Converse With Artist Raelis Vasquez Through His Vivid Paintings

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Brother Brother, 214 cm x 300 cm, Courtesy of the Artist and The Noldor Residency

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from and how did art first enter your life? 

I, Emmanuel Taku, (b. 1986) hail from, work and reside in Ghana. I studied and trained  formally in Visual Arts and Textiles at the Ghanatta College of Art and Design (Ghana) for 4  years [2005 to 2009] alongside fellow figurative artists like Kwesi Botchway and Otis Quaicoe.  The Noldor Residency will serve as my debut showing within the contemporary art ecology. Here, with my mixed media approach of newspaper and acrylic on canvas, I have created my  figurative surrealist series titled “Temple of Blackness – It Takes Two”.  

My work reflects my love for textiles with a silk-screening approach and my commitment to  capturing black bodies in the abstract – one as reflection of the other.  

I live and work in Accra, Ghana. 

The Amethyst Pair, Courtesy of the Artist and The Noldor Residency

Has your work always taken on the style it currently embodies? 

Yes it has. The use of floral paisley prints comes from my personal fascination with the pattern  and fabric that has always been a part of my life since youth – whether as tablecloth or in  garments. I also felt that paisley represents a melting pot of cultural identity; first being  fashioned in India and expanding in reach before becoming adopted into a British sensibility  and finally the sartorial mainstream. I’ve always worn paisley. 

Brothers in Lilac, Courtesy of the Artist and The Noldor Residency

What’s your process like? How do you begin a work? 

I initially begin with the underlying form and structure after deciding on a subject – this might be  a subject I know in some cases and sometimes it’s a muse I know from a distance. Upon  establishing form and structure I highlight the figurative elements and proceed to apply colour  the depicts the spirit of my subject.  

From where do you draw inspiration? 

I take great inspiration from artists Toyin Ojin Odutola, Gideon Appah who has mentored me  throughout my experience at the Noldor residency and my dear friend Kwesi Botchway with  whom I went to the Ghanatta Institute of Art & Design. Frida Kahlo’s figurative surrealist  approach also served as an important study for my work and gave me the context I needed.  

Cow Boys in Blue, Courtesy of the Artist and The Noldor Residency

Tell us about the subjects you depict in your work. Are they people you know? 

This body of work came to me as an idea when I heard John Akomfrah speak about his  experience as a child referring to museums capturing artwork by Turner and Constable as a  ‘Temple of Whiteness’. I just remembered how that clicked for me and I truly wanted to  create my own “Temple of Blackness” capturing black people as demi-gods or heroes without  pupils or eyes; unapproachable splendour. The importance of capturing two figures in  juxtaposition was to create a sense of consolidation, synergy and unity. The anthropomorphic  silhouettes created by the bodies engulfed in silk screened fabric print are emphatic of this unity.

What larger questions do you think your work asks? 

I feel that my work asks pertinent yet ubiquitous questions referring to existence, essence and  identity of the balck body. But I also think that it asks empowering questions.

Brother’s in Red, 127cm x 200cm, Courtesy of the Artist and The Noldor Residency

If you could have dinner with three major figures, dead or alive, who would they be and why? 

Okui Enwezor and Pablo Picasso would be my top two picks. Definitely. Why > later  

Boys in Yellow, 127 cm x 200 cm, Courtesy of the Artist and The Noldor Residency

Does your work reference any Art Historical movements? 

Beyond my initial affinity and inspiration from the surrealist movement in exploring my composition,  my work somewhat identifies in part with Thelma Golden’s post-black art movement ideology. My form 

A Pair in White, Courtesy of the Artist and The Noldor Residency

What’s next for you? 

I just finished 15 works under my figurative surrealist series titled “Temple of Blackness – It  Takes Two” and I am currently developing a new body of work for a solo exhibition in Belgium  with Maruani Mercier titled “The Chosen Few”. Super thrilled by the way my work has been  received thus far. 

The Siemese Twins, 127 cm x 200 cm, Courtesy of the Artist and The Noldor Residency

At the end of each interview, we like to ask the artist to recommend a friend whose work you  love and would like for us to interview next. Who would you suggest? 

Joshua Oheneba-Takyi would be my chosen recommendation. A Junior Fellow at Noldor I’ve had the  privilege of working side by side with in the midst of Noldor’s enclave. 

My Brother’s Keeper, 127 cm x 200 cm, Courtesy of the Artist and The Noldor Residency

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Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from, and when did art first enter your life?

I’m from a small town in Florida, art didn’t really enter my life until I left there. At around 18 I moved to Brooklyn. I lived and worked there as a painter and doing art assistant work for about ten years. Now for the past six years I’ve been living in Los Angeles working out of my garage studio. 

Has your work always taken on the style it currently embodies? 

