ArtSake

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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Susan Post received her undergraduate degree in studio art and cultural anthropology from Princeton University, and thirty years later was awarded a Master’s of Fine Arts degree from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where she was a member of their inaugural class in residence at The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.

In recent years her paintings have been exhibited in New York at the OK Harris Gallery, The Painting Center, and at the Woman’s Museum in Dallas, TX, during the College Art Association’s Annual Conferences. For the past three years she has participated in the Annual AIDS Benefit Everything But Paper Prayers at the Barbara Krakow Gallery in Boston. Her work was featured as the cover art of the February, 2008 concert Playbill at Carnegie Hall in New York City. She is currently represented by The Schoolhouse Gallery in Provincetown. 

Susan lives and works in the suburbs of Boston. ArtSake asked Susan if we could take a peek into her studio and have her tell us a bit about her work process.

I try to find ways for paint to ‘behave’ rather than depict, with a sense of space resulting from neither dissemblance nor resemblance, but instead from a small number of pivotal decisions – mostly about edge and color – that emerge from the process rather than being motivated by illusionistic device.

Marking a surface with seven lines lends it an amount of complexity just beyond the easily discernible. At the same time, it affords a binary pattern that begins and ends with opposing elements, without setting any criterion as to which (the surface or the mark) is figure and which ground.

Further dividing one set of seven lines perpendicularly, with alternating wide and narrow bands of contrasting values achieves a wide range of kinds of line and creates multiple incidences of simultaneous contrast.

To see more of Susan’s work, check out her Web site or one of these upcoming exhibitions:

Free Association @ The Kingston Gallery, Boston
August 4-29, 2010. Reception, Friday August 6, 5:30 – 8:00pm.

Six Gallery Artists @ The Schoolhouse Gallery, Provincetown
June 25-July 14, 2010. Reception Friday June 25, 7-10pm.

Abstraction Now @ Eclipse Mill Gallery, North Adams
June 25 – July 18, 2010

Waltham Art Windows @ Moody Street, Waltham
June 10 – July 29, 2010. Reception Saturday June 12, 4:00 – 5:15pm at Center for Digital Imaging Arts, 274 Moody Street, Waltham.

Image credit: All images courtesy of Susan Post.

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ArtSake recently visited the thriving Essex Art Center, which is located in a former mill in Lawrence, MA. They provide an array of art classes for children and adults and have rotating gallery exhibitions. Here’s a quick peek of the goings on there.

Just remember, it’s good to get your hands dirty once in a while, particularly while making art (or gardening).

Image credit: All photographs by ArtSake

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Congratutions to Sand T on her 2009 New England Art Award victory as the People’s Choice for Best Standout Work by a Local Artist in a Group Show as organized by the New England Journal of Aesthetic Research. ArtSake recently caught up with artist Sand T and she has graciously agreed to let us take a peek in her studio and talk to us about her work.

The primary intention of this body of non-objective work is to create a simple visual experience utilizing the basic elements of dot, line, color, surface and light. I feel the pieces suggest concepts of time, concentration, and the meditative energies of motion. The reductive aesthetic in my work is an overlapping of decidedly contrary visual elements: fluidity vs. structural, opacity vs. transparency, and formalistic vs. introspective.

I use a combination of UV resistant industrial epoxy resin, graphite, and paint on archival tempered clayboard or acrylic glass panels. The lines are drawn using graphite in varying weights and grades. Resin droplets are placed on the final surface one at a time. The placement of these two elements is sometimes improvised, sometimes planned until a “visual plane” emerges.

Though my process is time consuming and labor intensive, working with resin and acrylic glass provides a balance of structure and chaos that is fulfilling to me. It challenges my affinity for problem solving, material sensitivity, time management and organizational skills. Lighting plays an important role in the presentation of my work for it maximizes the viewing experience. When the viewer moves from one side to another of the artwork, they will see a sequence of reflections in the work. Clearly, there is more to be mined from the work when seen in person.

A huge challenge for viewers is to not touch the work. The physical properties of these tactile art objects fill viewers with an almost irresistible urge to touch them. The glistening, shining surfaces give them an appearance of being wet with beaded water.

Photographing this series of work is a challenge for me. The glossy surface and the intricate visual details innate in my art objects are hard to capture with any accuracy. The source, brightness and angle of the lighting changes the appearance of the object. These fine details are usually not noticeable or distinctive in any image reproductions. Since accurate reproduction is very difficult, I invite interested persons to view the original creations at my studio or art exhibit. What could be more satisfying than being able to appreciate a piece of original work of art up close in person?

So with that said, I would like to invite you to a reception to be held at Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery in Bristol Community College in Fall River on Thursday, March 11, 2010, from 6-8pm. This joint exhibition, Linear, is curated by Kathleen Hancock and features the works by three regional artists. Exhibition Dates: March 11 – April 7, 2010. For more info, please visit Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery’s Web site. To learn more about my work, please visit my Web site.

Image credit: All images courtesy of Sand T. Image captions: Image 1, 2 and 3: In progress… I am getting ready these panels for my show at Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery this March-April. Panels’ dimensions: 42x42x3.5”and 46×46 x3.5”. Image 4: Packing time. Image 5 and 6 : Work on display in my open storage in Malden, Massachusetts.

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Lisa Olson, who recently became of member of the artists-run Bromfield Gallery in Boston, lets us peer into her studio, where various machineries (both mechanical and creative) produce enigmatic works of art.

Most of my current work is on paper: artists’ books, prints, drawings or collage. I often juxtapose text and image as parallel elements, allowing both to supply meaning. I began making books because of this interest in integrating text into visual art, but now find myself bringing text back out of the book–often incorporating it into collage or prints.

