This we know for sure: any exhibition in which Nicolas Party’s name is attached is sure to draw in crowds. The artist himself has skyrocketed in recent years with his elusive yet bold lexicon that captivates and attracts eyes all over the world. While he may be more accustomed to exhibitions consisting solely of his own work, with Nicolas Party: Pastel, the artist wears two hats, as both participating artist and curator. In an unprecedented move, Party combines the work of centuries-old masters with many of his contemporaries working today. Reading the entire artist list might insight some confusion at first for the variety of names and time periods which the artists are a product of: Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757), Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Louis Fratino (b. 1993), Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), Loie Hollowell (b. 1983), Julian Martin (b. 1969), Toyin Ojih Odutola (b. 1985), Chris Ofili (b. 1968), Jean-Baptiste Perronneau (1715-1783), Billy Sullivan (b. 1946), Wayne Thiebaud (b. 1920), and Robin F. Williams (b. 1984). Linking all of the work together is its use of pastel as the medium.

Shara Hughes at Rachel Uffner Gallery

 
In her highly anticipated solo exhibition at Rachel Uffner Gallery, In Lieu of Flowers, Shara Hughes continued her exploration into landscape painting by focusing in on the representation of flowers. The flower as focal point is a deviation from Hughes’ previous works. Typical depictions of flowers generally exude joyous, upbeat feelings. Hughes infuses her floral landscapes with a range of emotion. Her paintings are hauntingly gorgeous, somehow emitting both attraction and anxiety on the same plane. The works feel like they have an energetic pulse, as though they could break free from the physical barriers of which they exist.

The 79th Whitney Biennial

Calvin Marcus  Ghost of Younger Self, 2019
Image courtesy the artist; Clearing, New York and Brussels; and David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles

Operating since 1932, the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Biennial has showcased a collection of artworks reflecting the current state of America at large. No easy feat, the biennial has grappled with such questions as what exactly qualifies as American art? Is it art representing the US population? For the year prior to its opening, the appointed curatorial team traverses the United States, visiting artists in search of the most significant, exhilarating, and relevant work. This year’s result of those efforts, led by co-curators Rujeko Hockley and Jane Panetta, has yielded an exhibition of 75 artists. Diverse in their mediums, interests, demographics, and generations, the included artists together create one of the most groundbreaking groups the biennial has exhibited. Three-quarters of the participants and under the age of 40 and people of color are a majority. Of the 75 artists, only five have previously exhibited in a Whitney Biennial. Some of our favorite artwork in this year’s rendition included work by Janiva Ellis, Marlon Mullen, Jennifer Packer, Jeanette Mundt, and Calvin Marcus among many others.

Jean-Michel Basquiat at The Brant Foundation

In 2019, The Brant Foundation opened a Manhattan outpost with an unforgettable show. Located in what once was Walter De Maria’s East Village studio, the space features multiple floors where its history feels palpable. With these various forces at play, it is only fitting for its inaugural show to feature one of the neighborhood’s most iconic and impactful artists. Curated by Dr. Dieter Buchhart, and organized in collaboration with Fondation Louis Vuitton, the exhibition featured works spanning the artist’s entire oeuvre. Though Basquiat’s work can feel ubiquitous, this particular grouping was a powerful testament to the artist’s impact over the course of his short life.

George Condo at Skarstedt

George Condo’s latest show at Skarstedt proved that the artist has the capacity to continue to stretch and push his practice. Featuring paintings, as well as expansive works on paper, Skarstedt mounted an epic showing of the artist’s undeniable mastery. While all works possessed psychological hints, they varied widely in color palette and figurative elements. Three massive, vibrantly colored paintings, measuring 11 x 10 feet, are awe-inspiring anchors to the show. In addition to galleries of detailed works on paper that have as much punch as his paintings, Condo created a suite of striking black paintings, unlike much of his colorful trademark work.

 
Amy Sherald at Hauser and Wirth

In her debut show with Hauser and Wirth, the heart of the matter…, Amy Sherald produced a series of portraits that reclaim the American Realist tradition. Sherald gained acclaim after producing a widely celebrated portrait of Michelle Obama for the National Portrait Gallery. The captivating body of work documents contemporary black experience, pairing the dark hued skin tones with striking colors making up the clothing and backgrounds surrounding the figures. The small amount of defining detail which Sherald provides is just enough to feel as though you know the essence of her subjects. She paints with a universal understanding of what it is to be a human, a gift for all in modern day.

