I Make What I Want POV Exhibition
Credit in Order of Appearance:
Sara Cwynar, Board Room, 2019
Tara Donovan, Untitled, 2014
Sara Cwynar, Contemporary Floral Arrangement 2, 2013
Sara Cwynar, Tracy (Chanel), 2014
Tara Donovan, Composition Cards, 2017
Robin F. Williams, In the Gutter, 2015
Tara Donovan, Colony, 2005
Robin F. Williams, Salad Lover, 2016
Robin F. Williams, Because You’re Worth It, 2018
The Turner Prize Review
The review I chose to write about is one from the Turner Prize Exhibition of 2019 written by Adrian Searle. He chose to write about four artists: Oscar Murillo, Tai Shani, Helen Commock, and Abu Hamdan. For Murillo, he begins by describing the process for his sculpture, Oscar Murillo’s refugee before he gets into describing the contents including how the figures in the church are clothed and the decorative ornaments surrounding the area such as paintings and sculptures. Then he goes over Shai’s DC: Semiramis fantastical sculpture, claiming it represents scenes and characters from a book called The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan. In this Universe, a plethora of women real or fictional are gathered in one place. Refrencing that, he says the sculpture takes a childish look upon it. Next, he talks about Searle’s video The Long Note and its approach to feminism. He talks about how it is way too long and some parts of if are unnecessary to drag on time, but the effect it was trying to give off was successful. Finally, he mentions all three of Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s installations part of a series about Syrian prisoners in Sadyna. They consist of photographs of ultrasounds from the facility recording their torture and he believed it to be a very powerful piece that creatively incorporates Seale’s forensic knowledge.
The installation that caught my eye was Murillo’s. It’s interesting how such an adult theme could, at the same time, have a child-like quality to it. The straw dolls are an interesting choice and creates a certain aesthetic in the piece that marble or wood can’t do. Or at least, it’s easier to use straw dolls then go through the trouble of carving out that same figure with wood. I also enjoy it as an art piece with a clear message, not that all art needs a message, but it’s nice to see something I don’t have to be born in 1978 and read three different books to understand. It is laid out nice and simple with different parts for you investigate instead of seeing at first glance. For instance, I did not pay attention to the painting as much until I realized the religious figure in there. And from there, there’s more to learn about each doll.
To me, I believe this essay is successful. It elegantly describes each installation in his own words and includes an opinion about them that leaves room for improvement for the artist and interpretation for the reader. The criticisms aren’t nit picky but are genuine. The pros feel personal to him instead of forced upon to the reader, not condescending. Basically, while giving his own two cents, he still manages to keep the review unbiased which is something a very little amount of historical recorders can accomplish. Being unbiased, I’m able to go to this exhibit with an open mind as to what I would expect. While I think that is a plus to his writing, it does keep him from including much of his personal opinion. This is still a review after all. I think he focuses too much on what the piece looks like and not enough giving it an actual review. It was only towards the end when I got to read his take on an exhibit and only because he thought it was the best candidate for a Turner Prize out of everything there.
For this article’s time, it’s not that hard to come by or talking about anything too taboo when it comes to art. While it is a nice article, it is more of a casual read than an important inclusion in art history.
My Adventures in NY and Their Art Galleries
Sept 4th 2019 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art
As an Art Major near New York, I’ll have to visit the Metropolitan Museum at least once a semester. I started off today without getting lost or coming to the wrong museum, so I knew I was in for a good day! (Well that’s partially true, later that day I did get lost on my way to Chipotle and had to take a lyft back to the Met, but you know – that’s just how life is sometimes, especially for me).
Whenever I go there, it’s more than likely I’m either looking at Egyptian art or Modern Contemporary Art, the latter consisting of things I can’t comprehend because I’m dumb. But today was different! One work came from a fellow brother named James Marshall. It’s Untitled, but specific. It’s a memory in the 7th grade as he took a field trip to a college art school and say another person of color working there, that being the moment he realized he more than capable of being an African American artist. The atmospheric details and colors strikes me the most, always giving me something to look at while learning more about his memory. Seeing it up close, I was interested in the random splotches of red paint I found at the bottom left corner. I still wonder if that was done on purpose, and if yes why.
We go upstairs to see other pieces of art that are lackluster in rich white dudes born with connections, which is unbelievably refreshing. One piece I remember most of all is by Ellsworth Kelly. One of the top three works of art I always think about whenever I think that I don’t have what it takes to be a true artist is by Robert Rauschenberg called the White Painting. It’s literally just a blank canvas worth billions of dollars, a true masterpiece that’ll be relevant for many generations to come. And comparing those two are one of the reasons I really appreciate diverse art more in comparison to art from old white dudes: it is also a blank canvas, but it is blue as well as in the the shape of a rhombus. Blue is a color that’s supposed to install tranquility, even though she used a very vibrant blue, as well the shape of the rhombus makes us want to looked at it because it’s something different and outside the box than what I’m used to. It really puts into perspective what different messages and points of view we can recieve from different groups of people all around the world.
