Please tell us a little about where you are from? And what is your background as an artist? 

I was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. It’s a suburb on the Southern side of Pittsburgh. My family rented three rooms on the upper floor of a house there. When I was eleven years old, we moved across the river to Dravosburg, which is yet another suburb on the Southern side of Pittsburgh. We lived in the projects there, and that’s where I lived until I left school.

During the time I was a boy, the steel industry was in full blossom. Everywhere around you, one was surrounded by fire, earthen ores, molten metal, lots of smoke, big machines and industrial noises.  It was really sexy. Today I still love to visit old factories and railroad yards with heavy equipment and huge machines.   

In Pittsburgh, there was some sort of philanthropic program that identified young, artistically inclined students in public school. Through that program, I attended fine art classes at Carnegie Institute for several years, and then later at Carnegie-Mellon University. I studied at CMU at night and on weekends throughout my high school years.  Later, I enrolled at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston.   

Carnegie-Mellon was a very classical fine art program. Hours and years spent drawing bottles and human anatomy. The Museum School on the other hand, was the exact opposite. No rules and run with scissors as fast as you can. In fact, pick up some knives and razor blades while you’re at it. It was a change of direction that electrified me.

So you can say that I had a fairly rich academic start to my practice. I’m really grateful to the instructors that I had. I’ve been working in my studio and exhibiting as much as I can ever since. Besides all of that art school stuff, I have two degrees in Electrical Engineering. Who would have known? I actually chose my engineering major based on a sculptural project I was thinking about using electro-magnetism. I could have used a good life coach when I was young.

The academics had value, but the art seed germinates only once you come to terms with the “why” of your practice.

What made you want to become an artist?

Well, since so much of my youth was spent in art school in one way or another, I was very comfortable in an artist’s skin right from the start. There wasn’t a someone or a something that triggered it all for me. I had my artistic heroes and sheroes, but I think it’s more that art gives me a vehicle to think deeply about things.  I become very mentally invested in certain ideas and concepts. Painting is my way of sorting it all out. Actually, my studio practice is a sort of neurosis of mine. You might call it an addiction or even a compulsion.  It’s something I feel that I have to do, something I’m driven to do. If I spend too much prolonged time away from working, I just feel a bit undone. It’s always been that way for me. 

Is there name/category for the kind of art you create?

Because of the materials that I use, my work has been referred to as Haute Pâte, or Matter Painting. There was a time, say maybe ten years ago, when the way I was using the material aptly fit that description. Nowadays, I can’t say that I agree or disagree with those labels.  I am using the Earth as a painting medium but the way that I’m using it is dry rather than some material mixed with paint. Does that qualify as Haute Pâte? It’s thick, gravely stuff affixed to the surface. There are probably people who feel very specific about those terms. As far as I know, I’m unique in what I’m doing.

If we talk about my subject matter, I’m interested in consciousness, and I approach that through metaphysics, physics, and spirituality. The images are mostly abstract, I think.  Sometimes even primitive. Abstract is more real than real, when you’re trying to ask hard questions, in my opinion.

Often there is a message behind art. What is the message behind your art?

When looking at one of my paintings, you’re sharing a snapshot of a moment of time of my stream of consciousness. Maybe that’s more like a babbling brook. You will literally see what I was thinking about at the time I painted the piece. It will have notes, formulae, lyrics, glyphs and so on that are relevant to the topic that I was analyzing and unpacking at the time. The paintings do not read literally though. The composition itself dictates what stays and what is erased. When I watch people looking at my work in the gallery, I’ll catch them trying to read the painting or identify the math. That makes me laugh to myself. There is no secret message to unlock.

Do you have a targeted audience for your art?

That’s a really interesting question. I’ve never thought about a target audience. Now that you bring it up, it’s possible that I’m painting just for myself. The target audience is me!  Isn’t that funny? I should send myself a survey to see how I feel about it. I haven’t noticed that my work is collected by any single sort of demographic. The most frequent feedback that I hear is that “it just makes me feel good.”  I can’t think of a higher compliment, actually.

You state in your artist statement that your body of work is also an attempt to tap into the core of human experience. Can you tell us more what you mean by that? What do you see as the core of human experience? 

It’s a somewhat contrarian view these days, but I think that no matter where you’re from, when you’re from, no matter your race, sex, or culture, people are pretty much the same once we strip off the learned beliefs that end up creating otherwise arbitrary differences.  Sometimes we choose to pick up and carry a flag for those differences, but at the core we’re basically the same. We are Humans, all of us together, motivated ultimately only by love or fear.

If you allow the assertion that we all share a common inherent “humanness,” then at a primal level we all experience the universe in the same way. Because I’m an artist, I’ll give you an example by way of what happens when we see something.

We tend to experience symbols and glyphs in the same primal way no matter who we are.  You can in fact observe this when you look at the ways that ancient cultures, separated by distance and time, used common graphical symbols. A cross, a figure eight, a spiral, curves vs. angles and so on work the same in one place in space and time as they do in another.  We see with our human mind, not with our eyes.  

Looking at this a bit more deeply, it would seem that our minds are connected at a core, root level. Think of islands in the sea. The islands are separated on the surface of the water, but underneath the sea they’re connected through the same Earth. You and me are islands, but we’re connected. A collective, consensus humanness. Interestingly, developments in quantum physics seem to be touching upon the mathematics that identifies how this happens at a quantum level. Physics is affirming metaphysics. So, to answer your question more directly, it’s possible that we are all that there is. At least as far as we’ll ever be concerned. That deserves looking at.

Are you currently working on new artworks?

Always! Constantly! Feet don’t fail me now.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m sort of driven in my studio practice. I’m running a race that never finishes. I started working on this series that I call “Multiverse” around the beginning of the year. This is looking at the ideas around parallel universes. I think there’s still some distance to travel with that, unless a new shiny penny comes my way.

Looking to the future, what are any upcoming projects and art exhibitions that you have? 

I’ve got a few of the early Mulitiverse pieces at the gallery in Atlanta. I’d like to exhibit a larger body of that work sometime this year, but at the moment there’s nothing scheduled for that. My next solo show on the books is in 2022.

On the horizon, I’m thinking about the role of consciousness in the creation of physical reality. I’ve been reading about string theory for some time, and especially the areas of math that involve the presence or absence of an observer. I’m having fun with that and I think there’s enough brain food in that topic that will lead to something soon for me. Then there’s a life/afterlife thing that I’m noodling on too. We’ll see what happens.

COVID-19 has impacted so many parts of our lives. How did Covid-19 impact your work?

You know what, I don’t think it impacted my work at all. I feel a bit odd saying that out loud, but that’s the honest answer.  

I spend eighty percent of every day alone, working in the same room. The social isolation is what my daily routine was anyway. I do miss going out and spending time with friends like I used to, but my work hasn’t changed because of Covid.  Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?

I’m an open book. Drop me a line.

Bob Landström’s Website

Instagram: @boblandstrom

The post Meet the Artist Bob Landström appeared first on Artiholics.

To wind up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art must have been an interesting journey. Could you please tell us a little about yourself and the journey that brought you there.

I’m a chemist. I studied chemistry in Italy and then crystallography which is the discipline that studies crystalline materials particularly minerals; I obtained my PhD in Italy. Then I came to the US for a postdoctoral period at the University of Michigan continuing along that line with regular chemistry. That’s where I started looking for an alternative career in the industry.

Simultaneously, I discovered American art museums and found that they are very interesting and different than European museums, especially the Italian ones.

There is a degree of integration among different professions and also a broader array of professions within the museum. I discovered that there were scientists working in museums. Here in the US I found they have science labs that we are supporting the restorers, conservators and the art curators in their investigation which was a big discovery for me. Very few people were hiring scientists in museums and it was just a few university laboratories doing this and there were no scientists in museums, and even now there are no scientists in museums in Italy.

So I always had the thought to do this but I always left it as a thought thinking it would be nice but I can’t.

I discovered this field, then I just picked up the phone and started calling all the labs in museums. I spoke with their scientists and asked about an opening. I had a list of 12 it names to call. I still remember in fact my wife Jennifer, who at the time I was dating, said who told me that since I had a list of contacts to just pick up the phone and call.

And I wondered how to do that because I wouldn’t do that in Italy. She reminded me that this is not Italy and this is how you do things in America. So I just called them.

Everybody was very nice. There weren’t many opportunities. But the last person I called was the scientist at Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He said yes and he informed me that they had a fellowship I should apply for and so I applied. I actually went there on my own. I took a Southwest flight that probably stopped in 16 places before getting to LA to go for the interview.

They offered me a job that paid very little. I could manage and so, after a lot of trouble to get the Visa permit, I started in LA. I still remember when I went there for my interview because it was March and there was still snow on the ground in Ann Arbor, Michigan where I was living at the time. I got to LAX (which is not the best place in LA) but when I saw the palm trees I said, I’m going to get this job. So I started it and that September I moved to LA. I spent two years there as a fellow which is basically a very Junior position but it was an extraordinary experience because I really had a fantastic mentor, great colleagues, and it was really so integrated. There I got to work on everything from paintings to ancient Egyptian silver and bronze sculptures, Modern art. So really that was how I learned. After two years, I had the opportunity to get a research position at the Freer Gallery in Washington DC, which is the collection of Asian art of the Smithsonian. There I started working on a special project on Japanese art.

Then, after two years LA County Museum of Art called me and told me that the person I worked with there had retired and asked if I was interested in the job of senior scientist there. After some time there the Met museum called. Even though I loved Los Angeles, I could not say no to New York. New York is where things happen and and my task at the MET was really to create the first scientific research department in the all history of the MET. The MET had a few scientists, but they were working on different conservation areas, in different environments. So they asked me to come in, bring them together and create a bigger structure. Therefore, I gave up surfing in the morning before I went to work and I moved to NYC.

I’m still here, 16 years later.

You are a very successful scientist, what is your role/job description at the Met museum?

