Upcoming Curatorial Projects - December 2008

Quasi-Painting at Randall Scott Gallery
Opening Saturday, December 13


Storytellers at Paperwork Gallery
Opening Friday, December 12

Baltimore City Paper Review - Adorn Identity: Group Show Cursorily Examines Who We Are by Kate Noonan

Karen Swenholdt's sculpture

Baltimore City Paper
August 13, 2008

Summer Group Show at Gallery Imperato

Gallery Imperato's current Summer Group Show showcases a smart collection of works by artists Elyce Abrams, Sasha Blanton, Chris Bathgate, Alyssa Dennis, Matthew Kern, Cara Ober, Dana Reifler Amato, and Karen Swenholt. The exhibition's thoughtful installation allows a natural interplay between the pieces, many of which, one way or another, touch on the concepts of psychology, time, memory, and identity.

Placed in the front of the gallery is a grouping of three small-scale sculptures by Baltimore-based artist Chris Bathgate. The metal sculptures, which might better be described as mechanisms, are pieced together out of aluminum, brass, stainless steel, and copper and titled with model numbers--e.g., "FL633322251552." Astonishingly, the works are constructed entirely by hand but completely devoid of the human touch, which imparts upon them a mysterious, almost alien feel. Although they possess a certain Martian appeal, Bathgate's sculptures are also slightly menacing, given their remarkably precise construction and unclear purpose, and thus elicit a cautious fascination.

Dana Reifler Amato, a local artist and co-owner of Paperwork Gallery, displays her own adept hand with a group of three precise cut-paper works. Despite their fragile construction, "Untitled I" and "Untiled II," in particular, possess an architectural blueprint-like quality. The exacting, almost mathematical approach to Reifler Amato's pieces walks the thin line between fine art and design, and her works exist dually as paper abstractions and scientific plans. Alyssa Dennis' drawings also relate to architectural structures but, unlike Reifler Amato's works, address the ways in which the use of color in print and electronic media evokes associations with particular decades throughout recent history. By replicating these colors and removing them from their historical contexts, Dennis seeks to alter their meanings.

Matthew Kern's striking mixed-media piece "Internal Tatooing" examines the concept of memory with a personal yet universal series of Polaroid pictures. Each of the 140 snapshots captures fleeting, often ambiguous moments in time on Polaroid film. The ephemeral photos, which have been removed from their white casings, are layered upon the canvas, washed over with a milky varnish, and covered with an image of a child running with a handful of balloons. Peeking out from underneath the photographs, you can faintly detect handwritten letters, but the words themselves are illegible. Here Kern not only expresses the fragility of memory but also asserts the important role emotion plays within its retention. While you clearly can no longer make out the details of the moments encapsulated in the canvas' grids, the emotions tied to the memories remain.

Cara Ober continues to challenge cultural conceptions in her two pieces on view. "Nothing's Gonna Touch You in These Golden Years" is a collection of 56 small works on paper arranged in a grid, echoing Kern's nearby canvases. "Nothing's Gonna Touch You" employs Ober's trademark blending of witty text (resulting from her collaboration with Andy Fox) and carefully chosen iconography appropriated from the everyday world. The works range from poetic to humorous, as in her gilded hot dog graced with the text "Debonair with rage." In looking at the American cultural identity, Ober experiments with high- and lowbrow in terms of title (taken from a David Bowie song), subject matter, and materials. Joining images of everyday objects such as food and clothing, you see pop icons Audrey Hepburn and Woody Allen, and spiritual and social leaders, all of which are rendered in a mixture of gold leaf, magic marker, black ink, and tea.

Drawing cues from Ober's examinations of American cultural identity are Sasha Blanton's pair of defeated warships, "Disengaged I" and "Disengaged II." Together, they are innovatively installed, held up by two clips hanging from fishing wire that extends from the ceiling. The unframed works on paper float in front of an exposed brick wall, where they are susceptible to damage by an intentionally malicious act or accidental bump. The placement of the warships in such a precarious position makes Blanton's pieces particularly moving, and the titles not only reference the sinking status of the embattled ships but also perhaps point to cultural and social weaknesses as a whole and offer a cautionary tale: Things that appear invincible may actually be more vulnerable than imagined.

- Kate Noonan

Grand Opening at LM Artworks Atlanta, GA

Grand Opening Exhibition
September 12 - October 18, 2008

featuring new works by
Jonathan Fenske | Duy Huynh | Cara Ober

Please Join Us For The Opening Reception
Friday, September 12, 2008, from 7 - 9 p.m.


www.lmartworks.com/home

Living In a Material World: The Painting of Cara Ober by Jack Livingston

Cara Ober’s saturated paintings, full of contrasts and quick turns, are painfully delightful. Her works are a magpie’s nest of logos, images, and harmonious painterly color swatches that project a cracked mirror of disjointed narrative full of whispered secrets, hardy jokes and guilty pleasures. Utilizing the homegirl rhetorical signage of a twenty first century suburban all American commoner, Ober mixes loutish pop culture with oddball utterance, then generously ladles on dandyish high art formulas dosed with humor and nostalgia. In this way her work plays art school dress-up while acting out real life. When done, it is ready for a poetic night out on the town, giggling tipsy and divine, chronicling her generations awkward staggering towards some inky questionable but always hopeful future.

Cara Ober - CV 2008

Cara Ober
3113 N. Calvert Street
Baltimore, MD 21218

Website: www.caraober.com
Email: cara_ober@yahoo.com
Blog: http://bmoreart.blogspot.com
Blog: http://caraober.blogspot.com

EDUCATION
2002-2005 M.F.A. in Painting. Maryland Institute College of Art.
1996-1998 M.S. in Art Education. Western Maryland College.
1992-1996 B.A. in Fine Art. Phi Beta Kappa. American University.

