As artists, often what we want to express can’t be contained between the four straight lines of a canvas. So artists like Australian artist Kate Tucker push the boundaries of surface and form, leading to paintings that seem to break free from their molds, even as those same structures hold them in place.
Even paintings framed in a traditional way seem liberated when incorporated into an installation of shards of compositions. Each painting reflects the installation, which reflects the painting. It’s like a wonderful tale of deliberate chaos.
This time last year, Mr. Forager and I were in a very different place. For six months, we traded our beloved Northwest for the California high desert. Joshua Tree, California, to be exact. And although we ultimately decided desert life wasn’t for us, we nonetheless felt the beauty and magic to be found there. In his Lucid Stead installation project, Indio, CA artist Phillip K Smith transforms a 70 year old desert homestead into a miraculous mirage.
The desert, with its vast expanses, can be a disorienting, isolating place, which always made me wonder– what was it that made first settlers decide to stop and try to make a life from such an unforgiving landscape? Perhaps it was the intense light and the shadows it creates or the endless sky with its countless stars?
In Lucid Stead ( sorry, now closed to the public ), Smith gilds this desert shack in mirrors, reflecting the sandy surrounds and creating an every changing spectral form on the landscape. At night, the mirrors give way to darkness, colored LED lights lending an alien air.
To see more of Phillip K Smith‘s work, please visit his website. If you’re in Southern California, you can see an exhibition of Smith’s latest works at Royale Projects in Palm Desert.
I’ve found that occasionally, where and how I see an artist’s work will influence how I feel about it. If I see something while relaxing on vacation, I might think more highly of it than I would have if it had just been hanging in my local coffee shop. A beautifully designed gallery or thoughtfully hung gallery can positively influence the way work is viewed. Context is everything! New York based artist Rudolf Stingel‘s installation of work at Palazzo Grassi in Venice turns the context of the gallery on end by blanketing expansive surfaces in an Ottoman-style carpet.
The carpet, a nod to the palazzo’s history ( it used to be a trading spot for rugs from the Middle East ), creates a dramatic backdrop for Stingel’s monochromatic paintings. The work ranges from small scale portraits of classical sculpture to large minimalist abstracts. In a white wall gallery, they would still grab attention, but somehow the carpeted space seems to create a more intimate experience with the artwork. And set against all that pattern– the work still calls out, perhaps the pattern serves to even enhance the work, drawing the viewer in and intensifying details that may have been overlooked.
It’s an interesting thought, isn’t it? The way in which the context of work might influence our opinions and feelings toward it. Have you ever experienced something similar? Seeing work in one context and feeling a certain way, then completely changing your mind when you see it differently?
If you’d like to see more of Rudolf Stingel‘s work, please visit his representing gallery, Gagosian.
I find myself continually fascinated by the work of artists who very literally paint outside the lines. Artists like Margie Livingston and Laura Moriarty use paint as a medium for sculpture, who see beyond paint applied to canvas to what else these aqueous pigments can be. German artist Katharina Grosse paints across spatial planes, creating psychedelic landscapes which push and ignore our perceptions of boundaries.
Untitled ( 2013 ) by Katharina Grosse, Nasher Sculpture CenterPigmentos Para Plantos y Globos, acrylic on balloons, soil, wall, floor
Our realities are really all about perceptions– each person’s reality is different depending on their perceptions. When we were in Friday Harbor last weekend, we received wildly different answers to the question “What is it like to live on the island?” Because of their own unique experiences, each person we asked had a completely different answer. Their perceptions had shaped their reality.
Untitled, 2008, New Orleans, acrylic on wall and floor
Grosse’s work takes the process of “painting” off the canvas and onto any surface, often ignoring spatial boundaries. Her installations cause us to change how we perceive reality through her eyes and perhaps changes our perceptions permanently.
One Floor Up More Highly, 2010, styrofoam, acrylic on wall, floor, soil and reinforced plasticPicture Park, 2007, acrylic on wall, ceiling, soil, latex balloons and canvases
If you’d like to see more of Katharina Grosse’s work, please visit her website. Have you seen any interesting installations lately? Perhaps ones that pushed boundaries?
