ART QA Magazine WINTER 2016

ART QA ISSUE #3 - WINTER 2016

FRONT COVER: PAINTING BY ARTIST SAMANTHA ROBINSON

INSIDE COVER: PAINTING BY SAMANTHA ROBINSON

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BACK COVER: PAINTING BY SAMANTHA ROBINSON

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ART QA ISSUE #3 - WINTER 2016 ART QA - QUARTERLY MAGAZINE - FOUR ISSUES A YEAR SPRING - SUMMER - AUTUMN - WINTER

5 EDITOR’S TEASHOP 7 ARTIST INTERVIEW 17 SOAPBOX 21 FEATURED INTERVIEW 33 CINE SPOT 39 REVIEWS 45 ART SPOT 48 NYC HOLIDAY IMAGES 51 UPCOMING EVENTS

Art QA Magazine, all rights reserved. No portion may be reproduced in part or in full by any means without prior written consent from Art QA.

ISSUE #4 THE SPRING ISSUE APRIL 2016

FEATURING ARTISTS WORKING IN ALL MEDIUMS AND MEDIA. PAINTING, SCULPTURE, PHOTOGRAPHY, DANCE, AND MORE IF YOU’RE AN ARTIST OR WRITER AND WISH TO BE FEATURED OR CONTRIBUTE AN ARTICLE TO ART QA SIMPLY SEND A BRIEF EMAIL TO staff@artqamagazine.com

ART QA

EDITOR’S TEASHOP

ART is inspirational. Art is insightful. Art is motivational.

We wish you a beautiful, joyful and happy Holidays.

We thank you for checking out ART QA Magazine - D. MANCINI

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ARTIST

BARNETT SUSKIND

I first saw Suskind’s artwork over a year ago while on a day-long tour of artist’s studios in New York City and Jersey City. When I saw his paintings of nude women, I found them powerful and interesting, which is rare for me, because I don’t really find most nudes all that moving. Now, a year later, I’m glad to have the chance to hear more about this artist and his work.

THE INTERVIEW AQA: Are you from New York? If not where are you from?

SUSKIND: I am an indigenous New Yorker - I was born here and spent most of my life here - exclusive of the four years that I spent at college in Illinois, which seemed like an eternity.

AQA: What was it like growing up there?

SUSKIND: I grew up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, which was very different than it is today. I felt safe. When I was about 10 years old and my sister was 81/2, we would get on our bikes and ride to Coney Island. If we had a quarter we could ride the bumper cars. Now that’s quite a distance from where I grew up in Bay Ridge to Coney Island, something that I don’t think any parent would allow their child to do unaccompanied today but we did it all the time. This was the way it was. I feel sorry for the children today who’ve lost that ability to explore without the threat of danger.

My interests then, as they are now, were fairly diverse. I love music. I started playing the piano at about four. My other passion was science. When I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always said I wanted to be a scientist! It got a pretty good response from the adults and that reinforced the idea even though I didn’t know what it meant. I did know that I was interested in my microscope and the things I could scrape out of the fish tank. I could watch it move and under the lens of my Gilbert microscope.

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Barnett Suskind INTERVIEW

AQA: When did you stop doing Science? Or is Art and Science in some way the same to you?

SUSKIND: The idea of linear progression does not fit my life. I never stopped art, I’ve never stopped science, I never stopped music. Just as I never stopped breathing, at least so far!

The delineation between art and science is an artificial one. The only thing that changes in your exploration of either is your choice of pallets. Both science and art have a choice of variables and language you elect to employ, to explore and find answers to your questions. In science you have the empirical nature of chemistry coupled with physics mitigated by the language of math. In science you look for answers which are definable, reproducible that provides answers to questions taking you to a larger understanding of the universe and yourself.

In art the pallet is the variables of line, color, structure, texture, tonality. The questions are of universality, communication, the essence of humanity, those things which unite and/or define us. The similarities are greater than their differences - the mind that explores science is the mind that explores art - as there is beauty in the pursuit of the answers.

AQA: You do abstract and non-abstract paintings. I find both interesting, but why do you do both?

SUSKIND: Well thank you for thinking I do both well.

Do you remember being a child and looking at a cloud and seeing something - a dog, a face, or what have you? I can remember lying in bed as a child looking at the curtains and seeing faces and forms. I knew if I got up and took a pen I could actually outline those forms. That childhood experience has remained with me.

