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International Artist Collaboration in Bushwick

Introducing ALLTOGETHERNOW a collaborative show of artists to be held in Brooklyn, NY as part of BOS- Bushwick Open Studio Weekend 2012 June 1st - 3rd.

Prior to the show, local and visiting artists (one of which is me!) will gather to take part in a collaborative drawing party for BOS at Hyperallergic HQ ,Williamsburg. Works from this event including a selection of works by visiting artists will be part of the final show.

ALLTOGETHERNOW has been organised by the fabulous Brooklyn based artist and curator Julie Torres. I am so excited to be part of this event, it will be an invaluable experience offering visiting artists an opportunity to explore the flourishing art scene in Bushwick.

Participating artists and their work can be seen here: http://curatingcontemporary.com , an awesome website created by Brian Edmonds.

I intend to post photos of the show when I return - stay tuned!

Clare Price

Today I'd like to share some work by London based painter Clare Price who is having a solo show at  studio1.1 , London  from 18th May- 10th June.

These large paintings walk an interesting line between an 80's stylised sensibility and a random, even explosive expressiveness. These paintings seem to make a point of exploring that moment where control gives way to chance, where accidents are embraced. It's about the moment when the painter recognises that breakdown, possibly even failure, is the best way forward. 

Clare Price makes paintings inspired initially from drawings made on old antiquated computer programs. Marks are translated meticulously onto the canvas allowing for a grid-like structure to reveal itself. It's here that her process becomes interesting. Where control or loss of control opens the possibilities of paint and how this leads to a play with painterly concerns. I love the idea of this process and the way that the artist explores a space in which tight, almost cold compositions give way to the loose and handmade.  In her artist statement Clare Price writes: 

The paintings explore the intersection of something that is very visceral and painterly with something that is much more controlled and designed.  I use metallic sprays, garage door paint, Japlac high gloss enamels, Hammerite, Japanese acrylic gouache and oil paint. In some parts the paintings are flat, stark and graphic, in others, through the use of solvents and painting wet in wet, the colours work like washes to the point where they take on the form of water colour. There is an obsessiveness when I lay out the tight framework of the image and I will work over and between the lines to the point where there is a tension between accident and control,  sprayed marks and household paint drip voluptuously over the drawn lines breaking the spacial arrangement and reopening the composition. I imagine the structures are taken to a point of collapse hanging by their own pixelated threads.     

Suitably intrigued, I wrote to Clare and asked her about her work:

The drawings are made on an old drawing programme called Claris Works. I am interested in "the screen" having previously worked with moving image, and in new and also defunct or antique technologies.....in mistakes within the machine - of digital "drop out".  I am intrigued by something that Peter Halle said about modern emotions being different to the past  and  about feeling "freaked out or a little spacey".  The works engage with the idea of  making romantic landscapes inspired by urban and technological environments, they endeavour to make  paintings that are pertinent to our times that are romantic and emotional whilst exploring a new aesthetic. I  am very much inspired by 50s abstract expressionist painters - in particular Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler  and the late works of Patrick Heron, as well as people like Frank Stella and Jonathan Lasker and more currently artists like Alex Hubbard and Albert Oehlen.  I am informed by cinematography and the constraints of the "screen" combined with classical notions of painting.  The paintings also engage with notions of cancellation and erasure and and how we express our humanity through the constructs of technology.

"resolution"

211cm x 177cm

small work

35.5 x 30.5 cm

Buddy Of Work

A great new website by painter Henry Samelson called Buddy Of Work has hit the web. The brief: artists post an image of their primary work (painting, sculpture etc) alongside work that they consider peripheral yet wholly integral to their main body of work.

Buddy Of Work honours the shear breadth of visual curiosity and, with no imposed rules, the posts are revealing fascinating insights into artistic practice. I'm reminded of the late artist Prunella Clough (see what I wrote about Ms Clough here in 2008) who regularly took photos of industrial detritus and other objects. Although Clough never used these photos directly they were referenced, perhaps subliminally, to inspire some very beautiful paintings.

http://buddyofwork.com/

Douglas Florian

If you happen to be in New York do drop in and see the vibrant work of Douglas Florian at BravinLee Programs March 28 - May 5.  Florian makes meditive abstractions composed of a myriad of surface treatments - washy, scratchy sometimes deliciously thick and other times thin with lots of light and space.

With Leaden Legs 2011
 oil on wood, 19 x 26 inches

The field hath eye, the wood hath eyes
2009-2011
oil on wood
 25 x 24 inches

No Way
 oil on board
18.25 X 22 inches

Fresh discoveries

Two artists I recommend having a look at! Stay tuned....

Peter Shear

Untitled (12-43)

2012

acrylic and gel medium on canvas

10 x 8"

Mp Landis

ld12.001
2012
mixed media on paper
38 x 36.5 inch
122 w

Peter Sharp - in conversation

Peter Sharp is a favourite Australian painter of mine. He is currently having a survey show at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery  in Sydney. Well known for his beautiful exploration of 'place' in the Australian landscape, Peter Sharp employs a variety of media to explore ways to represent the land - moving between the details of small natural objects through to the bigger picture - the grand vista. His work speaks volumes about his personal experience in the landscape.

Installation view: Hazelhurst Regional Gallery 2012