This is the MOSAIC OF ART, and mosaics do get their share of exposure on the blog, the MOA site and on the Blogtalkradio podcasts – including this coming Sunday’s. Last week, NANCY MILLS PIPGRAS was my live call-in guest, and she spoke about the making of the Exhibition in Print in Mosaic Art Now magazine and began to describe how that process – and the feedback from jurors BERNICE STEINBAUM and the team of MATT COLLINGS and EMMA BIGGS stimulated her thinking about what is and isn’t a mosaic. And doesn't this lead right into consideration of one of the EIP winners, JO BRAUN?

JO BRAUN, Mosaic Without Any Tesserae

 It’s a topic we’ll continue to pursue on the MOA, leading up to the SAMA conference February 16 to 20 in Austin. Recorded guest interviews with two gallery representatives, LESLIE FERRIN and FRANK HYDER, ceramic artist CHRIS ANTEMANN and mosaicist GINA HUBLER rounded out last week’s show. Today, I’m again taking up my mission of looking inside arts institutions. “Creating exhibitions that are conceptually stimulating, well executed, challenging to her audience, but also accessible,” these are the goals that JANE HART pursues as chief curator of the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood. She and her associate curator MISAEL SOTO speak about what that means, while describing the work of two exhibitions on view – one by SINISA KUKEC,

SINISA KUKEC, And Yet Another Wayward Landscape

 another by STEPHAN TUGRUL

STEPHAN TUGRUL, En Masse

 and a third in the South Florida projects room by sculptor, LUIS ALONZO BARKIGIA.

LUIS ALONZO BARKIGIA, Mundos Perfeitos

BARKIGIA describes both the conceptual nature of his work and the challenge of actually installing it – re-making the gallery floor and hanging special lighting. While we’re in Hollywood, I‘m airing an interview I conducted some months ago with Development Director, JEFFREY RUSNAK. He talks about the NATHAN SAWAYA exhibition of wall-mounted and sculptural works executed in the material of Legos.

NATHAN SAWAYA, Self detail

 To get an “end-user” perspective on that popular exhibition, I also speak with MAURICIO GARCON,  who brought his family to see the show and to participate in a family activity – creating sculptures in the art center’s project room, the same room that guest LUIS BARCIGIA is using to install his sculpture. Picking up the Art of Mosaic theme, I will actually begin with a recent interview with Seattle artist, JO BRAUN.

JO BRAUN, Grafittiscape

She doesn’t call herself a "mosaic artist," but rather a visual artist who often works with the materials that others call mosaic. Too fine a distinction? Listen to her reasoning and her creative method: setting up a system of rules and following them. (like for instance making a mosaic with no tesserae). Some would call this rigid and confining, but she asserts it helps her follow her muse. You just might be enticed to experiment with your own working method. At the least, you’ll be provoked to re-consider some of your assumptions. Please tune in on Sunday, 3-4pm EST at the Mosaic of Art on Blogtalkradio.