VICTOR B. FORBES Editor SunStorm/Fine Art Magazine
By VICTOR FORBES
At his Access Gallery show in New York in 1988, a Mark Kostabi oil, an exact scale copy of van Gogh’s “Irises”, epoxied with five $100 bills in the canvas, sold for $53,900— one thousandth of what the original went for at auction. A German collector of conceptual art bought it prior to the exhibition, “From Neo-Geo to Neo CEO” officially opened. The $53,900 is “The most I ever sold a painting for,” said Kostabi. “The five hundred dollar bills represent more than van Gogh earned in his lifetime.”
Mark Kostabi will be the first to tell you he didn’t cruise the strip in a GTO in high school or party with the Go-Go’s backstage at the Roxy. But the diminutive kid from Whittier California, by way of Estonia, has had an impact on the art world unrivaled since the halcyon days of Andy Warhol’s Factory. And, with his goal of a “Kostabi for everyone,” it seems that he is just getting revved up.
Headquarters is Kostabi World, a three story former stable with a 100 foot long sign (huge black letters painted on a yellow background) adorning the facade of the building that faces the Javits Center on Manhattan’s far West Side. You could probably see it from New Jersey—without binoculars. There is no way anyone entering or leaving the Big Apple’s largest convention hall could miss it.
Six years ago, when he arrived in New York, he had enough money for a two-week stint at the 34th Street YMCA. Now he has a lease on his own planet.
Kostabis are everywhere these days. As he says, “Artists should have a stable of dealers, rather than a dealer having a stable of artists. To this end, he has had 33 one-person shows in the last few years and has participated in many group exhibitions. His illustrations adorn magazine articles and books, including Sadness Because The Video Store Was Closed (Abbeville Press) and his own tome that opens with a chapter entitled “Birth Of A Genius.”
When Barbara Walters interviewed Sylvester Stallone, his Kostabis were featured prominently in the background. By now you probably know that Kostabi let fly in public that Stallone had no taste. “He liked the T and A paintings,” which he promptly sent back leaving the artist no choice but to hang them in the Access Gallery show at which they were promptly sold for three times the amount Kostabi paid Stallone upon their return.
This event is noteworthy not only for the publicity it garnered but also for revealing — perhaps for the first time — a softening of that excessively caustic and unforgiving side of his public persona. Was it apprehension over the Rambofications of a personal visit from his muscular former collector? or simply a result of achieving the fame and fortune he initially sought as Phase 2 of his Master plan — “A Kostabi for everyone” — was actually happening. Or perhaps, in actuality, Kostabi is just a nice kid living the American Dream whose immigrant father ran a tuba factory out west.
This is what he told Stallone, as reported by the NY
Daily News’ columnist William Norwich: “Using reverse psychology in public, I constantly insult myself more than anyone else. I am sorry that you misunderstood my modus operandi. By calling myself ‘The World’s Greatest Con Artist’ as I have done on numerous occasions on TV and in print, I am sacrificing my reputation as a serious artist. I am taking the blame for society’s corruption and evil as an attempt to expose it better. I saw my statement as a cartoon-like jab from America’s quintessential villain to the world’s greatest super hero. Keep up the good work — I’ll always be first in line to see your next movie.”
Do you believe that? f
Dressed in an elegant red Sergeant Pepper waistcoat, Kostabi took us upstairs to his atelier. Fifteen hundred square feet of Kostabis-in-progress with his own stable within a stable of eight dollar an hour artists cranking out the work retailing at $10,000 to the aforementioned $59,500. Kostabi had to take time out to sign their paychecks and inquired of his brother Indrek (Kostabi World’s archivist-photographer and sometime collaborator) if he couldn’t get authorization from the bank to assume this duty. With the work flow, Kostabi remarked that it was now becoming burdensome to actually sign the paintings as well. “Perhaps I can just point to a spot and if an assistant thinks it’s a good one, have him or her sign there for me.” Kostabi, after all, is running a business with employees who are talking health plans and he knows, as does every CEO, that one can’t reach the next level until someone is found to fill the spot currently occupied. So whether it’s signing checks or paintings, what’s the difference? And what’s more important.
In Kostabi World, Kostabi-isms are the scriptures, painted on plaques and hung from the ceiling. He carries a little notebook, customized to keep track of his fleeting thoughts. “The best ones come when I am in the shower,” he says, as in “Take the ‘r’ out of “free”; “I am bought, therefore I am”, “The devil is long for evil, God is short for good.” This is Kostabi: an honest young man ready to break through the veneer of the sneer.
Kostabi was hungry and needed lunch. “Should we go someplace trendy or to a quiet spot where we can talk,?” he asked. Opting for conversation, we strolled over to Kostabi’s health club a few blocks from Kostabi World (he’s going to start working out “soon”) where we were ushered to a window seat overlooking the pool with more delicious morsels forthcoming from the artist such as “In January of 1982 I had a show of my drawings at Molly Barnes Gallery in Los Angeles. My drawings were collected by Billy Wilder, Ray Stark and Norman Lear. I was 19 years old. I went to California State at Fullerton where I finished my education but no degree. I moved to New York with a hundred dollars, knowing that this is where I wanted to be. After my stay at the YMCA, I got lucky and stumbled upon an apartment on Central Park West. My drawings sold. Six months later I started painting. When things are meant to be, they fall
into place. Doors open without a struggle.”
He moved around Manhattan six more times —from Rivington Street on the Lower East Side to Hell’s Kitchen where he settled into Kostabi World. He was an integral part of East Village art scene that launched Basquait, Haring, Scharf, Cutrone and countless others. Maintaining his purity, he was “very anti-drug, anti-drinking, anti-smoking.”
At this point in his career, Kostabi regularly receives offers promising millions to turn his paintings into limited edition prints. His response: “I can make paintings faster than most publishers can make prints so why should I make multiples? I like to look up, not down, at the bottom line and I don’t like to repeat. I want to make thousands — millions — of one-of-a-kind works. I want everyone in the world to won a Kostabi original and then a set of books so they can see the rest.”
Calculating that by the time he reaches 100 years of age, the world population should be around 12.5 billion and if he can produce 3,000 paintings a day, that will be possible. “I want each one to be great and I don;t want people telling me what to paint.” Once upon a time (1964) the height of commercial success was The Beatles holding the first five spots on the Billboard singles charts. One can only marvel at ambition such as Kostabi’s.
He readily talks of his lower middle class roots. “We didn’t have a television or a car and I was led to believe we were poor even though we were living in the suburbs. My parents left Estonia after World War II and that makes me a first generation American. Maybe they were smart not to have a TV. Maybe by not being overly influenced by television as a child, I now feel like I understand it and know what it takes to get high ratings. Later on, after watching some television, I decided that I wanted to be Spiderman and his alter ego, photographer Peter Parker. I liked the cartoons because it seemed that there was a lot of sophisticated art history and dead pan renditions of everyday life in them and comic books. Really, what would Batman be without Catwoman?”
And where would Kostabi be without his troops?
“You never really play the game unless you let go of the ball,” goes another Kostabi-ism. “That’s why I have a lot of artists. Referring to his production crew he says, “Perhaps I could have done it a little better but if I did everything, there would be no Kostabi World.” He doesn’t throw anything away. “Even if I re-paint a canvas white to start again, there is a new texture and some of the energy of the original shows through. At the moment, I’m signing a lot of everything. I don;t like to work. I like to have fun and signing is work. I need time to think up new ideas, not sign which takes up time. In the future, I’m going to be signing less. When I get up to 3,000 a day, or maybe sooner, I’ll just look at the picture and point to where I think they should be signed. Signing on the back doesn’t mean much. The canvas will rot faster than the painting. I look back to Picasso, Rembrandt and all the great masters. Most of their work was signed on
the front but whether I sign or not, my stamp of approval goes on everything that goes out the door.”
While his more-creative-than-thou approach is partially a result of his education in conceptual art, his point of view is that of an iconoclastic iconographer assailing elements of society in a quest to not only make sense of them but to find the pocket of harmonic perfection that a truly artistic soul seeks. If he makes a few billion dollars on the path, so be it. Along these lines, Kostabi sees his work as “warming up, if not quite intimate. For me, it is all a bunch of decisions. I visualize a panel in front of me with a lot of buttons to push. Since I have a clean mind, I can see that there are some buttons totally out of my reach that I should never touch. Actually, it is a lot like making music.
His symbolic figure — “Every man” — wrapped in cash registers and computers wields a plunger in corporate board rooms, making love while plugged into VCRs seems to represent what Kostabi sees as a faceless society. Yet he also sees humans as “by far the best computers” and relishes the mistakes that computers make as fodder for his active imagination.
The bathroom plunger, then, is a major and constant symbol linking Kostabi’s work wielded by Everyman and even the occasional Tyrannosaurus as in such paintings as Natural History. This motif shows that no realm is safe from Kostabi’s savagery even though the symbol came about from the tranquility of a landscape painting he rendered while still in high school. “It was a romantic scene with trees silhouetted in the background. Then I drew, with a magic marker, the plunger.”
Today in Kostabi World the artist/CEO had others to drop in the plungers in opportune spots. “It’s like an advanced coloring book. I get a seed, a structure, and the staff fills it in. Other times, I see a picture in a magazine I want to change into a Kostabi scene. There are painters here to whom I will show a classic picture and tell them to make a Kostabi version but there has to be a purpose and a reason for this otherwise it would be like selling out. Everything I paint, I feel, must deserve to be in the world. I want each painting to be valid so that if it were burned or destroyed it would be missed.
“The work here is very democratically produced, If I think something is not quite right and ten people like it, I’ll approve it. That’s why my work is a barometer of the collective unconscious and not one pseudo-hero’s vision of the world. When I die, I don;t want to be remembered by my bank account, I want to be remembered for my art.”
The real Kostabi? Go ahead, make your choice, But be prepared. Visit the gallery if you want to look. If you want to see Kostabi World for real, get upstairs and be prepared to spend something in return.
And if you inquire of what the Patron Saint of this planet has to say about it all?
“I am happy every day.” To which one can only add, AMEN.
Park West Celebrates 40 Years, 40 Artists
Ruby — the 40th AnniveRsARy Gemstone — possesses An eteRnAl inneR flAme A symbol thAt the pAssion is still veRy
Alive And stRonG AfteR fouR decAdes
Albert Scaglione infused his enthusiasm as a collector, connoisseur, art lover, and accomplished businessman at the 40th year anniversary of the Park West Gallery in an exciting three-day event this past summer in its hometown of Southfield, Michigan. A mixture of seasoned dealers, well known, accomplished artists, and collectors hailing from all over the globe attended the festivities, boosting the high-energy level of Park West Gallery’s festive event. A fever of excitement hung in the air as the opportunity to meet, greet, and mingle with all forty artists, film makers, book writers, publishers, and art specialists was present to those in attendance. The 63,000 sq. ft. space was filled with a retrospective presentation in a league with international showcase expositions and was viewed by a vibrant group of movers and shakers.
