Otino Corsano, New Genres Artist

Global Paint Party

2012-01-05T18:06:00.000-08:00

Artist: Carole Freeman

My kids and I attendedthe FACE THE WORLD Global Paint Party at Edward Day Galleryon Thursday, January 5, 2012 (5 pm - 9 pm) and it was an amazing art experience.

FRIEND ME PROJECTS is aglobal initiative to celebrate friendship, connection, and commonhumanity. Upon entering the gallery we were warmly greeted by one of the founders of FRIEND ME PROJECTS, Michael Bain, who welcomed us to the event andinvited us to take a closer look at the "friend me" solo exhibitionby Carole Freeman on view.

Artist Managers: Mr. Michael Bain & Mr. Jake Gold

It is so rare one is able toenter a gallery environment and be allowed to participate in the theme and spirit of the show. The amount of interactive events adaptable to kidsis even rarer - so I was truly grateful to be allowed the chance to experience AND evencreate art in a close community involving my family.

My kids were able to createportraits of each other using similar materials Freeman employs herself. AboveGround Art Supplies generously donated all the materials for the evening. Looking back on this great evening, I offer three main revelations from memory:

First, I thought howgenerous and down to earth Freeman is to allow others to explore her own approach to portraiture.Interviewing artists for years, I have found most painters vague at best whenasked to reveal their techniques; yet Carole freely distributed everything requiredto create similar work to the more advanced paintings she had on display in thegallery.

Directly related to my firstpoint, I immediately rediscovered a great respect for painting - specifically in Carole'swork - when attempting to help my kids render the likeness of themselves in paint. I think critics should paint more often as a reminder of the difficulty of the medium verses the speed of opinion. This active experience made me appreciate professional work on newlevels beyond mastery of technique - I began to understand the time investmenthidden under the luscious surface of each work.

Finally, I began to sink inthe luxury and fun of painting on a slippery yet forgiving mylar surface andfor more than a second I wanted to be Eric Fischl and master this glassine-likesurface with seeming ease. Sorta like wanting to be Bobby Orr as a kid again.

Photos with subtitles Courtesy of: Bill King, 2012

Thanks so much Carole andMichael for this wonderful experience. My kids and I had the best time and welook forward to the live auction and virtual postings. I hope we are able tocontribute to The Stephen Lewis Foundation Arts Fund through our art andyour awesome event.

All paintings will be postedon the FRIEND ME PROJECTS website:

www.friendmeprojects.com   

http://www.friendmeprojects.com/FriendMeProjects/PortraitsOfFacebook.html  

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Friend-Me-Projects/314638805228698 

 http://www.edwarddaygallery.com/exhibitions.htm

Meghann Snow redux: Dance Drawing

2011-12-19T16:50:00.000-08:00

THE KIDS have just discovered Bruce Hugh Russell's Barney essay published (both in English and in French) in Parachute 1998. They are all excited about Eleanor Antin's "Blood of a Poet box" 1965. The youngsters are all about Bill T. Jones, Larry Millar, Terry Fox (yeah the other one), Joan Jonas and "Two Moon July" at The Kitchen c. 1986. The Kids are gonna have something new to talk about.

Directed and Edited by Henric Hemmerlind
Filmed by Johan Ring, Henric Hemmerlind and Nisse Wikland
Produced by Air & Space CC together with Young Art and Berns.

blogadox.com

In October 2010, I interviewed Meghann Snow

Quick Draw Artist Interview #11: Meghann Snow

They might forget this was where they first heard of Meghann Snow;

yet, I'm sure they won't soon forget Meghann Snow.

http://www.meghann-snow.com/
http://meghannsnow.blogspot.com/
http://vimeo.com/meghannsnow

Quick Draw Artist Interview #19: Sarah Elliott

2011-12-18T18:56:00.000-08:00

Quick Draw Artist Interviews are a series of interviews conducted by Otino Corsano using IM Chat applications. Spontaneous conversations with international artists are recorded and documented specifically for publication on this blog.

Quick: empathy. Truth is - one can never fully understand what another has survived. What they have left behind. dust. Tried calling yet you were “counselling”. If it is true one's entire life is relevant than why are we disconnecting? And if they knew they would be calling too. dialling. Draw: art about art.

Sarah Elliott is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and temporarily living in Alaska. She has recently shown at Back Yard Projects in New York City where she normally resides and works.

http://sarahelliott.info

The problem with telling a child

"I understand how you feel." is that some children simply won't

believe you. They'll say, "No you don't."

But if you take the time to be specific

(the first day of school can be scary, so many new things to get used to)

then the child will know that you really do understand.

