Author Archives: jolanta

Drawing on the intrinsic qualities of the medium, my photographic work aims to create an aesthetic of the still that encloses as much of the concreteness of the everyday as it does the enigmatic. Through a staging or re-directing of the real, I deploy photography as a meditative and contemplative act, reflecting on transparency, light, […]

AJ Fosik’s eclectic handmade and intricately designed wood animal sculptures and paintings, combined with cryptic symbols, intrigue and provoke. Fosik creates an experience that at first glance evokes a questioning of familiar concepts and then pushes the viewer to look and think deeper. Inspired by subversive cultural influences that shift complacency, he creates pieces that […]

Praxis Studio’s exhibit "Dreams and Possibilities" opened in spring 2007 at The Whitney Altria in NYC. Leah Oates: Your show at The Whitney Altria draws people into a virtual environment that opens up dreams and possibilities for each individual. You use a film set and a movie environment where participants can pretend to be someone […]

I’ll talk about my attitude in using references, and then my “head” paintings, which can be perceived as quite different to my regular work. When you’re using pop imagery as a source, like I often do, I think it’s important to obtain ownership over the image in some way. By that I mean you have […]

The other night I had a long discussion with an artist friend of mine about drawing, which got started thanks to my ceaseless weeping over technical difficulties. I had spent a whole day figuring out a way to represent cellulite on a woman’s legs. I had tried all possible techniques from line to shading, but […]

Gae Savannah: Can you talk about the “Waterways” project that you organized at the Venice Biennial in 2005? Renée Vara: The “Waterways” project was a public collective action—a nostalgic and utopian intervention that literally functioned as a social sculpture, and which cut the physical space of the Venetian landscape by moving through the canals. The […]

Leah Oates: When did you know you where an artist? Michael Schall: Well, the first time I received recognition for my creative abilities was in kindergarten. The project was to draw something on a paper plate, which would eventually be sent somewhere to be made into a real laminated plate. I drew a picture of […]

I’m interested in exploring gay identity in relation to the conservative landscape that exists in the US today. I’ve been inspired by the political activism of the 80s: the art of David Wojnarowicz, “ACT UP” demonstrations and the defiant “fuck you” that angry queers gave mainstream society. So, I make work that hearkens back to […]

Michelle Sakhai was born in l983, the heyday of appropriation, and thus her debut solo show at Broadway Gallery, with her exquisite plein-air canvases, presents a curious conundrum to the ironic eye. How are we to decipher these works in the present artistic climate? Following in the footsteps of the Impressionists and the Fauves, Ms. […]

No, Virginia, Cindy Sherman’s art did not come to us from outer space; it was yet another art practice formed in and by feminist thought and affiliated, both directly and indirectly, with the work of many women artists active in the 70s. If this is a newsworthy observation, it represents one positive consequence of the […]