Steve Hollinger

        Sorry this is late, I'm not sure what was going on but Blogger was NOT letting me post it! Last month I went to the south end for Boston's first fridays and while in the Walker Contemporary gallery one artist's work caught my eye, Steve Hollinger.
        His works are basically alive. There isn't really another way to word it. The couple of his pieces on display were like a small window into some weird 19th century laboratory. Responding to temperature and light, many of Hollinger's works are physically active. The pieces that I saw twirled around in strange vials of water and light (first image), or twitched in a way that was so bizarrely lifelike (his "pods") you probably could have told me they were something alien and I would've been willing to buy it. Another piece had vials of polariod emulsion catching light (last image).
        As someone who is very much into sci-fi, and obviously very much into anything visually pleasing, his works were particularly attracting, as they invoke a sort of eerie feeling of both past and future, while also being really stunning. If you can't see his work in person, you should at least watch the video I've linked here, which shows his pieces doing their thing.

Video of some of Hollinger's works in action
Hollinger's website
Walker Contemporary site




images: stevehollinger.com

Kiki Smith

Kiki Smith 1954-

        I meant to write about Kiki Smith around the time of SMFA's InsideOut sale (as she had a piece in it; Born last image - one of her many depictions of the red riding hood tale) but somehow I managed not to do so.
        Kiki Smith is one of those artists where I've had an impossible time choosing images to put up here. This is not only because I love her work so much (definitely one of the artists I aspire to be like), but also because she works across so many mediums that it's absolutely impossible to give any kind of window into the breadth of her work. Nevertheless, I have chosen some of my favorites, and tried to give a small taste of what she's about.
        Smith has said that she strongly identifies with her gender, and it is definitely clear in her work, which re-contextualizes and reconstructs stories, myths, and histories; through her female eye. The two sites I've included here have way more information about her than I could possibly share or even summarize, so I suggest you take a look at one or both.

-awesome MoMA interactive site from their 2003 show Kiki Smith: Prints, Books & Things with lots of her work and lots of info.
-Art:21 on Kiki Smith (in the "Stories" episode)






images: pbs.org & moma.org

2009 wrap-up

        In case you haven't been following my every move this year, here are my top ten favorite discoveries (all are artists that I had not known of before this year, since I sometimes write about long-time influences of mine):

April 18th : Bianca Casady (knew of her before 2009, but not her artwork)
April 29th : Jan Švankmajer
June 5th : Nadine Byrne
June 7th : Miwa Yanagi
July 24th : Compagnia della Fortezza
July 29th : Andrea Marshall
August 12th : Ali Scarpulla
September 23rd : Bert & Bertie
October 9th : Susanna Majuri
December 21st : Miru Kim




        I realize that the majority of this list is women, and while this did not surprise me (I tend to seek out female artists), I was slightly surprised after a bit of investigation, that the reasoning for this is also partially that the male artists that I've written about this past year are almost entirely artists I had prior knowledge of (and therefor did not include). This coming year I'll try to find some guys who are new to me.

images (top to bottom): Miwa Yanagi, Bert & Bertie, Andrea Marshall & Susanna Majuri

Ahmed Abdalla

        This past Thursday I had the pleasure of attending Ahmed Abdalla's opening for his show Melody and Witness, which is currently up at GASP Arts in Brookline, MA. Abdalla's statement for the show reads as follows;

        In melody and witness, there is anxiety about what is happening and what might never happen. There is frustration, sometimes, with the impossibility of communication.
        Humility and arrogance, power and greed, guilt, redemption, forgiveness, ambiguity, paradox and contradiction are all present in this art event."

        This "art event" (described by Abdalla as something that lies between theater and fine art - his background is in both stage design and fine arts) incorporates elements of painting, drawing, sculpture, video projection, sound and light, culminating in a wildly powerful installation. He has effectively controlled every aspect of the experience within the space, and the effect is overwhelming.
        The viewer enters through the street entrance to the gallery, and is immediately confronted by a small space, a temporary wall covered in pencil marks, and a curtain to the left. Entering into the actual gallery, it is dark. The lights are set up to alternate between two overhead bulbs, darkness, and lighting underneath a table that is set up, with a large glass of oil and tar set next to a slab of special type of tar that has the appearance of both wax and charcoal. Small beads (I'm unclear on what they actually were) cover the ground, Abdalla explained that he hoped visitors would step on them and feel that they had done something wrong (something that I certainly felt before having the discussion with him about it). The second smaller room is pitch black, aside from a video projection into a pedestal sink, a man's hands scrubbing to get almost gold brown oil of his hands under running water.
        By nature of the piece, it really must be experienced (and I encourage anyone in the Boston area to do so) to understand the true power of it. Abdalla has extreme mastery over experiential language; his political and emotional message can almost be sensed without explanation or text.