AWARDS
2008 Baltimore City Art Grant for Paperwork Gallery.
2008 Baltimore City Art Grant for the Bmore Art Blog.
2007 Best in Baltimore Award. Baltimore City Paper. “Best Use of Band Width” for the BmoreArt Blog.
2007 Second Place. Bethesda Painting Awards. Fraser Gallery. Bethesda, MD.
2006 Individual Artist Grant Recipient for Painting. Maryland State Arts Council.
2006 Warhol Grant Recipient for Emerging Curators. DC Arts Center. Wash, DC.
2006 Best in Show Award. Juried Painting Exhibit. Target Gallery. Alexandria, VA.
2006 Semi-Finalist. Bethesda Painting Awards. Fraser Gallery. Bethesda, MD.
2005-2002 Surdna Fellowship Recipient. MICA Tuition Scholarship.
2004 Juror’s Choice Award. Circle Gallery. Fall Juried Show. Baltimore, MD.
1996 Ellen Van Swinderen Art Award. American University Graduation.

EXHIBITIONS
Solo / Two-Person Exhibitions
2008 New Works. Artizen Fine Arts Gallery. Dallas, TX.
2008 New Works. Matre-Linstrum Gallery. Atlanta, GA. September.
2008 I Am Who I Pretend to Be: New Paintings and Works on Paper by Cara Ober. The Randall Scott Gallery. Washington, DC. March 8 – April 11.
2007 Cursed Blessing: Cara Ober and Tung Lo. Gallery Imperato. Baltimore, MD. August 15 – September 30.
2007 Prayers and Joking: New Works by Cara Ober. Flashpoint Gallery. Washington, DC. January.
2006 Moving Sideways: Cara Ober. Moxy Studios. New Orleans, LA. December.
2006 An Accumulation of Little Things: Collaboration with Julie Benoit. Lump Gallery. Raleigh, NC. June.
2005 Passing Notes: A Visual Collaboration by Cara Ober & Julie Benoit. Spare Room Installation Space. Baltimore, MD. October – November.
2005 To Live Outside the Law… MFA Thesis Exhibition. Meyerhoff Gallery. Baltimore, MD. Maryland Institute College of Art. June 28 – July 8.
2004 Secret Signs: New Paintings and Collaborative Works by Cara Ober and Julie Benoit. G-Spot Audio Visual Playground. Baltimore, MD. February.

Juried Exhibitions
208 Penned: An Artscape Juried Exhibition. Bunting Gallery. Baltimore, MD. July.
2008 Studio Visit Magazine: Volume One. A Juried Exhibition in Print.
2007 Bethesda Painting Awards. Exhibit of Finalists. Fraser Gallery. Bethesda, MD. June 6 – July 8. Jurors: W.C.Richardson, Dr. Brandon Fortune, Tanja Softic.
2006 Test Patterns. Artscape Public Art Exhibition. Bunting Gallery, MICA. July.
2006 Stretched Tight. Target Gallery. Torpedo Factory, Alexandria, VA. February 24 – March 26. Juror: Jack Rasmussen.
2005 MFA Graduate Exhibition. Arlington Arts Center. Arlington, VA. July 19 – August 27.
2005 Systematic. Delaware Center for Contemporary Art. Wilmington, DE. Juried Exhibition. Juror: Kristen Hileman. February – April.
2004 Fall Juried Show. Maryland Federation of Art. Circle Gallery. Baltimore, MD. October 1 - 30. Juror Gerald Ross. *Juror’s Choice Award.
2003 Critic’s Picks: Artist in Residency Program. Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD - March 23 - April 17. Curators: Carter Ratcliff and Eugene B.Redmond.
2003 Emerging Artists: Juried Show. Maryland Federation of Art, City Gallery, Baltimore, MD. Juried by Susan Isaacs. March 5 - April 5. Spring Juried Exhibition. Juried by Virginia Shore, May 28 - June 28.
2002 Definitions: MAEA. Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD. November 9 - December 21. Juror: Helen Molesworth.

