art, music & travel.
MoMA opened its doors tonight for its members, and I took advantage of it. There are a few new exhibits and lots of new work. I took photos and documented some of my favorites and a few that stood out… all on my flickr under the ‘museum trips’ set (most recent pictures at the bottom). Here are a few highlights…
detail of an Oskar Kokoschka painting.
detail of a Gustav Klimt painting.
detail of a Van Gogh painting.
Katie Decker’s trait is design, but she has been making some great art work lately. She uses mixed media to get her messages across, overheard conversations and quotes picked up from her friends. On this particular series, she also pokes fun of the latest cultural fad on verbal abbreviations, such as lol, lmao and omg. I added about 20 pieces of her work on my flickr. check her out there as well as her cool website: http://floodcreative.com/.
all work © Katie Decker.
He’s one of my favorite artists. Such a short life, and a very eccentric man. Had a controversial and short artistic career and was also mentored by Gustav Klimt. I love his work. Read about him here.
I attended New York Academy of Art’s ‘A Figurative reconstruction: 2009 MFA Diploma’ exhibition this past monday. My friend Julio Flores was ending his 2 year masters program and I needed to check out his work. I haven’t seen Julio’s work since I left LCAD, where we attended together, so I wasn’t sure what to expect… well, I came out of there very, very impressed, nostalgic and inspired. Julio showed me his studio, which took me back to school… we reminisced about our studies and he filled me in on his new work and techniques.
I also documented some of my favorite pieces from the show. Check them all out here.
There was some very good and original work…and some not too exciting…but always good to see what these schools are doing for the artists… Julio is a great example of hard work and mastered technique, patience and time. He has progressed so much since our school years in Laguna.
Check out more of Julio’s work.
http://www.jsfloresart.com/
http://www.myspace.com/juliostanly
Blind Snake 2. 2009. Oil on linen, backed with sail cloth
Photo: Todd White
Today I got to experience Nigel Cooke’s work for the first time. His very large, yet relatively empty paintings are filled with invoking ones emotion. Upon entering Andrea Rosen Gallery, one is greeted by Cooke’s Blind Snake. A lone, long, ready to strike snake painted with such finesse and subtle color pallete. So fragile with execution, yet such a powerful symbol…My favorite painting of the series. Inside the main gallery space, is a series of large paintings and sculptures. His work reminds me of a surreal dream. I found myself hovering inside these worlds and could almost feel the wind blowing while studying 1989 and his feeling of surrender in Heavy Beret. All the paintings felt like a journey into someone’s inner struggles, their unconscious… I felt an unvisited and unwanted ugliness in his figures yet was brought back into its beauty by their delicacy through his brushwork and technique.
This exhibit will be up until May 30, 2009.
visit www.rosengallery.com or more info.
All images are © Nigel Cooke
All images are courtesy of Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York.
Heavy Beret. 2009. Oil on linen
Photo: Todd White
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1989. 2009. Oil on Linen, backed with sail cloth
Photo: Todd White
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Experience. 2009. Oil on Linen
Photo: Todd White
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Big Predecessor. 2009. Patinated bronze with paint.
Photo: Jeremy Lawson
Venezuelan artist Maria Cristina Romero has been working on her latest series of paintings and sculptures. In her paintings, she’s been experimenting with texture by using fabrics and actual keys as well as bold colors, thick brushwork and strong shapes. I find her bronze sculptures just beautiful. Click at the photo below to see a selection of them.
© art by ma. cristina romero
Royce Bannon & the Endless Love Crew have put together a pretty incredible show at the 112 greene st. studio. 50 artists took over the floor, walls, ceilings and doused them with art. what a treat to see all these talented street artists in one space. my buddy alex from Mighty Tanaka gave me a tour of the studio and the work, which was a real plus. he’s going to help me caption the show on my flickr set…(’cause i have an awful memory). But wanted to thank him for being a great host.
This show has been extended and will be up ’til May 1st. You should swing by and immerse yourself in some street art culture. I left inspired.
Swung by Deitch gallery to see Ryan McGinness exhibit. what a space. his work fills it nicely with great amount of color, intricate paintings and complicated sculptures. eye sensory overload….in a good way. take a look for yourself, it’s worth it.
