The solo exhibition of artist Emil Lukas at Sperone Westwater in the Lower East Side closes on Saturday, February 22nd.  This is your last chance to take a look at his two major bodies of works being presented: Thread Paintings and Larvae Paintings.

The thread paintings aren’t actually paintings at all, but the perfect use of thread to create the illusion of minimalist gradients and color fields on canvas.

Upon closer view.

Lukas calls these type of thread painting “hums.”

The illusion of gradational color is created by the overlying strands of various colored threads which create a density of tone.

Much like overlying simple black strokes when hatching or crosshatching can build up to solid black.

These are “of unsurpassed beauty and formal complexity informed by a rigorous process of discovery and experimentation.  As an artist, Lukas is unique in his ability to harness the physical attributes of materials and organic processes” to quote Harry Philbrick, Director of the Museum of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, who interviewed the artist for the accompanying catalogue.

Lukas’ distinctive use of everyday organic materials, such as thread, silk, or larvae, and his innovative techniques create intricate works which engage the viewer in an intimate and contemplative way. The accumulation of lines characterizes Lukas’ works — materials do not exist independently, but are layered and stratified.  His process is one in which creation and composition occur simultaneously.

Thread Paintings, such as the four part work Artillery or Poppy Red, 2013, engage with color, opacity, density as well as reflection of light, creating radiant three-dimensional objects which the artist describes as “atmospheres”.

Larvae Paintings, such as Cloud, 2013, emphasize the surfaces on which sinuous lines meander in a random composition, the result of larvae traveling across the canvas drawing traces of ink and paint.

The lines are so delicate and spontaneous, because the ink covered larvae don’t understand they are creating artwork

Emil Lukas photographed by Cojo at the opening reception.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1964, Emil Lukas has exhibited throughout the United States and abroad, including the solo exhibition “Emil Lukas: Connection to the Curious” at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT, in 2005. His work is in important private and public collections, such as the Panza Collection, Italy; The Dakis Joannou Collection, Greece; and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas.

Written and Photographed by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”
[video by Blouin Artinfo]

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Castle Fitzjohns Gallery, Lower East Side, New York, NY – Gabriel Gimenez, an artist born and raised in Miami, has invented his own icon: Fado. Fado is the character he connects with the most personally among all the characters he has generated over his career as an artist. He uses Fado to convey his different themes, and he uses this character as a way of telling a story.

In one of his paintings Gabriel had references to Jeff Koons, Keith Haring, Banksys, Basquiat, and Andy Warhol. He creates connections with these major artists by referencing their recognizable appearances. Keith Haring for instance, was standing above the “radiant baby,” his iconic symbol representing his work. Keith Haring created a plethora of line drawings that symbolized a multitude of characters with different implications of nuclear holocaust, sexuality, AIDS, and commercialism. Gabriel seemed to be influenced by Haring’s large overtones with simple line drawings. Gabriel’s work created an extension of line work’s powerful ability to convey big meaning that Haring had generated, except Gimenez supplemented Fado.“Fado,” as Gimenez states, implies a character of “curiosity and confusion,” with one eye bulging large, and one eye small. Gabriel drew upon Haring’s and Warhol’s implications of commercialism by referencing the dollar symbol within many of his works, suggesting  the commercialistic society we currently abide by.

Gimenez, in his pull to engage the audience with pressing contemporary issues references Steve Jobs and  Mac computers, and how they echo Warhol’s concept of the Campbell’s soup can. Mac computers are mass produced, often to break down within an agitating short amount of time. A Mac computer, which consumers wish to love and cherish, becomes another perishable consumer product, just like a Campbell’s soup can. An image that we see repeatedly, that we in turn worship as an object that will bring function and happiness to our lives, is yet another material possession produced by a corporation that essentially wants to take our money, and does not truly care about our satisfaction. 

He is a self taught artist, he didn’t go to school for art, which explains the sense of raw urgency behind his work. His style has not been filtered and watered down by academia. Gabriel produces an extraordinary amount of paintings, all clearly generated by him. Gabriel samples different artists’ work, as he says, as a “hip hop artist.” He aims to create “new ways of how society sees things.”.

The most pivotal point in his work is a “personal expression.” He aims to express spontaneous things. He filled the entire downstairs of Castle Fitzjohns Gallery with paintings all of a consistent visual icon. Fado took over the paintings, and marked Gabriel’s signature character within different themes of cultural iconography, whether it be Fado as Darth Fader, or Fado as the Beatles, or Fado as any of the many artists icons that Gimenez is influenced by. Fado is Gimenez’s way of creating a footing within society, generating a new symbol that society is faced with. Fado is a defiant expression of an artist who competes with domineering figures and symbols that we cannot escape, by supplementing its own face amongst the chaos of a money driven society.

