Thursday, November 15, 2018

Dasha Bazanova: Conscious Desire and Human Experience

Resort, 2018, oil on wood, glazes ceramic frame, 18 x 13 inches


I recently ran into sculptor/painter Dasha Bazanova as we were making the rounds at Red Hook's annual open studios event.
I first became aware of Bazanova's work in 2012 and, soon after, met this integral fixture of the thriving Brooklyn (Bushwick) art scene.
In addition to making and actively exhibiting her on work Bazanova is a great supporter of New York's art scene, curating recent exhibitions as After Life at Linden Hill Cemetery as part of 2018's Bushwick Open Studios and Ceramos 2 a group exhibition mounted this year at Space 776.

This month Bazanova opens her solo exhibition, Choices hosted by the Brooklyn College Collective.
The exhibit will be on view from November 23 - 29, 2018 with an opening reception for the artist held on November 23 at 6 PM.



Sasha, 2018, ceramic, 3 x 2 x 2 inches

Riding a Bear, 2016-18, oil on wood, glazed ceramic frame, 9 x 8 inches

Dasha Bazanova in Brooklyn, 2015
Photo by James Prez

Dasha Bazanova is an international mixed media artist living and working in NYC. She exhibits her work both nationally and internationally. Working in two and three dimensional art forms, she is propelled by the concepts of time, decay, and multi-sensory cognition. She uses discarded objects to create her artwork. Dasha received an MFA from Long Island University, LIU Post. 


Artist Statement:


I am a multi-media artist. My work is inspired by my Russian heritage, my past memories, and my unconscious connection to Eastern European mythology. My images represent the conflict between conscious desire and collective human experience. As expressions of the psyche, they are at once fragmented and primordial, chaotic and yet signifying of a deeper narrative lying just beneath the understanding.
As well as paintings and sculptures, I create geometric structures made of burnt wood.  These  are arranged to allow viewers to walk inside and look around. This symbolizes my personal feelings, the varieties of choices we have in our lives, and the personal discomfort we have in making decisions.
 

  
Morality, 2016, oil on wood, 22 x 14 inches

Nastya, 2018, ceramic, 3 x 2 x 2 inches

Polina, 2018, ceramic, 3 x 2 x 2 inches

Margarita, 2018, ceramic, 3 x 2 x 2 inches

Irina, 2018, ceramic, 3 x 2 x 2 inches

Election Day, 2016-18, oil on wood, 9 x 6 inches

Dunyasha, 2018, ceramic, 3 x 2 x 2 inches

Anna, 2018, ceramics, 3 x 2 x 2 inches



*All images © Dasha Bazanova and are posted here courtesy of the artist.


Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Subvert City at Minus Space

 Vincent Como, "The Temptation to Exist 005" (2013, Acrylic on canvas with wooden shelf, 22 x 14 x 29 inches / 56 x 36 x 74 cm) 
Photo courtesy of Minus Space, 2018

Installation view of Subvert City: John Beech, Sharon Brant, Vincent Como, Michelle Magot and Lael Marshall
Photo courtesy of Minus Space, 2018




From the Press Release:



November 3 – December 22, 2018
MINUS SPACE is delighted to present Subvert City, a group exhibition conceived by gallery artist Vincent Como. The exhibition brings together five artists of several generations –- John Beech, Sharon Brant, Vincent Como, Michelle Magot, and Lael Marshall -– who are engaged in varied and distinct forms of painterly heresy. The artists presented in Subvert City honor the modern painting canon by undermining, oversaturating, or inverting it. Employing an apophatic approach to art making, the works by these artists range from the visceral and to the sublime, and stress a unadorned, material objectness.
John Beech’s works merge the formal concerns of Minimalism with the common materials and utilitarian objects found in the everyday urban environment, including “discovered” materials, cast offs, garbage bins, and moving dollies. In her work, Sharon Brant applies dense, opaque encaustic paint in black or white around the outer perimeter of beveled oval panels leaving irregular, suggestive patches of wood grain suspended at their centers. Vincent Como’s ongoing work foregrounds a semiotic approach to the color black, and through a wide array of diverse materials, investigates the myriad associations of black as an observable pigment and an absorber of light. Black acts as both a mark of information and an agent of its negation. Working with the properties of matter, color, and irregularity, Michelle Magot’s employs absurd and illogical strategies to investigate the creative act, the unconscious, and non-referential spaces. And finally, Lael Marshall fashions irregularly shaped remnants of wood covered in repurposed fabric, paint, and on occasion cat hair, into humble, diminutive objects that evoke a raw sublime.
For further information about the exhibition and available artworks, please contact the gallery. Available artworks can also be viewed on our Artsy page: www.artsy.net/minus-space.
JOHN BEECH
John Beech (b. 1964 Winchester, England; lives Brooklyn, NY) has exhibited his work internationally for the past three decades. He has mounted more than 50 solo exhibitions throughout North America, Europe, and Japan since 1989. Recent solo exhibitions and projects include Charlotte Jackson Fine Art (Santa Fe, NM), Anglim Gilbert Gallery (San Francisco, CA), Daniel Marzona (Berlin, Germany), Galerie Les Filles Du Calvaire (Paris, France), Galerie Gisèle Linder (Basel, Switzerland), and Peter Blum (New York), among many others. He is the recipient of awards from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, Chinati Foundation, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and University of California. Beech holds a BA from the University of California (Berkeley, CA).
SHARON BRANT
Sharon Brant (lives Beacon, NY) has exhibited her work internationally for the past five decades, including in Europe, Australasia, Mexico, and the United States. Brant mounted the well-received solo exhibitions Plenty (2018) and Sideswiped (2012) here at the gallery. She was also included in our recent group exhibitions Brant / Brennan / Zinsser in 2016, and MINUS SPACE en Oaxaca at the Instituto de Artes Gráficas de Oaxaca Alcalá in Oaxaca, Mexico in 2012. Brant has exhibited her work at museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA PS1, Rochester Museum, Everson Museum of Art, and Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, among many others. Brant studied at the Kansas City Art Institute (Kansas City, MO) from 1962-1965 and moved permanently to New York City in 1966. Her work was included several years later in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Painting Annual in 1972. She exhibited regularly with OK Harris (solo exhibitions 1970, 1972), A.I.R. Gallery (solo exhibitions 1989, 1991, 1994, 1996), and Elizabeth Moore Fine Art (solo exhibitions 2007, 2011, 2018). Brant was a member of A.I.R. Gallery from 1989-1996, the first artist-run gallery for women in the United States founded in 1972. She has been a member of American Abstract Artists since 2004. In 2012, Brant was awarded a grant from the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation. Her work has been reviewed in Artforum, ARTnews, Art International, Arts Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, and The New York Times, among many other publications.
VINCENT COMO
Vincent Como (b. 1975, Kittanning, PA; lives Brooklyn, NY) has exhibited his work throughout the United States and abroad, including in Mexico, England, and Vienna. Recent solo exhibitions include Spring/Break Art Show (New York), Reinstitute (Baltimore, MD), and City Ice Arts (Kansas City, MO). Como has also been included in group exhibitions at Key Projects (Long Island City, NY), DEMO Project (Springfield, IL), Pennsylvania State University (State College, PA), Corridor Projects (Dayton, OH), TSA (Brooklyn, NY), Trestle Projects (Brooklyn, NY), Curious Matter (Jersey City, NJ), Art in General, BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Momenta (all New York), Samson Projects (Boston, MA), Illinois State Museum (Lockport, IL), Western Exhibitions, University of Illinois (both Chicago, IL), Evanston Art Center (Evanston, IL), SPACES (Cleveland, OH), Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (Grand Rapids, MI), Art Museum of the University of Memphis (Memphis, TN), and House Gallery (Salt Lake City, UT), among many others. Como’s work has been discussed in publications, such as Art 21 Online Magazine, Two Coats of Paint, The Creator’s Project, New American Paintings, The Wall Street Journal, ArtSlant, Progress Report, WagMag, The Boston Phoenix, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Journal, and Salt Lake Tribune, among others. He holds a BFA in Drawing from the Cleveland Institute of Art (Cleveland, OH).
MICHELLE MAGOT
Michelle Magot (b. 1978 Lima, Peru; lives Lima, Peru) holds an MA from the Byam Shaw School of Art / Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design (London, UK) and a BFA from the Escuela Superior de Arte Corriente Alterna (Lima, Peru). She has mounted numerous solo exhibitions at Galeria Forum (Lima) and was presented in important group exhibitions in Miami, London, Hamburg, and Berlin. Between 1998-2003, she has participated in several residencies in Tuscany, Italy under the direction of artists Rose Shakinovsky and Claire Gavronsky. Magot has taught at the Corriente Alterna Escuela de Artes Visuales and worked in scenery and costumes for productions at the Teatro la Plaza ISIL in Lima.
LAEL MARSHALL
Lael Marshall (b. 1968, Seattle, WA; lives Ridgewood, Queens) holds an MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts (Munich, Germany) and a BFA from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI). Her recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Gray Contemporary (Houston, TX), 57W57Arts (New York), Dieu Donné (New York), and Mitart Gallery (Basel, Switzerland). Recent group exhibitions include Anita Rogers Gallery (New York), Triennale Grenchen (Grenchen, Switzerland), BRIC, Schema Projects , Parallel Art Space (all Brooklyn, NY), ParisCONCRET (Paris, France), Sydney Non-Objective (Sydney, Australia), Beers Contemporary (London, UK), A/B/Contemporary (Zurich, Switzerland), A3 Gallery (Moscow, Russia), Look&Listen (Saint-Chamas, France), Riverside Art Museum (Riverside, CA), Visual Arts Center of New Jersey (Summit, NJ), and Moulins de Villancourt (Pont de Claix, France). In 2014, Marshall received the Acker Award for Visual Arts (San Francisco, CA) and participated in a Workspace Residency at Dieu Donné (New York).
Minus Space
16 Main Street, Suite A
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Thursday, November 8, 2018