One of my favorite activities in the world is visiting artists in their studios or even getting a little peek inside through photographs! Whether an artist is working from a light filled loft or a small corner in the kitchen, the way an artist approaches their workspace says so much about their creative process. I suspicion you enjoy studio visits, too.. And so dear Artsies, I thought I would treat us to a little jaunt to the studio of Deann Hebert website You may recognize Deann’s work from the City Mouse | Country Mouse show currently online at Found Gallery here at Artsy Forager.
Everyone, say hello to Deann!
Deann and I decided this trip to her studio would give us the perfect opportunity for you to get acquainted a bit better. So she indulged me by answering a few questions inquiring Artsies might like to know..
Artsy | You have such a unique style of applying paint to canvas! Can you tell us a bit more about your process?
Deann | My process has definitely evolved over the years. I have always been attracted to texture, and palette knife painting. I wanted to create a style that married these two together. A key factor in this was the opportunity I had to study abroad while receiving my formal training. It exposed me to different cultures, ways of thinking and creating art. It was really just a trial and error type of thing. It’s a process of applying layers on top of layers. With each layer reacting with another. Once I got into my “groove” of painting, it just felt right. I literally had an “ah-ha” moment, of “this is who I am!”
AF | How have you seen yourself grow as an artist over the years?
DH | Oh I have changed so much over the years. I think it’s only a natural progression that a fine artist changes and grows. I hope I am always changing and evolving, not being static. I think this is where true creativity comes from. Over the years my work has gone from bright, bold colors and still lifes, to more muted tones of blues, creams, greys, and landscapes. Who knows what the future will bring!
AF | What is the most exciting part of painting for you?
DH | The most exciting part of creating for me, is watching the painting literally become something right before my eyes as it is on the paint table. But, the créme de la créme, is evoking an emotional reaction from the viewer, for whatever reason.
AF | What is it about the country that captures and holds your imagination?
DH | Well, this little country mouse grew up in a small town and my family always owned horses and cows. So growing up “in the country” was our way of life, and I absolutely loved it. The texture of an old barn or fence, or grass growing in the fields remind me of my childhood days. Unfortunately, many of these old structures are falling victim to time and neglect, but still are a direct link to the past, and the present. These barns tell a story, too, if we could only listen to them, to me, they are the heart and soul of the South. Even my studio walls are made from reclaimed wood from a historic barn that was torn down, so my inspiration, is quite literally, everywhere. Now, I am lucky enough to call Tennessee home, and the rolling hills and landscape are truly inspiring to me and beautiful. In my own little way, I want to pay homage to that.
Margaret Britton Vaughn, Poet Laureate of Tennessee, says it best in her poem:
BARNS OF MY YOUTH
I miss the barns of my youth,
The ones that read, “See Rock City.”
Hungry Caterpillars ate them alive,
Spitting out nails
To become thorns in the side
Of crawling asphalt,
Erasing small towns
To link big cities
They die hard, these old barns,
Leaning on the everlasting
Shoulders of Time
That cushion the fall of rotting boards.
Light seeps through decaying skeletons,
Causing shadows to tiptoe
Like ballerinas dancing the waltz of the wind.
In our hurry to get there
We destroyed the landscape:
Masterpieces of America.
AF | You are very involved in children’s art activities, like Art Camp. What do you see as the most important creative lesson a child can learn?
DH | Since I have two children myself (2 and 6), exposing children to the arts is very near and dear to my heart, and I think the most important creative lesson a child can learn is that art can be used to express yourself in ways that nothing else can. That you can actually say something with your art.
AF | Obligatory question. If you weren’t an artist, what would your dream job be?
DH | It’s so hard to answer that question because I am living my dream job…. but let’s see, since I love to travel, I always thought Samantha Brown had the coolest job ever to tour the world and work for the Travel Channel show, “Great Hotels”. How cool would that be?!
That would be a pretty sweet gig, but I have a feeling most folks would trade with you in a heartbeat! Thanks so much for opening up your studio to us, Deann!
To see more of Deann’s work, please visit her Deann Hebert website and the City Mouse | Country Mouse online show and sale in Found Gallery here at Artsy Forager. Big thanks to Ray Sanduski of With an Eye Photography for the gorgeous shots of Deann’s creative space and process. Be sure to check out Ray’s website!
