My mother, Joycelyn Erho Calande, was an artist so art has always been part of my life. Going to museums, galleries and art shows was nothing foreign to me. I have always enjoyed “creating” so by the time high school was wrapping up it was pretty clear to me I wanted to pursue art professionally in some capacity. I ended up attending the oldest art school in the U.S., The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. At the time, at age 17 and fresh out of high school,  I was the youngest to ever be admitted. It was an intense 4 year art program focusing on drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture. By the time I was finishing college, I was doing commission work, showing in some Philadelphia area galleries and entering shows. 

 

 

I’ve never been big on having my art “say something”, that’s what books are for. That’s not to say there’s never a hidden (or not so hidden) message in some works. But mostly I feel as artists we are creating something unique, a different way to see and express something visually, we are sharing pieces of ourselves. Sometimes a pretty picture is just a pretty picture. And I think that’s where artists excel. We make the world a more beautiful and more interesting place. At least most of the time. 

What is your experience with the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity?

I’ve been a longtime collector of animation art. Specifically the original production art used to create the original Looney Tunes / Merrie Melodie cartoons. I’ve always loved the art form. Many of those animators were also fine artists themselves. I was lucky enough to meet Chuck Jones (and the Jones family) on many occasions as well as some of the other animation artists like Maurice Noble, Pete Alvarado, Marc Davis, Eyvind Earle and others. What I loved about meeting Chuck Jones is that he always made sure you left with more knowledge than which you came. After visiting Chuck’s gallery many times over many years, I began to participate in their annual Red Dot Art Auction. Artists from all over the world donate 12 x 12 inch works of art for a silent fund raising auction. The Chuck Jones Center for Creativity uses the money to offer art and creativity programs to people of all ages, but especially to the young and old. I believe September of 2021 will be the 11th Red Dot Auction and I’ve participated in almost every one, missing only a year or two. This year I’ll be donating 2 works of art….or maybe 3, we’ll see. But the auction brings two of my loves together, Looney Tunes and art. It makes me happy that my work not only raises money for a good cause but it’s nice to know the auction winners are living with my artwork, giving it a home, and enjoying it. Hopefully for some, those little 12 x 12 works will become treasured family heirlooms and bring decades of joy. At the very least my little paintings will hopefully bring some color and life to yet another bare and sterile wall in this world. 

 

 

How is the Covid-19 influencing your Art? How did you use the quarantine time?

The post Meet the Artist Eric Calande appeared first on Artiholics.

Now imagine taking a stroll in a park – let’s say the Morningside Park in Upper Manhattan – and seeing a large sculpture of a reclining figure. Instead of Buddha, however, reclining on the grass is Liberty herself.

Part of NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program, “Reclining Liberty” is a piece by Harlem-based artist Zaq Landsberg. It is a plaster resin sculpture of the quintessential American figurative symbol, resting with her eyes closed. The materials she was made of are sturdy enough to support anyone who would climb, sit atop, or lean up against her. If you ever wanted to see and interact with Liberty, now is your chance; especially since the copper paint and an oxidizing acid really make it look like the actual Statue.

Morningside Park’s Reclining Liberty

The symbolisms behind the artwork are many: Landsberg intentionally combines the traditional Buddhist iconography with that of New York and the United States at large, questioning the ideals that the Statue of Liberty represents. The artist also considers the meaning and significance of monuments, America’s relationship with its own history, and the way certain aspects of it have been celebrated to the exclusion, and even detriment, of a large part of its own people. “Reclining Liberty” could also be perceived as a symbol of a country succumbing to a grueling pandemic, in which even the tallest of statues can be worn down.

Is Liberty simply tired from all the challenges of the contemporary moment? Aren’t we all?

About Zaq Landsberg

Zaq Landsberg specializes in large scale, site-specific sculpture that is often installed outdoors. Much of his work, by his own admission, involves “things that look like other things” – for instance, his “Peshmerga Fighting Vehicle” from 2017 is a replica of a real-life truck used by the military forces in Kurdistan, while the 2014 installation “SkyWatch” is an eerie, spider-like NYPD watch tower. He is also the creator of the “Republic of Zaqistan”, a two-acre piece of land in the American West.

Landsberg’s interest in the concept of monuments extends beyond “Reclining Liberty,” through artworks dealing with visual representations of historical figures such as Robert E. Lee and Christopher Columbus. This is also the second time the artist used the Statue of Liberty in his art: it follows the 2012 project titled “Face of Liberty”, in which half of her head was emerging from the Governors Island.

You can visit Zaq Landsberg’s “Reclining Liberty” in Morningside Park, near the West 120th Street and Morningside Avenue entrance to the park, until April 2022.

The post There is a Reclining Liberty Statue in a Harlem Park, And You Can Touch It appeared first on Artiholics.

New York City has numerous painters and Taura Auerbach is one of them. She is a visual artist working across many disciplines including painting, sculptures, weaving and publishing. Taura is well known for her exemplary painting skills. Some of her notable works include the Fold Paintings that even included in the 2010 Whitney Biennial, the weave paintings that are composed of woven canvas strips among many others. Taura has shown her works in solo exhibitions and group exhibitions as well.

Painting has been there for a very long time now as it existed even during World War I which started in 1918. Apart from rifles, machine guns, gas, aircraft and many others, boats were also used in the war. British painter, Norman Wilkinson invented New York’s historic boat the “John J Harvey” a vessel that launched in 193os and served the New York Harbor up till 1994.The boat was later decommissioned to extinguish fires and help save victims after 9/11.  Norman claimed that he painted the boat with dazzle patterns specifically meant to distort their forms and confuse the enemy during war. Thousands of water vessel assumed that pattern during those days with the main aim being to make it difficult for the enemy to target them.

In order to commemorate the boat’s history, Taura together with the Public Fund Art a non-profit organization that raises awareness about historic vessels gave a new look to John J Harvey: the treasure of New York City, their once weapon of war. Taura turned it into a 3D painting which she called “Flow Separation.” Flow separation is the turbulence that can happen in the wake of an object moving through a fluid. Taura was inspired by fluid dynamics and decorative arts. She stripped off the exterior surface of the boat its decades-worth paint and rust and recoated it with fresh red and white paint.

The boat was docked from  July 1st to August 12th at Pier 6 at the Brooklyn Bridge Park. From August 13th to September 23^rd, it was located at Pier 25 near Hudson River Park. The boat is currently located at North Pier 66a until 12^th May 2019. Visitors can board the boat for free with occasional 60 minutes trips around New York harbor.

John J Harvey is transformed with a fresh new look, a look that Taura is certain will endure for decades to come. Taura hopes that the new look of the boat will help more people familiarize themselves with the historic vessel.

The post New York’s John J Harvey Historic Fireboat Turned into an Artwork appeared first on Artiholics.

Portrait of a Bearded Man (1895) by Pablo Picasso

Where: Jaime Eguiguren Arte y Antigüedades, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Asking price: Approximately $2 million

Source Artnet.com

Penitent Magdalene (1717) by Caterina de Julianis

Where: Galleria Carlo Virgilio & C., Rome and London
Sale price: Not available

Source Artnet.com

Allegory of Fame (ca. 1620) by Artemisia Gentileschi

Where: Robilant & Voena, London, Milan and St. Moritz
Asking price: Approximately $200,000

Source Artnet.com

The post Highlights from TEFAF New York 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.

The Bronx Museum of the Arts will open an auxiliary space this year in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan, hopping boroughs to operate an additional 4,500 square foot location for exhibitions, performances, artist talks, and workshops.

The initial plan calls for the museum to occupy the space at no cost for seven years, Martin Weinstein said. It’s set to open by early 2019.

The museum has raised more than $15 million to make key enhancements and upgrades at its home along the Bronx’s Grand Concourse, Ms. Cullen said. A $10 million endowment campaign also is planned, using an anonymous $1 million contribution.

