Chelsea Gallery Visit...Ana Cristea Gallery

In the Ana Cristea gallery, the work of a young Hungarian artist who goes by the name of Zsolt Bodoni was presented in his exhibition called, The Foundries of ideology. Looking through the exhibition and the paintings done by Bodoni, I noticed that his brush strokes had this type of washed out texture in throughout his paintings almost like a dream sequence. Most of Bodoni you could say comes from his life experiences in his country and his emotions I guess to what he was feeling at the time. When I read the artist statement and his biography I learned that some of Bodni's old works were an ironic symbolism of imperialism.Bodoni portrays the notion of politics and an image of what his country was like. For example this image shown here is one of Bodni paintings and it is called, "Black Guard", (2009 oil and acrylic on canvas. 134 x 75 inches). The picture depicts a dark atmospheric and dramatic scenery that suggest that it most have been a rough or struggling time for Bondi and his people in his country Hungary.

Chelsea Gallery Visit... Andrea Mesin Gallery

In Chelsea I visited the Andrea Mesin Gallery. When I first step in the building it was like i step foot in like a twilight zone. The main entry hallway was small, there were no one to assist me and the building was hot. There were no doors around besides the exit door and the elevator door, which by the way looked like one of those old elevator doors that you would see in old horror movies or in The Haunting Mansion in Disney world. Anyway when the elevator did open there was a bellhop that guided me to the level that the gallery was on. The Andrea Merin Gallery was displaying work done by an artist named Amy Simon and the name of the Exhibition was called, "a different STATE of mind". Merin's work through the exhibition varied in sizes from 47.5 x 31.5 photographs, to 15.75 x 15.75 color pencil drawings, to a wallpaper image covering the whole front wall. Simons work seems to display some sort of narrative or a time within a certain location from the photographs taken by her. Some of the color pencil drawings and the wallpaper images are just a copy of her photographs shown in different sizes.
I like the way how the room was displayed for this exhibition. The photographs where hung on the side walls of the two aisle. In the middle of the gallery there was a giant wall that had a wallpaper drawing of one of the photographs that was done by Merins on the front, and behind of the wall was the 15.75 x 15.75 drawings, some of which were a copy of Merin photograph.

Chelsea Gallery Visits...PACE PRINTS

So I was able to go to New York and visit a couple of galleries on Chelsea. One of the galleries that I visited was the PACE PRINTS on 57st. The exhibition displayed the worked of an artist who goes by the name of Jim Dine. Jim Dine work varies from painting, sculptor, photography and printmaking. Dine is able to use different printing techniques to combine familiar images like and portray them into meaningful vibrant works of art.Walking around Jim Dine's exhibition, a lot of his work displayed was mostly on printmaking throughout the show. What I found interesting about the exhibition is how majority of Dine's works dealt with images of Pinocchio and ravens. I kind of like the way Dine portrays the different series of Pinocchio. Each series seems to display a moment in the life of Pinocchio. Dine depiction of Pinocchio is different from what Walt Disney portrays or what we are use to seeing. Here Dine portrays Pinocchio in a dark gloomy type of setting. What I also like about the series is the different emotions that Pincchio seems to have in each series.

Chapter 6...The Studio Visit

-“When it comes to sleeping, Murakami is equally indiscriminate about place. The artist has no home per se, just a bedroom only a few yards from his desk here…He works long hours seven days a week but naps two or three times a day”.

When it comes to sleeping for an artist, sleep doesn’t really exist in an artist vocabulary. As an artist, one strives on progression and creativity it is our drive, it is what keeps us up. Being an artist means that you are constantly busy whether it’s producing art or developing new ideas for the piece. Sure an artist will take a break and get some rest, but it would only be for an hour or two and then its back to work. For an artist there is no home. The studio is an artist home, there an artist lives, breathes, sleeps, and work there. Being an artist means that when everyone is sleeping in his or her nice cozy beds at home, you are still up working till god knows when. It’s a 24/7 time of deal that sometimes is frustrating and stressful because as an artist you are constantly busy, but that is part of being a successful artist.

- “I threw away out my general life, so that I can make a concentration for my job”.
- “A studio isn’t just a place where artists make art but a platform for negotiation and a stage for performance”.
- To focus on nothing besides profit is, by my values, evil. But I work by trial and error to be popular.

-“My weak point-I cannot focus on just one thing I have to set up many things. If just looking at one project, then immediately get the feeling it boring”.

