In Conversation: Jason Stopa interviews Katherine Bradford

Katherine Bradford, "Welcome", 2009. Oil on canvas, 30” x 48”, Courtesy Edward Thorp Gallery.

Find the full interview here.

Also, I made a new mix you can stream:

Exclusive Interview: Leah Giberson

Slide, 8"x 8" x 2"Near You (one), 6x6"

Approaching

Here's another minutiae exclusive interview with Leah Giberson:

Leah, I came across your work through Tiny Showcase, where you also found mine. We share a mutual fascination for suburban homes as subject matter. As you have mentioned on your site, you did not grow up in suburban surroundings. Would you care to elaborate about how you became attracted to suburban settings, or perhaps how your work has evolved into choosing these subjects?

I was raised by artists in an old farmhouse deep in the woods of NH. The suburbs were both foreign and intriguing to me - I imagined that was where normal people lived. I coveted these imagined worlds of wall-to-wall carpeting and air conditioning, where the kids were allowed to eat sugar cereal, watch lots of TV and had rec rooms to play in. I was sure that the moms kept clean houses, cooked with microwaves, styled their hair and wore make up and the dads kept the lawns perfectly mowed, taught their kids to play sports and went to an office to work. Among my many naive assumptions, the biggest was that the families who lived in these homes had no worries and their lives were predictable.

There seems to be an undercurrent of optimism or idealism in your works – through the clear blue skies and manicured lawns especially. In your statement, you mentioned that you’d like to “imagine what its like to call these places ‘home’”, and that it might not be what it “appears to be”. What do you mean by that?

As an adult, I now realize that a perfectly groomed lawn or manicured hedge is not a reliable barometer of happiness within a home. It is this tension between the seemingly intact clean surface and the discord pushing from beneath or looming off stage that I am drawn to in my own work and I suppose, in my own life as well. I am a worrier by nature and am always on the lookout for inevitable disappointment and loss in my own life. Strangely enough I am also unreasonably optimistic and hopeful and am the first to admit that I have very selective memory, focusing more on what I want to remember and minimizing the harder times. It is this kind of editing that I embrace in my work. None of us can remember every detail of our lives, so we embellish some moments and ignore others in an attempt to make sense of and find meaning in our experiences.

I see that your works incorporate more than just paint on canvas – listing digital prints and embroidery thread as materials. Could you tell us more about your process?

I begin with an archival print of a photograph, which I adhere - either whole or cut up - to a loose piece of canvas. I paint out much of what would give the image a geographic specificity and distill the elements to what feels essential to me. When the painting is very close to completion, I sometimes embroider sections along the edge of the canvas before adhering it to a wooden panel. I then continue the painting beyond the edge of the canvas onto the wooden surface, including its sides. The result is a very textured surface full of surprises as you get up close to it. By the time I am done, there is very little (if any) of the original picture left visible. By painting over the original "fact" of the photograph, I simplify and cover up some parts and emphasize others in an attempt to unearth an arguably truer underlying story.

Like much of my own work, you also choose to limit or eliminate human subjects in these suburban settings – what do you say when people ask you questions like “Where are all the people?” (A question I am also asked frequently)

In reality, these people are rarely there outside their homes or places of work. I don't paint them out. I guess they're probably inside or out running errands. I find most of these scenes heartbreakingly lonely. Even when there are people in my images, they are rarely truly engaged with one another - rather it seems almost coincidental that they are there at the same time.

Who or what are your artistic influences currently?

I grew up looking at the work of Richard Diebenkorn, Gorden Matta Clark and Ed Ruscha and find that their work still resonates with me. These days, however, I find the most inspiration by looking at the work of photographers. Carlo Van de Roer and Alec Soth are couple of my favorites at the moment, but I've also discovered some really incredible work on flickr and have actually started a series of paintings based on photographs that I've found there. With the permission of the photographers, I've made paintings based on the work of flickr members, Brad McMurray, Dennis Wade, David K, George Pollard and Kitty Dukane and am working on pieces by Manny Diller and Bully Rook.

Finally I must say that your work hits a deep emotional chord with me. If I flew above the houses in my own paintings, I imagine they would look something like your images. They are so lonely and brave as they cling to one another by a the road or whatever other tenuous connections they can find.

Do you have any upcoming shows our announcements you would like to share?

I am pleased to announce that I will have another print coming out with Tiny Showcase. This time it will be one of their four seasonal prints for the winter. Each of the four prints will be available as an open edition, but available only for a limited amount of time. The collection will be unveiled the day after Thanksgiving, when they will announce it first (as they do) to their email list. http://www.tinyshowcase.com

My solo show at Office PDX in Portland just came down, but I have a few group shows coming up.

Dec 2- 28, 2008
Grand Small Works Show
Fuel Collection in Philadelphia, PA
http://www.fuelcollection.com/

December 12, 6-11pm
Design Nearby one-night-exhibition and sale
Pink Comma gallery in Boston
http://www.designnearby.com/
http://www.pinkcomma.com/

February 2009
Enormous Tiny Art V
Nahcotta in Portsmouth NH
https://www.enormoustinyart.com/
nahcotta.blogspot.com/

July 2009
2 person show
Nahcotta in Portsmouth NH
nahcotta.blogspot.com/

Julian Lee talks about his work

Julian Lee, Vorstadt, Mixed Media on Canvas (135 x 105cm)

I had some recent correspondence with Frankfurt, Germany-based artist Julian Lee that he allowed me to pass on. Keep an eye on his site for new works. I've blogged about Lee's work previously and he told me a little more about it, writing;

"Like most Artists I’m not exactly sure what I paint, as what I think they mean can mean something entirely different to someone else. One of the wonderful aspects of the language of painting.