Matthew Wong at KARMA

In October, KARMA opened the first exhibition of Matthew Wong’s work post-mortem. The exhibition was breathtakingly emotional, perfectly immortalizing the gentle soul of the incredible artist. Previous work by Wong embodied the daylight with hues of yellow, orange, and green predominantly taking over the canvas. In this body of work, Wong moves into the time of day when the sun is escaping the sky, specifically placing these works under the halo of the penumbra or the outer region of a shadow where light crosses over into dark. As specified in the title, Blue fills the gallery walls with works examining the ways in which this color can evoke various scenes, feelings, and human experiences. All of Wong’s work have evoked a certain level of melancholy and sadness but this latest showing does so with a new understanding of the artist behind the work.

The post The Best Exhibitions of 2019 appeared first on Art of Choice.

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

I grew up on the beach in Southern California. By the time I was 21 and writing songs and fronting a band I had already begun to erase the California from me. When I moved to New York at 23 I didn’t want anyone to know where I was from, how old I was, what ethnicity I was, nothing. I didn’t really grow up with traditions. My family seemed to be living month-to-month. As a kid I felt like I had come from nowhere. New York at the time still provided the opportunity to be from nowhere. The first piece of art I remember seeing in my life was David Hockney’s Mulholland Drive. I was maybe 13. I had a sort of wealthy aunt who was a docent at LACMA. My dad and I went to visit her one day. She was telling us what it all meant and how he did it and I stood there thinking Wow, that doesn’t look like Mulholland Drive at all. I pretty much hated visual art and poetry until I was 23. I was an angry teenager well into my twenties. Then I saw Annika Larsson’s “New Gravity” and everything changed.
 
 

Your work feels very dynamic while not overcomplicating what’s happening the canvas. How do you find this balance?

I started working at a record store when I was 17. Standing behind the counter we had many, many analytical discussions about music and songs and cover art and historical context. A lot of those conversations stayed with me and really shaped my perspective on things. Conversations about how good producers create space for the vocals and how music always sounds better on speakers than earphones because it needs space to breathe. I began working at a recording studio around the same time. I was getting variations of the same lessons. Everything seemed to be about space. Controlled space. Soundproof space. The space between the microphone and the instrument. Space to vibrate. The space between the attack and the decay. All those conversations influenced the way I would play drums, write songs, write words, how I would operate in the classroom. I hate clutter. I need clarity. That was always the goal when I was teaching English. It later became the goal when I was painting. It wasn’t a conscious decision but when I look at the work I make now I see those music conversations I had as a teenager. I have some crossed wires in my brain. I listen to my paintings more than I see them.
 
 

What art movements most inspire your work?

The movements that have influenced the work aren’t all having to do with visual aesthetics. I think 1970’s punk and 19th Century Impressionism both carry equal weight. I’m drawn to the immediacy of things. That’s more out of biological or neurological necessity. I’m hesitant to say the things I’m drawn to I’m drawn to by choice. The inside of my brain already looks like a Pollock or de Kooning and my classroom chalkboards were too close to a Twombly for me to care about doing something like that on canvas. Otherwise I might say Ab Ex was the most influential for me. It’s less about making what I feel and more about what I need to see. New York No Wave really changed the way I think about a lot of principles.
 
 

 
Your work makes use of a reoccurring color palette. How did you land on the colors your canvas’s typically feature?

I was making these medium sized paintings that were absolutely loaded with paint and I was driving myself crazy trying to decide which colors to put where. For a while I would spend about an hour a day at the art supply store just staring at colors and buying tons of different blacks and whites and greens and oranges and pinks and purples and nothing really seemed right. When I went back to the Art Students League a couple years ago I went looking for color answers. I found them with an instructor who encouraged me to return to charcoal and focus on abstraction technique and mark-making while practicing the color mixing techniques I learned 13 years ago. Since then I’ve been mixing all of my colors from warm and cool primary colors. I found a certain harmony that resonates with something inside. Again, these are shared musical terms. I like the sound of a snare drum bleeding into a vocal mic. I love a little bit of red in there when I’m mixing a green. It keeps everything in the same room.
 
 

 
What keeps you inspired?

Inspiration again sort of comes from neurological necessity more than creating for creation’s sake. I need new things to look at. I need new things to hear. I need to be surprised by things and I need to be surprised by myself. Coming out of the world of academia and English Literature and creative writing I was exhausted by stories and personal narrative and symbolism. This was a time when I felt my own story was too sad, too hopeless for anyone to give a damn. I decided to try to make work that was only self-referential. I wanted to make paintings that seemed to come from nowhere but had been here all along. There’s also that human need to communicate. Sometimes the thing that’s being communicated is too dark for words or symbols. The paintings are sometimes just a signal that the light inside is still on.
 