Group Exhibitions / Art Fairs
2008 Seven Deadly Sins. Maryland Art Place. November.
2008 MICA Trawick Award Winners. Center Club. Baltimore, MD. Curated by Tracy Lambros and MICA. September.
2008 Summer Group Show. Gallery Imperato. Baltimore, MD. July – August.
2008 Song Catcher. Lark & Key Gallery. Charlotte, NC. July – August.
2007 Aqua Wynwood. Art Basel. Miami Week. December 4 – 9. Booth 29 – The Randall Scott Gallery. Miami, FL.
2007 Bridge Art Fair. London, UK. Trafalgar Hotel. October 11 – 14. Room 718. The Randall Scott Gallery.
2007 Fall Group Show. Artizen Fine Arts. Dallas, TX. September 8 – October 7.
2007 MSAC 40th Anniversary Exhibit. James Backus Gallery. Baltimore, MD. September – December. Curator: Oletha DeVane.
2007 Riviera Real Estate. Riviera Gallery. Brooklyn, NY. September- October.
2007 Anonymous III. Flashpoint Gallery. Washington, DC. June 1 – 30.
2007 Fresh Art. Karin Sanders Gallery. Sag Harbor, NY. May 26 – June 20.
2007 I Believe: 14 Painters. Creative Alliance at the Patterson. Baltimore, MD. May.
2007 DC Art Fair. Randall Scott Gallery booth. Washington, DC. April 28 - 31.
2007 The Living Room. The Randall Scott Gallery. Washington, DC. April-May 19.
2007 Fresh Paint. Arlington Arts Center. Arlington, VA. December 5, 2006 –Jan.2007.
2006 MAP turns 25. Maryland Art Place. Baltimore, MD. November 1 – December 15.
2006 Mostre Rossi (The Red Show) Ferrara, Italy. October 5 – 24.
2006 Fall Preview. Moxy Studios. New Orleans, LA. September 5 – 30.
2006 New Western Art: A Twentieth Century Perspective. Studio Gallery 27. Steamboat Springs, CO. July 1 – 30.
2006 Riviera Triennial. Riviera Gallery. Brooklyn, NY. May 4 – 21.
2006 Femme Effect Part Deux. Gallery Imperato. Baltimore, MD. March 1 – 30.
2006 Born to be Wild. Studio Gallery 27. Steamboat Springs, CO. January 21 – 26.
2006 Hopes and Schemes: Paintings, Drawings, and Prints. The Riviera Gallery. Brooklyn, NY. January 13 – 29.
2005 By Invitation Only. Maryland Art Place. Baltimore, MD. November 1- 30.
2005 Birds of a Feather. Tribes Gallery. 285 East 3rd Street, New York, NY. August.
2005 Under Construction. Current Gallery. Baltimore, MD. September.
2005 Spring Group Show. Cubicle 10. Baltimore, MD. May 1 – June 18.
2005 Picture Window. Area 405, Baltimore, MD.
2004 Systems, Codes, Chaos. Seed Vector Gallery Space. Baltimore, MD. October.
2004 a journey. Chela Gallery. Baltimore, MD. March 6 - March 30.

CURATORIAL EXPERIENCE
2008 Elena Volkova: Waterlines. Paperwork Gallery. Baltimore, MD. February.
2007 Quintessence. Paperwork Gallery. Baltimore, MD. December.
2007 The Jolly Cowboy. DC Arts Center.Warhol Grant Curatorial Initiative. March 8–April 8.
2006 Arbitrary Specifics. Sub-Basement Studios. Baltimore, MD. June 1 – July 1.
2006 Liquid / Solid: New Contemporary Works by Abstract Painters. Rice Gallery. McDaniel College. Westminster, MD. May 1 – June 1.
2006 From Sea to Shining Sea. DC Arts Center. Warhol Grant Curatorial Initiative Program. March 31 – April 23.
2005 Prodigal Summer. G-Spot Audio-Visual Playground. Baltimore, MD. July 1 – 30.
2004 Inward Gazes: Creating Pieces of the Identity Puzzle. Rosenberg Gallery. Goucher College. Baltimore, MD. Nov. 1 - Dec. 15.


TEACHING & PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2008–2007 Co-Director and Founder, Paperwork Gallery. Baltimore, MD.
2008-2007 Programming Committee. Maryland Art Place.
2008-2005 Adjunct Professor. Maryland Institute College of Art. Sophomore Painting, Painting Two, The Artist’s Way Workshop, Art and Professionalism (Graduate), The Sketchbook, and Art and Human Development (Art Education)
2008 Adjunct Professor. Loyola College. Drawing 1 and Design 1.
2008-2006 Adjunct Professor.The Johns Hopkins University. Introduction to Watercolor.
2008-2005 Adjunct Professor. Towson University. Drawing 1 and 2
2008 Adjunct Professor. Loyola College. Design 1 and Drawing 1
2007-2005 Adjunct Professor. Anne Arundel Community College. Color Theory and Design
2007 Guest Lecturer. American University. Slide lecture & studio visits for MFA.
2005 Adjunct Professor. University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Ideas in the Arts
2005 Guest Lecturer and Critic. McDaniel College. Slide lecture and critiques. Fall


