Issue 17 by artmazemag

Spring Edition , Is su

202 0

ArtMaze Magazine is an independent artist-run and ad-free international print and online publication dedicated to showcasing and promoting experimental and progressive contemporary art, which reflects modern society and its environment, provokes conversation and action; and fosters innovation and diversity of mediums which make today’s art scene so intriguing and versatile.

SUBMIT FOR PRINT AND DIGITAL PUBLICATIONS

SUBMIT FOR ONLINE PUBLICATIONS

We invite guest curators from internationally renowned galleries as well as independent art professionals to select works for each issue. We try to give spotlight to artists and engage with our readers and followers every day through our social media, website and print and digital issues.

If you wish to submit to our online blog, you are welcome to fill in the application form on our website.

Artists are welcome to submit works in any medium: painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, photography, textile, installation, mixed media, digital etc. Artists or any art organisations on behalf of artists from all countries are welcome to submit.

WRITERS

Please visit our website for more details on how to apply for print publications: www.artmazemag.com/call-for-art/ or see p. 11 Artists are welcome to submit works to our online blog. This opportunity also provides a chance to be published in print issues.

FIND US ONLINE www.artmazemag.com facebook.com/artmazemag instagram.com/artmazemag

GENERAL ENQUIRIES: info@artmazemag.com ArtMaze Magazine is printed in London, UK, five times a year by Park Communications Ltd.

Featured image: Michele Hemsoth January acrylic on board 7 x 10.5 inches more on p. 80

For more details on blog submissions please visit our website: artmazemag.com/submit-for-blog-feature/

You are welcome to submit an article, review or interview for consideration for online or print publications. Please send us an email to info@artmazemag.com

ISSUES Please visit our website to find out where to purchase print and digital copies of ArtMaze Mag: www.artmazemag.com/shop

FRONT COVER: Agnese Guido The raw leaf and the chewing gum (detail) gouache on cotton paper 31 x 24 cm more on p. 10-11, 86 BACK COVER: Matt Haywood Vacation All I Ever Wanted oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches more on p. 124-125

Registered office address: ArtMaze Magazine Ltd. G06, Binnacle House 10 Cobblestone Square E1W 3AR, London United Kingdom

® ArtMaze Magazine is a registered trademark

SUBMIT FOR PRINT AND DIGITAL PUBLICATIONS

SUBMIT FOR ONLINE PUBLICATIONS

If you wish to submit to our online blog, you are welcome to fill in the application form on our website.

WRITERS

FIND US ONLINE www.artmazemag.com facebook.com/artmazemag instagram.com/artmazemag

GENERAL ENQUIRIES: info@artmazemag.com ArtMaze Magazine is printed in London, UK, five times a year by Park Communications Ltd.

Featured image: Michele Hemsoth January acrylic on board 7 x 10.5 inches more on p. 80

For more details on blog submissions please visit our website: artmazemag.com/submit-for-blog-feature/

You are welcome to submit an article, review or interview for consideration for online or print publications. Please send us an email to info@artmazemag.com

ISSUES Please visit our website to find out where to purchase print and digital copies of ArtMaze Mag: www.artmazemag.com/shop

Registered office address: ArtMaze Magazine Ltd. G06, Binnacle House 10 Cobblestone Square E1W 3AR, London United Kingdom

® ArtMaze Magazine is a registered trademark

146

interviewed

call for art

curated selection of works

editorial selection of works

A nth rop omorph ic fe mme fat ale : T he s u r re al wor k of A l ic i a Adame rovich . . .......................................................... ............... 14

Su mmer E d itio n 18 .................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1

M ichele Hem sot h . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Ha Jou ng Par k . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Claud i a Keep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Julia Norton ..............................................................................84 M i ke Nudelm an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 A gnese G uido . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Z hongwen Hu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 M ich ael D eLuc a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Tyler B eard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 0 M ichelle Weddle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2 Jen n i fer Wat son . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4 Elliot t Ch amb ers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 5 M ich ael Polakowski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 6 Chi naz a A gb or . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 7 Ti m I ran i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 8 Rob er t Pokor ny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 0 A ly i na Z aid i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 I sab ella Cu glievan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 A n net te Hu r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Vanessa Mitter ........................................................................106 Tal Yer u sh alm i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 I an Et ter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 10 Stephen Thor nhi ll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 1 Kate Sable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 2 Ti m Sandow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 14 Jeff Mendonca .. ........ .......... ....... .. ........ ......... ......... ......... ......... 116 M ichelle B lade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 7 Fer nanda Mello . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 8 M at t hew M ahler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 9 Prae Pu p it ya st a p or n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 0 M at t hew Cole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 2 M at t Hay wood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 24 G eorgi a G r i nter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 6 Verovch a .................................................................................127 Chr i stopher D u nla p . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 8 Adam A m ram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 0 Yi To . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 2 D i ana Rom anovich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 4 Unhee Park ..............................................................................136 I sab el Chu n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 37 Thomas Spoerndle ..................................................................138 Mark Joshua Epstein ...............................................................140 Er i k den B reejen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 2 Kr i st i n Texei ra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 4 Kar li Hen nem an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 5

A nya Rosen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 M ar y Her b er t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Lau ren Roche . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 0 Er i ko Hat tor i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 2

T he s ubt le dy nam i sm and as ym met r ical s ym met r y of A ngela He i s ch ’s ge omet r ic p ai nt i ng s ................................................ 30 Rep et it ive loop s and endle s s p os si bi lit ie s : the vir t u al c artoon dre am - wor ld of B r idget Mulle n’s p ai nt i ng s ................................................................ 46 Eth an St u ar t : Play ing w it h h i stor y and me mor y, s ymbols and met aphors ............ 62

Contents

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interviewed

call for art

curated selection of works

editorial selection of works

A nth rop omorph ic fe mme fat ale : T he s u r re al wor k of A l ic i a Adame rovich . . .......................................................... ............... 14

Su mmer E d itio n 18 .................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1

Contents

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from the editor We are very grateful to be releasing this Spring Edition 17 in the current circumstances of the global pandemic which has so quickly and unbelievably changed the way we live our lives today. We would like to extend big thanks to our printer in London, distribution services, our team and everyone involved in helping this issue see the world in such difficult times. We hope that this edition will bring you much needed inspiration and motivation to take advantage of these unpredictable times and create a positive change whether within your own life or in the lives of others. Teaming up with guest curator and artist Matthew F Fisher on this issue in selecting work from the submissions we receive was a notably fruitful and dynamic experience. We thank everyone for their interest in this opportunity and for submitting many quality works. We enjoy working closely together in curatorial collaborations with artists who are passionate about promoting and showing the works of others—something that Matthew does on a daily basis using his curated personal social platform as well as putting together exhibitions nationally and internationally and showing his own work alongside the works of many of his colleagues. We strongly believe such contributions to the art community are especially supportive and beneficial to the practices of other artists. Matthew has selected forty-five artists whose works are full of vibrant progressive ideas and techniques (p. 78-145); we hope you enjoy them. We thank Matthew for his tireless efforts in helping his peers’ works to be promoted and shared through our platform. Our Editorial Selection is small but striking in this issue, including works of extraordinary makers whose works’ narratives are intriguing, compelling and exhibit a unique approach to making (p.146-152). In this edition’s interviewed section (p. 14-77) we delve deep in conversations with four outstanding artists from the USA. Alicia Adamerovich explores anxiety, sexuality and other human afflictions through her drawn and sculpted anthropomorphic curved and spiral shapes. She explains what she aims the viewer to see and feel: “Focus less on pinpointing exactly what’s going on and more about experiencing the world I am showing you. Like when someone runs a finger down your back while your eyes are closed.” Angela Heisch does not want her paintings to represent just one thing, she strives to reflect fragility, movement and breath within the seemingly symmetrical, uninterruptible surreal shapes of her paintings, and she aims for her images to be interactive by adding tiny elements to mesmerise the viewer’s gaze. Bridget Mullen likes “suggesting a workable space that feels as if it’s still coming into being and requires your standing before it to complete it.” Her work is cartoon inspired and filled with characters of dream-like qualities along with unsettling elements of the surreal. She reveals that her painting process can bring hyper-awareness to her own self and even feelings of alienation and ‘otherness’. Ethan Stuart’s ostensibly simplistic paintings play with complicated narratives of history and memory, symbols and metaphors, implying throughout his work the idea that “being vulnerable inherently plays with the self and the universal in the way of presenting a microcosm.” Ethan uses many autobiographical as well as allegorical concepts in his work. If you are interested in submitting your work and appearing on ArtMaze’s pages, please feel free to check out our website for more information (www.artmazemag.com) and hopefully we’ll be able to work with you next time. Our current call for art lasts until the 21st May 2020 and we are thrilled to be working with Nora Cristea and Saskia Höfler-Hohengarten who are the head curators and directors of contemporary art blog KubaParis, based in Berlin, Germany. Their fresh contemporary approach to selecting work for their blog has captivated our interest for a very long time and we are ecstatic to bring their vision to our next Summer Edition. On the final note of my editorial message I would like to wish everyone well and send my very best wishes for all of us in overcoming the difficult times by supporting each other and spreading love through our families and communities. Stay safe, dear friends!

Featured image: Georgia Grinter ‘We Go Around’ oil monoprint on paper 44 x 38 cm more on p. 126

Yours truly, Editor and Founder Maria Zemtsova

Featured image: Georgia Grinter ‘We Go Around’ oil monoprint on paper 44 x 38 cm more on p. 126

Yours truly, Editor and Founder Maria Zemtsova

p.78-145 curated selection of works

p.146-152 editorial selection of works

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Summer Edition 18

call for art DEADLINE: May 21st, 2020 Guest Curators: Nora Cristea and Saskia Höfler-Hohengarten head curators and directors of contemporary art blog KubaParis based in Berlin, Germany

Submit your work for a chance to be published in print and digital issues, as well as online on our website and social media. ELIGIBILITY: The competition is open to all artists, both national and international, working in all visual mediums. Artists are welcome to submit works in any medium: painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, photography, textile, installation, mixed media, digital, film etc. DISTRIBUTION: ArtMaze Magazine is an independent international publication which is distributed both nationally and internationally via book shops, galleries and museums, art events and via the online store: artmazemag.com/shop HOW TO APPLY: please visit our website for more details and fill in the online form via the following link: artmazemag.com/call-for-art OTHER OPPORTUNITIES: Artists are welcome to submit their works to our online blog. Please visit our website for more information: www.artmazemag.com or contact us at info@artmazemag.com

Featured image: Agnese Guido those hills are playing the sax gouache on paper 9 x 12 inches more on p. 86

Summer Edition 18

call for art DEADLINE: May 21st, 2020 Guest Curators: Nora Cristea and Saskia Höfler-Hohengarten head curators and directors of contemporary art blog KubaParis based in Berlin, Germany

Featured image: Agnese Guido those hills are playing the sax gouache on paper 9 x 12 inches more on p. 86

interviewed:

Alicia Adamerovich Angela Heisch Bridget Mullen Ethan Stuart

interviewed:

Alicia Adamerovich Angela Heisch Bridget Mullen Ethan Stuart

www.adamerovich.com

Anthropomorphic femme fatale: The surreal work of Alicia Adamerovich The anthropomorphic shapes and forms that characterise Alicia Adamerovich’s work undulate between rounded and organic and sharp and brittle. Abstract shapes seem to move through space in her drawings like dancers on a stage, the stark contrast between light and dark like the dramatic shadows cast by a spotlight. The objects have distinct form and presence, lending them humanlike features, though not quite. The amorphous curves and spirals evoke the sensuality of the female body while the tentacles, spikes and points, like claws and teeth, conjure anxiety and warn of the perils of desire. The titles of her artworks are similarly sensual and nocturnal: Longing to be touched, Nightcap, Infatuation… Like abstracted femme fatales, Alicia’s anthropomorphic visual language is one shaped by the feminine. Alicia’s primary medium is drawing. Her scratchy, intense cross-hatching focuses attention on the mark-making gesture and the tonality of the graphite lead. This gives the drawings a textural quality and dimensionality that enlivens the so-called negative spaces. Alicia is interested in the politics of space and how an object influences and alters the space it occupies. Recently, she has begun making surprisingly shaped wooden frames for her drawings which extend the amorphous and tentacled forms from her drawings into three-dimensions. These sculptural pieces resemble live objects, creatures, that scuttle on the gallery wall. In her exhibition Vibrant Matter, Alicia included similarly shaped furniture that conspicuously engages the surrounding space. Conventionally, furniture represents the home, domesticity, the female domain. Yet the macabre design and dimensions of the piece undermine this notion of safe domestic space, instead making it strange, alluring and vaguely threatening; like the female spider that lures her mate into her web before consuming him. Alicia moved to Brooklyn, New York a few years back, and it was here that she began to focus on art full-time. Before this she worked as an illustrator in the advertising industry, receiving her Bachelor of Design from Pennsylvania State University in 2013. Alicia has participated in several group exhibitions and had her first two-artist and solo shows in 2019. Here, Alicia chats with us about moving to the big city, her fascination with weird furniture and making pieces compete in the studio.

interview by Layla Leiman

Featured image: Alicia Adamerovich Mountain Laurel Chair plywood, Mountain Laurel branches, acrylic ~38 x 24 x 24 inches made in collaboration with my dad, Michael Adamerovich

www.adamerovich.com

interview by Layla Leiman

Featured image: Alicia Adamerovich Mountain Laurel Chair plywood, Mountain Laurel branches, acrylic ~38 x 24 x 24 inches made in collaboration with my dad, Michael Adamerovich

AMM: Hi Alicia! To begin, can you share an experience you’ve had or piece of advice you’ve received that has profoundly influenced you and your art? AA: I think moving to NY is really what pushed me to create the work I’m making today. I’m definitely not trying to say anyone needs to be in NY, but for me it’s been very inspiring. I love being able to visit galleries and museums every week. Meeting different types of people and learning about how they think is very influential to my work. Everyone should live somewhere that inspires them if at all possible. AMM: How did you find your way to drawing and what keeps you hooked to this medium? AA: I’ve pretty much been drawing my whole life. I think my dad taught me how to draw when I was about 4 years old and I’ve always liked drawing because it is so controlled. It’s the foundation for most other mediums and is one of the first ways most people learn to express their ideas visually. I am always able to figure out how to express a certain feeling through drawing first, before bringing it into other mediums (painting, sculpture). Nowadays, I can skip a lot of the drawing stage when working in other mediums. I can just imagine the drawing in my head and move onto figuring out how to use color, form, etc. AMM: The scratchy, cross-hatch marks in your drawings have an anxiousness emotiveness that seems to correspond to the subject matter in your work. Can you please tell us more about gesture and materiality in your art? AA: Yes, I would say it is somewhat intentional and somewhat intuitive. My work aims to display the subconscious as it relates to anxiety, sexuality and other human afflictions. I want to give people visceral reactions upon first seeing it. Focus less on pinpointing exactly what’s going on and more about experiencing the world I am showing you. Like when someone runs a finger down your back while your eyes are closed. AMM: Last year you had your first solo exhibition, held at FISK Gallery in Portland. What themes and ideas were you exploring in Vibrant Matter? Please also tell us about the title you chose for this exhibition of graphite drawings and sculptural works. AA: Working up to my show with FISK I went through a large period of growth. I was creating work for my solo as well as work for a two-person show I had in Montreal at Projet Pangée that opened two weeks later. I wanted the shows to be different from each other. At FISK I decided to use nature as a metaphor, applying the human psyche to plants, insects and landscapes. The show title was from a political theory book I was reading earlier that year—’Vibrant Matter:

A Political Ecology of Things’ by Jane Bennett. AMM: Do you anticipate taking elements from this show forward into future work or was the exhibition the culmination of a particular series of ideas? AA: I think all my work builds upon my previous work. Like with most artists, it’s always evolving—some people work through small and subtle changes and others large. I’m learning that I work well by pushing through ideas with aggressive leaps and experimentation. (Partially why I like to jump between mediums) The work I am making now still relates to the work from Portland and my more recent shows with Projet Pangée, but it’s moving farther into abstraction.

“My work aims to display the subconscious as it relates to anxiety, sexuality and other human afflictions. I want to give people visceral reactions upon first seeing it. Focus less on pinpointing exactly what’s going on and more about experiencing the world I am showing you. Like when someone runs a finger down your back while your eyes are closed.” - Alicia Adamerovich

AMM: In a statement about your work you say that you’re “concerned with the darkness of ‘things’ and anthropomorphism from a female perspective.” Can you tell us more about this? AMM: I guess I’m trying to say that objects are informative and we can say a lot about

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17, Interviewed: Alicia Adamerovich

humanity with a single shape. When I say female perspective, this is undeniably my point of view and I identify with being female. But I’m also trying to show femininity not tied to a body or gender. More-so the feeling of the feminine. A sensation that is within everyone as much as the feelings of masculinity are. To me, the feminine always has a sense of darkness that comes from enduring pain, fear and criticism. AMM: Please tell us about your interest in furniture. How does this relate to ideas and metaphors in your art. AA: I’ve always been interested in forms and objects. When I was a kid I used to love going to Goodwill or the Salvation Army with my mom and just looking at all sorts of stuff. Eventually this just became my way of studying shapes and forms. I think at an early age I was attracted to how an object can transform a space and therefore, your experience. Now I collect a lot of old art and furniture books. Mostly looking at late 19th and early 20th century works, i.e. surrealism, futurism, art nouveau, cubism, dada etc. AMM: You’ve been interested in the physicality of objects in your art for some time. What scope and complexities do sculpture and three-dimensional media add to this equation? AA: I think it was a pretty natural progression. I have a lot of sculptural projects I want to start, it’s just a matter of gaining the skills. I really just enjoy the physicality of creating something that can transform any space it’s added to. I like how furniture interacts with the room. It casts shadows, hides things, gives clues to what the space around it is about. A painting feels like looking in through a window, whereas sculpture is like having passed through the window into the world. AMM: With the custom wooden frames and furniture pieces that you’ve made recently you seem to be introducing a craft element into your practice. Can you tell us more about this? AA: True, I do spend a lot of time just figuring these pieces out. Building is a lot more problem-solving and feels a lot more like design work. It’s very satisfying when something works the way you imagined, but very frustrating when it does not. The sketching and finishing phases are much more like the rest of my work though. I draw very fluidly onto the wood and work out the shape the same way I do when I start a drawing or painting. The sanding is much like shading; slow, controlled and refining. AMM: You started out your career as a designer at an ad agency. What motivated you to make the change to become a full-time artist? Do you use any of your previous skills and experience in your current career work?