I asked him if his work will evolve over time, and he responded that for the past 2 years, his work has become more conceptual, in that it targets concepts more than aesthetics. It has changed from graphics into work that has become more idea-based. He feels that he is expressing things at their essence.

I asked him if he believed in a higher power, or in a soul. He responded that as far as a spirituality, he is still trying to chase that idea, and he is trying to comprehend spirituality, and his work suggests that search. He is primarily sharing ideas for other people. He feels that any artist sharing his/her work is a spiritual practice.

Gabriel feels that he is always pushing himself.  Marcel Duchamp is the artist that is pushing him the most, and although none of Duchamp’s concepts directly influences Gimenez’s work, understanding how theoretical Duchamp’s work goes, pushes Gabriel to extend his boundaries, and dig deeper with his visions.

written and photographed by Andrew Kaminski

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TONIGHT:  FADO: the last man The artwork of GG (Gabriel Gimenez)
7-10 PM – Thursday, Jan 23, 2014 Castle Fitzjohns Gallery  -98 Orchard St, Ny, Ny 10002

Castle Fitzjohns Gallery is pleased to announce the latest exhibition from
international pop-artist, Gabriel Gimenez (b 1991), or GG, ‘Fado: the last man‘.
Born in Venezuela, based in Miami, but exhibiting from Milan to Berlin, Los
Angeles to New York, this 23-year-old sensation redefines the role of the cultural
icon with his own. Warhol, Basquiat, Wonder woman, and Batman: at the end of
history, GG uses an original caricature, Fado, to explore at the intersection of
personal memoir, popular culture, and a rugged street aesthetic, exemplifying a
playful, but at times dark ethos of ‘confusion and curiosity’—by an artist not
emerging, but ever emergent—at the forefront of art and design.

Undeniably the most successful emerging pop artist out of Miami today, GG self
describes as a composite and mercurial figure: at once a visual artist, designer,
and muralist. Commercially inflected, but deeply culturally relevant, GG’s
concern lies in the development and exploration of a hopeful anxiety—that of
attempting to understand contemporary human experience whilst ever trapped
in its milieu. On this journey, GG develops the character of ‘Fado’—an
interpretation of stories told to the artist as a child by his father, and, moreover, a
trademark character which the artist employs to undo the mythos behind the
heroic promises of popular culture.
Though not renouncing the onus of the contemporary artist to probe the abyssal
depths of a psycho-somatic apocalyptical mindset which is that of culture in the
wake of history (whether après 9/11, après financial crisis or so forth), GG’s
visually sharp contrasts express what Alex Williams of the New York Times called a
more probing propensity of artists from Miami, a city abundant with stories of
hope and migration, a reflection of the “tendency of locals to behold this city of
sharp contrasts (racial, economic) as a palm-dotted land of opportunity”. Yet
iconographic impulse of GG’s work, existing within the liminal space between art
and design, cartoon and critique, pushes further into the contemporary moment
than the overtly celebratory image making of his predecessors.
Born of the heritage of Miami’s Soflo Superflat movement, a cultural and regional
adaptation of the Japanese artist Takahashi Murakami’s self-proclaimed
Superflat movement itself, and revealing similar qualities of heavy outline, flat

color planes, and above all, the development of an idiosyncratic visual
vocabulary through the use of repetitive imagery. ‘Fado’ is not simply a
character, but a new way of speaking back to a(n) (art) world and culture
whose heroic past both delights and disappoints a new generation looking
towards an uncertain future with both hesitance and exuberance. GG’s
creations express the rough edged experience of street art, coupled with a
persistent desire to hold fast to the at once hopeful and deflated reveries of
childhood naiveté.

I wrote about GG’s last NYC show  on Artsucks.com (read here).

Posted by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

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Our own Artiholics Writer Laura West is having a solo show which opens tonight.

CHROMA
/krōma/ intensity of color (Event Page on Facebook)
Exhibit: January 6 – February 3rd, 2014

Le Salon d’Art – 90 Stanton Street, Lower East Side, NYC
Opening Party: Friday, January 10th – 7pm-10pm

Laura West, a NYC based artist/writer, explores bright colors, dark images and uses this emotional release to dictate the route of her work. The high-energy and physicality of throwing string gel paint over a meticulous base is a rush that is visible in all of her bold colors, expressive drips and often off-kilter subject matter. Laura earned her BFA as a full scholarship recipient in Screenwriting and Studio Art at New York University. She has exhibited her work in various shows across NY, was published in a collection of national/international magazines as well as featured in an interview on RTN (Russian Television Network).

www.lgwest.com

With a special performance by singer/songwriter Gillian Grogan at 9pm.

www.facebook.com/bluegrassnbees

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In case you haven’t been paying attention, galleries have been sprouting up in the Lower East Side left and right. With hundreds of galleries in the LES , it’s hard to keep up with all the openings. Artiholics has your back when it comes to know which galleries to check out, and what upcoming and established artists are making their presence known.

