Intuition in art making definitely exists- not sure about the fainting ladies, though....
Speaking as an artist, I create series of works based on an idea, generally topics unrelated to art. I spend a lot of time researching and thinking about this "idea", but the artwork I create is immediate, intuitive and without pre-planning. I depend on my mistakes or "my little experiments" (as I like to call them) to guide me through the process.
Another consideration to make is that the artists we visited are in an MFA program--a place where they are required to explain process and think and re-think every decision in their studios-- all this eventually leading to their thesis. Intuition can be a tricky topic to articulate during thesis review.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Random thoughts on this morning:
I thought meeting with the MFA students this morning was pretty interesting. I found their processes and how they transitioned from one medium or type of work to another to be the most fascinating. For some reason, I found it almost surprising to hear several of them talk about the process or steps they took in order to end up with a final project.
I think I was (naively) under the impression that visual art was somehow different from a written manuscript or even a choreographed dance in that it didn't require premeditation, drafts, or revisioning (Likewise, Mozart could sit at a piano as a child and create sonatas on the spot; Seinfeld keeps a notepad on his night stand in order to record jokes that "come to him" in the middle of the night... this is where my delusion is coming from, I think). I've seen artist's sketches, models, and visual aids, crafted in order to better understand how the final product should be created but I guess I attributed those to the artist's uncontrollable "planner" personality traits...
Not that I thought an idea for a painting or sculpture magically appeared out of thin air but apparently, somewhere along the line, I subscribed to the romantic idea that visual art is this organic, involuntary act that is created while lightening crashes in the background and ladies faint in disbelief. Good thing I'm taking the class!
P.S. A fun security envelope pattern Google found for me.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Galleries and Artists I Liked
Hey everyone! It was good to see you all today and I hope you all are doing well :)
Here are the galleries and artists that interested me : :
- Like the Spice Gallery
- John Zaso
John has been obsessed with clean lines and bright colors and this theme is still present in his work.
- Jason Bryant
Bryant's paintings are often confrontational, yet inviting, questioning the viewer's notions of reality and how these notions can be blurred or reinforced by film.
- Metaphor Contemporary Art
- Gabe Brown.
- Ch’i Contemporary Art
- HeeSook Kim
- Elise Freda
- Parker’s Box
- Stefan Sehler
- Farmani Gallery
- Andrea Altemuller
are those which are removed
from the daily routine.“
robert musil--- Some years ago I found this poem. These words express in a perfect way, what I feel about taking pictures.
- Maryanne Bilham
- Phil Borges
The question that BRIDGES asks, and attempts to address is: what would happen if we gave these children a voice and connected them to our children on a platform that allowed an equal exchange?
Monday, November 10, 2008
Contemporary Artists- Notes from second meeting
Contemporary Artists
Kojo Griffin- http://www.kojogriffin.com/home.html
Gallery- Salt Works Gallery
Atlanta Gerogia
http://www.saltworksgallery.com/
Artist Statement- his website has a spot for it but its not filled in. I guess he hasn’t finished it yet?
Some info from press releases- The paintings in An Acausal Connecting Principle mark a bold departure as well as a new beginning for Griffin. Griffin’s signature anthropomorphic characters have been retired. The eight new paintings explore Griffin’s exciting and bold exploration into the act of painting. Instead of an overarching idea connecting each work, Griffin approaches each painting on its own, with the subject matter chosen chiefly as a carrier of technique and process. The resulting paintings are confident and audacious, each delving into territory that is both accomplished and experimental. Quality Pictures is pleased to announce Swing States of Mind, the gallery's second exhibition of work by Kojo Griffin. In Swing States of Mind, the Atlanta artist debuts six new paintings of arresting visual and creative depth. These psychologically charged pieces will be complemented by a selection of Griffin's paintings, drawings, and prints
from the past eight years. Tracing the creative evolution of this restless artist, Swing States of Mind not only signals an exciting new direction for Griffin, but also looks to history for a more profound understanding of the present. Griffin's new paintings find a cast of familiar figures returning from an extended absence. The psychologically bruised animals that populated Griffin's early work have reappeared, although time has not been especially kind. Rendered damaged and ghostly, the morose, upright creatures now inhabit a stark interior space - as cold psychologically as it is architecturally. Griffin's brushwork strikes a tense harmony of abandon and control here, as fierce strokes of deep, moody hues push up again the artist's command of the figure.
My comments- Kojo Griffin uses ink, pencil and acrylic on paper and canvas. Whether he is using his well know hybrid animal-people or another anonymous human-type representation, Griffin’s work always addresses highly charged emotional and psychological issues. He is most well known for his work dealing with victimology and violence. Often times his backgrounds are abstracted with patterns that help lend an understanding of the characters he depicts.
Jeff Wall- no website
Gallery- Marian Goodman Gallery
New York (Chelsea), New York
http://mariangoodman.com/mg/nyc.html
Artist Statement- couldn’t find one, probably because he is too famous.
Some info from press releases- After a brief but eventful career that embodies the hopes and humiliations of African Americans at mid-twentieth century, the hero of Ralph Ellison's celebrated 1952 novel Invisible Man retreats to a secret basement room on the edge of Harlem. There he patiently composes and reflects upon the story we are about to read. "I am invisible,” he explains, "simply because people refuse to see me.” Making pictures out of stores was once the main business of the visual arts. The rising modernist tradition consigned the practice to the margins of advanced art; for most of the past century, "illustration" has been a term of contempt. In this large, richly detailed and thoroughly absorbing photograph, Wall has all but single-handedly reinvented the challenge. The novel's eloquent prologue is short on specifics, except one: the 1,369 lightbulbs that cover the ceiling of the underground lair. Starting with this fantastic detail, Wall scrupulously imagined in his Vancouver studio the concrete form of Ellison's metaphorical space. Ambitiously reviving a forgotten art, he made visible the Invisible Man.
