Wolfe Contemporary

“Immaterial” - Artist Interview with Michelle Blade

Michelle Blade, Untitled (2012). Acrylic on dura-lar, 92 ½ x 42 inches.

What was your inspiration for this work, in regards to including a textile/basing it on a textile or fabric, or otherwise interpreting the form?

This work is part of a series of tapestry paintings I’ve been making since 2007. They works are almost solely painted with acrylic calligraphy ink on Mylar, sometimes applied on both the back and front. The paintings are inspired by the question of whether paintings can have social capabilities. The tapestry paintings are installed on the Gallery floor and for the duration of the exhibition people invite people to walk on them. Over time the paintings age and develop a patina from all the marks left behind by gallery visitors.

What were some of your processes for creating this work?

I used acrylic paint on the front and back of a large mylar sheet and worked mostly on the floor with larger brushes.

What are your thoughts on the relationship between textile art (weavings, quilts, embroidery, etc.) and textiles represented in art (through photography, painting, etc.)? Do you consider painting to be a form of textile art?

I think textiles are gorgeous and being one of the oldest forms of art I find them a huge inspiration. I find the blurry line between functionality vs. art works, and where that distinction lays, pretty interesting. I toy with this line in my own works by allowing gallery visitors to walk on my tapestry paintings. It gives the allusion that the painting has use, or is useful. It is also anti-Bourgeois in nature in regards to the Historical role of paintings.

Do you consider painting to be a form of textile art?

No, I believe paintings are paintings and textile works are textile works. I do enjoy when a see a piece that becomes muddled in it role though.

Michelle Blade, “Macrame Window” (2011). Acrylic on dura-lar, wood, hardware
50 ¼ x 38 ½ inches.

Immaterial is on view at Wolfe Contemporary through July 26th.

“Immaterial” - Artist Interview with Sarah Thibault

Sarah Thibault, “Afternoon Delight” (2012). Oil on canvas, 26 x 22 inches.

What was your inspiration for this work, in regards to including a textile/basing it on a textile or fabric, or otherwise interpreting the form?

My painting in this show, Afternoon Delight, is part of my Rock ‘n’ Roll Rococo series - a mix of Rococo-era objects and other interior design elements painted with neon and jewel toned colors, references to psychedelia and Flower Power. I grew up going to a lot of music festivals and classic rock concerts with my family - this work is influenced by that aesthetic. Specifically for this piece, I was inspired by the mandala-like spiral pattern of tie-dye t-shirts.

What were some of your processes for creating this work?

I used spray paint to create the tie-dye/lava lamp pattern. I sprayed both under and over the clock, which was painted with oil paint. The challenge was getting the spray paint to mimic the way that dye bleeds into fabric and blends at the edges.

What are your thoughts on the relationship between textile art (weavings, quilts, embroidery, etc.) and textiles represented in art (through photography, painting, etc.)? Do you consider painting to be a form of textile art?

Textiles depicted in paintings are one of the most effective ways to reference a specific time period or subculture. But also, fabric is just fascinating to look at, the way it folds, the details in the weave or print of the design.

Matisse grew up in a mill town that produced textiles for all of Europe and he became obsessed with patterns and collecting fabrics for the rest of his life. For him, among other things, textiles were reminders of his family and working class upbringing. But also, in his work they textiles serve as a backdrop for comfort and physical indulgence. I use textile patterns in a similar way - to set the scene.

I don’t see painting my painting as a form of textile art though. The physicality of paint is very important to my work, like relief sculpture. When I do leave canvas unprimed/unpainted, it is for its texture and its state of undoneness as uncovered canvas rather than its property as a textile.

Immaterial is on view at Wolfe Contemporary through July 26th.

“Immaterial” - Artist Interview with Rachel Kaye

Rachel Kaye, “Four” (2011). Oil on canvas, 30 x 342 inches.

What was your inspiration for this work, in regards to including a textile/basing it on a textile or fabric, or otherwise interpreting the form?

Looking at a lot of Missoni.

What were some of your processes for creating this work?

I work pretty intuitively, so I start out with a point of reference, but it usually shifts at some point to make a more dynamic piece.

What are your thoughts on the relationship between textile art (weavings, quilts, embroidery, etc.) and textiles represented in art (through photography, painting, etc.)? Do you consider painting to be a form of textile art?

I love textile art and I love the way textile art has evolved over history. Look at Sheila Hicks, she makes sculptural textiles and they are incredible. As far as painting and textiles go, they are two different practices with its own rich history.