Now every day the first thing I do is to arrange the calendar for the following week because out of 16 people on my team I can only bring in six people every day because of Covid-19 occupancy restrictions, so I’m just like the guy who takes down bookings for the tennis courts or something like that. It’s not very exciting and you can imagine everybody wants to be here. A lot of my work is administrative. I created a team, I assembled a work structure; as a non profit we have to do a lot of fundraising that is looking for grants to secure positions to take care of the maintenance of equipment and to purchase new equipment. My biggest priority right now is really helping museums and the Arts to achieve more representation and more diversity.

We’re lucky that in the sciences we have an amazing pool of talented scientists of color, so we can take advantage of programs that existed in the past. We increased the minority representation in the sciences and our task now is reaching out to these candidates letting them know that this is a great career and they can join the museum and contribute and help us become more representative of America. To do that I just need to do a lot of knocking on doors to get money.

Because today is a very quiet day I could come in to do the interview with you and also work in the laboratory. I’m thinking it’s a luxury for me. I can shut off the paperwork and go to the laboratory where I’m putting together a new instrument that will allow us to do more work in identifying materials in works of art. Tomorrow I have a new Junior scientist who’s a PhD candidate here at City College and who works with me.

I also work on Japanese art. That’s my skill, my passion. I’ve done a lot of work to study artworks such as the famous Great Wave by Hokusai. If you Google me you’ll see that I talk a lot about that. Our job is to discover how those prints were made, and also to really look through materials, through the technology, through the identification of artists pigments and processes, and understand more about the society that produced these works.

Our aim would be not to just stop at the surface or under the surface, but scrape down and tell a story that really says something new about Hokusai and understand art through the lens of the components and physical nature of the object.

How do you apply your scientific expertise to the artworks that the museum deals with? Can you give an example?

For example, in Hokusai’s Great Wave (you can look up in our collection website) you see there’s a beautiful and dynamic live representational force of nature in the Great Wave where tiny little men are about to be washed out by the wave. One of the things that was very interesting to me was the use of blue. Now the woodblock printing in Japan in the 1800s was the most advanced color reproduction technique in the world. So even though it was a pre-industrial society, there was no steam power, no machine, etc., they could achieve amazing results in several fields.

They were able to achieve amazing color quality, amazing quality control over print that were sold at a very low cost. It was commercial illustration, it was not art. You start seeing prints like the Great Wave, my own hypothesis is that we have the beginning of artistic prints in that they go beyond even what was already highly achievable at that time in the sense that the depth of color and the color range is amazing. Our brain processes variations in light (expressed in drawings with light and dark shading) as variation in depth in space. Hokusai and the master craftsmen who printed this work knew this intuitively, and they took extra care with lighter and darker shades of blue to create depth and movement. The observation is that these works are truly exceptional, and trying to deconstruct them to see what makes them amazing in the use of color and then going into analysis to prove this theory is part of the work. Therefore, we use a variety of tools, and the most important ones are the eye and the microscope, as you really want to get close to it and observe it. I’m not that good but my colleagues that work in conservation really have highly trained eyes and they can very often tell me what I’m going to find. They are always right. And then we go on with non-invasive analytical techniques. These are instruments that allow us to identify the materials without removing particles from the work, eventually it may be necessary to do what we call micro sampling, that is removing microscopic fragments.

We have a fiber optic instrument that shines just like regular white light and we capture the reflection of the color, and we can see through a spectrometer broken down in each wavelength rather than the eye which has only three receptors, the eye sees blue, green, and red.

Blue, green, and red are amazing colors because we have color vision essentially by seeing these three colors. This instrument instead has hundreds of receptors so we can really get a very complex picture that gives us the fingerprint of a certain color. We can tell whether it’s Indigo or Prussian Blue.

So what we discovered was how those two pigments were mixed which makes the printing more complex, time consuming, and ultimately more expensive, if you see that the publisher chose to go through this route and created something that clearly has more added value, more artistic quality. Then, this is not a normal print, and I think that that is an important statement to make because it says something about the time that was done and what people wanted and it gets a bit more complex. You can imagine that landscapes are important to those who love to travel. And that’s normal for us. We don’t even think about it. You have a landscape in front of you and say, oh I would like to visit the place or I visited that place. I think about older times like special feudal society when they were not allowed to travel and could not just pick up and go with money; but also needing to be authorized by their local sovereign lord. You could not just go somewhere else and not work for him.

So what we see in Japan in Tokyo is that people had a little bit more money and

people started traveling. So maybe it’s a pilgrimage. Maybe it’s going to a famous sanctuary or famous art place. So if you’re a person of means you travel and you commission a painting that shows a famous place.

If your personal means are less you may buy a print and maybe still travel so the print could be a souvenir. If you’re somebody who cannot travel at least you can afford the print because now you see the landscapes around you. There is always a correlation of what you see in paintings and what you need to make that painting.

Before the 1820’s (The Great Wave is from 1830s) you cannot find landscape prints in Japan.

Quite simply because they didn’t have a blue color that you can use for print that would give you the bright blue of the sky and the deep blue of the ocean. All they had was indigo, which is the color of blue jeans, a bit of a dull color. It doesn’t really work. If you make it really concentrated it comes out a dull grey-blue.

If you want to you can make it a little like the blue sky but it won’t be the real blue sky and so at some point Prussian blue from Europe arrived in Japan. And that’s about 1820 the moment it arrives you have landscape prints. This is not a coincidence.

We traced the use of colors which is the very basic step into looking at a piece of art with the curators or art historians. We then join in and so it’s a little bit of a forensic conversation, a little bit of art historical background. We go in through a step-by-step approach using not the eyes but microscopes, for non-invasive analysis as well as x-ray laser based infrared tools.

Have you ever come across a forgery?

We generally don’t comment on forgeries and similar issues. There are other issues which are not outright forgeries, but it’s where a piece has been restored and and so a part is not original and some of them could be historical and some could be very new. So it’s more about deciding which one stays and which one goes. I know it’s a very fascinating topic, but I am sure there are actually less forgeries than you think. We haven’t seen many those. We also have the opposite which is when we have an object that may be classified as a reproduction or a copy and with true analysis we can tell that it’s actually the real thing. That’s far more exciting because instead of condemning something you can actually bring it back from obscurity.

What do you think of the art world right now during Covid-19? What has the impact been as far as you see?

I can tell you only what I know about-that it is certainly a crisis.

This is hitting all of us really hard.

I say it’s a catastrophe because right now the MET is losing an enormous amount of money. We’re trying to stay open and we really wanted to stay open, not so much to find revenue. As you know, we have a particular admission policy where New Yorkers and New York State residents “pay as they wish”.

The fixed price ticket is only for people outside of the State of New York. But with Covid the only people who come to the museum are New Yorkers and New York State residents. Our revenue is very small right now and really I would say the decision was to open because we think we represent something for the city for our members, for our public, and we wanted to be there.

The reopening was not about the money. As you look at museums closing around the country it’s very sad and I hope that museums can stay open and will decide to stay open if they can.

It is a great time now to visit and experience the museum because there are only very small crowds. Everybody is wearing a mask. Everybody is distancing. You can relax in the galleries.

What has been the most challenging part of your job?

We are a frontier profession but the field is still making advances that are considerable. Also we are at the border between different disciplines so it’s really a matter of communication. It’s really learning the language of other professions while communicating our work in a way that is responsible and relevant to others, and fighting every day for our own relevance. Really the ones at the table are the ones being part of the messaging in every sense.

What has been the most enjoyable part of your job?

I like to talk all over the world about my profession. I’ve been honored to be with scientists who achieve far more than me and we talked to school children and we see them get excited when we bring them here in the labs. We want to do more and more of that. That is absolutely enjoyable.

Then, the other part that is amazingly enjoyable is being in the lab and developing something new, creating a new instrument, making a new discovery. That is something that by itself is worth all the work that you put in.

You most likely do not work alone. What kinds of things do the team members do to assist you with your work?

The staff is highly specialized: chemists or geologists. Most of them are with PhDs where 80% are women, 20% men. Every year we have two to three postdoctoral fellows. We have had over 200 since I came here: interns from High School to graduate, undergraduate to graduate, and post graduate fellows to high level scientists coming.

That’s a very broad crew. We have people specializing in different areas. So I have a person who specializes in analysis of paintings, a person specializing in organic material now. This is sort of the oil, the tempera order. We have a person specializing in organic analysis for the rest of the collection. We established it recently, three people who are in charge of the environment. They study air quality, temperature, humidity, and light conditions.

It’s a luxury to have so many. We’re probably the largest in the US in a museum.

These types of diversity of scientific training and discipline is very important when you think of an art museum like the MET. We collect anything and everything from ancient Asia art

to the contemporary world. There isn’t another museum in the world that has a collection so broad and I don’t mean this to brag. For example, the British museum has the widest archaeological collection but does not have the diversity of art that the Met museum has.

It doesn’t matter how big you are, but it’s about the diversity.

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Ana Schmidt is a contemporary landscape artist and an urban planning architect based in Bilbao, Spain, though she has also lived with her family in Bochum, Saigon, Bangkok, Barcelona, and now Bilbao; she has traveled across 25 cities around the world. This becomes an important role in what she brings into her works in both her professions. Ana has received a Master of Science in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Barcelona and ARC Living Master from the Art Renewal Center. Ana has constantly studied the works of old masters from the history of art. Whether it’s the color application, the idea of depicting the concepts, or even the techniques right from step one it looks like Ana has her hand over it very well and depicts her concepts, idea, and stories onto the canvases. Ana’s skills of observation and capturing the realistic landscapes on the canvas in a beautiful painting might remind us of the 20th-century landscape artist Richard Estes.

