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Dave de Leeuw the 31 year old Dutch artist painter and video installations has been interviewed by Homa Nasab for an article published in Blouin Artinfo titled ‘Q&A with Dutch Artist Dave de Leeuw’. During the interview Leeuw states “Birth, life and death are always quite astonishing experiences, but I like to step out of my perishable self and see a slightly bigger picture. When I see both the sun and the moon in the sky I have this natural urge to figure out the true proportion of this phenomenal triangle of celestial bodies. When I manage to do this and I feel the burning heat of the sun on my face I can experience a fraction of the sheer power and greatness of the universe. And then, I can put my existence in a more realistic perspective again for another day or so. Sometimes I wonder if this is real, because if it is not, then it could be art! …[When asked who was the most influential person in his life, Leeuw stated] Andre Franquin (1924-1997), a Belgian comic artist most famous for his Gaston and Spirou series. As a kid I used to read his comics every night before I went sleep. I remember his drawings as the first works of art that fascinated me. I stopped reading the story to watch the amazing lines he used to make his fantasy world come alive. I didn’t undestand properly how this was possible but I knew this was something I wanted to do too. …The best thing about the art world is the stage you get to show your art, to share the thoughts and feelings you put in your work with others and let them experience this in their own way. …The responsibility of artists is to produce an artificial experience of their ideas and/or feelings. Not only for entertainment, but most important to provoke the mind.”  Inspired by Homa Nasab, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/lMFAE Image source davedeleeuw ow.ly/lMFmS Most important to provoke the mind (June 29 2013)

Dave de Leeuw the 31 year old Dutch artist painter and video installations has been interviewed by Homa Nasab for an article published in Blouin Artinfo titled ‘Q&A with Dutch Artist Dave de Leeuw’. During the interview Leeuw states “Birth, life and death are always quite astonishing experiences, but I like to step out of my perishable self and see a slightly bigger picture. When I see both the sun and the moon in the sky I have this natural urge to figure out the true proportion of this phenomenal triangle of celestial bodies. When I manage to do this and I feel the burning heat of the sun on my face I can experience a fraction of the sheer power and greatness of the universe. And then, I can put my existence in a more realistic perspective again for another day or so. Sometimes I wonder if this is real, because if it is not, then it could be art! …[When asked who was the most influential person in his life, Leeuw stated] Andre Franquin (1924-1997), a Belgian comic artist most famous for his Gaston and Spirou series. As a kid I used to read his comics every night before I went sleep. I remember his drawings as the first works of art that fascinated me. I stopped reading the story to watch the amazing lines he used to make his fantasy world come alive. I didn’t undestand properly how this was possible but I knew this was something I wanted to do too. …The best thing about the art world is the stage you get to show your art, to share the thoughts and feelings you put in your work with others and let them experience this in their own way. …The responsibility of artists is to produce an artificial experience of their ideas and/or feelings. Not only for entertainment, but most important to provoke the mind.”

 

Inspired by Homa Nasab, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/lMFAE Image source davedeleeuw ow.ly/lMFmS

Ashley Bickerton the 54 year old Barbados contemporary mixed media artist living in Bali who combines both photographic and painterly elements with industrial and found object assemblages, associated with the Neo-Geo movement of the 1980s has been featured by Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop in an article published on Blouin Artinfo titled ‘20 Questions for Bali-based Artist Ashley Bickerton’. Bickerton states “Basically, I had been creating models for the paintings that I was making only to be photographed then left to rot. In irony, half the people who have seen those models have liked them better than the paintings, and have pushed me to realize them as distinct objects. Many estimable folks, including Melissa Chiu and a group visiting from the Asia Society in New York, insisted I needed to realize them as artworks in and of themselves, and not just a prop in the construction of the paintings. I readily agreed, but felt they would be next to impossible to build as they were so detailed with many perishable objects attached including flowers, fruit, cigarettes, insects, and any number of unstable, rusting metals. It was not until Jasdeep Sandhu of Gajah Gallery stopped by and said "I can build these" that the dream became a real possibility. …Jasdeep told me he had recently set up the Yogya Art Lab under the helm of the legendary Richard Hungerford, and with the aid of a deeply talented team of Yogyakarta artists. I knew it would be extremely difficult, but if it was going to be done anywhere on the planet, Yogya was the place. I have to give Jasdeep the credit for great vision and certainly no shortage of guts, he saw it right away and did not hesitate. These new sculptures are quite complex materially. They are primarily in aluminum, with added hair, resin, oil paint, cement, and several other materials. With all their elaborate detailing, they are proving to be exceptionally difficult works, but hopefully with some measure of good luck…”  Inspired by Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/laTGN Image source Facebook ow.ly/laTbG Not just a prop in construction of paintings (June 15 2013)

 

Ashley Bickerton the 54 year old Barbados contemporary mixed media artist living in Bali who combines both photographic and painterly elements with industrial and found object assemblages, associated with the Neo-Geo movement of the 1980s has been featured by Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop in an article published on Blouin Artinfo titled ‘20 Questions for Bali-based Artist Ashley Bickerton’. Bickerton states “Basically, I had been creating models for the paintings that I was making only to be photographed then left to rot. In irony, half the people who have seen those models have liked them better than the paintings, and have pushed me to realize them as distinct objects. Many estimable folks, including Melissa Chiu and a group visiting from the Asia Society in New York, insisted I needed to realize them as artworks in and of themselves, and not just a prop in the construction of the paintings. I readily agreed, but felt they would be next to impossible to build as they were so detailed with many perishable objects attached including flowers, fruit, cigarettes, insects, and any number of unstable, rusting metals. It was not until Jasdeep Sandhu of Gajah Gallery stopped by and said “I can build these” that the dream became a real possibility. …Jasdeep told me he had recently set up the Yogya Art Lab under the helm of the legendary Richard Hungerford, and with the aid of a deeply talented team of Yogyakarta artists. I knew it would be extremely difficult, but if it was going to be done anywhere on the planet, Yogya was the place. I have to give Jasdeep the credit for great vision and certainly no shortage of guts, he saw it right away and did not hesitate. These new sculptures are quite complex materially. They are primarily in aluminum, with added hair, resin, oil paint, cement, and several other materials. With all their elaborate detailing, they are proving to be exceptionally difficult works, but hopefully with some measure of good luck…”

 

Inspired by Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/laTGN Image source Facebook ow.ly/laTbG

Jose Parla the 39 year old American contemporary artist painter who assumes several roles in order to create his work; acting as a historical transcriber, and a visual raconteur. Parla has been interviewed by Sara Roffino for Blouin Artinfo in an article titled ‘28 Questions for Narrative Painter Jose Parla’ in which he states in reference to The Wrinkles of the City project in Havana Cuba “is a unique collaboration project [with JR] that involves many components such as location scouting, photography, and painting. Together we created 20 murals throughout the city of Havana. Each mural is dedicated to an elderly woman or man. The project as a whole pays homage to the years or experience and physical appearance of the wrinkles of people’s faces in comparison with the deteriorated walls of Havana that show their own wrinkles representative of the struggle in life, the joy and smiling, all of the layers of the memories in their lives. JR and I both randomly met people in Havana by walking the neighborhoods and asking them to participate in our art project... We collaborated on the composition of the pictures on the murals and later pasted them the size of buildings through Havana while I later painted them by layering transparencies of color on the pictures as well as incorporated my calligraphic style, the stories of each person into the composition of each painting. This project began interacting with the public as soon as we started to work in front of everyone. Many people wanted to talk and ask questions and to be involved in the project. In Cuba there is no advertisement and in the 54 years since the revolution, most of the images you see in the city are of political icons…. For us to make 20 murals of random people was a big deal for people there…”  Inspired by Sara Roffino, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/l5rQb Image source Nuart ow.ly/l5rFQ Wrinkles of the City project in Cuba (June 6 2013)