Good food, entertainment, discussion and art presentations were laced throughout the well-planned event. On display was a full spectrum of each artist — past and present — in a vetted palette of imagery displayed.
By JAMIE ELLIN
FORBES
Walls containing a retrospective of works and the current images of the artists in attendance were displayed in a salon-like environment.
This offered the art enthusiast space to comprehensively view each artist’s body of work while this impressive collective of artists exchanged creative vision freely, making for quite the rarified atmosphere.
Among those on hand for the revelries were Agam, Peter Max, Itzhak Tarkay, Thomas Kinkade, Csaba Markus, Linda LeKinff, Alfred Gockel, Marcel Mouly, Scott Jacobs, Howard Behrens, Fanch Ladan and many, many others. The celebration was driven by a blend of Albert Scaglione’s enthusiasm and the dynamic energies offered by these international artists during the gracious three-day festivities.
In his opening remarks, the Park West Galleries CEO commented, “Peter Max’s work is recognized the world over and Yaacov Agam arguably has created more monumental works than any other artist in history. Agam,” added Mr. Scaglione, “came here directly from installing a 75’ x 33’ sculpture in front of the new Olympic Stadium in Taiwan. Simon Bull has been working for the past year-and-a-half on more than 100 original paintings of Muhammad Ali, four of which were selected by the
Yaakov Agam and CEO Albert Scaglione at Park West Galleries 40th Anniversary
Most of The Park West 40 —How many can you name?
AN INTERVIEW WITH TARKAY
One of the most daunting experiences of my three plus decades writing about the creative spirit of artists took place in 1997 when I was assigned to interview Itzhak Tarkay for a monograph, Profile of An Artist. At the time, Tarkay was one of the hottest sellers in the art business and his originals and limited edition serigraphs were flying off gallery walls. As he was in Israel and I was in Ronkonkoma (NY), the interview took place via fax, at the artist’s suggestion. I was to send him a series of questions and in short order he would reply. Oh how I wracked my brain to come up with some queries of quality and depth. Weeks later, I practically ripped the roll out of the fax machine as his replies came in. Much to my chagrin, the were bsically monosyllabic responses, as in “Yes,” “No” and a “Been there, done that, have the T-shirt” or two. But then I saw the genius in this man — his capacity to break everything down into basics. As I was typesetting the pages, I realized that the interview was much like his paintings: a dash of red here, a hat, a figure, the same woman. The repetition was like a mantra and the brilliance of this man was summed up in his concluding statement, which I repeat here verbatim:
“LIfE Is good.”
— VICTOR FORBES
Champ and are now hanging in his new home in Louisville, Kentucky. I am truly energized by all of these creative, artistic talents converging in one place at one time.”
Scaglione’s discerning eye for artistic line, enhanced through his engineering background, love of art and an informed art history background, is instilled into the overall Park West approach toward art collecting. The Gallery has a rich history of exhibitions. Picasso, Durer, Chagall, Dali, Goya, Miro, Rembrant and Lautrec have all been exhibited. Park West’s owner and his staff consider the individual artists’ contemporary works in this collective for artistic style and statement of lasting value. Scaglione’s years traveling the world is evident in his knowledge and background as a dedicated collector, dealer and gallerist and are applied as an attuning guideline in his company’s uderstading of a classical fine art line. The collection thus represents an over-all standard for classic composition and cohesion in image and style.
The Part West approach to collecting, archiving, and seeing to the provenance of these works, developed over 40 years of participation in the art business, was outlined by Scaglione at the event. Each artist represented in the collection has a lengthy bibliography of accomplishments. Herein lies Scaglione’s success. It is a polished cognizance for recognizing talent of the individual artists and offering their imagery to the seasoned collector or novice buyer at a the national and international sales level. Scaglione’s past success in collecting master works and understanding the role of art in contemporary culture informs his decision-making process when signing new artists. It is based on a polished cognizance for line, a detailed, thorough and in-depth approach based on his company’s commitment to quality, his personal belief in maintaining artistic integrity and discernment in selecting contemporary art.
The 63,000 sq. ft exhibition space was filled with art and people, making this a unique crossover display between museum and showcase venues such as Art Miami and this summer’s recent Fair in East Hampton NY, as a review of current master market trends. Walls containing a retrospective of works and the current images of the contemporary living group of artists in attendance offered the viewer space to enjoy a well-curated collection of each artist’s body of work encompassing a broad spectrum of each artist’s formidable body of work.
An energetic exchange of artistic visions and personal histories and ideas among the artists made for an atmosphere sparkling with creativity. The opportunity to meet, greet, and mingle withsuch a diverse group added to the spice in the air. Second generation art dealer Mitchell Meisner reminisced and likened the excitement of the event to the enthusiasm of the original Art Expos where Warhol, Vasarely, Erté, Agam, Neiman, Agudelo-Botero and so many others ushered in the modern era of collecting art multiples. Meisner noted Scaglione’s personal investment of interest was the key element. In art shows, energy, momentum and excitement equate to success. Andy Warhol called for the defining fifteen minutes of fame. This was more than fifteen minutes — well articulated.
Itzhak Tarkay,
Upon entering, the front wall of the gallery displayed the master works. Renoir, Dali, Picasso, Chagall images all greeted the eye. The space opened to the top left balcony gallery, the lower gallery to the right a hall of Simon Bull and Peter Max works. Off to the right, a hall opened to multiple display halls of all artists’ works. Hospitality was offered everywhere, akin to European events. A free flow exchange of ideas instilled the ambiance of excitement in the air upon entering. This positive high energy accompanied every phase of the event.
“ The luckiesT day of my life
was the day I met Mr. Albert Scaglione. You don’t need many art dealers. You need the best. The trick is to find him amongst the others. There are not great artists without great dealers, because, while one is creativity, the other is its revelation;…they can only exist in recognizing each other and working with each other. The triumph of the artist will be that of the dealer, but the artist will never have any limelight or recognition if his dealer doesn’t bring it about. The only way for an artist to exist is to be seen by others. The art dealer offers this to him.”
In speaking to Simon Bull about this new special portrait series on Mohammed Ali (Park West has recently sponsored a project of painting the life of Muhammad Ali with Simon Bull and also is the exclusive representative for all signed objects and photographs of Muhammad Ali on cruise ships worldwide), he emphasized his enthusiasm about the new direction of his paintings, his admiration for Ali as a person and the opportunity to capture a bit of history. The tempo of Bull’s style, form and use of color, creates an effect, that, along with a studied knowledge of light as accent, enhanced the champ’s portraits. Bull captured the force of the “floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee” Ali. Bull, well-regarded for landscapes, unfolding flowers and musical motifs, includes in his work a reverence for the mysterious in life, employing a great sense of color and validity.
— Linda LeKinff
Hungarian-born Csaba Marcus delighted those in attendance as he spoke of his rapport with Albert Scaglione. Markus found a supporter of his dedication to beauty in Park West’s founder. His masterful, old world, Renaissance style is offered to every day collectors, as the works of Rembrandt were offered to the burger-meisters of his day. Csaba went on to explain that in today’s marketplace — where the trend may lean toward art less than beautiful — he has the opportunity to express his love of the ethereal and the stylistic representation. Markus’ images of mythic influences and Old World traditions comprise a pure seriousness of composition depicting his love of feminine beauty and the unique line of form.
Israeli artist Itzhak Tarkay, so well-known for his renditions of ladies bathed in splashes of color, stylistically post-Impressionistic, displayed some intense vibratory works in the form of powerful landscapes. One, a solitary tree grounded in moody color, carried the grit and emotion of the Tree of Life. The second work was bright in color with more complexity, conveying the same life force of energy as the first. Tarkay’s divergence thematically offered insight into the depth of his psyche, accenting the collected works for which he is famous.
Romero Britto, who arrived in this country from his native Brazil and became an international phenomenon in his twenties as one of the mainstays of the incredibly popular Absolut Vodka advertising campaign, is an artist equally noted for his many contributions to charitable causes. His personal interest in working with children and
• Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2009
his Rain Forrest preservation efforts always make him shine. Britto spoke of his upcoming show at the Louvre where he will be the youngest artist in a group exhibit this fall. Britto’s Pop style, influenced by Braque and Picasso, is well-recognized and continually growing in stature with every new body of work. Comparisons to his Absolut ad mates — Warhol, Haring, Ron English and Scharf — are obvious and Britto is still a very young man, a maturing artistic voice of importance. His works enhance many public places where his installations serve to lift people’s spirits with bright color and wonderful energy, while maintaining a connection to his signature forms.
Since its establishment, Park West has provided fine artwork with a high level of dynamic creativity and quality to more than 1.2 million clients in over 70 countries, helped launch the careers of hundreds of artists and has grown to become the world’s largest dealer of fine art.
With his great success, Scaglione gives back to the Detroit community via the Park West Foundation. Mitsie Scaglione brought her awareness of a need to begin an outreach program for young women at risk to her husband’s attention. In 2005, the Scagliones founded a not-forprofit organization to provide much needed help to youth where it is needed the most.
One of its many beneficiaries, New Directions For Youth, provides under-privileged children with a support system to ease the difficult transition from foster care to a fulfilling life as young adults and for those about to “age-out” of the state-sponsored support system.
Today, seventy young woman who may otherwise have been forgotten are given personal, professional guidance and unfailing accessibility to the Scaglione’s day and night, 24/7.
Lisa Grubb, Howard Behrens, Csaba Markus, Judi Behrens, Simon Bull and Marko Mavrovich (kneeling in front of group)
Scott Jacobs, Jean-Claude Picot, Dominic Pangborn and Peter Nixon
Wendy Schaefer and Linda Le Kinff
Kevin Miles, James Coleman, Simon Bull, Marcus Glenn, Alfred Gockel and Wendy Schaefer
Romero Britto and Charles Lee
Aldo Luongo with Judi & Howard Behrens
Nano Lopez
Dick Duerrstein and Scott Jacobs
Alfred Gockel, Linda Le Kinff and Simon Bull
Tim Yanke, Maggie Chen, Hua Chen, Nicky Yanke and Marcus Glenn
Albert Scaglione, CEO, Park West Galleries
Albert Scaglione addresses the crowd
John with fellow artist Csaba Markus
THE LEGENDARY AGAM
Yaakov Gipstein — AGAM — was born in 1928 to an orthodox family in Rishon Lezion in the coastal plain south of Tel Aviv, then a small, semi-rural settlement. His father, Rabbi Yehoshua Gipstein (who devoted his life to Jewish religious learning, meditation and fasting) refused to register his son in a school, because no place in a religious school was available (the excellent local secular school was, apparently, out of the question). Consequently, the boy grew up without any formal education and almost without the company of other children. At home, however, Agam absorbed the heritage of Jewish spiritual values and thought and was particularly attracted to Jewish mystic lore and kabbalistic studies as practiced by his father, the learned rabbi. Agam considers himself as his spiritual continuant in his devotion to the study of these values. This heritage remained at the core of much of
Agam’s artistic philosophy throughout his career. Agam’s great opportunity came in 1953, when he exhibited his new creations at the Galérie Craven, Paris, in his first one-man show. This was the first solo exhibition ever held totally dedicated to “Art in Movement” and was described by Agam as his “artistic birth.” He immediately became a focus of public interest, and he soon became acknowledged as one of the pioneers of the new kinetic art and the greatest virtuoso of the group. During the following 58 years and to the very present moment, Agam created and creates numerous works which can be seen in all parts of the world. Although they show a great variety of artistic content, form, style, technique and materials, all are marked by the same constant features, which are characteristic of his creative mentality.
