Brainard Carey's Blog, page 49

Paige Ackerson-Kiely

Paige Ackerson-Kiely is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Dolefully, a Rampart Stands (Penguin 2019).She’s the director of the MFA in Writing Program at Sarah Lawrence College, and lives in New York City.

Autumn Wallace

Autumn Wallace (b. 1996, Philadelphia, PA) is a visual artist who works across media to create paintings and sculptures that examine human sexuality, gender, and the black femme experience.

Influenced by early 90’s cartoons, Byzantine aesthetics, Baroque Style, and what Wallace describes as “low-quality adult materials”, Wallace’s work generates a sense of fluidity whereby figures defy spatial, social, physical, emotional, and psychological boundaries. Wallace is a graduate of the Tyler School of Art at Temple University.

Recent solo exhibitions include How to Hug Yourself: 10 Steps (with Pictures), Gaa Gallery, #THECONTAINTERSTORE, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA; #MAJORSEXUALCHEESEFETISH, Portside Art Parlor, Philadelphia, PA; How Could I Say No To You?, HOUSE Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; and #SingleWithPets, Stella Elkins Gallery, Philadelphia, PA. Wallace is the recipient of numerous fellowships including residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), North Adams, MA; the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; and Yaddo Saratoga Springs, NY.

The books mentioned in the interview are Aesop’s Fables the Unabridged version, and Nature Poem by Tommy Pico.

‘Double Dutch’ Acrylic, Oil, Pastel and Rhinestones on Canvas hung by Grommets – approx 73 x 61″ – 2020‘Gold Plated Moment’ Acrylic, Oil, Pastel and Gold Leaf on PVC – 48 x 48″ – 2021

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

MATTILDA BERNSTEIN SYCAMORE is most recently the author of The Freezer Door, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, one of Oprah Magazine’s Best LGBTQ Books of 2020, and a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award.

Her previous nonfiction title, The End of San Francisco, won a Lambda Literary Award, and her novel Sketchtasy was one of NPR’s Best Books of 2018. Sycamore is the author of two nonfiction titles and three novels, as well as the editor of five nonfiction anthologies.

Her sixth anthology, Between Certain Death and a Possible Future: Queer Writing on Growing up with the AIDS Crisis, will be out in October.

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore signing at Elliott Bay, 11-19-20, by Karen Maeda-Allman

Shingo Francis

Shingo Francis is an artist and painter who employ a minimal and abstract approach to his work to explore color, time and expanse. He has a keen appreciation for how these elements shape our perceptions.

Shingo Francis grew up between California and Japan, two locations that inform his work and practice. Through the process of compositional reduction and color as space Francis created a series of paintings titled “Blue’s Silence” with simple two tones in blue. These paintings subsequently evolved into a new series of paintings titled “Infinite Space” with an overall monochrome color as space with a simple composition with one line towards the bottom signifying an attention to presence. The central color is autonomous due to the refined composition dissipating both at the top and bottom of the canvas revealing a subtle motion of transparent layers. Both series of paintings produce a sense of silence and space with experiences of shifts in tone and complimentary juxtaposition of color.

A recent series of paintings titled “interference” utilize a material with small particles cut in an angle to reflect a specific spectrum of color. There is no pigment such as cobalt or cadmium but only color from the color spectrum of light similar to how a rainbow reveals color through the refraction of light in rain droplets. Yet there is an opposing color as well to each refracted color, therefore the painting will shift between two complimentary colors. For example, if the light reflects the color green, it will also be the color magenta when the light is not reflecting back but looked in ambient light. Besides the interesting mechanics of these paintings, the square composition is symmetrical and produces a space to project and hold ones attention or presence. The ever-changing phenomena of these paintings reflect the cyclical nature of time and how our bodies move through space.

Shingo Francis also works on large scale drawing installations, he paints on a large roll of watercolor paper which is suspended from the ceiling in a semicircle allowing the viewer to be subsumed by the curvature of the paper and image.

Francis received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pitzer College in Claremont and a Master of Arts degree from Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena, California.

Francis’s work has been exhibited in Japan, United States, Germany, South Korea, and Switzerland. He has been included in museums shows at the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Ichihara Lakeside Museum and the Martin Museum of Art. He received the Fumio Nanjo Award in Tokyo, and is represented by MISA SHIN GALLERY and William Turner Gallery.

