ArtSake

Masako Kamiya (Painting Fellow ’10) is an artist with tremendous patience, skill and vision. With a steady hand, she meticulously builds her paintings one stroke at a time until the clusters of pigment transform into a physical object that vibrates, pulsates and trips around the color wheel.

Working on an open space of an untreated white paper has intrigued me. Because there are not defined borders on a paper, mark-makings themselves defined a final shape of a painting. I build up dots of color into half-inch, stalactite-like columns with rich variations in color layers. From a distance the painting is a series of dots, which create larger patterns toward a uniformed center. When observed more closely the third dimension is revealed, a forest of multicolored columns. The surface is dense. Colors on the flat surface of the paper react with the colors on the surface of each stalk when perceived closely.

I also leave areas unpainted. I found leaving areas unpainted very challenging. It requires much more rigorous looking because I have to achieve a balance between painted areas and unpainted areas. Once I painted, unpainted area is not retrievable. It almost feels like plain air painting with watercolor or calligraphy. It requires more intense concentration.

I challenge the way a painting is conventionally perceived. The sculptural surface moves viewers across the field of the painting. This forces the viewer’s eyes to mix and optically process the various properties of color. Ultimately, the viewers experience the subtle metamorphosis of the color in the paintings as the painting shifts from two dimensions to three dimensions and back again, according to the viewer’s angle to and distance from the work.

Painting to me, is a speculative and negotiable activity. It has become even more critical to the way I make art and serve as a counterpoint to my experience of seeing in today’s world; visual stimulation is more fast-moving and superficial with the advent of the high speed Internet and digital technology. Our perception matters more than ever to my painting. Virtual world of the Internet is saturated with visual information. There is almost no image we cannot find on the digital screen. And this puts hand-made painting in a unique place and viewing painting becomes a particular perceptive experience. Therefore, my objective is to make painting that emphasizes active looking. I need to make a painting that encourages slow and timeless perception and demands viewers’ engagement and scrutiny.

To see more of Masako’s work, be sure to check out the group exhibition New and recent work by 13 Massachusetts Cultural Council Award Recipients in Painting and Drawing. It runs June 2 – July 31, 2011 at the Tufts University Art Gallery.

Image credit: All paintings by Masako Kamiya. From top to bottom: Blue Fairy, 2010, 30″ x 22″, Gouache on paper; Recollections, 2010, 30″ x 22″, Gouache on paper; Wisteria’s Window, 2010, diptych each on 20″ x 16″ paper, Gouache on paper. Photographs by Clements/Howcroft Photography.

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ArtSake had the good fortune to meet Anne Krinsky at the recent Get Your Grant lecture at the Concord Art Association. She’s an artist who is extremely adept with both painting and drawing and as you’ll see, her line work is exquisite. We asked her if she would share with us a little bit about her working process.

Anne Krinsky: Counterpoint, acrylic and mixed media on panel, 36″ x 24″ (2011)

For my second show at Soprafina Gallery in Boston, Anne Krinsky: A Provisional Space, New Works on Panel and Mylar, I am exhibiting architecturally-inspired abstractions, informed by my residency last September at the Rocky Neck Art Colony in Gloucester, MA, and by a recent trip to Tunisia.

The large carriage door of the Rocky Neck residency studio is sheathed in an embossed, gridded pattern that resembles a boat’s hull – or, when inverted – doors, gothic windows and archways. I have used grids in my work for many years and shortly after I arrived on Rocky Neck to begin my residency, this one announced itself as “my next grid.” Using this grid as a scaffold, I have created luminous acrylic and mixed-media works on panel and on layered Mylar.

Carriage door at Rocky Neck residency studio in Gloucester, MA

While I was at Rocky Neck, I took some photos of light coming in through the studio blinds and falling onto rolls of Mylar I had placed on a table top. By manipulating the Mylar scrolls, I could shape the light patterns into a variety of wavelike forms.

Anne Krinsky: Mylar Photo 1, digital photo, size variable, (2010)

I then incorporated acrylic transfers, made from these photographs of light patterns, into other works on panel and on Mylar.

Anne Krinsky: Mylar Moments, acrylic and mixed media on mylar, (detail) 54″ x 105″ (2011)

My observations from Tunisia also animate this body of work. I integrate forms originating in Tunisian vernacular architecture – complex tiled interiors and white exterior walls punctuated by brilliant blue windows and doors – into my gridded framework.