Portrait by Jessica Ross

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17, Interviewed: Alicia Adamerovich

Portrait by Jessica Ross

AA: I never grew up around any artists and it never seemed like something someone from a small town in western PA would be able to achieve. Even after going to art school for a little while I felt like I had so much catching up to do. Everyone there seemed to come from private art high schools and I felt a little discouraged. Like a lot of people my age, I grew up thinking I had to get a practical job after school so I ended up transferring to Penn State and majoring in graphic design which led me to working at an ad agency. I don’t think I ever really liked it but I did get to move to Los Angeles and San Francisco for a while and then eventually New York. It just took me a while to learn about life and people to realize what I needed to be doing. I don’t regret the time I spent working and I do think I learned a lot of skills I use today—i.e. using Photoshop, making my website, being able to support myself with freelance design work while making the transition and overall time management. AMM: What’s the Brooklyn art scene like right now? What do you find exciting and what do you wish you could change? AA: The best part is the amount of artists here. There are so many. Sometimes it feels very commercial but that’s just because it’s such an art market city. I have a small handful of artists I’m close with but I haven’t shown in New York very much yet so I have to make efforts to meet and visit artists whose work I really connect with. AMM: You’ve curated a couple of group shows. How did these come about, and what impact has this experience had on your own practice? AA: The shows I have curated normally came out of my desire to share the work of some artists I think are great, but haven’t had the opportunity to show very much. There are parts I enjoyed and some I really did not. It’s a great exercise in writing and definitely got me thinking about my own work in the context of others. AMM: What is your process of working? How do you start a work, and how do you know when it’s complete? AA: I prefer working on 3-5 things at once. This isn’t always efficient, but it’s how I’ve made some of my favorite pieces. There’s something nice about seeing a bunch of works developing around me, each teaching me something about the others. Sometimes one piece will be the hero and I’ll have to make the others catch up to it. But then one of the other pieces becomes the hero and that one I thought was great is now the weakest in the room. I do this until I’m satisfied with all of them.

AMM: Please tell us about the way you use colour in your work. In the past you’ve worked on coloured paper, you’ve done brightly coloured paintings, and currently you’re working in monotone graphite with heightened light and shadow. AA: I’ve actually always done monotone graphite drawings. It’s probably been the most consistent part of my practice. When I used to make zines I would print them on colored paper but since I don’t usually make prints anymore I’ve stuck to a more natural palette. Even my paintings are starting to use neutrals more than highly saturated tones. I keep finding myself wanting my work to have more serious and possibly banal undertones. My work will always be inherently humorous, so I want there to be more contrasting feelings at play. AMM: Give us a little taste of your studio— what does your space look and feel like? What’s important in a space to you? AA: My current studio is a +-200 sq ft windowless space in a small building of about 6 studios. It’s technically underground… so I guess I’m not too picky. The most important thing to me is to have as much space as possible for the least amount of money. Most studios in NY are pretty overpriced and tiny. Since I’m mostly working from memory and imagination I don’t technically need to have natural light (but it would be really nice to have someday). When I work on furniture and larger sculptural projects I will make a trip to my parents’ house in western Pennsylvania. They have an 800 sq ft garage and 25 acres of forest that I try to take advantage of.

“There’s something nice about seeing a bunch of works developing around me, each teaching me something about the others. Sometimes one piece will be the hero and I’ll have to make the others catch up to it. But then one of the other pieces becomes the hero and that one I thought was great is now the weakest in the room. I do this until I’m satisfied with all of them.” - Alicia Adamerovich

AMM: What are you watching, reading and listening to right now? Does this influence your art at all? AA: I listen to a lot of podcasts while I work, my favorite being Seek Treatment with Cat & Pat. They are truly the best. Otherwise I like to make disco and R&B playlists. I don’t know if anything really shows up in my work, but I always need something playing in the background to get in the zone. I’m mostly trying to distract my mind just enough to let me paint. AMM: What’s next for you? Please tell us about any exciting projects or exhibitions you have coming up. AA: Good question. In May I’m supposed to be at the Palazzo Monti residency in Italy, but a lot of things are up in the air right now due to the current circumstances with COVID-19. It’s a hard time for both galleries and artists so I’m trying to just take this time to focus on my work and stay healthy.

Featured image (p.18): Alicia Adamerovich Longing to be touched oil on canvas mounted on panel 16 x 20 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17, Interviewed: Alicia Adamerovich

Featured image (p.18): Alicia Adamerovich Longing to be touched oil on canvas mounted on panel 16 x 20 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17, Interviewed: Alicia Adamerovich

Alicia Adamerovich Butterfly graphite on paper with custom plywood frame 26 × 23 inches

Alicia Adamerovich Pinch graphite on paper with birch plywood frame 17 × 11 × 1 inches

Alicia Adamerovich Butterfly graphite on paper with custom plywood frame 26 × 23 inches

Alicia Adamerovich Pinch graphite on paper with birch plywood frame 17 × 11 × 1 inches

Alicia Adamerovich Horn graphite on paper 15.5 x 18 inches in frame

Alicia Adamerovich Chair graphite on paper, birch plywood frame 21 × 16 × 1 1/2 inches

Alicia Adamerovich Horn graphite on paper 15.5 x 18 inches in frame

Alicia Adamerovich Chair graphite on paper, birch plywood frame 21 × 16 × 1 1/2 inches

Alicia Adamerovich Clarissa plywood table with found objects 1.5 x 3 x 2 ft

Alicia Adamerovich A gift for my nieces plywood bench 2 ft x 3 ft x 2 ft

Alicia Adamerovich Clarissa plywood table with found objects 1.5 x 3 x 2 ft

Alicia Adamerovich A gift for my nieces plywood bench 2 ft x 3 ft x 2 ft

Alicia Adamerovich Moon lighting graphite on paper with custom birch plywood frame 12 x 10 x 1.5 inches

Alicia Adamerovich Proud Mary graphite on paper with custom pine plywood frame 28 × 24 inches

Alicia Adamerovich Moon lighting graphite on paper with custom birch plywood frame 12 x 10 x 1.5 inches

Alicia Adamerovich Proud Mary graphite on paper with custom pine plywood frame 28 × 24 inches

Alicia Adamerovich Feelin good after feelin bad oil on canvas mounted on panel 18 x 24 inches

Alicia Adamerovich Night cap graphite on paper with custom pine plywood frame 26 × 23 inches

Alicia Adamerovich Feelin good after feelin bad oil on canvas mounted on panel 18 x 24 inches

Alicia Adamerovich Night cap graphite on paper with custom pine plywood frame 26 × 23 inches

www.angelaheisch.com

The subtle dynamism and asymmetrical symmetry of Angela Heisch’s geometric paintings New York-based artist Angela Heisch began her journey into painting working under the influence of surrealist artists such as René Magritte, Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo. Although her works today exist principally within the realm of abstraction, with their geometric shapes, stark colour relations and sharply delineated forms, her paintings retain a quality of the surreal in their subtle evocation of the otherworldly and in the Carrington-esque glow that clings to her forms. Angela says, “My paintings always have a gaze”. In that light, what her paintings present is not a fixed arrangement of shapes, but a dynamic interplay of breathing, sentient bodies that are fluid and shifting. It is this protean capacity of Angela’s forms that is of utmost importance within her work. Her paintings are, in her words, “open to many possibilities”. They are flatness with the possibility of depth, stillness with the possibility of movement, abstraction with the possibility of figuration, solidity with the possibility of softness. At first glance, Angela’s paintings appear to subscribe to a geometric perfection of formal composition, mathematically mapped-out proportions and symmetry. Indeed, the grid system as a compositional device remains, Angela tells us, an “essential symbol” in her work, around which the painting’s other elements are ordered. What becomes apparent on closer inspection of Angela’s images, however, is that the structural organization and geometric arrangement of her forms serve not to deliver a vision of perfection, but to provide a framework in which to subtly diverge from that vision. The uniformity of the paintings is offset by slight variations between forms and their positioning, and by the fine touches of detail that Angela adds in the final stages of her painting. Tiny, singular dots of colour bring an additional nuance to the painted space by appearing in corners, at edges and beside larger forms. Delicate, threadlike lines similarly serve to disrupt the stillness of the compositions, acting almost like ripples in water, vibrations in the atmosphere, threads, tendrils or hairs caught in a breeze. Far from undermining the harmony of Angela’s painted forms, these wrinkles in the works’ compositional perfection allow for a fluidity of movement within which the elements of the painting attain a greater resonance and interactivity with one another. Angela’s forms vibrate in the space between that which is constructed and that which unfurls organically. Indeed, she gathers much of her inspiration by observing the patterns by which nature and living organisms are assembled, particularly plant life. There are certainly distinct parallels between the perfect imperfection one finds in nature and the asymmetrical symmetry of Angela’s paintings. In her work The Iris Slide, painted last year, the convergence of forms upon a glowing focal point delivers a sense of something blooming, emerging, while simultaneously retaining the ambiguity of abstraction. Living and working in the midst of New York’s vibrant artistic scene, Angela has had her work displayed in galleries across the city, as well as in other states and in international shows. She has participated in residencies in New York, New Jersey and Virginia, and is currently working towards solo projects in New York and Montreal.

interview by Rebecca Irvin Featured image: Angela Heisch Bend At The Light oil on canvas over panel 18 x 24 inches

www.angelaheisch.com

interview by Rebecca Irvin Featured image: Angela Heisch Bend At The Light oil on canvas over panel 18 x 24 inches

AMM: Hi Angela, who would you say have been your principal artistic mentors—either in your life or in the ranks of art history—as you’ve developed as a painter? AH: My earliest painting influence was probably René Magritte. When I was first starting out in college, I chose “The Lovers” by Magritte as my master copy. This painting in particular really struck me, it was the first time I felt there were more questions than answers. I really liked that feeling, and it remains an important intention in my work. As I’ve shifted into abstraction, my earliest and most consistent influences have been Paul Klee and Joan Miró. Both Klee and Miró have such a seemingly vast and playful language, which was something very instrumental for me as I found my footing in abstraction. Along with Magritte, Klee, and Miró, I spend a lot of time looking at Lee Bontecou, Giorgio de Chirico, Leonora Carrington, Horst Antes, Remedios Varo, Hilma af Klint, Roger Brown, Georgia O’Keeffe, Domenico Gnoli, and Naum Gabo. AMM: How do you go about translating concepts, ideas and images into your unique visual language of shapes and colour-relations? AH: It begins with some form of observation. Mainly I’m paying attention to specific shapes and patterns occurring in architecture, artwork, and nature. I don’t typically seek to replicate a shape or form I’ve observed in its entirety, but rather convey a sense or emotion. Most of the time my paintings are a hodge-podge of many different observations and, as I move throughout a body of work, there are multiple iterations of that language in multiple paintings. AMM: At first glance, many of your paintings seem to be totally symmetrical, yet on closer examination it becomes clear that the compositions are not rigidly uniform but subtly off-balance. We notice a few, for example, in which you add a tiny, almost imperceptible dot of colour to a side or corner of the composition. Can you talk about how you use compositional and chromatic techniques to offset the expectations of the viewer and disrupt the gaze in this way? AH: I’ve always been very drawn to symmetry, as I think most of us are. A perfectly symmetrical object appears uninterruptible and unmoving. But things are never that simple, and I don’t want my paintings to represent just one thing. The tiny dots you referenced are always the last element added to a painting. These dots along with the wispy lines you see dangling about are parts of the painting that give them a sense of fragility, as well as movement and breath. These subtle additions invite the viewer to come closer, and allow the image to be more interactive. AMM: It strikes us that this kind of perfect imperfection seen in your paintings is similar to the asymmetrical symmetry often encountered in nature—indeed, some of your patterns are evocative of leaves and flora, or of nature on a micro scale in your amoeba-like, cellular shapes, or even of the universe’s macro elements in some of your planetphoto courtesy of the artist

like orbs and celestial bodies. Do you draw on the patterns and structures of organic, natural materials and objects in your work? AH: Definitely. Plant life and the nature of growth is a big inspiration in my work. It’s funny you mention micro-organisms because I usually think of the figures in my work as large scale, regardless of the actual size of the painting. But to that point, I often think about the physiological tendencies of living organisms, and how they order themselves, coming together to form a greater whole. In my most recent work, this coming together or unraveling is from a central point, with a figure often made of many fractals or planes bound together. This often feels cellular, like many small parts coming together to form a whole. AMM: In opposition to this, there is definitely a meticulously measured regularity imposed on your paintings, not unlike the methodology of architectural studies. Have you been influenced by architectural techniques of spatial organization? AH: In many ways yes, though I think today the rigidity of architectural organization is not as prominent. I’m interested in methods of organization and, specifically, the grid has always been an essential symbol in my work. More specifically, it’s been about the mechanics of the grid as a way to impose order or, more importantly, demonstrate a shift or breaking of order. Similar to architectural studies, there is always at least one line of support, where other elements in the painting are positioned or grow from. This line or point sets the tone for how the space in my paintings is organised, as well as determining how the painting is balanced. AMM: There is a very playful and dynamic element to many of your paintings—an impression of fluid movement, almost. Do you tend to think of your images as singular happenings within a flow of movement or more as inanimate objects? AH: I think of these figures as caught in the midst of movement. This can vary from movement as a result of a slightly breezy atmosphere, or a chaotic unraveling caused by the push or pull of a force. To me they are living, breathing entities, although sometimes appearing constructed instead of organically grown. AMM: Your paintings are simultaneously intricate and restrained—bold forms and a minimalistic or monochromatic palette undercut by careful shading and painstaking touches of detail. How do you maintain this balance? And how do you decide when a painting is finished, or when you’ve done enough? AH: Restraint is a huge thing in my process. It’s easy for me to become absent minded while painting, so I constantly have to check in with the composition as I work through figuring out color. I often reevaluate what is necessary. This is the majority of my painting process, and is sometimes fruitless but other times lots of fun. The details I add to a painting at the very end might not be visible from a photo or even at a distance, but for me they really make or break a painting. They are pretty painstaking

“I’ve always been very drawn to symmetry, as I think most of us are. A perfectly symmetrical object appears uninterruptible and unmoving. But things are never that simple, and I don’t want my paintings to represent just one thing. The tiny dots you referenced are always the last element added to a painting. These dots along with the wispy lines you see dangling about are parts of the painting that give them a sense of fragility, as well as movement and breath. These subtle additions invite the viewer to come closer, and allow the image to be more interactive. ” - Angela Heisch

but they’re also playful, and bring the painting to life. A painting is usually finished when I’ve figured out the color. Color is kind of everything after composition is sorted out. I’ve recently realised how important it is for my paintings to not offer up everything upon first glance. Once I’ve achieved all that, then the painting is usually finished. AMM: Despite the tendency of your work towards abstraction, your forms, subtle shading and use of light to create glows and auras around shapes puts us in mind of the painterly techniques exercised by surrealist painters, for example Leonora Carrington. Is there a correlation there? AH: Leonora Carrington is certainly one of my favorite artists. I think about her paintings often, along with Magritte and other surrealist work. Leonora Carrington’s imagery contains all these odd characters, like cloaked figures with heads that resemble moths, but also fish, but also kites. I love all those connotations. There’s often an absent but direct gaze coming from these figures. Although my work is very different formally from hers, I often think of the glowing circular shapes in my paintings as eyes. My paintings always have a gaze, and a direct one at that, but it’s usually pretty

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17, Interviewed: Angela Heisch

hollow. Similar to the figures in many surrealist paintings, I don’t want the figures in my work to be categorised as one thing. They’re open to many possibilities. AMM: Your paintings are often suggestive of multiple layers and levels of depth, as though several slides or lenses have been placed on top of one another to produce intersecting and overlapping shapes. Can you tell us about how your work plays with depth-perception? AH: Sure—I think my paintings are at their best when the space doesn’t make complete sense. Since there is a formal clarity to the work, I like to disrupt the sense of space, like the ground in a painting is fighting with itself a bit, creating that push and pull tension. Space is pretty gradual in my work because I want the figure or central focus to feel a part of its environment, almost like it’s emerging or being submerged with forceful action. AMM: Where do size and scale come into your work? Do you have a preference when it comes to working big or working small? How does scale alter your process? AH: I go back and forth, and each format has its challenges. It depends on what I have coming up and what the space allows for. As I mentioned, I think of the figures in my work as large scale, or zoomed in, even when they are physically presented in a smaller format. I like that small scale work forces the viewer to get up close and look at the surface and detail in the work, which is something I feel is lost occasionally as the work is scaled up. Lately, larger paintings are a bit more difficult for me, but that has come after struggling with small scale works for many years, and feeling like I needed to become more acquainted with that scale. I do really enjoy the physical movement a large painting requires, and in a lot of ways seeing my work on a larger scale feels more appropriate to the imagery. AMM: How do texture, colour and form intersect in your work? Do you intend these elements to work together or in contrast to one another—in harmony or in dissonance? AH: Overall I think these elements work together to create more harmony than dissonance. In terms of the color shifts throughout my work, I try to push a very clear and often bright color into a kind of nothing color, before resurfacing as something heavier but still luminous. This creates a sort of bend or pull in the midst of two color shifts, which I suppose can read as dissonance, however the shift is very gradual and usually corresponds with some formal element in the work. So I’m not sure I can confidently say it’s one or the other. AMM: How do you plan for a painting? Do you make sketches, plan your palette, build up layers slowly? AH: I typically start with a rough sketch, which gets worked out in thumbnails in my sketchbook. Sometimes I make more finished pencil drawings based on one of these

thumbnails, but most of the time I go directly into translating that sketch onto a painting. The painting often ends up looking quite different from the sketch, but that part of the process is exciting for me. I have a hard time making the exact same image twice, and translating an image from sketch to painting has become a constant process of re-evaluating and shifting throughout the painting process. Color is pretty intuitive and not planned out, although I stick to a fairly limited color palette. This is often some version of a complementary pair along with a few variable colors. I build up layers relatively thin, and slowly. I like some irregularity in the surface, but ultimately finishing quite smooth and flat. AMM: When it comes to shaping forms in your paintings, do you use stencils, grid lines or rulers to create regularity or do you allow more freedom for accidents in the process? AH: I don’t use stencils or grid lines, but occasionally I use a ruler and compass. The ruler is more to find the center of the painting, as well as some guiding points to achieve some sort of symmetry and balance. I use a compass to draw both the circles and occasionally curved lines in my work. More than anything, I’m hand drawing most of the preliminary lines but still not really allowing for accidents in this beginning stage. AMM: What are the most important things you need with you in your studio when you’re painting? AH: All the basics, but most importantly headphones so I can listen to podcasts. AMM: Is it important for your paintings to be encountered in the flesh? How does this alter the viewing experience as opposed to, say, seeing it on a screen, or in print? AH: Yes, definitely. The surface of my work is important to me and something I pay close attention to. My paintings have a very handmade quality that doesn’t really resonate in photos, and is something you can see better in person. Those wispy lines and balancing dots mentioned above are also something hard to pick up on unless you either stare at a photo of the work for a while or you’re spending time with it in person. I also really like there to be a shift in the viewer’s perception of my work based on where they’re standing. At a distance, my paintings look more rigid and graphic, but as you come closer they soften. I don’t want my work to be impenetrable, and they’re way less likely to come across that way in person.

piece in a lot of ways. I kind of think of it as my spokesperson, and want it to properly represent my work. I like for a painting in a group show to be a bit more of a statement. Whereas in a solo setting, I don’t want every painting to have the same weight, but they should complement one another, and allow for their differences. AMM: What is it like being part of the NYC art scene? Is there much scope for collaboration within your practice or do you prefer to work alone? AH: I think the art scene in New York feels very much like a community. There are so many little pockets, and it’s pretty easy to find peers that you feel your work is in conversation with. Living here has taught me how many different roads there are to some form of success as an artist, and I feel like artists gladly offer support and advice to one another. My work over the past few years hasn’t really allowed for collaboration within the actual work. I certainly love working alone, as most painters probably do, but that doesn’t mean I’m not open to some form of collaboration in the future. AMM: Are there any other artists working around you currently whose work you particularly resonate with? AH: Plenty! Off the top of my head though, the recent Alma Allen show at Kasmin kind of blew my mind. Her forms seem so deliberate and intentional but fresh and organic at once. I also really loved Donald Moffet’s recent show at Marianne Boesky for some of the same reasons. AMM: How do you envision your artistic practice developing in the future? Any exciting plans you can share with us for when the world is a little calmer? AH: That’s hard to say, but right now I’m focusing on slowing down and refining the work where it is now. As far as shows go, everything’s up in the air at the moment due to the Corona virus, but I’m working towards a solo show with Project Pangée in Montreal this June, and another solo with Davidson Gallery in New York this September.

