Soaked In Art
The blog is back! Apologies for my distance but February was a rough month, and now I am crazy with plans for my trip to France along with working some mad overtime to pay for it. But spring is just around the corner.... the buds haven't yet appeared on the trees but you know it's almost here; the air right now is like the last breath you draw in before you exhale fully, completely, in order to be able to breathe again.
This will be a monster post, because I spent a full 5 hours at the Armory Show. I've been very much looking forward to going this year, to be inundated with art and forced to see everything with the potential to be meaningful and/or beautiful.
Every year when I go I'm surprised when I don't see someone I know, because it seems like half of New York is there. This year was no exception; I didn't even get to see the person I had planned to meet there!
I'm just gonna post my favorite items, probably without credit as to who they are by. I'm sorry! But here goes....
(this is me in front of a broken mirror)
I loved this because it was a painting with a fully dimensional cloth element built in, allowing the painting to just about come alive.
I can't remember why I liked this one so much; maybe I just think it's really cute.
I'm a sucker for finding new favorite collagists. I liked what this woman had to say about women and femininity.
There were a lot of pieces that built upon the idea of three-dimensionality, layers upon layers popping out or giving depth to the piece.
Or not, like this piece that looked like it was embroidered with rich textured threads, but in actuality it was all paint. Zowee!
This artist had a series of about twelve painting/narratives which combined photograph with pieces of a story, part love story, part road trip gone terribly wrong.
Love me some texture.
This gentleman was "pitching" a spray that helps you forget. I think this concept could have been executed better... either more outrageously playful or more poignant. But I like the idea.
I talked for awhile to a charming young British gallery representative named Tim about this artist, Susan Collis, who creates pieces that look stained, or broken, or splattered... but each detail is painstakingly integrated into the piece.
Like this stained rag, which was handmade and the stains of which were hand-woven into the rag:
Or this, which looks like a nail and three holes in the wall, but which are actually precious gems and a nail embedded with a diamond in the wall.
Or this "paint splatter" which is actually ink etched around the shape of a white splatter.
Stained planks of wood with mother of pearl cut and embedded into the wood.
This was one of my favorites - an article about Nirvana that looks like it's been crumpled up, but the "wrinkles" are just tiny, tiny written words about Nirvana.
And the Beatles, with an etching of the shape of a record composed of tiny words.
I'm usually not into very minimalistic art, but I really dig the level of detail and elegance in her work.
Moving on...
Damien Hirst wow!
An interesting take on feminity....
I love how this phrase was scratched out to modernize it into the textspeak of our times, to say "For ur eyes only".
This piece, which was rather large, didn't impress me much until I looked at the materials, which read, "peeled photograph." What! It's a giant photo that was painstakingly, intricately, geometrically peeled away.
This thing was terrifying. It was a raven with a man's body, perched atop one of the booths, and it just hissed creepy things at spectators while rotating its head and swinging its legs.
This was cool - it's called "Death By A Thousand Cuts" and it's a huge collage of NYSE listings with an apocalyptic scene painted upon it.
This was an old-style camera made of wood and camera parts.
A glowing sculpture of globes in a dark booth.
I loved this guy.
It seemed to be a running theme this year...
A take on Degas' famous sculpture.
Suddenly, oddly, a bunch of ladybugs seemed to have escaped. I don't know if they'd escaped from an art piece, or if it was the piece itself, but everyone around them seemed to be freaking out.
As usual there were many neon pieces.
I loved this - a room with a rainbow of "little by little" neon signs.
Glass slippers.....
OH. I LOVE this artist - Mel Bochner is one of my favorites. I first learned of him at the 2009 Armory Show and he has influenced much of my own over-painted text pieces. I think he's genius.
And he was even represented in two booths.
I love this Puerto Rican artist Angel Otero's work - dark, elegant pieces with overabundantly textured paint.