Read the entire interview with Sarah Elliott at:

http://artpost-oc.blogspot.com

LPP TV

2011-12-14T11:45:00.000-08:00

LPP TV

LPP TV is an additional platform for artists to expand on ideas, new work, exploring the studio, sharing insights and most importantly creating a more personal connection from them and us to you as the viewer, fellow artist, and collector. Let's expand, explore, and engage deeper into the art practices of all makers.

In March 2011, I interviewed Kelly Lynn Jones

http://otinocorsano.blogspot.com/2011/03/quick-draw-artist-interview-15-kelly.html

I have always wanted to be Robert Irwin.

Now I'd rather be Kelly Lynn Jones.

ArtSync TV Interview

2011-11-28T19:37:00.001-08:00

http://www.artsync.ca/interview-otino-corsano/

Mike Hansen

Interviews

Otino Corsano

@
ARTSYNC TV:

ArtSync TV's recent episode aired on Friday November 18th and featured Mike Hansen's Interview with Otino Corsano @ ArtSync Studios in Liberty Village. ArtSync can be viewed on Rogers TV, Channel 10 Every Friday @ 7:00pm also 1:30pm on Sundays and 9:00pm on Mondays.

ArtStars* covers "Happiness - Part 1"

2011-11-21T17:32:00.001-08:00

Nadja Sayej is well-known as an international journalist, art critic and TV host of ArtStars*, and I first met her when she located me as the only other Canadian art writer on the roster of artUS magazine (Los Angeles).

She invited me to become a founding member of the Toronto Alliance of Art Critics - a group she established from her vision of creating a stronger and more unified community of art writers linked to the profession and social outreach. At first hesitant due to my status as both an artist and artist interviewer (rather than an established art critic) I am now able to see how fortunate I was to accept Nadja's offer to join the TAAC.

One immediate perk of being a TAAC member was I gained direct appreciation of the subtle techniques (the Art) of art writing. Nadja was one of those excellent writers whose work I continue to follow through various periodicals.

I am grateful to Nadja for covering my recent exhibition "Happiness - Part 1" on her ArtStars* Blog

As they say,
"be nice to the people you meet on your way up,
because they may be the same people you meet
on your way down,
too." Amen
to that.

ArtListPro Interview

2011-11-19T17:15:00.001-08:00

One of the times "Interview with Otino Corsano" signifies someone is interviewing me.

Christopher Healey’s The ALP Blog is a excellent resource for up to date art listings, video documentation, writings and interviews - like the one with me:

Interview with Otino Corsano @ p|m Gallery

Thanks Chris.

Washing Away @ Columbia's Schapiro Studio

2011-11-04T18:12:00.000-07:00

"Brain Flower (Side View)" 2007 Enamel on Plexiglass 18" x 24"

Director Yaara Sumeruk requested to use my

"Brain Flower (Side View)" painting

for her Columbia University Dramatic Production of her play:

WASHING AWAY, a theater piece.

Schapiro Studio
605 W. 115th Street
New York, NY

FREE ADMISSION: Reserve your tickets at thebasementplays@gmail.com

NOV 4th @ 8:00 PM
NOV 5th @ 2:00 PM & 8:00 PM
NOV 6th @ 2:00 PM

Featuring:
Alison Burke
Michael Mullen
Peter Rowan*

Peter WalukJing Lu: Stage Manager
Christina Hurtado: Dramaturg
Ioannis Sochorakis: Set Design
Ian Del Luca: Lighting Design
Written by Paulina Barros
Directed by Yaara Sumeruk

*Appears courtesy of Actors’ Equity

Columbia Stages

The Basement Plays

My thoughts are fine: it's his
disease, not mine.
It weighs a ton. It's his but I
carry it around. I take it wherever I go: It can't be long,
I have to get back, he is alone.

Completely alone, cause the disease is with
me, not with him.

Happiness - Part 1: Otino Corsano Solo Exhibition @ p|m Gallery

2011-10-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

Image Credit: "Happiness - Part 1, Video (Still)" Otino Corsano, 2011
Directors: Caroline Ryan & Paul Weeks, Video 0:35

Otino Corsano

Happiness - Part 1

Solo Exhibition
November 3 - 26, 2011

p|m Gallery
1518 Dundas Street West
Toronto, Ontario M6K1T9

http://pmgallery.ca/exhibitions/2011/otino-corsano-happiness

Opening Reception:
Thursday, November 3, 6-9pm

A collection of images culled from online social media sites was the starting point for Otino Corsano’s latest project: Happiness - Part 1.

