Streets: Vhils (Lisbon)
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Streets: World Roundup (May 19 – Jun 1)
Agostin0 Iacurci - Rome[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_253509" align="aligncenter" width="950"]
Faith47 - London[/caption]
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Faith47 - London[/caption]
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Telmo Miel - France[/caption]
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Woozy x Borondo - London[/caption]
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Run - The Museum of London[/caption]
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Thierry Noir - The Museum of London[/caption]
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John Dolan - The Museum of London[/caption]
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Franco Fasoli Jaz - Rome[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_253512" align="aligncenter" width="950"]
Liqen - Rome[/caption]
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Lonac - Koprivnica[/caption]
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Nawer & Sepe in Krakow. Photo by Bartłomiej Senkowski. Via Graffuturism.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_253589" align="aligncenter" width="960"]
Evoca1 - "Una Vida por Un Sueno" in Mexico City for Indeleble. Via Savage Habit.[/caption]
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Bordalo II on the Sintra Line (Lisbon). Via Stick2Target.[/caption]
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Icy & Sot x Sonni - "Gulliver" in New York CIty. Photo by Daniel Weintraub (via StreetArtNews).[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_253594" align="aligncenter" width="1111"]
Paulo Ito in Sao Paulo. Via Street Art Utopia.[/caption]
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Interviews: Mike Maxwell –‘The Span Of My Attention’ @ Nowheresville Gallery
Chances are, you probably know of Mike Maxwell not just for his own art, but also the series of podcasts he releases called Live Free, where he interviews artists and broadcasts the results. The San Diego native is now finalizing the details for his solo exhibition in San Francisco at Nowheresville Gallery entitled The Span Of My Attention, which opens on Saturday June 7th.
We thought it was time to even the balance a little a put some questions to Mike ourselves. Read on for our interview and preview images of work from the show.
Arrested Motion (AM): Firstly Mike, can you just go into your background as an artist for the benefit of our readers?
Mike Maxwell (MM): I grew up in Southern California and I had art around me from a very young age. My mother has always been very creative. Growing up, I saw her making amazing drawings, doing sign painting, and even clothing design. My grandmother and grandfather were both painters focusing on landscape oil paintings. My first paintings were made with my grandfather in his studio. I still have the two canvases he helped me paint from that day. So early on, I always knew I would be involved in the arts. Initially, I thought I would be a comic illustrator. I used to love reading and drawing the comic strips in the newspaper. Then in high school I found graffiti, which was the perfect blend of creativity coupled with anti-authoritarian mischief - exactly what I was looking for at the time. So, I began doing some public art projects which inadvertently led me to meeting Shepard Fairey in '98. He was living and working in San Diego at the time. I was 19 and barely knew anything about the "art world." It was at this time that I became friends and started working for Shepard as his assistant. I look at this time period as my art school days. I never had any formal education in the arts, but I learned a great deal in the 2 year period working at Black Market with both Shepard and Dave Kinsey at the time. Both played a huge role in helping me along the path. Something I'm eternally grateful for now.
AM: Your new solo exhibition The Span of my Attention opens on June 7th at Nowheresville Gallery in San Francisco. Can you give a little background to the exhibition?
MM: The show will have around 20 small to medium sized new works. There is a mix of figurative and abstract paintings on both wood and canvas. The subject matter is different from piece to piece but there seems to be some unintended patterns occurring around the topics of Destruction and Growth, both manmade and naturally occurring.
AM: And as far as the gallery itself, I understand its run by artist Paul Urich, who you have a long relationship with…
MM: Yes, NowheresvilleSF is Paul Urich's gallery. We have been friends for at least a decade. I've been a fan of his art for a long time, so it was rad to be asked to show at his space. He has an awesome group of artists showing this year. Years ago I showed his work at a space I helped run in San Diego called The Voice Gallery.
AM: I know you’ve jokingly said on your podcasts a few times that you should start using your middle name to make you sound more highbrow and legit, and this time you’ve billed yourself as Michael James Maxwell. Is this an experiment or just a bit of fun?
