Articles Tagged with: art

Drawing Biennial 2019 at Drawing Room – Top Five by Hector Campbell

Drawing Room’s annual ‘Drawing Biennial’ comprises both an exhibition and online auction of over 200 drawings produced by leading international artists spanning multiple generations. Featuring work by artists already recognised in the medium of drawing, as well as contributions from renowned sculptors and painters, the ‘Drawing Biennial’ promotes the importance of drawing within all areas of artistic creation and production.

Artists are invited to create an original drawing for the Biennial by Drawing Room directors Mary Doyle, Kate Macfarlane and Katharine Stout, alongside additional artist nominations from celebrated artists, museum directors, curators and collectors.

All drawings are then available to purchase via an online auction conducted during the final two weeks of the exhibition, each with a starting bid of just £300. The auction proceeds support the Drawing Room’s year-round programme of exhibitions, learning and publishing, as well as the expansion of its study library.

 

If you can’t make it to the exhibition, which runs until March 26th, here is a rundown of my top five artists with work on display in ‘Drawing Biennial 2019’, (in no particular order).

 

By Hector Campbell

 

Jessie Makinson

drawing biennial

Jessie Makinson, ‘Charm to Burn’, Ink and watercolour on paper, 2018

 

Jessie Makinson recently graduated from the Turps Banana Studio Program (London), having previously completed her BA in Painting and Drawing from Edinburgh College of Art as well as a Postgraduate Course at The Royal Drawing School (London).

Jessie’s works on paper are created by indiscriminately applying daubs and smears of ink and watercolour, which when dry form the basis of her emerging narratives. From the results of this process appear small anthropomorphised animals or fairytale figures, as shapes combine to form characters and costumes, rendered finally with the addition of the artists’ intricate line work. The randomization implicit the first stage of Jessie’s process allows for the narrative to only be found through the act of creation.

Jessie has work in an upcoming group exhibition, ‘No Patience For Monuments’, at Galerie Perrotin (Seoul) in April as well as an upcoming solo exhibition at Galería OMR(Mexico City), in June.

Website/Instagram

 

Marie Jacotey

 

drawing biennial

Marie Jacotey, ‘A Morning Amongst Millions’, Felt tip pen on paper, 2018

Marie Jacotey graduated with an MA in Printmaking from the Royal College of Art (London), having previously completed her a DNSAD at École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (Paris).

Marie’s drawings give the viewer a voyeuristic glimpse into the private, personal lives of her subjects, who are often depicted during moments of emotion, reflection or vulnerability.

Contrasted against the pervasion of social media in contemporary society, where people’s personal lives are stage-managed, fictionalised and made public, Marie’s drawings capture rare, candid episodes that offer a glimpse into actual, true intimacy.

Marie has work in the current group exhibition ‘Club Inaugural’ at Balloon Rouge Collective(Brussels) which runs until April 10th, and her recent solo exhibitions include ‘Goodbye Darkness’ at Ballon Rouge (Paris) in 2018 and ‘Morning Defeats’ at Hannah Barry Gallery (London) in 2017.

Website/Instagram

 

Gabriella Boyd

 

drawing biennial

Gabriella Boyd, ‘Balming’, Watercolour and oil on paper, 2018

Gabriella Boyd recently graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art from the Royal Academy Schools (London), having previously studied at Glasgow School of Art.

Gabriella’s paintings depict imagined human interactions charged at once with a sense of both hostility and affection, dreamlike scenarios rendered in a warm, rich palette of reds, yellows, pinks and browns. Figuration is stretched beyond our earthly understanding as her characters are depicted with their lungs exterior to their bodies, communication implied simply through physical touch. Gabriella’s narrative vignettes can, therefore, be assumed to exist within an otherworldly dimension, recognisable to viewers but with subtle, preternatural indicators.

Gabriella had her debut solo exhibition, ‘Help Yourself’, at Blain|Southern (London) in 2018, recent group exhibitions include ‘Dreamers Awake’ at White Cube Bermondsey (London, 2017), ‘The London Open’ at Whitechapel Gallery (London, 2018) and ‘So Everyone is Rich Now Apparently’ with Supplement/Arcadia Missa (New York, 2017).

Website/Instagram

 

Laurence Owen

drawing biennial

Laurence Owen, ‘Looting’, Watercolour on paper, 2018

 

Laurence Owen recently graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art from the Royal Academy Schools (London), having previously completed a BA in Fine Art Painting at Falmouth College of Art.