AMM: Do you find group and solo shows to be impactful on the ways in which you work? AH: Of course—putting together a solo show is much more about presenting a cohesive body of work. I don’t know what the work is going to look like together before it’s finished, but it is important that there is good tension and balance among the paintings together. When making a painting specifically for a group show, there is a bit more pressure on that one

Image (p.34): Angela Heisch The Drain oil on canvas over panel 16 x 20 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17, Interviewed: Angela Heisch

Image (p.34): Angela Heisch The Drain oil on canvas over panel 16 x 20 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17, Interviewed: Angela Heisch

Angela Heisch Hot Lock oil on canvas over panel 18 x 18 inches

Angela Heisch The Iris Slide oil on canvas over panel 18 x 24 inches

Angela Heisch Hot Lock oil on canvas over panel 18 x 18 inches

Angela Heisch The Iris Slide oil on canvas over panel 18 x 24 inches

Angela Heisch Foghorn oil on canvas over panel 36 x 48 inches

Angela Heisch Search Ball oil on canvas over panel 24 x 36 inches

Angela Heisch Foghorn oil on canvas over panel 36 x 48 inches

Angela Heisch Search Ball oil on canvas over panel 24 x 36 inches

Angela Heisch Getting Dressed oil on canvas over panel 30 x 36 inches

Angela Heisch Golden Wave oil on canvas over panel 10 x 10 inches

Angela Heisch Getting Dressed oil on canvas over panel 30 x 36 inches

Angela Heisch Golden Wave oil on canvas over panel 10 x 10 inches

Angela Heisch Egg White Blue oil on canvas over panel 24 x 36 inches

Angela Heisch Locked Waves oil on canvas over panel 36 x 48 inches

Angela Heisch Egg White Blue oil on canvas over panel 24 x 36 inches

Angela Heisch Locked Waves oil on canvas over panel 36 x 48 inches

Angela Heisch Lolly oil on canvas over panel 9 x 12 inches

Angela Heisch The Surelys oil on canvas over panel 9 x 12 inches

Angela Heisch Lolly oil on canvas over panel 9 x 12 inches

Angela Heisch The Surelys oil on canvas over panel 9 x 12 inches

www.bridgetmullen.com

Repetitive loops and endless possibilities: the virtual cartoon dreamworld of Bridget Mullen’s paintings For New York-based artist Bridget Mullen, the most important aspect of making art is the making itself. Painting, as Bridget sees it, takes place as a mixture of intuition, inventiveness and random occurrence. Her paintings are built up, layered and worked at over long periods of time, employing a vast array of mediums and techniques. She does not want her works to exist as singular, self-contained objects that refer only to themselves, but as spaces which contain that entire temporality of their making. As such, her paintings are not ends in themselves, but rather a means towards inhabiting the process by which they were brought into being, as well as the consciousness of the maker. The viewer is invited not only to experience that process of artistic creation via the painted surface, but to conceptually take part in the making process; for Bridget, the encounter between viewer and painting is what ultimately allows for the work’s coming-intobeing. As she puts it, the painting “requires your standing before it to complete it.” To inhabit the world of Bridget’s paintings is to step into a dreamlike, cartoonish reality brushed by unsettling elements of the surreal. It is a world in which half-formed shapes and figures whirl in a constant state of emerging or dissolving, where the characters you meet spawn uncanny replicas of themselves, where colours roll endlessly into what looks like the distance, but which becomes flat and solid when you stretch out your hand towards it. The figures in Bridget’s paintings are imbued with her own cartooninduced anxiety when confronted with an imagined, dreamed or virtual reality in which there are no apparent boundaries around what might happen. In some paintings, the same figure is repeated over and over with slight variations that imply movement, gesture, a series of moments or metaphysical potentialities all existing concurrently. Her characters are attached to no specific moment, transcending the time and space of the painting by virtue of the multiplicity of their presence. Although Bridget experiments with sculptural modes and mediums, such as ceramics, she has found the actual process of shaping clay and three-dimensional forms to be far more significant within her work than the completed sculptural object. Working in three dimensions has, in this way, functioned as a vehicle for reconceptualising space in her paintings as an interplay of object and air, solid matter and open space. Certainly, there is an implied density to Bridget’s figures in her shadows and highlights, the suggestion of convexity in her subtle shading. Yet this is consistently undercut by bold blocks and stripes of uniform colour, stark outlines and more cartoonish, cut-out shapes, suggesting a kind of flimsy unreality to the figures being projected before us. What prevails in Bridget’s paintings is a sense of flatness, the overlapping layers converging to create what Bridget refers to as a “build-your-own-reality situation” in which depth is both a shallow illusion and a vast, unrolling endlessness, where figures are both solid volumes and paperthin, two-dimensional shapes. Bridget has participated in multiple artistic residencies across the United States, as well as countless group shows. Having displayed her work in national and international solo exhibitions as far as Amsterdam, she is now working towards a solo show that will open in Madrid next year.

interview by Rebecca Irvin

Featured image: Bridget Mullen Angle Grinder flashe, spray paint, and monoprint on linen 20 x 16 inches

www.bridgetmullen.com

interview by Rebecca Irvin

Featured image: Bridget Mullen Angle Grinder flashe, spray paint, and monoprint on linen 20 x 16 inches

AMM: Hi Bridget, was there a particular, formative moment that led you to pursue art, specifically painting and sculpture?

matter. It’s also made me question what in my paintings is air, what’s object, and to explore the threshold between the two.

BM: I’ve always had very vivid dreams. As a kid I remember being fascinated that I could whole-heartedly believe the impossible situations experienced in a dream then wake up to another reality that I also wholeheartedly believed was real. Dreaming made me wonder where my thoughts came from and what I could do with them. The thing that felt closest to the power and fantasy I experienced in dreams was the mental space I occupied when I was making art. I hope that some part of me can be communicated through art, but occupying the state of being that comes with making art is what I find most meaningful.

AMM: Within those mediums, are there specific materials you prefer to work with? When it comes to the texture and graininess of your clay, for example, or the thickness and drying-speed of your paint, or even the ground on which you work.

AMM: Can you tell us about the different mediums you work with and your processes when it comes to manipulating three-dimensions and twodimensions? How does the choice of medium alter the ways in which you visualise your concepts and work with space? BM: I use Flashe (an ultra matte, water-based, vinyl paint), spray paint, and printmaking techniques on linen and canvas. I build a painting slowly in layers, using different techniques and mediums, usually over the course of a whole year. Using a variety of mediums and layers in one painting pushes my inventiveness during process and in seeing the painting once finished. The repetitive elements make the painting unfold quickly, but the variety of mediums and layers slows the viewing. Painting is my preferred medium, but I also (infrequently) make sculpture using found objects, clay, glaze, and paint. Any concepts that emerge from my painting and 3D work are discovered in the process of their making, not consciously pre-planned. I started working with ceramics because I had a year-long residency in New Mexico that had an exceptional clay facility. I wasn’t comfortable having the kiln be the thing that finished a sculpture, and using one material in a work felt too much about the material itself, so I ended up combining found objects with ceramics. AMM: Where do your sculptures and your paintings overlap and intersect? Does one ever directly influence or enter into the other? BM: I don’t have a huge habit of making ceramics, though I’d love to. It’d be great to work with clay in my painting studio, but it just can’t accommodate a kiln. I think I enjoy the process of making sculpture more than I enjoy the finished work. It ends up feeling too obvious. Or maybe it’s that moulding clay is so great that any end product would pale in comparison to that experience. Making 3D work has probably heightened my awareness of the space of my paintings. It’s encouraged gravity as active subject

BM: I use Flashe because it’s very matte and seems to absorb light. You can look at my paintings from any angle without getting light glare, which I like to think makes the paintings more conceptually absorbent. Also, Flashe is self-levelling and dries quickly so I can work as fast as my choices demand. It looks thin when dry, like a veneer, projection, or screen, which is in line with the plasticity of my imagery—imagery that feels like a mirage, frozen in a moment, about to morph into something else. I prefer to work on linen because of the color, though I also appreciate the texture. I use clear gesso so the linen can set the tone for the colors that follow.

“I don’t want to present the viewer with something already fleshed out. I want to suggest a workable space that feels as if it’s still coming into being and requires your standing before it to complete it.” - Bridget Mullen

When I was at a residency in the Netherlands I was able to get locally harvested black clay. It looked like metal when fired; the deception of the material was what compelled me to work with it. At another residency on Fishers Island I dug up clay from a pond bed, tapping into a deposit that years ago was the source for a brick factory. In this instance, playing a part in the physical transformation of a material (pliable sludge to brick) informed what was made from it—a wall sculpture composed of links and hooks, built on-the-spot, in the place of exhibition. AMM: Congratulations on your solo show at Helena Anrather last year! When planning for an exhibition, do you seek to create an overall narrative, with the pieces working in correlation towards a central theme, or do you prefer to see the pieces as standalone works? And how do you approach a solo exhibition differently from a group show?

BM: Thanks! I begin each painting randomly, without pre-sketching or consciously deciding a concept, so that my consciousness is the unifier. Any group of paintings made in a time span of three to four years could be a body of work. I like a spectrum of ideas; I don’t want to tie things up too tightly with an overt thread. Over the course of a few years, I circle certain ideas, and beliefs are formed by things I’m reading, conversations, and culture. Also, by not choosing a personal narrative I can allow for the possibility of communal or larger narratives. I prefer to think of my paintings as possessing the possibility of oscillating between polarities—in content and concept. Paintings can become more narrative or abstract, playful or menacing, melodic or dissonant when in proximity to other paintings—my own or others. I appreciate the opportunities for solo shows for a number of reasons, but lately group shows or two person shows have tended to be more illuminating. I can almost get an objective point of view if I see my work next to someone else’s. It can also be revealing just to see someone standing in front of a painting and looking; empathy is a way towards objectivity. Like any artist, I’m curious to see how you see. AMM: Your paintings seem to play a lot with the conventions of flatness. Can you talk about your use of layering and perspective to subvert the viewer’s encounter with the flat surface? BM: My tendency for flatness has to do with my experience drawing from imagination and not life. I tend to propose imagined, virtual, or conceptual situations rather than describe an existing one that’s possible in the physical world. The decision to give an image volume or show how it is an object doesn’t often occur to me in a painting. I have a sense of the space as I’m working, but it isn’t until I’m nearly finished that I see how a unifying gesture, like a gradation or background to suggest depth or space, is necessary for the painting to unfold with a certain speed and order. Flat, overlapping layers encourage a build-your-own-reality situation. You decide where there’s object and where there’s air, what’s in front and what’s behind. I don’t want to present the viewer with something already fleshed out. I want to suggest a workable space that feels as if it’s still coming into being and requires your standing before it to complete it. AMM: Where do the characters in your paintings come from? BM: Psychologically? Probably cartoons mostly. I can see the influence of cartoons not only in my shapes but in the open-endedness, the overall provisional quality of the reality I describe. I’ve always found cartoons unnerving; Looney Tunes especially makes me anxious. They suggest an infinite world where nothing gets resolved and we have to constantly contend with an unknown future.

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17, Interviewed: Bridget Mullen

AMM: Hi Bridget, was there a particular, formative moment that led you to pursue art, specifically painting and sculpture?

matter. It’s also made me question what in my paintings is air, what’s object, and to explore the threshold between the two.

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17, Interviewed: Bridget Mullen

Sound familiar? It makes sense that I choose the platform of the cartoon reality (a world I first met as a child, introducing me to the concept of infinity) to engage with my anxiety. I prefer to reframe anxiety not as debilitating but as the natural ‘resting’ state of having to constantly contend with the future moment. I think of my studio practice like a phenomenological structure; my consciousness itself is the subject of my work. My paintings are spaces in which my memories, perceptions, imagination, emotions, desires, bodily awareness, embodied actions, and social and verbal activities can become meaningful. The way in which I experience making a painting is equally as important as what is created. The kind of trust, patience, and freedom I have with my art practice is the kind of trust, patience, and freedom I strive to have outside of the studio with myself and others. Lately, I’ve been thinking about the concept of freedom as attachment or attention. Maybe freedom is not simply having the will to make unlimited, off-the-cuff choices, but it could presuppose a foundation of attachment and constant attention to a certain ground. It is essential to their making that my paintings interact with someone. Even if my process is prioritised, the viewer is as necessary as I am in completing the circle. Basically, I make an abstract painting, working on it for months as such, then repurpose the abstractions as figures. That’s the short answer for where my characters come from. AMM: We notice that certain shapes, characters and motifs are repeated across your paintings, or included multiple times in the same image almost like a repeated stamp. What’s the concept behind this form of recurrence? Do you find yourself drawn again and again to particular figures of expression as vehicles for conveying moods or ideas? BM: When I lived in Athens, Georgia there was a guy in town that wore all one color outfits: one day it was an emerald green shirt and navy green pants, another day ruby red shirt and maroon pants. To him there were like seven colors and as long as they were in the same range, they worked. I asked him about it once at a party and he said, “Red matches red.” It was more functional for him, less a style. Sometimes when I don’t know what to paint next, I don’t overthink it, I paint what I just painted. This decision does many things: it lets me sketch out the full nuance of a character in the sum of many, and it suggests movement, rhythm, and a logic. It’s impossible to paint the same thing twice and that slight difference is what creates movement and rhythm. Repetition is an attempt to undermine the stillness of painting and to encourage animation: to transcend the borders. Repetition feels like a form of resistance against the painting itself. It reminds me that what I am seeing in a painting are images—suggestions, mutable— stand-ins for something else. At the same time, repetitive imagery hypnotizes with the illusion

“There isn’t one feeling I’m after when I paint. I don’t have to be in a good mood or feel inspired. Often the act of painting makes me feel hyper-aware of myself, like the painting and I are the only things in existence, but painting can also be alienating. I can become confused by what I’ve painted– asking myself, “Is this ugly, bad, boring or just unfamiliar?” It can show me some part of myself I haven’t seen before or don’t want to see. Confusion and displacement are just as desirable as hyperawareness. Alienation can be described as a kind of presence, a way towards empathy, of seeing yourself as “other.” - Bridget Mullen of momentum. It makes plain relative degrees of difference and zooms in on relationship as a potential concept. In many of my paintings I see paint-drip or teardrop shapes as sideways or crying eyes, spheres as sight-lines or eyes themselves, toe-like paint brushes, arm-like flowers, and unpainted voids, flat and defiant in their blankness amidst hustling clones. Perhaps repeating them is an effort to better understand them and to see if they are malleable. I’m playing the long game. I know that I gravitate towards certain forms,

but I don’t know, and don’t need to know, why. I will be able to see over many, many paintings, over many, many years, more clearly what I am after. AMM: There is an animated, dynamic quality to your paintings which seems in keeping with the cartoon- like figures that feature in them. How do you conceive of movement in your work? Do you imagine the characters to be in a stilled moment of continuous motion? BM: Depending on the space in a painting or the shape of a figure, a painting could occupy either polarity. The relative difference in the shape of a foot, for example, from one figure to the next, could suggest the figure is one moving through time with memory trails in tow. Or, if the feet feel closer to identical, it could be an army marching in unison. The repetition amounts to a presence that overpowers the painting regardless of your seeing the figure as one or many. AMM: Can you tell us about the illustrative elements in your work? Are you influenced by the techniques and narratives present in illustration? BM: I do like some illustration techniques and some illustrative paintings, but in my own work I’m less interested in converting ideas to images. I prefer a more abstract, intertwined, and reverse method of courting imagery; often it feels as if image precedes idea. I focus on the type of process that produces paintings that can elude specific meaning yet still have figuration. I allow the sensual and physical properties of my materials to navigate and the incidental overlapping of open layers to create content. The flatness of a painting (both physically and conceptually,) the use of repetition, and my history with painting, play vital roles. In process, a painting is less a transcript of myself and more, a constantly circulating loop—me painting the painting, the painting painting me. I think the same can be true for what happens when you see a painting. AMM: What function and importance does colour have in your paintings? BM: Color is a mysterious, erratic, ghostly, parasitic collaborator. Color reminds me that I have no control over anything. Colors duck under or pivot off each other and refuse to only be about my emotions. I cannot rely on intuition alone with color—it’s too elusive for that! I can use mauve all day and feel like I’ve got a good thing going, but certain colors seem to evade collaboration. It took me ten years to get the nerve to use blues. I sometimes don’t trust reds. I’m in awe of greens. Restraint seems important with color. Towards the end of working on a painting I often paint over half the opposing colors with tones that align with the ground, which is usually linen. When I start a painting, linen gets gessoed clear so that I can respond to its beige-ness. AMM: It’s a well-worn idea that no artist can create anything entirely separate from themselves, or divorce