Well, Ana Schmidt is one of the artists of the present times who brings back the concept of landscapes and makes us realize the aesthetics of the thing which may be right in front of our eyes, called as “landscapes”. Ana’s command over creating realistic artworks captures the viewer’s attention just in a single glance. Ana has exhibited internationally in different cities of the USA, Germany, Spain, and UK. She has exhibited her artworks at more than forty exhibitions. Ana’s solo exhibitions include Mall Galleries, London, 2019, Arte Contemporanea Gallery, 2015, Rieti, Italy; Cervantes 6 Gallery, 2015; Oviedo, Spain; l´Occhio Gallery of Art, 2013, Venice, Italy; Torrene Areto Exhibition Space in Getxo, 2012; Spain and Basque Architectural Association in Bilbao, Spain, 2010. Ana has received multiple awards for her artworks, such as First Award at the Columbia Threadneedle Prize 2018 at the Mall Galleries, London, Second ARC Salon Award in the landscape category, USA, 2018, first and third Award in the landscape category, American Art Award 2017, USA, Third ARC Salon Award in the landscape category, USA, 2015, Acrylic works: Radical Breakthroughs Award, USA and won many more in Spain, Italy, and other countries.

Here is how Ana describes her Landscapes; “Landscape can be seen as a throwback, but it is also a distinctly contemporary concern. As the historian Simon Schama writes in his book Landscape and Memory (1995), it is “a text in which generations write their recurring obsessions”. This text continues to be written and reworked today in our cities and throughout the territory. The idea of landscape, whether approached in a literal way or a more esoteric view, is the common thread of my works. Sometimes it is a redesigned landscape, sometimes purely depicted: from human-height views to panoramas that represent entire cities; they offer a meticulous vision of the metropolis and question issues such as one’s own experience of urban life, urban growth, economic inequality, etc. They embody the different realities in the contemporary city: “the banal and the impressive coexist in the same territory.”

Ana talks about her profession as an urban planning architect concerning her theme of urban landscape paintings. Ana believes that architectural buildings have a lot to say about cultures, a reflection of society and traditions which she brings in her landscapes. Ana says, “Of course, my academic background and actual practice as an urban planning architect is at the base of the choice of these topics. Almost every landscape is a cultural landscape, is a place in which man has intervened and therefore is the reflection of a society, of its customs. The city is more than a physical structure. It is, among others, a state of mind, a moral order, a pattern of ritualized attitudes and behaviors, a network of human connections, and a body of customs and traditions with particular practices and discourses. Urban landscapes are, therefore, in addition to real environments, environments of signs that are constructed in the interaction between our own subjectivity and that of others, they are relational constructions. The city, the landscapes I paint are a metaphor of the human mind and condition.”

Ana feels that people are losing their roots with modern times. The spectacular urban marketing policies that have proliferated in the last years in almost any city are global. Nowadays, cities have icons, the marketing-icons that distinguish them, but these icons do not represent the identity of a place, of the people. On the other hand, planning policies create a confusing pattern at the fringes of the cities such as conflicts over land, complex highway connections that leave empty land, a new hybrid landscape, banal at times, but where people use it, stroll around and write their narratives and graffiti tags on the walls. Well, this present scenario seems to be visible in her paintings.

Well, if we observe closely there is more to Ana’s realistic architectural buildings: the foreground and background consist of elements such as foliage, cracked walls, haze, puddle, objects which are used in day to day life, etc. These places are empty; it looks like a lot has happened here in the past, which brings in the memories, emotions, and feelings attached to it. As a viewer, there is a freedom to create our own stories while looking at the painting and imagine the moments one might have had in the past that reminds of different people, incidents, and objects. The time and people pass by but the land remains.

Talking about the medium and material, Ana works in acrylics on canvas. Well, at first glance the realistic landscapes seem to be in oils. Ana describes her painting technique when she says, “The technique is very similar to that of the ancient oil painting, although the drying process is different. I use a very limited palette to achieve my colors. Over a red-brown layer, I draw the motifs and paint them with a succession of layers, alternating the opaque layers with the transparent ones. I use a glazing medium to increase flow and to obtain a clear and transparent glaze. I use a wide variety of brushes and I apply the paint fairly diluted since in my paintings the stroke is not perceived.” Ana’s color palette also includes Prussian blue, cobalt blue, yellow oxide, and cadmium red.

Ana Schmidt’s paintings have been featured in many art magazines, which includes Catalogue The Columbia Threadneedle Prize, Figurative Art Today, Mall Galleries, Federation of British Artists, 2018, 13th International Art Renewal Center Salon Catalog, International Realism, ACC Art Books, 2018, Acrylic Artist Magazine, winter issue, Beauty amidst the ruins, 2016, Guía Leonardo, 2016, Arte y Libertad, XI 2016, Fine Art Connoisseur, Sept/Oct issue 2015 and Catalog NordArt 2015 are some of them. Ana has been working constantly on her upcoming projects, “I should have shown a selection of urban landscapes at NordArt 2020, but due to COVID restrictions, the event has been suspended and will be held in 2021. I am still working on new pictures related to this subject, the urban landscape. Nevertheless, I am also working out a new series, in which I want to recover the human figure as a central axis of the narrative,” explains Ana.

It’s not always important to go beyond what already exists to create something unique, as beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. Landscapes will always stay an integral part of every human’s life since that’s the only place where he is born and spends his entire life.

www.schmidtana.com

ana.schmidt@bizkaia.net

schmidtana.com@gmail.com

The post The Revival of Landscape Paintings With Artist and Architect Ana Schmidt appeared first on Artiholics.

“The emotions are sometimes so strong that I work without knowing it. The strokes come like speech.” – Vincent van Gogh

Yes! We all feel a thousand emotions in our lives, and some of us get affected by it a bit too much, and as artists, they create a new direction in the art scene. Atom’s art has a lot to say about the same. Atom Hovhanesyan was based in New York City, a young, talented, and passionate artist truly in love with painting and drawing.

Atom’s father had seen him painting for more than 24 hours tirelessly until the last days of Atom’s life in his studio in NYC, which is also supposed to be the place where he left this world. Atom had called his style of art “Post Divisionist and Abstract”. It truly justifies his artworks. Born in Armenia, where his father Ara Hovhannisyan was an electrical engineer and his mother Gayane Davtyan was a personnel manager in an urban trade corporation and also created artworks as a hobby. Well, it was Atom’s mother from whom Atom inherited his artistic skills. It was in July 1997 when Atom’s parents along with Atom and his sister immigrated to the USA.

Atom was based in New York since the age of 16 in 1997. He was an academic learner in the field of fine art, He studied at the Art Students League, National Academy of New York and Grand Central Academy. Atom seems to be inspired by every art movement as can be distinctly seen in his art pieces. Atom’s realistic anatomy and portraits could be related to Renaissance, and his abstract works to Cubism, Impressionism, Divisionism to Post-Impressionism; Van Gogh looks like his favorite. These were the words by Atom, while he explained his medium of works, “Traditional choice of materials and medium, grind my colors. In the abstract works: my goal is to create a unified atmosphere and sense of luminosity. Bits and pieces of forms from memory are utilized as building blocks for constructing the composition.” 

Atom’s professional life was a combination of varied professions. He had also pursued economics at St. John’s University. Atom started working at the age of 16 and paying his expenses. He was also appointed as a General Manager at Prime Grill, Beverly Hills, CA, one of the most luxurious restaurants that attracted famous Hollywood celebrities. Atom worked there from 2006 to 2008 which was the only time he had spent outside New York. It was in 2009 when Atom decided to pursue his passion and love for art as a full-time artist.

It is good to know that Atom’s every artwork and writings are being well preserved and highly valued by his family, which now manages everything he left behind, which are more than 200 artworks. Atom’s father shares that Atom had gifted many of the artworks, which shows he was a kind-hearted soul. His artworks are also in private collections. Atom studied anatomy, figure drawing, portraits, and life drawings under the guidance of various mentors namely; Phil Michelson, Michael Grimaldi, Tom Torak, and Dan Thompson. Atom studied works by different artists right from Cubism, Impressionism, Divisionism to Post-Impressionism including artists like De Kooning, Kandinsky, Picasso, Seurat, and Cezanne and Van Gogh. Atom visited museums, bought the monographs of the masters, studied and combined the study of different art movements in art history including the era of Leonardo Da Vinci and Raphael to excel the human anatomy and realistic rendering style which could be seen in some of the portrait paintings made by Atom.

The decade of Atom’s artistic career had many art exhibitions. He exhibited at Pechersky Gallery, Moscow, Russia in 2014; Novomoskovsk Art Gallery, Russia 2014-2017, Annual Exhibition Art Students League of New York 2015-2016, Kunstmatrix.com online exhibition Berlin 2018, Artpal online exhibition New York 2018 and Jose Art Gallery 2018. Atom also participated in multiple private art shows in Manhattan, NY in 2016 and 2017. He was also represented In various events organized and managed by “FED” Inc. Harlem, New York City, from February to July 2019. His works were also exhibited in San Diego Expo May 2019 and Clio Art Fair Exhibition March 5-8, New York 2020. Atom’s artworks have been featured in Artist Portfolio Magazine, Issue 38, 39, 41, 42, and 43. Also featured in SPOTLIGHT ART Magazine Issue 15 and 16 along with the Important World Artists 4 Book May 2020, 4 pages in Premium Presentation.

Atom shared a good bond with his family. Atom’s mother accompanied him to museum visits and his father always insisted to support him financially. But as Atom always wanted to be independent and not to burden anyone, he resisted any financial help from his family. Atom also helped his sister Ellen Davtyan with the interior design of her house and gifted her many of his early Artworks. As we begin to talk about the roller coaster of emotions that flooded Atom’s life, it is noted that he had been through heartbreak and betrayal in both his personal life and professional life. Atom’s beloved girlfriend and many of his business colleagues had betrayed him which had broken his trust many times; he who saw the world as transparent and value being true to everyone did not see this happen with him. The time when the real world hit him hard, he had unconsciously gotten those trapped feelings into his artworks. The paintings of a woman, the dark colors of his palate, and the endless strokes say it all. One day something deep inside had given him the courage to take his own life. Maybe he was in search of a better world with the honesty which he deserved!