For an artist one will work one art piece for a couple of days and then move on to the next one and finsh the other one later. Working on the same piece over and over for days tend to cause frustration and boredom for an artist because you want to finish the art piece but at the same time you grown tired of it just by working on it for countless days. Sometimes it’s best to put aside a art piece that you grown tired of working and work on another idea that way hopefully when you do go back to the old piece that you cast aside you might have developed new ideas that you can put in the old one.

Chapter 3... The Fair

Before reading this chapter I never knew just how serious an art fair is especially to a collector’s standpoint. I always thought of an art collector as a person who is a rich privileged person who simply buys art because they like the way it looks or it makes them feel a certain way when looking at the piece. In this chapter I find it interesting that a collector is represented as carrying the same importance as an artist. That a “Collector should be an earned category” as Mera mentioned in the chapter. It seems as though that being a collector is more than a hobby; it is a job. Being a collector is a skill that is practiced and learned like becoming a good painter. In one of the paragraphs on pg. 83, Mera mentions that, “an artist doesn’t become an artist in a day, so a collector shouldn’t become a collector in a day. It’s a lifetime process”. I don’t know if I agree with this statement. It’s true that it is a lifetime process, but it’s only a lifetime process only if one wants to perfect and become good at it. Anyone one can be an artist, however a person who has knowledge and knows various techniques to display their creativity is set a part as truly an artist rather than a person who doodles. The same goes for being a collector. Anyone can be a collector is just the amount of money you have to buy the art piece that set you apart from every body else. I don’t know that’s just my opinion.

- “I don’t want it to look like a bad group show…The trick is to find a space for everything, so each work has a chance to breath”.

I think this is a quote that is similar to what I am will be experiencing when it comes time to display my work in a group show. Being able display my work and also making sure that my work and the other artist work that I’m sharing the space with, works well in the same space and also has room to breath.

- “Art world insiders take a hard line on collecting for the ‘right’ reasons”.

Is there a right reason for collecting art? I always thought that art made you feel a certain way, which is why some people collect it. Never really thought that there was a right or wrong answer when dealing in the realm of art.

- “Artist tend to view art fairs with a mixture of horror, alienation, and amusement”

- “You have to make the new work to sell the old work”

MFA EXHIBITION

Walking into the MFA show I would say that the set up of each work was arranged nicely and made the presentation of the work even more intriguing to look at. Walking in each room one could tell that each art piece worked together in the show. It was as if although each artist in the room had different works presented, they were still somehow connected. To me I think the way the work presented in the room is just as important as making the work. I wont say that the presentation of the MFA Exhibition was great, but it was good. It was quiet an improvement from the last show that we visit two weeks ago as a class. I think that viewing the show had me to start thinking about how I want my work to be presented and also who will I be sharing my space with. Well not really who, but what kind of work will they be showing is what I mean, because at the same time I want my work to work together in the same room as the other artist I'm sharing the space with. Overall I just what both my work and the other artist work to work well as a whole within the exhibition.

The works that interested me in the exhibit were Caetlynn Booth two paintings: Night Park and Twilight on Mill Valley and also Eileen Behnke three paintings: A Careless Song, The Rage, and The Things You Do For Love. With Booth paintings the way she depicted the paintings was showing them as diptychs on a 32 x 120 canvas. I like The view of the Night Park the most from the two paintings because it showed a deserted image where no life is present. The way the image is shown as a diptych and that with the two panels they capture the space and information of the image nicely. One panel will have the jungle gym, the street lights and the bench, while the other panel will just show the trees, street lights and the park bench. In one of the back rooms, Eileen Behnke had her three series of paintings. Unlike Booth two paintings that were shown as diptychs, Behnke's paintings were shown as a series on single panels. I think with Behnke pieces the think that fascinates me is the way she is able to capture a moment with her paintings. This still frame where one could view the background the foreground, the emotion of the characters in the image and some how generate a story from that. I think the use of the artist brush strokes and the use of the color is also amazing as well.

Robert Frank's The Americans Exhibition

Last Saturday on October 24, I got a chance to visit the Met and check out Robert Frank's Americans Exhibition. I thought that some of the photographs that were displayed in the exhibit were interesting and well diverse. Each image whether it was the people, location, subject matter or even the perspective, each image was different from the next. To me I found that the diversity within each photograph was appealing because when looking at each image it gave the viewer a different feel and experience that they probably did not have with the previous pieces. It was the capturing of peoples actions during the different moments in time that made this exhibit interesting. Walking into the exhibit and looking at each photograph was like walking through the scenes of a movie. Each photograph was like a still motion picture as well as a narration that either was abstract and had many possibilities as to what the image was about or the opposite that determined pretty much what the subject matter was about.

