Last Chance – More Than Your Selfie

This weekend is the last chance to see More Than Your Selfie at New Museum Los Gatos. It’s been an outstanding exhibition of self-portraits by artists that go beyond the surface of the selfie in a an exploration of what portraiture can convey. We’re extremely fortunate to have works from these artists with us in Los Gatos! There were some fabulous artist talks held in conjunction with this show, a few of which I’ve covered in earlier posts.

Alex Kanevsky – Artist Looking for a Painting

Hung Liu – Official Portraits – Citizen – color lithograph with collage

Self Portrait (In Absentia) oil on linen

Judy Dater – Ms. Clingfree – ektacolor print

Ray Turner – Self-Portrait – oil on glass

Cristina Nuñez – Someone to Love – 2011 – video installation

Julie Heffernan – Self Portrait with Falling Sky – 2011 – oil on canvas

Linda Christiansen – Self Portrait – oil on canvas

Danny Sceible, Robert Arneson, Travis Collinson

Nina Kathcadourian and Philip Hua

Erin Feller and Kim Frohsin

Robert Mapplethorpe – Self Portrait – platinum print

 

Conversation with Philip Hua

Another great conversation at NUMU, this time curator Marianne McGrath spoke with Philip Hua, an exhibiting artist with More Than Your Selfie on going through May 15, 2016.

He spoke on branding yourself as an artist, the differences between selfies and self portraiture and opened a window into his poetic performative prints, that evolve when exposed to light overtime, his re:active work, manipulated digital prints on construction paper and newsprint, as well as his digital pixelation and Ben Day dot portraits, manipulated with water.

Hua’s work strikes me as very spiritual with transient notions of self and often ephemeral use of materials. It reminds me of the monk who spends days making an intricate sand mandala only to brush it away once it’s completed. There is such a beauty and poignancy to his imagery, his handling and choice of materials and process!  I find his work eye-opening and completely entrancing!

One of his pieces, If it Happened Before It Will Happen Again – pigmented ink and packing tpe on Wall Street Journal newpaper mounted on dibond is currently on exhibit at  Salon at the Triton Museum of Art.

Today’s Conversation at NUMU will be with photographer Judy Dater from 2:30 −3:30 pm, 106 East Main Street in Los Gatos (free with admission – go for the membership!)

Linda Christensen at NUMU

In conjunction with the ongoing More Than Your Selfie exhibit, Linda Christensen gave a great talk at NUMU last night in which she talked about her painting philosophy, process and studio tips!

In Self, Linda Christensen’s oil painting in the More that your Selfie exhibit at NUMU, as in most of her work, the artist  is interested in the “honest body language of the unobserved figure”. Her paintings are not about capturing a likeness but rather a gesture, a pose and in inner life. Her paintings are large and loose and bold and laced the line and pattern.

The paintings go through radical transformations as she works, which she demonstrated to us in a series of photographs. She may lay in the loose outline of a figure in a scene then go back into it with stencils and palette knives and brushes, breaking up the figure and space in surprising ways which direct the painting until there is an emotional resonance that starts to happen.

I loved how she spoke about her studio experience, how every aspect of it should be conducive to her process, right down to the sensory experience of tracing paper. She likes an abundance of canvases, stacked up, lots of paint perpetually open, brushes hanging out in the turps, a six foot long glass palette and lots of room to move in. Her process is to paint, turn and cleanse her “visual palette” with a classic black and white movie that she has running, look out the window to stretch her eyes than walk right back to the canvas with fresh eyes, knowing what she needs to do next. She’s set herself up for success, limiting the reasons to leave the studio, to break her focus.  She said something that was very interesting, “If it’s hard, I’m not going to do it”. So know and honor your process, make it as enjoyable as you can.

She spoke of how painting is so highly personal and that your Point of View is really something to be cherished. It’s important to hone in on what really interests you and to realize that what you’re drawn to and how you work is part of that Point of VIew.

Linda Christensen shared with us a thumbnail timeline she had prepared for a college talk in which she had laid out  her work and influences over the years chronologically and recommend it as a great way to glean insights and perspective into the arc of one’s work.

Another tip she had was trying Color-aid cards, complete with mixing instructions on the back. She said it was sometimes fun to pull out a new palette to work with.

The audience was largely comprised of artists and we couldn’t get enough!

 

Julie Heffernan at NUMU

We were so lucky to have Brooklyn based artist Julie Heffernan speak with us Sunday at New Museum Los Gatos in conjunction with their current exhibition, More Than Your Selfie.

More Than Your Selfie - NUMU - Julie Heffernan - Self Portrait with Falling Sky - 2011 - oil on canvas - photo Marie Cameron 2016

 

Included in this exhibit is her oil painting, Self Portrait with Falling Sky. As with many of Julie Heffernan’s paintings, she uses the self portrait as a vehicle to explore her relationship with outer and inner worlds in magical settings of fantastic gardens, wild jungles and gilded palaces – all bursting into flame or blossom or fruit, laced with a secret language of survival and hope held in a tenuous, transcendent balance.

NUMU - Marianne McGrath and Julie Heffernan - photo Marie Cameron 2016

NUMU curator Marianne McGrath with artist Julie Heffernan. It was all about the redheads –  in the historic images, in the paintings, and in the audience!

NUMU -  Julie Heffernan - photo Marie Cameron 2016

Julie Heffernan’s talk and slide show introduced us to her early art influences that broke through her suburban Ozzie and Harriet style upbringing on the West Coast – passionate Catholic hagiography and hippy hedonism in Golden Gate park, then onto German figural renaissance with her Fullbright scholarship in West Berlin. While in Europe she was exposed to the likes of Velázquez, Fantin-Latour and Bosch to name but a few and so began her lush still lifes as self portraits, traditional still lifes with contemporary flourishes and mind bubbles. These grew into the monumental, surreal follies, and the epic dystpoias of today which have been fueled by both personal and global events.

NUMU - Julie Heffernan - slide shoe of work 1 - photo Marie Cameron 2016

NUMU - Julie Heffernan - slide shoe of work 2 - photo Marie Cameron 2016

These are but a few glimpses into the slide show that accompanied the talk but a visit to Julie Heffernan’s website is order – also a visit to NUMU and to Mark Zukerberg’s house if you get the chance!  The artist also recommends checking out Elizabeth Kolbert on the environment, Elizabeth Gilbert on creative creative imps the TV series Black Mirror!