Information on visiting the art event Melody and Witness:

GASP Arts
362-4 Boylston Street
Brookline, MA 02445
617.418.4308

The gallery is open Thursday - Saturday 11am-5pm and is less than two blocks from the Green D line Brookline Hills stop.




images: taken by me, c. Ahmed Abdalla Melody and Witness

Reed + Rader

Back to normal posting from my 2 week hiatus! Midterms are over and I am ready to go.

        And of course I am back with something bizarre and fascinating. I usually try not to post more than four images, but since these were just so amazing, and because I've been gone for two weeks, I possibly went a little overboard. But I'm not apologizing, because as I said, the images are amazing.
        Reed + Rader is made up of fashion (photography/ video/ installation/ graphics) duo Pamela Reed and Matther Rader. What initially attracted me to their work was the strange feel and unconventional look. Two minutes into their website I was hooked.
        I can not tell you much about the artists themselves, other than that they are 26 and live in New York. Their website also states that they "enjoy cats, stuffed animals, nintendo, pizza, robots, deli sandwiches and computing on the internet". I imagine that they are fun to be around. What I can speak to is their work.
        While all of their work is very different, it is all distinctively theirs. Looking through their website, I began to notice that images were moving (a startling discovery at first), sometimes animated very subtly (a blink or breath). While many of their photographs and videos are simply set up to be strange and other-worldly, many of them have also had some sort of outside intervention, whether that be drawing strange sci-fi additions over the photos, collage, photo manipulations, and animation. While I am always excited to see anything different going on in fashion advertisement, their work is particularly interesting because it also speaks to other things, such as technology, medium and contemporary culture. Their work very successfully resides in both the worlds of fashion and art, and comments on both.

I know I always say this, but you really, seriously, need to look at their website. I couldn't post the moving images or their videos here, and there is just so much more on the website that I wish I could've posted. All of it really.

their website -so many amazing things here
their blog meowzas -has a complete list of their other projects and sites (flickr, youtube etc) on the links page






images: reedandrader.com
(last one is a video still)

MPH Art Salon

        I've been (and will be for the next few weeks) really busy because of midterms, and since I don't really have the time to dedicate to writing up an artist today; shameless self-promotion! In all seriousness though, this show is for a really good cause. The Michael Peter Hayes Art Salon is currently having a show of ATCs (artist trading cards), and the participating artists got to decide if they would donate 50 or 100% of the proceeds for their pieces (set at $50 each) to the National Cancer Center.
        As someone who has had people very close to me both overcome as well as pass away from cancer, it is something that has had a heavy effect on my life, and I know that a growing number of people are affected in some way by it. Being a part of this show was my way to honor these people, as well as contribute to fighting cancer and promoting cancer awareness (my pieces are all 100% contributions). The four trading cards that I created are, albeit in a quiet way and personal way, in conversation with the effects of cancer on the way I live my life.
        If you live nearby Locust Valley, NY, you should definitely check out the show, which is open until November 27th. The artists involved are highly talented and some even have pieces in museum collections.

Exhibit page (the first card (with the owls) is one of mine!)
general info on what ATCs are

And here's the gallery info if you'd like to go:

MPH Art Salon
169 Forest Avenue, Locust Valley, NY 11560
516.671.5011
www.mphsalon.com

(click to enlarge poster)

images: ATC poster, c. mph salon and respective artists
first image, "heart", c. daylynn richards

Shin Murayama

        I happened upon Shin Murayama's series Valhalla (first two images), on I Don't Like Mondays, an online boutique for young rising designers. The series is not only really cool, but 50% of the proceeds go to Designers Against Aids. Valhalla consists of four masks, each with their own meaning (described in an interview) and made from what seems to be recycled materials. They feature beautiful stitching and a clear awareness of texture and material.
        Murayama, (who is 32) has worked professionally in the fashion industry since 2004, though he is unsure whether his work lies on the "arts" or "fashion" side of things (though if you ask me these worlds can coexist, and certainly do in his work), and in his interview with I Don't Like Mondays says, "I still don't know if I am an artist yet."
        Looking at his work I would say absolutely yes, but I think whether one defines themselves as an artist or not is entirely personal. Check out his work and be the judge for yourself.

