Thursday, March 4th, 2010
Rachel Niffenegger
The faces that Rachel Niffenegger paints are seductive. A couple of her inspirations are “an obsession for gross out humor and imaginings of fantastical death scenes.” Her combination of a beautiful palette with zombiesque ghost portraiture works. You could hang one of these over your couch, and when your family visits – they might not even notice you had a screaming skull from hell suspended in the air over them.
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
Katy Krantz
Katy Krantz makes magical collage/painting hybrids. They bring to mind the French Surrealists’ favorite quote: “beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella”.*
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
Sarada Rauch
I don’t know about you, but I’m a sucker for a good pile of demon heads, and that is exactly what Sarada Rauch delivers. The work is light hearted, but there’s definitely a moral allegory thing happening too. Emily Noelle Lambert told me to check out Sarada’s work.
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Bobo
Bobo is an art collective that emerged out of the Providence scene post-Fort Thunder. I really love Bobo’s poster “The Global Order of the Youngbloods,” it’s an overdose of occult and conspiracy infotainment. Bobo has managed to create a fun scene on their own terms. They ran a space in Philadelphia for a while, but now seem to be arranging/curating shows in New York, and performing as a band. Annie Pearlman brought them to my attention when I was doing a studio visit with Brian Belott.
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
Studio Visit: Brian Belott
Brian Belott’s Brooklyn studio is an immersive installation. Spelunking into a cavern on an alien planet filled with glittering artifacts from a lost culture, might, might compare to walking through Brian’s place. I was going to stay for an hour, but ended up being there for four hours because there was so much to look at and talk about. The whole situation is arranged with the discerning eye of the most selective, borderline pathological scavenger – and set to easy listening music, Brian’s “sonic wallpaper.” I got the feeling that each scrap of torn paper, every tube of glitter has been internalized. Then arranged into an invisible system that had started to resemble the stratified layers of rock at the Grand Canyon – there was a geological, epic scale to the amount of materials. Brian works with some art materials, but mostly with found stuff. He uses those thick cardboard kids books, colorful plastic combs, found audio, and posters. He makes paintings on glass, original music, found sound audio collages, paper collages, books covered in paint and decorated with rocks, and catalogs of other people’s private photography grouped by themes. In addition he does performances, many of which are on YouTube. Meeting Brian I got the immediate impression I was meeting someone special. He has a gigantic solo show “The Joy of File” opening Friday, February 26th at Zürcher Studio from 6 to 8pm. Read more »
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
Brian Blomerth
I met Brian Blomerth a few years ago, he is an interesting guy who makes art about Pomeranian dogs and Alysssa Milano. He combines those two themes with acid colors, mysticism, and snazzy design. He also lived in a (now closed) building called The Church of Crystal Light, and was from what I saw he inspired that group of people. They were Richmond Virginia’s version of Fort Thunder.
Saturday, February 6th, 2010
Christine Spangler
Christine Spangler’s collages are both tender and lewd. There’s an innocuous, cross stitch sampler feel to her work – they’re filled with pretty flowers & graceful sparrows. When you look a little closer you’ll discover something totally different going on. The above collage was a wedding gift. You can see Christine’s work in a show that opens tonight at Climate Gallery called Putting-It-All-Together.
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