PRESS COVERAGE
2008 Washington Post Express. ”Cara Ober is who she pretends to be” by Fiona Zublin. April 9.
2008 The DCist Magazine. “Interview with Cara Ober” by Amy Cavanaugh. March 31.
2008 The Baltimore Sun. “Critical Mass: Pretending Not to Notice” by Glen McNatt.
2008 The Urbanite. Have You Heard? “Modest Masterpiece” by Marianne Amoss. February Issue.
2008 The Baltimore City Paper. “The Real World.” by Bret McCabe. January 30.
2008 The Washington City Paper Blog/ Grammar Police. “The Sincerest Form of Flattery?” by Kriston Capps. January 28.
2008 The Washington Post. “Look Alike Works Make for an Uncommonly Provocative Show.” By Blake Gopnik. January 26.
2008 The Baltimore Sun. “In the Eye of the Beholder.” By Sam Sessa and Glen McNatt. January 25.
2007 The Baltimore City Paper. “Dream Catchers” by Deborah McLeod. Sept. 5.
2007 The Baltimore City Paper. “Cursed Blessing” by Bret McCabe. August 22.
2007 The Washington Post. “In Painting Awards, Unexpected Outcomes” by Michael O’Sullivan. June 15.
2007 The Independent Newspaper. Hamptons, NY. “In the Gallery” by Joan Baum. June 6.
2007 The Urbanite Magazine. “Eye to Eye.” By Alex Castro. May 1.
2007 The Georgetown Voice. “I wanna be a cowboy, baby” by Madeline Anne Reidy. April 1.
2007 Gazette.Net. “Artists Ask Open Questions in Three Area Exhibit” by Claudia Rousseau. Wednesday, March 21.
2007 The Examiner. “Takes on Token: Object of Affection, Aggression, Reflection” by Robin Tierney. March 24.
2007 The Georgetown Voice. “A Local Artist’s Guide to Suburbia” by Madeline Reidy. January 25.
2007 Washington City Paper. “Prayers and Joking” by Kriston Capps. January 24.
2006 Baltimore City Paper. July 26. “Great Outdoors by Bret McCabe.
2006 Peek Review Volume Five. “Arbitrary Specifics Group Exhibition Review” and “Interview with Curator Cara Ober” by Jack Livingston. www.peekreview.net
2006 Baltimore City Paper. June 26. “Underworld: Edgy Underground Group Show Well Suited to Gallery Space” by J. Bowers on Arbitrary Specifics at Sub-Basement Studios.
2006 Baltimore City Paper. March 15. “Femme Effect Part Deux” by J. Bowers.
2006 Baltimore City Paper. March 1. Critics Picks: Femme Effect Part Deux at Gallery Imperato. By Mike Guliano.
2005 Baltimore Sun. November 2. “Daring Exhibits launch new art center at Towson.” By Glen McNatt.
2005 Baltimore City Paper. October 13. Critics Picks: “Passing Notes: A Visual Collaboration” by Bret McCabe.
2005 3rd Floor: A Portable Art Space. September Issue. Artist Bio and Color Reproduction of the oil painting “Carrier.”
2005 Washington Post. “On Exhibit: New Sensations” by Michael O’Sullivan. Review of 3 DC Exhibits of recent art school graduates at Arlington Arts Center, Irvine Contemporary, and Connor Contemporary Art.
2004 Baltimore Sun. December 9. “Intimate and Unsettling.” Review of Inward Gazes by Glen McNatt.
2004 Radar Review. Issue 12, December. “Inward Gazes” by Lauren Bender.
2004 Baltimore City Paper. October 13. “Seeds of Promise.” Review of Seed Vector Show by J. Bowers.
2004 Baltimore City Paper. October 6. “Critics Picks: Art.” Review of Matchbook at Spare Room.
2004 Baltimore City Paper: March 17. “Journey: A Traveling Art Show.” Review by Blake de Pastino.
2004 Baltimore City Paper: February 25. “Secret Signs: Paintings and Collaborative Works by Julie Benoit and Cara Ober.” Review by Ned Oldham.
2003 Radar Magazine: Issue 6, 2003. Review of Group Show at City Cafe
by Lauren Bender.
2003 Maryland Art Place Critics in Residency Catalogue. “A Critic’s Notes” by Carter Ratcliff.
2003 Maryland Art Place Critics in Residency Catalogue. “Cara Ober” by David Page.
2003 Link Magazine Issue 8: Codex. MAP’s Critics in Residency program.
2003 Baltimore City Paper, March 19. “Critics Picks: Art.” Review of MAP Critics in Residency show.
2003 Radar Magazine: Issue 5, 2003. Preview of MAP Show.

PUBLISHED WRITING

Blogs
BmoreArt – Blog. http://bmoreart.blogspot.com - ongoing – various essays and reviews.
The Examiner Newspaper Art Blog. www.examiner.com. Various essays and reviews.

Exhibition Essays
Women’s Work: Char Brooks & Annie Waldrop. Rosenberg Gallery, Goucher College. September, 2007.
The Jolly Cowboy. Curatorial Essay for The Jolly Cowboy Catalogue at the DC Arts Center. Washington, DC. March, 2007.
Token. Exhibition Essay for ‘Token’ Exhibit at Pyramid Atlantic. Silver Spring, MD. March, 2007.

Magazines:
Art US Magazine. www.artext.org. Full Color Monthly Art Magazine, published in Los Angeles.
April 2007 Issue. Review of ‘Denise Tassin: Fairyland’ at Spare Room.
January 2007 Issue. Review of ‘Dan Steinhilber: Project Room’ at the BMA.
April 2006 Issue. Review of ‘Louise Bourgeois: Femme’ at the Walters Art Gallery.
January 2006 Issue. Review of ‘Blur of the Otherworldly’ at UMBC.
Art Papers. www.artpapers.org. Full Color Bi-Monthy Art Magazine, published in Atlanta.
September 2005 Issue. Review of ‘Artscape at BMA/Observation Deck.’
July 2005 Issue. Review of ‘Transmodern Age’ performance art festival.
Peek Review. www.peekreview.net. Online Art Magazine.
January, 2006. Best of 2005: A Year in Review.
May, 2005. Review of ‘Directions’ Show at the Hirshhorn Museum, featuring Cai Guo-Qiang.
Urbanite Magazine. www.urbanitebaltimore.com. Full Color Monthly Baltimore Magazine.
September 2005 Issue: Baltimore Fashion: Local Events, Designers, and Businesses.
June 2005 Issue: 3rd Story Arts Journal, A New local Art Publication.
May 2005 Issue: The Punk Rock Photography of Jim Jocoy at the G-Spot Audio/Visual Playground.
March 2005 Issue: Up and Coming. Writer of TURF: Trans Urban Roaming Forum, a NY Arts Advocacy Program.
Radar Review. www.radarreview.net. Local, bi-monthly critical arts review.
Issue 12. Critical Review on Connor Contemporary Art Gallery.
Issue 11. Writer of a critical preview of Kerry James Marshall: One True Thing at the BMA.
Issue 11. Online follow-up at www.RadarReview.net. Writer of a review of Kerry James Marshall: One True Thing at the BMA. 2005.
Issue 10. Writer of critical review on Lauren Schott, Sculptor and Jewelry Maker. 2004.
Issue 9. Writer of critical review on Jack Eisenberg, Photojournalist at the Beveled Edge. 2004.
Issue 8. Writer of critical review “Golden Blessings/ Out of the Mouths of Babes.” American Visionary Art Museum. 2004.
Issue 8. Writer of critical review of Cindy Rehm’s “Synonym of Hunger” at spare room installation space. 2004.
Newspapers:
Baltimore City Paper.
July 21. 2004. One of three writers of “Art Scrape.” Reviewed Phenomenology at MICA’s Meyerhoff Gallery.
June 23. 2004. Writer of “Bittersweet: School 33’s Annual Juried Exhibition.” Juror: Ingrid Schaffner.

