Ian Davenport

Ian Davenport shows at the Paul Kasmin Gallery, which I saw. The minute i saw his paintings i was awe-struck. Davenport's palette is incredible and pure heaven to my eyes. I did some research on his work and found some interesting things out. He creates his work by use of drips and gravity, similar to early abstract expressionist like Pollock. He uses house paint in syringes, ejects the paint onto the canvas(which is mounted vertically on a wall to amplify the gravity effect) and then manipulates the pools of paint at the bottom of each piece by tilting the fiber board in different directions. Davenport is an artist i am looking at because of his palette and his style of dripping paint is something i am considering incorporating sparsely in future work(to break up the organic shapes and geometric patterns)

Erik Parker

Erik Parker shows at the Paul Kasmin Gallery in Chelsea. He seems to be an influential artist to me because of similar style, palette and subjects inspiration is drawn from. I love how intricate his forms are and how the build up to form a larger subject. I like his playful and creative use of words. One thing that I have learned out of looking at his work is a better understanding of how to create depth and mass by use of color combination. I researched him a little bit( so far a quick google search, but i plan on doing more) and there wasn't too much info out about him. But from what i read so far... he draws inspiration from all over the place like music, life, people he knows, famous people and places. This seems to something similar to me because i draw inspiration from all over. When i looked at his earlier work to his present work, i noticed the progression of development and intricacy of his forms and works. This gives me hope that my work can progress the same way because sometimes i feel that i kinda pigeon hole myself with my style.

Revsions...

I elaborated farther on my gallery review of the Frank Stella Show in Chelsea I went to go see.....

Gallery Visti to the Zimmerli Museum with Hannah!!!!

Sorry about the lateness... all the homeworks I had to do this week for this class and other classes... this was the one thing that slipped my mind.... sorry!!!
I did accomplish something productive on my birthday by going to the Zimmerli Museum with Hannah.. haha. We showed our I.Ds and got down to business in the museum. The first room we were both not so impressed. In the second room though, we were both intrigued by similar works. I am guessing because our work and palettes are similar. Well, Karen Kunc's were interesting. I really was drawn to her work for mostly her palette. I did some work in printing making, but Hannah was more interested in the process than I was. I loved her choice of colors and sparked some ideas for my own work. I really enjoyed the yellows, blues and purples. I also was interested by the over laying aspect because alot of my work is an overlaying of patterns and colors.. So it was interesting to look at how someone else approached the topic. The next thing on my list of likes was Dan Walsh.... his work totally reminded me of Hannah's but i was completely infatuated with his color use. Walsh's use of color was insane!!!! the colors seem so vibrant and that is one goal I always try to achieve in my work. I love making my colors pop to the extent that people viewing it are like "whoa!!" His soft edges give a good argument of different way to my work, since I usually use sharp edges in all of my work.

Top Picks For Graduate School

My Top Picks for Graduate Schools:

• Hunter College of the City University of New York- M.F.A. in painting from the Art Department
• The University of the Art (Philadelphia)- M.F.A. in painting.
• School of Art Institute of Chicago- M.F.A in painting.
• University of California(Los Angeles)- M.F.A. in painting from art department
• California Institute of the Arts- M.F.A. for painting in Art Program
  

Chapter 3- The Fair

• Pg. 81, second paragraph. I found the description of the administration/counsel of the fair to be rather fascinating. It was interesting that all the power and decisions didn't just rest with the director, Samuel Keller, but instead was divided up amongst his counsel, "ambassadors". I thought that basically the director would make all the decisions about who gets what stand and who gets in, but instead there is a whole counsel of people who choose. This, I guess, makes it more fair to the galleries wanting admission, but it makes it harder because you will have to get everyone's approval.
• Pg. 81-2. the description of the building was interesting because they really thought of every aspect, or factor, of what was needed for a perfect exhibiting conditions. Such as the layout so everyone is crammed altogether, "...each[floor of gallery stands] arranged in two easy-to-navigate concentric squares." The fair was split to have the "blue chip", more expensive galleries, on one floor and the other galleries on another floor. This catetered to the interests of the collectors and dealers, but, also, gave the galleries the fair/proper competition. The structure of the exhibition space was considered with high ceilings so they don't interfere with the view of the art work. Even the lighting conditions were considered to enable the work to be shown at it's very best with "... the expensive, artificial lighting being clean and white." I just found it interesting that all of these conditions were considered because I just assumed they used a building that was presentable and able to hold the proper amount of people.
  