My comments- Jeff Wall is a very famous photography from Vancouver, Canada. He makes very large works and puts them on huge light boxes (a quotation of the advertisements in subways), which creates a glowing effect. Wall’s photographs are always staged but meant to look as if they were chance. His works always addresses the awkwardness of people in their space. He likes to photograph marginalized people in typical situations.
Shepard Fairey- http://obeygiant.com/
Gallery- John LeVine Gallery
New York (Chelsea), New York
http://JonathanLeVineGallery.com/
Artist Statement- couldn’t find one, probably because he is too famous.
Some info from press releases- In some circles, Shepard Fairey is known as one of the most prolific and notorious street artists of his generation, creating memorable graphics that have spread through urban centers all over the world.When Fairey was a member of the 13-to-18 demographic, he lived in Charleston, S.C., where his obsessions were skateboarding and punk. He chose to go to the Rhode Island School of Design because he had a vague idea that he could make a living in a visual field. He got interested in screen printing. "What happened at RISD was that immediately people were talking about 'What's your major gonna be?' And people that were going into painting thought they were superior to people that were going into illustration, because"--he adopts a fey art-snob voice-- "'Illustration is commercial. I'm not compromising for anyone.'" Fairey majored in illustration. He believed, he says, that his fellow students who had chosen to be painters were already compromising their work and were likely to do so even more as they moved into the world of fine-art galleries. He also admits that he was "scared" of the fine-art world. "I did blow it off. Because...," he pauses for a long moment, "honestly, I didn't think that I had the talent to make it in that world." One night in 1989, when Fairey was still at RISD, he had a friend over who wanted to learn how to make stencils. Fairey flipped through a newspaper and picked out a picture of Andre Roussimoff--or Andre the Giant, the (now deceased) professional wrestler best known for his role in The Princess Bride. The friend balked because the image was too "stupid." Fairey was intrigued. No, he countered, it's cool. It's cutting edge. "Andre the Giant," he told his friend, "has a posse." They proceeded. Next to the smeary image of the wrestler's face, Fairey scrawled "Andre the Giant Has a Posse." He took the results to Kinko's and made stickers and slapped them on stop signs and in clubs. Then--randomly, in places like his local grocery store--he started hearing people talk about the stickers, asking each other what it might mean. So he put up more of the images, in New York City and Boston. He encouraged others to join in, with stickers, spray-paint stencils, and wheat-pasted posters. Later he shifted away from the longer tag line to the concise "Obey Giant," and started making visual variations, reworking the face in Russian constructivist styles and working it into different graphic contexts. Strictly speaking, what Fairey was doing and encouraging was illegal. Yet it was subversive to no obvious end. It was a kind of self-reflexive enterprise: The point of putting up a lot of Obey images was to see how many Obey images could be put up. Meanwhile, Fairey had started making T-shirts, and in the summer after his junior year, he started a printing business. He wrote off the fine-art world altogether. "I looked at it like this: I can be seen as cool and creative and somebody that's bringing great stuff into the realm of, you know, pop culture and skateboarding and punk music, in just whatever Dada goof-off stickering. Or I can be seen as not that talented in the fine-art world." He laughs. "So naturally I'm gonna gravitate to where I think I can succeed." Can you call someone a maverick if he works for multinational corporations? Can you call him a sellout if he's willing to risk arrest for the sake of self-expression? Can you call him a self-promoter if his most famous images are unsigned? Just as the "meaning" of Fairey's street visuals depends on who's looking, the answers to those questions vary according to who's asking. But wherever you come down, the underlying issue is one that resonates: Many entrepreneurs wrestle with the problem of integrity--the tension between what you want to do and what the market is willing to pay you to do. As hard as it is to craft a vision, it can be even harder to stick to it, to avoid letting pragmatism descend into compromise, to keep alive the idealism that inspired you in the first place.
My comments- Shepard Fairey’s move from street artist to commercial artist is epic. Also, I hope no one takes offense to this, but he is obsessed with Obama. I mean I am a liberal, but wow. Shepard Fairey is a graffiti and graphic artist. He does screen prints, buttons, and illegal wall art. He is most well known for his Andre the Giant and Barack Obama images. He has worked for many musicians including the Black Eyed Peas and Ozzy, making posters and album art. Fairey makes politically charged art using bold colors with an intensely graphic aesthetic.
Roland Fischer-
Gallery- G Fine Art
Washington, DC
http://www.gfineartdc.com/
Artist Statement- none
Some info from press releases- A principal figure in the contemporary German photography movement, Roland Fischer's imagistic aesthetic evolved from his foundation as a conceptual portrait artist. Earlier bodies of work include a tonal series of monks and nuns and his LA portraits of women immersed to bust level in monochrome pools. He uses the same formal approach and illuminating insight in his recent large-format photographs of skyscraper façades. In these, he merges the detached psychology of direct portraiture with the abstract possibilities of painting, creating a unifying conceptual underpinning. Rooted in the formalism of new German photography, Fischer's façades reveal a preoccupation with the visual hallmarks of early modernist abstract painting, such as structure, color, rhythm, reductive shapes, geometry and surface effect. He translates these painterly concerns through the language of photography by shooting his subjects frontally and cropping them tightly into architectural fragments. Fischer strips the buildings from any urban context and denies them their mass, ultimately rendering them into decorative visual fields. Fischer controls any distortions through digital means and prints in large format, deliberately alluding to large abstract paintings, but keeps the slick photographic surface. And yet we recognize that these are building facades, structural membranes that function like skin, keeping interior private realms separate from the outer public world. On the one hand, these facades are frontal portraits of nameless buildings, each a member of a vast corporate culture. Pursuing this path of anonymous portraiture, Fischer leaves his photographs untitled, adding only the city name as documentary residue. On the other hand the facades are lush visual fragments that, like a theoretical hologram, contain a greater aesthetic whole. In our accelerated culture that glorifies quick and compressed communication such as soundbytes, logos, and synopses the fragment may ultimately prove the most revealing.