Simon Bull, All I Need Is You, 1997, 23’’ x 23’’ Aquatint, hand-colored with acrylic inks, pastel and hand-applied gold foil on wove paper. Signed in pencil and numbered.
Csaba Markus, Beau Eudoria, From the Beau Monde Suite, 2006, 8’’ x 5 3/4’’ Hand-embellished serigraph in color on wood panel. Signed in gold ink and numbered.
TARKAY - PROFILE OF AN ARTIST
By The Editors of Fine Art Magazine
In the making of “TARKAY, PROFILE OF AN ARTIST”, we were faced with challenge after challenge. From idea to completion we worked with Park West closely, creating a product of which we are all proud.
In writing about Tarkay and his work, it was compulsory to enter into Tarkay’s world and understand the true depth of his artistic endeavours. With relish we collaborated on this literary excursion to bring together our different views about this multi-faceted artist and his creations. Sorting out the artistic character of Tarkay was, in the end, a satisfying and fruitful undertaking.
Another challenge that we faced was the interview section of the book. We sent Tarkay 50 well thought out questions in order to extract a profile of the man in his own words. Tarkay lives in Isreal, we are in New York so our correspondence with him took place via fax. When we received back Tarkay’s response to our questions there was a sudden sinking feeling. One and two word repartee was not what we were expecting. At first, the flow of the dialogue seemed too sparse, especially since the questions were designed to evoke an in-depth profile of Mr. Tarkay. It took our combined inspired vision to make us realize that Tarkay’s responses, while not exactly what we had in mind when we created the questions, were perfect in that they reflected with absolute clarity exactly who and what Tarkay was all about. Slowly we came to see that we had succeeded at what we set out to do. The fact is that Tarkay is a man of few words and the profile of him emerges from the juxtaposition of his answers rather than the answers themselves. What became our favorite answer seemed at first to be bad English, then we came to understand the incredible power of what he had said. The question #48: What do you view as your major accomplishments in this life - as an artist and as a person?
Tarkay’s answer, “It is a question that doesn’t interfere with me,” has become something of a bit of wisdom for us.
Tarkay’s paintings lend themselves well to reproduction and a major portion of the book devoted to his body of work is a journey in shape and color well worth the exploration.
Much thanks to Albert Scaglioneand Park West for this opportunity to produce a quality volume and for his understanding of all that it takes to create a book that truly reflects the life and work of such a prolific and accomplished artist and human being as Itzach Tarkay.
— JAMIE ELLIN FORBES
PROFILE OF AN ARTIST
CHEDWORTH
PUBLISHING
ITZCHAK TARKAY
''THE HALLOWED EsSENCE OF PAINTING''
By VICTOR FORBES & RENEE ST. JOHN
Amodern mast er, very much alive and very much in the moment, ltzchak Tarkay draws upon the entire realm of art history in a body of work that is not only aesthetically agreeable and compositionally seductive, but a cultural phenomenon responsible for countless love letters, innumerable nights of passion and incalculable furtive glances-the very substance of visual poetry.
As a successor to the giants of art history in popularity; Tarkay's graceful personal iconography has generated over a hundred million dollars of sales in a decade during which the art market can be generously described as unstable. While the dollar value of art should, in a perfect world, have no bearing on the aesthetic value of creativity, Tarkay's ubiquitous acceptance by collectors must be noted. What chord does this man strike in the common thread that weaves through our universal consciousness? What note does he hit to get us howling in unison?
What it all boils down to is this: is the art worthy of our attention? Does it inspire? Does it have a light of its own? Or does it reflect a light far greater than that which can be discerned by our all too human eyes?
A man of great imagination and expressive gifts, with
a special sensitivity and understanding of this life, Tarkay comprehends the duality inherent in man as one who should not only admire the beauty, but try to understand the sacred depths of this woman as well, thereby, perhaps, coming to terms with his own spirit.
If we can follow the path that Tarkay's woman takes inside of us, we will find a subtle mystery. It is here to explore if we will just scratch the surface. Let all that you hold onto pass for the moment, and Tarkay's woman wi 11 show you the way. What is the subject in the work ofTarkay? Is it the woman, or is it the shape of her? If we view his images with this thought in mind, the artwork will flow with answers. Not the logical kind of responses, but a primitive visual one. Modem art's abstracting of reality as we see it owes something to the art of Africa. Tarkay's work owes something to the early modernists as well. Though he abstracts his settings, he keeps them in line with the natural order of things. The gesture he carves speaks the visual language of nature itself. The shapes that he conjures seem gentle enough on the surface. Feel deeply as you explore Tarkay's world and another picture becomes evident-a picture of primitive power that etches itself into the memory. And in the memory, all that has gone before remains
As the prolific and brilliant guitarist Jerry Garcia deemed each note he played to possess its own spirit, so must we consider each mark ofTarkay's to be imbued with a similar quality. There is life in each brush stroke, a tribute to one man's quest for peace and beauty. Overall, Tarkay's compositions appeal to our very hearts because they come from Tarkay's very heart. How could they not. As he says, "The love for painting runs in my blood." And nowhere is this love more evident than in the collection of work in which we see the coming of age of an undeniable talent. Though Tarkay prefers to see himself a few steps from the very pinnacle of the art world, if he is not at the height of his powers, he is certainly getting close. If you tell Tarkay he is at the zenith of his profession, he will smilingly tolerate such foolishness, and tel I you if that were indeed the case, he would need to travel in two airplanes. The second one for his ego. As you will discover in this collection of his latest paintings and serigraphs, Tarkay as Maestro orchestrates masterpiece after masterpiece. We can only wonder where his next works will take us. In the studio, one on one with his vision, he shows us what he sees in a mode of expression all his own.
As heir to this mantle of artistic superstardom, with all the freedoms and responsibilities such a position entails, there is always a possibility an artist may rest upon his or her laurels. Not Tarkay. As is so clearly established in this volume, he demonstrates, by the sheer force and vibrancy of the art, not just a depth of color reminiscent of the Fauves and a compositional style also explored in the early days of Modernism, but a true understanding of human nature. In his endless panoramic view of the famili ar, Tarkay explores new depths of emotion and sensuality. The universally acclaimed sumptuousness of Tarkay's color and line has now been transferred to his figures, giving extraordinary life and personality to the natural woman, as he so aptly describes her. This persona has become, especially in these incredible paintings of subtlety and magnitude, far greater than the sum of her parts.
While there was a time, earlier in his career, when it seemed that Tarkay was a somewhat casual observer, ( if not a stranger) at his own partY, in these works it is apparent that he has freed himself from any distance between creator and creation. What is so striking, and what assures Tarkay's position as an artist of the utmost importance, is that he has translated any emotional barrier into a flurry of emotional involvement. Whereas Lautrec, and in his earlier work, Tarkay, both seemed to assume the role of invisible spectatorperhaps voyeur-here now, Tarkay strips away any illusion of aloofness with a palate so sensual, so rife with love, that whosoever discovers this world cannot but be touched by
the wisdom, knowledge and understanding, coupled with a healthy respect for life, that pervades his art.
Tarkay's roots as a painter take hold in the decisive years of modern art. The bright colors and flat patterns bui Id on the paths forged by Matisse and the Fauves. Like Picasso, the sculptural grows stronger than the pictoral. He constructs a perspective and then takes it away. The paintings go through an abstract transformation, the perspective dissolves into colors and shapes, her face remains, and the world reconstructs around her. She is the natural woman-satisfied, calm, serene. With closed eyes, her blue eyelids open onto a different world. She is floating. There is no solid earth in the paintings. Where solid earth is called for, the picture plane flattens to the surface of the canvas, bringing us into the here and now. Tarkay grabs the baton from the early emergence of modernism at the time when the Fauves made their stand. Yet he shies far away from comparisons, we just draw them here for the sake of scholarship and continuity. Tarkay's place in art history will be determined elsewehere. For the present, we have before us a collection of work by a man obsessed with his own vision. Beneath the seemingly simple concepts of "Natural Wo man Living Life," Tarkay infuses his own power: the power of color, the power of line, the power of love. As Tarkay says: "In my case, it is funny. Before I came to be what is described as famous, I was in business. Slowly, slowly, I gave up everything from everything else and put all my love-my life-into the studio." Once this decision was made, a style was born. "If you watch my work, in many places there is abstraction-no drawing, no image-just color. That's how I began. The line is now, and has always been, very important. The composition brings everything together."
With the dawn of the 20th century and especially in paintings created in the time period 1905-1910, we see threads that have been picked up and sewn together by Tarkay. Threads laid bare by the Fauves, The German Colorists, and Picasso among others. Note Picasso's paintings of 1907-1909, for example, FruitDish,1909. Tarkay uses similiar strategies: the way in which the fruits trail up trying to become spirals; the vase in Picasso's work, awkward, wrong and beautiful, like Tarkay's chairs. Tarkay takes hold of the perspective, molding the middle and foreground to his own liking. The alteration flows to the line of his gesture. He takes cues from Matisse, Lautrec, and the Fauves-but he is now. His work is more organic than that of the Cubists. His line works in harmony with nature.
The paintings evolve from a certain enigmatic shape, like the original form becoming a pear or an egg, reshaping itself into a spiral. With this shape, he constructs his world,
and then it trails off, floating. The fullness of it, ripe, bountiful, like the woman herself. In Tarkay's words, "Everything we want and need can be found in a female form." Thus Tarkay's natural woman: the object of desire without responsibility or consequence. She is an icon. We see her in Matisse's Odalisque paintings of 1921-1923, and in Woman in a Purple Coat, 1937. Here we have the bountiful vase, the leaf shapes, the areas of color, the shapely woman in ripe repose. The foreground flattens to become the canvas as well. Of course, Tarkay is a modern painter, a painter of our times, with his own concerns. Is it any wonder with the state of the world as it is today, that Tarkay paints his image of a woman with her eyes closed? What does it take, in these times, to float in a world of your own? To go one on one with your dream? What does one need to take on a shape and embody a fundamental nature? Tarkay's work deals with these issues. In his paintings, Tarkay's abstract shapes become the subject as the subject bec omes the shape. Her quiet mood everchanging, as the shape becomes itself.