Inspired by traditions and artefacts related to Folklore, Paganism and Mythology, Laurence employs a conceptual understanding of sampling and source material to create his energetic yet architectural works. Building on his previous study and use of the word ‘loot’, meaning ‘to rob’, he comments on the undeniable influence and inspiration that comes from our current exaggerated exposure to content. The act of art-making and exhibiting is also sampled and remixed within Laurence’s work, as often unseen and unconsidered elements such as frames, hanging hooks and pins are brought to the forefront.

Laurence’s recent solo exhibitions include ‘Loot’ at Galerie PCP (Paris) in 2018, a solo presentation at VOLTA Art Fair 2018with Frestonian Gallery and ‘Channel Synthesis’ at Evelyn Yard Gallery (London) in 2016.

Website/Instagram

 

Nicholas Hatfull

drawing biennial

Nicholas Hatfull, ‘Three Studies for a Painting’, Pencil and gouache on paper, 2018

Nicholas Hatfull graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art from the Royal Academy Schools (London), having previously studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art.

Nicholas’s absurdist, surrealist still life works capture and comment on contemporary society through the depiction of quotidian, mundane objects. Maintaining a language of rich visual reference points, as disparate as the films of Yasujirō Ozu and the packaging used by fast-food chains, his playful compositions are comprised of recognisable and relatable motifs. Subtly anthropomorphized objects act as human stand-ins, imbued with their often associated emotions to create an empathetic narrative for the viewer.

Nicholas’s recent solo exhibitions include ‘Tofu Dealer (to kill my hunger in daytime wander)’ at Josh Lilley (London) in 2017 and ‘Tall Grass (Expert Pruning In Ethiopia)’ at Josh Lilley (London) in 2014.

Website/Instagram

 

 

For more by Hector Campbell, see his Top Five – Subversive Stitch ant TJ Boulting


First fifteen winners of our 2019 Open Call

Here are the first 15 winners of our 2019 Open Call. We had an incredibly difficult time whittling the 10,000 submissions down to just 45, but we got there in the end. Here are the first 15.

The below artists are in alphabetical order, and the works below aren’t necessarily the ones in the show.

Aleksander Jednaszewski (@Szarrza)

Aubrey Laret (@Aubrey_Laret)

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Thank you @delphiangallery for selecting my picture Dead Flowers for their open call. To be exhibited from the 28th March.

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Bill Daggs (@BillDaggs)

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‘More Best than Moore was’ 100 x 100cm, acrylic on canvas – off to its new home this week.

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Billy Bagilhole (@BillyBagilhole)

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“Wet cigarette” Mixed media on canvas 100cm x 70cm Excited to share the Charcoal frame I’ve been working on / swipe right to see in detail. Slightly different to my previous work so Im eager to hear any opinions! ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #painting #artcuration #painter #fineart #artcollector #mixedmedia #artist #artistique #gallerist #artmag #artcurator #acrylicabstract #canvas #curation #paintingworkshop #interiordesign #abstractpainting #contemporarypainting #artmag #paintingsdaily #art_collective #artistresidency #artgallery #artcurators #creativespace #markmaking #artist_magazine #delphianopencall

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Blake O’Brien (@Blake_Obrien)

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new little one with a tac #delphianopencall

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Brad Teodoruk and Neil Ernest Tomkins (@BradTeodoruk & @Neil_Ernest_Tomkins)

B.D. Graft (@B.D.Graft)

Caleb Hahne (@CalebHahne)

Daniel Bierdümpfl (@DanielBierduempfl)

David Iain Brown (@DavidIainBrown)

Elizabeth Power (@ElizabethPowerArt)

Elliot Nehra (@ElliotNehra)

Fabian Warnsing (@FabianWarnsing)

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Fergus Polglase (@FergusPolglase)

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‘The taste of mud’ (Rugby players) 130cm x 160cm Acrylic, graphite, spray paint and pastel on canvas 2019

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Francisca Pinto (@FranciscaPinta)

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Brett Flanigan – Zero Player Game – Pt. 2 Gallery

Zero Player Game
Brett Flanigan
Brett flanigan
On Now.
The show closes on Friday, April 5th, 2019
1523 b Webster St. Oakland, CA 94612
info@part2gallery.comDelphian favourite Pt. 2 Gallery is pleased to present Zero Player Game, a solo exhibition of paintings by Oakland-based artist Brett Flanigan. The exhibition title is a reference to the mathematician John Horton Conway’s Game of Life, a 1970 mathematical simulation where, given an initial state and a set of simple rules, a black and white grid evolves endlessly in ways that are seemingly organic and operate on similar principles as life itself.brett flanigan

In this body of work, each painting begins with an initial state in which Flanigan builds energy, usually involving repetitive patterns and intuitive mark making. This initial state then undergoes a series of reducing and rebuilding moves based on self-imposed rules or logic. The works are simultaneously formulaic and improvisational. Whenever possible, Flanigan makes aesthetic decisions using games of change such as dice rolls, coin flips, or random number generators, leaving the artist’s pre-conceived or socialized views of aesthetic behind, paving the way for unusual compositions and color combinations.

