April 2012 | Limited Edition of 250
YELLOW PERIL GALLERY 19 April - 13 May 2012
We Digitize Art Publisher: V Souvannasane Editor: Robert P. Stack Art Director: Marcel McVay Advertising Executive: Jen Young COLLECT is a monthly limited edition magazine published by Yellow Peril Gallery to promote art and design for the curated lifestyle. COLLECT highlights the current exhibition at the Gallery and provides artists with a unique platform to share not only their work, but also the people, places and things that have shaped their world. COLLECT Yellow Peril Gallery 60 Valley Street #5 Providence, RI 02909 +1.401.861.1535
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NEXT ISSUE: LOVE LANDS
CONTENTS
Our May 2012 issue features LOVE LANDS, landscape drawings and paintings by Brooklyn artist Linda Nagaoka.
BODY PRESENCE / 02 AN INDEPENDENT DAZE / 04 MEET FLYNN GRINNAN / 07 FUCK IN ART / 08 WHY I COLLECT: ART / 10 COLLECT VIDEO ART?! / 13 IN REFLECTION / 14 PLASTICITY: IS IT REAL? / 16 EVAN SPIRITO FOUNDATION / 19 EVERYTHING IS FOR SALE / 20 The COLLECT CENTERFOLD ART(IST) for April 2012 is Sara Paquette, a screenprinter and textile designer based in Providence, RI. 100 limited edition silkscreen prints have been numbered and signed to encourage readers to COLLECT.
We’ll also share an exclusive interview with artist, writer and art critic David Brody and introduce our readers to a power couple from Providence, RI, who are avid collectors of fine art and curators of all things artisanal.
COLLECT is available exclusively at Yellow Peril Gallery. Pick up a copy of COLLECT at the Gallery or read it online: issuu.com/yellowperilgallery
To advertise in COLLECT , please contact Jen Young at jen@yellowperilgallery.com. April 2012
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BODY PRESENCE The presence of a body is often related to a chilling concept of vacancy in our culture – feeling a body when there is no physical ‘person’ around could be the result of a supernatural encounter. With BODY PRESENCE, we attempt to reach this near-supernatural feeling where, in the clay remnants of an encounter between artist and model, what remains is the presence of the body. In the selection and presentation of Flynn Grinnan’s work, we invite you to embrace this presence, and create a relationship between your body, the body of the artist, and the body of the model – and in this intersection imagine the presence of a shared, universal body. We also invite you to experience the process behind this work. As each piece is formed to a body, the materials used respond to the act of draping and molding to that body. Flynn engages each piece in a responsive finishing process, paying particular attention to how the material formed and reacted to the body. Through a number of artifacts, video and material display, we attempt to give the viewer access to the artist’s methods and, in doing so, heighten the relationship between the viewer’s body and the vacant, yet present body in each piece. - Marcel McVay, Art Director, COLLECT / Curator for BODY PRESENCE
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SPONSORS Yellow Peril Gallery sincerely thanks the following local businesses for their generous support of #OCCUPY:
We would like to acknowledge the following organizations for their helping promote BODY PRESENCE locally and regionally: artscope Ben Barson + Julian Litwack Evan Spirito Foundation Fertile Underground Fire Sand Designs Gallery Night Providence GoLocalTV Narragansett Beer Philip Sawyer Designs Providence Arts, Culture + Tourism Providence Monthly
If your business would like to sponsor an upcoming exhibition at Yellow Peril Gallery, please contact us via e-mail: info@yellowperilgallery.com.
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AN INDEPENDENT DAZE Robert P. Stack, Curator, Yellow Peril Gallery Upon entering Independent one is struck by Matthew Darbyshire’s four ‘Accessorized Columns’, a crafted collection of everyday household items replicated in ecstatic polychromatic plastic. It’s a collection about collecting, Art about Art. Once upon a time Artists created for Patrons: the church, the government, rich people. The 19th Century popularized the museum: art for art’s sake, a concept taken further in the 20th century with performance art, (Where exactly does one keep Chris Burden crucified to a VW? The garage?) but the 21st century brings a feminist stance. Art may want you, but it doesn’t need you.