MM: It's both an experiment and a bit of a joke too. Public perception is a funny thing. It plays a huge role in the art world, and it's something I'm astounded by. It's also something I enjoy mockin . But on the other hand, I think it's also has something to do with growing older.
AM: Your statement about the exhibition and the title itself alludes to your desire to vary your output rather than just concentrate on a singular style of painting. Your work is definable in different series of work and I know that you’ve expressed before that you are keen to further explore abstract painting as a newer direction for you. Where’s your head right now in terms of styles you prefer?
MM: Yeah, my attention tends to be all over the place. I'll work on a series of portraits and somewhere along the way I get the feeling like I don't want to paint another portrait again ever! So then I'll work on some abstracted piece and work on a series and realize I really want to work on a portrait right now. Then I'll want to paint in a very muted palette. Maybe just black and grey. Then I'll want to paint in full, bright, psychedelic colors. And I'll never know what my brain will enjoy or despise from day to day. This has been a tough thing to control in the past when it came to working on a new show. So for this one I didn't try and wrangle the cats. I just let the ideas, topics, and styles work themselves out as we went along the journey together. What I found was that, I only need to make what I enjoy making, at the time I enjoy making it. I expect to continue to move freely from different things from here on out. I'm writing a short film at the moment.
AM: And as far as exploration of different techniques and mediums, do you find the abstracts more fun to experiment with than the portraits? You seem to be able to unleash a different tonal palette on the abstract pieces.
MM: I find a lot of enjoyment from the abstract painting freedom. Portraiture can be very rules orientated, in that it has to look specifically like someone or certain things need to be in certain places. Both give me different rewards though.
AM: And then, there seems to be some traditional portraits in the show which have in turn been influenced by these colour experimentations…
MM: Yes exactly! This is what I mean about new ideas building new ideas. As I worked out some new abstract pieces, I realized some of the techniques I was applying to abstract works would also work for the portraiture. Adopting some of the color patterns and using them in the figurative has created a new abstract figurative that I would have never made had I not experimented with the abstracts.
AM: I really enjoyed the blurred portraits that you’ve been making recently. It looks like those pieces were generated as a progression from the more ‘illustrative’ civil war type imagery which you’ve associated yourself with for a number of years. Care to explain where your connection with this imagery is generated from?
MM: Thanks! I've always been drawn to the Civil War, and more specifically life for Americans at the turn of the century. My work is often about being anti war. I find history tends to change and get altered over time to fit certain narratives and we definitely find that when looking at the American Civil War. I intend to make that metaphor with these distorted images. It might also be important to note that these distorted pieces came out of a happy little mistake with a dry brush and little ink that had yet to dry. Again showing me how experimentation can lead to new things.
AM: Finally, something I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while but never got around to, The naming of your Live Free podcast is the same statement that you have tattooed on your fingers. I presume that the tattoos came first, but can you just elaborate on the ethos behind Live Free?
MM: I always saw art as a route to true freedom. The ability to choose your life for yourself and to never let another person dictate what this life is supposed to be for you. To me thats living free. I also see it as something you do for others. To not hinder or harm the life of others is equally important. The phrase first showed up in my art, then I got the tattoo, then I started the podcast.
AM: Thanks Mike – best of luck with the exhibition!
MM: Thanks Sven!
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POW! WOW! Taiwan ’14 / Streets: James Jean
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Streets: Rustam Qbic (Moscow)
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Overtime: June 2 – June 8
- Benjamin Redford draws a portrait of the entire internet.
- Frenchman Mehdi Nemmouche claims responsibility in Brussels Jewish Museum shooting.
- Katara Art Center to close at the end of the month due to loss of funding.
- Three allegedly-Islamist men steal a portion of John Latham’s God is Great (#4) work at Portikus.
- Patrick Vialaneix may face ten years in prison for conspiring to sell stolen Rembrandt he was obsessed with.
- Long lines to see Kara Walker's A Subtlety: Or the Marvelous Sugar Baby.