 

How do you know when a work is complete?

The paintings I’m doing now don’t leave a lot of room for correction or undoing. I like walking them up to the edge of the cliff. At that point one more step is merely hubris. I walk right off the cliff pretty often. Those canvases get shredded. Years ago I had a design teacher who would make us cut perfect squares out of the center of rectangular sheets of paper using only a ruler and scissors. When we asked if it was correct he would ask, “Does it pop?” If it did, you would know. You could move on. If you weren’t sure, you’d know, and you’d have to start over. That’s a pretty good gauge. Sometimes it’s like an orgasm. If you’re not sure you’ve had one, you haven’t.
 
 

What’s next for you?

In January I’ll be in a group show at Ruttkowski 68 in Paris. The show is curated by Jenny Brosinski and features artists from NYC and Berlin. I’m happy to represent NYC alongside Cristina De Miguel and Robert Nava. After that I plan to do a short residency in London with The Dot Project. Those details are still forthcoming. I’ve also been conceptualizing some installation and film ideas I’m pretty excited to execute.

What artist do you recommend we interview next?

Richie Culver in the UK is doing some stuff that seems to be making some folks pretty angry. I like that people still get upset by paint on canvas. Maybe Robert Nava for the same reason. I don’t know. There’s too many to mention.

The post David Matthew King Embraces Space appeared first on Art of Choice.

What kind of stories does your work aim to tell?

My work focuses on the inquiries into the human condition of untold stories of peoples, beings, bodies and objects. I think often about self-made mythologies and how I can interrogate and investigate past untold histories, traumas, liberations and experiences.

Your work often repeatedly employs a vessel motif. When did this aspect first enter into your practice and what is its significance?

I’ve been paintings vessels such as tea cups, tea pots, vases and historical artifacts for approximately 10 years now. My initial inclination to paint them was purely instinctual and perhaps was a way for me to grasp at my own family history. The objects were initially painted as unconscious ideations simply placed into the picture plane to either fill space or to somehow give the figures meaning. Over time, they’ve become much more significant in my practice and have developed into protagonists of my work.

Functional vessels have a domestic usage or have domestic connotations to where they belong. Depending on the object you can place a time and location to where they are made. My initial interest has centered around the idea of an untold history or narrative of these objects. Signifiers of a vessel and antique objects from Asia on most part are considered ethereal, mystique, an object of value and at the same time kitsch, a hack eyed trope. The dualities of object and personhood mirror the experience of the Asiatic women who historically have been spectacularized, fetishized, disregarded, sold and abused.

What’s a day in your studio like?

I have a live / work space and there is no commute necessary at the moment which is perfect for the impending winter season. However, that leaves me with very little separation between home life and studio life. I’m usually up at around 9:30-10am, meander for an hour and spend way too long on emails and social media aimlessly scrolling (a habit I’m working on changing). I have my coffee, walk the dog and begin reading, sketching or painting by around noon/1pm. I work until 10pm/midnight with several breaks throughout the day.

What other artists most inspire you?

It’s hard to choose but I’m currently looking at Honoré Desmond Sharrer, Dorothea Tanning, René Magritte, Yayoi Kusama, Kara Walker, Ruth Asawa, Olafur Eliasson and SanYu.

Do you look at any source material when thinking of what scenes to construct?

Yes, my source material comes from photos I take on my phone, images of objects on antique auction sites, images from Ebay and pictures of artifacts from museums.

Can you tell us a little about your standout solo exhibitions this past year at Ross+Kramer Gallery (NYC) and Taymour Grahne (London)?

In both exhibitions the overarching ideas I was working through were: what makes a person, a person and what makes a thing, a thing? Questions that examine the subject-object relationship, where a subject is characterized as an observer and an object as a thing observed.

“Wash Your Corners”, the works exhibited by Ross+Kramer Gallery was created over a year-long period. I painted 10 paintings, made some sculptural work and I teamed up with a curator, Ché Morales to create the flow of the exhibition as well as an installation.

 
The focus behind this body of work was first conceived when I went to several bathhouses in Asia. Upon returning home, I was determined to find a similar experience and luckily there are some incredible Korean bathhouses in New York. I liked the idea of these accessible communal spaces where people and families will stay the entire day to interact with each other, with food, with gem stone rooms, lounging in uniform and lounging in the nude all the while you are in a place surrounded by plants, vases, sculptures, old lazy boy sofas, board games and traditional Korean spa furniture. It’s familiar and otherworldly at the same time to feel completely isolated and still within a metropolitan city like New York. This feeling is what I was grasping for in my painting, the exhibition space, as well as the installation.

