Patrick McDonough’s lawn chairs are not meant for sitting. And if they begin to seem functional, well, it’s all pretend. The sculptures offer the formal concepts of lawn chairs without actually closing the deal — legs and armrests have gone missing, for starters, and the works themselves are decidedly non functional. Instead of functionality McDonough is interested in their allusions to an American iconography of leisure. Take a look at them and it’s not difficult to imagine the smell of freshly cut grass or the skyward boom of summertime fireworks. It’s part of what the artist describes as his overarching interest in the aesthetics of free time. But there’s something else that’s also at work here; each piece has a significant stake in pure color, in hard edged geometry, and in the rectangular chromatic plane. You won’t need to dig too deep before you start thinking of abstract painting. - Matthew Smith, Washington, D.C. Contributor
Patrick McDonough| 122909-lawn chair, Wood, Paint, Outdoor Furniture Fabric, Hardware
Filed under: DC | Tags: Becca Kallem, Concrete Abstract, Danielle Mysliwiec, Heiner Contemporary, Jeremy Flick, Lisa Dillin, Matthew Smith, Patrick McDonough, Seth Adelsberger, Steven Frost, Sue Johnson
Our DC Blog Contributor, Matthew Smith, has curated a fantastic group exhibition at Heiner Contemporary called, Concrete Abstract, which runs through April 20th. In the show, which includes artists Seth Adelsberger, Lisa Dillin, Jeremy Flick, Steven Frost, Sue Johnson, Becca Kallem, Patrick McDonough, Danielle Mysliwiec, and Matthew Smith, the curator “…explores the confluence of abstraction with the everyday” As the press release continues, “The works in the show cultivate a non-representational visual language that emerges from familiar ready-made objects, whether these objects are found or alluded to compositionally. Their formal and functional properties provide the contextual framework for works that are ultimately understood visually via their entanglement with abstraction, even as they remain securely tethered to the real, concrete world.”
After the jump, see more images from the exhibition and read more from the press release.
Jeremy Flick | Contrapuntal Derivation no. 744703807, 2013, acrylic and gouache on panel, 8 x 8 inches
Filed under: Review | Tags: Matthew Smith, NUDASHANK, Alex Da Corte, Dead Zone, Andrew Gbur, Sean Fitzgerald, Jamie Felton, Alex Perweiler, John Roebas, Borna Sammak, Kyle Thurman
Technically speaking, Dead Zone (at Nudashank through March 17) is a group show curated by Philly-based artist Alex Da Corte. But this description isn’t really accurate. Rather than playing the role of curator, Da Corte is bringing in works by other artists and using them as additional materials in his sculptural assemblages. Along with the dollar store objects that Da Corte normally uses to build his works, like fringe or leggings, the list of materials for the pieces in Dead Zone also include Andrew Gbur’s “Untitled” or Sean Fitzgerald’s “16 Colors (as in the image below). Issues of authorship, appropriation, and attribution come to the fore, as does a sense that we might be flipping through Tumblr. — Matthew Smith, Washington, D.C. contributor
Alex Da Corte
Big Brothers
Foam, Fringe, Bleach, Andrew Gbur’s “Untitled”, Ratchet Strap, Sean Fitzgerald’s “16 Colors”, Leggings, Plastic Grapes, Broken Christmas Ornament
2013
Filed under: Features | Tags: Brian Fee, Ellen C. Caldwell, Erin Langner, Matthew Smith, Nadiah Fellah
In case you haven’t noticed, we have the best art writers in the world. Seriously, it’s true. Our blog contributors are stationed all over the country, scoping out shows, visiting studios, and interviewing the best contemporary painters in the art world. Recently we asked our most prolific bloggers to answer a few questions about themselves and their thoughts on 2012. It’s your chance to get to know a handful of the talented individuals that bring you the New American Paintings/Blog! There are many more writers, and we hope to feature them soon.
Thanks to everyone that contributes to our blog, helping us bring our readers rich and exciting content on a daily basis!
When we asked Brian Fee which piece “moved him” in 2012, he responded: James Rosenquist | F-111 Reinstallation, 1964-65, Oil on canvas with aluminum, twenty-three sections, 10×86′
The limits of the human mind have something to do with really big numbers. There’s no insight into knowing that Earth is one hundred million miles away from the Sun, for example — it’s just real far. Partly, it’s a matter of scale. Cornell mathematician Steve Strogatz tries to rein in this vastness in his description of the Sagan Planet Walk, a scaled replica of the solar system in Ithaca, NY. There, Earth is the size of a pea and just a couple of steps away from the sun, itself the size of a serving plate. Pluto, the farthest planet in the solar system, is scaled to the size of a couscous grain and nearly a mile away, or a twenty minute walk. Needless to say there’s no Sagan Planet Walk that includes the other 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, or the rest of the 100 billion visible galaxies in the universe. — Matthew Smith, Washington, D.C. contributor
Felipe Pereira Goncalves | space…the unfuckable frontier, 2011, acrylic and spray paints,glue, and glitter on canvas, 32″x 50″
Filed under: Q&A | Tags: #99, Arlington Arts Center, Laura Hudson, Matthew Smith, NAP
Laura Hudson (NAP #99) has been getting out of the studio. The Baltimore-based painter organizes participatory events, documents them on video, then culls her compositions from the nuanced moments hidden in the hours of footage. For her latest project Laura organized a sleepover at the Arlington Arts Center in suburban Washington, DC. The event was meant to be a sentimental throwback to the days of slumber parties — the artist and 15 of her friends ate junk food, chatted, and played cards all night before nodding off into sleeping bags. It’s all part of her painting process now, bringing her together with friends as much as it pushes her into the isolation of the studio.