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17, Interviewed: Bridget Mullen

their art from their own experiences and perceptions of the world. With that in mind, where, if at all, do you think you appear in your work? BM: Sometimes I think that if anybody really saw my feelings communicated through the marks and colors of my paintings I’d be embarrassed. I’ve always been, and am still slightly, self-conscious about people seeing me sweep. There’s something about the full body movement and intention that feels performative and sentimental. Too much sympathy gets bodily revealed in the task. How I start a brush stroke heavily or lightly, how I pull a stroke away from the canvas quickly or trail off until the brush is dry, when I punctuate a quick thought with a short jab, and when I make a mark that feels ugly or discordant—in painting (and sweeping) my sincerity and intention feel exposed and obvious, perhaps even excessive. There isn’t one feeling I’m after when I paint. I don’t have to be in a good mood or feel inspired. Often the act of painting makes me feel hyperaware of myself, like the painting and I are the only things in existence, but painting can also be alienating. I can become confused by what I’ve painted—asking myself, “Is this ugly, bad, boring or just unfamiliar?” It can show me some part of myself I haven’t seen before or don’t want to see. Confusion and displacement are just as desirable as hyper-awareness. Alienation can be described as a kind of presence, a way towards empathy, of seeing yourself as “other.” AMM: When creating a piece, do you plan it out beforehand and work methodically or do you opt for a more spontaneous approach? BM: I don’t plan what I’m going to paint. I don’t plan because it doesn’t make my paintings any better and I don’t enjoy it. I don’t want my paintings to feel like I’m presenting to you my good idea. I’d rather discover the content while I’m making it so the energy and traces of discovery are in the painting. Sometimes I start a painting by “cleaning” out my brushes on it, or stopping by and making a mark on my way back to my palette from working on another painting. This inventive and chaotic approach often reveals to me how random colors interact, instead of my choosing them based on intuition. The more I paint, the more I see how much muscle memory and subversive, latent, or potential subconscious content I could be communicating in my work. I have a feeling there are a lot of good ideas hidden in paintings. The problem is that the things I’m hung up on consciously believing are important, to my life or to painting, are also in the painting. I think maybe by the time I’m 80 I will have stored in my body some kind of painting history that’ll come out naturally when painting by the sheer fact that I’ve clocked the hours. And then, I’ll have a slightly better understanding of what I’m doing. At this point painting is way too mysterious to know what’s really going on. All said, I’m not opposed to changing my

process. In fact, sometimes halfway through a painting I’ll sketch it out to see what I feel is the synthesis. It isn’t all self-excavation and chaos. There has to be an ordering of that selfexcavation in order for it to land somewhere. I want to relate and for my paintings to feel like openings, meant to be experienced by another. AMM: Your titles are so inventive! I like “Mediocre Graffiti Just Breaks My Heart (II)”, “It’s Gravy to Carry a Bone” and “Reel Registers Register Real”. How do you go about titling your work? BM: Thank you! Each painting finds its title differently. I inconsistently write poetry. I’ll have a weekend where I feel like I’ve tapped into something and all I do is write, and then months will go by without knowing how to be nimble with language. Usually titles are lines from poems I write that I ‘collage’ with a painting. Sometimes the title pops into my head while I’m painting. I want my titles to be like a painting— to have rhythm and the possibility of reference and metaphor without being too on-the-nose or didactic. Titles can present a polarity, either to the content of the painting or the idea of art itself. A title can be pessimistic if the painting seems too cheery, crass if the painting feels overly sentimental, refer to formal or abstract characteristics if the painting is more pictorial, or be about the futility of making art in a world that always feels near apocalypse. AMM: How have artistic residencies helped you to develop your practice? How did you find working in different artistic communities, and in different places? BM: Attending residences upended my life. For three years I moved cities, changed my studio, and found new friends. I was forced to adapt, which was uncomfortable but generative. Through each body of work from each residency, I can chart the changes and speculate on the influences. I remember the conversation that pushed me to start working within a rectangle (I had been making free-form paper collage works for ten years). I can see how that first rectangular painting was the impetus for repetitive imagery, and I can call friends the other artists I worked alongside who introduced me to Frisket, dry brush, Belgian linen, the paintings of Charline von Heyl, and the writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. AMM: Where do you turn to when looking for ideas? Do you find more artistic stimulation in visual art or in other artistic disciplines? Or, in fact, do you find inspiration in things not directly related to art at all? BM: Other paintings are my main inspiration, tied with conversations with, and writings by or about, creative and unusual thinkers. Inspiration comes from movies, philosophy, and poetry too. Also, when I’m in my studio and the sun is going down, I feel an urgency that can be described as inspiration. AMM: What are some pieces of work by other artists (historical or contemporary) that you find yourself

coming back to again and again, either for inspiration in your own work or just for personal appreciation? What is it that you find compelling about those pieces? BM: A professor at college gave me a book of Philip Guston’s work. I remember seeing “Source, 1976” and “The Ladder” and being confused and thinking, “Why would he think I’d like this? It’s so simple and not cool.” Months later in person I saw “Friend—To M.F.”: a massive, fleshy, raw pink head in profile with a central obvious ear, each stubble of hair punctuated with a surrounding aura of space, and a cheek pushing out a cigarette. This time I was amused. I was honestly surprised the museum considered it art! I didn’t know if I liked it, but the pitch of my response made me pay attention. Guston’s audacity gave me permission to do what I wanted. It was the first time I really thought that I could be a part of the world as I am and not have to escape it in order to be myself. AMM: What is your studio setup and way of working like? Do you prefer neatness or chaos? Do you listen to anything while you work or do you need silence? BM: I paint on stretched paintings hung on the wall or flat on the floor. I mix my paint on plastic plates so thick with dried paint they are fifty times heavier than a plastic plate. I like seeing the history of my color choices. I can work in neatness or chaos, I don’t have a preference. I listen to Sasquatch Chronicles, Bieber, Anadol, Philosophize This!, Rachel Maddow, The Daily, artist interviews, The Office, or The New Yorker Fiction Hour half the time and then half the time I listen to the ambient noise of the other people working in the building. AMM: What’s next for you? Anything exciting coming up that you can share with us? BM: In my studio I’ll be working on a couple dozen 20 x 16 inch paintings simultaneously. I’m hoping the sheer number of them will make them less precious and make me more reckless and inventive. Outside of the studio I have some group shows coming up this summer in New York and a solo show coming up next year at Fahrenheit Madrid in Spain.

Featured image (p.48): Before Shakers flashe on canvas 21 1/2 x 14 inches Featured image (p.50): It’s Gravy To Carry A Bone flashe and spray paint on linen 48 x 30 inches Featured image (p.52): I’ve No Choice But To Find It Poetic flashe on linen 68 x 48 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17, Interviewed: Bridget Mullen

Bridget Mullen Visible Dims flashe on linen 20 x 16 inches

Bridget Mullen Hard Rocks flashe on canvas 20 x 16 inches

Bridget Mullen Visible Dims flashe on linen 20 x 16 inches

Bridget Mullen Hard Rocks flashe on canvas 20 x 16 inches

Bridget Mullen To Dissolving The New Classics flashe and spray paint on canvas 50 x 42 inches

Bridget Mullen Waterfalls You See, Waterfalls You Don’t flashe on linen 57 x 46 inches

Bridget Mullen To Dissolving The New Classics flashe and spray paint on canvas 50 x 42 inches

Bridget Mullen Waterfalls You See, Waterfalls You Don’t flashe on linen 57 x 46 inches

Bridget Mullen About Face acrylic, flashe, and spray paint on canvas 20 x 16 inches

Bridget Mullen Hot Coal Goals flashe, spray paint, and collagraph on canvas 20 x 16 inches

Bridget Mullen About Face acrylic, flashe, and spray paint on canvas 20 x 16 inches

Bridget Mullen Hot Coal Goals flashe, spray paint, and collagraph on canvas 20 x 16 inches

Bridget Mullen Live Wires acrylic on panel 48 x 36 inches

Bridget Mullen A Thought Is Dynamite flashe and silkscreen on linen 31 x 22 inches

Bridget Mullen Live Wires acrylic on panel 48 x 36 inches

Bridget Mullen A Thought Is Dynamite flashe and silkscreen on linen 31 x 22 inches

www.ethanstuart.com

Ethan Stuart: Playing with history and memory, symbols and metaphors Ethan Stuart’s paintings are deceptively simple. Flora and fauna feature in many of his compositions, where acrylic paint or crayon is applied with seemingly naïve marks and gestures, giving the works a playful charm. Flat planes of colour condense and fragment the pictorial space, creating new landscapes into which the artist conjures up characters and stories from his family’s past. Ethan is interested in using painting as a means of sifting through and archiving memories and histories. The subject matter in his work is drawn from his own life and experiences: his grandmother’s house and the pond at the back of her garden, his grandfather who was a rodeo rider, plants from his family’s florist business. Yet while these are at once very personal motifs, Ethan leaves ample space for interpretation in his paintings and invites the viewer in to find their own meaning within the stylised visual language. Ethan is a long-standing admirer of American folk and outsider art, and before focusing fully on painting, turned his hand to tattooing. These influences from the realm of ‘craft’ can be traced under the surface of Ethan’s art. Like tattoos, his paintings have complex systems of visual metaphors—frogs, birds, plants, vases, suns—which communicate a myriad narratives and ideas but which, of late, Ethan is leaving increasingly open to the viewer to make sense of in their own way. Ethan is less interested in a true-to-form representation than of finding a painterly language that is not constricted by formalist rules and reflects an honesty of mark-making in which the subject matter is invited to come to life through the material. Ethan received his BFA at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, before attending PrattMWP, a museum sister school to Pratt Brooklyn. In 2018 Ethan moved out to Santa Monica in Southern California where he’s been enjoying the change of scene and getting to know local painters. He’s thinking about returning to upstate New York in the near future to be nearer family. In the meantime, we chat to Ethan about painting and the past, creative boundaries and walking the dog.

interview by Layla Leiman

Featured image: Ethan Stuart 4 windows acrylic on canvas 20 x 24 inches

www.ethanstuart.com

interview by Layla Leiman

Featured image: Ethan Stuart 4 windows acrylic on canvas 20 x 24 inches

AMM: Hi Ethan! Let’s start by briefly looking back: Can you remember when making art changed from an activity into a something that you wanted to focus on professionally? When was this, what was going on in your life? ES: I’ve always been a romantic when it comes to painting, but oddly enough I don’t think I was able to see painting as a career until I had distanced myself from it and started to consider tattooing. A friend of mine that I had known from school started tattooing himself with a rigged ball point pen, which looked a bit reckless but it also looked like a new drawing tool. I had gotten the boot from art school at the time because I could no longer afford it, so there also could’ve been a bit of angst involved. Tattooing was also comfortable being under the umbrella of “craft” which I admired, not only because it seemed humble, but because it meant it could be a real job. It was exciting and we all tattooed each other for a couple of years, and I still do them from time to time, but at some point it started to take over my visual language and felt limiting. It didn’t take too long before I pivoted back towards painting, shed my angst, and fully embraced painting again. AMM: Your family’s business was in landscaping and floristry. Plants and landscapes often feature in your art. Can you tell us a little about this and the relationship between people and nature in your work? ES: Whether or not it’s intentional it’s hard to make work that doesn’t touch on that relationship some way. The interplay between the two occurred so early on in my work that I’m not sure if I used my family’s past as a platform to talk about it or if I just started to make autobiographical work and then discovered the relationship afterwards. Before the paintings about the floristry business started there were paintings of my grandfather’s rodeo riding days which inherently discussed the display of human dominance over nature. Though the floristry business is riddled with metaphors on the matter, I’m more interested in the ones that come from an innocence. For example, the human impulse to arrange and organize for beauty or function. Though it may be well intended it quickly takes the natural and makes it unnatural. AMM: On the surface the subject matter in your art seems to be allegorical, yet from reading past interviews you’ve given we learn that it is in fact often autobiographical. How do you juggle the interplay between the universal and individual in your work? ES: A lot of these paintings get to some sort of truth, but I don’t mean for that to hijack any experience the viewer might have on their own. They also used to be much more revealing, or at least I was when answering questions about them. I think being vulnerable inherently plays with the self and the universal in the way of presenting a microcosm.

AMM: Are there recurring pictorial tropes in your work? Please tell us about your visual language. ES: As of late my paintings have been describing my grandmother’s house and property so I’ve been using the different participants in its ecology to act as symbol or metaphor. Dandelions tend to show up as they are everywhere... A lot of pond paintings and its frog inhabitants. AMM: What is your process of working? Do you plan your compositions or follow a more intuitive approach? ES: There are plans somewhere in my process but they only get me to a launching point where intuition reigns and everything changes. I fancy myself as an observer, so as long as I am paying attention I might get lucky and a new direction could appear that I couldn’t even make up without the process. It’s rare that I have an idea, execute it, and find that to be enough.

“It’s rare that I have an idea, execute it, and find that to be enough.” - Ethan Stuart AMM: What are the most difficult things for you to get ‘right’ in your art?

future: who controls the present, controls the past.” Perhaps I finally have some control over myself and am taking the opportunity to alter my past a bit. Maybe fifteen years from now I’ll be making paintings about when Bernie won the election in 2016. AMM: The elements in your compositions all crowd into a fragmented foreground with very little depth or perspective. You play with scale in unexpected ways which gives your work a childlike, almost naïve quality. Please tell us about your style of painting and how you’ve developed this over the years. ES: I think a fair amount of that has to do with what I had mentioned earlier. I too would like to be surprised by my work, and sometimes that calls for a bit of brashness. Despite that however, it’s not like there is a majority in painting working with horizon lines or other compositional devices of the past. I consider Matisse and his decorative work, Jacob Lawrence, Karl Wirsum, and the cast of American folk artists finally in the spotlight over the past couple of years. It’s important for me to shed limitations when building these images, not that I’m particularly good at that, but I’m learning. AMM: What are some of the influences that have informed your work stylistically? ES: I’ve always been caught up in folk art, possibly because I come from a home of artists that never considered it a career. But also because of the work a family collects over time and inherits by unknown artists, no matter the medium. I love an old hutch, with shelves weighed down by a slew of ceramic plates with different scenes depicted on each one. But I can’t let this question go by without mentioning the Outliers and American Vanguard show that toured in 2018 being unbelievably inspiring.

ES: There isn’t a whole lot of “right” in my paintings, so I feel pretty free of that obligation. Maybe that in the end it retains a directness in the way it was painted. There could be multiple layers of different versions underneath, but as long as the top layer feels like it wasn’t overworked. I also had a teacher who told me that in a “good” painting you can’t tell where the artist started and where they finished. I think that’s why my paintings can be a bit of a mess, so that even I’m confused about how I made it.

AMM: Your recent paintings are in soothing mottled earthy palettes. Please tell us a about how you approach colour in your work.

AMM: A couple years ago you were interested in history and memory and using painting as a means of archiving the past. Is this still an interest for you? What ideas and themes are you currently exploring in your work?

AMM: Has moving to Southern California had an influence on your work? In what ways are you affected by place and space?

ES: Definitely still playing around with history and memory a fair bit. How honest I am when I retell these stories has changed, it all got to be a little much. I’m reading 1984 for the first time as an adult and just came to that famous quote, “who controls the past controls the

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17, Interviewed: Ethan Stuart

ES: Color happens rather intuitively as well. The current paintings work to describe a specific landscape in Upstate NY, so the colors remain fairly local to one another. This landscape sees a fair bit of rain, and is rather muddy. Brighter colors seem to come out at night with the light of the moon or perhaps a flashlight.

ES: Having moved anywhere would have changed the work, I’d imagine… I don’t know if I can entirely chalk it up to Southern California. Especially since having moved here I’ve been making paintings about my hometown in New York. What I can tell you is that I have sincerely enjoyed the beach, and biking year round. More so, getting to know

photo courtesy of the artist

“It’s rare that I have an idea, execute it, and find that to be enough.” - Ethan Stuart AMM: What are the most difficult things for you to get ‘right’ in your art?

AMM: Your recent paintings are in soothing mottled earthy palettes. Please tell us a about how you approach colour in your work.

AMM: Has moving to Southern California had an influence on your work? In what ways are you affected by place and space?

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17, Interviewed: Ethan Stuart

photo courtesy of the artist

“I’m currently stuck on making work about the pond behind my grandma’s house. There was a story my mom used to tell me about how, when she was young, she’d shoot the frogs around the pond to keep the population down. I took the story elsewhere in the paintings, I instead resurrected them and gave them back the pond.” - Ethan Stuart

this community of LA painters and what is important to them has been really refreshing. AMM: Give us a peek inside your studio—What does your space look and feel like? What are your unspoken rules to work by? ES: My studio is my home. I’m lucky my partner, Hartley, works with me and lets me occupy a corner of our small apartment and keep it a bit messy. She’s an artist as well and I welcome her opinion as often as she’ll give it. I like being in a home and making work, especially as we have our own little collection of art we’ve gathered along the way. I also have a dog named Henrietta that means the world to me, and taking her on walks is nearly always just what the doctor ordered. AMM: Do you have any daily rituals that feed you creatively? ES: Not really... It would be nice to say that I did but I’ve stopped forcing myself to have brush in hand just because I have the time.

I’m a big fan of walking the dog to the coffee shop. Espresso is kind of the best. AMM: Please tell us about the work you’re busy with right now. What does it look like, what’s going well and what’s causing a challenge? ES: I’m currently stuck on making work about the pond behind my grandma’s house. There was a story my mom used to tell me about how, when she was young, she’d shoot the frogs around the pond to keep the population down. I took the story elsewhere in the paintings, I instead resurrected them and gave them back the pond. I don’t exactly know where I’m headed with it or what my boundaries are with the new narrative but I’m remaining open. When there is struggle it’s mostly about how I’m trying to pull together too much, if I could I’d touch on the entire ecosystem in every piece in some way. Instead I’m using little abstract symbols that I’ve used in the past to reference the connection of all things. I think it’s for the best to know less for now. AMM: What inspires you? ES: I’m always listening to audible. Interspersing books with true crime podcasts... what’s nice about those is there is a lot of testimonial and people struggling to remember things correctly, which I’m doing all the time in my work. What really inspires me most is when my partner and my dog get me out of the house and away from my work for a bit.

on myself to get a lot done. I have a slew of applications out and am patiently waiting to find out if I’ve bit off more than I can chew. AMM: Regarding the current situation of COVID-19 - there is a feeling that we are living through a dramatic historical and global event. How does the pandemic and its associated impacts (lockdowns for example) affect your creative flow, thinking and outputs? ES: I’m feeling pretty fortunate to have had a creative drive during these historically strange times. The two months prior to the outbreak I was going through a bizarre rut that had completely taken the wind out of my sails. Much due to overthinking, I’m sure, trying to see five paintings ahead instead of being present with the one on the wall. The quarantine slowed everything down, cancelled events, really mucked up what the next couple of years had in store for most of us in creative fields. There is a hesitation to being positive about much of anything during this uncertain time but I’m thankful it opened a door for me to paint without a plan. To be grateful that I want to paint when left alone, and challenge myself when I do. My partner and I are finally getting to collaborate on a design project we’ve been sitting on for about a year now and have had such a healthy rapport in our critiques. I can only hope this grateful feeling I have right now drives me into post pandemic days. My heart goes out to everyone who has suffered loss, or complications with projects they’d planned to launch this year. Love one another, and be well.

