Jamian Juliano-Villani

Self Portrait (2011)

2011-04-04T11:23:00.002-04:00

My first self portrait in five years, I used Mapplethorpe's self portrait as my reference.

THIRD REICH 'N ROLL

2011-02-23T17:27:00.002-05:00

My imagined implications of socialist ethic in art and music (which is often overlooked in lieu of its fertility as an art form). Spanning from Christo and Jean-Claude (whom I used to dismiss as shitty) to Dylan Thomas, Dan Graham and Henry Cow's RIO collective. Don't worry, it's political in the most vague sense; I only talk about the Weimar Republic in one paragraph.

JAMIAN JULIANO-VILLANI: THIRD REICH 'N ROLL

New Work continued

2011-02-23T17:18:00.003-05:00

Celebrate, 2011. Colored mylar, laserjet print, electrical tape, pom-pom.

Renaissance Man, 2011. Plexiglass, spray paint, acrylic, laserjet print, silk, electrical tape.

Rainbow Room, 2011. Laserjet print, handmade light fixture, plexiglass, masking tape, oil paint.

New Work

2011-02-23T17:10:00.002-05:00

Untitled, 2011. Windex bottle, nylon rope, MDF, rubber, fluorescent light.

Merlin, 2011. MDF, plexiglass, enamel.

LIFE, 2011. PVC coated polyester, acrylic, MDF, SOLO cup, Nickelodeon Gak.

CHALLENGER, 2011. Astroturf, reflective scrim, rope light, hula-hoop.

Benz-Lenz, 2011. Acrylic, plexiglass, canvas.

Save Marilyn Manson

2010-11-03T15:22:00.001-04:00

Save Marilyn Manson, 2010. Dimensions variable, acrylic on canvas, electrical tape, clear vinyl.

GOAL (with an accident)

2010-11-03T15:19:00.001-04:00

GOAL (with an accident), 2010. 10" x 12", acrylic, collage.

Black Brain

2010-11-03T15:18:00.000-04:00

Black Brain, 2010. Dimensions variable, concrete, acrylic.

Good Times!, 2010

2010-11-03T15:17:00.000-04:00

Good Times!, 2010. 9" x 11", acrylic on canvas.

Retro-Spection

2010-11-03T15:15:00.000-04:00

Retro-Spection, 2010. 16" x 16", acrylic on canvas.

Patricia Caulfield

2010-11-03T15:13:00.000-04:00

Patricia Caulfield, 2010. 10" x 10", acrylic on canvas.

Big Business

2010-11-03T15:09:00.001-04:00

Big Business, 2010. 22" x 22", acrylic on canvas.

Ambassador (for the old Mike Kelley)

2010-11-03T15:06:00.001-04:00

Ambassador (for the old Mike Kelley), 2010. 11" x 9", xerox print-out, button, acrylic on canvas.

Double Dare, 2010

2010-11-03T15:01:00.001-04:00

Double Dare, 2010. 12" x 8", electrical Tape, plexiglass, wood, mylar, graphite.

Free/Bomb video still, 2010.

2010-10-12T14:23:00.001-04:00

Bomb, 2010. Video still.
Free, 2010. Video still.

Untitled, 2010.

2010-09-20T17:19:00.002-04:00

Untitled, 2010. Plexiglass, masking tape, MDF, acrylic, latex paint.

Snowspear

2010-09-20T17:18:00.001-04:00

Snowspear, 2010. Wood, plexiglass, acrylic, rubber, reflector.

Triple Threat

2010-09-20T17:15:00.004-04:00

Triple Threat, 2010. Wood, acrylic, plexiglass, paper, extension cord, UV light, spray paint.

2010-09-19T12:08:00.003-04:00

It's been a very, very long time since I've used this. I don't think I've even posted some decent images of my thesis. Well, the summer was a tumultuous and busy one for me, but I've accumulated some technical skills from my job at Kremer NYC. And after losing all my materials, I'm slowly rebuilding my studio. But good news; more work, more sculptures, more writing.

Available Paintings for sale

2010-06-22T09:42:00.002-04:00

AMOC (cleaning up)

2010-04-23T22:39:00.000-04:00

Cleaning the mat

2010-04-23T22:38:00.001-04:00

Building the box

2010-04-23T22:07:00.003-04:00

Installation!

2010-04-19T03:36:00.002-04:00

Anger, 2010.

2010-04-16T00:35:00.001-04:00

Anger, 2010. Acrylic on canvas, 17" x 17".

Selected Excerpts

2010-04-15T00:08:00.003-04:00

Selected Excerpts, 2010. Two texts (Heinrich Boll's 18 Stories and The Future of Fascism), plexiglass, felt, found objects. Dimensions variable.

Both texts are opened and displayed on page 121.

A.M.O.C. object

2010-04-08T01:15:00.001-04:00

So far, so good. One of the crawl spaces I'm making for my thesis. I'll do some more shit to it hopefully by Friday.

Untitled (downtime)

2010-04-08T01:13:00.002-04:00

Untitled (downtime), 2010. Acrylic on wood, felt, found objects, dimensions variable.

P.I.L.S.

2010-04-08T01:12:00.002-04:00

P.I.L.S., 2010. Acrylic on canvas, 18" x 18".

Thesis development

2010-04-06T22:15:00.002-04:00

Giving you and I some idea of the A.M.O.C. objects (not done yet, letting it sit with me for a bit).

New Painting

2010-04-06T22:13:00.001-04:00

Untitled, 2010. Wood, plexiglass, linoleum, enamel & acrylic paint. Dimensions variable.

New Painting!!

2010-04-05T22:39:00.003-04:00

Santa Cruz On The Yellow Strip, 2010. Acrylic on canvas, 18" x 18".

2010, Archie & Annie

2010-03-31T00:34:00.003-04:00

Above: Archie & Annie, 2010. Acrylic on vellum, 18" x 24".

Above: Detail of Archie & Annie.

Thesis development

2010-03-31T00:28:00.002-04:00

Above: Crude sketches of some of the objects.

Above: The large piece of insulation foam that will serve as a "reflector"; the other side is a metallic silver that will reflect the color of the A.M.O.C. objects and the rest of the gallery. I'm building a wooden jig with wheels so that the foam can move horizontally along a track, allowing it to obscure some of the objects or reveal them.

Felix, 2010

2010-03-24T15:12:00.002-04:00

Above: Felix (with detail), 2010. Acrylic on canvas, 12" x 12".

Athens, 2010

2010-03-24T15:08:00.001-04:00

Above: Athens, 2010. Acrylic on canvas. 18 x 24. Details and painting sketches included, dimensions variable.

Empty Flag, 2010.

2010-03-24T15:07:00.003-04:00

Above: Empty Flag, 2010. Vinyl, felt, velour paper, found objects. Dimensions variable.

Prolifics Series 2010

2010-03-21T23:31:00.003-04:00

A series of artist portraits I did using the Simpsons Movie "Simpsonize Me" avatar creator.Above: Carl Andre
Above: Robert Smithson
Above: Richard TuttleAbove: Mike Kelley
Above: Anish Kapoor
Above: Donald Judd
Above: Eva Hesse

New Video: Excerpt from Antichrist, 2010

2010-03-21T13:39:00.002-04:00

A video collaboration between myself, John Amelchenko and Lars von Trier.

