Highbrow Magazine - artist https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/artist en Artist Brian Arditi Pays Homage to Nature, His Greatest Muse https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1486-artist-brian-arditi-pays-homage-nature-his-greatest-muse <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 08/22/2012 - 17:49</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1mediumbrianarditipainting.jpg?itok=tZjIiVfm"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1mediumbrianarditipainting.jpg?itok=tZjIiVfm" width="480" height="319" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> Millennia ago, visual art required more labor, not to mention an appetite for the meticulous. Cave-dwelling painters didn’t have the luxury of an art supply store. They resorted to nature’s offerings. These determined artists of prehistory found ways to preserve pigments and paint with them. In fact, it was the appearance of certain inimitable natural colors that inspired them to create in the first place. The invigorating search for pigments was once a crucial part of the painter’s process.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Brian Arditi, an artist from Yonkers, New York, still believes in this process and uses it to create striking artwork. Arditi wants to infuse the future of visual art with the power of its primitive past.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “I want to be as close as possible to what art started as, but with a modern twist,” he said when I visited his studio this month.</p> <p>  </p> <p> He pulls pigments from natural sources like flowers, rocks, dirt, soil, clay, crystals — anything earth-produced that has a distinct color. He dyes a thick lacquer with the pigment, and then uses the solution to paint. “I want my art to be simple and accessible. I want art for the masses because that’s where art began. It has since turned into pretense and facade. The earth was the original canvas.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> His website, FlowersAsPaint.com, offers an extensive portfolio of his work. Some pieces look like depictions of cellular and amoeba-like formations; others summon the colossal vastness of space; others are more earthbound, including a preserved branch or lacquered flower. Arditi creates dizzying designs that resemble close-ups of petri dishes (Plinko, Puddles, Luminescent) or what could be the skin of a starfish (The Speed of Light). His tight, intimate depictions of nature in the abstract have such depth and dimension that they appear to be in motion.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “All the artwork I make with organic pigments is alive,” Arditi said as he led me to a large room adjacent to the studio. “When I start off on a painting, I only have a general idea. I’m open for it to turn out totally differently than I ever imagined. I want to develop a type of art where I can say, ‘Hand, go,’ and the hand goes and when it’s done, it looks like a cloud. It’s like muscle memory for sports players. You have to do it enough. There’s a rhythm behind it.”</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/3mediumbrianarditir.jpg" style="width: 632px; height: 950px; " /></p> <p> Several of Arditi’s paintings were plastic-wrapped and leaning against the wall in stacks. He showed me an early work that he quickly critiqued.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “This looks like a cartoon because it’s flat. I don’t use my shadows properly,” he said. “But I like the fact that it reminds me of a comic strip.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Butler No. 2 is an acrylic that depicts a figure seated on the commode, reading a newspaper section labeled “MAKING MONEY.” To his left is the arm of a butler, extended through a window, a roll of toilet paper hanging from his fingers. Such a painting suggests the sensibility of a sly liberal satirist who uses caricatures to gently stab at the 1 percent. Arditi said he always wanted to create a series out of the butler paintings, “but I got distracted with the whole flowers thing.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> This is an example of the artist downplaying his own enthusiasm. When he speaks of his experience on one June morning in 2007, he sounds less like a man distracted than a man who’s been converted. He speaks like a proselyte overjoyed by a newfound euphoria for nature. As he walked through the park that morning, he happened to glance down and notice the blooms beneath his feet. “I’m trampling all of these beautiful little flowers,” he said. “They were about 3 or 4 inches tall, and the actual flower was about the size of a quarter. They’re buttercup-yellow and they’ve got a ton of petals on them — maybe 40 petals each.”</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/4mediumbrianarditi.jpg" style="width: 700px; height: 1050px; " /></p> <p> This trampling prompted an imaginative epiphany. “Realizing that there are colors in nature that you can’t get out of a tube came from that moment,” a discovery that set into motion a nonstop series of experiments with pigment preservation.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “It started with me doing it like a grandmother would do it: drying them out in books and just waiting to see what happens. A few weeks later I go back to them and they were like mummies. Just flattened versions of their alive selves.” He began by applying the natural pigments directly, imbedding the flowers into a small canvas before the acrylic dried.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Arditi’s process evolved rapidly as he showed his work and gathered suggestions from his family, a major source of encouragement and guidance. During a showing at a store-room gallery in Bronxville, New York, two years ago, Arditi’s brother, an engineer, asked if it was possible to solidify the flowers without flattening them.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “I’m like a kid,” Arditi said. “If you give me a cool idea, I’ll go with it and explore it to the nth degree.” Then his father, also an engineer, suggested using a desiccant to preserve the flowers. So Arditi ground up silica gel (the mineral placed in small packets with merchandise to remove moisture) and began burying flowers. “It’s like sand,” he said. “It’s so fine that it leaves no room for moisture. If you leave it there for a certain amount of time, you end up with a dried and semi-rigid flower that looks the way it did when you put it in the container. That was like a breakthrough.