Filed under: Atlanta, In the Studio, Q&A | Tags: Atlanta, Jiha Moon, Paul Boshears
Jiha Moon is an Atlanta-based painter whose gestural paintings explore fluid identities and the global movement of people and their cultures. Featured in editions editions 63, 70, and 82 of New American Paintings, Moon was recently a finalist for the Hudgens Prize, selected by jurors that include the Curator of Prints at The Whitney Museum of American Art and the Director and Curator of Exhibitions and Public Programs at The New Museum. I had the chance to visit with Moon at her studio where we discussed her recent incorporation of fabric and collage, a bold step for someone who self-identifies as “a painter’s painter.” More images, and our conversation, after the jump. —Paul Boshears, Atlanta contributor
Jiha Moon, Mystery Myo - frustration is one of the great things in what you do, 2010 | Ink and Acrylic on Hanji, 51 x 44.75 inches. Courtesy of Saltworks Gallery, Atlanta, GA.
Filed under: Art World, Los Angeles | Tags: Andrew Schoultz, Angelina Gualdoni, Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Garth Weiser, Iva Gueorguieva, Justin Bower, Wendy White
Andrew Schoultz, Monument to a Whirlwind, 2009, Mixed media on paper, 132 x 240 inches. Courtesy Jerome Zodo Contemporary, Milan.
We spotted a few artists featured in New American Paintings last night at the opening reception of Art Los Angeles Contemporary. Our publisher, Steven Zevitas, pointed out that Andrew Schoultz‘s dynamic installation for Jerome Zodo Contemporary, Milan, might be the most impressive booth this year and is reason enough to make it to the fair.
Also check out:
- Justin Bower at ACE Gallery, Los Angeles
- Wendy White at Andrew Rafacz, Chicago
- Garth Weiser at Altman Siegel, San Francisco
- Angelina Gualdoni at Asya Geisberg, New York
- Iva Gueorguieva at Angles Gallery, Los Angeles
- Luke Butler at Silverman Gallery, San Francisco
Did you spot other NAP artists? Send your fair photos this weekend to blog@newamericanpaintings.com!
The ‘winner’ for best studio visit of 2010 goes to Eddie Martinez. Hands down.
On a recent visit to Eddie’s space in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, there was plenty of eye-catching stuff: a book on the work of Hans Hoffman, several recent (and intensely great) works on paper, graffiti tags spray-painted onto walls, not to mention the slew of paintings that Eddie was working on simultaneously while darting around the studio. The most amazing find, however, was this decades-old, barf-worthy clipping of Sylvester Stallone working on a painting on his Malibu terrace. And, since Martinez’s oeuvre has long been informed by still life, the caption at the bottom is especially ironic.
Martinez will be featured in a Spotlight spread in next month’s Pacific Coast edition of the magazine (on newsstands soon). More pics from Eddie’s studio visit on the blog next week. —Evan J. Garza, Editor-at-Large
Filed under: Art World, Portland | Tags: Anna Von Mertens, Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Kelli Rule, Portland
ABOVE: Bacchus’ Aura, After Caravaggio , 2009 | Hand-stitched, hand-dyed cotton, 39.75 x 33 inches. BELOW: Anna von Mertens, Kurt Cobain’s Aura (Zoe’s), After Elizabeth Peyton, 2009 | Hand-stitched, hand-dyed cotton, 13.75 x 11 inches. Images courtesy Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, OR.
Anna Von Mertens‘ hand-dyed and stitched cotton aura portraits are both haunting and exuberant. Portraits, her solo exhibition of works at Elizabeth Leach Gallery in Portland, Oregon are the result of the artist’s study of aura reading applied to canonical portraits from art history, ranging from depictions of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa to Warhols’s Marilyn. Her works reveal Rothko’s proof that color is spiritual, and their spiritual power resonates as a chromatic relationship between warm and cool tones. Through a multi-layered dyeing process, finished by meticulous hand-stitching, von Mertens keeps the silhouette of each original portrait, adding the locations of each subject’s chakras. More after the jump. —Kelli Rule, Portland contributor
Filed under: Poll
In the process of working with several thousand artists each year, both in the magazine and beyond, as well as dozens and dozens of curators, dealers, collectors, and museum directors, we get several of the same names when we ask, “Who has most influenced contemporary painting?” As well, the back page of each issue of New American Paintings is devoted to a Q&A with that edition’s juror, and the same question generally produces very similar results. To really get a sense of who artists and art-savvy readers think is the most influential, we’ve decided to ask you the same question.
Below is a poll with the 20+ names that come up again and again. Here’s where it gets exciting: If you don’t find the name of the artist you see as being the most influential, WRITE IT IN. A shortlist of 20 names is only the tip of the iceberg, and by no means comprehensive, so we need your help!
And because painting doesn’t exist in a bubble, feel free to write in names of influential sculptors, video artists, photographers, and others who have helped shape contemporary painting as it exists today. From Bacon to Beuys, Warhol to Wyeth, if you don’t see it, WRITE IT IN. We’ll release the results of the poll next week! —Evan J. Garza, Editor-at-Large
Filed under: Art World, DC | Tags: Corcoran Gallery of Art, DC, Gene Davis, Matthew Smith, Morris Louis, Thomas Downing, Washington Color School
ABOVE: Installation view of Fold Twelve by Thomas Downing. BELOW: Gene Davis, Junkie’s Curtain, 1967, acrylic on canvas, 115 x 225 inches, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Images: Matthew Smith.