BFA Thesis Catalog Image

2010-03-15T22:05:00.002-04:00

I need help picking out the image to use as the backdrop to my artist statement for my BFA Thesis Exhibition at Mason Gross. I could just pick an image myself, but since a majority of my work is about democratic looking, it seems kind of backwards not to ask the people who will actually be looking at my work what they think. Here is my artist statement, and the poll to choose which image best represents that (as well as my thesis proposal, Democratic Looking/An M.O.C.).

Artist Statement:

Simultaneously rejecting and embracing the historicity surrounding painting, my work marries confusion, humor, pretense and democratic viewing. Visible production methods and unceremonious materials are key, my goal is to demystify the artist as an enlightened visionary and social critic and create a colloquial experience for the artist and non-artist alike.

Image Choices:

Picture 1 (Film Still from performance Poor Painting/Floor Painting). In this performance, I made a painting (essentially just a boxed blinking emergency light). The concept was that the painting couldn't function as a painting unless a)it was plugged in and b) it was next to its "father" painting (Celebration, the wood/streamer sculpture next to it). In the performance I kick and throw the painting until the emergency light shatters.
Picture 2 (Vision and Prayer, silkscreen on found paper). A Dylan Thomas poem from his Collected Poems (a poem in which I understand as the individual spirit as having an energy separate from one's flesh). When originally published, the poem was in the shape of a diamond, I reprinted it to emphasize the separation of the shape of the text as its own body apart from Thomas'. The patterns in the paper were formed by nailing it into the wall, then unfolding it.
Picture 3 (Untitled/ two sticks glued and taped together with a plastic bag). My remedial method of object making (the best I know how) i.e. the get-it-done mentality.
Picture 4 (Messy Studio): When I'm in my "creative whirlwind", or burnt out, same thing.
Picture 5 (Untitled/Gimmicks Series): From a single day attempt at an installation through thinking through typographical mentality (the grid). Simple to make and easy to look at, I used gimmicky materials (astroturf, neon, lights) to elicit a brief reaction, then an even quicker dismissal.
Picture 6 (American Experimental Film & Video 2009). Inspired by the guilt of skipping class to work in the studio (when I had no materials to work with), this sculpture was made out of garbage I found around. It gets its name from the class I skipped to make it.

Installation/Project Space

2010-03-10T12:38:00.004-05:00

A collaborative installation between artist Erik Schoonebeek and myself in the Project Space @ Mason Gross School of the Arts. The address is:

Room #227

33 Livingston Ave.

New Brunswick, NJ

08901

Draag

2010-03-10T12:33:00.002-05:00

Draag, 2010. Dimensions variable, Acrylic on canvas, plexiglass, wood, felt.

ZIP

2010-03-10T12:31:00.002-05:00

ZIP, 2010. Silkscreen and acrylic on BFK.

Party Painting

2010-03-10T12:30:00.002-05:00

Party Painting, 2010. 8" x 8", acrylic on canvas.

'07 ITC

2010-03-08T21:10:00.001-05:00

'07 ITC, 2010. 10" x 10", acrylic on canvas.

10 X 10 (X 2)

2010-03-08T16:40:00.001-05:00

10 X 10 (X 2). 2010, 10" x 10", acrylic on canvas, found book.

Nightmare Theatre

2010-03-08T16:39:00.001-05:00

Nightmare Theatre, 2010. 12" x 8", acrylic & gouache on paper.

Great Depression

2010-03-08T16:27:00.003-05:00

Great Depression, 2010. 8" x 8" x 8". Pegboard, blacklight, cardstock, spraypaint, electrical tape.

CCR/Bad Moon Rising (inside, 5-10)

2010-03-07T17:00:00.004-05:00

CCR/Bad Moon Rising (inside, 1-5)

2010-03-07T16:51:00.007-05:00

I made these when the chimney in my house apparently backfired due to a generic brand Duraflame log. My house was filled with smoke and could have potentially burned to the ground, I decided it would be a great time to make some videos. As the candle burned, the smoke dissipated (as if the videos pacified a fire).

My John Cale article, finally!

2010-03-04T16:08:00.002-05:00

Finally out in this month's issue of the Rail, my article of John Cale @ MoMA's Looking At Music: Side 2 lecture series. Here's the link:

The Academy in Peril An Evening With John Cale at MoMA

New Work: Gaza Strip

2010-03-03T15:18:00.002-05:00

Gaza Strip, 2010. MDF, electrical tape, plexiglass, laserjet print, acrylic, bubble wrap, UV bulb.

New Painting

2010-03-02T10:52:00.001-05:00

A grotesque face on top of an old painting.

Thesis Development

2010-02-26T17:41:00.003-05:00

Here is a rough sketch of the objects that I'll be making for my thesis, Democratic Looking/ A.M.O.C. (a minimalist obstacle course). I apologize for the poor photos (due to the snow, I don't have access to a large format scanner). I'm trying to channel William Morris, a drunk Dike Blair, Socialism, utilitarian design and Discipline & Punish all under the umbrella of a Zappa ethos. I'll go into detail later, I'm still confused myself.

The Commercial Album

2010-02-26T11:29:00.004-05:00

The Residents channeled the inclusiveness of American pop music through satiric vision and unconventional (I should just say straight out fucking weird) methods. Willfully obscuring themselves from the media, they have remained "a riddle of Sphinx-like proportions". No one knows who's in the band (there are rumors, but no hard evidence), and their faces are obscured with their typical disguise; giant eyeball helmets and tuxedos. Yes, really. Despite this, they have a strong cult following and their 1979 album Eskimo was nominated for a grammy.

Above: The Residents' Eskimo.

However, their 1980 release, Commercial Album is their most powerful album to date. The Residents believed that the average commercial pop songs can be stripped and de-fluffed to about one minute of actual music. Commercial Album contains 40 one-minute vignettes in homage to the deflated song.

Pushing this even further, a day after the release of the record, The Residents bought forty 60-second slots at San Francisco's number one pop radio station and had all the tracks played over two day period. They made music videos for several of the tracks, which are now a part of MoMA's permanent collection.

This simultaneous denial and homage (like some of my other posts on bands like The Art of Noise, Mothers of Invention's Cruising With Ruben and the Jets) using false appellations to release their work, they create intense speculation over their agenda but still create beautiful pop songs, prompting us to forget why we cared about all this other shit in the first place.

Here are two of their one-minute music videos from the Commercial Album:

Forty tracks seems like a lot to digest, I'll list my personal favorites.

Track 2: Perfect Love

Track 5: Amber

Track 11: Floyd

Track 14: The Nameless Souls

Track 16: The Act of Being Polite

Track 20: Simple Song

Track 22: Possessions

Track 29: Moisture

Track 32: Troubled Man

Track 35: Nice Old Man

Track 36: The Talk of Creatures

Track 41: When We Were Young

The best painting in the Zimmerli

2010-02-24T18:12:00.003-05:00

Alexander Kosolapov

Malevich Sold Here, 1989. Acrylic on canvas.

Kosolapov’s 1989 Malevich Sold Here is irritating. This headache of a painting is also effective. An unconvincing rough-toothed canvas looks like burlap (which doesn’t aid the cross-grained and bristled paint), all while housing a relatively tight hard-edge painting. Certainly hand-painted, Kosolapov’s text looks as if been taped off and lifted with a dull blade. Paint nicks the edge of the words “MALEVICH SOLD HERE” over a close crop of the Marlboro cigarette pack.

Kosolapov's synergy of Soviet Communist and American Capitalist icons blend effortlessly. Channeling a deep design structure akin to Lissitzky, Kosolapov's radically conflicting images of Soviet Communism and American consumption import social elements that destroy its environment and "cheapify" all the other paintings within a 15 foot vicinity.