- Eli Broad’s The Broad Collection sues Seele Inc. for their work on the museum building.
- Helly and David Nahmad sued for allegedly hiding a $20mil. Modigliani painting stolen by the Nazis.
- Bloomberg takes a look at art theft and forgeries.
- Aby Rosen's neighbors protest his display of 33 foot Damien Hirst statue in their neighborhood.
- The growing problem of memorial sprawl.
- The National Academy Museum and School lays off several staff members.
- Students that majored in art face highest unemployment rate among recent graduates.
- Ai Weiwei writes about the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
- Crocker Museum kept precious items (including artwork) safe for Japanese families sent to WWII relocation camps.
- Scientists and preservationists attempting to save yellowing Da Vinci self-portrait.
- Hauser Wirth & Schimmel to have a 100,000 sq. ft. space in downtown Los Angeles opening in January. LA Times interviews Paul Schimmel.
- Jonathan Jones discusses originality in contemporary art.
- A list of art world gossip books to read this summer.
- François Pinault launching an artist residency program in France.
- Who Pays Artists? launches in order to create a dialog on money and work for artists.
- deviantART wants to be the administrator for the .art domain.
- Rodi Gallery and the case for or against mobile art trucks.
- San Gabriel Valley school district teaching ceramics and getting students interested in it.
- Art can help relieve stress.
- The upcoming shows at The Mistake Room include Korakrit Arunanondchai.
- Foam in Amsterdam exhibiting Larry Clark's Tulsa and Teenage Lust together.
- Melissa Chiu has been chosen as director for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
- Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation to open in Monaco.
- The Storm King Art Center acquires three major long-term loans, including Newman, Smith, Nevelson.
- Kunstmuseum Bern plans to vet Gurlitt collection first before deciding whether to accept it.
- Collectors that donated to MOCANoMi want clarification that their artwork was donated to museum and not city.
- Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe exhibits copy of Van Gogh's ear grown from a relative's cells.
- Sotheby's to offer Francis Bacon's Three Studies for Portrait of George Dye.
- Banksy's Mobile Lovers received appraisal of £400,000 on Antiques Roadshow.
- Georgina Adam reflects on the current global art market boom.
- Iran's domestic art scene thrives despite economic sanctions. Tehran art auction sells out.
- FIAC has announced the list of galleries participating in its Oct fair in Paris.
- Premier League soccer players are using their rising salaries to buy art.
- Part II of Kenny Scharf's stories from his early days in NYC.
- Noelle Bodick interviews Anthony Haden-Guest.
- The Brooklyn Rail interviews David Ostrowski.
- Jeff Koons talks to Details Magazine about 4 of his works.
- An interview with Amalia Ulman. About her talk with Dr. Fredric Brandt at The Swiss Institute of New York.
- Dan Colen talks with Blair Hansen at Neuehouse.
- Andrew Russeth reviews Lucien Smith's Tigris show. Village Voice's look at the show.
- Artfridge interviews Luc Fuller.
- Ed Ruscha's favorite things from his personal collection.
- Salvador Dalí's swimsuit designs.
- Jerry Saltz shares his thoughts on Kara Walker's A Subtlety: Or the Marvelous Sugar Baby.
- Christopher Knight reviews Peter Plagen' new Bruce Nauman book.
- Sam Bitters finally receiving the spotlight after making work since the '60s.
- Financial Times has lunch with Guo Jian, who recently covered Tiananmen diorama with ground pork.
- Jeff Friesen uses Lego pieces to recreate Banksy works.
- Photos from MOCAtv's thejogging event.
- Francesca Gavin chooses ten artists to watch in abstract painting.
- Venus Over Manhattan exhibits LIFE by The Journal Magazine.
- Ben Davis reviews Cindy Sherman's $0.99 app.
- Deborah de Robertis does a live recreation of Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du monde in front of the painting.
- Hungry Castles create Laser Cat, a sculpture of a cat that projects video and shoots beams.
- Steve Roden creates unique prints to benefit Side Street Projects.
- Hand-painted multiple unique edition by RISK.
