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DAF Group Feature: Vol. 94

Wendy Campbell — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:00:34 +0000

Your Monday Mixx – Enjoy!
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Hybrid Thinking @ Jonathan Levine Gallery

Wendy Campbell — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:21:17 +0000

A selection of work from Jonathan Levine Gallery’s exhibition “Hybrid Thinking”. Curated by Wooster Collective’s Marc + Sara Schiller, the show show features work by: Dal, from Beijing, China (now based in Cape Town, South Africa); Herakut, a duo based in Frankfurt, Germany; Hyuro, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, currently based in Valencia, Spain; Roa, based in Belgium; Sit, from the Netherlands; and Vinz, born and based in Valencia, Spain.

“With a wide array of discipline, medium, style and cultural influence, work by the six artists in this exhibition is thematically cohesive in its related subject matter—through figurative pairings of human and animal elements, the artists explore concepts of instinct, identity and metamorphoses. In the curators’ words: “Hybrid Thinking refers to the current zeitgeist of our time: disparate cultures coming together to create something completely new. Though from distinctly different cultural backgrounds, these artists share an understanding of our cities, of the human condition and our complex relationship with nature.”

“Hybrid Thinking” runs through February 11, 2012. To see more, visit JonathanLevineGallery.com.

Ethan Murrow: Drawing

Wendy Campbell — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:00:54 +0000

Boston based artist Ethan Murrow has a B.A. from Carleton College and an M.F.A from The University of North Carolina. Murrow is Graduate and Undergraduate Faculty in Painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Exhibiting across the United States and internationally, Ethan’s work is in collections around the world, including the Guggenheim Foundation. His work has been reviewed and published widely, including recently in the Los Angeles Times and the Seattle Times. His writing work appears regularly in the Huffington Post. His short film, “Dust,” was an official selection of the 2008 New York Film Festival.

Of his work, Murrow says, “All of the projects I am involved in must be seen within the context of collaboration. I work with others whose ideas and contributions influence, inform and guide me. This process began when my wife Vita Weinstein Murrow began filming, photographing and directing me in performances in 2004. Since then we have often worked as a duo, making short videos together. Often, the still imagery we collect forms the source material for large-scale graphite drawings that are obsessive documents of infatuated characters.

To see more, visit BigPaperAirplane.com.

DAF Group Feature: Vol 93

Wendy Campbell — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:00:42 +0000

Another Monday Mixx – enjoy!

Douglas Miller: Drawing

Wendy Campbell — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:00:31 +0000

Louisville, Kentucky based artist Douglas Miller studied at Ringling College of Art in Sarasota and the University of Louisville, holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and apparently, plays a mean ukelele.

“Through an intuitive process of accumulating and scattering lines, digressions in narratives, and often-abandoning subjects, drawing is a dynamic and fundamental part of myself. A part that is both embedded in history and continually changing. I work in the same way that an author revises text, constructs sentences, edits words, deconstructs sentences, and rubs out ideas. The objective of correction fascinates me. Seemingly, this idea of refinement relies on an elusive pursuit for perfection. I rely more on provisionality and possibilities than on completed resolutions. Throughout my work, I attempt to discern the impulse of correction and reevaluate the influence of logic.”

Miller’s artwork is in the collection of the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, the University of Louisville, the Speed School of Engineering, and numerous private collections.

If you’re in the Louisville area, you can check out Doug’s solo exhibition “Old & New Drawings” at the Patio Gallery January 15- February 21, 2012. (3600 Dutchmans Lane)

To see more, visit DouglasMillerArt.com and his Facebook Page.

Eduardo Flores: “Let Me In” @ Artishox Gallery

Wendy Campbell — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:00:52 +0000

DAF favourite Eduardo Flores (aka BAYO) has a new exhibition entitled “Let Me In” on at Artishox Gallery in Hasselt, Belgium.

Of his work Flores says; “The way people internalize what happens in the world is unique to the individual. My work shows how this can lead a person to different internal extremes. My aim is to reflect the resulting consciousness and anxiousness through a series of questions related to one’s state of being. My current body of work depicts the inner debate that confronts the ego as a mediator for the demands of individuality and as a self-energy that keeps fanatical vigilance over its survival. The fundamental quest for turning individuality into a delusional existence. A series of characters immerse in a non-stop battle of energy. Positive against destructive.

“Let Me In” runs through March 4, 2012. To see more from this exhibition, visit Artishopix. Check out BAYO’s other work at Artwork.Bayo.Me.com and Behance.

