Hasta La Ideas

An artist-curated group show redefines contemporary Realism

The first in a series of artist-curated exhibitions at NYC’s Joshua Liner Gallery, “Resolve” gathers together the peers and influencing figures of the highly skilled painter Tony Curanaj. Each of the 25 contemporary artists included in the group show is classically trained and collectively they demonstrate the diversity of Realism.

“Resolve” explores the human experience artists have with a subject, and the truth in their observations. “Great art expresses life,” says Curanaj, who is more interested in works that convey a person’s sensitivities than those that are focused on the medium, or, as he puts it, “art about art.”

Considered experts of their craft, the artists, which include one photographer, two sculptors and 22 painters, have become completely involved in creating work that reflects their distinct technical prowess. Curanaj aims to show the sincerity and beauty of work made by the hand of a skilled artist. “When you’re painting from life, it’s like a high-wire net with nothing underneath you,” he says. “You could fuck it up at any point.”

The show also makes a different argument about the idea of conceptualism, a term Curanaj believes has been misused for years—especially as it relates to Realism versus abstract art. “There’s a misconception that Realism isn’t conceptual,” he says. “I think Realism is of the highest, utmost conceptual ideas because you’re continuously conceptualizing what’s in front of you and putting it down as notes and feelings, trying to depict what is life, what is reality.” He also feels that the more deeply profound an idea, the more specific the depiction should be. The artist should have a very clear solution for the concept in order to fully get the idea across and relate to the viewer.

The show’s title refers to each artist’s unwavering creative direction and continuous refinement of their craft. Each notable in their own right, alongside Curanaj, the group includes Graydon Parrish, Jeremy Mann, Jefferson Hayman, Kim Cogan, Lee Misenheimer, Shawn Barber, Kris Kuksi and Jacob A. Pfeiffer.

On view for just one month, “Resolve” opens at NYC’s Joshua Liner Gallery on 26 January and runs through 25 February 2012.

Virtual versus physical: Our conversation with six creative professionals about their workspaces

Our environment influences our behavior both physically and mentally, guiding our personal evolution to determine, among other things, our quality of life. Nowhere does this ring truer than in the workplace. The surroundings, comforts, decorations and distractions that exist in the work environment can have a huge influence on creativity and productivity. For most, the workday revolves around the desk, and how individuals interact with that space can give some insight into the way they operate in the workplace. For the contemporary professional there now exist two desktops, the virtual and the physical, which raises some interesting questions about the relationship between these two spaces in our lives. We asked six creative professionals from the art, web and design worlds to show us their virtual and physical spaces, and found out what makes the modern desktop.

Monica Khemsurov, Co-Founder, Sight Unseen

Do you think of your desktops differently?

Yes. My virtual desktop gets far more use than my physical one, and it can accompany me into bed at night when I’m being a workaholic (which is always). I work from home, and my physical desk mostly just exists to keep me off the couch and save my back.

Favorite desktop accessory or decoration on both virtual and physical?

Virtual: My desktop image is the cover of a 1969 issue of the German advertising-art magazine Gebrauchsgraphik. Search its name on Flickr — amazing. Physical: Hard to pick a favorite, but I guess I’d go with the little metal bust on an acrylic stand, which I got this summer at a San Francisco antique store. I’m obsessed with things on stands; I also have a set of old geodes mounted on little metal tripods.

Where/when did you learn to organize or form a system of organization for them?

I don’t have much to organize on my physical desktop — I keep my mess on my kitchen table. But I will say that on my virtual one, I’ve always religiously kept things in aliased folders because a long, long time ago I was told that storing a lot of stuff on your desktop slows down your computer, which I think is actually no longer the case. Ah, modern technology.

What do you look for in a work space? What are the key elements to keep you productive?

Quiet, comfort, and good food at arm’s reach. I work really well at home actually — I can focus here far better than I can in an office. Offices make me tired and shifty. Especially when I’m not near a window, which has been the case for half of my working life. Once I was shut away in my own office with no window at all, so I hung a huge photograph of a forest on the wall, but it didn’t help the feeling that my soul was slowly dying.

Dennis Crowley, Co-Founder, Foursquare

Do you think of your desktops differently?

Yes, my physical desk is just a seat. As much a place to sit and get work done as it’s a place to store all the stuff I accumulate. The foursquare office is pretty open with lots of common space to work. There are some days I’m only at my desk for a few minutes (meetings, etc) and I’m totally fine with that. My virtual desktop is pretty bare—I’ve got a portal to Dropbox which mimics everything onto my Mac at home, iPad and iPhone. I guess the Dropbox cloud is the virtual equivalent of my messy physical desktop.

What are you embarrassed about on your desktop?

Physical: It’s a mess. I just tend to accumulate stuff—stickers, papers, postcards, photos, books, baseball cards, trinkets, USB cables. Virtual: Nothing! Since I got this new Mac I’ve bee keeping it real organized!

Favorite desktop accessory or decoration on both virtual and physical?