Roughly speaking though, I just start in the studio painting, mostly from memory, increasingly so, or occasionally using photos as reference points for subjects such as nature, or the way a particular building looked etc.

Then the paintings go through all types of transformations often ending up entirely different as to what I imagined. The hard work comes (as I’m sure you know) in trying to objectively analyze the work as to what level it communicates itself.

As for the content. The closet I can come to clarifying what they are about, is what the great Willem de Kooning once claimed as his slipping glimpses. The moment the minds eye makes a snapshot of a place or situation and stores it away in the subconscious. That first de-bunking vision is something I search for constantly and try to bring into the work.

A lot of people note in my work of a certain kind of angst, or solitude, which I take as my own search for some spiritual understanding of the troubled world we live in today.

I do like to leave the works open to interpretation though..."

Ane Graff : International Guest Artist Interview

I found Ane Graff on VVORK and have been corresponding with the artist recently, discussing her show with Josefine Lyche called "Remake." I love the minimalist form and aesthetic of the current show - elements of which remind me of other great minimalists like Anne Truitt and the glass works of Gerhard Richter:

Gerhard Richter

There's a beautiful elegance to "Remake" (see below) - each object placement and surface treatment has been taken into consideration. Some objects are transparent, others are semi-transparent - they have even gone as far as to include the grid of the celing into their aesthetic. The artists also appear to be utlizing differences in gloss and matte surface treatments to further the subtle variety of the exhibition. The diagonal organization of the objects in the room gives movement to such stable and solid-looking forms. She's also working with some of my favorite colors (slate blue/gray). I would love to see the exhibition in person.

From the press release for Ane's most recent exhibition:

"In the skylight room at Kunstnerforbundet, Ane Graff and Josefine Lyche show their new project called 'Remake'. This project’s starting point was 'Fragments of Fear', an exhibition the duo showed at gallery 21:24 in 2003. 'Fragments of Fear' was made as an installation, consisting of wall paintings and sculpture. Nets and shadows were elements shown in an atmosphere of physical and metaphorical darkness. The works were held in a scale of black and white, the surfaces being both dead and glossy. “Remake” is, as the title implies, a remake of this exhibition. The new installation consists of monumental sculptures and the work shows evident references to minimalist art. The shapes from “Fragments of Fear” are no longer amorphous, but have found their 'gestalt'."

Installation view of “Fragments of Fear”

"Remake"

"Remake"

"Remake"

"Remake"

I asked Ane her thoughts on using multiple media, she wrote,

"After I graduated the Art Academy, I only worked with drawings to specialize and better my technique . After a while, I just wanted to feel free to express my ideas in other medias and not be limited by only one media. This was a process, but I wanted to extend my work and express myself in a wider range. An inspiration for this was Rosalid Krauss` text "Sculpture in the Expanded Field" from 1979 [pdf here]. I felt there were possibilities and issues in my work that weren`t properly adressed solely by working with pencil on paper. I wanted to work with scale, abstraction, and structure in other medias.

One critic here in Norway wrote that my sculptures and photographies are a clear part of my drawing practice. I was very happy about that, because that is the way I feel too. I feel I am working with 'drawing in an expanded field'."

Tell me about how your art career has evolved...

"I graduated in 2004 from the Art Academy in Bergen, Norway. I was working solely with drawings then. Luckily for me, drawings were having a great revival in Europe and I was one of very few young artists who had specialized in this technique here in Norway. In school, I was always told to work with photography, video or new media, and I was very much on my own working with drawings. I guess maybe I was the nerdy girl in a world filled with new media-people! It just goes to show that you should always do what you believe.

I was picked up by the gallery STANDARD (Oslo) right after school because they saw a market for drawings in Europe. This was a great opportunity for me. I was completely clueless as how the business worked and being in a gallery has taught me so much. I would recommend it to others if they get the opportunity. My gallerist is very interested and gives me a great deal of freedom. He has encouraged the process which lead me to work with other medias as well, even though my sculptural works and installations does not generate as much money as the drawings.

Living as an artist in Norway is easier than abroad. We have a lot of government funding and I do have a 3 year working grant. From Dec 1 I will go to Berlin for a year, as I received a residency at Bethanien Kunstlerhaus.

I make sure I have a solo show every year, and at least 4-6 group shows. I have mostly shown my work in Norway, but I do participate in art fairs with STANDARD, such as NADA and Frieze. I guess for next year I will focus more on showing abroad."

ANE GRAFF
"FALL INTO MATTER"
2007

Installation view: "Generation by Division or Separation I and II"

How has the landscape of Norway influenced your work?

"I grew up in the countryside, actually next to the Oslo Fjord. We had a large garden and I always spent lots of time there. So it must have influenced me somehow. I guess the Norwegian scenery is known for its neutral grey/ bluish hues and its serenity. The "soul" of the Norwegian people is said to be quite melancholic and reserved. So I guess that would describe a lot of the art as well. I think Scandinavian art in general is known for its simplicity, its neutral colour-scheme and its willingness to work in a theoretical manner. Ideas before expression, reserve before feeling."

What do you have coming up?

"I will be a resident at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin for a year."

Check out more of Ane's fascinating work here. Thanks to Ane Graf for taking some time to share with minutiae and the readers.

Alumni Interview

University of St. Francis, BroadStrokes Vol. IX, Issue I.

Everything you never knew you cared to know about me. Ha ha.

Something to Think About

In a recent interview with Pitchfork, Geoff Barrow of Portishead was asked about the new album- which comes out a full decade since their last album. Pitchfork asks:

• Pitchfork: "Machine Gun" is certainly an uncompromising comeback single.
• GB: When you come back you don't want to tickle people under the chin-- you know what I mean?

I love that response. Of course, they were discussing music - but thinking about it in visual art terms is still very relevant. Here's the track they are talking about;