Mar 30, 2013

Will is a Michigan-born artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He was interviewed at Mike Weiss gallery at his one-man-show openning called “Another Shit Show” on March 21, 2013.

Another Sh*t Show, the second solo exhibition by Brooklyn-based artist Will Kurtz at the Mike Weiss Gallery . Using the empty gallery as a site on which to stage operatic, all-encompassing mise-en-scene, Kurtz makes an ambitious, multi-part figure installation that throws the facade off human nature – albeit in canine terms. Constructed of unlikely materials such as newspaper, glue, wire and wood, more than 20 dogs of every breed, size and color, strain and cavort off the leash of a single human handler, each rendered more expressively than the next.

Kurtz, a master of anatomy, achieves an utterly believable aesthetic by building up layer upon layer of yesterday’s news, held together by exposed grommets and endless amounts of masking tape. In his 2012 exhibition Extra F*cking Ordinary, Kurtz proved his uncanny facility for depicting everyday New Yorkers with an irreverent yet impressive attention to detail and body language, as well subtle cultural nuances – a visual marriage of the likes of Duane Hanson, George Segal, and Red Grooms.

Here, the artist continues to work perfectly to scale, from the tiny, mischievous Min-Pin Dre to the mammoth Bull Mastiffs, Lefty and Cooper. Intentionally leaving large headlines and slogans clearly visible, each anthropomorphic beast becomes both time capsule and social commentator. Lemar, the stout, snaggle-toothed English Bulldog bears a New York Times review of Patti Smith, weaving his own mini-narrative out of Arts & Culture snippets. Theo the brindle-pied pit bears the poignant fragments of a beloved athletic icon’s obituary, while Linda the dog handler sports a vibrant pastiche of political exposés and gendered comic clippings. Ultimately, such intuitive, non-linear connections feel spot on: we’re all the product of the same schizophrenic urban culture; free-ranging pieces of a social fabric we all share.
And sometimes, we need to claim our territory, take our desires — and grievances — for a ‘walk’.

Will Kurtz received his MFA from the New York Academy of Art where he was the recipient of the Postgraduate Fellowship, 2009 – 2010. His work is currently in the Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation, Jersey City; Tullman Collection, Chicago; Krupp Family Foundation, Boston and the Collection Majuda, Montreal. Kurtz was born in Michigan and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Feb 14, 2013

Richard is a Georgia-born artist who lives and works in Hudson Valley, New York. He was interviewed in his studio on January 10, 2013.

In this in-depth interview, Richard talks about how he emerged as an artist, who he considers his role-models, the state of representational art and its role in the contemporary art saturated market.

He also talks about his experience working for Jeff Koons, the art business today, and how he built his brand. His works can be seen at his web site: http://richardtscottart.com

About

Working between New York and Paris, Richard T Scott is known for his contemporary figurative paintings and his writing on aesthetic theory and contemporary art.

His work has exhibited at Le Grand Palais in Paris, Palazzo Cini in Venice, the Museum of New Art in Detroit, and is part of collections worldwide such as the former British Arts Minister Alan Howarth of Newport, Prince Morad El Hattab, and prominent collector of Andrew Wyeth: Dr. Richard Epes. Richard’s work has been auctioned at Sotheby’s and Phillips de Pury & Company.

Richard holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from The New York Academy of Art, renowned for its synthesis of the classical tradition of figurative art and contemporary art theory.

“Whether it is in his portraits, his compositions, or either still in his interiors, Richard T. Scott always tries to produce, on his spectators, a certain effect of strangeness, or at least, something like a feeling of longing. That’s why, maybe, his compositions are populated for the greater part with mirrors in which appear, not simply beings just like those who face us – but of real spectres having the function to destabilize our glance while giving the fourth dimension for us to see” – by Frédéric Charles Baitinger, Critic, Artension

Jan 30, 2013

Matt is a New York-born artist who lives and works in New York City. He was interviewed by a fellow artist Rob Zeller at the National Arts Club on January 17, 2013. The theme of the event is Nocturnes: Romancing the Night. His works can be seen at his web site: http://mattrotasart.com

About the exhibition:
WHERE: The National Arts Club (15 Gramercy Park South, New York, NY 10003) (212) 475-3424
Grand Gallery, January 17 – 30, 2013
WHEN: Opening Reception: Thursday, January 17, 6:00PM – 9:00PM

The genre “nocturne painting” is attributed to James Abbott McNeill Whistler who used the term to describe paintings that depicted night scenes or subjects blurred in a veil of twilight. The style privileged a dreamy, pensive mood which Whistler heightened by christening his works with terms associated with music such “symphony”, “harmony”, “study” or “arrangement” – these terms foregrounded the works tonal qualities and compositional strategies while de-emphasizing the narrative content. In northern Europe, the Dutch Golden Age produced one of the greatest artists of all time.