Physical: Penguins that sing and dance to House of Pain’s “Jump Around” (my Mom sent it to me for Christmas). Virtual: I’ve been using this app called F.lux that subtly changes the color of your screen as you get further from dawn and closer to dusk. Took me a few days to adjust but it’s pretty nice.

Where/when did you learn to organize or form a system of organization for them?

Virtual: My desktop hasn’t always been so tidy – the desktop my old MacBook was littered with old files. My physical desk has always been kind of an “organized mess”. Luckily, foursquare is moving offices next week which will force me to get rid of most of it.

What do you look for in a work space? What are the key elements to keep you productive?

Being in a crowded room. I’m more productive when everyone around me is buzzing. Most of the early foursquare prototype got built in East Village coffee shops since the atmosphere was much more motivating than working alone at my kitchen table.

John Maeda, President, Rhode Island School Of Design

Do you think of your desktops differently?

I don’t see them as connected in any way. I do regret that I don’t connect them more thoughtfully.

Favorite desktop accessory or decoration on both virtual and physical?

On my physical desktop, Kinesis keyboard is a necessity. On my virtual desktop, I guess it would be my Sparrow Mail window.

Where/when did you learn to organize or form a system of organization for them?

In 2005 I wrote a book called The Laws of Simplicity that espoused principles of organization that I use in my daily life.

What do you look for in a work space? What are the key elements to keep you productive?I look for a large enough table with a power outlet nearby. The key elements are industrial ear plugs, my computer, and my in/out box.

Jon Burgerman, Artist and Illustrator

Do you think of your desktops differently?

Yes, one collects dust and the other, images dragged off the Internet.

What are you embarrassed about on your desktop?

Nothing really, I have no shame, not anymore.

Favorite desktop accessory or decoration on both virtual and physical?

I have a small collection of cute/ugly animals stuck to the wall of my office. I haven’t really added to the collection for a long time now but I still like them. I try and keep both desktops clutter-free. I don’t like clutter. I don’t like unnecessary things. Almost everything is unnecessary…apart from wet wipes, of course.

Where/when did you learn to organize or form a system of organization for them?

I am feral. I learned and adapted by need and circumstance.

What do you look for in a work space? What are the key elements to keep you productive?

Nothing. I like space and the suggestion of a never-ending afternoon. To keep productive I need no restrictions or distractions. I’m distracted so easily.

Kelsey Keith, Senior Editor, Dwell

What are you embarrassed about on your desktop?

It’s a cubicle with gray walls and very little flair.

Favorite desktop accessory or decoration on both virtual and physical?

I moved into this office two weeks ago, so I don’t have much in the way of decoration. Several must-haves are red pens, a stack of clean notebooks, and a drawer to stash all the extras: snacks, stain remover, passport, calculator, hand cream. I would equate that drawer to the folder of photos on my virtual desktop.

Where/when did you learn to organize or form a system of organization for them?

I tend to remember things as soon as I write them down, so I wasn’t forced to get organized until I started managing people in an editorial role. Now I stay on track by adding appointments, even tentative ones, to my calendar as soon as they crop up and keeping a running tally of high-priority tasks on Mac Stickies. Funny enough, I loathe physical Post-It Notes.

What do you look for in a work space? What are the key elements to keep you productive?

No clutter. Bright but warm light. Seltzer. Noise-canceling headphones. A land line.

Kiel Mead, Designer

Do you think of your desktops differently?

My desktops are the same, there is never enough space!

What are you embarrassed about on your desktop?

My wood shop is sort of next door to my office so there is usually a fine layer of dust on everything. I am kind of self-conscious of that when clients are visiting.

Favorite desktop accessory or decoration on both virtual and physical?

My dog, George, She is currently on my computer desktop and strangely, sometimes we catch her on the actual desktop! She is a 40-pound Basset hound, explorer.

Where/when did you learn to organize or form a system of organization for them?

On my computer desktop I like all my icons very small. For some reason I feel like it is more organized when it is small. I wish I had a shelving system, floor to ceiling. I think that will be my next investment.

What do you look for in a work space? What are the key elements to keep you productive?

I am always looking for pens in my work space—they keep disappearing. My wireless printer is a task-killer, easy as pie, I can print from my phone! The main things that keep me productive are the endless threads of emails I tend to find myself on.

Cinematic influences pervade the annual photo fair

Photo LA was sprawled across the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium with as much bustle as the city itself. Wandering through the labyrinth of pop-up exhibitors, those that stood out most conveyed a strong cinematic narrative with a sense of humor.

Pulp Art Book marks a collaboration between photographer Neil Krug and model Joni Harbeck. The collection of serial adventures is set against fictional landscapes of pulp cinema. The primal COYOTE episode chronicles the rugged existence of a hunter in the desert, while BONNIE follows the final minutes of a girl-gone-bad during a shootout.

In his Skeletons in the Closet Klaus Pichler ameliorates the dusty archives of Vienna’s Museum of Natural History with austere yet personality-loaded behind-the scenes-photographs. The stuffed animals become characters, or as Pichler puts it, “they are full of life, but dead nonetheless.”