Ms. Cullen said the Manhattan move doesn’t deflect from the museum’s mission in its home borough. At the same time, she said, “It’s an opportunity for us to bring the best of the Bronx into another space.” Source: Wsj.com

The museum announced its intentions to utilize the location at 80 White Street, focusing on expanding the program Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) by supporting 36 emerging artist fellows and 10 alumni residents. The artist-training program offers career management, mentorship, peer and professional support, and studio access, reinforcing “the museum’s mission to champion under-recognized voices and support innovative cultural production to ensure that New York’s diverse creative community continues to thrive.” Source Hyperallergic.com

The post The Bronx Museum adds a branch in Manhattan 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.

The post If the muse of the history sings your name appeared first on Artiholics.

SEGMENT EPISODE! Busy + tired = Stephen is grumpy. But you listeners saved me by providing all the stories and topics you wanted covered and we ran through them all (saving some for later episodes as well because they were just so good)! It’s a brisk 1hr episode this time so enjoy!

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Topics & Timestamps:

Media Referenced During this Episode:

Slow Wave from andy kennedy on Vimeo.

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Stephen Brooks
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The post Oil Painted animated film “Loving Vincent,” new Final Fantasy movie, and Andy Kennedy’s experimental short “Slow Wave” – RubberOnion Animation Podcast #127 appeared first on Artiholics.

San Francisco, CA – July 26, 2015

Katharine Henning shot a series of delinquent Polaroids for her contribution to the mail art exchange, Special Delivery in 2013. The artist packaged 27 snapshots into purple envelopes, keeping each photo facedown so that the first bit of information recipients encounter is the neat print on the photo’s backside—the title, Full Moon.  Flip the photo over, and encounter another moon: a lovely, bare ass slipping out of dark pants.

That benign title did not prepare me for the actual face of the photo. If I came across this image hung on a wall, I wouldn’t have experienced the piece in the same way.  To only interact with the face of the photo allows the viewer some level of control, some constant readiness to soak in the offensive image.  As a piece of mail, we get the pleasure of being fooled by the front and backside of the photo (or could we say that the photo has two backsides?). It’s not just an image of mooning. The envelope and flipped Polaroid work together as an action, an actual prank.

Creating the shots must have felt like a prank. Henning walked through several locations around the West Village mooning for a camera held by another friend.  In the background surrounding the artist’s pose, you can glimpse elegant pieces of architecture from brownstones in the neighborhood.  These secretive performances also took place on Super Bowl Sunday.  That night, fewer people traversed the streets as Henning pulled down her pants in the open air.    “ Took 10 minutes or so to get comfortable with taking my pants down in public, but then I was dropping trou like a pro,” Henning wrote in an email exchange. She recalls that the actual lunar Moon did not make an appearance.

I shared this piece with a friend while we waited for public transit in San Francisco.  She pulled out the photo, laughed, and slipped the picture back into the envelope while looking embarrassed.  Mooning expresses provocation, disrespect, or protest to another party. Henning gives us pure mooning, without context or reason. The piece acts as an affront to the viewer. This art teases and challenges, which are common traits of other strong video and photo works by Katharine Henning.  At the same time, I imagine how some viewers might feel turned off by the subject and chide “Full Moon” as lowbrow, or just young.  For me, the importance of the subject matter later became apparent during 2014 when I met this pointed phrase:

“… the control of female bodies.”

Photo courtesey of Katharine Henning, 2013

In 2014, I attended a reading of Emer Martin‘s third book, Baby Zero, at the San Francisco Public Library.   The Irish novelist used those words herself to describe key ideas in Baby Zero. In this piece, veiled female bodies in the Middle East contrast with the bodies of Buotox common to habitats like Malibu, California. Martin weaved into her talk the form of control carrying the deepest of consequences–abortion rights.  She described how control can manifest in different forms.  It is not just a physical veil.  It can also be an action, like the choice to modify or augment one’s body. Control can move deeply into one’s understanding of self and values, of one’s human rights.

During that year, I also picked up Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran. In this memoir, an Iranian professor of literature (Nafisi) invites 7 former female students into her home to discuss Western classics that are deemed controversial and forbidden by the Iranian authorities of the 1990’s. They are not partaking in schoolwork. For 2 years every week, the women choose to read and gather out of the belief that fiction itself can offer a freedom that they could not find elsewhere.  In this special weekly retreat, remembered by paintings left leaning against walls and pitchers of flowers on the floor of Nafisi’s living room, the women also choose to remove the coverings they used in public. Nafisi documented the distinct differences between each women’s bodies, hair color, hair length, choice of colored shirts or pants. From Nafisi’s perspective, that freedom to be without coverings must have added another layer of bonding.

Though there are many facets and complexities in this book, I wanted to highlight just two important photographs that weave in and out of Nafisi’s memories near the beginning.  In the first photo, she and her students stand wearing black robes and scarves; in the second photo, they appear with the clothes worn beneath their coverings while standing in the same positions. Of the first photo, Nafisi writes that they stood as women “shaped by someone else’s dreams […]. In the second [photo], we appear as we imagined ourselves. In neither could we feel completely at home.”

The 2^nd photo is Nafisi’s Full Moon at that time. The cost of sharing Nafisi’s picture would have been high, much higher than the public circulation of Henning’s Polaroids. When pitched together, Nafisi’s memoir and Henning’s photos indicate how manifold the experience of being a woman must be—how it appears as more of a spectrum than any one viewpoint of struggle or achievement.

I cannot imagine Henning’s photos in Tehran. These pictures appear in and are surely informed by a culture that feels familiar with seeing undressed women as art. Henning’s series also recalls Manet’s Olympia, (whose subject must also be remembered as the artist, Victorine Meurent) or Carlo Mollino’s secret Polaroids of the 1960’s.  As an artist who photographs many subjects without clothing, Ryan McGinley makes a distinction about they way Americans read nudity in an interview. By definition, the word “Nude” is meant to separate the naked form from any pornographic perspective, and yet, Americans still frequently confuse the Nude from any salacious intent. When thinking about Full Moon, we have an example of both humor and liberty in American culture.  It can be shared as artwork or conversation, but this unquestionably is not the case in other parts of the world.

Written by: Audrey Tran

Robert Szantyr initiated Special Delivery five years ago. Essentially, it consists of a community that sends art pieces through the postal service. Last year, seventeen art makers took on the project. We each created an artwork that exists in multiples, distributed the items, and then received about 17 artworks in return. Within this circle, I’m the one who blogs on various mailed items that leave lasting impressions or good questions.

The post Special Delivery: Katharine Henning’s “Full Moon” Polaroids (NSFW) appeared first on Artiholics.

On Saturday Dag Hammarskjold Plaza on 47th Street and 2nd Avenue in Manhattan came alive with body paint, camera shutters, simulated camera shutters (on smart phones), and a literal ton of bare skin, for the second ever Bodypainting Day.

King of the body painting world, Andy Golub has pulled it off once again, breaking all kinds of records for previous “group outings,” this time with 100 fully nude models and 80 artists painting on this year’s theme “What The World Needs Now.”

I was there for the first two hours of what turned out to be an all day event, so with most articles about this event you are seeing mostly the finished product – fully painted models. I captured the sketching phase, or the initial lines and the base coat.

It is interesting to see how the artists all had different techniques for how to start working on the various models, which came in all shapes and sizes.

Written and Photographed by Cojo

The post Artists & Nude Models Take To The New York Streets For Bodypainting Day (NSFW) appeared first on Artiholics.

Hunt for Inspiration – a recent solo gallery show featuring artwork by Jamie Martinez at the Galerie Protege in Chelsea was incredibly well received in its opening reception.  The basement level gallery was buzzing with excited viewers of all kinds.  A mixed lot of artists, enthusiasts, collectors, photographers and more talked with excitement while taking iPhone photos of the work – reveling in the unique qualities of the geometric images that emblazon Martinez’s canvases.

The show contains a collection of artwork demonstrating the progression in the artist’s concepts of geometry and abstraction as it develops over time.  Early versions of Martinez’s work are actually “abstract fabric artwork” as he describes them, using “abstract digital images that examine the beginning process of my work,” explains Martinez.  These early artworks are composed of overlapping triangular pieces of brightly colored fabric that are sewn together on top of a canvas, creating a collage-like conglomeration of textures and shapes, somewhat reminiscent of a quilt, which perhaps alludes to more simplistic and early forms of artwork.