Jose Parla the 39 year old American contemporary artist painter who assumes several roles in order to create his work; acting as a historical transcriber, and a visual raconteur. Parla has been interviewed by Sara Roffino for Blouin Artinfo in an article titled ‘28 Questions for Narrative Painter Jose Parla’ in which he states in reference to The Wrinkles of the City project in Havana Cuba “is a unique collaboration project [with JR] that involves many components such as location scouting, photography, and painting. Together we created 20 murals throughout the city of Havana. Each mural is dedicated to an elderly woman or man. The project as a whole pays homage to the years or experience and physical appearance of the wrinkles of people’s faces in comparison with the deteriorated walls of Havana that show their own wrinkles representative of the struggle in life, the joy and smiling, all of the layers of the memories in their lives. JR and I both randomly met people in Havana by walking the neighborhoods and asking them to participate in our art project… We collaborated on the composition of the pictures on the murals and later pasted them the size of buildings through Havana while I later painted them by layering transparencies of color on the pictures as well as incorporated my calligraphic style, the stories of each person into the composition of each painting. This project began interacting with the public as soon as we started to work in front of everyone. Many people wanted to talk and ask questions and to be involved in the project. In Cuba there is no advertisement and in the 54 years since the revolution, most of the images you see in the city are of political icons…. For us to make 20 murals of random people was a big deal for people there…”

 

Inspired by Sara Roffino, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/l5rQb Image source Nuart ow.ly/l5rFQ

William Eggleston the 73 year old American photographer who is credited with increasing recognition for color photography as a legitimate artistic medium to display in art galleries has been featured by Julia Halperin in a Blouin Artinfo article titled ‘Judge Rules William Eggleston Can Clone His Own Work, Rebuffing Angry Collector’. Halperin states “Photographers across the country can breathe a sigh of relief. The U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York dismissed collector Jonathan Sobel’s lawsuit against photographer William Eggleston. The case, art law experts say, has broader implications for all artists who incorporate old photographic negatives into new work — and the collectors who support them. Filed last April, the complaint alleged that Eggleston diluted the value of Sobel’s collection by printing larger, digital versions of some of his best-known works and then selling them for record prices at Christie’s. …The lawsuit was spurred by Christie’s sale last March of 36 poster-size, digital prints of images that Eggleston had shot in the Mississippi Delta more than 30 years ago. Some were created from negatives he had never printed before, while others were based on iconic works… For Sobel, who owns 190 Eggleston works, the success of the sale was part of the problem. “The commercial value of art is scarcity, and if you make more of something, it becomes less valuable,” he told ARTINFO last April. The judge disagreed. Egggleston may have profited from the Christie’s sale, she concluded, but not at Sobel’s expense. Eggleston could be held liable only if he created new editions of the limited-edition works in Sobel’s collection using the same dye-transfer process he used for the originals — a move that would directly deflate their value. In this case, however, Eggleston was using a new digital process to produce what she deemed a new body of work.”   Inspired by Julia Halperin, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/k6Eb7 Image source Facebook ow.ly/k6E3T Deemed a new body of work (May 8 2013)

 

William Eggleston the 73 year old American photographer who is credited with increasing recognition for color photography as a legitimate artistic medium to display in art galleries has been featured by Julia Halperin in a Blouin Artinfo article titled ‘Judge Rules William Eggleston Can Clone His Own Work, Rebuffing Angry Collector’. Halperin states “Photographers across the country can breathe a sigh of relief. The U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York dismissed collector Jonathan Sobel’s lawsuit against photographer William Eggleston. The case, art law experts say, has broader implications for all artists who incorporate old photographic negatives into new work — and the collectors who support them. Filed last April, the complaint alleged that Eggleston diluted the value of Sobel’s collection by printing larger, digital versions of some of his best-known works and then selling them for record prices at Christie’s. …The lawsuit was spurred by Christie’s sale last March of 36 poster-size, digital prints of images that Eggleston had shot in the Mississippi Delta more than 30 years ago. Some were created from negatives he had never printed before, while others were based on iconic works… For Sobel, who owns 190 Eggleston works, the success of the sale was part of the problem. “The commercial value of art is scarcity, and if you make more of something, it becomes less valuable,” he told ARTINFO last April. The judge disagreed. Egggleston may have profited from the Christie’s sale, she concluded, but not at Sobel’s expense. Eggleston could be held liable only if he created new editions of the limited-edition works in Sobel’s collection using the same dye-transfer process he used for the originals — a move that would directly deflate their value. In this case, however, Eggleston was using a new digital process to produce what she deemed a new body of work.”

 

Inspired by Julia Halperin, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/k6Eb7 Image source Facebook ow.ly/k6E3T

John Axelrod the 66 year old retired attorney and collector of so-called “Loisaida” art [Latino pronunciation of Lower East Side) artist of 1980s] has been profiled by Judith Gura in an article published on Blouin Artinfo titled ‘Collecting Is a Disease”: Nonstop Art Acquirer John Axelrod Can't Stop Hunting’. Gura states “Visitors entering John Axelrod’s spacious town house apartment in Boston’s Back Bay are met by Myrna Loy, an affable Australian terrier, and an eruption of graffiti art by the likes of Dondi, Crash, and Lady Pink invading an environment of pristine walls, neoclassical moldings, and American modern furniture. Axelrod is passionate about graffiti art, but it is not his first collection; it follows a half-dozen others, all comprehensive. He is not simply an obsessive collector—he’s a serial one. Over a span of four decades he has assembled groundbreaking collections of American prints, European Art Deco objects, American modern decorative arts from 1920 to 1950, Memphis furnishings, African-American painting, and Latin American art. Each collection was accompanied by painstaking research, and each was divested as Axelrod moved on to another category with renewed enthusiasm for the thrill of the chase. “Collecting is a disease,” he explains. “I’m just another sufferer.” He doesn’t look like he’s suffering. A former lawyer and businessman, Axelrod has clearly enjoyed his art pursuits. More important, the outcome of this process has been substantial: All but one of his collections have gone to museums, where they have stimulated additional donations and acquisitions. …Axelrod admits to enjoying the endorsement of museums. “It’s the bottom line,” he says. “Nothing validates what you’ve done like having a museum take it.” Summing up his accomplishments, Axelrod adds, “I think I’ve helped the museums move into areas they might not have gone into, or not with the same depth. That’s my legacy. You made a change: That’s what I’d like as my epitaph.”  Inspired by Judith Gura, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/jBe1R Image source Vimeo ow.ly/jBe0Q Collecting is a disease I’m just a sufferer (April 25 2013)

John Axelrod the 66 year old retired attorney and collector of so-called “Loisaida” art [Latino pronunciation of Lower East Side) artist of 1980s] has been profiled by Judith Gura in an article published on Blouin Artinfo titled ‘Collecting Is a Disease”: Nonstop Art Acquirer John Axelrod Can’t Stop Hunting’. Gura states “Visitors entering John Axelrod’s spacious town house apartment in Boston’s Back Bay are met by Myrna Loy, an affable Australian terrier, and an eruption of graffiti art by the likes of Dondi, Crash, and Lady Pink invading an environment of pristine walls, neoclassical moldings, and American modern furniture. Axelrod is passionate about graffiti art, but it is not his first collection; it follows a half-dozen others, all comprehensive. He is not simply an obsessive collector—he’s a serial one. Over a span of four decades he has assembled groundbreaking collections of American prints, European Art Deco objects, American modern decorative arts from 1920 to 1950, Memphis furnishings, African-American painting, and Latin American art. Each collection was accompanied by painstaking research, and each was divested as Axelrod moved on to another category with renewed enthusiasm for the thrill of the chase. “Collecting is a disease,” he explains. “I’m just another sufferer.” He doesn’t look like he’s suffering. A former lawyer and businessman, Axelrod has clearly enjoyed his art pursuits. More important, the outcome of this process has been substantial: All but one of his collections have gone to museums, where they have stimulated additional donations and acquisitions. …Axelrod admits to enjoying the endorsement of museums. “It’s the bottom line,” he says. “Nothing validates what you’ve done like having a museum take it.” Summing up his accomplishments, Axelrod adds, “I think I’ve helped the museums move into areas they might not have gone into, or not with the same depth. That’s my legacy. You made a change: That’s what I’d like as my epitaph.”