- Bumblebeelovesyou releases a set of stenciled editions with HPM Project.
- Pari Ehsan named Fashion Instagrammer of the Year by CFDA.
- Prince Williams' taste in art questioned after he reveals to liking unflattering Kate Middleton portrait.
- Kanye West gives Kim Kardashian a Bambi portrait of herself as a wedding gift.
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Streets: Tristan Eaton (Honolulu)
Discuss Tristan Eaton here. http://vimeo.com/97602368
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Streets: DALeast (Cape Town)
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Recap: POW! WOW! Taiwan
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Interviews: Justin Kerson –‘Blood & Ink’ @ White Walls Gallery
Arrested Motion (AM): So Justin, can you tell our readers a little about your background?
Justin Kerson (JK): Sure. So I’m a 31-year-old 4th generation artist, born and raised in Northern California. About 5 years ago, I started my own collaborative art business called Tott Global. We create classic games and novelties items like dice, dominoes, jigsaw puzzles, playing cards, and now oven bag cookware. I do collaborations with some of the most innovative contemporary artists of our time. I really do enjoy bringing artists together to strengthen our art community. My show, Blood and Ink, is also another collaborative project that I’m proud to present to the art community here in San Francisco.
AM: We met in San Francisco recently and we talked a little about your process for your upcoming Blood & Ink exhibition at White Walls Gallery. Can you explain a little about the show?
JK: Tattooing is one of the oldest forms of art. I’m just taking something that already exists and expanding on the idea. Since tattoos become apart of someone’s body, it no longer allows the art to have any tangible resale value. So by transferring it to a fabric, I have taken art off the body and made it a piece that can be sold and resold without expiration. Eventually I’d like for everyone to be able to have prints of their tattoos, especially if you get a tattoo dedicated to someone, it would be nice to have a print to actually hand over as a gift.
AM: You’re effectively making direct transfer prints from the residual process of tattooing like some rudimentary Xerox machine?!
JK: In a slightly more demented way, yeah, pretty much. Lol.
AM: I’ve never come across such a method of preservation before. Where did the inspiration or motivation for the exhibition come from?
JK: Honestly, I came across the concept on accident. After getting tattooed, the open wound requires a lot of antiseptic, so while I was sleeping, the tattoo transferred and smeared all over my Versace sheets, completely wrecking them. But by ruining them, I realized how well tattoos could transfer to fabric and produce these interestingly grotesque images. Thus leading me to my idea for this show.
AM: I presume you are familiar with the Polish prison tattoos that were preserved for identification purposes? Your exhibition puts an artistic twist on a fairly macabre practice from the past… A modern day ‘Shroud’, you might say…?
JK: I am aware prison tattoos at one point were preserved in a pretty morbid way. So yeah, I guess you can say I’m using an old ‘macabre’ ritual and turning it into something more aesthetically appealing, and less painful. As for a shroud, I’m not sure I would classify my prints as something as holy as a modern day shroud, but the idea is definitely similar.
AM: Whilst I was searching for information about the show, I came across a tattoo shop in Amsterdam that offers a service to preserve your tattoo once you die. You hear about this at all?
JK: Wow that’s great! I didn’t know this existed, but I’ve always wanted to do this! Thanks for sharing!
AM: Yeah, it’s pretty crazy huh? Can you explain how you hooked up with the donors for the exhibition? Did you contact tattoo artists, or find people directly that were planning on getting tattooed?
JK: I just went to friends and tattoo artists and talked to them about my concept, found people who were willing to let me transfer their tattoo to fabric for my prints, and then from there I chose the best pieces I felt that really represented my concept. Getting a tattoo requires you to completely give artistic trust to the person tattooing you.
AM: I’m curious what your strike rate was – what was the ratio of yes and no responses?
JK: Well when I asked my homies, they were down. But when I tried reaching out to the public about getting a free tattoo, people were definitely interested, but the follow through was the hardest part.
AM: And you attended all the sessions?
JK: Yeah I had to, I needed to get the prints fresh off their tattooed bodies.