I believe that the best artwork comes from a combination of intuition and thoughtful direction, but I often find that the little critics who sit on my shoulder and ask “what does it mean?” or “why does this matter?” try to take charge. To compensate, several times a week I allow myself to work on quick unedited collaged projects, purely fluent and intuitive. This summer I have been making a series of small 3″ x 5″ collages which incorporate fragments of text and image and also simple 4-6 page collaged books with no or minimal text. The rules are simple: I am not allowed to spend more than a two or three hours on each and I am not allowed to think beyond the simple exercise of the small work–it often takes effort for me to accept that everything shouldn’t be better or bigger.

I have two letterpresses in my studio, a small tabletop Kelsey platen press and a larger Vandercook proofing press. The Kelsey dates from the 1940′s and came out of a commercial print shop on Cape Cod. I purchased it from John Barrett at his Letterpressthings resale shop in Chicopee.

The Vandercook is newer, it was made in 1969, and moved around among businesses in the Los Angeles area before winding up in a barn in northern California. The International Printing Museum in Carson, CA acquired it with other printing equipment and because this type of press was already represented in their collection, I was able to buy it. Both presses came to me encrusted with grease and soot and ink, and the countless hours that I spent cleaning them with a toothbrush, steel wool and WD40 not only taught me something about how they worked mechanically but also felt like a devotional act. These types of old presses are still around but becoming more difficult to find, and I am thrilled to have both of them in my studio.

I am currently working on a series of images, dark drawings and etchings of animal forms silhouetted on white paper. I’ve made dozen of these images in the last year and don’t seem anywhere near finished yet. I’m still considering what they might mean and why they have captured my attention. I think that there is something about the dual nature of the images — both monster and sweet thing — and about their formal properties, the shapes created and the lovely repeated graphite and ink marks that represent fur and make up the forms. I think they work as a grouping rather than as individual images and perhaps are also about quantity and accumulation, themes that I have frequently worked with in the past.

All images courtesy of Lisa Olson. You can see some of Lisa’s finished works at her Bromfield Gallery artist page.

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We caught up with Cynthia Maurice (MCC Drawing/Printmaking/Artist Books Fellow ’02) and asked her to tell ArtSake a little bit about what’s going on in her studio.

According to Cynthia, she likes the concept of exposing her process by inviting the viewer to see how her visual ideas develop.

Her exhibit, Fresh Cut, is based on two series, vegetables and flowers, and alternates between drawing and painting. Together, the finely finished paintings combined with the rougher, but equally considered drawings, reflect an artistic process that speaks to the conversation between the two mediums, as well as the tensions between abstraction and realism.

The flower drawings in the series focus on the fleeting, transformative aspects of a bloom from bud to decay.

Beginning with a small painting of radishes that evolved into a union of abstraction and reference, the vegetable series allowed the artist to test herself in new, more personal ways.

Her intentional inclusion of erasures and then re-drawing are enhanced by written notes on the surface of the works, which resemble sketchbook diaries.

To see more of her work in person, be sure to check out her upcoming solo exhibtion called Fresh Cut at the Newton Free Library. The opening reception is June 2. The show runs from June 2 – 29.

Cynthia Maurice holds MFAs from the School of Visual Arts, New York, NY and Boston University. She has won numerous awards and has had many group and solo exhibits. She has taught in the New England area for many years and most recently at the Danforth Museum. Her work can be found in many corporate collections including Bank of Boston and Beth Israel Hospital.

Images: All photos by Rita Lombardi

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We heard about an intriguing art show opening this weekend in Allston – Spin, which features art pieces made from cassette tapes and vinyl records. We got in touch with Kevin Hebb, the artist who came up with concept and one of the show’s contributors, and asked him to give us a peek into his studio, his work, and the origins of Spin.

The concept behind the show came from my interest or addiction to nostalgia. I am not alone in feeling that part of our childhood was taken away with the emergence of the Internet… or am I? The theme of this show is one of dedication to how things used to be and how far technology has come in such a short time. Cassettes and vinyl records were chosen as canvasses for their classic iconography and simplicity.

As an artist I am naturally inclined to question subject matter. It is in the dislike for modern culture that I am left with an unfortunate feeling of bitterness. When music turned into a platform to make a quick dollar off what was trendy, we saw the cassettes start to rot on the store racks. People began to glorify the Internet’s ability to put everything at your fingertips. Mixtapes became a thing of the past as music downloads and MP3 players started to emerge. This show will honor the simplicity of a looping bass line playing under a slowed down disco beat. A time when grunge was grunge, and no one did anything for the sake of fashion.

Growing up on the south shore of Massachusetts, I acquired an outsider’s point of view of the hustle and bustle of the city. My work embodies the grit of Dudley Station and the stillness of Borderland Park. Often my work shows distant views of a blank cityscape popping off of layered backgrounds inspired by far off vantage points and graffiti filled alleys.

Want to see Kevin’s completed work for SPIN? Rescue Apparel and Accessories (252 Brighton Avenue in Allston, MA) is hosting GLOVEBOX’s latest show SPIN, featuring the work of local emerging artists. The opening reception on March 1 from 6-9 PM; free and open to the public. SPIN is on view until March 29, 2009.

GLOVEBOX is a non-profit artist organization that enables artists to exhibit their work in non-traditional spaces around Boston. GLOVEBOX works side by side with local venues to create these alternative spaces, building relationships with these business and the public.

Images: Studio shot of Kevin Hebb’s work for SPIN; studio view; works in progress for SPIN; Kevin Hebb, HOME SWEET HOME (2008), acrylic and spray paint, 12 in X 20 in; Kevin Hebb, MAYBE NOTHINGS WRONG? (2008), acrylic and spray paint on wood, 30 in X 40 in; publicity postcard for SPIN.

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