Interview

September 16, 2013, 8:30am

MAKING [IN] DALLAS: VOLUME 3

Volume III: JOSH REAMES BRINGS TRIPPER TO CIRCUIT 12

Located in the Dallas Design District, Circuit 12 is run by husband and wife team Dustin & Gina Orlando. The Orlando’s sharp and ever searching eye brings a national and international freshness to a sweltering  arts community that’s thirsty for a new flavor. What sets Circuit 12 apart is what could be thought of as the “cult of color” that the gallery presents.  The space offers a crisp, brash and theatrical flair to a community that, at times, treads lightly. The gallery extends invitations to curators for their Regional Quarterly series that opens the space to experimental exercises from Texas based artists, exposing work that might not otherwise make it to Dallas. For their current show, Circuit 12 mounted Tripper, a solo show from Chicago based artist Josh Reames. The paintings in Tripper flicker light and are full of an absent neon glow that references your local corner stores cheap beer signage. Unlike the trap of a promised R&R scenario that those signs offer, Reames’ work never takes a break. It’s in constant motion and only interrupted by abrupt, painfully ordinary images. In their blatant dumbness the works beg to be dismissed as trite, formulaic approaches to painting. But Reames’ masterful sense of space and line pull these out of the naïve conversation. After recognizing their formal power, the paintings reminded me how Sean Penn’s understanding of his craft allowed for Spicoli to exist. Reames, like Spicoli challenging the oncoming wave, surfs abstraction; “Surfing's not a sport, it's a way of life, it's no hobby. It's a way of looking at that wave and saying, ‘Hey bud, let's party!’" Indeed. Arthur Peña, Dallas Contributor

Listed under: Interview

September 10, 2013, 5:02pm

A Conversation: Hilary Doyle

The monumental in one’s life is becoming less and less recognizable. When everything gets flattened, digitized and dispersed, how is one to determine what is truly remarkable from what is utterly banal? Yet still, what does it mean for an artist to recognize these parallel ideas in order to cull some sort of meaning from not only their medium but their whole damn life? More direct, at this point what role does painting play in the everyday? I didn’t intend for this introduction to have so many questions but the work of Hilary Doyle is full of existential pontifications and I can’t help but reflect that. Doyle’s work could not exist if it were not for the core question of not “Why am I here?” but rather “How do I know I am here?” Doyle’s recent solo show, Window Facing Inward, at NYC’s Active Space addresses this question and approaches notions of time, the everyday and the space in between yawn and awe. Arthur Peña, Dallas Contributor

Hilary Doyle | Hand Drier, acrylic on canvas, 16” x 20”, 2013

Listed under: Interview

August 05, 2013, 10:00am

A Conversation: Samantha Bittman

In between the literal and the representational lies an oscillating, reverberating state of experience. When this is applied to painting, that experience is one of working through the visual tumult or engaging with your senses and letting your eyes play the part. What is it to just “see”, to meet a work on its terms and trust in its parts? Samantha Bittman (NAP #87 & #101)offers work that addresses this question while building paintings that visually vibrate. In her work, Bittman employs the process of weaving; interlocking material to create a surface, an image and a sense of optical splendor. Bittman’s recent two person show at Thomas Robertello Gallery in Chicago presented new work. We had a conversation about it. - Arthur Peña, Dallas Contributor

Samantha Bittman | Longest Distance, 2011, 15" x 12", acrylic on hand-woven textile

Listed under: Interview

July 24, 2013, 8:15am

Race & Art Matters: Three Artists’ Reactions to the Death of Trayvon Martin

After George Zimmerman’s recent acquittal in the Trayvon Martin case, I, Iike many, felt a sense of helplessness and dismay.  On the one hand, the ruling was not altogether surprising, but on the other, the very fact that the innocent verdict is even remotely un-shocking has stirred feelings of further disillusionment, sadness, anger, and disappointment. - Ellen C. Caldwell, Los Angeles Contributor

Byron Bradley | “Trayvon," digital, 5400 x 2700 pixels, 7/14/2013, Courtesy of the artist.

Listed under: Art World, Interview

May 21, 2013, 8:30am

A Conversation: Sam Reveles

Sam and I sat in a coffee shop a day before he left from his residency at the University of Texas at Dallas residency program, CentralTrak. His residency produced new paintings and drawings for his solo show, Aran, currently on view at Talley Dunn Gallery.

Listed under: Interview

May 20, 2013, 8:00am

Stacey Rozich: Within Without me

Stacey Rozich’s Within Without Me opened May 2 at Roq la Rue Gallery in Seattle. The 22 watercolor and gouache paintings on display cast the artist’s trademark colorful, convivial monsters in a new light—or new darkness, rather.

Listed under: Interview, Seattle

May 15, 2013, 8:30am

A Conversation: Judy Glantzman

To know Judy, a wonderful and generous artist and teacher, one has to reconcile her kind spirit with her absolutely gruesome work. Body parts, heads (so many heads!) and objects of destruction are rife throughout her recent solo show at Betty Cunningham Gallery.

Listed under: Interview

May 13, 2013, 8:30am

The Big Hoot: A Twisted Comic Landscape of Epic Proportions

The Big Hoot is the result of a fruitfully epic collaboration between Albuquerque-based artists David Leigh and Larry Bob Phillips that draws on the persuasive power of comic-inspired renderings to convey themes of nature, violence, death, beauty and the absurd.

Listed under: Interview

May 01, 2013, 8:30am

A Conversation: Cordy Ryman

I recently saw my first Ryman pieces in person at the Dallas Art Fair. Dodge Gallery had a piece made of 2 x 4’s, painted and hanging on the wall. There was also a corner piece comprised of stacked 2x4’s painted with soft, shiny colors. Upon closer inspection of the corner piece I noticed hand writing that indicated some sort of possible measurement. I couldn’t tell because Ryman had cut the wood off before the information could be fully retained.  But the markings were just enough to show his hand.

Listed under: Interview, New York

April 08, 2013, 8:30am

Plein-Air, Process, and the Political: Q&A with Juan Devis and Hillary Mushkin

KCET’s multimedia project Artbound works at many different levels and with many different audiences to report on the cultural affairs of Southern California.  First, it is a series of online articles written by artists, journalists, curators, and art-world experts from the Southern California region who focus on a variety of topics and disciplines.

Listed under: Interview

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