What is the power that this shape holds? Tarkay buiIds his paintings with it. It is enigmatic. It is fundamental. It is more basic then ordinary logic and reason will allow. This is why it must be painted. It is a fluid shape, amorphous, seeking an identity. With eyes1 closed, his woman dreams herself into this shape. With a gesture, Tarkay's foliage blossoms it. His more abstract passages flatten to become this shape that is a building block of nature.
In defining this form, his colors are his own, full of Tarkay. His textures and structures melt and move-Tarkay. His women drift-Tarkay. Again, she is an icon. She is one with art history. She is blown here on the wings of time. She dreams her way into being. She's not unlike Cleopatra in a cafe. Did we not see her in the Sistine Chapel?
The freedom in these paintings says that Tarkay is not burdened by extraneous influences, in this way his is a spiritual art. Is She the pagan goddess at ease? Is She Kali Ma lounging amidst her creation, eyes closed like Sleeping Beauty? The flowers, fruit and leaves-offerings-shapes of color, nature's presence blossoming.
There is no school in this world where you could learn to paint like this. ProbablY, it's a hybrid of everything Tarkay has seen and done. Tarkay says that ",A.s the paintings happen, you are involved so deeply in the work and what goes on around you and with you. It somedaY, someway develops, though always changing. But I don't feel the change, or think about it. It is coming, yet not under control. .. completely not under control."
Tarkay is concise, he is to the point, direct. He paints. He loves that. Oh, he loves a couple of artists, and would
like to be remembered as one of the good ones. Yet, with this collection before you, Tarkay raises the stakes. He takes us to a place created by the cunning unity of mind, eye and hand. He loves, but doesn't deify his subject. Rather, he lets us do that. It's a very real goddess Tarkay illumines with his brushstroke. This is no craven image.
There is an ancient mystery in the work of Tarkay. That must be discovered for oneself. This is what Tarkay's paintings achieve. He brings to us this mystery for the advent of our coming millenium. His fertile female form is a timeless enigma. The poses that Tarkay's figures manifest are every bit as classical as The Winged Victoryor Venus de Milo. Fifth century B.C.E. female figures, much like Tarkay's, can be seen on the Erechtheion in Athens. Tarkay dives deep into history, and brings up pearls for our times. The quality of his line is organie: the quality of his woman, his art, is magic.
Tarkay is truly a man at one with his gift. There is no barrier between his song and his substance. In the process of creation, it seems, Tarkay is able to reach inside and through some alchemy that melds the mystical with the mechanical, paint us a pure reproduction from his soul. In our process of creating this particular book, we have been blessed with the opportunity to glimpse the internal mec hanisms of a genius at work. !t's an ov er-used expression, absolutely, but in trying to find out what makes this man tick, we learn that Tarkay's brilliance is his ability to lovingly produce his inner vision without interference, in much the same way that Einstein discovered relativity or Beethoven brings forth a symphony. In the pages to follow, you have the opportunity to explore the work of ltzchak Tarkay, the mystery and the magic. We have used words to introduce you to the man and his tableau. By nature these words must fall short of the glory of his art. The paintings have their own tale to tell, linger with them, allow them to seduce you. They will. Each page is rich with his colors, every plate is your ticket to enjoy. A dialogue will unfold if you engage the work, page followed by luscious page, evolving into the kind of a story that only master paintings can convey. Become consumed by their subtleties. Become transfigured by their shapes. The power of art is unleashed upon us here, that hallowed essence of painting comes across.
Tarkay paints in the light of Israel. He doesn't talk about it as a Holy Land or make a big deal about spiritualitY, religion or politics. He is grateful for his health and concludes that "Life is good." His paintings, we noted, are as songs, even psalms.We would like to thank Tarkay for opening our eyesthe windows to our souls. ,A.s David, the King of his beloved Israel writes, "I will sing unto the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me." That stated, one question remains: Can there be a greater contribution to mankind?
"In the morning, after I wake up, I go into my studio and take my first coffee . I am in my studio around eight o' clock, sitting in my chair. If I have a good mood and know exactly what I want to do, it's ok . If not, I see myself at the easel, working1 ike hypnosis. You stand up from the chair and you don't feel it. You are near the easel, near the chair, and you are working. A normal day is ten hours. Seven days a week, except Yorn Kippur. The work is really hard work."
-ITZCHAK TARKAY
50 Questions ...
...Answered by Tarkay
1. When did you first realize you were coming into prominence as an artist? It happened so fast.
2. Do you recall when you first began painting in the style that made you so popular?
About ten years ago, I started my general style that had been changed all the time-until now.
3. Who is that woman? Who are those women and how does she ( or them) have such an importance to you that you are able to create such a large and impressive body of work revolving around her image?
Not a special woman, but a very natural one.
4. From where physically, and from where internally, do you get this seemingly neverending stream of imagery?
It comes from the love to paint. That's the love that runs in my blood and is the center of my life.
5. Who influenced you greatly-as an artist and as a man?
I don't think I was influenced by one person-maybe by many.
6. Could you imagine living as something other than an artist?
IYes, I could be someone else but I'd have to have the art by me.
7. Do you feel that you could have been a carpenter? A soldier? A poet? Anything other than an artist?
Who knows?
8. At what age did you first experience your need to paint and draw?
From childhood.
11. What advice would you give others attempting such a journey?
Work, work and work!
12. How do you relax? Do you have spare time for hobbies or other activities?
Family and friends.
9. Were you encouraged as a child in this field?
No, I was not.
10. What obstacles have you had to overcome to get to where you are today?
Nothing.
13. Do you go to many museum shows?
I enjoy visiting museums in Israel and abroad.
14. Have you ever taken a break from painting and tried another way to make a living?
Sometimes I do go on vacations with my family and friends, but sometimes, when I know that I'll want to paint, I take my things and paint.
15. Tel I us about your creative process? How do you get these ideas? Are you always sketching? Traveling? Thinking about your next painting?
Sketching, yes. Traveling, yes. Thinking on my next painting, yes.
16. Did or does any other profession interest you?
No.
17. Is the process a complete mystery or do you have a set way to get yourself into the art? No.
18. Where were you born? How was your childhood?
I was born in Yugoslavia in 1935 and had a normal childhood until the age of six. Then we started running for our lives in the concentration camps. When I was 13, I immigrated to Israel, stayed at a kibbutz and then the army. After completing my army duties, work and more work and morel
19. What about the environment in which you create is so important to you? Or can you produce your work virtually anywhere?
I paint anywhere I can1 but I do love my studio as everything is set up for me.
20. Do you have some ideas for future works; different projects?
There are a lot of projects in progress right now.
21 . Do you collect art or antiques?
Both.
22. Where do you work these days?
In my studio, in Tel-Aviv.
23. What kind of cuisine do you enjoy? What kind of wine do you drink? Do you listen to music when you paint?
I love eating meat and sushi, love good red wine and love listening to music when I paint.
24. How has your widespread acceptance and success affected your life?
Nothing has changed my life.
25. How would you like to be remembered as an artist?
As a good artist.
26. Are you getting to the point where you are going to be able to slow down? Or possibly change your artistic direction?
Yes.
27. Have you any thoughts on the state of art in the world today, and what meaning and value art has in everyday life?
Very confusing.
28. Why do you think, out of so many artists seeking success and popularity, that you have been so well received by the art collectors of the world?
I really don't know.
29. When did you begin to create limited editions?
About seven to eight years ago.
30. What is your favorite part of that process and how involved are you in print-making?
I am involved in the whole process and enjoy sketching on the prints the most.
31. Do you work on the screens, the plates, etc.?
I'm using this technique
32. How many prints by Tarkay are there out in the world?
I don't know.
JEFF VERMEEREN
“Hero Of Creativity”
By JAMIE ELLIN FORBES, Publisher
Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, from early childhood Jeff has been interested in discovering and learning about anything and everything. As a youth he was always taking things apart and creating gadgets with a new purpose. On into his teens he was often found in the shop working on vehicles and projects. Jeff has always believed that “If you WANT to do it, you CAN do it.” This is how he has lived his life whether as a Motocross racer or demolition expert — inspired to go higher and do bigger. This publication covers all the bases of an artist for whom no idea or possibility is out of reach.
PIn 2014 at Artexpo New York, I had the pleasure of meeting Vermeeren. He exuded energy and enthusiasm while sharing a love of art as his mission statement. Fire Painting on metal was new to me. The series of works displayed on the following pages demonstrates the artist’s emergence boosted by the elemental energy he captures in his works. Like the medieval alchemists, Jeff is looking for the philosopher’s stone — gold — which he found in the mixing of paint with fire. The mystery and the alchemy are merged in his artistic vision via use of the material to produce his vision. Vermeeren’s “Abstraction Unbridled” led to this current collaboration between the artist and our publication which we are pleased to share with all readers.
Expressionist painter has blazed a new trail in the art world. Private and corporate collectors find his powerful yet soothing imagery mined from the state of his imagination to be perfect compliments to not only offices and living rooms, but to outside spaces as well.
Pat Kirmer portrait by Paul Matthews
Patrick Francis Kirmer Obituary
atrick was born to John and Johannah Kirmer in Hollywood, California on May 1, 1929. Pat was one of six children, four boys and two girls. During his early years he worked with his father, John, in the family butcher shop. He enlisted in the Army during the Korean War, and served stateside for three years. After leaving the service, Pat completed his college education at the California College of Arts and Crafts in northern California. He moved to New York, where he received a Scholarship to the Brooklyn Museum to pursue his studies in art. Upon completing his education, he went to work at the Baldwin School in Manhattan. He taught art there for 30 years, and retired in 1988. During his career at the Baldwin School, he worked at the Baldwin School Camp in Keene Valley, New York. This was his introduction to the Adirondacks and his beloved Johns Brook.
Like a Promethean torch, the fire of his mind pierces through time and allows for his galactic glimpse into the process of energy moving in the cauldron, transforming the perception of each moment caught in time into the universal language of imagery set forth and executed for viewing. Now forged with experience and acknowledged by his audience, the artist’s story gains impetus with every gallery exhibition. Each installment of imagery is the sequel to the last collection. Vermeeren offers his patrons and admirers a connection to his creative soul encouraging them to participate via a window provided by each of his works of art.
Upon retiring, Pat and his wife Therese, moved to Keene Valley and eventually purchased a home on Market Street. Johns Brook became Pat’s muse and he devoted the vast majority of his time painting the brook. Pat was very engaged with the community and volunteered at the Keene Valley Fire Department selling raffle tickets for their Annual Field Day. He was very engaged with the Keene Central School and he worked tirelessly on sets for many school plays. He was also known as the “apple man”, because of his yearly custom of passing out apples to trick or treaters on Halloween.