Matthew Darbyshire, Accessorized Columns
Enter the aptly named Independent. The brainchild of Elizabeth Dee and Darren Flook, now in it’s 3rd year, Independent is, in it’s own words: “a collective exhibition and a re-examination of the art fair model”. An art fair about art fairs, so to speak, a critique on the art market, at the art market. For all it’s wink-wink, nudge-nudge, insider’s joke posturing, Darbyshire’s Columns are crafted works of art, created by hand and utilizing skills other than those of the intellectual kind. (Does that make it old fashioned?) Venture further into the boothless art fair, and you’ll find works of art you didn’t know you’d already seen, or perhaps even own. Thea Djordjadze’s Utitled dirty old blue rug meditation on blue is artwork you are literally encouraged to walk allover. Tim Burr’s His Personal Effects provides a slick minimalist podium encasing a dirty old archived pair of sneakers. B. Wurtz’s Untitled dirty old reclaimed plastic bags stuck placed on a stick invites us to pay attention to our surrounds, or so we’re told. Think of your crazy cat-lady aunt as not so much a hoarder, as a self-referential artiste. 04
B.Wurtz, Untitled
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Mac Adams, Blackmail
To be fair, not everything at the Art Fair, which prefers the moniker “temporary exhibition forum,” is about reinterpreting the repossessed. Personally, I want to be a fly on the wall when any collector discusses the installation of Mac Adams’ Blackmail, a staged vignette depicting a violently interrupted dinner party. How exactly does one house this work without alarming guests upon arrival? But these are the mundane questions for the art selling types who booth it over at The Armory Show. Independent is the art show for people who show art. Collectors? Independent may want you, but it doesn’t need you. Cool, right?
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Natural Fabrics 233 Spring Street, Newport, RI 11 AM - 7 PM, Closed Sundays 11 v1n1 March 06 2012 www.philipsawyer.com COLLECT
MEET FLYNN GRINNAN FLYNN GRINNAN is an experiential artist originally from Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, trained in traditional pottery methods and techniques to create functional objects. His current artwork addresses the interaction between clay and the human body. While the methods used in making this work connects back to the traditional pottery process, it is the act of draping over human form that is showcased. Flynn’s goal is to present evidence of the human body to the viewer, whether it is through a thrown vessel form, a fired slab of clay that was draped over a body, or a photograph depicting similar acts. Through the indication of a body’s presence, the relationship between the viewer and the object becomes an isolated experience rather than an everyday sort of interaction that one might have with a cup or bowl. A graduate of Hampshire College, with a focus in studio arts, Flynn now lives and creates in Providence, Rhode Island. For more info about Flynn Grinnan, visit flynngrinnan.com.
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FUCK IN ART Jen Young, Gallery Assistant, Yellow Peril Gallery
Tim Noble & Sue Webster, Fucking Beautiful
Text is often featured in contemporary art to express an idea more literally than can be expressed visually. Take, for instance the use of the word fuck in art. This is possibly the most profane word in the English language. We censor it ceaselessly in public media, yet we abuse the fuck out of it when we get the chance. At first, the word might seem to be used flippantly or for shock value, but within the flashiness it also holds great power in its subversiveness. This banal yet bold word appears often in visual art today. While researching contemporary art trends at New York galleries and international art fairs, I have noticed art in a variety of different media and contexts featuring the “f” word. The following is a contemplation of the significance of the word, especially when used in art. Fuck can have completely different meanings depending on the subject and the emphasis. It can be used light-heartedly or as a way to express an exaggerated emotion. Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s scribed rainbow neon sign, Fucking Beautiful (2008) does not provoke anger nor suggest sex, but is an exaggerated positive expression. The adjective is more meaningful than so or really or even extremely…Is there anything more beautiful than fucking beautiful? As Monet’s Olympia (1863), as well as Duchamp’s Fountain (1917) shocked the public and art critics years ago, breaking social norms and flirting with taboo is notorious as a popular trick in contemporary art. A shocking and bold use of the “f” word is seen in Fuck Off Art Cunts (2010), a screen print by Simon Thompson. It is aggressive and with a clear subject – an obvious ironic jab at the complexities of the art business, an institutional critique. 08
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Another boisterous and slightly hilarious use is found in Terms of Endearment (2011) by Trevor Guthrie of Zurich, a drawing featuring the text “I’d Fuck Me” in flashy rhinestone letters. The artist rendered his drawing after a photograph, reassuring us that this is not his original phrase but one from any other person. Tracey Emin’s People Like You Need to Fuck People Like Me (2002) offers similar social commentary where her use of the word exaggerates the intimacy and sexuality of the statement.