Intermingled amongst some of the earlier fabric pieces are second stage artworks or pieces that are the next phase of evolution in the progression of Martinez’s concept.  These second level artworks vary as some are composed of vast fields of tiny triangles creating seas of color and texture, while others are highly complex, featuring a more three dimensional element, as they are larger images composed of hundreds of small painted wooden squares, or tiles, which are affixed together to create a mosaic style, singular large image.  From a distance, these vast collections of squares, which are further divided into tiny triangles, begin to come together to illustrate an extremely distorted face.

Next to these paintings are small signs that read, “Use your camera to see the image”.  The signs imply that once you photograph the image (or even just use your cameras view finder to look at the work) it is somehow again changed in form.  This is a recurring theme in Martinez’s work, and as demonstrated in Hunt for Inspiration, when viewed through a camera, the paintings do indeed look different, and almost become more clear and vivid in digital form.

“The birth of my paintings start with an idea for a series; then I go on the internet and find images that appeal to me and express what I want to communicate in my painting.  Once I have the images that are provocative… I focus on how to deconstruct the images using triangles and paint the image so it can only be appreciated when seen through technology.”  – Jamie Martinez

This aspect of Martinez’s work creates an intriguing commentary, as it requires the viewer to use a digital interface to experience physical artwork in its most vivid form.

The final phase of artworks in Martinez’ concept depicts further evolved and elaborate images which are again broken down into distorted geometric patterns.  These third level paintings are painted directly onto canvas, but in this version the images use a wide variety in scale of triangles, creating tiny clusters of shapes which illustrate a smoother transition in shading and texture.  These images portray distorted faces of various animals in both regal and aggressive poses.

“My new paintings deal with the validation of images, our obsession with our smartphones and the relationship between art and technology. When you look at my paintings in person, you don’t see the clear image. Technology validates the images and only through it can you clearly see the details of my work. Then after it’s posted online–it takes a life of its own.” – Jamie Martinez

Hunt for Inspiration provides a provocative look at both the evolution of Jamie Martinez’s work as an artist as well as a highly intriguing commentary on society’s reliance on technology to interface with reality.  The images in the show range from simplistic geometry to highly evolved and elaborate compositions which require technology in order to gain a full experience of their contents.  The viewer is left with much to contemplate after seeing this show, including the question of which is the real artwork; is it the digital image or the physical painting, and how will this affect the future of art creation and appreciation?  Many of these questions are left unanswered, although it is clear that neither the digital image nor the physical painting are complete without the other.

Hunt For Inspiration is currently on display at Galerie Protege, 197 Ninth Avenue in Manhattan, and closes April 23, 2015.

Writing by Lia Simone
Photos by Cojo

The post Hunting For Artistic Inspiration In Manhattan With Jamie Martinez appeared first on Artiholics.

 Photo Courtesy of Vera Kachouh, 10/25/2014

Tuesday, January 20, 2015 – San Francisco, CA

During Open Studios at the Noonan Building, I experienced a unique element that you wouldn’t easily find at any studio event – Vera Kachouh’s pastry Pop-Up known as The Moon in My Kitchen. That is also the title of this Oakland-based artist’s food blog, which I’ve been exploring throughout this year. After hearing that The Moon in My Kitchen would make an appearance during Open Studios, I became excited, not knowing exactly what to expect. What might a food blog look like when taken offline and made available in person?

In one of the art studios that Saturday afternoon, Kachouh set up a table of creative baked sweets. She warmly offered me custard-filled cornbread (with a healthy drizzle of maple syrup), almond crescent cookies, palm-sized fruit galettes, ricotta plum cake, and a rare take on pie (apple with a touch of rose and pink peppercorn). I choose the peppery pie and savored it while walking through a few studios.

Having that bite of pie while looking at art left a pleasing imprint in my memory. I’ve complained about this before—when collecting blog pictures, I forget to really stop and look around without the eye of my camera. With a 4-inch tall slice of pie, I at least had to put down all mobile devices in order to hold the dessert. It made me linger near the paintings of Rob Minervini and Alice Raymond, which felt very healthy. Both sets of paintings require a tranquil mode anyway when experiencing the pieces in person.

As the author of The Moon in My Kitchen blog, Kachouh draws us into her exploration of different recipes, often adapting several combined or edited recipes from other contemporary cooks and bakers. For this baker, food and stories often feel interchangeable. Some posts incorporate food with glimpses of Kachouh’s private life (moving homes, traveling, memories, her honesty about significant loss and heartache).  You may also find the blog’s publicity on Bon Appetite  in one online article on seasonal strawberries in 2012).  Other rich posts contain meditations on art and literature (If you gravitate towards Virginia Woolf, you’ll love her more in Kachouh’s post regarding apple trees).

Going through the blog, one feels accompanied by a voice naturally adept in food writing. We catch Kachouh’s healthy knowledge of cookbooks.  Her research spans multiple interesting and popular cookbooks like Tartine (the SF-based bakery), The Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book, WWII Era’s How to Cook a Woolf, A Homemade Life, and Ripe: a Cook in the Orchard. Julia Child feels so familiar to the author that the blog refers to her by the first name sometimes. They appear to be friends, even without ever being introduced. It hardly matters that Julia Child is no longer with us.

As a writer, Kachouh seems invested in exploring more ways to describe and think about food.  When testing a griddle for pancakes, she tells us that instead of merely looking for sizzling water drops (the common directions on your store-bought pancake boxes), we must watch the drops dance madly over the hot surface. In another instance, see them dance chaotically, and know that it is the right time to pour batter.

Her summary on chef/writer David Tanis rolls playfully in our ears: “[Tanis,] the master of simple elegance; master of the unfussy, but remarkable, culinary creation.”

Kachouh’s chosen words for this blog title set an image and a mood in mind, one that you could describe as romantic and mysterious. The Moon in My Kitchen. A window is implied, along with beams of moonlight in whatever shades you can imagine. Of this carefully chosen title, Kachouh said that her baking used to always take place in after hours—early mornings or late nights. The real joy of those hours came from being on the periphery of other daily obligations. She wrote in an email exchange, “I found these twilight or dawn hours to be really beautiful and profound. It was a special secret time that gave me permission to do what I really wanted. “

Artists Vera Kachouh and Robert Minervini in front of the Pop-Up during Open Studio day at the Noonan Building 10/25/2014

After completing her MFA with the San Francisco Art Institute, Kachouh began to take her baking seriously. She’s a self-taught baker, whose true start to this craft began when Kachouh was very young. Around the time when she completed graduate school, Kachouh made video installations. In her view, that video work continued to feel more and more intangible, which translated into something unfulfilling. As a reaction, Kachouh found solace in the visceral nature of baking, and then writing. Through the blog platform, she began to chronicle her life, document her “changing culinary moods,” and she began to feed people, an act that makes this artist truly happy. The information on The Moon in My Kitchen certainly feeds others in an indirect and valuable way.

Until coming across Kachouh’s blog, I didn’t think about how much the writing on food affects me. Images of food might remind me that I’m hungry, but writings that involve food stick with me.  Words seem to send me towards very specific actions. Here are few examples:

Sigrid Nunez’s The Last of Her Kind, deliciously describes crab salad over a fresh halve of avocado. This simple dish makes a minute appearance in Nunez’s account of 1960’s era New York, but it sent me towards crab and avocado before I finished the novel. No pictures or illustrations appear in this book. I just could not escape the main character’s memory of this dish. Side note: this piece of fiction is an especially good book to read right now, amongst all the protests and discussions on race, on the nature of our justice system.

