Painting With Writing.

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There's usually a whole lot of writing going on in Jumaldi Alfi's paintings, but with just a couple simple elements he anchors the picture as a landscape and gives us some dimensionality. Born in 1973, he's already had a work sell at Sotheby's for $35,000 US. OneArtWorld has a page with 10 of his paintings that sold at various Sotheby's Auctions and is as good a place as any to get a sense of his work.

Google has plenty of images and Art Radar Asia has an interview that helps fill in a lot of blanks.

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Image from Artnet.

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Drawing As Performance

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Let me introduce you to two women who take their automatic drawing very seriously. Their art is about drawing as time based performance, but delve deeper into their oeuvres and the similarities start to dissipate and you begin to appreciate how their individual personalities shape their work.
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Top image is of Morgan O'Hara, from her Website.
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Bottom image of Gosia Wlodarczak drawing on and around herself; from her Website.
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You'll find this to be an extremely fascinating visual and mental excursion that will make you think differently about drawing in general and your own efforts in particular.
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Gosia and Morgan have both exhibited at Kentler International Drawing Space. If you're into Line and Drawing-for-drawing's-sake, you'll want to spend some time snooping around; amazing collection of artists. (Click on Archives and then an event . . . . You'll want to google some names to find out more because they don't have an Artists page.)
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Automatic Drawing

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This is a genre that's quite fascinating with different artists taking it in different directions as per their personality. When you visit the Website of Richard Halliday, besides enjoying the current black and white Constellation Series, make sure you check out his older efforts and you'll probably agree that he made the right decision; chose the right direction. Reading his Statement and the Reviews is well worth your time in understanding his oeuvre.

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The image is from Gallery Jones.

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Previous Dots

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There's a quip about "that nut didn't fall far from THAT tree" - meaning that they have characteristics much like their father.
Ross Bleckner is one of those artistic "trees"; a father of many of the styles you see today. Whether you're familiar with his work or not, you'll enjoy visiting his Website to revel in all the beautiful directions that he took his oeuvre. You'll also want to Google Image him to more fully appreciate an outstanding and prodigious career.
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Top image from his Website.
Bottom image from his page at the Parrish Art Museum.

To make my point;
After looking at Damien Hirst's Blue Paintings at the Wallace Collection, go back to Bleckner's Website and look at the some of the paintings in the bottom three rows (which predate Hirst by 20 years) . . . .
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Fresh New Painting

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It wasn't that long ago that I was with a group of artists and the topic of discussion was - what's the next big thing in art(painting)/ where is art(painting) going ? Each of us took turns expressing our opinions. Since then it's dawned on me that actually, we're right in the middle of what's next. Well, not those of us in the group; because while we were busy wondering, other artists were, in fact painting "what's next", NOW. Obviously our group is out of touch with what's current and happening - most of which is off our radar. Each of the schools, isms and periods of art that we're familiar with were steps towards more creative freedoms of expression which, after gaining critical mass, have now caused an explosion of ideas and styles: almost too many to name or catalogue anymore. Things are moving at a fast pace and some of us are just not tuned in to the proper circuits to be aware of what's happening right now.

Although I have over a hundred art destinations on my Google Reader, it's becoming the norm to be bored and listless - wishing to find new venues to see fresher painting. Well, tonight I came across several new sites and in pursuing the artists and links and then Googling them and finding even more sites, galleries and artists, I became wonderfully lost in a whole new world of contemporary painting that's very exciting. Normally when I add an art site to my Blogroll, I don't mention it, but I just had the most wonderful visual excursion, courtesy of A/ART and I'm sure you'll want to enjoy the same experience. And it was enjoyable seeing some "older" names in the mix and appreciating how fresh they still are.

Top image is from Sies + Höke, showing the work of DJ Simpson who uses a router to make his marks.

Bottom image Alan Sastre, from his Blog.

Metallic Language

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Words and text as art is nothing new, but David Buckingham puts his own mark on these works without using paint. In fact you might even think of these as 2-dimensional sculptures. Whether he's making outsize guns, Color Studies or words/phrases, it's all muscled together from found metal objects large and small. And visiting his Website makes you want to go all "Tim The Tool Man Taylor" on something.