Trevor Guthrie, Terms of Endearment
Fuck is abused often in a derogatory context. The De Buck Gallery in New York features German artist Ruby Anemic’s Fuck You You Fuck (2010 metal cut-out letters) and Fuck You You Fuck (2012 neon lights). Many would chuckle at this phrase, but the content is assaulting – or perhaps it is only a play on words, but either way it calls attention and stirs emotions. Fuck exaggerates any expression, and in these pieces many would perceive a stronger negative emotion. The words decipher the piece, regardless of medium. The word ‘fuck’ in art may seem as a cheap or desperate way to express an idea. However, fuck, although overused, can be very powerful in different contexts. It could be extremely harsh or very endearing, giving any phrase that added jolt of emotion. It is a release of energy – just a word that feels satisfying to say when it is compulsory. Seeing the word visually evokes even more shock factor, in whatever way it may be interpreted. From aggression to sex to exaggerated emotion, I find fuck to be a very significant word in the English language, and that it’s use in art is absolutely relevant as a means of personal and social expression.
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WHY I COLLECT: ART Laurence Jaquith, New Bedford, Massachusetts As an architect, I appreciate fine design be it mine or by another. Form, texture, and color are important to my work effort and satisfaction. Yet it is often the inspiration behind the work that the public never sees. It is the story that fascinates me. A lifelong collector of books and art, I am likely similar to most collectors: I know what I like. It is an intuition I cannot always express in words. A piece feels well to me. I need to view it each day, so I purchase. Later, my curiosity encourages me to ask: what was the artists inspiration for the artwork? Though I could appreciate and respect the art forms as they are represented, I am intrigued by the artists’ emotional discovery: how he confronts a blank page, is inspired, and challenges himself to be expressive. The story becomes an enrichment for the art, embellishing it with depth and character, seeking a response. Recently I worked with local ceramacist, Seth Rainville, to develop a series of porcelain dinnerware for my table. I proposed a clean design pattern of blue on white, but with a challenge. As guests seat themselves at the table, they typically will continue to chat. So, I unveiled a new scene. A quotation embedded on the charger plate provides a new point for discussion! The plates are handmade artistry. The conversation that follows is informed not only by th artist, but also by the guests’ reactions to quotations set before them. 10
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Sometimes the art finds you. When I entered Ryan McFee’s gallery for the first time, I saw The Magic Bus amidst many fine works, toward no one I stated aloud, “That’s the Christopher McCandless story, about the boy who dove ‘into the wild’ -- that’s his bus!” I had to have it! I saw the film, and after meeting Ryan I was inspired to read Jon Krakauer’s book. In addition to owning a painting I adore, I have a better understanding of the story, as well as having gained a new friend. Similarly, when I first saw Flynn Grinnan’s Body Drapings, the series begged immediate response. Flynn’s work is an exploration of clay as it comes into contact with the human form -- although the live body is gone its presence is still felt. Upon meeting the artist, I’ve come to understand his method of working. His thoughtful attention to materials as well as how they reflect the form of the absent body intruige me, as if time gave each a space to live. Whether it be the studio of Paradise McFee in New Bedford or the upcoming exhibition of Flynn Grinnan’s BODY PRESENCE at Yellow Peril Gallery in Providence, I encourage art lovers to engage themselves in the joy of viewing, speaking with the artist, and perhaps purchasing a piece of art, a beginning to a collection.