My comments- Roland Fischer is a German photographer. His early works in tonal portraiture is arresting in it’s frontality and large scale. His work is crisp, clean and bright. His new works, photographs of office building facades may seem to be a break with his previous photos but in fact it is just a new mutation. He still exhibits his photographs in a large scale with bright color and frontality. In keeping the titles the city names he does lend a interesting glimpse of the portrait of the city. The dynamic between abstraction and biography is an interesting new tension to his work.
Ran Ortner- http://www.ranortner.com/
Gallery- Ch’I Contemporary Fine Art
Brooklyn, New York
http://www.chicontemporaryfineart.com/dynamic/artist.asp?artistid=72#control
Artist Statement- none
Some info from press releases- none
My comments- Ran Ortner is both a painter an an installation artist. In both mediums his works are huge and create a sense of a threatening sublime. Ortner’s paintings are of super-realistic waves, they are almost mannered in style. His instillation has an interest in sand and how sand can look like waves and water. His work is arresting in size and is a powerful reference of nature’s sublime. Please visit his website to see the installation work, its all in flash and I couldn’t find still jpgs to copy and paste.
Kojo Griffin- http://www.kojogriffin.com/home.html
Gallery- Salt Works Gallery
Atlanta Gerogia
http://www.saltworksgallery.com/
Artist Statement- his website has a spot for it but its not filled in. I guess he hasn’t finished it yet?
Some info from press releases- The paintings in An Acausal Connecting Principle mark a bold departure as well as a new beginning for Griffin. Griffin’s signature anthropomorphic characters have been retired. The eight new paintings explore Griffin’s exciting and bold exploration into the act of painting. Instead of an overarching idea connecting each work, Griffin approaches each painting on its own, with the subject matter chosen chiefly as a carrier of technique and process. The resulting paintings are confident and audacious, each delving into territory that is both accomplished and experimental. Quality Pictures is pleased to announce Swing States of Mind, the gallery's second exhibition of work by Kojo Griffin. In Swing States of Mind, the Atlanta artist debuts six new paintings of arresting visual and creative depth. These psychologically charged pieces will be complemented by a selection of Griffin's paintings, drawings, and prints
from the past eight years. Tracing the creative evolution of this restless artist, Swing States of Mind not only signals an exciting new direction for Griffin, but also looks to history for a more profound understanding of the present. Griffin's new paintings find a cast of familiar figures returning from an extended absence. The psychologically bruised animals that populated Griffin's early work have reappeared, although time has not been especially kind. Rendered damaged and ghostly, the morose, upright creatures now inhabit a stark interior space - as cold psychologically as it is architecturally. Griffin's brushwork strikes a tense harmony of abandon and control here, as fierce strokes of deep, moody hues push up again the artist's command of the figure.
My comments- Kojo Griffin uses ink, pencil and acrylic on paper and canvas. Whether he is using his well know hybrid animal-people or another anonymous human-type representation, Griffin’s work always addresses highly charged emotional and psychological issues. He is most well known for his work dealing with victimology and violence. Often times his backgrounds are abstracted with patterns that help lend an understanding of the characters he depicts.
Jeff Wall- no website
Gallery- Marian Goodman Gallery
New York (Chelsea), New York
http://mariangoodman.com/mg/nyc.html
Artist Statement- couldn’t find one, probably because he is too famous.
Some info from press releases- After a brief but eventful career that embodies the hopes and humiliations of African Americans at mid-twentieth century, the hero of Ralph Ellison's celebrated 1952 novel Invisible Man retreats to a secret basement room on the edge of Harlem. There he patiently composes and reflects upon the story we are about to read. "I am invisible,” he explains, "simply because people refuse to see me.” Making pictures out of stores was once the main business of the visual arts. The rising modernist tradition consigned the practice to the margins of advanced art; for most of the past century, "illustration" has been a term of contempt. In this large, richly detailed and thoroughly absorbing photograph, Wall has all but single-handedly reinvented the challenge. The novel's eloquent prologue is short on specifics, except one: the 1,369 lightbulbs that cover the ceiling of the underground lair. Starting with this fantastic detail, Wall scrupulously imagined in his Vancouver studio the concrete form of Ellison's metaphorical space. Ambitiously reviving a forgotten art, he made visible the Invisible Man.
My comments- Jeff Wall is a very famous photography from Vancouver, Canada. He makes very large works and puts them on huge light boxes (a quotation of the advertisements in subways), which creates a glowing effect. Wall’s photographs are always staged but meant to look as if they were chance. His works always addresses the awkwardness of people in their space. He likes to photograph marginalized people in typical situations.
Shepard Fairey- http://obeygiant.com/
Gallery- John LeVine Gallery
New York (Chelsea), New York
http://JonathanLeVineGallery.com/
Artist Statement- couldn’t find one, probably because he is too famous.