Rachel Kaye, “Zig-Zag” (2011). Oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches.

Immaterial is on view at Wolfe Contemporary through July 26th.

“Immaterial” - Artist Interview with Bryson Gill

Bryson Gill, Untitled (2012). Oil on linen, 37 1/2 x 38 1/2 inches.

What was your inspiration for this work, in regards to including a textile/basing it on a textile or fabric, or otherwise interpreting the form?

The works for this show are all based on taking some experimental techniques that are an aspect of my current work and highlighting them per the theme of the show. They aren’t meant to represent textiles, or really represent anything actually. They were an experiment in creating a painting that was as tactile as a textile and that would call attention to the physical object itself, much like a textile, and less to the illusory or pictorial way that I might normally approach the action of painting..

What were some of your processes for creating this work?

Some of these works are bleached linen. Linen can be fairly dark on the grey scale to begin with so the bleach would allow me to start with a reductive process rather than the standard additive process that is indicative to the action of painting. Then I would cut and sew the linen together and finally add just a little bit of paint to bring all the parts together. How would I call it a painting otherwise?

The other works are just painted very thinly in hopes to retain the quality of the linen as much as possible.

Bryson Gill, Untitled (2012). Oil, bleach on sewn linen, 35 x 50 inches.

What are your thoughts on the relationship between textile art (weavings, quilts, embroidery, etc.) and textiles represented in art (through photography, painting, etc.)? Do you consider painting to be a form of textile art?

I don’t consider painting to be a form of textile art at all, except when it is. The two are coming from two diabolically opposite cannons of thought. Textiles are a craft, tradition, decorative and can tell a story (or have historically). Painting can obviously touch on all those things but the experience, history, expectation, and conceptualizing of a painting is under a different paradigm. You approach the two with different eyes. But they are both interesting and it’s fun to see them crossover where they do.

Bryson Gill, Untitled (2012). Oil, bleach on sewn linen, 50 x 35 inches.

Immaterial is on view at Wolfe Contemporary through July 26th.

“Immaterial” - Artist Interview with Jacob Tillman

Jacob Tillman, “Studio Painting with Sculptural Element (Water)” (2010). Oil on canvas, 60 x 60 inches.

What was your inspiration for this work, in regards to including a textile/basing it on a textile or fabric, or otherwise interpreting the form?

What were some of your processes for creating this work?

I find it very rewarding as an artist to build layers of time and inquiry into my drawings and paintings until a transformation occurs.  I bring the images and surfaces up gradually and in many layers so that by the time the image has formed it has also crossed over from the realm of being a picture to being an object.  Together in the resulting work you have the image, be it abstract, a representation from observation or a combination of both, and the resulting surface quality (scars, corrections, impasto, gouges, etc.) working together to add poetic complexity to the paintings and drawings and give them a relationship to the everyday objects, surfaces, and relics I draw endless inspiration from by looking at them with the notion of time I invoked in my answer to the prior question.  In addition to textiles I’m inspired by things like the softened features of low-rent apartments from being whitewashed instead of cleaned between one short term tenant and the next, every day objects and surfaces smoothed and polished by use, or marred by continued abuse, fossils, ruins, ceramics, woodgrains, and the impact that countless different painters processes have on the final surface of their paintings to name a few.

Jacob Tillman, Untitled (2012). Black, white gesso on paper, 13 x 19 inches.

What are your thoughts on the relationship between textile art (weavings, quilts, embroidery, etc.) and textiles represented in art (through photography, painting, etc.)? Do you consider painting to be a form of textile art?

I see this as an extraordinarily complex question, but one way of looking at the relationship between textile art and textiles represented in art is one of “Artists” invoking a debate about why certain mediums have been banished categorically into a lesser realm called “decorative arts.”  If the “decorative arts” are so lacking in critical rigor why are they so rich in energy?  Textiles play the role of muse to so many “Artists,” Matisse being a well loved example of this.  There are surely some on one side of the debate that would gladly banish Matisse into the decorative realm with his muse and others who would go the opposite route and rub out the distinction between the “decorative” and “Art” all together.  Both of these extremes are being dismissive of the opposite view rather than taking a good look at the artistic object or gesture at hand and having an experience with it that is unmediated by dogmatic social prescriptions.  Perhaps it is a thing worth a moment of time.

Jacob Tillman, Untitled (2012). Black, white gesso on paper, 13 x 19 inches.

