You guys. I get so excited when I come across a new artist! In fact, I’m pretty sure when I clicked through from Instagram and saw this artist’s work, I might have let out a little squeal. Jessica Simorte is creating these perfect little abstracts that practically sing with their exuberance of color, line, and composition.
These diminutive works ( I think the largest I saw was 12×12 ) pack a big punch. I love how she is translating what could easily be large compositions onto a small surface. And the little “imperfections” in each are really what get me. The fearlessness it takes to let the world see sketchy lines and that little yellow streak coming down at the bottom of the last piece? Possibly my favorite moment among them. This is definitely an artist I will be keeping my eye on!
Check out more of Jessica Simorte‘s work on her website. I wish I could remember on whose Instagram I saw Simorte’s name/work. Whoever you were, thank you for introducing me to a new favorite!
Our current little bungalow backs up to a beautifully landscaped yard, verdant and green, even in the midst of Fall. As I sit working here every day, it’s easy to forget that the leaves are changing all around, I get so caught up in my own little world here. Austin artist Joseph Norderer chooses to celebrate those little corners of the world in which we dwell.
Lush and lively, his compositions crop in tightly on a small crop of land, beckoning us beyond the bushes to find who might be living inside. We get so caught up in our view from within that I think we sometimes forget that just a few feet or yards away, another life is being lived, perhaps very different or quite similar. But more and more we chose to hide behind our own walls. Choosing to dwell only in that same familiar corner.
If you’d like to see more of Joseph Noderer‘s work, please visit his website. You can also see his show at Tiny Park art space in Austin until October 19th.
Some galleries, the most successful and long lived, find their sweet spot and flourish. Stellers Gallery in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, quietly and consistently shows and sells the work of emerging and established artists in their space just steps away from the Atlantic Ocean.
But this isn’t your typical “beachside” gallery. Since 1999, owner Hillary Tuttle, has cultivated a selection of sophisticated work that compliments, not caricatures, the local landscape and culture from local, regional, and national artists, including this month’s Featured Artist here on Artsy Forager, Jennifer JL Jones. The wide range of styles and consistence of excellence among the work in the gallery lends it appeal across the generations, creating a diverse range of collectors.
[ the work of Jennifer JL Jones at Stellers Gallery at Ponte Vedra Beach ]
Tonight, Stellers celebrates its original four artists with an artists’ reception to open Synergy, an exhibition dedicated to the work of these very different artists, abstract painter Jennifer JL Jones, realist landscape painter Henry Von Genk, figurative and still life artist Laura Lacambra Shubert, and whimsical figurative painter Enrique Mora. Beginning with these four seemingly incongruous artists might have seemed like a gamble, but it shows just how well Tuttle knew who her collectors would be, appealing to a wide and varied assortment of artistic tastes.
[ work by Laura Lacambra Shubert & Jennifer JL Jones ]
[ work by Henry Von Genk, Laura Lacambra Shubert & Enrique Mora ]
Each artist’s work, though very different in style and approach, represents the magic of beach life– the wonder of the light, the calming peace of the landscape, the quiet lifestyle, and of course, the wind in your hair fun of it!
If you are in the North Florida area, can you think of a better evening out than taking a drive out to the beach to see some beautiful work and meet these amazing artists? And while you’re there, congratulate Hillary & the Stellers team for an incredible journey. You can see more from these artists and all the artists Stellers represents on their website.
We all get sentimental about some of our possessions. Especially things that remind us of the ones we love. I have paintings by my grandmother that I’ll never part with. Santa Monica artist Morgan Fisher honors one of his own prized pieces of family history by recreating a part of his father’s work in paint in his series Interior Color Beauty. In the 1930s, Fisher’s father owned a pre-fabricated housing company and a booklet of paint color schemes his company produced inspired this series of minimalist paintings.
His father’s legacy becomes larger than life as Fisher enlarges the paint chips on wooden panels. Staying true to the original inspiration, the works are painted with acrylic house paint.
We feel the influence of so many people throughout our lives, but our family’s impact usually leaves the strongest impression. I love seeing this artist honor his father’s work in such a way!