Some info from press releases- In some circles, Shepard Fairey is known as one of the most prolific and notorious street artists of his generation, creating memorable graphics that have spread through urban centers all over the world.When Fairey was a member of the 13-to-18 demographic, he lived in Charleston, S.C., where his obsessions were skateboarding and punk. He chose to go to the Rhode Island School of Design because he had a vague idea that he could make a living in a visual field. He got interested in screen printing. "What happened at RISD was that immediately people were talking about 'What's your major gonna be?' And people that were going into painting thought they were superior to people that were going into illustration, because"--he adopts a fey art-snob voice-- "'Illustration is commercial. I'm not compromising for anyone.'" Fairey majored in illustration. He believed, he says, that his fellow students who had chosen to be painters were already compromising their work and were likely to do so even more as they moved into the world of fine-art galleries. He also admits that he was "scared" of the fine-art world. "I did blow it off. Because...," he pauses for a long moment, "honestly, I didn't think that I had the talent to make it in that world." One night in 1989, when Fairey was still at RISD, he had a friend over who wanted to learn how to make stencils. Fairey flipped through a newspaper and picked out a picture of Andre Roussimoff--or Andre the Giant, the (now deceased) professional wrestler best known for his role in The Princess Bride. The friend balked because the image was too "stupid." Fairey was intrigued. No, he countered, it's cool. It's cutting edge. "Andre the Giant," he told his friend, "has a posse." They proceeded. Next to the smeary image of the wrestler's face, Fairey scrawled "Andre the Giant Has a Posse." He took the results to Kinko's and made stickers and slapped them on stop signs and in clubs. Then--randomly, in places like his local grocery store--he started hearing people talk about the stickers, asking each other what it might mean. So he put up more of the images, in New York City and Boston. He encouraged others to join in, with stickers, spray-paint stencils, and wheat-pasted posters. Later he shifted away from the longer tag line to the concise "Obey Giant," and started making visual variations, reworking the face in Russian constructivist styles and working it into different graphic contexts. Strictly speaking, what Fairey was doing and encouraging was illegal. Yet it was subversive to no obvious end. It was a kind of self-reflexive enterprise: The point of putting up a lot of Obey images was to see how many Obey images could be put up. Meanwhile, Fairey had started making T-shirts, and in the summer after his junior year, he started a printing business. He wrote off the fine-art world altogether. "I looked at it like this: I can be seen as cool and creative and somebody that's bringing great stuff into the realm of, you know, pop culture and skateboarding and punk music, in just whatever Dada goof-off stickering. Or I can be seen as not that talented in the fine-art world." He laughs. "So naturally I'm gonna gravitate to where I think I can succeed." Can you call someone a maverick if he works for multinational corporations? Can you call him a sellout if he's willing to risk arrest for the sake of self-expression? Can you call him a self-promoter if his most famous images are unsigned? Just as the "meaning" of Fairey's street visuals depends on who's looking, the answers to those questions vary according to who's asking. But wherever you come down, the underlying issue is one that resonates: Many entrepreneurs wrestle with the problem of integrity--the tension between what you want to do and what the market is willing to pay you to do. As hard as it is to craft a vision, it can be even harder to stick to it, to avoid letting pragmatism descend into compromise, to keep alive the idealism that inspired you in the first place.
My comments- Shepard Fairey’s move from street artist to commercial artist is epic. Also, I hope no one takes offense to this, but he is obsessed with Obama. I mean I am a liberal, but wow. Shepard Fairey is a graffiti and graphic artist. He does screen prints, buttons, and illegal wall art. He is most well known for his Andre the Giant and Barack Obama images. He has worked for many musicians including the Black Eyed Peas and Ozzy, making posters and album art. Fairey makes politically charged art using bold colors with an intensely graphic aesthetic.
Roland Fischer-
Gallery- G Fine Art
Washington, DC
http://www.gfineartdc.com/
Artist Statement- none
Some info from press releases- A principal figure in the contemporary German photography movement, Roland Fischer's imagistic aesthetic evolved from his foundation as a conceptual portrait artist. Earlier bodies of work include a tonal series of monks and nuns and his LA portraits of women immersed to bust level in monochrome pools. He uses the same formal approach and illuminating insight in his recent large-format photographs of skyscraper façades. In these, he merges the detached psychology of direct portraiture with the abstract possibilities of painting, creating a unifying conceptual underpinning. Rooted in the formalism of new German photography, Fischer's façades reveal a preoccupation with the visual hallmarks of early modernist abstract painting, such as structure, color, rhythm, reductive shapes, geometry and surface effect. He translates these painterly concerns through the language of photography by shooting his subjects frontally and cropping them tightly into architectural fragments. Fischer strips the buildings from any urban context and denies them their mass, ultimately rendering them into decorative visual fields. Fischer controls any distortions through digital means and prints in large format, deliberately alluding to large abstract paintings, but keeps the slick photographic surface. And yet we recognize that these are building facades, structural membranes that function like skin, keeping interior private realms separate from the outer public world. On the one hand, these facades are frontal portraits of nameless buildings, each a member of a vast corporate culture. Pursuing this path of anonymous portraiture, Fischer leaves his photographs untitled, adding only the city name as documentary residue. On the other hand the facades are lush visual fragments that, like a theoretical hologram, contain a greater aesthetic whole. In our accelerated culture that glorifies quick and compressed communication such as soundbytes, logos, and synopses the fragment may ultimately prove the most revealing.
My comments- Roland Fischer is a German photographer. His early works in tonal portraiture is arresting in it’s frontality and large scale. His work is crisp, clean and bright. His new works, photographs of office building facades may seem to be a break with his previous photos but in fact it is just a new mutation. He still exhibits his photographs in a large scale with bright color and frontality. In keeping the titles the city names he does lend a interesting glimpse of the portrait of the city. The dynamic between abstraction and biography is an interesting new tension to his work.
Ran Ortner- http://www.ranortner.com/
Gallery- Ch’I Contemporary Fine Art
Brooklyn, New York
http://www.chicontemporaryfineart.com/dynamic/artist.asp?artistid=72#control
Artist Statement- none
Some info from press releases- none
My comments- Ran Ortner is both a painter an an installation artist. In both mediums his works are huge and create a sense of a threatening sublime. Ortner’s paintings are of super-realistic waves, they are almost mannered in style. His instillation has an interest in sand and how sand can look like waves and water. His work is arresting in size and is a powerful reference of nature’s sublime. Please visit his website to see the installation work, its all in flash and I couldn’t find still jpgs to copy and paste.