New 'Solid Gold Vernacular' drawings - gold leaf and mixed media on paper, each 7x7 inches

These works are part of a wall installation I am doing for the Gallery Imperato Summer Show which opens July 11.























These last two pics are pulled from the Ten Tigers Blog.

SONGCATCHER: A VISUAL INTERPRETATION OF SOUND at Lark and Key, Charlotte, NC

SONGCATCHER: A VISUAL INTERPRETATION OF SOUND

JULY 4th - AUGUST 31st (opening reception Friday July 11th, 6-9pm)

Thirty (plus) artists from around the country will be offering art, pottery, jewelry - or whatever medium strikes a chord - celebrating the diversity of music and its creative influence on their work. The show also aims to expose viewers to a world of music they may not be aware of. Various bands and djs will be playing during the opening and at the gallery crawls while the exhibition is up.

In an effort to give back to the community Lark & Key will also donate a portion of sales to the Belmont Community Center YWCA Afterschool Program. We will be working with the program director to provide funds for art and music related education for the children in order to encourage their creative spirit.

Participating Artists: Their styles and mediums are as diverse as their musical influences!

Adorn, Katherine Blackwell, Flora Bowley, Michelle Caplan, Sandra Dawson, Erica Diamond, Diana Fayt, Matt Flint, Charlotte Foust, Renee Gardner, Lisa Gastelum, Tim Gates, Jessica Gonacha, Duy Huynh, I’m Smitten, Carl Linstrum, Laura McCarthy, Jen McCleary, Nicole McConville, Myron Macklin, Cara Ober, Angie Renfro, Kate Phillips, Jessica Pisano, Ron Philbeck, Osiris Rain, TJ Reddy, Amy Sanders, Christy Smith, Melissa Tyson, Julie Wiggins

www.larkandkey.com

Gallery Imperato Summer Group Show July 11

Washington Post Express April 9

"Cara Ober Is Who She Pretends to Be" by Fiona Zublin. April 9, 2008.



CARA OBER's art show at the Randall Scott Gallery, "I am who I pretend to be," showcases paintings that almost seem like collages, with small, detailed drawings and poems superimposed on great swaths and splotches of color. Ober's work is deceptively simple and ultimately transcendent -- are the show closes this weekend, so go while you can.

» Randall Scott Gallery, 1326 14th St. NW; 11 a.m.-6 p.m., free; (202) 332-0806. (Dupont Circle)
Photo Courtesy Cara Ober

Interview with the DCist March 31

March 31: DCist Interview: Cara Ober at http://dcist.com/2008/03/31/dcist_interview_23.php

Cara Ober is a painter, writer and teacher living in Baltimore and showing her work around the region. She teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Towson, Johns Hopkins, and Loyola College. A lifetime area resident, Cara, 33, also writes art reviews for Art US Magazine, Art Papers, and Gutter Magazine. Her latest show, I Am Who I Pretend to Be, runs at Randall Scott Gallery through April 12.

What are some of the ideas and themes that your work engages with?

I am a storyteller, but my paintings have more in common with poetry than traditional narratives or prose. The stories I tell are mostly autobiographical and personal – my “material” is what I know, what I experience, and what I learn on a daily basis. Painting is a mode of thinking for me. It is a way for me to examine the fragments of memories and moments and to combine them in a way that is more interesting and, possibly, more real, than the way they were originally experienced.

The theme of memory in art seems really played out right now – a cliché – and, often times, I think an artist’s memories are so tender and so poignant that they interfere with the editing required for solid visual work. I think a lot of art about this subject – memory, consciousness, the unconscious – is half-assed.

However, I’m at a point where I know what I am interested in and there’s no getting around it. I can’t invent a concept and manufacture excitement about it. In graduate school, I attempted to be more “conceptual” in my studio practice and it always felt artificial and flat. I am interested in exploring the mystery of the personal self; the interior life lived in the brain, and, specifically, mine.



Well Meaning, Cara Ober
38x40"
Painting on canvas

Who are some of your artistic inspirations?

I think Louise Bourgeois is about as great as they get. She makes powerful works, which are simultaneously personal and universal, still and she’s in her nineties... About two years ago, the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore showcased Bourgeois’s works, in which over half were made in the last decade, but integrated it throughout the museum. So there would be a six hundred year old suit of armor next to a Bourgeois felt figure, an ancient Sumerian necklace next to a Bourgeois necklace… not only was it interesting to have to hunt for the contemporary work among the antiquities, but her work, so steeped in these dark and mysterious taboos, made me see this universal relationship between time periods, styles, and people. I’m not really interested in historical works of art – I prefer contemporary work – but Louise Bourgeois’s work in that context made me see the Walters’ collection in a new light.

How long does it take to make a typical piece?

The timing depends on whether the piece is cooperating or not. I’ve made terrific paintings in a week’s time... Working fast and furious is the best way for me to do two things: to make unselfconscious decisions and marks, and to inject a sense of urgency and passion into the work. The surprises that come from hasty painting are the spark that keeps them alive. I’ve also struggled for months and months on one painting, only to paint over it yet again. I typically paint over old paintings – I like to see the history of past decisions buried under the surface of the paint.

What materials do you work with?