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> His method requires a scientist’s perseverance, a microbiologist’s attention to detail, and an artistic determination to seek out solutions to newly presented problems. “Nine out of 10 people — maybe 10 out of 10 — will tell you flowers don’t make good pigment because the pigment isn’t concentrated enough. It disperses and fades quickly. So I had to figure out a way to reverse that problem, or at least drastically slow it down. That’s the inorganic part. The coating that I use is a preservative, a protectant, and a shape-keeper. What I’m doing is taking the flesh of the flower and giving it a skeleton so it can last.” The coating, or lacquer, is a solution that he says took three years of trial-and-error to perfect.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/5mediumbrianarditi.jpg" style="width: 700px; height: 883px; " /></p> <p> In his studio, he showed me a light-green rock. It’s the shade of asparagus and the size of a lumpy softball. “I found that in Montana on the way to Glacier National Park,” he said. “There were droves of these. Droves.” He also presented a magenta-colored rock from the same place. “It was like looking at a rainbow of rock. You talk about the earth having its own palate. It was right there for you.” Every color? “The only one I didn’t find was blue. Blue is probably the hardest natural pigment to come across.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> His studio is a well-packed rectangle of tables and tools. Arditi directed me to a walk-in closet filled with the air-tight plastic containers that hold the precious pigments and flowers entombed in silica. He’s collected red dirt from New Mexico and an ocher-tinted soil from Lake Tahoe that’s so dry it crumbles under the slightest pressure. He’s traveled some 17,000 miles in the past few years, collecting hard-to-find pigments. He flew home from his most recent trip with 150 pounds of rocks and soil.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Arditi was eager to use the green rock from Montana, so I was able to see how he takes the color from a rock. While a flower requires patience and delicacy (“There are a lot of times I have to operate with tweezers”), a rock seems more resistant to giving up its pigment. First, he cracks the rock into small chips and slivers. Then, the small fragments are ground into finer granules. The finely chopped little chunks are then sifted and, eventually, combined with the lacquer to make paint.</p> <p>  </p> <p> I watched as Arditi painted a depiction of the sky on the glass of a detached window. “In the thousands of pictures I came home with from these trips, there must be 2,000 pictures of just skies,” he said. “The way they move, the tremendousness of them, the different types of clouds. It just fascinates me. What do you see best through a window but the sky?” On the window glass, he’s painting the kind of multi-colored sunset sky you might see in Arizona. “I love the skies. I sound like a total pothead artist, right?</p> <p>  </p> <p> He chuckles at his own child-like amazement with nature, but there’s a certain intensity that Arditi wears on his sleeve. It’s a joyful, unapologetic intensity. Several times he spoke of the expansiveness of the sky, or the vastness of the universe, or the intricate design of the most microscopic organisms.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “The first time I saw the Milky Way I was in the Grand Canyon, and it blew my mind,” he said. “I watched shooting stars for two-and-a-half hours, one every 10 seconds. It was religious.” For Arditi, nature is the greatest muse.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Christopher Karr is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/brian-arditi" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Brian Arditi</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/flowers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">flowers</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nature" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nature</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/trees" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">trees</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/painting-flowers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">painting with flowers</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/artist" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">artist</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">art</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new york</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Christopher Karr</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 22 Aug 2012 21:49:38 +0000 tara 1439 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1486-artist-brian-arditi-pays-homage-nature-his-greatest-muse#comments The Art of Will Winton https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1150-art-will-winton <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 05/09/2012 - 21:46</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1Will--RainbowWash500.JPG?itok=EGFtFkVt"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1Will--RainbowWash500.JPG?itok=EGFtFkVt" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> I was originally trained as an architect, but abandoned the career to pursue other interests. Architecture school, however, provided sound training in the fundamentals of drawing and design, which have served me well as I pursue an artistic career.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Fifteen years ago, I began experimenting with epoxy (more specifically, p-isopropylidenebisphenol resin). I am one of only a handful of artists in the country who used this challenging medium. A two-part resin, the epoxy hardens quickly, necessitating a great deal of preliminary drawings before I set brush to canvas.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Shunning the current tired artistic trend of re-tread conceptualism, I seek to simply create unique works of beauty. I create art to hang on the wall, not fill a gallery nor excite the critics. As my work is hanging in many private collections here and abroad, I can attest to its relevance.</p> <p>  </p> <p> I am profoundly influenced by both the Expressionists and the Abstract Modern masters such as Mark Rothko.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Originally from Washington, D.C.  Currently in residence at my studios in Sewanee, TN.