The Color Field painters of the the Washington Color School were mostly linked by curators and critics rather than by social ties. Yet despite their loose personal connections they came to form a cohesive art movement that positioned Washington, DC at the epicenter of abstraction innovation in the 1960s. Artists like Morris Louis, Thomas Downing, and Gene Davis, among others, pioneered or expanded upon a variety of techniques that furthered the boundaries that defined painting at the time. Often characterized by their use of oversized canvases and hard-edged swaths of solid, bold colors, Washington Color School artists sought to distance themselves from the emotional baggage of their abstract expressionist roots, instead presenting color in its purest form as the ultimate medium of aesthetic expression.
The minimalist renderings of the Washington Color School are currently on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC in the exhibition Washington Color and Light, on view through March 6. —Matthew Smith, DC contributor
Like this:
Filed under: Competitions, Los Angeles | Tags: Annie Lapin, Annual Prize, Dominic Molon, Jen Mergel, Reader's Choice
The History or Hysterical Memory, 2010 | Oil and acrylic on canvas, 40 x 60 inches. Courtesy Honor Fraser, Los Angeles.
It’s official: it’s a sweep. In a remarkable first, in addition to winning our inaugural Reader’s Choice Poll recently, Annie Lapin has now been selected as the winner of the first New American Paintings Annual Prize. Awarded by a jury of seasoned curators and previous jurors, the NAP Annual Prize is a cash gift of $1,000, courtesy of the magazine, awarded to one of the 12 Noteworthy artists from the six editions of the past year.
The panel for the Annual Prize consisted of three previous NAP jurors who have not made selections in the last year, including Jen Mergel, The Robert L. Beal, Enid L. Beal and Bruce A. Beal Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Dominic Molon, Chief Curator, The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, and Ian Berry, Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs and Curator at The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY. Noteworthy artists of 2010 nominated for the award included: Matthew Bourbon, Joseph Cohen, Megan Dirks, Jim Gaylord, Vera Iliatova, Mike Nudelman, Matthew Penkala, Chris Scarborough, Ellen Siebers, Amy Sherald, and Bart Vargas.
Annie Lapin and her work will be the subject of a forthcoming video collaboration with Future Shipwreck, which will appear here on the blog in the coming weeks. (If you haven’t seen our first video with Iva Gueorguieva, don’t miss it!) Lapin will also be featured in a solo show of her work, from May 21 – June 29, at Honor Fraser in Los Angeles, where the artist is based. You can see more of Annie’s work on the blog here!
Filed under: Art World, Portland, Seattle | Tags: Erin Langner, Greg Kucera Gallery, Kelli Rule, PDX Contemporary Art, Victoria Haven
ABOVE: Victoria Haven, NORTH X NORTHWEST MYSTIC (Gore-Tex® version), 2010 | Gore-Tex®, silver marking film, thread, 24 x 27.5 inches. Courtesy of Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle. BELOW: North x Northwest Sampler, 2010 | Ink and pen on paper, 14 x 14.75 inches. Courtesy PDX Contemporary Art, Portland.
Seattle-based artist Victoria Haven’s two current exhibitions, Hit the North (47° 60′N) at Greg Kucera Gallery and Hit the North (45° 52′N) at PDX Contemporary Art, dramatically defy expectations. In contrast to the grids and geometric forms characteristic of the artist’s work in recent years, the art in both Hit the North shows enters new territory by merging figures and abstracted forms with text and cultural references. Ranging widely in mediums, from sumi ink and aluminum to western red cedar and Gore-tex, the exhibitions coalesce into a single body of work through references to themes widely affiliated with the Pacific Northwest: the region’s outdoor features, weather and music scene. —Erin Langner and Kelli Rule
Filed under: Art World, Q&A, San Francisco | Tags: Catharine Clark Gallery, Jonathan Solo, Nadiah Fellah, San Francisco
Jonathan Solo, Worship, 2010, Collaged graphite drawings on paper, 43.5 x 34 inches. Courtesy Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco.
Jonathan Solo wants to make you uncomfortable. I met with the artist recently at Catharine Clark Gallery, where his solo show, Shadows, is up until February 19th. This body of work has come out of recent struggles in his life—coping with the loss of his mother, overcoming addiction—and his message as an artist comes across with a generous amount of conviction and a courageous sense of identity.
The delicate drawings and cut-outs in his San Francisco exhibition are an investigation of the Self and the experiences that have shaped him. Solo’s technical mastery as a self-taught artist is remarkable. Originally from Sacramento, Jonathan Solo has had shows most recently in the Bay Area, Berlin, and New York. This is his second show at Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco. His comments and pics after the jump. —Nadiah Fellah, San Francisco contributor
Filed under: Art World | Tags: Andrea Rosen Gallery, Evan J. Garza, José Lerma, portraiture, sound
José Lerma, The Glib Decade, 2010 | Acrylic and silicon caulk on canvas, oil, acrylic, urethane, pen and graphite on linen, two synthesizers, speakers, 94.5 x 140 x 22.75 inches. Courtesy Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York.
It might be the coolest conceptual application to the exhibition of paintings that I can remember. For his current solo show of paintings in New York, José Lerma has placed a few works directly on electronic keyboards, with the paintings themselves playing the haunting synthesizer chords that echo throughout the space.
Lerma’s exhibition at Andrea Rosen Gallery, I am Sorry I am Perry, is a portraiture show, but not in any recognizable sense. The bureaucrats loosely depicted in each painting take a backseat to the qualities of paint itself, and applications such as the keyboard paintings point to the individual personality of each work rather than their subjects. It’s a smart move, and the show is full of them. More after the jump! —Evan J. Garza
