Archive for February, 2007

St. Croix, USVI: Mike Walsh’s dual show, appearing for the months of January-March, 2007 at the St. George Village Botanical Garden and at Walsh Metal Works Gallery on St. Croix, is a beauty. Delicate and industrial the carefully handled “bag grid” conveys our modern irony and peaceful downfall. Walsh’s Blue Bags series, and plastic bag theme in general, I found particularly appropriate for the US Virgin Islands where Walsh resides. Here, double and even triple bagging comes as a statement to overuse; today I un-wrapped a grocery bag: six bags for four items. This synthetic deluge litters our roads, our trees, our kitchen floors, and balloons into what remains of our atmosphere. Since Sam Mendes’ touching movie, American Beauty, exposed on cinema the feather-like quality of a plastic grocery bag, Walsh takes it a breath further with these blue bellow installations. In turn, his pieces are a welcome lightening from the weight of excess that these inconspicuous bags bring to our world.

The setting of the Botanical Gardens was fresh, at the gateway of the cool rainforest shade, but one more piece was needed to alert the public of something deliberate, something to check out. Though overall, it was a reminder to let go and hold onto the harmony of the wind, ourselves, and all that we create.
Amy Konwerski

Walsh Installation Location at St. George Village (arrows)

Tyringe, Sweden: Artist and creative genius Leif Lilja is displaying 16 new oil paintings and several iron and stone installations at the Tyringe Forsamlingshem (organized by Ars Viva, the Finja Artist Association) in Southern Sweden’s pastoral countryside for the month of February, 2007. Swedish correspondent Barbro Lanner says the show was well attended and that she loved the vibrant colors of Lilja’s work.

The inspiration for the paintings and the sculptural pieces come from a whole life of living as an extraordinarily creative human, an artist from early years, in rural Sweden’s peaceful but sometimes frustratingly conformist society. Lilja claims that his work is sometimes difficult to understand for the common Swede, although more and more of his neighbors and acquaintances have taken to accepting it as something new in their world, something not entirely safe, nor entirely unattractive. Lilja has metal sculptures in several public collections in Southern Sweden, and a select group of patrons from other parts of Sweden, Denmark and Germany.

The show will be on display through the end of February. For more information, contact director@salt-gallery.com or If you’replanning on visiting Southern Sweden, contact Finja Konstförening; Johan Ullbergsgatan 10, Box 135, 282 23 Tyringe; phone: +46-451-50550; contact Staffan Örneskans,