Anne Seidman @ Schmidt/Dean

Anne Seidman at Schmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
May 2-June 7, 2008

Made it to the opening of Anne Seidman's show, Touching, last Friday night at Schmidt/Dean Gallery in spite of the cool, rainy weather. I've always admired Anne's work for it's boldness of color, confident compositions and taut energy, all of which are in evidence here. The complex subtleties of even her least complex images (upon first viewing them) really warrant some investment of time to really appreciate what Seidman accomplishes.

Her newer paintings, such as the untitled piece above (top, right), bring a new kind of tension and potential to Seidman's works. The jagged, sharp-edged, multi-colored form unfolding along the edges of the painting appears to be in a continual state of change, poking and testing the edges of it's surroundings and establishing it's place (limits?). The energy and tension in this painting and others by Seidman belie their size and draw me in every time.

At the opening, I ran into painter and art blogger, Steven Alexander. We talked for a bit about Anne's work and he has posted a great review of Anne's show on his studio journal.

Robert Rauschenberg, R.I.P

Estate, 1963, oil and silk screened ink on canvas, 96 x 70 in.


Robert Rauschenberg, one of the giants of 20th century art, has died. Here's the New York Times obituary by Micheal Kimmelman

Like what you see? Jump for it!

(photo: Caroline Giegerich)


Ever feel like you want to possibly go out of your mind when you see a piece of art/architecture/design that you love? You know that intense rush you get when in the presence of something that makes you as giddy as Homer Simpson in a doughnut shop?

Well, why not take Van Halen's advice and do a little Art Jumping?

More Jumping here

scrub out

I'm continuing to work on this new series of what I'm calling 'altered photos'. I've learned so far that it's better to scrub the photo when dry if I want to keep some of the more subtle colors and patterns I've masked out.

In other news, I managed to make more work for myself in the studio today courtesy of tiny paint spatters that have managed to find their onto the surfaces of newly completed works. I thought I had them out of the range of my main working area, but obviously I was wrong. Of course my better judgment tells me to turn works I'm considering finished towards the wall. The problem is that my better judgment likes to go on coffee breaks at the most inopportune times.

It's not too bad. I think I'm fairly good at camouflaging unwanted stray marks. There have been times when I've left the strays where they landed, but it's not a preferred way of working.

......

Last week. I delivered my registration form and check to be in the next Philadelphia Open Studio Tours. I almost considered not participating this year, but that bit of madness passed quickly. I couldn't come up with a legitimate reason not to do it, so I ponied up. Now I won't think about it again until the month before. Then again, knowing how organized POST has become over the past couple of years, with new email updates almost once a week, it won't be that far removed from my daily consciousness.

Seriously, it's good to see (and participate with) an arts organization that's almost completely artist/volunteer-driven thrive and get better with time. With the way the art-scene in Philadelphia has grown and changed over the past 10 years, it's vital to have an organization like POST around to bring artists and the general public together. They do so in ways that can foster better understanding of art and art-making in ways that visits to galleries, museums, reading the latest 'art and fashion/music/pop culture' magazine articles and scandalous headlines from the art world can never accomplish.

shock and yawns

Yale art student submits new work for senior thesis. (artinfo.com via c-monster)

This has been kicking around for a couple of weeks now and my reaction to this latest twist is a big resounding, '90's pseudo-nihilist "whatever...".

"(Aliza) Shvarts had allegedly told the university administration that she had not in fact performed the described acts, but rather that the story itself was the artwork"

I'm not entirely sure what her intent was with the original thesis, but she certainly managed to be up there with the shock factor, alongside this guy. Self-inseminating and then self-aborting will no doubt garner a lot of attention with today's atmosphere surrounding sex a woman's right of choice in how she uses her body.

However, if, as stated in the latest report, Shvarts work was the story, then it falls flat. The so-called news is saturated with 'stories' like this all the time-where there is not real story, just a collection of innuendo and false leads.

In terms of false leads, she might have actually accomplished something-the classic bait and switch for fame. Student puts forward a controversial idea for a work of art, gains tons of attention and at the last minute, submit something more 'palatable' for her thesis committee to consider and voila! instant attention around the art world and byond.

Can you hear it? "Is it art? Did she really do that?, This is why I hate so-called contemporary art!" and on and on... Everyone yells, screams, praises, questions, and pontificates and then it all dies down until the next time.

She'll either captialize on this attention or we'll never hear about her again. At this point, I couldn't care less.

By Bom.k

By Bom.k
Originally uploaded by vitostreet

Vitostreet is one of my newer contacts on Flickr. He lives in Paris and finds some of the most amazing street art to photograph, as can be seen in the photo here.