Interior Color Beauty is on display at Bortolami Gallery in New York until October 19th, if you’d like to check it out. You can see more of Morgan Fisher‘s work on their website.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the superficiality of life, isn’t it? But what happens when we look beyond the surface glitter and get real? Are we afraid of letting people see beyond the facade to the layers of disfunction and mistakes? There are artists who do just that. Like self taught Port Townsend, WA painter Jeane Meyers, who builds up and covers up in order to go back and reveal what’s underneath.
Yes, maybe revealing the ugly might not be so fun or flattering, but it adds texture and depth and a certain sense of vulnerability, not only in Meyers’ work, but in our lives, as well. By submitting to the process and taking what is found underneath, we letting go of our compulsion for perfection. And in return, the work ( and we ), become more interesting and more complex.
To see more of Jeane Meyers’ work, please visit her website. Her work is currently showing alongside Portland sculptor Lisa Kaser in Wax On, Wax Off at Simon Mace Gallery in Port Townsend.
I like to inspect things closely. And when they aren’t aware of it, I like to examine people closely. There is so much expression and beauty held within the eyes and the lines of each face. French born artist Jerome Lagarrigue, in his larger than life portrait studies, focuses his brush on the eyes of his subject, revealing emotion that we might not notice without such targeted attention.
Sometimes, when Mr. F & I are sitting together, reading or watching a movie, I can’t help but gaze at him for a while. Pretty sure it creeps him out a bit when I do that! But there is something so lovely about memorizing the face of the one you love, isn’t there? Not to mention really seeing all the people you interact with every day. How many of us could describe the faces of friends, family, colleagues well enough to create a true likeness? If we don’t know a face well, how will we ever be able to read it? To know what isn’t being said?
To see more of Jerome Lagarrigue‘s work, please visit his website. Take some time to sit and stare at someone you love today, Artsies. 😉
It’s that time of year. Kids are planning who they’ll “be” for Halloween, adults are racking their brains to come up with costumes for themselves that are funny, clever, sexy, whatever the think they are or wish that they could be. But the latest series by Canadian artist Lucky Jackson, I am the Hero of This Story, has got me thinking about the masks we all put on every day.
It’s funny how we all grow up thinking we can do anything, be anything, but slowly over time as we age and life beats us down, doubt creeps in. Maybe I’m not smart enough, or pretty enough, or cool enough, or brave enough. So instead of believing that we can be the hero of our story, we play dress-up each day, pretending to be who we are not, faking it, hoping to make it through.
Eventually though, either publicly or privately, whether when we’re young or at the end of our days, the facade will begin to crack. We’ll come to realize that face we’ve been putting on all these years isn’t really who we are. And hopefully, if we’re lucky, we’ll figure out who is truly hiding behind the mask.
These painted woodcut pieces by Lucky Jackson harken back to those days of dreaming of who we would become, but also look to what happens to who we become as we listen to the voices around us. Want to see more of Lucky Jackson‘s work? Please visit her website.
Our life seems, as I’m sure many of yours do, like a stream of times of hurry and peace. When we’re looking for our next spot– hurry. Once we get there and settle in– peace. Autumn and spring– hurry. Winter and summer– peace. In her abstract paintings, Colorado artist Krista Harris finds inspiration in that natural push and pull that the journey of life brings.
Through her process of building up and tearing down, adding and subtracting paint intuitively, Harris ends up with compositions that are flooded with movement, yet we find moments of respite among the fury. Warm colors are tempered with contrasting cool hues, a perfect parallel of our own seasons of peace among life’s fray.
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.
Transitions are always inspiring to me– the changing of seasons, the shift into a new life, the evolution and transformation. The transitional seasons of our lives always seem to bring about a renewed energy and purpose. In perusing the work of Toronto artist Kyle Stewart this morning, got me to thinking about how each experience builds upon the next as we move through this life.
In Stewart’s work, you see him working out, playing and stretching through each canvas. Scrolling through his paintings, you get a visual sense of each transition as he moves from tighter, more constrained abstracts into looser, quieter work, trying out narrative details along the way. How amazingly does the life cycle of art mimic our own? We too, move in and out of seasons, changing and transitioning, sometimes ever so slightly, sometimes in big, big ways.
If you’d like to see more of Kyle Stewart‘s work ( and I highly recommend you do! Every piece is stunning! ), please visit his website and follow along on his artistic journey through his Tumblr, Facebook & Instagram feeds.
