Andrea Zittel’s color block installations take over Andrea Rosen Gallery
“I have one of these at home covered in cat hair,” Andrea Zittel says, indicating a large, color-blocked woven panel hanging in “Fluid Panel State,” her 10th solo show at Andrea Rosen Gallery. The panel in question, “A-Z Cover Series 2 (Rust and Gold Geometric),” is one of dozens…
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Cleveland’s fourth annual contemporary furniture show highlights local talent and hometown pride
Ohio’s North Coast recently hosted the fourth annual contemporary furniture show F*Sho on Friday 7 September 2012. Held in a former drill warehouse on the city’s east side, the one-day event featured work by 30 local furniture designers, including internationally known names such as Objeti and Stephen Yusko, younger…
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Masterpieces on iPhone
Even from a few feet away, you can see the bold strokes that Sao Paulo artist Roberto Lautert applies to his portraits of iconic art figures, but step closer and you’ll notice that brush lines are strangely missing. That’s because there were no brushes—these works are enlarged versions of the portraits Lautert “paints” by fingertip on his iPhone 3G, using the Finger Draw app. The pieces are currently on display at Loja do Bispo in Sao Paulo in his first-ever solo show.
Lautert, an art and creative director at his own agency, has always loved doing portraits of friends and family, which in the past were made by pencil, acrylic or watercolor. So when Lautert discovered the Finger Draw app in 2009, he knew that his first stab would be a portrait. He painted his wife, who later gave him the idea of doing a six-image series of the artists he admired most—David Hockney, Lucien Freud, Avigdor Arikha, Alex Katz and Elizabeth Peyton.
Painting on such a small screen as the iPhone is challenging in itself, but Lautert finds putting in the details to draw the eyes and the shape of the face the most difficult to achieve. “Every new portrait becomes a drama because it seems like it’s not going to turn out right,” he said. “You suffer until the results start to excite you. But even so, every time you hit save and return hours afterward, you see there’s so much still left to do.”
Because the digital size of the Finger Draw portraits are so small, the images had to be put through a vector process to enlarge them before they’re printed on canvas. “What’s beautiful about Finger Draw on the iPhone is that you can put in your pocket, as if it were a Moleskine,” says Lautert.
Lautert is looking to bring his pieces to other major cities in Brazil, and the current show runs through 25 May 2012.
Young UK designers strike out on their own with color, humor and innovation
One menswear collection stood out among all the others at A/W 2012 London Fashion Week in March. Bright, bold and bearing no resemblance to anything seen before, Agi & Sam hit the headlines for their seemingly effortless fusion of color and style. Launched in 2011 by Agape Mdumulla and Sam Cotton, two 26-year-old UK designers who cut their teeth working at Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfeld, J.W. Anderson, and Blaak Homme, Agi & Sam is fast gaining recognition for its bespoke prints, original designs and ability to inject humor into the world of men’s couture. We caught up with Mdumulla and Cotton in their East London studio to find out more about their eclectic young label.
I think it was the frustration and limitation for applying our own tastes and styles on a collection. When you are at a big house you learn their ways and techniques and your aesthetic starts to turn into what is needed to produce their collections. This was great initially as it formed our taste and style and we are massively influenced by McQueen, even still now, but I think we wanted to apply a bit more to a collection and really develop something we felt was interesting, different and had so far been untouched in fashion.
We have always said we wanted to be positive with our approach to fashion and have fun. I think color links directly to positive connotations and really shows you can have fun. The colors we use are always inspired by whatever we look at for influence for the season. Being as we always choose humorous projects to look at we often find we are bombarded with bright colors and imagery. If we were to look at death and depression as an influence you’d of course find a lot less color than a guy who was found in a bin dressed as Dr. Who outside the large Hadron Collider.
No we design all the prints by ourselves. The more work we have on our plates the more we regret doing so, but we are quite picky with our tastes and prints. Everything we produce is quite personal to our own humor and the way we work with color and print might be quite hard for an artist to kind of understand and hence wouldn’t come out quite right in the print.
I’d say working to make the brand accessible was hard. We are working on a business model that doesn’t really have anything to go off, we can’t start a tailoring brand and then follow the methods of Saville Row companies, or produce a sports range that has massive inspiration from Nike. We have had to kind of test the water really quickly by plunging our heads in and holding our breath. When we were awarded the MAN show we knew we had a lot to change with the brand and had to pull it all together to fit a catwalk and become a business. This was the hardest thing we’ve ever done in our life. We didn’t talk for about a month.
