Have you met…Jen Hitchings?

Jen Hitchings,
Threesome,
Oil on Canvas

An introduction can be a wonderful thing. You can meet interesting people, and make new friends. You can be introduced to your new favorite foods, books, music, or artist. I’d like to introduce you to some of my favorite artists. Some of whom I’ve been familiar with for years, and others I’ve only recently been introduced to. The person I’d like to introduce is the artist Jen Hitchings

All Hail Tequila 2012 oil on panel 16×20 inches

Estatic Parties 2011-2013 oil on panel 12×16 inches

BIO
Jen Hitchings is a painter, independent curator, and community organizer in the arts. She received her BFA in Painting and Drawing from SUNY Purchase in 2011. She began curating exhibitions in Bushwick, Brooklyn in 2011 and founded WEEKNIGHTS gallery in her studio at The Active Space in July of 2012. WEEKNIGHTS transitioned into Associated in March of 2013, when Theresa Daddezio, Julian Jimarez-Howard (also of OUTLET Fine Art) and Hitchings joined forces as a curatorial team. She currently works for Pierogi gallery in Williamsburg and has volunteered for organizations such as Independent Curators International and Arts in Bushwick.

Red Headed Slut 2013 oil on linen 42×60 inches

STATEMENT
“I look to candid photographs of friends and family, lovers and loathers, suburban drunks and urban delinquents, in an attempt to visualize intangible relationships and fleeting emotions. Tainted and lubricated by alcohol, drugs, false hopes and desires, the characters I depict are ones we all know, hate, and love. Amongst the impermanence and elasticity that composes relationships between one person and the next, time, nostalgia, mortality, and the function of photography are also constant considerations in my work. Within photographs of situations, places, and people, exist spider-webs of relations. Some scenes are depicted accurately from a photographic source, and others are reconstructed from unrelated images, composing a new and imagined situation. The language evoked by hand gestures or posture is sometimes emphasized or contradicted by verbal language that appears in text form. The haphazardness and mistakes that are inherent in the act of painting when pouring or splattering, juxtaposed with the control of illustrative mark-making and figurative representation, push-and-pull each other much in the way that people tend to handle what it means to be human, whether by making conscious decisions, mistakes, or altering their perception of reality in order to deny or ignore the banality of it.” JH

Cake (pre- orgy) 2014 oil on canvas 17×37 inches

Other material relating to Jen Hitchings.

Artist website: jenhitchings.com

Studio Critical: Jen Hitchings

Artsicle: Jen Hitchings

Arts In Bushwick: Jen Hitchings

Gorky’s Granddaughter: Jen Hitchings

Proto Gallery: Prompt Five Artists.  Saturday, July 12, 2014 to Sunday, July 27, 2014

Jen Hitchings, Jessica Bottalico, Legada,  JJ Miyaoka-Pakola, Shawn Powell

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Have you met…Eliot Markell?

Spin Cycle
Salvaged beach rope, tissue paper, gauze mesh. 36″x42″x2″ Installation for Best Case Scenario, Brooklyn Fire Proof, 2014

An introduction can be a wonderful thing. You can meet interesting people, and make new friends. You can be introduced to your new favorite foods, books, music, or artist. I’d like to introduce you to some of my favorite artists. Some of whom I’ve been familiar with for years, and others I’ve only recently been introduced to. The person I’d like to introduce is the artist Eliot Markell.

Whirligig
2014, oil paint, tissue paper, beeswax, on extruded plaster, lobster trap brackets, and salvaged beach rope.

ART EDUCATION:

1979-80 Empire State College, SUNY., BPS. fine arts.

1973-74 Gandy Brodie School of Fine Arts, Newfane, VT.

1971-73 Mark Hopkins College, Brattleboro, VT.

Red Grid
2014, oil paint and beeswax on extruded plaster, with driftwood frame. 11″x8.5″

Artist Statement

“What differentiates painting and sculpture from décor, and how is it decided which takes precedence?Perhaps that distracting dichotomy lies in the nature of visual cognition; what you see is what you get, or if I may be so presumptuous; at least what the salon provides for perceptual priorities.You are what you’re used to eating.More adventurous artistic endeavors may seem anathema to the essentially ornamental purpose of pampered decoration meant to embellish an otherwise dreary environment.But then again unencumbered mark making was good enough for the cavemen at Lascaux. (talk about site specific!)

That the purely pretty alone should suffice for art collecting in the modern cave does not add up in my mind. Like the cavemen, I make art that might not be matchy matchy with the sofa, but will wreak its own elegantly iconoclastic version of interior design.

I hope this doesn’t sound like unmitigated hubris or egotistical posturing. I’m just going on my own sense of historical precedence. My work has always been about my own limitations.

I’ve never been a virtuoso; just a grind-it-out, seat-of-my-pants kind of artist. I prefer the hands-on ethic of vigorous, yet nuanced craft that proposes an interpretative aesthetic.

With my work, what you see depends on how thoroughly you look. Recognition of merit in the unfamiliar requires patience and perseverance.