The photograph that was appealing to me was, U.S 285, New Mexico, produced 1955. I suppose the reason that I found this particular image interesting was because it was one of the few images that did not really have people or even a distinct location. Here one just sees the open road with a car from a distance. To me the sense of perspective when dealing with landscape like this image is rich and is shows the difference between time and space. The way in which the image of the road starts of wide at first and then later gets narrow and small to the point where it just vanishes to the end is great. By the photograph read a little caption that told the viewer a little something about the piece and the relevance it has on the photograph. One sentence read, “a long shot of night road arrowing forlorn into immensities and flat of impossible-to-believe American in New Mexico under the prisoner’s moon”. To me I think this quote is saying that the journey to salvation and freedom seems to be a long one, too long that it seems impossible to apprehend. One can either try, but the truth of the matter is that it is hopeless to feel free like an American when you are imprison in New Mexico.

Zimmeril visit

Although I am not always able to have time to go to New York to go visit the art galleries in the MOMA, Chelsea and etc... This week I was able to visit my local museum which is the museum and look at a few works of art there. I checked out some of the galleries like the Russian Art, Non-Conformist Art from the Soviet Union, American Art 18th to 20th Century and etc.

One piece that I liked in one of the galleries was this painting by Albert Bierstadt, called Buffalo Hunter. Bierstadt from what I read was often famous for his unique portrayal of nature and the perspective of landscapes. Bierstadt’s painting of the Buffalo Hunter is 4 x 3 in size created in 1888, and portrayed an Indian hunter on a horse on a vase area of land hunting a single buffalo. Bierstadt’s Buffalo Hunter displays an idealized picture of bravery, adventure and the cliche of a form of example of a male gender role as man being the hunter. Often at times society have been taught to see men as the hunter and provider while women are the nurturers. Although there are no women in this painting one still can see the image and get a sense of the gender role of a man. From looking at this image one sees the sense of landscape with the grass and clouds in the foreground along with the hunter and the buffalo, and in the background the Rocky Mountains and other buffaloes. The image of the hunter and the buffalo is very theatrical and shows action and adventure within the piece.

My reaction to The Crit

Before I read this book I thought that it was going to be boring and that I wouldn't find anything interesting within the book. However when I got a chance to really sit down and read a couple of chapter I was in shocked because not only was the book interesting but I myself can relate to some of the things that the characters went through or even the things that our mentioned within the book.


-".... so many people open up your work, they say things that you never imagined, and you start to feel baffled".

I feel like this sort of relate to me and my art work because it is like every time I have a critique I feel excited and nervous at the same time. I feel excited about showing people my work and getting a reaction to my work, but at the same time that reaction is a sense of nervousness. It nervousness in a way because you don't know whether it is a good positive reaction that people like about your work, or i wont say negative, but just something that they just don't understand when looking at your work. That to me leaves me feeling baffled and frustrated because I want everyone to understand my work and make it get the point across clearly. There will be days where I will have a design of something that deals with sports, but other people might see it as a design for animals this is just an example, but the point is that every critique that I do have of my work there will be someone that will say something that would make see my art piece in a different persective than what I intended it to be in the beginning.

My Interview with Jeffery John Masino

Jeff and I sat down and basically talked about each others work and are majors as well. It was interesting to see some of his work compared to mine since I was a graphic design major and he was a photography major. We shared our work with one either and then from there we went ahead and started the interview. He interviewed me and I interviewed him. This was all also recorded on video too.

Jeff- Hi my name is Jeff Masino I am a 5th year student at Mason Gross and I am photography a major. I came into the school thinking that I was going to be a filmmaker and be a big time movie director and first day of video1 it turns out to be all experimented video. I came into my own to realize that I like photo better than video, but I still enjoy the sound making of video. I did a piece with a loose narrative with 35mm color and from here I did my first foray into digital photo. I focus on doing closeup of objects that made the viewer try to figure what it is. I also wanted to focus on trying to make the piece look like a painting or something with textures. From there I did a set of somewhat smaller in size but same basic theory or theme where its closeups of pictures that you cant really tell what it is and from here, "I saw or heard sound from the images and I created a sound piece that". I put two photos together and projected on the wall and you heard the sound piece and basically you would feel some type of emotion by it and stuff.

Rudy- How long have you been doing photography?

Jeff- I been doing photography for the past 3 years and then before that I was doing video, so I've been in some type of photo or video imagery for the past 4 or 5 years now.

Rudy- What would you say your more comfortable with shooting snap shots of pictures or doing stuff with video?