Sometimes the amount of garbage we accumulate in a week completely shocks us. We wonder how in the world two adults could create so much waste. We do try to be aware of our consumption and curtail it wherever we can. The work of French artists Hortense Le Calvez and Matthieu Goussin aka Forlane 6 Studio speaks to the human race’s over consumption and the consequences it will eventually bring.
Ordinary, mass produced objects, decorated with “seaweed” and “tentacles” are submerged. These objects, which weigh so heavily on many of our lives and the earth in general, gloat weightlessly.
This slowness of movement contradicts the rate at which so many of these objects are consumed and disposed of. The objects seem at once foreign and organic to the sea’s atmosphere. Perhaps in a nod to how we fool ourselves into thinking that buying that next thing we don’t really need doesn’t make a difference.
To see more of the work of Forlane 6 Studio, please visit their website and be sure to follow their Facebook page, where they’ve recently posted photos of a new installation!
After my grandmother died, there were a few pieces of her clothing that I kept just because they reminded me of her. Even a few years after she was gone, you could catch the faint scent of her perfume in the cloth. Clothing is so deeply personal, it lies close to our skin, keeps us warm and dry, carrying with it memories of moments, past lives and future hopes. Finnish installation artist Kaarin Kaikkonen embraces the influence clothing has over us in her site specific installations.
Kaikkonen’s installations began with the hanging of men’s jackets, a coping mechanism of sorts in dealing with the loss of her own father. She would eventually shift to women’s clothing in memory of her mother. Her most recent installation, though, turns her eye upon children and gender roles. Children’s clothing is strung in rows, subtly organized by color. The blues and pinks face off, yet as the lines recede, the colors fade. Perhaps a symbolic nod to how traditional gender roles have always been the “loudest voices”?
What we chose to clothe ourselves in does say something about who are. Whether we are designer label fiends or thrift store junkies, what we wear tells the world our story with one glance. Even Mr. Forager, who claims not to care about fashion, is still picky about his clothing choices! What story are your clothes telling?
You can find more of Kaarina Kaikkonen’s work on her website.
Artist found via This is Colossal. All images via their website.
After posting an image from our trip to Vegas on the Artsy Forager Facebook page yesterday, very insightful artist Gigi Mills wondered if perhaps all of Vegas could be considered one giant art installation? It is after all, full of manufactured manifestations. Which got me thinking about the environmental installation work of Lothar Gotz.
Lothar Gotz creates site specific abstract “wall paintings”. His work encompasses single walls, rooms, even entire floors and buildings, swathing vertical surfaces in planes of saturated color.
Winterreise 2010, acrylic and mineral paint on wall, Fundacio Joan Miro, BarcelonaDrawing Room 2008, vinyl on wall, National Gallery Prague
The colors and shapes move in and out of the vertical surface, giving the eyes freedom to wander beyond the walls to see an abstract landscape of the artist’s own making. The walls themselves recede and though the viewer may be boxed in by these partitions, Gotz’s paintings make them come alive, so that we hardly notice the facade.
What Makes Boys Dance 2012, Domo Baal
To see more of Lothar Gotz’s work, please visit Rahn Contemporary, his representing gallery in Zurich.
All images are via Rahn Contemporary, except where otherwise noted. Artist found via The Painter’s Table.
Nature has a way of littering her surfaces with remnants of her past lives. Whether sea shells scattered on a beach or leaves dispersed across the forest floor, she leaves us with reminders of what was. UK installation artist Tim Pugh arranges nature’s discarded offerings like precious memories in a shadowbox.
Today seems to be the day for posting childhood memory-inspired works of art! I am a firm believer in public art that serves to delight and inspire any viewer. Public art should appeal to the public, you shouldn’t need to be versed in art history or elements of design to appreciate and admire it. The Bubblegum installation of artists Merijn Hos and Renée Reijnders perfectly demonstrates the ability of public art to enchant and amuse.
Bubblegum, dayBubblegum, nightBubblegum, night with people enjoying the scene
The installation could be seen floating above Weerwater Lake in the Netherlands in 2010. Check out the websites of Merijn Hos and Renee Reijnders to see more images and what they’ve been up to lately.