I started out mostly painting figures but still lifes are much more interesting to me these days. Stylistically speaking, I would say that the work has remained somewhat exaggerative of whichever subject matter I’m depicting. 

What is your process like? How do you begin a work?

I’ll start with a small sketch usually, then create a collage in photoshop based on that sketch. Then take that digital collage and start drawing the image on the linen canvas with chalk. From there I’ll start putting in the characters and background with “Jacquard dye na flow” a type of fabric paint that acts almost like a dye. Finally I’ll keep building up the starting with textile paint and acrylic till I feel it looks like it pops to me. 

Walk us through a day in the studio.

For the show “Cantaloupe and Kokomo” at The Hole’s Tribeca location, I’ve changed my entire work routine. Previously I wouldn’t start till around noon and I’d work till about 2 or 3am. Now I’m waking up at 6am eating breakfast, taking vitamins, doing some yoga and exercise before I start.I’ll start at 9am looking at what i’m working on and having a first cigarette. I’ll paint till 10 or 11pm with lunch and dinner breaks. 

From where do you draw inspiration?

I’ll draw inspiration from my routine of everyday life. I think for the new show I’ve noticed I’m drawing inspiration from the change of routine and the feeling of being comfortable with moving about more during the pandemic and post vaccination. 

What can you tell us about the caricaturesque style of your work? How did you come to acquire that style?

 I think I’ve always tended to exaggerate things that I’ve drawn or painted. So it felt pretty natural to animate the objects around me as a way to give them life.

What source material do you base your work off of? 

Junk mail like the grocery store newsletters have such great fruit compositions in them. Also objects in my kitchen, home and studio are source material, I’m always looking for it. 

Does your work reference any art historical movements? 

I’ve been looking at a lot of Theorem paintings, also Flemish still lifes from the 1600s, Botero still lifes from the 70s, Moise kisling still lifes and Giovanna garzoni.

Now that things are starting to open up again, what’s next for you? 

I’ll be taking my first flight since the pandemic to New York for my show at The Hole. It will be my second solo exhibition with The Hole since the pandemic began. 

At the end of every interview, we like to ask the artist to recommend a friend whose work 

you’d like us to interview next. Who would you recommend?

Samantha Rosenwald and Mark Posey.

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A celebration of life, unique expression, and selfhood, the work of Louis Fratino comes back to AOC, this time displayed across the space of Ciaccia Levi Gallery, Paris. The figurative compositions of the artist, present portrait-like representations of subjects as well as still lives and landscapes. Each piece in Growths of the earth displays an intimate moment of sensory experiences, be it through the eyes of the subjects, or through the eyes of the viewer. On view through July 10th, the depth of Fratino’s work will continue to fully embody the essence of pride of expression. Below we have chosen a selection of complete images of works, but with an emphasis in the details, the texture, and the artist’s stroke.

Large Flowers, 2021, oil on canvas, Courtesy of the Artist and Ciaccia Levi, Paris. Photography: Aurélien Mole

Like the versatility of subject matter in the paintings across this exhibition, is the depth in conceptual reach in Fratino’s work. The initial text in the introduction above, redacted on the exhibition press release, is an excerpt from Leaves on Grass, a staple of poetic expression by Walt Whitman. Like the text, delicate, intricate and complex, are each of the works in the exhibition. The collection of new works depicts a tongue-in-cheeck display of his signature approach to the canvas. In both color palette and composition, each stroke speaks volumes of Fratino’s artistic development.

An Argument, 2021, oil on canvas, 177,3 × 165,2 × 4,4 cm, Courtesy of the Artist and Ciaccia Levi, Paris. Photographs: Aurélien Mole

In the selection of images provided, the beautifully photographed details of canvas photographed by Aurélien Mole, we are able to experience the exhibition of new paintings up close. Every inch in each composition is replete with details and hidden figures that one can only fully appreciate if one looks closely at the surface canvas. Common household objects appear repeatedly throughout the scenes, like these subjects all existed within the same universe. Loose sheets of pencil sketches, a bowl of nails sitting behind a flower vase with the flowers in their prime, an empty water glass, and sweet embraces dominate the scenes, and fill the viewer with a sense of domestic bliss.

Detail: Anemones and Mimosas, 2021, oil and collage on canvas, 73,7 × 58,5 × 4 cm, Courtesy of the Artist and Ciaccia Levi, Paris. Photographs: Aurélien Mole

Experiencing each piece as an identity, the gallery space attracts the viewer to step backwards and experience the large paintings, and to inch closer to closely look at the smaller works. Continue scrolling down to see more images. Make sure to experience the wonderfully executed, curated, and photographed exhibition Growths of the eatrh by Louis Fratino.