Recently, I embarked on a long walk for good doughnuts, an unusual journey for me, as doughnuts previously have never had a huge affect. I assumed that they can be found on any street corner… KQED’s take on the 5 best doughnut places in the East Bay assisted my hunt, but that’s not where this craving began. I traced the sudden doughnut desire to the humorous food component of Michelle Kicherer’s short story, “The Loneliest Gynecologist.” Her main character guiltily eats dozens of doughnuts alone in a car, as a way to beat the stresses of being a doctor. Dr. Oswald also lies about her large orders, telling the baker who knows her by name, “They’re for the office…” I ended up at Doughnut Dolly in Temescal, ordering less than a dozen doughnuts, but like Dr. Oswald, I did contemplate some of the guilt that sugar brings.

During this past summer, after glancing and re-glancing one of Kachouh’s posts, I felt the need to not only consume, but to bake her adapted recipe for rye biscuits with roasted fruit and freshly whipped cream. I had not made time for baking in months, but The Moon in My Kitchen wrote about such appealing flavors and textures in this dish alongside some jovial after effects. She mentioned breezes and memories of store-bought, gooey, yellow-spongy versions of the dessert that could not be forgotten. Bakeries nearby did not carry this dish. Later, no bakery could help me because more than the sweet and nutty flavors, I began to crave the fun of a messy kitchen.

In an email exchange, Kachouh wrote that she plans to expand The Moon in my Kitchen. Currently, growth for her business entails Pop-Ups for special occasions and also orders taken for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thereafter, Kachouh plans to partake in a series of pop-ups throughout 2015 accompanied by “an exciting spring season with lots of beautiful Bay Area fruits ripening and showing up at the markets.”

 Galettes baked by Vera Kachouh

In a much larger picture, Kachouh aspires to create a brick and mortar spot for her business. It would be a place where the surrounding community could gather and enjoy fresh pastries with coffee while becoming closer as neighbors. See the end of this post for a more detailed vision and the philosophical twists of Kachouh’s dream restaurant. These are my favorite components of that environment: Honey-water, a record player spouting plucky bluegrass tunes, bowls of yellow cherries and figs on every table in the summertime.  The artist/baker conjured those images and details while she wrote about custard-filled cornbread. That would be the first item on her menu.

I highly recommend reading this blog. You will find familiar and unfamiliar recipes, enjoyable prose, fetching food photography, and a welcoming author.  If you’re on the West Coast, pay attention to Vera Kachouh’s Pop-Up sightings, some of which may include partnerships with artists and craftsmen. On her blog, you will come across more than one way to connect with a generous, imaginative home.

Written by: Audrey Tran

Find more of Kachouh’s photography on her Instagram page.

The post Vera Kachouh’s The Moon in My Kitchen – The Baking Artist appeared first on Artiholics.

San Francisco, CA – Thursday, September 4, 2014

In June, New York-based artist Vanessa Albury gave an exclusive interview to Artiholics on the eve before her journey through the Arctic Circle.  Along with 26 other residents, Albury took part of the Summer 2014 Arctic Circle Residency.  Aaron O’Connor, who leads this program, directed a diligent crew that housed, fed, and safe-guarded the residents as they all worked on individual and collaborative research in the Arctic environment. This program brings artists, writers, musicians, educators, and scientists together to study one of the coldest, harshest regions of the world (-10 degrees Celsius). In total, the residents visited 18 landings.

Our report on this residency continues, first, by reviewing Albury’s unique documentation of the journey (a few images come from the program itself).  In the above photo, Albury captured a star-shaped sun with strong beams of light  high above the horizon after midnight. For 17 days in the Arctic, no nighttime sky appeared, nor stars, or sunsets.  Everyone worked in sunshine and then hours later slept in its bright energy.

View of the Antigua, Photo courtesy of the Arctic Circle Residency Program

In the photo above, we see the temporary home for the residents–the Antigua, a 152-foot Barkentine sailing ship equipped with 3 masts.  Furnished with cabin space, a kitchen, deck, and a communal salon, the Antigua presented the safest arena for the travelers to bond and discuss projects.  Albury credits O’Connor and the guides Theres Arulf, Sara Orstadius, and Sarah Gerats (she is also a performance artist), as the masterminds behind the Antigua’s daily activities. With what seemed like innate finesse, the team juggled the needs of each resident on any and every task or equipment necessary for the multifarious projects. For Albury, they located landings close to glaciers and helped arrange portable power sources for her bulky projector.  Other projects required similarly specific considerations. The team communicated with everyone tirelessly and effectively for each daily expedition.  Above all, O’Connor, the guides, and the crew kept the residents safe.

Safety became a major concept keenly felt and then explored by some residents like Albury.  During the travels, many participants felt awakened to the high degree of precaution constantly surrounding them. During hikes through icy terrain, the three guides doubled as polar bear guards and would scout the path of the expedition. They formed safety zones encompassing 300 to 400 meters at the widest point, in which the residents could work on projects.  While traveling, the residents walked in a line or tight group, sometimes with only one guard.  Albury fondly describes the polar bear guides  as “amazing, rifle-totting, adventurous women.”   If any polar bears appeared, entire hikes could be redirected or even aborted.  Thanks to a presentation on polar bears by one of the guides, Sara Oristadius, the participants came to understand that “polar bears are fearless, curious and ferocious.”

On deck and anywhere close to the edge of water, residents had to be aware of the immediate doom resulting from a simple slip. Man-overboard in the Arctic does not resemble Man-overboard in warmer seas.  According to the captain of the Antigua, in the waters around Svalbard, Norway (where the journey began) you would not die due to hypothermia, exactly.  Before that, your layers of heavy clothing would pull you down into endless depths. There’s just no way to keep afloat without a lifesaver.  On top of that, if the ship is sailing, it would be very difficult for any crew member to keep an eye on a small head bobbing in water. Closer north, any fall into the water could result in death from hypothermia.  On land, danger comes from above. The explorers kept a minimum distance of 200 meters from any glacier to avoid sudden calving, the deadly splintering of heavy or sharp crashing ice from the tops of glaciers.

Photo of Vanessa Albury working with her pinhole camera during one of the landings in the Arctic Circle. Courtesy of the artist.

However hazardous the expedition felt, the members of the Summer 2014 Residency all returned safely. They may have joked about Scurvy, hoarding the limited supplies of chocolate, and other jests emanating from paranoia, but the group never stopped looking out for one another.  Albury found herself in deep conversation with the writer and co-resident, Susan Rogers on this sensitive topic.  Rogers talked about the precautions taken for safety, i.e. the strict boundaries to protect against polar bears and the rules aboard the ship. Albury could relate, thinking of the ships’s rails.  She also contemplated the “edges of life and living,” while recalling tales of whalers and early explorers, many who did not return from these Arctic expeditions.

Albury thinks of how those crucial moments come from the simplest places. It could have been just one small item left behind that might have made all the difference for those explorers who perished.   An entire journey could be ruined, or an entire life might splinter and end from simply forgetting to think about the entire scope of needs for an expedition.  While sharing these thoughts with Rogers, Albury noted that this interest may resurface in her future work, stating also that, “the best gift a residency can give an artist is fodder for new thoughts and new ideas.”

  Another series of photos come from capturing the different scenes splashing round and round the porthole (11” diameter) in Albury’s cabin.  All residents stayed in similar rooms during this two-week expedition.  Sometimes, a view of the icy landscape and edges of shoreline are caught in this round window.  More often, bubbly blue, clear, and green waters completely invade Albury’s round window.  Leads one to wonder if the ocean is not actually one large glass of soda.

I am reminded of stargazing, and how surely hypnotic those porthole scenes might have appeared to someone resting from long hikes through snow.  Deeply, I enjoy those moments when art objects resemble or rather, cause a sense of star-gazing in me, a relaxed state where one dreams quietly, not even noticing that you are—as they say, in the moment.

This series of pictures feels intimate, as the images come from the artist’s private quarters, which is a part of the journey that shouldn’t be forgotten.  The porthole views remind us that we cannot leave the vessel out of this story.  It played a very real and present part of the exploration and residency.  Not everything took place outside.  Albury noted that this was certainly true for the residency’s writers.  While many joined in on the daily hikes, the writers often stayed in for hours to practice their craft.