The reason I love Kosolapov's painting is the sheer cheesiness of the thing. Not quite poetic (or even prosaic), this demands a ridiculous relationship to be formed between the Marlboro corporate identity and the suprematist painter. Since this is impossible (well, not really, but rooted in an abstracted approach to commodity) we have to turn to formal issues such as the lines of the cigarette pack versus the M in Malevich. Really remedial formalities, which I like.

Group Show @ LAB: incomplete

2010-02-24T01:32:00.004-05:00

incomplete, a group show of my work as well as artists Matt Mancini and AV Ryan, is up from 2/10 till this Friday (2/29). Yeah, seriously, a week. It's at L.A.B. @ MGSA, Rutgers (off of Joyce Kilmer Ave). In case you can't make it, this is what it looks like:

Cluster Combo

2010-02-15T04:39:00.002-05:00

Cluster Combo, 2010. 9" x 12", acrylic on bristol.

Mike Kelley (via Mikey Dread/Rasta Nation)

2010-02-15T04:37:00.001-05:00

Mike Kelley (via Mikey Dread/Rasta Nation), 2010. 9" x 12", acrylic on bristol.

Cult as nature

2010-02-15T00:36:00.001-05:00

Cult as nature, 2010. 10" x 10", acrylic on canvas.

NEW YORK POST

2010-02-15T00:33:00.002-05:00

NEW YORK POST, 2010. 16" x 18", acrylic on canvas.

Rat Fink, 2010.

2010-02-12T14:01:00.002-05:00

Rat Fink, 2010. 15" x 18", acrylic on canvas.

Individual Crit/Thesis Group

2010-02-12T13:34:00.003-05:00

I'm required to post a response to my individual critique with members of my thesis group. Honestly, really disappointed. Virtually no input or feedback (with the exception of one other peer), and I found myself basically begging for some sort of reaction (even confusion would have been cool with me). I explicitly stated the agenda of my works in progress:

-Using cultural references as common territory (Rat Fink, Calvin & Hobbes, Korn), as a method to abolish the idea of private property (i.e. "private viewing").

-Simultaneously an homage, as well as an exploitation (think Mothers of Invention's Cruising With Ruben and The Jets).

-Painting as a direct testimony, one that clarifies, not mystifies.

-Looking as an act of choice, regardless of craftsmanship or crudeness, any art object delivers a primary choice.

I won't complain about silent crits, but I'm just frustrated because I always contribute (not just to fill the air, but out of real interest and curiosity). Are people really that disinterested in my work? Are you confused, bored, tired? Either it's those things, or no one knows what to say. Nevertheless, I would really benefit from more of a response, and I'm getting increasingly pissed (and no, not just because it was too early to look at everyone's shit at 10:00 am).

Dan Graham: Driving It Home

2010-02-07T16:47:00.004-05:00

Dan Graham's early work intended for its publication in magazines. His complex interrogation of the economics of minimalism and vanguard style's "lack of relation" to a wider social modernity. Graham's disgust with the pervasive and immoral commodification of the avant-garde comes out abrasively in this disillusioned and pissed-off lecture.

Much like Lawrence Weiner (and Michael Asher's) disgust with selling work, the discourse surrounding the attempt at a public and free art is a novel one, albeit a dire one, too. Graham's effort to make a more democratic relation to his audience is direct by placing one of his works in the middle of a 1968 issue of Harper's Bazaar.

Above: Dan Graham, Figurative (detail), 1965, Magazine layout published in Harper's Bazaar (March 1968 issue)

Dan Graham (b. 1942) from "Presentation to an Open Hearing of the Art Workers Coalition".

Graham talks of the individual artist, after his work has been "realized" and his labor has been redeemed (in either printed publication, review, show, etc.):

"The stuff is transformed when it is transposed into imposed "higher" values. First, a gallery, then, perhaps a museum, and further extended by translation into the data of art information when reproduced in an art magazine; at which point the artist, seeing the transposition, is pissed off."

On subject/objecthood (we can even relate this to a critical view on masculinities and ownership via "subject/honor & object/shame"):

"The subject is the artist, the object is to make art free."

Graham unmasks the "spiritual essence" of concept based art:

"The conceptual artist conceives of a pure art without material base, conceived simply by giving birth to new ideas - an art that would ideally mean and not be of baseball or Monopoly in the den, a game without ball, bat, gravity, dice or money. But it's free and like sex, with a minimum of two people (subject/object; inside/outside; yin/yang; receiver/sender; people who takes pictures of each other just to prove that they really existed) anyone can play, making their rules as they go along."

Do you hear that? ANYONE CAN PLAY!

A video still from Graham's Rock My Religion video (1982), one of my favorites.

Cluster: Helle Melange, 1981.

2010-02-07T01:43:00.000-05:00

Stepping on toes: John Yau vs. Jerry Saltz

2010-02-06T23:25:00.001-05:00

Initially being hesitant to post any sort of response to this (I'm a Saltz fan, but I've had John Yau as a teacher and also work for the Rail). Regardless, fuck it.

Yau's article in the February issue of The Brooklyn Rail endlessly quotes Saltz's "promotion" of Koons' career (is that even possible?). I'll admit, Mr. Saltz does seem rather star-struck:

"One warm evening I stopped by the GE Building to see Puppy’s progress. No one was around except Koons, wearing a green plastic hard hat. He amiably greeted me, and, after a bit, asked whether I’d like to set a flower in place. ‘Would I ever!’ I replied. He told me to pick a flower from a nearby tray and place it ‘anywhere you want.’ I picked up a petunia, eyed Puppy, and set it in a front paw. I was thrilled. ‘That’s great, Jerry,’ Koons said, before pausing, pulling my petunia out, and moving it a centimeter to the left. Now I was flabbergasted.”

I'd assume this reaction would translate as endearing (and maybe even honest) coming from a critic. In the eyes of John Yau, Saltz is brazenly championing Koons as the artist of the decade. This argument is not about Jeff Koons and Puppy, but two opposing views on how to digest and mediate art. Koons' idea of morality is one birthing from economics (and I don't think we should take it out of context). Yau does, arguing that the emblematic "American" nature of Koons is not our America, and he wants no part in it. This is confusing, in my eyes the most patriotic act is to be an "un-American" American. This new school vs. old school criticism boils down to whether you are willing to acknowledge work that is already heavily embedded into an art culture, and if you want to perpetuate the capitalism that's taking place.

However, I agree with John. Why the fuck would anyone want to champion Jeff Koons? He already does it himself (I can't imagine anyone actually promoting him in seriousness). Is Jerry joking? The ominous Koons sculptures are universally valid as art, regardless if you like them or not. John brings up a good point:

"The idea that people can think for themselves is frightening, as anyone who reads a museum wall label or gallery press release knows. Better they be spoonfed."

Saltz says:

“Koons’s Rabbit proclaims its erotic sensitivity and passive resilience, rather than a gluttonous, machine-like sexuality. His choice of a rabbit is not only a coy hint about the power of his sexual drive, but also a nod to society’s eroticization of children, of individuals powerless to resist. The coyness is what makes it endearing to the audience."

But, as brilliantly said by Mike Kelley, "...in terms of alliance of the artist, I think more to the point is the whole modernist cult of the child, in which the child was seen as this innocent figure of pure, unsocialized creativity. Which is a crock of shit, and is part of the problem and not the solution."

Koons and Jerry both know what they're doing, how to do it, and get paid. At the end of the day, who is writing for free?