AM: It’s quite widely known that tattoo artists say that that a tattoo lasts for a lifetime, plus 6 months. Your method of preservation is destined to last longer of course. Only your way doesn’t involve formaldehyde!
JK: Right! It’s also instant, and less gruesome in my opinion. But don’t get me wrong; I plan to have my body skinned at the end of this tall tale as well.
AM: Looks like a trip to Amsterdam is on the cards then! Do you know if some of your subjects will be in attendance at the exhibition?
JK: I would hope so! This show really was a collaborative project, from the artists who drew up the tattoos to those who allowed us to tattoo them. For them to go through the pain, and process of getting the tattoo for the show, I would really hope they would want to come see it all come together.
AM: Thanks for taking time to talk to us Justin. Wishing you the best of luck with the exhibition!
JK: Of course! Thank you as well for taking the time to interview me on my show!
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Streets: World Roundup (Jun 2 – Jun 15)
Vine in Italy. Via Ekosystem.[/caption]
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Remed x Okuda in Miami. Via Graffart.[/caption]
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Slinkachu in Chiswick, London.[/caption]
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Sego for Coachella Walls in California. Via Savage Habit.[/caption]
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Ernest Zacharevic in Kuala Lumpur.[/caption]
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Natalia Rak - Terracina, Italy[/caption]
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2501 - Mongolia[/caption]
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Roa - London[/caption]
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Case Maclaim - Jersey City[/caption]
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Miron Milic - Mali Losinj, Croatia[/caption]
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Aryz - Barcelona[/caption]
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Reka - Melbourne[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_254551" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
Never Crew - Belgrade, Serbia[/caption]
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Dasic Fernandez in San Miguel, Chile. Via Hi-Fructose.[/caption]
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D*Face for Artscape in Malmö, Sweden.[/caption]
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Jade in Puerto Maldonado, Peru for Festival Equilibrio. Via StreetArtNews.[/caption]
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Lonac - Zagreb[/caption]
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Streets: LUDO (Paris)
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Rewind: Jun 2 – Jun 15
- Harmony Korine's Addict fragrance film for Dior. (via Slamxhype).
- Explore the plant work with this artsy app (via Colossal).
- Nowness profiles Jeff Koons.
- Basque writer Exit works on an Italian train (via 12ozProphet).
- 26 famous art heists.
- Etam Cru in Barcelona (via Montana World).
- Kenny Scharf's Karbombz
- The making of Analia Saban's Ultramarine Pocket Watch.
- Laser Cat projects art onto the world.
- Ernest Zacharevic in Kuala Lumpur.
- Ryousuke Ohtake carves incredibly realistic lobster from wood (via Colossal).
- A look at Zhang Huan's exhibition in New York.
- Trailer for Tim's Vermeer.
- Robert Montgomery's work makes it into the new Taeyang video.
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Streets: Shepard Fairey (Charleston)
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Streets: WK Interact –“D-Day 70th Anniversary” @ Vilette Paris la Geode (Paris)
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Streets / Recap: Mural Festival (Montreal)
2501[/caption]
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Alexis Diaz[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_254872" align="aligncenter" width="920"]
Bezt (Etam Cru)[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_254873" align="aligncenter" width="920"]
Bryan Beyung[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_254874" align="aligncenter" width="920"]
Cyrcle[/caption]
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INTI[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_254876" align="aligncenter" width="920"]
Kevin Ledo[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_254877" align="aligncenter" width="920"]
Rone[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_254878" align="aligncenter" width="920"]
RR&DBT[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_254879" align="aligncenter" width="920"]
Zema[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_254880" align="aligncenter" width="920"]
Seth Globepainter[/caption]
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Streets: Phlegm (Malmo)
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Overtime: June 16 – June 22
- A review of Franz West's show at the Hepworth.
- RIP: Ultra Violet, who died at the age of 78 due to cancer.
- Heritage sues Christie’s for $60mil. over handbag personnel and trade secrets.
