Gee Whiz

This blog hasnt been active in ages yet it keeps getting new followers. I will ATTEMPT to start it up again- in the meantime you can also follow the Roq La Rue News Blog here!

Random Tidbits

Mark Ryden is opening his new show at Paul Kasmin Gallery in NY next week and I'll be there schmoozing it up and taking pics for Hi Fructose. This little piece might actually be my fave out of the whole show! You can see more images here. He will be exhibiting some large paintings, some graphite/watercolors, and a bunch of drawings.


Wow!



And then there is this amazing new piece by James Jean. His work continually hits me like a punch in the heart. This is called "Pestilence".

Sad Lambs

Here are more examples of artists inspired by the same image in their works. This one is the "Lamb of God" image. I hate this image with a passion actually. I suppose it's to be looked as an allegory about Christ but it it also makes me think about man's cruelty to the creatures of the world. I suppose my repulsion also fascinates me...


Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664) "Agnus Dei"

and then a couple of contemporary works:


Michael Hussar "Lamb of God" 2002


Glenn Brown "Spearmint Rhino" 2009


Pretty horrible, eh? Let's imagine that the lamb went to a happier place...


Lori Earley "The Wish"

Nicola Verlato

Occasionally, I'll see paintings that just make me exclaim "Jesus!" out loud when I first see them...I mean that in a good way, in that I'm shocked and delighted how powerfully and masterfully they are created. I don't love all his works, but when Nicola Verlato nails it, he has no rival.

Jane Kenoyer

Last year I gave a lecture in Reno and met Jane Kenoyer, a young artist who subsequently came and interned for me at Roq La Rue for several months. At the time she was doing beachy paintings that looked like old vacation stills on blown out and faded film. After her submergence into the Pop Surrealism scene her work has taken an edgier, more fantastical feel. She has a solo show in Reno. I think her new work looks really terrific.

Jessica Joslin

I don't think it can really be categorized as rogue taxidermy, but I sure love Jessica Joslin's steam-goth (sorry, I had to) sculptures made of bone and metal. It's amazing to me that she can build a metal skeleton out of found metal parts and have it have the same shape as a real skeleton but also capture the fluidity of the creature in motion. She has a new show at Lisa Sette Gallery and I seriously covet the hornbill pieces.

Jean Pierre Roy

Just a little update about painter Jean Pierre Roy- he is exhibiting in a group show in New York- his gorgeously and ambiguously apocalyptic landscapes are starting to generate some serious buzz. I had a solo with him in 2008...but unfortunately I nuked my old site so the show is not online. You can see it on his site however (The Soletta Show)...

Mark Ryden at Work

Speaking of Ryden- he's just posted a time lapse of the creation of his painting, "Incarnation". Dig it.

New Hi Fructose Coming Soon!

Well, Hi There!
I haven't posted for a zillion years, maybe I'll get back into it. I've just had other things going on but I do miss the old blog. Anyway- first order of business is that the new Hi Fructose is coming out, with the effervescent James Jean on the cover. I have a pretty low profile this issue- my interview with one of my favorite artists, Chris Conn, got expanded and pushed to the next issue...but I do have a mini-interview with Mark Ryden discussing his new show at Paul Kasmin at the end of the month. I'll be there, will you?

Kate McGwire

Kate McGwire "Sluice"

Just came across Kate McGwire's darkly beautiful and powerful work today...this piece struck me as just perfect for how I was feeling. I got some unhappy family news that is making me think a lot about mortality and what the way of nature and the world really is vs our perception of it, and I found this to be an apt representation for the un-wordable.


Kate McGwire "Heave"

Will Cotton

Will Cotton is another one of those painters that I've seen for awhile and then something in my brain just clicks and I REALLY see it all of a sudden. Cotton paints sumptuous and decadent portraits of candy and baked goods, sometimes nudes with candy and baked goods. What more could you want in life? They are so soft they seem to be painted out of colored air.

Ann Carrington

I seriously covet the work of Ann Carrington. She makes works using general everyday detritus, safety pins, pearl buttons, coconut shells, to make intricate and gorgeous artworks. I especially like her series of glamour-punk portraits of the Queen and Union Jacks, but her other work is just as bewitching. I am contemplating smashing all my piggybanks and seeing what's there. I do love these so.

Lori Earley new show

Here is an image from Lori Earley's upcoming show at Opera Gallery in London. Love. More info later....

What The Hell Am I Talking About?

Here's is a nice and mildly humorous glossary of terms trotted out by arty know it alls:

Heade's Hummingbirds

The other day Kenny and I were walking through a forested part of a nearby park when we heard an unusual but distinctive chorus of abrupt teeny clicking chirps...hummingbirds! A whole mess of them were zooming around and yelling at each other through the trees. I was reminded of the lovely paintings of Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904) who painted many paintings of hummingbirds in almost primordial, jungly landscapes. Let's look at some shall we? I find them just very refreshing to look at...I like how they exude an exotic humidity.
I would love a whole room full of these.







Update:
My Dad just emailed me this tidbit- he and my stepmom bought a colonial inn in Fredricksburg, Virginia years ago and with the inn they inherited this portrait painted by Heade! That's pretty fun. Too bad it wasn't a hummingbird painting...then I could swipe it.


"Lady Kenmore" by M.J. Heade

Matthew Kirscht

As sort of an amuse-bouche for your eyes, check out Matthew Kirscht's paintings inspired by vintage Halloween imagery. Some of these are pretty demented, but I like the the sort of unself-conscious sincerity they exude nonetheless.

Dali and Disney

This is neat.



From I Heart Chaos:
"In 1946, surrealist Salvador Dali formed an unlikely friendship with Walt Disney and they spent a short time collaborating on a short film called "Destino". Unfortunately, only 18 seconds of Destino were ever shot, but in 1999, Roy Disney reconstructed the entire short using computer rendering and hand-drawn imagery based on the original sketches and storyboards.
The piece was supposed to have been part of Fantasia 2000, but didn't make the cut and hasn't ever seen release anywhere else. So far, the Disney lawyers haven't come after this YouTube video, so cross your fingers that it still works when you click on the play button. And if you want to know where the original footage, is, look for the two weird turtle monsters at around 5:22."


"Five O'Clock Shadows in Dali-Disney Land" by Todd Schorr

Hi Fructose 12

The new Hi Fructose is coming out soon, with loads of great new stuff, and including two big articles (I just about killed myself over) with Todd Schorr and Michael Hussar! You can see some preview pages here.

Charlie Immer

I am really liking the work of Charlie Immer- more so now that I saw one in person recently at a friends house and could see the lovely rendering and luminous color in person. Some of his newer work could be characterized as gummy bear horror...lots of gelatinous type creatures in pale jello colors, with skeletonized features. I think it's pretty great and fresh to look at.

Tigers in art

(The one on the top is telling the one on the bottom he's adopted.)

I have a fascination with tigers in art for some reason. Some of my favorite depictions are in Korean art...the have a wonderful sort of demented cartoon quality tempering their fierceness, and the tiger is a central figure in Korean folklore and therefore a common theme in artworks.


See what I'm sayin'? I dig those googly eyes.


This is not a Korean tiger but is by artist Chris Conn- I thought it had similar qualities.


The Vigilant Tiger by Martin Hsu


Walton Ford's Tiger (Thanks Chris!)