Mike Kelley, Dirty Toys (interview by Ralph Rugoff)

2010-02-06T22:14:00.003-05:00

Not going to bore you and dissect this interview from 1991. However, I will pull out some quotes that I think say everything.

Above: Mike Kelley, Little Friend.

The Poetics of Mike Kelley

MK: "Culturally speaking, the only way you know is something is 'quality' is by virtue of the classificatory systems that have been set up. Yet for me, pleasure comes from bouncing off those definitions and categories. So quality things are precisely those things that are hard to classify. Those are the interesting things."

MK: "Now all I think of is money."

MK: I'm of the generation of artists for whom there was an extreme reaction against the handmade and cliched ideas of self-expression, including the notion that the handmade art object revealed a personal, expressive psychology. I still think there is every reason to rebel against that idea, but I also think that to fixate on corporate modes of image making and on mass-produced imagery is wrongheaded, because it's really easy for that style to become overly classical, despite the rhetoric of populism surrounding it."

MK: "The handmade is now pitiful."

MK: "You can say art is useless, but then you have to ask, 'What's the use of the useless person in society?' There is use for him. So then what does 'irresponsible' mean?"

TOTAL DESTRUCTION

2010-02-06T22:04:00.002-05:00

This is the vacuum I've been tripping on the past week. Out of control.

Circle Jerks

2010-02-06T22:02:00.002-05:00

Circle Jerks, 2010. Silkscreen, acrylic. 10" x 10"

New Paintings

2010-02-03T22:54:00.003-05:00

Pissed, 2010. Acrylic, laser print. Part of a larger installation about fetishizing materials (I'm making a project based on what I would want to see visually, i.e. bright colors, flashy materials, light, and "things that match"). I should have some images up by tomorrow (I hope).
Choice painting, 2010.

Velcro-backed painted objects can be arranged any way the viewer wants, giving them a choice to edit the painting. Of course, the choice is limited because the objects are one I've made and decided where they can be placed. I'll post later all the choices and compositions that could be options.

Studio Visits: Wendy White/Marc Handelman

2010-01-29T22:29:00.006-05:00

Yesterday I had the privilege of having not one, but two studio visits with artists Wendy White and Marc Handelman.

After our Career Panel Roundtable for our BFA Thesis, Wendy had visited my studio and we made plans for me to stop by hers in Brooklyn. I don't want to reveal too much about her new work, but I was intrigued when she showed me the back of her new paintings (I never get to see the backs of paintings, always interesting to me). I'll say this, the term "labor intensive" is an understatement when viewing the production methods she utilizes, but the paintings never get fussy.

Instead, Wendy addresses practical issues such as construction, using framing device inside of framing device, zealously pointing out the small areas that don't quite fit. The paintings all have a reciprocal lineage, the voltaic neons and the tempered blacks that dart in between the empty space in the studio. Wendy seems to be cultivating a bottomless atmosphere that doesn't look for accolade of clotty paint but the angry softness of a persistent shell.

We did a trade, I gave her my small black painting, Big Bad Icon, and I picked her Autobahn.

Above: Title/back of the painting, Autobahn.

Above: Wendy White, Autobahn, 2005.

After Wendy's, I made my way to Marc Handelman's studio (I've had him for Independent Study in the past). His studio is broken up into two parts (one part dedicated to endless books and catalogs, the other to large scale paintings). When I studied with him we generally focused on theory, historical context and abstraction, etc. etc. So when he showed me an archive he'd made about Mount Untersberg (a heavily mythologized mountain massif between Germany and Austria) because it's something he's "super into", I was pretty pleased. I'm sure it's much more dynamic than that (if you saw the archive you'd agree), but I think it was pretty fair of him to be so jaunty and light in his explanation.

Marc explained that his paintings vary in work hours; from a "one shot deal" of six hours to a 300 hour dedication. His underpaintings are then layered with another painting done on plastic (think Saran Wrap) that he places on and takes of, a monoprint with the promise of uncontrolled fuck-ups. His interest in aesthetics and ethics, mass production of prints and propaganda (and especially national identity as an artificial construct) crowned similar feelings to the intention of my work. Below is an example of one of Marc's paintings.

Above: Marc Handelman, Force Multiplier, 2008.

Gimmicks No. 2

2010-01-27T21:40:00.001-05:00

BM

2010-01-27T21:39:00.000-05:00

Untitled (long painting)

2010-01-27T21:35:00.006-05:00

Untitled (long painting), 2010.

Initially a bright and dense landscape, I reduced the painting to the areas I found interesting by painting over the "boring parts" with black paint, resulting in seven patches of color no bigger than 1/2" each.

For Sale

2010-01-27T21:35:00.002-05:00

Gimmicks 2010

2010-01-27T21:33:00.001-05:00

Gimmicks 2010. Astroturf, rubber grip tarp, fluorescent light, extension cord, enamel, cardboard. Dimensions variable.

Easily read and recognizable objects in a simple arrangement to communicate as a design as opposed to a sculpture, intentionally stagnant and site specific. The only relation the objects have to each other is arguably the light cast on them.

2009 Design: I don't know shit

2010-01-19T10:43:00.003-05:00

A poster of over 200+ artists, I highlighted the ones I am familiar with.

Stay Cool 2009

2010-01-19T08:17:00.001-05:00

Annotated Image Bibliography/Thesis

2010-01-19T08:03:00.002-05:00

Annotated Bibliography for Images

Bridget Riley, Aurulum, 1978: Expressionless and solely based on visual perception, Riley’s paintings are active and do not require discourse to “fully” experience the painting.

Patrick Caulfield, Bathroom Mirror, 1968: Reduction of painting in a remedial (but still very disciplined) form, doing exactly what painting needs to do while being hostile towards a painterly image. Simplified images create a feeling of familiarity with the viewer.

Ad Reinhardt. from Ten Screenprints, 1966: Image-less, but not detail-less. His “ultimate” paintings were ones he claimed that would function as the “last” painting and end the “the disreputable practices of artists-as-artists”

Chris Burden, Through the night softly, 1973-1977: The arts as a constantly moving image, one that doesn’t need to be stagnant (via John Berger’s explanation of print reproductions). Burden’s interest in challenging media structure created a body of work, Four TV Commercials, in which he made television advertisements for artists.

Ed Ruscha, Untitled, 2008: Functioning as design, Ruscha’s paintings are questionable as “paintings” and are more akin to design. Trumped by the vastness of nature, the ego shouts to be heard but cannot, the painting gags the communication.

Hanne Darboven, Das Jahr, 1976: Works based on structures, process, and autonomy. Forced charting and disciplined cataloging, the absolute removal of the “self”. Das Jahr pays tribute to the German Scientist, Wilhelm von Humbolt. Her 372 drawings (each representing a day in the year 1974) are a functional and aestheticized index.

Hans Haacke: Condensation Cube, 1963. Condensation Cube is self-contained, alive, and can function democratically in any setting. Exploring emancipatory functions, Haacke illuminates myths, whether they are social or aesthetic.

Mike Kelley, Little Friend, 2001: Playful and irreverent, Kelley’s “dumb” stuffed animals contain subtle and powerful color relationships and disregard to institutional critique. Sold at a cheap $170.00, Kelley’s Little Friend hints at progressive art, being a toy not quite ready for playtime. When squeezed, it says sayings such as, ”Hurt me, I don’t mind!” and “I watch you”.