I’ve built my oeuvre based on decades of cumulative momentum. The more I’ve stuck with it the more accomplished I’ve become at enveloping my art in a substantive mixture embodying textured layers of sensuous psyche and physical pulsation.

Chroma and atmosphere saturate my painting, imbuing compositions with an expansive spatial perspective. Loose pigment is coupled with tightly drafted, curvilinear edifices lending a formal element to the picture plane.

This painterly philosophy encompasses my neo representational “Mainescape” plein air works on paper to rough-hewn “Beach Rope” sculptures who’s principle ingredients are salvaged lobstering gear and driftwood from the shores of downeast Maine.

These multi-hued tangles of knotted beach rope are cleaned, sorted and applied to driftwood in a congruent manner. The laborious process of wrapping, gluing and stapling satisfy a fundamental urge to physically assemble a combination of man-made and natural detritus. The variety of beach rope’s weathered palette, layered onto lengths of driftwood compliment my painted images chromatically, and refer to African and outsider sources. These sculptures suggest an implicit virility rooted in figurative association.

With stenciling I’ve found there’s an “automatic” quality to painting in or around a physical boundary such as tape. When the intricate web of tape is removed it reveals unexpectedly energetic trails of pigment criss-crossing the surface. Such a process-oriented approach instigates a lively dialogue with my freehand marks, and corresponds metaphorically to my fascination with the micro/macro aspects of quantum and cosmological poetry.

The landscape in my art manifests largely through my “Mainescape”, watercolor and oil pastel works on paper and panel. Done mostly in and around Acadia National Park in Maine, these pieces are immersed in the immediacy of atmospheric effect, the oceanic tableau, and rugged rocky coastline.

This intimacy with nature has invigorated and informed my studio oil paintings. Although the plein air works tend to be more traditionally representational, the paintings more muscular gestures distill the representation of nature into an elemental yet ethereal montage.

So ultimately what should a discriminating eye be focusing on?

I enjoy eye candy on the 4th of July as much as the next kid, but when it comes to an enduring investment I go for a more in-depth sense of pictorial integrity and authentic artistic identity.

And I think that it looks good on the wall.” EM

Not The Foggiest
2013 Oil on panel 15″x12″

Conjured Fog
2013 Oil on panel 19.75″x33″

Other material relating to Eliot Markell.

Artist website: eliotmarkell.com

White Elephant On Wheels: Eliot Markell

P.S.1 Studio Visit: Eliot Markell

Art In New York City: Eliot Markell

ArtSlant: Eliot Markell

If you liked this introduction please check out the PREVIOUS and NEXT.

Have you met…Bonny Leibowitz?

Bonny Leibowitz, Precious 2014 variable 10x18x9 wire, plaster, Tyvek, silk and acrylic, photo credit Harold Samples

An introduction can be a wonderful thing. You can meet interesting people, and make new friends. You can be introduced to your new favorite foods, books, music, or artist. I’d like to introduce you to some of my favorite artists. Some of whom I’ve been familiar with for years, and others I’ve only recently been introduced to. The person I’d like to introduce is the artist  Bonny Leibowitz.

Bonny Leibowitz, All Things Considered 2014 46×30 tyvek, plaster, encaustic wax monotype, acrylic, mulberrry and stonehenge paper, photo credit Hal Samples

Bonny Leibowitz has been an influential participant of the Dallas art community since the late ’80s when she moved to Dallas. The artist studied at Temple University’s Tyler College of Art in Philadelphia then worked in the gallery business, representing artists and organizing shows. Eventually, she began exhibiting her work in the region and throughout the southwest. Her one person shows include those in Dallas, Palm Springs, Chicago, Hawaii and Santa Fe, to name a few.

Her series; “Plight of the Pleasure Pods” was exhibited in 2013 at Cohn Drennan Contemporary, Dallas, TX as well as her body of work; “Symbiosis”, in the Blurr exhibition there in 2012 with a subsequent solo exhibition at the Museum of Art at Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, TX.

Bonny has been recognized for her art internationally through Israel bonds, traveling to Israel in 2002 to participate in a group multi media event /exhibition there and has pieces included in “Arte Internationale”, September 2013 in Matera, Italy.

Bonny Leibowitz, Portal 2 2014 9×12 graphite and photography on yupo, photo credit Harold Samples

“My current body of work; “Suspended Beliefs” started, in part with a desire to create a variety of rich inviting surfaces. Lately, I’ve been drawn to beauty of extravagance; the Baroque and Rococo periods with their “other worldly” pinks, blues and golds

I’m interested in expounding upon some symbolic attributes of “heavenly-ness” by over glorifying the forms I create; embellishing with putti and gold gilding. I then juxtapose those elements with the presence decaying vessels and imagery which speaks more to earthly struggles.

I’m using a variety of materials including wire, plaster, tyvek, mulberry bark, vinyl, graphite, yupo, salvaged architectural pieces and acrylic along with photography; details from masterworks of the 17th century.