DAF Group Feature: Vol. 92

Wendy Campbell — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:00:30 +0000

Your Monday Mixx – on Tuesday – Enjoy!

Andreas Preis: Illustration

Wendy Campbell — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:30:21 +0000

A little Sunday fun from Berlin based illustrator Andreas Preis. To see more, visit DesignerPreis.com or Behance.

DAF Group Feature: Vol. 91

Wendy Campbell — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:00:57 +0000

Your Monday Mixx – Enjoy!

David Stein: Painting

Wendy Campbell — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:00:47 +0000

David Stein was born in Chicago on a chilly October morning in 1977. He developed into a proper gentleman in the Midwest while bouncing back and forth between Illinois and Wisconsin. It was in his earlier years that he made the decision to follow his passion for drawing. Stein is a self-taught artist, his work is inspired by an overactive imagination mixed within the daily toils and a fondness for repetition. His childhood plays a strong role in some of the more recognizable qualities found in his drawings and paintings. Bizarre narratives, anthropomorphic animals and his attention to fine details are sure to be found in each of his pieces.

“I’m inspired by the oddities of the world, fables, alchemy, sherbet El Caminos, ships stuffed into bottles and the seductive allure of triangles. With diligence and perspiration I aim to create a harmonious balance utilizing antique techniques, craftsmanship and contemporary ideas to create a world that is melancholy yet enchanting. I enjoy taking long casual strolls through the rolling landscape of my mind to share with folks my snapshots.”

To see more, visit DavidStein-Art.com and his shop on Etsy.

Discovered via: Fecal Face

DAF Group Feature: Vol. 90

Wendy Campbell — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:00:37 +0000

Your 90th Monday Mixx! Enjoy!

DAF Group Feature: Vol. 89

Wendy Campbell — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:08:19 +0000

Your first Monday Mixx of 2012 – Happy New Year everyone!

Henri Matisse: 1869-1954

Wendy Campbell — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:37:06 +0000

Painter, sculptor, printmaker, designer, draughtsman, and writer, Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse was born on December 31, 1869 in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France. Before studying art, Matisse worked as a solicitor’s clerk in Saint-Quentin and took a law degree from 1887 to 1889 in Paris.

Matisse studied drawing at the Ecole Quentin Latour and began painting in the winter of 1889 while recovering from appendicitis. He gave up law to study painting at the Académie Julian in 1891 under painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau and took drawing and perspective courses at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs. Matisse joined the studio of Gustave Moreau in 1892 and passed the entrance examination of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1895. In 1898 he married Amélie Parayre with whom he had two sons.

Matisse’s early works were essentially based on the study of the Old Masters “firmly based on reality, in a restricted tonal palette influenced above all by his copies after Dutch masters and Chardin and by exhibitions he had seen of the work of Jean Baptiste Camille Corot and Edouard Manet.”

Matisse exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in 1901 and had his first solo show at the Galerie Vollard in 1904.

Matisse, along with André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck became one of the principal figures of Fauvism, which has its base in Impressionism. “In reviving the study of the nude human figure, Matisse’s work was partially a reaction against what he perceived as Impressionism’s neglect of this traditional subject.”

Like other avant-garde artists in Paris at the time, Matisse was interested in influences beyond the realist tradition. Between 1904-05, he spent summers painting in the Mediterranean which resulted in his abandonment of the traditional Impressionist palette in favour of what would become his characteristic style of “flat, brilliant colour and fluid line”.

From 1906 – 1910, Matisse became increasingly successful and his art began to be exhibited and published outside of France. Writer and art collector Gertrude Stein, as well as art collectors Etta and Claribel Cone, began acquiring Matisse’s work. During this time, he was also introduced to Picasso with whom he would have an “intermittent rivalry”.

“Matisse’s work during this period falls into three categories: figure compositions, still-lifes and interiors, and portraits. He moved away from the Fauve style and experimented with a new language of the human figure stimulated primarily by Gauguin’s primitivism, but also by Cézanne’s compositions of bathers, by classical decorations, by African tribal sculpture and by the challenge of Picasso.” (MoMA)

Between 1010-1917, Matisse created what many critics say are the best works of his career. Inspired by his travels to Spain, Russia, Morocco, his further response to Cubism was to create larger, more exotic and colourful paintings.