Sept 11 2019 – The New Museum
I went to the New Museum in New York, and one of the best Exhibits there was an interactive Art Piece called Menesunda Reloaded by Marta Minujin. It’s a remake of another piece exactly like this one from Germany in the 1960’s. You go in and walk up the stairs to some Televisions showing you and others walking up the stairs. You go downstairs to see two live people reading a book on the bed who are very nice. Then you go into the head of a woman which has a Russian lady who either gives you a face massage, some make up, or some perfume. I went with the perfume and she told me that whenever I smell it to think of her homeland. It smelled really delicious! Deeper into the art piece, a go through a throat with squishy floors before I enter a puzzle that didn’t have to be solved. I had to push the buttons of the words that I heard, but not only were the words muffled, but they were in Spanish. They couldn’t have possibly assumed I would have a Spanish person with good hearing with me, so I assumed I can move forward without this puzzle. Then I was inside a brightly lit empty fridge before going through a room stacked with sand bags I had to she-shay though. Finally, I came inside a room filled with confetti and fans, as well as a display case that changes the lighting when you step inside. It was honestly beautiful and exciting to go through this maze.
A lot of my classmates thought it was creepy, but I had fun!
I also didn’t get lost in New York this time! This marks the first day that didn’t happen!
Sept 18th 2019 – Judd Foundation on Spring Street
My main life agenda was to live the rest of my life in a studio in Canada or California making art while people world wide give me money to make that art. I never did trust houses, especially as a place I can live in as an artist. Going to the Judd Foundation changed that for me. After Buying his house, Judd built it from head to toe both in his own vision and for his and his family’s convenience. It was like the whole three story building was his studio that he build himself. A lot of his personality shows through the kitchen war, his bedroom, his winery and library, his art pieces on display, a very beautiful home I’m jealous of. It also helps me feel confident that I too can develop my dream home as an artist with enough determination and planning.
Unfortunately I couldn’t take any photos, but that’s fine.
This marks the second day in a row that I didn’t get lost in New York!
Sept 25 2019 – Sara Cwynar’s Studio in Brooklyn
Brooklyn felt spiritually homey, either because it’s exactly like Newark, NJ, or because I was born in a hospital there. I was able to picture myself working or living in that area when I walked though it and inside a studio.
Sara Cwynar is a Canadian artist looking to explore the process of marketing and advertising, making old things news and beautifying things better than they are so that consumers can be more convinced to buy them. I was able to see her natural habitat and her process to a completed art work. Seeing her work and her in person really put into perspective how human she is and how possible it is to be where she is now.
Next we went to a building called Ortega y Gasset Projects where a lot of new coming artist can go to present their art work. It was a pretty hidden gem with some really cool art work in it. It was a profit free organization that contained other organizations like film companies, light designers, glass makers and plant growers as I remember off the top of my head. That as well was a comfortable environment I’d like to work it.
I missed my train to Penn with my group, so I broke my streak of not getting lost. On the bright side, I had a nice Bubble Tea tasting adventure on the way back to Penn Station!
Oct 9th – Canada Gallery
Today I visited the Canada Gallery which is not in Canada to see Xylor Jane’s art. I never thought of using art in a mathematical form, but Xylor Jane showed me it easily can. She uses math to both carefully place each individual dot on her paintings as well as to set a particular mathematical pattern for each painting. I personally found them extremely incredible for their colors and the fun of trying to figure out the pattern for each painting. In the Canada Gallery, I was also exposed to some useful specific details on how artist make a living and produce their work. I learned how to get in contact with a gallery and how useful it would be to host a table at an art fair (and expensive).
Oct 16th – Brooklyn Rail
The Brooklyn Rail is a newspaper company ran by artist Phong Bui. It can also serve as an art gallery. Today we met with him personally as well as his colleagues. Phong Bui was a very wise man who left with very thought provoking words about how to approach the world at large as I grow older. He had many stories to tell about his adulthood and how he grew up to be the man he is today.
After talking to him, I saw the importance of gaining knowledge, experience, understanding of the world at large, and friends. Not only is that important as an artist, but as a young adult in general. If I want to create great art and understand the world around me, I’ll have to spend time reading, traveling the world, and getting to know the people I meet along the way.