Detail: Barn Swallow, 2021, oil on canvas, 22 × 30,5 × 2 cm, Courtesy of the Artist and Ciaccia Levi, Paris. Photographs: Aurélien Mole

Courtesy of the Artist and Ciaccia Levi, Paris. Photographs: Aurélien Mole

Courtesy of the Artist and Ciaccia Levi, Paris. Photographs: Aurélien Mole

Naked You, 2021, oil on canvas, 35,5 × 27,9 × 2,5 cm, Courtesy of the Artist and

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The Messenger, 2021, Oil on LInen, 72×160 inches, Courtesy of the Artist

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from, and how did art first enter your life?

I currently live in Brooklyn which is where I have been for the past 21 years. Art has always been a part of my life since I was a kid growing up in Iran, it was sort of second nature to try to understand the chaotic world around me in a visual way. 

He Who Saw the Deep, 2021, Oil on Linen, 16×20 inches, Courtesy of the Artist

Has your work always taken on the same style it currently embodies?

In some shape or form I have always wanted to be able to combine many different elements, thoughts, visual languages in one place and to create a World Landscape, where it can contain an entire universe.

From where do you draw inspiration?

Everywhere, from Art History, Personal History, Personal and collective memory, my environment, current events, science and nature books, Literature, Poems, films, conversations, etc. When I am working on a painting, I am looking for answers everywhere.

Installation View, Kasemin Gallery, NY, 2021, Courtesy of the Artist

Walk us through a day in the studio.

The key is to show up in the studio, then there is a lot of looking, thinking, researching, reading, painting, drawing, experimenting, but never in the same order, each day can be different.

Installation View, Kasemin Gallery, NY, 2021, Courtesy of the Artist

What is your process like? How do you begin a work?

It begins with research and feeding my imagination based on things I am interested in at the time, then they sort of manifest themselves in the work in an organic way. Each work begins very differently, but one thing that I am always sure of at the beginning is the mood I want to create in the painting which brings us to your next question. 

Installation View, Museo Bardini, Florence, Italy, 2021, Courtesy of the Artist

Tell us about your relationship to color.

The mood I spoke about, has to do with colors that I make myself, as they can have a particular personal mood for me. I am very sensitive to the sounds that come from color, so the sound guided me to know which color to put down and how it vibrates next to another color. But the sounds can also come from Shapes, lines, textures and also the figures that show up a bit later in the progress of the paintings.

SOS, 2020, Oil on Linen, 66×88 inches, Courtesy of the Artist

If you could have three people over for dinner, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Bosch, Dante, Goya… I think we would have a lot to talk about.

Installation View, Museo Bardini, Florence, Italy, 2021, Courtesy of the Artist

Does your work reference any Art Historical movements or figures?

I am interested in all Art History and I can take pieces and fragments when in need.

The Caravan, 2020, Oil on LInen, 66×88 inches, Courtesy of the Artist

What’s next for you?

I currently have a solo show titles “These Specks of Dust” at Kasmin gallery in NY which will be up until June 26. Also, I have Solo shows at two museums in Florence, Italy titled “Beautiful Lies” at Palazzo Vecchio and Museo Bardini which is up until August 29, 2021. Also, I have a new Rizzoli monograph which just came out this month. 

Installation View, Museo Bardini, Florence, Italy, 2021, Courtesy of the Artist

At the end of each interview, we like to ask the artist to recommend a friend whose work you love and would like for us to interview next. Who would you suggest?

Amy Cutler

The post Flow in and out of reason through Ali Banisadr’s captivating paintings appeared first on Art of Choice.

Cristine in Red Dress, 2020, oil on canvas, 10 x 8 in. Courtesy of the Artist and De boer Gallery

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from, and how did art first enter your life? 

I was born in Miami Beach in 1976. My parents were on vacation, and I was born prematurely. We returned to Toronto soon after where I lived until I was 28. I moved to Vancouver that year, then returned to Toronto in 2013 where I now live most of the year. My father worked in advertising so I was constantly given pads and pens and pencils and coloured pencils and different types of paper, which I immediately took to. My mother told me that when I was three I said I wanted to be a ‘cartoonist’. So, I guess this is how it entered my life, and I’ve known that I wanted to, and have been, making art for around forty-four years now.

A Limited Edition Print with Exhibition with Moroccan Rug, 2021, oil on canvas 40 x 30 in. Courtesy of the Artist and De boer Gallery

Tell us about your stylistic approach. Do you have a preferred form of craft?

If I were more comfortable with different ways of making things, then I’d probably be using more mediums to make work. But painting, writing and photography are the things I use/do. 

I wrote somewhere recently that intuition is God, so I operate from that position. I don’t have any ideas or plans for what I will make. Essentially I’m a photographer. I take hundreds and hundreds of photos every week. Of everything. I’ve sometimes exhibited photography, but I think photography is sort of dead/solved, save a few photographers working today who are trying to advance the form. But for me exhibiting a photograph sort of feels analogous to exhibiting a Cubist painting; it’s nostalgic, a way of decorating a solved and revered problem. Almost all contemporary photographs seen in galleries are essentially homages to photographs that already exist.  