Anne Krinsky: Portal, acrylic and mixed media on panel, 36″ x 18″ (2011)

I sometimes think that all my work is just an excuse to mix colors.

Studio paints

I work with geometric and botanical forms – Chinese and Islamic architectures, field guides and my own drawings of plants. I think of my studio as a repository of images – which can be recycled and recombined in novel ways.

Studio Wall

My Shelf Life installation is one result of this visual cross-fertilization.

I made Shelf Life, a site-specific installation of small panels, displayed on shelves, for my 2010 show, Anne Krinsky: Time/Line, 2000-2010, at the Trustman Art Gallery at Simmons College in Boston. Some of the panels had been hanging around my studio for years and had been sanded down and reworked. These included botanical images from 2002 and 2003, which I made after seeing rare illustrated manuscripts in London’s Natural History Museum. The composite work – in which green stripes figure prominently – was inspired in part by the subtly striped green glass of the new Simmons library. I also will be exhibiting other small panels from the Shelf Life series at Soprafina.

Anne Krinsky: Shelf Life, (detail) Gallery Installation, Trustman Art Gallery, Simmons College, acrylic and mixed media on panel, 12 panels on 3 shelves, each panel 12″ x 9″ (2010)

Anne Krinsky
A Provisional Space: New Works on Panel and Mylar
April 1-30, 2011
Artist’s Reception: Friday, April 1, 5:30 – 7:30 PM
Soprafina Gallery, 55 Thayer Street, Boston, MA 02118

Image credit: All images by Anne Krinsky

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The cutting edge has never looked so beautiful and wild. ArtSake invites you to take a peek into the fecund world of Resa Blatman and her studio.

Partial Studio View

My studio is very busy right now with several paintings going on at once: a 13 foot triptych (on aluminum panels); two medium sized cut-edge; and six small cut-edge paintings (on acrylic) all in their beginning stages.

Three panels in background have just been prepped to start a new painting (13 feet). This will be my first, large rectangular painting since 2008. The cut-edge panel in foreground is in intial stages of painting.

I start my work process on the computer, where I design the edges of the panels. The digital files are then sent to the laser cutter, who cuts the intricate and curvy patterns on large scale machines. Once the panels are back at my studio, I go through several steps to prepare the surfaces, depending on the substrate, and then I start painting with oils. Although I start out with a rough idea of what I want the painting to look like, the composition is not planned, and the painting may change several times as I work on it.

I recently completed “The Golden Mean,” a triptych painting/installation.

I’m intrigued by varying materials and enjoy experimenting with, and adding them to, the surfaces. Although, they should strengthen my concept in order for me to use them. The cut-edge panels hang at different levels from the wall, pushing the boundaries and the 2-dimensionality of painting, which I like very much. But at the same time, I’m a big admirer of luscious brush strokes and traditional painting. My compositions are inspired by the Renaissance, Baroque, Victorian decorative art, and botanical imagery.

 
 A part of “The Golden Mean” in the background and “Woven” in the foreground.

The concept behind my work has to do with animals, sexuality within nature, and our fragile natural environment. The cut-edge surfaces are new since 2008. The various edges, which may include animals, insects, and flourishes, are an extension of the patterns within the paintings. These cut forms, along with the shadows made by the cuts, encourage a three-dimensionality to the work, and by doing so, the paintings become more experiential and boundless.

Six small cut-edge panels just given base coat and ready for painting.

You can see Resa’s work in person at Miller Block Gallery in September/October 2011.  If you can’t wail until the fall to see more of her work, be sure to check out her website.

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In March, we are thrilled to partner with the Concord Art Association (CAA) to present State of Art, an exhibition featuring the work of MCC awardees in Painting (from 2008) and Crafts (2009). The show runs March 17-May 1, and all ArtSake readers are enthusiastically invited to attend the opening reception on Thursday, March 17 from 6-8 PM.

In conjunction with that show, we’ve invited participating artists to share a view of their studio. Here’s Todd McKie (Painting Finalist ’08), who blogs as wittily as he creates visual art:

I began my life as an artist working in a dark, dank basement. My studio consisted of a drawing board, an old chair, a small formica table and a lamp. I’d spend all night down there, smoking cigarettes and painting. When the morning sun leaked through the narrow basement window, I’d stagger upstairs, make a pot of coffee, and take a shower. Then I’d head off to whatever crappy job I had at the time.