To further study these found, frozen images, Corsano carefully rendered these moments of repose as ink drawings. His experience as a freelance storyboarder influenced the decision to reproduce the original images as quick ink sketches, preparing them for further expansion into video. The storyboard drawings are organized into three sets of sixteen images each.

Prominent commercial film directors were each provided with one set of drawings in order to reproduce the art stills as moving scenes. The three 30-second “commercials” were produced by: Caroline Ryan, Paul Weeks and Peter Darley Miller (Editor: Ting Poo). Composer John Mark Sherlock provided the supernatural, ambient score for each video. Accordingly, the work comprising Happiness Part - 1 progresses Corsano’s practice of collaborating with professional, commercial creatives to produce his art.

The first digital source material is transformed through a double process of interpretation. Drawn as light pictures of enjoyment, they are suspended further as lingering moving images. The resulting art videos have the look and feel of contemporary lifestyle advertising without a visible product. Happiness is freed from purchase.

An accompanying essay "The Pursuit of Happiness: Corinna Ghaznavi on the Personal Ad Art of Otino Corsano" is available at the gallery and online at:
http://pmgallery.ca/exhibitions/2011/otino-corsano-happiness/statement

This is Otino Corsano’s third solo exhibition with p|m Gallery. A graduate of the Ontario College of Art, University of Toronto and Otis College of Art (Los Angeles), Corsano describes his visual art practice as neo-conceptualist, new genre work since he explores areas of meaning production in a variety of media. His art writings and artist interviews are published in artUS magazine and can also be found online at ARTPOST and Akimblog. Corsano has taught at the University of Toronto and is a Sessional Instructor at OCAD University. He has exhibited in Toronto and abroad.

Visit the Facebook Event Page to RSVP & for more info:

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=208749325862696

Image Credit: "Happiness - Part 1, Video 1 Frame 10"

Otino Corsano, 2011 Ink on Paper

The Pursuit of Happiness by Corinna Ghaznavi

2011-10-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

The Pursuit of Happiness:

Corinna Ghaznavi on the social ad art of Otino Corsano

“Happiness Part 1, Video 3 (Still)” Otino Corsano, 2011 Directors: Caroline Ryan and Paul Weeks, Video 0:35

In this age of information and new technologies, images often get flattened. The sheer mass of blogs, tweets and emails alongside short media bursts and endless postings of images culled from everyday life, makes it difficult to discern particularities and ascertain the individual life represented. Advertising imagery, once reserved for billboards, television, newspapers and magazines, is now everywhere, including prominently in our homes. By necessity we filter and sift content quickly, understanding familiar commercial signifiers and passing over personal images because we cannot afford to slow down enough to absorb their deeper meanings.

Using conceptual art sensibilities, Otino Corsano collects subtly rich, yet tranquil images found through social media and employs these personal photos to counter the overflow of media information by recuperating the integrity of the subjective visual experience. Struck by the individuality of certain images, he found himself responding to what he simply summarizes as “happiness”: a fleeting impression and tender response culled from everyday life. His curatorial process of image selection is based on the spontaneous reactions any particular image may generate through a variety of ways, including framing and light, or a hidden narrative invoked in a scene.

Working from these references, Corsano creates storyboards by rendering the found stills into ink drawings. Taken from a vast range of sources, reinterpreted in ink, and arranged into an arbitrary narrative, the artist transforms these random pictures into an unexpected new order. These readily available images are choreographed into a coherent, albeit non-linear story centering on serene moments. Corsano then invited three film directors, each in a different professional phase of their careers, to use the storyboards as a matrix for the making of a thirty second spot. This format of a standard television commercial is utilized to reconstruct the lifestyle genre offered by advertising – this time solely as art.

Corsano is interested in this revision of media as a new genres artist and particularly how commercial art formats can become personalized. Accordingly, while we are given thirty-second films aesthetically akin to lifestyle ads liberated from any selling pitch. In these realms we can imagine happiness, calm and even bliss without the marketed aftertaste. Whereas contemporary advertising offers a promise of fleeting fulfillment through consumption, the interest of Corsano and his film directors lies in creative freedom for greater fulfillment. Corsano recognizes the techniques of advertising as not only effective, yet also desirous when liberated from a product focal point. The artist redistributes these moments of bliss to the viewer who is free to receive stylized recreations of calm without the anxiety of having to consume the predictable message of a targeted campaign.