The European Art History cannon has only depicted bathhouses in “the east” as a place where harem women, fantasy, corruption and deceit can flourish. These paintings were a form of othering an entire group people and objects as many of these images were painted with seemingly detailed accuracy and was brought back to places like France and England. The body of work in “Wash Your Corners”, was created in thinking about these inaccuracies and to give a new narrative or to highlight these inaccuracies.

The Taymour Grahne exhibition, “Looking Backward, Moving Forward”, was a continuation into the exploration of these objects. I was less focused on these interior bathhouse spaces, rather focused on objects that would inhabit an interior space. The vessels in this body of work have become more animated and are growing limbs and body parts.

What’s next for you?

I have a solo show at Nicodim Gallery in Spring of 2020, a group show with Jeffrey Deitch + Nicodim Gallery joint curatorial exhibition and several art fairs.

What artist do you recommend we interview next?

Katherina Olschbaur

The post Dominique Fung’s Paintings Modernize Tradition appeared first on Art of Choice.

Your works feel very much in line with classical painting styles yet depict modern subject matter that feels very timely. Can you discuss this juxtaposition that your work achieves?

The juxtaposition isn’t premeditated. I copied seventeenth and eighteenth-century old masters for years to learn to paint like Rubens, Van Dyck, Bernardo Strozzi, Antoine Watteau among others. But it was never enough and I realized I could spend my whole life doing that! And I got tired of my academic training and pushed myself out of my practice. A lot of that old learning followed me as I dabbled in new ways of painting. My work became totally imaginary, more subjective and somewhat autobiographical. Because they were imaginary the compositions contained only things I knew about and liked to paint and everything else was filtered out.

I like bringing together the freedoms of today to disrupt the old attitudes toward gender and race entrenched in the history of European painting.

When did you first become interested in art?

I started drawing when I was five or six. I drew what I thought of as beautiful women with long hair, often blowing in the wind. I also drew imaginary characters and gave them little voices.

I had grown up among cheap prints in my grandmother’s home of famous European paintings, particularly Paul de Vos’s Stag Hunt and Gainsborough’s Honourable Mrs Graham and The Blue Boy. In retrospect it’s funny because as in most middle class households in Lahore there were lots of little porcelains and prints of white people being genteel with teacups and roses, etc. Seventeen years later I found myself in Art History 101 class at a liberal arts college in the American Midwest, thrilled to be learning more about the complicated context of these images alongside alternative view of images from my own culture.

It’s always interesting to see what a you, and your culture look like from far away.

What overlying themes does your work examine?

I’m lucky because I think of my work as playtime so the themes are not heavily premeditated. Fashion, effeminacy, the anxieties and comedy of an identity oscillating between Queer Boy and Brown Man are interesting to me.

Are the figures in your works based on real people?

 
They’re made up. There are no photos or models. But when I paint I am recalling feelings and memories of particular people. Sometimes the composition decides what the figures look like. The choices that create these are aesthetic and emotional.

What is a day in your studio like? Do you work on one piece or many at once?

One piece. Never multiple paintings!

Within a minute of walking into studio I decide if I like what I did the previous day. And that pretty much dictates what I do that day.

I work constantly until 6 – 7pm. I bring lunch with me in the morning so I don’t have to break the trance.

Size has played a large role in your work – you have kept your panels pretty small until recently. What has working on a bigger scale brought up for you?

 
It took me a while to figure out that for large work I need bigger brushes, a lot more paint, and of working with my elbow rather than my wrist. Huge difference!

How does your Pakistani upbringing influence your work?

I feel a thrill in bringing together paintings based on memories of growing up in a conservative middle class home in Pakistan with paintings of the freedoms we enjoy in a city like NYC. I hope to make these seemingly incongruous parts into one story, creating a dialog between cultures, and enriching my adoptive culture of the United States.

What’s next for you?

I have a museum show coming up at the Whitney in March 2020, but I’m gallery-less as yet! Getting gallery after the March show is what’s next for me.

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?

 
Doron Langberg! Love his work. Check it out.

The post Salman Toor Disrupts Old Attitudes of Gender and Race appeared first on Art of Choice.

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

Originally from Sydney, Australia, and now based in Los Angeles. Luckily, art has always been in the background as a significant personal force connected to skateboarding, friends making art, traveling, and contributing to the fine arts during my early years as a designer. That gave me the confidence to pursue art making full-time.
 