The book mentioned in our interview is Interaction of Color by Josef Albers.

Infinite Space (red) Oil on linen 76” x 51”/ 194 x 130cm 2015“Subtle Impression (violet, blue and emerald)”
Oil on canvas
40 x 34” / 100 x 86cm
2019

Marco Casagrande

Marco Casagrande, Finland, Shenzhen

Marco Casagrande (born 1971) graduated from the Helsinki University of Technology Department of Architecture in 2001. From the early stages of his career Casagrande started to mix architecture with other disciplines of art and science landing with a series of ecologically conscious architectural installations around the world. All in all, more than 86 realized works in 16 countries.

He is the laureate of the European Prize for Architecture 2013, Committee of International Architecture Critics CICA Award 2013 for conceptual and artistic architecture and UNESCO & Locus Foundation’s Global Award for Sustainable Architecture 2015.

Casagrande’s works and teaching are moving freely in-between architecture, landscape architecture, urban and environmental design and science, environmental art and circus adding up into cross-over architectural thinking of «commedia dell’architettura», a broad vision of built human environment tied into social drama and environmental awareness. «There is no other reality than nature». He views architects as design shamans merely interpreting what the bigger nature of the shared mind is transmitting.

He views cities as complex energy organisms in which different overlapping layers of energy flows are determining the actions of the citizens as well as the development of the city. By mixing environmentalism and urban design Casagrande is developing methods of punctual manipulation of the urban energy flows in order to create an ecologically sustainable urban development towards the so-called Third Generation City. The theory views the future urban development as the ruin of the industrial city, an organic machine ruined by nature including human nature.

Urban Acupuncture: a cross-over architectural manipulation of the collective sensuous intellect of a city. The City is viewed as a multi-dimensional sensitive energy-organism, a living environment. Urban acupuncture aims into a touch with this nature. UA: Sensitivity to understand the energy flows of the collective chi beneath the visual city and reacting on the hot spots of this chi. Architecture as environmental art is in the position to produce the acupuncture needles for the urban chi. A weed will root into the smallest crack in the asphalt and eventually break the city. Urban acupuncture is the weed, and the acupuncture point is the crack. The possibility of the impact is total, connecting human nature as part of nature. The theory opens the door for uncontrolled creativity and freedom. Ruin is something man-made having become part of nature.

Casagrande has been teaching in 65 academic institutions in 25 countries since the year 2000 including the Aalto University, Helsinki University of Art and Design, Tokyo University Tadao Ando Laboratory and China Central Academy of Fine Arts. He was a visiting professor at the Bergen School of Architecture 2001–2004 and Taiwanese Tamkang University Department of Architecture 2004-2009, Principal of the independent cross-disciplinary research centre Ruin Academy in Taipei and Taitung, Taiwan (2010 -) and Artena, Italy (2013 -) in cooperation with the Aalto University’s SGT Sustainable Global Technologies Centre. Casagrande is the Vice-President of the International Society of Biourbanism (2014 -). Currently he holds the professorship of architecture at the Bergen School of Architecture, Norway.

Marco Casagrande is the Principal of the Casagrande Laboratory (2003-), a Finland based internationally operating multi-disciplinary architecture and innovation office.

Ultra-Ruin by Marco CasagrandeMarco Casagrande, Ultra-RuinBug Dome by WEAK! in Shenzhen

 

Ward Shelley

Ward Shelley works as an artist in New York and Connecticut. He is interested in constructed worlds and intersecting narratives; how they create, mediate and inform each other. He wants to know how things really work.

Shelley specializes in large projects that freely mix architecture and performance. For more than a decade, he has been collaborating with Alex Schweder, using experimental architecture to explore the dance between the designed environment and its consequences. Since 2007, the duo have designed, built, and lived in (or on) seven structures, all of them in locations where the public are invited not only to witness, but also to actively engage with the artists in direct dialogue about their practice—an activity that has coalesced into what they call “performance architecture.”

Shelley also works on diagramatic paintings: information-based timelines on culture-related subjects and historical postmortems. He frequently works with Douglas Paulson on installations and environments that attempt to turn mind, text, and meaning inside out (for a better look). They created the “The Last Library” project for Spaces in 2015.

