September 27th, 2016 · No Comments
Today is the release of my first book Ceramics: Contemporary Artists Working in Clay which can now be purchased online. This was easily the biggest project I’ve worked on, certainly the longest and required a lot more stamina than blogging! I wrote this book to show the public what I was seeing online: artists bringing incredible creativity, inventiveness and liveliness to ceramics. I saw my role as curator and sought to include a diverse collection of artwork being made today. The book is by no means a survey of contemporary ceramics but more of a snapshot of an evolving, growing, reinvigorated art form.
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I’d like to thank all of the artists whose work is included in this book. I’d also like to thank Danielle Krysa for supporting this project and writing the forward. And I’d like to thank Chronicle Books for picking up the book and for their designer who did a knock-out job designing the book and it’s incredible cover with its cut-outs.
September 19th, 2016 · No Comments
Cara Nahaul was born and resides in London. She received her MFA from Parsons The New School For Design in 2014 and was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship. She is exhibiting her work with Christine Park Gallery and was represented by them at START art fair this past weekend.
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September 6th, 2016 · 1 Comment
Kelsey Shultis is a Detroit-based artist originally from Birmingham, Michigan. Shultis works in oils in a variety of subjects – houses, ghostly portraits, florals and landscapes. Some of her work like her portraits she paints in very dark shades with hardly any light at all- reminiscent of Dutch masters like Rembrandt. While I like those pieces, I am really enjoying the brightness of her landscapes and florals below. Some of her work is available for sale through Tappan Collective.
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Kimberly Corday is a young artist living in North Hollywood, California. Some of her luxurious textiles and more subtle paintings from her Portal Series are available on Buy Some Damn Art. Below I ask Corday about her practice, how and why she makes what she does and what she’s up to next. Check out Kimberly’s show here.
Corday’s Portal Series
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You graduated from RISD in 2014. What kind of work did you make while in school and what have you been working on since?
Much of my education at RISD was centered around abstract figurative painting. I was looking at a lot of Cecily Brown and Abstract Expressionists but eventually hit a wall and wanted to dip my toes in something new. Senior year, my professor Laurel Sparks encouraged me to dabble in unconventional materials. What transpired was a completely invented process incorporating hand-dyed string and found materials.
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“My practice is rooted in the notion of an ideal natural world – a concept that marries
the spectacle of nature and the spirit of 18th century Romantic landscape painting.
Through a Frankensteinian process that borrows aspects of painting, relief sculpture,
and embroidery, I create textured objects that conjure up an amalgam of natural phenomena
like threadbare pelts, plumage, and patterns found in the wild.” – Kimberly Corday
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Pinkie (above), Beryl (below) and other recent works of yours are made with hand-dyed wool on canvas. How did you come to combine these materials and why?
After graduating, I stumbled across a sheepskin duster at IKEA (of all places) and was interested to take it out of context. I then dyed, distressed, and manipulated the wool in order to transform it into a lush, abstract wall-hanging reminiscent of say a threadbare pelt or strange, ancient relic. Thus spawn my practice as a fiber artist.
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What are you working on now? Are you experimenting with new materials or process?
I’m working on a series of wall hangings prompted by both my rococo aesthetic and interest in a Japanese textile tradition called “Boro”- meaning “ragged” or “tattered”. Stay tuned!
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In your Portal Series the predominant form is a circle. What do they represent to you?
It’s funny, I was noticing a lot of circles in my sketchbook around that time. The shape’s recurrence in my work is unconscious, but I’ve learned to embrace it as a representation of my curiosity in both literal and figurative portals. They’re openings meant to summon associations, sensations and emotions.
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Could you explain what a monoprint is?
Monoprinting is the process wherein a painting or drawing is made on glass or Plexi and rubbed onto paper. The image can only be transferred once- hence the name. It’s ephemeral, unlike most printmaking methods.
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August 19th, 2016 · 1 Comment
Mayumi Otero is an illustrator from Orléans, France. Many of her illustrations have dystopian elements. Some are totally surreal in their concept: in one a tiger comes to life from a painting and in another a humanoid snail is displaced so his shell can be used by a militia. Otero’s works are vivid like a scene from a dream that has been crystalized in the mind with its meaning, however, just beyond reach.
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August 13th, 2016 · 1 Comment
Hayv Kahraman was born in Baghdad and raised in Sweden. Her work deals with many themes related to her Iraqi heritage, the subjugated role of women in this traditional culture and the experience (a personal one for her) of a refugee. She is superbly adept at translating these issues into her art which hums with beauty and poignancy.
Of her series Extimacy Kahraman stated, “Having these women violently detaching their limbs, for me, is very reminiscent of the psyche of a refugee, and that sense of detachment you have from your land that you’ve had to leave behind. That’s the idea of the diasporic women, who are fragmented, or cyborgs almost. They’ve had to give up part of themselves.” – New York Times via Jack Shainman
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