Two British gallerists from Keith Talent Gallery, Andrew and Simon, were just in my studio and this is what they thought I should see.
I immediately also thought that I should see it.
Pretty nice, pret-ty nice.
Tuesday, February 27
one million desktops
Amakim Toren
Two British gallerists from Keith Talent Gallery, Andrew and Simon, were just in my studio and this is what they thought I should see.
I immediately also thought that I should see it.
Pretty nice, pret-ty nice.
Two British gallerists from Keith Talent Gallery, Andrew and Simon, were just in my studio and this is what they thought I should see.
I immediately also thought that I should see it.
Pretty nice, pret-ty nice.
Saturday, February 24
one million soaps
Sweet Bouquet, Boardwalk, Dial and Ivory
This is the closest so far I've come to not lying about one million of one thing in a piece of art, which, it turns out, is still a remarkable lie even at nearly 10,000.
Bild 20: Pure Paint
A soap drawing to greet the installation, like an appetizer.
The entryway to my 'Project Space' room in a corner of Swarm gallery, Oakland CA
Traveling Bild 2: Richmond to Oakland in the background
After the success of the first traveling bild to Chicago, I decided to keep the performance going. Without being caulked in styrofoam, however, Traveling Bild 2 suffered some rough treatment in the belly of the plan, returning to me with several broken soaps and an official document proving its torture.
Nearly 100 marble trophy bases mingled with the soap
one million minutes of work, but only four hot glue gun burns on my fingers.
I almost bit off more than I could chew with this one, even though I was there more than a week. I need to get an assistant...
I am sharing Swarm gallery with California artist, Michael McDermont, who is showing in the main space.
This was my favourite sculpture of his until he brought in the one you will see next
Michael McDermont, "My California"
Here you can see my soaps peeking out over the top of the wall trying to catch a glimpse of this awesome sculpture
Michael is my height and about my age and dark haired so we naturally became friends based on immediate superficial bonds.
and this is the statement i wrote for the show, abridged by the gallery director, Svea Lin Vezzone
PROJECT SPACE | BILD 20
Pure Paint
Like other “Bild” installations the artist has created, Bild 20 is a collection of found objects transformed into a sculptural painting. Bild means "picture" in German and connotes phonetically the construction of something architectural or sculptural in English. This installation describes the level of this dichotomy well, encompassing thousands of hotel soaps and nearly one hundred marble trophy bases. Each bar of soap, by virtue of its white rectangular surface is an automatic canvas, a pure readymade surface gessoed but not yet painted on, or like an ideal Minimal object, finished and pure in its reduction of detail (as emphasized in the two "Soap Drawings” on the outer walls).
Despite the strange difference in materials between soap and marble, the two types of small rectangular objects make a new kind of logic together. While the shapes speak of the relatively recent legacy of Minimal art, the marble offers a direct connection to what was once considered the highest medium of sculpture since the Renaissance. Glued directly to the wall these objects not only insert themselves in the site where we expect paintings to be (the white wall of a gallery) but seen in aggregate they form reference to the Modernist grid painting. This grid is further corrupted by a textual structure lying underneath. In cursive pencil the words "Pure Paint" are mirrored from the center of the wall (pencil lines still visible near the edges where the soaps begin to separate) and form the template for the soap/marble grid to follow. While effectively jostling the grid into an unpure version of perfection, the symmetrical design was used to further confuse the ideals of Modernism and Minimalism by creating a decidedly Baroque pattern of swirling excess. Coupled with the vertical edge placement of the objects the effect is of a cathedral design or a chapel's organ pipes pointing to heaven, ironically displacing the transcendental goal of Modernism with that of centuries earlier.
Modernist painting was about being enveloped in an emotional life experience in front of the work. Duchamp criticized such artists as "olfactory" and "retinal," obsessed with the smell and look of oil paint. Bild 20 pokes fun at both by striving to provide a sublime experience undercut by ordinary objects and by replacing the scent of oil paint with an almost oppressive sweetness of hotel bathroom scent.
Thus Pure Paint is both and neither. In a way, Bild 20 subverts the very art historical references it pretends to champion. The marble is not high sculpture like Michelangelo, but dissected bowling trophies. The soap is only pure in its pun as a cleaning agent, its content is far from pure as multiple references and images will flood any viewer’s interpretation.
- Jared Lindsay Clark
This is the closest so far I've come to not lying about one million of one thing in a piece of art, which, it turns out, is still a remarkable lie even at nearly 10,000.
Bild 20: Pure Paint
A soap drawing to greet the installation, like an appetizer.
The entryway to my 'Project Space' room in a corner of Swarm gallery, Oakland CA
Traveling Bild 2: Richmond to Oakland in the background
After the success of the first traveling bild to Chicago, I decided to keep the performance going. Without being caulked in styrofoam, however, Traveling Bild 2 suffered some rough treatment in the belly of the plan, returning to me with several broken soaps and an official document proving its torture.
Nearly 100 marble trophy bases mingled with the soap
one million minutes of work, but only four hot glue gun burns on my fingers.
I almost bit off more than I could chew with this one, even though I was there more than a week. I need to get an assistant...
I am sharing Swarm gallery with California artist, Michael McDermont, who is showing in the main space.