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <em><strong>Featured slideshow of Will Winton's art below:</strong></em></p> <p>  </p> <p>  1. Blue X; 2. Poppies; 3. Wash in Blue; 4. Green Orbs; 5. Wash of Color; 6. Black Red Square.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <em>For more information about the artist, visit</em> <a href="http://www.willwinton.com">www.willwinton.com</a>.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/will-winton" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Will Winton</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/artist" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">artist</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/sewanee" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Sewanee</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tennessee" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Tennessee</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/washington-dc-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Washington D.C.</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Will Winton</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Will Winton (Rainbow Wash)</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographs field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2Will--BlueX500.JPG?itok=kz8gMvAx" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div><div class="field-item odd"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/3Will--Poppies500.JPG?itok=o3iN-Z2R" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/4Will--washinblue500%20%281%29.JPG?itok=joB3pPIP" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div><div class="field-item odd"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/5Will--greenorbs500.JPG?itok=QqaNcWF6" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/6Will--washofcolor500.JPG?itok=ADaaFnN9" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div><div class="field-item odd"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/7Will--BlackRedSquare500.JPG?itok=6mc3QusK" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div> Thu, 10 May 2012 01:46:42 +0000 tara 925 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1150-art-will-winton#comments Artist Nicholas Forker Pays Homage to the Era of Space Exploration https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/artist-nicholas-forker-pays-homage-1045-era-space-exploration <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 13:57</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1mediumNForker--Main.JPG?itok=7rXoy4Nf"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1mediumNForker--Main.JPG?itok=7rXoy4Nf" width="480" height="319" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> Brooklyn-based artist Nicholas Forker has a rare talent, and it is one that is quickly earning him recognition in a city that is virtually filled to the brim with aspiring young artists.  In today’s art landscape, traditional skills like figurative drawing are not always as visible as they once were.  Benefiting as he does from undeniable technical ability, and a reverence for the way things used to be done, Forker creates masterful works in ballpoint, in some cases pouring hundreds of hours into a single work. </p> <p>  </p> <p> What has caught his attention lately is the way that adventurers, and in his most recent work, astronauts in particular, can be used as a stand-in for American culture.  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2mediumNForker.JPG" style="width: 445px; height: 587px; " /></p> <p> “I wanted to talk about the United States, talk about conquest, talk about exploration,” Forker explains.  “I thought the astronaut was a really interesting subject because it perfectly sums up the United States and its story arc from the 1950s to the present day.”  After World War II, space exploration became an American preoccupation and continued to define scientific and military achievement throughout the Cold War.  “When the space program kind of dissolved a little in the past few years,” Forker adds, “we saw this figure become a modern-day Don Quixote and just kind of fade from relevance.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Beyond its cultural significance, the astronaut has proven to be a fruitful subject in a formal respect as well.  “The folds of the suit and the metallic nature of it add these kind of Renaissance qualities,” he explains.  Indeed, a seated astronaut donning the slimmer-fitting 1960s era spacesuit that Forker favors makes fertile ground for an artist of his ability.  The interplay of light and dark recall the history of art’s long preoccupation with drapery and folds.  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/3mediumNForker.JPG" style="width: 445px; height: 538px; " /></p> <p> In using the figure of a faceless astronaut as a kind of everyman, Forker has found a language through which he can talk about growing up in America, and muse about what it means to be living at the end of an era that so revered space travel, while entering into new and unknown territory.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “With our evolutionary paradigm, the way things work is that one thing is dominant and one thing recedes and comes to replace it, so I’m curious as to what will replace the astronaut as the new explorer,” he muses. </p> <p>  </p> <p> The idea of employing that character, the space traveler, as a cultural metaphor, has led Forker to at times explore the humor of the American experience.  In a new and as yet unfinished piece, a group of astronauts pose to have their team picture taken, one holding a basketball under his arm.  Another theme that Forker has returned to is the astronaut holding a baseball bat on his shoulder. </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/4mediumNForker.JPG" style="width: 734px; height: 747px; " /></p> <p> “My dad forced me to play baseball when I was a kid, like forever, and I hated it,” he reminisces.  “I’m just not a sports guy.  I could do it well enough to not get yelled at, but that’s all I wanted to do, just that well.  My dad was my coach, so growing up my father-son relationship was him screaming at me to cover second.”  One wonders whether Forker’s lukewarm relationship with team sports is the very reason he has now beset his astronauts with these very same quintessential American experiences.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Growing up in suburban Chicago, Nicholas Forker had in many ways a childhood that many of us can relate to.  