By attempting to pinpoint a fluctuating peacefulness in the images attracting him, Corsano offers this same gain of focus and calm to the viewer. Images once hardly noticed in a web of endless quantities and postings are isolated from online spaces and then recuperated into the art gallery to reside in a more sensitive, reflective context. Every captured digital still once highlighted a poignant moment in an individual’s experience. Remixed as art, these personal photos are expanded in their meaning through their connection to other recreated images: first as a collection of ink drawings and subsequently lengthened into moving images and scenes. While the integrity of the original snapshot is mostly honored, each artist – first Corsano, then the film directors – stretches these subjective moments through creative interpretation and reenactment. Each image is especially transformed by the new sequences the stills are placed in relation to one another. Corsano subsumes the original images, with his particular drawing style and the references are further personalized by each of the directors. Offering the directors storyboards as per traditional guidelines, Corsano essentially acts as a producer of the films. He affords his colleagues a maximum amount of freedom to align with the theme of creative liberation, happiness and choice. And since happiness is personal and subjective, his inclusion of several different creators (including the source photographer, Corsano as storyboarder, directors, editors, soundtrack composer, myself as writer and finally the viewers) allows for a range of different representations and perspectives regarding this pursuit of happiness.

The ambient soundtrack composed by John Mark Sherlock adds to the abstracted visual culture found, interpreted, and recreated in Happiness - Part 1. The fusing of creative sources – all familiar but made strange – works towards inviting the viewer into a space at once recognizable and open to further interpretation. The real and the fantasy come into contact when these found photographs become animated: each filmic interpretation expands the time and the location of the original image. Corsano maintains recreating reality is what art is best capable of, and in this case, the reality in art is the process of isolating a moment of reflection. Moreover, this conceptual process triggers happiness in both the artist creating the art and connects the viewer around a new experience of satisfaction. This ad hoc digital curating highlights the potential magic and personal secrets lying within ubiquitous and liquid images. Corsano empowers the unknown creator of these fantastic web-finds by respecting the photo’s integrity, focusing more closely on possible meanings, and foregrounding the image’s creative potential. Ideas unfurl from a single still into a parallel reality filled with fantasy and possibility. Happiness – Part 1 reveals the first step towards personal clarity – always, already accessible in the everyday.

“She’s so young. She’s got the answers. She doesn’t need to question the world like I do.” – Moe Berg, 1988

Liz Ainslie "Is Between"

2011-10-22T21:22:00.000-07:00

So it turns out the 46151 greatest artist in the world (according to Artifacts.net) is having another exhibition. Liz Ainslie is sure to quickly rise through the ranks with her evolving paintings of shifting planes, colour and lines. This description seems flat at best until one experiences the new paintings featured in the "In Between" two person show with Sarah McDougald Kohn at The Active Space in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The two artists' works balance each other off quite well especially given the fact balance is an integral part of both practices. Nevertheless, I like how far apart their artistic approaches are. Makes for great conversations between the works.

From the Active Space Gallery website:

“Is Between”

Is Between examines the relationships in the work of artists Liz Ainslie and Sarah McDougald Kohn. Ainslie’s painted objects are ambiguous shapes that move in and out of contexts; in their form and volume the shapes hint at, but are not quite, familiar. McDougald Kohn’s sculptures examine our relationship with everyday objects, and the ways we determine and understand the utility of an object. Each artist creates work on a still-life scale that allows a viewer to relate the shapes and sculptures to familiar household objects. However, although the viewer may naturally relate all of the works to figurative and familiar contexts, the work is ultimately abstract. Is Between allows viewers to consider the shifting perceptions of the forms rendered, as well as the dialog between the two artists’ work.

Between November 2009 and March of 2010, Liz Ainslie and I developed an interview. It has never been published - until now. I like the fact the discussion is still both valid and fresh. It is a testament to Ainslie's dedication and organization. Each painting strengthens her resolve to reconfigure the surface of the canvas with new areas. Her latest works take on classical abstraction tropes with a whimsical twist: like George Braque's Analytic mixed with Daniel Cummings on frappe mode in a blender. Horizontal forms once stacked for emphasis just got up for an energetic brunch. Stilts and line define edges that have both collapsed three-dimensional illusions and invented new colour depth and plateaus.

Abstract skeptics may find dipping their toes into these cool old pools a tad frigid and retrograde yet I find these paintings inviting as Donald Bryd remixed by the late Guru.

I am usually the last to defend or entertain discourses surrounding the re-vitialization of abstraction and its old power glory; yet Liz's welcoming mat of purely visceral enchantment makes one feel at home again. Or at least in a visitor of Adolph Gottlieb's home where one can stay, relax and - for a moment - become autonomous from the external world's worry. Yet, the challenge to these privileged reads is to see if they are able to operate in the greater political art arena. Quick hits of pure formalism are generally now frowned upon as self serving and escapist mechanisms, failing to address real social issues and urgencies. This is not a new question for this new batch of work. This is not a new interview for a dialogue never made public until now...