I’ve always explored both. The duality seemed normal for me. Abstract paintings have the freedom that comes from the removal of expectations and a structure, which is required to do figurative work. That freedom allows for manifestation of an effect in a different dialect. I use different brushes, different motions. The absence of structure provides the opportunity to explore, and in that exploration find patterns and meaning that brings order out of chaos.

The paintings inform each other. The figurative paintings, specifically the faces and nudes, are done exclusively in oil and for the vast majority of cases are pulled from my imagination. This experience happens in the structural confines defined by either the face or the figure, specifically what you’re looking to represent. It is also modified by the emotions you’re looking to elicit from your audience. As this happens, there’s an underlying experience not necessarily conscious that occurs. I mix all my colors. I do them on paper pallets. These pallets are made up of and contain brushstrokes and mark making specific to me. These brushstrokes, this mark making has an abstract quality that I noticed.

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Barnett Suskind INTERVIEW

These pallets with their idiosyncratic marks now provide the basis which informs the abstract paintings. The abstract paintings then provide pallets which in turn inform the next paintings. All of this adds up to a body of images that underlie the components of the painting thus feeding and fertilizing each new work.

Where the problem comes in is in myself. I have a low threshold for boredom. And I am loathe to repeat myself. I never want to make the same painting. I never want to have the same experience. I’m always looking for the new.

As such, after a series of explorations, be it in the abstract and/or the figurative, I’m going to want to change. Also as a person who lives in the world I’m sensitive to that which is going on around me. I’m now involved in a new series of paintings which I’m doing alongside a series of abstract paintings. These paintings are a result of the observation of Arab Spring, i.e. my Welcome to the Spring paintings. These are tough, aggressive works which speak to what we are seeing, at least in the media. I can’t absent myself from these experiences, I can’t be unmoved by them and I can’t un-see them, thus they inform my work. However, I also am in control so I know when I want to have a conversation, which is more appropriate to someone’s living room as opposed to a painting, which one might find disturbing. However, being a person of integrity, I must speak to both.

AQA: When was your first exhibit of your work?

SUSKIND: The first one-man show was in Soho in 1979 - it was comprised of a group of paintings known as Chromatic Consonants. They were an exploration of perception, part of my science experience influencing art.

AQA: What was that like for you?

SUSKIND: As a young artist I had all the expectations one would dream about, only to realize that mostly it would mean nothing. I did have some wonderful comments from people who truly appreciated my work.

AQA: What if anything did you learn from it?

SUSKIND: I learned that an opening is mostly a vanity event. Galleries sell paintings to their clients, not typically to walk-ins or at openings, although it does happen occasionally.

AQA: I saw your “Venus Nudes” series a few years ago when I was visiting Mana with a friend. They are figurative works, which I found very interesting and beautiful. What was the thought within or behind them?

SUSKIND: Typically, I don’t want to talk about the message of the painting. Each individual brings to the painting their experience, their prejudices and preferences and as such each individual has a unique experience in the presence of a painting.

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Barnett Suskind INTERVIEW

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Barnett Suskind INTERVIEW By providing them context I limit their experience. This is especially true for the abstract paintings. I will provide some context here because you’ve asked. You’ve already said you found them beautiful, well that was a significant part of the message. Women today are told that you can’t be too thin or too rich. I’m not sure about the rich but I am positive about the too thin. This ideal provides an unreasonable paradigm and expectation for young women to achieve. It produces anorexia, bulimia, and it produces compulsions. My view is, it violates who we are as humans and as a species. The diversity that we experience and present is part of the beauty of who we are. I was attempting to make a statement that beauty is way beyond our expectations, and is there to be seen and cherished if we look. As the artist, I had the ability to make that point and it is that which underlies these paintings.

AQA: Your portraits of women series of paintings are maybe my favorite. What was the story behind you making them?

SUSKIND: The portraits are of both men and women, and are for the most part imaginary faces. Going back to the science again, I understood from my work in physiological psychology that we are all specifically wired to see faces. This is part of what makes us human. I recognized that in using faces as the vehicle. I had the ability to communicate nuances of emotion to my audience. A change of the line or a 1/4 inch movement of a shadow can change the countenance of the face and the experience of the viewer.