Immaterial is on view at Wolfe Contemporary through July 26th.

HAEMOSCURO: Press Update

Art Ltd. Magazine: Critic’s Pick

Huffington Post: New Exhibit Makes Art of Animal Blood

HAEMOSCURO ~ Installation Photos

Installation photos of Jordan Eagles’ solo exhibition “HAEMOSCURO” (on view through May 25) are now online HERE.

Jordan Eagles: Early Press for HAEMOSCURO

OPENING RECEPTION: This Thursday, April 5, 5:30-8 pm
1 Sutter Street, Suite 300, SF CA 94104

Click images to read each article in full:

7x7 Magazine: Four April Art Shows to Keep You Busy

Flavorpill SF: Jordan Eagles, “HAEMOSCURO”

SF Weekly: “Life Blood”

SF Arts: Jordan Eagles, “HAEMOSCURO”

Armory Week 2012

We just returned from a trip to NYC for the annual art overload known as Armory Week.

We checked out the Whitney Biennial, the New Museum Triennial (titled “the Ungovernables”) and most of the major art fairs including the Armory Show, SCOPE, VOLTA, and the Independent.  We also stopped in at the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim for their blockbuster retrospectives of Cindy Sherman and John Chamberlain respectively.

We must have looked at 100,000 discrete pieces of art over a five day period. Here are some of the more memorable ones:

Cindy Sherman at MoMA
From the “Film Stills” of the 70s to the recent “Society Portraits,” it’s all here in one place.  A truly astounding career.
Above: “Untitled 467” (2008). Color photograph, 84 x 48 inches.

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye at New Museum Triennial
London-based portraitist whose paintings slowly sneak up and demolish your pre-conceptions of how color and light combine to create the human form.
Above: “11 pm Friday” (2008). Oil on canvas, 84 x 72 inches.

Tomory Dodge at CRG Gallery, Armory Show
Small, eery, slightly off canvases that focus on capturing the night “light” of LA while everyone else dwells on the sunshine.
Above: Untitled (2011). Oil on canvas, 12 x 14 inches.

John Chamberlain at the Guggenheim
Yes, we were blown away by the massive assemblages of torqued car parts.  But we were not aware of how much his vision seems to have been born from a series of 12” x 12” square, wall-hung pieces where the materials seem to be struggling to break free of their 2-D constraints.
Above: “Untitled 1961”. Mixed media on painted fiberboard, 31.1 x 33 x 12.7 cm.

Aris Moore at Jack Hanley, The Independent Art Fair
Of all this week’s fairs, The Independent Art Fair was our pick for best.  On five floors of a Chelsea warehouse building.  No booths.  Felt like a tight biennial.

Amalia Pica at New Museum Triennial
The picture doesn’t do this piece justice.  It is a classic color study rendered in wall-mounted found drinking glasses. 

Above: “Eavesdropping” (2012). Drinking glasses, glue. Dimensions variable.

Tom Thayer at Whitney Biennial
Thayer had installed a series of 2-D, 3-D, and video pieces in a small, dimly lit room tucked away in one corner of one floor of the Whitney.  Puppets, cranes, vaguely human figures all made from painted cardboard, paper, string, found items…. Emotionally quite powerful.  Can’t say for sure why….
Above: “Life is Nothing More Than Waiting for the Sky to Open” (2011). Mixed media on canvas, 72 x 48 inches.

Justin Mortimer at Mihai Nicodim Gallery, Armory Show
Above: “Enclave” (2011). Oil on canvas, 84 x 68 inches.

Hassan Khan at New Museum Triennial
This was a +/- 10 minute video with an intense sound track of contemporary Egyptian dance music.  Two men facing each other, dancing.  Could not take our eyes off it.
Above: Still from “Jewel” (2011). Video projection with sound.

Nicola Samori at Larmgalleri, VOLTA
One of many painters at VOLTA deconstructing classical portraiture.  One of only a few who did so memorably.
Above: “Seer” (2011). Oil on wood, 42 x 36 inches.

Heidi Norton Interview

Heidi Norton, who is currently exhibiting at Wolfe Contemporary as part of “Controlled Environments” (through March 16), was interviewed by MWCA Assistant Director Alexis Mackenzie, posted today on FecalFace.com.

READ: Interview with Heidi Norton

Image: “Dead Palm Burnt by the Sun” (2011). Archival pigment print, 32 x 25 inches.