Flynn Grinnan’s Black Lift (2011)
Laurence Jaquith is a Brandeis and Harvard trained designer and architect. He promotes the acclaimed New Bedford AHA Program and initiated the “Buy Art, Buy NB” campaign to invigorate local art galleries.
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COLLECT VIDEO ART?! V Souvannasane, Director, Yellow Peril Gallery Deep inside Chelsea’s Waterfront Tunnel, there are plenty of stools and chairs welcoming visitors to the second annual Moving Image Art Fair, the perfect place to view more than 30 videos and installations from around the world – without any dealers on hand to sell work on the spot.
Although Moving Image prides itself on keeping sales out of sight, the Spotlight Panel on “What Do You Get When You Buy Video Art?” opened a Pandora’s Box full of “spooky” questions for both collectors and video artists, such as: What do you take home when you buy video art? How do you display it properly? Who owns the copyright? Can you make extra copies to give to friends? What if all editions get sold – does that mean it can’t be shown to the public again without paying a royalty fee? Moderated by Rebecca Cleman (Distribution Director, Electronic Arts Intermix, New York), the panelists attempting to answer these pressing questions included Lisa Dorin (Associate Curator at The Art Institute of Chicago); Jefferson Godard (video collector, Chicago); Berta Sichel (Curator-at-large at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, independent curator and art writer, Madrid/Berlin); and Fabienne Stephan (Curator, Salon 94, New York). According to Godard, what someone receives when they purchase a piece of video art is dependent on what the artist intends the work to be. While some artists may sell their performance on a Blueray disk, others choose memory chips or opt to sell the video along with a television or projector, stipulating that it can only be viewed properly that way. Of course, the video artist needs to be clear about what it is they are selling, which is no different than buying a framed or unframed painting or print. No doubt, the Moving Image Spotlight Panel was an excellent step forward to bringing more transparency to the art world’s handling of media art. Even though it was clear that all of the panelists were very concerned about keeping the work accessible to the public, their goal was not to answer questions but to engage this subject from a diverse perspective and attempt to lay out some of the major concerns around a model that is still very much in development. April 2012
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IN REFLECTION Marcel McVay, Manager, Yellow Peril Gallery The reflection, the mirror image and the altered self-gaze are an overt theme in the international art dialogue.
Hans Kotter, Tunnel View and Tunnel View
While COLLECT made our way from booth to booth this March during NYC’s Art Fair Week , it became commonplace to see ourselves around every new corner – a concept that is notably important to contemporary artists from Korea to Miami – and if our narcissism was not satisfactory, it was easy enough to find a piece to morph the way we view ourselves, or just the way we see. Hans Kotter’s work exhibited by De Buck Gallery represents a current reflective glitz reminiscent of a Broadway greenroom. Tunnel View and Tunnel View Square – square plexiglass boxes lined with two-sided plexi mirror – each formed the illusion of an infinite tunnel of LED’s. This energetic spectacle, while initially impressive, was a throwback to a techno-futuristic and space-aged showboat that fell short of any conceptual circumstance. Yeah, it looked cool – but so does my infinite body between two doors in a dressing room. There was more opportunity for infinite reflection, but most successful was work of Korean artist Chul Hyun Ahn, represented by the Baltimore based C. Grimaldis Gallery. Among other investigations of light, reflection and infinite space was a monumental wall of reflection titled Void. Measuring nearly eight feet high, the piece could not go unnoticed, and for good reason. Standing in front of the slightly tilted wall and gazing at yourself, watching as each repeated image faded further into the void gave an eerie and enlightening tone to the act of looking at oneself. The experience of reflecting inward, if repeated and extended to a heightened self-consciousness, can threaten your sense of self and integrity, degrading into a quiet and empty void. Chul Hyun Ahn brought this feeling home. 14
