Posted: February 13th, 2010 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Artists | Tags: animals, antennae, bad ass, badass, brutal, color, creatures, cut, death, flowers, insects, life, live vs death, milwaukee, milwaukee art venue, nature, paper cut outs, Roxanne Jackson, transformation, transitions, union art gallery, university of wisconsin milwaukee, UWM | No Comments »
The gallery I work at (UAG) has a pretty badass show going on currently called Flora/Fauna. If any of you are in the Milwaukee area or are passing through, definitely check it out. I did a post on Roxanne Jackson awhile back, some of the work in that post is worth looking at. Here is what we have in the show:
Roxanne Jackson:
Eat Your Heart Out
Becoming and Solid Gold
Untitled
Rorschach hide
Eat Your Heart Out
Stigma
White Diamond
Lyuba
Pachyderm
Forgotten
Golden
At the artist talk before the opening of the show Roxanne discussed the ideas surrounding her work. Transformation from man into creature or beast is a recurring theme as well as animal hybrids. I agree with Roxanne in that such a transformation is a fantasy, that we are already beasts, yet we often fear our animal nature in desperate attempt to feel superior. I don’t care so much for her works with wigs, but her ceramic heads and animals are fantastic. They draw on goth and horror aesthetics. Being a metal head I find much of her work exceedingly, specifically the black heads with jaws pushing out of the human mouth.
Kako Ueda:
Eros & Thanatos
Eros & Thanatos
Totem
Totem
Totem
Totem
Totem
Totem
Totem
Totem
Totem
Totem
Inside Out
Dreaming of Foetus
Antennae
Gaze
Kako’s usage of paper started in a happenstance sort of way. She’s always been using paper as a drawer, but many years ago she just sort of started cutting it one night. What ensued was a series of beautifully crafted and composed artworks. A large theme in her work is life and death. Life needs death and death life. To depict this she uses imagery of plants, insects, eggs, a skull, and faces. In her work “Totem” (the red paper cut outs above) are a string of narratives composing her own totem pole of sorts. Clown imagery is drawn from her mother’s interest and collection of clown dolls. The other narratives are privately inspired and we can only conclude them in our imagination.
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Posted: November 21st, 2009 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Artists | Tags: alex chaney, animals, characters, collage, color, conflict, depth, faces, geometry, ink, ink wash, intertwined, love, narrative, painting, paper, pattern, shapes, space, sygils, symbols | No Comments »
If I were a fish and you wanted to catch and eat me you would cast a line with some figure-ground relationships, spacial definitions, or some sort of perspective on a hook and wait 5 seconds. When I first saw Alex’s work a year ago I was a bit unsettled by the flat spaces, intense geometry, and mass of figures intertwined in narrative.
Today his work appeals to me for several reasons. I’ve had the privilege of seeing a sizable amount of his work (we are the same major) and am struck by the consistency of his style, his complex figure relationships, and his ability to combine flat geometric shapes with a variety of spaces/environments. To me these three elements in his work make his images continuously captivating every time I look at them. Below are some of my favorite works by Alex:
Also, Alex and I did an art trade several months ago, which you can find the results of here.
Here is a link to Alex’s Facebook.
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Posted: November 13th, 2009 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Artists | Tags: alive, animals, Beth Cavener Stichter, Beth Stichter, bondage, ceramics, clay, desire, emotion, genetalia, kill, life like, narrative, pain, process, puncture, rope, Roxanne Jackson, sculpture, sex, sexuality | No Comments »
Beth Cavener Stichter turns clay into living matter. It moves, breathes, and makes animal noises. Not really, but her life sized ceramic animals are filled with life. Her rich creations are filled with emotion, sexuality, and narrative. The creatures interact with their environment dynamically whether they are bound with rope, choked from the wall, or punctured with metal and the already strong presence of her work is intensified. Much of her work reminds me Roxanne Jackson’s work which I posted about here. Here are some of my favorites from her website right about here.
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Posted: November 10th, 2009 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Artists | Tags: agression, anger, animals, artgasm, black, blood, calm, creative, gold, hynas, impact, intense, kickass artist, painted, powerful, predators, presense, red, Roxanne Jackson, sculpture, vibrant strong, white | No Comments »
Roxanne Jackson’s compelling creations tap into my sense of mortality. The rawness and weight of her work makes it dangerous, and exciting. “Fight or flight” sensations occur not so infrequently. The aesthetics of her work are simply awesome. Her animal forms are very realistic in that they look real, but also they have a real presence within the room (or within the photograph of the room) as if I could feel its body heat. The rich golds, heavy blacks, and powerful reds simply fry my brain with joy. Here is a clip from her artist statement:
“I am concerned with confronting the shadows of the unconscious, having a dialogue with the grotesque and, therein, discovering beauty. The tenor of my work is macabre and emotional as I deal with extreme axioms to dramatize the dualities of our nature; these polar aspects reside within us and include the male and female, vulnerability and strength, the light and the dark.”
Below are some of my favs:
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Posted: November 10th, 2009 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Artocalyptic News | Tags: acrylic, animals, birds, cats, Daily Img, dogs, epic, frolic, happy, horse, movement, narrative, negative, pig, space, squirrel, storyline, tale | No Comments »
The main image is appropriated from a children’s book, but the negative space is mine.
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Posted: November 8th, 2009 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Daily Img | Tags: animals, cars, change, city, collage, color diffrence, Daily Img, new, old, one of my best collages to date!, paper, paste, people, rural, shapes, smoke, time, times, tree, urban, village | No Comments »
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Posted: October 23rd, 2009 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Artists | Tags: animals, black, buddah, creations, creatures, dragon, email, horse, man, reptiles, spider, tire art | No Comments »
My roommate sent me an email with these images and there was no listing of the creators. I don’t like putting art up here when I can’t give the artist’s(s’) name but these are too cool not to show:
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