This philosophy allows Flanigan to explore many painting styles, without attempting to hone in on a signature look. While at first glance the paintings may feel disparate, upon further inspection, the viewer may see how Flanigan borrows ideas from his earlier paintings. In this way, he allows them to interact in a way that is comparable to the organs in a body, each performing its own function while working together with the others and allowing the work to live.

brett flanigan
Full press release – HERE

Brett’s Website – HERE

 

Our next show is our Open Call, which opens on the 28th of March. 

Envy For The Living – Benjamin Murphy – *SOLD OUT*

It has been four years since Benjamin Murphy released his last woodcut, which proved to be his most popular print to date. We are very excited to announce that his newest woodcut ENVY FOR THE LIVING is available NOW!

envy for the living

 

Benjamin’s prints always sell fast, and he was recently included in Stylist Magazines list of hot new art prints, with his immensely popular linoprint from 2018 Hamartia.

 

Envy for the living - benjamin murphy

Hamartia (2018) – Linoprint – Stylist Magazine

ENVY FOR THE LIVING is an 50x70cm woodcut, which has been hand drawn, cut, and printed by the artist, using a Victorian printing press from the early 1900s.

It is printed on the highest quality Norfolk 210gsm cartridge paper, using archival printmaking inks.
In a limited edition of only 15

 

(THIS PRINT IS NOW SOLD OUT)

 

Within the print, Murphy has included background references to Henri Matisse, Vanitas Painting, Ancient Greek sculpture, and Piet Mondrian. As usual, the title is taken from a work of classic literature, this time from Lev Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.


EDEN – MEVLANA LIPP at Kuk Galerie

Eden – Mevlana Lipp

Mevlana Lipp‘s works show colorful floral forms that stand at the interface between plant and human. The artist visualizes nature with paradisiac, floral structures. He illustrates a metamorphosis that is not decipherable. The selection and combination of colors produces a breathtaking brilliance. The artist contrasts the bold color of the background with the black velvet background. Lipp sculpturally elaborates his works by cutting wood panels and adding them to each other. He challenges the viewer to closely look at the different layers of the relief to explore the full image.

Eden - mevalana lip

Mevlana Lipp (born 1989) studied at the Art Academy Düsseldorf (masterclass of Thomas Grünfeld). In his first solo exhibition at krupic kersting the artist shows new works.
The exhibition EDEN refers to the paradise within creation. In his work Mevlana Lipp suggests the original form of creation. Mixed forms of plants and figurative elements recall Stone Age finds and creatures of the deep sea, which can be read as an antithesis to creation. The artist cuts the floral forms out of wood and merges them into relief-like pictures. The bright color of the motifs enhances the plastic effect and emphasizes the entanglement of the motifs. Lipp’s new works are characterized by a sensual interweaving of forms. For the first time, the artist shows steel sculptures and drawings that physically continue the formal language of his works into the room.

Eden - mevalana lip

The sculptures appear like fossils, remnants of an ancient time, unfolding in the exhibition. They are characterized by a monochrome application of color, from which delicate colors shimmer through. The drawings serve the artist as a source of inspiration for his wood paintings. Lipp combines the drawings with a sculptural frame, which complements the vines pattern. In “First Steps of the Future” (see‘KölnGalerien 01/19’) Oliver Tepel describes these floral-figurative elements as follows: “Flowers grow to  hands, scratching as strangers on the most astonishing material, because candles bloom from the green of the stalks. Mevlana Lipp uses a color spectrum in front of a black background, reminiscent of the first graphic depictions of life in the deep sea. And like the mysterious untouchedness of this sphere, Mevlana Lipp’s “Eden” proves, as the title of the exhibition, a quiet beauty, not without fright. They are odes of tactile communication, delicate or penetrating touches, ostensibly innocent curiosity in the last seconds of Paradise, until knowledge opens the space to all suffering. Suffering also remains in fragile elegance, but where mysterious glow was, now are dull colors and the unstructured growing gets rhythmic structures; Order is the language of lost innocence. Is it religious art or just one that addresses the big questions of life? Amazing what painting can do. ”