Unlike most suburban kids, however, Forker was raised to appreciate the old way of doing things.  “My grandfather owned land,” he recalls, “and we had a house on that land right next to his house.  So I grew up with him every day because my parents would both work, and I would hang out with my grandfather.  He treated that land like it was a small farm.  He had these huge gardens that were just tracts planted with every kind of plant, and he had livestock.  It was a really interesting kind of thing where I was essentially raised on a farm in a bustling suburb, and then I was right next to a major city.  That upbringing really taught me a ton of stuff.  You kind of get the salt-of-the earth perspective from a young age, and it has a play in my work.”</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/5mediumNForker.JPG" style="width: 445px; height: 598px; " /></p> <p> In his latest series, Forker has turned space exploration inward, plumbing the depths of the human body.  To do this, he has stuck with the astronaut motif, but has turned to X-ray images of the spacemen inside their suit.  Once again using ballpoint, though now including permanent marker ink, applied with a sponge brush to create the black background of an X-ray, he draws the astronauts’ skeletal hands and forearms surrounded by the metal casing of their suit.  This kind of inner exploration helps get at the existential underpinnings of space exploration. </p> <p>  </p> <p> “It’s just kind of the next stage in thinking on this subject.  It’s brought me to the importance of, not external exploration, but internal exploration.”  <em>Mojo Hand</em> has been selected to be part of the Wide Open Art Show 2012 at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition -- an event curated by Charlotta Kotik, former chairman of the Contemporary Art Department at the Brooklyn Museum, which opens March 18<sup>th</sup>.  Forker has also helped to curate “Great Promise,” a group exhibition at The Watermill Center in New York City on April 25<sup>th</sup>.   </p> <p>  </p> <p> It is clear that Nicholas Forker does not like to cut corners.  His drawings are the fruit of an astonishing amount of labor, a fact that, in today’s art world, sets him apart from the majority of his contemporaries.  He relishes making things the right way, believing that quality comes from hard work.  While he is open to exploring other media, he seems determined to involve drawing as the basis of his process. </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/6mediumNForker.JPG" style="width: 445px; height: 545px; " /></p> <p> “I like the drawing as a medium because it’s timeless,” he says.  “It’s something we’ve been doing since before we could speak. It’s the oldest form of human expression.  So I like that about it.  It’s necessary.  It’s what it means to be human.  But then I also believe that you cannot truly express your age if you’re confined by a medium that is of a previous age.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Rather than restrict himself to drawing alone, Forker is exploring new ways of expanding his practice into new media, moving beyond static images and into an arena that could evolve into a whole new direction for his art.  His current project is something he is guarding as a secret for the time being, and when I asked him how he had made one of the pieces, he smiled and said, “that’s proprietary.”  When the new body of work is ready, Forker looks forward to showing the world what’s next for an artist who is determined to breathe new life into the medium of drawing.  Until then, we will just have to be patient and enjoy the already exciting body of work he has completed. </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Eric Russ is </em>Highbrow Magazine’s<em> art critic. </em><em>He attended New York University, where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in</em> ‘The Sense of Self,’ <em>an interdisciplinary investigation of human identity.  He holds a Master’s Degree in Art Business from the Sotheby’s Institute of Art.</em></p> <p> <strong><em>Photo Credits: Clint Spaulding, Eric Chakeen, and Nicholas Forker</em></strong></p> <p> <strong><em>​Photo on main page by Clint Spaulding</em></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nicholas-forker" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Nicholas Forker</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/artist" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">artist</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/space-travel" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">space travel</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/astronaut" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">astronaut</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/figurative-drawing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">figurative drawing</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/brooklyn" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Brooklyn</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Eric Russ</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 08 Mar 2012 18:57:22 +0000 tara 615 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/artist-nicholas-forker-pays-homage-1045-era-space-exploration#comments Ai Weiwei: Rebel With a Cause https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/ai-weiwei-1001-rebel-cause <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 01/25/2012 - 19:00</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumaiweiwei.jpg?itok=U3AXk1mR"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumaiweiwei.jpg?itok=U3AXk1mR" width="480" height="301" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> Few artists were featured in the media in 2011 as frequently as Ai Weiwei. His placement on <em>Time</em> Magazine’s list of 100 most influential figures came at the end of a year when he was taken into custody by the Chinese government for alleged economic crimes. Ai’s supporters believe these charges are a ruse, and the media have questioned their validity as well. As Andrew Stout of <em>More Intelligent Life</em> explains, the accusation of economic crimes is “a catch-all charge often used by Chinese officials to publicly discredit dissidents”.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Ai is famed for his role as cultural interpreter and was an adviser to Swiss architects, Herzog &amp; de Meuron, for the Birds Nest, Beijing’s Olympic stadium. But in recent years, it is  his run-in with authorities that have attracted  the most press.