Eventually I was able to afford a real studio. One that was larger than 80 square feet and wasn’t right next to the furnace and water heater. I rented six or seven of these above-ground studios over the years, some nicer than others, some bigger than others, some pricier than others. They all had one thing in common: problems with the heat; landlords heated these spaces only to the legal minimum. And on winter weekends there was just enough heat to keep the pipes from freezing. I vividly recall days of working in gloves and a coat and hat. And how about air conditioning for those humid, broiling August afternoons? Har! Har! Har!

When my wife and I bought a house a few years back I turned its basement into my new studio. It’s pretty nice down there: lots of storage space, file cabinets, a big industrial sink, long counters, great track lighting. It’s warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

I don’t spend my nights down there, but, yeah, I’m still near the water heater and furnace. Their rumble is a comforting reminder of the good old days.

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The Provincetown Art Association and Museum announced the recipients of their inaugural Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Foundation Grant designed to support American painters aged 45 or older who demonstrate financial need. This year’s painters receiving this awesome prize are Morgan Russell and Jo Hay. Congratulations! We like artists being recognized monetarily for their work. So without further ado, let’s take a peek into Morgan Russell’s studio(s) and see what he’s up to and what he has to say about his work.

I love nature. I’ve always been intrigued with the woods and natural settings in general. That’s where it begins for me; when I walk out of the house in the morning I have my camera, the early light really hits me.

In the Summer I paint in our family barn, the space and light are uplifting and I have the luxury of being able to get 20 or 30 feet back from a painting to get my bearings. I just moved into my Winter studio, as I call it, in Rockland, MA which I share with friend and fellow artist Mehmet Kraja.

Back in the studio there is a point at which observation stops and something else takes over. Once that threshold of abstraction is crossed a re-shaping of elements can begin. I am intrigued with pulling new situations of place from the painting process. In doing so I find myself cultivating a space that is fluid and plastic enough to navigate.

These paintings then are naturally aspirated abstract systems. Indeed there is a certain abstract power inherent in nature upon which their survival depends.

Learn more about Morgan Russell’s work.

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Nine Boston-area artists are in the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston’s 2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize Exhibition.

We’ve been sharing Studio Views with the finalists for the prestigious $25,000 Foster Prize, and I’ve found it interesting the way artists’ descriptions of their art-making often seem to parallel the work itself. Fred H.C. Liang writes with evocative complexity about his complex, evocative work, and Evelyn Rydz unifies disparate elements in her description the way disparate, recontextualized images are brought together in her drawings. Meanwhile, Stephen Tourlentes‘s attention to process in his description and in his work allows the thematic overtones of his photos to resonate ever more clearly.

And here, Matthew Rich (Painting Fellow ’10) shares his studio and work in many, many fewer words than I’ve just used, much in the way his cut-paper compositions employ a subtlety and minimalism to distinctive, arresting effect.

1. My studio (looking towards the Northeast).

2. My materials (values)

3. More materials (complements)

4. My palette (large[new] to small[old] colors).

5. My workspace (the table, the floor).

6. My drums (in the corner).

7. A finished work (TWIST, 2009)

8. Another finished work (COMBINATION, 2009)

Work by Matthew Rich, along with that of the other eight 2010 Foster Prize finalists, will be exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston through January 17, 2011.

Images: all images courtesy of Matthew Rich; six studio images; TWIST (2009) Latex on cut paper, linen tape 36×58 in; COMBINATION (2009) Latex on cut paper, linen tape, 38×60 in.

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Nine Boston-area artists are currently exhibiting at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston’s 2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize Exhibition. The artists, finalists for the prestigious $25,000 Foster Prize, create work across a wide spectrum of visual disciplines and artistic practices.

We recently shared Studio Views with Foster finalists Fred H.C. Liang and Evelyn Rydz, engaging their work through the methods and places it’s created. Here, Stephen Tourlentes (Photography Fellow ’05) offers a look into the intriguing process behind his haunting photography: black and white, large format prints observing federal prisons at night.