Atom would always be remembered for the unique style and presentation of concept as a unique artist of the current art world. The style that combines different eras, yet in harmony. Atom isn’t physically here with us today, yet his presence and energy is still alive and resides in his every art piece.

For Atom’s original artworks, artist statement and bio visit www.artbyatom.com

Email arahov62@yahoo.com (Ara Hovhannisyan, Atom’s father)

Instagram @artbyatomhov (original works updated by Atom’s parents) and @atom_hov (created by Atom)

In collaboration with Grishma Khodaria

The post Gone Too Soon, Yet Explored a New Era of Art appeared first on Artiholics.

Kai, how did you become an artist and when? Are you from a family of artists?

I’m not sure if I ever planned to become an artist. My dad is an artist and my mom is a photographer, but I think it kind of just happened. Growing up, my family moved a lot. Things weren’t always easy. We didn’t have a TV. We lived a simple lifestyle. One constant was my dad’s art books. Whenever we moved, he brought them along. So, if I wasn’t playing sports or drawing, I had my nose buried in those books. My first official piece was Morons. I created the piece to encourage my father to quit smoking. At the time, I had a real fear that this bad habit would cut his life short. The artwork resonated with him. He quit smoking and gave me a few hundred dollars for the painting. He asked me to use the money to help others the way I helped him. I did what I had learned from the books, printing posters by hand and placing them up on random walls. And, that’s how I became a street artist.

What brought the “Beaux-Art de Paris” experience? What were the best and worst moments?

My decision to attend l’École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts was driven, in part, by ego. I was at the dinner table with my family and we were discussing art. My father and I were arguing about which artist had a larger impact on the history of art as a whole. At some point, I said, “I think I know a little better than you, Papa. I’m currently at Cal-Arts.” He laughed and responded, “You’re in an art school in America. If you really want to study art, go to Paris, the art epicenter of the world.”  So, my father and I placed a little wager whether I would be able to get into Les Beaux-art de Paris. I applied and was selected as one of three American admits. I was also the only American to study there for the full year.  I loved studying in Paris. It was the hardest, but most beneficial, year of my life. I had no money. I lived in a tiny “maids-room” with no heater and not much to eat. But I’ve never learned so much. I spent all day in class and night in the classrooms, not only to learn but because the school had central heating.  I learned all the fundamentals needed to make art with my hands. It was the exact opposite and an incredible complement to what I had learned at Cal-Arts because all the theories and philosophies of art were lived and experienced as a practice.

Can you highlight five key moments in your career?

Several years ago, I traveled the world on less than $8,000 USD, creating street art just for the love of art.  Meeting Bernard Markowicz and putting together my first solo show at his gallery, Markowicz Fine Art, in Miami.  Having Le Touquet honor me and my art in their Artist Hall of Fame. Creating my Imaginary Friend (or, IF as its better known), which is the centerpiece of my current work. The final moment is not really limited to one occasion, but really, anytime I’m able to inspire or elevate someone through my art. It’s my favorite thing about being an artist.

We noticed the city of Le Touquet in France honored you in its Hall of Fame. Can you tell us how that happened and what it meant to you being so young and being recognized as a “famous” artist? As a Los Angeles artist, what was your connection with Le Touquet and its museum?

Le Touquet invited me to put street art up in their city and inducted me into their Artist Hall of Fame. I was actually able to add my handprints to their growing ring of honor. 

Why is the concrete medium so important to you? Do you see a link between your art and the ART BRUT movement?

I love working with cement. There’s something magical about taking dust, adding water, and being able to create something permanent. I’m a street artist at heart. But, the context and medium of my work is very important to me. The use of cement keeps me grounded. It’s a red thread from my early efforts to my recent works.

How did Covid-19 affect you and your art?

Covid-19 forced me to take some time for myself. It was my first substantial timeout in five years. It gave me the time to reflect and study what is happening in the art world. It gave me the opportunity to think about where I would like to go next.

What are your next steps and projects?

That’s the question, isn’t it? What’s next? I’m excited to share something new and different soon. I have several projects planned. But, inspiration strikes all the time.

So, keep your eyes and heart open!

The post From Street Art to Contemporary Art, an Unusual Path in the Market appeared first on Artiholics.

Korean art has become the new vogue, as it continues to intrigue and impress the art world. Traditionally, Korean art was about harmonizing with nature and refraining from expressing in extremities. But with the current Eastern-Western fusion wave, a new narrative is beginning to form. Whether it’s the 2012, ‘Gangnam Style’ or the recent Oscar winning movie ‘Parasite’ by Bong Ho, Korean art is everywhere. From incorporating their native art references with the ever-changing western one to starting their own movement, Korean artists are consistently challenging the conventional boundaries. Here are some outstanding Korean visual artists that have recently caught our eye.

Generally very prolific and highly-appreciated in the US, some of the selected Korean Artists are independent, such as Hera Kim, Minjin Kang,  and Hyun Jung Ji;  all the others are represented by a gallery:

Hyun Ae Kang, Kim Seungwoo, Kim Jeong Yeon, Krista Kim, Cha Yun Sook & Hayeon are represented by BOCCARA Art Gallery; and Yang Jong Yong is represented by Vivian Choi Gallery.

FUSION AND REPETITION 

Hyun Ae Kang

Born in Seoul, Kang is a famous second generation ‘Dansaekhwa’ or ‘monochrome painting’ artist. Her work follows a Buddhist and Taoist ideology where she creates abstract paintings and prays before initiating each painting process. She uses the canvas as a surface which is to be multi-layered with meticulously applied, thick paint strokes. The viscosity of the texture and the methodology is reminiscent of her sculptural practices. Her color choices and strokes, create a vibrant, energetic sensation, much like Divisionism, and the laborious process of paint application is meant to remind one of the painful Buddhist meditation that is practiced repeatedly in order to attain Nirvana. Having received recognition in 1993, Kang’s works are housed in several prominent museums. Her work can also be seen at an upcoming retrospective at Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center in Anaheim, California, in 2021.

Kim Seungwoo

Seungwoo painstakingly assembles hundreds of thousands of coins and buttons to create hyper- realistic human body figures and sculptures. His life-sized figurines and flowing geometric patterns are made to communicate the question in his mind – ‘Art is Money, or Money is Art?’ These remarkable, detailed sculptures are so hypnotic that they make one temporarily forget that they are made out of a token of monetary value. As the coins themselves are assembled with a lot of hard work, the sculpture itself becomes reminiscent of the phrase- ‘hard earned money’, and its form comments upon the human desire to acquire it.

Seunwhui Koo

Koo’s works are a reflection and commentary of her life in New York city. Her work entails a combination of the human body and pig’s head displayed in various setups. Having received her Bachelor’s degree in Sculpture from Kyungpook National University, South Korea, Koo went on to experiment with the fusion between the Eastern and Western cultures. The idea of Good fortune (Eastern) and greed (Western) are two very different connotations of the pigs to her, and are the central motif in her work. She often uses either black and white, or vibrant colors, in a vast array of mediums to execute her ideas. The whimsical quality and the numerous pigs in her work, invites the viewer to indulge and investigate them further.

A NATURAL CONNECT

Kim Jeong Yeon

Yeon’s sculptures and installations are an amalgamation of the Korean concept of nature based energies, expressionism, calligraphy and conceptual art. She often uses naturally found materials such as marble and wood, and executes her work in minimalistic patterns and colors. Her installations are often dreamlike, representing an inner sanctuary and sense of security. Their enormous scale envelopes the viewer and provides a sense of comfort and connection with the natural elements attached to them. Her sculptures have a serene rhythm and flow that instantly helps one immerse themselves into harmony with Mother Earth.

Cha Yun Sook & Hayeon

This mother- daughter duo create textile and paper-based artworks that pay a homage to their Korean culture and celebrate human connection with the natural world. Yun Sook grows the herbs that are used to dye the Hanji material that are incorporated into their work and also uses these inks as healing remedies. The duo conduct performance acts, where they often cut and shape their fabrics into natural motifs, like flowers, in order to depict a mesmerizing natural landscape, or use it to spontaneously clothe themselves or the viewer with their dyed fabrics to make an exclusive dress that symbolizes nature’s relationship with oneself. Their installations are designed to mimic their intent, so their work often flows from the walls, over the ground, re-creating a peaceful environment.

A NEW MOVEMENT 

Krista Kim 

Kim’s work is a response to the LED lights that are exposed to us through the various devices that we constantly use. Her intrigue in the dialogue between digital technology and human perception was so strong that she has founded a revolutionary art movement called ‘Techism’. Her works are often based on digital algorithms, which result in bright and deeply saturated hues. Based in Toronto, she has exhibited her work all over the globe and has now collaborated with the fashion brand Lanvin. Her work offers a fresh perspective and makes us question the way we see our mundane electronics.

There are several other artists that have also intrigued us – Hera Kim uses drip like patterns to create abstract imageS that help her express and process her pain. She treats the painting process as a form of repetitive prayer, that allows her to ‘fossilize’ her emotions. We loved Yang Jong Yong surreal work which depicts ordinary objects with unusual alterations, that defy physical limitations and are placed in an alternative space. Artist Minjin Kang experiments with hyperreal colors and minimalistic styles to create a fantasy world that is viewed through an architectural lens. On an illustrative note, we liked Hyun Jung Ji‘s vibrant works that depict faceless human figurines and tangled lines which represent her childhood journey.

Contemporary Korean art offers new narratives and challenges our perception and definition of art. This cross-cultural representation, which was previously unexplored, is now beginning to make its mark. And, with several galleries moving towards a re-opening, you can finally have a view and not miss out on this new Korean wave.

The post The New Korean Vogue appeared first on Artiholics.

What is Clio Art Fair? Can you please describe Clio Art Fair to me?

Clio Art Fair is a marketplace that allows independent artists to come into direct contact with insiders without the presence of any intermediary. The project was born when I was living in New York and working as an art critic, I had come into contact with many independent artists capable of producing quality works but who had difficulty finding exhibition spaces and therefore an audience of insiders; this was because we had little time or little experience to devote to our promotion. Starting from this need, we built a tailor-made fair where artists can promote themselves, and where gallery owners will not be present as exhibitors but are invited to participate as spectators.