"Interview with Liz Ainslie" Otino Corsano

OC: I was first drawn to your work through the use of impermanent corrugated board as a substrate for your quasi-geometric paintings. The material appears to emphasize both humility and risk. What first led you to employ cardboard as canvas?

LA: I simply picked up the cardboard laying in my studio and casually started painting on it while oil ground was drying on my canvasses. As this became a regular practice, I realized that I liked how the cardboard seemed to float on the wall and how the paint lays upon the surface differently, even after the cardboard was gessoed. After worrying so much about how to make the perfect painting ground, I realized the support just needed to be specific to the painting, not necessarily to a tradition. I liked how the awkwardness of the uneven cardboard reflected the irregular shapes in the paintings. The cardboard brought the picture closer to the wall without making it look too slick. I often found that MDF or clay-board made for disappointing edges that just cut everything off. I'm also using wood panels, because they take the paint in a similar way to the board. The edges of the wood still have slight variations. I don't like to get too technical, but I think these decisions are important. When making abstract work, specificity is crucial. A similar approach can be found in the way I compose the picture itself.

OC: Is there a simple description you can provide to explain your paintings or are they by nature conceptually complex?

LA: I don't think good paintings need an explanation. I love to talk about my paintings, but to summarize is to devalue the work. The contemporary paintings I really like are usually conceptually complex, so I aspire to the same in my work. If I describe my paintings simply then they lose that complexity. How do you describe a Bill Jensen painting? It just exists in front of you and you are held accountable to the painting. It doesn't need to have an explanation, yet it is conceptual.

Whenever someone who hasn't see my work asks me to describe it, I usually say something like: "They are abstract paintings shifting between the illusion of volume and flatness. Color plays an important role in creating illusion." However this is only a plain description of what I see when I'm finished the painting, not what I want the viewer to see in the painting. The latter describes millions of paintings.

OC: I originally viewed the compositions of your “Slices” series of paintings as sad attempts at rendering stacked books in perspective. Their awkward alignments offer an impossible architecture of floating bisecting forms. Exactly what are these spongiform blocks slices of?

LA: They came to be indirect extractions of landscapes or objects. It's not as if I'm looking at a hillside and then cutting a chunk out of the earth, it's more like looking at a picture of a landscape and cutting a slice that includes the sky, part of the hill and a shadow. One of my paintings ended up having almost the same color scheme as my new sneakers. I'm dissecting my perspective. It's fine if they come off as sad attempts to render perspective. I wanted to find a different way to paint shapes, so I decided to paint them from the inside out, without any drawing or outline. My hand moves just fast enough so I cannot get too fussy, but not quite fast enough to be violent. I want the slices to be embedded in the painting, not superimposed or outlined.

OC: A modernist aesthetic governs your production. Also, a revisionist irony – like in the work of Philip Guston - comes to mind. How do you justify the reissuing of these practiced structures?

LA: Revisionist, yes but irony- I think it's become a bit of a catch-all term used to justify work that people cannot get an immediate read on. I don't really see the need to justify re-examining earlier painting concepts because there is no other choice in art. What matters is an awareness of the fact that you are going to make a conglomerate of the artwork, objects, TV shows, food and other things you experience. I think that's probably what people often mean when they mention irony: simply an awareness of the futility in trying to make something completely new. It is a strange situation to be in. Art History gives the impression that art is about invention and progress, but eventually you find that artists can never make something "new". However, each mark you make or video you shoot or performance you do is actually taking place in it's own moment. The moment is all you can really own.

If I have to justify revisiting certain aspects of modernist painting, I would just say that if we are truly post-modern, abstract painting shouldn't scare anyone. It's just one way of making, and if you try to confine artistic process to this false notion of conceptualism (which is simply art that uses metaphor in some cases), you are no better than Clement Greenberg. Abstract painting is extremely conceptual because it is a translation into a physical, perceptual and imagined language. I want to see art that is challenging, not dully accessible or simply an illustration of someone else's theories on art. I love reading philosophy but I don't think it is written so that artists can simply reflect the same theories in their art. We should be making art that can open up critical thought instead of regurgitating it in a congratulatory manner.

Guston is an influence because of the way he touched the canvas with paint, the subtle color and how he found a way to rearrange his own painting vocabulary. His subjects were ambiguous enough so that the references to politics and culture were not illustrations, but symbols that could move in and out of contexts.

OC: With your seemingly naïve and minimal technical applications, is it a priority to strategically place the works in selective galleries and exhibitions to ensure the work is imbued with controlled theoretical contexts while marketed as a rarefied commodity?