• Pg. 82-3. I found the "characters" the Rubells to be rather interesting because of their contradiction to the assumed stereotype given to art collectors. The Rubells are very wealthy, but you wouldn't guess that unless you were told, I guess. They even said, at one point, "Sometimes I'm embarrassed to identify myself as a collector. It's about being rich, privileged, and powerful." Whereas the stereotype is that art collectors are dress expensively, stuck up and act superior. You can also tell that the Rubells were wise, experience collectors because of the way they spoke about collecting art, what art they are interested in and how private of a process it was to purchase art.
  
• Pg. 85, second paragraph. "The trick is to find a space for everything, so each work has a chance to breathe. It means hanging less and thinking about thematic connections and the sight lines." I thought this was an important quote because it is something everyone should keep in mind while hanging work in a public space, studio or so forth. I also think it is something we should keep in mind when we get closer to arranging work for a thesis exhibition.
  
• Pg. 84-91. I found the descriptions of all the different gallery stands and owners to be an intriguing comparison. You had your very involved, enthusiastic gallery owner, such as Gladstone. Gladstone was present for the whole fair, wanted to be there, very confident and personable with somewhat commercial and graphic style art. But, I guess that suits the personality of a woman that use to be a stay at home mom. However, in contrast, you have Victoria Miro who doesn't like the fair and only shows up for the required time she needs to be there. What I found interesting about her, wasn't her lack of involvement, but was the fact that there wasn't prices or any kind of indicator on the works. I liked this idea and how it made the buyers start a conversation, clever idea. Thinking more about it, I guess the "not pricing the pieces" seems logical because most of the works were more of museum collecting than personal collecting. On the whole other end of the spectrum, you have the Lisson Gallery and Nicholas Logsdail. This gallery showed sculptures and minimalism work. The difference with Logsdail was the fact he actually went to art school and that he doesn't flaunt his wealth. So far there wasn't any mention of the gallery owners having a academic art background.
• Pg. 91, first paragraph. "Many successful gallerists see themselves as mavericks. Some are artist-oriented dealers-they generally go to art school and give up being an artist when they discover they have an aptitude for organizing exhibitions. Others are collector-focused dealers- they tend to apprentice at Sotheby's or Christie's and often start out as collectors themselves. A third set might be called curators' dealers- they study art history and excel at scholarly justifications of their artists' work. In any case, there is no set training or certification. Anyone can call himself or herself a dealer or gallerist."- Logdail. I just found this to be a very interesting insight and explanation to what one of the motif questions of this chapter, the definition of a dealer. It slightly gives me hope that you don't have to be wealthy to be a dealer and maybe I could achieve being one. (haha)
• Pg. 94, third paragraph. "Artists tend to view art fairs with mixture of horror, alienation, and amusement. They feel uneasy when all the hard work of the studio is reduced to supplying the voracious demand, and they wince at the sight of so much art accompanied by so little substantive conversation." This point is relivant because the whole time I read this chapter I was wondering why none of the artists were there. So my question was answered. I think this quote doesn't just apply to artists at fairs but just in general of artist being around when people are looking at their work. Ok, well at least for me. I go through a whole wave of emotions when I have to present my work for crit or have it in a show or show it to my friends. It's a vulnerable place to be for many reasons.
  

A little Frank Stella & Elizabeth Murray

Two of the most influential artist on my work. I remember seeing Murray's retrospective a few years back and falling in love with her work. Frank Stella had me at the black paintings.

Elizabeth Murray







Frank Stella

Jullian Beever...sick nasty street artist

Julian Beever does these insane pavement drawings all over Europe. He has skills in rendering old masters and techniques to make is original work seem 3-D at a certain perspective. This guy is amazing. I was looking through some photos and Beever's drawings are so realistic that people walked around to avoid the hole he drew once somewhere. He work seems to be alot of fun and games mixed with massive perspective mastery. here are some pics of his work

FRANK STELLA GALLERY EXHIBITION

The Paul Kasmin Gallery (293 10th Ave. which is really the corner of 27th and 10th) is exhibiting Frank Stella "Polychrome Relief". This exhibit consisted of twelve relief sculptures made out of stainless steel, springs, coils, lattice varitation and metal tubing/piping. Vibrant spray painting, that resembled the glossiness of car paint, was used to bring attention to the fluidity of the compositions. The twelve pieces curved, twisted, jumped and ducked through themselves creating an illusion of a completely different piece from every perspective it was viewed from. I already admire Stella's work and draw some inspiration from his years of work. So to see these new works in person was a pleasure. The size of them is so impressive and even the pieces that were simply all white were quite stunning.