Malevich, Black Square, 1915: Bringing painting to its death by negation of images, reduction of forms, and non-recognizable imagery. Malevich explained, “I have transformed myself into the zero of form and dragged myself out of the rubbished-filled pool of Academic art”.

Sherrie Levine, Melt Down (After Yves Klein), 1991: Disregards every creative act as an appropriation. Simultaneously a homage and denial of Minimalist abstraction, Levine is a master of appropriation and replication.

Isa Genzkin, Mutter Kind, 2004: Combination of seemingly disparate found and constructed objects creates a visual experience through sculpture. Ad-hoc arrangement speaks volumes through the transparency of the chair, painting below eye level, etc.

Nick

2010-01-17T14:30:00.002-05:00

John Cooper Clarke:Bard of Salford

2010-01-14T16:45:00.002-05:00

John Cooper Clarke (b. January 25, 1949) is a seminal figure in punk poetry and literature. Clarke, much like Tom Robinson and Ian Dury, had come into his own after the induction of New Wave, unleashing a deadpan Mancunian chant thick with imagery and expletives. Clarke's shows were, fast, witty, and dangerous. His body of work is political and spat out at a frightening pace.

Clarke also possesses a superb poetic diction via his “lifestyle” tirades like:
“Health Fanatic” (“beans, greens, tamgerines and low cholesterol margerines”) and off-the-wall satire like I Married A Monster From Outer Space; “When we went walking / Tentacle in hand / You could sense the earthlings wouldn't understand / They went 'nudge-nudge' when we got on the bus / Said 'it's extra-terrestial, not like us / And it's bad enough with another race / But fuck me, a monster from outer space'.

On poems like I Married A Monster From Outer Space, he said, “It's the nearest thing that there's ever been to the working classes going into areas like surrealism and Dada. Until now they've been the domain of the middle classes. You can look at things like Dada and surrealism and reject it for being a middle-class phenomenon. I think people in the New Wave have done the smart thing and walked into those areas. Now you've got a kind of working class vision of things.”

If you see footage of John Cooper Clarke, his audience is lovingly affectionate in the way a Rolling Stones crowd reserves a special cheer for Keith, just for still being alive. No populist performer has been so severely overlooked as Clarke, a citizen above suspicion who through political correctness out the fucking window.

John Cooper Clarke, from Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt.

Twentysix Gasoline Stations

2010-01-11T11:18:00.001-05:00

Twentysix Gasoline Stations/Ed Ruscha

First published in 1963 under the name of his own press, National Excelsior Press, Ed Ruscha first released an edition of 400 books, a cheap pamphlet bound catalogue of 26 gas stations along the highly mythologized Route 66. Spanning upon exactly twenty six pages (including the flyleaf), Twentysix Gasoline Stations does exactly what the title suggests, reproduce twenty six gas stations in black and white photographs with its title and location next to it.

Ruscha's book was not a highbrow collector's dream. It was initially sold for $3.50 a piece. The book was released again in 1967 with an edition of 500, and the third edition was released in 1969 with 3000 copies. The later copies were numbered and occasionally signed. Ruscha later claims this is a mistake, for the signing and editioning gave the book a value that it wasn't intended for. He claimed that this was not a deliberate move. Ruscha wanted the book to flood the market as a cheap and accessible commodity (such as a democratic multiple, a common visual vernacular).

The book itself is quite simple. Each of the twenty six pages have an image of a gas station (all taken from the opposite side of the highway) in black and white, like a pop version of Walker Evans. Some of the photos spread across the entire folio while others only take up a single page. Only three photographs were taken at night. The size of the photographs seem arbitrary but the images remain "factually" cohesive because they appear along a trail exactly how they are arranged on Route 66.

Gas stations seems like a colloquial image for Americans to associate with in the '60's. But Ruscha states that he did not choose them as a pop icon to exploit, but rather because they, much like all objects, have individual aesthetics, angles, colors, and shapes. They do not function as social nerve-endings but rather as tangible environments along a singular root.

The book was arranged so that our progress through its pages, left to right, was roughly analogous to our progress across a map from east to west. The only thing Ruscha is exploiting here is the power of images and text, and the cohesive catalogue the book has become. Ruscha is also presenting a mobile picture, almost like a movie book. Twentysix Gasoline Stations functions almost as a sort of black and white cinematic identity crisis, he is trying to present facts through image and text but cannot escape the narrative of a pop minimalist's vision of the road.

The labor of forgery

2010-01-11T04:44:00.005-05:00

My very dry opinion on art forgers and the political economy of the art market, spanning across antiquity to Schwitters, to Dafen Oil Painting Village. Very biased, comments are encouraged. Ignore the typos and grammatical errors, it was 5am last night when I wrote this.

“We have grown so accustomed to take art with a sense of awe that we cannot look at it anymore with dispassionate eyes, let alone question its legitimacy”. In Jean Baudrillard’s Conspiracy of Art, he argues that art has elevated itself to a point where it has become impalpable. The “spectacle and event” of art according to Baudrillard, has been omnipresent. According to him, it’s a violent force, pummeling its view on audiences like a mallet. “Art will enter as a pseudo-event because in parallel with the increase of these spectacles of violence, the concern over the reality of what is shown will grow. Did it happen or not? The farther we go in the orgy of images and viewing, the less we believe”. This “orgy of images” Baudrillard is referring to is art as a visual language.
Art forgery has compromised 40% of the art market since the 1950’s. It’s lucrative for artists who have failed to break into the market independently with their own work. Many of the twentieth century forgers have been expertly trained in formalism from schools such as The Royal College of Art and St. Martin’s. One of the most skillful forgers of the twentieth century was acclaimed painter and recipient of numerous prizes and honors, Eric Hebborn. Hebborn, a graduate from the Royal Academy of Art, successfully fooled Christies, Sotheby’s and hundreds of galleries with his reproductions of Corot, Van Dyck, Poussin, Rubens, and Tiepolo.
“The colours used by Frans Hals were:
1. Flake white
2. Yellow ochre
3. Red ochre (in the case of the Edinburgh portrait, scarlet lake)
4. Charcoal black

Rembrandt’s palette must have been very similar to the one above. Probably identical save for the addition of the siennas and the umbers, for the master loved the earth colours and called them those ‘friendly’ colours. Titian is quoted by his pupil, Jacopo Palma Il Giovane (1544-1628), as saying a good painter needs only three colours. He practiced what he preached. There is a portrait by the artist in the Galleria Borghese, Rome, that I believe to have been painted with no more. Certainly in his maturity his underpainting was carried out with only three colours: flake white, burnt sienna, and ivory black. These three colours are, in fact, contained in Titian’s palette as reconstructed by Maurice Busset, which I give with the comment that while the artist certainly used these pigments throughout his long working life, he sometimes used less and sometimes more. Where, for instance, is the Venetian red that is so often recognized in his work? Unless of course it is the red ochre ”.
Hebborn released a book in 1995 entitled The Art Forger’s Handbook, 192 pages of explicitly breaking down the palettes, under-paintings, canvas sizing, and paper smoking necessary to re-create Renaissance paintings. A sampling of chapters in The Art Forgers Handbook: Aging Inks, Imitation Worm Holes, Cracking by Baking, etc. Shortly after the publication of his book, Hebborn was found on a street in Rome with his head bludgeoned with a blunt object. He died several days later. Hebborn’s outrageous speculations about the nature of art, truth, and value reveal a profound understanding of the art he was reproducing.
Hebborn is not the only one. Art forgery proved to be a very lucrative business in the late twentieth century. Sean Greenhalgh (along with his 84 year old father, George, and 83 year old mother, Olive) produced and profitably sold forgeries for two decades that they created in their garage. Greenhalgh produced reproductions of L.S. Lowry, Barbara Hepworth and Gauguin. Their familial skill spanned centuries of movements; the Greenhalghs manipulated the Bolton Museum with faux Egyptian statues (in which the museum paid over £400,000 for). Bolton experts believed it dated back to 1350 BC, but later due to forensic testing, it was proved to be an imitation. After terrorizing the art market from 1985 to 2006, the whole Greenhalgh lot was sentenced to prison for three years.
Notorious forger John Myatt made counterfeit Renoirs, Picassos and Modiglianis throughout the 1990’s. Myatt made hundreds of thousands of dollars off his replicas. “It’s one of those things that just happens because it happens…I’d done a small cubist painting for the man who turned into my partner in crime. He said, ‘If I can sell it, would you be interested in half the money?’” While being convicted of forgery, his charm even won over the judge, whom stated he was “remarkably talented”. Myatt claimed that he was “wooed by the loads of money”, but had an “attack of morality” and eventually turned himself in. He even had a successful career after his release from prison. Due to his notoriety, his paintings now sell for an upwards of $50,000. Myatt brings up a valid point regarding the influx of money a replica can bring: “One mind says you’re producing something that is beautiful and that people flock to see and are proud to own. So why don’t the galleries sell expensive artifacts and replace them with identical copies?”

