Final Blog Post

Friday Woods - Stanley Donward, 2011

Oil painting. According to Stanley Donward, this series of paintings was inspired by "attempts to glimpse into the dark forests that crowd the European - my - subconscious. These forests are where all the native folk-tales of the North are born; Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks, Baba Yaga and all the rest; the princess sleeping for a hundred years behind inpenetrable thickets of blackthorn, the delectable cottage that houses an oven for children"(1) I wouldn't call this Altermodern, as its inspiration lies directly with old school European Culture.

Untitled - Ian Stanton, 2010

Ian Stanton utilizes a world weary, Altermodern perspective in his work. His photos are generally soft focused with gentle pastel color schemes. His is definitely a global perspective, with his work ranging anywhere from Western portraiture to photos traditional African Pottery. Stanton's photography taps into a global consciousness of hip kids who use the internet to share their work and things they find beautiful.

Osaka Ocean, Wolfe Lienhardt, 2011

Lienhardt's photography is evocative of nostalgia and fondness of memories that may or may not have happened. This photo was taken shortly after the recent Japanese earthquake, but the subject matter is calm and still - evocative of Japan's resilience in the face of tragedy. The calm water in this image is a strong contrast to the recent events - the photo is good on it's own, and only further empowered by context.

(1)http://www.slowlydownward.com/nonews.html

Assignment Five

http://www.juxtapoz.com/Features/feature-interview-with-alec-monopoly
Interview With Alec Monopoly
Juxtapoz, 11/18/2010

Alec Monopoly is a street graffiti artist / studio painter. This exhibit features primarilly images of the "Monopoly Guy", that mustached old banker icon from the board game. The paintings feature him in unusual, comical situations such as DJing or getting his ass beat by the police. There are also images that are more social commentary in nature, such as him being crushed by a giant bag of coins labelled "Bills", or shrugging with numerous headlines of ridiculous corporate victories (What happened to that BP lawsuit?) behind him.

In addition, there are paintings of other famous characters such as Robert De Niro as the guy from Taxi Driver, and Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman from American Psycho.

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Assignment Two

The Cannonball Press series are images that are commentary of society past and present. They are intense wood block prints that must have taken ages to make. There are lots of old school vaudevillian images and icons present, reminiscent of old circus posters. The images primarily focus on modern themes of isolation, indulgence and cynicism. No borders. Nothing sacred. Drugs and alcohol, numbing yourself. The celebration and embrace of death.

"Side Show" by Mike Houston and Martin Mazorra is one of the two largest works there, selling for $20000. It's huge, covering an entire wall. It covers just about all of the themes discussed above.

Assignment Three

Xu Bing

American Silk Worm Series Part II

Book From The Sky

http://www.artistsrespond.org/artists/xu/
This article talks about Xu Bing's participation in the "Artists Respond" project. This project concern's our changing world and our role in it. Bing visited Kenya for its culture and biological diversity. "As a Chinese artist living in America, I take great interactions between cultures."
http://www.hanshan.com/specials/xubingts.html
This article is more of a general biography, but discusses his project "A Book from the Sky" in-depth.
Xu Bing's art seems to be primarily concerned with communication. In his "A Book from the Sky" project, he created over 400 unique characters in the style of Chinese Kanji, and painstakingly engraved them in woodblock before printing them onto meters upon meters of paper that covered a room in his installation. By using indecipherable unique characters, he makes an interesting point about the nature of communication and language.

Assignment One

1. Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, a revolutionary new machine that could create mass copies of production material, jump starting both information and art. News, teachings and other information could be shared with all at little cost.

2. These ideas continue to be a part of contemporary art making because the process creates a very unique image, able to be manipulated in many ways to create a singularly individual creation, while at the same time providing a cheap and easy way for an artist to share their work.

3. Photocopier art relates because it is a digitized version of the same process. You are creating copies in ink from a source and through the process imperfections will appear. It is different in that it is no longer a hands on activity - your input variables are limited to the alignment of the image copied and level of ink within the printer.

4.

Stefania Ferri "Modern Blue Poppy"

Michel Keck - "Untitled"

Bill Oneil - "Cinema Fantastique"

5.

cognoscente

 - A person with special knowledge of a subject; a connoisseur.


par·si·mo·ny

–noun extreme or excessive economy or frugality; stinginess; niggardliness


- www.dictionary.com