- Brad Pitt and Peter Capaldi leading efforts to raise £20mil. to restore fire-damaged Glasgow School of Art building.
- Finnish people unhappy with the possibility and feasibility study of Helsinki Guggenheim.
- More MOCANoMi drama between the board and city. It further escalates.
- France’s culture budget loses €55mil. due to efforts to reduce national deficit.
- Keith Haring and Andy Warhol fakes making their way around the market.
- Delaware Art Museum's William Holman Hunt painting sells for $4.25mil. - well under estimates.
- Thirteen works on paper (part of larger installation) by Bernhard Gwiggner stolen from an exhibition at ICON-Galerie.
- Ai Weiwei's lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang, detained by Chinese and may be going to prison.
- Jerry Saltz wonders why so many "New Abstraction" works look the same.
- Kanye West claims that Annie Leibovitz backed out of shooting his wedding. He mad.
- New 49er's stadium in Santa Clara commissions 200 works of art.
- How Phil Whitfield became the Dallas Cowboys' ambassador for art.
- Works made in ceramic becoming fashionable.
- An introduction to The Jogging, featuring Keith Varadi, Jesse Stecklow, and Spencer Longo.
- When art galleries become international destinations.
- What will be the future of Bergamont Station in Santa Monica?
- LA Mayor Garcetti nominates arts education advocate Danielle Brazell to head cultural affairs department
- Artspace's first part in its series of guides to art language and word usage.
- Infrared technology used to uncover hidden painting found under Picasso's The Blue Room.
- Ryan Seacreast the most high profile name of the new board of trustees members at LACMA.
- MoMA to stage exhibition of Björk's costumes, instruments and video collaborations.
- Whitney Museum and The High Line announce collaboration, with Alex Katz as inaugural artist.
- Smithsonian Institution scans Barack Obama’s head to create the first 3D portrait of sitting president.
- Titian’s Danae painting will be on display at the National Gallery of Art beginning July 1.
- Adam Lindemann provides some great insights about the art world on Instagram.
- Bonhams is for sale.
- A brief history of Art Basel. Early market sales report out of the fair. A fair report, from Judd Tully. And another one by him. Artnet's Basel sales report. Gallerist has some sales info.
- Interview with Peter Bläuer about the Liste art fair.
- Designboom interviews Will Cotton.
- Artnet writes about ten smart buys at Art Basel's satellite fairs.
- A look at the market for Jeff Koons' work.
- Sotheby's sells British Guiana One-Cent Magenta stamp for record $9.5mil. Why stamps are increasing in price.
- Robert De Niro Sr. has a new auction record for a painting.
- Francis Bacon's 1967 study of Lucian Freud painting, owned by Roald Dahl, to be auctioned at Christie's.
- Marisa Sage talks about going from operating a gallery to becoming a art consultant.
- A guide to the different types of collectors out there.
- Casey Kaplan leaving Chelsea after ten years and moving to the Flower District in 2015.
- Pace Gallery opens a temporary space in Switzerland.
- Josh Baer talks to David Mugrabi in Basel.
- CIA facial software uncovers a photograph of Francis Bacon in drag.
- A look inside Louise Bourgeois' New York home.
- A history of Bernadette Corporation.
- Lucien Smith to have solo show in Oct with Depart Foundation in collaboration with American Academy in Rome.
- Jeff Koons, in his own words, talking about feelings.
- Carsten Höller builds a big slide sculpture on the Vitra campus.
- Ben Davis writes about Pierre Soulages.
- Kerry James Marshall joins David Zwirner Gallery in London.
- Secundino Hernández, Celia Paul, Eric Fisch, and Kara Walker join Victoria Miro's artist roster.
- Jake and Dinos Chapman look to crowd funding to raise money for an exhibition.
- LA Times reviews Aurel Schmidt and Pierre Molinier's show at M+B.
- Profile of and interview with Terry Richardson.
- Shepard Fairey's wheat paste a indicative sign of revitalization in Downtown Los Angeles.
- Wolfgang Tillmans looks back and ahead on his career.
- Tyler Green talks to Jo Ann Callis.