Cristine in My Camo Shirt, April 2020, 2020, oil on canvas, 48 x 36 in. Courtesy of the Artist and De boer Gallery

I paint from my own photographs when I make ‘realistic’ paintings. I just see a photo that would clearly be better as a painting, then I paint it. There’s typically some sentimental element to the image, and I think I enjoy translating a photograph into a painting because it allows me to spend more time with a meaningful image. Mostly all my paintings are drawn from my personal life; paintings of my wife , things around my house, books I’m reading etc. Occasionally I’ll work from appropriated imagery if I’ve been thinking about or absorbed in something that inspires me, which is exclusively American entertainment media. I’ve exhibited videos occasionally when the idea I have is unsuited to painting or writing. Writing is also just a different vehicle for the delivery of ideas. Whatever idea I have, I just decide how it’s best expressed, through painting, writing, photography, or video. The text based paintings I make which are wholly unlike my figurative paintings are just smaller, simpler ways of writing, that also allow me to make colour field paintings. 

I feel like I should say that for me the most important part of my work is ambiguity, particularly as related to Henry Kissinger’s doctrine of ‘constructive ambiguity’. This is extremely important to me. 

Cristine in Stripes, 2020, oil on canvas, 12 x 9 in. Courtesy of the Artist and De boer Gallery

What is your process like? How do you begin a work?

The experience of living through each day is the only thing I could call ‘process’ and seems like the wrong word. Other than I just sit down and make the thing my mind tells me is worth making without letting myself get bogged down by a search for meaning. The meaning is always revealed to me later.

Cristine in the Corner of the Hotel, Room, 2021, oil on canvas, 60 x 48 in. Courtesy of the artist and De boer Gallery

Walk us through a day in the studio.

This is a very brief, low-energy walk. I wake up, I have a ritualized morning involving food and correspondence. I look at videos on YouTube of Top 5 Unsolved Murders, or Top 5 Mysterious Disappearances, and I play Scrabble on a website called isc.ro where I’ve played for 24 years. Then I just sit and paint or sit and write. If I sit and write I need to be quiet. If I sit in paint, I can listen to music, documentaries or other mundane content from YouTube, sit in silence, or interact/talk with my wife, who’s typically working nearby herself.

Cristine with Vintage Wallpaper, 2020, oil on canvas, 12 x 9 in. Courtesy of the artist and De boer Gallery

From where do you draw inspiration? 

The experience of having been born into this body in this lifetime at this moment in history.

Getting Dressed to Meet the Parents, Deauville Hotel, Room 413, Miami, Aug., 2015, 2020-2021, oil on canvas, 20 x 16 in. Courtesy of the artist and De boer Gallery

What’s your favorite curse word? 

Dogshit.

No Gods No Masters, 2021, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in. Courtesy of the Artist and De boer Gallery

If you could have three people over for dinner, dead or alive, who would it be? 

My dad, Billy Crystal and Susan Sontag. All dead.

Showing Off, 2015, oil on canvas, 10 x 8 in. Courtesy of the Artist and De Boer Gallery

Does your work reference any Art Historical movements?

No.

Sinia Divinas with Incongruous Shadows / Our First Time at the Royal Ontario Museum, 2020, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in. Courtesy of the Artist and De boer Gallery

What’s next for you? 

I have a show at deboer Gallery in Los Angeles in a week. I’m finishing my first novel, provisionally titled Stop Dying, which follows a short story collection I published in 2019 called Essays & Fictions. That’s all I know about, but others may know more than me.

Untitled, 2020, oil on canvas, 18 x 14 in. Courtesy of the Artist and De boer Gallery

At the end of each interview we like to ask the artist to recommend a friend whose work you love, and would like us to interview next. Who would you recommend? 

Cristine Brache.

Brad Phillips 2020, 2020, oil on canvas, 16 x 12 in. Courtesy of the Artist and De boer Gallery

Untitled, 2020, oil on canvas, 10 x 8 in. Courtesy of the Artist and De boer Gallery

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Displaced Persons, 2020, Oil, dispersion adhesive, nylon stockings on Canvas, 195 x 310 cm, Courtesy of the Artist and Gagosian, NY. Photo by: Jochen Littkemann

The work of Baeslitz is known to have navigated a wide array of concepts and historical movements like “Dada — as seen in the work of Hannah Höch, George Grosz, and others”, as well as other inspirations like “Willem de Kooning and Philip Guston as his key influences.” His artistic path looks at the human figure, this time represented through a new approach of painting over nylon stockings and tulle fabrics, or using them as stamps that make up the subject. These subjects bring about increasing points of consideration and questions to ask, “emerged out of the catastrophes of the First World War, so does Baselitz’s title herald a spirited reawakening from the ravages and restrictions of the current pandemic.” Through the process of print and repetition, the artist provides an added level of transparency in his productions. 