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In April 2011, Ai was apprehended at Beijing airport on his way to Hong Kong. He was taken into custody for 81 days; little was known of his whereabouts and his disappearance sparked widespread international outcry. Since his release in June 2011, he has remained under constant surveillance at his Beijing studio and, under conditions of his release, was instructed to keep a low profile in the media and online. Last November, as they promised they would, Chinese officials handed him a bill of $2.4 million for unpaid taxes, with 15 days to pay it. His supporters began a huge online campaign to raise funds to appeal the charges. Thousands of donations later, Ai paid the bond.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In the same month, Ai’s assistant, artist Zhao Zhao, found himself at the center of a pornography investigation. Chinese authorities came across a photograph taken by Zhao in 2010 that featured Ai and four women naked. Zhao was subsequently accused of spreading pornography online. In an article by the Associated Press, Zhao said he believed it was part of the authorities' ongoing campaign against Ai. "…So far, their efforts have had no effect, such as the tax case, so they are trying this from other angles,” Ai’s supporters had their own response. They stripped off their clothes in protest, photographed themselves and posted the pictures online . Nudity, they declared, was not pornography.</p> <p> A prolific tweeter and blogger since 2005, Ai has courted controversy, and used t online media to freely express his views on his homeland, the social and economic conditions people live in, the systems that oppress, and the freedoms and rights people do not have. </p> <p>  </p> <p> Ai has experienced hardship firsthand. His Father Ai Qing, one of the Chinese Communist party’s most lauded modern poets, suffered persecution at the hands of the People’s Republic and was jailed and tortured as a leftist. Ai and his family spent years in exile until permitted to return to Beijing when he was 19.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/4mediumaiweiwei.jpg" style="width: 640px; height: 480px" /></p> <p> In 2008, frustrated by the government’s refusal to release statistics from the Sichuan earthquake, Ai led his own investigation. Suspicious as to why schools collapsed and buildings close stood firm, Ai spoke out on his blog, and recruited a team of researchers and volunteers to carry out inquiries at the scene with families of the victims. Ai hoped to uncover and publicize the names of the schoolchildren who had died. He also wrote names of the dead on paper pinned to his studio wall, and on the birthdays of the dead, posted tributes on Twitter.</p> <div> <p>  </p> <p> It is perhaps no coincidence that following Ai’s investigations, the government released its official figures of people killed in the disaster. As Ai’s posts grew increasingly hostile towards the government and officials handling the disaster, all blog entries were deleted. As expected, his blog was finally shut down altogether.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The quest to silence him grew stronger. When Ai attempted to testify for a fellow investigator, he was beaten and forcefully stopped from attending the trial. Ai documented the crude details of the encounter on Twitter, highlighting the behavior of the state towards one of its citizens, and laying down a very public challenge to the authorities.</p> <p>  </p> <p> As a result of the events, Ai produced an installation in Munich, dedicated to the young who lost their lives in the quake. A large sculpture of schoolchildren’s backpacks was arranged to display Chinese characters, which revealed a moving quote from the mother of a dead child: “She lived happily on this earth for seven years”.</p> <p>  </p> <p> It is his advocacy that has made Ai a conspicuous figure in the art world. Not limited to the physical, or the confines of the gallery walls, Ai’s work stretches the boundaries of what art is and what it does. Ai’s purpose for art reaches beyond the aesthetic, the commodity and the market, and is firmly rooted in real life, reminding us at times to look outside our own existence. His artistic expression is conversation, shared knowledge, ideals and beliefs. This transcends the superficiality of the art world, and  its brand artworks that sell for tens of millions to the super rich at auction houses. It shouts loudly of the true value of art and the artist—the attempt to communicate and connect with people.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/5mediumaiweiwei.jpg" style="width: 640px; height: 427px" /></p> <p> In 2010, Ai showcased “Sunflower Seeds” at Tate Modern London (currently showing at Mary Boone Gallery in New York). One of his most comprehensive works to date, the vast expanse of the Tate’s Turbine Hall floor was covered with millions of porcelain seeds, individually hand-painted to resemble sunflower seeds. Workers in the city of Jingdezhen spent two years bringing Ai’s vision to life, and like much of Ai’s work for the gallery space, it can be interpreted on many levels. The differences in the tiny seeds highlighted the beauty in individuality, and collectively their huge mass suggested community, while the craft skills of those that created the work riled against a China of mass production and sameness.</p> <p>  </p> <p> It is consumerist China, the purveyor of cheap goods that Ai has spoken out against on many occasions. His outspokenness, however, has had its critics. His actions, framed within an artistic context in the West, are viewed differently in China, where some simply see him as causing a fuss and dismiss him as a troublemaker. In an article in the <em>New Yorker</em>, Evan Osnos wrote: “over the years, Ai and other artists butted heads over whether his form of activism was worthwhile or vain and counterproductive.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> But Ai’s actions were hardly  vain. Until he was detained himself, Ai used his position to highlight injustice towards others, and, until it was shut down, spoke on his blog of freedom of expression and universal values. Although his stature and global profile means he has attracted considerable media attention, Ai uses this to shift the focus from him and onto the cause— but for now, Ai Weiwei has become the cause. The tax charges are now under the authorities’ review, and in a recent article in <em>The Guardian,</em> Ai warned, ”If they can't resolve this issue very fairly and carefully, it will bring harm to this society's justice system." </p> <p>  </p> <p> With Ai’s long-awaited documentary feature, “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” which debuted at Sundance this month, it is certain that whatever the outcome of the tax saga, Ai’s influence will be felt far beyond 2011.