I don’t start off with the goal in a painting, or expectations, but rather experience the painting as it evolves and in that evolution I am guided by the painting. I can’t make a painting be anything it won’t be. I know that sounds strange but if you look at the nudes specifically, I anticipated that in these paintings of large women, the women were going to be rather despondent, dissatisfied, shy, completely uncomfortable in themselves. However, as I painted them the paintings told me, or perhaps the women told, me they were anything but. They were happy in and with themselves. They were content with themselves. They were comfortable in their bigness. They were comfortable in their sensuality and that’s how they were painted. All the faces that you see in those paintings are faces that evolved from this experience. I was the vehicle and the paintings expressed themselves. I know this is unusual but other artists will tell you they’ve experienced the same thing. I don’t know where they came from. I’m just glad they have arrived.

AQA: I believe your studio is at Mana, in Jersey City, is that right?

SUSKIND: I moved my studio to Mana about three years ago and I enjoy it very much. It’s a wonderful place to be, making art in the presence of other committed artists who are serious about making art. The only issue that I think we all acknowledge is that it’s in Jersey City and not Manhattan, but I love coming here every day and do so typically seven days a week.

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Barnett Suskind INTERVIEW

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Barnett Suskind INTERVIEW

AQA: Who are artists or people who have influenced you and your work?

SUSKIND: With sculpture - Henry Moore, Brancusi, Alberto Giacometti and many others. We can go all the way back to the ancient Greeks and Romans and go forward to Richard Serra, Mark di Suvero and others.

Each sculptor provided his or her own influence. Henry Moore and his organic forms with the elegance of negative space were a profound influence, which is still visible in my paintings. The elegance of Brancusi and the extravagant exaggeration of Giacometti. The boldness of Serra, the constructions of di Suvero. Each and every one has had some influence.

In abstract painting - de Kooning and his early women; Motherwell - especially, the Spanish elegy series; Diebenkorn is cool linear geometry of construction; Rothko, the emotionality of color.

It is mostly 20th century painters who freely provided guidance, influence and learning. Lucien Freud especially Lucien. His honest paintings - agnostic to the search for empirical beauty - are a thing to behold, and in their own right provide license to explore what’s there. Francis Bacon for all the obvious reasons.

Monet, Eduard Manet, Max Beckman, and Dove to name a few. I can’t say one specific artist has been more influential than another. I think the panoply of images and styles represented give us licenses as artists to explore and find that which is particular to us. That exploration is why I am an artist.

AQA: What is your favorite food or meal?

SUSKIND: Any meal that I have with my wife at home!

AQA: Do you have a favorite writer?

SUSKIND: I like all writers that make me want to read a sentence twice. That varies from time to time. I have read all of Tom Robbins’ books, John Irving’s books, and I’ve read all of William Kennedy’s works. I read diverse subjects and writers and love them all as I’m reading them, but I can’t say I have one favorite writer.

AQA: Do you have any exhibits coming up soon?

SUSKIND: I’m in discussions with a gallery for a solo show in Chelsea for early Spring in 2016. We haven’t confirmed it, so we’ll wait and see. Additionally I’m in discussions for a 2016 tour of China that’s in the early stages of negotiation and discussion. Again nothing is nothing unless it becomes something - or as my father would say, “We’ll see.”

- D. Mancini

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PAUL McCLOSKEY

www.paulmccloskeyart.com

SOAPBOX

BY ANNA DOWELL

UPLIFTING ART AMIDST THE SUFFERING In a time when the world is so messed up, it’s encouraging to see artists who are choosing to make art that is uplifting and helps us to transform. These artists take the suffering and make something that transcends.

These are the artists that see what we can be. They find the silver lining and bring beauty amidst disaster. Along with this, a trend I’m noticing is that they usually bring the art straight to the people, the masses. They don’t start it in the galleries. Their art is not merely selfserving; it offers something to help humanity. This is the kind of art that could start ripples for a revolution based on love.

Two street art pieces from Palestine stand out as being this kind of art. One is an image that says, “From Palestine with love” and has an image of someone shooting a heart with a slingshot. This image inspires love versus hate, even amidst such a devastating situation. This is the kind of art that encourages a movement, and which remembers the wise teaching that says, “an eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind”. The other artwork is an image that says, “Their artillery can’t kill our roots.” This is the kind of encouraging, uplifting message the people of Palestine need after such suffering and loss. It reminds them that beyond this physical reality is something this violence can’t take from them.