 

Inspired by Judith Gura, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/jBe1R Image source Vimeo ow.ly/jBe0Q

Jason Lazarus the 37 year old American artist, curator, writer, and Assistant Adjunct Professor has been interviewed by Julia Halperin for Blouin Artinfo in an article titled ‘26 Questions for Semiotically Inclined Photo and OWS Sign Artist’. In the article Lazarus states “The documentation of OWS created more questions than answers — the disparate messages on protest signs resisted clear, linear, or congealing narratives that traditional media rely on to produce content. Re-creating the signs, collaboratively, with the public, allowed a way to not only produce those messages documented widely across time and space en masse, but the process of creating them literally slowed down readings of the phenomenon, producing an experience of heightened awareness of the productive (unresolved) questions that linger in OWS’s wake as well as to the economy of protest (materials, aesthetics, scale, textual play/innuendo/multiple layers of meaning). The project is a kind of reverse-photography, imaging 3D sculptures from flattened images demands a careful, multiple-layered, and active reading. …The project … frames a collective process of becoming where our strain of late capitalism is openly and visibly questioned and criticized as incompatible with our current iteration of democracy. Meanwhile, the capital in the system, like water, continues to fill in the gaps with unending resilience and infinite flexibility. … it’s important to me that the project started as re-created signs that actually occupied public space as part of Occupy USF Tampa, and they have since traveled to alternative exhibition spaces on their way to a museum. They will make their way back to alternative venues and street as well. Political art is optimal when it’s most liquid, able to travel through contexts and paradigms. I’m interested in how this project will change as its referents become distant with time.”   Inspired by Julia Halperin, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/jAq2p Image source Twitter ow.ly/jAq0S Its referents become distant with time (April 16 2013)

 

Jason Lazarus the 37 year old American artist, curator, writer, and Assistant Adjunct Professor has been interviewed by Julia Halperin for Blouin Artinfo in an article titled ‘26 Questions for Semiotically Inclined Photo and OWS Sign Artist’. In the article Lazarus states “The documentation of OWS created more questions than answers — the disparate messages on protest signs resisted clear, linear, or congealing narratives that traditional media rely on to produce content. Re-creating the signs, collaboratively, with the public, allowed a way to not only produce those messages documented widely across time and space en masse, but the process of creating them literally slowed down readings of the phenomenon, producing an experience of heightened awareness of the productive (unresolved) questions that linger in OWS’s wake as well as to the economy of protest (materials, aesthetics, scale, textual play/innuendo/multiple layers of meaning). The project is a kind of reverse-photography, imaging 3D sculptures from flattened images demands a careful, multiple-layered, and active reading. …The project … frames a collective process of becoming where our strain of late capitalism is openly and visibly questioned and criticized as incompatible with our current iteration of democracy. Meanwhile, the capital in the system, like water, continues to fill in the gaps with unending resilience and infinite flexibility. … it’s important to me that the project started as re-created signs that actually occupied public space as part of Occupy USF Tampa, and they have since traveled to alternative exhibition spaces on their way to a museum. They will make their way back to alternative venues and street as well. Political art is optimal when it’s most liquid, able to travel through contexts and paradigms. I’m interested in how this project will change as its referents become distant with time.”

 

Inspired by Julia Halperin, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/jAq2p Image source Twitter ow.ly/jAq0S

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

Bjarne Melgaard the 45 year old Norwegian artist born in Sydney Australia by Norwegian parents, raised in Oslo, Norway, and now works and lives in New York has been profiled by Julia Halperin in a Blouin Artinfo article titled "The Most Famous Norwegian Artist Since Munch Brings a Buddy to the Armory Show’. Halperin states “Rising art star Bjarne Melgaard is using his critical clout to introduce a relatively unknown Scandinavian painter to New York audiences. …a series of bright, brash paintings Melgaard created in collaboration with Sverre Bjertnes, a fellow Norwegian a decade his junior. …The artists met 15 years ago, when Melgaard gave Bjertnes his first gallery exhibition at a now-defunct experimental space he founded in Oslo. Now, they often work side-by-side. Bjertnes estimates the two have produced more than 300 artworks together. …The new paintings, made especially for the Armory Show, combine Melgaard’s nihilistic, childlike smears and Bjertnes’s studied, academic figures. (The younger artist’s formal style is informed by years as a student of Norwegian realist Odd Nerdrum.) Text, images of sneakers, and shapeless, abstract shapes dance around portraits of cult individuals like Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake, fixtures of New York’s downtown art scene who committed suicide within a week of one another in 2007.  …a series of paintings devoted to New York dealer Mary Boone. “She is the ultimate dealer, and the paintings are about a relationship with her as this sort of unattainable dream,” Bjertnes said. The largest homage is almost nine feet wide and contains dozens of sketches of Boone’s face and close-ups of her eyes. The words, “The beauty of Mary Boone” are scrawled across the front. A yellow Chanel suit hangs primly overtop. Collaborating with Melgaard, who has been called the most famous Norwegian artist since Munch, lends Bjertnes instant legitimacy…”  Inspired by Julia Halperin, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/j4ybs Image source Rolf Aagaard ow.ly/j4y9T This sort of unattainable dream (April 8 2013)

 

Bjarne Melgaard the 45 year old Norwegian artist born in Sydney Australia by Norwegian parents, raised in Oslo, Norway, and now works and lives in New York has been profiled by Julia Halperin in a Blouin Artinfo article titled “The Most Famous Norwegian Artist Since Munch Brings a Buddy to the Armory Show’. Halperin states “Rising art star Bjarne Melgaard is using his critical clout to introduce a relatively unknown Scandinavian painter to New York audiences. …a series of bright, brash paintings Melgaard created in collaboration with Sverre Bjertnes, a fellow Norwegian a decade his junior. …The artists met 15 years ago, when Melgaard gave Bjertnes his first gallery exhibition at a now-defunct experimental space he founded in Oslo. Now, they often work side-by-side. Bjertnes estimates the two have produced more than 300 artworks together. …The new paintings, made especially for the Armory Show, combine Melgaard’s nihilistic, childlike smears and Bjertnes’s studied, academic figures. (The younger artist’s formal style is informed by years as a student of Norwegian realist Odd Nerdrum.) Text, images of sneakers, and shapeless, abstract shapes dance around portraits of cult individuals like Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake, fixtures of New York’s downtown art scene who committed suicide within a week of one another in 2007.  …a series of paintings devoted to New York dealer Mary Boone. “She is the ultimate dealer, and the paintings are about a relationship with her as this sort of unattainable dream,” Bjertnes said. The largest homage is almost nine feet wide and contains dozens of sketches of Boone’s face and close-ups of her eyes. The words, “The beauty of Mary Boone” are scrawled across the front. A yellow Chanel suit hangs primly overtop. Collaborating with Melgaard, who has been called the most famous Norwegian artist since Munch, lends Bjertnes instant legitimacy…”

 

Inspired by Julia Halperin, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/j4ybs Image source Rolf Aagaard ow.ly/j4y9T

Llyn Foulkes the 78 year old American artist creating landscape paintings that utilized the iconography of postcards, vintage landscape photography, and Route 66-inspired hazard signs, returning to his childhood interest in one-man bands and began playing solo with "The Machine," which he created. Foulkes has been interviewed by Scott Indrisek in an article published in Blouin Artinfo titled ‘Renegade Llyn Foulkes is Making a Comeback With a Major Survey at the Hammer’. Indrisek states “…Foulkes is having his second big moment. The L.A. artist and musician showed with Ferus Gallery in the 1960s and enjoyed early recognition for quirky, detailed oil paintings — an enormous cow, or rocks that sort of looked like people. He later moved on to more complicated mixed-media works, creating intricate scenes that brought together cartoon culture and self-portraiture as well as an ongoing series of grotesque bloody heads. …Foulkes had had a few recent pieces in last year’s Documenta (13) exhibition, where he also sang and performed with his complicated, self-made musical instrument, dubbed the Machine. [in the interview Foulkes states] “…Early on in the ’60s I was pretty well known, and then I gave up what I was doing and tried to go back to what I was doing before. Art changed, Minimalism and installation art and all that stuff came in, and there wasn’t that much in the art magazines about me in the ’80s. I’ve had problems from the stock market of art — let’s put it that way. I’ve always been out of the mainstream because I always talk against what’s going on in art. …I’ve always been pretty much a loner, in the sense that I didn’t really associate with that many other artists...”  Inspired by Scott Indrisek, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/hMxcu Image source Facebook ow.ly/hMxca I’ve always been out of the mainstream (February 28 2013)