Jeff- Photo and video are very different. Photo you could just put a lot of stuff into one photo and have a series of photos and could experience it that way. Video is basically moving images, which is basically a bunch of images put next to each other and fooling your eye into thinking that it's actually moving. I feel like right now I feel more comfortable with photo, but I also want to do video and incorporate the photos and the stuff that I learn in photo with my videos.

Rudy- With some of your work and even with some of your ideas that are put into your work, do you have any influences that inspire you?

Jeff- In my video background my influences were people like David Lynch, Peter Greenaway, and ummmm Kenneth Anger. Their stuff is very experimental and kind of absurd and just creepy stuff. And I guess a lot of my early work with imagery was very creepy and the sound work was very creepy and kind of gave people nightmares. With photo I guess I use my influences with film and video and set up the photos like that or try to tell a story with the photos like them where it's a loose narrative. I also get very much influenced from music, sound and from stuff that I see.

Rudy- With some of your work what do you want the viewer to feel or experience while looking at your art piece?

Jeff- For most of my work I would want the viewer to just experience a emotion or feeling from some of the work whether its a sense of nervousness that leaves them unease or even joy. I just want the viewer to be have some sort of feeling whether good or bad when looking at my work.

Rudy-Do you have any ideas for your Thesis?

Jeff- One of my ideas that I have is a continuation of my project from last year which was two photos projected on a screen and created a sound piece through that. Basically what I want to do is create a experience where there will be speakers sounding the viewer and that they will feel the vibration of the speakers and then maybe if it was a cool blue photo one will feel like a cold air and such from a fan. Basically I want all the senses to be affected by it. What I want to do is have the viewer interact. I wanna try to achieve with my thesis is something that you have to interact with and basically you are the piece and you feel like your part of the piece.

Rudy- Ok, one last question. How do you feel about thesis? Are you excited and looking forward into showing your work or are you nervous about the whole thing?

Jeff- I was nervous earlier last year thinking about it because I should have done it last year, but I didn't because I just had no idea what I wanted to do. But now that I have an idea I'm not as nervous. I have an idea and I'm excited for it and I just can't wait to experiment with the idea and through trials and errors finally figure out what I what to achieve.

Rudy- Ok that will be it. Thank you

Jeff- Thank you

Alex Bag Video

One word to describe the video I just seen by Alex Bag, wow. I say wow because this video was weird and ridiculous at the same time. I say wow because some of the clips made absolutely no sense and were a bit odd and disturbing (preferbably the call me clip). I say wow that after each clip Alex revisits SVA with a different hair style each time, and talks about her experience as a student for 7 semesters. And finally I say wow because I actually sat through 56mins and 58 seconds watching this boring video.

Museum Trip

Well.....where do i start? The trip to the new museum in New York was quite an expensive adventure. Took the train to NYC Penn Station, walked like ten blocks in the rain, took the subway and wined up walking some more. When I arrived at the block where the museum was located, I was surprise to see this silver like structure building with rainbow text that read "hell yeah". I thought to myself, is this the new museum? Sure enough it was. Walking in the museum it looked very sophisticated and people friendly. The room was big and white, there were chairs and like a mini cafe in the ground floor so it was nice scene. I was a little mad that I had to pay 8 dollars being that the fact that I already spent money on the train and subway, but I mean it is for art so its worth it.

One piece that stood out to me was in David Goldblatt's Intersections Intersects: Photography exhibit. I don't really remember the name of the piece, but there was a short description of the piece that read, " A non-white family who were illgeal residents of Hillbrow Johanneburg...in bed on a sunday morning August 1978".The photograph that I seen was of a family that was indeed like the decription said a non-white, who were all laying in bed. The mother, the father, the son in the middle and the baby on the side by the mother. Both the mother and the father were reading the newspaper in bed as the son is in the middle of the parents wondering what thery were reading. What made this picture interesting to me is that on the side by the mother was the baby in a basket on top of the dresser, and on the side of the father side was just a radio. Now to some people this probably means nothing but to me if I was to interpret this photogaph I would say that it gave the feeling of gender roles. Having the baby on the mother's side displayed the mom as being the caretaking, nauturer, and stay at home housewife. Having the radio on the side of the father displayed him as being one with socitey and having interaction with it as far as listening to the news, sports, or whatever it was he was listening to. It almost as if the the mom had this connection of staying home and being a mother with the baby by her side and the son in the middle of the bed, as the father had this connection with society and the outside world. Maybe the father was looking for a job which is why he as listening to radio and reading the newspaper and the mother was probably helping him find a job too, who knows. Or maybe he was just listening to the news or sports, but either way it gave the father the sense of being aware of the outside world with the radio by his side.