Brooklyn Studio Visit: Elizabeth Huey

Today we visited Elizabeth Huey's studio in Brooklyn during Douglas Ross's class. You can view Huey's work on her website http://www.elizabethhuey.com, or on artnet http://www.artnet.com/artist/423861713/elizabeth-huey.html

She has a style all her own, drawing ideas from an assortment of sources: master paintings, European and American history, mental illness, old dictionaries and old publications, which sets Huey apart from many artists who often seek inspiration from modern era works. She mixes neon colors with darker tones; experiments with different painting effects and techniques; and uses masking tape during the process of creating a painting that finds itself in her final products. And even when she has "finished" a painting for a show or after a collector has bought a painting, she will often go back to rework and often completely change the painting dramatically.

It was really refreshing to talk to a painter because I find that many painters have often moved on to sculpture or digital works. Seeing that Huey has found ways to be innovative with painting and still make intriguing and provocative artwork was great for me because I had been thinking about how, to me, painting can be one of the most limiting art mediums because of the history that is attached to the art form and the limitations of its paint-on-canvas element. It was also helpful to know what her experience is like as a practicing artist and businesswoman because it's a mystery to me how to make a living after graduating from college with a BFA...or with the dream of making art as my primary source of income.

Two Bridges Today!

Chris Otto's class braved the cold, the wind, and the rain to cross the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge this morning. I've always wanted to do this, so with a guide to boot, I thought it was a great opportunity and experience. Even if my socks were soaked all the way through. After trekking the Brooklyn Bridge, we wandered through Dumbo, an area known as "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass". With several restaurants and stores dotting the waterfront area, Dumbo seems like it would be a hot spot for locals and visitors alike on sunny days. After a pit stop at Jacques Torres Chocolate stop, we made our way back to Manhattan on the Manhattan Bridge on the northern edge, to see the city from above once again.

Art Fairs Galore

March 4-8 marked the beginning and the end of New York City's big art fairs. Luckily we were around for it! For Nina Katchadourian's class, we were to spend an imaginary $150,000 at The Armory on Thursday. Some pieces of art were way off the charts with prices going above $600,000, while up-and-coming artists sold for less than one percent of that. So some of my classmates walked away with one or two pieces of art, but I on the other hand stretched my budget a little and went for six. The Armory...was huge, to say the least. It consisted of two piers that housed what seemed like thousands of pieces of art. Over two hundred booths lined both piers: one hundred seventy-seven exhibitors were in pier 94, and 68 were at pier 92.

I was interested in looking at what galleries chose to offer at The Armory, keeping in mind how the present state of the economy has caused tremors in the art world. After researching some recent newspaper articles, I came to expect that galleries would choose more prominent artists and smaller pieces to "be safe", versus taking chances on displaying emerging, lesser known artists. As a newcomer, I couldn't compare the general trends at The Armory to previous years, but I did see a good number of big names at the galleries and generally the size of artworks were modest.

After getting our feet wet at The Armory, my roommate and I decided to venture out to the other art fairs: Scope, Volta, and Pulse. Below are pictures from (1) The Armory (2&3) Scope (4) Volta (5) Pulse. Our favorite was Scope. Maybe it was the sunny weather that had us in happier moods, but but I think because it was a smaller venue, it seemed much more friendly and open than The Armory. The second picture from Scope is an area of the tent that featured live performances and merchandise in Scope's "Cheap Fast & Out of Control" to benefit artists. We saw Glenn Close at Pulse!
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updates!

Sorry it's been a while since the last post! Recently the architecture and art students haven't done anything as a big group, so the following updates are about art classes and art lectures that we've attended over the past two weeks.

February 19th marked the Drawing Center Opening for "Apparently Invisible: Selections Spring 2009". Nine artists were featured in the show: Susan Collis, Michaela Frühwirth, Elana Herzog, Marietta Hoferer, Sarah Kabot, Anne Lindberg, Janine Magelssen, Chris Nau, and Janet Passehl. The exhibition reveals the range of work that can be achieved through the action of drawing, not necessarily through the process of putting pen/pencil/pastel/etc. to paper (although some artists from the show did).
These two works are by Susan Collis (left) and Chris Nau (right). Collis showed other works in the exhibition, one including this ladder piece, where she adorned a step ladder with precious jewels and metals: diamonds, pearls, gold, silver, etc. At first glance, the viewer probably won't notice these rarities, but once these markings are discovered, the viewer's perception about the colloquial, labor, and preciousness changes. In another work, Collis stitched patterns on a smock where paint splatters and stains usually reside. Her other piece takes the form of a bag, but she used only paper to construct it; she drew with ball-point pens to make the imitation designs. Chris Nau uses the wall as his canvas: he fashions a new wall in front of the gallery wall, draws his design on the wall, and cuts the pieces out one by one. After sanding each piece down, Nau replaces the pieces like a puzzle, tilting certain pieces at different angles to play with light and shadow. Elana Herzog also used the wall as part of her piece, stapling fabric to the wall and ripping certain unstapled parts to create negative space. Sarah Kabot revamped The Drawing Center's bathroom by placing a thin vinyl tape line 1/2 inch to the right and 1/2 inch above the outline of every tile, door, screw, toilet, and picture in the room. Kabot wishes to draw attention to the first move of building an architectural space, and how placing the first tile or floorboard changes the allocation of every other piece within that space.

For Douglas Ross's class, art students visited David Reinfurt of Dexter Sinister early last week. Dexter Sinister is a collaboration of Stuart Bailey and David Reinfurt, whose main office is located in a basement at 38 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side in New York City. Dexter Sinister is a small publishing organization of sorts, modeled after a 'Just-In-Time' economy of print production, where publications are printed and distributed as they are ordered. A very small group of writers, printers, and publishers help to sustain the business, limiting waste, concentrating productivity, and using innovative, pragmatic approaches to distributing and printing works.

Here is their website to check out! http://www.dextersinister.org/index.html?id=35