LA: I think most people involved with art can recognize that these are not naive paintings. If they cannot see that, then they probably don't like painting very much. I'm more worried about being labeled as too academic. Since I use mostly traditional materials and I do not illustrate my ideas outright, there will be some who see these paintings as conservative. They are not at all conservative because they require judgment. Putting responsibility on the spectator seems to be a bit taboo in art right now. I want people to make their own decisions about my work. I don't mean to say it is all subjective or something and that I have no power over how the paintings are contextualized. My opinions about painting and art govern my approach to exhibiting. I just don't want to prescribe a reading of the paintings that leaves no room for discussion.

I do think about how certain galleries might affect the ability to judge work. I can imagine my paintings being wrongly lumped in with work that is very nostalgic for modernism. On the other hand, I wouldn't want anyone to think they are a complete parody of modernist painting either. I don't want to be completely controlling the theoretical context of my work, but I will certainly know when it's not right.

OC: You have exhibited regularly in residential art spaces. How do these less formal gallery settings work: for the work and in contrast to a commercial contrast?

LA: I wouldn't mind seeing the work in a large pristine space; nevertheless, these residential spaces have suited my paintings well. When people can't stand far back from the work they spend more time looking at it. I've often been told it takes some time to get used to my paintings. Another advantage to showing in residential spaces is the shapes as objects in my paintings can play off the architecture and other objects in the environment even more. There is a quirky quality in the work further enhanced by quirky spaces.

OC: Mostly all of your compositions set shapes snuggled within the frame. Rarely do designs touch and break the outer edge. Is there a specific “visual thought” this maneuver depicts?

LA: Yes, this is something I've been doing for a few years now. I want the shapes to activate the space by flirting with the edges sometimes. Mostly it's a way of setting up the painting plane as a presentation space, rather than a snapshot of something that continues outside of the edge of the support. The shapes are presented like a collection of objects in a box. I think I felt stuck when making abstract paintings to mimic landscapes. I wanted these forms to be suspended, not be scanned over as just another object in this nondescript mesh of painterly forms. It's better the viewer examine the shape I have painted with concentration, as if they are discovering something alien.

OC: Describe the new work you are developing.

LA: I'm working on incorporating new textures and line into a group of work called "The Pieces." I've also been trying to be more specific about defining what I'm painting. I'm looking for the kind of directness that grabs you even if you cannot recognize why. I guess a lot of people want to paint that way. The new paintings are larger and to change scale is always a challenge. I thought I might expand the scope of the visual field, so we'll see if that works. I still want to keep my shapes contained within the boundary of the support edges.

- Otino Corsano & Liz Ainslie, November 2009 – March 2010

www.lizainslie.com

Quick Draw Artist Interview #18: Brad Tinmouth

2011-10-09T13:42:00.000-07:00

Quick Draw Artist Interviews are a series of interviews conducted by Otino Corsano using Facebook's IM Chat feature. Spontaneous conversations with international artists are recorded and documented specifically for publication on this blog.

Quick: diversity. Rather than a pretentious "hermetic" consider an alienating "esoteric". List unique and mundane. Re: tired. If a cell goes off during an interview does anyone hear it? You and your vibrations. Meanwhile, I learned how to hang a narrow painting in a corner; hugs not creases. Draw: art about art.

(Notice: The following dialogue contains mature subject matter and may or may not contain links to adult content. Accordingly, this text is not suitable for young audiences. Reader discretion and parental monitoring is advised. The artistic views contained in this interview do not represent the views of the interviewer or web host.)

Brad Tinmouth is a perfectly good artist working and living from Toronto, Canada. He is working with newer media arts and making his work available.

http://bradtinmouth.com

http://borttinmouth.tumblr.com

Winning some people over
or at least tricking the others
out of their dollars
the black and white of it
is true. At least a lot of breadth in between for the work
Is all I can ask for.

Read the entire interview with Brad Tinmouth at:

http://artpost-oc.blogspot.com

TAAC "Speed Art Criticisim II" Nuit Blanche 2011

2011-10-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

Dare to claim your 15 minutes of fame?

The TAAC's "Speed Art Criticisim II" launches LEITMOTIF at

The Gladstone Cafe at Queen Street West and Gladstone Avenue.

For one night only, visual artists are invited to bring their artwork to a cube van/mobile gallery parked in the northwest corner of the Gladstone Cafe's parking lot. Artists’ work will be critiqued by the country’s leading art critics during the all-night project who will provide “speed reviews” of up to 15 minutes in duration. Artists can bring an original work or two, prints or even a digital portfolio on a laptop.

