I made a video that shows the de/construction of a painting I made called Cat's Paw. Cat's Paw is a type of a knot.
"This Week in Art" on Art21
The structure of the Art21 Magazine is changing in 2018 and will be unveiled in the coming weeks. While I will no longer be writing content for the online magazine's themed issues, I will be contributing to the "This Week in Art" column for the next few months.
You can read the first weekly roundup here.
Abigail DeVille, MidSummer Event Horizon, 2014. Credit: United States Artists.
The feature story this week is the announcement of the 2018 United States Artists Fellows. The United States Artists, a Chicago-based foundation devoted to supporting the arts across nine disciplines, has named Dread Scott, Abigail DeVille and Pepón Osorio among the 45 artists and collectives comprising the 2018 fellows. A $50,000 grant accompanies the fellowship, which recognizes contributions to fields such as craft, dance, writing, and the visual arts, among others.
Reading Critically: Alexandra Bell's Counternarratives
A belated post to announce my article about Alexandra Bell's Counternarratives series in the Art21 Magazine. Since January 2017, the artist has pasted her works around Brooklyn, exposing editorial bias in the print version of the New York Times. Others have recently reproduced her works anonymously in Washington, D.C., and Chicago.
Read the text here.
Bell's work is included in the group show, Lack of Location Is My Location, at Koenig & Clinton Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. The exhibition has been extended through January 14, 2017.
Image: Alexandra Bell, Counternarratives. Presented at MoMA PS1 as part of VW Sunday Sessions, 2017. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo by Charles Roussel.
Social Patterns
I am happy to have paintings included in the show, Social Patterns, at The Whitney Center and the Ely Center of Contemporary Art. The reception is January 20th, from 3-5 pm.
2018 Flat File: Year Five at Tiger Strikes Asteroid
I'm very excited to have this painting on paper included in "The 2018 Flat File: Year Five" opening this Friday, December 1, from 6-9pm at Tiger Strikes Asteroid, New York. 1329 Willoughby Ave, #2A, Brooklyn, NY
The 2018 Flat File features works by: Paolo Arao, Carlos Beltran Arechiga, Caetlynn Booth, Ellen Burchenal, Emily Burns, Eddie Chu, Andrea Sherrill Evans, Jacquelyn Gleisner, Rhia Hurt, Raymie Iadevaia, Vanessa Irzyk, Chris Joy, Tricia Keightley, Songyi Kim, Rachel Klinghoffer, Alison Kudlow, Vanessa Larsen, Mary Laube, Amanda Lechner, Tonya Lee, Greg Lindquist, Elizabeth Livingston, Leeza Meksin, Bridget Mullen, Ryan Sarah Murphy, Erin Murray, Justin Plakas, Keisha Prioleau-Martin, Lauren Rice, Kristen Schiele, Jennifer Shepard, Niki Singleton, Sarah Slappey, Melinda Steffy, Catalina Viejo Lopez de Roda, Bettina Weiß, and James Woodfill.
Robots, Race, and Algorithms: Stephanie Dinkins at Recess Assembly
“Who are your people?”
Since 2014, the artist Stephanie Dinkins has asked the social robot BINA48 this question several times. Developed by Hanson Robotics in 2010, BINA48 was purchased by Martine Rothblatt, a futurist and self-made millionaire. The robot’s bust is modeled after Rothblatt’s partner, Bina. More than one hundred hours of Bina Rothblatt’s thoughts, memories, and beliefs were compiled to form the personality of this humanoid robot. Although the robot shares its likeness and opinions with Bina Rothblatt, Dinkins is curious how BINA48 sees herself. Can the robot learn to empathize with people?
Stephanie Dinkins. Twins (or at some point, I decided to mimic the robot), 2017. Courtesy of the artist © Stephanie Dinkins.
Read more from the "Empathy" issue (Nov/Dec) in the Art21 Magazine here.
Project al-Khwarizmi (PAK) POP-UP Workshop continues at Recess Assembly through December 22, 2017.
City-Wide Open Studios this Weekends
Join me this weekend at Erector Square for City-Wide Open Studios!
Saturday and Sunday, 10/28 - 29, 12 - 6:00 p.m.
Erector Square, 315 Peck Street, Building 1, 2nd floor, Studio G, New Haven, CT
Also catch me live on the radio on Saturday morning around 11!
