Link to Post:
http://newamericanpaintings.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/a-conversation-judy-glantzman/
Arthur Peña talks to painter Judy Glantzman about the work in her recent exhibition at Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York.
Glantzman comments: " I am looking for 'shorthand' symbols that speak of war. The large collages are very physical, so the intuitive process has a lot to do with tearing and layering. Chance plays a big part in the collages. I want the work to 'show me' so I often glue things together that happened to fall together on the floor. I think of the collages like a haiku, where the 'right' combination creates a perpetual dynamic. My definition of art is that the artist (me) creates a paradoxical dynamic that, like the yin and yang, perpetually goes back and forth. A space is made; like the white line that is made when you combine complementary colors or when opposite magnets resist each other... I want to build a back and forth that creates a feeling, and then I stop."
Link to Post:
http://www.nyartsmagazine.com/?p=9801
Leah Oates interviews artist William Crump about his work and process.
Crump comments: "The first thing I do when approaching these paintings, is to try and leave all distraction outside of the studio. It’s about keeping my focus and discipline. There are times when I want to dive in head first, but that can lead to not seeing your work with a critical eye. I spend a lot of time arranging and rearranging the materials I work with until something new happens. Experimenting with new materials has been key for me lately. Cut glass or wrapped linen. The older I get, the more time I spend with my work, I realize I’m not as interested in what the viewer thinks. I remember reading about Albert Oehlen wanting to be taken seriously as the decade changed and his work shifted. That struck a chord with me. If anything is brought into the studio with me it’s just that, 'Take your work seriously, think about the long road.' This approach has been more rewarding and has led to a broader exploration in my practice. I just keep trying to push myself, and my ideas into a new place."
Link to Post:
http://www.newcriterion.com/posts.cfm/-Painterly-Pasted-Pictures--at-FreedmanArt-7100
Brendan Dooley reviews the exhibition Painterly Pasted Pictures at Freedman Art, New York, on view through May 18, 2013.
Dooley writes that the exhibtion "brings together a group of collages from the 20th century united by the stylistic trait of 'painterliness.' ... Though painterliness obviously has its roots in painting, this exhibition shows how easily and successfully the concept can be applied to other mediums; painterliness is, in a sense, materiality, which is why collage – the mixing of different materials and forms – seems to be one of the best mediums to demonstrate this visual effect."
Link to Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-eckhardt-kohler/matt-bollinger-at-zurcher-studio-road-of-ashes_b_2968506.html
William Eckhardt Kohler reviews the exhibition Matt Bollinger: Bed on the Floor at Zürcher Studio, New York, on view through April 28, 2013.
Kohler writes that the works in the show (which include an installation and collage works) address "the theme of despair and loss... a slow moving katabasis; the dystopic descent of bottoming out, depression and loss of social standing. Robert Bly, in his book Iron John, calls this the 'Road of Ashes.' In mythology katabasis refers to the heroic descent into the Underworld. [Bollinger's] images however are firmly placed within familiar this-worldy narratives and contexts of cheap beer, homelessness chain link fences and empty lots full of rubbish."
Link to Post:
http://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/schwitters-in-britain
Michael Spens writes about the exhibition Schwitters In Britain at Tate Britain, London, on view through May 12, 2013.
Spens notes that "the remarkable thing about Kurt Schwitters at the period of major setbacks was his stoicism, which seemed never to fail... Concepts of dislocation however became prevalent in his work... In the core of Kurt Schwitters’ life lay a humanist ethos, expressed in the series of Merzbau, as much as in the sculptures, and as in the minutiae of the collages: reflections on the unpredictability of urban life as much as in the incidental portraits and landscapes and always graced with humility. To revisit the Hutte in Norway is to be reminded of the elemental content in Schwitters’ creativity, of the spirituality of his relation to landscape. The Lake District replicated this environment."
Link to Post:
http://abstractcritical.com/note/intimate-abstraction-at-the-searchers-contemporary-bristol/
Curator Nick Moore writes about the Intimate Abstraction, and exhibition of works by John Bunker, John Eaves, Patrick Jones, Frank Bowling, at The Searchers Contemporary, Bristol, on view through April 5, 2013.