Spaziergang am Meer, 2021, Acrylic, dispersion adhesive and nylon stockings on Canvas, 300 x 400 cm, Courtesy of the Artist, and Gagosian NY. Photo by: Jochen Littkemann

These playful, diverse, creative, and delicate works show a steady progression from making beautiful prints using the stocking as a stamping tool— like Leneh, 2020 — and turned into a collage exploration of paint and fabric, in monochrome of black, white, and gold, while maintaining a consistent composition as his signature style. Der katalanische Raucher: Osborne | Wer wirft den ersten Stein |  mallorquinischer Karren, 2021, the enchanting triptych that undoubtedly stole the show. Seen below, the bold trio provides a refreshing and relatable perspective given our shared experience of the past year. The image of the stocking as an icon of fashion, the history of femininity and women, and the symbolic weight that comes through that. 

Leneh kentlerah fran, 2020, Oil on Canvas, 210 x 132 cm, Courtesy of the Artist and Gagosian, NY. Photo by: Jochen Littkemann

On view through the gallery space, these large scale works are like walking down the path of this exceptional artist’s life. His latest body of work presents a wholehearted product to what life through a pandemic changed within, while keeping true to his signature motifs. Be sure to make your way to the gallery space before the 12th, if you’re able! 

Lady Art Painting II, 2020, Oil, dispersion adhesive, and nylon stockings on Canvas, 300 x 180 cm, Courtesy of the Artist and Gagosian, NY. Photo by: Jochen Littkemann

Spanisches Bild, 2021, Oil, gold pigment, dispersion adhesive, fabric, nylon stockings, 300 x 210 cm, Courtesy of the Artist, and Gagosian, NY. Photo by: Jochen Littkemann

Der katalanische Raucher: Osborne | Wer wirft den ersten Stein |  mallorquinischer Karren, 2021, 300 x 120 cm, Courtesy of the Artist and Gagosian, NY. Photo by: Jochen Littkemann

The post Look Beyond Past and Present Through “Springtime”, the New Work of Georg Baselitz at 24th StreetGagosian appeared first on Art of Choice.

Cosmic Aspirations, 2020, Enamel and soot on wood, peacock blade feathers, pheasant wings and tail feathers, machete, Mexican Squirt bottle, nails, screws, metal ball chain, stainless steel wire, 84 x 42 x 44 inches, Courtesy of the Artist

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from originally and when did art first enter your life? 

I was born in East LA, I was schooled in Rialto, CA, and I grew up moving around the Inland Empire. 

Art entered my life through my family first and community second. My dad’s a jack of all trades and master upholsterer; when I was around 5 he started his own upholstery business out of our 2 car garage in San Bernardino, CA, and at a young age I became his apprentice. My dad’s also a Lowrider; he taught me how to work on cars and how to identify classic Chevys. He’d take me to lowrider car shows and cruises – that was my earliest intro to painting and sculpture. Painting in the form of candy paints, pinstripes, abstract shapes that contour the body of the lowrider, metal flake and gilded leafing. Sculpture in the form of customized upholstery, chain steering wheels, kinetic hydraulics, and custom engraving on chrome body parts such as spoke wheels, bumpers, bezels, moldings, ornaments, and accessories. 

My community was filled with murals depicting scenes of ranching, Mexican folklore, and Pre-Colombian and Catholic iconography. Graffiti bombs on freight trains parked on the train yard or on the tracks by my house mesmerized me. The local swap meet was filled with objects made with images of pop and folkloric art; I’d get to see birds, bootleg CD’s designed with fan art, and pretty much any novelty a kid can want. 

Reina de la Noche, 2020, Rooster tail feathers, steer horn, terracota pot, 36 x 40 x 18 inches, Courtesy of the Artist

Does your background influence your current body of work? How? 

I’d say definitely. 

My parents are Mexican immigrants who both moved to the U.S. at a young age. My dad raised me with the understanding that I’m a Xicano, his stories of his early life experience really shaped my interests and have ultimately influenced my practice. 

As an apprentice in my dad’s upholstery shop I was taught how to cut and sew, how to deconstruct a piece of furniture, how to rebuild it, how to upholster it, and how to detail it. I learned how to use hand tools, industrial tools, and how to make use of alternative materials – things that are not commonly used in upholstery – a method known as Mickey Mouse or Rasquache. I developed a sensibility for fabrication, patterning, and color through being exposed to a great amount of different types of furniture, fabric, and material.