AMM: In terms of your career and building your profile as an artist, what is your strategy for marketing and getting your work out there? ES: I’m pretty light on that stuff. I take care of what’s on my Instagram at any time, and try to trim work that I don’t feel applies to my practice currently. I apply maybe 4 times a year to 2-3 opportunities just to keep the ball rolling. AMM: What keeps you awake at night and why? ES: Oh dang, I don’t know... My dog likes to sneak up right between my legs at night and forces my legs to spread in a really uncomfortable way. Also there was a mockingbird outside my house for nearly 3 months... But I’d imagine you’re looking for a different kind of answer. I apply to one or two things a year that keep me up waiting for a reply. My family can be complicated, as most can. Normal stuff. AMM: Do you have any projects or exhibitions coming up? What’s next for you? ES: We’re probably headed out to the East Coast by the end of the year in search of a large studio space and to get closer to some family. Otherwise, I’m really just focused on the work and its new direction. Time is already flying by this year and I’ve put it

Featured image (p.66): Ethan Stuart Dandelion smelling frog acrylic on canvas 11 x 14 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17, Interviewed: Ethan Stuart

Featured image (p.66): Ethan Stuart Dandelion smelling frog acrylic on canvas 11 x 14 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17, Interviewed: Ethan Stuart

Ethan Stuart Bird baths, fountains, hanging plants, plants from other climates, and pamphlets on how to take care of them acrylic on canvas 24 x 30 inches

Ethan Stuart Runnin’ out of stuff to shoot (2) acrylic on canvas 18 x 23 inches

Ethan Stuart Bird baths, fountains, hanging plants, plants from other climates, and pamphlets on how to take care of them acrylic on canvas 24 x 30 inches

Ethan Stuart Runnin’ out of stuff to shoot (2) acrylic on canvas 18 x 23 inches

Ethan Stuart Between the seaweed and infinity (it was a bit much) acrylic on canvas 24 x 30 inches

Ethan Stuart Kissed (by four frogs) acrylic on canvas 28 x 22 inches

Ethan Stuart Between the seaweed and infinity (it was a bit much) acrylic on canvas 24 x 30 inches

Ethan Stuart Kissed (by four frogs) acrylic on canvas 28 x 22 inches

Ethan Stuart What could have been (and probably is in an alternate universe) acrylic on canvas 24 x 30 inches

Ethan Stuart Jonah and the whale acrylic on canvas 22 x 28 inches

Ethan Stuart What could have been (and probably is in an alternate universe) acrylic on canvas 24 x 30 inches

Ethan Stuart Jonah and the whale acrylic on canvas 22 x 28 inches

Ethan Stuart Arrangement (with wind) acrylic on canvas 11 x 14 inches

Ethan Stuart Fruit Arrangement acrylic on canvas 11 x 14 inches

Ethan Stuart Arrangement (with wind) acrylic on canvas 11 x 14 inches

Ethan Stuart Fruit Arrangement acrylic on canvas 11 x 14 inches

Ethan Stuart Grandma’s brown sugar carrots acrylic on canvas 24 x 30 inches

Ethan Stuart Grandma acrylic on canvas 16 x 20 inches

Ethan Stuart Grandma’s brown sugar carrots acrylic on canvas 24 x 30 inches

Ethan Stuart Grandma acrylic on canvas 16 x 20 inches

curated selection of works by Matthew F Fisher artist and independent curator Featured image: Karli Henneman K.56 acrylic on canvas 24 x 30 inches more on p. 145

M i c h e l e

H e m s o t h

H a

J o u n g

P a r k

www.hajoungpark.com

Ha Joung Park currently works and lives in Detroit. She was born in Seoul, South Korea and lived in Vancouver, Canada. She earned a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016. She is currently pursuing an MFA in painting at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2020. She has exhibited in group shows in Chicago, Detroit and Seoul, Korea. Recently, she was selected for a group show at Detroit Artists Market, Annual Scholarship Award and Exhibition.

www.michelehemsoth.com

Born in Toledo, Ohio. Introduced to a Baziotes painting at the Toledo Museum of Art in the third grade. Visited it weekly for years. This is probably the core of my work. It’s about the struggle to make sense of nonsense. Surely, there must be something fundamental and true.

My interest is in making paintings that document, via abstraction, the pleasures, joys, and struggles of daily life. I make abstract paintings that create a bridge between the real world and my imaginative world. I reinterpret my experiences into my own mental space where the sensation, memory, mood, and emotion become important. Mundane thoughts and conversations that I am engaged in influence the work. Textures, patterns, and mark-making are used in my works to describe space. My use of vibrant colors is a tool to express the joyful and alive qualities of my paintings. Organic forms and floating lines enhance a whimsical mood. My inspiration comes from having my own quiet time like taking a walk at a park, drinking coffee and tea, looking at the sky, etc. I am interested in small details in daily moments. I become hyper-aware of my surroundings when I can focus on my environment without interference. For example, space and atmosphere become more peaceful where I can focus on my imagination more freely. I transfer my observation of the world into my own psychological and sensational imagery.

Image:

winter acrylic on board 7 x 10.5 inches

Telling Myself, Time to Work oil on canvas 40 x 40 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

M i c h e l e

H e m s o t h

H a

J o u n g

P a r k

www.hajoungpark.com

www.michelehemsoth.com

Image:

winter acrylic on board 7 x 10.5 inches

Telling Myself, Time to Work oil on canvas 40 x 40 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

C l a u d i a

K e e p

Working from life, and personal photographs, my work is an attempt to capture the exceptional within a simple, seemingly ordinary moment. An investigation into the “every-day” reveals a paradoxical and fascinating complexity. My use of brush strokes, color, and texture of paint are an effort to arrive at an intimate and heightened sense of a moment or an object. The variations of whites in a painted wall, the color of a discarded can, the shape of a shadow beneath a car, or the variety of textures at the meeting of nature and man-made objects are what, to me, make life rich and exciting. By capturing the specificity of detail in the every-day things that surround us, I hope to communicate something universally true. Claudia Keep received a BA in Fine Arts from Bryn Mawr College. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and Mount Desert Island, Maine.

www.claudiakeep.com

Image:

holiday inn express, 6:24am oil on masonite 10 inches x 12 inches

shell oil on masonite 10 inches x 12 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

C l a u d i a

K e e p

www.claudiakeep.com

Image:

holiday inn express, 6:24am oil on masonite 10 inches x 12 inches

shell oil on masonite 10 inches x 12 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

J u l i a

M i k e

N o r t o n

N u d e l m a n

www.julia-norton.com

Julia Norton (b. New York City, 1985) holds an MFA from SUNY Purchase and is currently pursuing a Masters in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (expected graduation May, 2020). She has exhibited at Lyles & King (NYC), Albada Jelgersma Gallery (Amsterdam, NL), Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY), and Dread Lounge (Los Angeles, CA) and has participated in residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Wassaic Project, Cooper Union, Mass MoCA, and Vermont Studio Center. She has worked as a museum educator and arts educator at New Museum, Pioneer Works, Swiss Institute, Abrons Art Center, and Dia:Beacon. Sometime after watching the first 2020 Democratic debates I registered for a Disney Plus account. I binged movies from my childhood while working in my studio… movies like Flight of the Navigator, Cool Runnings, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I was searching for an old fashioned kind of hope, one that I hadn’t felt in quite a while. More recently in dealing with the new reality of COVID-19, and in practicing social distancing, I am needing this binge time more than ever. Through working and watching I am reminded of a young person’s blissful type of hope while simultaneously wrestling with the current world’s darkness and demons. These paintings contain references from these films, such as starscapes and undersea adventures, that demonstrate my hopes, as well as imagery that represents my fears, such as monstrous anatomy and, of course, death. Through it all, I still believe in unique inner power and magic. And I choose to imagine experiences like a wondrous, travel adventure from the comfort of my own bed.

www.mikenudelman.com

I was born and raised on Long Island, New York and currently live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I received my BFA in Printmaking from Cornell University and attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for my MFA in Painting & Drawing. Before settling in beautiful Santa Fe, I lived in Brooklyn, New York. I am a Santa Fe-based artist making enigmatic landscape drawings with ballpoint pen on paper. The size of small hairs with the occasional inky misfire, my methodically layered iridescent pen strokes blend to create a rich and complex surface. The images are inspired by a variety of historical and popular romantic sources, such as the luminous Hudson River School paintings of Albert Bierstadt and Frederic Edwin Church, the earnest outer space paintings of astronaut-artists Alan Bean and Alexei Leonov, the psychedelic prints of Wyland and Thomas Kinkade, and the troves of otherworldly imagery accessible on the internet. I think of my drawings as apparitions of these sources, one step further removed, revealing phenomena more similar to what you may hazily recall from a dream than from observation. Much like the dazzling pixels on a screen or the pointillist Ben-Day Dots of a print, the ballpoint pen strokes simultaneously mask and reveal what lies beyond the paper’s facade.

Image:

Hanging on to a Memory sumac ink, wild grape ink, bone black, malachite, lapis lazuli, gold and red ochre on handmade paper 9 x 12 inches

Untitled 2 ballpoint pen on paper 11 x 8.5 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

J u l i a

M i k e

N o r t o n

N u d e l m a n

www.julia-norton.com

www.mikenudelman.com

Image:

Hanging on to a Memory sumac ink, wild grape ink, bone black, malachite, lapis lazuli, gold and red ochre on handmade paper 9 x 12 inches

Untitled 2 ballpoint pen on paper 11 x 8.5 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

A g n e s e

G u i d o

www.agneseguido.com

Agnese Guido (1982) is an Italian artist who lives and works in Milan, she graduated in painting at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, and is currently working with Federico Luger Gallery. Painting for me is like the invocation of the spirit of the white sheet. Starting from observation, I choose clues from reality to get them out of boredom. The objects in my paintings are something like human surrogates, they are like objects-subjects reflecting our personalities, flaws and desires, our fears and obsession with power, love or money, the things that make us great and a bit fucked up. There are definitely more disturbing things happening in reality than in my drawings, but I like watching things creating connection in between. I’m always looking for the dark or ironic side of life, it’s hard not to have it in your head, even if you’re working on some strange and funny drawing, reality comes in there. My work currently ranges from gouache paintings on paper to ceramic, I don’t care about having a recognizable style, I’m interested in telling stories.

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

Z h o n g w e n

www.behance.net/zhongwenhu

Zhongwen Hu is a Shanghai based painter, illustrator, and animator, who is proficient in combining joy and peace, and expresses the vibrant spirit and atmosphere of daily life scene. With a sensitive approach, her work can be seen in projects for galleries, book publishing and editorials. Her many honors and awards include those from Top Shorts Online Film Festival Best Experimental Film; Five Continents International Film Festival Best Animation Short Film etc. Zhongwen’s many exhibitions include those at “HER.E I See Lotus.” at Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA; “Wells Art Contemporary Art Awards” at The Bishop’s Palace, Wells, Somerset, UK; “30 under 30” at Viridian Artists, curated by Whitney Museum Curator Chrissie Iles; Axis Gallery Sacramento; ArtHelix; Point of Contact Gallery; Baton Rouge Gallery; among others. I have asked myself, “What are we if we don’t have labels? What makes us us? How do I know if I am a real person and not just a consciousness that is made up and input by a higher-level consciousness? When we see a tree, does it appear to me the same as it does to you? What is real and what is not real? What touches us the most when we are left alone, apart from the influences of commerce and technology?” It’s hard to answer these questions. All I can do is feel and observe objects and nature. I feel that there is something in them that interacts with us without speaking. I have fallen in love with expressing the impressions of memories and affections, and restoring the emotions of lived moments through daily scenes. I would like viewers to slow down and look back into their lives through my paintings, to remember moments when they felt loved and blessed. My work aims to have a positive impact on the world. There’s an intimate but universal feeling in these treasured moments, a connection between humans and the world around us. I try to capture a peacefulness that has dissolved in time.

Image:

The raw leaf and the chewing gum gouache on cotton paper 31 x 24 cm

The Tree knows Everything acrylic on canvas 24 x 36 inches

H u

A g n e s e

G u i d o

www.agneseguido.com

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

Z h o n g w e n

www.behance.net/zhongwenhu

Image:

The raw leaf and the chewing gum gouache on cotton paper 31 x 24 cm

The Tree knows Everything acrylic on canvas 24 x 36 inches

H u

M i c h a e l

D e L u c a

I’m interested in visual oppositions, particularly the tangible versus the intangible, the two-dimensional versus the three dimensional, and the graphic versus the atmospheric. I’ve been working from flat silhouettes that I cut out and mount on highly reflective paper. I place these shapes in a context out of time and illuminate them with a single top light. I then create drawings from them, where the process can last several days pushing and pulling endless amounts of subtle information. I gravitate towards shapes with specific gestures within them. I think of them as being flat, but malleable; static, but expressive. I’m not interested in the grand or flashy gestures, just a simple nudge or bend is enough. Ultimately, I see these awkward but earnest shapes taking on figurative characteristics that playfully comment on the human condition.

www.michaeldeluca.net

Michael was born in Philadelphia, PA, and currently lives and works in Paoli, PA. He earned his MFA in Painting from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN, and his BFA in Painting from Arcadia University in Glenside, PA. For a brief period of time, he also studied Painting and Drawing at the Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow, Scotland. Since graduating from Indiana in 2002, Michael has been teaching all levels of Drawing as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual & Performing Arts at Arcadia University. Michael’s work has appeared in numerous Drawing exhibitions across the United States, including “Drawing Resurfaced II” at Purdue University Galleries; “The Great Lakes Drawing Biennial” at Eastern Michigan University School of Art & Design, and “Drawn 4th and 5th Annual International Exhibition of Contemporary Drawing” at Manifest Gallery. He was the recipient of CFEVA’s (Center for Emerging Visual Artists, Philadelphia, PA) Emerging Artist Fellowship, and has appeared multiple times in the publication New American Paintings.

Image:

Wiggle pastel on paper 13 x 13 inches

Squarewave pastel on paper 18 x 18 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

M i c h a e l

D e L u c a

www.michaeldeluca.net

Image:

Wiggle pastel on paper 13 x 13 inches

Squarewave pastel on paper 18 x 18 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

T y l e r

B e a r d

Tyler Beard (b. 1982, Olathe, KS) received an MFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a BFA from the University of Kansas. He has had solo shows at Deanna Evans Projects, NY; Atlanta Contemporary, GA; the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, CO; Central Utah Arts Center, UT; Robischon Gallery, CO. Additionally, he has been featured in group exhibitions at ROCKELMANN&, Berlin; VICTORI + MO, NY; Coop Gallery, TN; Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, CO; and the Biennial of the Americas, CO. He has participated in numerous artist residencies including the Montello Foundation, NV; Anderson Ranch Arts Center, CO; Ceramic Center Berlin, GER; Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, ME; and OffShore, NY. Beard currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. My work investigates the interaction of color, material, geometry, and image. In each composition, I seek a soothing formalism in which each part is necessary for the whole. The work is meticulously edited, arranged and rearranged, until I find an order that is curious and dynamic while maintaining a quality of lightness. I often think of the poetic structure and qualities found in a Haiku. Seeing through the lens of this format, I make individual works that rely on restraint and simplicity while simultaneously offering a subtle and quiet sophistication.

www.tylerbeard.net

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

Image:

Jagged Blush flashe on wood panel in marble composite frame 15.5 x 12.5 x 1.75 inches

Sunny Drift flashe on wood panel in marble composite frame 15.5 x 12.5 x 1.75 inches

T y l e r

B e a r d

www.tylerbeard.net

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

Image:

Jagged Blush flashe on wood panel in marble composite frame 15.5 x 12.5 x 1.75 inches

Sunny Drift flashe on wood panel in marble composite frame 15.5 x 12.5 x 1.75 inches

M i c h e l l e

W e d d l e

Michelle received a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas, Austin in 2007, with concentrations in Painting, Drawing, Sculpture and Serigraphy. Post undergrad, she worked at a contemporary art gallery, as a floral designer, and as a professional artist, painting, exhibiting, and teaching from her studio in Denver, Colorado. Exhibit highlights include group shows in Denver and Dallas between 2008 and 2010, a solo show in Boulder, Colorado at the Dairy Center for the Arts in 2011, and additional group shows between 2012 and 2014 in Houston, Texas. The two major bodies of work produced during those years, totaling 30 large-scale oil paintings, have been purchased by collectors in both Colorado and Texas, while a series of 100 smaller works in acrylic and oil have been sold locally and shipped to locations around the United States. More recently, in 2018, she has returned to painting with a fresh perspective, venturing for the first time into abstraction. She is currently exhibiting with Mirus Gallery and 40 West Gallery in Denver, and will be participating in ‘The Other Art Fair’ with Saatchi Art in Dallas in May 2020, following several online features with SaatchiArt.com in late 2019. In this series of paintings I have attempted to move beyond a literal depiction of landscape into a more abstract expression of the natural environment, emphasizing movement and energy through the use of color, line and form. I begin each piece with a digital sketch, layering transparent shapes that mimic simplistic clouds, hills and valleys or ocean waves. Lines that emanate from and slice through the central body animate the scene. Rhythmic repetitions of swelling shapes, like a visual representation of music, at times advance right off the pictorial edge, suggesting a continuation of form beyond what is visible; the sharp shapes, a counterpoint to the flowing undulations of the rest of the composition. I choose color gradually, at times intentionally and at times spontaneously, using gradients and contrasting values to reference generalized light and shadow. Mellifluous and resilient, a final figure emerges that appears to be pliably harmonizing in peaceful surrender to the vigorous external forces imposed upon it by its surrounding environment; a hopeful metaphor for our lives and the well-being of nature in general.

www.michelleweddle.com

Image:

Solar acrylic on panel 30 x 30 inches

Surge acrylic on panel 30 x 48 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

M i c h e l l e

W e d d l e

www.michelleweddle.com

Image:

Solar acrylic on panel 30 x 30 inches

Surge acrylic on panel 30 x 48 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

J e n n i f e r

W a t s o n

E l l i o t t

C h a m b e r s

www.jenniferwatsonart.com

www.elliottchambers.com

Watson is a recipient of the NJ State Council on the Arts Painting Fellowship (2011) and has had solo exhibitions at R.Jampol Project(s), NY, and Solo(s) Project House, NJ. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions including those at Morgan Lehman Gallery, NY; Geoffrey Young Gallery, MA; Brian Morris Gallery, NY; The Noyes Museum of Art, NJ; Project for Empty Space, NJ; Trestle Gallery, NY; SICA (The Shore Institute of the Contemporary Arts), NJ; Exit Art, NY; CWOW, NJ; Ada Gallery, VA and more. Exhibition reviews have appeared in ARTnews magazine, Gannett Newspapers, The Star-Ledger and The Huffington Post. Watson holds a degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and studied visual arts at Mason Gross School of the Arts. She resides in Long Branch, NJ, and works in Newark, NJ.

Born in Bath, UK, I moved to New York to study at the School of Visual Arts; I currently live and work in London. I make paintings about the realm we create for ourselves, be it in reality or fantasy. I am focused on the idea of ‘place’ and the imagery that defines it. My paintings are scenes of importance to me.

My recent body of work explores the balance between empowerment and capitulation to gender and societal norms. Figures live in a type of limbo environment between innocence and sexualization, strength and powerlessness while bound and restricted under the guise of “performing”. Tennis players are powerful yet constricted not only by rules of the game and boundaries of the court but also those of fashion and beauty. The paintings bear my distinct handling—obsessive attention to details like hair, glassy, thin applications of precise paint handling and candy-pop appeal to the flat, bright color. A visual language is created in which the figures’ hair and skin become patterned-like surfaces.