Moore notes: "The title of this exhibition derives partly from the size of the gallery and the choice of smaller works to include in it, but more importantly from the layers of meaning in the word intimate. Intimacy is usually thought of as the feeling of being in a close personal association, a belonging together; a familiar and very close felt connection with another. Genuine intimacy requires dialogue, transparency, vulnerability and reciprocity. The adjective, 'intimate' also indicates detailed knowledge and experience of the other, be it a person or a thing. And so the working processes of the painter with the depth of knowledge and experience of the material they use, have experimented with, investigated and tested through a long relationship (possibly thirty or forty years). This can result in a connection in which there is an emotional range involving both robust conflict, and intense loyalty to the medium being used, a dynamic partnership in which there is give and take. It is this sense of connection with the process that initially drew me to these four painters and the richness of the particular way paint is extended through the inclusion of other materials."
Link to Post:
http://www.artillerymag.com/featured-articles/entry.php?id=texting-while-painting-mark-bradford-propelled-beyond-the-hegemonic-gaze
Christopher Michno profiles painter Mark Bradford.
Michno writes: "Bradford's interest in power structures, emergent when he was at CalArts, has continued to inform his painting, and how he conceptualizes his work. He has always been fascinated by the purity that is attributed to paint and that collage is considered lower than painting in the spectrum of media. "I was building a political framework in my head of how I wanted to engage, and what materials could push that. That is why I demand that they're called paintings," he says about his large-scale paper-on-canvas works. 'That is why people get unfurled when I call them paintings. That is why the purists stand up and say, 'There is no paint.' ' Bradford also notes the lack of African-American men and the lack of women throughout the history of painting. Finally, he points to the question of space. 'Certain white men are allowed to be size-queens; they have big paintings, they can take up big spaces. It was about who was allowed to take up space, and who was allowed to not take up space. So I think for me, all this framework came out of being at CalArts and observing ideological frameworks and my relationship to them.' "
Link to Post:
http://studiocritical.blogspot.com/2013/02/david-quinn.html
Valerie Brennan interviews painter David Quinn about his work and process.
Quinn explains: "For the past two years I have been working almost exclusively on panels which are 205 x 133mm. The starting point can be anything, a colour, a found piece of paper, another painting etc.. I work on a lot of pieces at the same time. I like being able to see as many of them as I can while I am working. They feed into and off each other, some sit for ages before coming to fruition others can come together quite quickly, the trick is knowing when to step back. I like to layer things up. I probably approach each piece more like a page in a notebook, that's why having lots is important, it means I don't get too precious... I want each piece to contain an element of the unexpected..."
Link to Post:
http://www.artillerymag.com/featured-articles/entry.php?id=all-over-the-map-the-peripatetic-aesthetic-of-joyce-kozloff
On the occasion of the exhibition Joyce Kozloff: Other Geographies at CB1 Gallery, Los Angeles (through February 17, 2013), Betty Ann Brown interviews Joyce Kozloff about her history as a political artist and her recent series of paintings.
Although Kozloff has worked in a variety of media she remarks: "I've always painted. Whether I paint on tiles or on canvas, the brush has been my primary tool. However, I stopped painting on canvas in 1977 and worked in other media for 20 years. Now I paint on canvas. I also paint on panels, paper and fabric. I draw and do collage. For me, there are no hierarchies among media. I don't call myself a painter. I call myself an artist."
Link to Post:
http://bombsite.com/issues/122/articles/6921
On the occasion of the exhibition Oscar Murillo: work at the Rubell Family Collection, Miami (on view through August 2, 2013) Legacy Russell talks to painter Oscar Murillo about his work and process.
Murillo comments: "Paintings happen in the studio where I have my own kind of system, although there can be physical residue of performance in them. I like to cut up the canvas in different sections, work on them individually, fold them and just leave them around for months. I don’t work on a painting with the goal of finishing it or having a complete and finished painting at the end of a work process. The idea is to get through as much material as possible, and various materials go through various processes. In most parts there is this mark making that happens with a broomstick and oil paint. I make a bunch of those canvases, fold them in half, and put them on the floor. My studio is a cradle of dust and dirt, of pollution. I don’t tidy up at the end of each production process. It’s all very much on purpose; it’s continuous process, a machine of which I’m the catalyst. Things get moved around, I step on them, and they get contaminated. It’s not about leaving traces, it’s about letting things mature on their own—like aging cheese or letting a stew cook, they get more flavorful. That’s kind of how these paintings are made."
