Alison Elizabeth Taylor @ James Cohen Gallery

Since seeing Alison Elizabeth Taylor's work on-line several years ago, I've been anxious to see her paintings in person. Thankfully, I had the opportunity in November (2013) during her solo show, Surface Tension, at the James Cohan Gallery in New York.

Taylor has, at a young age, carved out a place for herself in the art world by creating contemporary paintings using a centuries old technique (marquetry) of assembling pieces of wood veneer together, like a puzzle. As a result, her work, by definition, holds a tension between the past and the present as well as between fine art and fine craft. With work like this, so much of the impact relies on the ability of the artist to master the craft, and I know from experience that images on the web can be deceiving, hiding imperfections and sloppy work. However, after seeing these paintings in person, I can happily report that her work is impeccable. Her execution is every bit as good as furniture makers that specialize in this technique.

Taylor's work in this show is particularly interesting in two novel ways. For one, she is now combining tradition painting (with oils) along with veneer. And secondly, she using the veneer to "paint" wood.

I loved all the work in the show, it is all visually interesting on many levels, but my favorite piece, by far, is Silver Fox. With it, she takes what would normally be an interesting contemporary art idea, painting a sheet of plywood, and takes it to another level by using wood to do it. In addition, the concept is simultaneously minimalist and abstract expressionist -- it is "just" a sheet of plywood (both conceptually and in actuality); but it is also chaotic, unpredictable, and visually complex. 

Silver Fox

53" x 51"

Furthermore, as is a theme in a lot of her work, she is taking an object that would normally be over looked as too common to waste one's time examining, and makes it completely fascinating, forcing the viewer to ask why they haven't looked at plywood more closely before. 

Silver Fox (closeup)

Again, with Brooklyn Navy Yard, Taylor is asking the viewer to really look at something they would normally overlook and, by using a desert sky behind it, she makes it particularly dramatic and interesting. I find it fascinating how using wood as her "paint" for this subject really elevates it to another level, well beyond what it would have been if she painted the branch with oils. Perhaps because doing so makes it simultaneously a sculpture and a painting causing mental conflict and confusion. 

Brooklyn Navy Yard

36" x 30" x 3/4"

With Into the Wild, Taylor creates a seductive scene and again makes an interesting tree painting with wood, 

Into the Wild
52 1/2" x 38 1/2"

but what really makes this piece is how she uses the wood grain to form ripples in the water. It is such an important part of the painting, I wonder if it was the inspiration. 

Into the Wild (closeup)

In Kelso, Taylor again focuses on a something that would normally be over looked and creates a fascinating work of art -- a neglected home with layers of paint, wall paper, plaster, and lath falling apart.

Kelso
50" x 47" 1 1/4"

The title seems cryptic, perhaps it is the name of the last family to live in this house, or the town, or street name, or who knows -- interpretation is left to the viewer but, cleverly, the mystery behind the name helps to make the painting more real.

Kelso (closeup)

Laocoon is my favorite of several tree portraits in the show. With its broken branch and multi-directional limbs, it is the most interesting of the series. 

Laocoon
58" x 76"

I assume title is a reference to a Trojan priest that warned against accepting the Trojan Horse as a gift from the Greeks. Perhaps the twisted and broken branches reminded Taylor of a famous sculpture of Laocoon and His Sons at the Vatican.

Laocoon (closeup)

And finally, with The Optimist's Ennui, Taylor again paints a sheet of plywood, but this time with a hole that give a view of an exterior desert scene, leaving the impression that the plywood is being used as an interior wall of a shack.

The Optimist's Ennui
62" x 46"

With the hole in the wall she is able to create a story that is both dramatic and open for interpretation.

The Optimist's Ennui (closeup)

If you are interested in seeing a complete inventory of this show, more and better images are available on the gallery's website here. I'm stilled thrilled at having a chance to see it. Not only is her work unique, fascinating, and well crafted, I also love that she is continuing to evolve, adding elements, themes, and new techniques to her work. It is wonderful to see paintings that combine so many disparate ideas, styles, and media so as to be a part of history and original at the same time.

New Website!