Llyn Foulkes the 78 year old American artist creating landscape paintings that utilized the iconography of postcards, vintage landscape photography, and Route 66-inspired hazard signs, returning to his childhood interest in one-man bands and began playing solo with “The Machine,” which he created. Foulkes has been interviewed by Scott Indrisek in an article published in Blouin Artinfo titled ‘Renegade Llyn Foulkes is Making a Comeback With a Major Survey at the Hammer’. Indrisek states “…Foulkes is having his second big moment. The L.A. artist and musician showed with Ferus Gallery in the 1960s and enjoyed early recognition for quirky, detailed oil paintings — an enormous cow, or rocks that sort of looked like people. He later moved on to more complicated mixed-media works, creating intricate scenes that brought together cartoon culture and self-portraiture as well as an ongoing series of grotesque bloody heads. …Foulkes had had a few recent pieces in last year’s Documenta (13) exhibition, where he also sang and performed with his complicated, self-made musical instrument, dubbed the Machine. [in the interview Foulkes states] “…Early on in the ’60s I was pretty well known, and then I gave up what I was doing and tried to go back to what I was doing before. Art changed, Minimalism and installation art and all that stuff came in, and there wasn’t that much in the art magazines about me in the ’80s. I’ve had problems from the stock market of art — let’s put it that way. I’ve always been out of the mainstream because I always talk against what’s going on in art. …I’ve always been pretty much a loner, in the sense that I didn’t really associate with that many other artists…”

 

Inspired by Scott Indrisek, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/hMxcu Image source Facebook ow.ly/hMxca

Anthony Lister the 33 year old Australian painter and Installation artist, notable within the Lowbrow art movement, whose work is influences from a number of areas and genres, including street art, expressionism, pop art, and contemporary youth culture, has been featured by Nicholas Forrest in an Blouin Artinfo article titled ‘Aussie Street Art Star Anthony Lister's Grimacing Graffiti Faces Go Global’. Forrest states “…Lister has been taking the urban art world by storm over the past few years with his painterly interpretations of grunge imagery. In well-reviewed exhibitions both at home and abroad, and frequent appearances in leading street-art publications, in 2011 he was also named one of the 50 most collectable artists by Australian Art Collector magazine… So what’s made him so successful transitioning his work from outdoors to indoors? One reason might be the confluence of subversive street aesthetic with high-art draughtsmanship in his work, making his images seem equally relevant and accessible in an up-market gallery as they do on the gritty walls of alleys. Lister is also proficient across a wide variety of mediums, as at home working with pens, stickers and aerosol as he is au-fait with different surfaces. And the subjects of his mainly figurative compositions are just as varied as his materials: sci-fi superheroes, clown-like characters, and licentious ladies appear as often as images of quite ordinary looking people. But the shared characteristics of his work, a signature blend of irony and decadence, are what make them stand out from the crowd; fed from his single-minded work approach. “The first rule of painting is to take everyone else out of the equation. I am the viewer, so I don’t underestimate my viewers,” he explains. “I can’t paint for anyone else.” Later, “it’s all about having the courage to say this is finished... It’s like being a soldier because I have to be hard as fuck to fall in love with these things and let them go.”  Inspired by Nicholas Forrest, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/hnLUY Image source Steve Gray ow.ly/hnMfX I can’t paint for anyone else (February 17 2013)

Anthony Lister the 33 year old Australian painter and Installation artist, notable within the Lowbrow art movement, whose work is influences from a number of areas and genres, including street art, expressionism, pop art, and contemporary youth culture, has been featured by Nicholas Forrest in an Blouin Artinfo article titled ‘Aussie Street Art Star Anthony Lister’s Grimacing Graffiti Faces Go Global’. Forrest states “…Lister has been taking the urban art world by storm over the past few years with his painterly interpretations of grunge imagery. In well-reviewed exhibitions both at home and abroad, and frequent appearances in leading street-art publications, in 2011 he was also named one of the 50 most collectable artists by Australian Art Collector magazine… So what’s made him so successful transitioning his work from outdoors to indoors? One reason might be the confluence of subversive street aesthetic with high-art draughtsmanship in his work, making his images seem equally relevant and accessible in an up-market gallery as they do on the gritty walls of alleys. Lister is also proficient across a wide variety of mediums, as at home working with pens, stickers and aerosol as he is au-fait with different surfaces. And the subjects of his mainly figurative compositions are just as varied as his materials: sci-fi superheroes, clown-like characters, and licentious ladies appear as often as images of quite ordinary looking people. But the shared characteristics of his work, a signature blend of irony and decadence, are what make them stand out from the crowd; fed from his single-minded work approach. “The first rule of painting is to take everyone else out of the equation. I am the viewer, so I don’t underestimate my viewers,” he explains. “I can’t paint for anyone else.” Later, “it’s all about having the courage to say this is finished… It’s like being a soldier because I have to be hard as fuck to fall in love with these things and let them go.”

 

Inspired by Nicholas Forrest, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/hnLUY Image source Steve Gray ow.ly/hnMfX

Sterling Wells the 28 year old American artist painter and sculptor has been featured by Allison Meier in an article published on Blouin Artinfo titled ‘Artist Sterling Wells Creates Post-Natural Landscape Paintings’. Meier states “When looking at a painting, you lose yourself in an imagined world,” artist Sterling Wells told ARTINFO. Yet his work takes this idea a bit further than most artists, basing his detailed watercolor landscapes on miniature fabricated environments that he builds within his studio.  “The falseness connects them to painting, in that I’m inventing an artificial world within a frame, and to entertainment,” he elaborated. “Like watching a movie, going to a theme park, or looking at the dioramas at a natural history museum, I also want my art to be temporarily immersive and transporting.” …He loved working outside where he could become “attuned to the colors of the world, the way the light changes over the course of a day.” However, he became frustrated by the limitations of painting. “I initially wanted to make my own natural environments in order to control the light, and because I wanted to paint a purely natural landscape, but none was easily available,” he explained. “Painting from observation seemed too passive — I wanted to engage directly with the environment, and actively create new realities.” …he builds sculptural environments that he uses as models for his paintings, and also art on their own. He continues to work outside, painting en plein air in the middle of creeks or in the rain with a tarp over his head. Only now he also paints in a studio cluttered with rocks, paint, and warped car parts, where he tends to a small greenhouse and the often post-apocalyptic feeling of nature overtaking abandonment…”  Inspired by Allison Meier, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/gXFTE Image source Facebook ow.ly/gXFSH Creates post-natural landscape paintings (February 1 2013)

Sterling Wells the 28 year old American artist painter and sculptor has been featured by Allison Meier in an article published on Blouin Artinfo titled ‘Artist Sterling Wells Creates Post-Natural Landscape Paintings’. Meier states “When looking at a painting, you lose yourself in an imagined world,” artist Sterling Wells told ARTINFO. Yet his work takes this idea a bit further than most artists, basing his detailed watercolor landscapes on miniature fabricated environments that he builds within his studio.  “The falseness connects them to painting, in that I’m inventing an artificial world within a frame, and to entertainment,” he elaborated. “Like watching a movie, going to a theme park, or looking at the dioramas at a natural history museum, I also want my art to be temporarily immersive and transporting.” …He loved working outside where he could become “attuned to the colors of the world, the way the light changes over the course of a day.” However, he became frustrated by the limitations of painting. “I initially wanted to make my own natural environments in order to control the light, and because I wanted to paint a purely natural landscape, but none was easily available,” he explained. “Painting from observation seemed too passive — I wanted to engage directly with the environment, and actively create new realities.” …he builds sculptural environments that he uses as models for his paintings, and also art on their own. He continues to work outside, painting en plein air in the middle of creeks or in the rain with a tarp over his head. Only now he also paints in a studio cluttered with rocks, paint, and warped car parts, where he tends to a small greenhouse and the often post-apocalyptic feeling of nature overtaking abandonment…”