Kuk Galerie

January 18. 2019 – March 09. 2019 | curated by Wilko Austermann

For more exhibitions, see this link


Creative Restlessness – A conversation between Benjamin Murphy and Kevin Perkins

Creative Restlessness – A conversation between Benjamin Murphy and Kevin Perkins

 

I was first made aware of Kevin’s work through social media and I was struck by his boundless energy for experimentation. Whilst undertaking this wild experimentation, his work retained a feel that was unmistakably his. I have exhibited, and exhibited his work a few times before our upcoming show A Long Way From Home (With Igor Moritz), and in each show he has exhibited a different form of painting. Each of these, however, are executed with an expert precision, whilst also displaying a wonderful expressiveness and economy of gesture. I decided to have a chat to him ahead of the show we did with him back in January, about his work, and his approach to making in general.

 

Kevin Perkins

Utilising the unusual medium of coloured pencil on salvaged book covers; the portraits depict (mostly) lone sitters smoking, drinking tea, reflected in mirrors or simply ‘being’ and certainly give the nod to a golden era of twentieth century European painting. The surfaces of the book covers themselves lend an almost canvas-like quality to the images, and also help to add a beautiful ageing affect to the colour. Through these works, Perkins continues to develop his excellent ability to reference and draw from art-history, producing nostalgic works that drip with both playfulness and charisma.

 

[Benjamin Murphy] – Firstly – why are you an artist?

 

[Kevin Perkins] – I originally started painting out of necessity. I got hired to teach high school painting classes with no real background in painting. I’d watch YouTube videos and read tutorials before every class and then make a demo of whatever concept I was trying to teach. That turned into a real practice. I was looking at a massive amount of art and decided that I wanted to try and be a real artist, whatever that means.

 

I felt like an imposter for a long time. But now I guess I make work out of what I like to think of as a creative restlessness.

 

[BM] – Is this perhaps why you are experimenting so much within your practice?

 

[KP] – Oh yeah. Definitely.  I tend to have a hard time staying put in one specific approach to my work. I’m not really interested in creating the same kind of work over and over. I don’t care if that’s what sells, I make the work for myself, to fulfill a need that I have.

 

[BM] – I think the driving force for most artists is a need for experimentation, even if their work remains on a similar track. Where do you see your work going in future?

 

[KP] – I tend to not think about the future of my work. It’s a very in the moment kind of thing. Though I’m interested in moving into sculpture but haven’t had the space or time to figure out what that looks like for me.

 

[BM] – So where does your imagery come from?

 

[KP] – I cobble together images that I’ve found from my stockpile of old books, magazines publications, and photographs, as well as the occasional internet find, life drawings, and reimagining of master works. I don’t really seek out imagery for the work often. Instead, if I stumble across something that may work I’ll tuck it back until I’m ready for it.

 

[BM] – How in control would you say of how the paintings ultimately end up looking, do you have a ideal aesthetic in mind or is your process more experimental?

 

[KP] – The idea of an ideal aesthetic is something that I don’t put much stock in because it’s always changing. But to say that my work is experimental is reaching too far. Achieving consistency is not something I concern myself with. I produce work and it inevitably looks like my work. It may be influenced by someone or some thing that I’ve consumed but the way I apply paint, the rhythm of my hand, the energy will be evident in the work. It’s like writing letters. I don’t think about the way I write the letter “e” but if I write enough of them a pattern will emerge. In the same way, if I am true to myself and produce work that is a creative outflow of my interests, then patterns within the works will begin to form and an aesthetic that is true and uniquely mine will appear.

 

That being said, I do follow a similar process with the creation of most of my works. Which lends itself to a more consistent and specific aesthetic.

 

My drawings and studies are free and open to the whims of chance

kevin perkins

Kevin Perkins – book cover portraits

[BM] – With my work I aim to paint haptically, thinking as little about how I want it to look or what it means as possible, because I want it to mean different things to each individual viewer. Would you say that you paint in a similar way?

 

[KP] – Yes and no. I’m not so concerned about the outcome or what it means. I’d like for the work to look a certain way but that can range depending on where I am at mentally and emotionally as I’m creating the work. I make the work for myself. So to disassociate from the outcome for the sake of the viewer would be dishonest to myself and I feel that my work and my drive to make the work would suffer. I don’t care about the viewer so much. People will interact with and read into the work what they will and I’ve got no control over that.