If you have a few minutes, go through his photos and explore a bit...

spencer and imler

Spencer and Imler

Lorica 6 diptych, photo assemblage, 15 x 30 inches

This morning I recieved an email from former studio-mates, Deborah Imler and Allen Spencer, announcing their new website. Deb and Allen shared my work space two years ago, but moved on to another space nearby that was more suited to their need for a cleaner, dust-free work area.

They work collaboratively on beautiful photo assemblages that are made up mainly of carefully cut and arranged pieces of 35mm photographs. The photo images start off as building facades, interiors, and other surfaces and re-imagined as geometric photo abstractions that allude to their sources but lead to other places altogether.

Spencer and Imler.com

new painting

Clusterchroma, 2008, acrylic on panel, 24" x 24"

One of a few new paintings I've been working on lately. The colors might be slightly more saturated in this photo, but not by much. I've been into playing around with more intense colors and patterns recently. This might be a reaction to some paintings I did last year where I used a lot of 'all over' light tones atop some richer colors, like Plume:

I liked how Plume and others like it turned out, but currently I'm more interested in pushing myself out of a certain color comfort zone I created for myself.

There might be more images posted later in the week.

No to boycott?

I agree with what Edward Winkleman has to say about the idea of boycotting the upcoming Olympics. Despite those who might think about the Olympics being ,"... one big festering boil of marketing, politics and kitsch...", as one respondent to Winklemans's post put it, taking away the opportunity for those athletes who want to compete and might not have another chance four years from now is incredibly short-sighted.

altered images

top: Burnout(sky), 2008, altered photocollage, 12" x 12"
bottom: ...and the sound goes BOOM!, 2008, altered photocollage, 10" x 23"

top: Infinite Boundary(detail), 2008, altered photocollage, 20" x 20"
bottom: Night Static, 2008, altered photocollage, 12" x 12"

A new, ongoing series of 'altered photos' I've been working on. I first mentioned them back here.

While working on these, I've had time to think about what personal photographs can mean for us in regards to how we self-identify; how parts of our identities and memories are reinforced by images of where we've been, what we looked like x years ago, who was in our lives, etc...

I've been literally erasing some photos (see above detail of Infinite Boundaries) and severely distorting others, like Night Static, also above. What has occurred to me through this process has been the physical and partial 'erasing' of a memory. The two photos that comprise Night Static are copies of one image that was taken in 2005 from the fire escape that sits outside of my studio window. It was a Saturday night and I was facing north, looking up 3rd Street. I was also trying to get a handle on taking night time photos with my old film camera. The shots wound up being very blurry and unusable to me at the time as photographs, so I stashed them away.

I only remember that because of having found the photos. If I hadn't, the memory of that particular instant on that particular night would have most been filed away into the deep recesses of my mind, most likely not to be found again. It wasn't an event that commanded a lot of attention or memory space, so to speak. So, if I had totally obliterated the image, would that even have even occured for me after a whlie? If I hadn't found the photo, would I even be thinking about it now? Probably not.

Now, with my personal history attached to it and my 'interventions' on them, the shots have begun to take on another life and history altogether in my mind. Who knows what kind of meanings and interpretations Night Static might have for other people viewing them.

wall rubbing

Surface Patterns, 2008, graphite on paper, 30" x 40"

I was in the mood for some 'direct' art interaction, so out came the graphite sticks and a big piece of paper tacked to the wall.

This is one of those 'happy accidents' that happen once in a while. It was going to look a lot different had I followed my original idea. The alternating darker stripes would have been partially covered by some looping 'netting' forms in paint or ink.

However, once I started rubbing the graphite onto the paper, I noticed how the imperfections of the wall, mainly paint spatters and lumps, created the surface texture you see here. So, instead of just filling in the alternate vertical stripes, I covered the entire paper.

Stepping back, I noticed the slight appearance of wrinkled fabric the drawing was taking on and wound up doing several smaller pieces similar to this, only without the patterns. Don't know what might happen with them, but we'll see.

The time needed for art

Place: looking out

Quoted from a post on wondercabinet:

"For the artist, any artist, poet, painter, musician, time in plenty and an abundance of ideas are the necessary basics of creativity. By dreaming and idleness and then by intense self-discipline does the artist live. The artists cannot perform between 9 and 6, 5 days a week, or if she sometimes does, she cannot guarantee to do so. Money culture hates that. It must know what it is getting, when it is getting it, and how much it will cost. The most tyrannical of patrons never demanded from their protogees what the market now demands of artists; if you can't sell your work regularly and quickly, you can either starve or do something else. The time that art needs, which may not be a long time, but which has to be its own time, is anathema to a money culture. Money confuses time with itself. That is part of its unreality."