I love the cut paper art, which made me think of MAD Museum's magnificent Slash: Paper Under The Knife exhibit. (Note: if you're in NYC, you MUST see that exhibit.)
You wouldn't believe how many people were crowded around this thing going, "Ohhhhhh, it's a MIRROR." Like for a second they believed there was a real forest crowded into a glass box.
Another new favorite - Devon Troy Strother's humorous, beautiful collages. This one is called "Glitter Bitches Do Ya Thing Getcha Glitter On."
This minimalist artist sliced parts of the canvas out, delicately, intricately...
This was the size of my bedroom wall.
This was part of a set of hat boxes with photographs and beautifully written, poignant, sad statements written inside. If you click on the photo I bet you can read it.
Teeny, tiny silver balls held onto a mirror using magnetic technology!
A tree of life... which I reached just at the end of the show, which was just lovely.
Che, puzzle.
For some reason, this touched me so... I don't know if it was because I recently spent a week poring through old photographs while feeling the great absence of someone I love, or if it's just beautiful, negative-space art, but it really hit me in a beautiful way.
I'm a sucker for anatomical art...
Which had a strong showing this year...
Represented most beautifully by my favorite piece at the show. This giant piece is called "Broken Heart" by Farhad Moshiri... a massive bead-embroidered anatomical heart, broken into a puzzle.
It was dazzling and powerful.
The beautiful thing about the Armory Show is that you spend all this time considering/assessing whether you consider all of these objects to be "art." Of course there is some crap, but this year there were a lot of really amazing things (I thought). But you walk out and, still in that mind frame, you look at everything around you as possible art. And at the glowing hour of 5pm, the world really does seem to be artful.
From the remnants of dirty snow still lining the curbs...
To empty billboard space...
And just the fading sunlight against a reflective building.
The feeling carried in me through the next day. The afternoon sunlight poured in through my windows, through my slide curtains, spilling light and color onto my newly made bed and walls.
Aww... Bunny...
A lovely weekend, filled with light, color, shape, beauty.
love,
*jenna*
This will be a monster post, because I spent a full 5 hours at the Armory Show. I've been very much looking forward to going this year, to be inundated with art and forced to see everything with the potential to be meaningful and/or beautiful.
Every year when I go I'm surprised when I don't see someone I know, because it seems like half of New York is there. This year was no exception; I didn't even get to see the person I had planned to meet there!
I'm just gonna post my favorite items, probably without credit as to who they are by. I'm sorry! But here goes....
(this is me in front of a broken mirror)
I loved this because it was a painting with a fully dimensional cloth element built in, allowing the painting to just about come alive.
I can't remember why I liked this one so much; maybe I just think it's really cute.
I'm a sucker for finding new favorite collagists. I liked what this woman had to say about women and femininity.
There were a lot of pieces that built upon the idea of three-dimensionality, layers upon layers popping out or giving depth to the piece.
Or not, like this piece that looked like it was embroidered with rich textured threads, but in actuality it was all paint. Zowee!
This artist had a series of about twelve painting/narratives which combined photograph with pieces of a story, part love story, part road trip gone terribly wrong.
Love me some texture.
This gentleman was "pitching" a spray that helps you forget. I think this concept could have been executed better... either more outrageously playful or more poignant. But I like the idea.
I talked for awhile to a charming young British gallery representative named Tim about this artist, Susan Collis, who creates pieces that look stained, or broken, or splattered... but each detail is painstakingly integrated into the piece.
Like this stained rag, which was handmade and the stains of which were hand-woven into the rag:
Or this, which looks like a nail and three holes in the wall, but which are actually precious gems and a nail embedded with a diamond in the wall.
Or this "paint splatter" which is actually ink etched around the shape of a white splatter.
Stained planks of wood with mother of pearl cut and embedded into the wood.
This was one of my favorites - an article about Nirvana that looks like it's been crumpled up, but the "wrinkles" are just tiny, tiny written words about Nirvana.