 

[BM] – What are your intentions when you approach a canvas?

 

[KP] – I’m more interested in the creation than the outcome. Don’t get me wrong

though, the outcome is certainly an important aspect to it all. But once I’m done with the work I have no intention of returning to it. I’ve detached myself from the work. It’s served it’s purpose for me. I treat every painting like a puzzle. The enjoyment is putting it together. Once I’m done with that I could care less if it ends up in the trash or on someone’s wall. I suppose though that it’s nice to make a little money so that I can keep up the insanity of making work.

 

Maybe I’m being too honest.

 

[BM] – Yeah I can totally see what you mean, for me it’s all about the process. Once it’s finished and framed it feels almost as if it was done by someone else.

 

[KP] – So how do you feel about your most recent works, and did you alter your approach in any way knowing that this was a two-person show?

 

Yes I did. I was more open and free with my use of color. Igor has a beautiful sense of color and I guess my works needed a bit of a boost in order to stand in the same space as his.

 

[BM] – Is that the first time you’ve worked in this way?

 

[KP] – I feel like I’ve been edging toward it for a while.

 

[BM] – Can you tell us a little about the works you created for the show?

 

[KP] – I messed around with form a lot in this body of work. These paintings move in and out of refinement. Some of the work is incredibly unrefined, for example one of my self portraits was done in one take, drawn while only looking in the mirror and never at the canvas (blind contour). Another work, one of the nudes, was left as an unpolished charcoal drawing. And then there of course were more refined renderings in other works in the show.

 

The enjoyment for me comes in pushing the figures and the spaces that they inhabit beyond the norms of portraiture. Portraits are tricky, I’m never really trying to paint a specific person the way they actually look. I’m more considering the narrative around them and how that comes across in the work.

 

In retrospect, the paintings here emphasize the process, and the history, of how I work. As I stated earlier, I don’t like to think much about how someone may interpret the work. My interest in it lies in the development, the making of the works.

kevin perkins

Kevin Perkins – Book cover drawing

Kevin’s book cover works will be released as a catalogue via Kunst Katalog soon, follow their profile via the hyperlink for more details.

The other artist in our show with Kevin Perkins was Igor Moritz, read Benjamin’s conversation with him [HERE]

Originally published in AfterNyne Magazine.


Subversive Stitch at TJ Boulting – My Top Five by Hector Campbell.

‘Subversive Stitch’, taking its name from Art Historian and prominent feminist Rozsika Parker’s 1984 book and 1988 touring exhibition ‘The Subversive Stitch – Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine’, presents textile-based artworks across TJ Boultings two room space. Spanning the mediums of embroidery, weaving, tapestry, clothing and sculpture, ‘Subversive Stitch’ builds upon the rich history of the previously disregarded craft, considered a purely feminine and domesticated preoccupation until the twofold influence of  both the Arts and Craft movement and the Suffrage movement, of the late 19th and early 20th century respectively, co opted and subverted the medium, bringing it to the forefront of avant garde artistic practice. In contemporary art textile work retain that forward-thinking aesthetic, imbued with political, cultural and innovative touchstones usually associated with more traditional mediums.

 

If you can’t make it to the exhibition, which runs until March 23rd, here is a rundown of my top five artists with work on display in ‘Subversive Stitch’, (in no particular order).

 

By Hector Campbell

 

Bea Bonafini

 

subversive stitch

Bea Bonafini, ‘Shape-Shifting V’, Pastel on wool and nylon carpet inlay, 2018

 

Bea Bonafini recently graduated from the Royal College of Art with an MA in Painting, having previously completed her BFA from the Slade Schools of Fine Art.

Inspired by primitive cave paintings located on the Island of Levanzo, Sicily, her large collages are fashioned from carpet offcuts, subverting the traditional function of the quotidian material as it becomes a wall-mounted artwork. Considering herself “a kind of anthropologist”, in ‘Shape Shifting V’ Bea amalgamates both human and animal imagery to evoke the iconography of not only historical hunt paintings but also contemporary anthropomorphic animations.

Bea has upcoming solo exhibitions at Bosse and Baum, London in June and Chloe Salgado, Paris in September.