WPKN Live Broadcast
October 28, 11:00am - 4pm
WPKN Independent Community Radio will broadcast live from CWOS in the historic offices of A.C. Gilbert, Building 3, 3rd Floor.
Listen in on the radio at WPKN 89.5FM or online
More knots
Still making paintings on paper of different knotted forms...
Gouache on paper, 6 by 13 inches
Gouache on paper, 6 by 12 inches (approximately)
Gouache on paper, 8.25 by 13.5 inches (approximately)
Feature in the Charger Bulletin
This year I am teaching at the University of New Haven and the school produces its own news program called the Charger Bulletin. A journalism student interviewed me and my colleague David Livingston about our works in the Seton Gallery. Here's the link.
Scroll I installed in the Seton Gallery at the University of New Haven
At Work // New Faculty Show at Seton Gallery
I'm delighted to be included in the New Faculty show "At Work" at the University of New Haven's Seton Gallery. Join me for the opening Reception next Wednesday, October 4th from 4 - 7 p.m.
Through October 12th
Featuring works by David Livingston, Jacquelyn Gleisner, Caroline Valites, Serdar Arat, and Luis Victori
Seton Gallery, University of New Haven, Dodds Hall, 300 Boston Post Road, New Haven, CT
FSU Sketchbook
#FSUsketchbookproject completed on my birthday! Featuring (23) - blank-, (24) Jonah Feingard, (25) Nichole Gleisner, (26) Nichole Gleisner, (27) Lindsay Alberts, and (28) Erika Schneider.
Making Paper
Read about artist Hong Hong and her paper-making process in the "Invention" issue of the Art21 magazine here.
Hong completes a large-scale paper pour at the Dirt Salon in Hartford, Connecticut, 2015. Photographer: Justin O’Brien. Courtesy of Artist. © Justin O’Brien.
FSU Sketchbook project
The fourth set of sketchbook pages from Mazmanian Gallery with the hands of (17) Marissa Malbrough, (18) Josie Dooley, (19) Conall Dooley, (20) Estelle Vignon and Frances Dooley, (21) Emily Robinson, and (22) Tessa Jillson.
#FSUsketchbookproject
Two new press features
Read about my current installations in Peterborough and Newburgh at the links below:
Summertime art walk in Depot Square and Depot Park in Peterborough
Canvas Magazine, September 2017
"Folds of the Cloak" will be on view at the Sharon Arts Center in downtown Peterborough, NH until September 17, 2017.
"The Interaction of Colour" continues at the Ann Street Gallery in Newburgh, NY through October 14, 2017.
Maureen Drennan's 'Highway to the Sun' series on the Art21 magazine
“I would love for a person to look at one of my photos and be reminded of something else.”
Art21 Magazine - "Inspired by a True Story"
Read my article about Maureen Drennan's series 'Highway to the Sun' on the Art21 magazine here. This series of photographs was inspired by the epic road trip of four friends—one of whom was Drennan's stepfather—departing from Hanover, New Hampshire, on a five-thousand-mile trip to Alaska.
http://www.maureendrennan.net/
Check out Drennan's photography at the group show 'Portals' at Transmitter Gallery in Brooklyn, on view through September 10, 2017.
Transmitter Gallery, 1329 Willoughby Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237
Maureen Drennan. Estacada, Oregon, 2013. Digital c-print; 24 x 30 inches. Courtesy of the artist. © Maureen Drennan.
Paper Over (no. 2) in Newburgh, NY
We finished installing at the Ann Street Gallery yesterday evening. Here's a shot of the finished installation.
Other artists in the show: Cree Bruins, Susan Greer Emerson, Gloria Klein, Jill Levine, Conny Goelz-Schmitt, Judy Thomas, and Shawn Watrous, among others
Saturday, August 19th, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
"Interaction of Colour" at the Ann Street Gallery
I'm excited to include an installation in the "Interaction of Colour" show at the Ann Street Gallery in Newburgh, New York.
A view of my studio in New Haven, CT
in progress shot for the upcoming installation
The Ann Street Gallery
104 Ann Street
Newburgh, New York 12550
"Interaction of Colour" opens August 19th from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
The show is curated by Virginia Walsh.