When did you create the Clio Art Fair? And how many editions have taken place so far?AB: In our first 6 years of life, Clio had 11 editions of the fair and hosted 541 artists representing 5 continents and 35 countries.

What kind of works do you showcase at the fair?

All sorts of artworks from independent artists and collectives from all over the world. Artists have been freed up to use different materials and media and to deviate from accepted art practice definitions. Clio also hosted two special sections: I Want to Go Home, curated by Asya Rotella in March 2019, and A Nest Watching an Avalanche in March 2020.

What makes Clio Art Fair unique?

The logistics services that we are able to make available to our artists is what makes Clio unique. We can offer logistics for the shipment of the works, for installation and also for sale if requested. We have a team of art handlers and very close curators and sellers built over the years. Moreover, during the selection process, our team of curators establishes a dialogue with each artist, preparing in detail the selection and promotion on-site and online of each work.

How did Clio Art Fair grow in the past years?

During this period together, the fair grew exponentially. In the beginning, the fair started on the fifth floor of the Wolf Building on 26th Street, and by 2018, we were organizing our events on street-level storefronts  positioned in the key areas of the city.

Is there a preferred medium of art that has been successful using this method?

It is important for us to have the maximum diversity of media present, site-specific included.

Do you have any particular success stories related to the new types of dialogues that you have created (artists/collectors, artists/curators)?

From 2014 to today we have managed to create a network of returning artists, curators, and collectors. Every edition we meet new friends, people we sometimes hang out with during the year. Our fair is an opportunity for dialogue, sharing, and comparison with people from all over the world.

What are the plans for this year? And how has this pandemic impacted the fair?

Considering the current health situation, we are officially suspending our fair programming for the next 12 months.

Starting with the name chosen for our project, Clio, the muse of history, we have never hidden the Greek and Latin references of our roots. Our culture, although lovingly open to influences from all over the world, which provide for profitable and mutually enriching exchange, continues to have at its core an education that includes the texts of the Old Testament. Our spirituality is experiencing an epochal and ancestral challenge. And these new times have allowed us to dedicate ourselves to the rediscovery of texts that contributed to our education in our youth and have helped us to  rediscover an awareness of how to live in an obligatory period of repose. In biblical times, every seventh year was a “sabbath under the Mosaic law, a time during which the land was allowed to rest. Clio will enter a sabbath of sorts.

When and where will the next editions of Clio Art Fair be taking place?

We have arrived in our seventh year of activity with an awareness that we will be coming to a halt. However, we are ready to announce new developments. Clio, the Manhattan Fair for independent artists, will debut in Venice in June 2021 as a side event of the Biennale, it will then return to NY in September 2021 during the Armory Show and will debut in Los Angeles in February 2022 as a satellite event of Frieze LA. Once this period of emergency is over, we expect a period of freshness, vigor, and additional energy. We are awaiting and planning for an historical awakening.

We are ready to select the artists for our new programming period, and we invite you to submit your works. The application is free. The marketing fee will be waived if you complete the application by December 14, 2020.

With the hope of a profitable and creative sabbatical period, we respect social distancing today, but we will re-hug stronger than ever tomorrow.

https://www.clioartfair.com/

The post Clio Art Fair is Taking a Sabbatical Year appeared first on Artiholics.

A selection of 7 artists from Yesterday and Today that are continuing to inspire the charm of the surreal.

2) Theodore Gericault
A forerunner of Romanticist painting in France, Theodore Gericault, was a typical romantic
artist, and the leader of the French realistic school. His most famous work, The Raft of the
Medusa, was a watershed moment in the history of modern art.

3) Hieronymus Bosch
Recognized as a highly imaginative “creator of devils”, Hieronymus Bosch was a European
painter of the late Middle Age. He is internationally recognized as an eccentric painter of
religious visions who dealt in particular with the torments of hell.

4) Salvador Dali

Salvador Dalí is among the most versatile and prolific artists of the 20th century and the most
famous Surrealist. Surrealism championed the unconscious as the primary motor of human
behavior, coupling this with an aspiration to political revolution. Though the concept of
Surrealism was new to him, Dalí was already well versed in the psychoanalytic theories of
Sigmund Freud.

5) Kazuki Takahashi
Kazuki Takahashi is an artist that started drawing manga comics in 1982. He created the manga
series Yu-Gi-Oh! In 1996, and quickly he has become a reference point for professionals and
lovers of fantasy design. The manga’s tagline reads, “A brand-new, ingenious game battle gives
rise to a new legend.”

6) Max Cui
Originally from Beijing, Max Cui is an illustrator painter and fashion designer based in New
York City. His feverish creativity allowed him to signal himself in the world of fashion and
design of the big apple

7) Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan’s greatest animation directors. His allusive works won both
critical and popular acclaim. “The creation of a single world comes from a huge number of
fragments and chaos.” Was his statement and his state of mind.

The post Fantasy Drawing Inspired by The Subconscious appeared first on Artiholics.

Clio Art Fair is a unique form of fair because it gives artists the freedom to use different types of material to create their work and they can deviate from the accepted art practice and definitions, unlike in the usual concerns in the art business where there are too many rules on how art should and should not be; after all art is about freedom to express yourself and your thoughts right?

To celebrate or to make famous are the terms that define the Greek word “Clio” and for the second time in 2018, the 7th edition of Clio Art Fair is going to do as per its meaning and norm; to celebrate and make famous works of already affirmed creative minds. The world of art will converge in New York City and this weekend will undoubtedly be an amazing one for artists and art lovers. The four spectacular days from 11th October- 14th October 2018 will be defined by dialogue between artists and collectors, artists and curators, positive energy, colors, and free public viewing. Art lovers will get to see different artworks not forgetting the faces behind them and there will be a chance to buy any piece of art that you will love from paintings, sculptures, digital art and more. Talent from all over the world will all be under one roof.

From October11-14, a group of 69 worldwide artists will be exhibiting their works, they will showcase their prowess and prove their creativity and originality as far as art is concerned. These creative minds will convince the world that art is beautiful, art is capable of bringing people together and that it is a career just like any other. The 7th edition of Clio Art Fair has the privilege to showcase thrilling works of artists such as Francesca Schwartz, Paulina Cerda, Amanda Armstrong, and Emiko Aida among many others.

Art is always up for grabs with every edition of Clio Art Fair and with its unique approach to art, it continues to highlight the achievements of artists. From upcoming artists to the well-known ones, all stand a chance to exhibit in New York. Clio Art Fair is home to creative artists sharing their expression of art to the world.

The post Making The Independent Artists Voices Heard appeared first on Artiholics.

Clio Art Fair took place in Chelsea from March 2 – 5, 2017. In its fourth year in succession, the Fair celebrates independent artists that are not represented by galleries and therefore the atmosphere is unique. The two galleries of the fair are curated as one, rather than separate galleries. Clio wants to bond and highlight the efforts of independent artists, and it started off with a bang. The opening night roared with over 1,000 art collectors, lovers, curators, artists, and more. 

With ranging media, styles and techniques, Clio Art Fair is a specifically curated so that different mediums are woven together to create an experience unique to each viewer. Clio is the muse of the history. When Clio sings your name while playing her harp, this means that your name has been admitted to the mental olympus of human history. This fair is born with the intention of launching artists whose names will be written in the history books of tomorrow.

The project, born in 2014, always went on stage the first week of March during the Armory Show. Founded as a satellite fair in which galleries are not admitted to exhibit, the event allows independent artists to come into direct contact with collectors, curators, art critics, art lovers and of course, gallerists. All of this happens in Chelsea, the beating heart of the city’s contemporary art scene. From this year on, Clio Art Fair will occur twice a year and the next show will take place during the last week of October. If in the past years the fair hosted iconic independent artists such as Vito Acconci, Zana Briski and John Edmark. This year in addition to hosting  Nina Berman’s work (Whitney Biennial, New York, 2010), Clio included 70 solid artists who can be considered credible investments for collectors.

Get there before everyone else and become a fist time collector of an artist prior to a contract signing with an important gallery that consequently increases the value of the works. This is one of the main reasons for which a collector should invest in the artists selected by the curatorial board of Clio. The show is also able to feature international artists who have never exhibited in NY. In this way it manages to offer new works and new artists while traditional fairs often repeat the usual names.

Another element that distinguishes Clio art fair is the respect for the architectural spaces where the fair takes place. Clio becomes a real international group show in without the traditional booths, tables and chairs that characterize the selling protocol of other fairs.

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MOVIE REVIEW! Back in 2014 we did a full review and side-by-side comparison of TMNT (2014) with TMNT (1990)… now we’re taking on the modern sequel “TMNT: Out of the Shadows” (2016). We discuss the sequel in the original TMNT trilogy, “Secret of the Ooze” and compare it with this modern sequel. Does it hold up? What does Stephen think about how the Turtles were treated? What happened to April O’Neil? Did Bebop & Rocksteady fit the tone? Was Krang really necessary? Listen to find out what we think!

Preorder Stephen’s Animation Tutorial Book:

Please Rate & Review us on iTunes

And you can now listen to us out on SoundCloud!

Topics & Timestamps:

Media Referenced During this Episode:

Check out more of your hosts:

Stephen Brooks
Rob Yulfo

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes
 Subscribe on SoundCloud 
… and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you’re at it! (=

The post Movie Review of “TMNT: Out of the Shadows” (2016) from the RubberOnion Animation Podcast #136 appeared first on Artiholics.

While there weren’t a lot of media type animation stories (except for The Good Dinosaur trailer which is covered), that didn’t stop this episode from turning into one of the more interesting ones filled will discussions over the roll cartoons play in a child’s development, the nature of copyright in the internet age, why the Surface Pro 4 is a sign that Microsoft is doing more for the creatives of today than Apple… oh and there’s an Emoji movie being developed… which ALSO turned into an interesting discussion over public domain stories! We also field a question about if these two 2D (hand-drawn) animators would/will ever dabble in 3D (computer modeling). Enjoy the last week of “Stephen’s traveling audio” because next week I’ll be back in the office and I’ll be crystal clear!