Vermeeren’s innovative passion rings through while the captivation of his process refined within layers of honed expression becomes even more varied and established. The artist’s collectors, and galleries have grown to an international status. All the while the same humility of spirit and his mission to share the beauty of what he creates with others moves forward. Like other evolving inventive artists, Vermeeren sailed into uncharted waters to expand his horizons while encompassing fresh motifs. He remains open to the creative energies which originally drove him and the changes they produce.
The vitality of the creations of this Post-modern Abstract
We are pleased to publish this special collaboration with Jeff Vermeeren. Picking up from our initial foray into the life and art of Jeff — a 2015 cover feature in which we recognized him with “Artist of the Year” award — Fine Art magazine produces this 48 page monograph that will introduce the artist to those new to his work, acquaint his collectors to new works and be a welcome addition to any art-lover’s library.
Over the past several months, Pat had been living at the Essex Center nursing facility. He took his last “brush stroke” on the evening of May 3rd. Pat and Therese had no children and he was predeceased by two sisters, and two brothers. He is survived by his brother Michael Kirmer and his wife Sandy, who live in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Pat established an annual Johns Brook Scholarship Fund to support a deserving graduating student from Keene Central School who plans to major in music, art, or theater. Memorial donations may be made to the Adirondack Foundation, PO Box 288, Lake Placid, NY 12916 or visit https://www.adirondackfoundation.org/funds/johns-brook-art-and-music-scholarship-fund. All gifts will be added to the John’s Brook Scholarship Fund. An open house celebration of Pat’s life at the Keene Valley Congregational Church was held at the Van Santvoord room on November 16 where many people came to share stories about Pat.
VICTOR BENNETT FORBES, Editor victor@fineartmagazine.com
POB 481, KEENE VALLEY, NY 12943 • 518.593.6470
We look forward with great anticipation to our future coverage of Jeff Vermeeren’s new creations.
“And in the end The love you take Is equal to the Love you make.”
— Sir Paul McCartney ss y y
One of the most interesting, fascinating, dynamic and inspiring art world stories of the 21st century to date is the emergence of a one-time motocross racer and former construction demolition man as a top draw in big-time galleries from Hawaii to Las Vegas to Key West and points in-between and beyond. His name is Jeff Vermeeren and he is dedicated to creating new and innovative works of art that are completely different from anything that has gone before — creations that are playful yet substantial, dynamic yet mellow. When he comes to a gallery in your neck of the woods, be certain to attend his exhibition. From his initial exposure at Artexpo New York, with an explosion of color, forms and mediums, Jeff has developed a legion of collectors who are drawn to his work and not surprisingly. To get the vivid colors that
infuse in each piece a variety of feelings and moods, he uses fire, ice, pressure and a wide range of unstable chemicals. “It’s quite an extensive process,” he states, revealing just enough for the sake of an interview. “Chemicals ignite at different levels of heat and burn at different speeds.” There is no way to duplicate one of his pieces. This is not oil paint on canvas. He takes his visions to a level of heretofore unexplored territory. His artistic eloquence is evident in just about every creation. As does music, they speak in a universal language. His ever-evolving vision doesn’t necessarily pre-meditate to a full extent what the result will be, yet he somehow knows to some degree what will be the outcome. His stated belief is that what art really is intended to do is produce something that creates an emotion in the viewer and his latest body of work certainly succeeds in that goal. Following is an interview with Jamie Ellin Forbes, Publisher of Fine Art magazine.
JAMIE: What I admire most about your success is that ever since we met at your single booth in that far corner of Artexpo New York some years ago is that you’ve included your family and many charities in all your doings.
The Vermeerens take flight
“Let’s put wings on a heart so that it feels like it’s screaming ‘Love!’”
JEFF: Thank you so much. It’s true and it’s fun. I didn’t get into art for the profits or money. I came into the art business to support my charitable endeavors.
JAMIE: Oh, you’re doing a great job, Jeff. You’re doing a great job. And you bring your family with you, correct?
JEFF: My wife LaDawn comes to the art shows with me and some of my kids travel with us at times. A few of the galleries we’ve been to actually offered my daughter Taya a job because she just gets up there and says whatever she wants and she makes sales! My oldest son wants to get into art. Taya wants to run a gallery and she’s only
The Vermeeren Family
15. So we’ll see where they all go with it. But for now it’s pretty wild and we’re certainly enjoying it. I’m a very big family man and that’s one of our big things. This journey is not just for me – it’s for everyone.
JAMIE: Your career has grown phenomenally in a relatively short period of time.
JEFF: Yes, it’s exploded. We used to have the demolition company and we actually sold that back in the fall of 2019. So since right before COVID we were just doing art and it’s been exciting.
JAMIE: Tell us about that Key West adventure. You’re jumping out of an airplane with LaDawn.
JEFF: It’s funny. We came in on
Wednesday night and we thought, okay, let’s go by the gallery and say hi to everybody and we’re there talking to a local gentleman who is saying my paintings bring to mind the view sky divers see looking out of the airplane at 13,000 feet over the ocean. It was 10 o’clock at night and I called the sky diving place and left a message inquiring about availability. They called me back super early in the morning. We were traveling all day so I was half asleep and he’s like, ‘Yeah, I have an opening if you guys want to come down here.’ We’ve never done it before, but we said, sure, let’s do it. So next thing I know, we’re going up in the airplane and for my wife — who doesn’t even like roller-coasters or anything crazy like that — she was a trooper. She jumped right on board and before we knew it, we were in the air and jumping out of a plane. It was awesome. It was exhilarating. It was crazy, but kind of how our life is going these days.
“It’s the love that creates your heart series to address people’s wounds and that’s the glue of the universe.”
JAMIE: Oh, how fabulous. Your art has changed over a period of time. Tell us about your recent work.
JEFF: If you’ve been following me a little bit, something about me is that I’m always looking for bigger and better products. As I go, I don’t write things down. I don’t recalculate or stand on the things I’ve done because I find if I do that, I’ll never change. So I’m always upping my game. I’m always upping the products I use. My very first piece was created out of heating duct material. I have since tried everything from steel to copper to brass; different levels of aluminum, such as high aircraft grade aluminum. Even now I consistently change materials. Creation for me is always a thing of excitement. The result is way different. Nobody has ever seen this kind of art before. It’s moving and majestic, I’ve been told. Now the top coats
are even more solid, more durable. They have crystal diamond dust in every single one, UV protected, fingerprint resistant. I actually just upgraded my paint again. I’m probably on my tenth kind of paint that I’m using and I’m always upping the aluminum grade — everything just to give my collectors the best product that I can. So that actually leads into my next adventure.
JAMIE: Jeff, could you tell us the process of making your sculptures. Your three
dimensional pieces are a whole new territory for you.
JEFF: I had about three or four different sculptures I designed and cast. I want the viewer to go in there and feel what I’m doing. I want them to know it’s a Vermeeren by the colors and the look and the feel. I also want the viewer to say that it is something they can relate to, that it is not just something for me but something about me so they will feel they’ve also experienced what I’m going through. There’s a couple of different styles and media I want to explore. I just completed my first one. I’ve done a few out of carbon resin, but this sculpture is a fully realized design to express my thoughts and feelings about the pains of abuse going on in the world, especially as it affects men, women and children. This sculpture is a limited edition of 10 and almost all are sold already. They’re all different colors, like my work, but as it is bronze, I’m actually spraying the color on. It’s a heart all ripped apart with stitches in it and bruises. You can tell it’s a heart, it’s definitely been beaten but it’s surviving, even thriving. It’s something I wanted to do. Most of the proceeds from this piece are going to charity.
JAMIE: Oh, wonderful. Do you have specific charities that you’re donating to, or are you collecting charities now?
JEFF: I’m collecting charities all over the place. We always have a few that the galleries kind of pick. If they don’t have any specific ones, I go to Make A Wish Foundation, St. Jude’s and various children’s hospitals.
JAMIE: I understand something unique about you is that you were running a company that was quite profitable when you delved into your art work so that a considerable portion of your art proceeds went to charity and continue to do so.
JEFF: Through life, you seek challenges and stuff comes through in your life and one of our family’s concerns is abuse, people grooming people and taking advantage of them. We’ve had our share of tears for that and this is kind of what is the basis around this heart sculpture series. This is how I tied into that. I wanted something that shows it’s a piece of us, a piece of life, a piece of history. I believe that in one way or another — or on one level or another — people have experienced heartache through themselves or through family. It’s just something that I think we all need to be united, hold hands and we’re there, we’re there. That’s what art’s about.
which was a tough time. A lot of people were stuck in homes where they couldn’t get a break from the abuse.
JAMIE: Yes it was rough. I don’t think anybody came out of COVID unscathed. Depending on your temperament, it took different tolls. You were able to get out a bit though, right? I saw you doing shows every now and then.
JAMIE: I think it’s a very healing gesture that you would address the abuse. Most people shy away from any abuse in their families, and you’re to be applauded along with your wife and your family. And I know that grace benefits people who need a healed heart, and if you’ve got a heart there you’re healing and you’re healing it through your art, it’s a wonderful thing, Jeff.
JEFF: Thank you so much. It’s not only just for the survivors, but it’s for the families too, who are helping the survivors. My message is that as heartbreaking and horrific as it is, there is growth. You can find growth in love and you can find a whole new unity and protection for everybody, even for the people that don’t see it firsthand. It’s just really hard to understand. Yet there’s just so much we’re understanding ourselves and learning through it and growing. The pain is real but the love is real. I wasn’t even done with the first Heart sculpture and we were in Key West visiting with a group and talking about how I came up with the concept. Right there we sold many before they were even cast, just because people were feeling and loving and hearing the stories and wanted to get into the art. The result is I’m going to do a whole Heart series and there will eventually be a collection, of them available. As far as where I’m going with this, I think there needs to be a
“I really love the vibrant colors and wanted to do something extraordinary that not everybody was doing. I don’t want to have the same art everywhere. Each is different in its own way and impossible for me to duplicate.”
series of this kind of like Frog Man where he has a series of frogs or someone like Nano Lopez who has a series of giraffes or elephants that all kind of work together. That’s where I want to go with it. One can collect a handful of the hearts you’d know how they work because some of us are experiencing, let’s just say, love. So I put wings on a heart so that it’s screaming LOVE. Some of us are heartbroken and needing to be stitched back together. So I threw stitches in and bolts and pieces to look like it’s holding it together. Some of us are locked up so tight that we just don’t want to share anymore. So there’s key holes, and there are gears inside so you can see how your heart is turning and working, but it’s more robotic.