To start, I photograph much of the time out in the world. So the first part of my studio practice actually happens out in the physical world. I still enjoy being subjected to the elements and all the challenges that come with witnessing the world through photography.

Even in this digital age I still use a large format 8×10 view camera and film. I like how film responds to low light and appreciate the size of the large negative. Most of my exposures are at a minimum 3 minutes up to 30 minutes in length, depending on the conditions. It is a very slow, long look.

Once I’ve returned to the studio, I go into the darkroom and process my sheet film by hand. At this point I depart from the traditional darkroom and take the processed film and scan it into my computer. Because the negative is so large, I work with a good quality flat bed scanner to scan my negatives. I prepare the file using Adobe Photoshop for printing on my large format inkjet printer. Much of my time is spent spotting and cleaning up dust and scratches that would not show up on small enlargements but become distractions once a print is made big. I can print images up to 44″ wide with this particular printer. It uses pigmented inks and I print with Canson Baryta paper for my final images.

Once the prints are finished I bring them to Color Services in Needham and have them mounted on “dibond” and framed for exhibition.

Work by Stephen Tourlentes, along with that of the other eight 2010 Foster Prize finalists, will be exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston through January 17, 2011.

Images: all images courtesy of Stephen Tourlentes; FLORENCE COLORADO FEDERAL SUPERMAX PRISON (2005); Tourlentes at work in Las Vegas; scanning a negative; “cleaning” the photo digitally; using a large format printer; Tourlentes with a completed print; MARCY NEW YORK STATE PRISON (2008); ALBION NEW YORK STATE PRISON (2008).

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We recently peered inside the studio of Evelyn Rydz (Drawing Fellow ’10), one of the nine Boston-area artists currently exhibiting at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston’s 2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize Exhibition.

Further exploring the art-making process of the finalists for the prestigious Foster Prize (six of whom are past MCC fellows), we welcome Fred H. C. Liang (Painting Fellow ’04, ’08), who shares the origins and creation of his multi-layered work Dream of a Thousand Springs.

Wandering into the Dream of a Thousand Springs installation, the viewer is submerged in a floating, dream-inspired world.

I specifically created the installation for this ICA exhibition, with its dimensions, spatial, lighting and counterpoints in mind. Its composition, execution and presentation are respectively drawn from Song Dynasty Chinese landscapes and Jian Zhi paper-cut techniques. These are meditatively disciplined approaches that once fused, produced a lushly complex aquatic/terrestrial environment.

At the core of my work, I use various personal and cultural references as a way of tapping into the universal questions: Where did we come from? Where are we going? Essentially, these considerations help frame events that lead to our current circumstance, and thus make us who we are.

In this particular work, uncovering such answers involves the confluence of a promised box, a secret language and family genealogy. These connections join personal and historic events, and provide the means to reclaim both a displaced portion of family history, as well as lost cultural history. The narrative begins with my mother’s desire for a daughter, after the successive births of three sons. Forty years later, my daughter’s birth finally fulfilled this yearning.

Its accomplishment required my mother pass select personal possessions and secrets – concealed within a precious box – to her daughter.

This transmission from mother to daughter is akin to how the secret language of Nushu, known as women’s writing in China, was passed. It was a lost language shrouded in secrecy for almost a thousand years, but accidentally discovered during the early days of the Cultural Revolution.

This mode of communication, invented by women in southern China, enabled them to pass information among themselves undetected. Up until its accidental discovery, Nushu primarily remained hidden with only vague references sprinkled throughout Chinese literature. Consequently, much knowledge of Chinese women’s lives may have similarly remained missing from its historical record.

It is my hope that once my mother shares this enigmatic box’s content with my daughter, the secrets imagined, revealed, and conjured with its opening will carry the family’s legacy forth among its future female descendants.

Fred H.C. Liang‘s work, along with that of the other eight 2010 Foster Prize finalists, will be exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston through January 17, 2011.

The text for this piece is adapted from Fred H.C. Liang’s audio commentary for the Foster Prize Exhibition.

Images: all images are from Fred H.C. Liang’s installation DREAM OF A THOUSAND SPRINGS (2010), ICA 2010 Foster Prize Exhibition; studio photos are taken by Katie Chaiban and Alex Dusterfeld; ICA installation views are taken by Charles Mayer, staff photographer at ICA.