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Emil Alzamora elegantly approached the art of reflection with his signature and effective use of the altered human form. The piece A Nice Reflection in Kraus Gallery’s booth extracted a similar type of self-conscious that Ahn’s Void investigated. The rusted figure stood inches from the wall, hunched forward with hands groping the back of its neck. A tired, blank stare looked forward into a mirror – polished out of the same rusted material as the body and attached at the feet – as if it had gazed at its own visage until it rusted. But it’s mirror remained polished, cared for and effective. The vain focus of self inspection and obsession forces us to neglect ourselves and care for the illusory surface that dances at the back of a a mirror. Emil Alzamora, A Nice Reflection
Other notable reflections at Volta include Ken Matsubara’s installations in MA2 Gallery (Tokyo), Jason Gringler’s Untitled wall of fractured mirrors with Galerie Stefan Ropke (Cologne), Sophie Jodoin’s Close Your Eyes with Battat Contemporary (Montreal) and, of course, many more. Whatever this obsession with reflectivity and reflection asks, it screams for attention. It’s shiny, eye catching, everywhere, and it needs you to look. April 2012
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PLASTICITY: IS THIS REAL? Flynn Grinnan, Sculptor Attending Armory Week with Collect Magazine in NYC last March solidified in my mind that a fundamental disparity exists in the contemporary art scene. There are artists – alongside the gallerists that represent them – interested in making plastic propositions about the state of human reality and those caught up in the trend. Making artwork that is considered “trendy” does not always mean that it lacks in quality or worth. However it is fair to say that an artist placing priority on the trend over a genuine depiction of reality can be compared to a social climbing high school student disinterested in meaningful relationships and true growth. With that being said, here are three artists out of many who successfully kept their integrity and deemed the achievement of plasticity necessary. In Portrait of a Woman, David Schroerner’s depiction of Lauren and David (the artist) as the subjects of his cohesive narrative was incredibly moving. Lauren’s unadulterated love for David was conveyed through a series of emails alongside longing portraits of both.
Jinny Yu’s work which was represented by Art Mur at Scope this year is based around the reference to the action. Her pieces are subtle, elegant and decisive. The materials she employs, such as thin aluminum in her Notes Crumpled (2011) and Bent (2011) series, aid in providing
The series of works make the viewer recall their own past experiences of love and loss. The sheer bravery Lauren shows in taking the risk to fight for her love is something everyone can relate to and most likely feel envy toward.
a plastic element for the viewer. The ability to recognize the act of bending and crumpling is clear in the aluminum because every fold and alternation is visible. The logic systems she develops to inform decision making are described by William V. Ganis in Sculpture magazine, “[Yu’s] systematic touch-marks create a different kind of modeling, one in which any illusionistic spaces seem consequential, “sculpted” by the materiality of painting and the optically engaged “empty” spaces.”
This well deserving NURTUREart 2011 Open Call winner – featured at Volta – has humor, wit, drama, romance and best of all brings forth a reality about love that most can take something from.
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Carina Linge “Uber das Begehren (About Desire)”
Also featured at Volta by Jarmuschek + Partner, Carina Linge’s most recent body of work about memory, loss and desire. Topics that allow the viewer to empathetically analyze the present while engaging with assembled renaissance and baroque imagery and objects.
Carina Linge, Infrathin
The showcased work titled Infrathin (2011) depicts an empty and unmade bed. A sense of absence is immediately felt. The evidence of someone having laid there achieves a desire to know more about why that person left. Linge’s work takes such occurrences, most likely encountered by and therefore accessible by the viewer – and manifests a clear plasticity with them. Dance Macabre (2011) and Ohne Titel (Single Nr. 1) (2008) were comparably effective.
