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

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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

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Have you met…Alex Paik?

Right Triangle 2
gouache, colored pencil, paper
26 x 6 x 3 inches
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 Alex Paik.

Parallelogram 1
gouache, colored pencil, paper
17 x 15 x 1.5 inches
2013

b. 1981 Oxnard, California. Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
EDUCATION
2005: M.F.A., University of Pennsylvania
2003: B.F.A. with honors in Art, Pennsylvania State University

V 1
gouache, colored pencil, paper
14 x 10 x 3 inches
2013

“My first serious introduction to art was through classical music as a violinist playing in various community orchestras during high school. That experience stayed with me as I made the transition to the visual arts later in college. I’ve always been attracted to the ethereal abstraction of music and the way that music can be simultaneously cerebral and personal, especially in the contrapuntal music of Bach.

My paper assemblages mimic the way that the voices of a fugue are continuously repeated, transposed, inverted, and folded into themselves. Each piece focuses on one unit as its subject which is then repeated in different configurations as the piece grows. I use repetition not so much as a compositional device, but more as a way to explore and maximize the possibilities of the unit.

Maybe if Paul Klee, Thomas Nozkowski, Frank Stella, and Richard Tuttle were the Lost Boys on Never Land and grew up on video games, classical music, and indie pop, this is what they would make. Or maybe they would focus on fighting pirates.” AP

Prelude and Fugue (Cootie)
gouache, marker, colored pencil, paper
7 x 6 x 4 inches
2012

Other material relating to Alex Paik.

Artist website: alexpaik.com

PS1 Studio Visit: Alex Paik

Structure and Imagery: Alex Paik

bmore art: Alex Paik

Youtube: Alex Paik

Two Coats of Paint: Alex Paik

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Have you met…Tom Duimstra?

Tom Duimstra, Rood En Blauw

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 Tom Duimstra.

Tom Duimstra

Born 1951, Grand Rapids, Mi.
Studied at University of California at Berkeley.
Exhibiting work nationally and internationally since 1979.

Tom Duimstra

“I was born an artist. It’s all I know. Sometimes I feel that perhaps my work is about nothing. But isn’t nothing, something?” TD

Tom Duimstra

Other material relating to Tom Duimstra.

Artist website: tomduimstra.com

Art Hack: Tom Duimstra

Gallerie Art Haus: Tom Duimstra

Michael D Willis: Tom Duimstra

ArtSlant: Tom Duimstra

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

Have you met…Douglas Witmer?

…not a statement.

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 Douglas Witmer.

Tonight We Do, 2013.
Black gesso and acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches.
( 2 / 18 )

Douglas Witmer was born in 1971 in Winchester, VA and raised in Lancaster County, PA. He has lived and worked in Philadelphia since 1995.

Education

2001 M.F.A., The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
1993 B.A., Goshen College, Indiana

School Papers, mixed media on found school-grade writing paper. Dimensions variable, approx 9 x 6 inches

“The School Papers is an ongoing series since 2004, now numbering nearly 100 individual works. In 2004 I saw Tantric drawings from India for the first time. They are made anonymously on irregularly shaped buff-colored paper surfaces. The scale is intimate and the imagery is flat and geometric. Within the Tantric tradition these works serve specific meditative purposes for both their creators and their viewers. Worlds away, and without any knowledge of the Tantric practice, I nevertheless connected immediately and profoundly with their visual energy. It’s an uncanny balance that feels precisely calibrated, yet simultaneously blunt and raw. These works made manifest possibilities I was exploring in my own work at the time. And I was deeply impressed by the idea that “pure” geometric imagery had an important “use” within a community.

In 2006 my father gave me a cache of vintage school grade writing paper he had found. The color of the old paper reminded me of the color of the Tantric drawings. One day I began layering upon this paper the simplest rectangular forms in black and white. Unexpected incidencts began to occur right away–tears, buckling, bleed-thru. But this paper had a way of receiving and transforming every kind of touch and material I put to it.

On this unique surface, with the sheet size and repetitive ruled lines serving as grounding constants, I explore a personal tactility and geometry in a contemplative mindset.” DW

Fruitville, mixed media on found wood. Less than 8″ any direction.

“Fruitville is the name for a body of work that has been ongoing since 2000, however individual works are undated. Work in this series is produced in intermittent spurts, often with years between.

The Fruitville Pike is a road where I grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It’s a major thoroughfare, but it doesn’t go to, from, or through anywhere called Fruitville. My efforts to find Fruitville, if there ever was such a place at all, have been inconclusive.

So Fruitville exists in my imagination as a kind of Eden; a place of purity, clarity, and quiet delight. It manifests itself in an ongoing visual process of experimentation with wood, paint, glue, paper, ink, light, and shadows. The things that make up my Fruitville exist to be in relationship to the places where they can be seen, and also in relationship with each other.”  DW

A full-length essay about the Fruitville series, by Chris Ashley, is available here.

Fruitville, mixed media on found wood. Less than 8″ any direction.

Other material relating to Douglas Witmer.

Website: Douglas Witmer

Blog: Douglas Witmer

Facebook fan page: Douglas Witmer

The Art Blog.org: Douglas Witmer

Some Walls: Douglas Witmer

Thinking About Art: Douglas Witmer

Studio Critical: Douglas Witmer

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