Annotations:

 
“The Good Dinosaur” trailer

 
Check out more of your hosts:
Stephen Brooks (@RubberOnion)
Rob Yulfo (@RobYulfo)
Pat Ryan (@TheBadPatRyan)

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes
… and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you’re at it! (=

The post The Good Dinosaur trailer, Fat cartoon characters inspire overeating, and Sony making an Emoji movie appeared first on Artiholics.

We have a lot of great stories this week about new animation based on existing properties like the “Dredd” fanimation, a stop-mo “Elf” holiday special & Todd McFarlane making a new “Spawn” animated series… and new stuff like the “Over the Garden Wall” miniseries! We LOVED doing the special episodes but it’s great to talk about animation news stories again and we want to know what YOU think about them too! Leave a comment below and share your thoughts on what we talked about

Annotations:

 
Andrew Kaiko’s fan art

 
Chris McEwan’s fan art

 
Ronald Chaparro’s fan art

 
“The Tale of The Princess Kaguya” US dub trailer

 
“Judge Dredd: Superfiend” fanimation

 
“Over the Garden Wall” first look trailer

 
Check out more of your hosts:
Stephen Brooks (@RubberOnion)
Rob Yulfo (@RobYulfo)
Pat Ryan (@TheBadPatRyan)

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes
… and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you’re at it! (=

The post “The Tale of The Princess Kaguya” release, “Over the Garden Wall” miniseries, and a new “Judge Dredd” fanimation appeared first on Artiholics.

Meryl Meisler is a Brooklyn based photographer who captured a very tumultuous, dangerous, and simultaneously glamorous era in NYC history – the 1970s and 80s. During that time, Manhattan was erupting with surreal characters and scenesters, gallivanting in iconic night clubs, while across the bridge in Bushwick, Brooklyn, there was destruction, arson, looting, the crack epidemic, and tensions between the disenfranchised communities that resided there. She taught in a Bushwick public school and with camera at the ready she bore firsthand witness to the opposing worlds, which existed just few subway stops apart.

Meryl carried a medium format camera nearly everywhere she went, and caught a glimpse into two very different social environments. One of those settings was the disco-era music and dance scene. She snapped photos of William Shatner, Andy Warhol, Grace Jones, and frequented  Studio 54. She went to places like the Paradise Garage, one of the most powerful House music venues of all time.

Meryl Meisler referred to the initial lines of A Tale of Two Cities when describing the then NYC dichotomy between extravagant Manhattan nightlife and the struggling nightmare of Bushwick, Brooklyn.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.” – Charles Dickens

I went on a walk with Meryl, and then she took me out to lunch. Her eyes glowed with compassion and warmth. She currently lives in Chelsea, and she supervises/teaches future art teachers at NYU. Her new exhibition highlights photos published in her new book by Bizarre Publishing, called A Tale of Two Cities & her work is displayed in Bushwick’s Black Box Gallery (12 Jefferson Street, Brooklyn, NY 11206). She sent me photos, some of which have never been released. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did:

The original Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, and later to become the Priceline spokesperson, William Shatner is seen above. Meryl didn’t seek these people out, they just showed up in her life without her going out of the way. They seemed to be bizarre characters that had found their place in the media.

I love this one, it’s almost as if there was a crossover with disco night life into the grime and neglect of Bushwick.  My guess is that this depicts the relics of the night a woman got drunk, and experienced that shaky, exciting time. The shoes are evidence of god-only-knows what kind of misfortune and tales of love and loss that accompanied this shoe’s original owner.

 Meryl described Grace Jones (follow the link to view Jones’ YouTube video, ‘Cannibal Corpse’) as a diva, and when she walked in, she looked fabulous and divine.

This photograph cracks me up, the overt abundance of pubic hair, and the benevolent yet devious grin of the man contorting his body. Not to mention the guy with the flamboyant hat, in a mesmerized daze.

I said, “why not ask her for a photo of herself?” This photograph exemplifies the sexy and exuberant energy that I witnessed Meisler to possess ( she is standing to the left).

Meryl talked about where these three amigos wound up – one in jail, one died, and one still lives in Brooklyn. This photo was the first one that caught my attention due to the presence of innocence that had the immanency of destruction and pain.

To see more of Meisler’s photos, check out the show in Bushwick.

Meryl Meisler’s
A TALE OF TWO CITIES:
DISCO ERA BUSHWICK
exhibition and book launch
Exhibit open through September 10, 2014
Gallery Hours: Daily, 11am – 4am
BIZARRE PUBLISHING
8.5 x 11 inches
180 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9910141-1-8
$40.00 USA/CAN

Written by Andrew Kaminski

The post Is This Bushwick’s First Hipster? Meryl Meisler Photographed The Neighborhood Before It Was Cool appeared first on Artiholics.

New York City – Monday, April 21, 2014

Under the Skin, starring Scarlett Johansson, immediately caught my attention with its entrancing, artistic trailer. I was drawn to Johansson’s gaze, and the comparison of director, Jonathan Glazer to Stanley Kubrick.

Artiholics gives the perspective of culture as told from an artist’s perspective, therefore I aim to do exactly that with this film that employed an artist’s eye to so many frames of the film [SPOILERS TO COME].

If you’re looking to see a film that doesn’t have a conventional Hollywood plot with predictable punchlines, but rather disturbing and at times uncomfortable dialogue between bizarre characters, ‘Under the Skin’ delivers that and leaves you feeling like you transported to some strange place that only an off kilter story and captivating cinematography can bring you.

The film offers a full spectrum of rich landscapes. A vast beach, rocks on the shore, violent waves, with a crying infant in its vastness and threatening tides. An urban environment, architecture surrounding busy crowds of civilians, with faces and interactions overlaid on top of one another in an orange luminescent glow suggesting the seemingly infinite layers of personalities and entanglement of connections immersed in a metropolis.

A forest dense with green towering pine trees bending and swaying in powerful gusts of wind that Johansson loses herself in as she is swallowed in bright scorching flames to contrast with the vegetation. The film concludes with the billowing clouds of grey smoke exuding into the abysmal sky Johansson’s extraterrestrial host descended from.

The chilling serenity of the natural settings is mirrored by the haunting scenes of the house Johansson lures her male victims in to harvest their skin and essence. The house is entered through a cellar door, and the unsuspecting and sexually hungry men are immersed in darkness with a stark light on them and Johansson, as she takes off her clothes. “Come to me,” she tells them seductively. They walk with a masculine strut, and as they inch closer, they start to submerge into a reflective black liquid.

One after another, men are lured into her deadly residence, and only after multiple men, does the camera reveal what occurs under the black surface the men have walked into.

In astonishment, the male character moves his limbs with a tinted blue glow on his skin. He spots another being submerged near him. The other has wrinkled flesh, as if he had instantly lost half his weight in a few hours. The two males, facing their surreal predicament, grasp hands, revealing the difference between the wrist of one and the deflated elastic appearance of the other. In a sudden and shocking moment, the wrinkled character is sharply sucked down into the depths of the abysmal darkness. The scene cuts to the bottom of a rectangular tunnel, flowing with sparkling blood pulled towards a vanishing point.

Although it is utterly horrifying, the liquid the characters are submerged within has a solitude and a silence that we can only barely reach in a deep meditation.

Under the Skin takes us through layers of human experience, and as we follow Johansson through cityscape, humans cape, forests, stillness, sexuality, fire, and snow, I considered how we travel from youth until death, searching for something or someone to fill our days, but the only quality that will take us away from our pain, lies beneath us, within us, under the skin.

Written by Andrew Kaminski

The post Layer by Layer ‘Under the Skin’ Artistically Takes Us… [SPOILERS] appeared first on Artiholics.

Once again the week has arrived where the titans of the art world (global art world) flock to NYC for Armory Week to take in the art work and show off the art wares.  Parties, social climbing, art writers, buyers, dealers, artists, and gallery inbetweens swap stories and mingle in converted warehouses, armory’s, post offices, and climate controlled piers along the Hudson river.

The week takes it’s name from the Armory Show, which is the grandaddy of all of the week’s fairs, but any seasoned art traveler will now that the Armory is just the tip of the art fair iceberg.  Satellite fairs pop-up and take orbit, each with it’s own respective gravity and collector base, trying to pull the titans toward them, and each year the satellites either get larger, or fizzle out.

We all know that in NYC, time is money.  Rather than spend a lot of both shuttling yourself around town without any direction as to which fairs  (and social affairs ) might appeal to you, we at Artiholics.com have created this handy guide to NYC Armory Week.

Listed in descending order from Most to Least expensive:

THE ARMORY SHOW:  March 6th – 9th 

General Admission: $40  |   Students – $20  |  Armory / VoltaNY Dual Pass: $50

Wednesday – March 5, 5pm – Midnight @ MoMA | The Armory Party $175 – $10,000 Tickets
Thursday – March 6, 12pm – 7pm
Friday – March 7, 12pm – 7pm
Saturday – March 8, 12pm – 7pm
Sunday – March 9, 12pm – 7pm

Featuring: 200+ Of The largest art galleries in the world showcasing their artist’s most sellable work, the worlds top collectors, art writers, etc.  Art wise you will see: Lots of Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Neon, Random Artists In Costume, Collage, Interactive Art, New Media, Photography, Performance art, etc..

Celebrities / Celebrity Artists I’ve Personally Spotted Here: Peter Max

Unofficial Art Patriarch: Kenny Scharf & Damien Hirst.
Notable Artists / Gallerists Associated With This Show:  Damien Hirst, Barry McGee, Kenny Scharf, Tracey Emin, John Wesley, Jenny Holtzer, Olaf Breuning, Yayoi Kusama, Julian Opie. Nancy Chunn, Marina Abrovonich, Kehinde Wiley, Retna, Ryan McGuinness, Nick Cave, Chuck Close, Gagosian, Chitra Ganesh, David Kramer , Kim Jones, Pierogi, Warhol, Basquait, etc.

