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Tag: contemporary artist
Marcel Dzama the 39 year old Canadian contemporary artist working particularly in ink and watercolor drawings has been featured by Hermione Hoby in a Guardian article titled ‘Cult artist Marcel Dzama: 'I try not to censor myself'’ Hoby states “…If you took a quick glance at Marcel Dzama's watercolours, you'd probably think they were illustrations for children's books. Painted in carmines, olives and browns, they're peopled with elegantly wrought figures and filled with dreamlike pageantry (for a long time, Dzama kept a torch and pad by his bed so he could sketch whatever occurred to him in the night). Then you notice how oddly erotic and calmly macabre they are: there's the troupe of balletic, hooded women pirouetting with AK-47s in their hands; and the tableau of amputee cowboys, one fellating another. … he's a bit of a cult figure: he's designed album covers for Beck, been championed by Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze, and is collected by Brad Pitt and Gus Van Sant. Nonetheless, he still has the demeanour of a small, shy boy. His softly spoken sentences tend to peter off into a timid giggle… Dzama, whose first London show in five years is about to open at the David Zwirner gallery, grew up in Winnipeg, Canada, a remote town he describes as ghostly, particularly during the long winters when everything is silenced by three feet of snow. …[he] is dyslexic and had a rough time at school, where he sketched incessantly. Teachers, he says, were constantly snatching away his drawings in lessons. He went on to study art at the University of Manitoba, where he founded The Royal Art Lodge, a collective one member described as "a mysterious yet socially OK'd therapy group for mildly socially dysfunctional, highly imaginative people who liked to draw". “  Inspired by Hermione Hoby, The Guardian ow.ly/k4myh Image source Arrested Motion ow.ly/k4miU I try not to censor myself (May 5 2013)

Marcel Dzama the 39 year old Canadian contemporary artist working particularly in ink and watercolor drawings has been featured by Hermione Hoby in a Guardian article titled ‘Cult artist Marcel Dzama: ‘I try not to censor myself’’ Hoby states “…If you took a quick glance at Marcel Dzama’s watercolours, you’d probably think they were illustrations for children’s books. Painted in carmines, olives and browns, they’re peopled with elegantly wrought figures and filled with dreamlike pageantry (for a long time, Dzama kept a torch and pad by his bed so he could sketch whatever occurred to him in the night). Then you notice how oddly erotic and calmly macabre they are: there’s the troupe of balletic, hooded women pirouetting with AK-47s in their hands; and the tableau of amputee cowboys, one fellating another. … he’s a bit of a cult figure: he’s designed album covers for Beck, been championed by Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze, and is collected by Brad Pitt and Gus Van Sant. Nonetheless, he still has the demeanour of a small, shy boy. His softly spoken sentences tend to peter off into a timid giggle… Dzama, whose first London show in five years is about to open at the David Zwirner gallery, grew up in Winnipeg, Canada, a remote town he describes as ghostly, particularly during the long winters when everything is silenced by three feet of snow. …[he] is dyslexic and had a rough time at school, where he sketched incessantly. Teachers, he says, were constantly snatching away his drawings in lessons. He went on to study art at the University of Manitoba, where he founded The Royal Art Lodge, a collective one member described as “a mysterious yet socially OK’d therapy group for mildly socially dysfunctional, highly imaginative people who liked to draw”. “

 

Inspired by Hermione Hoby, The Guardian ow.ly/k4myh Image source Arrested Motion ow.ly/k4miU

Ronald Ventura the 39 year old Filipino contemporary artist noted for paintings featuring complex layering, combining images and styles ranging from hyperrealism to cartoons and graffiti has been profiled by Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop in an article published on Blouin Artinfo titled ‘Filipino Artist Ronald Ventura Is Making Connections Across Cultures’, in which she states “Like many emerging artists, early in his career Ronald Ventura tended to sell everything he produced. Now that his reputation is firmly established and he is dreaming of one day setting up a contemporary art museum in Manila …has found himself in the unenviable position of going back to collectors to buy back key pieces. …says he was stunned to find out how much some of his older works had appreciated. “A couple of years ago, I was looking for a good drawing that I had done. Most of my drawings are usually covered in paint, but I was looking for a drawing that wasn’t. When I found out the price I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it. It was 10 times more than the original gallery price,” he said, his laugh underscoring his mixed emotions at the steep price increase. …The artist has learned his lesson. He says he now keeps one artwork from every solo exhibition. At the rate his pieces are selling, he should. In his latest show, “recyclables,” held at the Singapore Tyler Print institute, 70 percent of the works were sold by the morning of the opening. …Ventura loves nothing more than to subvert familiar cartoon figures, such as Mickey Mouse or a dwarf from Snow White, giving them a “new reality” with the help of a skull or a gas mask. The artist has risen to prominence on the Asian contemporary art scene with complex, layered works that juxtapose unexpected images, often rather dark — internal organs with flowers and butterflies, or a clown and a gas mask — always rendered with exquisite draughtsmanship. He is known for mixing different styles, such as hyperrealism and Surrealism, cartoons and graffiti.”  Inspired by Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/j4IEo Image source ManilaArtBlogger ow.ly/j4Izv When I found out the price I was shocked (April 14 2013)

