Followers

Saturday, November 10, 2012

What Once Was...

The title of the painting is Astronaut.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

KJM @ Nasher


Wednesday, October 10th, I went to the Nasher Museum at Duke to hear a lecture given by Chicago-based painter, Kerry James Marshall.  One of the first slides that he showed during his presentation was this painting from 1981, "Portrait of the Artist & a Vacuum."  This piece is currently on display and is a part of the Nasher's permanent collection.  Marshall has studied the history of painting very extensively and the trajectory that he's followed as an artist reveals the extent of his studies. 

Along with tackling the history of painting, a lot of his work deals with the idea of the hierarchical value assigned to skin color in the black community.  He paints these figures that are literally black.  The paintings are remarkable, but he says that there are conflicting responses to the figures.  Some viewers claim to love that the artist's subjects are emphatically black and see them as undeniably beautiful.  Others have difficulty seeing that same blackness as representing beauty.

My personal attraction to and fascination with his work was solidified when I came across the painting above.  It belongs to The Garden Project series he completed in the mid '90s.  I lived with my mother and two sisters in Altgeld Gardens until I was 11 years old.  I often point to this place as an environment that significantly shaped my early childhood development and impacts my present worldview.  How many people have seen their own homes represented in the work of a prominent artist?  Not many, by my estimation.
The last picture that I've posted here is an image capture of a Google Map situated in an area of Altgeld Gardens.  The landscaping is very different from what I recall, but I also hadn't spent any time viewing the place from hundreds of feet above.  The image within the pink frame is a snapshot of a gathering for my sister's 4th birthday.  I like the kind of interior specificity this particular Polaroid offers compared to the architectural homogeneity presented in the map.  Marshall's painting offers another kind of specificity that I really enjoy.  No one else could have made his paintings.  How many master painters are there from Nickerson Gardens by way of Birmingham, Alabama?  I have no idea, but I imagine that that number is very small.  I suppose the ratio of "master" painters to every other kind of artist on the planet is also relatively lopsided.  Who paints nowadays?

I'm saying all that to say that the world is constantly changing, shrinking, growing, and moving all around us, so it's nice to find yourself in a place where something that feels important is happening. Right place, right time, and all that.  I had that feeling during his lecture.

Articles on KJM:
http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-03-04/art/the-black-whole/
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/AfricanAmerican/Many-Mansions
http://artforum.com/words/id=22098
http://blackartistnews.blogspot.com/2011/01/review-kerry-james-marshall-vancouver.html

Sunday, October 7, 2012

CUR(eat)

Copied from https://uncmfa.wordpress.com/

CUR(eat): Educate Your Mind, Feed Your Stomach

Can art be tasted?
In this next exercise we explore the intersection between art and ecology through the politics of food. For Monday Oct. 8th, Seminar 4- we will meet at my house in Carrboro. In the spirit of artist Elaine Tin Nyo and others such as Rirkrit Tiravanija, we will gather for a potluck. We are also going to discuss the first set of readings as lead by their respective groups (we will have a projector available if needed).
First things first…
Do you recall that old Supermarket Sweep reality show that was revived in the 90′s?? Where one races against the clock, running around a supermarket filling up their shopping carts and the value of the items determined the winning team? Well…yes, you guessed it. I can almost guarantee you that it will be a first = grocery shopping challenge.
The Challenge: A week from tomorrow, I will ask you to meet at Whole Foods in Chapel Hill @ 6:30pm. With a crisp $20 bill, you will purchase the ingredients for a recipe of the dish you will make for the potluck. But spending less than $20 at Whole Foods is a bigger challenge than the last project, you may be thinking…well yes, so the challenge will be to use the least amount of money and still have all of your ingredients.
The Dish: UNC has launched an academic theme about water for the next couple of years- issues dealing with availability around the world, health/sanitation, the economy, social development, and education. If you remember at our first seminar, I provided you with a list from UNICEF of countries around the world experiencing disasters in drought. Here is the list once again —> UNICEF.
I thought that we would combine this academic plan with some of the topics in our readings.
1. Choose one of the countries on the list and prepare a traditional meal from that country. You may borrow the recipe as you find it, or you may alter it to make it your own. Share it at the potluck.
2. In the process of researching your recipe- think about the implications of drought for the making of this dish in its native country- if not as a conversation piece then as an educational tidbit.
3. Share this recipe on the class blog for all of us to have (including an image).
The Venue: My back yard. This is probably one of the largest back yards in Carrboro and often mistaken for a public park. A small piece of history is still visible among all the development around- old barns, dinner bell- remnants of the old family farm that date back to the 1930′s even 20′s. There used to be an old white horse fence surrounding the property, which was recently removed a few years ago. I always found it interesting that even though it may look like private property, the removal of the fence has welcomed carrborites to now see it as a free public space.
We will have our potluck in the field. A sight for potential welcoming of the passerby.
image: from Elaine Tin Nyo’s “I want to Make Some Tamales”