Albury’s craft also involves developing her film, when possible.  In past residencies and travels, she has been known to scope out the right closet or bathroom to turn into a temporary dark room, which is what she also did aboard the Antigua. Though she brought several heavy pieces of equipment, Albury did not pack an enlarger.  The type of developing she worked on involved chemicals and exposed film.  A dark room on a ship works well, only when the ship is not moving, or when her neighbor does not need his shower.

Photo courtesy of Vanessa Albury.

One of the more relaxed characters in Vanessa’s photos includes a portly “Red-Bearded Seal”. The name might be related to the patch of rusty bronze color of the fur or skin on his face, but I’ve seen humans with more red and beard than this fellow. Place those terms, “red-bearded seal” into an Image Google Search, and you will come across a few male homo sapiens.  Lying on his left side, Albury captured the seal softly blinking his coal lump eyes as he allowed the group to come as close as one meter. The residents and their guards did spot polar bears during two expeditions—a single bear the first time, and then a mother and 2 cubs the second time. Four bears in total made a record for any ship traveling during those 2 weeks. No one was allowed to get as close to a polar bear as Albury got to the blinking seal. Almost immediately, when the first bear dived into water, the group had to quickly return to the ship.  Polar bears swim fast, act stealthily, and are skilled at hunting.  During the second sighting, the traveling group only redirected the path of their hike.

Near the end of the residency, Albury documented one of the final hikes around the curved path in this picture.  Note the dark grey stone and the blue ice covering the curved rim.   Layers and layers of ice create the most fascinating shades of translucent blue, frosty on some edges, other times jagged, or fragmented.  In another shot of the terrain, Albury captures blocky rocks that have the grey color of elephants.

After hikes like this (some lasted up to three hours), the travelers came home to a warm Antigua set with healthy, filling meals.  Albury recalls a “lovely chef” who catered to all the food allergies from the group.  The artist remembers abundant servings of pudding (with almost every meal!), dishes with fish, pork, chicken, pastas, and European fashioned salads (cucumber, tomatoes, corn, and onions, notably salads made without leafy-greens, which Albury missed).

Most of the images reviewed above come from the artist’s documentation of the journey, but this does not describe her artwork very well. We should not think of Albury as a photographer.   During our 2^nd interview, we talked about how often people refer to her as a photographer. It’s an easy mistake.  After all, the artist did return from her past two residencies with hundreds of rolls of film. However, the goals between this artist using photo-based processes and a photojournalist, for example, vary widely.

Net Diptych (Bodøgaard XVI & XVII).  Vanessa Albury created this Cyanotype  print using nets and rope. 2014

Albury’s work centers on how light behaves, the mood of it, and our response to these images.  They often carry abstract forms that she experiments with, often incorporating other sound or performance-like elements from projectors.   The different ranges of cameras available to us, the kind that have been replaced by a lot of digital technology still interest Albury.  Holga cameras (her favorite), pinhole photos, or projectors are all devices that allow her a range of ways to experiment with light.  The different film speeds and shutter capabilities from these cameras give the artist many options, almost like the varying colors on a painting palate. When looking at her work, I do feel as though I am looking at paintings.

Documentation of Waves (The Impossibility of Distinction for Mr. Palomar. Projectors, recorded sound. Vanessa Albury, 2024

To better illustrate Albury’s use of photography, we can refer to the show she participated in right after the Arctic circle Residency.  In an exhibit named The Dream Time curated by Rachel Mason at Trans Pecos in Queens, Albury showed a projection piece to a sitting audience. She projected 48” x 48” black and white 35 mm slides depicting a dozen different images.  The pictures move in an irregular pattern. Some repeat more than other, so that viewers cannot spot a pattern. Simultaneously, the audience heard clicking projector noises that ticked against the sound of Albury’s heartbeats while she settled into a rest mode. By making those components work together, Albury aligned “The delicate human body to the corporeal nature of waves.”  The artist also found herself incorporating the meditation in Italio Calvino’s essay “Reading a Wave.” In this piece, one of Calvino’s most known characters named Mr. Palomar contemplates the colors, constant movement, and motley body that waves take on—how they never cease to change. Can Mr. Palomar possibly observe just one wave without the legions of others? Like snowflakes, have any two waves ever existed with complete a likeness?  The piece is documented in the image above, and it is titled Waves (The Impossibility of Distinction for Mr. Palomar).

To echo an earlier conversation from our first interview, Albury says that  “Photos are objects.  We tend to think of them as these windows into the world, but they are not.  They are objects,” and the artist treats them as such.  Instead of seeing photos as just images, Albury considers the entire scope of factors that come from taking a photograph – the processing, the act of capturing light phenomena, or the site specificity of projections.  She focuses on these elements can be recombined with other elements, like sound, and result in these exploratory ways of drawing in viewers.   In pieces like the Waves (…Mr. Palomar) the key concepts come from mixing sound with images.  Another future project will bring fire to the development process.  Albury found inspiration from the duality of heat (there is some with, ie the midnight sun) and the obvious cold elements of the Arctic.  Spotting that phenomena unique to the polar environment inspired this unusual photo process. She plans to burn an image while developing it.  We’ll have to wait to see the end results of that creation/destruction process. Call the items resulting from this Fire-Photo-Bath, Albury’s artifacts. We may not be there for the ritual, but can see the end results and observe how they contrast and work together.

Net (Bodøgaard XXIII), Vanessa Albury, Cyanotype Print, 2014

The Arctic environment kept Albury from completing some of her work. For one project, the artist intended to project images of decaying buildings upon glaciers. She wanted to connect failing or neglected man-made buildings with these majestic formations of nature that are also sadly breaking down. Her idea work intuitively found a connection between the environments, for they both seem “vulnerable and on the edge of collapse” wrote the artist in an email exchange. The decay of both formations originate from man’s actions.  Those projections would cover the glaciers and easily be removed without a trace left in the surrounding environment. In order to project, Albury sought glacial caves where her projections could fully appear in the shadows.  However, she could not safely get close enough to the caves due to the dangerous summer calving.  Still, Albury called these “beautiful failures.”   At the time, her co-resident, Jess Perlitz, who is a sculptor and performance artist, offered to create a large projection screen out of snow.  After Perilitz fashioned the screen, Albury  said it looked like a tiny white theater.  In the end, the power source still did not allow Albury to use the projector properly.  That day, Perlitz also constructed a fort made of cinder block-sized snow bricks, and later the residents “had a house, a theater, some industry in the form of a snow brick mining site and a graveyard, all in a day’s work and through Perlitz’ practice,” wrote Albury in an email.

Photo courtesy of Vanessa Albury

In one instance, Albury found a way to project onto cave walls.   The large part of this projection project still remains to be continued.  Without the least bit of dissatisfaction, Albury said she intends to return to the Arctic terrain, during one of the seasons outside of the Summer Solstice.  This was a fantastic first run for future work.  Partly, the wanderlust now ingrained in this artist must have been talking.  In our interview, we spoke about the places where art making comes from.  For many, it involves stationary hours in the studio.  For this photo-based artist, travel to distant lands will influence many of Albury’s concepts.  So she’ll need to travel and understand how to do it.   As someone who has never gone camping, I asked Albury how easy or hard would it be to make a trip to the Arctic Circle.  For her, the path would take lots of work, but thanks to this residency, it seems clear to Albury how she could make that trip happen.

End Notes:

Out of 27 residents, 7 came from foreign countries.  The rest are U.S. citizens, like Albury.  The Summer 2014 group had an unusually high number of females to males, however, Albury says that past groups more often carried an even number of males to females.  Everyone spoke English, including the crew and guards.  Canada Goose gladly sponsored Vanessa’s travels by providing her special attire for -10 degree Celsius weather.  The Arctic Circle Residency program ships 2 groups (about 30 people in each group) to the Arctic Circle every year.

Written By: Audrey Tran

The post Vanessa Albury’s Journey through the Arctic Circle Residency – Part II appeared first on Artiholics.