New York Galleries- Notes from 1st meeting
John Stevenson Gallery- http://www.johnstevenson-gallery.com/
Throughout its 20-year history, John Stevenson Gallery has been the advocate for artistic virtuosity — for the hand of the artist, as well as the eye. From our origin, as the first gallery to specialize in art photography handcrafted in rare processes, our curation has expanded to include artists who also create conceptualist works, in paint, bronze, ceramic, and collage. We continue to offer a distinctly defined and unique collection, unlike any other. Notes: Very well designed website, art is mostly decorative.
Cy DeCosse’s interest in photography began with his work as an advertising agency art director. In the early 1950’s, when he graduated from art school and accepted his first job, photos were replacing illustrations and becoming the language of advertising. Cy realized that in order to really understand photography, he had to do it himself. He bought an old Exa camera, turned the coal cellar in his basement into a darkroom, and began shooting everything around him, from beer foaming over a glass to ants climbing out of their holes.
Hugh Shurley: I call my series of photomontages, Anatomy of Image. They are an exploration into the idea that our past is always in our presence. My work is an attempt to look inside at the hidden history that is buried within each person, place and possession. Each photomontage contains several transparencies that once stacked upon each other, read as a whole. Every layer in construction holds some memento, some token of the past, something hidden, buried and awaiting discovery. Within each layer I am conscious of how creating an opaque and transparent spaces allows for a sense of movement, of dimensional depth. It is my hope that viewers will discover and delight in the examination of my works, finding something new if now familiar.
MagnanEmrich- www.magnanemrich.com
Magnan Emrich Contemporary was established by art dealer Alberto Magnan and his business partner Ed Emrich in 2006. The Gallery is dedicated to showcasing contemporary Latin-American art and special projects. In addition to establishing its own program, the Gallery invites guest curators to inject new concepts and knowledge of Latin-American art. Alberto Magnan continually searches for new and exciting artists in an effort to expose Latin-American arts and culture to a wider audience. In 2003 Magnan, a native of Cuba, began a documentary on Cuban arts conducting interviews with artists in both the U.S. and in Cuba as well as documenting prominent figures such as Alicia Alonso, Director of the Cuban National Ballet and Pio Leyva, singer and musician for the Buena Vista Social Club. This project inspired Magnan to conceive an exhibition showcasing Cuban and Cuban-American artists of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000. It also brought Magnan's focus back to his true passion as a gallerist, inspiring him to tap into the under-represented group of emerging Latin-American artists by opening a second gallery Magnan Emrich Contemporary.
Eva Davidova: Born in Bulgaria. Went to school in and works in Spain. Photographs. People, mostly nudes, in weird supernatural situations.
Sofia Maldonado, Puerto Rico 1984: As an Artist, she admires her country's rural landscapes, along with the chaos of the city and the abandoned structures within them. During her undergraduate studies she painted numerous murals, with or without permission, in abandoned buildings, barrios and indoor spaces as a way to bring beauty to each site. By creating her own visual language with bright colors and flowing brush strokes that simulate nature, she recieved recognition as a mural painter in her country. Sofia's artwork is a blend of fashion trends, the Latina female aesthetic and various street culture elements, such as skateboarding, graffiti, public art, reggaeton and punk music.
Serrano Contemporary/Sonnet Gallery- http://www.sonnetgallery.com/
Established in 2000, Serrano Contemporary/Sonnet Gallery highlights the works of emerging, mid-career and established artists from around the world. Through its exhibitions, the gallery seeks to serve as a bridge uniting distinctive visions from varied cultures, and to spark dialogues among the expressions and energies of its featured artists.
Gallery director and founder Ramses Serrano started his career in Caracas, Venezuela, opened his own gallery at age 25 in Sarasota, Florida, and in February 2008 expanded to New York’s Chelsea art district. The gallery exhibits contemporary works of art in all media, maintains an inventory of select works by its featured artists, and offers access to modern masters.
Born in Russia, Rita Zimerman and her family left the motherland and moved to Israel when she was four. Her love for art began when the family moved to Italy shortly after that, and she began learning the classical skills and techniques of figurative painting. When she moved to the U.S. and attended Ringling College of Art and Design, she switched direction toward more abstract work.
Recently, Rita has been using mixed media with acrylic paint, making whimsical and funky works that evoke a surreal, outlandish world. Inspired by the Austrians Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, Rita uses decorative elements such as glitter and felt in her works, many of which integrate drawing and painting together. She works spontaneously, meaning that a painting can take either an hour or a week to make.
Tim Jaeger: A scholarship receipient and 2002 graduate of Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, Tim Jaeger is now director of a local gallery in the resort coastal town.
Recently named one of the city’s five rising artist talents by Sarasota Magazine, the 28-year-old artist was awarded the prestigious 2006 John and Mable Ringling Fellowship Grant and a 2007 Artist Residency and Fellowship at Chateau L’Hesperit, Moncaret, France. Jaeger’s figurative and abstract work on canvas reflect a passionate and wide-ranging vision. His images display his spontaneity and unyielding energy, and are highly emotional expressions of his response to the world around him. Whether it’s a painting of a woman’s face, a chicken, an abstract diptych, or a tribute to a formative painter in his life, such as Gauguin, his work consistently causes pause and reflection.
Marian Goodman Gallery- www.mariangoodman.com
For over twenty years, the Marian Goodman Gallery has played an important role in introducing
European artists to American audiences and helping to establish a vital dialogue among artists and
institutions working internationally. The Marian Goodman Gallery was founded in New York City in late 1977 and has recently expanded to include an exhibition space in Paris. In 1965,prior to the establishment of the gallery, Marian Goodman founded Multiples, which published prints, multiples, and books by leading American artists, such as Richard Artschwager, John Baldessari, Dan Graham, Sol Lewitt, Roy Lichenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Smithson, and Andy Warhol. From 1968 to 1975,Multiples worked with European artists, introducing early editions by Joseph Beuys, Marcel Broodthaers, Blinky Palermo, and Gerhard Richter to American audiences.