 

Inspired by Allison Meier, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/gXFTE Image source Facebook ow.ly/gXFSH

Kate Ruggeri the 24 year old American artist, curator, and DJ has been nominated by Blouin Artinfo as an emerging artist in an article titled ‘Painter-Sculptor Kate Ruggeri Finds Heroism in Humble Materials’ by Allison Meier. Meier states “Following a fire that wrecked her studio, Chicago-based artist Kate Ruggeri is persevering by creating work that evokes hope and heroes through the unlikely materials of old clothes, buckets of house paint, and twine. …she’s been experimenting with merging her interests in painting and sculpture into dimensional forms swathed with reclaimed fabric and discarded materials, and coated with thick layers of paint. The results have a scrappy, tactile quality, but also a quiet gravity. … “Joseph Campbell’s monomyth was my main inspiration, since I was little I’ve been interested in myths, adventure stories, and biographies. I don’t think it’s very difficult to identify with a hero at moments in your own life.” …One of Ruggeri’s sculptures, appropriately called “Hero,” strides like a DIY Giacometti, a paint-stained backpack on its shoulders and a walking stick pointing forward. “In the past few months, I have seen great heroics in my friends and community,” she explained. “My roommate had been mugged and shot walking home, and survived. There were a number of tragic deaths in the Chicago community. My studio building had burned down and I had lost all of my work.” … A painter at heart, she started using sculptural constructions as canvases because she was exhausted with looking at blank, flat surfaces. After building a wooden armature, she wraps it with window screens, fabric, found materials, and personal possessions. …“In my work, I try to create homages to human experience,” she said. “I see the viewer on their own journeys, having their own lives, their own struggles, triumphs. It’s a way to be self-reflective.”  Inspired by Allison Meier, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/gSY54 Image source lawnlike ow.ly/gSY33 I try to create homages to human experience (January 24 2013)

Kate Ruggeri the 24 year old American artist, curator, and DJ has been nominated by Blouin Artinfo as an emerging artist in an article titled ‘Painter-Sculptor Kate Ruggeri Finds Heroism in Humble Materials’ by Allison Meier. Meier states “Following a fire that wrecked her studio, Chicago-based artist Kate Ruggeri is persevering by creating work that evokes hope and heroes through the unlikely materials of old clothes, buckets of house paint, and twine. …she’s been experimenting with merging her interests in painting and sculpture into dimensional forms swathed with reclaimed fabric and discarded materials, and coated with thick layers of paint. The results have a scrappy, tactile quality, but also a quiet gravity. … “Joseph Campbell’s monomyth was my main inspiration, since I was little I’ve been interested in myths, adventure stories, and biographies. I don’t think it’s very difficult to identify with a hero at moments in your own life.” …One of Ruggeri’s sculptures, appropriately called “Hero,” strides like a DIY Giacometti, a paint-stained backpack on its shoulders and a walking stick pointing forward. “In the past few months, I have seen great heroics in my friends and community,” she explained. “My roommate had been mugged and shot walking home, and survived. There were a number of tragic deaths in the Chicago community. My studio building had burned down and I had lost all of my work.” … A painter at heart, she started using sculptural constructions as canvases because she was exhausted with looking at blank, flat surfaces. After building a wooden armature, she wraps it with window screens, fabric, found materials, and personal possessions. …“In my work, I try to create homages to human experience,” she said. “I see the viewer on their own journeys, having their own lives, their own struggles, triumphs. It’s a way to be self-reflective.”

 

Inspired by Allison Meier, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/gSY54 Image source lawnlike ow.ly/gSY33

Lucy Lippard the 75 year old American internationally known writer, art critic, activist and curator among the first writers to recognize the "dematerialization" at work in conceptual art and was an early champion of feminist art has been featured by Chloe Wyma in an article for Blouin Artinfo titled ‘Four Decades After Lucy Lippard's "Six Years," Is Conceptual Art Still Relevant? Wyma states “If you want to understand the stakes of the “dematerialization of the art object,” look no further than the late British artist John Latham’s “Art and Culture,” the entrance piece at “Materializing Six Years: Lucy Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art” at the Brooklyn Museum. The piece mockingly takes its title from mid-century formalist art critic Clement Greenberg’s influential text: An open briefcase reveals a copy of Greenberg’s book, an overdue notice from the library, and vials containing the masticated pulp of its pages. The byproduct of a party where Latham invited guests to chew the pages of Greenberg’s book, the work takes the radical propositions of dematerialization quite literally, turning the bible of formalist art criticism into formless cud. Casting off the cloth of the detached, Greenbergian art critic, Lucy Lippard played a crucial role, not only as a writer, but as curator and collaborator within the diverse artistic activity that’s now catalogued under the rubric of Conceptual Art. As she writes in the forward to the exhibition, Lippard and her circle “invented ways for art to act as an invisible frame for seeing and thinking rather than as an object of delectation or connoisseurship.” In their critique of the art object, they sought to remake the art world as a network of ideas to be shared, rather than a marketplace of objects to be bought and sold.”   Inspired by Chloe Wyma, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/gGWLj Image source Fluxusa ow.ly/gGWJS Is Conceptual Art still relevant? (January 15 2013)

Lucy Lippard the 75 year old American internationally known writer, art critic, activist and curator among the first writers to recognize the “dematerialization” at work in conceptual art and was an early champion of feminist art has been featured by Chloe Wyma in an article for Blouin Artinfo titled ‘Four Decades After Lucy Lippard’s “Six Years,” Is Conceptual Art Still Relevant? Wyma states “If you want to understand the stakes of the “dematerialization of the art object,” look no further than the late British artist John Latham’s “Art and Culture,” the entrance piece at “Materializing Six Years: Lucy Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art” at the Brooklyn Museum. The piece mockingly takes its title from mid-century formalist art critic Clement Greenberg’s influential text: An open briefcase reveals a copy of Greenberg’s book, an overdue notice from the library, and vials containing the masticated pulp of its pages. The byproduct of a party where Latham invited guests to chew the pages of Greenberg’s book, the work takes the radical propositions of dematerialization quite literally, turning the bible of formalist art criticism into formless cud. Casting off the cloth of the detached, Greenbergian art critic, Lucy Lippard played a crucial role, not only as a writer, but as curator and collaborator within the diverse artistic activity that’s now catalogued under the rubric of Conceptual Art. As she writes in the forward to the exhibition, Lippard and her circle “invented ways for art to act as an invisible frame for seeing and thinking rather than as an object of delectation or connoisseurship.” In their critique of the art object, they sought to remake the art world as a network of ideas to be shared, rather than a marketplace of objects to be bought and sold.”

 

Inspired by Chloe Wyma, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/gGWLj Image source Fluxusa ow.ly/gGWJS