The extremely cold weather the last couple of weeks has made working in the studio an uncomfortable option so I have spent the time working on the long over due project of doing a massive overhaul of my website. Though it may still not be perfect (I could stand to rephotograph an number of pieces) I think it is a substantial improvement over the old one. Check it out if you are so inclined - roberthitzig.com. Yay! 

More Messiness

After finished the recent batch of paintings on plywood, I decided to apply the same, messy, loose style on constructed solid wood boards. With both of these pieces, I repeatedly cut, glued, and re-cut to create a series of off-set faults that are highlighted by thin strips of cherry and walnut. Once assembled, I cut the boards into unique geometric shapes.

Cutting Board

mixed media on wood

20" x 31"

2014

Once prepped with a smooth, clean surface, I started adding and subtracting numerous layers of shellac, acrylic paint, epoxy, oil pastels, and graphite, making sure to create grooves, marks, and scratches as I removed layers, sometimes with course sand paper (by hand and with a Festool obital sander) as well as with a card scraper (it is the fastest way to clean up a surface but it is also a great way to leave marks if you are intentionally rough with it). I even drilled some holes to create more imperfections.

Cutting Board (close-up)

In all honesty, I wasn't thrilled about this work in the beginning, but I decided to just trust the process and assume that I would end up where I wanted to be. Thankfully, as I continued, they started to grow on me.

 

 Home

mixed media on wood

24.5" x 32"

I found that there is a lot to like about them. For one, there are a lot of contrasts that make them interesting -- between the formality (with tightly defined geometric shapes) and the informality (with random, amorphous abstract colors); between the rough, textured wood and the smooth, perfect (french polished) shellac surface; between the visible lines and the sections hidden underneath the paints; and between the beautiful color combinations (including multi-colored brush strokes) and the "ugly" messiness.

 Home (close-up)

One of my major goals in creating them has been to develop a lot of depth, something that would have a lot of layers for a viewer to continually look beyond; which is one of the reasons I chose to go back to using figured wood (curly maple and curly birch) after working with plywood. Once you look beyond all the layers of paint and shellac, you can see the three dimensional waves in the wood that reflect light differently than the opaque sections. I hope that, in this way, it draws the viewer in closer and closer, deeper and deeper, to a place of contemplation, discovery, and mystery.

Charles Ray's Hinoki @ Art Institute of Chicago

Next to seeing Anish Kapoor's "Bean", any visit to Chicago should include a trip to the Art Institute of Chicago because, even if it is all you see, Charles Ray's Hinoki alone is worth the price of admission. 

In brief, Hinoki is a sculpture of a fallen redwood tree reproduced in Japanese cypress (hinoki). As described in the artist statement posted in the gallery (a room that was built specifically for this one piece), the sculpture took ten years to complete, four of which were spent on the actual carving. Ray contracted the work out to Japanese reproduction specialist Yuboku Mukoyoshi (who normally works on Buddha sculptures) and his team of artisans.

Hinoki

Japanese cypress

It is beyond debate that the piece is a phenomenal effort of pure labor and skill. Just to conceive that something like this could be done is an accomplishment, and the quality of the reproduction, complete with insect tracts and bark remains, is remarkable; but what interests me about it, and makes me continue to think about it weeks after viewing it, is the concept of preserving a rotting tree in sculpture.  

Hinoki (end view)

(note: hollow all the way through and the inside is carved with same effort as outside)

In addition, one of the most interesting questions the pieces raises for me is why I find this sculpture appealing while, in contrast, Ellsworth Kelly's minimalist wood "trees" and Roxy Paine's stainless steel "tree", both of which I wrote about a couple of years ago, didn't.  

branch joint

I think one of the key differences with this piece is that, by expending so much effort to recreate an object that most people would normally walk by, it forces them to consider the beauty of the natural object that inspired the sculpture. I don't think either Kelly or Paine's sculptures really connected me back to their inspiration. In contrast, I felt their work was more about the maker than the object. In addition, by selecting wood as the medium for the sculpture, the reproduction retains some the warmth of the original and appears to be more of a collaboration with nature. In contrast, I don't think Kelly or Paine's trees could be called "warm", both had a very sterile and cold feel to them.