I Don't Like Mondays Murayama feature
I Don't Like Mondays Myrayama interview
Vogue Hommes Japan feature
Designers Against Aids




images: idontlikemondays.us

Peter Callesen

        I entered into Peter Callesen's world through his performance piece Palace of Dreams, which consisted of a white castle floating in the middle of a lake, to which the viewer would be rowed out to (by Callesen), left alone in the castle for half an hours, then picked up and rowed back to shore. The piece is very representative of Callesen's work, which in its playful nature examines greater concepts, existing simultaneously in reality and a strange dream-like state.
        A post could be written for each of the mediums Callesen works in, which is not to say that his work is not cohesive, because it certainly is, rather that his body of work is so large and the attention paid to each section of what he does is such that it seems silly to try and tackle all of Callesen in one shot. Because of this, I will keep it relatively brief and can only plead that you check out his website for a more comprehensive taste.
        In subject matter, it is easy to see why I am attracted to Callesen's work, he repeatedly goes back to my three favorite things; birds, skeletons and houses. His work is executed so perfectly that one wonders if he is possibly insane. In particular his papercuts, which are absolutely breathtaking, have such a degree of perfection and minute detail that it seems both obsessive and unreal.
        In his artist statements Callesen refers to fairy tales, and the magic and in some ways tragic implications of papercut - something that is reflected in many of his pieces, through delicate images of death and decay. One of his installations (untitled, last image shown here) requires the viewer to "bend down to level of a child" to enter. It is clear that Callesen is playing with connections to childhood, and perhaps childhood interpretations of the world.
        Callesen is also a performance, installation, and 2d artist and sculptor.

Callesen's website (lots of images, various writing pieces done on Callesen, artist statements, current exhibitions, etc etc)




images: petercallesen.com

Charles Goss

        I've mentioned my mentor a few times in previous posts, and I feel like following Ray Johnson is a perfect time to bring him to the focus of a post. Charles Goss has been teaching at the Museum School since 1979, and (with fellow Museum School teacher Robert Siegelman) started the artist in residence program Art In Amsterdam in 1996. I took his class "Art as Process" my first semester at the Museum School, in 2007, and immediately asked him to be my mentor. He is brutally honest, and forces me to expand my ways of thinking and push myself out of my comfort zones and open up in a way that I have infrequently been asked to in art school. Goss' teaching, as well as his artwork, inspires expansion of the way art is looked at. If I became frustrated with a piece, he would tell me to rip it in half, or turn it on its side. In class projects would be outlined in simple terms that begged for consideration of exactly what they could be warped to mean, such as "draw every person you know".
        The playfulness and ability for everything to have multiple layers and meanings that I described in Ray Johnson is present in every aspect of Goss, personality, work, and intent. His work ranges from collage and painting to large scale installations. His solo show, A Vertical Life at the Bromfield Gallery (where he is represented) in 2008 displayed all these talents; the show included 63 collages (shown together and deceptively titled 60) - some of which make references to Johnson, displaying instructions on how to draw a bunny- a bulletin board covered in what seemed to be thousands of notes (Charles is never without scraps of paper literally covered in names, times, etc), a ball of socks hovering over a photograph of the edge of Goss' face looking upward -the socks collected from family and friends, attached together so that the socks from the ones closest to him were closest to the inside of the ball- poles with tiny scraps of metal, found in Amsterdam and Boston, sticking off the edges, a ball of digital watches on a pole, all originally set to go off at the same time, slowly growing apart due to slight differences in their mechanics (I happened to be there at one of the times when the watches went off, it was amazingly cool) as well as a few other pieces, including a couple tongue in cheek references to work.
        Goss' work is not only visually intriguing, but all very meaningful and often humorous. He and Johnson would undoubtedly have gotten along. In addition to his artist's statement, Goss shares on his website an "artist's focus", which, in perfectly descriptive of Goss fashion reads (click to enlarge):

