Artist 6: Jean Shin

This artist uses tons of a certain kind of found object, like keys from a keyboard, trophies, lottery tickets or old records to create sculptures that give a zoomed out look at American culture. A few discarded lottery tickets by themselves don't make much of a statement, but towers built out of these seemingly unsteady and unpredictable pieces of our culture can communicate a lot.

I specifically like the forms she chooses for these sculptures. They are incredibly unpredictable, for example, she uses the keyboard keys to make a pseudo textile form. She uses wine bottles to fill a doorway, creating the illusion of a stained glass window. Pots stuck to the ground using concrete become fun stepping stones in a park in New York. She uses the forms as one of her main tools to show the viewer something in the objects that they might not have originally seen, especially in just one of the objects by itself.

And this is not only functional aspects of the object. Often it is social or cultural aspects. For example, in one installation, she takes items of different museum uniforms or work clothes and deconstructs them and hangs them on a wall all right next to each other. This takes away social aspects of the clothing that the viewer might not even realize they are noticing on an everyday basis, putting the janitor's clothes right next to the director's clothing, and bringing attention to the way that clothing is part of class distinction in our culture.

Check out her website here.

Artist 5: Victor Castillo

I found his website online today, and I fell in LOVE this artist! A lot. Like you don't even understand.
Besides how wonderfully creepy and colorful it all is, everything in his work is symbolic. I love symbolism! Looking at his art I imediately understood a lot of the symbols. His pieces tell a story of corrupted beauty. He takes very beautiful colors and styles, and innocent, fun, and humorous cartoon characters, and twists them to bring attention to the rampant greed, lust and vanity of our society. His pieces are all about the way that people use others to get what they want, knowingly or unknowingly. An interesting thing I noticed is that often both the dominant character and the victim are smiling.

Even after looking at his paintings and seeing all of that I was so curious and I wanted to know more. (Which is  a good thing!) I found an interview where he explained some more of the symbolism. Especially his creepy vintage cartoon characters. Their vacant eye sockets represent ignorance, their long sausage noses allude to Pinocchio and represent a culture built on lies and fleshly desires. He chooses children as his main characters, because he says children are often cruel without realizing it and he believes that we often are the same. He also mentioned that he thinks it is so fake how everyone is always smiling in magazine pictures and on TV, because you know everyone isn't always that happy. So, I'm guessing that's why all his characters are always smiling.

In conclusion, he is my new favorite.
Here is his link definitely check his page out!

Artist 4: Yue Minjun

     This artist is from China, and he has created a series of self portraits that are really interesting. He paints himself with super exaggerated smiles, and often uses repetition and context to convey his message. He also gives each piece a title that is an aphorism about smiling. You can definitely see his Chinese heritage in these paintings from the style which looks like ink to the bamboo to the appropriation of Buddhist imagery to the aphoristic titles. But you can also see elements of American pop culture such as Marilyn Monroe and famous American cartoons.

     I love the caricature style he uses to paint himself. It adds to the sarcasm. I'm not sure exactly what he's trying to say with these pieces, but I'm guessing it's got something to do with making fun of propaganda. I'm also guessing, part of why I don't completely get it is that I'm not from China.

     What I do get from these pieces is his repetition of his self portrait. It adds unity to the series, and becomes a symbol which carries more and more meaning as it's repeated in multiple pieces. I also love the specific facial expression he chose to repeat. It is a smile so big that it seems pained. It really depends on the context of the painting whether it seems happy or angry. It makes me want to know more and ask questions, which is a good thing.

Here are some links with info about Yue Minjun
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/yue_minjun.htm
http://hifructose.com/2012/05/24/yue-minjuns-iconic-self-portraits/

Artist 3: Cindy Sherman

Because I love her.
I know, everyone has heard of Cindy Sherman. (If not, shame on you, haha)
But I had to write a post about her, and sooner rather than later. So, today I looked through her MoMA exhibit. Which was great. Of course, because it's Cindy Sherman.

She is the queen of costumed, self-posed, identity-exploring photography. Her photos draw from famous movies and paintings and explore issues of gender, age, and cultural aesthetics.

I especially noticed looking through the exhibition site, the way she plays with composition. She likes to use angles, especially in her earlier photos. There are all kinds of angles in those photos, and she uses them to balance the composition and draw the viewer's attention where she wants it. In other photos, she imitates a famous composition, but brings new contemporary elements to it. There are also a few that are zoomed way out. So, she's in the picture but she's pretty small. But still you know she's there, because she is always in her photos, so you look for her. It is very sneaky and cool.

In general, she uses viewer expectations of what a portrait or a certain kind of composition should show and twists them. I liked that a lot. I think it would be interesting to incorporate some kind of hide and seek using maybe distorted kinds of perspective or strange framing into my own work to play on viewer expectations of a portrait, to help explore some of my own themes.



P.S. Here is the link for the MoMA exhibition. You should definitely check it out!

Artist 2: Gaby Herbstein

So, this artist makes calendars. Her themes are often related to the environment, like her UNO calendar, which features models in organically inspired costumes or her La Basura No Es Basura calendar which has sculptures made entirely of recycled trash.

The backgrounds of her images are usually some kind of colored gradient. The vagueness of the background adds to the element of fantasy and makes her figures seem to jump off the page.

I really like the way that she incorporates sculpture and costume into her 2-dimensional pieces. I think the multiple facets of these pieces: the sculpture, the costumes, the staging and the photography all contribute to making these pieces very unique and lively.

Also, making calendars is the most brilliant idea ever. You can see more at http://www.gabyherbstein.com/

.

Artist 1: Tom Chambers

Tom Chambers is one of the few contemporary artists whose work I'm familiar with prior to this class.

His pieces often feature women in beautiful, billowy dresses, and that just makes the 5-year old little girl inside of me happy. They use lots of symbolism from the cultures of different areas that he visits, and from the Christian tradition (ie: lambs, snakes, rosaries). Generally the symbolic elements, the way the figure is posed, and the setting tell some kind of story, relating to the overarching theme he is exploring within that series. Often the series focus on a certain culture or time of life, and explore the spiritual behind the physical reality, the unseen behind the seen.

Elements that I might want to emulate are the way he uses light and color to create a darker fairytale effect. A lot of the feeling of magic and the spiritual in his pieces involves the lighting. Also, the way he incorporates his symbolism into the pieces is very interesting he uses compositions that emphasize symbolic details instead of giving the whole picture. Also, it is making me think about the way costuming could enhance my pieces. He is very deliberate about the way his subjects are dressed, and it adds a lot to his pieces. That is something I might also want to incorporate.\

To see more of his work click here.

Happy Summer!

This is where I will be posting my comments on all of the artists I'm looking at this summer, and just babbling and ranting. Because that's what blogs are for, right? If I get really ambitious I might post some of my sketches too!- if you want to see some more finished pieces I just started a flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/jenkapp

To Professor Skees, this is all getting started a little late, because I didn't have internet access for the past couple weeks, but now I do. So tonight and tomorrow I'll be posting about artists I'm looking at, and some of the work I've done the past couple weeks.