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Green Wave, Surfer's Dream, 2008, oil on canvas, 14 7/8 x 9 inches |
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
JERED SPRECHER: FRAKTUR
Jered Sprecher is currently showing at the Times Club at Prairie Lights bookstore in Iowa City. Here's two of his newest works from his show there, Fraktur. Also, watch for his solo show this spring at Jeff Bailey Gallery in NYC.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
MARK GROTJAHN
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Untitled (Blue Painting Light to Dark VI), 2006, oil on linen, 86 x 47 inches |
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Untitled (Blue Face Grotjahn), 2005, oil on linen, 61 x 49 inches |
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Untitled (Vertical Almond Face 41.04), 2010, oil on cardboard mounted on linen, 108 1/8 x 73 1/4 inches
Grotjahn’s
Game
by Michael Rutherford
"Sometimes
a game is played so well that it’s taken to an artistic level and sometimes art
is gamed so well that it’s taken to another place altogether. Mark Grotjahn is
one of the art world’s best gamers. Known for his paintings that combine a
heavy dose of materiality with visual resonance, his whole body of work actually
stretches along a continuum from highly formal, to a very funky brand of
informality. This continuum, this space he’s made for himself, is actually an
extension of a conceptual game—a game of an artistic sort"...
For the full article, see our companion site: THE down Play
and... Postmodern Toaster
A major survey of the work of Mark Grotjahn begins at the Aspen Museum on February 17th, through April 29th: aspenartmuseum.org |
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
JAPETH MENNES: INTERVIEW
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Untitled (sun bleach), 2010-2011, sun-bleached acrylic and UV varnish on linen |
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Untitled (sun bleach), 2010-2011, sun-bleached acrylic on canvas |
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Untitled (sun bleach), 2010-2011, sun-bleached acrylic, enamel, and UV varnish on canvas |
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study for Portrait of the Sun by the Sun, 2012-2013, digital image |
PB: Tell me a little about how
you got started in art and your education; any teachers who influenced you.
JM: When I was just out of high
school my grades were pretty bad, so there weren't any colleges knocking at my
door asking me to enroll. At the time I was mostly interested in playing music
and hanging out with my friends. I don't regret being a bad student in high
school. I learned so much from my friends and the musicians I admired. At the
time my Mom was a librarian at one of the community colleges in St. Louis, so
naturally I ended up there. It was at this community college where I came
across a lot of people my age who were interested in art and took it somewhat
seriously. At the time I also had a teacher named John Ortbals, I feel that he
was the first real artist I knew. He was always drawing on whatever scraps of
paper were lying around. He was a great collector too, he would pick objects
off the ground on his way to class and show them in the overhead projector. I
remember there was a day when he put this beautiful flattened styrofoam cup
into the overhead projector and it disintegrated from the heat of the light
almost instantly, it was quite a show! He was a very creative guy, and it
really helped me to be around someone who could be a real life example of what
it meant to live a creative life. You could plop Mr. Ortbals down anywhere, a
diner, a fast food restaurant, and he would just start drawing away. My Dad was
the same way, but he was more of a writer who worked in restaurants. I think
having people like that around was crucial for me, to understand how to access
the wealth of creative energy that comes with solitude.
At the time I also learned to enjoy all sorts of subjects; philosophy,
psychology, history. Art was the gateway for me. From there I moved on to art
schools- the Kansas City Art Institute, and Cranbrook Academy of Art in
Michigan. I had great teachers and colleges in both of these places as
well...too many to name. I feel really lucky for that. Once I landed at
Cranbrook I met Beverly Fishman. Her ability to read art and to understand what
the problems are in the work are very refined. So her suggestions were very
valuable to me as an art student. She's also very driven, and that is
contagious. She really has a faith in art, that although it can be a tough road
to travel, it's ultimately going to be rewarding.
PB: Is there anyone whose work
you're excited about right now?
JM: I'm very much influenced by
my environment and the people and things that are right in front of me. I feel
like many of my friends and people I've met in NYC are making some great art
right now. I'm really into the level of production that Josh Abelow has. The
guy makes so many paintings, it's really amazing. But it all makes complete
sense with the universe of meaning behind his work. Endless combinations of
color and pattern are the fuel for his output. Jeffrey Scott Matthews makes
great paintings that explore different materials and how he can use them in
conjunction with intuitive systems he's created. I love the way that Talia
Chetrit uses simple props in her studio, whether figures or objects, to make
her photographs. I'm really attracted to economy in art, how the simple can
unfold into the complex with the right amount of finesse or magic.
PB: Your painting process seems
like a collaboration with nature, can you tell us a little about it? Did you
have some technical things to work out at first, and do some pigments work
better with this process than others?
JM: I'm still wrestling with the
technical part of it, since I'm using the Sun the results are unpredictable. I
mostly use fluorescent paint because it's so fugitive. Essentially it works
like this: I start off by making a simple abstract painting, lately with
minimal gestures, they start off almost like color fields. After the painting
is done I take it off the stretcher and place a transparency photo-print directly
on top of the painting. The subject of the photograph is usually a plant or an
image of light and shadow, I like this stupid little redundancy in the work.
Then I leave the painting in a sunny window with the transparency on top of it
for a very long time. Since the transparency is either black or clear, and
since the paint is fugitive, the areas that are clear fade into a lighter
color, the areas that are black are protected. After the exposure has taken
place, I re-stretch the painting and take the transparency off. What I'm left
with is an image that was not rendered through paint application, but rather
through transformation that took place because of the light. Nature does figure
heavily in my work, and I want the meaning and the construction of my paintings
to go hand in hand. For me, using the Sun is a good way to step outside of
myself as the author.
PB: You also work in sculpture
and video, how did this come about and will you be delving into those mediums
any further?
JM: I used to be a drawer and
never ever made paintings. I made drawing machines when I was younger, and then
eventually drew like one myself. When I moved to NYC 3 years ago I started
painting and now I no longer have any ideas in drawing. I hope to draw again
someday, but it's not where I'm at right now. I make videos and sculpture so
sporadically, it really only ends up being a small part of my practice. But
those videos and sculptures I do end up making can become very important to me.
It's always been this way for me. The videos and sculpture tend to roll around
in my head long before I end up making them. Or like right now, I have an idea
for a set of photographs I've been wanting to make for some time.
PB: What's on your
reading/looking/listening list?
JM: I'm still mining the Guided
by Voices catalog. I can really relate to how they take the history of rock and
roll and filter it through to a crummy basement recording that they made in an
almost hand-made way. On some songs it's them doing the Stones, on some it's
them doing the Kinks. Even when Robert Pollard performs, it's like he's acting
out his interpretation of a rock star with his high-kicks and dancing. To me,
he's still a 4th grade teacher doing music on the side. I can relate to that
with art making. Taking a history or idea that's bigger than oneself, and
filtering it through to an intimate gesture. For example, looking at how
photography and painting works, how humans have created images over the years,
and making your own inventions based on that.
For more: japethmennes.com
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