I use acrylic and oil paint, both for different reasons. I use acrylic because I am impatient and like to work fast. I can rapidly build up a surface and then change my mind a lot – paint things in, take them out, paint over them, put them back in again – lots of back and forth. But I like to use oil for the top layer because the color is richer and more unpredictable, especially when thinned down into stains or pours.

Your new show at Randall Scott is entitled I Am Who I Pretend to Be. Is this a reference to the recent controversy with Christine Bailey?

Yes and no. I started working on a series of small drawings, all about six by six inches, last November for the show at Randall Scott. I think I was feeling stumped and wanted to dissect the process of painting a bit, taking it apart piece by piece, make it more fun and less intimidating. So, I started out with all of these images from the dictionary, lots of dog breeds and musical instruments, just silly images, one on each piece of paper, and then I felt that the growing stack of drawings needed another half. I thought about what they all had in common and decided all are presented to the world as factual evidence. And we all know that facts are just part of the story. The other half is the opinions and intuitions lurking beneath the surface, most of which are not appropriate to share with others.



So I started working on another series of small drawings, to enhance the first series, just writing phrases you’re not supposed to say in public, and these became the "confessions," which complete the story. (The installation is called Confessions and Evidence, above, and is 160 drawings in all). One of the confessions I wrote at that time was “I am who I pretend to be.” I didn’t really think about it much… I mean, I write little phrases down all the time, especially when I am driving, and it made sense on a lot of levels. I think I was really thinking about that particular phrase in an inspirational way, like, you can be who you want to be – you can do it!

But later, after the "Bailey incident," as we call it here in Baltimore, I came across the statement and its meaning was completely different and not at all what I had intended. It just smacked me in the gut, this small drawing. Here was this person pretending to be me, in her work, and here I am, just trying to be myself, through the same exact process. It was bizarre. Like most of my decisions in the studio, that drawing was a happy accident and I didn’t even realize until long after I had made it. When I rediscovered that drawing, it felt like the theme of my work was staring me in the face and I have another artist to thank for it, I guess.

Do you have a favorite art spot or event in D.C. or Baltimore?

Yes. It is my studio! It is in my basement these days, after the condominium culture ate up my warehouse space. I try not to go out too much, although I do go to my share of art shows, especially in order to blog about stuff. I love going galleries that are professional without being snooty. I think the Randall Scott Gallery definitely fits this bill, and so does Gallery Imperato who reps me in Baltimore, as does Paperwork in Baltimore, which is a space I’ve opened up recently with my friend Dana Reifler.

How would you describe the art scene or community in D.C. or Baltimore?

As an artist who’s been showing both in D.C. and Baltimore for a couple of years, I have to say the two are completely different. I like making art in Baltimore, because I can afford to have a lot of studio space and freedom to experiment. Baltimore’s art community is supportive and warm, and is definitely thriving, but there isn’t much economic backing for it, other than grants. I sell a lot less work in Baltimore than in D.C., although the press in Baltimore is more encouraging, with lots of opportunities for reviews and write-ups.

In general, D.C. is a cooler, more intellectual city, and also more wealthy. I discovered blogging, after my first show in D.C. There were no art blogs in Baltimore a couple of years ago. There are many more professional galleries in D.C., which tend to exhibit commercial work and also a few more museums that collect contemporary work. This work isn’t always as dynamic or vital as the work I see produced in Baltimore, but it is definitely exhibited more professionally.

I think I am really lucky to be able to be a part of both the Baltimore and the Washington art community. I think I learn a lot, professionally, from both spots, although I get a lot more speeding tickets in Washington.

What do you see down the road artistically?

I like to be busy making things at all times. My goal would be to have projects aplenty, some solo and some collaborative, for the rest of my life. I would like to teach less and paint more. I would like to continue to curate exhibits with interesting people and in challenging places. I would like to get paid to write about art. I would like to travel to lots of new places to make, curate, and write about art. I would like to be awarded some grant money so I can do nothing but make paintings for a while and not leave the studio and really get to know myself. And eventually, I would like to be a really busy old lady, as ready for the next painting, and the next show as I am now.

To hear more from Ober, the Randall Scott Gallery will be holding an informal chat with her on April 5 from 4:30-6 p.m. Brandon Fortune, curator of painting at the National Gallery and Kriston Capps, critic for the Washington City Paper and blogger will conduct an informal interview with Ober about her work.

By Amy Cavanaugh in Arts and Events

Pics from the opening reception March 8 at RSG

NEW PAINTINGS AND A WALL BY CARA OBER; A WARNING TO VIEWERS -- Essay by Dr. Michael Salcman

“Painting as a mode of thinking” is the way Holland Cotter described the landscapes of Poussin in a recent New York Times review. He likened Poussin’s artistic practice to a certain kind of poetry in which “antique references, modern speculation and sensual delirium” check and fuel the import of each component. A viewer might do well to keep this conflicted discursiveness in mind when looking at the paintings of Cara Ober. Her art can look deceptively inviting, almost reassuring in its Hallmark Hall greeting card sort of way, as if the meaning of her jumbled references to old-time dictionary illustrations, sentimental silhouettes, wallpaper patterns and middle class sense and sensibility were simply meant to give us pleasure, the concatenation of images and words an apotheosis of middlebrow taste somewhat like the effusions of Jeff Koons, another notable graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. But you would be mistaken to think so. Perhaps like Ober you too are a product of suburban America, perhaps like her you too feel conflicted about the comfortable sources of your pleasures, how often they are rooted in a familiar environment, the taste of chocolate cake, a submissive pet, a doting mother, a non-threatening mate. Perhaps her older work made it easy for you to feel some such generational kinship but the new paintings are darker in color, more subtly threatening in their selection of quotes and definitions, more aggressive in their critique. They will remind you that you are not like Cara Ober.