In 1918, Matisse relocated to Nice, France where creatively he focused on the female form, landscapes, interiors, still-lifes of flowers, and light itself. During this period, he maintained a habit of working outdoors but this production did not result in major works. In 1925, Matisse traveled to Italy and Sicily after which he painted fewer canvases and seemingly gave himself the “task of resolving in drawings, sculptures, prints and paintings the articulation and balance of mass of the seated and reclining female nude.”

Matisse virtually gave up painting in 1929 to focus on a series of over 200 etchings, drypoints and lithographs. “Drawing was essential to Matisse’s paintings of the later 1930s, as was an expressive distortion of the female form in order to capture the mood or personality of the model, for example by exaggerating the length of her body in languid repose.”

In 1928, Matisse moved to Cimiez, a suburb above Nice. In 1941, surgery for a tumor left him disabled and unable to travel. This led to his grand interior paintings between 1946 and 1948, the decoration of the Chapelle du Rosaire at Vence from 1948 to 1951, and to his final works – a series of paper cut-outs.

Matisse died of a heart attack on November 3, 1954 at the age of eighty-four. He is buried at the cemetery of the Monastère Notre Dame de Cimiez, near Nice.

For an in depth biography, visit the MoMA website.

Sources: MoMA, Guggenheim, Wikipedia (images) Olga’s Gallery (images)

Chow Martin: Drawing

Wendy Campbell — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:00:16 +0000

Born in 1981, Chow Martin is a cat lover, unicorn rights activist, fine artist and creative director based in Toronto, Canada. Martin has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking from the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) and is currently represented by WestBerlin Gallery in Germany.

“Chow’s work is a coalescence of deconstructed, anatomical hybrids of man and animal. The grotesque nature of his subjects are harshly contrasted against the beauty and simplicity of the hand-drawn line, creating a narrative open for interpretation. The artist’s work is an exploration of the interaction of oppositional forces at a material, physical and psychological level. Themes of conflict, tension, dissonance, decay and despair are enhanced through the use of marks created by purely visceral reactions.” (From WestBerlin Gallery)

To see more, visit ChowMartin.com.

Discovered via Lost At E Minor

DAF Group Feature: Vol. 87

Wendy Campbell — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:42:47 +0000

Your Monday Mixx – Enjoy!!

Zorikto Dorzhiev: Steppe Story @ Hay Hill Gallery

Wendy Campbell — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 15:00:40 +0000

Born in 1976 Ulan-Ude (Siberia), Zorikto Dorzhiev has emerged as one of Russia’s most acclaimed young artists, with his work exhibited in 2008 at the Council of Europe and the Beijing Olympics, and his recent series Steppe Story shown for two months at St Petersburg’s Russian Museum in 2009. Dorzhiev studyied at the Buryat Republican College of Arts in Ulan-Ude, Zorikto and trained with Professor A.M. Znak at the Krasnoyarsk State Institute of Arts from 1996-2002 and until 2005, with branches of the Russian Academy of Arts in the Urals, Siberia and Russia’s Far East.

With precise draughtsmanship and vivid colour, Dorzhiev displays subtle humour and gift for caricature. Nomadic Buryat life is his main subject. To Zorikto, “a nomad is an artist, a poet, a philosopher, and often a loner.” His Oriental aesthetic involves refined, elongated silhouettes, with his subjects ranging from sensuous females to warriors on horseback evoking Buryats’ Mongol ancestors. (from Hay Hill Gallery)

Steppe Story runs through December 24, 2011 at Hay Hill Gallery in London, UK. Be sure to check out their website for more information. Moscow’s Khankhalaev Gallery also has a large selection of his earlier work online.

DAF Group Feature: Vol. 86

Wendy Campbell — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:00:21 +0000

Another Monday Mixx on Tuesday – Enjoy!

Simon Riley: Painting/Drawing

Wendy Campbell — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:00:37 +0000

Simon Riley was born in Liverpool and attended St. Martins School of Art in London. After becoming a pavement artist, chalking old masters onto chewing gum splattered paving slabs all over the UK, he spent several years in advertising making award winning TV commercials and trails for the BBC. But after serious illness, Simon began painting and drawing as a way to cope with his illness, often producing dark, intense portraits.

To see more, visit Saatchi Online or the Daily Art Fixx Shop.

DAF Group Feature: Vol. 85

Wendy Campbell — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:00:44 +0000

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Wassily Kandinsky: 1866-1944

Wendy Campbell — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:00:12 +0000

Born on December 4, 1866 in Moscow Russia, Wassily Kandinsky was a painter, printmaker, stage designer, art theorist, and a central artist in the development of 20th century abstract art.

