artUS 31

Laura Owens

by Otino Corsano

The Issue 31, 2011 of artUS Magazine features

my interview with Laura Owens.

Laura Owens new solo exhibition

"LAURA OWENS"

Kunstmuseum Bonn Museum

Bonn, Germany

22.09.2011 - 08.01.2012

In addition to numerous unique books made in 2011, the exhibition includes two comprehensive new series: One series, including several large-sized works, deals with the representational aspect of painting while the other series with smaller works questions the topic of time.

The following is an excerpt of the artUS article:

If you want to know where painting is going, where it’s at, ask yourself where you are at...
where you are going...
that it’s up to us to determine
what is happening with painting.

Laura Owens - Kunstmuseum Bonn - Install
http://www.kunstmuseum-bonn.de

SUPERCRAWL 2011

N.B.:
This is NOT a review.
These are ARTIST INTERVIEWS without the artists present.
Thanks.

In this instance
it cannot justifiably be said
“it is lonely at the top"
for these graceful
yet slumbering companions reinforce
Striecher is at the top of his game.

Akimblog Sept 15, 2011

"Underdog Award of Distinction" 2011

This post is greatly overdue; nevertheless, its timing is apt.

Last year in the Fall I had the pleasure of meeting two rising art stars during the first run of the Toronto Alliance of Art Critics’ 2010 Nuit Blanche project titled “Speed Art Criticism”. Artists were invited to bring samples of their work and engage in a lively (15 minute max) critique of their work with TAAC critics and writers. While I brought no presumptions with me regarding what type of art I may be asked to discussed, two young artists’ works so greatly impressed me equally I felt I was obliged to make this year’s award a tie and grant the annual “Underdog Award of Distinction” to both of them.

Eric Cator is a painter who works with stark and stylized imagery while rendering sparse locations with a slick three-dimensional sensitivity. His works remind me of Bansky not only because of their high contrast and pop simplicity yet also since each work carries the potential for some strong reads in chapters of social critique.

“Betty Brite” (2010) is a classic example of the type of consumer isolation Cator depicts between a lone, tiny and desolate figure set against an artificial dry cleaners storefront. The establishment's facade is a fake backdrop complimenting Eric's own artificial painted background.

Cator’s solemn night views of residential homes receding into the darkness of sunset remind me of the similar urban compositions explored by Alex Katz. Both Catotr and Katz highlight the negative space of illuminated windows as advancing warm forms floating as objects liberated from their supportive architecture.

“Bull’s Eye” (2009) is a personal favorite of mine as the work so succinctly depicts how authority can remain oblivious to natural order. His voluminous spaces are a little unsettling yet delineate the perfect sovereign zones of graphic to conceptual links.

Speaking of graphic to conceptual links, Selena Lee is an equal recipient of this prestigious award. I admit I am biased toward young artists still working in the arena of conceptual art and Selena appears to be a bona fide purist of this camp. Selena showed me a publication she had created - I imagine the preliminary experiments inspiring a later work titled “Electronic Data-Free (Fail) 1 Hr. V1” - comprised of crayon rubbings of objects covered by paper. As low res as it gets, these compositions were completely freeing as Selena’s motivation to escape digital processes evoked the most digitally unimpeded access to tactile bliss and raw analog innocence.

This handmade book also appears to have been the impetus for her “Electronic Data Free” solo exhibition at York University in 2010. Several of these publication/texture documents were featured on lit podiums in a minimal and clean gallery space accented by two video works. The first video presented on a monitor revealed the creation of one of the book works where pennies are traced between the pages of a book. The tracing hands work diligently to find each hidden coin via crayon rubbings. The second video was projected large scale as the exhibition’s focus. “Frottage in Public” is an 11 minute video featuring the artist rolling what must be an extremely long roll of paper displaying backlit rubbings of a variety of objects now rendered as a blue textures. The artist’s knuckles and fingers are just barely visible at the bottom edge of the screen as the paper is rolled towards the artist while the various moving tracings fill the screen.

Selena’s recent blog work features new projects with political undertones specifically referencing the unrest in Egypt in the spring of 2011.

I truly feel honoured to have met these two artist so early in what I am sure will be progressive careers.

Visit Eric Cator's Website

Visit Selena Lee's Website