 

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

Physical space has always been one of my favorite pursuits. What happens when you attend an exhibition at a gallery or museum? Is the exhibit space transformative? Experiential? Can you describe the experience as radical or unexpected? For me, the canvas has not been nearly enough, and I have often felt the “canvas” needed to transform itself into a sculptural object featuring dimensional components playing outside traditional conventions. Maybe, even upgrading my contemporary beliefs…? I work hard at this every day, and continually streamline and simplify how I make objects. Over the years, my process features daily experimentations of color, form, method, and concept. I guess this is why these pieces have always taken so much longer to create from start to finish. It seems like an oxymoronic take, Right?
 

 

Your work takes on various mediums. Is it important for you to consistently change up what it is your working on? How does your range of medium influence one another?

My work presents an illusion. Ambiguous human forms become mixed up in a stack of everyday objects made out of cast-aluminum.
 
The medium is a major participant and shares a complementary relationship with iconic human forms, colors, and chromed objects. Each finished aluminum sculpture is a harmonious stacking of disturbances, problems, and provocative questions about life and beyond. Each sculpture is an invitation for the viewer to participate in the physical, travel around the object, and add to the ongoing narrative or ask more questions. The more outrageous, the better, haha…
 

 

What’s a day in the studio like for you?

I like to get going pretty early in the morning. Travel to my studio in the heart of the industrial soul of Los Angeles, and get to it. Most days are spent musclin’ with multiple objects needed for each sculpture. This year has been spent relocating studios, installing industrial equipment, and evolving new sculptural configurations, aka stacks.
 

 

What other artists working today most inspire you?

Great question. There’s a lot of inspiration all around Los Angeles, and just walking in and around the studio. It’s incredible how years in the game things start to stack up in there. There are bins and boxes of leftover pieces, abandoned objects, and raw material pile-ups, figurative forms. There are times, I pick something up out of these bins and see something new, head home and work it out. In relationship to artists that inspire me, Austrian artist Franz West, and the way he builds unconventional forms. Erwin Wurm is another great artist who creates and performs one-minute, illogical compositions that are both humorous and bold. With both of these artists, I admire how they create work with the intent of unexpectedly interacting with their audience.

What’s next for you?

Currently, working on art fairs and a new solo exhibition in 2020. My gallery, Over the Influence, and I are working on a new monograph, “Ramble Ramble,” that features 112 pages or so of the collection presented earlier in the year with the same name. For me, its all about creating and staying focussed to see where everything goes.
 

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?

Adam Beris

The post Mark Whalen Makes Light of the Human Experience appeared first on Art of Choice.

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

I am originally from Bogota, Colombia. As a kid, I always loved to draw; when I grew older, drawing became something that calmed me, allowing me to understand and participate in the world. I moved to New York City to attend art school, which expanded my technical skills and gave me the opportunity to produce art professionally. The ability to work as an artist means everything to me.

Your works are vibrant and detailed. Can you unpack what is going on on your surfaces?

To render the utopias I envision, I source materials from many different places and craft traditions. I use paper produced almost exclusively in countries of the global south: Nepal, India, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Mexico, and Brazil. I gravitate toward papers that evoke natural motifs such as the sky and sea. For each collage, I weave all of these diverse materials together into one coherent piece. The work is thus informed by every bit of material layered in it, and by every place the material hails from. This fusion of sites inheres both in the form of my works and their meaning. The result is a visually seductive piece that transports the viewer and leaves her wondering what else could be dreamed into existence.

From where do you draw inspiration?

I take inspiration from South American folklore, mythology, religion, and ecology. I incorporate an eclectic range of symbols and rituals into my scenes to imbue the figures with hope and power during times of upheaval.

My practice is deeply influenced by magical realism; some of my favorite authors are Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, and Pablo Neruda. In the field of visual arts, I am inspired by the work of Rina Banerjee, Louise Bourgeois, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Ebony Patterson, Grayson Perry, and Kiki Smith. The works of Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varos deeply resonance with my thinking. Carrington’s depictions of women in dialogue with animals tap into mythology and psychology to render an imaginary world in which all beings live in perfect harmony. Varos, in turn, deals with the interconnectedness of the universe, demonstrating a fluid boundary between person and thing, human and animal.

Are the figures in your works based on real people?

The women who inhabit my paintings embody an ideal femininity. The ghostly pallor of their skin suggests an otherworldliness; they appear to be more spirit than flesh. These are the women I want to be: strong, vulnerable, compassionate, courageous, and in harmony with themselves and nature. They combine aspects of women who are typically thought of as powerful—captains of industry, resolute politicians, fiery activists—with the traits of those who are not usually thought of as such, underlining a common force that all women inhabit. I aim to ennoble womanhood by creating work that uncovers the beauty in every action, big or small.

What’s a day in the studio like for you?