Saturday Oct. 1st, 7pm (Sunset) - Sunday Oct. 2nd, 7am (Surise)

Gladstone Cafe, 1181 Queen Street West

Parking Lot: South East corner of Queen St. W. & Gladstone Ave.

LEITMOTIF: An Independent Project of ScotiaBank Nuit Blanche and hosted by the Parkdale Village Bia begins at Gladstone Avenue and stretches along Queen Street West to Roncesvalles Avenue.

Participating TAAC Members:

Otino Corsano

(artUS Magazine LA, ARTPOST)

Katherine Dennis

(OCADU CCP)

Sky Goodden

(ONE HOUR EMPIRE, Canadian Art, C Magazine)

David Jager

(NOW)

Mary MacDonald

(OCADU CCP)

Amish Morrell

(C Magazine)

Elena Potter

(Canadian Art, BlogTO)

Leah Sandals

(National Post, NOW, Canadian Art)

Fran Schechter

(NOW)

Murray Whyte

(Toronto Star)

www.scotiabanknuitblanche.com

www.parkdalevillagebia.com

www.facebook.com/groups/276435113491/

artUS 31

2011-09-15T20:32:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-15T09:39:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-09T23:26:00.000-07:00

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

Quick Draw Artist Interview #17: Aisha-Zalika Simpson

2011-06-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

Quick Draw Artist Interviews are a series of interviews conducted by Otino Corsano using Facebook's IM Chat feature. Spontaneous conversations with international artists are recorded and documented. New “Quick Draw Artist Interviews” will be posted on my new Toronto Artpost blog:

http://artpost-oc.blogspot.com

Quick: remote. Each time I see you, you appear considerably more in unison; precise. A pull back shot with rack focusing on your stare; off centre. Now even further. The thought of never reversing marks your unexpected return; again; just real and raw. Draw: art about art.

Aisha-Zalika Simpson is an interdisciplinary artist and Criticism and Curatorial Practice major at OCAD University. Studying different art practices, Simpson has developed an appreciation for the potential art has to connect people, stimulate discussion and create positive change. Her Criticism and Curatorial foundation enables Simpson to approach her work with both a theoretical lens and a pragmatic approach to art making and curating.
Simpson is participating in Project 417’s presentation "Unveiling the Myths" – an exhibition at Yonge-Dundas Square on August 3^rd and 4^th, 2011, in Toronto.

I think its always important
for the viewer to have space to piece together the message
within a work; however with socially conscious art
it is also important to not be too
illusive. Sometimes you need to be
literal and forthright.

It wouldn't be correct to say
“socially conscious” work is merely about presenting the theme
of social injustice to inform viewers.

http://www.aisha-zalika.com/

http://www.unveilingthemyths.com/

http://www.allianceagainstmodernslavery.org/

Read the entire interview with Aisha-Zalika Simpson at:

http://artpost-oc.blogspot.com

Quick Draw Artist Interview #16: Janna Watson

2011-06-01T19:49:00.000-07:00

http://artpost-oc.blogspot.com

Otino personally thanks Lee Ka-sing for welcoming him back to Toronto Artpost.

Quick: drops. It wasn’t the first time it started to rain like this here. teem. It’s strange how first everyone was just fine in the lake; yet the concept of soaked is altogether different in a downpour. They run; we freeze; chemise evanescence; dissolved; just real and raw. Draw: art about art.

Janna Watson is a recent graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design, and has already begun building an impressive list of exhibitions. Using a hybridizing and synthetic set of tactics, her work is intended to (con) fuse categories of painterly and graphic, landscape and body, 2D and 3D, to blend tension and coherence as one. Watson's most recent solo exhibition opens at Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver in June 2011.

It happened
over years of getting into
the work; letting myself
make
mistakes and trusting
those mistakes.

I’m happy to hear it...
I think you really get it. I think a lot
about ego
and having
humility and letting spirit
in and out and I want to reflect spirit in my work.

http://jannawatson.com
http://www.bau-xi.com

Read the entire interview with Janna Watson at:
http://artpost-oc.blogspot.com

Guess What?! Otino Corsano: "Quick Draw" Artist Interviewer Lecture at The White House

2011-03-23T11:40:00.000-07:00

Dance Drawing # 5 : A Beginning from Meghann Snow on Vimeo.

This March 24th is the first event of the

"Guess What?!" Lecture Series

Otino Corsano: “Quick Draw” Artist Interviewer.

Otino Corsano is a New Genres artists who conducts “Quick Draw” artist interviews via Facebook’s IM Chat feature.

Rather than compartmentalize his writing practice, Corsano sees these documented dialogues as integral to his work as a post-conceptual artist.