Robert Barry the 76 year old American artist renowned for his non-material works of art, installations, and performances using a variety of otherwise invisible media, has been interviewed by Celine Piettre for Blouin Artinfo in an article titled ‘Artist Robert Barry Discusses Working With "Time, Light, and Darkness"’.  Barry states “I don’t like this term [Conceptual Artist]. I find it very limiting, as far as I’m concerned in any case. I use materials: time, space, color, words. My work is visual, and not purely about ideas or concepts. …I don’t work so much on language as on words, which I perceive as objects. They have a color, a size. They exist in a given space and time. They have a tangible aspect. Words are also very personal. They come from us and say things about us. They have a story. We all interpret them according to our own experience. I’m always surprised when people ask me this question. I’m interested in words — that’s it. It’s like I painted flowers or landscapes. It’s a personal interest, a work material that offers infinite possibilities. …Video is a natural medium for me. I’ve used it since the beginning of my career. It’s a medium of time — a notion, a material that is truly integral to my work, like light. I like the idea of light emerging from the darkness and plunging into it again. It’s something that everyone experiences. …It’s important to me that there can be different levels of perception, experiences, and time. All these components of the real are combined here: the idea of art, war, light, words, and speech — they work together to make the piece. … In general, I like using music in my work because it’s an art that exists in time.” Inspired by Celine Piettre ow.ly/gwWNu image source TownNews ow.ly/gwWMO I use materials: time, space, color, words (January 13 2013)Robert Barry the 76 year old American artist renowned for his non-material works of art, installations, and performances using a variety of otherwise invisible media, has been interviewed by Celine Piettre for Blouin Artinfo in an article titled ‘Artist Robert Barry Discusses Working With “Time, Light, and Darkness”’.  Barry states “I don’t like this term [Conceptual Artist]. I find it very limiting, as far as I’m concerned in any case. I use materials: time, space, color, words. My work is visual, and not purely about ideas or concepts. …I don’t work so much on language as on words, which I perceive as objects. They have a color, a size. They exist in a given space and time. They have a tangible aspect. Words are also very personal. They come from us and say things about us. They have a story. We all interpret them according to our own experience. I’m always surprised when people ask me this question. I’m interested in words — that’s it. It’s like I painted flowers or landscapes. It’s a personal interest, a work material that offers infinite possibilities. …Video is a natural medium for me. I’ve used it since the beginning of my career. It’s a medium of time — a notion, a material that is truly integral to my work, like light. I like the idea of light emerging from the darkness and plunging into it again. It’s something that everyone experiences. …It’s important to me that there can be different levels of perception, experiences, and time. All these components of the real are combined here: the idea of art, war, light, words, and speech — they work together to make the piece. … In general, I like using music in my work because it’s an art that exists in time.”

 

Inspired by Celine Piettre ow.ly/gwWNu image source TownNews ow.ly/gwWMO

Mehdi-Georges Lahlou the 29 year old French-Moroccan artist based in Brussels drawing on the history of performance and installation-art, and incorporating references to Belgian Surrealism in his works. Born to a Christian mother and Muslim father, the theme of crossing boundaries set by culture, religion and gender is present in all of his installations and performances. Lahlou is the subject of an article by Nicolai Hartvig published on Blouin Artinfo titled ‘Mehdi-Georges Lahlou Dons Heels to Stir Religious Debate’. Hartvig states “…[his] works hit on several sensitive issues in Muslim culture: the prohibition on modifying one’s body, nudity, sexuality, and improper use of the Koran and religious objects. …With his loose combination of religious iconography and incongruous objects, the ambiguous humor in Lahlou’s work is often misunderstood. But his approach is never casual — rather it blurs the boundaries between personal commentary on his subjects alongside artistic thought. “I’m not an activist shouting. I am truly respectful of religions and beliefs, except when they kill or hurt people,” Lahlou explains. “As a person, I have a political opinion, I take a position or I don’t. But in my work, I don’t want it to be like that. I want people to be in an awkward position and not know what’s happening, whether it’s humor or reality, true or false. I lean toward being stupid [in my work] because I don’t want to make people think that I am saying bad things. You can have criticisms, but that doesn’t mean that you’re against something. You can have fun with everything — but can you really have fun with everything?” …Lahlou plans to reduce his physical presence in his work. “There is the fear of repeating myself, even if everything I do is different. Since I am the basis of my work — I’m often the model, even if I’m not there — I get a bit tired of myself. Today, I want to think more, to be a bit less present,” he says. “But I think that I will still have things to say for 30 more years.” Inspired by Nicolai Hartvig ow.ly/gpOAu image source Twitter ow.ly/gpOzv You can have fun with everything (January 3 2013)Mehdi-Georges Lahlou the 29 year old French-Moroccan artist based in Brussels drawing on the history of performance and installation-art, and incorporating references to Belgian Surrealism in his works. Born to a Christian mother and Muslim father, the theme of crossing boundaries set by culture, religion and gender is present in all of his installations and performances. Lahlou is the subject of an article by Nicolai Hartvig published on Blouin Artinfo titled ‘Mehdi-Georges Lahlou Dons Heels to Stir Religious Debate’. Hartvig states “…[his] works hit on several sensitive issues in Muslim culture: the prohibition on modifying one’s body, nudity, sexuality, and improper use of the Koran and religious objects. …With his loose combination of religious iconography and incongruous objects, the ambiguous humor in Lahlou’s work is often misunderstood. But his approach is never casual — rather it blurs the boundaries between personal commentary on his subjects alongside artistic thought. “I’m not an activist shouting. I am truly respectful of religions and beliefs, except when they kill or hurt people,” Lahlou explains. “As a person, I have a political opinion, I take a position or I don’t. But in my work, I don’t want it to be like that. I want people to be in an awkward position and not know what’s happening, whether it’s humor or reality, true or false. I lean toward being stupid [in my work] because I don’t want to make people think that I am saying bad things. You can have criticisms, but that doesn’t mean that you’re against something. You can have fun with everything — but can you really have fun with everything?” …Lahlou plans to reduce his physical presence in his work. “There is the fear of repeating myself, even if everything I do is different. Since I am the basis of my work — I’m often the model, even if I’m not there — I get a bit tired of myself. Today, I want to think more, to be a bit less present,” he says. “But I think that I will still have things to say for 30 more years.”

 

Inspired by Nicolai Hartvig ow.ly/gpOAu image source Twitter ow.ly/gpOzv

Every meal is a potential still life (December 20 2012) Every meal is a potential still life (December 20 2012)

Laura L Letinsky the 50 year old Canadian contemporary photographer best known for her still lifes, has been interviewed by Allison Meier for Blouin Artinfo article in which she states “…every meal is a potential still life, but only so far as anything and everything is fodder for the camera. In terms of my interest in photographing after the meal, I was interested in the photograph as an event always in the past, only as the past. These ideas have been beautifully articulated by Roland Barthes in Camera Lucida. Photographing this scene after meals were eaten was a way to think about remains, stains, and what resists, including what resists photography. …I’m continuing with my photographic work, building on what I’ve begun with the “Ill Form Void Full” work. I’m hoping to do some travelling, particularly in Istanbul as I’m interested in its place as a juncture between pictorial conventions of Islamic decorative practice and Western European narrative depictions. I don’t want to be simplistic in my observations, and so want to do more research about this as it relates to gender, architecture, domesticity, and psychology. …I try not to have anything so valuable that it hurts if it’s lost. It’s not possible, and I do have objects that although not of marketable value, have great sentimental value. I’m not methodical in my collecting, rather it’s things I adore. I’ve amassed sets of dishes that are different whites and ivory, but similar because of a gold line around the rim which has extended into other not-quite-matching-but-related porcelain and glassware.”

 

Inspired by Allison Meier ow.ly/g28xC image source Uchicago ow.ly/g28vC

Oligarchs and dictators are not cool (December 9 2012) Oligarchs and dictators are not cool (December 9 2012)

Sarah Thornton the British Canadian writer and sociologist of culture, writing principally about art, artists and the art market, has detailed a list of the top ten reasons from potentially ‘hundreds’ of reasons for her decision to quit the art market beat. Blouin Artinfo has reprinted two of the reasons, being (A) It enables manipulators to publicize the artists whose prices they spike at auction. Tightknit cabals of dealers and speculative collectors count on the fact that you will report record prices without being able to reveal the collusion behind how they were achieved. …It’s a shame when good artists’ careers are made volatile by speculation.  And (B) Oligarchs and dictators are not cool. I have no problem with rich people. (Some of my best friends are high net worth individuals!) But amongst the biggest spenders in the art market right now are people who have made their money in non-democracies with horrendous human rights records. Their expertise in rising to the top of a corrupt system gives punch to the term “filthy lucre.” However, the astronomical prices paid by these guys do have a positive trickle-down effect. When they buy a Gerhard Richter for $20m, the consignor of the painting will likely re-invest some of their profit in younger art (particularly if they are American and keen to defer capital gains tax). These Russian, Arab and Chinese collectors bring liquidity to the art world and allow more artists, curators and critics to make a living in relation to art.”