Image:

Untitled oil on wood panel 30 x 20 inches

Inflation oil on canvas 14 x 12 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

J e n n i f e r

W a t s o n

E l l i o t t

C h a m b e r s

www.jenniferwatsonart.com

www.elliottchambers.com

Image:

Untitled oil on wood panel 30 x 20 inches

Inflation oil on canvas 14 x 12 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

M i c h a e l

P o l a k o w s k i

C h i n a z a

A g b o r

www.michaelpolakowski.com

www.instagram.com/chinagbor

Michael Polakowski’s practice rests on the intersection between gallery painting and large-scale murals. He draws heavily on his upbringing in the Midwest in order to create work that reflects the social climate of his home. To date, his body of work juxtaposes the real and unreal to tell stories that are as absurd as they are familiar. Often, his work draws upon his sketchbook practice—diligently observing and documenting his environment with surreal juxtapositions which insinuate that “not everything is quite right here.” His work consists of graphic shapes, textures, bold color, and symbolic iconography. The results are vibrant paintings and murals that are equal parts narrative, decorative and conceptual.

Chinaza Agbor was born 1998 in Dallas, Texas. She is currently attending the Royal College of Art where she is pursuing her Masters degree in Painting. She discovered her passion for art in grade school and since then has developed an acute skill in various mediums of painting. Through her experience, Chinaza has learned about her strengths and weaknesses as an artist. This has focused her work into a consistent and reliable medium with enough wiggle room for creative possibilities.

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

Chinaza’s current pieces focus on the conflicted reality of being a consumer whilst navigating a capitalistic society as a black woman. She not only studies her own participation in consumer culture but the negative effects it has had on her psyche. Her work continuously dissects how economic mobility and class shape the black experience.

Image:

Drowned Mosquitoes, Late Summer acrylic on wood panel 2.5 x 2.5 feet

Fine Goods Make the World Go ‘Round 3 x 3 feet

M i c h a e l

P o l a k o w s k i

C h i n a z a

A g b o r

www.michaelpolakowski.com

www.instagram.com/chinagbor

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

Image:

Drowned Mosquitoes, Late Summer acrylic on wood panel 2.5 x 2.5 feet

Fine Goods Make the World Go ‘Round 3 x 3 feet

T i m

I r a n i

Tim Irani, b. 1989 Orange County, CA, lives and works in San Francisco. He earned his degree in Architecture before working as a user interface designer for mobile applications. His art is a carefully constructed mixture of the skills learned in these past trades, delivered in high contrasting color, a digitally rendered sensibility, and an occasional bout of dark humor. Alternating between acrylic painting and wood sculpting (and a hybrid of the two), each work becomes part of an ever expanding plant-clad built environment where technology and the natural world coexist in careful balance. Observations of my surroundings fuel my engine to create. Much of my childhood was spent exploring two distinct worlds—the natural and virtual, and my art showcases this tech-nature duality. My work lends a voice to the trees, the birds, and to technology itself, imagining each as its own sentient entity capable of thinking, feeling, and cross-communicating. I’m both frightened and captivated by what the future holds and the internal and external effects of technological integration. My art serves as an ongoing observational study cataloging the hybridization of analog and digital worlds. My creative process involves a back and forth communication between digital drawing/rendering software and traditional methods—infusing digital aesthetics into physical objects in an attempt to blur the line between them. My art is about the implications of human made technologies on ourselves and the planet.

www.timirani.com

Image:

Falling Water Acrylic on Wood 30 x 18 inches

Outside My Yellow Room acrylic on canvas 14 x 11 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

T i m

I r a n i

www.timirani.com

Image:

Falling Water Acrylic on Wood 30 x 18 inches

Outside My Yellow Room acrylic on canvas 14 x 11 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

R o b e r t

P o k o r n y

Robert Pokorny (b. Merced, CA. 1969) is an American contemporary visual artist living and working in Long Beach, California. His drawings and paintings have been exhibited widely in both the United States and Europe. Pokorny received his MFA in Fine Art in 2011 and BA in Art in 1992, both from California State University, Long Beach. With a strong sensibility and awareness to intuition and exactness, Pokorny’s work is focused on his use of ‘line’, ‘shape’ and ‘color’ to describe and initiate feeling. His movements, or brushstrokes, are packed with a foresight and intention based on the exploration of the thing observed. Pokorny strives to take a complicated visual world and, with a precise and intuitive flourish, establish a honed version of reality.

www.robertpokorny.com

Image:

Note To Self (Blue) acrylic on lien over panel 36 x 28 inches

Note To Self (Green) acrylic on lien over panel 36 x 28 inches

100

101

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

R o b e r t

P o k o r n y

www.robertpokorny.com

Image:

Note To Self (Blue) acrylic on lien over panel 36 x 28 inches

Note To Self (Green) acrylic on lien over panel 36 x 28 inches

100

101

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

A l y i n a

Z a i d i

I s a b e l l a

C u g l i e v a n

www.instagram.com/alyinaazaidi

www.instagram.com/isa_cug

I currently paint magical landscapes partly drawn from memories of Kashmir and partly from imagination. I was born and grew up in Delhi but am part Kashmiri and have spent many summers there. I study painting at the Royal College of Art and felt the need to paint home when I moved to London for the course. Before doing my Master’s in painting, I majored in physics and minored in studio art at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. I also interned at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Islamic Art department, and apprenticed under miniature painters in Jaipur where I learned how to use the squirrel hair brush.

I barely clean the brush, dragging whatever color is left from the previous brushstroke. I am guided by the edges of the paper and the mark I made last. Symmetry gives me an entrance into the painting. Once that foundation is there, or that sense of a foundation, I occasionally make a conscious decision to break symmetry. In most cases, however, symmetry is enough. More than thinking about shape, I am thinking about color.

The colours in my paintings are mostly influenced by colours found in Mughal and Persian miniatures. I have used these colours in large scale canvases (Don Juan and Mountainscape), creating immersive works which seek to draw the viewer in. The painting Don Juan is named after the deep, dark rose. I chose to name the work after a rose because, like a rose, it has no discernible blue. It is genetically not possible for a rose to be blue. Mountainscape will eventually be named after a rose but it hasn’t reached that stage yet. The snakes beneath us was painted following a dream in which a layer of snakes writhed beneath the topsoil of a garden.

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

Image:

Mountainscape acrylic on canvas 325 x 183 cm

A window for the birds acrylic ink on Arches cold press watercolor paper 14 x 11 inches

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A l y i n a

Z a i d i

I s a b e l l a

C u g l i e v a n

www.instagram.com/alyinaazaidi

www.instagram.com/isa_cug

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

Image:

Mountainscape acrylic on canvas 325 x 183 cm

A window for the birds acrylic ink on Arches cold press watercolor paper 14 x 11 inches

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A n n e t t e

H u r

Born in South Korea, Annette Hur lives and works in New York City. Hur has previously shown in solo/group exhibitions at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, Urban Zen, Assembly Room, Wallach Gallery, Times Square Space, and 33 Orchard gallery in New York; Fairleigh Dickenson University in New Jersey; Heaven Gallery, Chicago Artists Coalition, Boundary, Sullivan Gallery, and Zhou B Art Center in Chicago; Dafen International Oil Painting Biennale in Shenzhen, China. Hur’s work was featured in Friend of an Artist Volume 11, Create! Magazine issue 13, New American Paintings issues 134 & 135; in online art publications: Bad at Sports and Third Coast Review; and in online news: Naeil News, The Preview, and Sisa Today. Hur was a resident of BOLT Residency at Chicago Artists Coalition in 2016-2017, and she holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MFA (2019) from Columbia University.

www.a-hur.com

My artistic pursuits suppressed throughout my young adulthood were reignited as a recovery from domestic violence and depression connected to the patriarchal environment where I was raised in Korea. By working with abstraction through large scale oil paintings, I investigate an inherited traditional culture that subconsciously manipulates and subverts socio-sexual identities. In my paintings, heavily abstracted bodily forms and a palette that mimics the colors of viscera or surface wounds of the body create an atmosphere of tension between the physical body and everyday violence around it. As a result, although the entire image is rooted in abstraction, hints of fingers, breasts, genitals, wounds, and acts of vomiting or penetration create narratives of unsafe bodily experiences. Each painting holds its own subtext of unjustified guilt, and self-doubt pertaining to female sexuality. This narrative probes ideas of object-hood of the female individual taking in its stride inner confidence to destroy this false nature and leap into the unknown.

Image:

Mimicry (moths) oil on canvas 80 x 68 inches

Take Away oil on canvas 80 x 68 inches

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A n n e t t e

H u r

www.a-hur.com

Image:

Mimicry (moths) oil on canvas 80 x 68 inches

Take Away oil on canvas 80 x 68 inches

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V a n e s s a

M i t t e r

Vanessa Mitter’s paintings are both exuberantly high-octane in terms of colour, but mordant in terms of their conceptual approach. Endless layers of patterning, collage and gaudy colouring are deliberately extreme, to the point where the paintings, when viewed in the flesh, are almost too vivid, too excessive. The fashion image, beauty as the ideological promise of the good life and product placement, are fragmented and subverted. Sugary pastels and lurid fluorescent pigment signal our illusory and synthetic popular culture. Fakery and surface become interchangeable. Alice Butler (Frieze Writer’s Prize, 2012) wrote that ‘in Vanessa Mitter’s paintings, the personal is treated as a pliant material, a source of affect and investigation, but also of fiction and performance. Collage, paint and pigment find a way on to the canvas in ephemeral expressive gestures’. Vanessa Mitter is a painter and a performance artist, who lives and works in London. She graduated with a BA in Fine Art: Painting from Central Saint Martins and a Postgraduate Diploma and an MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art and Design. Selected exhibitions include: Objects of Desire, ASC Gallery (London), The Lore of the Land, Churchgate Gallery (London), Mother Art Prize, Mimosa House (London), Velvet Ropes, David Risley Gallery (Copenhagen), Velvet Ropes at Athina Art Fair (Athens) through 0-0 Gallery (Los Angeles), Ornamental Neon at ASC Gallery (London), You Are Here, Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery, The Lore of the Land, Churchgate Gallery (Somerset), Frivolous Convulsions, Turf Projects (London), The Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize 2017 exhibition, Piano Nobile Gallery (London), I Am A Beautiful Monster, Arthouse1 Gallery (London), Unquiet Brides, Unit G Gallery (London), And The Dark And The Dark, A-Side B-Side Gallery (London), Strange Attraction, A.P.T Gallery (London), Beuys Keep Swinging, Landing Space, Chelsea College of Art and Design (London), The Painting Game, K Projects (Berlin), de Kooning, de Kooning, de Kooning, David Risley Gallery (Copenhagen), Trajector Art Fair (Brussels), Then I Remembered, Carter Presents Gallery (London), und wieder lockt das Weib, Strzelski Galerie, (Stuttgart), New Force, Galerie4828 (Venice), Scapegoat Society, Guest Projects (London).

www.vanessamitter.com

Curatorial projects include: Frivolous Convulsions at Turf Projects (Arts Council funded, 2018), I Am Not Here To Entertain You at Field Projects, 2011, The Dandyism of Contempt, Camden Space, 2011. Mitter’s work is held in private collections in Europe and America. She has been shortlisted for: The Mother Art Prize 2018, The Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize 2017, The Red Mansion Foundation Art Prize and GAM—Gilbert de Botton Art Prize and longlisted for: 100 Painters of Tomorrow (Beers Gallery). Publications include: You Are Here Catalogue, Lore of the Land Catalogue, Frivolous Convulsions Catalogue (Arts Council funded), Strange Attraction Catalogue, Frieze review of de Kooning de Kooning de Kooning, Positive artist’s interview, Politiken and Show Time (Sonnendeck Strzelski Gallery, Stuttgart art publication), Unquiet Brides solo exhibition essay by Alice Butler (Frieze Writer’s Winner), Strange Attraction exhibition catalogue by Alice Butler, Life Was Never Meant to be This Way solo exhibition catalogue (Museu Casal de Cultura, Mallorca, Spain).

Image:

A Sense Sublime oil, pen and collage on canvas 40 x 30 cm

Theatre of Life oil and collage on canvas 40 x 30 cm

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V a n e s s a

M i t t e r

www.vanessamitter.com

Image:

A Sense Sublime oil, pen and collage on canvas 40 x 30 cm

Theatre of Life oil and collage on canvas 40 x 30 cm

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Ta l Y e r u s h a l m i

Tal Yerushalmi, was born in Israel, 1978, grew up in Israel and Venezuela; studied in Bezalel, Jerusalem (BFA 2004, MFA 2006), and is working in Tel Aviv. Exhibited in: Maya Gallery (2020), Hezi Cohen Gallery (2017), Braverman Gallery (2016), Beit Binyamini (2015), Tel Aviv; Petach Tikva Museum (2016); Ashdod Museum (2010, 2016, 2019); Artists House (2018), Barbur Gallery (2013), Jerusalem; Janco-Dada Museum (2008), Ein Hod; Fresh Paint Art Fair (2008), Tel Aviv; Center of Contemporary Art (2008), Bremen, Germany. Awards and scholarships: Bezalel MFA Residency (2019-20), Ministry of Culture Creative Encouragement Award (2018), Lottery Council for Arts Support for production of a catalog (2016), Artist-Teacher scholarship (2008), Rich Foundation scholarship (2005). Teaching at Thelma Yellin school of Art and the Fine Art Department at “Shenkar” academy. The act of painting, for me, is a way of naming my own wishes. Any image I will endow with form will come into existence; any color I will lay on the canvas will become a creation that will save the painting, the earth and the world, from The Nothing that seeks to annihilate them. All that is required is for the image to be new, to present an invention and express my heart’s wish. I light a flame in the dark of The Nothing. What will I see in its light? Who is asking me to call it by its name? Is it a dove or a flower? Is it a rock, a knife or a rope? Soil, water, the Judean Desert, the State of Israel? Anything I will imagine and paint will come into existence and will be present in the painting. But The Nothing refuses to yield. It has its cunning ways of sneaking back in, to prove to me that this is only an illusion, that no matter how many shapes or colors, animals or objects, countries or universes I will create—they will not be real. They are mere paintings. I do not let go. I paint a match so I may rekindle the fire. I burn a painting, and make a real hole in it. You can pass your finger through it. But everything collapses once more. The magic of the art of painting is lost, the illusion gone: the painting is riddled with burnt holes. What will I do with a burnt painting?

www.talyerushalmi.com

Image: Untitled oil, acrylic and soot on burnt canvas 100 x 120 cm

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A line emerges from the burnt hole. Who is it? A snake? Are you sure that I called your name? The snake crawls toward the burnt holes, swallowing them one by one. Perhaps the snake was hungry and came over to eat a few eggs. I can paint a bird that will lay a few fresh eggs instead of the ones devoured. Perhaps this time a snake will not appear, maybe I will not light another fire. I will draw water just to be on the safe side. With a heart and brush I will return to yet another round in this lost battle. I paint a bird.

Image: Cave oil, acrylic and soot on burnt canvas 160 x 200 cm

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Ta l Y e r u s h a l m i

www.talyerushalmi.com

Image: Untitled oil, acrylic and soot on burnt canvas 100 x 120 cm

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Image: Cave oil, acrylic and soot on burnt canvas 160 x 200 cm

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ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

I a n

E t t e r

S t e p h e n

T h o r n h i l l

www.ianetter.com

www.stephenthornhillart.com

Ian Etter (b. Elmendorf AFB, AK) is an artist and independent curator that currently lives in Dallas, TX. He received his MFA in Drawing and Intermedia from the University of Iowa in 2013. Ian’s work has been included in recent group shows at Tiger Strikes Asteroid in Brooklyn, NY, The Wassaic Project in Wassaic, NY, Ortega y Gasset Projects in Brooklyn, NY and Spring/Break Art Show in New York, NY with solo shows at Practice Gallery in Philadelphia, PA and Legion Arts in Cedar Rapids, IA. Ian’s curatorial projects have been exhibited at Spring/Break Art Show multiple times and featured on ARTnews.com.

My current body of work draws deeply from the landscape of Southern California and other travels, my meditations upon music, and my interest in neurology, memory, and language. Scenes of crashing lightning, streaming rain, and hovering mountains are born out of observation, but turn sharply into imagined places of memory and self-invention. Ultimately, they are nods to the mysteries within the landscape, where there is always something new to discover. Often drawn from my experiences on backpacking trips and time at the coast, there is an intended effect of being in the environment rather than simply viewing it, and of being within the wilderness, over an extended period of time. Works are based on moments of interaction where imagination and memory meet. The scenes are retellings of things witnessed, resurgences of things felt, and reimagined scenarios of fleeting, yet impressive natural events. I’m fascinated by nonlinguistic thought processes, and how we are capable of complex thought, logic, and reason even when speech and language centers of the brain have been compromised: thought without words.

My art is driven by the idea of artist as explorer. Aesthetically mutable, each body of work begins with an inquiry into the nature of the cosmos and is developed through artistic research. Incorporating a broad range of mediums, my practice has led me to conduct field research and collaborate with scientists. Currently, I am making enigmatic drawings that attempt to visualize the incomprehensible. This work references mathematical renderings of the Calabi Yau shapes. At the smallest scale, our universe is composed of the material space-time. Higher dimensions beyond our spatial three may exist within this material. The structures of the higher-dimensional spaces are known as Calabi Yau Manifolds. The Calabi Yau are containers that harbor the energy of the universe, and the varying geometry of these shapes determine how energy is transformed into the different elementary particles. I begin these drawings with several digital sketches and layer, merge and reduce them to a single image. This compression references computer renderings of the Calabi Yau as they are translated from a higher dimension into three dimensions and visualized using software. Impossible to envision in their higher-dimensional state, these computer renderings defy our intuitive understanding of form when reduced to three dimensions. Likewise, the haphazard digital compositions I create are cropped into small squares or placed within the silhouette of a classical vase or vessel for formal clarity. I faithfully re-render these digital sketches on paper using graphite and ink. My drawings, with their hard edges and soft inner composition, emit a static energy; the elemental structures are built from fields of nearly indiscernible marks. Just as matter is composed of energy, the dynamism contained within these dense surfaces speaks to the minute particles and geometries which form all substance.

In the end, the aim of my artistic practice is to present a fresh, honest and soulful object that speaks with rhythm, like a great song. Hidden inside are autobiographical notes on intimacy, loneliness, and anxiety. Humor is found in their extreme crevices, animated edges, and precarious moments. The landscape is human and vulnerable, with drops and rough spots, but with a certain flow and resolution. They aim to inspire curiosity, get stuck in your mind, or leave you hanging. Like a voice stretching for an octave above and slipping into a delightful crackle, the work reaches and risks for a surface both luscious and fraught. Stephen Thornhill was born in Brindisi, Italy, grew up mostly in Texas and spent the majority of high school in Sicily. He received his BFA from Texas A&M Corpus and MFA from the University of Delaware. He lived and worked in Brooklyn, NY from 2002 to 2010 then moved to southern California. He is currently based south of Los Angeles in Santa Ana, CA.