Christian Boltanski: Award winning, heavily exhibited French artist. Portrait photograph instillations, look like altars or tributes. Multiple portraits in B and W built into instillations.
Ch’i Contemporary Fine Art- http://www.chicontemporaryfineart.com/
Established in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 1999 and directed by Tracy Causey-Jeffery is committed to exhibiting vibrant contemporary art by living artists: both mid-career and emerging. Ch’i exhibits works in two distinct styles: abstract, textural or fragmented figurative.
Christine Sciulli is a video/installation artist working in New York City. Born with poor eyesight, the blurry world provided a steady stream of intrigue for Christine Sciulli. After getting glasses, she was a constant fixture in her father's wood and metal shop. She holds an Architectural Engineering degree from Penn State University and an MFA in Combined Media from Hunter College.
Sy Gresser has been sculpting in stone and wood for over 50 years.He was groomed originally for a career in business and had received advanced degrees from the University of Maryland. Then through the encouragement of a friend, he enrolled in a summer carving class at George Washington University. From that moment on, Sy ahs carved stone. He studied further at the Institute of Contemporary Fine Art in Washington, D.C. where he met his mentor, Bill Taylor. Sy Gresser believes that art celebrates human existence on a spiritual level and transcends the ideas of religion- any religion as well as the ideas of race.? He feels that his sculpture have a universality of line and form mixed with what he calls, " impossible juxtapositions.
Throughout its 20-year history, John Stevenson Gallery has been the advocate for artistic virtuosity — for the hand of the artist, as well as the eye. From our origin, as the first gallery to specialize in art photography handcrafted in rare processes, our curation has expanded to include artists who also create conceptualist works, in paint, bronze, ceramic, and collage. We continue to offer a distinctly defined and unique collection, unlike any other. Notes: Very well designed website, art is mostly decorative.
Cy DeCosse’s interest in photography began with his work as an advertising agency art director. In the early 1950’s, when he graduated from art school and accepted his first job, photos were replacing illustrations and becoming the language of advertising. Cy realized that in order to really understand photography, he had to do it himself. He bought an old Exa camera, turned the coal cellar in his basement into a darkroom, and began shooting everything around him, from beer foaming over a glass to ants climbing out of their holes.
Hugh Shurley: I call my series of photomontages, Anatomy of Image. They are an exploration into the idea that our past is always in our presence. My work is an attempt to look inside at the hidden history that is buried within each person, place and possession. Each photomontage contains several transparencies that once stacked upon each other, read as a whole. Every layer in construction holds some memento, some token of the past, something hidden, buried and awaiting discovery. Within each layer I am conscious of how creating an opaque and transparent spaces allows for a sense of movement, of dimensional depth. It is my hope that viewers will discover and delight in the examination of my works, finding something new if now familiar.
MagnanEmrich- www.magnanemrich.com
Magnan Emrich Contemporary was established by art dealer Alberto Magnan and his business partner Ed Emrich in 2006. The Gallery is dedicated to showcasing contemporary Latin-American art and special projects. In addition to establishing its own program, the Gallery invites guest curators to inject new concepts and knowledge of Latin-American art. Alberto Magnan continually searches for new and exciting artists in an effort to expose Latin-American arts and culture to a wider audience. In 2003 Magnan, a native of Cuba, began a documentary on Cuban arts conducting interviews with artists in both the U.S. and in Cuba as well as documenting prominent figures such as Alicia Alonso, Director of the Cuban National Ballet and Pio Leyva, singer and musician for the Buena Vista Social Club. This project inspired Magnan to conceive an exhibition showcasing Cuban and Cuban-American artists of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000. It also brought Magnan's focus back to his true passion as a gallerist, inspiring him to tap into the under-represented group of emerging Latin-American artists by opening a second gallery Magnan Emrich Contemporary.
Eva Davidova: Born in Bulgaria. Went to school in and works in Spain. Photographs. People, mostly nudes, in weird supernatural situations.
Sofia Maldonado, Puerto Rico 1984: As an Artist, she admires her country's rural landscapes, along with the chaos of the city and the abandoned structures within them. During her undergraduate studies she painted numerous murals, with or without permission, in abandoned buildings, barrios and indoor spaces as a way to bring beauty to each site. By creating her own visual language with bright colors and flowing brush strokes that simulate nature, she recieved recognition as a mural painter in her country. Sofia's artwork is a blend of fashion trends, the Latina female aesthetic and various street culture elements, such as skateboarding, graffiti, public art, reggaeton and punk music.
Serrano Contemporary/Sonnet Gallery- http://www.sonnetgallery.com/
Established in 2000, Serrano Contemporary/Sonnet Gallery highlights the works of emerging, mid-career and established artists from around the world. Through its exhibitions, the gallery seeks to serve as a bridge uniting distinctive visions from varied cultures, and to spark dialogues among the expressions and energies of its featured artists.
Gallery director and founder Ramses Serrano started his career in Caracas, Venezuela, opened his own gallery at age 25 in Sarasota, Florida, and in February 2008 expanded to New York’s Chelsea art district. The gallery exhibits contemporary works of art in all media, maintains an inventory of select works by its featured artists, and offers access to modern masters.
Born in Russia, Rita Zimerman and her family left the motherland and moved to Israel when she was four. Her love for art began when the family moved to Italy shortly after that, and she began learning the classical skills and techniques of figurative painting. When she moved to the U.S. and attended Ringling College of Art and Design, she switched direction toward more abstract work.
Recently, Rita has been using mixed media with acrylic paint, making whimsical and funky works that evoke a surreal, outlandish world. Inspired by the Austrians Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, Rita uses decorative elements such as glitter and felt in her works, many of which integrate drawing and painting together. She works spontaneously, meaning that a painting can take either an hour or a week to make.