Furthermore, Hinoki demands that viewers examine the quality of the reproduction because of its medium and its size (if it were simply a cast of a wood log, it would not be nearly as interesting), and by looking at the details the viewer is forced to ask why the details were worth reproducing, which thereby leads the viewer to conclude that the details are intrinsically beautiful and have value on their own. 

Joint (closeup)

(the main body is assembled from five or six sections, each about five feet long)

So, with Hinoki, I feel good about the trees that sacrificed their lives to make it. That their lives weren't in vain because people that see the work gain insight and appreciation for their fallen brethren as well as those that are still vibrant and growing. In the simplest terms, it is a piece that is easy to appreciate for the shear will it took to accomplish, but what truly makes it a great piece is how it makes the viewer think and see the world.

Bumper Sticker Update

In May I wrote a post about my bumper sticker series. In summary, the series is intended as an antidote to the typical dogmatic bumper stickers that describe the world in black and white terms and try to convince everyone of their point of view in three words or less. One day I realized that, even if I agreed with the sentiment of these stickers, they made me feel uncomfortable, so I decided to make a series of bumper stickers that didn't have any words and didn't try to convince anybody of anything.

070713e

3" x 10"

limited edition of 5

As I started designing the stickers, I ordered them in editions of five (although the company printing them would often send more than I paid for); and I offered them to friends for free because I couldn't see charging for such a small item and because it felt like a gift to me that someone would want one on their car. To my surprise friends liked them, so, as I ran out of an edition, I would design a new one. Soon I was talking about them with people I just met and offering them stickers for free as well -- it just felt better to give them away than to ask for money.

 062913b-072313a

3" x 10"

limited edition of 6

I also found that I really enjoyed the process of designing the stickers and wanted to make more but figured that I couldn't afford to give an unlimited quantity away so I devised a rule that I'd give anyone one bumper sticker for free but that if they ever wanted a second one, I'd have to charge them $10. I haven't sold many at this point but maybe sometime in the future, when cars are being replaced and people need another one, I'll start making money; I don't know, making money with these stickers isn't really the point but, at the same time, I don't want to go broke giving them away; but at the same time, I enjoy giving them away and if I could afford to give everyone in the US a free bumper sticker, I would. 

 081713a

3" x 10"

limited edition of 6

Secretly, I have a fantasy that this project would start of a movement in which mysterious bumper stickers would suddenly fill our roadways and people would start asking about them. I love how the work causes people to ask questions to which there is no right answer and I love how that starts a dialog.

 090113a

3" x 10"

limited edition of 10

Additionally, I really like the idea of filling our road ways with abstract art. The public roadways are an underutilized canvas for making our world more beautiful and interesting, so I feel that I'm doing something to promote the beautification of our roads as well.

 091213a

3" x 10"

limited edition of 10 or 11

When I first wrote about this work, I didn't offer them for free to the general public because I feared going broke giving them away. But as I've thought more about it, I decided not to worry about that because I can still decide not to give them away if it is costing too much and because my blog isn't so popular that I expect to get hundreds of people asking for them. So I'm now offering them to the general public with the caveat that if you ever need a second one, I'll have to charge you $10; and I'm only offering them to people with US addresses. Just email me your address and I'll send you one. I'll post images of new ones on this blog, and if I need to change the rules for distributing them, I'll state them here as well. Regardless, I hope that making them available more widely will give me a reason to design more (if enough people express interest in them).

 100413a

3" x 10"

limited edition of 10 or 11

As of January 14, 2014, I still have two copies

I have to say, it is fun to be somewhere and see one of my stickers, especially if I don't know whose car it is. I have been asked a number of times why I don't sign the work or leave some kind of indication where they come from and I have responded that self promotion isn't the point, the bumper stickers shouldn't have any words on them and I really like the idea that they are mysterious -- that if someone is interested in them they have to ask the car's owner about it. I also like to hear stories about these interactions. That is far more satisfying than putting my name on them (which would answer questions and cause them to be easily dismissed as merely self-promotional).

120213b

3" x 10"

limited edition of 11
As of January 14, 2014, I still have eight copies

So if you want one, and you have a US address, let me know which one you want and I'll send it to you (only the last two are currently available, I'll post more as I design more). Though I might not get rich giving them away, it makes me happy and makes my driving experience more fun, so I'll do it as long as I can afford it.