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Liz Appleby is a freelance writer.</em></p> </div> <p> <em><strong>Additional Photos: Loz Pycock; HD Zimmerman: Flickr</strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ai-weiwei" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Ai Weiwei</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/china" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">China</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/artist" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">artist</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ai-weiweis-disappearance" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Ai Weiwei&#039;s disappearance</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tate-modern" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Tate Modern</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Liz Appleby</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Eloge de l&#039;Art (elogedelart.canalblog.com)</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:19 +0000 tara 456 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/ai-weiwei-1001-rebel-cause#comments Mac Premo’s ‘Dumpster Project’: A Memorial to Human Life https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/mac-premo-s-dumpster-99project-memorial-21human-life <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Fri, 01/20/2012 - 12:52</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2macpremo--dumpster2.JPG?itok=kYBl4vM7"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2macpremo--dumpster2.JPG?itok=kYBl4vM7" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> A little over a year ago, Mac Premo found himself with a problem.  He needed to move his studio from Boerum Hill, where he had spent the last several years, to a new but smaller location at the Invisible Dog Art Center in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.  As an artist whose stock-in-trade was working with found materials, Mac had accumulated a fair amount of cultural debris, as it were.  The move meant that a purge would be necessary.  “This is sort of indicative of my problem as a human, or my greatest attribute as a human, I’m not sure which,” says Premo.  “My solution was to make an art project.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> The Dumpster Project became Mac’s answer to this newfound limitation on space.  In a great irony, what began as an effort to rid his studio of materials, has resulted in the creation of an object that weighs five tons.  Seeing that one way or another a lot of stuff was going to end up in a dumpster, Mac began conceiving a kind of last hurrah for his collection of knickknacks and mementos.  “The objects that I collect and keep, I’ve kept, ostensibly as collage materials, so this is it, feet to the fire, I’m either going to use this stuff as collage materials or I’m not,” explains Premo. </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/11MacPremo--Dumpster.jpg" style="width: 640px; height: 427px; " /></p> <p> The dumpster idea started as a month-long project that would act as a kind of final resting place for the materials that wouldn’t fit in Mac’s new space.  Now, having recently returned from a cameo appearance at the PULSE Contemporary Art Fair in Miami, the dumpster has averted destruction, and has found a home (at least through mid-March) in the lot next door to Mac’s studio.  The dumpster is open to the public Thursday through Sunday, 1 to 5 pm, and by appointment.  Premo clarified in a recent blog post that, “since my studio is like 47 feet away, that 'by appointment' bit really means 'drop me an email and I'll come downstairs and if you bring coffee, I'll open it up. I like half and half, no sugar. Or better yet, just bring beer.' That's what 'by appointment' means.”</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/3Macpremo--dumpster4.JPG" style="width: 640px; height: 427px; " /></p> <p> Before entering the strange logistical world that is harboring a dumpster in New York City, Mac set about documenting each of the objects, many of which he had saved for years.  This effort has proved one of the most fruitful elements of the project in that it became the basis for the daily blog (<a href="http://www.thedumpsterproject.com/">www.thedumpsterproject.com</a>) and the exhibition mobile app created by the Frank Collective (which purchased the empty dumpster at the start of the project), which allow Mac to record and share his relationship to each of the objects.  The posts are too numerous and too varied to recount here, but are a fascinating insight into a man’s existence as told by the objects he has decided to keep.  Explaining the meaning of a stack of laminate samples, Premo writes, “I would pick these up when I went to Home Depot for various jobs. I'd only take a few at a time ‘cause I felt guilty about taking them for collage art stuffs instead of what God intended them to be used for: determining which faux-wood makes the best pizzeria countertop.”</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/5MacPremo.JPG" style="width: 640px; height: 427px; " /></p> <p> A visit to the dumpster is less a look at one person’s life than it is an homage to our collective childhood.  We find that the objects that have entered Premo’s life are very much those of our own.  Of course the stories and memories are different, but there is a bond shared between each of us who has felt the need to keep things as markers in our lives.  Thanks to the tireless cataloguing of the objects in the dumpster, the accompanying mobile app offers visitors the opportunity to punch in a number for each object and read the thoughts that Mac has shared about them.  One cannot help but feel fortunate that The Dumpster Project has evolved into what it is, a beautiful memorial to human life as told by the things we decide to hold on to. </p> <p>  </p> <p> Among the insights that Premo has had through the process of executing this idea is a graciousness for the help and support of all of the people who surround him.  One finds that many of the pieces in the dumpster are associated with memories of friends, and it is clear that Mac finds a great deal of importance in personal relationships.  