Some art that is in a similar vein is the ‘Happiness Here’ and ‘Love Bubble’ art by The Mazeking. Seeing this art 17

in person, I have noticed that so many people quickly respond and interact with this work. It’s really something. Then, doing research I have noticed how many people are talking about this work in articles, over the Internet, and around the world. It’s quite intriguing how much this work impacts people. It’s so simple, yet it’s so amazing because it affects people’s awareness, and spreads questions of ‘What is happiness?’ and ‘What is love?’ And the work just might help people dig deeper into discovering answers within themselves, leading to more happiness and love, or at least leading to more of an awareness about these keys of life we are all concerned about. The interactive and accessible quality of having this work easily available to people of all walks of life goes hand in hand with the message.

Hearing people talk about this work shows me that they are instinctually touched by it and feel that there is something powerful about it. This artist just may be the leader in shifting the paradigm, shifting the direction of art in this current day and time.

If someone were to ask me, ‘What is important about art to you?’ One answer would be - It’s important when art reflects life and encourages me to go beyond. The art I mentioned in this article does that. I’m thankful for art that reminds me, love can survive in such a graceless age.

SOPHIA CHIZUCO

www.sophiachizuco.com

FEATURED INTERVIEW

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Samantha Robinson FEATURED INTERVIEW

After seeing Samantha Robinson’s work several months ago, I just had to chat with her about it. The work’s playful use of color, shape and scale simply works for me and, I’m sure, many others who’ve had the chance to see it. Her work seemingly transforms the light it encounters, bending and reflecting it in such a way that both become one; a flowing piece dancing with light, color, and form. Let’s hear from the artist herself about the artworks she makes and the ideas within them.

THE INTERVIEW AQA: Are you from NYC? If not, then where?

ROBINSON: I grew up on Long Island, so I am a New York native but not of the city.

AQA: How long have you lived in New York City?

ROBINSON: I've lived in the city for about five years.

AQA: Do you like being, working and living in New York?

ROBINSON: I think there is a competitive edge to the people of NYC. Everyone is constantly working and pushing forward. That competitiveness is motivating.

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Samantha Robinson FEATURED INTERVIEW AQA: How long have you been in your current studio in Brooklyn?

ROBINSON: I've been in my current studio in Bushwick for about two years. Before that, I had a studio in Long Island City, Queens.

AQA: Do you like Brooklyn or Manhattan better?

ROBINSON: I like Brooklyn better. Bushwick in particular still has a strong grassroots feel to the galleries, art spaces, and venues. I think so much of the relevant art coming out of New York is coming out of Brooklyn as well.

AQA: What do you like about living here? If you could name just one thing, what would it be?

ROBINSON: The pizza.

AQA: What made you want to be an artist? When was that?

ROBINSON: In college, I took a painting class that allowed me to have half of a shared but private studio. I knew after that I always needed to have a space dedicated to making. Having a studio and being an artist became synonymous for me. It took a few years after college, but I finally found a studio that felt right and that I could afford. That's when I began to consider myself an artist.

AQA: What is a typical day at the studio like for you?

ROBINSON: On the days I get to the studio in the early afternoon, I start off with coffee, applications, and by checking in and catching up with my studio-mates. On the days I arrive in the evening or at night, I will start to work right away. I feel the most active and creative in the latter part of the day.

AQA: What makes you interested in painting and not other forms of art making?

ROBINSON: There is so much history, tradition, and technique to explore with painting, and I love that. Having a set of parameters of what a painting “is” to work within is so freeing. My paintings are sculptural, but I would never consider them sculptures. They are paintings about being paintings.

AQA: Tell me about your mediums. What is the work made of and how, if you will tell?

ROBINSON: Lately, I've been painting on silkscreening mesh. It is an incredibly strong and durable material, since it is meant to be used time and time again. It holds up well to being stretched like canvas, and has the right level of transparency that I am looking for.

AQA: The frames are geometric in form, why is that?

ROBINSON: I want to find a balance between “painting-as-object” and painting as an illusionistic depiction of space and depth. The geometric forms definitely take a step towards sculpture, emphasizing their object-hood. I think the shaped frames highlight this atmosphere between a painting’s surface and the wall. There is a sacredness, a specialness, to both geometry and painting.