Website/Instagram

 

James Merry

 

subversive stitch

James Merry, ‘Nike/Jöklasóley’, Embroidered sweatshirt, 201

 

James Merry is an entirely self-taught artists, having previously studied Classical Greek at Oxford University. While originally from Gloucestershire, UK, since 2009 he has been living and working with the musician Björk in Iceland.

His painstaking practice of reappropriating and recycling vintage sportswear by embroidering intricate floral and fauna into the logos explores the often overlooked overlaps between man and machine, nature and nurture, urban and rural. Often associated with post-apocalyptic ideas of Mother Nature reclaiming the earth and correcting mans misgivings, in ‘Nike/Jöklasóley’ the iconic Nike tick logo has been infested with weeds and a large ‘Glacier Sunflower’ (Jöklasóley) frequently found in the scandinavian mountains.

James also exhibits an embroidered headpiece consisting of plastic, UV thread and pearl beads, a recreation of an original created for Björk’s 2016 photoshoot with Santiago Felipe for the Evening Standard.

Website/Instagram

 

Charlotte Edey

 

subversive stitch

Charlotte Edey, ‘Open Tapestry I’, Woven cotton tapestry with hand embroidery in cotton and metallic, 2018

 

Charlotte Edey completed a Foundation year at Chelsea School of Art in 2011, and has since worked as a freelance illustrator and fine artist, producing work for clients such as the New York Times, The Guardian, BBC News and Penguin Random House

Her embroidery works put a surreal twist on scale, architecture and landscape to explore ideas relating to identity and modern femininity. ‘Open Tapestry I’, produced as an edition of 5, contrasts intricate figurative details with large gradient circles of rich colour to identify the identity conflicts rife in contemporary society.

Charlotte also exhibits ‘Fresh Water’, an original miniature tapestry channelling the concepts underpinning the Greek myth of Narcissus to examine self awareness and introspection, as a delicate hand reaches down to touch, and is subsequently reflected in, a pool of water.

Website/Instagram

 

Amanda Ross-Ho

 

subversive stitch

Amanda Ross-Ho, ‘Untitled T-Shirt (WORLD MAP #2), Jersey, rib, thread, acrylic, 2015

 

Currently living and working in Los Angeles, Amanda Ross-Ho completed her BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1998 and her MFA at the University of Southern California in 2006 and has since exhibited international.

Previously working full time as a textile designer, Amanda has parlayed those skills into her fine art practice, recently created a series of twelve large scale collaged assemblages of cartoon faces expressing, each expressing different emotions synonymous with popular digital emojis. Her ‘Untitled T-Shirt (WORLD MAP #2)’ humorous scales up an otherwise mundane paint covered white t-shirt to such as size as to overwhelm the viewer and bewilder their sense of proportion.

Amanda’s latest solo exhibition ‘HURTS WORST’, featuring the aforementioned emoji-eque embroideries, runs until March 17th at Kunsthall Stavanger, Norway.

Instagram

 

Hrafnhildur Arnardottir/Shoplifter

 

subversive stitch

Hrafnhildur Arnardottir/Shoplifter, Synthetic hair and mesh, ‘Sunny Smiley’, 2016

 

Icelandic artist Hrafnhildur Arnardottir, AKA Shoplifter, completed her BFA at the Icelandic College of Art and Crafts in 1993 and her MFA at the School of Visual Arts, New York, in 1996 and has since exhibited international.

Combining old-fashioned craft techniques with the unique texture and colour of synthetic hair fibres Shoplifter creates her playful sculptures and reliefs, that draw from genres such as folk art and naïvism. The instantly recognisable ‘smiley’ is a recurring icon in her work, and Shoplifter has recreated it in a number of sizes, colours and variates, choosing here to portray it in its familiar yellow and black colour scheme.

Her work is currently featured in the retrospective Nordic Impressions: Contemporary Art from Åland, Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden at Scandinavia House in New York, which runs until June 8th, and Shoplifter will represent Iceland in this years Venice Biennale.

Website

 

For more from Hector Campbell, see his top five of Interim Projects


SLEEP ON THE WIND – The Dot Project

SLEEP ON THE WIND

Terencio González | Ralph Hunter-Menzies | Daniel Jensen

Sleep On The Wind

Ralph Hunter-Menzies

Delphian favourite The Dot Project‘s new show opens tonight! Sleep on the Wind is a group show featuring the works of French artist Terencio Gonzalez, Swedish artist Daniel Jensen, and British artist Ralph Hunter-Menzies. The exhibition focuses heavily on the questions; How does space influence the way one makes a painting? Does the constant exposure to urban mark making affect an approach to canvas?