- From Art Objects, Jeanette Winterson

A tough but true reality of today's art world. Time for ideas to develop is in especially short supply in the ever-quickening market-driven side of the art world.

One way around it is to opt out of the market side altogether, make what you want when you want to, work another job and make peace with that.

There is a middle ground there. A place where I suspect most of us creatives inhabit. We work jobs which don't take much from us creatively, keep fairly regular studio hours, might be lucky enough to work with a good gallerist or two, if we're lucky, manage to get grants when possible and do whatever we can to make sure that our art gets the time it needs to develop.

Attempting to keep up with the demands of the art market is deadly to the artist and to art: the artist burns out and winds up making things that don't satisfy them and the art isn't as strong as it could be. These conditions might push some to greater limits of creativity, but does good art result from the frenzy-inducing schedule of say, the fashion industry? No, I don't think so.

'Bikes' video

Video I just found on MySpace while browsing though and clearing out some 'friend' requests. It's not often that I find a good collision of two of my favorite past-times-music and cycling and this does it for me. The artist is Jamil Kayin and the music is from his self-produced cd titled, Days. I'm listening to some cuts from the cd on Jamil's MySpace page and enjoying my continuing aimless wanderings on the interwbs for the night...

Oddments, pt. 2

left-Oddment: Flats II, right-Oddment: Yellow Above



left-Oddments: Flats III, right-Oddments: Yellow Sill



left-Oddment: Trio, right: Oddment: Streaks


left-Oddment: Piletop, right- Oddment: Yellow Arrangement

All's fair

top four: Views of works from the Bridgette Mayer Gallery at Red Dot this past Friday.
bottom: Allen Bently, Bridgette Mayer, me, and Ivan Stojakovic.

This was my first experience attending one of the smaller hotel fairs. The first thing I noticed is that three or more in a room is a crowd, excepting the larger suites. The limitations on what can be shown are apparent-you won't find any of the apartment-sized installations that are standards at the much larger Armory show, which was also took place this weekend, along with 6 or 7 others. Because of time constraints (I had to work both Saturday and Sunday) there was little time to get to see any of the fairs outside of Red Dot and a quick trip up to MoMA.

What I liked about going around Red Dot was the chance to see a lot of painting and other 2D works. Not only that, but you can walk into a room, turn around and literally have your nose two inches from someone's work you've only seen in magazine articles or books. Being able to examine works this close up is a treat. On the other hand, having various works so close together can be disconcerting and a slight detriment to some works that benefit from more space around them.

Then again, as we well know, the fairs aren't about optimal exhibiting and viewing of works, it's about the money and lots of it. From what I understand, prices for exhibitors at Red Dot paid at least $10,000 to be in the fair. That's not even including transportation of works, lighting, and any number of other incidentals. I'm sure the figures for the bigger fairs are much, much higher. That's the price that has to be paid if a gallery wants to get their artists good exposure to a big audience with lots of money to purchase art. Not to mention the possible contacts with curators, museum people, and future collectors. It's a real high-stakes crap-shoot and with today's economic climate, I'm willing to bet that there was a lot of money lost this weekend. Then again, my limited understanding about how money and art interact at fairs could make my guessing way off-base.

Art fairs might seem like big, three-ring circuses at times, but they are a fact of artistic life these days. There's no getting around that if you're affiliated with a gallery, you'll want your gallerist to be doing all they can to get your work out there and art fairs are another tool to do that. All of your success might not hinge on your work appearing in a fair, to think so would be incredibly naive, but they can have an effect on name and work recognition for the artists and galleries. Like the internet, art fairs are another tool in the artist's arsenal.

oddments

Oddment (n.): something left over; remnant

I've been trying to figure out what to do about the solidified remnants of acrylic paints and acrylic mediums that accumulate when left out, or when lids are not tightened and air gets to the contents *ahem*. Usually its when I'm in the midst of a painting session that I discover a certain color I haven't used in a while has gone hard. Once acrylics solidify, they are next to impossible to use. I'll continue with another color or mix up a new version of the one I wanted and toss the original container to the side.

I don't know what it is, but I love peeling and prying dried paint out of jars and cups. I guess it's a reminder of the joys of peeling glue off of my hands as a kid. I don't particularly like it when I open a container and find that a favorite color has bitten the dust, but it happens.