In keeping with this season, and its short days and long nights, the NAC has brought together a group of well known mid-career artists and their emerging prodigies who, like Whistler have endeavored to explore the hither world between light and darkness. Odd Nerdrum heads this procession; a celebrated figurative painter of immense beauty and timeless mystery, his painterly style recalls the American Tonalist movement of the late 19th century and early 20th century which was characterized by soft, diffused light, muted tones and hazy outlined objects, all of which imbued the works with a strong sense of mood. In this twilight dreamscape, Nerdrum situates a tribe of migrating nomads whose circuitous wanderings is a symbolic night-sea journey—or a lost generation’s 40 year haul across a barren desert.

A similar limbo awaits Steven Assael’s figures – in this instance brides and club kids caught in the act of becoming. Collapsing formalist device with narrative intent, Assael brings his figures to half-life with form building paint strokes that read like shards of light. Open and pulsating, they rally against the darkness – a fathomless murk that is as deep as the night is long.

Totemic animals, animated by firelight, and seemingly racing across dank cavernous walls, inspire the mixed media paintings created by artist and illustrator Marshall Arisman. Imagined to be like cave walls, once thought of as permeable skins separating the living from the dead, Arisman’s paintings traffic imagery that privileges ancestral worship, myth and magic—the visual language of the night.

Lastly, “Nocturnes” does not necessarily mean dark and foreboding; Bo Bartlett reaches for the sublime with his painting of winsome maidens drifting off in quiet slumber. Other participating artists include Beth Carter, Jefferson Haman, Alexandra Pacula, Richard T. Scott, Alexander Rokoff, Martin Wittfooth, Rob Zeller, And Jason Yarmosky.

Jan 26, 2013

Alexandra is a Polish-born artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She was interviewed by a fellow artist Alexander Rokoff at the National Arts Club on January 17, 2013. The theme of the event is Nocturnes: Romancing the Night. Her works can be seen at her web site: http://alexandrapacula.com

About the exhibition:
WHERE: The National Arts Club (15 Gramercy Park South, New York, NY 10003) (212) 475-3424
Grand Gallery, January 17 – 30, 2013
WHEN: Opening Reception: Thursday, January 17, 6:00PM – 9:00PM

The genre “nocturne painting” is attributed to James Abbott McNeill Whistler who used the term to describe paintings that depicted night scenes or subjects blurred in a veil of twilight. The style privileged a dreamy, pensive mood which Whistler heightened by christening his works with terms associated with music such “symphony”, “harmony”, “study” or “arrangement” – these terms foregrounded the works tonal qualities and compositional strategies while de-emphasizing the narrative content. In northern Europe, the Dutch Golden Age produced one of the greatest artists of all time.

In keeping with this season, and its short days and long nights, the NAC has brought together a group of well known mid-career artists and their emerging prodigies who, like Whistler have endeavored to explore the hither world between light and darkness. Odd Nerdrum heads this procession; a celebrated figurative painter of immense beauty and timeless mystery, his painterly style recalls the American Tonalist movement of the late 19th century and early 20th century which was characterized by soft, diffused light, muted tones and hazy outlined objects, all of which imbued the works with a strong sense of mood. In this twilight dream-scape, Nerdrum situates a tribe of migrating nomads whose circuitous wanderings is a symbolic night-sea journey—or a lost generation’s 40 year haul across a barren desert.

A similar limbo awaits Steven Assael’s figures – in this instance brides and club kids caught in the act of becoming. Collapsing formalist device with narrative intent, Assael brings his figures to half-life with form building paint strokes that read like shards of light. Open and pulsating, they rally against the darkness – a fathomless murk that is as deep as the night is long.

Totemic animals, animated by firelight, and seemingly racing across dank cavernous walls, inspire the mixed media paintings created by artist and illustrator Marshall Arisman. Imagined to be like cave walls, once thought of as permeable skins separating the living from the dead, Arisman’s paintings traffic imagery that privileges ancestral worship, myth and magic—the visual language of the night.

Lastly, “Nocturnes” does not necessarily mean dark and foreboding; Bo Bartlett reaches for the sublime with his painting of winsome maidens drifting off in quiet slumber. Other participating artists include Beth Carter, Jefferson Haman, Alexandra Pacula, Richard T. Scott, Alexander Rokoff, Martin Wittfooth, Robe Zeller, And Jason Yarmosky.

Jan 26, 2013

Alexander is a New Mexico-born artist who lives and works in Oregon. He was interviewed by a fellow artist Beth Carter at the National Arts Club on January 17, 2013. The theme of the event is Nocturnes: Romancing the Night. His works can be seen at his web site: http://rokoffstudio.com

About the exhibition:
WHERE: The National Arts Club (15 Gramercy Park South, New York, NY 10003) (212) 475-3424
Grand Gallery, January 17 – 30, 2013
WHEN: Opening Reception: Thursday, January 17, 6:00PM – 9:00PM

The genre “nocturne painting” is attributed to James Abbott McNeill Whistler who used the term to describe paintings that depicted night scenes or subjects blurred in a veil of twilight. The style privileged a dreamy, pensive mood which Whistler heightened by christening his works with terms associated with music such “symphony”, “harmony”, “study” or “arrangement” – these terms foregrounded the works tonal qualities and compositional strategies while de-emphasizing the narrative content. In northern Europe, the Dutch Golden Age produced one of the greatest artists of all time.