Chapter 6- The Studio Visit

• Pg.187 "I like to think that I have a more honest relationship with our artists than some other dealers, but I don't want to be anyone's shrink."
• Pg. 188 "Murakami is a stickler for documenting every layer of a painting, so he can follow the process even when he is out of town and look back on the layers to reproduce similar effects in future work." - I thought this was an interesting idea and maybe I would like to start doing because maybe it would help with remember colors or things i did to get a certain effect.
  
• Pg.191 " Murakami is unusual among artists in acknowledging the collective labor inscribed in his work." - I thought it was interesting that all artists do not give credit to the people that help create it. Also, it was interesting that, a little further in the paragraph, Murakami helps get his assistants careers going, but what i found interesting is that this was also a unique thing.
• Pg. 193 "... T-shirts, posters, post cards, pillows, plastic figurines, stickers, stuffed monsters, mugs, mouse pads, key chains, catalogues, cell-phone covers, badges, tote bags, handkerchiefs, decorative tins, notepads, and pencils." - This automatically made me think of Hello Kitty and Ed Hardy and how they have every single kind of merchandise out there. However, its also impressive that Murakami is that commercialized.
• Pg. 197 " Murakami's work starts out as a paintbrush drawing on paper, which his assistants then scan into the computer using the live-trace tool of Adobe Illustrator CS2, then they fine-tune the curves and zigzags with different techniques." - the process seems never-ending but it shows a well developed process and explains why so many different studios are necessary, I guess.
• Pg. 198 "An artist is someone who understands the border between this world and that one. ... I change my direction or continue in the same direction by seeing people's reaction. ... But I work by trail and error to be popular."
  
• Pg. 199 Third Paragraph. This is an interesting comparison between Murakami and Andy Warhol. The way that Murakami looked at Warhol's work and refused to do it Warhol's way. But later, Murakami took on silk screening to expand his knowledge of processes and used Warhol's use of silk screening by means of mass reproduction . However, Murakami made the process his own and very different than his influence, Andy Warhol.
• Pg.199 " A studio is supposed to be a site of intense contemplation."
• Pg.200-01 Murakami's bedroom seems to resemble what most of our studios are. The smaller details and nic-nacks give hints to who we are and where our inspriation could potentially coming from. In Murakami's bedroom there is a Hello Kitty, figurines from paintings and a collection of animation. These small things provide an insight of what his personal interests are and makes connections to some aspects of his work.
  
• Pg. 206 " it's a privilege to see incomplete work."
• Pg. 209 "When I go into a studio, I look at absolutely everything." "Supplemental information is incredibly important. If there is a truth there, it's not just in the work but in how they work, how they act , who they are..."
• At first I couldn't really understand why this artist Murakami would have so many studios. Then once I read about his process in creating work, how many people work for him in creating these pieces, his international status and commercialization, it seems completely appropriate for him to have all this space.
  

Some of my more recent work

This painting is from the same series just earlier on. The painting was done in acrylic and latex house paint on a panel of MDF board thats roughly 5x4 feet.

Some of my more recent work

These two paintings were part of series. They are both done in acrylic on 9 inch circular pre-stretched canvases.

Chapter 2- The Crit

• the description of the classroom reminds me of every classroom I have had crits in. "... a windowless classroom with cement walls in which long-life fluorescent lights cast a gray glow."
• "... situation in which everyone focuses on the student's work with a mandate to understand it as deeply as possible. Crits can also be painful rituals that resemble cross-examinations in which artists are forced to rationalize their work and defend themselves from a flurry of half-baked opinions that leave them feeling torn apart." This is exactly what a crit feels like to me. More than often the second part. I hate getting up there and having to explain my work. I rather just sit and listen to what people actually think because most of my work is created non-objectively. So its hard for me to come up with an explanation other than "it just felt right".
  
• I wish I could bring my pet in with me to my crits. I am sure crits would be a lot better and easier on everyone.
  