Glen Wexler’s large-format Improbable Realities weave awe-inspiring fantasy narratives. Wexler’s attention to whimsical details is realized by his team of top-notch feature film motion graphics experts.

Atlantic Garden by Ulu Braun conjures a seemingly infinite, psychedelic video collage. As the camera pans perpetually to the right, Atlantic Garden reveals idyllic scenes from a diverse selection of places and times.

Maria Luisa Morando’s Silver series reveals a vast triptych of over-exposed beach scenes from Southern France. Tired of details, Morando explains that she seeks simplicity in her images. The moody nostalgia of each landscape flows seamlessly into the next, drawing in viewers to lose themselves in the washed out colors, and identify with the obscure figures of beach-goers during magic hour.

Two young curators contemplate deception through a range of works that question reality

In magic, a blind cut refers to when the illusionist appears to shuffle a deck of cards, but in reality, hasn’t actually shuffled them at all. This sleight-of-hand trick is also the befitting title of the forthcoming exhibition at NYC’s
Marlborough Chelsea gallery, a group show curated by Jonah Freeman and Vera Neykov. Tapping revered Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers as its thematic anchor, “Blind Cut” explores the concept of deception in regards to identity, authenticity and originality, through his works and others’, each questioning what is real and what is fictional.

After living for decades as a struggling poet, in 1964 Broodthaers set in plaster 50 copies of a compilation of his poems entitled Pense-Bête, and put them on display at Galerie St Laurent. In the catalog for the exhibition, the Surrealist poet boldly stated, “I, too, wondered if I couldn’t sell something and succeed in life…The idea of inventing something insincere finally crossed my mind and I set to work at once.”

Re-framing his poetry as tangible works of art, Broodthaers continued to explore word-object relationships and the meaning of language throughout his short-lived career, often recontextualizing the work of his mentor, Réné Magritte. His diverse oeuvre now spans paintings, sculptural installations, photogrpahy, books and film, but with each medium he muddled the truth in order to expose the truth. “Blind Cut” also looks to another quotation by Broodthaers, which states “A fiction allows us to grasp reality and at the same time that which is veiled by reality.”

A contemporary reflection of this ideology may be found in the work of sculptor
Robert Lazzarini, who poetically distorts the familiar by toying with perception. Interested in phenomenology, Lazzarini uses real materials to create fabricated objects which sharply remind the viewer of their mundane existence.

Showing other introspective artists such as Matt Johnson, Anne Collier, Ed Ruscha and more—as well as works from influential movements like Dada and the radical architecture agency Superstudio—”Blind Cut” looks at a perpetually relevant topic with fresh eyes. In the digital age—one where Twitter verification is a measure of authenticity and bloggers post images without any concern for copyright—questions about identity, originality and reality feel like a natural part of conversation, but Freeman and Neykov have compiled a range of works that make the audience reconsider what they see.

“Blind Cut” opens 19 January 2012 at Marlborough Chelsea and runs through 18 February 2012.

More images of work from the show after the jump

A gallery show explores the reaches of monochromatic art

Rounding up a smattering of 37 artists, a new exhibition at the Jeff Bailey Gallery entitled “Grey Full” takes a close look at art’s most enigmatic color. The show educates viewers on the subtleties of shade and how small variations can communicate the emotional spectrum. A personal theme for artists who grew up on graphite, the show’s artists are all long-term explorers of the color. Desaturated though it may be, we loved the concept from curator Geoffrey Young and came away with a few favorites from the show.

Using a pelt of black sheepskin, Hugh Hayden abandons his architectural roots to shave a portrait of the President of the United States. The relief accomplishes a gradient through the relative length of the hair, with the white skin beneath providing contrast for the jet black coat. What begins as shock and comedy results in a meditation on race and an exploration of African American hair culture.

The masterful graphite work of Will Duty shows incredible manual ability. His drawn gradient background is a fluid contrast to the soft abstract scratches that are overlaid. In his work, one gets a sense of the potential for monochromatic works, and how an absence of color and contrast can add to the gravity of a piece.

Audrey Stone is a master of detail. Her delicately outlined webs are hardly visible from a distance. Getting up close and personal with the work, a network of pathways and geometries emerge. Created with painstakingly set thread, ink and pencil, Stone’s work is full of motion and energy that sneakily alters how we read the flat grid of lines.

Will Yackulic‘s “Grotto” is a complex combination of cold-process dye, india ink and oil paint. The abstract representation has a chemical appearance that’s full of rich texture. Yackulic’s individual look is gained through his employment of multiple mediums, which in the past has varied from gouache to typewriter ribbon.

Another abstract work, “The Cave” by Jered Sprecher, caught our eye for its haunting qualities. Disembodied finger marks and obscure forms stand out on a scene that seems to be melting away. The work reflects Sprecher’s fascination with states of change and deterioration.

The exhibit opens with a reception tonight from 6-8pm and will run through 11 February 2012.

Jeff Bailey Gallery

625 West 27th St

New York, NY 10001