In keeping with this season, and its short days and long nights, the NAC has brought together a group of well known mid-career artists and their emerging prodigies who, like Whistler have endeavored to explore the hither world between light and darkness. Odd Nerdrum heads this procession; a celebrated figurative painter of immense beauty and timeless mystery, his painterly style recalls the American Tonalist movement of the late 19th century and early 20th century which was characterized by soft, diffused light, muted tones and hazy outlined objects, all of which imbued the works with a strong sense of mood. In this twilight dreamscape, Nerdrum situates a tribe of migrating nomads whose circuitous wanderings is a symbolic night-sea journey—or a lost generation’s 40 year haul across a barren desert.

A similar limbo awaits Steven Assael’s figures – in this instance brides and club kids caught in the act of becoming. Collapsing formalist device with narrative intent, Assael brings his figures to half-life with form building paint strokes that read like shards of light. Open and pulsating, they rally against the darkness – a fathomless murk that is as deep as the night is long.

Totemic animals, animated by firelight, and seemingly racing across dank cavernous walls, inspire the mixed media paintings created by artist and illustrator Marshall Arisman. Imagined to be like cave walls, once thought of as permeable skins separating the living from the dead, Arisman’s paintings traffic imagery that privileges ancestral worship, myth and magic—the visual language of the night.

Lastly, “Nocturnes” does not necessarily mean dark and foreboding; Bo Bartlett reaches for the sublime with his painting of winsome maidens drifting off in quiet slumber. Other participating artists include Beth Carter, Jefferson Haman, Alexandra Pacula, Richard T. Scott, Alexander Rokoff, Martin Wittfooth, Rob Zeller, And Jason Yarmosky.

Jan 26, 2013

Rob is a Louisiana-born artist who lives and works in New York City. He was interviewed by a fellow artist Alexandra Pacula at the National Arts Club on January 17, 2013. The theme of the event is Nocturnes: Romancing the Night. His works can be seen at his web site: http://robertzeller.com

About the exhibition:
WHERE: The National Arts Club (15 Gramercy Park South, New York, NY 10003) (212) 475-3424
Grand Gallery, January 17 – 30, 2013
WHEN: Opening Reception: Thursday, January 17, 6:00PM – 9:00PM

The genre “nocturne painting” is attributed to James Abbott McNeill Whistler who used the term to describe paintings that depicted night scenes or subjects blurred in a veil of twilight. The style privileged a dreamy, pensive mood which Whistler heightened by christening his works with terms associated with music such “symphony”, “harmony”, “study” or “arrangement” – these terms foregrounded the works tonal qualities and compositional strategies while de-emphasizing the narrative content. In northern Europe, the Dutch Golden Age produced one of the greatest artists of all time.

In keeping with this season, and its short days and long nights, the NAC has brought together a group of well known mid-career artists and their emerging prodigies who, like Whistler have endeavored to explore the hither world between light and darkness. Odd Nerdrum heads this procession; a celebrated figurative painter of immense beauty and timeless mystery, his painterly style recalls the American Tonalist movement of the late 19th century and early 20th century which was characterized by soft, diffused light, muted tones and hazy outlined objects, all of which imbued the works with a strong sense of mood. In this twilight dreamscape, Nerdrum situates a tribe of migrating nomads whose circuitous wanderings is a symbolic night-sea journey—or a lost generation’s 40 year haul across a barren desert.

A similar limbo awaits Steven Assael’s figures – in this instance brides and club kids caught in the act of becoming. Collapsing formalist device with narrative intent, Assael brings his figures to half-life with form building paint strokes that read like shards of light. Open and pulsating, they rally against the darkness – a fathomless murk that is as deep as the night is long.

Totemic animals, animated by firelight, and seemingly racing across dank cavernous walls, inspire the mixed media paintings created by artist and illustrator Marshall Arisman. Imagined to be like cave walls, once thought of as permeable skins separating the living from the dead, Arisman’s paintings traffic imagery that privileges ancestral worship, myth and magic—the visual language of the night.

Lastly, “Nocturnes” does not necessarily mean dark and foreboding; Bo Bartlett reaches for the sublime with his painting of winsome maidens drifting off in quiet slumber. Other participating artists include Beth Carter, Jefferson Haman, Alexandra Pacula, Richard T. Scott, Alexander Rokoff, Martin Wittfooth, Rob Zeller, And Jason Yarmosky.