The new paintings require a type of “slow looking”, the eye moving from image to image, the brain attempting to puzzle out Ober’s meanings. The layering of images in modern art has a storied history and a distinguished if controversial line of practitioners including Francis Picabia, Robert Rauschenberg (a hero of Ober’s), Sigmar Polke and David Salle, an artist guaranteed to raise the hackles of anyone with feminist sensibilities. In the layered work of these artists, disjunctive visual signs are used as grammatical equivalents of words in a sentence; Ober’s more lyrical paintings are part of this tradition, visual equivalents to the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E school of poetry in which sound takes precedence over sense, and placement is privileged before meaning. In Picabia the images are literally placed one on top of the other and the layering often achieved through the foregrounding of pentimenti, evidence of previous attempts at achieving visual coherence. This is not Ober’s way, her method closer to that of Rauschenberg and Salle in which the images are dispersed across an abstract expressionist field or ground in the manner of a visual puzzle. Whether these puzzles are actually capable of solution is another matter. Rauschenberg even called one of his most famous combine paintings “Rebus”, the term used for a kind of visual puzzle endemic to game shows but neither his work nor Salle’s is susceptible to a single interpretation, and neither is the work of Ober. You have been warned. On the other hand, there are philosophical and sociological points being made, some of which clearly relate to how art is produced and received; this strategy aligns her with Polke, a contemporary master devoted to the alchemical nature of process, the deconstruction of printing and typography, the flexible meaning of emotionally fraught images both old and new.



With their lipstick colors and feminine cursive, the pre-Pop prints and drawings of Andy Warhol may be Ober’s closest visual ancestor of all; see especially the hand-colored lithographs in A la Recherche du Shoe Perdu (1955) and his series of watercolor cats and butterflies. Like Warhol, Ober calibrates the visual balance between word and image; unlike his cool effusions, she adjusts the emotional heat of her work up or down by introducing stenciled dictionary definitions in the manner of Kosuth and fragments of provocative poetry. And Ober gives her words and images equal visual weight. For this reason alone her work is subliminally hot, unlike the dead pan dictionary photostats of Joseph Kosuth or the gunpowder drawings of Ed Ruscha. In their work words serve as image and conceptual trigger, taking over the entire surface and meaning of the painting or its photographic equivalent. Whether taking her words from her own journal or from poet-friends, Cara Ober is deeply invested in the emotional power of language. Many visual artists are instinctively drawn to poets and their work by the image-making properties common to both art forms: on the one hand, the representation of objects through mark making, on the other, the evocation of images by metaphoric means. The use of words as components in visual compositions begins with Cubism and its invention of collage as an artistic strategy, a means by which the art work became an object in the real world through the reciprocal insertion of fragments from that world, a headline from a newspaper, a musical staff, a torn sheet of faux bois wallpaper; at this critical juncture, Picasso and Braque were surrounded by many friends and associates who were writers and poets: Apollinaire, Max Jakob, Cocteau, and Gertrude Stein. Years later a literary movement actually spawned an entire visual style. Paintings and poems have been twisting around one another ever since, like two strands of DNA. Ober’s paintings are a recent elaboration of this tendency.



As already mentioned, Ober often employs a delicate “wet” looking scrawl that resembles the blotted line in the early autographic (pre-POP) drawings of Andy Warhol, an artist similarly conflicted about his upbringing; both artists use this technique to draw domestic cats and innocent butterflies, things we are sometimes ashamed to love openly because they are often despised by intellectuals or by the more rational and self-impressed half of our own consciousness. In a painting like “born for better things”, you can still see his influence, especially in the pistols and revolvers so exquisitely hand-drawn that they look like Warholian screenprints; similarly her Pop-inflected 1950s floral patterns look like collage but are not. In this painting, the darker import of the images is reinforced by the aggressively frontal portrait of a dog’s head as well as the scripted message “I will wait but not forever” and the stenciled dictionary definition of “birthright”. The recurring images of Joker playing cards are an almost too-pointed reminder of the game being played on us, the superficially cloying sentimentality and kitsch aesthetic giving way to serious business, the power of the artist to fool the eye and control our emotional weather. How Ober feels about her self-identification with the Joker, the classic camp villain of the Batman comics, is uncertain; we cannot know what she knows, even about herself. Another warning of serious intent is Ober’s employment of opaque figures painted in black that resemble nothing so much as Kara Walker’s sociologically charged silhouettes, themselves as much about femininity as they are about race. You can see this in the lower right-hand corner of “lowdown”, one of the best paintings, fierce despite its use of the older palette as a ground. In the revealingly titled “i regret saying these things too softly”, the dancing couple in the lower right serves a similar purpose and is counterbalanced by the ominous cascade of black paint in the upper left. The instability of truth, whether visual or sociological, is heralded by the choice of her other images, the Joker from an old playing card, the image of a mockingbird, the dictionary definition of a duck decoy. Ober’s pictorial universe is simultaneously campy and obnoxious, sentimental and strident, decorative and awkward, mute and sounding off.



