Back to the Future
Posted: March 19, 2011 Filed under: shit we done curated Leave a commentWe recently curated a show at Think Tank Gallery in Downtown LA. Check out the press release and some sweet pics:
“From today,” declared Paul Delaroche, “painting is dead.” That was more than a hundred and fifty years ago, and though the pronouncement has hardly stemmed the flow of painters pouring out of arts academies the world over, it is a statement that has nevertheless continually persisted in asserting its own relevance since first being uttered in 1839. For all of the power that the Painting wields as a commodifiable market object, the medium has sunken into something of a critical mire, cast off by many as the decrepit, senile predecessor to half a dozen younger, sleeker media. Furthermore, the notion of painting and painters as a cohesive whole has ceased to exist, replaced instead by a series of niche practices—plein air, abstraction, and realism for example—whose disparate natures obfuscate the form’s critical potential. The problem, mind you, is not in finding and indulging a niche, but rather in the imposed isolation that accompanies it.
Attempts to resurrect painting have been mounted at semi-regular intervals over the course of the last three decades, such as in Thomas Lawson’s 1981 essay Last Exit: Painting. Nevertheless, painting remains largely dead to the academy, a sad relic of a bygone age too tired and spent to hold any significance beyond a dollar value. One does not have to look far to find examples of artists and critics trying to reinvigorate the medium, yet the general reaction to a painting being presented in a critical context amounts to “really? In this day and age?”
This is reflective of the fact that some way, some how the burden of proof has been laid across the shoulders of the painter, rather than the critic (or the viewer), and it his been put to him (or her, of course) to explain his actions, like a vandal caught in the act. In the end however this is more dismissive than it is penetrating, and is so in two fundamental ways: first, it implicitly suggests that painting is somehow inferior and less worthy of the viewer or critic’s full attention, the conversation easily terminated in the asking of “why paint?” Secondly, it serves only to further romanticize the painter painting by affording the artist a cross to bear, making him a martyr before he even picks up his brush. On the surface that seems almost flattering, but in reality it does little more than reinforce the idea that painting lacks the critical depth available to artists working in other (and rather coincidentally more fashionable) media.
Curators Ryan McGuffin and Tomas Mickiewicz Seidita have determined to controvert such notions with the presentation of their group show Back to the Future, a collection of artists aggressively exploring painting as a practice with a foundation both conceptual and formal. The convenience of new media is the relative lack of history that accompanies it. A painting must be taken alongside a lengthy and often imposing legacy. To some this is a detriment, a standard too daunting to be lived up to. The true painter, however, simply accepts this reality as an every day aspect of their practice, endeavoring always to fail again and fail better. Bringing together a varied group of artists from across the greater Los Angeles area and representing multiple arts programs throughout the city, Back to the Future seeks to create a cohesive forum for new dialogue between emerging contemporary painters.
Untitled (chair & table)
Cardboard Bricks, Wallflower
Beatrice Poon is an emerging Los Angeles artist interested in constructing new interpretations from pre-existing objects. Manipulating the original function of the subject, her intent is to blur the lines that separate reality and illusion to take on an altered sense of being. Her paintings bring out subjects’ hidden conceptions when shifted in respect of its conventional function. The point at which meaning becomes falsified remains a progressive topic in her current work. Beatrice is currently a junior at the University of Southern California, as a BFA Fine Arts major. This is the first exhibition she has been in off-campus.
beatricepoon.com
beatricp@usc.edu
This Is This
Antone Könst was born in Connecticut and raised on a small farm without a television. At age 15 he went to a boarding school where he was also not allowed internet or television, and was drawn instead to painting, perhaps in an attempt to understand better his unique and more limited relationship to image production.
In the summer of 2010, after three years at CalArts which distanced him (healthily) from painting, Antone was selected for the Yale/Norfolk summer program, and while there, revitalized his relationship to painting and image production. Working quickly and only on plexiglass plates in the tradition of the monotype, Antone transfers his oil paintings onto paper, adding a level of mediation essential to the concepts of his work.
antone.konst@gmail.com
how good are these?
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
Abel Gutierrez was born and raised in Southern California. Taking inspiration from rock music’s aesthetic trends to Internet subcultures to old masters paintings, Gutierrez experiments with art materials and photography to create portraits and installations which reflect cultures obsession with youth, gender, and ‘growing up’. Abel will graduate with an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in Spring 2011.
agutierr@alum.calarts.edu
Again & Again?
Ryan McGuffin is a Los Angeles based artist, whose work attempts to investigate the dishonesty of the image. Ryan uses a wide variety of distortions in his imagery as a tool in blurring the narrative to create a sense of removal from the image. Interested in the lack of truth he sees in nostalgia, he chooses painting as a medium to remove even further the image from the idea of reflection on photography, or more specifically the photograph. Ryan’s curatorial work displays a serious investment in addressing the problems associated with the painting and the painter in the contemporary art world. Ryan received his BFA from California Institute of the arts in 2010.
creepy dudes. creepy creepy.
The Albatross (Andrew Joseph Stack III)
The Tree of Liberty Must Be Refreshed (Byron Williams)
In Cold Blood (Jared Lee Loughner)
Tomas Mickiewicz Seidita is a Los Angeles based artist whose work seeks to negotiate the fundamental nature of that which defines “the American,” often resulting in an experience as politically charged as is the cultural landscape of 21st century America. Regularly utilizing appropriation as a means by which to investigate this essential quality, or essential qualities, his work has engaged a variety of sources, from American history, cinema, and of course news media. Political art often attempts, in the general tradition of agit-prop, to offer some kind of solution—presenting an answer as opposed to asking a question. In essence, the result is a complex issue rendered down to that which is readily digestible, a product that is simple rather than intelligible, obvious rather than accessible; something that is at its core easy. Tomas’ work attempts to subvert this standard, to place the responsibility of generating a concrete meaning completely in the hands of the audience, to let them answer those questions of their own accord and to face a complex political issue in a moderately complex way. Tomas received a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2010.
tomasseidita.com
tomas.seidita@gmail.com
so sparkly.
Live At The Tennessee State Prison (DAC)
A Song For You (GP)
Theodora Allen received her BFA from Art Center College of Design in 2009, and will be attending the UCLA MFA program beginning in fall 2011. Recent group exhibitions include Strange Tide at the Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, and Lovable Like Orphaned Kitties and Bastard Children at the Green Gallery East, Milwaukee, WI. Her current paintings are an effort to locate a threshold between the mythologized symbols of America’s past, and their elusive and fluctuating present. The artist lives and works in Los Angeles.
theodoraallen@gmail.com
Hangin' with the Homies
Another McGuffin.
Frosty on the Moon
Let's Paint TV right here in the space!!! how cool is that? i'll tell you: it's cool.
i believe it is a rubics cube.
masterworks.
Lars Funeral
Fish Tank
John Kilduff: Originally Let’s Paint TV began as a Los Angeles cable access tv show in 2001. Where Kilduff hosted and produced hundreds of shows. In 2006, Kilduff began to upload these videos to youtube where Kilduff became an internet celebrity. Soon, Kilduff performed live on Tyra, VH1’s Big in 06′, and America’s Got Talent Season #2. Clips of Let’s Paint TV have appeared on multiple tv programs as well. Kilduff now does his show daily M-F on the internet and performs live at various venues around the world. Kilduff received his MFA in Painting at UCLA in 2008.
mrletspaint@gmail.com
Tomas' & Ryan's Cocktail Hour 