I work everyday from 9 to 5 and sometimes late into the evening. During tight deadlines, I often work on the weekends as well. A day in the studio is often some mixture of fun, challenging, exhausting, weird, surprising, intimidating. I love that I get to create work everyday.

What’s next for you?

I have many amazing things coming up! I will be having a solo show in London in 2020, followed by my first solo museum exhibitions in Shanghai in 2020 and in the United States in 2021.

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?

I would suggest Ebony Patterson, an artist I deeply admire and a friend I love dearly.

The post Maria Berrio’s Collages are Grounded in Magical Realism appeared first on Art of Choice.

 
This we know for sure: any exhibition in which Nicolas Party’s name is attached is sure to draw in crowds. The artist himself has skyrocketed in recent years with his elusive yet bold lexicon that captivates and attracts eyes all over the world.
 

Nicolas Party
Portrait with Pink Bows, 2019
Soft pastel on linen

 
While he may be more accustomed to exhibitions consisting solely of his own work, with Nicolas Party: Pastel, the artist wears two hats, as both participating artist and curator.
 

Nicolas Party: Pastel
Installation view

 
Anchoring the exhibition are four, Rococo-inspired murals which don the different rooms of the gallery in an exuberant, jaw-dropping manner similar to a stage built for a high-value production. Walking through the exhibition from multi-color room to multi-color room becomes an experience in and of itself.
 

Nicolas Party: Pastel
Installation view

 
In an unprecedented move, Party combines the work of centuries-old masters with many of his contemporaries working today. Reading the entire artist list might insight some confusion at first for the variety of names and time periods which the artists are a product of: Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757), Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Louis Fratino (b. 1993), Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), Loie Hollowell (b. 1983), Julian Martin (b. 1969), Toyin Ojih Odutola (b. 1985), Chris Ofili (b. 1968), Jean-Baptiste Perronneau (1715-1783), Billy Sullivan (b. 1946), Wayne Thiebaud (b. 1920), and Robin F. Williams (b. 1984).
 

Robin F. Williams
Alive with Pleasure (Study), 2018
Pastel on paper

Linking all of the work together is its use of pastel as the medium. The history of pastel proves an interesting tale. Coming up in eighteenth-century France, the pastel had a brief golden age but ultimately proved unsustainable for its fragility.

L-R
Robin F. Williams
Vaping in the Rain (Study), 2019
Pastel on paper

Nicolas Party
Landscape, 2017
Soft pastel on paper

The centerpiece of the exhibition is a portrait by venetian-born artist Rosalba Carriera. Unveiled as soon as the elevator doors open, Carriera’s work (also the impetus for Party organizing the entire show) is significant perhaps less for its subject matter than for the artist’s part in popularizing the use of pastel. The female artist is credited for binding the powders of pastel into uniform sticks, making their use in fine art much more feasible. Beyond this, with her success in producing small-scale pastel portraiture, which extended to Venetian nobility and European aristocracy, Carriera would become one of the first female artists to achieve international acclaim and independent financial success prior to 1800.

L-R
Toyin Ojih Odutola
Hide Out, 2018
Pastel, charcoal, and pencil on paper

Mary Cassatt
Mrs. Alexander J. Cassatt in Blue Evening Gown Seated at a Tapestry Frame, n.d.
Pastel on paper

Unlike other mediums, the pastel seems to convey a certain lifelike quality in its subjects, with a luminous and vibrant effect. With the impressive artworks on view throughout the exhibition, we see this quality play out in a myriad of ways. Works from contemporary favorites, such as Louis Fratino, Loie Hollowell, Toyin Oijh Odutola, and Robin F. Williams, to name a few, help to frame the exhibition in present time, while maintaining a link to the in-depth history from which all of the work has been forged.

Nicolas Party: Pastel is on view at The FLAG Art foundation through February 15, 2020.

The post Nicolas Party and Others Pay Tribute to Pastel at The FLAG Art Foundation appeared first on Art of Choice.

Photo by Wyn Herrick

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

I was born in Houston, Texas. I lived in the sticks on the outskirts of Austin until I was about 10, when I moved to Colorado to live with my dad. I consider myself from Colorado. I’ve always drawn, and was encouraged to do so constantly by my parents, who are both artists. I’d get in trouble for drawing ‘’inappropriate’’ cartoons or unflattering portraits of faculty in school and my dad would come in and defend my “burgeoning practice”. I was really lucky to have that kind of unwavering support, but needless to say, between incessant drawing and ditching school to go skateboarding, I did horribly academically. When I got out of high school I didn’t have any kind of hope for college, so my Dad just suggested I “start painting seriously and move to New York’’ which is a crazy green light to get from a a parent, but I took his advice.
 