I have already mentioned the scrawled line that Ober uses for quotes from Bob Dylan, from her own journal entries, from pop songs and greeting card verse. Not only are these mostly sentimental messages forced to abut her images but they also must deal with stenciled texts, seemingly banal definitions that she appropriates from her collection of old dictionaries. In “lowdown” the text is taken from Dylan’s “Idiot Wind”, “passing stranger/ someone’s got it in for me/ I can’t help it if I’m lucky”, the quote menacingly divided, the boxer’s head facing the first part. Above the scrawl, Ober has juxtaposed the definition of “lowdown”, a slang term for truth. Over the past few years, her choice of text has darkened along with the color of her figurative and literal ground, almost always implying a feminine critique of masculine appurtenances, male dogs, weapons and tools: since these are the words most frequently illustrated in the old dictionaries, Ober gives us the accompanying drawings, fashioned to look like early lithographs and places them next to the text. In the beautiful “winter into spring”, the hopefulness of the scrawl and the sentimental definition and image of a rickshaw are cancelled by the blot of thrown paint. Across the scumbled abstract expressionist ground of her work, the skin and stain of her acrylic, Ober repeatedly confronts comfort and discomfort, acceptance and criticism, feminine and masculine. In “well-meaning”, the romantic scrawl (“because you are mine”) is negated by the old-fashioned woman with a pompadour hair-do and the male astronaut facing away from her.



And then there is the wall. Ober has assembled about 150 sheets of six by six-inch paper, each covered with watercolor, gouache, gold leaf and the occasional element of true collage. If her individual canvases seem at first glance like lyrical songs, decorative assemblages of non-threatening images, are her wall-sized concatenations of multiple sheets more akin to symphonies? In taking up this strategy Ober has relatively few precedents, Jennifer Bartlett, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Jim Hodges, Joseph Grigely, and Zak Smith come to mind. Bartlett is the most apposite because she is female and her images are similarly non-threatening and superficially neutral; like Gonzalez-Torres, Bartlett’s paint drop plates and the orchestration of images in “Rhapsody” come out of a post-Minimalist aesthetic. When Gonzalez-Torres traces his lymphocyte counts on graphs he uses the emotionally neutral or cool armature of the grid; without some background information or knowledge of a title we can only guess at the emotionally loaded nature of his project. Hodges fabricates walls of painted flowers that are more object-oriented than the work of Ober. Grigely’s casual notes, meal receipts and phone messages, his “inscribed conversations”, are mementos of his daily exchanges as a non-hearing person negotiating the hearing world. Zak Smith’s most famous wall is even more explicitly language-based even though no words appear; it consists of more than 700 drawings and photo-paintings inspired by every page in his copy of Gravity’s Rainbow (2006). Like Hodges and Smith, Ober’s sheets are physically delicate, seemingly humble and frankly autographic. Like her individual paintings, the “mural” is more than a puzzle meant to be solved, it’s a metaphor for the random connections of daily thought. Because half the piece consists of dictionary images she calls “evidence”, and the other half is primarily text Ober terms “confessions”, we once again sense that familiar unease that Ober injects beneath the surface of her outwardly well-behaved pictures. Unlike a painting, in which the confrontation of text and image must be balanced for color and scale, everything on this wall is given equal weight. Read left to right from a distance, the wall becomes a collection of thoughts and sensations more random than any a painting might achieve; up close we are subsumed in the welter of its jumping off points. If not for the division between image and text the eye wouldn’t know where to turn first. It’s difficult to predict what the recent emergence of wall-sized work presages for her artistic program but it surely is not an attempt to make things easier for the viewer. I strongly suspect she is done with the regret of saying things too softly. Like I said, you’ve been warned.

Cara Ober: 'i am who i pretend to be' opens at RSG March 8

March 8 - April 11
Reception Saturday, March 8 at 7 p.m.

The most unlikely pairing of visual elements, culled from home décor, fashion, old reference manuals, and action painting forms the visual vocabulary of Baltimore based painter Cara Ober. These works act as an entry point into the artist's unconscious; the connections between disparate images create a visual poetry, full of meanderings and musings, paired with suggestion and associations. Ober's method for constructing meaning is of her generation; she catalogues, documents, and pieces together fragments into internal maps, which document a moving through time.

"You can't understand beauty without loss. And I can't take either of these ideas seriously without an undertone of humor or irony. In every solemn occasion, there is always a subtext of anxiety or mischief, a story that is hidden. In my paintings, the most serious and silly elements combine and interact on the canvas, unfolding a narrative that is striking in contradiction, absurd in paradoxical blather, and authentic in poignant longing. I don't desire to depict these ideas, rather to reenact them on the canvas, through an odd balance of extremes." writes Ober.

Ober's canvases, rich in layers of ideas worked, rethought, reworked and painted with an exuberant and excited hand, is akin to a late night conversation shared over numerous cups of coffee, or glasses of wine. Focused in the moment, with thoughts flying in every direction, these works act like an improvisational jazz riff that never looses track of the melody, while never drawing recognition to it in sequence, either.

These explorations, presented in text, color and visual layers create a multidimensional narrative. As in life, there is no singular meaning, no clear definition. Ober's narratives, by use of juxtaposition and unlikely relationships, can be read in any number of ways, encouraging a viewer to roll in their own associations and to enrich the experience.

"My conception of validity is entirely subjective, based on my suburban upbringing, my sense of humor, and my own tunnel-vision rebellion. There is a sense of play and meditation in my work, found in the stream-of-consciousness chatting I document, and also frustration, loss, and nostalgia. The search for meaning and reflection in the scrutiny of the evidential details is what fuels me, although the paintings typically yield unexpected outcomes, and answers to questions I haven't asked yet."

Cara Ober earned her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2005. Based in Baltimore, MD, Ober teaches at MICA, Johns Hopkins University and Towson University. She also writes for several local publications on the arts and curates an exhibition space in Baltimore that showcases works on paper. In the past year, her work has been shown in a number of local and national exhibits, including second prize in The 2007 Bethesda Painting Awards, and a solo show at Flashpoint In Washington D.C.