Oct 23rd – Drawing Center
My area of expertise is drawing, whether it’s digital or traditional. Going to the Drawing Center today, it was really exciting to visualize a place where my type of art can end up in a gallery.
The Drawing Center lives up to its name and is a center for drawings, accepting art from both old and new artist. They have drawings ranging from folk art from prisoners in the 1930’s to designer’s fashion on dresses and cloth. The range of artist were also beautifully diverse.
Many colorful and interesting people were included in this gallery. One work that made an incredible impact on me was an animation made with ink and paper about imprisonment and their effects on the prisoners. I gained a different view on the matter, seeing hundreds of men being pulled from their families and never being able to watch their children grow up as well as hundreds of men being sent there for decades under false convictions and not being allowed a retrial until years later. I also remember a drawer who would draw portraits of his previous lovers, and each portrait had a very intimate feel to it.
Oct 30th – Joanne Greenbaum and Artnet
Today we met with Joanne Greenbaum before we met with Artnet’s Managing editor Pac Probic.
Greenbaum is a sculpture and a painter using expressionism as a method of creating. She lives in a studio in upstate New York with her pet Chihuahua Tina. While there she talked about her process with her art work, it was interesting to learn that she just goes for it without a plan and whatever happens happens. It was also refreshing how she takes pride in her work having no other meaning besides it feeling right while she makes it. She also made a point to let us know that she never wastes ay materials or any canvas’, that she keeps going at the painting even if it starts off horrible or uses that canvas later to make it a part of a bigger canvas to create one piece. While content is something important to me, she made me rethink what it truly means to make quality art work and I feel more comfortable with the notion that both not all my pieces have to be good to me personally as long as I worked hard on them and not all my pieces have to have a meaning as long as it has an emotional impact on me.
Nov 6th – Today we visited Tara Donovan’s studio and got to know her process as an artist. She takes mundane industrial objects such as used pencils or sticks of acrylic and stacks them together to create an aesthetically pleasing piece. Per her request, I didn’t take any pictures of her studio and I won’t describe any of the art pieces that I saw, but I can get into what I gathered from there. Like Greenbaum, she’s another example of someone not trying to use art to send a message, but doing it for the sake of having the need to create. I feel less pressure to give my art a meaning seeing artist like her be successful without them. I also find her mentality on getting things done something to take with me. She doesn’t believe in inspiration and believes it’ll come by sitting down and making yourself get started. I will admit, I think it’s easier for her her to say since she’s working with premade materials and she’ll just has to keep stacking and see how it turns out in the end, but that doesn’t mean drawing and painting isn’t capable of applying to that mentality either. It’s something to take with me the next time I feel stuck and incapable with coming up with ideas.
After her visit, we went to see the famous Noguchi Museum filled with Isuma Noguchi’s sculptures and furniture design. It was a much bigger mood than IKEA I will admit, but then again I’m a sucker for Japanese designs. It’s interesting how the shape and place of giant rocks can create such a tranquil feeling in the area as a whole.
Nov 13th – Today we went to Matthew Day Jackson’s studio, an artist who’s a good friend of my professor. He takes mixed media to a whole ‘nother level. He uses materials I didn’t even know existed. Not only that, but his range as an artist is as wide. He goes from designing a flower pot from designing games to creating a shrine for Mesopotamian God’s and Goddesses out of wood and marble. He also had a lot of fun stories to tell!
His craftsmanship is original, as I said, as he uses nontraditional materials. From this, I can tell he’s resourceful and experimental. His work is also personal, creating things that are convenient or interesting to him and motivated by the want of the end product.
He’s an interesting character who’s the jack of all trades.
Nov 20th – Today we met with Robin F. Williams, not to be confused with famous comedy actor Robin Williams, God rest his soul. When I first looked into her, she seemed like a woman who was a really intense activist and at first I was honestly scared of her. Getting to know her, I find her as someone I can actually look up do when it comes to approaching my own work.
Her art main consists of oil paintings of woman, previously using realistic figures but nowadays in a stylistic fashion using bright and non-organic colors. Her work satirically sexualizes women like commercial ads would but she adds a twist to the sexualization, for instance, Salad Lover. This talks about how it’s highly advised that women eat salad to keep a well balanced diet and stay skinny, and she paints a woman holding a bowl of salad near her crotch with an ecstasy like expression. In one of her interviews, she states that this woman is m*sturbating to salad. In the past, she also did nude paintings of men in the same format as she would a woman.
Her paintings are very brave and daring. I’m terrified about presenting most of the illustrations I make because of their vulgarity, but seeing her work, I feel more allowed to do so.