JAMIE: It’s a beautiful concept. These are beautiful ideas and I really thank you for sharing them. This is so necessary in today’s world that has such pain.
JEFF: For sure. I’d like to directly connect to everybody, to think that through so we can talk about the abuse that’s going on in this world, especially even during COVID
JEFF: You are correct, we actually did. The funny thing is, 2020 and 2021 were our biggest art years yet with commission after commission. Right now, we’ve just moved our family to the US to be closer to our clients and the bulk of our galleries.We actually just bought a house in Utah where LaDawn’s family is from.
JAMIE: Oh how fabulous.
JEFF: Yes and we have a lot of fun stuff that we’ll be announcing soon. We’re in the process of signing with a major art company and one of the agreements in there is I’ll be in their top 10 living artists. They’ll produce sculptures and new prints and giclees, stuff like that as well as take a good chunk of originals. With all the galleries I am in, I’ve developed a system where I can produce a good amount of art. Las Vegas is one of our biggest players, Signature and Wyland group. They sell a ton of my art, which is fantastic.
JAMIE: A long way from that single booth at Artexpo where we first met you.
JEFF: Oh my goodness. It has been a wild ride.
JAMIE: How did that happen?
JEFF: You know what, it’s funny. I started doing a few of those Expos and one in Las Vegas at which I had two galleries actually pick me up there. Right away they were selling quite well and then Signature Gallery came and offered me an eight gallery deal with their locations in Hawaii and Lake Tahoe and all the ones in Vegas. Since I began showing with them in the middle of 2019, I’ve never sold so much art — unbelievable. It’s pretty wild.
JAMIE: Oh, lovely. Well, you had the mental vision, Jeff, and you pursued it and that’s more than half the battle.
Vince Vandurme at Art Space and Design, Calgary Alberta
Boldness
and originality come naturally to Jeff Vermeeren. His colorful outfits exude power, as does his art. Any observer can see there is something special about him — not just the artwork that stands out, but the artist himself.
JEFF: Sure it is, Jamie, that’s totally what it is. I’ve had a few opportunities where I thought ‘I don’t know if I’m gonna do art anymore’ but we went out for lunch with Robert Bateman and he told me straight out ‘You’re one of the best metal artists in the world. What are you thinking? You better keep doing this because it’s going to take off for you. Just keep going. You have this. As soon as you hit your ten year mark,’ (I’m at eight years right now) ‘you’ll be unstoppable.’ And right now I feel like we’re doing fantastic. The people are awesome, and you know this just as well as I do: the art community is still very ‘hippie’ if I can use that word. There’s very much love. There’s hugs, there’s friendship. It’s all about relationships and passion for something we’ve all combined to do and that’s what I love. Don’t get me wrong. I love painting, but I also love walking in a room where no one will ever tell you
anywhere that your work sucks (laughter) but they will tell you your work is awesome and they will work with you and talk to you. It’s all about friends and family. Most of my collectors become family. And every time we’re there, the shows just keep getting bigger and bigger and we hang out and we visit. We go for dinner and it’s all love. It’s awesome.
JAMIE: Well, it’s a great life and I think you enrich many people’s lives even as you’re saying they enrich yours. The art community is a community of relationships and in order for the art to work and sell and communicate, getting to people’s homes and offices, it has to be nurtured. There has to be a positive, loving environment and that’s what galleries provide — the vehicle. It is the artist who provides the work, the engine that drives these interactions.
JEFF: That is a bonus for sure.
JAMIE: You go into a loving environment where it’s the love that connects. It’s the love that creates your heart series to address people’s wounds and that’s the glue of the universe.
JEFF: You know what? That’s totally something we’re finding now. It’s the law of the harvest. What you put in is what you get out. They’re universal laws — universe wide. If you throw something up in the air, it’s gonna fall down on you. LaDawn and I have always taught our kids — and we’ve always lived by the laws — that you put good out, good will come back. I’m not saying it’s all good all the time. There’s bad things that happen in this world. And we learn how to deal with those and work through them. If you are consistently putting out good, the universe comes back to you. You can call it Karma, the Law of
the Harvest, however you describe it. But that’s something we’re definitely feeling and learning quite strongly now,
JAMIE: That’s a wonderful experience. But this success was waiting for you. Like I said, you had the vision. I remember you describing the vision and the general energy and enthusiasm that fuels it. So I think your success is a reflection of who you both are. Lately you’ve done some more figurative work along with the abstractions that we knew from the beginning.
JEFF: Yes. There’s a handful of those out. I don’t do a ton of them, but a lot of the stuff that I do like that are collaborations with friends. Obviously some artists do not want to share their name or share their work. They feel it belittles them or whatever they think. But for me, I look at it this way: I like to do collaborations with my friends. First of all, because they’re friends. How much more fun is that than to work together and paint together. I’ve done stuff with Cat Tatz, who is with Park West, Fabio Napoleoni, and Gear Duran from Skin Wars, we’ve done a few pieces together. Lisa Herr has done her “sculpture relief illustrations” on top of my work, there are other great artistrs I’ve worked with as well. So those are kind of fun, but I have some theories behind that. I do it in a way that they have their fan base and their collectors as do I. Now their friends become my friends and my friends become their friends and so it helps build everybody up. I believe there’s enough art in the world, there’s enough difference that we should be able to speak positively and be excited about other artists and the work that they’re producing. That’s why I like doing a lot of collaborations with my friends.
JAMIE: You did a very special piece with Dana Kennedy.
JEFF: She’s a National Geographic artist, so she’s really fantastic. Dana’s awesome. Years ago when I first met you in New York, I viewed the art world a lot differently than I do today. You think you’re going to be a celebrity and you think these guys are larger than life. I’m not going to lie — a lot of these artists are larger than life, but after I came home from New York, it was like a plug was pulled from me. I thought that I was higher than life. We went out there, walked the red carpet, first class. It was big for us, we did it all. We met Fine Art magazine. It just took off for us, but I came
home and I had to mentally adjust. People are people. My collectors, the artists, the gallerists…everybody is just doing their best to succeed. On this awesome playing field I understand and am very aware that the guy picking up my garbage is the exact same guy I am. He’s just doing something different. What we do and how much we have doesn’t define us. At the end of the day, we’re all the same and if we treat each other well and with kindness, this world’s going to be a better place.
JAMIE: I’m in agreement definitely. You have to have respect for absolutely every human being you meet. And if you offer the respect, the respect comes back. And until you realize, even if you don’t think there’s a place for the respect, offer it anyway and hopefully it’ll come back.
JEFF: You know what? That’s exactly right and you know just as well as everybody, even if someone treats you like garbage, you treat them the best you can. It always comes around and do we not feel better if we treat people that are jerks to us kindly?
It’s not a problem that we need to take on ourselves. It’s their own problem.
JAMIE: Very well said. I like that one.
JEFF: I can adapt to everybody’s behavior in everybody’s life, but the longer I carry that negativity around with me, who am I gonna be?
JAMIE: That’s interesting. So you’re casting your artistic fate to the light.
JEFF: Yes and the fun thing is in some of those ones you can’t even tell until you take them into the light because some of them glow in the dark and some of them don’t. It’s hard to paint that way, but once I’m done, the process adds a whole new element to my paintings
JAMIE: And it’s fascinating, absolutely fascinating. What’s the biggest piece you’ve made so far to date?
JEFF: I did a triptych with each panel 48 inchces by 96 inchecs — that’d be 12 feet long and eight feet tall. There’s some very large work from time to time. When they were planning the Olympics in my
hometown of Calgary my name was on the roster to do the creative art for the Olympic rings. I’ll be looking for major projects along those lines in the future as we develop and grow. At this point, it’s nice that I pretty much do what I want to do and then I’ll have a handful of commissions every month. Some of them I like doing and some of them I don’t, depending on how hard they are (laughs). I still mix all my colors on the spot, don’t premix anything so every single red, every single blue, every single, violet, whatever is a different shade, different look, different kind. When you go into a gallery, it’s pretty wild because there’s just so many different colors, which is fantastic. But some of them are very difficult to make because it’s a one off like they’re all originals, they’re all one off. So, oh yeah. When someone says, oh, I’d like that, but I need it two inches smaller. For example, I’m working on one right now. They want one that is not even joking, two inches smaller. And the one they love is sitting at the gallery, but they want me to commission. I’ve painted that one eight
times and I still can’t get it. Right. But I’m too much of a perfectionist. I keep working with the client until I see the exact look they love.
JAMIE: Another thing, Jeff. People want to know where you buy your shirts?
JEFF: I get all kinds of shirts and shoes from all over the place. Sometimes I give the shirts away for a donation, the proceeds go to charity. If I’m wearing one of those shirts, I get recognized all over the place. If they’re wild, loud and look pretty cool, I’ll just grab it. I buy most of my stuff in Las Vegas, a fun place to buy any kind of clothes because no one carries what those shops do and I can find the craziest things. So anytime we’re on a trip and I see something, I’ll grab it. But there’s some shirts I’ve worn once and there’s some shirts that I haven’t even worn. There’s some shirts. I really like that I wear all over the place and then the shoes kind of come and go a little bit. Sometimes I joke and say it’s like putting on a show. But as I said, it’s fun. You have to live it up a little bit. Have some fun. I don’t know why when I put on a certain shirt or pair of shoes, it gives me a different energy and you’re just ready to rock and roll your art show.
JAMIE: What’s your favorite gallery in Las Vegas?
JEFF: Both Signature Gallery in the Venetian and Wyland Gallery are awesome. Those are two pretty good places to be. The art world is so small, so we’re getting to be friends with a lot of people. I could have three or four more galleries in Las Vegas right away but because of the parameters of contracts, I can’t do that. One of my friends owns the Bill Mack gallery and she’s actually invited me a handful of times.
JAMIE: Bill has been a stalwart in the game for a long time.
JEFF: He’s rocking and rolling. Bill’s really good. I rarely run into all the artists we get to be friends with because they’re in one area, I’m in another, the only time we really see each other is if we’re both in the same locale. We meet up for a lunch or
dinner and then we all go our ways.
JAMIE: You’re a very artistic person, because that’s what you developed and that’s what your life has become. The energies channel through you and once you begin to channel them, they just continue.
JEFF: That’s for sure. I’m starting to have people come to my art shows and they wear their own crazy shirts. It’s kind of cool. Collectors come and they all want to take pictures with me with their shoes or their shirts and some are pretty outrageous. Yeah. So that’s kind of been happening the last couple years that almost every show, there’s one person that comes up and says, Hey, I like your shirt. And then we take a couple pictures.
JAMIE: I was talking to somebody this
morning and I was saying, well, the thing to do during this period of time on planet Earth is just manifest your highest artistic self with a lot of love and express and spend the love, spend the art, spend the creativity because it does change things. And that’s what you’re saying. It changes people’s experiences.