Tupac, Dre, Neil Young, Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens and Hudson Mohawke.
Red Hot Chili Peppers were probably first and the strangest. Flea liked the trousers so much he decided he wasn’t going to give them back. At least they’ve gone to a good home, as long as they didn’t end up in the bin. In fact, I hope he sleeps in them.
Put all your thoughts and work into developing a strong identity, don’t settle for someone telling you can’t do anything you want to, and remember it’s a business not a hobby.
Découverte de Gavin Bond, spécialisé dans les photographies de célébrités pour différents magazines. Une partie de son travail a été d’immortaliser les castings des séries américaines, avec dans le désordre : The Office, Entourage, Sopranos, Lost, Nip Tuck, Dr House et Scrubs.
We’ve been long-time fans of the talented Yellena James. Her richly textured works feature intricate details that take their cue from nature. She’s already been featured on RM more than once. We knew an interview with one of our favorite artists was way overdue. Many thanks to Yellena for sharing her time with us!
REUBENMILLER: Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
Yellena James: I was born in Sarajevo. I went to art school there for a couple of years during the civil war. When I was 18, I moved to the States and went to UCF for my graphic design/painting degree. Besides exhibits and taking care of my Etsy shop, I also do a lot of freelance illustration work. I recently moved to Portland, OR and I love it here. When I’m not in my studio working or checking out my favorite design blogs, I’m usually tooling around town visiting galleries, eating good food, hanging out with new friends. I love to travel too, whenever I can. Having shows around the country is a great excuse to visit new places.
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RM: What mediums do you use for creating your art?
YJ: I love using pens, markers and other inks on paper. I also love to paint with acrylics. For that, I prefer a wood panel over a canvas for the amount of control it gives me over the strokes.
RM: What is your main source of inspiration?
YJ: I’m inspired by so many things that it’s hard for me to pin point one main source of inspiration. I’m definitely intrigued by microscopic worlds. I love discovering strange new life forms, plants, fungi, undersea aliens, etc. They spark my imagination and often inspire me to invent my own flora and fauna. I try to create new shapes based on what I imagine to exist within the unseen world around us, and attempt to suggest movements in my designs that we’re not accustom to seeing in our everyday lives, to sort-of pass that spark of inspiration on to others as they complete the movements within their own minds.
Also, moss. I’m inspired by moss.
RM: Who do you think most influenced your work?
YJ: I love the flow, complexity and perspective play in the work of Julie Mehretu or Matthew Ritchie. I’m also drawn to the beautifully dark worlds of Jeff Soto and the colorful, microscopic landscapes of Jacob Magraw. The biggest influence, as far as my own work, is probably Mother Nature… the parts she tries to hide.
RM: Do you work in any other medium?
YJ: I have a Gocco printer that I absolutely adore. Every time I lift the screen, it’s like a little zen moment. I also have a old letterpress that I am planning to incorporate into my limited edition prints and other paper goods. I have a slight obsession with anything letterpressed and I was so happy when my husband found one for me for my birthday last year.
RM: Please describe your thought process in developing a piece.
YJ: My drawings or paintings are never planned in advance. I simply just start with one element and keep building on it and around it. I never use any references or sketches. The fact that I don’t know where the piece is going to end or what it will look like when it’s finished is very liberating to me. Throughout the process I think about balance and composition and how to connect all the elements into one entity. Although the artwork starts very freely, the end result often appears very controlled and calculated.
RM: Where is your work exhibited and sold?
YJ: I’m currently at the Grass Hut in Portland and working on some group shows for the Giant Robot in NY and SF. I’m also hoping for a solo exhibit at GR2 in LA sometime this year, but no date yet. I have a small show coming up in Seattle (at Velouria) in April, a Kokeshi doll I’m working on for the JANM, and I will have my first UK solo show this fall at the Here Shop Gallery in Bristol. There are others, but this is what comes to mind first. The best way to keep track is through my website, www.yellena.com/blog. I don’t do a lot of "blogging" but I try to keep the posts current as far as what I’m working on and where I’ll be. Of course, for affordable prints and more, visit www.yellena.etsy.com.
RM: What’s next on the horizon?
YJ: Lots of shows this year. I am also planning to expand my creations in a variety of ways, including some designs for clothing and various paper products. I’m eagerly anticipating the release of my new K2 snowboard and some patterns I did for Nike/ACG apparel to come out sometime this year as well. Mostly, I’m just looking forward to creating some fresh new images and embracing any opportunities that may come as a result.
RM: Wishing you the best of luck in everything, Yellena!
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