I like the results that a little air and time can have on acrylic paints and mediums. I've taken to saving wispy thin, translucent skins of polymer medium and chunks of vibrant colors in a studio bucket. I've not known what to do with it all until recently. I thought it might be interesting to set the dried color chunks up in still-life arrangements and photograph them.

I did a few last week and more are on the way:


left- Oddment: Red right-Oddment: Red(close)


left-Oddment: White right- Oddment: Clear


Oddment: Peak

Kityikana

So, hey, my jewelry-making wife has opened an Etsy shop (psst...that's the name of her shop above-it means 'be happy' in the Pitta Pitta language of one of the aboriginal peoples of Queensland, Australia). She makes a variety of unique necklaces, pendants,  and bracelets with silver, copper, brass, various beads, and gemstones like ocean jasper, mookaite and jade.. Perfect pieces for birthdays, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, or 'just because'...

Go check out her stuff and tell her I sent you...
Kityikana

in progress

Some new things happening in the studio. All are in progress- 24" x 24", acrylic on panel.

bubbling up

Studio table top with new things in progress. Working on some mixed-media collages with old photos on paper. In addition to my painting, I've been in the mood to satisfy my other urges in an effort to see where they might lead.

In this case, I'm making use of old photos that have just been sitting around my apartment for the past few years. They're mostly blurry, out of focus shots that I'm not attached to for any sentimental reasons, so why not give them a second life?

There's a lot going on in my head art-wise and it's taking a few different approaches to my materials to accommodate it all. I'll find out what's on the other side of the rabbit hole when I get there...

Photo with notes here

Red Dot New York!

Bridgette Mayer will be participating in the Red Dot-New York Art Fair at the end of March (March 27-30, 2008) in the Park South Hotel, 122 East 28th Street (between Park and Lexington).

I'll have some new and recent works on display, so if you're in the New York area at the end of the month, stop by. I'm planning on going up, but will probably only be able to hang out for part of one day, possibly Thursday or Friday, Marck 27th or 28th, of that week, depending on my schedule and time.

More info:

RED DOT is open to the public March 27 - 30, 2008 at the Park South Hotel, 122 E. 28th Street between Park and Lexington.

FAIR HOURS

Thursday, March 27, 11am - 8pm
Friday, March 28, 11am - 8pm
Saturday, March 29, 11am - 8pm
Sunday, March 30, 11am - 7pm

Tickets may be purchased at the door, general admission is $12.

TRANSPORTATION

Subway: 6 Train to 28th Street Station at Park Avenue.
Driving: parking garage located directly across the street from the hotel entrance.

MAP

Romaniello-Transforming Materials into Meaning, part 1

Vincent Romaiello-Transforming Materials Into Meaning, part 1

In his newest video, Vincent Romaniello talks a little about his working processes and inspiration for the works in his solo exhibition, Deep, currently on view at the Rittenhouse Satellite Gallery of the Philadelphia Art Alliance through May 18th, 2008.

There's a higher quality Quicktime version
on Vincent's blog

'Considerable' opens today

(photos courtesy of Jeffrey Cortland Jones)


Considerable, the show I mentioned a while ago opened today at the University of Dayton and features works by myself, Jeffrey Cortland Jones (exhibition organizer/curator), Chris Ashley, John Tallman, Douglas Witmer, Paige Williams, and more. I'm pretty excited to be in this show since I'm in a lot of good artistic company and it's always good to see my work out in the world in a place it's never been before.

Btw, it's the small, square painting with the purplish 'netting' at the top and reddish semi-circles along the side and bottom.


Considerable
March 3-April 4, 2008
Studio O.Artstreet.University of Dayton
300 College Park
Dayton, Ohio 45469

where's my clone?

58/366: three of me

I managed to split myself into three today for this shot. You wouldn't believe how much I was able to get done in the studio.

Took a bunch of shots in the studio today, three of which were the inspiration for this image. It didn't start off like this, but after looking at the poses, I thought that they belonged together in one shot. I was excited about the prospect of multiple images but my 'shop skills are pretty minimal. So, when I got home, I immediately enlisted the superior photoshopping skills of my wife.

I also shot some video footage of me going from one pose to the other. I haven't done any video stuff in a long time. When I did, I was just starting to learn. I'm going to play around with it and see what I can come up with.

Flasher

Colormeasure


My new online obsession is Flasher.com. Flasher is a site that has video interviews with mostly younger artists, musicians, film makers, fashion designers, video artists, performers, etc...