JEFF: I don’t know where the future brings us. All I know is if you take today and you do your best today, and you do that every day, it’s bound to rock and roll. All we can control is now, right?
JAMIE: That’s a good note to conclude our interview with Jeff.
JEFF: That’s perfect.
The Vermeeren Process & Techniques
JAMIE: How have your techniques developed over the years with use of the heating and cooling processes in the construction of your metal art, which they call it. Have you elaborated on it or expanded upon it, figuring out different ways to use it?
JEFF: Everything’s evolved, even what I do now. In the very beginning, I experimented a lot with different things, especially fire and ice. I haven’t used ice for years, but because I’ve done it in my pieces, I still leave it there. It really doesn’t do very much and it actually slows the creative process in the time that it takes to build in. Fire does its own thing. Obviously it’s a nature that kind of takes over but I’ve also learned how to hone it in so I can kind of know what’s gonna happen now within reason, if that makes sense. I used to go with a lot of bigger torches and really flame it up. I now go with smaller torches and isolate areas to get things to move and then slow them down, stuff like that. It is a little bit different than when I first started. It’s interesting. I just feel like I keep getting better and better the more I work on it. Mostly because I don’t write anything down, every day is a new discovery. I don’t want to be where I was yesterday and if I do the same things I do every day that
I did yesterday, I’m stuck there. So that’s why I always do more and better.
JAMIE: Do you still allow the material to behave in its own way?
JEFF: Absolutely.
JAMIE: Very much in the way Pollock allowed the paint to drip, you also adapted a process. He grew up in Arizona and he watched native American ritual and he passed the paint in, I guess embodying the essence of the principle of the ritual of the spirit. So when you started to talk about this, I could just see paint drizzling or paint firing and moving. And you’re doing very much the same thing that Pollock did.
JEFF: Some of the things that I’ve changed over, I guess, one of the things that when you guys first met me, I was using wood backs, adhesives for holding the backs on flat paneled metal, spray on clear coats, stuff like that. Everything that I’m doing is different. I don’t have any foreign material besides the paint and the metal. So all my metal now is bent into frames so you can hang it from any direction you want. That’s why my signatures are on a unique angle, because you can hang them vertical or horizontal and they can be hung anywhere. We have collectors that have eight to ten pieces
outside in living spaces. I’ve never done that, but one of our good friends, Dave and Tina in California, they have an outside patio and half of their pieces are outside, which is really neat. I’m trying to design and make my materials better and different in every way. We have glow in the dark, color-changing, heat-changing, infrared changing. It’s really cool. There’s always things that I’m trying to do to up my game with. I have a few new ones that I’m doing. I work with an aluminum base. It’s still aluminum but now I’m actually not going with the stainless steel aluminum base look to start where I grind it. It’s actually either a colored background, like a black or a white stuff like that I’ve never done before. So it’s changing the whole look of the design of it, making colors jump in a certain way that I just never had before.
JAMIE: You are involved in a spontaneous moment as you’re creating and then you are allowing the color to speak through the piece, but change as it’s viewed. It’s an experience for everyone to enjoy.
JEFF: I’m looking forward to creating new and innovative pieces of art that will capture and expand upon the Vermeeren experience. See you at the next show.
Corvette Commission for collectors Dave and Tina
Key West Gallery
LIFE
By VICTOR FORBES
Boldness comes naturally to Jeff Vermeeren. Boldness and originality. We were neighbors with booths in a far corner at the New York Artexpo in 2015. Even on set-up day, any observer could tell there was something special about him. It was not just the artwork that stood out, but the artist himself. His colorful shirt exuded power, as did his art and his hair was perfect, like the Werewolf of London. Not to mention those Newman-esque blue eyes and a demeanor that – wait a second.... Vermeeren? Showing at Artexpo? Wasn’t he a Dutch Master? So we couldn’t help stopping and chatting with Jeff himself who was as personable and debonair as his outfit and blazing red hair, and whose collection of art on the walls was, simply put, energizing in it’s originality, color and power.
“A work of art, is the trace of a magnificent struggle,” noted Robert Henri, a leading figure of the Ashcan School. “It’s really a battle,” said Degas. Chimed in Monette, “As an artist, you reach for the pen that’s full of blood.”
While there is no pen in Jeff’s tool chest, he creates with a potent concoction of a wide range of unstable chemicals mixed together with a combination of ice, fire and unbridled enthusiasm. With no set formula to achieve a pre-destined outcome, each piece, generated from the artist’s vision and creative nature is as explosive as his electric persona and inflammable ideas. This unique form of art and his passion for creating with an almost rebellious disregard for the ordinary led him to this masterful mode of expression he terms “Extreme Abstract.”
ABSTRACT EXTREME
something that creates an emotion in somebody, if that makes sense.”
“It’s like writing a song,” I said.
Replied Jeff, “That’s exactly right.”
“How do you manifest that?” I asked.
“Just by not repeating myself. I just don’t want get stuck doing the same thing every day.”
This particular school of art, of which Vermeeren is founder and chief proponent, follows no rules. From a scholarly point of view, it is a natural progression from the Fauves to the Color Field to the Abstract Expressionists and even though probably the farthest thing from his mind when he is setting fire to his latest creation, those antecedents come to mind when analyzing Vermeeren’s work. Newman’s latest auction prices, running in the $45 million range, should give Jeff and his collectors something to think about. As does the actor Newman’s role in that anti-establishment classic with the famous catch-phrase “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” While that worked well in an iconoclastic movie some fifty years ago, communication is not a problem for Jeff Vermeeren. His eloquence is evident in just about every creation. As does music, they speak in a universal language.
“Part of me has a vision but it always evolves,” says the artist.”I learned to paint that way over time. Initially, it was nice for me to just have an idea. Now it’s just how I paint. I can’t pre-meditate to a full extent what the result will be yet somehow I know to some degree what I am getting into. That’s what I believe art really is: produce
Ever since Jeff Vermeeren heard the sound of a roaring engine, he has been infatuated with the freedom of the road. A motocross racer who owns a demolition company in Calgary, Alberta, Canada where he was born and raised, Vermeeren has always believed in the value of ingenuity, fearlessness and unyielding optimism. His favorite expression is “Perfect. My parents often worked two and three jobs, and we, as a family, just learned how to work.” Known for its entrepreneurial spirit, his hometown values have served as a guiding influence in his life and have driven him to reach higher, dig deeper, and push the limits of possibility. From a very young age he found inspiration through exploration and discovery. He loved to manipulate and repurpose everyday items. His company razes anything and everything from full size buildings to small construction projects, using excavators and a lot of manpower. “I was to the point where I wanted to start giving back and I was looking for something where I could express myself by creating, not just dismantling. The demolition company,” he says with no irony, “is going full blast” as is his art career. The success of his business allows Jeff to further explore the creative nature he exhibited as a youth as well as a formidable desire to use his art to benefit charities that primarily support children and their families as they battle life-threatening diseases. His art is a “Creation of extremes that produces a profusion of life.”
From that initial exposure at Artexpo, with an explosion of color, forms and mediums completely different from anything in the show, Jeff has become a mainstay at some 40 galleries and the list grows every time he does an art fair. Collectors are drawn to his work and not surprisingly. They are impactful yet soothing. Meditative exercises for both artist and viewer. To get the vivid colors that infuse in each piece a variety of feelings and moods he employs fire, ice, pressure and a wide range of unstable chemicals. “It’s quite an extensive process,” he states revealing just enough for the sake of an interview. “Chemicals ignite at different levels of heat and burn at different speeds.” There is no way to duplicate one of his pieces. Explosion of color and forms are completely different from anyone working today. This is not oil paint on canvas. He takes the Old Masters and recent masters visions to a level heretofore unexplored territory.
Freezing his product, setting it on fire and setting it on fire again, sometimes up to 15 layers of “paint” are applied and the different temperatures can brighten, darken or simply coalesce to
render swirling nebulae of cosmic proportion, bringing in light or simply reflecting it. Some people think I spray it, or drip it. But in actuality, I have tons of different techniques. “It almost looks ceramic, some say. Others are sure it’s glass, or plastic, or that there’s a light behind my painting Its interesting because everybody has their ideas and thoughts on how it’s produced. For now it’s my little secret and for me, definitely, I can stand out with it.”
Adamant about not revealing the intricacies of his technique, one thing is for sure: it is definitely not a process for the faint of heart. If Cool Hand Luke was tagging subway cars instead of busting up parking meters, he would be Jeff Vermeeren.
Each piece is visually stimulating; each
piece is an original; each piece is impossible to recreate. There are no editions, limited or otherwise. “I really love the vibrant colors and wanted to do something extraordinary that not everybody was doing. I don’t want to have the same art everywhere. Each piece is different in its own way and it is impossible for me to reproduce even my own work.”
With such a delicate method and so many variables that can alter it in an instant, Jeff maintains control by mixing all his colors, using “tons of different kinds of trade secrets.” He sometimes invites fans and collectors to watch him work but “If you watched me do a painting you’d still be wondering how I do it. I don’t write anything down, or I’ll be doing the same thing I did yesterday.”
One could view an entire collection of Vermeerens — 50 or 100 of them — and never see the same blue, or the same red. “All the shades and hues are different,” notes Jeff, whose very first piece was created out of heating duct material. He has since tried everything from steel to cooper to brass; different layers of aluminum, such as high aircraft grade aluminum. Even now he consistently changes his materials. Creation for Vermeeren is “always a thing of excitement.” The result is “way, way different. Nobody has ever seen this kind of art before. It’s moving and majestic, I’ve been told. It’s very different.”
To date, his largest work is about 10 feet by 10 feet for a collector in Calgary.
Valiant
“It’s not uncommon for me to be somewhere and walk into a piece that I’ve done hanging in an office or home. It’s like meeting an old friend.” Action is a keynote of Extreme Abstraction and it’s “the movement of the piece I like to create. I want everybody that is looking at it to see something different every time. I don’t ever want to be painting the same thing I’ve done or seen before. I want it to be interesting enough so that every time you see my piece you see something new.”
In the World War II piece (pictured above) Jeff stepped out of his element and it evolved into some “neat things and neat venues I am doing now. I met the gentleman
in NY at Artexpo and he wanted to create something that was home to him. He’s a military guy serving overseas and asked me to do something on this particular theme that stood out for him. It’s debossed, reversed and was quite a project, but very satisfying to myself and the client.”
Drowning in Fun (pictured below) is autobiographical. According to Jeff, “That was a super one-off sold in Key West at Zazoo art gallery, a very one-of-a-kind collectors piece. I sculpted the face but the hands are actually mine. There’s a lot of symbolism to that piece, you have to think about it. Many people don’t believe you can
be married that long as long as LaDawn and I (or any other long-term couple) and still have fun with the same person. There’s certain things I included to reflect what I feel is important, such as on my hand is a wedding band. There’s a lot going on. When you’re in your 20s you don’t really think about the future. Later it’s about where I’m going instead of where I’ve been. You go through pain, you go through joy and there’s certain things that help you get there and certain things that don’t. A fun thing about being an artist is you’re switching out your walls all the time.