• "art students need to understand their motivations deeply, because in grad school it's imperative to discover which parts of their practice are expendable."
• "Then they talk about Asher. 'He certainly gives you enough rope to hang yourself,' says one." This reminds me of one of my painting professors. He always just let you do what you wanted to do. But... when it came to crit... that's when he kicked the chair out from underneath you and told you where you went wrong. Although it was harsh, it the best way to learn when you are a young student and think you know everything.
• "Most teachers believe that creativity is a very personal process that cannot be taught. As a result, students are expected to have it when they arrive..." I think this is very true. However, most students do not know where to pull their creativity from when they are first entering art school. Sometimes they may find something that will intrigue or inspire them for a short period of time, but it will not sustain or drive a respectable body of work. It's like the creativity source of freshman art students is a trend. It comes and goes. It may be cool for a little while, but then you get bored of it.
  
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Chelsea and fast cars...

Bruce Silverstein Gallery- 535 West 24th Street
Todd Hido is showing large scale color photographs. The exhibition is titled "A Road Divided". The photographs vary from extreme close up to medium shot. The photographs were of car accidents, more like car wrecks. The close up shots abstracted the subject, the crunched car hood, and it took me to minute to realize what I was looking at. I really like the twelve photographs that documented the deployment of an air bag. Overall, I thought the exhibit was interesting subject matter and had a slight morbid quality. However, I had a slight knot in my stomach because it reminded me of my recent car accident.

Pace Wildenstein Gallery-545 West 22nd Street
Maya Lin is exhibiting "Three Ways of Looking at the Earth". The exhibit consists of three large scale installations. The first installation is in view as you first enter the gallery. Its quite overwhelming in scale and construction. Its titled "2x4 Landscape". The landscape is built out of 2x4 small blocks of wood, stacked and layer to achieve height. This was insanely cool and gives new ideas how to build something large scale. The second installation is titled "Waterline". This installation was constructed out of wire and referenced the ocean floor. The third installation is titled "Blue Lake". The installation was separated into squares of layered particle boards with jagged tops and set up in a grid pattern. It represented the elevation map of a mountain range. Overall this show was really well put to together and completely amazing. At first the scale is overwhelming and slows your realization of what you are looking at. Then, slowly, the simplicity of the materials leads you to the understanding of what you are actually looking at.

Andrea Rosen Gallery-525 West 24th Street
Josiah McElheny exhibited "Proposals for a Chromatic Modernism". This exhibit consists of photographs and sculptures. The main concept of is future architecture using primary color glass windows. The photographs are colored in to show where the primary colors would go on the windows. This exhibit was hard for me to understand because I lack the understanding of architecture but the "proposals" were visually pleasing. I really did not understand how the monochromatic shelves with glassware fit into the exhibit.

Winston Wachter Fine Art-530 West 25th Street
Ed Cohen was exhibiting "The Nothing That Is Not Here". This gallery I just stumbled into while walking down the street. The paintings consisted of solid black or white backgrounds and there were either wavy lines or circles. The lines and circles were created out of drips of paint that resemble marble. The Pollock influence is completely apparent. I just generally like these paintings. They seem to project a happy feeling. They seem to focus more on an intangible than a tangible subject matter.

Pace Wildenstein Gallery- 534 West 25th Street
James Turrell's exhibit was titled "Large Holograms". Well... basically it was holograms. I thought I was pretty interesting because it seem to deal with optical mixing and perception. I was interested in walking around and figuring out how the holograms were made with the projection of the lights.

Lehmann Maupin Gallery-540 West 26th Street
Juergen Teller showed his exhibit titled "Paradis". The exhibited consisted of large scale color photographs. The photgraphs were taken in some sort of museum. Some contained two female nude models and others were just of the interior of the museum. I did not really enjoy this show. The photographs seem a little pixelated and made it seem amateur. I wondered if that was on purpose?

Andrea Meislin Gallery-526 West 26th Street
Jed Fielding exhibited "Look at Me: Photographs from Mexico City". The show exhibited all the same size black and white photographs. The photographs were matted, framed and hung about eye level. The subjects of these photographs were blind children. The photographs gave a sense of uneasiness because it is social norm not to stare at a person's disability. However, this show forces you to look at them directly and enables you to stare at them without being yelled at.

Robert MIller Gallery-547 West 27th Street
I am pretty sure I saw the wrong show at this gallery. The show that I saw was titled "Sundaram Tagore Presents The Space Around Us, New York" by Joan Vennum. The show consisted of multiple panel paintings that resemebled sunraises and sun sets. However at the same time, they had a abstract quality to them.