JTAG
Co-op Hangs with the Best
by Sandra Schulman
March 18, 2010

“We opened this co-op gallery because, quite frankly, local artists want to show and some of the galleries here don’t show many local artists,” says Frederick Fulmer, who conceived of opening the Joshua Tree Art Gallery. “Most of the artists in the gallery have shown locally and nationally too, this is an opportunity for them to have a selection of work on display all the time and to curate and rotate it as they please.”

What makes this endeavor work is both the great central location and the high quality of the artists involved. Many are nationally known and also work as curators. Some, like Ann Magnuson, are better known for the acting work, and Fulmer owns several vacation rental houses as well a summer artist in residency program.
“The artists all have a three month deal right now to see if this works for them,” Fulmer says. “So we may be rotating some artists. We’re already getting good feedback from the community and have made a few sales already before our official opening on the 20th.”

JTAG’s stable includes:

Ann Magnuson is an American actress, performance artist, and nightclub performer who first gained prominence in the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan. The New York Times described her as “An endearing theatrical chameleon who has as many characters at her fingertips as Lily Tomlin does”.

As Salon writer John Paczowski described her in 1997:”A celebrated icon in the more transgressive margins of culture, Ann Magnuson has been at once unknown and renowned for the past 15 years. She is infamous in more insular circles as the creative force behind the cultural mayhem of the East Village’s Club 57, a breeding ground of experimentation and absurdity that spawned the work of Keith Haring, and Kenny Scharf. Magnuson once performed a “Tribute to Muzak,” singing for five hours straight in the elevator of the Whitney Museum.”

Ann has been living part time in Joshua Tree for several years and had a recent show at Art Queen where she made 30 pieces in 30 days from found objects in the desert, local thrift shops and flea markets. “There can never be too much art,” she says of her inclusion in the co-op.

Diane Best was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and studied in the San Francisco area before moving south to Los Angeles. There, she did commercial artwork for the entertainment industry and commissioned portraits, while pursuing and showing her original work. Now living in Joshua Tree, Diane has focused her talent on capturing the dramatic imagery of various desert landscapes. “Seeking more and more remote, uninhabited and overlooked corners of the desert, I am interested in preserving or recording a single incredible moment of converging light and landscape while enjoying the space, beauty and quietness of the desert,” describes Best.

Frederick Fulmer was born in Columbia, South Carolina and received his B.F.A. in painting and print making from Virginia Commonwealth University. He lives and works in Venice and Joshua Tree, California. His recent paintings are abstract assemblage incorporating organic materials into acrylic medium. He gathers the materials by taking walks through the desert, collecting iron ore, glass shards, burnt wood, charcoal, bones, diamond dust and other obtanium from the natural terrain.

Steve Reiman: “In my work I’m asking questions about the balance between advancing technology and the preservation of the natural environment. I find myself caught up in the incredible opportunities of a high tech world, while recognizing that to ignore the real possibility of destroying the natural world along the way will make all the technological advances meaningless and without value. In the search for the means to communicate my feelings, I’ve combined methods, materials and ideas that express various contrasts and relationships. My goal is to create a delicate balance between competing influences with the promise of instability given the slightest change. I’m a graduate of Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA.”

JTAG opens March 20th 5-8 pm
61695 Suite A, 29 Palms Highway, Joshua Tree, CA