You’ve may noticed that a good number of bus shelters and billboards around the city are not so lame anymore. In the rush of traffic and commutes we don’t normally pay attention to trifles such as outdoor advertisements, but lately there have been some reasons to wait for the next bus.

It won’t take you long.  You can spare a couple of minutes to spend with the art displayed in your bus stop. If you just scan it with your smartphone you’ll immediately discover more about the piece, the artist and its history, as well as the museum it comes from.

This is not a natural phenomenon as you can expect, but a nationwide campaign to promote American art and raise awareness for a group of museums. The art will be displayed in all sorts of billboards, telephone kiosks, subways, newsstands, bus shelters, and oversized screens such as the all mighty LED screens of Times Square.

This artistic campaign is a collaboration ( #ArtEverywhereUS ) between the Outdoor Advertising Association of America and five museums: The Art Institute of Chicago, The Dallas Museum of Art, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and The Whitney Museum of American Art. These museums aim both at educating the public and of course sparking interest in the American art they display at their sites.

Once you are aware of the existence of this campaign, the images surprise you everywhere. There are 58 different art works disseminated around the City, and all over the country, but that’s too much of a wide field for this modest urbanite. The big screens in front of the Madison Square Garden spot art from time to time. The horribly overcrowded Port Authority Station displays “The Brooklyn Bridge: Variation on an Old Theme” by Joseph Stella in the steps of a random staircase. Inside metro cars, or in a pathway at 14^th Street, the list becomes too diverse. You can drive by 23^rd Street between 8^Th and 9^Th Avenues and get instinctually stopped by a big Rothko that resembles a STOP sign. We can travel to Egypt in 8^th and 38^th Steet. Or reconcile with your lovely one at Broadway and West 91^st because after all we get along so much better than the couple in Grant Wood’s American Gothic.

American Gothic, 1930 by Grant Wood

My Egypt, 1927 by Charles Demuth

Written and Photographed by Alejandro Pardo

The post What the ART is Going on with my Bus Stop Advertising? appeared first on Artiholics.

New York – Thursday, July 31st , 2014

Artist Sui Park is a rising star in the New York City art scene with work that is both innovative and traditional. Park practices the ancient techniques of basketry using mono filament and cable zip ties as elemental units. She produces organic flexible forms that seduce the eye and fit the body.

It is perhaps these aesthetical and functional simoltaniously concurring aspects that are boosting the popularity of Sui Park’s work in America. This summer alone, her work has been exhibited in Chelsea, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Como, Italy. 2014 has been a whirlwind for her, with eight shows, two major creations, and an A’ Design Award.  We caught up with her for an interview last week:

Artiholics: Has all this activity affected your creative process, or do you find a way to keep experimenting regardless?

Sui Park: The first half of 2014 has been great for me. I expect the second half to be greater. I participated in a variety of exhibitions that differ in concepts, themes and gallery spaces. They were great opportunities for me to view my work in various perspectives. While my work theme and process mostly stays the same, site specific installations do affect my work. Sometimes I am inspired by the space that I will be exhibiting. I highly value interactions between my work and the site environment.

I said “experimenting” since I’ve seen many art studies you developed during your work on your thesis at the Rhode Island School of Design, which are clearly in the same vein as your current work. Do you keep making those models before jumping into the big projects?

The term “model” and “experiment” may not be used as often in art as in architecture. But, since most of my artwork involves creating object or space with lines, I guess I do “model” or “experiment” more than some artists. Building models of my sketches may be one of the most important steps of my artwork. It tells me whether or not my thoughts can be precisely created and visualized. It also helps me figure out possible structural issues of my artwork.

I’d dare to say that your work resembles an evolution of a diversity of echinoderms adapting to human activity, but what’s the author’s take on its own art?

My work involves creating organic forms. I think it makes our lives more dynamic. Some features of my artwork emphasize remarkable forms of nature. For example, I attempt to show that organic forms that seem static are really dynamic and alive, without using kinetic components. On the other hand, I try to show that dynamic forms can be achieved under a system of modules, just as our nature is comprised of cells. In such processes, I try to add some characteristics or identities to the forms. I hope my emphasis can create inspirations and make our lives more exciting.

Your media and the technique you use are also singular. What are the properties and advantages you find in exploring basketry through cable zip ties?

Mono filament and cable zip ties are wonderful materials to work with. They are the building blocks of my artworks, like modules in architecture. They are very easy to fabricate that I can exactly manipulate in order to precisely structure my initial thoughts. But, what really fascinates and excites me is that I am constructing 3-dimensional objects and spaces with these 2-dimensional materials. The materials also perfectly fit my artwork theme. They are very flexible and translucent such that they are very effective in creating dynamic forms. Moreover, the materials effectively create irony in a sense that mass produced artificial materials of repeating patterns are used to make organic shapes.

I’ve noticed that you want to integrate your organic shapes in larger architectural structures. Could you explain the nature of this implementation? And how do you find materials strong enough to hold one or several human bodies with such dimensions?

I think it’s very attractive to anthropomorphize structures. You bring life, characters or personality into what may be merely an object, space or instrument. I think it’s very feasible to construct my artwork in an interior setting. However, it would be a challenge to apply my artwork to an exterior of a large building, say 50 storage. There should be a technology for such construction. To build and have one in the middle of a city or on a waterfront will be very attractive and aesthetic.

I’d really like to see them in place, defying traditional rectangular spaces. Is it the next step for all of us? When will we see some examples?

It is very appealing. I think such integrating projects should be carried out by carefully reviewing the original characteristics of a given space. An integration or augmentation should be taking place only if a positive result is expected. But, I think there is a great chance and even a dramatic change if an abandoned or void space can be revitalized. I expect to engage in various projects and hope to set a variety of examples of such cases.

What’s your next project? Or better, what’s the next project you would like to be commissioned for?

I always look for opportunities to super-size my artworks. A size that people enter. I think it will be influential on discussing organic forms as an art piece as well as architectural structures.

Written and photographed by Alejandro Pardo

The post Artist Sui Park Weaves Innovation & Tradition With Future Tech appeared first on Artiholics.

Last month when it was announced that Björk’s Album of apps Biophilia was being purchased by MoMA for its collection I noticed they hadn’t mentioned Max Weisel.

What I thought was the most profound thing at the time the album was designed was that a large portion of the apps on the album were designed and programmed by a teenager.

I met Max at the 2012 Volta NY pre-party  at Villain in Williamsburg few months before this article in Vice was written.  He told me about how he and developed apps for Björk’s Biophilia album, and that they constructed a playable iPad rig on stage, so he could control a lot of the music and was now touring with Bjork.

I was a huge fan, and had a huge crush on Björk in my teenage years (who didn’t?), and he introduced me to a few of her Icelandic choral background singers who were also at the party; Ester Auðunsdóttir invited me to come to their show at Roseland ballroom the next night as their guest .

Needless to say, the show was an INSANE mix of music, singing, performance art, and technology.

I caught up with Max in June 2014.  We chatted online, me from my studio in NYC, he rather appropriately on a tablet in an airplane flying to California. We talked about the inclusion of the app in MoMA’s permanent collection, his involvement in the project at such a young age (he designed the app at 18) and how it all came together.  Enjoy the Artiholics Exclusive interview with artist / programmer Max Weisel.

Artiholics:  So how did Björk find you in the first place?

Max Weisel: At the beginning, Björk had the idea to do an app album. Normally, when someone goes to do a music video or something like that, the label has people they can reach out to. They know production companies and directors. Björk herself knows a lot of people too of course. However, when they started this project (early 2010) no one was making apps for albums.

She was talking with her manager who she’s been with for 30 years and he suggested they reach out to the developers of her favorite apps. I had made some small apps at the time. Nothing too crazy in the music / creative space. I woke up one day to a comment on my wordpress blog asking for my info on behalf of Björk. I actually laughed it off and assumed someone was just messing with me. However, curiosity got the best of me. I started looking into the name attached to the comment and found a record label and a phone number. I called them up.

“Hey, this might be odd, but someone wrote a comment on my blog asking for my info for Björk”

Artiholics:  Where were you living at the time?