- Jonas Lund's Flip City project.
- Shelley Holcomb featured in Forth Magazine.
- Flaunt interviews the Date Farmers.
- Brandi Milne profiled on The Hundreds.
- Hypebeast sits down with James Jarvis.
- P. Diddy helps promote Jennifer Hayes' work while he was in St Louis.
- Visionaire releases a Hermes edition.
- Cristina Bergoglio, the Pope's niece, has a art exhibition in Miami.
- William Koch's passion for art and craftsmanship and his crusade against fake wine.
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Streets: Ernest Zacharevic (Malaysia)
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Interviews: Aakash Nihalani
Arrested Motion (AM): Can you tell our readers a little bit about your background, personally and in terms of your career?
Aakash Nihalani (AK): I took my first breath in Little India (Jackson Heights, Queens) and moved to Jersey a couple years later with my parents and older brother. Spent a lot of time collecting rocks as a kid and wanting to be a magician.
Halfway through NYU I found myself more interested in painting on trucker hats and canvas sneakers than passing my political science classes, so I switched to fine arts degree. Motivated for the first time, I was impatient with the process of making paintings alone in a studio and then packing them away in storage. Near the end of school I picked up a roll of tape and started making ephemeral lines outside. I got addicted to the spontaneity of the work and its immediate dialogue with an audience.
AM: Tell us a little about this new series of work called Landline. Like we often have seen in your work in the past, you often create pieces that are photographed incorporating people, which is something we find quite interesting.
AK: Most of my outdoor works invite interaction with people and their environment. I document the work with a camera, so the pieces live temporarily outside but forever online.
Landline is a series of performative installations. Colorful bars pass through individuals, connecting them to each other and functioning as extensions of the urban landscape. The participants examine their own insides and connections, a visual expression of both the isolation and community I often feel living in Brooklyn. We spend so much time existing in virtual reality, these works are a visible connection to the real world.
AM: When we first started following your outdoor tape interventions back in 2008, we were wondering how you would take your ideas indoor. Sometimes it is hard for a street artist to make the move to gallery work but from what we have seen, this has not been a problem with you. What is it about your work or background that allowed you to make this transition seem almost seamless, and what was your philosophy behind it all.
AK: At first, it was a challenge because I had been interacting with outdoor environments and then had to contain it into an object inside a white room. Paintings can be constricting in that they are often made by placing shapes and colors within the logical confines of the canvas. For me, it's more fun to make paintings that respond to the canvas spatially, as an object in itself. I’ve been ‘sculpting’ on and around it as an architectural element, expanding its spatial limitation and perceived flatness. For my recent show in Rome, l left the canvases white and magnetically attached flat cut out shapes of corrugated plastic wrapped in painted canvas. These attachments, when placed in a specific orientation, gave the appearance of isometric bars shooting through the face of the frame.
AM: The optical illusions and plays with perspective seen in your work, and in the current series, seem to play a big part in your imagery. Can you elaborate on this?
AK: Though there is a physical flatness to the work, a specific vantage gives the form a sculptural quality and the appearance of being three dimensional. The works live in a playful moment of surprise when the perspective clicks for the viewer as they’re passing by. The space around the work becomes an opportunity to experience a new reality in which the viewer can move inside or actively observe from out.
The way we interpret what we see is the foundation of how we perceive art, and the world around us. I’m curious what a momentary shift in perspective can do.
AM: Tell us a little about your process. Do you sketch things first? It seems that with the geometric shapes and lines, the computer would be a nice tool to use as well.
AK: I use screens as my main sketchbook, which has allowed me to translate my work into mediums like laser cut aluminum and routed wood…but sometimes I still need a pencil and paper when forming a new idea.
AM: Do you have any other projects of shows coming up that you can share with your fans?
AK: There’s a 200 ft mural you can check out while waiting in line to see the awesome exhibition by Kara Walker at the Domino Sugar Factory.
Landline will also be on and off view throughout the summer on corners around NYC.
Discuss Aakash Nihalani here.
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