Above: John Myatt

Art forgery, once again, is extremely lucrative but increasingly difficult to pull off. Due to sophisticated contemporary forensic authentication (such as stable isotope analysis, dendrochronology, and x-ray diffraction) potential forgers are deterred to create counterfeits. Forgery was much more prevalent in antiquity, with the introduction of art as a commodity.
Arguably, the first evidence of art forgery took place in the 14th century, in which Roman sculptors “heavily referenced” the molds of popular Greek sculptures. During the Greco-Roman era, this form of appropriation wasn’t frowned upon as the aesthetic value of the work held more weight than the artist and their independent identity. It was also common for master artists to hire apprentices to aid in the execution of their work. As a form of compensation, the apprentices were permitted to sell the work they created for the master artist. This was generally considered a tribute to the master artist, but occasionally the copies would erroneously be attributed to the master. More common in printing (such as relief, woodcuts, and intaglio) the prints could be easily reproduced and due to sheer numbers, the work was much more available to sell.
In 16th century Italy, there were several factors leading to art as a commodity. Several Roman sculptures were rediscovered around the Italian island Sardinia (such as the Riace Bronzes). These discoveries made a sharp increase in value to the antiquities. During this time, Rome went through a huge redistribution of wealth, which made the rich even richer. The newly rediscovered collectables were highly sought after and became a trend within social circles as denoting wealth and taste, thus the arguable creation of art as a commodity was born. Also in the 16th century, German Artist Albrecht Durer’s added signatures to his prints. Durer’s style of printmaking became highly popularized, leading to imitators adding signatures to their prints looking to add value. In his engraving of The Virgin, Durer added, “…be cursed, plunderers and imitators of the work and talent of others”. Durer is doing two things here: a) forewarning potential forgers and b) increasing the print’s value by making it unique and placing a restriction on its resale.

Above: Durer engraving

After art had become a commodity, artists now were recognizable with their aesthetic, some more sought after than others. The artist as a form of “celebrity” was finally taking place and were no longer just craftsmen, but individuals high on the social hierarchy. After the newfound wealth in Europe, the supply of art could not meet the demand of the public. Thus, forgery was the bond that filled in the gap between the two. In contemporary times, art still battles the issue of simple economics. The supply cannot meet the demand, and some social groups who demand art simply cannot afford it.
In Shenzhen, China, there is a small village located on its eastern coast: Dafen. Dafen Village also is known as “The Town of Replicas”. It has become a cultural symbol of replication and production due to its remarkably high number of exported oil paintings. It is rumored that 70% of the world’s most copied paintings were created in the village of Dafen. Twenty years ago Dafen was a poor fishing community inhabited by about 300 people. The average familial income was 200 yuan (which roughly is translated to U.S. $30.00). Known for its low rent and cheap labor, businessman and art dealer Huang Jiang made the trip from Hong Kong to Dafen in 1989 with several painting students, set up shop, and started a trade of reproducing paintings. Jiang states, “Dafen was a very poor village when I first arrived. No one wanted to invest here. At that time, I got some painting orders from Hong Kong and was looking for a workplace to finish them. I found Dafen was quite close to Hong Kong and its rent was very low. So I rented a room from a villager and taught some students to do the work”.
Dafen is now a bustling marketplace filled with job opportunities. Wu Ruiqiu, one of Jiang’s students, recalls the first time he started making a living from the paintings. “I have been studying art since I was very young, but it was just my hobby. I didn’t know I could make money by painting. My family was very poor, so when Huang Jiang asked me to come to Dafen, I left my home without hesitation. After I got here, I told my mom that every piece of my painting of chickens could buy me two real chickens. My mom was very surprised and asked me to draw quickly”. As unlikely as it seems, forgery can be a positive force (if not an unavoidable one) within the art market. Dafen’s circulation now consists of 800 galleries, 10,000 workers, and in 2007 it earned over 380 million yuan. To make the production more efficient, the “Dafen Oil Painting Village Management Office” developed a method of assembly lines as opposed to one painter creating each painting. 60% of the paintings are sold for export, mainly to Europe and North America. Dafen creates replicas of such "world classics" from artists such as Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, and Warhol. While these are not shown in galleries, they are popular and are accessible forms of “high” art that are affordable. In an age in which commodity flows through industrialization, the fact that we have the means to reproduce art is enough to warrant it. Besides the issue of authenticity, ownership and authorship also come into play.
American artist Sherrie Levine’s show at Metro Pictures in 1980 stirred up quite a controversy. The show, titled “After Walker Evans” featured a series of photographs from Evans that Levine photographed directly from an exhibition catalogue. Even though the photographs were iconic, historic, and well recognized (Evans took them in the 1930’s during the Roosevelt era for the F.S.A. in hopes of improving the living conditions of impoverished farmers in the American South), they were no longer subject to copyright laws. The central theme of “After Walker Evans” questions values of institutional critique: the placement of an art object in a museum or gallery setting is a form of protection and elevation. Her series of photographs virtually dismisses every creative act as a merely an appropriation. Her show at Metro Pictures raised questions about identity and the nature of creativity.

Above: Sherrie Levine @ Metro Pictures/After Walker Evans

The Walker Evans’ estate viewed her exhibition of the work as copyright infringement and banned her from selling the images after the show. But Levine’s re-evaluation of Evan’s F.S.A. photographs made Evans’ themes current (one can establish a reference to Reagan’s politics on the lower classes of society) and is echoing the mode of industrialization and production America had championed with F.S.A artists such as Walker Evans and Charles Sheeler.
Although many art forgers produce counterfeit work solely for profit, some have claimed that they’ve created forgeries to expose the credulity of the art market and the extreme eagerness of dealers and collectors. A term commonly used by forgers, “Hoaxes of Exposure” is their explanation of an act of forgery: a theoretical critique of the art world.
Akin to Sherrie Levine, other artists create forgeries or “replicas” as a socio-political statement. Andy Warhol’s reproductions of mass imagery in consumerism echoed the disposable quality of American life; the abrasive silkscreens echoed the quick and fleeting production of all things commodity, from celebrities to soup. J.S.G Boggs created one sided, hand drawn copies of the U.S. dollar. Boggs’ reproduction of the bill enables people to make their own decisions: a conscious choice to accept art instead of money. He was arrested in 1986 for counterfeiting but was later acquitted.