“When I first started out only 10-20%
Drowning in Fun
Flag Raise
of the paintings I created worked. Now I would say 90% of what I do succeeds. I wish I could say everything.” One thing Jeff really enjoys is touring. “It’s very exciting, getting into new galleries. Since I’ve been exhibiting, I’ve come to know lots and lots of wonderful people over these years. The tough thing is as soon as you get to a certain point, it’s dumb to give up. I enjoy it. I love the charity stuff, love the people I get to meet with that and am always looking forward to my next step.”
Jeff loves collaboration and will be teaming up with Don Oriolo for a very limited edition of Felix the Cat mixed with his Extreme Abstract. They will be available at Zazoo Fine Art Gallery in Key West, FL.
Dedicated to creating a new innovative tradition, completely different, Jeff Vermeeren continues to design works that are playful yet substantial, dynamic yet mellow. When he comes to a gallery in your neck of the woods, be certain to attend his exhibition.
Essentials
Olympus
Suds
Euphoria
Rise
Untitled
Portal
Jeff Vermeeren is proud to participate in numerous charities. A portion of proceeds from his creations are donated for children battling life-threatening diseases. Jeff has used his art and energy to help the work of Kids Cancer Care; the CJ92 Kids Fund, Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation, ALS/SLA Canada, Make A Wish Miami & San Diego, Heritage Heights School and an ever-expanding group of like-minded organizations.
The Vermeeren Family: Jeff, LaDawn, Austin, Taya, Roman and Sasha
Jeff with the Vander Raadt Family
Jeff, LaDawn and William Carr Las Vegas
Jeff Vermeeren, Scott Labadio, Don Oriolo, David Wight, Fabio Napoleoni
Lisa Herr and Jeff Las Vegas
Jeff and Keeler family
James, Jeff and Jason at Zazoo Fine Art Gallery
Jeff and Graf Family
Dana Kennedy met Jeff Vermeeren at The William Carr Gallery last December at a shared “Meet the Artist” event. According to Dana, “We struck up a conversation and developed the idea to create a collaboration of our art mediums. I am a Wildlife Photographer currently showing at The William Carr Gallery and my specific images include African Wildlife that I have been photographing over the last 10 years. Jeff Vermeeren is a talented and extraordinarily creative artist who has perfected a medium that is unique and as it turns out works very effectively with my images taken throughout the wilds of Kenya. My lion image (Full Throttle) was chosen as we thought it would work quite effectively with Jeff’s unique artistic creations and the collaboration was born. We are very excited to present this pilot project that showcases our collective artistry and I look forward to working with him on future endeavors. This is a one of a kind piece that celebrates Jeff’s unique style in tandem with the iconic African Wildlife captured throughout my photography. A partnership that compliments our different styles and hopefully resonates successfully as it shows exclusively within The William Carr Gallery in Las Vegas.
For more information about Jeff Vermeeren’s art, where he will be exhibiting and various collaborations, visit his website: http://www.vermeerenfineart.com
Jeff Vermeeren and wildlife photographer Dana Kennedy with their collaboration
JEFF VERMEEREN Abstraction Unbridled
By JAMIE ELLIN FORBES
WITH VARIOUS METALS AS HIS CANVAS and a combination of fire, ice, pressure, and a wide range of unstable chemicals as his media, Jeff Vermeeren creates unique, dynamic, sculptural and painterly works of art. His recent collection, comprised of such titles as Halcyon, Raging Whirl, Incubus, Antaxia and Passion, rocked Artexpo New York and jump-started his career.
The work of the artist is to envision. Vermeeren also enables the opposition of the compatibility between the two forms of media, fire and metal to reveal the face of the spontaneous imagery he intends through his guidance of the process when creating his works.
Something magical happens. The liquid quality of the paint is captured, as if splattered, then tempered for color and texture by the fire, the image then frozen in the moment of Vermeer’s choosing. The gamut between color hues is run, the cooler blue tones produce an icy feel to the images, clear and clean. The reds, oranges and umbers from yellow through gold flow into a cauldron, yielding from the vat powerful images of change.
Like the medieval alchemists, Jeff is looking for the philosopher’s stone — gold — which is found in the mixing of paint with fire. The mystery and the alchemy are merged in his artistic vision via use of the material to produce the cool blue vision.
Works such as Incubus provide a warm cascade, a swirl of color for the viewer to enter into. A personal experience for each, providing the optimum essence of abstract expression within the image to be observed…played with. The colors are clean, the process providing dimensional depth. One can walk in the point delivered to the imagination and see for oneself any thing revealed to the individual psyche. Pollock may have dreamed of this freedom found within the mixing of elements and color by Vermeeren.
The essence Pop works exampled in the girl with sunglasses offers a suggestion by Vermeeren of the opportunity to personally fantasize within his abstracted works, and a flirtatious fascination for what is held in the forging fire. The girl is crisp and sharp and a contrast to the abstract reflection in her glasses, compositionally providing a fun pop feel to the piece.
The blues which emerge from the installed wall hanging (in blue) belie the process. This should be ice captured or the blue ray glimpsed meditatively within the most searing fire. This would indeed make one of the opposites of the experience.
Again, there is a freedom captured and shared in all of Vermeeren’s works, possibly offered through the media of fire applied to metal not available to other forms of artistic applied media. The artist marries the process of his imagination to the possibilities revealed in scientific explanation, images or theories depicted as image. The imagery taken as the three-dimensional view of ALMA’s observatory shots of the carbon gases being emitted by the nearby stars in our galaxy look like the artistic captured images offered by Jeff in many of his works. The universes is seen and sliced into a small section of agreed union between art and science.
As Matta’s mid-20th century woks resemble the photons and other atomic fragments projected as art image, Vermeeren’s fire of the mind pierces through time and allows for his galactic glimpse into the process of energy moving in the cauldron.
The Fine Art interview — Jeff Vermeeren
“I Just Have To Mold Myself To The Work”
The Vermereen Principles (and principals) of Extreme Abstraction first came to our attention at the 2015 International Artexpo on the Pier in New York City in April of 2015 at which Fine Art Magazine shared a corner of the exhibition hall with the aforementioned (Jeff) Vermereen and his able compadre, Dustin. From a distance, a cascade of color emanated from their stall (a singular 10’ x 10’ booth), but none brighter than Vermereen himself, radiating that northwest Alberta vibe, surrounded on three sides with a panoply of his brilliantly colored and composed creations, wearing vibrant outfits that paled in comparison to his striking blue eyes and helmut of orange hair coupled with the phsique of a man who gets at it wholeheartedly Tell us about your Artexpo experience, we recently asked him over the phone from The Adirondacks to Western Canada.
“It was fantastic. Honestly, it was a blast. They contacted me a week before the show opening and next thing I knew I was on an airplane to New York City. Only a year or so before the Expo was when we built the website so I didn’t know what to expect. During the opening night, 25 gallery owners gave us offers to exhibit. They all wanted to work with us, which is really neat. About 125 galleries in all stopped by. Eric [ ed. note: Smith, Director of Artexpo + other fairs produced by Redwood Media Group] and I are talking about doing a piece for his new fair to coincide with Coachella this spring- the front sign. Opportunity is massive. He then asked me to create some electric guitars, maybe do 10 limited edition guitars for Eric to give as gifts to guitarists… Don Oriolo [Ed. note: who was at the adjoining Fine Art Magazine booth] and I have already created a new suite of Felix The Cat pieces and are working on guitar collaborations. Photo -shoots, getting crazy....
“We met thousands of peole, I don’t think I’ve had so much fun. It was neat showing off my work and people could see
the creative side of me. I was one of a kind, the only one doing what I do on metal. A lot of people came though and said they’d never seen this kind of work. Is it glass? ceramic? Metal? People were just guessing. That’s the magic in it and these kind of art pieces are magic, a whole new look to the art world.”
What prompted this mode of expression?
I do demolition — projects big and small. Everything from sledge hammers to taking full buildings down. Once you demolish a building, you can’t come back and take down the same building. Neither can I make the same painting. I wanted to go from destructing to my creative side. I had a bit of free time and my hobby evolved into painting and it rolled into my passion and my passion grew and now this is something that is over-taking the
demolition side My creativity comes out and my passion goes to the art work.
How did you develop your art-form?
Most of the series I do is with aluminum, for technical reaons. I also work with copper. Initially, I have a vision of what I want to see and as the piece is going on, that vision may alter. What makes it so unique is that the paint is a very fast process that changes so rapidly that my vision from beginning to end of the process — with all coloring — changes what I am trying to do 50 times. Sometimes it works out ten times better than what I thought. I just have to mold myself to the work. These are not a landscapes or portraits. I go into it saying these are the colors I can use, this is the style I can use. Let’s see what is created.
So passion and creativity are taking over?
I’m a strong believer in knowing I can fail at what I don’t want to do, so I might as well take a chance on something that I love.
And now you’re riding the wave.
One of my things is I’m a very one-of-a-kind kind of guy. I don’t want to be going into a restaurant wearing the same shirt as anybody else. These works can’t be duplicated. The same color lines, or even how the bubbles develop and grow as they are being created would be impossible to do the same way twice.
Seems like you have carved out quite a spot for yourself in the art area in very sort space of time. Before this, I started businesses and sold them — things like that. If I feel that something is not working, I will change it in a moment. My first pieces were ridiculous, goofy looking. If you watch how my art evolves, what materials I use inside and how the textures change, you would see that I’m doing stuff now that I didn’t even have at the Art show a few months ago. If I’m not pushing forward, I’m moving backward and I do not take any negativity forward with me. The art is always evolving, always growing. If I did what I did yesterday, I’d only get the same results.
— VICTOR BENNETT FORBES
Flaxen of the pale yellow color of dressed flax
THE PROCESS
“Very few are done with paintbrushes, most are made with a variety of spray guns that range from half-size up to 16x. This makes the colors flow and split nicer so that there are less bubbles, more shine, more glow. During the process of coloring, all my pieces are set on fire maybe two or three times. I also freeze a hand-full of them so that I get a diferent look as the chemicals change. In every color there are millions of shades. When you heat and feeze them, that’s when the shades come out.
That red will split and you will see tons of different layers as more colors are joined to the original layer. It changes everyday depending on lighting or personal moods. I see something different every day. I used to paint cars when I was a teenager. Today I use 15 different kinds of paints working in my industrial facility. Each piece is a 3-4 week process from thought to
“I had an amazing experience at Heritage Heights School. The children were very excited to learn about Abstract art.”