Aside from upholstery, my painting has been influenced by lowriding. I use large and fine airbrushes, auto-body tape, fluid paints, and metal flakes in reference to drawing and painting I’ve found on lowriders cruising around my neighborhood. 

Where do you source your materials and how do you choose to use certain fabrics over others? 

I mainly source my materials from my dad’s upholstery shop. The way I tend to choose one material over another is through attraction, mood, and visual purpose. I’m attracted to and so often use materials like leather, velvet, feathers, agave fiber, and others. 

Leather scraps became my main material of choice in grad school. After upholstering a chair, sofa, or car interior with leather, we’d always have scraps; we never felt right throwing these scraps away so we’d put them into a box. Over the years we’d accumulated a large amount of scrap – scraps with all kinds of colors, textures, factory finishes and processes: smooth, pebbled, oil tanned, veg tanned. I’ve always been attracted to leather, it smells and feels good, it’s nice to look at. 

Along with the extensive amount of colors the leather industry produces, the range of the material’s use and customizable qualities, the histories the material is imbedded with (art, industry, and life of animal), the polluter waste that’s a consequence of it’s production (especially if it’s chromium-tanned), my family’s practice of up-cycling, but most importantly the fact that leather is a skin derived of a body and it deserves respect – are all reasons for my choice in using leather. 

Gallo de Pelea, 2020, Leather boxing gloves, pheasant and rooster tail feathers, sisal twine, 52 x 18 x 14 inches, Courtesy of the Artist

Has your work always taken on the style it currently embodies? 

Formally it’s recently taken a new life, but with concepts that have been consistent in my art practice. 

I recently graduated from Yale University School of Art Painting and Printmaking in 2019. After my first semester there I decided to put aside paint (as a focus in medium). I was surrounded by 40-something other painters in that program and was quickly overwhelmed and put off by the conversation around painting and it’s formal qualities. 

That’s when I reached out to my dad and asked him to send me leather scraps from that box he had, and any other material remnants he could spare. He agreed, and with that I made a new and diverse body of work that looked different from anything I’ve done before, but inline with concepts and interests that I had been investigating through paint previously. 

El Gallo Negro, 2020, Leather boxing gloves, ancho chiles, pheasant and rooster tail feathers, sisal twine, 64 x 24 x 18 inches, Courtesy of the Artist

Are there any Art Historical movements or individuals that impact your work? 

Some of the art that’s had a significant influence in my work could be found on the streets and in homes around Los Angeles, CA. 

When I first started painting I was looking at everything and anything I could find in second hand art books from a local bookstore (shout out to Joey, previously at Claremont Forum, for the hook up with books, with help in writing, and my first exhibition). I was looking at: cubism, fauvism, expressionism, abstract expressionism, pop art, minimalism, land art, installation art – at the same time I was cross referencing it with my main influence at the time, the Chicano Art Movement. 

I’ve been interested in the intersection between Mexico’s and USA’s modern and contemporary art movements – like those referenced in Vida Americana at the Whitney. There’s a lot of crossover that doesn’t get covered in art history. I don’t remember learning of any Mexican, Xicano, or Latin American artists in my art history course at CalArts, or in my second hand art books. But there’s Jackson Pollock’s relationship to David Alfaro Siqueiros and his drip gestures, the Albers and their influence from an infatuation with Mexican indigenous art, – Philip Guston, Aaron Douglas, Charles White, Jacob Lawrence, and so on. When I was looking at ab-ex, 60’s pop, or minimalism, it felt familiar somehow, and I think that was part of my attraction to those movements. 

A particularly important moment for me was in the summer of 2017 when I ran into (the Oaxacan master) Francisco Toledo’s wool sculptural paintings at The National Mexican Museum of Art in Pilsen, Chicago. I had just graduated from 

CalArts, and was in Chicago for an interview with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s MFA painting program; when I saw Toledo’s work it tripped me out, mesmerized me, and I couldn’t escape the feeling his work left with me. It left with me a desire to find a formal alternative to painting on canvas. 

Another similar moment was seeing Jack Whitten’s sculptures at the Met Breuer in the fall of 2018. 

Capullo De Mariposa, 2021, Leather, push broom, sandbags, wood, 68 x 48 x 32 inches, Courtesy of the Artist

From where do you find inspiration? 

I find inspiration in a multitude of people, things, images, and happenings. I came across articles in LA and New York Times two summers ago, right before the fire season had started in So Cal, and they had written about prisoner firefighters. Women and men who were on the front lines of these fires all around So Cal, protecting some of the most expensive homes on hills, and as a result some of them would be injured, some lost their lives. As payment, they received less than $1 an hour. It prompted me to start a piece about the fires I grew up seeing every season. 

What is a day in the studio like for you? 

I have a morning ritual – make coffee, put on music, burn something, read/write a bit or draw before getting to larger work. I’m usually working on a composition with leather scraps, sewing scraps together, painting on the suede of the leather, or scarring the factory finish side with a custom tattoo rig. If not that, then I’ll be working on a sculpture, study, or drawing. 