Infidel, installation view
Courtesy of Postmasters Gallery and the artist

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

I’ve always tried to move through different visual languages and never let anything stick to the plan. I’ve never understood how someone could consistently make work in just one overarching “style” without becoming unbearably bored. It seems limiting and redundant. I try to denounce “style” and replace it with content. To create a practice where I can paint however, or whatever I want. It’s taken me a long time to develop that practice, but by inviting in that constant change I’d like to think that it keeps the work engaged, searching, and hungry.
 

Self Portrait As The Problem And The Solution, 2019
Courtesy of Postmasters Gallery and the artist

Is there a unifying messaging surrounding your work?

Ha. Yes. Through all the cynical symbolism, knee jerk violence and goofy nudity there’s some kind of message. Maybe the message is that the worlds fucked, and has been fucked, but only through acknowledgement of said fucked-ness can we start to unfuck it.
 

Guys Only Want One Thing, 2019
Courtesy of Postmasters Gallery and the artist

What’s a day in the studio like for you?

I keep pretty consistent hours in studio. I’m usually there from about 10 to 10. Not much happens for the first couple of hours typically, usually just pace around drinking coffee and killing time trying to figure out how I’m ever going to start working that day. I play ball with my dog or bother my downstairs studio neighbor (Austyn Wiener). It’s hard for me to get into the headspace to paint, but I show up, I put myself in front of whatever self created problem I have to solve and eventually I find a way in and start working. Once I’m in it I’m very systematic, and work through the days checklist, building up these micro motifs into a full painting; Paint green vomiting figures hair, Second pass with highlights on walking whoopie cushion, make Jesus look more menacing and so on. It’s all very silly and incredibly important at the same time.
 

Infidel, installation view
Courtesy of Postmasters Gallery and the artist

What other artists working today most inspire you?

This could all change tomorrow but…..Albert Oehlen, Nicole Eisenman, Jon Rafman, Tala Madani, Cheyenne Julien, Mario Ayala, Pat Philips, Van Hanos, Janiva Ellis,…the guys dead but I’m really into Michel Majeras at the moment.
 

Can you talk to us about your current solo show, Infidel, on view at Postmasters Gallery in New York?

Infidel was a massive undertaking, the largest show I’ve done so far. I wanted to make paintings that took the temperature of our contemporary climate in real time, and deliver the diagnosis in a palatable, humorous way. There are a handful of themes that tie the work together, but most importantly they deal with the fragility of the mind in the age of connectivity. What people find when they go looking for validating “truth” on the internet. The conspiracies, the bad faith mob mentality, and all the other trash that can take hold of a disassociated, vulnerable mind looking for “answers”.
 

Can’t Put Cats Back Into Bags, 2019
Courtesy of Postmasters Gallery and the artist

What’s next for you?

Looks like a couple art fairs, curating this show in Beirut, figuring out this two person show in Greece, there’s a lot of stuff in up in the air. I’m really interested in doing a cartoon series, trying to make time to figure that out.
 

A poem written by Castator in conjunction with his exhibition Infidel

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?

Mario Ayala, he’s an unbelievable artist and technician who is about to open a solo show at Marlborough Chelsea that I’m really looking forward to seeing in person.

The post Canyon Castator Traverses the Fragility of the Modern Mind appeared first on Art of Choice.

More so than any other color, blue has an ability to induce nostalgia, calling to mind memories that are universal and personal to each individual.
 

 
Flânerie, or the act of strolling, plays a key role in the works of Blue. The various subject matter across Karma’s two gallery spaces are semi-fictional, taken from Wong’s own life and specifically, from experiences while traveling in Sicily, Italy during the fall of 2018 and winter of 2019 alongside his mother.
 

 
A regular occurrence in Wong’s vast landscapes or intimate interiors is a sole figure, a distinct characteristic noticeably absent in this body of work. Wong continues examining both exterior and interior spaces, showing the intimacies and intricacies that are shared between the two realms.
 

 
Wong called Edmonton, Canada home in recent years. Knowing this, one can imagine these landscapes as close to the reality of the physical world he inhabited. This is the first exhibition of Matthew Wong’s work post-mortem and one that immortalizes the gentle soul of the incredible artist.
 
Blue will be on view at Karma through January 5, 2020.

The post Matthew Wong Harnesses Profound Emotion at Karma appeared first on Art of Choice.