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Nine Boston-area artists are currently exhibiting in the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston’s 2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize Exhibition. The artists (six of which are past MCC fellows!) are finalists for the prestigious $25,000 prize, which will be announced January 2011.

We thought it would be interesting to peek inside the workspace of these exciting, innovative artists. Here, Evelyn Rydz (Drawing Fellow ’10) explores the making of her intricate, entrancing drawings.

Over the last few years I have been making regular visits to coastlines to document objects that have washed ashore. I am interested in the stories these found objects tell of relocation, transformation, and the suggestions of past events that have made them castaways in foreign landscapes. A selection of drawings from two related bodies of work inspired by my coastal visits are included in the Foster Prize Exhibition.The first group of drawings, Castaways, maps out items the sea has rejected, as I have found them; while the second group, Drifting Islands, creates places where they exist together.

My work always begins with photographs. I photograph objects and places that have undergone significant change or that are in a process of transformation. I categorize, reorganize, and often times collage these images into new landscapes. A main component of my work is in exploring the details. I learn about the objects as I draw them, investigating each part completely. I think of the details in the objects like scars and wrinkles that contain endless information about the past.

The Castaways drawings, chart washed ashore objects that have been lost, abandoned, or possibly defeated at sea. I am intrigued by how these objects come together and become camouflaged in their new environments. Some examples of this can be seen in the piece of bright blue insulation foam with barnacles growing along its side or in the rusted beer can covered with algae and shells. This catalog of flotsam is drawn from an intimate eyelevel perspective with the found object; the sea is a faint line in the distance. These drawings focus on each detail of the found object, including its texture, altered surface, color, and size, giving them unique identities, while the settings are minimal black and white summaries of the space. Each object becomes like an actor spot lit on stage.

The second group of drawings, Drifting Islands, which stems from this flotsam catalog, merges these found objects with fragments of disparate places into unexpected islands. From early sea explorers, to Homer’s seascapes, to Darwin in the Galapagos, and TV shows like Lost, there are endless stories of our lure to the sea. Working from both observation and imagination, these drawings are based on adaptation, possibilities of new environments, and questions of how future landscapes will evolve.

Evelyn Rydz‘s drawings, along with work by the other eight 2010 Foster Prize finalists, will be exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston through January 17, 2011.

All images by Evelyn Rydz: DRIFTING ISLAND #3 (2009), Pencil, Color Pencil, and Acrylic on Two Sheets of Duralar, 21×32 in; studio materials; Evelyn Rydz, at work in her studio (photo by Meredith Pierce); RED GLOVE (2010), Pencil and Color Pencil on Duralar, 11×14 in; PINK BALLOON (2010), Pencil and Color Pencil on Duralar, 11×14 in; DRIFTING ISLAND #5 (2009), Pencil, Color Pencil, and Acrylic on Two Sheets of Duralar, 22×52 in; detail of DRIFTING ISLAND #5 (2009).

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Leah Giberson‘s unique process may be part of the reason that the familiar subjects of her mixed media works – houses, mobile homes, and other symbols of suburbia – take on an almost fantastical vitality. Look closer, they urge; there’s more than meets the eye here.

In the midst of mounting two solo shows (one in the New England area – see below), Leah let us peek into her workspace to see how she creates her arresting works.

I begin my paintings with photographic images printed onto archival photo rag paper. I often cut parts of the image out before adhering it to a wooden panel and then paint directly upon this surface, editing the original image as I go.

I paint over anything that feels extraneous or distracting, allowing the parts that resonate with me to be seen more clearly.

By the time I am done with the painting, there is very little (if any) of the original photographic image remaining.

Work by Leah Giberson is currently on exhibit at Nahcotta Gallery in Portsmouth, NH, running through July 31, 2010. Opening reception is July 2, 5-8 PM. Her solo show “This is What Remains” opens at Rare Device in San Francisco on July 9 (opening reception, 7-9 PM), and runs through August 31.

Online, you can see her work at leahgiberson.com, her Esty shop, on Flickr, and in Tiny Showcase.

Images: all images by Leah Giberson, acrylic on photographic print on panel; REAR VIEW, 9×12 in; two works in progress; WESTLAKE GOLD, 10×10 in; REVERE BEACH, 16×20 in; WESTLAKE GREEN, 8×8 in.

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