I like looking at the process of how we question what we grew up “knowing”, what we stay attached to and how we come to unravel the validity of long held beliefs, tweaking our stance on personal truth, purpose and legacy as we move thorough life.

I’m using these concepts to create glorious facades with a nod to vanity, history, ritual, survival and transformation.

Right now I’m getting ready for my exhibition at Art Cube Gallery in Laguna Beach, California. My studio feels like a light airy piece of heaven, it’s a great feeling and I imagine I’ll miss the environment when it ships out this November.” BL

Bonny Leibowitz, Attributes and Prayer 2014 40×40 variable tyvek, cotton and acrylic photo credit Harold Samples

Other material relating to Bonny Leibowitz.

Artist website: bonnyleibowitz.com

The Bonny Studio: Bonny Leibowitz

The Encaustic Center: Bonny Leibowitz

Lynette Haggard Art Blog: Bonny Leibowitz

Modern Dallas: Bonny Leibowitz

If you liked this introduction check out the PREVIOUS and NEXT.

Have you met…Vincent Lardieri?

Vincent Lardieri, Untitled (Earth-Sherbet), 2014, Foam, clear gesso, steel nuts, bolts, washers, and rods on linen, 17.25(H) x 14(W) x 2.25(D)

An introduction can be a wonderful thing. You can meet interesting people, and make new friends. You can be introduced to your new favorite foods, books, music, or artist. I’d like to introduce you to some of my favorite artists. Some of whom I’ve been familiar with for years, and others I’ve only recently been introduced to. The person I’d like to introduce is the artist Vincent Lardieri.

Vincent Lardieri, Stainless Slit, 2011, Acrylic, stainless steel nut, bolt and washers, 7(H) x 9(W) x 4(D)

EDUCATION

2012MFA – Savannah College of Art & Design – Savannah, Georgia

2003BFA – Florida State University – Tallahassee, Florida

2001AA – Palm Beach State College – Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

Vincent Lardieri, Untitled (Lunar-Berry-Bronzite), 2014, Foam, duct tape, acrylic, steel nuts, bolts, washers, and rods on canvas, 12.5(H) x 14(W) x 2(D)

STATEMENT: 

“My work can sometimes be considered “paint-centric”, however, medium specificity is not the primary concern in every artwork. Purely traditional and serial practices are banal, so I exercise an “anything goes” mentality with materials and techniques, but clash them with standard fine art elements, resulting in an anticipated relevancy and reinvigoration.

Most of the work exists in a limbo state – operating as both paintings and sculptures (and oftentimes multi-media amalgamations) – but also being none of these (because they are not definitively one or the other). The metamodern case for “both – neither” fits my work in that I refuse the pigeonhole, allowing for it to remain in a limbo state, where what specifically results is always up for debate.” VL

Vincent Lardieri, Lime-Levitation-Landslide, 2014, Acrylic, duct tape, and wood on canvas, 7.25(H) x 7.5(W) x 3.75(D)

Other material relating to Vincent Lardieri.

Artist website: vincentlardieri.com

If you liked this introduction please check out the PREVIOUS and NEXT.

Have you met…Fran Shalom?

Fran Shalom, Horseplay
2014
oil on wood
16 x 16″

An introduction can be a wonderful thing. You can meet interesting people, and make new friends. You can be introduced to your new favorite foods, books, music, or artist. I’d like to introduce you to some of my favorite artists. Some of whom I’ve been familiar with for years, and others I’ve only recently been introduced to. The person I’d like to introduce is the artist Fran Shalom.

Fran Shalom, Scuttlebutt
2014
oil on wood
18 x 18″

EDUCATION
Montclair State University, M.F.A. – Painting
New York Studio School
San Francisco Art Institute, M.F.A. – Photography
University of California at Berkeley, B.A.
Bard College

Fran Shalom, Untitled
2013
oil on wood
12 x 12″

“I am a modernist abstract painter with a pop sensibility. My works balance the formal with the playful, paring down shapes and ideas into their most basic forms. It is a search for clarity and humor, as is evidenced by the shapes and colors in my paintings: cartoony, bright, blobby. But, like life itself, there is an undercurrent of conflict beneath the whimsy, as reflected in the tension and interaction between the shapes. Ultimately, it is important that the viewer becomes involved with the paintings, tempting them to stay long enough with the images to connect to a narrative that is at once ambiguous yet taps into the specifics and subtleties of their own lives.” FS

Fran Shalom is represented by the John Davis Gallery in Hudson NY? She will be showing work there in October 2014.

Fran Shalom, Go-Between
2012
Oil on Wood
11 x 14″

Other material relating to Fran Shalom.

Artist website: franshalom.com

John Davis Gallery: Fran Shalom

Youtube: Fran Shalom

Lisa Pressman Art Blog: Fran Shalom

ArtSlant: Fran Shalom

Art Blog Art Blog: Fran Shalom

A/Art: Fran Shalom

Joanne Mattera Art Blog: Fran Shalom

Gallery Travels: Fran Shalom

If you liked this introduction check out the PREVIOUS and NEXT.