Saturday, December 12, 2015

Week of November 13- Postmodern & Global Art : Video Art and Performance Art- Bill Viola


Bill Viola is one of the most famous artist in the world and could also be called the video art inventor. Viola has created many installations, sound environments, video films, etc. Such works have been used as a way of creating a personal voyage to the visitors. Meaning that whatever they see and feel connected to will exhibit a much more profound meaning. Viola’s goal is to create an internal world and a personal voyage where the visitor is submerged into the metaphysical world. When talking about the metaphysical word as the different stages of his work which are Who am I? Where I am? and Where am I going?. Viola’s speciality is to develop a work that would incite metaphysical interrogations for his visitors by not resembling a classroom because he wants to preserve the world that art provoke. In fact Viola’s clarity and awareness present questions of the human conditions but the way he does is in a completely different way by exhibiting metaphysical interrogations through his works of art.  

Artist interview from the Art 21 website and write a summary of their work on your blog-OCT30


In the interview of the artist Keltie Ferris, she describes her new series of abstract paintings in her Bushwick, Brooklyn studio. Ferris describes her paintings as something that is seeing through to other worlds of hiding and exposing. Something that is abstract, something that is hard to express and at the same time unnameable. Ferris talks about how she connects to the world while working alone. Solitude for her is a way of getting close together with her inner self. Being by herself and painting at the same time is some type of technique that enables her to experience both pleasure and anxiety, while working in solitude. In fact, Ferris finds inspiration in books and urban environments. Ferris also situates her works of art in an art historical tradition by applying oil paint with a variety of techniques such as using brush, palette knife, and a spray gun and ends up building up layers of marks over various weeks into complex patterns and shapes. Describing her work of art as an abstraction that is about “trying to undo the nameable things in life”.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Take home part of Final Test Essay



At the PS1 Moma museum trip there were a lot of different works of art that caught my attention but this work of art by Gina Beavers, Love Yourself, acrylic on canvas, 2015 made me think about the importance of having self-confidence and loving yourself. This work of art resembles a person’s navel framed by hands that form a heart-shape around the exposed belly and hands touching their own body that in fact can not only represent loving yourself but also portrays the vivid image when you look at yourself in the mirror and realize that what you got in front of you it's you, and you are supposed to love yourself for who you are. It can represent both the security and insecurity of many individuals when it comes to self-loving. Sometimes a person might feel intimidated of his or her own body, some don’t even like it. This is why this painting shows hands touching their own body. It can also reflect the importance of the saying that demands to “Love yourself first in order to make someone love you”. The artwork is in fact totally creative and what also grabs my attention is the fact that Beavers’ work shows a body that is formed in paint, which is an artificial body. However, the most interesting fact is how the paint is just paint and artificial, yet the body resembles a vivid image of an alive body. Also, the rough texture used in the surface of the painting contributes immensely when showing the vivid body on the painting. Hands touching their own body can have a millions of strange effects and feelings on human beings.



Another work of art that grabbed my attention from the PS1 Moma museum trip was Lobster Roll, 2012, Acrylic on canvas by Gina Beavers. This painting is not only connected to the millions of pictures uploaded on the famous application instagram and the famous phrase on a hashtag as #Foodporn. It has some type of connection to what our word is becoming today but also her work is impeccable because Beaver, not only paints but uses a base for the image and uses some sort of thickening rough texture that represent the different shapes that she is building. The things that most catches my attention is the fact that when her painting is hanging in the wall looks so real and due to the rough texture used when designing it, her work has a lumpy look and a physical quality that makes you want to devour what is in front of you.

Bibliography and Outline for oral presentation

Humanneeddesire.jpg   


Bruce Nauman,


                    Bruce Nauman is an inspiring American Artist that is known for creating his unique styles of  sculpture, photography, neon, video drawing and performance. Nauman was born on December 6, 1941 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Nauman studied mathematics and physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1960–64), and art with at the University of California, Davis (1965–6). In 1964 he gave up painting to dedicate himself to sculpture, performance and cinema collaborations with William Allan and Robert Nelson. He worked as an assistant to Wayne Thiebaud. Upon graduation (MFA, 1966), he taught at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1966 to 1968, and at the University of California at Irvine in 1970. In 1968 he met the singer and performance artist Meredith Monk and signed with the dealer Leo Castelli. Nauman further moved to Pecos, New Mexico. In 1989, he established a home and studio in Galisteo, New Mexico, where he continues to work and live along with his wife, the painter Susan Rothenberg. Nauman also seems to be fascinated by the nature of communication and language’s inherent problems, as well as the role of the artist as supposed communicator and manipulator of visual symbols. 
Since the mid-1980s, primarily working with sculpture and video, Nauman has developed disturbing psychological and physical themes incorporating images of animal and human body parts. In 1988, after a hiatus of nearly two decades focused on time-based media, he resumed his work with cast objects. One of his best-known pieces from this period is "Window or Wall Sign," a neon spiral with the words "The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths." About this time he began experimenting with sound in spaces and soon embarked on using holography. Gradually, Nauman built a reputation as an exciting new experimental artist.

Outline:
I will introduce 5 slides of Bruce Nauman works of art:

1)Good Boy Bad Boy, 19852) Learned Helplessness in Rats, 19883) Studies for Holograms (a-e), 19704)Animal Pyramid, 1989
5)Double Poke in the Eye II, 1985