Tim Jaeger: A scholarship receipient and 2002 graduate of Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, Tim Jaeger is now director of a local gallery in the resort coastal town.
Recently named one of the city’s five rising artist talents by Sarasota Magazine, the 28-year-old artist was awarded the prestigious 2006 John and Mable Ringling Fellowship Grant and a 2007 Artist Residency and Fellowship at Chateau L’Hesperit, Moncaret, France. Jaeger’s figurative and abstract work on canvas reflect a passionate and wide-ranging vision. His images display his spontaneity and unyielding energy, and are highly emotional expressions of his response to the world around him. Whether it’s a painting of a woman’s face, a chicken, an abstract diptych, or a tribute to a formative painter in his life, such as Gauguin, his work consistently causes pause and reflection.
Marian Goodman Gallery- www.mariangoodman.com
For over twenty years, the Marian Goodman Gallery has played an important role in introducing
European artists to American audiences and helping to establish a vital dialogue among artists and
institutions working internationally. The Marian Goodman Gallery was founded in New York City in late 1977 and has recently expanded to include an exhibition space in Paris. In 1965,prior to the establishment of the gallery, Marian Goodman founded Multiples, which published prints, multiples, and books by leading American artists, such as Richard Artschwager, John Baldessari, Dan Graham, Sol Lewitt, Roy Lichenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Smithson, and Andy Warhol. From 1968 to 1975,Multiples worked with European artists, introducing early editions by Joseph Beuys, Marcel Broodthaers, Blinky Palermo, and Gerhard Richter to American audiences.
Christian Boltanski: Award winning, heavily exhibited French artist. Portrait photograph instillations, look like altars or tributes. Multiple portraits in B and W built into instillations.
Ch’i Contemporary Fine Art- http://www.chicontemporaryfineart.com/
Established in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 1999 and directed by Tracy Causey-Jeffery is committed to exhibiting vibrant contemporary art by living artists: both mid-career and emerging. Ch’i exhibits works in two distinct styles: abstract, textural or fragmented figurative.
Christine Sciulli is a video/installation artist working in New York City. Born with poor eyesight, the blurry world provided a steady stream of intrigue for Christine Sciulli. After getting glasses, she was a constant fixture in her father's wood and metal shop. She holds an Architectural Engineering degree from Penn State University and an MFA in Combined Media from Hunter College.
Sy Gresser has been sculpting in stone and wood for over 50 years.He was groomed originally for a career in business and had received advanced degrees from the University of Maryland. Then through the encouragement of a friend, he enrolled in a summer carving class at George Washington University. From that moment on, Sy ahs carved stone. He studied further at the Institute of Contemporary Fine Art in Washington, D.C. where he met his mentor, Bill Taylor. Sy Gresser believes that art celebrates human existence on a spiritual level and transcends the ideas of religion- any religion as well as the ideas of race.? He feels that his sculpture have a universality of line and form mixed with what he calls, " impossible juxtapositions.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Dana Schutz
Hi All--
I just wanted to post the name of the artist that I mentioned in the last meeting:
Dana Schutz is represented by the Zach Feuer Gallery in NY:
http://www.zachfeuer.com/danaschutz.html
Her work is bright and colorful and she often uses really expressive brushwork, but that is offset by the psychological, dark, and often truly disturbing subject matter or underlying feeling of her work. One particularly potent theme that runs through much of her work is the concept of the "self-eater":
(This one is called Self-Eater #3 from 2003, and is hardly the most disturbing of these types of images).
But I also think that her work displays a certain dry wit and irony, and that is enhanced by the juxtaposition of the colorful, exuberant brushstrokes and flat compositions with her dark psychological tone. Here's a couple of examples of her works that are not outwardly dark in subject matter but still seems to get under your skin:
Happy, 2004, oil on canvas
Myopic, 2004, oil on canvas
I just wanted to post the name of the artist that I mentioned in the last meeting:
Dana Schutz is represented by the Zach Feuer Gallery in NY:
http://www.zachfeuer.com/danaschutz.html
Her work is bright and colorful and she often uses really expressive brushwork, but that is offset by the psychological, dark, and often truly disturbing subject matter or underlying feeling of her work. One particularly potent theme that runs through much of her work is the concept of the "self-eater":
(This one is called Self-Eater #3 from 2003, and is hardly the most disturbing of these types of images).But I also think that her work displays a certain dry wit and irony, and that is enhanced by the juxtaposition of the colorful, exuberant brushstrokes and flat compositions with her dark psychological tone. Here's a couple of examples of her works that are not outwardly dark in subject matter but still seems to get under your skin:
Happy, 2004, oil on canvas
Myopic, 2004, oil on canvasAnyway, check out her work on the Zach Feuer Gallery page--there are a bunch of exhibitions to choose from, so you can see a wide variety of her stuff.
Don't forget: we are meeting at the Driskell center this week!!
Megan
Don't forget: we are meeting at the Driskell center this week!!
Megan
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Galleries
Here are the 5 gallaries that I choose a couple weeks ago:
1.) 33 Bond Gallery
http://www.33bond.com/artists.html
2.) Merge Gallery
http://www.mergegallery.com/exhibitions.htm
About the Gallery: Since 2006 Merge Gallery has been dedicated to the promotion of both emerging and already recognized artists to showcase inspiring and original works in an intimate setting. It is our mission to showcase conceptually meticulous works that stimulate viewers not only because of the works subversive nature but also for its undeniable beauty. It is the duty of our artists to create subjective works that have the potential to broaden the audience's basis of visual reference while still allowing collective appreciation. The gallery in turn holds the responsibility of working for the long term development of each artists career, acting as a liaison to established and emerging collectors and serving as an accessible public space in which the exhibitions become an example of the power of subjectivity to the audience at large.
