Aug 11th, 2020 • 8 minute read
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The Weekly Curation: Materials
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On Art in Res we pride ourselves on finding all kinds of pieces and paintings––across material type, style, and subject. We have works that fit a classic, traditional understanding of what a painting is, but we also come across craft that pushes the boundaries of art and painting. These pieces change our knowledge base, opening our eyes to new, exciting expressions of what paintings can really be. Are you with us? As many of us know, acrylic and oil are traditional methods we all recognize from classic art as familiar as The Mona Lisa or Girl with a Pearl Earring. But can neon lights be painting? What about sculpted paper? Where does the concept of “painting” end and begin?
This week artist and curator Mel Reese brings together a collection of Art in Res pieces that explore varying mediums for art across our platform. Each piece here is astoundingly unique, exploring different painting techniques and materials, yet still coming together in a cohesive, intriguing collection. We’re playing with ideas that make art seem truly fun –– and isn’t that exciting?!
And, as always, summer is the perfect time to hit the refresh button. Let’s refresh each of our own homes with a window into a whole new world.
Scroll through the post to see Mel’s placement of each piece, as well as how the selected works come together in a thoughtful, coalescent collection. Make sure to also catch Mel’s helpful educational tips on curating your own collection!
Now let’s scroll onward –– happy browsing!
Acrylic and Oil
The stripes of Maija Miettinen’s acrylic and oil piece are as delicious as peppermint striped candies and licorice strings. As we said, acrylic and oil are often traditional. These are two mediums we see a lot on Art in Res, but, of course, even traditional mediums can be used in countless methods. The use of traditional mediums doesn’t equal boring execution or lack of innovation. In Miettinnen’s piece the artist utilizes these two mediums as a method to discuss and portray her Nordic visual heritage, playing on their traditional patterns. Again, exploring tradition through new mediums––and you know we love to see it. As viewers, we inherently understand this visual conversation as we allow our eyes to travel in and out of the piece, jumping across the pattern though space and time, culture and continents.
Maija Miettinen is a visual artist and a scholar born in Finland. Her colorful works are inspired by her nordic visual heritage, especially the traditional folk patterns of the Finno-Ugric people of the northern Europe and Siperia mixed with the immigrant experience in the US. In her works she explores the tension created by literal and metaphorical warping patterns in painting and in life.
Neon
Here we show the neon painting we promised! Miettinen’s boomerang-like hot blue pattern continues beyond her painting into the blowing embers of Alexandar Galicki’s piece. Galicki’s work, aptly titled Blue Heat, shows us a glowing, powerful neon light –– reminding us of rainy New York streets and late night diner signs pulsing in the haze. Juxtaposed atop the neutral colored, yet expressive background, the neon floats across the surface –– drawing the viewer ever closer like a moth to a neon flame.
Raised in London, UK, and Houston, TX, Alexander Galicki has since spent time in Berlin, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, where he currently lives and works.
Recycled Stitching
This massive glittering piece from Lily Gold is a texture lover’s dream. As a viewer, we climb the lone mount, expertly crafted of recycled paper bags, meticulously stretched into each dip and crevice. As we take in the landscape, we are engulfed in a three dimensional scene, the textured quality of the paper so visceral, encompassing us as a viewer, with the hint of sparkling gold.
Lily Gold is a queer, fourth generation New Yorker and, for now, is still living in Brooklyn. She is a choreographer, performer and visual artist, working in modes of movement, sound, painting, sculpture, and installation. Her paintings are visceral, textural topographies stitched from recycled paper bags, onto which she paints.
Gold Leaf & Indigo Dye
The correct word for Shreya Mehta’s piece is truly stunning, crafted with rich indigo dye and a distinct resist technique. Through applying the resistance to the paper and then submerging the entire sheet into indigo dye we are left with the intricate, strong yet delicate linework where the dye bonds with paper through cracks of the resistance. It’s a complicated, yet primal process, evoking ancient dyeing techniques and olden times. Both the metaphorical and literal beauty of the process are undeniable –– paired beautifully with the delicious gold leaf. Overall, our minds are officially blown.
Mehta was born in India and raised in Antwerp, Belgium, where she attended the Royal Academy of Art as its first woman of Indian origin. Her art—compositionally defined by its intricate layers and kaleidoscopic patterns—defies categorization, employing both representation and abstraction to showcase the latent energy that can be found at the intersection of the individual and the universal.