Lumia: Thomas Wilfred and the Art of Light
Lumia: Thomas Wilfred and the Art of Light, light art compositions by the Danish-American inventor and musician, closed last weekend at the Yale University Art Gallery. The exhibition’s title refers to the name Thomas Wilfred (1889–1968) gave to his kinetic artworks. Arranged chronologically, the works in this exhibition escalate in ambition from Wilfred’s earliest home devices in the “Clavilux” series to a large, public installation, commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Wilfred created the first “Clavilux” instruments in 1919, nearly a decade before the first electronic television was invented. Light traveled through rotating mirrored surfaces from a painted “color record” onto a screen. The earliest instruments were performed live for viewers. Later, the mechanical projection machines were housed in small cabinets resembling TVs; however, unlike the television, Wilfred’s lumia were intended to be silent. Wilfred was a musician, yet he was adamant about producing an experience of color without sound for viewers.
Wilfred had hoped to sell his luminous light boxes to consumers as a replacement for the television, but as he gained traction with artists, he gradually shifted his focus to museum and galleries. In 1963, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, commissioned his most ambitious public installation, Lumia Suite, Opus 158, which remained on view at the museum until 1980. In 1971, Wilfred had a retrospective at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Wilfred’s lumia are beautiful and slow, albeit an awkward replacement for the television. It was difficult for me to consider passively enjoying a Clavilux projection in the same way I consume an episode of “Game of Thrones.” Watching the lumia, I felt my sense of observation was heightened, whereas my senses seem more often dulled by TV.
The cascading colors projected inside his machines made me recall artists such as J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851). In particular, the atmospheric and ephemeral cloudscapes later admired by the Impressionists, especially Claude Monet, recall the slow-moving colors in the lumia. Using washes of watercolor and oil paint, Turner’s layered works achieved the shimmering sensation of light, while Wilfred’s works used light itself in lieu of paint as the primary visual element in his compositions. The lumia works evoke sublime phenomena such as the aurora borealis or gaseous plumes in outer space.
In fact, Wilfred’s innovations preceded works by other light artists. For example, László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946) made his seminal work, Light-Space Modulator—a light-based sculpture powered by electricity—in 1930. Moholy-Nagy, a Hungarian artist and Bauhaus professor, advocated for the integration of art, industry, and technology. He recognized the innovation of Wilfred’s works, and the lumia were also admired by many other artists of his time, including the Abstract Expressionist, Jackson Pollock (1912–1956). In the foreword of the exhibition catalog, the contemporary artist James Turrell (b. 1943) recounts his childhood encounter with Wilfred’s works at MoMA.
Despite the respect Wilfred earned among artists of his day, his radical oeuvre of light art has not been shown in the last four decades. Lumia Suite, Opus 158 was restored for the occasion of the exhibition, and it concludes the show in a special viewing room, matching the specifications of Wilfred’s original plans. The show reaffirms Wilfred’s role as a visionary artist of both light and color.
Lumia: Thomas Wilfred and the Art of Light closed on July 23, 2017 at the Yale University Art Gallery. The exhibition will travel to Washington D.C.’s Smithsonian American Art Museum in October.
Knots
“[The] simple act of tying a knot is an adventure in unlimited space … an excursion that is limited only by the scope of our own imagery and the length of the rope maker’s coil.”
For the past few weeks, I have been reading about different kinds of knots and making a series of gouache paintings on paper loosely tied to different types of knots.
In a 2014 article in T Magazine, Jody Rosen discusses the importance of knots throughout history. Still nots are an undervalued craft today, often relegated to the storage rooms of major collections. More here.
all works are 9 inches square, gouache on paper
Knots have been on my mind for a long time, and they've surfaced in various forms in prior drawings and paintings. Since ancient times, knots were an essential form of technology for seafarers, among others. Moreover, knots have served deeply symbolic purposes; they were used to keep records for the Incas, celebrate a birth or marriage in numerous cultures, and summon strong winds for the Laplanders, for example. They are practical, yet deeply mystical at the same time.
FSU Sketchbook project
The third completed spread of sketchbook pages from Mazmanian Gallery featuring the hands of (11) Teres Audette, (12) Tara Capelluno, (13) Rose Piz, (14) Isaac Vu, (15) Cam Graves, and (16) Tyler Johnson #FSUsketchbookproject