Above: One of Boggs' bill drawings.

Replication and forgery are the children of industrialization. In essayist and critic Walter Benjamin’s 1937 The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, he states: “In principle a work of art has always been reproducible. Manmade artifacts could always be imitated by men. Replicas were made by pupils in practice of their craft, by masters for diffusing their works, and finally, by third parties in the pursuit of gain. Mechanical reproduction of a work of art, however, represents something new. Historically, it advanced intermittently and in leaps at long intervals, but with accelerated intensity”. According to Benjamin, the replica holds the same weight as the original to the non-expert. Only when this audience is informed of its counterfeit do they feel betrayed, as it is an insult to their intelligence. In an age where consumption operates due to production, having the means to reproduce art enough to warrant it. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction argues that the original objects’ “aura” may be lost in replication, but not its quality or significance. The only difference between the two is ownership, whether it’s a wealthy patron, and institution, regal collection or the artist himself; the work is not different, it’s just stripped of its hierarchical sentiment.
The replication process also requires a keen eye and impeccable craftsmanship. Therefore, forgery (no matter how frowned upon) is an art form in itself. From the extensive knowledge of grain direction in handmade paper in antiquity to the drop count of nitric acid used on a litho stone, forgers by no means are uninformed, uneducated, or lazy. Some may be greedy, but their execution is only rivaled by the masters in which they copy.
In some sense, creating a counterfeit is more difficult than creating an original. The masters and their originals have no set standard of what their work will look like when finished. Certain materials may react with each other causing an unknown effect, some elements of the initial underpainting may not disappear in the final draft, etc. The master artist can choose to keep these, making the unintentional appear very intentional. Forgers do not have this option. They must do every form of troubleshooting (down to tracking down paper from the intended era to back the canvas frame) to create a convincing copy. There is no room for error, and the color theory that Hebborn has documented rivals that of Josef Albers. The group of forgers from the twentieth century have nailed the techniques of the Renaissance masters, and then some. This dynamic class of artists are trained in extreme formalism that is a reaction to the Neo-Expressionist group of painters that dominated the art market for so long.
“Copies”, when done in mass amounts (as demonstrated by the highly skilled workers in Dafen Oil Painting Village) allows art to be a democratic form of “high” visual culture. Art that may not be accessible to certain demographics have now become a colloquial visual language, dominating dormitories and Midwestern living rooms. These replicas are affordable and non-discriminant that can exist in any environment (not just within the confines of a gallery space) and thus, become democratic. The cultural value of the original paintings is now stripped and no longer has authority. Without authority, art is finally freed from tradition.

Above: A scene from Dafen.

In Italian essayist Filippo Marinetti's 1909 Futurist Manifesto, Marinetti opens it with the statement, "We will fight with all our might the fanatical, senseless and snobbish religion of the past, a religion encouraged by the vicious existence of museums. We rebel against that spineless worshipping of old canvases, old statues and old bric-a-brac, against everything which is filthy and worm-ridden and corroded by time. We consider the habitual contempt for everything which is young, new and burning with life to be unjust and even criminal". The futurists were loathing of all things old, especially artistic tradition. They championed violence, technology and destruction. These things all represented a new form of tradition in which they could create and control.
As Baudrillard stated, the "event of art" is a violent one. He asks, "My only question is: How can such a machine continue to operate in the midst of critical disillusion and commercial frenzy? And if it does, how long with this conjuring act last? One hundred, two hundred years? Will art have the right to a second, interminable existence?" The history of art and its masters have given us knowledge and skill. By forging and replicating these works to the point where, as Benjamin states "detaches the object from the domain of tradition", artists are free to create their own standards of artmaking.
The reproduced works are not being re-circulated or championed. After viewing replicas, we do not feel the need to refer to the original since it has lost its original authority. The creators of the replicas, whether it's Eric Hebborn or the workers at Dafen, all must deconstruct and demystify the painting they are reproducing in systematic steps. These artists do not make work to bask in self-expression and glory, but to separate the exhibition value from the cult value. They function like the machines that Benjamin believed showed technology's triumph over humanity and symbolized progress. The plurality of copies lead to their own unique existence, completely separated from their origin.
The counterfeit work of art does several things. First of all, it makes a seemingly "untouchable" form of culture a democratic medium that spans across all elements of society. Not just the privileged or informed have access to it, but those who previously could not afford art now also have access. Secondly, it gives a potential new class or artists training and skill that they would not be exposed to otherwise. Lastly, (and most importantly) it promotes growth.
Marinetti said," We will glorify destruction- the world's only hygiene". The destruction of art and its history (whether intentional or not) leads to chaos, then rebuilding. These things eventually lead to discourse. We are forced to question ownership, authorship, intent, and the nature of creativity. Forgery is, in essence, the necessary genocide of the art world. The room for originality has been taken by illusion promoting spectacles, and the only way to promote growth and progress is to cleanse art of its historical substance and make room for a new team of players.

Emphasis on the "Real"

2010-01-10T20:34:00.002-05:00

Berger's discussion surrounding oil painting, brilliantly sifting out the decadence-riddled "The Ambassadors". Traditional European painting does more than illustrate wealth; it bellows that other cultures can can be bought, destroyed, and hung.

New Paintings

2009-12-29T03:33:00.002-05:00

*I apologize for the poor image quality, something I will deal with later (I hope).

2009-12-17T00:57:00.001-05:00

Untitled, 2009. Flag, MDF, plexiglass, plywood, dimensions variable.

Really fast video of Douglas Henderson's performance

2009-12-16T20:34:00.003-05:00

I'm the third one down against the wall on the left (two in front of "yellow hard hat" guy). Maybe this will give some of you an idea of what it would sound like in super-speed.

Game Painting

2009-12-16T20:28:00.001-05:00

Game Painting, 2009. Silkscreen, acrylic on canvas. 12" x 12"

Kozmik Ganja 2010

2009-12-16T20:26:00.003-05:00

Kozmik Ganja 2010, 2009. 5 gallon aquarium, blacklight, found objects

Top Nine list of Well-Designed Albums (December 09)

2009-12-14T17:57:00.005-05:00

Harmonia's 1975 album, De Luxe. Members of Neu!, Guru Guru, and Cluster.

Cluster's 1974 Zuckerseit.

XTC's 7" from 1977, Science Friction/She's So Square.

Electronic pioneer Bruce Haack's The Way Out Record For Children, circa 1968.

Squeeze's 7" single from 1979.

The Dutch band (in the FAC Catalog) Minny Pops 7" from 1979.

Mothers of Invention's 1968 We're Only in It for the Money.

German Composer Asmus Tietchens (also known as Clubs of Rome/Hematic Sunsets) album from 1982. Highly recommended.

Guru Guru's 1976 album, Tango Fango.

New Work!

2009-12-11T18:56:00.005-05:00

Above: Dismal Landscape, 2009.

Above: Heavy & Light/Plug-In, 2009.

Above: (detail) Heavy & Light/Plug-In, 2009.

Studio Visit with Wendy White

2009-12-11T17:37:00.004-05:00

Wendy White, Pile Driver, 2008.