 

Inspired by Blouin ArtInfo ow.ly/fKgvH image source ow.ly/fKgrd

It’s not a comfortable beauty (November 30 2012) It’s not a comfortable beauty (November 30 2012)

Beatriz Milhazes the 52 year old Brazilian artist known for her work juxtaposing Brazilian cultural imagery and references to western Modernist painting, has been profiled by Eileen Kinsella for Blouin Artinfo in an article titled ‘The Secrets to Brazilian Painter Beatriz Milhazes’s International Success’. Kinsella states “…They virtually explode with layer upon layer of intricate patterns and wild, rich colors. These derive from a vast variety of sources, including, in her earlier works, Baroque imagery and feminine lace or ruffle motifs that refer to 19th-century embroidery. Among continuing sources of inspiration are the rhythms of Brazilian music and the festive imagery of the Carnival, as well as the tropical flora and fauna of Brazil’s lush rain forests. Her studio in Rio de Janeiro sits next to the city’s botanical garden, and its influence on her practice — frequently studded with blooming rings of petals and elaborate floral designs — is palpable. Milhazes’s later works have less of the spiderwebby patterns and feature more mechanical-looking swirls, circles, and squares. …Milhazes described her work in a 2008 interview in the biannual art review RES as having “a healthy conflict. Many people say, ‘Wow, it’s beautiful,’” she said, “but on the other hand, it’s not a comfortable beauty.” Her meticulous process limits the number of paintings she can produce. Milhazes applies paint to plastic sheets and allows it to dry before transferring the pigment to canvas and then removing the plastic. The result is an exceptionally flat, smooth appearance. “I do not want the texture of the brushstrokes or the ‘hand’ of the painter to be visible on my canvases.” the artist explained…”

 

Inspired by Eileen Kinsella ow.ly/fuJi6 image source Wikipaintings ow.ly/fuJZp

Fat Slag, engenders accusations of sexism (November 25 2012) Fat Slag, engenders accusations of sexism (November 25 2012)

Charles Alexander Jencks the 73 year old Scottish American architectural theorist, landscape architect and designer whose books on the history and criticism of Modernism and Postmodernism are widely read in architectural circles, is the subject of an article by Kyle Chayka for Blouin Artinfo relating to a Landart sculpture he designed. The article titled ‘U.K.’s Giant Woman-Shaped Earthwork, Nicknamed “Fat Slag,” Engenders Accusations of Sexism’. Chayka states “In British English, “slag” has a few different meanings. Most literally, it means the refuse from mining or metal smelting operations… In a more vernacular setting, the term can refer to a “coarse or dissipated girl or woman,” according to the venerable Collins English Dictionary. A huge new public artwork in Northumberland is both at the same time.  “Northumberlandia,” a 1,300-foot-long earthwork of a curvy woman created by the Banks Mining Group, Viscount Matthew Ridley, and landscape architect Charles Jencks, was molded from a 1.5-million-ton slag heap taken from the Shotton coal mine. She’s the largest human earthwork in the world, and her breasts (which feature walkway spirals) rise 100 feet into the air. The woman is traced with white pathways, reminiscent of the antique earthwork the Uffington White Horse. Unfortunately… hasn’t struck the same chord with its audience as the graceful horse. Jencks’s installation has been unkindly nicknamed the “fat slag” by locals, taking full advantage of the double entendre. …Despite the feminist critiques, the privately funded earthwork might prove a boon for Northumberland residents. The project’s planners hope it will attract 200,000 visitors annually and bring attention to the area. The artist sees no problem with what he considers to be a humanist gesture: “I don’t believe it is demeaning to women, men or the human species as a whole; in fact it celebrates all of that,” he said. “I profoundly believe that, given time, people will not find any offense in this, and will grow to love her.”

 

Inspired by Kyle Chayka ow.ly/fmWPd image source Facebook ow.ly/fmWNv

Phrasing is more important than the style (November 18 2012) Phrasing is more important than the style (November 18 2012)

Scurti Franck the 47 year old French photographer and videographer nominated for the Duchamp Prize discussed with Céline Piettre for a Blouin Artinfo article on being an Artist without a style. Franck states “I haven’t done a project for the Prix Duchamp. I work every day and I’ve chosen three works that seem to me to make sense together. I selected them from a group of works that I created over the last three months. In fact, I just decided. …When I prepare an exhibition I never think about money. I create and then I decide. The term “production” has gradually replaced “creation,” and facing what I consider to be a crisis of representation, my desire is to reflect, in the wider sense of the word, on the creative process. I work with “poor” means and oppose them to “big productions” and to what I consider to be spectacle. …Often it’s the idea that leads me to choose a medium. But sometimes it’s the opposite. When I work with found objects, for example. …I don’t see any difference between a stainless steel sculpture and a work that uses found objects. It’s the same act, and they’re the same thing. Judging a work only by its material aspects often means falling into the trap of facile spectacle. …Although I’m not interested in art for art’s sake, I like working on the meaning of my pieces and placing them at a certain level in the discourse on art. …I work on the whole, on a total oeuvre. If you really examine what I do, you’ll notice that my works sometimes have different styles and appearances but speak to one another. …I really think that things are happening elsewhere today. Don’t you kind of feel as if you’ve seen everything? The phrasing is more important than the style, I believe.”

 

Inspired by Céline Piettre ow.ly/f5xoH image source laboralcentrodearte ow.ly/f5xJW

Abstract art through lens of technology (November 16 2012) Abstract art through lens of technology (November 16 2012)

Wade Guyton the 41 year old American artist regarded to be at the forefront of a generation that has been reconsidering both appropriation and abstract art through the 21st-century lens of technology, using Epson inkjet printers and flatbed scanners as tools to make works that act like drawings, paintings, even sculptures. Guyton has  been profiled by Rachel Corbett for Blouin Artinfo in an article titled ‘”A Weird, Perfect Storm”: What’s Behind the Rise of Inkjet Artist Wade Guyton?’  Corbett states “Nobody, it seems, has a bad thing to say about Wade Guyton these days. Critic Roberta Smith called the artist’s current mid-career survey at the Whitney Museum of American Art “beautiful” and “brilliant.” Art advisor Lowell Pettit described him as “a southern gentleman, the sweetest guy you’ll meet.” And perhaps the most generous compliments come from collectors, who have been shelling out upwards of $650,000 for his abstract inkjet prints. …He [] seems to have found an intellectual and financial sweet spot. His timeless, neo-minimalist aesthetic—typewritten Xs, inky monochromes, razor-sharp lines, all manufactured by an Epson inkjet printer—is highly collector-friendly, and his market was strong even before the Whitney exhibition. The intersections between painting and technology in Guyton’s work contribute to a larger historical conversation tied to Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, and Agnes Martin. This is partly why observers bet that Guyton, along with perhaps his frequent collaborator Kelley Walker and Sterling Ruby, have the conceptual chops to outlast their peers.”

 

Inspired by Rachel Corbett ow.ly/f5vwG image source ArtNet ow.ly/f5vtJ

Most powerful figure in the art world (November 6 2012) Most powerful figure in the art world (November 6 2012)

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev the 54 year old American Art historian and curator has been listed by ArtReview as the number one world ‘mover and shaker’ in its Power 100 list, the first time the position has been occupied by a female. Christov-Bakargiev was the Artistic Director of the current year’s dOCUTMENTA 13 exhibition in Kassel, regarded generally as an outstanding exhibition with record setting attendances. Coline Milliard for an Blouin Artinfo article states “globe-trotting curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev is the most powerful figure in the art world, according to ArtReview’s Power 100 list. In this much-awaited Who’s Who — published yearly by the veteran art magazine for more than ten years…  That it has taken over a decade for ArtReview’s Power 100 to have a female number one might well be indicative of a lingering gender inequality in the visual arts. And to get there, Christov-Barkargiev has had to pull out the big guns. Her critically acclaimed dOCUMENTA(13) … was the most popular dOCUMENTA ever. 860,000 people saw her show in Kassel, and an extra 27,000 visited the Kabul outpost (in total almost twice as much as the number of visitors at the last Venice Biennale). …The Power 100 jury is undisclosed but it is said to be composed of twenty members from different parts of the world, including staff from ArtReview’s editorial team. Shortlisted high-flyers were considered for their activity between September 2011 and September 2012. The criteria – “local and international influence” and “impact” — are almost as nebulous as the concept of power they are supposed to pinpoint. Yet few art professionals would deny that ArtReview’s 2012 Power 100 feels like a credible snapshot of the art world in the last twelve months.”