Image:

Man and Lion graphite and ink on off-white paper 18 x 15 inches

False Peak 2 acrylic and charcoal on wood panel 24 x 30 inches

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I a n

E t t e r

S t e p h e n

T h o r n h i l l

www.ianetter.com

www.stephenthornhillart.com

Image:

Man and Lion graphite and ink on off-white paper 18 x 15 inches

False Peak 2 acrylic and charcoal on wood panel 24 x 30 inches

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ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

K a t e

S a b l e

Kate Sable’s paintings of curvilinear and gridded abstract forms are an ongoing investigation between analytical and intuitive use of color, line, gesture, and shape. Her practice directly engages personal metaphor and inquiry, while remaining strongly grounded in the painting process. Her work was recently included in Dream Journal, a three person exhibition curated by Alex Ebstein at Goucher College (Baltimore, MD) and recent group exhibitions include “We Go Fast” curated by Ryan Travis Christian at Left Field Gallery (Los Osos, CA), I Like Your Work Podcast’s juried exhibition Be.Long at Dutoit Gallery (Dayton, OH), Hen House’s All Female “Tiny Show” at Brookland Exchange (Washington, DC), and “BC/AC” at Montgomery Park College (Takoma Park, Maryland). Her work was also featured in the publication Friend of The Artist (Volume 8) and reviews include The Washington Post, Washington City Paper, Two Coats of Paint, among others. Originally from Virginia, Sable earned a BFA (Concentration in Painting and Minor in Art History) from Virginia Tech, and she moved to Washington, DC to attend American University, where she received an MFA in 2009. She now resides in Reston, VA, just outside of Washington, DC, with her husband and three children. I am deeply satisfied by the physicality of paint, and my primary practice is an exploration of the material through process-led abstraction. I think a lot about the idea of touch in my work, especially from a nonverbal place: where the perception of marks on the picture plane recall the experience of touch or movement. It is that material perspective, working and reworking the way paint responds during a moment of making, falling, folding, overlapping, that motivates me. I’ve always had an interest in idiosyncratic repetition and geometric abstraction, however recently my compositions have moved away from utilizing rigid patterning, and although a fretwork remains, the arena feels more organic. Within the constraints of shallow space, and relating to the sense of touch, shapes and objects within a painting allow me to illustrate sensations that feel both familiar and peculiar, fleshy and ever growing. My paintings are abstractly driven by my narrative as a woman, a mother, a lover; but a painting becomes an interesting object to me after I’ve spent the time responding and reacting to the surface, navigating tensions between studied and intuitive decisions. I love how a painting can be loaded with jokes, clunky shapes, and a shifting figure ground relationship, but can also find its own idiosyncratic resolve—becoming something that exists purely as the thing itself. And ultimately, it’s that dance between analytical and intuitive investment in gestures, shapes, and color that serves as a foundation to my work.

www.katherinesable.com

Image:

And I Begged oil on linen 54 x 66 inches

Fleshly Lush oil on linen 54 x 66 inches

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S a b l e

www.katherinesable.com

Image:

And I Begged oil on linen 54 x 66 inches

Fleshly Lush oil on linen 54 x 66 inches

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Tim Sandow’s content-related imagery is fed by the tragedy of the everyday, which can only be captured through the sensitive observation of human gestures and situations. The artist from Wuppertal develops a distanced, yet not self-exclusive position for himself as a viewer by means of disconcerting depictions of the persons depicted. This allows him to act without any classification. Sandow’s works refer to the quiet nuances of everyday interaction that are so often the source of very personal anecdotes. ( Katharina Galladé) Tim Sandow, born 1988, lives and works in Wuppertal, Germany. He graduated from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, 2019.

T i m

S a n d o w

www.timsandow.com

Image:

Bye the sea dispersion and acrylic on canvas 50 x 40 cm

Leavin’ Trunk acrylic on canvas 120 x 90 cm

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T i m

S a n d o w

www.timsandow.com

Image:

Bye the sea dispersion and acrylic on canvas 50 x 40 cm

Leavin’ Trunk acrylic on canvas 120 x 90 cm

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J e f f

M e n d o n c a

M i c h e l l e

B l a d e

www.michelleblade.com

My current body of work is inspired by female friendships and familial relationships. Following in the footsteps of artists like Joan Brown and Mary Cassatt this work attempts to examine intimate and introspective feminine narratives while simultaneously making sense of my role as a painter within it.

www.instagram.com/jeffmendonca090

Jeff focuses on everyday life through portraiture and landscape. He attempts to dig deeper beyond the surface of human emotion and nature to ask questions but not necessarily come up with answers. He makes paintings and drawings and uses primarily oil.

Set in nature, many of my paintings reflect the bioregional landscapes where I live and work. The plants and animals are vital characters and the individuals mirror their charged and dreamlike surroundings. Beginning first as sketches in a notebook and then transferred onto satin or poplin, I apply atmospheric layers of paint that bleed, bloom and abstract the image. I am formally and conceptually excited by the out-of-control nature of the inks and mystery this brings to the work. I believe this abstraction moves part of the image beyond language and toward metaphor, serving as a physical placeholder for the unknown. Each painting I make is ultimately a document of the thirst to create meaning from our immediate and tangible realities. My exhibition experience includes showing at the Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, the Bonnefantenmuseum Netherlands, Jack Hanley Gallery SF, Johansson Projects, Roberts & Tilton, and Western Exhibitions. My work has been featured in The NY Times Magazine, The Paris Review, Gather Journal, GQ, Juxtapoz, The California Sunday Magazine, and Blue Magazine among others. I am also a founding member of the Los Angeles art collective, The Binder of Women.

Image: Image: Self-Portrait oil on canvas over panel 11 1/8 x 14 inches

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Cat Cow acrylic ink on poplin 10 x 17 inches

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J e f f

M e n d o n c a

M i c h e l l e

B l a d e

www.michelleblade.com

www.instagram.com/jeffmendonca090

Image: Image: Self-Portrait oil on canvas over panel 11 1/8 x 14 inches

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Cat Cow acrylic ink on poplin 10 x 17 inches

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F e r n a n d a

M e l l o

M a t t h e w

M a h l e r

www.bricartsmedia.org/art-exhibitions/fernanda-mello-mirror’s-inhabitants

www.matthewjmahler.com

Fernanda Mello is a Self-Taught artist born in the Amazon region in Brazil. She has always been surrounded by the complex conditions of nature and afro-indigenous folklore through books and ritual dances taken in high school. Later on, while developing her Graduation Program in Drama School, she started doodling at Art History classes. Drawing was so strong on her daily practice that she dropped Drama School and went to London to develop herself as a painter. Having her first group exhibition in 2011 at Brick Lane Gallery and later on taking part in an Art Fair in Paris, she moved back to São Paulo living in a full-time Art Residency Program for one year with her works shown at Memorial of América Latina. Later, she also moved to Brooklyn in another short-term Art Residency Program with AnnexB having her first solo show at BRIC in 2017 and another group show at La Bodega Gallery. In her practice with painting, she explores ideas of identity in communal spaces, organic geometry, science and the relationship with non-western cosmologies especially Indigenous cultures from Brazil creating a new perspective of “The Evolution of The Cosmos” through diversity and differentiation. She works and lives in Newburgh, NY.

Matthew J. Mahler (b. St. James, NY, 1982) is an artist based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn whose work investigates the painting process. He earned a BS in Art Education from Hofstra University and holds an MFA in Painting from CUNY Queens College. Mahler’s work has been included in various exhibitions around the United States including Sardine (NY), Heliopolis (NY), Ex Ovo Projects, (TX), Matteawan Gallery (NY), Gallery 21 (VA), Centotto (NY), Transmitter Gallery (NY), Guest Spot @ the ReInstitute (MD), Gallery North (NY), Denny Gallery (NY), Brooklyn Fire Proof Gallery (NY), Storefront Bushwick (NY), the Austrian Cultural Forum (NY) amongst others. My work explores the process of painting by incorporating tools or strategies to act as intermediaries between my hand and the surface. By employing accessible approaches to image making, I am interested in exploring a space that democratizes abstraction. The resulting body of work is created by using dye to affect a burlap substrate (by additive or subtractive methods) on which I apply generous amounts of acrylic paint to masked areas. The result is a body of work that is as unpredictable as it is expected, that is simultaneously both fast and slow.

Image: Earth Constellation 1 acrylic on linen 16 x 20 inches

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Image: Untitled (Diamond Helix Spiral) acrylic on dyed burlap 24 x 24 inches

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F e r n a n d a

M e l l o

M a t t h e w

M a h l e r

www.bricartsmedia.org/art-exhibitions/fernanda-mello-mirror’s-inhabitants

www.matthewjmahler.com

Image: Earth Constellation 1 acrylic on linen 16 x 20 inches

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Image: Untitled (Diamond Helix Spiral) acrylic on dyed burlap 24 x 24 inches

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P r a e P u p i t y a s t a p o r n

Pupityastaporn liberates the boundaries by manipulating time and space through her painting; the interplay between the colours, abstract figures and light transforms into the timeless serenity in her work. Through her illusive opaque objects to the layered uncontrollable fluidity of the background, Pupityastaporn considers the dimension a landscape can offer, providing intricacy through texture, colour depth. Whether it becomes a bluish sky in the sweep of white or the translucent green trees accompanied with the background of ruby red, the range of colours unfolds the illusory realities in the unbound imagination. Whilst her focus is on the landscape and the artist portrays an unusual however uncanny atmosphere, the works never contain human figures, inviting the audience to interact solely through their own perspective and experiences, disrupting the subject through manipulating the image. The title of each work should be contemplated as it is an emphasis on the artist’s dry wit, stimulating an alternative narrative. Pupityastaporn takes influence from her surroundings, ranging from landscape portrayals of tropical outdoors to stale indoor scenes that relate back to the artist’s process of using existing images, intertwining objects from her own recollection of memories to form figurative situations. (An excerpt from exhibition’s catalog “The perfect day for fishing”; text by Margaret Wu and Natalie Sasiprapa Organ).

www.praepupityastaporn.com

Image:

Room with the view acrylic on canvas 190 x 150 cm

Die Wunderkammer acrylic on canvas 170 x 253 cm

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P r a e P u p i t y a s t a p o r n

www.praepupityastaporn.com

Image:

Room with the view acrylic on canvas 190 x 150 cm

Die Wunderkammer acrylic on canvas 170 x 253 cm

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M a t t h e w

C o l e

Cole is a painter who employs traditional painting and preliminary printmaking methods to interpret memories of actual and subconscious events— amalgamations of real life and fantasy, often stemming from profound personal experiences. The processes of layering and distorting are instrumental in conveying emotion in his work. The artist uses composite imagery to represent the fragmented nature of memory, narrated through personal as well as familiar references from art history.

www.galerielinlassable.com/matthew-cole

Image:

Hoop Dreams acrylic on canvas 60 x 71 inches

Interior Life acrylic on panel 9.5 x 13.5 inches

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M a t t h e w

C o l e

www.galerielinlassable.com/matthew-cole

Image:

Hoop Dreams acrylic on canvas 60 x 71 inches

Interior Life acrylic on panel 9.5 x 13.5 inches

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M a t t H a y w o o d

Matt Haywood was born in Detroit, Michigan. He received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 2008 and has exhibited internationally; including Berlin, Mexico City, and Los Angeles, where his most recent solo exhibition “Rose Theater” was held at O’ Project Space. He currently splits his practice between Los Angeles and Detroit. I work by the light of internal impulse, imagination, and memory, without photo or other image references. My day-to-day, minute-to-minute, and second-to-second in the studio holds a high ratio of uncertainty, which keeps my daily practice nerve-rackingly exciting and rewarding on a good day, week, or month, and deeply dissatisfying and confusing on a bad one. Although it appears representational, the work is almost always born out of spontaneity as I indulge impulse in a pseudo-expressionistic way. In the early stages of a painting I lay down masses of color which then beg for increasing detail and resolution. As the formal demands of picture making guide my hand to make marks in an instinctual way, a work starts to progress. Particular themes and ideas seem to find their way to the surface through this approach. These themes and recurring glimmers of imagery often reference nothing more than their own history in my studio, nonetheless these universally identifiable representational markers lead me through to the completion of an image as I begin to find some sense of truth in them. I often rely on whatever substrates and materials find their way to me, trying not to hold particular attachment to a certain method or material. This ultimately echoes the way imagery itself flows through different bodies of my work. Through this process I hope to create pictures that reflect timeless and universally relatable human themes concerning time, space, place, and the nature and history of looking.

www.matthaywood.com

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

Image:

Sun Child oil on canvas 8 x 10 inches

Sirens II oil on canvas 8 x 10 inches

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M a t t H a y w o o d

www.matthaywood.com

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

Image:

Sun Child oil on canvas 8 x 10 inches

Sirens II oil on canvas 8 x 10 inches

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G e o r g i a

G r i n t e r

V e r o v c h a

www.georgiagrinter.com

I want to uncover people’s real feelings through painting. Underneath this historically developed medium, lies the ‘express yourself’ safety net where you are allowed to scream. Screaming in the street, at home, in the bathroom, will label you as ‘animal’. The funny thing is, we are animals. Sometimes it feels like we have to either have children or live in the depths of the countryside to excuse any slight desire to act like one. I have spent a lot of time with trees lately. The trunk is like a body and the branches like arms, their twigs like fingers. I find them confiding to look at because they take up space and yet they remain stuck in the ground. As animals, our emotions evolve from our lives and our environments reflect them. Emotions form needs, requiring us to make ‘things’ to manage them; utensils, furniture, arranging the nature around us. Our experiences anthropomorphise these ‘things’ and my painting tries to explore these manifestations and the malleability of these pre-described inventions. I use their shadows and surfaces to play with how they appear. I’m inspired by the instinctive outlet that folk art allowed, expression left on unacknowledged materials as a natural form of therapy. Human touch echoes in their consideration to exist, also found in crafts. In this sense, the texture of a painting echoes this story of necessity. The depths of texture refuse rawness and cover naked marks in an armour, like many of us use branded shells to refuse true selves within society. Language is another result of management, structuring communication. However, varying through age, gender, sexuality, race, human, animal, sound, every pre-formed identification, no sentence said out loud is directly the same. Combining images that amount to the same word, a ‘homograph’, lets me play with the development of our language and reasons for solidities. If a child repeats the same words over and over, symbolic order disappears and as writer Ben Lerner describes they regress to “little feral animals”. Our bodies are conditioned to subconsciously repeat expectations, but by painting fluid games in shadows we can be understood through a multitude of readings.

www.verovcha.com

Verovcha is a Peruvian artist. Born in 1994 in Lima, she currently lives and works in Ollantaytambo, Cusco. Her practice studies the connection between body and nature, as two fertile entities that are also one. With her figures, Verovcha reimagines organs and body parts of living beings. She procures this way, to mend that connection between the earth and the human. She holds a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts and Sustainability from Pratt Institute, New York.

Image:

Bye Sun! oil on canvas 31 x 41 cm

Guardiana acrylic paint, tempera, charcoal, wax pastels, dirt and alpaca fibre on canvas 60 x 100 cm

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G e o r g i a

G r i n t e r

V e r o v c h a

www.georgiagrinter.com

www.verovcha.com

Image:

Bye Sun! oil on canvas 31 x 41 cm

Guardiana acrylic paint, tempera, charcoal, wax pastels, dirt and alpaca fibre on canvas 60 x 100 cm

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Christopher Dunlap’s work creates a multiplicity of relationships between simple shapes and complex structures through depictions of spatial constructs and arrangements of pattern. By using specific placement, repetition and implied perspective, he creates images that unfold over time, drawing the viewer to a heightened awareness of their own visual processes. The viewer is able to inhabit his paintings both visually and conceptually through his depictions of unfolding space. He achieves this through a geometry based off of two simple directions: vertical and horizontal. By starting with a grid, any deviations outside of the composed verticals and horizontals allow Dunlap’s paintings to spill open with possibility and multiplicity. A sense of intimacy and familiarity is also achieved through Dunlap’s approach to both size and scale. His paintings reinforce the fact that he is making an object while at the same time depicting a pictorial space within the confines of a specific geometry. Each painting opens a world both imagined and created.

www.dunlappaintings.com

C h r i s t o p h e r

My paintings operate both irrationally as well as within a specific predetermined system. I initially work out ideas for paintings through drawing and then collage. This allows me to make quick decisions; I can start to understand the composition of the work, but I’m not yet bound by the finality of painting directly on canvas. Once I’m able to depict an image that reflects my initial impetus for making the painting, I start building up layers of paint on canvas using my earlier drawings and collages as a reference. Having stated this, I would be hesitant to say my paintings are based off a pre-planned image. My practice gets more specific as I work on a painting, but I allow myself to deviate from an initial idea as I see different relationships appear. This means that the method can reverse itself as I go back to making more drawings, this time using my paintings as reference. These paintings are the end result of my engagement with an idea both physically and visually. Christopher Dunlap was born in Pullman, Washington. He received his BFA from University of Washington and his MFA from Massachusetts College of Art. His work has been shown in galleries both nationally and internationally, including recent solo shows at Sardine Gallery, Brooklyn, New York and Hiromart Gallery, Tokyo, Japan. His work has also been exhibited in various group shows including Transmitter Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; No Place Gallery, Columbus, OH; Site 131, Dallas, TX and Spring Break Art Fair, NYC. He has been reviewed in The New York Times, Two Coats of Paint, Art F City and Travel Magazine. Dunlap lives and works in Harlem, New York City.

D u n l a p

Image:

Image (left):

Image (right):

Thin Section oil on canvas 14 x 11 inches

Crescent City oil on canvas 14 x 11 inches

Kamiak 002 oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches

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www.dunlappaintings.com

C h r i s t o p h e r

D u n l a p

Image:

Image (left):

Image (right):

Thin Section oil on canvas 14 x 11 inches

Crescent City oil on canvas 14 x 11 inches

Kamiak 002 oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches

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A d a m A m r a m

Adam Amram (b. 1994 Haifa, Israel) earned a BFA in Painting and Printmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2016. He has shown most recently with Resort Gallery (Baltimore, MD), Harpy Gallery (Rutherford, NJ and Brooklyn, NYC), Melanie Flood Projects + Adams and Ollman Gallery (Portland, OR), and 891 N Main Gallery (Providence, RI). Amram, a 2012 YoungArts Visual Arts Alum, attended the Yale School of Art Norfolk Summer Fellowship in 2015, and was an Artist in Residence at the Vermont Studio Center, in Johnson VT, in 2018. Amram currently lives and works in the California Bay Area, and was recently named the 2019-2020 YoungArts Daniel Arsham Fellow.

www.adamamram.com

As a painter, I am devoted to exploring and challenging the limitations that painting imposes on narrative storytelling. I am interested in painting as a mode of language—spoken through the use of material, in an effort to arrive at a space of nonmaterial. Similar to the still and flattened worlds of comics and animation, the imagery in my paintings subscribes to graphic rendering. Through this graphic rendering, I am able to exaggerate or simplify imagery to elicit symbolism. I employ symbolism as a means of poetry, pairing images like words to render metaphoric narratives. The narratives within my paintings both contemplate the challenges of life and relish in the remarkability of existence. My paintings reflect my observations and perceptions, materializing as visual records of these experiences. Through these material records, I expose the truths of society and nature. In my paintings, subjects and their environments are juxtaposed to emphasize the duality of their existence. On one hand, a television set to a static channel may be perceived as lifeless and dull. On the other hand, the dancing dots of static hovering in the glowing screen, take on the form of a celestial landscape. This duality explores the importance and value of imagination, as there is no total existence without the imagined experience.