Shelley’s work has been exhibited in more than 10 countries and is in a number of museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum, the Brooklyn Art Museum, and The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Shelley received a Painting and Sculpture award from the Joan Mitchell foundation, and has been a fellow of the American Academy in Rome since 2006. He has received NYFA and NEA fellowships in sculpture and new media categories, a Bessie Award for installation art, and grants from the Jerome Foundation and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. He is represented by Pierogi Gallery in New York.

A new septuagenarian, this year Ward claims to be taking a year off to re-evaluate the direction of his life and his work. He has re-booted and found time for few extra-curricular activities, particularly around music and reading, and has begun rescuing plants (otherwise known as gardening). Being outside has become a priority.

The book mentioned in the interview was: A Brief History of Thought: A Philosophical Guide to Living by Luc Ferry.

Carl Berg

Carl Berg has been a curator and gallery director for almost thirty years. He is the founder/director of PRJCTLA a new alternate gallery in downtown Los Angeles. He has owned galleries in Los Angeles and Amsterdam and has worked as a curator organizing over 150 exhibitions in Los Angeles, Berlin, Seoul, Amsterdam, Berlin, Rotterdam and elsewhere.

He has organized several groundbreaking exhibitions over the years including: “Southern California Car Culture” that highlighted the works of 15 LA artists including Slater Bradley, Chris Burden, Andrew Bush, Carolie Dixon, Ed Kienholz, Mathew Luem, Kori Newkirk, Patrick Paeper, Annica Carlson Rixon, Steve Roden, Haley Rodman, Ed Ruscha, Robert Stone, Erik Treml, Paul Tzanetopoulos and car designs by BMW (Designworks USA), Lexus (CALTY), Lincoln Mercury, Mazda, Mercedes Benz Advanced Design (SMART CAR), Schools: Art Center College of Design. This exhibition looked at the culture of the automobile in Los Angeles and how artists reacted to this unique environment.

There was a diverse blend of work from blue chip, mid-career and emerging artist all of which addressed “Car Culture” in his or her own unique way. As part of the mix in the exhibition Berg also included car designs by major Los Angeles based design studios including studios from Ford, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Mazda and Toyota. The show included early designs of the Smart Car, the [irst BMW SUV and full-scale rendering of the Mazda Miata. “Booster Up Dutch Courage” that featured the work of 17 artists from many prominent Dutch artists which premiered their LA debut including Aernout Mik, Rob Birza, Mathilde ter Heijne, Tariq Alvi, Lisa May Post, Rik Meijers and Federico D. Orazio.

This exhibition co-curated by Theo Tegelaers was the [irst to introduce a new generation of Netherlands based artist to the West Coast. This exhibition was followed up by a show of 20 Los Angeles based artist titled “CA 9000-185” at W139, a prominent non-pro[it space in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Some of the artists included Slater Bradley, Jessica Bronson, Greg Colson, Tim Hawkinson, Steve Hurd, Martin Kersels, Habib Kheradyar, Charles LaBelle, Marcos Lutyens, Yunhee Min, Patty Wickman, and Liz Young. This exhibition co-curated by Theo Tegelaers was the first of its kind introducing a new generation of Dutch artists to the LA art scene. More recently Berg curated “Framing Time” an exhibition of photography focused on the concept of movement in still photos. The show includes Los Angeles-based artists Uta Barth, Stephen Berens, John Divola, Robbert Flick, Tim Hawkinson, George Legrady, Sharon Lockhart, Ed Ruscha, and Augusta Wood and formerly from LA Dinh Q Lê (now living in Vietnam). Berg has also worked on many solo exhibitions with compelling artists including Tim Hawkinson (LA) , Folkert de Jong (Amsterdam), Slater Bradley (Berlin), Neha Choksi (LA and Mumbai), Iva Gueorguieva (LA), Megan Williams (LA), Diana Cooper (New York), Rob Birza (Amsterdam), Federico D’Orazio (Bangkok), Asad Faulwell (LA), HK Zamani (LA) amongst others.

In addition to his curatorial practice, Berg has organized a residency exchange with Foundation Kaus Australis in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and has sent over 70 artists from Los Angeles to this program from 2002-17. In Berg’s newest project, yet to be titled, he is interviewing a broad range of Los Angeles-based gallery owners, curators, collectors, critics and also artist. His objective is to create a historical document in a video format for future generations to study and enjoy. His [irst interview will be with renowned LA galleries Rosamund Felsen and he has many other exciting interviews planned for this project. 