Last Thursday, the Broadway Gallery displayed the work of ninteen artists in the opening for their newest show Artists at Home and Abroad: December Edition. The theme was simply International and local emerging artists showing together in New York. This is a special gallery that seeks new talent with very little gallery experience, and helps upcoming artists network with internationally renown artists. This article is a recap of that show. I encourage you to check it out.

An artist that particularly caught my attention was Loreal Prystaj. Her work on display was a dramatic black and white photograph with a gorgeous composition. This piece showed the back of a woman, gazing out into the horizon of a vast body of water.

This piece intrigued me, and I later discovered more of Loreal’s work, which turned out to be stunning. Way to go Loreal. Hopefully she’ll have a solo show soon. She certainly deserves it, and will surely captivate a large overcrowded gallery at that opening.

Another artist, Paola Frisoli, had two large vibrant paintings on display. Frisoli takes you into her colorful world, and you quickly realize that she wants to bring simply happiness to the viewer in a playful and childlike manner. She has come all the way from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Her artwork, she describes, favors the colors, with their volumes and symbols, where there is harmony between the point and understanding.” She doesn’t speak English fluently, but she radiated a peaceful and benevolent vibration

Next was artist Duane e. Hilburn, who was excited to tell me his story. This man survived cancer, was shot in the neck, and worked his way from nothing, to eventually being in this gallery. He had a gripping story of survival, and he feels he has just a little bit more time to live. His artwork was made from construction materials such as sheetrock, cement, and other materials used to construct buildings. In his life, he was an architect, and his history of constructing has led him to build his immense, and heavy sculptures/paintings/reliefs.

His work reflects his near death experiences, and reveals the mind of an extremely hard worker, with the faith that he is here for a greater purpose. Good luck Duane!

There was also David M. Bowers, whose work was reminiscent of the early Renaissance painters, with qualities of realism, and a skill of conveying the illusion of real flesh and subject matters. His work was humorous, seductive, and incredibly skillful. He had two paintings on display, and they will awe you in their ability to convey realistic imagery, with a touch of fantasy.

So much wall space was covered that the artwork barely had any room to breathe, but this gallery’s motive behind their shows is to showcase upcoming talent, and compliment them with their selection of International talent.

Since the show was a group show, none of the artist’s work was extensively explored, but rather each piece displayed was a tease, inviting you to take a further step, and check out the artist’s oeuvre within their website.

December Artists Include:

Make sure to check out the gallery’s supportive NY Arts magazine for more information.

Broadway Gallery
473 Broadway, Floor 7 |  New York, NY

Gallery Hours:  Monday – Friday,  10 AM – 6 PM

Written and photographed by Andrew Kaminski

Slideshow photographed by Cojo

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Woke up late and having a lazy Saturday?  Want to get out of the apartment, get some fresh air, and do something fun to do that involves music, visual, and performance art?  Well, you are in luck.  Right now till 6 pm The New Museum’s IDEAS CITY is happening ALL AROUND NEW YORK CITY.

With so many things happening in so many places around the city you can plan your itinerary right on that website.  As you do, one thing you will not want to miss is the NEW MUSEUM UNTAPPED Music In The Park.

One of several events as part of IDEAS CITY happening today at Sara D. Roosevelt Park on Houston, between Chrystie and Forsyth.  Michael Alan and crew will be performing The Living Installation right now until 4pm.

If you do make a trip down to the Lower East Side to check out the performances, you can do like I did yesterday (the day before IDEAS CITY came to the park) and check out the local art scene of the L.E.S.

I walked around the park casually stopping in at all the art galleries in the neighborhood (which there are plenty) to see which of them would be open today during IDEAS CITY.  You can follow my trail and check out a bunch of great art not on the radar of the New IDEAS CITY itinerary, and have a little adventure for yourself. It’s a beautiful day for a walk, and parking around the park is restricted today, so if you have to drive, be sure to park far away and walk over.

Here is are some photos (in walking order) of the other art happening and galleries around the park or within a block or two’s walk away from the park that I stumbled on while just walking around (and you can too!).  A bunch of galleries were installing shows that were opening today, so enjoy!

The clock is ticking, go out and get some rays, and experience some art!

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

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