Through the curation of the show, thanks to Hunter-Menzies, mark making is defined by two categories. One: deliberate, thoughtful, premeditated, controlled – the other: accidental, erratic, loose, uncontrolled. The three artists included in Sleep on the Wind have been brought together for their diverse approach to these two types of mark making.

The way that painters are influenced by their surroundings is clear to see in many a painter. The city an artist lives in no-doubt affects the marks they deploy in the studio. This is evident within the works of all three artists, in varying degrees. Terencio, with his almost sun-bleached planes of colour, reminding us of sun-aged surfaces on the Côte-d’Azur and isolated, seemingly accidental marks; Ralph, with works made using techniques used by graffiti removers and focussing on interventions within urban-spaces; and Daniel, where a melee of marks, controlled and loose, sit closely together, echoing city living.

Sleep On the Wind - Delphian Gallery

Daniel Jensen

Through Sleep on the Wind we explore how three painters approach layering, building, evolving the image as well as exploring how works are directed through the use of accidental and deliberate (controlled) mark making. These two distinct categories of potential strokes fluctuate between specific definitions: creative/destructive, state/individual, invisible/visible or present/past. Within the works of the artists, there are moments where the marks question one other: Which is ‘supposed’ to be there? Does one way of marking have precedence over the other?

Sleep On The Wind alludes to a way of moving and existing within a space that is transitionary; the way that people shape the city and space in which they inhabit. Transitory spaces are defined by a sense of movement, a space in which the person doesn’t feel attachment or have invested interest, unlike a domestic setting. Does exposure to these environments, perhaps in transit from the studio, affect the way these painters make works?

Sleep On the Wind - Delphian Gallery

Terencio González

PRIVATE VIEW FEBRUARY 28 6 PM – 9 PM
BY APPOINTMENT ONLY

EXHIBITION FEB 28 – APR 30
+44 207 589 9199


Faded Glory – San Francisco

Our most recent show Faded Glory opened a few weeks ago in San Francisco at Book&Job gallery in the Tenderloin district. It was a two-person show with artists Benjamin Murphy and Nick JS Thompson, who although have collaborated many times before, have never done a two-person show together until now.

San francisco - faded glory

Below are some install shots of the show. Big thanks to the amazing Carson Lancaster for inviting us to host a show at Book&Job Gallery, and thanks to everyone who visited the show.

San francisco - faded glory

 

In 2018 we hosted Carson’s debut UK solo show Lost Coast, which you can see [HERE]

 

 


Paul Weiner – Social Media and the Art World

Paul Weiner – Social Media And The Art World

What does the art world look like today for emerging artists online? Hectic. Exciting. Disturbing. Everyday, we learn digital ways to meet new people, digest the news, buy stuff, find a lover, drool over tasty food, and even consume visual art. I set out to interview my own Instagram audience of self-selecting online art consumers in hopes of finding some answers with about ​400 very opinionated respondents for each question. Their answers point to an art world that craves digital experiences and uses them to inform their real lives. ​Museumgoers toting selfie sticks and commercial galleries that play up their artists’ Instagram fame are just the tip of the iceberg with massive, structural art world shifts looming. Let’s talk about it.

paul weiner

Paul Weiner in his studio

The Emerging Art Audience Is Changing

Instagram is turning into a platform for visual art viewers similar to Spotify and iTunes for music lovers. A massive online viewership uses Instagram as a search engine to seek out visual artists who satisfy their tastes, and they really care about those artists. They also recognize the absurdity of staring at art encapsulated in a tiny, low resolution square. ​When I ran my polls, I found that 94% of my audience wants to see real exhibitions by the artists who they follow online, 79% see more art online than in person, and 57% think the art they find online is as important as what they see in person. With this online audience growing rapidly, massive image quality improvements on the horizon, and a digital native generation coming of age, a significant shift is in progress toward accepting the virtual as real.

How does this audience feel about the art world’s historical power centers? Another poll I ran found that 88% of my audience is unsatisfied with the media’s contemporary art coverage and only 9% care about an artist’s degree. Many respondents were discouraged by what they perceived as a top-down system that does not introduce enough new artists. On social media, by contrast, an almost unlimited number of artists are accessible at the tap of a finger. Unlike their ​Artforum ​reading forebears, the virtual public finds new artists through direct interactions without guidance from trusted art world gatekeepers. This audience looks for emerging artists who they can identify with or admire and raises them out of obscurity with little regard for prior media coverage, education, curatorial interest, or commercial success.

