More Miami: Chuck Close lecture

Chuck Close spoke to a large crowd at Art Basel on Thursday Morning. The lecture was moitored by Richard Flood, cheif curator for the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City. For those of you who are not familiar with the story of Close, he was a successful painter and photography who had a disastrous spinal artery collapse in 1988. The doctors said he would never be a fully functioning artist again.

Over the hour that Chuck spoke, it became very clear that what he has not allowed refers to as "the Event" to destroy his life, though it strongly affects his work. He said confidently that "Art saved my life." Creating art is what keeps him moving forward. He said that "every aspect of my work "is totally determined by my disability." Chuck continues to paint, but in a totally different way than before his accident. He straps a brush to his hand (he refers to painting as "taking a stick with some hairs glued on the end, rubbing it in some colored dirt, and smearing it on a cloth"). He carefully copies photographs onto a gridded canvas, dot by dot, so that up close, his paintings appear pi elated, but from afar, they are unbelievably photorealistic.

Close spoke about moving beyond undergraduate & graduate work, and coming into one's own habits and freedom. "When your a good student, you make shapes that look like art...but it must look like some one else's art." In an effort to move into this freedom Close got rid of all his tools and all color, sticking to black paint only.

lastly, Close explained how his disability informs his work: he described himself as having a short attention span, not having a memory for the three dimmensional, but a nearly photographic memory for the two dimmensional. His work takes an enormous amount of dedication, to which he commented that "if you get an idea, you just have to be there long enough to resolve it."

More Miami: inspiration

Here are the photos I promised. Art basel wouldn't allo cameras, so these are mostly from Scope & Photo Miami. also, they were taken on my sanyo point & shoot so don't judge the quality :)

More Miami: Vik Muniz lecture

Vik Muniz spoke to a full house that spilled into an overflow room on December 8th at Art Basel. He spoke with a great sense of humor and poise about the progressions of his career, and what is work means to him. Muniz began creating sculpture, but eventually became far more interested in photographer. He was fascinated by the photo shoots that took place to document the objects in galleries; the light, the photographer and all the assistants; Muniz said the procedure made it seem as if the "object was made to be photographed". The irony is that if a viewer only sees the photograph, he only see's the object from the photographers way of looking, and sometimes the photograph even makes the subject look better than it really is. "As we grow old, we lose the ability to rotate objects in our minds" said Muiz.

These were the beginings of Muniz's reason for photography as means of distribution (his sculptures are never exhibited in person); he also uses the theory of photography to his advanteage. "I rely on the photograph to create that critical distance...it's my pixie dust." Munix feels the photograph seperates the viewer from the process. He spoke about watching people look at paintings in a gallery, how they walk up to a certain point in front of the canvas and then lean in, step back and repeat. He wants to find that exact moment when the viewer crosses the boundary, that moving out to see the image versus moving in to see the process. Muniz tries to "extend that tranformation" because "magic is where art meets science."

Vik then spoke with a morbid sense of humor about the state of the photo industry: ave something depressing to say......"Photography is useless. Being a photographer today is like being a painter when photography was invented."

The moderator asked Muniz to talk about his materials (ketchup, ciggerate ashes, chocolate syrup, wire, thread, etc). Muniz said that he "mistcasts all of his actors". Elaborating, he explained "It's just material. It's just stuff, it's what you make of it. People in the renessaince use mummy powder. I've never used dead people!"

Miami Trip: Photo Miami & more

Allison and I just returned from Miami: the art was incredible. We visited PhotoMiami, SCOPE, Aqua & Art Basel. I took photos at the first two, cameras weren't allowed inside of Art Basel. I'll be posting some various photos & writeups from the two lectures, (Chuck Close & Vick Muniz). Meanwhile, here are links to photogographers I discovered on the trip (mostly at Photo Miami). Their work is new to me, very inspirational, and worth checking out.

http://www.adadhannah.com/ does mainly movie stills: her museum stills are escpecially interesting pieces.