Distorted Myths (Popo y Izta), 2019-21, Urethane on leather, metallic flake, nickel plated upholstery nails, pheasant pelt and tail feathers, peacock blade and bleached tail feathers, wood, 11 x 8.5 feet, Courtesy of the Artist

How do you begin a work, what is that process like? 

It depends on the work. It’s kinda hard to accurately explain how I’m thinking at the start of a work. Sometimes I can just see a work finished before starting it and I’ll try to work towards that vision. Other times I go through a brainstorming process . Sometimes I take certain steps – like if it’s a leather piece I can start with the palette. If I’m working monochromatically I’ll gather a pile of similar colored scraps, and start working out a composition with them on the wall. If I’m already thinking of an idea or particular subject matter at that point, I’ll start gathering up research around what I’m thinking about and print out a few images to tack onto my wall as a scope. Then I’d figure out how to attack it from there – possibly by considering how the work would exist in a space or how it’d be displayed and with what. 

DNA, 2019, Leather, Zepol and vintage Everlast boxing gloves, Mexican national
football team badge and uniform catchphrase (Somos Guerreros), heavy bag mounts and chains, 12 x 12 x 1 feet, Courtesy of the Artist

What do you have coming up for the future? 

I’m currently a studio fellow at NXTHVN, it’s a special place with a focus on community, mentorship, and career development; I’m really excited to be working here until May – shout out to the NXTHVN fam! We’re working on our fellow group show that’ll be exhibited in June at James Cohan Gallery in Tribeca, NYC. Got a couple of other projects cooking that I’ll be announcing soon. 

DNA, 2019, Leather, Zepol and vintage, Everlast boxing gloves, Mexican national football team badge and uniform catchphrase (Somos Guerreros), heavy bag mounts and chains, 12 x 12 x 1 feet, Courtesy of the Artist

At the end of every interview, we like to ask the artist to recommend a friend whose work you love for us to interview next. Who would you suggest? 

Thanks for asking, I’m going to use this question to give a special shout out to my peoples. 

My beautiful wife and the most important artist in my life: 

= Grace Andrea Pérez Arellano = 

Art homies roll call: 

= Scott Lee = 

= Miguel Ayala Jr = 

= Alfredo Diaz = 

= Jose de Jesus Rodriguez = 

= Jose Chavez = 

= Vincent Valdez = 

= Omar Santoyo = 

= Felipe Baeza = 

= Edi Dai = 

= Leslie Martinez = 

= Natalie Ball = 

= Maria De Los Angeles = 

= Coral Saucedo Lomeli = 

= Azza El Siddique = 

= Christal Perez = 

= Vaughn Spann = 

= Rodrigo Lopez = 

= Milan Aguirre = 

= Daniel T. Gaitor-Lomack = 

= Nae Nichol = 

= Emilio Santoyo = 

= Emily Marchand = 

= Kent O’Conner = 

= Willie Stewart = 

= John Drue Scott Worrell = 

= Brian Dario = 

Shoutout to the homies who you’ve already interviewed: 

= Jaime Muñoz = 

= Kenturah Davis = 

= Tajh-Jamal Rust = 

= Dominic Chambers =

= Amaryllis DeJesus Moleski = 

= Genesis Baez = 

Shoutout to my NXTHVN family and cohort: 

= NXTHVN = 

Shoutout to my mentors and advocates: 

= Ama, apa, abuelitos, suegros, hermanas, hermanos, sobrinas, tíos, y primos 

= Harry Gamboa Jr = 

= John Mandel = 

= Charles Gaines = 

= Darcy Huebler = 

= Rob Storr = 

= Miguel Luciano = 

= Titus Kaphar = 

Shoutout to my community, family, homies, and anyone who’s ever contributed to my art practice. Thanks.

The post See Conceptuality Through the Eyes of Esteban Ramón Pérez appeared first on Art of Choice.

Untitled, 2021, 48×34 inches, pastel, rabbit skin glue, acrylic, marble on panel, Courtesy of the Artist

Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from and when did art first enter your life?

I’ve always looked at art. My parents are painters, so I grew up around art and art books, going to museums, spending time in their studios. I remember being horrified by a copy of Saturn of Devouring His Son on the back of a Goya book as a child, that’s probably when art first entered my life. That was in Massachusetts, I moved to New York to go to Cooper Union in 2009 and I’ve lived here since. 

Untitled, 2020, 40×23″, pastel, rabbit skin glue, marble on panel, Courtesy of the Artist

How would you describe the style of your work? Has it always taken on the style it currently embodies?