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Samantha Robinson FEATURED INTERVIEW

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Samantha Robinson FEATURED INTERVIEW

AQA: Do you have a project coming up?

ROBINSON: 40Nº 74Wº, at X Contemporary Art Fair. X Contemporary is a new art fair debuting this year during Art Basel Miami. Parenthesis Art Space has curated me into their booth, 40Nº 74Wº, which is titled for the latitude and longitude coordinates of New York City. I will be showing paintings alongside friends and artists Thomas Hammer, Annesta Le, and Luis Martin. We all come from very different artistic perspectives, but our work shares the same love of material and process.

AQA: A lot of your work is untitled. Why don’t you give the artwork titles?

ROBINSON: I used to believe that my work would be thought of as purely abstract by leaving my work untitled. I've been thinking about an article about the Frank Stella retrospective in the Wall Street Journal, which says that Stella's titles are “like cues”. They also go on to say “to put it really simply, it’s the idea that abstraction is not as abstract as it appears. That it has the ability to relate to the way you experience things in the real world.” I have been thinking about how my work, although abstract, does relate to landscape and landscape painting in some way or another.

This has been on my mind when I am making new work and titling that new work.

AQA: Who are the artists or people who have influenced you and your work?

ROBINSON: The first artist I fell in love with was Eva Hesse. Her work has such a strong sense of its materiality, and always has the perfect balance between rigid and organic, ordered and absurd, right and wrong. She was part of the post-minimalist movement of the 1960s, which is a group whose work I identify with.

AQA: Are there other artists working and living today whom you find interesting?

ROBINSON: I've been thinking about Letha Wilson's work lately. She incorporates photography with other mixed media, like concrete and steel. These “photo-sculptures” always depict landscape in some way. Her work has a deliberate and thoughtful use of materials to show this marriage between the man-made and nature.

AQA: How do you feel about the art market?

ROBINSON: There is huge divergence between the top paid artists and the bottom. I wish more collectors would make efforts to discover new and emerging artists. That being said, I also wish more people wouldn’t be afraid to buy artwork and become collectors.

AQA: Has your childhood influenced your work directly in any way?

ROBINSON: My mom is a hairdresser and my dad is an engineer, so I was raised by people who not only have excellent visual and spatial skills, but who use those skills in their careers. My home environment was one where creating and creativity was always encouraged. I remember having loads of toys, but I remember equally well making things out of sticks, fabric, and found household items like bits of styrofoam and twist ties.

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Samantha Robinson FEATURED INTERVIEW

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Samantha Robinson FEATURED INTERVIEW AQA: How long does it take you to do a painting?

ROBINSON: My paintings are made in two separate steps: the actual painting and the construction of the frame. I make the frame first, which is the most time consuming and technically challenging part, since most of my woodworking is self-taught. The painting happens quickly. I often will make multiple paintings, let them dry, and choose the best one to stretch over the frame. It can take a few days to a few weeks to complete a painting.

AQA: Do you use oil or acrylic in your own work?

ROBINSON: I do not currently work with either. I work with many types of inks and watercolors because of their fluidity.

AQA: What are some other materials you enjoy working with?

ROBINSON: I love working with wood. It is my ultimate favorite material, and building the shaped canvases is my favorite part of my art-making process. I've also been experimenting with making collages. I've been using gold and silver leaf, graph paper, and bits and pieces of mesh from my paintings mounted onto paper so it is easier to cut.

AQA: You had a residency at the beginning of 2015. Could you tell us more about that?

ROBINSON: I was awarded a residency at AS220, an artist-run organization and community in Providence, Rhode Island. They have some amazing facilities and over the course of two weeks I was able to learn to silkscreen and execute a series of prints. I utilized a technique called “marbling', which makes each print extremely unique and akin to a painting.

AQA: Do you plan on silkscreening more in the future?

ROBINSON: I don’t have the equipment or facilities to do so in my current studio, but I know there are places in NYC where studio time can be rented. I'd like to make more prints. There are so many more compositions to work out and techniques to learn.

AQA: Have you traveled anywhere else recently?