The resultant series of paintings, On Common Ground, are currently exhibiting in the same gallery space where the sleepover was organized. In this regard they’re meant to function like a site-specific installation, integrating the viewer into the composition and blurring the boundary between the audience and the painting. Another project, Art Opening (pictured below), takes what is perhaps a more direct path at this, as painted subjects and gallery goers comingle in the same functional space.
I recently had the chance to chat with Laura about her work and her process. Our conversation after the jump. – Matthew Smith, Washington, D.C. contributor
Laura Hudson | Installation view of Art Opening | 2012, image courtesy of the artist
Practical necessity is Judy Rushin’s (NAP #64, #76, #100) muse. Well, not exactly. Her Modular series of sculptural paintings are made to be disassembled and reconfigured again; site-specific works that can travel well. Individual modules are aggregated into compositions for new exhibition layouts, then stacked and shipped. They’re spatially and geographically untethered — mobile paintings for a mobile economy. Indeed, if practical necessity is the unintended muse of most projects (unless your name is Jeff Koons), Rushin’s Modular paintings offer the idea of practical necessity as an evocative conceptual and material framework. There’s a clear immediacy to them, perhaps because they reflect our own untethered geographies.
Judy Rushin | Installation view of Modular series. Image courtesy of the artist.
Judy was one of the independent artists exhibiting at the (e)merge art fair in D.C. a few weeks ago, and I recently caught up with her to chat about her work and her process. –Matthew Smith, Washington, D.C. contributor (more…)
Filed under: Art Fairs, Art Market, Art World | Tags: Adrian Loving, Alejandro Diaz Ayala, Alex Podesta, Allison Reimus, Andrew Kozlowski, Asymmetric, Aureus Contemporary, Chajanaden Harder, Cheryl Pope, Conner Backman, Contemporary Wing, David B. Smith, eMerge, Flashpoint, Flying Rooster Contemporary Projects, G Fine Art, Hedieh Havanshir Ilchi, Jeff Depner, Jimmy Miracle, Johnny Lu, Katherine Mann, Magnolia Laurie, Mandy Cano Villalobos, Matthew Smith, Mixed Greens, Patrick McDonough, Project 4, Rafael Miranda, Romas Astraukas, Ryan Carr Johnson, Samuel Scharf, Si Jae Byun, Trailer Park Proyects, Transformer, Victoria Fu, Washington Project for the Arts
Last year’s preview night at (e)merge was a big, ruckus party. Amidst the large crowds it was often difficult to navigate the hallways between exhibitors, and the wait for the elevators always seemed impossibly long. While it may have been loads of fun for those of us sipping PBRs by the pool, perusing and buying artwork that evening seemed to require a bit more resolve and determination. This year, the second for (e)merge, the crowds on preview night were noticeably thinned, particularly among the younger set who were likely turned off by the $45 admission price ($60 at the door). The new cover charge seemed like a calculated move by organizers, one of a handful of changes that made this year’s event seem more streamlined and manageable for exhibitors and visitors alike. Whether these changes translated into more sales is anybody’s guess, but sales may not be the right metric to measure the success of (e)merge. At least not yet. – Matthew Smith, Washington, D.C. contributor (All photos by Matthew except where indicated)
Chajana denHarder performing Singularity (Artist Platform). Photo by Tony Wilson
Filed under: DC, Review | Tags: Connersmith, DC, Lisa Ruyter, Matthew Smith
There’s a seemingly direct line between Lisa Ruyter’s work and pop art. Like pop art, Ruyter’s paintings are guided by photography and mass media, her appropriation strategies a central crux of her compositions. But her artistic concerns are decidedly unwarholian. Rather than revisiting pop art’s critique of commodity culture, Ruyter is more interested in reframing the conceptual meeting point between image and color, obliterating photographic affect and repurposing meaning along the way. Indeed, much of the photographs’ original “truth” is lost when viewed through Ruyter’s decadently neon prism, nearly as abstract as it is figurative. - Matthew Smith, DC Contributor
LISA RUYTER | Arthur Rothstein “Dry and parched earth in the badlands of South Dakota” | 2009, acrylic on canvas, 47 x 59 inches. Image courtesy of Connersmith
Filed under: DC, Review | Tags: Annie Albagli, Brian Chippendale, Greg Cook, Julie Chae, Jungil Hong, Kayrock, Kris Chatterson, Kristina Bilonick, Matthew Smith, Vince Contarino
Brian Chippendale came to prominence as a leading figure in the underground art and music scene that blossomed in Providence, RI during the 1990s. At the center of this creative explosion was Fort Thunder, an expansive live-work space co-founded by Chippendale in 1995 that occupied the second floor of an historic mill. Part performance space, part printshop, part residence, Fort Thunder was ultimately purchased by a developer and demolished in 2002, giving way to a supermarket and office supply store. As Chippendale bounced around studios over the next couple of years he went from decorating his walls with prints of his drawings to stretching them over wooden bars like paintings. As he told Greg Cook in a profile for Juxtapoz last June: “I think I got so wound up by the Fort Thunder thing that I couldn’t start fastening them to the walls. It seemed like a good way to make things I could move around. Plus, the walls were concrete, and I couldn’t really staple to them.”
Brian Chippendale | The High Castle | 2011, screenprint collage on wood, 58”x48” (image courtesy of the artist and Arlington Arts Center)
A few of these wall pieces, along with works by 27 other artists, are currently on display in CTRL+P (on view through September 16), an expansive group show co-curated by Kristina Bilonick and Julie Chae at Arlington Arts Center. The show explores new and multidisciplinary directions in printmaking, including painterly treatments like Brian Chippendale’s “stretched paper” pieces and a myriad other approaches. After the jump I look at a few of the more painterly works and I consider how they arrived at this junction between painting and printmaking. –Matthew Smith, Washington, D.C. contributor