Coolest thing I’ve seen here: The variety of Blue Chip and Museum Artists’ work in one place.
Possibility of Live Nudity: Not Good

Ever Seen Live Performance or Live Art at The Armory Show? Yes, I’ve seen a Marina Abrovonich performance, although it was with an actor not Marina.  Live drawing by Ai Kowada Gallery’s Fukuhara.  Also weird performance artists doing their thing in the crowd.

The Scoop on The Armory Show From An Artiholic:
This is the one show all the satellite shows revolve around.  It has anywhere from 200 – 300 international galleries represented in a given year, and is a lot to take in, and a lot of walking.  Make sure to wear your comfy shoes and prepare to see a lot of neon, glitter, and museum quality presentations.  The sculptures are as polished and pristine as it is possible to make them, the wall paint is flawless.  If you go to as many of the art fairs as I do will start to feel like you walking through a brand new IKEA after a while (the scale of the two piers are enormous) .  If while you are seeing world class art in this familiar Big Box Store format your eyes  become blurred and the work starts to become indistinguishable from Norwegian furniture, take a seat in their cushy bar areas and get a drink.  You don’t need to push your eyes that far, the brain can only accept so much eye candy before it goes into shock.

For the price of admission you get access to both the Modern show, and the contemporary (each with it’s own pier), so you can see work from older masters, as well as the masters that are still alive and working today (based on which pier you are checking out).

Positives: Buying the Armory / Volta NY combo ticket for $50 is the best deal in town.  There is a shuttle bus between the two venues, and you get to experience the opposite worlds of the big box store IKEA experience of the Armory, along with the intimacy of Volta NY. You will be seeing the best most sought after artists in the world hanging in a show that is only up for an extended weekend, buying frenzy is a thing to behold.

Negatives: The size and scope of this show can be daunting and overwhelming to a beginner, just start at one side and work your way through it to the other side, move to the next row and do it again.  Think of it like a giant supermarket, but instead of cereal and canned goods, you are looking at artwork worth 10’s to 100’s of thousands of dollars by artists you have seen at The Whitney and The Met.  You will not see these galleries taking to many risks. At SCOPE, The Unfair, and Fountain artists aren’t paying the insane per-square-foot rates as at The Armory so they can go edgier.  This show is squeaky clean – most booths on a factory produced precision.  If you prefer to see a little of the artist’s hand (blood, sweat, and tears) mixed into the paint, you might want to check out some of those other fairs.

Location: Piers 92 & 94:  711 12th Ave New York, NY (@55th Street & the West Side Highway)

Website: https://www.thearmoryshow.com/
View Our Armory Show Photos From Previous Years

SCOPE ART FAIR:  March 6th – 9th 

General Admission: $25  – Student $15

Thursday – March 6, 3pm – 6pm (Platinum VIP Preview Gala)  –  6pm – 9pm (First View Benefit & Press)  $100
Friday – March 7, 11am – 8pm
Saturday – March 8, 11am – 8pm
Sunday – March 9, 11am – 7pm

Featuring: Drawing, Collage, Sculpture, Painting, Performance Art, New Media, Neon, Photography.

THIS YEAR’S SCOPE (SPOILERS): SCOPE Art Fair NY 2014 VIP Opening Reception Was Packed (Photos) – Artiholics

Celebrities / Celebrity Artists I’ve Personally Spotted Here: Ron English

Unofficial Art Patriarch: Ron English.
Notable Artists / Gallerists Associated With This Show:  Augusto Esquivel, Jordan Eagles, Karim Hamid, Ron English, Banksy, Luke Chueh,  Russell West, gilf! Hiroko Tsuchida, Gabriel Barcia-Colombo, Andrea Stanislav, HuskMitNavn, Kikyz 1313, Camille Rose Garcia.

Coolest thing I’ve seen here: Performance art piece where a female artist walked around the fair nude from the waste down.
Possibility of Live Nudity: It’s Possible.

Ever Seen Live Performance or Live Art at SCOPE? Occasional Live Painting, Occasional Live Performing Installation, Occasional Live Music.

The Scoop on SCOPE From An Artiholic:I’ve personally attended the 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2013 incarnations of the fair.  It’s one of the satellite fairs that didn’t have a permanent home until 2013 and was constantly competing with Pulse as they have very similar vibes, that is until Pulse decided to slide into May and be a part of Frieze Week, thus freeing Scope up to take control of the more serious emerging contemporary art galleries.  I watched this fair bounce from Lincoln Center, to a tent on the West Side Highway, and finally to it’s current NY location in the giant post office building Skylight at Moynihan Station next to Madison Square Garden.

Scope is a good dowsing rod for what trends are most likely to be prevalent thought-out all of the art fairs during Armory Arts Week.  Mostly pretty good art, there are some major international galleries represented, as well as a lot of NYC talent.  Scope is what galleries at Fountain aspire to graduate up to.

Positives: A ton of good work, lots of roaming artists, friendly gallerists.  The show has really come into its own since Pulse left.  A good mix of low and high brow to appeal to a wide audience.  Gets a lot of solid press, and a lot of sales.

Negatives: Some galleries are obviously not yet ready for prime time and stick out like a sore thumb.  When you start to notice trends, you will see them repeated and repeated in multiple booths. Location is far from Armory. 

Location: Skylight at Moynihan Station 360 West 33rd Street, W 33rd St, New York, NY 10001

Website: https://scope-art.com/
View Our SCOPE Photos From Previous Years

THE ART SHOW:  March 5th – 9th 

General Admission: $25

Wednesday – March 5, 12pm – 8pm
Thursday – March 6, 12pm – 8pm
Friday – March 7, 12pm – 8pm
Saturday – March 8, 12pm – 7pm
Sunday – March 9, 12pm – 5pm

Featuring: Solo Shows, Museum Quality Gallery Shows, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Collage, Photography

Celebrities / Celebrity Artists I’ve Personally Spotted Here: John Leguizamo

Unofficial Art Patriarch: Andy Warhol & James Rosenquist
Notable Artists / Gallerists Associated With This Show:  Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, Rosenquist, Henri Matisse, Mark Rydan, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, George Condo, Ray Johnson, Phil Guston, Wim Delvope, Sperone Westwater, Charles McGill.

Coolest thing I’ve seen here: The Egon Schiele / Gustav Klimt exhibit.
Possibility of Live Nudity: Not Good

Ever Seen Live Performance or Live Art at The Art Show? No, this is a serious art fair.

The Scoop on The Art Show From An Artiholic:

This fair is decades older than The Armory Show and has a sterling reputation as presenting some of the best in the business.  Blue chip art, museum art.  Most of what you will find here by artists who’s names you will recognize from your Christie’s and Sotherby’s catalogs.

Positives: You will see museum quality work, amazing drawings and paintings from many dead modern artists, and some current living blue chip artists, as well as original portraits of famous artists.  If you are a fan of really good drawing, and seeing drawings by some of your favorite dead artists, this is a good place to get a glimpse of artwork that exists outside of museums and is sold to private collectors.

Negatives: This is a lot like the Modern section of The Armory Show.  It is old masters, mixed with some more elite contemporary artists.  The crowd is extremely highbrow and it’s easy to feel under-dressed when attending.

Location: Park Avenue Armory – Park Avenue at 67th Street, New York City

Website: https://www.artdealers.org/artshow.html
View Our THE ART SHOW Photos From Previous Years

INDEPENDENT:  March 6th – 9th 

General Admission: $20

Thursday – March 6, 6pm – 8pm (Private Vernissage)
Friday – March 7, 12pm – 7pm
Saturday – March 8, 12pm – 7pm
Sunday – March 9, 12pm – 6pm

Featuring: Sculpture, Kinetic Sculpture, Collage, Car, Interactive Art, Neon, Animation, New Media, Painting, Photography

Celebrities / Celebrity Artists I’ve Personally Spotted Here: John McEnroe

Unofficial Art Patriarch: Dan Flavin
Notable Artists / Gallerists Associated With This Show:  Ella Kruglyanskaya, Steve Claydon, Thomas Julier, Oliver Mosset, David Shrigley.

Coolest thing I’ve seen here: A random DeLorian with no flux capicitor.
Possibility of Live Nudity: Not Good

Ever Seen Live Performance or Live Art at Independent? No

The Scoop on the Independent From An Artiholic:

To me this fair always felt the least like a fair, and even refused to call itself a fair.  The floors have big open spaces in the middle rather than the sectioned off walls that the other art fairs are known to have, all the galleries share the same light.

Since it started The Independent has always been free admission to the public, and the focus has been more about the art than the selling.  It is many people’s favorite fair because of the amount of sculpture, and minimalism and distinct lack of drawing and painting.  I am in the minority, and the lack of drawing and painting drives me up the wall.

I don’t know exactly what changed with Independent’s business model,  but this year it costs $20 instead of costing nothing to get in ($20 is a distinct price increase from free).

Positives: A ton of big sculptures on four floors.  The possibility of a random car in the middle of one of the floors.  The permanent Dan Flavin instillation on the staircase in between floors is always inviting – not technically part of the show, but a welcome break from the different levels.  Top Floor Cafe, with Roof Access

Negatives: Extreme lack of drawing and painting. Super snobby curators who really don’t want to talk to you, which is another thing that makes this unlike the other art fairs where the exhibitors actually want to interact.  I have hundreds of photos I’ve taken of artists and curators at the various art fairs, and Independent is the only art fair I have taken zero shots of any curators or artists.  I am acting the same as I do at the art fairs but never get approached.  Located in Chelsea it is close to other art openings, but far from The Armory Show piers.

Location: 548 West 22nd Street between 10th and 11th Avenues in the heart of the Chelsea gallery district.