Image:

Field of Vision oil and pigment on canvas 36 x 133 inches

Starry Night oil and pigment on canvas 40 x 30 inches

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A d a m A m r a m

www.adamamram.com

Image:

Field of Vision oil and pigment on canvas 36 x 133 inches

Starry Night oil and pigment on canvas 40 x 30 inches

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My art practice orbits around fundamental human experiences where there is at all times a universal craving and imagination for answers to the unknown, often pursued in the name of spirituality, the sublime, the so-called truth or even evidence-based science, just as seeking light in the dark. Layering unscripted images by using diluted oil paint allows me to capture the reactive dynamics between the ephemeral presence and the fundamental longing for answers shared by humanity across history—a sense of being there and not there. In the images, I’m also trying to explore the kind of intimate and complementary relationship where figuration and abstraction are in tune which might be a door to possibilities beyond the spatial temporal world. I am also interested in the materiality in paintings—the visual and consciousness-awakening power of different qualities and textures on the canvas re-establish a long-neglected resonance between ourselves and nature, particularly in the era of elevated technological and virtual societal experience where effortless and unpolished natural beauty are often rejected.

Y i

I am inspired heavily by cave paintings from across the world, particularly interested in how the time washed surfaces and natural colours possess an immense power which is capable of uplifting an immediate sense of belonging in the viewer to the Mother Earth. Using specific material on the canvas, I am trying to deliver an experience of a passage of time and the quality of timelessness at the same time that can be shared by humanity across all borders. These are our forgotten connections to the natural world.

www.yi-to.com

Image:

The Hugger oil on canvas 74 x 94 cm

At The Height of A Stretch oil on canvas 170 x 225 cm

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Y i

www.yi-to.com

Image:

The Hugger oil on canvas 74 x 94 cm

At The Height of A Stretch oil on canvas 170 x 225 cm

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Born in 1986, Diana Romanovich lives and works in Moscow. In the series of works “Portrait of the spirit” I give a shape to an ephemeral and abstract concept, consequently looking for the portrait’s right embodiment. Portraits are quite figurative, as far as it is still impossible to verbalize each work. I keep the emotion and spontaneous expression of the material through its natural movement. I allow the material to exist, to dissolve, to overcome inertia by creating a canvas on a par with me. The union of material freedom with the gesture of speed and sincerity creates the illusion of infinite movement, in which the image of the spirit finds a real embodiment.

D i a n a

R o m a n o v i c h

www.dianaromanovich.com

Image:

Portrait #2 acrylic on canvas 80 x 100 cm

Portrait #1 acrylic on canvas 80 x 100 cm

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D i a n a

R o m a n o v i c h

www.dianaromanovich.com

Image:

Portrait #2 acrylic on canvas 80 x 100 cm

Portrait #1 acrylic on canvas 80 x 100 cm

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U n h e e

P a r k

I s a b e l

C h u n

www.unheepark.com

www.isabelchun.com Unhee Park, born and raised in Korea, is a photographer and video artist who brings a fresh and unique approach to expressing identity issues and social reality through art in contemporary North America. Her deadpan comedy approach in her work has a hint of absurdity and naivety. Her persona and status as an outsider allow her to ask blunt but profound questions that lead to her idiosyncratic approach to expressing issues on reality and fiction. She received her Master’s in Fine Arts (MFA) from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in Photography, Video, and Related Media. Park has been featured in Governors Island Art Fair, Spring/Break Art Show, Landskrona Foto Festival, and Dumbo Art Festival. Selected solo and group exhibitions at The Fence 2018, Dumbo, Santa Fe, Atlanta, Durham, Sarasota, Buena Park City Hall, NARS Foundation, Knockdown Art Center, Superior Gallery, and Miami Art Basel, Hongkong Art Basel. Her work has been reviewed by World Photography, Aint-Bad, the Artist Catalogue, and Scrapped Magazine. Before moving to New York, Park studied Glass Art and Art Therapy in Korea. Her exposure and experience with photography and art in Korea paved her way to her MFA in 2013 and a certificate from the International Center of Photography (ICP) in 2010. Park is currently involved in art projects both in Korea and the US.

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

Isabel Chun is a Cambridge, MA based artist working in painting, sculpture, and printmaking. Born in Hong Kong, she has just moved from New York to Massachusetts, where she is currently maintaining a studio practice and pursuing a Masters in Architecture at Harvard University. Her work was most recently shown at Opalka Gallery at the Sage Colleges (2019) and previously at Columbia University’s LeRoy Neiman Gallery (2018) and at a two-person show at Kirkland Gallery (2018). Chun received a BA from Columbia University, studying Visual Arts and additionally the History and Theory of Architecture. Chun’s recent paintings explore the use of surface, line, and fill through reduced means of painting. With this pared down set of elements, she plays with the convention of the abstract grid. By pushing and pulling the grid formally, she tugs it towards the representational, draws it closer to home, and opens it to let symbolic and personal meanings in. Woven into the images is a desire to let the traces of process convey meaning as well—from the drag of the brush to the patches of canvas left raw. The work playfully shifts between abstract and representational, rational and expressive, universal and personal.

Image:

Host Project archival pigment print 35 x 52 inches

Check acrylic on canvas 20 x 20 inches

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U n h e e

P a r k

I s a b e l

C h u n

www.unheepark.com

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

Image:

Host Project archival pigment print 35 x 52 inches

Check acrylic on canvas 20 x 20 inches

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T h o m a s S p o e r n d l e

Born in Akron, Ohio in 1984, Thomas Spoerndle moved to New York City in 2007 after earning his BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art. In 2010 he received his MFA from Hunter College and has steadily maintained a studio in Long Island City, Queens ever since. Over the years he has exhibited his work in numerous group shows in Ohio, New York and Texas, as well as presented solo projects at places such as Novella Gallery, The Steven and George Laundry Line, Critical Practice Inc and Won Eh. His work has been featured in publications such as Patron (Dallas), New American Paintings, Maake Mag and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. A large-scale site-specific work, “Polyrhythmic Landscape”, commissioned in the fall of 2018 is currently on long term view at the Everson Museum in Syracuse, New York.

www.thomas-spoerndle.com

For over a decade I have been exploring the malleable pictorial space of abstract painting, gradually developing a distilled visual language focused on geometric shapes and the primary colors. Utilizing this language, I construct generative systems founded on pattern and repetition to create a sense of visual rhythm that lends itself to fluctuating figure ground relationships and allows me to articulate kaleidoscopic compositional permutations across series of paintings. The active pictorial space that results has led me to using the phonetic spelling frik-shuhn as a descriptive base for the title of my paintings to allude to the dynamic tension created by this interaction of shape and color. In the process of working I begin to form intuitive associations with compositions; these range from bodily relationships and directionality (landscape, compass, aperture) to musical terminology (staccato, polyrhythmic, broken chord). Drawing from the rich history of abstraction as well as the complex nature of human perception, my paintings operate in a meditative space where pragmatism meets subjectivity, coalescing in a way that is both strikingly immediate and deceptively nuanced.

Image:

Frik-Shuhn: Broken Chord (2) acrylic and varnish on canvas 28 x 56 inches

Frik-Shuhn: Aperture (3) acrylic and varnish on canvas 35.25 x 35.25 inches

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T h o m a s S p o e r n d l e

www.thomas-spoerndle.com

Image:

Frik-Shuhn: Broken Chord (2) acrylic and varnish on canvas 28 x 56 inches

Frik-Shuhn: Aperture (3) acrylic and varnish on canvas 35.25 x 35.25 inches

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M a r k

J o s h u a

E p s t e i n

Mark Joshua Epstein received his MFA from the Slade School of Fine Arts, University College London (London, England) and a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Boston, MA). Epstein has had solo or two person shows at Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca College (Ithaca, NY), NARS Foundation (Brooklyn, NY), Caustic Coastal (Salford, England), Vane Gallery (Newcastle, England), DEMO Project (Springfield, IL), Biquini Wax (Mexico City, Mexico), Breve (Mexico City, Mexico) and Brian Morris Gallery (New York, NY). Selected group shows include Collar Works (Troy, NY), Good Children Gallery (New Orleans, LA), Monaco (St Louis, MO), DAAP Galleries at the University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH), and Beverly’s (New York, NY). Epstein was included in Queer Abstraction, curated by Jared Ledesma, at the Nerman Museum, (Kansas City, KS). He has been a resident at Vermont Studio Center, Millay Colony, Jentel Foundation, MacDowell Colony, Saltonstall Foundation, I-Park and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, amongst others. Recent shapes paintings are constructed in a purposefully analog fashion—high-density foam is cut by hand, and then the pieces are secured with screws. Panels are covered in a layer of two-part epoxy clay, which is run through an old hand-crank pasta machine to get it to the correct thickness. Making them is a laborious process but it is also full of magical moments. The foam becomes encased in a rigid carapace—almost an exoskeleton. The surface of each panel is covered in my fingerprints, as the epoxy clay has to be pressed into place by hand. The paintings I make are born of my body, but they are abstract. I think of the paintings I am making as a kind of queering of abstraction. I grew up in the 1980s when the only queer work I saw was about the body, or was text based (or both). Although I recognized the importance of artists who worked in those ways, neither strategy worked for me. I wanted to engage with the legacies of 20th century American art, a history in which arguably, abstraction was born. I feel like, in making abstraction, I am laying claim to a history that has been somewhat denied to LGBTQ people. My abstraction is not the abstraction of say, Jackson Pollock or Willem de Kooning, but it mines their histories, it has conversations with their legacies while simultaneously problematizing their positions.

www.markjoshuaepstein.com

Image:

Skinny Dipping at Ocean Park acrylic and ink on artist-made high-density foam and epoxy clay panel 20 x 16 x 2 inches

Third Wheels on First Dates acrylic and ink on artist-made high-density foam and epoxy clay panel 20 x 20 x 2 inches

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M a r k

J o s h u a

E p s t e i n

www.markjoshuaepstein.com

Image:

Skinny Dipping at Ocean Park acrylic and ink on artist-made high-density foam and epoxy clay panel 20 x 16 x 2 inches

Third Wheels on First Dates acrylic and ink on artist-made high-density foam and epoxy clay panel 20 x 20 x 2 inches

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E r i k

d e n

B r e e j e n

Erik den Breejen was born in Berkeley, California. He is a graduate of Cornell University, where he received his MFA in 2006. Recent exhibitions include Song of the Earth at Freight + Volume, New York, Em Dash at Ampersand, Portland, and Weekend at Mindy Solomon gallery, Miami. Den Breejen’s large scale public works include murals commissioned by Public Art for Public Schools for PS 24 Q in Flushing, Queens and Atlantic Records headquarters in Manhattan. Erik is a 2018 MacDowell Fellow and a 2015 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Painting. His work has been written about in The New York Times, ARTnews, Hyperallergic, Artnet, Maake, Whitehot, and more. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. I’m attracted to using text in my paintings not only for its narrative and cultural meaning, but also its potential for abstraction. The shape of the letters themselves is an endlessly variable source of pattern and texture. I tend to feature song lyrics, but have also used my own texts and quotes from other sources. The letters are formed by painting a kind of frame around them while whatever is happening in the background becomes their body. This play between positive and negative space is fascinating to me and has only increased with my foray into using mixtures that suggest transparent overlaps of color. I like to play with scale shifts and alternate ways of reading—to make graphic decisions that would be “wrong” in a commercial context. While the text itself may become hard to read, reading the painting on a visual level becomes a deeper and richer experience.

www.erikdenbreejen.com

Image:

Here Comes the Sun acrylic on paper 20 x 16 inches

Strawberry Fields Forever II acrylic on paper 20 x 16 inches

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E r i k

d e n

B r e e j e n

www.erikdenbreejen.com

Image:

Here Comes the Sun acrylic on paper 20 x 16 inches

Strawberry Fields Forever II acrylic on paper 20 x 16 inches

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K r i s t i n

Te x e i r a

www.kristintexeira.com

I use color to document the past and present and to make vague predictions of the future. The paintings I create are time traveling vessels that allow the viewer to step into the emotion of a moment unable to be expressed with words. My motivation comes from the fear that the past is fading and dedicating color to the past allows me to be awake in the present. Through painting I preserve moments—for myself and others—to provide proof of existence. The practice of mixing colors specific to experiences is an attempt to understand how Time works—why it slows with sadness, speeds when we could use more; why as children we seem to have so much of it and how it tends to slip away the longer we live in it.

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

K a r l i

H e n n e m a n

www.karli-henneman.com

Karli Henneman is a Los Angeles based artist whose serene exploration of light and shadow investigates the ambiguous markings of urban spaces. Her hardedge painting technique offers a meditative perceptual experience through the intricate interplay of simple geometric forms. Using a neutral palette with subtle variations of color and tonal differences, she creates works of both equal opposition and volume. Questioning our modern world through methodical exhibits of shades of gray, the distinct clean lines and tonal shifts of Henneman’s work imbue a spark of coaction between the formal structures of her subject matter; brutalist form meeting elegant shadow. Her language of minimalist elements on vertically orientated linen canvases unifies her paintings with both balance and a keen sense of craft.

Image:

ghosts on both sides oil on paper 20 x 24 inches

K.57 acrylic on canvas 18 x 24 inches

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K r i s t i n

Te x e i r a

www.kristintexeira.com

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: curated selection

K a r l i

H e n n e m a n

www.karli-henneman.com

Image:

ghosts on both sides oil on paper 20 x 24 inches

K.57 acrylic on canvas 18 x 24 inches

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145

editorial selection of works Featured image: Mary Herbert It Welled From the Rock pastel on paper 10 x 20 cm more on p. 149

A n y a

R o s e n

M a r y

H e r b e r t

www.anyarosen.com

Anya Rosen b. 1989 is an artist currently living in Brooklyn, NY. Inspired by the fraught relationship between humanity and natural resources, Anya has spent the past six years working on vegetable farms across the eastern coast of the United States. Anya has participated in artist residency programs in Iceland and Colombia, at Breckenridge Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, and Trestle Gallery & Art Space in Brooklyn, NY. She has exhibited work at the Pensacola Museum of Art, Brooklyn Art Cluster, Site:Brooklyn, Trestle Gallery, and While Supplies Last in Seattle, Washington. My paintings and drawings examine the tension between internal and external desire through figurative representation of psychic narrative. Inspired by dreams, subconscious thought, and fiction storytelling, the content of my work explores aversion to discomfort, attraction to pleasure, and cultural associations between naturalness and morality.

www.mary-herbert.com

I consider “Nature” a non-gendered, unbiased entity that has been imbued with varying social significances. The affiliation of nature with ‘good’ limits our definition of the natural world by excluding the instinctual, cruel, grotesque, kinky, and deadly. Similarly, our association of fear, discomfort, and perverseness with ‘bad’ parts of nature reinforces the idea of taboo and creates a negative discourse around human behavior that is often categorized as unnatural, wrong, or queer.

Mary Herbert, b.1988, is a London-based artist. Her work was recently included in New Contemporaries 2019 at Leeds Art Gallery and South London Gallery. Mary studied art at Goldsmiths College London where she developed a fascination with the materiality of the photographic image and its unreliability as a container of memory, and the Royal Drawing School where she re-connected with the physical and unconscious aspects of image making through observational drawing.

I make art at the intersection of nature and queerness in order to explore how fear visually affects my own subconscious. The psychological, surreal and horrific narratives that influence my work feature characters from fiction literature whose external experiences are fueled by their fluctuating emotional state. By creating paintings from my imagination I become the characters in my stories—I excavate my own psychosis. This process of image-making reveals my feelings of obsession and mania, the physical manifestations of my desires, and the relationship between my own flesh and spirit.

Her current work is a series of small, dream-like pastel drawings responding to embodied-experience of landscape, and formed of a composite of feelings, lived-sensation, unconscious processes and observation. Often working on several pieces at once, her drawings resemble the fragmentary nature of our night time wanderings—much of the detail is lost but a resonant impression is left.

Image: We’re Getting Out of Here acrylic paint and chalk pastel on canvas 30 x 34 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: editorial selection

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Image: Untitled pastel on paper 16 x 19 cm

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A n y a

R o s e n

M a r y

H e r b e r t

www.anyarosen.com

www.mary-herbert.com

Image: We’re Getting Out of Here acrylic paint and chalk pastel on canvas 30 x 34 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: editorial selection

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Image: Untitled pastel on paper 16 x 19 cm

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L a u r e n

R o c h e

Lauren Roche (b. Santa Rosa, CA 1983) is a self-taught artist living in St Louis, Missouri. Her aesthetic is often rooted in autobiography and grapples with the elusive territories of the imagination and memory. An avid reader, Roche cites the magical realist novels of Murakami and Kathy Acker’s punk poetry as influential to her practice. Roche was awarded the 2012-2013 Jerome Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship as well as the 2019 Joan Mitchell Visual Arts Fellowship. Her work is represented by Bockley Gallery in Minneapolis, MN. In my work, female nudes and animals interact in abstracted interior and exterior spaces. These figures bend and reach in gestures of empathetic connection, revealing solidarity between impassive yet vulnerable forms. My figures inhabit aural, dreamlike settings, which I create by using rough fields of color and gestural paint strokes. My visual influences come from classical Greek mythology, handmade embroideries, weavings, domestic interiors, music, and my vivid dreamworld. I create paintings that examine balance and unease at once: female nudes engage in ritualistic acts, cats and dogs live harmoniously, and wild animals appear tame and indoors. All creatures share the same stripes, spots, and gestures but given these figures in their domesticated context, harm is still a looming threat. I am self-taught, and use paper, acrylic paint, and pen as a materials for physically exploring my thoughts and emotions, which become transformed into a visual narrative.

www.bockleygallery.com

Image:

untitled acrylic, gouache, water color, ink pen on paper 30 x 22.25 inches

untitled acrylic, gouache, water color, ink pen on paper 22.25 x 30 inches

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L a u r e n

R o c h e

www.bockleygallery.com

Image:

untitled acrylic, gouache, water color, ink pen on paper 30 x 22.25 inches

untitled acrylic, gouache, water color, ink pen on paper 22.25 x 30 inches

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E r i k o

H a t t o r i

www.erikohattori.com

Eriko Hattori (they/them) is a Pittsburgh-based artist. Hattori uses imagery, symbolism, and folklore to investigate the tension between sexual identity and cultural heritage. They aim to create personal mythologies that revolve around fetish, sexuality, and perceptions of femininity. With a rotating set of avatars, these icons act as anchors for conversations about perversion, desire, and the fetishism of bodies.

Image: Baku ink on paper 12.5 x 16 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: editorial selection

We are looking to help more emerging artists to publish and promote their work If you would like your work to be featured in our upcoming issues, please find out more details on how to apply to be considered. See p. 11 or visit our website: www.artmazemag.com We have an open call for art for the next print issue which provides publishing opportunities, as well as the ongoing open call for online blog. For any questions, please feel free to get in touch with us at info@artmazemag.com

E r i k o

H a t t o r i

www.erikohattori.com

Image: Baku ink on paper 12.5 x 16 inches

ArtMaze Magazine Issue 17: editorial selection