 

Ronald Ventura the 39 year old Filipino contemporary artist noted for paintings featuring complex layering, combining images and styles ranging from hyperrealism to cartoons and graffiti has been profiled by Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop in an article published on Blouin Artinfo titled ‘Filipino Artist Ronald Ventura Is Making Connections Across Cultures’, in which she states “Like many emerging artists, early in his career Ronald Ventura tended to sell everything he produced. Now that his reputation is firmly established and he is dreaming of one day setting up a contemporary art museum in Manila …has found himself in the unenviable position of going back to collectors to buy back key pieces. …says he was stunned to find out how much some of his older works had appreciated. “A couple of years ago, I was looking for a good drawing that I had done. Most of my drawings are usually covered in paint, but I was looking for a drawing that wasn’t. When I found out the price I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it. It was 10 times more than the original gallery price,” he said, his laugh underscoring his mixed emotions at the steep price increase. …The artist has learned his lesson. He says he now keeps one artwork from every solo exhibition. At the rate his pieces are selling, he should. In his latest show, “recyclables,” held at the Singapore Tyler Print institute, 70 percent of the works were sold by the morning of the opening. …Ventura loves nothing more than to subvert familiar cartoon figures, such as Mickey Mouse or a dwarf from Snow White, giving them a “new reality” with the help of a skull or a gas mask. The artist has risen to prominence on the Asian contemporary art scene with complex, layered works that juxtapose unexpected images, often rather dark — internal organs with flowers and butterflies, or a clown and a gas mask — always rendered with exquisite draughtsmanship. He is known for mixing different styles, such as hyperrealism and Surrealism, cartoons and graffiti.”

 

Inspired by Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/j4IEo Image source ManilaArtBlogger ow.ly/j4Izv

Profound sense of loss and disillusionment (December 22 2012) Profound sense of loss and disillusionment (December 22 2012)

Yue Minjun the 50 year old Chinese contemporary artist best known for oil paintings depicting himself in various settings, frozen in laughter as a sort of logo that can be attached to any setting to add value, has been profiled by Nazanin Lankarani in a New York Times article titled ‘The Many Faces of Yue Minjun’. Lankarani states “…The notion of risk is well known in China, where artists can be subject to state censorship in various forms. Recent widely-reported examples include the artists Ai Weiwei, who has faced accusations of crimes ranging from tax evasion to bigamy and pornography, and Zhang Huan, whose 2008 show at the Shanghai Art Museum was canceled in 2008 by local authorities, with no reason given. A prolific painter since the early 1990s, Mr. Yue, 50, belongs to the generation of artists marked by what he calls a “profound sense of loss and disillusionment” after the crackdown at Tiananmen Square in 1989, in which popular demonstrations culminated in the massacre of protesters. “I feel that those years enabled us to find a new energy,” Mr. Yue said in a conversation in July with a friend, Shen Zhong, included in the catalog of the Paris show. “We discovered that the ideas and assumptions we had about a lot of things were no longer credible.” For the artists who chose to stay in China after 1989, the Cynical Realism movement, which Mr. Yue joined, was a possible path to express their experience in post-Tiananmen Chinese society. “Those who stayed experimented with a new iconography lush with signs of a disenchantment in confronting their society and assessing their own status,” said Grazia Quaroni, a curator at the Fondation Cartier. But, she added, “30 years later, Yue Minjun’s work exudes a sense of melancholy rather than cynicism.”