The way I draw has been fairly consistent for a long time, I feel like I comfortably own my hand now. I think about the way Sigmar Polke completely excised himself from his “touch,” what makes his hand so recognizable is how unrecognizable it is. The rigor is in his refusal of the seductive, the refusal to make a line pleasing or emotive in a way that might have been easier. I feel a lot more responsible for my hand than I used to; it’s mine and my drawings are my own and they came out like this on purpose. Still, I don’t have Polke’s severity or commitment, so that’s something to work on.

Untitled, 2021, 48×34″, pastel, rabbit skin glue, marble on panel, Courtesy of the Artist

What is your process like when you begin a work? 

When I begin an individual work, sometimes I start from nothing, usually I have something to look at. Maybe I see a comic page where everything is black and white lines, except for a figure in the corner who’s been shaded through, and I think, “that’s a nice idea I’m going to rip that off.” I try to take lots of photos, I have a cute little film point and shoot, so maybe I’m looking at some of those prints. I’m definitely a printout person, I like having them on the floor all dirty instead of on my phone or computer or something. 

Untitled, 2020, 40×23″, pastel, rabbit skin glue, marble on panel, Courtesy of the Artist

Walk us through a day in the studio. 

I get in, I drink my coffee and smoke my cigarettes. It takes me a long time to work, I have to look for a long time before I’m ready to do any mark making, so I spend as much time as I can in the studio just hanging around the work doing other things. I don’t have any windows, so it’s easy to lose track of time. I look at my pictures, I scroll through Bridge, I check and recheck Twitter. I print out my screenshots from the last few days and maybe I find something worth drawing.

Untitled, 2021, 48×34″, pastel, rabbit skin glue, acrylic, marble on panel, Courtesy of the Artist

From where do you draw inspiration?  

Other than that, I look at New Yorker cartoons, especially from the first 50 or so years the magazine was around. The economy of comics is so good; how much can you show about a person with a line next to their mouth? How does the caption affect the image? I cut off a bunch of captions once and moved them around, it’s amazing, you literally see the image change before your eyes as its context changes. The earlier cartoonists were masters of that kind of manipulation, people like William Hamilton and Helen Hokinson could create whole narratives outside the image just by tinkering with a facial expression and a turn of phrase. I am trying to bring that kind of extrapolation into my work.

I try to start a lot of things at once, a bunch of surfaces. I work the whole surface at once, building out towards the viewer (as opposed to starting in a corner I guess) and I try to use that same logic on the studio as a whole. Everything should be at about the same level of completion, I finish the batch, I start anew. I build my surfaces, so the cycle of building/priming/working makes sense like this for me. 

2020, 40×23″, pastel, rabbit skin glue, marble on panel

Your work varies in style and medium. Can you walk us through the materials you’ve worked with?

In the past I was using oil paints and brushes, but I think I was always drawing with paint. Now that I’m mostly on pastels, the immediacy that oils always got in the way of feels much more available. Style-wise, I like the bold and the graphic, I like outlines, but I try to be wary of what I like. If I do something crisp and pretty I have to do something shitty and ugly to balance it out. I’m attracted to finished looking, seductive images from cartoons, movies, design, but that’s not what I want to produce. So, to answer your question, maybe the style of my work is bad cartoons, or half finished paintings. The Unfinished show at the Met Breur was really productive for me; I’d never liked a Klimt until I saw the one he walked away halfway through. I don’t know why he didn’t just do that with all of them.

Untitled, 2021, 48×34″, pastel, rabbit skin glue, marble on panel, Courtesy of the Artist

Have you seen your work change at all during this time of COVID?

Quarantine has been a real manga renaissance for me, I haven’t read this many comics since middle school. They’re mostly pretty juvenile, but I like the drawings and I think the last six months have involved a lot of escapism for a lot of people so I don’t feel too guilty. Nobunaga no Chef by Mitsuru Nishimura and Takuro Kajikawa is the best one I’ve read recently.

Untitled, 2020, 40×23″, pastel, rabbit skin glue, marble on panel, Courtesy of the Artist

If you could have a coffee chat with one historical figure, who would it be and why?   

Petronius! But maybe a bottle of wine would be more appropriate? I made a lot of drawings while I was reading Satyricon. It’s sadistic and strange and psychedelic, but what was the biggest trip for me was how familiar it all is. The idea that people, humans, are drastically different than they were 2000 years ago is debunked, they just drink and gossip and lie to one another and themselves much the same way we do now. He seems like a jolly fellow, anyway most of his work is lost to history.

Untitled, 2020, 40×23″, pastel, rabbit skin glue, marble on panel, Courtesy of the Artist

At the end of every interview, we like to ask the artist to recommend a friend whose work you love for us to interview next. Who would you suggest?

Aaron Graham and Lauren Quin!

Untitled, 2020, 40×23″, pastel, rabbit skin glue, marble on panel, Courtesy of the Artist

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