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

I spent my early childhood and teen years in Prince Georges County Maryland. My mom and dad are from New York, so I like to think that I’m a suburban girl with traces of city sensibilities. My mom had benefitted from a specialized high school arts education, having graduated from the High School of Art and Design(Manhattan) in 1974. When our family migrated to Maryland she sought out educational models that focused on artistic development for my sister and I. There was one public school for creative and performing arts in the area, so when I was old enough to start kindergarten at 4 years old, I went. Even before kindergarten, I remember my mother drawing with me, giving me lots of books with illustrations, and showing me how to trace over images that I liked and color them in with her prismacolor markers.

From where do you draw inspiration for your works?

Most of the inspiration for my works comes from looking at photographs of my immediate family that span over 40 years. I’m really interested in sharing histories through a personal lens rather than reinforcing “textbook histories” that generalize and skip over the specifics of everyday life. I often sift through my family photos, and consider the larger climate of the world in those moments. The photos have the ability to directly capture a specific moment as it relates to my family and indirectly reference the a world condition that surrounded it’s making. I’ll draw inspiration from reflecting on stories I’ve heard directly from the mouths of my mom, dad and sister, and sometimes these stories will merge with a text I’ve recently read, a song I’m thinking about, or another piece of artwork that has had an impact on me.

Are the figures in your works based on real people?

The figures in my work are based on real people. They are all drawn from photographic representations of mostly my mother, father, and sister. There are some people I have used as subjects of work that don’t directly fit into my family bloodline, but have spent a lot of time with and around my family as a unit.

What’s a day in the studio like for you?

There isn’t really a typical day in the studio for me. Most days I’ll head to the studio after class. A lot of my classes end at 10pm so I find myself working at night until the building closes at 2am. Time is kind of precious so I’ll usually pull up my reference image and get straight to work on drawing. Sometimes I’ll be really invested in drawing for several hours or however long it takes to get a face rendered just right. Sometimes the urge to screen-print strikes me very intensely and I’ll run to the print shop across the street to ink up my screen and collage elements of print in work. Sometimes I’ll invite peers and professors in and have discussions about what works and what doesn’t. I also use studio time to listen to a lot of artist talks (I’m currently obsessed with Ja’Tovia Gary and Arthur Jafa in conversation at SAAM in Washington D.C) I guess one thing is always certain, somehow there will be charcoal and pastel dust on my hands, face and clothes before I leave.

What other artists working today most inspire you?

In no particular order: Kevin Beasley, Daniel Diasgranados, Gerald Lovell, Jennie C. Jones, Ja’Tovia Gary, Kenturah Davis, Caityln Cherry, Kerry James Marshall, Tschabalala Self, Sam Vernon, Jeff Sonhouse, Arthur Jafa, Leslie Hewitt, Will Villalongo, Jennifer Packer, Jordan Casteel, Greg Brada, Lynette Yaidom Boakye, Njedeka Akunyili Crosby, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Deana Lawson, Lorna Simpson, Mickalene Thomas, Kehinde Wiley, Genevieve Gaignard, Robert Pruitt, Meleko Mokgosi, Henry Taylor, Eric N. Mack, Adrian Piper, Kara Walker, Titus Kaphar, Amy Sherald, Liz Johnson Artur, Tajh Rust, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Yinka Shonibare. I’m sure I’m missing dozens more.

When we met, we discussed how I came across your work on Instagram. How do you feel about Instagram’s current role in the art world?

I think Instagram is deeply tethered to the art world right now and it gives me mixed feelings. It feels like there has been a much-needed democratization of accessibility. The possibility of encountering new work and artists feels endless, and just as easily as the artwork is seen it can be shared. However, I’m skeptical about this ease of access and the effects of Instagram on collective mental health, which doesn’t have much to do with the art world directly but feels kind of linked. Additionally, the art world notoriously has many gatekeepers and I think Instagram can be a space where those privileged positions can be publicly challenged. Ultimately, Instagram has the potential to a good tool for artists and the art world but there are problems of the larger internet culture and larger art-world culture that need to be address first before I can maintain a position of their connection.

What’s next for you?

In 2021 I’m scheduled to graduate (maybe I’ll feel motivated to change my Instagram name) and I’ll have my BFA from the Cooper Union. It’s going to be really nice to not have to go to class 4 days out of the week. In the nearer future though I’ll be curating an exhibition and showing work in February 2020 at Cooper Union in the annual Black Student Union exhibition, which is also super exciting. The opportunity to travel has also come up because I’ve been nominated to study abroad for the Spring 2020 semester. So yea, just general movement forward and making a lot of art.

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?

Appropriately enough Eden Seifu (@edenbseifu) is an artist I encountered on Instagram. I think her work is elegant and imaginative and rich with historical metaphor. I would love to hear her talk more about the work and process.

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