One of the new art venues doing First Friday on July 8 is the Anchorage Artists Co-op in the former coffee shop at 601 W. Fifth Ave., across from the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts.
The co-op features work by names that will be familiar to those who have attended group shows over the years, Ted Kincaid, Scott Pugh, Lee Post, Josh Williams and Lance Lekander. But they're not exactly the "big" names who get big solo shows in major venues.
"We're the disenfranchised artists of Anchorage," said Will Kozloff, who is something like the manager and chief curator of the co-op. "We don't do Percent for Art projects."
The artists came by their location about a month ago with help from the Anchorage Downtown Partnership. The space serves to show work by participating artists and even members of the public; there's a "youth wall" with art by younger people who may wander in off the street. It also provides work space for the Partnership's Façade Improvement Program. Co-op artists are providing the talent and sweat to put murals on various downtown buildings and, Kozloff said, give the town a more colorful ambiance than the prevailing beige and gray exteriors. Expect to see their work soon at flat surfaces of the Fifth Avenue Parking Garage and elsewhere.
Another project includes decorating bear-proof trash cans for use downtown. Not that downtown Anchorage has a lot of bears, but, well, think of what the tourists will say.
Speaking of urban bears, earlier this week Pugh was found working on one of the "Parade of Bears" statue, painting a standing bruin with wild colors. A bare bear in walking pose stood nearby. "We're still trying to decide what to do with that one," Kozloff said. "It's really big."
Along the walls were panels by some of the artists, including Josh Williams, Stephanie Novak and Vanessa Sweet. An image of swarming salmon by Harmony Kennedy — better known for her naked demon women — occupied one panel. Pugh's depiction of a supertanker named the S.S. Economy being dragged down by a kraken filled another frame. Nick Sweet stood on a stool completing some portraits done at street artist speed.
Street artistry is sort of a theme at the co-op, not just the speed of execution but the transient nature of the exhibits. It will all be painted over in a couple of months to keep things changing. "Nobody wants to do anything boring," Kozloff said.
The Anchorage Artists Co-op First Friday event will be a "Sticker Show," Kozloff said. A whole bunch of people are doing small-scale work on USPS package stickers that will go on display. "As a collective, we can be a little different," he said.
A second event associated with street art will also take place on July 8 from 1-5 p.m. as the Anchorage Museum hosts Anchorage's own Arielo "Bisco" Taylor (a co-op participant) along with two street artists from Arizona, Rene "Strike 1" Garcia and Dwayne Manuel, known by his nom de arte "Dwayno Insano." The three will join local youth covering temporary walls installed on the museum lawn. It's part of the museum's Urban Interventions program.