Website: https://independentnewyork.com/
View Our INDEPENDENT Photos From Previous Years

VOLTA NY ART FAIR:  March 6th – 9th 

General Admission: $15  |   Students – $10  |  Armory / VoltaNY Dual Pass: $50

Thursday – March 6, 11am – 2pm (Guest of Honor) 2pm – 5pm  (VIP / Press Preview)  6pm – 9pm (Public Vernissage)
Friday – March 7, 10am – 8pm
Saturday – March 8, 10am – 8pm
Sunday – March 9, 10am – 5pm

Featuring: Solo Shows, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Collage, Interactive Art, New Media, Neon, Photography

Celebrities / Celebrity Artists I’ve Personally Spotted Here: Delroy Lindo

Unofficial Art Matriarch: Amanda Coulson
Notable Artists / Gallerists Associated With This Show:  This changes every year, as all booths are solo shows.

Coolest thing I’ve seen here: Very focused solo shows that aren’t like the typical art fair.  The ability to see a depth to an artist’s work, unlike the other top tier fairs that would only showcase one or two pieces by each artist.
Possibility of Live Nudity: Not Good

Ever Seen Live Performance or Live Art at VoltaNY? Yes, I’ve seen Break Dancing & Pastry Eating Contests

The Scoop on Volta NY From An Artiholic:
Volta NY rules.  It is the offshoot of The Armory Show so it has the top tier credibility of The Armory, but also has the intimacy that comes with solo shows.  It feels like you are attending 90 gallery openings where the artist is in attendance, and you are the only guest.  You get a real one-on-one experience with each booth and are able to engage with the artists.

It is an invitational show, and all the artists have to be represented by a gallery, so there is no room for amateurs, and no buying your way in.  I have had nothing but positive experiences with Volta NY, and since they moved down to SoHo from their previous residency at  7 West 34th Street they really have the space you need to fit everyone and not feel like you are walking around a fair in a converted office.

Positives: Buying the Armory / Volta NY combo ticket for $50 is the best deal in town.  There is a shuttle bus between the two venues, and you get to experience the opposite worlds of the big box store IKEA experience of the Armory, along with the intimacy of Volta.  This is a show I would love to one day solo in, and you can’t get much higher praise from me than that.

Negatives: If you don’t like meeting artists, or seeing solo exhibits, and prefer to see more salon style gallery showings presenting a diverse group of artists from a gallery’s stable, then you won’t like this show.  If you aren’t planning on attending The Armory, this show is kind of out of the way in relation to the other shows.

Location: 82 Mercer Street., New York, NY  (Between Spring and Broome Streets)
Website: https://ny.voltashow.com/index.php
View Our VOLTA NY Photos From Previous Years

FOUNTAIN ART FAIR:  March 7th – 9th 

General Admission: $10 – VIP Pass: $50 – Weekend Pass $15

Friday – March 7, 12pm – 7pm (VIP Press Preview / Open to the public)  7pm – Midnight (Opening Night Reception) Music Lineup: DJ Nick Zinner
Saturday – March 8, 12pm – 7pm (Open to the public) 7pm – Midnight (Saturday Night Event) Music Lineup: THE DEEP!
Sunday – March 9, 12pm – 5pm

Featuring: Solo Shows, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Collage, Interactive Art, New Media, Neon, Photography

Featuring: Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Live Painting, Live Performance, Performance Art,  Music, Collage, Car, Interactive Art, Neon, New Media, Photography

Celebrities / Celebrity Artists I’ve Personally Spotted Here: Mia Tyler
Unofficial Art Matriarch: Swoon
Notable Artists / Gallerists Associated With This Show:  Alison Berkoy, The Murder Lounge, Brian Leo, Dave Tree, Casey Porn, Jonny Fenix, Veng, Victor W. Cox, Ryan Cronin, Chris Smith, Alex Emmart, Rob Servo, Leah Yerpe, JMR, Brandon Friend, Christina Ray, Mighty Tanaka, Leo Kesting, Front Room, Munch, Dacia.

Coolest thing I’ve seen here: Nude Body Finger Painting.
Possibility of Live Nudity: Very Good.

Ever Seen Live Performance or Live Art at Fountain? Yes, tons.

The Scoop on The Fountain Art Fair From An Artiholic:
I love fountain, it is such a fun fair to attend and you get a lot of bang for your buck.  Lots of good artists, also a lot of not so good, but the needles in the haystacks are in the numbers at this fair.  This is truly the independent fair as usually it’s one artist, or a group of artists splitting a booth on their own.  No galleries need be involved, although a lot of booths are represented by galleries.  It’s one of the cheapest art fairs for artists to get work in (per square foot) so the bar is set a little lower than a Scope or Pulse, and leaves the door wide open to untrained artists, street artists, and Brooklyn artists on the rise.

You will see a lot of drawing at this fair, a lot of painting, and a lot of pop.  I have heard it referred to many times in art circles as “amateur hour” but there are generally some stand outs in the masses, and as years go by you will start to see artists who got their start at Fountain’s careers shoot them up to larger galleries, and land them larger exposure at the top tier fairs like Scope and Volta.

You will be likely to meet a lot of artists if you wander around this fair, as most booths are artist run.  It is a great way to talk to artists and have them talk to you about their work.  Almost everyone is friendly and open here, and there is very little pretension.  You will find a few street artist wanna-be-banksies aka Mini-Banksys, who don’t want to have their photo taken, which is annoying as fuck, and almost comical.

When I  first attended this fair in 2009 it was on the frying pan pier.  In a tent that leaked when it rained.  There was a basement floor called the Murder Lounge where a small collective of Greenpoint artists would always show together. Fountain in gaining credibility and exposure has moved several avenues over to the Lexington Ave Armory and now has a solid foundation and doesn’t have to worry about dark clouds.They still have a section of the new location called The Murder Lounge, but it’s more of just a tribute.
Fountain is a 1917 work widely attributed to Marcel Duchamp. The scandalous work was a porcelain urinal, which was signed “R.Mutt” and titled Fountain. Submitted for the exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in 1917, Fountain was rejected by the committee, even though the rules stated that all works would be accepted from artists who paid the fee.  The exhibition took place in the building where The Fountain Art Fair now resides almost a hundred years later.

Positives: A lot of fun, a lot of really great artists and a lot of good drawing.  Live painting, performances, music.  It is almost like getting a first glimpse into the unsigned talent of the art world.  You see what bubbles up from Brooklyn, Queens, and the outer boroughs before it gets snagged up by the machine.  The Friday opening night reception is the most fun you will have at any of the art fairs with open bar and live music – it becomes a party – and I will see you there.  If you are a fan of drawing, street art, illustration, comics, lowbrow, or graffiti, you will really enjoy yourself.  If you are a collector you can find a great deals on artwork by emerging artists here, and fill your apartment for a fraction of the price you would have to pay at the other fairs.

Negatives: Depending on your perspective, you will either come away loving, or hating Fountain.  If you like drawing and painting, you will have a good time.  If you really enjoy The Independent, you will probably not like Fountain so much.  If you are looking for Museum Quality work, you will not like Fountain.  It is very unpolished, but that’s what gives it it’s underground handmade charm.  Although I have a great time at Fountain it is one of the lower tier fairs and doesn’t get much love from the mainstream art press, but art blogs and Scene and Alt magazines like Paper are all over it. 

Location: Centrally Located at the 69th Regiment Armory (Lexington Avenue & 26th Street)
Website: https://www.fountainartfair.com/
View Our Fountain Photos From Previous Years

SPRING / BREAK – $5

THIS YEAR’S SPRING/ BREAK (SPOILERS): SPRING/BREAK Art Show Is Your Elementary School On Psilocybin- Artiholics

CLIO ART FAIR – $FREE

THIS YEAR’S CLIO ART FAIR (SPOILERS): The Clio Art Fair 2014 Inaugural Show Opening Reception- Artiholics

THE (UN)FAIR – $FREE

THIS YEAR’S (UN)FAIR (SPOILERS): THE (UN)FAIR is Back, Bigger, & More Popular Than Ever – Opening (Photos) – Artiholics

MOVING IMAGE- $FREE

NEW CITY ART FAIR- $FREE

The post Artiholics New York Armory Week Art Fair Travel Guide 2014 appeared first on Artiholics.

René Ricard died on February 1st 2014, he is dead. There, it’s been stated. I don’t want to talk about his life – that is the natural evolution thanks to online blogs and Facebook posts. Let us talk about Art.

I discovered René Ricard in death, actually through writing this article. I am enthralled. It is not because of his poetry which began his name in art circles, nor his later projects of transferring his poetry to a visual medium, an inversion of the ekphrastic poem. I am drawn to his ideas of art and its relevance not only as a commodity but as means through which language is transmitted. René’s art was this language of transcribing Art.

There are borders between what is acknowledged as Art and that which strives to achieve something new, to rise above the vernacular of the current culture. His writing in Artforum Magazine allowed his role as critic to dissect Art. It was here that his 1981 essay “The Radiant Child” presented Basquiat to the world as an artist which spoke in a new vernacular. His graffiti origins moved beyond just tagging in an attempt to offer a critique and insight. René was keen to this.

So Art is different from art. The capital “A” an implication of a poem, painting, or film that looks to create to press on the preconceived and accepted. He argues the public “need[s] recognizable evidence of our existence. Something has happened and we need, if not advice, at least a demonstration of the situation…”  Quoting Socrates “an intelligent word graven on the soul of the learner…knows when to speak and when to be silent.”

Yet again another boundary appears upon which Art’s constantly shifting form must be careful to straddle and never tumble into the disposability of consumerism or the often obscurity of too much of an Avant-garde.

A better view is the paradox that it needs to be porous and passive but also reactive and solid. The critic’s role, which René excelled at, was to find the work that spoke to something other than itself and then present it so others may experience it.

Sadly his voice will be unable to lead us towards new words that present the reality of existence.

Written by Chris Caruso

Rene Ricard’s Artwork Is Represented by Vito Schnabel.  Featured Photo by Rita Barros

The post The Radiant Child Scribe, Poet & Artist René Ricard Dead at 67 appeared first on Artiholics.