The exhibit runs from March 07, 2009 — April 18, 2009
18 Wooster Street, New York.
from deitch.com –
“…McGinness merges several of the most important directions in contemporary painting. His work combines all-over composition, inspired by Jackson Pollock and the mechanical silkscreen process inspired by Andy Warhol. The work also fuses naturalistic and contemporary pop culture references. His imagery derives form a broad range of sources: from dreams and hallucinations to song lyrics and fragments of art history. There is a push and pull between content and form, and between literal meaning and intuitive feeling. McGinness’s paintings represent his own mental landscape. His compositions reflect the infinite, ever-flowing continuum of the universe.”
I took some photos as well.
Paul Cezanne’s The Card Players
Paul Cezanne has always been one of my main influences in painting. He’s caught my eye since young. His style and technique are poetic and effortless… the rich brushwork, luscious color… I truly love his work.
NPR.org has done a little piece on him and the people he has influenced, which you should listen to.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art as an exhibit from 2/26 to 5/17 ’09. Click here for more info.
detail of a Cezanne still life
Last night I met up with a friend and checked out the Will Cotton show at Mary Boone Gallery on 5th ave. First time I go further than 23rd st. for a gallery exhibit… but it was worth it! Will Cotton’s paintings left me in a candy coma… Immersing myself in a fairytale of gingerbread men and dancing cream puffs… thought about rolling down the sugar hill or jump into the chocolate lake… it was a nice little getaway. His portraits brought me back to reality though, with their brooding backgrounds and stares……
Cotton’s paintings will be up through March 28th at Mary Boone Gallery on 745 Fifth Avenue.
Go and indulge.
© Jeff Peters
Jeff and I met 10 years ago on a sunny day in Southern California. We both attended LCAD, formerly known as the Art Institute of Southern California. Those days were pretty amazing I might add. A small wooden school a mile away from the pacific ocean, in a small town filled with galleries & art festivals, we had classes outside or on the cliffs overlooking the endless water… I remember visiting Jeff’s studio, drinking wine, talking, laughing… good times back then, I miss those carefree art school years…sigh.
Anywho, Jeff Peters is talented. Very. Beautiful oil paintings. Very delicate and fragile, his detail intricate and brushwork mastered. Jeff is completely dedicated to his work. He has kept a theme of nature throughout the years, but lately his work has picked up bolder colors and he’s ventured into depicting animals in rather unpredictable situations. I’m a fan.
Jeff Peters will be showing at Peter Blake Gallery in Laguna Beach, CA., February 5th, from 6-9pm. More info here.
For more of Jeff’s work please visit peterblakegallery.com.
© Jeff Peters
I had the opportunity to set up a little interview with my friend Ryder who has been rocking the art scene in NY lately. I hope you enjoy some of his thoughts and take a look at his work, which I find dramatic, clever and very interesting.
How long have you been doing art?
– I’ve been drawing and making artwork since I can remember. One of my earliest memories would be of drawing naked woman on the sidewalk in chalk after stealing Playboy magazines. My sister was pretty pissed off about that. I was about 5 years old. I’ve always been making something. I went to two different art schools, one on an illustration scholarship, the other just to figure out what else I could do. And I’m still working on that one. Still trying to see what’s next.
What/who inspires you to create it?
– I find New York very inspiring. Since my first trip here with my old band years ago I found it strangely comforting here. I find a lot of inspiration in the libraries through researching old myths and superstitions about the explanations multiple cultures put behind different things, especially in the natural world. It’s really intriguing how one object can undergo such drastic reasoning of why it exists and how it should be feared or worshipped.
What inspires you in your everyday?
– It almost always changes. But my walk to my studio from my apartment is nice and I’ll listen to music and get very driven. Conversations from the night before. The people I’m surrounded by. Other artists, designers and my fiancé. People may not have to say anything in particular at all, it’s just their energy that can be very telling. The levels of ambition we each have to accomplish something substantial versus being apathetic.
What medium do you consider most exciting or would you LOVE to master?
– I would love to master sculpture. I keep envisioning the paintings I do in three dimensional form and then some form of light splitting them open. I’ve begun work on a few new things and I’m happy with the progress. I like the idea of being able to walk around the entirety of a piece…
what IS art/music to you?
– The same thing it is to you I would imagine: very personal.
find more of ryder’s artwork at www.pantherattack.com.