Françoise Gilot: The Woman Who Says No

Gilot in Vallauris, 1948
Photo: Willy Maywald



Francoise Gilot Interview on CBS Sunday Morning, 2017



Abstraction of a Nude, 1945

Idol, Child and Tulips, 1991

Gilot with Picasso and Claude, 1952 by Boris Lipnitzki

"It was a catastrophe I didn't want to avoid"
Gilot on her relationship with Pablo Picasso


Francoise Gilot

Self Portrait (Figure in the Wind) 1944

"In the work of all the generations of painters who were like Picasso, the figure is so huge, it’s all over the painting,” Françoise Gilot explains. “Whereas me, I have turned it the other way around. The figure is lost in a universe that is very much bigger."


Gilot with second husband, Jonas Salk

Gilot in her studio and the photograph used for the cover of the book,
The Woman Who Says No: 
Françoise Gilot on Her Life With and Without Picasso
by Malte Herwig

Gilot and Picasso by Robert Capra, 1948

Theseus, 1963

Portrait in Black (Myself at Work), 1943

In All Simplicity, 1997

Daphne, 1991

The Philodendron, 1943

Renewal, 1992


Return to the House of the Sun, 1995

Adam Forcing Eve to Eat the Apple II, 1946

The Hawk, 1943

The White Shadow, 1954

Gilot by Jody Rogac for the New York Times


Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Prism: The art and science of light

Diana Copperwhite



Curated by Chris Clarke and Fiona Kearney in association with IPIC, the Irish Photonic Integration Centre at the Tyndall Institute, UCC.
From the powerful LED statements of Jenny Holzer to the nuanced exploration of the spectrum in paintings by Mark Joyce, PRISM presents artworks where light is both material and subject.
PRISM will provide audiences with a fascinating insight into the ways in which light is both visible and invisible in our everyday lives, and how it informs our understanding of ourselves and our communications with others. 
Featuring work by:
Polly Apfelbaum, David Batchelor, Alan Butler, James Clar, Diana Copperwhite, Jenny Holzer, Mark Joyce, Brigitte Kowanz, Dennis McNulty, Emer O’Boyle and Grace Weir
December 1, 2018 - March 10, 2019

University College Cork
Ireland T12 V1WH