This was my favourite sculpture of his until he brought in the one you will see next
Michael McDermont, "My California"
Here you can see my soaps peeking out over the top of the wall trying to catch a glimpse of this awesome sculpture
Michael is my height and about my age and dark haired so we naturally became friends based on immediate superficial bonds.
and this is the statement i wrote for the show, abridged by the gallery director, Svea Lin Vezzone
PROJECT SPACE | BILD 20
Pure Paint
Like other “Bild” installations the artist has created, Bild 20 is a collection of found objects transformed into a sculptural painting. Bild means "picture" in German and connotes phonetically the construction of something architectural or sculptural in English. This installation describes the level of this dichotomy well, encompassing thousands of hotel soaps and nearly one hundred marble trophy bases. Each bar of soap, by virtue of its white rectangular surface is an automatic canvas, a pure readymade surface gessoed but not yet painted on, or like an ideal Minimal object, finished and pure in its reduction of detail (as emphasized in the two "Soap Drawings” on the outer walls).
Despite the strange difference in materials between soap and marble, the two types of small rectangular objects make a new kind of logic together. While the shapes speak of the relatively recent legacy of Minimal art, the marble offers a direct connection to what was once considered the highest medium of sculpture since the Renaissance. Glued directly to the wall these objects not only insert themselves in the site where we expect paintings to be (the white wall of a gallery) but seen in aggregate they form reference to the Modernist grid painting. This grid is further corrupted by a textual structure lying underneath. In cursive pencil the words "Pure Paint" are mirrored from the center of the wall (pencil lines still visible near the edges where the soaps begin to separate) and form the template for the soap/marble grid to follow. While effectively jostling the grid into an unpure version of perfection, the symmetrical design was used to further confuse the ideals of Modernism and Minimalism by creating a decidedly Baroque pattern of swirling excess. Coupled with the vertical edge placement of the objects the effect is of a cathedral design or a chapel's organ pipes pointing to heaven, ironically displacing the transcendental goal of Modernism with that of centuries earlier.
Modernist painting was about being enveloped in an emotional life experience in front of the work. Duchamp criticized such artists as "olfactory" and "retinal," obsessed with the smell and look of oil paint. Bild 20 pokes fun at both by striving to provide a sublime experience undercut by ordinary objects and by replacing the scent of oil paint with an almost oppressive sweetness of hotel bathroom scent.
Thus Pure Paint is both and neither. In a way, Bild 20 subverts the very art historical references it pretends to champion. The marble is not high sculpture like Michelangelo, but dissected bowling trophies. The soap is only pure in its pun as a cleaning agent, its content is far from pure as multiple references and images will flood any viewer’s interpretation.
- Jared Lindsay Clark
Friday, February 23
one million ideas ripe for hungry young minds
Sammy Jo Fisher contemplates the creation of an Oakland installation
Wednesday, February 21
one million art reviews
One of Richmond's local cultural event papers: "Brick"
("No Madame" by Adam Caldwell)
Casey Jex Smith was featured near the front with this delicious little image
Eric Yevac, yet another mormon artist, having a show at the same time in Richmond of gorgeous abstractions (our photos were printed back to back in the paper)
I think this is my first newspaperish review:
And these are the pieces from the show I haven't shown you yet
"Blacks and White"
"
"All Creatures Great and Stinky"
"Over and Over"
all right, now that's cleaned-up i can report on oakland...
("No Madame" by Adam Caldwell)
Casey Jex Smith was featured near the front with this delicious little image
Eric Yevac, yet another mormon artist, having a show at the same time in Richmond of gorgeous abstractions (our photos were printed back to back in the paper)
I think this is my first newspaperish review:
And these are the pieces from the show I haven't shown you yet
"Blacks and White"
"
"All Creatures Great and Stinky"
"Over and Over"
all right, now that's cleaned-up i can report on oakland...
Wednesday, February 7
one million new links
here's some new links you might be into. I don't have them hyperlinked so you actually have to drag your mouse over to the link bar.
ART SITES
stacking chairs
a.k.a Brian Thibodeau's new art site, very cool and even more focused on being a forum of art and culture. Looking forward to Aaron Gerth's, hopefully coming soon.
valerie molnar
fellow vcu student and fellow painter without focus on paint.
robert hobbs
my art history professor...amazing.
peter baker
this has been a link for awhile but you seriously need to check this bay area guy out (met him in brooklyn)
sunny belliston
about to get her mfa at The Ohio State University - great stuff.
village voice
a.k.a. Jerry Saltz site
paintersnyc
this is a really cool art blog i wish i had been watching the last two years - could never remember the url. memory loss solved.
BLOGS
not that most of the art sites aren't blogs, but you know what i mean...
Natalie
my darling sister in the bay area.
Jenny
jenny ostraff, sometimes art site (especially right now)
Heather
heather roberts, vitamix blog
ART SITES
stacking chairs
a.k.a Brian Thibodeau's new art site, very cool and even more focused on being a forum of art and culture. Looking forward to Aaron Gerth's, hopefully coming soon.
valerie molnar
fellow vcu student and fellow painter without focus on paint.
robert hobbs
my art history professor...amazing.
peter baker
this has been a link for awhile but you seriously need to check this bay area guy out (met him in brooklyn)
sunny belliston
about to get her mfa at The Ohio State University - great stuff.
village voice
a.k.a. Jerry Saltz site
paintersnyc
this is a really cool art blog i wish i had been watching the last two years - could never remember the url. memory loss solved.
BLOGS
not that most of the art sites aren't blogs, but you know what i mean...
Natalie
my darling sister in the bay area.
Jenny
jenny ostraff, sometimes art site (especially right now)
Heather
heather roberts, vitamix blog
Monday, February 5
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