Challenged by the traditional classifications of art criticism, Corsano will attempt to demonstrate through a live interview how these writings function as performative/collaborativeworks of art.

Time	Thursday, March 24 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location	The White House (studio) 277.5 Augusta Ave. Toronto, ON

Doors at 7pm.
Lecture starts at 8pm - 9pm.

Jeffrey S. Riffle's painting are on display at the White House during the lecture. I'm happy Jeffrey has agreed to be interviewed as part of the talk.

New York (Brooklyn) Performance artist Meghann Snow has agreed to participate in the second half of the lecture via Skype in a first-of-a-kind LIVE & PUBLIC "Quick Draw" Artist Interview.

Q&A to follow.

PWYC
Beverages will be served.

For more information on the Guess What?! lecture series go to
http://www.theotherwhitehouse.ca/

http://theotherwhitehouse.wordpress.com/

TAAC Panel and Public Debate: Nuit Blanche and the Biennial

2011-03-11T19:34:00.000-08:00

Image Credit: An Te Liu, “Ennui Blanc” 2010. neon sign, installation view,

Out of Site / Nuit Blanche, Toronto. photo: Annie Wang

Join us for a two-part discussion open to Toronto's art-going public on issues surrounding SCOTIABANK NUIT BLANCHE and a potential TORONTO BIENNIAL.

What would a biennial mean for Toronto— would it be artistically stimulating? Commercially valuable? Or just another case of keeping up with the Joneses? Last April, a day-long forum on the subject was held by the Power Plant and MOCCA. A few months ago, the report was released, outlining the remarks and discussions that took place. Now what?

Toronto’s Nuit Blanche is the world’s best-attended art event of its kind, and the city both attends it in droves, and criticizes it widely. Popularity and punditry go hand in hand. Typically the established discourse around the event happens after the event and not before, and the TAAC would like to change the course of things, inflecting change in – and not merely respond to – the event this year.

Whether you’ve got biennial burnout, nuit blanche boredom, or feel excited at the prospect of these and other art festivals, we need to talk. Join the Toronto Alliance of Art Critics and guest speakers for a discussion on the state of Toronto’s Nuit Blanche, our potential for a Biennial, and other issues pertaining to Toronto criticism and culture.

Thursday March 17th
8 - 10pm at the White House
#227.5 Augusta Ave, Kensington Market
Pay-what-you-can.
Doors at 7:30pm.
[Limited seating so come early to secure a spot]

SPEAKERS:

Nuit Blanche

Sarah Robayo Sheridan

Jennifer Marman
& Daniel Borins

David Balzar
Camilla Singh
Dave Dyment
Kim Simon

Biennial

Murray Whyte
Vicky Moufawad-Paul

Otino Corsano
Zack Pospieszynski

Peggy Gale
David Liss

http://theotherwhitehouse.ca/

http://theotherwhitehouse.wordpress.com/

Otino Corsano, New Genres Artist

Global Paint Party

Meghann Snow redux: Dance Drawing

Quick Draw Artist Interview #19: Sarah Elliott

LPP TV

LPP TV

ArtSync TV Interview

Otino Corsano

ArtStars* covers "Happiness - Part 1"

ArtListPro Interview

Washing Away @ Columbia's Schapiro Studio

Happiness - Part 1: Otino Corsano Solo Exhibition @ p|m Gallery

Otino Corsano Happiness - Part 1

Solo Exhibition November 3 - 26, 2011 p|m Gallery 1518 Dundas Street West Toronto, Ontario M6K1T9 http://pmgallery.ca/exhibitions/2011/otino-corsano-happiness Opening Reception: Thursday, November 3, 6-9pm

Visit the Facebook Event Page to RSVP & for more info:

The Pursuit of Happiness by Corinna Ghaznavi

Liz Ainslie "Is Between"

“Is Between”

Quick Draw Artist Interview #18: Brad Tinmouth

TAAC "Speed Art Criticisim II" Nuit Blanche 2011

artUS 31

SUPERCRAWL 2011

"Underdog Award of Distinction" 2011

Quick Draw Artist Interview #17: Aisha-Zalika Simpson

Quick Draw Artist Interview #16: Janna Watson

Guess What?! Otino Corsano: "Quick Draw" Artist Interviewer Lecture at The White House

TAAC Panel and Public Debate: Nuit Blanche and the Biennial

Otino Corsano

Happiness - Part 1

Solo Exhibition
November 3 - 26, 2011

p|m Gallery
1518 Dundas Street West
Toronto, Ontario M6K1T9

http://pmgallery.ca/exhibitions/2011/otino-corsano-happiness

Opening Reception:
Thursday, November 3, 6-9pm