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Image is from Lincart Gallery.

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Loopy Lines & Pattern

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There's not a lot for me to say about the work of Jonathan Lasker. Whether you're familiar with his work or not, this is a great video to appreciate his oeuvre and how he thinks.

The Vimeo comes from one of his representing Galleries, Lars Bohman.

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Loving Line

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Sarah Vaeth must really likes lines; abstract lines, all kinds of lines. Although these thread and graphite works on paper are small, she gives us ginormous images on her Website so we can easily see the detail. This image is from the Works On Paper (2003-2007) part of her site. At the time of this posting, the link to her Recent Work didn't load. But after a little searching, I think a visual clue to what she's doing now is on the Home page at her site. Seems like she's making her lines with thin wire and making 3 dimensional works where sometimes the shadow is also part of the visual.

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She explains her work with the following Statement;

Although I work in several modes and media, I seem to think in terms of motifs which relate otherwise diverse bodies of work to each other. A few favorites are webs, quilts, tents, bridges... I use these in images which are intentionally ambiguous, leaving room for psychological associations to come in. For several years an idea of construction/dissolution has been the major principle of my work. My drawing process is driven by activities like placement, building, dismantling, rebuilding. Often I'm working from a basic unit of line or mark, thinking of the lines or marks functioning like bricks out of which the image is “built.” This synonymous relationship between drawing and building approaches a literal equivalence in my thread drawings, and fully arrives at this equivalence in my wire drawings. (I do think of these 3-d constructions as drawings, only the line is physically embodied in a length of wire.) I may spend as much time taking a construction apart, as I spend making it. Works like Mutable Box begin as symmetrical and firmly supported quasi-architectural forms- then I introduce flaws in the integrity of the structure, moments of slippage. I feel finished when I've hit this balance between precise placement and capricious disarray. Even my recent series of observational pencil drawings, the tablels, followed this pattern- as I arranged, pulled apart and rearranged the casually sculptural elements of these table-top still lifes. This play between structure and the dissolution of structure is very compelling for me, suggesting analogies to human constructions subjected to time and entropy. I feel again and again that I'm expressing an acquiescence to the fragility and failing of things.

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Loopy Lines & Lotsa Color

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Most of Janet Lage's paintings just seem so darn happy. I don't know what it is; the loopy lines, the almost-Easter-colors, but somehow they boost my spirit. She certainly qualifies for a post on this Blog and I especially like four of the paintings in her Hose Me series, painted on board, because they have even more writing and writing gestures in them.

She gives us no Statement about her work, but I found this on her Art Review page -

" ...Up against it in the studio. Four weeks before my solo show, Hose Me. Very simple answer, the series is informed by every day garden hoses. That was the platform and then I play with both imagery and language when referring to being "Hosed". " - which gives a little insight into her sense of humor.

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Both images are from her Website - besides the Galleries, be sure to check out her Archive to see all the rest of her work.

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Musical Brush Strokes

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The paintings of Rosalyn Engelman are all about the brush stroke. The pointillists may have been all about small strokes or dots, but hers is about strokes of comfortable width and length that she uses to craft her minimal abstracts to music. I've included the top image because it harmonizes nicely with the previous post. But you'll want to visit her Website to see all the beautiful variables in her oeuvre. Reading her Statement conveys her happy attitude towards painting.

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She's also represented by Kaller Fine Arts.

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And you'll really enjoy taking a visual tour of her home in a nice spread in New York Social Diary, where you'll see some fascinating works by other famous artists.

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Almost Calligraphic

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When you encounter the work of Stan Gregory, your mind immediately wants to find the words. The lines he uses in his compositions have all the right angles, edges and cursive elements that define our alphabet.



But his work is not about words or calligraphy. Unfortunately he offers no insight on his Website, but there is somewhat of an explanation at his representing Gallery, Sundaram Tagore, where you can see some very different examples of his work.
With or without understanding the process, we can totally enjoy the colors and patterns as they tease us with their hidden meanings.
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Discovering Our Parameters

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Thought this video would be a good way to start the year.
This reminds us of exploration and discovery (and boredom).
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