Goss' website
Bromfield Gallery
Art in Amsterdam program




images: charlesgoss.com

Derrick R. Cruz

        Some time ago I came across and bookmarked one of Derrick R. Cruz's lines of "narrative accessories and art objects" (they are just that, the quotes are because this is actually how he refers to them) Dark Memento (img 1). The line, tagged "Objects for Contemplation and Remembering" is made up of beautiful and dark jewelry, every single piece is not only something I would wear but something I would absolutely scramble for.
        Cruz, who was born in Brooklyn and raised in Puerto Rico is the man behind Black Sheep and Prodigal Sons. Best articulated on the Black Sheep and Prodigal Sons website, Cruz's work can be described as such:
"Melding historically rich craft traditions and occult motifs, Cruz's work materializes his obsession with the beauty potentially found in darkness. Each piece, from inception to presentation, is as much a pledge to fine craftsmanship as it is a conceptual conduit between materialism and intuition. Under the influence of funerary crafts, alchemical studies, and Native American mythology, Cruz honors the past with rigorous research and meticulous execution. Building on those traditions, his objects emerge as modern moralizing tools and intimate fetishes."
        Unfortunately (or fortunately?) after reading this I did not feel that I could better describe his work as a whole. Every aspect of inspiration, research, and work that goes into each of Cruz's pieces is entirely apparent.

        As I mentioned earlier, when I discovered Cruz it was through his line Dark Memento. I had not, at the time of this unearthing, taken the time to look at his other series and complete body of work. When I returned to it to write about him, I was blown away by what I had been missing. Though Dark Memento is entirely up my alley, the amount of thought and true ingenuity that has gone into some of his other series is astounding.
        In his piece "The Abandoned Comb Amulet" (img 2-3), Cruz addresses the current (potentially devastating) worldwide abandoning of their hives by honeybees. He makes a strong case for art as commentary, as the piece stuck with me much stronger than the multiple conversations I've had with people on the same subject. The piece is a pyramid of sugar-glass encasing a gold replica of a piece of honeycomb (made through the "ancient lost-wax tradition" which he does not thoroughly describe). He presents the issue as "Solomonic", saying "A choice must be made to forcefully exhume the honey-drenched gold, violently shattering and consuming its casting, or to recognize value in its current form, nurturing a natural deterioration and the gradual revelation of treasure within." ........ yeah. I wish I'd thought of this too.
        It becomes immediately clear that Cruz finds his inspiration and holds fast to it, delving into research and making pieces that are narrative, intelligent and sincere.         A close second (to Abandoned Comb) is his Bendicion series (img 4), beautifully quiet scrimshaws (engravings, historically made by sailors on whale bone) on 1920's piano keys with gold and ebony inlays on silver chains with praying hands. I'm dying here.

Take a look at the rest of his work on the Black Sheep and Prodigal Sons website.


images: blacksheepandprodigalsons.com

Daniele Buetti

(real fast: starting wednesday (tomorrow) my blog will be updated weekdays at noon, to make it easier to check, since i tend to be all over the place with the times of my daily posts! enjoy!)

        If Tracey Emin were altering photographs instead of making quilts and fluorescent lights they might look something like the work of Daniele Buetti. Though unlike Emin, Buetti is a male, his images are equally confronting and ask some of the same questions (removing of course Emin's frequent focus on herself as a female; relationships, abortions, etc, and shifting his main focus to mass media culture and its representations of women). Another thing he has managed to capture that harkens back to Emin's work, something rare in pieces with a photographic base, is the hand of the artist. The photos Buetti starts with are not his own (they are mainly from magazines), but he uses various techniques to alter and effectively "scar" these images.
        In his series Dreams Result in More Dreams (second image) Buetti has poked pinholes in the photographs, changing or adding to the image, and frequently using this method to add text as well. He then mounts the photographs in front of light boxes, creating a both beautifully and alarmingly stark and overpowering effect over the sometimes busy images. The images include women seemingly bleeding from the eyes, nose, mouth, and hands and text such as "is sex work real work?" (reminiscent of Emin's posed questions in fluorescents; "Is Anal Sex Legal" and "Is Legal Sex Anal") -Buetti displaying his interests and issues with the use of sexuality in culture and media.
        He pushes this one step further in Looking for Love Goodfellows (first image), in which he uses the effect of again, pin pricking photographs, but this time from the other side and without a light box, adding color instead. He effectively "brands" (by both definitions) models with logos and and designer names.
        It is important to note that though Buetti's photographs (and drawings, to which he applies the same effects) are interesting enough on their own, he is also a master of creating environment. Also an installation artist (see last image), Buetti has incorporated this into the way he displays his 2d image work to create strange and sometimes unnerving spaces (3rd image).
        (Quickly, as some background info, Buetti is 53 and a Swiss artist, he has been working in mixed media since the 80's.)
        I have a strong feeling that his work is extremely experiential and only reads to a certain degree through images, so I hope to someday encounter some of his work in person.
        In the mean time, here is his website which is definitely worth some time.


images: buetti.aeroplastics.net