Max Weisel:  Arizona with my parents, I was 18 and had just graduated high school (barely :P).  The person on the other end of the line was like “Yeah! Thanks for reaching out. We’re still figuring this out, but let me get your info and I’ll shoot you an email.”

A week or so later, I got an email from Björk and her assistant with some of their ideas and the themes she was thinking about for each of the songs on the album. We kept emailing back and forth for awhile and I started putting rough concepts together.

Header photo by Joris Bulckens

Interview by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

The post Artiholics Exclusive Interview: The Teenage Programmer Behind Björk’s Biophilia App… The One MoMA Recently Acquired appeared first on Artiholics.

My favorite type of performance art (the type that involves female nudity) is taking place tonight at Petrella’s imports, a newsstand on Bowery and Canal in Manhattan, that has been turned into an art space.  The piece, by Narcissister, involves a video being projected onto a building opposite the newsstand depicting various women performing mundane everyday tasks while topless and wearing the Narcissister mask.

“It’s not just about freedom for women; it’s the idea that freedom for one means freedom for all and that it makes larger statements about freedom and equality.”

A quote by the anonymous artist who created the character of Narcissister in 2007 and has been portraying her in public ever sense from a recentan interview with writer Andrea Park for Metro.us. In the interview Narcissister goes into more depth about the project, her appearance on America’s Got Talent.

Read the full article and interview by Andrea Park on Metro.us, which also contains a NSFW gallery of Narcissister walking around the streets of NYC with mask on and breasts out.

Narcissister’s installation will show at Petrella’s Imports at Bowery & Canal at 9 p.m. on Friday; you can also see her photography at the Rockaway! arts festival from June 29 to Sept. 1 at Fort Tilden in Rockaway Beach.

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

(via metro.us – photos by Miles Dixon)

The post Mask Faced & Bare Breasted Performance Artist ‘Narcissister’ Video Installation on The Bowery appeared first on Artiholics.

Svalbard, Norway – Monday, June 16, 2014

On Saturday Artiholics caught up with New York-based artist, Vanessa Albury one day before she embarked on a journey to the Acrtic Circle.  She is a member of the 2014 Arctic Circle Residency Program, an initiative that sends artists, writers, scientists, educators, and a variety of researchers to the Arctic Circle, together.

The program seeks to create collaborations among people of different disciplines while engaging in key issues of the Arctic environment. In the best scenarios on the trip, research and different insights will spark even more idea work, while contesting views and challenges are expected and welcome too.

Simultaneously, the experience of living and working on an arctic expedition research vessel, amongst magnificent glaciers, deeply cold weather, and the summer solstice provides a matchless experience to bind the residents.

She spoke to us from Svalbard, Norway on the work it took to get into the residency, her planned projects for the trip, expectations, difficulties, and stories of problem solving.

Artiholics:  How are you feeling these days? It sounds like you just left a big project and are now going in to an even bigger one.

Vanessa Albury: It’s exciting.  It’s nice to have this time to focus on my work.  This is the kind of work that I want to be doing with my time. At the same time, it’s a lot of work.

Artiholics:  How long have you been working to get into this program? Can you tell us about the different parts for applying and preparing?

Vanessa Albury:  I first applied to this residency 3 years ago, to go on the 2012 expedition. I got rejected the first year, then rejected the second year in 2013, and accepted in 2014.  I found about the program 5 or 6 years ago, so this has been on my radar. While applying, you have to develop a project that ties in to the environment of the Arctic.

Then, after I got notification about 8 or 9 months ago, I had to sort out the fee for the program, which is $ 6,200.

I applied to 6 different grants from the United States, but I won’t hear back from any of them until the expedition is over.  So, the Kickstarter was essential. I also invested some of my own money into this.

Sounds like that campaign was very successful.

Yeah, it was.

I’ve seen other artists work on this.  It seems like the type of thing that you do once in a while. You probably won’t rely on this for a long time?

Yeah, no, you have to use it for something special, something that people will get something out of contributing to it.  Not a statement,

I thought you made good use of the internet for one of those rewards.  You broadcasted your supporters through your website.  And you’re going to bring back things for people, photographs?

Yes, and it’s important to be generous to the people who are generous to you.  Even the people who contribute $2, because $2 can make or break a campaign.  If you’re $2 under and time is up after 30 days, you don’t get the money.

I didn’t know that.  That sounds awful.

When I pressed the green “Launch” button, I went into a panic and thought, Oh my Gosh, what am I doing?  But then I found that a lot of people care about this and they care about me.

I sent group emails to some of my contacts, and then about 150 personal emails.  So 67 people contributed and that’s about 60% of the people I reached out to. They all came back and donated.  So if I were to advise someone on starting a Kickstarter, I would advise them to personally reach out to people and talk to them frequently.

[ Vanessa’s Kickstarter Campaign raised $4,886.  Originally, she set a goal of $4,700. Some of Vanessa’s incentives to donors include sending back prints, or documentation of personal messages written in the snowy Arctic landscape.]

Also, there was a lot of prep for clothing, and prepping gear – how am going to prepare for these photo based projects?  I’m not just bringing pencils.  I’m also creating a dark room on the ship and bringing projectors.

There seem to be a lot of logistical issues. Even admin work for a trip amounts to a lot.  I mean, we’re artists, but we’re also project managers.

Yes. That true. Not only project managers, we’re the creative problem solver.  Your issues involve these services companies and customer service. They don’t know how to solve the issue.  So, you just transfer and transfer until you get to the executive level and then they begin to help you.  And it still takes them hours and hours to figure out.

Oh wow.

And then you keep calling them and calling them over the course of a few weeks.

I’m glad you didn’t run into a straight “No – We can’t do this.”

You know what, I did run into a lot of “No’s.”.  But you just say, “Can I talk to your manager?”

(laugh) I’m going to remember that.

And the other good one I learned – Ask for the executive branch.  They make shit happen.  The conversation that would take hours with the customer service level, takes ten minutes with the executive level.  Here in Norway, I learned that the customer service tends to say no.; and then you just keep asking and eventually they say yes.  You just have to keep on talking to them like they are people.

I definitely like that advice … Let’s talk about the visual part of your work on this residency. I’m curious about the mediums and how you’re thinking about the pieces.

Sure, there’s two projects. One involves 4 x 5” pictures made by a 50 mm pinhole camera. I’m going to be observing what light does up here, the light play, and the how light works on the surfaces that exist up here.

There will be gelatin silver prints, fiber prints and the other project is based on a 50 mm film based, which is more involved.  I like to have more than one project going on at any given moment so that I can bounce between them.  So one that is kind of easy. The pin hole camera is not so involved.  I’ll be taking a 50 mm projector onto a boat, to project onto a glacier. And powering it with a battery.  On these glaciers, I’ll project films I shot while filming deteriorating buildings in Germany.

In my mind I’m thinking about a recent report from NASA on the unstoppable melting of the ice caps and I am trying to created a parallel space in my mind with deteriorating buildings and ruins, where the building is no longer usable but it’s still standing and has a space in the world.  The glaciers become future ruins.  So I’m projecting these building images onto the glaciers and then documenting that process.

I see. Those elements feel fitting for what you’re trying to connote.

We’re in the midnight sun right now and I’ll be competing with that situation,  seeking out caves and darker areas. At the same time, you don’t get so tired.
Oh man, really?

It’s kind of bizarre.  It’s been midnight sun since May, and I’ve been up here since April 8th.  I find that I don’t get tired so much, and I might not know what time it is.  You sleep less, and experience some manic feeling … (laughs) You get a little loopy sometimes.

(laughs) But at least everyone around you is feeling the same thing, so you can be manic together.

Yes, we’re all in the same boat …  I should mention, I’m also bringing my Holga camera, shooting some 120 film and dunking my camera under water, in a plastic bag, but that’s my version of a waterproof camera.

That’s a beautiful camera to use.

I love Holga.  It’s my favorite.

I also want to ask you about the nature of image projection (from a description of Vanessa’s work on her Kickstarter).  It sounds like it has a really cool history.