http://www.alanburjohnson.com/ breathtaking, delicate instiallations created with transperancies. see below, and be sure to look at his project, "Swarm"

http://www.abdelnnortt.com/ This artist does sculpture, videos and photorealistic paintings (below, "I never worry" oil on canvas) but his work was at Photo Miami via the Stephen Cohen Gallery. Read his artist statement, which is under "a freindly reminder". Its toungue in cheek and very quirky.

http://www.alexprager.com/ She's a young photographer from california. Vibrant colors, and something unsettling about her compositions, as seen below. She's one of my new favorites!

http://www.elzajo.com/ Her work seems to be a playfully morbid take on female sexuality. The pieces at Photo Miami were 3-dimmensional, including the one below which I can't locate a title for.

Thur Nov 20th: Struggle

Struggle: verb
to be coping with inability to perform well or to win; contend with difficulty

Hard times have not left the art world untouched; the LA times announced on November 19th that the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) has fallen on financial difficulties. According to the times, Museum Director Jeremy Strick said MOCA is "seeking large cash infusions from donors, and this week he did not rule out the possibility of merging with another institution or sharing its collection of almost 6,000 artworks."
The museum has relied on donors for about 80% of its annual $20 million budget. While the museum is not disclosing any of its current financial figures, but it has announced a six-month closure of the Geffen Contemporary exhibition space, in effort to cut operating costs. Thus far, MOCA has made no staff cuts.
In discussing options for the museum, director Strick said "All the possibilities being explored involve MOCA retaining its identity, continuing its program, expanding its collection", adding "I think it is time for this city to step forward and offer the kind of financial support commensurate with the work being done."
In comforting news, MOCA has not resorted to what many other institutions have been forced to; sell the highest valued works in effort to keep the establishments afloat. This contradicts the standard museum code of ethics. Stricks response to the pressure to sell: "our mission is preserving and protecting this collection."

Sunday Nov 23rd: Ben Grasso

"Whatever was left of it" , 2007 Untitled (treehouse), 2007 Ascending House, 2006 Gas Sation, 2006

Born 1979 in Cleveland, Ohio, Ben Grasso now lives and works in New York, New York. Grasso recieved a BFA in painting in 2003 from the Clevland, Ohio and his MFA (also in painting) in 2006 from Hunter College, CUNY, New York, NY. Prior to his education, Grasso had several residencies & grants. He has also had a number of group exhibitions as well as three solo exhibitions.
According to his artist's statement, his paintings "make more immediate the collective experience...Confusion, displacement, disaster, celebration and rebuilding are all at once urgent and elusive."
Grasso currently has a current exhibiton of paintings ("Close to Home") at the Kinkead Contermporary Gallery in Culver City, California. The gallery has specifically devoted itself to present new and emerging artists. (http://www.kinkeadcontemporary.com/)
-artist website: http://www.bengrasso.com/ (no information is available on his site; it appears to be under construction)

Thur Nov 13th: troubled

Troubled: verb

to disturb the mental calm and contentment of; worry; distress; agitate

In the current conditions, fear and lack of trust are causing stress and worry to mount in the minds of the American people. At the 2008 California Biennial, artist Patrick "Pato" Herbert's installations, "Text Messaging: 1,000 Points of Might" deals with these very topics. Hundreds of signs, which appear similar to campaign signs, litter the entrance to the Orange County Museum of Art.
One critic relates the visting ecperience on his blog, http://imoralist.blogspot.com/.

"For a few anxiety-filled moments we were stepping, shifting, and turning amid a sensory overload of knobs, dials, pedals, mirrors, gauges, and oncoming traffic.....
It may be said that the zeitgeist of our time is sensory overload, and our brains are suffering the overwhelming input of record-setting art and oil prices, seven years of Middle East war, global warming, two years of presidential campaigning, and the pillaging of nations by the rich and well connected from America to Zimbabwe. It has been a rough start to the new millennium...."

There is very little information about the work of Patrick Herbert online; I was only able to discover that he lives in california and his normal medium is photography.