From Rhett: ENTITY13 is at Hot Shops all this month. I'll be VJ'ing again there Saturday June 23rd. ENJOY!
NoDo Fine Art. Hot Shops Center a nice fit for premiere of DIY art group Entity 13
By Michael Joe Krainak

NoDo continues to rock ‘n’ roll. Amidst mushrooming hotels, behind the scene machinations for a new Royals ballpark and Creighton’s eminent enterprise east on Cuming Street, Omaha’s recent development north of downtown can also boast a new independent spirit as well.

Slowdown, the music venue of indie record label Saddle Creek Records, enjoyed a huge opening last weekend and Film Streams will open the doors of Omaha’s first nonprofit alternative cinema, the Ruth Sokolof Theater, on July 27. Both premieres suggest that this area between Webster and Nicholas, and 12th and 16th streets will have something culturally to offer locals and tourists alike that eschews mainstream, status quo entertainment and the arts.

Meanwhile, the Hot Shops Art Center, which began this adventure north and east in 2000 at 13th and Nicholas streets, went quietly about its business with a new mixed media show in June, “Entity 13,” which also had a successful opening on the first day of the month to the tune of about 300 or so. Hot Shops is a multi-purpose arts facility anchored and owned by four working artisans who lease the upper two floors as well to about 70 more who run the gamut from hobbyist to craftsperson, from commercial to professional. The facility also offers many art classes, a print guild and hosts the Barker Art Residency Program.

Though Hot Shops’ exhibits, other than those of its anchors and a few of its established artists upstairs, tend toward the mainstream, its close proximity to Slowdown and Film Streams could enhance its mission from oasis to a virtual Mecca for emerging artists and edgier shows. “Entity 13,” the inaugural exhibit of the area’s latest DIY arts group with the same moniker, while not exactly cutting edge, is nonetheless one of the venue’s more interesting shows this year because of the artist’s experimentation and independence.

Entity 13, the group, is made up currently of Rhett McClure, photographer and videographer, Nathan Chandler, photographer, Dusty Noha, large scale painter and Henry Kloepper, welder, photographer and woodcraftsman. Their show features traditional and experimental photography, abstract painting and video art. Though there is little by way of subject or style to unite them, McClure says their group’s tag, Entity 13, provides a clue to their underlying M.O.

“All four of us are great fans of Nine Inch Nails,” he said. “Leader Trent Reznor composed a special song for a Katrina benefit concert called ‘Non-Entity.’ This seemed fitting for our group in describing the energy between the four of us … a whole new entity.” As for the number “13,” McClure said it also seemed appropriate because of its mystery and ambivalence. “We realize not everyone is going to identify or understand our message,” he added, “thus 13 seemed fitting.”

Overall, their exhibit is not really that mysterious, as only two of the artists, McClure and Chandler, seem that message oriented, but all four do explore styles, subjects and themes new to their experience. Of the four, McClure’s work is the most didactic and experimental. With text messages like “SUVs Suck Us Dry” and “Your Vote Does Not Count” inserted into his fanciful, symbolic imagery, he is not apologetic for his antithetical stance. He even refers to his art as propaganda and maybe a bit more.

“I realize not everyone is going to agree with my paranoid take on the state of the world,” McClure said. Regarding his free form, conceptual video art he shares an anecdote: “A friend of ours who works with mental patients commented that my video mix was similar to drug company depictions of psychosis. I took that as a compliment.”

McClure’s video art is copyright-bending live video mixes created with the revolutionary Numark NUVJ video mixer. “Entity 13” features one of his VJ works based on the show and its opening. As a modern DJ as well, it follows that his experimental interest in parody and Fair Use would extend to video art too. It’s a performance-based form of New Media art far removed from the usual glib and cliché offerings on YouTube and its ilk.

Chandler’s more traditional photography has a message, but it is more subtle and emotional. A series of black and white New Orleans-based photos, they were shot by the artist while volunteering after the Katrina tragedy. They are particularly unique as each avoids images of people, concentrating instead on objects and places in the devastation that convey a similar loss. About his prints of churches, boatyards and schools he says, “These places were so ghostly and haunted and so massively depressing. There was this crushing silence … I wanted some of that to echo all the way to Omaha.”

He manages this because his dark, forbidding prints focus on capsized boats, soiled American flags, tumbled pews and fallen crosses. The mood in all is one of reflection and melancholy, and oddly enough, whether intended or not, the photos are universal and not location specific. They speak eloquently about New Orleans’ loss, but they could easily mark the aftermath of any city or town abandoned and buried alive after a hit and run tragedy.

Chandler continues to show an eye for detail and composition, but he has moved beyond the commercial and mere documentation. Admitting he wears his heart on his sleeve, this latest work shows he now lets his graphic imagery speak and emote for itself. He sees himself as a storyteller, not autobiographical, but as a photojournalist whose work is personal in that he hopes the viewer will respond in a similar way.

Very different in style and POV is the digital photography of emerging artist Henry Kloepper, who is both autobiographical and abstract. Kloepper offers a series of digital prints that are long-exposure photos of himself “painting with light” on a dark background, the effect of which is similar to watching one twirl a sparkler on a Fourth of July night. Yet, his imagery is not as ephemeral as that for all its surrealism. Instead, his images of fire and crystalline flowers look almost sculptural or carved out of pure energy.

This comes as no surprise as Kloepper is an accomplished welder who knows his way around things elemental and natural. With titles like “Firewalk,” “Fire 8” and his most effective piece, “Fire Tunnel,” he professes a passion for his subject. “What I like about the fire in my light drawing is the unpredictability of what it is going to do even when I have control of it,” he said.

This push/pull quality is also present in the new, rather monumental oil and acrylic paintings of Dusty Noha, whose four works in the show mark a movement away from the previous more natural and representational to the more abstract. Incorporating Jackson Pollock’s technique of “delicately dripped color,” Noha has created work that in his own way attempts to establish control by way of patterns in his spontaneous overflow of paint.

The result, with one exception, are canvasses dominated by the three primary colors, especially yellow, which rings true given the artist’s sunny disposition. These are bright, vibrant works whose colorful patterns, however discriminating, are not predetermined. As Noha says, “a pattern just seems to emerge during the process.” This is especially true of “Test Strips,” which layers a test pattern of energized drippings over a tranquil, transparent, watercolor-like flowerbed.

Though he says he is usually motivated by nature the most evident of this is his “Footprints,” probably his most accomplished work here. In it he layers provocatively his own footprints over his least derivative and busy background. This subdued painting is seductive and artfully complex, the very essence of art both abstract and expressionistic. Though Noha’s POV, like Kloepper’s, is more detached than the personal involvement of McClure and Chandler, “Entity 13” unites them in shared understanding that a new beginning any time, any place means exploring the unknown and the unfamiliar.