Lisa le Feuvre

Lisa Le Feuvre at Spiral Jetty by Smithson

Lisa Le Feuvre is a curator, writer, and editor. She is inaugural Executive Director of Holt/Smithson Foundation, an artist-endowed foundation dedicated to the creative legacies of artists Nancy Holt (1938-2014) and Robert Smithson (1938-73).  Between 2010 and 2017 Le Feuvre was Head of Sculpture Studies at the Henry Moore Institute, a part of the Henry Moore Foundation. She led a program of education, research, publications and exhibitions, and the development of the Leeds sculpture and collection archive. Previously Le Feuvre taught on the post-graduate Curatorial Program at Goldsmiths College, led the contemporary art program at the National Maritime Museum and was Course Director of the post-graduate program in Arts Policy and Management at Birkbeck College, University of London.  She has sat on various juries including Sculpture Dublin (2021), Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation Prize (2019),the Turner Prize (2018), Hepworth Prize for Sculpture (2016), British representation at the Venice Biennale (2015), and co-curated the quinquennial exhibition British Art Show 7: In the Days of the Comet (2009-10).

In this interview she discusses the Robert Smithson exhibition at Marian Goodman Gallery in NYC, Abstract Cartography, June 24th – August 20th, 2021.

Brittany M. Watkins

Brittany M. Watkins (b.1989) is an interdisciplinary artist based in the Southern United States. Her practice examines contemporary society through a lens of psycho-analysis and social critique as she moves between a range of media. From immersive installation to hyper edited video-performances, her intuitive (subconscious) process mirrors the push and pull between interiority and public life, linking larger social issues to the fragility of the human psyche. Since obtaining her Master’s Degree of Fine Art in 2016 from Florida State University, she has exhibited in venues ranging from international art fairs and museums to experimental, artist-run-spaces in the U.S. and abroad. Her site-specific installation was awarded the Juried Panel Prize ($25,000) in ArtFields 2017, where she later erected a public art installation at TRAX Visual Art Center for ArtFields 2018. She was a finalist for Foundwork’s Inaugural Artist Prize (2019) and later nominated for the Joan Mitchell Painter’s & Sculptor’s Grant in 2020. Since 2018, she has participated in residencies such as The Vermont Studio Center, 701 Center for Contemporary Art, Hambidge Center for Creative Arts & Sciences, and Long Road Projects. She currently lives and works in Columbia, South Carolina as a full-time artist. 

The books mentioned in the interview are Mastery by Robert Greene and The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.

Behaviors STACKED [over] Certainty, six altered couches stacked with ratchet straps & paint, 10′ x 8.5′ x 10.5′, 2018. Installation detail from my solo show: AFFECT-ED, BEING at 701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia, SC.Under them-there Hills…Mama, mixed-media installation, 30’ x 18’ x 13’, 2019. Installation detail from MINT Gallery in Atlanta, GA.

James Esber

Working in the border territory between abstraction and representation, James Esber uses a variety of media to disassemble and distort the emotionally charged and often clichéd images of Americana. The characters he’s drawn to, pawed-over icons of popular culture, include things like gunslingers, flag-wavers, dimpled children holding flowers, deadbeat alcoholic dads, and self-absorbed selfie-takers. His paintings, built through a process of hyperbolic mark-making, are done with myopic focus on each part, shifting between scales and allowing for improvised digressions which nudge the image toward abstraction. The resulting hybrid images are often fragmenting and imploding while at the same time stubbornly retaining their integrity.James Esber has shown his work in New York and abroad including a 25-year survey at the Clifford Gallery at Colgate University (2014) and a solo exhibition at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT (2011). He has had multiple one-person shows at PPOW, NYC, Bernard Tolle in Boston and Pierogi in both New York and Leipzig. He has also shown widely in group exhibitions, including One Work at the Tang Museum (2014), The Land of Earthly Delights at The Laguna Art Museum (2008), and SITE Santa Fe’s Fifth International Biennial: Disparities and Deformations: Our Grotesque (2004).He lives in Brooklyn, NY and is represented by Pierogi Gallery.The book mentioned in the interview is The Inkblots by Damion Searls.Hero, 2021, Acrylic on PVC panel, 48 x 62.5 inchesThinker 2, 2020, Acrylic on PVC panel, 40.5 x 32 inches