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Friday, August 10, 2012

Head Noise

The dialogue is incoherent.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Hello up there.

Who's up there looking down?  I s'pose there ain't much to see.  A stripe. A stripe. A stripe.  Ad infinitum. Or at least until I'm done.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Friday, July 20, 2012

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Oil on paper


I've been painting on top of these abstract works.  There are areas where the paint has been applied thick enough that once it dries there are ridges on the surface of the paper.  That underlying texture breaks the uniformity of the smooth surface and enhances the painterly quality of the work.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Friday, May 25, 2012

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Monday, March 26, 2012

Hair Loss is a Serious Issue...

I'm not sure, but I think I'm losing my hair at the top. Hopefully not yet though. Maybe it's just the way that I brush it.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Sitting Down



You ever listen to the Andre 3000 track, "She Lives In My Lap"


"She stays alone, never sheds a single tear
She stays in the coolest moods, clearly woman of the year
She and all her girlfriends, they go out dressed to win
She comes back to the cooler side of town
but she lives in my lap"
-Andre 3000

Thursday, March 8, 2012

White Parts Coloured Red

What does it feel like to be involuntarily frozen with eyes shut and lips pursed? A political discussion should ensue. I am a man. My skin is darker. My hair is coarser. We are human. SHE is human. The tasks of determining the hues, shades, textures, shapes, sizes, and slopes of the parts that make up the whole, have largely been covered for her. What has she done, what will she do, what will she say that will illuminate what lies beyond our expectations? As you know, I have no right to answer for her and have probably stepped out of bounds by asking the question in the first place.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Built Forged Faked



(The text below was copied from the UNC Art Department website)

Allcott Gallery Exhibition: Built Forged Faked


UNC-Chapel Hill First Year MFA Exhibition

January 10 – February 7, 2012
Exhibition reception: Jan. 10, 6-8 pm

Artists are the modern soothsayers and builders who seek insight into a complex society. They are a visual narrative. They are the cultural products they inhabit. They are the culture they critique. They are the culture they create. They are studies of space in-between, the nostalgia of places they have never been and memories of the places they want to go.

In Built Forged Faked the first year MFA students of UNC-Chapel Hill investigate unraveling narratives of identity, race, gender, geography, ritual and constructed spaces. These narratives hang from string to object, object to material, material to surface using seemingly incongruent bits of information, erasing, blurring lines of memory and emotions that cannot be jettisoned but are too cumbersome to carry. Though distinctly different in style and process each artist forges a new narrative dissolving barriers, bringing into dialogue issues of place and belonging.

From January 10th to February 7th the John and June Allcott gallery will be inhabited with string landscapes, shimmering blankets, old barns, altered and investigated bodies, natural environments, haunting lullabies, ghosts of the Great Plains, and not-so-functional objects.

Lauren Salazar transforms a section of the gallery space with her three-dimensional drawings of string. Michael Iauch’s videos explore his relationship with his environment. William Thomas examines a personal relationship with race through painting. Damian Stamer also uses paint to capture sites of rural childhood exploration. Stephen Taylor looks at the human physical and metaphysical relationship to nature through the juxtaposition of geology and transcendental philosophy. Ali Halperin investigates digital dissemination and consumption as it relates to contemporary sociological issues of gender and performance. Nicole Bauguss constructs objects from weathered parts of historical structures to address issues of accessibility and social responsibility in art making. Julia Gootzeit interprets nature, landscape, and human intervention in her two-dimensional work. George Jenne uses video to capture the illicit pleasures of adolescent quests and ruses.

Admission: Free

Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday, 8 am-5 pm

UNC Art Department: http://art.unc.edu/index.htm

Contact: Hong-An Truong, hatruong@email.unc.edu