 

Inspired by Nazanin Lankarani ow.ly/g2elq image source Facebook ow.ly/g2efN

Figures I make always resist all classifications (December 8 2012) Figures I make always resist all classifications (December 8 2012)

Bharti Kher the 43 year old British Indian contemporary artist whose work encompasses painting, sculpture and installation has been profiled by Carla Raffinetti in an article published on Artlyst titled ‘Bharti Kher’s Surreal World Of Cyborgs Bindis And White Elephants’. Raffinetti states “Bharti Kher’s is one of India’s best-known contemporary artists. …Although the artist was born and bred in England, she settled in India permanently in 1992 after meeting her future husband there, the Indian artist Subodh Gupta.  As the daughter of first generation Indian immigrants to the UK, Kher’s work explores themes of identity and belonging, of being of Indian descent but of not quite being Indian, of being raised in Great Britain but not being quite British either. Kher’s world is a place where all metanarratives have broken down.  Her work collages an uneasy mix of socio-cultural memes together.  As an Indian insider-outsider, Bharti Kher questions cultural and social rules through her art.  Taking her own disjointed identity as a starting point, Kher’s work walks the tightrope between ancient Indian customs juxtaposed with modern Western values.  Outside of the narrow frame of Asian art, her work serves more broadly as a metaphor of the multiple meanings that can be ascribed to an object or a situation, depending on its context. … whilst Kher delves into her ethnicity for imagery, she does not do so exclusively, preferring an approaching that is more culturally ambiguous.  Says the artist, “The figures I make always resist all classifications of class, race, time – they could be anybody at any time.”

 

Inspired by Carla Raffinetti ow.ly/fKfP6 image source Arken ow.ly/fKfKN

Slick, superficial and only for the super-rich (November 9 2012) Slick, superficial and only for the super-rich (November 9 2012)

Luc Tuymans the 54 year old Belgian contemporary artist considered one of the most influential painters working today with his signature figurative paintings has been profiled by Adrian Hamilton for The Independent in an article titled ‘Luc Tuymans: Slick, superficial and only for the super-rich’. Hamilton states “Are the painting “series” so fashionable with contemporary artists now becoming a means less of exploring the boundaries of their art than just producing repetitive works that can be sold as distinct items? The question is prompted by the showing of recent works by the Belgian artist, Luc Tuymans, at David Zwirner’s new Mayfair gallery. …At his best he paints works of shifting focus that unnerve the eye and genuinely challenge the viewer. His Zwirner show, it has to be said, is not his best. …The interest of the galleries (and we’re talking here about a million pounds or more per painting) is to play along with this by presenting every few years a new show of their artists’ ‘recent works’. It is in the interest of the painter, whatever his or her creativity at the time, to supply the market with a steady flow of new offerings. “Series” become the easy way for them to do it. In the hands of the Twomblys and the Richters, they provide a way of pushing the boundaries of their art, testing their limits. In the hands of lesser artists they can be simply a means of productivity. I felt this with Damien Hirst’s Spot Paintings and Gilbert & George’s London Pictures, to name two recent examples. I feel it with Tuymans now.”

 

Inspired by Adrian Hamilton ow.ly/eUd92 image source Marcwathieu ow.ly/eUcOC

I want people to stop and look at my art (July 13th 2012) I want people to stop and look at my art (July 13th 2012)

Sarah Sze the 42 year old American contemporary artist who uses ordinary objects to create sculptures and site-specific installations, states “I want people to stop and look at my art”. Sze’s latest installation profiled by Vanessa Thorpe for the Observer at the London Victoria Miro gallery, Thorpe states “…known for the involving intricacy of her sculptural work, but this dramatic piece, which now dominates a room … seems in danger of hypnotising even her. It is a theatrical construction that plays with light and water and yet is made entirely of household items. …The installation reminds me of student storage, with desk lamps, electric fans, paperclips, stepladders, books, chairs, and the added intimacy of folded clothes and a sleeping bag. Sze picks up bits and bobs everywhere she goes, she says; happy to exhibit the trace of her travels. … A talent for subtle showmanship has won her an international reputation and next year she will represent the US at the Venice Biennale. She is always thinking about the way the viewer sees her art and wants visitors to the London show to feel drawn to a “backstage area”, to glimpse things they feel they were not intended to. … “I am aware people might dismiss my art, but I’m interested in getting them to stop and look; for no other reason than that is what I do.”

 

Inspired by The Guardian ow.ly/c4XGD image source Columbia University ow.ly/c4Yqi

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