Taking a moment to tell me how valuable the support of his wife is, Premo confides “that’s the thing I’m most lucky about.”  Displayed prominently among the many objects within the dumpster, an empty bag of Tayto crisps commemorates the evening that he professed his love for his wife.  It is clear that his gratitude for the contribution of everyone who helped realize The Dumpster Project is foremost in his mind.  “It’s weird to call this <em>my</em> project,” he says.  “There are so many people that are absolutely pivotal in so many ways.”  From the support of his dealer, Pavel Zoubok, to David Belt, who granted him a space to work on the dumpster, to Fleetwood Fernandez Architecture, which designed the dumpster’s roof, the project was realized through the efforts of a multitude of people.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/44macpremo--dumpster4.jpg" style="width: 640px; height: 425px; " /></p> <p>  In keeping with the collective mentality that helped produce the project, its exhibition has really been treated as a public artwork.  For the first time Premo has had a chance to watch his audience experience his work as it has been installed not just in Miami, but also as part of the Dumbo Arts Festival in New York.  “I didn’t expect to be as humbled as I was by watching people,” Premo remarked.  “I made this big box that’s about me, that’s a taxonomy of my existence, and I don’t think I’ve ever been less relevant to a project.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> For the moment, it is unclear where the dumpster is headed when its residency at The Invisible Dog Art Center comes to a close in March.  Having journeyed with this project through the many moves it has made in its short life, Mac Premo is not worried about that.  Today the dumpster stands more or less as a finished project, with only some weatherproofing and some blogging still to be done.  What began as an effort to throw things away, turned into a way of celebrating a life in objects.  Wherever it finds its next home, curious audiences will be rewarded by the memories that are invoked by<em> The Dumpster Project</em>.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong><em>For more information on Mac Premo, visit the Pavel Zoubok Gallery at <a href="http://www.pavelzoubok.com">www.pavelzoubok.com</a> and The Invisible Dog Art Center at <a href="http://www.theinvisibledog.org/">www.theinvisibledog.org</a></em></strong></p> <p> <strong><em>All photos courtesy of the Pavel Zoubok Gallery.</em></strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Eric Russ is</em> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>art critic. </em><em>He attended New York University, where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in</em> ‘The Sense of Self,’ <em>an interdisciplinary investigation of human identity.  He holds a Master’s Degree in Art Business from the Sotheby’s Institute of Art.</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mac-premo" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mac Premo</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/artist" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">artist</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/dumpster-project" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">The Dumpster Project</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pavel-zubok-gallery" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Pavel Zubok gallery</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/invisible-dog-art-center" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">The Invisible Dog Art Center</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new york</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Eric Russ</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Pavel Zoubok Gallery</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:52:10 +0000 tara 438 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/mac-premo-s-dumpster-99project-memorial-21human-life#comments Maurizio Cattelan at the Guggenheim https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/maurizio-cattelan-guggenheim <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 11/13/2011 - 16:06</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Cattelan1_0.JPG?itok=CfhphqtT"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Cattelan1_0.JPG?itok=CfhphqtT" width="359" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> In another great departure from convention, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has mounted the comprehensive retrospective of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, rewriting the playbook for how an exhibition of this kind ought to be done. </p> <p>  </p> <p> Cattelan has become famous in the art world for his irreverent sense of humor and penchant for artistic high jinks<strong>.</strong>  He has made a career out of defying expectations.  It is not surprising then, that in agreeing to do a big museum retrospective, the artist should shock his audience once more.  Hanging from the oculus inside the iconic museum’s great rotunda, Cattelan’s entire body of work dangles freely, no longer working as separate pieces, but now functioning as one gigantic artistic statement.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/Cattelan2.JPG" style="width: 600px; height: 448px; " /></p> <p> With his first-ever solo show of this scale, Cattelan is now calling it quits.  The artist announced his retirement on November 4<sup>th</sup> in conjunction with the launch of the Guggenheim retrospective.  Many art-world insiders wonder if the declaration is just another in a long line of gags perpetrated by the artist However, for the moment, Cattelan is sticking to his guns.  Assuming that he is telling the truth, the retrospective is an appropriate send-off.  Never one to follow convention, Cattelan has shirked any notions of how an exhibition of this kind is presented.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The Guggenheim’s circular space is famously difficult for showing artworks.  The nontraditional layout winds museum-goers around the atrium as they climb six floors.  Cattelan’s decision to dangle his work in the center of the space is a successful marriage of museum space and exhibition design.  As viewers ascend through the building they are confronted with new works hanging at each level, amounting to a continuously fresh encounter with Cattelan’s imagination. </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/Cattelan3.JPG" style="width: 600px; height: 448px; " /></p> <p> For those who are familiar with many of the artist’s works, the exhibition offers a new experience of the objects.  