Carina Linge, Ohne Titel
These artists simultaneously create relevant artwork to the contemporary conversation while staying true to the notion of plasticity. Their work creates a reality for the observer to relate their own experiences. It is possible to take away a feeling of emotion that is intangible from work by these artists. A quality that can be continually felt and unpacked after seeing the work in person. Rather than thinking “I get it” and then moving along to the next one, the lifespan is lengthened and a dialogue between the viewer’s reality and the one proposed by the art piece is established. April 2012
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EVAN SPIRITO FOUNDATION
Flynn Grinnan’s current artwork in BODY PRESENCE addresses the interaction between clay and the human body, whether it is through a thrown vessel form, a fired slab of clay that was draped over a body, or a photograph depicting similar acts. A portion of the proceeds from sales will be donated to the Evan Spirito Memorial Foundation, whose mission is two-fold; to provide scholarship aid to students in need who demonstrate sportsmanship, character, and concern for others; and to support lung cancer research. Shortly after he was diagnosed with Stage 4 non small cell lung cancer on January 9, 2009, Evan asked his father Anthony: ”What does it mean to beat cancer?” In his eulogy, Anthony shared: “If you can’t play lacrosse, you ski. But you don’t just ski, you ski 32 days despite getting chemo every third week. And then after graduation, you become a ski instructor. Safe to say there aren’t too many ski instructors who have lung cancer but then again Evan rarely told anyone at work or at school that he had cancer.” For the next two years, Evan maintained his strength and dignity by living life to the fullest as if cancer was just a blip on the radar screen. His tenacity and fighting will won over many admirers, both at home and on the ski slopes at Vail, Colorado. Flynn can attest firsthand that Evan is “an inspiration, courageous, gentle , respected and loved by so many, one of the kindest people I have ever known.” He grew up down the street from the Spirito summer house in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, where he and Evan became like brothers over the years, spending every summer day together. For more information about the Evan Spirito Memorial Foundation, please visit evanspirito.com » April 2012
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EVERYTHING IS FOR SALE
Price List for Works of Art for Sale at BODY PRESENCE SERIES
PRICE
Head
Treated Clay & Oxide / Edition of 3 (2012)
$325 - $375
Crossed Arms
Treated Clay (2011)
$395
Two Arms
Treated Clay & Clay Dust (2012)
$395
Fractured Arms Knee
Treated Clay & Clay Dust (2012)
$395
Treated Clay & Oxide / Edition of 7 (2012)
$325 - $475
Hand Fragment
Treated Clay & Oxide / Edition of 4 (2012)
$125 - $170
Hand Terminal
Treated Clay & Oxide / Edition of 3 pairs (2012) $250 - $300
Arm Fragment
Treated Clay & Clay Dust / Edition of 3 (2012)
$250 - $300
Foot
Treated Clay & Oxide (2012)
$395
Treated Clay & Oxide (2012)
$395
Calf
Treated Clay & Oxide (2012)
$395
Crossed Legs
Treated Clay (2011)
$625
Back
Treated Clay (2011)
$750
Leg
Treated Clay (2011)
$695
Black Arm
Treated Clay (2011)
$625
Outstretched Arms
Treated Clay (2011)
$500
Arm
Treated Clay (2011)
$695
Bust Traces
Treated Clay (2011)
$750
Process Traces on Paper (2011)
$125 - $250
Arm
If you are interested in purchasing any original works of art from BODY PRESENCE, please contact Yellow Peril Gallery to set up an appointment for a private viewing: +1.401.861.1535. 20
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RODRIGO NAVA 19 JULY - 12 AUGUST
60 Valley St #5 | Providence, RI yellowperilgallery.com
FLYNN GRINNAN
NATALIE GRUPPUSO 14 JUNE - 15 JULY
BODY PRESENCE | 19 APRIL - 13 MAY
LINDA NAGAOKA 17 MAY - 10 JUNE