 

For the first time, artists stand to build larger audiences by connecting with the personal interests of each public viewer than by convincing the professional art class that they conform to elite preferences and biases. For better or worse, this means the roles are changing for the players that have historically vetted artists before they receive public attention: curators, critics, gallerists, and the donor class. The floodgates are open — sort of. A large audience does not predict an artist’s long term importance, and it has been proven time and time again that the public’s infatuations can be fleeting. The same kinds of art world players who have been in charge through much of the 20th century to the present still control the institutional settings where art is historically canonized. The levers of power at these institutions still rely on separate audiences of their own.

Over the next few decades, it will be exciting to watch and see if social media darling artists are able to harness public support while also convincing institutional circles that their work is imbued with an important message about the times that is worthy of being amplified and canonized. As of yet, social media success is not a fast track to institutional acceptance in the same way as a Yale MFA might be. Maybe a new generation of powerful art world figures who grow up in a digital native world will embrace social media’s impact.

Paul Weiner - Delphian Magazine

Infographic showing the findings from some of the polls undertaken for this study

Reimagining The Museum

The possibility that the museum itself will experience a virtual transformation is also worth watching.

Looking back at the 43% of my audience that is not convinced that art they find online is as important as art they see in real life, there is a lot of room for expansion. My polls also found that 35% of my audience is already convinced that the experience of seeing visual art online is equal to that of listening to music. The 65% who disagree might change their minds when they see the improvements coming soon to digital viewing. New extended reality (XR) headset devices satisfy cravings for greater image quality and physical experience. Take, for instance, the Magic Leap Onethat, according to its creators, can “superimpose 3D computer-generated imagery over real world objects.” In combination with social media, powerful devices like these will allow us to select paintings we find online and interact with them on the walls of the rooms we live in. Maybe our future museums will be superimposed on our own walls, where we can choose from millions of publicly available, virtually rendered artworks and travel through history as we gaze for as long as we want, wherever we want.

paul weiner - Delphian Magazine

Infographic showing the findings from some of the polls undertaken for this study

Social Media is Reshaping Artists

Artists are adjusting to showing their work in digital forums, often subconsciously. These adjustments are taboo to talk about, but they are visual signifiers for the way artists share the broad struggle humans face today to exist in the digital world. The push to put out more and more attractive photos can quickly turn authenticity off in favor of the kind of calculated pop-sexiness that pulls in mass audiences.

Many artists change the shapes of their works to fit in Instagram’s square or edit photos of their work extensively before posting them. Other artists are addicted to the attention they can receive on social media by making very decorative paintings or finding just the right angle for a studio shot loaded with tantalizing visual attractions. These concerns are a way of life that extends far outside the art world. Most of your neighbors have self-constructed identities curated for internet appearances.

At the same time, the incredible wealth of visual information available to artists who spend time on social media everyday would have been unthinkable just a decade ago. Searching through popular art hashtags or following new artists brings us into new aesthetic worlds ripe for great cultural exchanges. At all hours of the day, artists from New York and Los Angeles are not only communicating with their peers in small cities in flyover states but also with artists in London, Sydney, Berlin, Dubai, Lagos, or Hong Kong.

I find myself making artwork that embodies this simultaneously disturbing and electrifying digital experience through my abstract paintings that are self-aware social media objects and often site-specific to Instagram. While these works physically exist in my studio or an exhibition, the largest audience that interacts with them will never see the work in person. The physical object is a carrier for a digital interaction and becomes a relic of digital life. The works exist in the a different context for each viewer and are viewed in lockstep with documentation of everyday life and constructed social personas: food photos, memes, selfies, half naked people in swimsuits, party shots, targeted ads, and the most attractive eye candy influencers can make. As such, these works interact as much with social media’s visual and algorithmic history as they do with the white walled

art history. As XR technologies become more common place, it will be possible to bring the work full-circle and exhibit my physical paintings next to their virtual representations.

One last thing. Art is best served by vibrant disagreements and ideas that provoke intense discomfort. The art world is in an incredible state of digital flux at the same time as hordes of people are using social media are tearing each other down over and over again in ego-driven, self-righteous tirades. As we experience these changes, let’s remember to protect speech and respect disagreement.

paul weiner - delphian magazine

Infographic showing the findings from some of the polls undertaken for this study

For more, see Paul Weiner’s

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For more articles about the internet and the art world, see

Kate Mothes: Who Is It Real For? The Internet As Vehicle