3.) Fredericks & Freiser
http://www.fredericksfreisergallery.com/
About the Gallery: The gallery was one of the original pioneers of the Chelsea art district. Jessica Fredericks began her career at Andre Emmerich Gallery. She was an exhibition coordinator and dealer at Gagosian Gallery, and the Director of Jose Freire Fine Art. Andrew Freiser was the Assistant Director of Apex Art.
The gallery represents a select group of emerging and internationally established artists. We have a strong commitment to introducing new contemporary art to New York as well as representing artists of earlier generations whose work is relevant to current ideas and attitudes. Gallery artists have exhibited at the most prestigious venues for contemporary art, including The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, PS1/MOMA, The Whitney Museum of American Art, Stedelijk Museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
4.) Brooklynite Gallery
http://www.brooklynitegallery.com/
About the Gallery: Aims to spotlight cutting edge street art - and to feature shows that reflect the flavor and history of the neighborhood. The type of art we want to continue to show fits right into the street culture here. It's real and it's raw." By luring gallery-goers and talented up-and-coming artists to the area, owners McGrath and his wife Hope are aiming to inject some creativity into this art-deficient 'hood.
5.) Ad Hoc Gallery
http://adhocart.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
About the Gallery: Ad Hoc Art (AHA) is an art gallery and creative center. Dedicated to showing work that is often marginalized by the larger New York art scene, AHA focuses on the areas of street art, pop surrealism, lowbrow, illustration, tattoo, print-making, as well as the larger history of underground art, activism, and graffiti. It is a venue for artists who are passionate, committed to their craft, and challenging the boundaries of a "Fine Art" isolated from society at large.
On a random note I was in NY this past weekend visiting my gf and while I was down there we went to go visit one of her friends who lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Out of pure coincidence her friend lives 2 blocks from the Ad Hoc Gallery...We decided to go and see if it was open since it was Saturday. It was officially not open but a class was doing a tour there so one of the owners let us walk around after the class left. The Ad Hoc Gallery was amazing and the art work that they are currently exhibiting is charged and exciting. In the main exhibiton room they have an exhibiton called "In the Language of Angels" where 6 different woman from 6 different areas of the world are exhibiting there work. Their work was amazing and very different between all 6...We also got to go into the Project room which Ad Hoc just opened which is an empty room which they let the artist do whatever they want with. The artist can use the space in anyway they want and Ad Hoc is encouraging the artists to be creative with the space. The first artist to use the project room is Logikone...and it was awesome to see his art work...the owner of Ad Hoc said they are totally trying to represent the contemporary and whats new and fresh. They want to give all types of contemporary art and artists a chance to demonstrate their work. I took pictures in the main exhibition room and the project room (which I will post up here) Ad Hoc Gallery was amazing. The owner of Ad Hoc also went on to describe thier next exhibition project which the plan to bring to the gallery on Dec 12. The exhibition is called the "Brooklyn Block Party" and the exhibition consists of original hand cut wood and lino blocks, along with prints pulled from each block. What the plan to do on opening night and the space sounds amazing. They want to show ppl how its done and are planning on having ppl demonstrating how its down on opening night...They are going to have work from Richard Mock and Swoon...they want to show the progression of time and how Swoon couldnt have exisited without Richard Mock having exisited first. I am not exactly sure what work or how they plan on representing Richard Mock since his death...but the exhibition sounds amazing and the owners also sounded really excited about it as well. While I was leaving Ad Hoc I saw Dain's work on the outside wall of Ad Hoc and it reminded me of the Brooklynite Gallery who is currently exhibiting Dain...I decided to take a risk and see if Brooklynite was open, sadly it wasnt but I could see some of the work through the window and the art work was just attention grabing. Dain is a native new yorker who is focused in street art. His current exhibition at the Brooklynite gallery is being shown with two artists from Berlin, kind of connecting the two citites. Dain's work is has a strong affection-- "for the 1920’s glamour girl and their come-hither glances, to the pop culture icons of the past in classic poses, to the stark innocent stares of children in need, DAIN creates images that are ‘moments in time’ ---drawing you in from many angles. Incorporating hints of neon color that pops in just the right places, repeating shapes and figures in ways that create new ones, DAIN’s work may be moments of style, of humor or of sympathy... but make no mistakes about it… they are without a doubt ‘moments’." -- Here is a link which demonstrates some more of Dain's work since I didnt get to see his work on display at the Brooklynite Gallery http://www.flickr.com/photos/22203131@N05/
Some of the work from the exhibit "In the Language of Angels":
Some of the work done by Logikone found in the Project Room (Project One is the first artist to use the Project room):
Dain's work found outside of Ad Hoc Gallery:
Some artists of interest
Hey everyone:
There's more to this post but I have to run to class...
I'm in! I thought I'd post some of the artists that I have been considering, along with the galleries that they can be found at and some images of their work.
1. Yoshitomo Nara
1. Yoshitomo Nara
- Marianne Boesky Gallery <http://www.marianneboeskygallery.com/>.
- This is part of Nara's work, "Missing Mariana, Suni, Christina" (2005)
2. Hannah van Bart
- Also at Marianne Boesky Gallery
-"The Trap"
- Also at Marianne Boesky Gallery
-"The Trap"
3. Jon Pylypchuk
- Friedrich Petzel Gallery <http://www.petzel.com/artists/jon-pylypchuk/>.
-"I have thought deep through this trouble" (2005)
4. Glen Baldridge
-Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery <http://www.klausgallery.com/artists/glen-baldridge/>.
- "mKoX5C27.jpg" (2007)
5. Heimo Wallner
- I haven't found a gallery in NYC that currently has his work but I'm working on that. Wallner did a piece at the museum I interned at in college which I found very engaging, interesting, uncomfortable, challenging, humorous, etc.
There's more to this post but I have to run to class...
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