I enter that conversation through stills and the projection of stills, and dissatisfaction I found involving this conflict between images and object. People don’t think about photographs as objects they think about them as 2-D images. They think of them as windows into the world, but they are actually objects.

So I started projecting images, in my thesis show (for Graduate school at NYU).  I wanted to take the image out of a permanent place. Some of my ideas come from wanting to pull images out of space and time, so that it isn’t stagnant, it’s interpreted that way [as stagnant,] and I wanted to mess with that.

I only recently came across this idea while writing about Polaroids.

That’s an interesting space, and I live with it all the time.

So, the installations that I’ve created, they come from wanting to expand a moment, or a still into an experience or series of moments, even the video works become like that too, or looped.

I’m curious about the final project of the residency.

Yeah, I plan to do a public talk and an exhibition. Another curator invited me to show work on a performance night.  Was thinking about a film-based performance on some of my work here. We’ll be shooting some 16mm footage.  I have not figured it out exactly yet.

It sounds like that will be ok, because you’re going to be meeting all these other people, and maybe something will come about, something you’re not expecting.

Yeah, you have to be able to experiment.  I’ve been inviting happy accidents into my practice.  I like to set up projects with some looseness so that those kinds of things can come.  But I do envision screenable film, some stills, photographic prints, and installations.

Do you know anyone in that program or are you all going to meet when you begin the trip?

We met tonight.

That’s right, at the Meet and Greet.

There were about 20 people, writers, two science researchers, an architect …
Aaron O’Connor who runs the program.  He also makes work, but he doesn’t do it while he’s on the boat.  It’s a little overwhelming because every one is so interesting and there’s no time to meet everyone at the same time. They have really good projects going on.

Yeah, I’m sure you’ll get a chance to really get to know everyone when you set sail together.

I imagine so …

~~~

At the end of the program, Artiholics will catch up with Vanessa Albury  when she returns for a follow up article on her adventures in the Arctic Circle.

Vanessa Albury lives and works in New York City, where she also received her MBA from New York University.   Her practice explores analog materials and devices, international curatorial work, and writing for publications such as Art Pulse and Huffington Post.  In late May, Vanessa completed a residency at Kunstkvarteret in Stamsund, Lofoten, Norway.   The Summer Solstice Expedition of the Arctic Circle Residency Program has commenced and will end on July 1st.

Interview by Audrey Tran

Editor’s Note:  BE SURE TO READ OUR EXCLUSIVE FOLLOW-UP STORY PUBLISHED September 4, 2014

Vanessa Albury’s Journey through the Arctic Circle Residency – Part II

The post Artist Vanessa Albury Crowdfunded Artistic Passage to the Arctic Circle 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.

Vancouver, Canada – Monday, June 9, 2014

For most artists, the studio is our haven – an inner sanctum of creativity where we can escape the world outside and get down to the much more serious business of making art. But how have artists kitted out their creative cribs in years gone by and how has this helped inspire them? Let’s take a look at 5 of the strangest artists’ studios ever.

Francis Bacon’s studio at the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. Pic courtesy of Patrick van IJzendoorn

1. Francis Bacon: Chaos And Creativity

When she climbed the steep stairs up to painter Francis Bacon’s tiny studio at 7, Reece Mews, South Kensington, London in 1997, Hugh Lane Gallery director Barbara Dawson had no idea what to expect.

What she found was a chaotic assemblage including slashed canvases, paint-splattered walls, countless handwritten notes, an article on singer George Michael (!) and 1,500 photographs. And a unique insight into the mind of this Irish-born British figurative painter, famous for his raw imagery and compelling depiction of the human condition.

Francis Bacon’s studio (an exact recreation of which can be seen at the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin), is in stark contrast to the huge, open-plan spaces you might usually associate with artists’ studios.

Indeed, the artist tried working elsewhere, such as larger premises in London and a stint in South Africa, but it was always the cramped, unkempt maelstrom of inspiration in Reece Mews that he came back to.

2) Maison Marie Henry: Gaugin’s House Party in France

The rocky, uncompromising and often windswept landscape of Le Pouldu, Brittany, may seem in stark contrast to the sunny coves and palm trees of Tahiti where Paul Gaugin ended up. But it’s here that he and his fellow artist buddies, Paul Sérusier, Meijer De Haan and Charles Filiger, chose to hang out, drink cider and paint just about any available space in the house they could find.

One of Gaugin’s paintings found at Maison Marie Henry. Pic courtesy of Le.Mat
Marie, a young seamstress, lived alone at the house before making friends with the artists in the summer of 1889. Having struck up a particularly close relationship with De Haan (she gave birth to their daughter, Ida, in 1891), Marie opened her doors to these wild creative types, who returned her generosity by leaving a creative legacy that survives to this day.

The Maison Marie Henry was restored to its former glory in 2013 and now serves as a fascinating insight into the lifestyles and work of these famous French artists.

3) Calling The Shots: Firearms, Sculpture and Music With Pedro Reyes

Over in Mexico city, sculptor and musician Pedro Reyes has an unusual taste in collectibles for his studio. Guns. Lots of them. Almost 7,000 in fact. However, rather than use them to practice his aim, Pedro has turned these former weapons of destruction into instruments of joy.

His studio is like an arsenal of some of the most unusual sculptures and musical instruments you’ll ever see or play. After a Mexican government offered him the de-commissioned guns – confiscated from trigger-happy criminal types – Pedro set to work armed with buzz-saws and welding torches.

The results? A bass guitar made from the chargers of an AK-47, a harmonica made from the muzzle of a gun (where you hold the revolver to your face to play it!) and an entire drum kit fashioned from firearms.

As well as being pretty awesome, Pedro’s work also raises important issues about gun laws. His instruments have been featured in shows across the world, including The Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh and the Lisson Gallery in London.

Artist Kirsty Lorenz at work in her railway station studio in Fife, Scotland.

4) Full Steam Ahead For Scottish Artist Kirsty Lorenz

Finding a suitable studio to work in can be tricky for any artist, but a disused railway station isn’t usually one of the first places you’d look. Not so for artist, Kirsty Lorenz, who jumped at the chance when she heard about disused rooms at the railway station in the village of Ladybank, Fife, Scotland.

Producing a large bunch of old keys, station master Marjorie Ward showed Kirsty round dark and dirty old rooms that hadn’t been used for 20 years. However, rather than being put off, Kirsty was hooked. Thanks to Scotrail’s ‘Adopt a Station’ scheme (where local communities are encouraged to use disused railway buildings), she was able to set the wheels in motion for her dream workspace.

In 2009, after a long year of renovation, fundraising and hard work, Kirsty’s studio opened to the public. Those dank, uninviting, unloved rooms have now been transformed into three bright, airy spaces where Kirsty has her studio and holds regular workshops.

The staircase of one of the buildings in Hackesche Höfe. Pic by Chris Davies.

5) Awesome Alleyways: Street Art, Berlin Style

It’s amazing what you come across when taking a stroll through any one of Berlin’s fabulously bohemian streets. One such place is Hackesche Höfe – a restored courtyard and heritage site in the city’s Mitte district. As with so many nooks and crannies in this creative city, almost every available piece of space has been covered with graffiti.

Walking up the steps of one of the eight buildings in this complex, it’s amazing to see how each step and ever the handrails have been used for artistic purposes.

On each floor, you’re greeted by a new haven of creativity. There are art studios, unique fashion outlets and comic book stores to explore. It’s no wonder so my creative types view Berlin as one of their favorite cities in the world. Walking round its historic streets, it’s easy to get a sense of what must have inspired David Bowie and Lou Reed so much.

And, when you’ve finished checking out all the amazing street art, you can go and enjoy an arthouse film in the nearby Hackesche Höfe Kino – built shortly after the wall came down in 1996.

What’s your own art studio like? Is it full of things to inspire you or do you need to work a little on your environment? Perhaps you also have an unusual space to work in? Let us know – we’d love to hear about it!

The post Quirkily Creative: 5 Of The Strangest Artists’ Studios Ever appeared first on Artiholics.