I don't remember how I stumbled on it, but I'm glad I did. It's a good way to check out what's happening in the today's creative world and get a sense of who's doing what. Defintitely give it a shot and see what you think.

surface tension

Standing Stains

Pretty productive day. The panels I've been using recently are taking some getting used to, but I like them. The best thing is not having to spend much prep time on them. I buy them, seal the surface, wait for it to dry, put another layer of sealant on, wait for that to dry and I'm ready to go. I've taken to buying a couple of them each week so I have a collection ready to paint on.

I was in the Artist and Craftsman store today and discovered that they now have the deep cradled (1.5" wide) panels in addition to the standard ones. Of course I had to get two of the new panels.

I'm going to have to stretch some canvases sometime soon, I think. When I'm working on the panels, I miss the give and feel of canvas, and then I'll miss the take-a-lot-of-punishment surfaces of the panels It's good to have both to work on so both urges can be satisfied.

clashing needs

Wings and Wires

I have to run up to the studio to finish packing a piece to send out and then go to work. There's no time to work on anything else in the studio today. It's days like these when I resent having to rush off to my job when I have a full day of painting inside of me clawing to get out.

I'll have to be satisfied with dashing off a small drawing or something at lunch.

new works

Both: Untitled, 2008, acrylic on paper, 20" x 20"


Integrating old and new ideas and inspired by what I did with Light Veil:


My creative process is never a linear thing. Sometimes ideas might get set aside in favor of exploring new avenues. Frequently, after a certain amount of time has passed, I will have had time to rethink and reconsider older works. Then I'll see if there's some new approach that I can come up with for ideas that I thought had run their course.

It can be difficult letting that process happen because there's a tendency to not want to repeat the past. On the other hand, it's exciting because there's a new road created out of what were thought to be dead ends.

Linn Meyers

Found this time-lapse video of artist Linn Meyers making a wall drawing at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art for the exhibition The Space Between, on view until April 12, 2008 on Douglas Witmer's blog. The video shows Meyers working over the course of 5 days condensed into a few minutes.

Catching a glimpse of how an artwork is made, even if you already have an idea of how it came into being, still makes it intriguing to witness.

'Deep'

Philadelphia painter and videographer, Vincent Romaniello is having a solo exhibition of new works at the Philadelphia Art Alliance's Satellite Gallery, located in the Rittenhouse Hotel, 3rd Floor. The opening reception is this Thursday, Feb. 7th from 5:30-7:30pm.


Vincent Romaniello: DEEP
Solo exhibition
Philadelphia Art Alliance
Reception: Thursday, February 7, 5:30 -7:30
Satellite Gallery
The Rittenhouse Hotel
210 W. Rittenhouse Square, 3rd Floor
open during hotel hours including Sundays
valet parking available
February 7 - May 18, 2008

5 things

Over a month ago, I was 'tagged' by Kesha Bruce to post 5 things you don't know about me. I don't know why it took so long, but here we go...

5 Things You Don't Know About Me


10/366: other worlds

1. Comics were my gateway art drug...and they kept my imagination going since I was an only child. I've been reading them off and on since I was little. Last fall, I returned to reading again after a nearly six year break. A new comic book store opened up near my studio in Old City and I couldn't help help myself. I'd returned to the old neighborhood but didn't recognize the surroundings. Most of the characters I knew were still around, but in the comics world 5 years is like 20 life-times: a lot can happen. I wanted to reacquaint myself with the Marvel universe and started with the Civil War saga, one of those events that affected just about all of the Marvel characters.

I also like a lot of non-hero characters and books from my older collection, like Neil Gaiman's Sandman, the Transmetropolitan series, Lucifer, and Preacher, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and others.

2. No love for mushrooms. Sorry to all the fungi lovers out there, but I can't deal with them much. I can handle the generic 'Button' mushroom that's been cut up, but that's about it. Just the thought of a huge Portobello sandwich makes me want to gag. There's something about the texture and taste that I just don't like.

3. I have a thing for browsing books and magazines about loft spaces. I don't know what it is, but the photos of those pristine, unrealistically neat and expensive open spaces appeal to me.

4. When my parents sent me to the store when I was a kid, I'd always run as fast as I could and pretend that I was The Flash.

5. I'm one of those cooks who will throw anything together to make a meal. I like to cook, but don't respect the boundaries of certain foods like my wife does. For example, she'd be very happy if I didn't combine Italian pastas with tofu, which she associates only with Asian cuisine. That's a mild example. A couple of days ago, I took some leftovers to the studio for my lunch-black beans and rice. The twist is that I added tuna, edamame beans and a few spices to the dish. I cannot describe the look she gave me.