 

Inspired by Coline Milliard ow.ly/eU7PC image source Facebook ow.ly/eU7NN

Artists must not become brand names for collectors (October 31 2012) Artists must not become brand names for collectors (October 31 2012)

Jean-François Torres the French President of the Concrete Art Space founded in 1990 by Sybil Albers and Gottfried Honegger, the Espace de l’Art Concret has educational studios, an art center, and a building housing the Albers-Honegger collection, on its campus near Nice on the Côte d’Azur. In an interview with Juliette Soulez for Blouin Artinfo, Torres states “The Concrete Art Space resists the temptation to make exhibitions that are too crowd-pleasing. We have a lot of freedom. We can sometimes show unknown artists who were very significant in art history. …I believe above all that artists must not become brand names for collectors to buy. At the Concrete Art Space, we situate ourselves in a more experimental vein. Plus, in terms of our budget, we are required to develop other approaches, which lead to original projects that are very specific to our space. …It’s quite beautiful the way that the donation building, a contemporary and even experimental building, contrasts with the 15th-century castle where the art center is located. Inside the donation building you feel as if you’re in a living room. The architecture doesn’t dominate the works. …In my opinion, the impact of the Concrete Art Space does not necessarily depend on the number of visitors. If we show someone that there is something other than an image imposed by the world in which we live, that is already a lot. And concrete art in particular can inspire this type of self-reflection. …We would also like to pursue our activities with an Internet program that could be used in schools. At the Concrete Art Space, children discover that simply with a few colors and geometrical shapes the world is more beautiful to look at. And that’s great.”

 

Inspired by Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/eJ05X image source Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/eJ01i

Described as a “not-to-be-missed attraction” (September 26 2012) Described as a “not-to-be-missed attraction” (September 26 2012)

Andy Goldsworthy the 56 year old British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist who produces site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings has been commissioned by an Australian State government to create a sculpture that is designed to disappear into the environment over time, located in the remote Australian wilderness. Nicholas Forrest in a Blouin Artinfo article states “After a one hour hike along a track accessible only with a four wheel drive vehicle, hikers, tourists and art lovers will be confronted by a striking 12-feet-tall granite sculpture described as a “not-to-be-missed attraction” …Constructed in picturesque Conondale National Park, Goldsworthy’s sculpture, titled “Strangler Cairn,” consists of hundreds of blocks of hand-cut granite sourced from a local quarry and tightly packed into a “dry wall” system. Carved into stone at the top of the sculpture is a small dish in which a rainforest strangler fig sapling has been planted. It is the artist’s intention that over time the fig’s roots will grow to eventually cover and “strangle” the sculpture, essentially causing it to dissolve into its environment. According to the Queensland Government department that commissioned the project, “During his initial visit in 2009, Andy Goldsworthy found inspiration in a natural clearing in the rainforest of Conondale National Park where a large strangler fig had fallen.” …Noted for his sensitive response to the environment, which made him a perfect choice for working in the national park, Goldsworthy is renowned for his temporary works of art that make use of natural materials readily available in the remote locations he visits such as twigs, leaves, stones, snow, ice, reeds, and thorns.”

 

Inspired by Nicholas Forrest ow.ly/dP8Uj image source Twitter ow.ly/dP9za

You can actually see a pulse of New York City (September 25 2012) You can actually see a pulse of New York City (September 25 2012)

Terri Ciccone the American founder and editor of ContrappostoArt.com a street art enthusiast blog, has released an article on Blouin Artinfo titled ‘A Prognosis of Street Artist EKG’s Irregular Heartbeat’. Ciccone states “If you keep your eyes open, you can actually see a pulse of New York City everywhere. And I don’t mean “pulse” the way news anchors refer to it … I mean a beat, an ever streaming murmur, a recorded, monitored, living pulse. I mean street artist EKG’s orange heart beat running throughout the city. EKG’s tag, or “html link” as he sometimes thinks of it, is that recognizable blip on a machine that reminds us we’re alive. …More than 2,000 of these orange oil stick lines run along the bottom of walls like mice, and sneak through our feet as they slither down streets, go in and out of doors, run underground and live on beams holding up our subway stations, seeming to trail off into infinity. …And there’s a lot more to EKG’s tag specifically. The idea of symbol recognition is one that’s made a lot of people a lot of money, and one that is very relevant to our time. Think about the difference between the Nike symbol and the Occupy Wall Street tag, OWS. Both are highly recognizable but hold very different meanings. … EKG’s tag is not just another word scribbled in marker on the wall of the C train. It’s a creative reminder of who we are, where we live, and what kind of power our living, breathing bodies and minds can have.”

 

Inspired by Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/dP7rt image source Facebook ow.ly/dP8dY

I Just Wait Until It Goes 'Pow!' (September 13 2012) I Just Wait Until It Goes ‘Pow!’ (September 13 2012)

Ed Moses the 86 year old American abstract painter considered one of the most innovative and central figures of postwar West Coast art has been interviewed by Alanna Martinez for Blouin Artinfo. During the interview Moses describe his painting practice as “It’s all sort of intuitive: arbitrary and intuitive and intermittent, in terms that I may choose one color to do everything. And if I don’t like it I hose it off, or the assistants scrape the paint off. Before it dries, I start introducing paint again in various methodologies of marking: pouring, foam brushing, making a crisscross pattern and not liking that, and hosing that off and then starting over. I work on about 8 to 10 paintings simultaneously. …Sometimes I’ll work on a painting over a couple of months, and sometimes I hit it right off the bat. When I do, what happens is at the end of the day, I drag the painting, kicking and screaming, into my studio, tilt it up along the walls. I have two viewing spaces; they’re about 20-by-30 to 40 feet long with 16-foot ceilings, and the lights are all on tracks. I use incandescent lights. I don’t like paintings lit by fluorescent lights. …The painting is the issue, not the environment in which the painting exists. Fluorescent light neutralizes. There’s no drama to it, there’s no romance. But that’s not a popular attitude at this particular point. People are more interested in ideas than the romance of painting. I’m still old-fashioned in that sense. I’ve been painting 50 or 60 years, so that has something to do with being still in that situation.”

 

Inspired by Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/dtzpV image source Facebook ow.ly/dtzo4

There’s so much I want to say to you (August 18 2012) There’s so much I want to say to you (August 18 2012)

Sharon Hayes the 42 year old American artist who uses mixed mediums of video, performance, and installation in an ongoing investigation into various intersections between history, politics and speech, has been profiled by Kyle Chayka on Blouin Artinfo for her Whitney Museum exhibition titled ‘There’s So Much I Want to Say to You’. In the article Chayka states “…Hayes came of age during the rise of gay liberation movements and Third Wave feminism, twin currents that drive “There’s So Much I Want to Say to You.” In this tour-de-force solo show, the artist is equal parts activist, diarist, and journalist, charting her own individual upheavals even as she experiences the upheavals of her time and excavates the struggles of the past. A gay woman, Hayes integrates the personal and the political in a way that brings to mind the recent identity-based work of Simon Fujiwara and Danh Vo, but with a keener sense of the painful realities of the world and their impact on the individual. In formats ranging from her 1990s-era solo theatrical performances to her 2004 DJ set drawn from her extensive collection of spoken-word LPs, Hayes draws on lives and stories outside her own. Much of the Whitney exhibition confronts the struggle for queer identity. Sixteen-millimeter film footage shot at the 1971 “Christopher Street Liberation Day and Gay-In” is voiced over by Hayes and activist Kate Millett, who was born in 1934, in a piece called “Gay Power.” Millett reminisces about the excitement of the day while the camera runs up and down young bodies lit by the yellowing setting sun.”

 

Inspired by Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/cQQbZ image source Yiaos ow.ly/cQNRh

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