiting are a fortune teller (you can%u2019t miss her!) the somewhat unsuccessful dieter, and, well, everyone from the Christian-Scientist Grandmother to %u201c Flaming Agnes (The Chanteuse).%u201dThe exhibit is a thoroughly enjoyable show and the crowds that caught a glimpse of it from outside and stepped in, seemed equally delighted. If you have ever been amused by the idiosyncratic way that someone looks or acts, the show is a must.%u201c People I have known/or, God forbid, am.%u201d will be at Gallery 91, 91 Atlantic Avenue, through November 5, Thursday through Friday, 2 to 5 p.m. and on weekends from noon to 6 p.m. For more information, contact the gallery at 624-4255.%u2014J.W.location enabling his club to thrive despite the fact that Smucker%u2019s had failed.%u201cThe immediate community is a growing community with good racial mix and plenty of artistic and creative people,%u201d said Welcome, %u201cWe can reach and pull people, who for instance might not want to bother with seeing a Nancy Wilson at Manhattan%u2019s Avery Fisher Hall, into Xanadu.%u201dAmong the renovations planned for the club are repairs of the roof and the interior, which has suffered minor water damage, and the installation of $65,000 worth of sound and lighting equipment. In addition, there will be two tiers of seating ringing a center hardwood floor featuring tables and a dance area and the stage itself at the back. The new club will be extensively carpeted and will have a new and larger bar and lounge area than the previous club.Smucker%u2019s opened in April 1977 but its Brooklyn blend of top jazz, soul, Latin, and pop artists generally played to considerably less than capacity crowds and within a short time the first major Brooklyn music club in years went under in a deluge of debts.Xanadu spokesmen indicated that they had been negotiating with the former owners of Smucker%u2019s for nearly a year to purchase the site. Before its brief life as Smucker%u2019s, the Schermerhorn site had been a Plaidland trade-in center.%u2014P.H.Colors are the Keyfor Samuelson at LIUThe first thing that strikes you about Rich Samuelson%u2019s encausting paintings is the colors. Their intensity is magnified by the shiny texture that results from his use of encaustics (a technique that involves melting wax into the paint). The colors are absolutely mesmerizing.His use of color lends itself easily to landscapes, whichWork of ArtGallery,featuringSusan Fishgold%u201c Recentand Drawings,%u201dOct. 24 toNov. 12,87 Atlantic Ave.834-9677.%u201c Stella (Lady With P a c k a g e s (,%u201d by Linda Holland R ath ko p f. Exh ib iting now at G allery 9 1.make up a large percentage and very impressive selection of this show. One such %u201c scape%u201d is done largely in greens, ranging from a pale yellow to a deep blue-green, saved from banality by shrieks of purple and orange impressionistic flowers in the foreground. The background consists of what can loosely be called a pattern of the blue end of the spectrum, in which the purple pulls the foreground and background together, unifying the overall picture. The painting has a very pleasing, almost mythological quality.Samuelson%u2019s still lifes and portraits don%u2019t lend themselves to the artist%u2019s vivid usage of colors as well; the bright, unblended colors, with a minimal amount of shading result in stark, unsympathetic portrayals. The subjects are common enough, but singled out and examined until they seem vaguely unrea,.In a series of linocuts of film stars, Samuelson retains his powerful sense of color, but converts the usage to r; selection of just a few colors, representative of the era and the personality of the film star. %u201cGarbo%u201d in a black and white print (the colors of the time), while %u201c Ann!%u201d is portrayed in pink and red. The prints (though anatomical' awkward) are very interesting and intriguing to look aiThe show itself ranks high and is more impressive an pleasant than his former exhibitions.The exhibit, which is well worth seeing, will be Brooklyn%u2019s Long Island University Monday-Friday, 9 a.i to 5 p.m., through November 1. For more information, c; the University at 834-6090. %u2014J.W.Kalayjian Focuseson HumanityAnie Kalayjian is presently showing 20 photographic prints at the Salena Library Learning Center of Brooklyn%u2019s Long Island University.Focusing on people, these photographs capture human emotions, if not through the expression on the subjects%u2019 faces, then through a skillful use of lighting, composition and contrast. With the exception of the first few exhibited, the prints use little or no special effects and are simple, sensitive pieces demonstrating the tremendous job of capturing subtle emotions or isolating some pitiful life situation-though Kalayjian never presents them condescendingly.In a few of her pieces, Kalayjian (a dedicated photographer for only a year now) has experimented with a collage effect, in which she combines not only portions of several photographs, but also words, reproductions of line art, and strips from contact sheets. These conglomerations of emotions and mediums are interesting, but in them Kalayjian loses much of her delicate sensitivity, probably her strongest asset, and replaces it with a somewhat forced drive for abstraction. Kalayjian has a fine ability to single out subjects that clearly manifest different slices of life. Her handling of the prints in these first few pieces, with a few too many cuts and too sharp angular shots, is a sensitive film production. Yet often it is not only unnecessary%u2014it detracts.Kalayjian%u2019s style is good now, and when her amazingn n f p n t i a l i c t r %u00bb t h p f n l l p c t c h p w i l l h p a v p r vpowerful, insightful photographer.The photographs will be on the third floor exhibition area of the Salena Library Learning Center of Brooklyn%u2019s Long Island University, on Flatbush Avenue Extension at DeKalb Avenue, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday through November 15. %u2014J.W.October 26,1978, THE PHOENIX, Page 17