ROBINSON: I've been visiting the Catskill Mountains for a few years, camping in the summer and staying in cabins in the winter. This is where the Hudson River School was founded by Thomas Cole in the 1800s, and there is a rich history of landscape painting in the area because of this. I feel a strong connection to the Catskills, and I know that this has influenced my work.

AQA: Do you have a favorite book?

ROBINSON: Yes, it is The Woodbook: The Complete Plates, by Romeyn B. Hough. It is a complete anthology of American woods, and has crosscuts of wood and diagrams of the trees they come from. The original edition in 1915 included actual wood samples for each tree. I have a reproduction of the original, but it is still an invaluable resource and a beautiful book.

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Samantha Robinson FEATURED INTERVIEW

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Samantha Robinson FEATURED INTERVIEW

AQA: Do you have a favorite writer?

ROBINSON: Guilty pleasure, I love digging into a good Stephen King book. I'm in the middle of reading Wizard and Glass, the fourth book of the Dark Tower series.

AQA: What is your favorite food or meal?

ROBINSON: Did I mention I love pizza?

AQA: What do you enjoy most about your artistic career at this point?

ROBINSON: The connections and friends I have made along the way, and the opportunities to travel. The art world is a great way to see the world. I have been fortunate enough to have two residencies and hope to have more. In the future I would love to have a reason to travel to Europe... a residency somewhere in Scandinavia would be an absolute dream.

AQA: Where do you see yourself in ten years, as an artist or in general?

ROBINSON: I want a studio with a window! My current studio is great, but I'd love a window or two for fresh air and natural light. I'd also like to have my MFA by this time.

AQA: Do you have any exhibits coming up soon?

ROBINSON: I have a few exhibitions coming up in addition to 40Nº 74Wº . I currently have work on view in Staves, Gussets, Laths, and Tenons at the Hollows, an art space in Bushwick. It is a formalist exhibition featuring artists who integrate the support of their media into the work, and it is on view until December 20th. I also have some works on paper in Kunstkammer, which translates to “cabinet of curiosity” in German, at Parenthesis Art Space.

AQA: Are you with a gallery?

ROBINSON: I am not currently represented by a gallery.

AQA: New York rents are super high, how do you get by here?

ROBINSON: I am fortunate enough to have a great job teaching music in an after school program. This pays the bills and still gives me enough time to get to the studio.

AQA: Regarding NYC’s high cost, do you have anything else to say?

ROBINSON: The high rents are really difficult to cope with. I think that means that every artist has to work that much harder and has to want to be here that much more.

- JONI LOWE

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Samantha Robinson FEATURED INTERVIEW

www.samantharobinsonstudio.com

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LFFOTO.COM

CINEMA SPOT

What films to see?

THIS ISSUE WE HAVE TWO PICKS FOR YOU. How about this cinema work by Bernardo Bertolucci.

Above: Still from The Dreamers. (2003)

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CINEMA SPOT

How about this cinema work by Woody Allen.

Above: Still from the film Manhattan (1979)

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SHINGO FRANCIS

WWW.SHINGOFRANCIS.COM

THE MAZEKING

WWW.THEMAZEKING.COM

REVIEWS ARTIST: HIROJI KUBOTA In a two-part exhibition at Sundaram Tagore New York in conjunction with the Aperture Foundation, more than a hundred photographs by Magnum photographer Hiroji Kubota are on display to celebrate the release of his new book, Hiroji Kubota Photographer (Aperture 2015).

Kubota, whose career now spans more than five decades, has an uncanny ability to consistently capture the "being" aspect of human beings, as well as of his non-human subjects, within a beautifully composed frame. This exhibition presents a rare opportunity not only to view so many prints in one place, but also to see them having been made through a complicated and no-longer-used process known as dye-transfer printing.

Kubota produced these over a twenty-year period with master printer Nino Mondhe, who was known for using twelve colors instead of the traditional three. The result on display is fifty-five prints and two triptychs possessing a palette that is simultaneously somewhat muted and deeply vibrant. The vibrancy and outmoded nature of the process isn’t what makes these particular dye-transfer prints worth seeing, however. Photography enthusiasts will certainly appreciate the technical quality of the prints, but technique is nothing without substance. What really makes these prints worth the trip is in how wonderfully they enhance Kubota’s imagery as he uses the medium to document the human experience with compassion and honor.