And the Beatles, with an etching of the shape of a record composed of tiny words.
I'm usually not into very minimalistic art, but I really dig the level of detail and elegance in her work.
Moving on...
Damien Hirst wow!
An interesting take on feminity....
I love how this phrase was scratched out to modernize it into the textspeak of our times, to say "For ur eyes only".
This piece, which was rather large, didn't impress me much until I looked at the materials, which read, "peeled photograph." What! It's a giant photo that was painstakingly, intricately, geometrically peeled away.
This thing was terrifying. It was a raven with a man's body, perched atop one of the booths, and it just hissed creepy things at spectators while rotating its head and swinging its legs.
This was cool - it's called "Death By A Thousand Cuts" and it's a huge collage of NYSE listings with an apocalyptic scene painted upon it.
This was an old-style camera made of wood and camera parts.
A glowing sculpture of globes in a dark booth.
I loved this guy.
It seemed to be a running theme this year...
A take on Degas' famous sculpture.
Suddenly, oddly, a bunch of ladybugs seemed to have escaped. I don't know if they'd escaped from an art piece, or if it was the piece itself, but everyone around them seemed to be freaking out.
As usual there were many neon pieces.
I loved this - a room with a rainbow of "little by little" neon signs.
Glass slippers.....
OH. I LOVE this artist - Mel Bochner is one of my favorites. I first learned of him at the 2009 Armory Show and he has influenced much of my own over-painted text pieces. I think he's genius.
And he was even represented in two booths.
I love this Puerto Rican artist Angel Otero's work - dark, elegant pieces with overabundantly textured paint.
I love the cut paper art, which made me think of MAD Museum's magnificent Slash: Paper Under The Knife exhibit. (Note: if you're in NYC, you MUST see that exhibit.)
You wouldn't believe how many people were crowded around this thing going, "Ohhhhhh, it's a MIRROR." Like for a second they believed there was a real forest crowded into a glass box.
Another new favorite - Devon Troy Strother's humorous, beautiful collages. This one is called "Glitter Bitches Do Ya Thing Getcha Glitter On."
This minimalist artist sliced parts of the canvas out, delicately, intricately...
This was the size of my bedroom wall.
This was part of a set of hat boxes with photographs and beautifully written, poignant, sad statements written inside. If you click on the photo I bet you can read it.
Teeny, tiny silver balls held onto a mirror using magnetic technology!
A tree of life... which I reached just at the end of the show, which was just lovely.
Che, puzzle.
For some reason, this touched me so... I don't know if it was because I recently spent a week poring through old photographs while feeling the great absence of someone I love, or if it's just beautiful, negative-space art, but it really hit me in a beautiful way.
I'm a sucker for anatomical art...
Which had a strong showing this year...
Represented most beautifully by my favorite piece at the show. This giant piece is called "Broken Heart" by Farhad Moshiri... a massive bead-embroidered anatomical heart, broken into a puzzle.
It was dazzling and powerful.
The beautiful thing about the Armory Show is that you spend all this time considering/assessing whether you consider all of these objects to be "art." Of course there is some crap, but this year there were a lot of really amazing things (I thought). But you walk out and, still in that mind frame, you look at everything around you as possible art. And at the glowing hour of 5pm, the world really does seem to be artful.
From the remnants of dirty snow still lining the curbs...
To empty billboard space...
And just the fading sunlight against a reflective building.
The feeling carried in me through the next day. The afternoon sunlight poured in through my windows, through my slide curtains, spilling light and color onto my newly made bed and walls.
Aww... Bunny...
A lovely weekend, filled with light, color, shape, beauty.
love,
*jenna*
posted by jenna at 3:24 PM
1 Comments:
Thank you SO MUCH for sharing all these with those of us carving out days in places other than NYC. I enjoyed every single one and have many favorites. But my very favorite image on this post is your last one.
Again, thanks!
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