The nature of Cattelan’s work is such that it is often viewed by itself, relying on an entire room to pull off the desired visual effect.  Perhaps his most famous piece, <em>La Nona Ora</em>, captures the moment that Pope John Paul II is getting struck by a meteor.  Or the startling <em>Him</em>, a miniature wax figure of a school boy praying, who is revealed to be Adolf Hitler when the viewer walks around to see it from the front.  These signature works have created a lot of fanfare for the artist over the years.  Putting together a retrospective of such recognizable objects, while being limited in space, would be a tricky endeavor.  A recontextualization of these old works brings renewed interest to objects that many have seen before and avoids the pitfall of telling his viewers the same joke twice.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/Cattelan5_0.JPG" style="width: 450px; height: 602px; " /></p> <p> With this show the Guggenheim has again proven that it is willing to take risks.  Those unfamiliar with Maurizio Cattelan’s work will have a chance to experience the artist’s career in totality and will not doubt be amused by what they see.  For those who have been following Cattelan over the last  20 years, a chance to revisit some old favorites while contemplating his choice to string up his life’s work will likely be well received. </p> <p>  </p> <p> <em>Maurizio Cattelan: All</em>  can be viewed at the Solomon R. Guggenheim in New York through January 2, 2012.</p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Eric Russ attended New York University where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in</em> ‘The Sense of Self,’ <em>an interdisciplinary investigation of human identity.  He holds a Master’s Degree in Art Business from the Sotheby’s Institute of Art and is currently writing about the art world.</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/maurizio-cattelan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Maurizio Cattelan</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/guggenheim" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Guggenheim</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/exhibition" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">exhibition</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new york</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/artist" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">artist</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Eric Russ</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 13 Nov 2011 21:06:19 +0000 tara 218 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/maurizio-cattelan-guggenheim#comments The Art of Clarisse Perrette https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/art-clarisse-perrette <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 09/22/2011 - 20:35</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/FlourishI.JPG?itok=gHwMDah9"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/FlourishI.JPG?itok=gHwMDah9" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> Born and raised in New York City, artist Clarisse Perrette currently lives and works in Chicago. Her paintings have been featured at a number of galleries around the country, including s.e.e.d. Gallery (Brooklyn), Artist’s Museum (Washington D.C.), the Art Students League (New York City) and the Zhou B Art Center in Chicago.</p> <p>  </p> <p> According to Perrette, “My paintings explore the random, hectic movements in the day-to-day—one action bumps into another—one thought suddenly leads you to a very different one—one shape leans into the next. We move fast and disconnectedly. Sometimes it adds up to a whole, and sometimes it remains in pieces.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> To find out more about the paintings featured in <em>Highbrow Magazine</em>, contact the artist <a href="http://www.clarisseperrette.com/#contact">here</a>.</p> <p> <strong>Painting on main page</strong>: Flourish I (2010)</p> <p> <strong>Slideshow</strong>:</p> <p> 1. JRP Blue (2010)</p> <p> 2. JRP Map (2011)</p> <p> 3. Flourish II (2010)</p> <p> 4. Flourish III (2011)</p> <p> 5. Flourish IV (2011)</p> <p> 6. A New View (2010)</p> <p> 7. Alderman Austin (2010)</p> <p> 8. Bright Spaces XI (2010)</p> <p> 9. Bright Spaces XX (2010)</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">art</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/clarisse-perrette" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">clarisse perrette</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/artist" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">artist</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/chicago-artist" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Chicago artist</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/paintings" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">paintings</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Clarisse Perrette</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Clarisse Perrette</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographs field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/JRPBlue.JPG?itok=Z0N8YlEo" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div><div class="field-item odd"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/JRPMap.JPG?itok=q30VjCXi" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/FlourishII.JPG?itok=gcteCGXI" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div><div class="field-item odd"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/FlourishIII.JPG?itok=PVeoXyFt" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Flourish.IV_.JPG?itok=tyKqqe_X" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div><div class="field-item odd"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/A%20New%20View.JPG?itok=I8xfRe4e" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/AldermanAustin.JPG?itok=_CS5hfUE" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div><div class="field-item odd"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/BrightSpacesXI.JPG?itok=dhN1SpnC" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/BrightSpacesXX.JPG?itok=hCb1lMKd" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div> Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:35:49 +0000 tara 88 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/art-clarisse-perrette#comments