Coupled with a showing of equally gorgeous black-and-white platinum prints upstairs in the Aperture gallery, this exhibition is a must-see for Kubota fans and neophytes alike.

Kubota at the Sundaram Tagore Gallery 547 West 27th Street, New York, NY 10001

- Jack Ender

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REVIEWS

Work by Hiroji Kubota at Aperture Foundation Gallery 547 West 27th Street, New York, NY 10001

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REVIEWS

Work by Chung Chang-Sup at Galerie Perrotin, 909 Madison Ave, NY, NY 10021

ARTIST: CHUNG CHANG-SUP The work of Chung Chang-Sup (1927-2011), a leading figure in the Korean Dansaekhwa (monochrome painting) movement, is on exhibit at Galerie Perrotin in New York. Dansaekhwa shares a similar conceptual approach with Minimalism, at least in the sense that both eschew pictorial or figurative representation in favor of abstraction. But in contrast with the distinctly Western (and often rebellious) governance of a predominantly logical concept over any aesthetic concerns of a given piece, Chang-Sup’s primarily monochromic compositions focus through repetition of similar forms on seeking an overall experiential balance - a bridge between the calm and the chaotic, the internal and the external, and humanity and nature. As the exhibition title suggests, “Meditation” reflects the Eastern movement’s focus on the artist’s immersion of himself in the experience of producing the work, but also in the viewer’s experience of interacting with it. The point at which the work is actually gazed upon by the viewer is necessary for it to be considered “complete.”

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REVIEWS Virtually all the paintings feature smoother central fields, representing a calm state, interacting with more deeply textured, more chaotic borders in an exploration of “oneness of self and material.” Indeed, there is a sense of holistic integration about these paintings; a dichotomous quality that simultaneously seems to hold the viewer’s attention on the entirety of their composition while allowing the mind to wander into and through its textural variations. The repetition of form is not meant to be confounding or to be clever, but to encourage deeper reflection. This exhibition features work from 1985-2005, a middle-to-later period in his career when Chang-Sup worked mainly with tak, a fibrous, nearly-paper-like material he produced himself from mulberry bark. The process of making tak allowed him to engage in the making of the work more fully than using formal hanji, the Korean mulberry paper he was known for using in earlier work; as he once stated, “In battering and kneading tak, I unknowingly put my breath, odor and finally my soul into the process, thus becoming a part of the process itself.”

Both images from - Galerie Perrotin, 909 Madison Ave, NY 10021

- Jack Ender

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C AT

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www.catflowersart.com

ART SPOT

ABOVE: “SADDLE 1”, aus der Serie: Sleepless Nights, Paris 1976 by Helmut Newton

HELMUT NEWTON IS ONE OF OUR PICKS FOR ARTISTS TO CHECK OUT.

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ART SPOT

ABOVE: “BRONZEVILLE AT NIGHT” PAINTING BY ARTIST ARCHIBALD MOTLEY (1949)

ARCHIBALD MOTLEY IS ONE OF OUR PICKS FOR ARTISTS TO CHECK OUT.

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HOLIDAY IMAGES NYC 2015

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UPCOMING - THINGS - PLACES - EVENTS LOOKING EAST

ELAINE de KOONING: PORTRAITS

Looking East explores the 19th century craze for all things Japanese that inspired the great impressionist and post-impressionist painters, thereby changing the course of Western art.

October 30, 2015 through February 7, 2016 at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.

Elaine de Kooning made both abstract and figurative paintings and drawings during the height of Abstract Expressionism. View her much admired portraits of friends and family on exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C. Now through January 10, 2016.

http://www.asianart.org/exhibitions_index/ looking-east

HEMINGWAY: Between Two Wars

THE ART SHOW

Hemingway gets his first ever major museum exhibition, including early short stories, notebooks, heavily revised manuscripts, correspondences and more. September 25, 2015 through January 31, 2016 at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.

The Art Show - one of the foremost art fairs in the nation - has been among New York City’s most eagerly anticipated early spring events for more than a quarter of a century. Today, it is the nation’s longest-running fine art fair. March 2-6, 2016. Park Avenue Armory, Park Avenue at 67th Street

http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/ernesthemingway

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http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/exhdekooning.html

https://www.microspec.com/tix123/eTic.cfm? code=ADAA16

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