Painting the Periphery Show

I have been working tirelessly curating this show:

Painting the Periphery, an exhibit featuring 12 artists who push the boundaries of perceptual painting and attempt to capture something they see which is more elusive to the paintbrush – the felt, the sensed, the remembered experience of their visual observations. Through color, form and composition, these artists manipulate the painted surface to match the way the world looks when they close their eyes, gather an impression and glance from their peripheral vision.

Artists in the show include Jason Bombaci (‘11), Evan Fugazzi (‘12), Lauren Garvey (‘11), LaurenGidwitz (‘12), J. Gordon (‘11), Kira Grennan (‘13), Mia Herring (‘13), Aubrey Levinthal (‘11), Zach Martin (‘09), Sarah Jackson Moore (‘09) Derrick Quevedo (’11), Sara Sanderson (’10).

Tirelessly is an understatement I think.  I will never see curators in the same way again -- I just hope all the work ends up paying off and makes the amazing participating artists proud.  I will post a bunch of images, blurbs and related materials to come (they're on facebook as well) and you can judge for yourself! (Or come to the opening this Friday :)

A Phillips Kind of Revelation

The couple times I have been to the Phillips Collection have given me a real sense of revelation on my work.  I think its because the collection is manageable in size and a narrow curated vision of artists whose work I respond to anyway.  This past week I went to see the Snapshot show which featured the work and photographs of Bonnard, Vuillard and five of their contemporaries.

Edouard Vuillard, The Kitchen 1891

The thing I realized during this visit is why the 'other five contemporaries' works really did not hold my attention as Bonnard and Vuillard can.  They are all working from the same motif; the things they see, they are all working around the same time and they are almost always working in France.  

The difference is how unconventional the first two artists could make conventional life look.  They are able to take the mundane and make it into a thing viewers recognize but can't immediately process (i.e. the still life above)  To get viewers to enter a piece which references everyday life, it must be a little familiar but a lot bizarre.  Which reinforced what I know of my own work: I must continue to push the boundaries of what I see and how I paint it.

Zeuxis at MICA

Stanley Friedman, Layers

I'm back from my work trip to DC and in between the mayhem of schools visits, portfolio days and gps detours I was able to sneak in some fabulous exhibition time.  My first stop was to MICA to see The Common Object show featuring work by the still life association Zeuxis.

John Goodrich Ceramic Basket and Fruit

There was a lot of work in the show, with the premise being to use an ordinary dish towel to create a work which exceeds its subject matter and is interesting to the viewer mainly for its painted life.  I would say this was true for about half of the works for me -- and those are the pieces and painters I'll show here.  I was particularly drawn to the painters who used this white towel but painted it with rich darks and luminous blues, bright oranges -- pushing color and depth in white has been preoccupying me recently.

Sydney Licht, Still Life with Common Objects

Janice Nowinski, Still life with Cloth

Bonnard to Matisse

 

A Letter from Bonnard to Matisse from the book Bonnard/Matisse: Letters Between Friends holding many of their correspondences --

....My work is going pretty well, especially in the direction of understanding.  During my morning walks I amuse myself by defining different conceptions of landscape -- landscape as space, intimate landscape, decorative landscape, etc.  But as for vision, I see things differently every day, the sky, objects, everything changes continually, you can drown in it.  But that's what brings life.  I hope that as the days grow longer I will soon be able to come to Nice and will be happy to see you....

How true.