Mixed Media
Sarah Sack’s rich painting is a mix of washes, layers, texture, and bold lines. We are fully immersed in Sarah’s distinct golden realm. The artist doesn’t tell us which mediums she uses to craft, but hints at multiple kinds. Is that water color? Acrylic washes? Or is it the bold touch of ink? Maybe even charcoal? The piece is about utilizing multiple mediums (Hey! That’s what our curation is about!) to embrace a final piece that reflects both chaos, unity, and totality. The individual mediums don’t matter as much as the final expression. We are left looking for answers and we enjoy every moment.
Sarah Sack is a Southern California based abstract expressionist artist, social worker, and yoga instructor. Her work focuses on the use of color and texture as a way of stepping out of the hyperverbal expression that dominates the day-to-day, and into the non-verbal and visceral communication of emotions and experiences through art.
A Mixture of Media, but not ‘Mixed Media’
In Brian Jerome’s recent studio visit, we explored Brian’s use of mixed mediums in an almost opposite manner to Sarah. Within his craft, each media utilized is purposeful and specific, crafting a strong, clear visual language. Brian lists with precision each media used, providing us the viewers with a Rosetta Stone for uncovering the language of his visual statements.
During his graduate studies, Jerome’s work began drawing heavy influence from a curiosity of language and linguistics, emotive expression, and the symbology of Carl Jung. His work has attempted to make a bridge between subjective, internal dialogue and the failure of conventional language to express the fullness of the human condition. Jerome currently lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania since 2008.
Paper
Like the piece by Lily Gold, artist Kelly Moeykens reminds us that art can be 3 dimensional, working with the sculptural qualities of paper. Moeykens work is both unique and masterful. Her masterful paper manipulations look both stubborn and fragile, begging the viewer to reach out and touch the piece. We are invited to explore paper in a way we didn’t see before –– it’s delicate, crafted quality, and its 3 dimensional presence. With each unfolding bulb, we frolic through the peaks and valleys of the little world she creates.
Kelly Moeykens is known for her commitment to processes. Moeykens creates abstract wall sculptures, paintings and found paper works. Her work is most recognizable for their evocative texture, technique and materials used. She manipulates material over and over again, to see what it is capable of becoming, where it might lead, and how it will migrate from an object to something surreal or sublime. Kelly currently lives and works in Midcoast Maine.
Spray Paint
We have been conditioned over time to accept spray paint as a medium not fully in the canon of “Fine Art” with a capital 'A'. But, of course, we know better than to take anything in art on assumption. Artist Sam Schonzeit crafts a soft expression in this extremely complex, multifaceted medium, throwing our biases out the window. And rightly so! Spray paint is largely used as a medium to create big, expansive, colorful, bold murals and street art plastered on the sides of buildings. However Schonzeit explores spray paint on a surprising, intimate scale –– smooth and gentle, monochromatic and soft. We now see spray paint in a whole new way.
Born 1972, New York City. Sam Schonzeit has degrees in religious studies and architecture and both of these disciplines inform his work. His studio is in several rooms in a warren of an old house in Marfa. From one of these rooms he can gaze out over ranchland and up to Mount Livermore, the fifth highest peak in Texas (8,378ft).
Bringing it Together
On curating the collection:
Let’s learn how and why I brought these pieces together –– I want to walk you through what I’ve considered. Whether you’re an experienced collector or totally new to the art world, it’s always fun to thoughtfully discuss what makes a great collection.
This week, as I said, I’ve brought together a group of artworks made from all different mediums –– ranging from traditional to innovative, each with their own style and flare. With this artistic diversity we have, as always, still crafted a complicated, intriguing curation. We all have those mediums we are most drawn to, but what we have learned from this week’s collection is that you may not want to limit yourself to any specific medium when collecting –– each material can bring something different, powerful, and stimulating to the table.
Materials:
Mediums! Materials! That’s what we're talking about this week! Each artist selected for this collection embraces their own technique, mastering expression in a variety of mediums –– none quite like the other. Even materials we thought we knew well, like oil paint or paper, are repurposed in new, exciting ways, playing with texture and expression. Neon is reshaped, glowing in the piece; paper bags paired with delicate gold leaf. Even mediums we’ve seen time and time again are utilized in unique visual languages that are exciting and reinvigorating. Each artist’s mastery of their materials re-awakens our love of painting with each new view –– and what a wonderful way to see and experience art!
With these new viewing tools in hand, happy collecting!
Curated by Mel ReeseZhuzh by Emily Berge
Virtual installations courtesy of ArtPlacer