Tag Archives: +aRt

“Well Hung” Artists: Feature on Samantha West

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Megan M. Garwood, Assistant Contributing Editor

Samantha West captures intimacy with her camera. The context of her photograph alludes to West’s intention and influences the viewer’s interpretation of the piece. In Underwater Part 1, West presents a face of a woman submerged underwater framed with, as well as hidden behind, frail and suspended strands of blonde hairs. The dichotomy of the two uses of hair intensifies an inherent tension found in the photograph. The subject acclimates to an unnatural environment, yet her lips pout and mouth remains slightly open implying that she remains either content or even aroused. The viewer catches West’s model the instant that she embraces water and notices how different it feels from land or gravity. Furthermore, West’s photograph reveals a repressed pleasure that is undeniable once photographed and well-hung on a gallery wall. West exposes human’s innate acceptance of weightlessness, in turn human’s enchantment by freedom.

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“Well Hung” Artists: Feature on Jordan Seiler

Posted on March 20, 2011 by Megan M. Garwood, Assistant Contributing Editor

Jordan Seiler runs Public Ad Campaign, an organization that promotes the public’s interaction with public spaces. Public Ad Campaign aims at filling outdoor advertisement spaces with art to lessen the impact that privately owned companies or corporations have on people and their environment—making public property public again. Armed with acts of civil disobedience in accords with Henry David Thoreau’s theory, the organization intends to increase citizens’ interactions and generate a stronger “general will.” When Seiler isn’t advocating people’s rights, he spends time creating art. Odessa Giving Up the Gun depicts a faceless woman encompassed by waves of dark hair, rendered with bold, thick black lines and contours. Pages of used books color her skin while acting as the background of the work too. Interestingly, Seiler’s minimalistic formal style, concentration of graphic shapes, and reliance on flatten pictorial space mimic the advertisements to which he objects.

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“Well Hung” Artists: Feature on Andrew Poneros

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Megan M. Garwood, Assistant Contributing Editor

Andrew Poneros grew up in Queens; therefore he was introduced to the city’s graffiti at an early age. He renamed himself PORK, his tag, as a verbal poke at the subculture’s tendency to canonize misspelled words as tag names. To amend his street style, Poneros began to carve stencils out of cardboard removing his artistic stroke from graffiti. Stencils concentrate on textual design, not simply a name. Moreover, he utilized the visibility a public surface provided and incorporated phrases and iconography to comment on social issues. Poneros literally contrived public installations disregarding the fact that they weren’t commissioned. Alas, this bad boy gained quite a reputation globally as well as in the art world. According to his biography, Poneros creates his “own mythology” with symbols. Hence, No Prey No Pay pays homage to his history including his heritage. Poneros prepares his box of symbolism with layers of tight graphic imagery on glass and wood.

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“Well Hung” Artists: Feature on Alfredo Martinez

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Megan M. Garwood, Assistant Contributing Editor

**titled Spazz 18

Yes, Mint&Serf of Well Hung got THE Alfredo Martinez who assisted Donald Baechler, was imprisoned after he had forged Basquiat drawings, mimicked Ghandi’s cool and collective approach to social reform, and went on a hunger strike to protest New York State Prison Laws prohibiting art in jail. Martinez has always had a penchant for big bangs, not just in the press. In 2006 Mint&Serf featured Martinez in a solo show entitled Arsenal for Democracy: War Corporatism at The Canal Chapter where several artillery-sized nonfunctioning guns along with a collection of small ink drawings were on display. In Spazz 18, Martinez constructs his collaged paper by hand and depicts a large, boldly-colored gun. His minimal color palette and flatten subject matter nearly form an engineer plan, boldly informing the viewer that Martinez knows what he is doing. There is no intentional marking on the drawing to suggest Martinez has a conceptual seed planted somewhere in the pistol. His precise rendering of a gun separates him from the work, therefore opening up a dialogue between viewer and drawing. Echoing Warhol’s Crash series, Spazz 18 merely forces the viewer to fixate on an image that confronts Americans daily and to consider it art.

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“Well Hung” Artists: Feature on Pablo Power

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Megan M. Garwood, Assistant Contributing Editor

Pablo Power was born in a log cabin in rural Maryland but spent his formative years in the seamy, creative crucible of Miami of the 1980′s and 90′s. While bombing every city space, Power had assembled an impressive textual design portfolio without even realizing it. After years of documenting works on the streets, he widened his frame and captured more than the paintings on the façades. Now, Power immortalizes the whole building, the adjacent street, train tracks, and the bizarre characters that populate them. Once he incorporates these photographs with studio work, he experiments with texture and medium by applying pure pigment and found notes from the gutter to wood panels. Power embraces the culture that his works portray. He admits that his archive has been built by his enjoyable rambles in a side of the city, most don’t see.They Live On Within Us (full title above) displays years of artistic investigation that have coalesced effectively.

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“Well Hung” Artists: Feature on Jeff and Will Robbins

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Megan M. Garwood, Assistant Contributing Editor

Jeff and Will Robbins, (Gold Metallic), 2011, 67" x 67" Blowtorch, plastic couch cover and gold leaf

It takes two Robbins, Jeff and Will, to consider stretching the plastic cover intended to protect a couch over stretcher bars, in turn creating a transparent rather than primed surface. The deconstruction of found objects and iconography often appears in the trajectory of Contemporary Art History, yet the Kitsch factor disappears beneath layers of hastily applied gold leaf that appear to be scraped away to expose the painting’s interior. (Gold Metallic) features a dichotomy of high art trimmings on rough and tough terrain. It appears that the Robbins have discovered a way to bear their artistic souls—literally—as the viewer can see through either side of the painting. Nevertheless, the Robbins’ technique cannot be coined as vacuous because although superficially their work is see-through, their thought is tightly wrapped and blowtorched. As a well-hung painting, The Robbins add another dimension to the traditional painting by problematizing the idea of surface. Unable to turn the piece,  the viewer is pleasurably tortured with the naughty idea of taking (Gold Metallic) of the wall and view it in the round.

Corrections: In initial article the artists names were misspelled and the medium was wrongly defined. These mistakes have been mended.

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“Well Hung” Artists: Feature on Adam Krueger

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Megan M. Garwood, Assistant Contributing Editor

Infamous on New York City streets, the classic and super-cool duo Mikhail Sokovikov and Jason Aaron Wall also know as Mint&Serf have curated an unexpected (for Chelsea) but much welcomed exhibition Well Hung at The Chelsea Chapter in the new high-rise +aRt. As a fundraiser benefit for Free Arts NYC, the show eliminates Chelsea buyer’s remorse after purchasing a work by one of the many well-hung artists on view until April 3rd.

Speaking of the artists, On-Verge would like to feature an individual artist from the show each day this week.

Adam Krueger presents the modern-day pedigree of Michelangelo. He probably could repaint the Sistine Chapel ceiling with a single-hair paint brush. Krueger’s nearly OCD-ish approach to creation hides behind a finished surface, but his fragmented installation process proves that he knows it is the 21st Century. The mere act of stretching, sketching, painting then cutting the canvas seems a bit disconcerting. After Krueger has placed the cut canvas to the wall, he positions painted pieces to play with negative space. Similar to a peep show, Krueger exposes just enough to capture the viewer’s attention. The tension compares to what one feels when he or she reflects on fleeting glances on the street, sheepish touches while navigating through a packed subway cart, all those vaporous memories that people nearly forget daily.

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