I had the pleasure of meeting with artist Wendy White for a studio visit. As a huge fan (and she's making some of the most interesting paintings out there), I was thrilled to have her actually talk to me about my work. Wendy offered some excellent advice on painting and object-making in general, and it reassuring for such a successful artist to be so humble, helpful, and downright sweet. Showing genuine interest (and a real conversation), Wendy White reaffirmed my belief that good artists do exist and can exist without all the bullshit and shop-talk that is weighed so heavily in undergraduate programs. The real shock was that she was following my work via my blog (and actually recalled some of my music posts, previous paintings, etc) and wanted to trade with me! I was honored to give her one of my paintings (she actually witnessed the first time I'd ever signed a painting), and look forward to visiting her at her studio.

Brooklyn Rail Review!

2009-12-11T17:09:00.003-05:00

My very first published review in The Brooklyn Rail! Very exciting and a bit unreal, you can read my article here:

The Ouija Board of Sonic Energy

Also, I'd like to personally thank my boss, Dave Mandl, for giving me this opportunity (and letting me say "fuck" and "dick" in my review). I couldn't be any more pleased.

I'm slated to write on the upcoming John Cale lecture at MoMA's Looking at Music: Side 2 in February. As many of you know, I'm a Cale fanatic, and my brain is going bonkers in anticipation.

To find out more about Cale @ MoMA

12/9/09

2009-12-09T01:39:00.002-05:00

+ SEOUL SHOW +

2009-12-07T11:34:00.004-05:00

My project with South Korea's amalgama industries. The project morphs from a digital archive to a print catalog, and back to a digital archive via .pdf, then back again. It's available to download,

feel free to print copies and do as you please with them.

Check out the project here

Punk Band: Destroy All Monsters

2009-12-06T13:55:00.000-05:00

Really Rough Draft of Thesis Proposal

2009-12-06T13:37:00.001-05:00

The proposal for my thesis, a "minimalist" obstacle course. The idea is, basically, to have a this obstacle course (composed of art objects) on the floor. The "M.O.C." will have the same phenomenological utility as a painting, but in this instance, you can crawl through the painting. Many references to the working class, the labor of painting, and universal legibility.

I apologize for my "abstract" Abstract, I'll post my Annotated Image/Reference Bib soon.

Proposal: Democratic Looking/An M.O.C.

Abstract: “Reciprocal ferocity of the painters and sculptors who murder each other in the same museum with blows of line and color. To make a visit once a year, as one goes to see the graves of our dead once a year, that we could allow! We can even imagine placing flowers once a year at the feet of Giaconda! But to take our sadness, our fragile courage and our anxiety to the museum everyday, that we cannot admit! Do you want to poison yourselves? Do you want to rot?” Marinetti, The Futurist Manifesto, 1909

Proposal:

Artists and critics have been proclaiming the death of painting, only to selfishly and fruitlessly reintroduce it. This cyclic condition prevents any progress. The discourse surrounding painting is not about the painting as an object in itself, but the formal language we use in talking about it. Provincial history and institutions prevent the "greater part" of people to have a shared relationship with art, and generally are kept within the hands of the privileged. I plan on ignoring any distinction of traditional artmaking methods from anything else, and strip painting of language to make room for its experience.

Conventional "visual logic" of painting exists on a two dimensional plane. Regardless of the most convincing translation of depth to a canvas, a painting will always remain a spacial illusion (alluding and implying real relations, but never actually doing it). The stagnancy is continued through its restriction to the wall (in an institutional setting), which serves as an elevation device and a form of protection. In these institutional settings, really looking at the work is discouraged (if we are too close to the painting, we are reprimanded as if we are a threat, or will uncode some hidden myth). Unlike a sculpture-in-the-round, it's impossible to view as an art object (as we cannot view all elements of its craftsmanship, or lack of). The banalities of painting's spacial presence un-motivate the viewer from experiencing it differently from something so "lowly" as a magazine or billboard. These issues have been constant since the induction of modernism, and yet, paintings keep being made. They serve no function other than a remedial one within ornamentation and of hegemonic luxury.

Painting would not be so useless if the unprivileged were able to have the same experience as the patron, the artist, the curator, the wall. The closest thing to "functionality" that painting has encountered has been Op-Art's acknowledgement of the picture plane, and the ways to utilize phenomenological viewing. Op-Art's mechanical methods of painting simultaneously glorify the painter's labor, while belittling individual expression (a method of unification of the artist with the viewer, as opposed to isolation). The treatment of the image functions much like the subtleties of the working class, whose labor is expected, but invisible. Regardless, the effect of the paintings' object-ness transcends any conventional meanings that have been distorted by bourgeoisie circumstance.

Highly conceptual art, like extremely rejective art or irreverent art, upset detractors because there is "not enough to look at," (which translates to, not enough of what they are accustomed to looking for). Severely simplistic and monotonal painting and totally "dumb" looking objects exist confidently because of two aspects of the viewing experience. First, despite their seemingly hostile, aloof and self-contained presence, they demand more participation from the viewer. More time must be spent in immediate experience of a detail-less painting. Secondly, the time spent looking at an "empty" painting (one with minimal action) seems infinitely longer than action-and-detailed time. When these two viewing elements are introduced in the realm of paintings, they become questionable. The viewer is now invested in the work, but not given the gratification painting should give them. These two ways of working still serving paintings' needs while being the most violently reductive in nature, unshackling them from traditional practice.

I will address the validity of the historical periods in which painting is delineated from language and operates through objecthood (Op-Art, Minimalism), stripping sentimental value in lieu of an immediate experience. This immediate experience allows all viewers to relate to the work by default, a physical familiarity akin to the previously mentioned schools of though. Being able to physically travel through a painting provides a universal kinship with a work of art, one in which the painting is on it's knees with the laborer and allowing both to have equal utility.

2009-12-04T01:42:00.001-05:00

New Work 12/3/09

2009-12-03T16:37:00.002-05:00

Visiting Artist Lecture Series: Sarah Oppenheimer

2009-12-03T00:33:00.003-05:00

ABOVE: Sarah Oppenheimer's 610-3356

Sarah Oppenheimer's prudent and stringent approach towards her relational art was impressive, refreshing, but testing. Departing from my anticipated post-minimalism lecture, Oppenheimer surprised me with socio-scientific work, accompanied with countless (and when I say countless, I mean countless) layouts of planar relations, apertures, and viewing possibilities. The installations demonstrate the cultural constructions of behavior and the judgement of movement.

Her sculptures, made of aircraft-grade plywood, make the boundaries of public and private space visible, and unlike other contemporary sculptors (who have a concern for the viewer), Oppenheimer's work is even more active; it literally demonstrates it's concern. 610-3356, challenges the planar limitations of the wall (obviously a concern within institutional critique), spanning two floors and eventually leading out the window. The structure of the sculpture creates a visual lens that is dizzying, altering phenomenological perception. Possibly echoing hegemonic class systems, the multi-story sculpture visually turns the gallery inside out, making the privileged gallery visitors uncomfortable voyeurs.

*Relative to Oppenheimer's work (and one I'm assuming she drew great influence from) is Peter Halley's Crisis in Geometry. Halley brings proletariat issues to the surface, ones I'm sure Oppenheimer's invested in:

"These questions arise : to what purpose is geometric form put in our culture ? Why is modern society so obsessed with geometric form that, for at least the last two centuries, we have striven to build and live in geometric environments of increasing complexity and exclusivity? Why has geometric art been so widely accepted in our century, and why has geometric imagery gained an unprecedented importance in our public iconography?"

Landscape Painting 2009

2009-11-30T21:43:00.001-05:00