Kandinsky studied economics, ethnography and law in Moscow from 1886 – 1893 and wrote a dissertation on the legality of labourer’s wages. In 1896, Kandinsky decided to become an artist and traveled to Munich, Germany where he studied at the art school of Anton Ažbe. In 1900 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich under Franz von Stuck.

In Munich, the early 1900′s was a centre for Jugendstil (Art Nouveau), and Kandinsky’s art grew out of this movement as well as Russian art. His early works included figure studies, scenes with knights and riders, romantic fairytale subjects and other Russian scenes. He worked with tempera and gouache on black backgrounds and later used printmaking techniques including etching and drypoint. Also at this time, Kandinsky began creating small oil sketches using a palette knife on canvas board.

Between 1903 and 1909 he and his companion Gabriele Münter traveled to the Netherlands, Tunisia, Italy, France and throughout Germany. While in France, Kandinsky stayed in Sèvres, outside Paris, where paintings by Gauguin, les Nabis, Matisse and other Fauvists were exhibiting. He was influenced by these artists and his colours became more vibrant.

Between 1904 and 1908 Kandinsky participated in art exhibitions in Moscow and St Petersburg, the Berlin Secession, and the Salon d’Automne in Paris. He was a co-founder of the Neue künstlervereinigung münchen (Munich New Artist’s Association) in 1909, and exhibited with them at the Moderne Galerie Thannhauser in Munich. Kandinsky had developed a distinctive style of painting and his shift from representational painting towards abstraction, focusing on the synthesis of colour line and form began.

Kandinsky was forced to leave Munich after the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and he and Münter stayed for several months in Switzerland. At the end of 1914 he went back to Russia and in December 1915 he traveled to Stockholm, to meet Münter. He returned to Russia in 1916 where he met Nina von Andreyevskaya, whom he married in February 1917.

Between 1915 and 1919, Kandinsky produced numerous drawings and watercolours, as well as prints and paintings on glass. At times he returned to a more representational style painting realistic landscapes, views of Moscow, figure paintings, and fairytale scenes. However, his work also included completely abstract ink drawings, and geometric shapes became more prevalent.

Between 1918 and 1921, Kandinsky’s activities as a teacher, writer, administrator and organizer occupied much of his time. He played an active role in Narkompros, where he was director of the theatre and film sections and was an editor of a journal for the publication “IZO”. He was also head of a studio at Moscow Svomas art school. Kandinsky still found time to produce large, canvases and many watercolours and drawings.

Kandinsky returned to Germany in 1921 and accepted an offer of professorship at the Bauhaus in Weimar. He became master of the wall painting workshop and taught a course on the theory of form. The faculty, which included Lyonel Feininger, Johannes Itten, Paul Klee and Oskar Schlemmer, developed theoretical courses, led workshops and instruction in crafts and sought to reunite all artistic disciplines.

At the Bauhaus, Kandinsky created about three hundred oils and several hundred watercolours. From the beginning, he had systematically recorded his paintings and, after 1922, he catalogued the watercolours as well. He also produced many drawings which often related to his teaching theories.

During the Bauhaus period, Kandinsky used circles, squares, triangles, zigzags, checker-boards and arrows as components of his abstract works. The shapes became just as meaningful as the abstract images of towers, horses, boats and rowers had been in his art in earlier years.

In 1933, the Kandinsky and his wife moved to Paris after the Nazis closed the Bauhaus school. During this time, his art included biomorphic forms, the incorporation of sand with pigment, and a new delicacy and brightness in his colour harmonies. He preferred pastels to the primary colours he had used in the 1920s, and he favoured images derived from biology, zoology and embryology.

Between 1934 and 1944 Kandinsky created 144 oil paintings, about 250 watercolours, and several hundred drawings. His work during this time revealed his personal response to prevailing artistic fashions – the free, organic shapes of Surrealism and the geometric abstraction of Art concret and Abstraction–Création on the other.

Kandinsky became a French citizen shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. He continued working during the period of German occupation and died on December 13, 1944 at Neuilly-sur-Seine.

For a more in-depth biography, visit the source links below. The MoMA site has an extensive biography including information about his writings.

Sources: Pintura (images), MoMA, Wikipedia,

Related books from Amazon: Name Your LinkWassily Kandinsky