UGALLERY BLOG

There’s a lot of trash on view in the art world right now. Literal trash, as in discarded materials that artists have found in dumpsters, landfills, and otherwise abandoned areas. Both New York Magazine and Art in America recently profiled the artist Swoon, who sailed to the Venice Biennale this month on a boat made entirely of New York City garbage. On view at the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts is Trash Menagerie, an exhibition of 30 works imaginatively made from recycled rubbish. University of Trash is on view through August 3rd at the Sculpture Center in Queens, and opening September 2nd at Andrea Schwartz Gallery in San Francisco is Gugger Petter’s exhibition of “paintings” made from discarded newspaper. Be sure to check them out if they are in your area.

There are many different theories about the attraction to found objects and discarded material: some site environmental motivation, as artists recycle our garbage and highlight just how much we waste. Others suggest it is a reflection of the economy, and artists are forced to find, rather than buy, their materials. Still others site that it is simply a continuation of Duchamp’s readymade and the subsequent trend of found objects. I personally love these works simply for the material’s transformation - there is something oddly delightful when an artist takes discarded objects and gives them a new life with a rich aesthetic.

A lot of artists have challenged the way we look at discarded materials and everyday objects. Many are quite famous, and below are a few examples of emerging artists. Shannon McLaughlin paints on an old chess board, while Quinlan Kyp-Johnson’s photos and Michael Willinger’s prints challenge you to reconsider objects we see daily. Below, Janice Gilman photographs discarded materials, while Peter Tabor paints them. All of these artists, and the current exhibitions on “Trash Art”, challenge viewers to think differently about the creative potential lurking in everyday objects.

Peter Tabor - Fix

Shannon McLaughlin - Girl with Glasses

One of the most important things to do as a novice art collector is to look at as much art as you can. Educate your eye by going to museums, visiting galleries, reading art magazines, and just spending time looking at art and understanding what styles attract you. To make this process more affordable, the museums listed below offer hours where you can enjoy their collections free of charge. So start training your eye guilt-free, and become one step closer to being a seasoned collector.

And remember, looking at art is always free online at Ugallery.

Andrew Stein - Getty Reflection

Boston

Institute of Contemporary Art - Free Thursdays, 5pm - 9pm

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum - Free always to all named “Isabella”, Free on your birthday, or $2 off when wearing Red Sox clothes

Chicago

Art Institute of Chicago - Free all February, Free Thursdays 5pm - 9pm, or Free Fridays 5pm - 9pm during the Summer
Museum of Contemporary Art - Free Tuesdays

Los Angeles area

Getty Center - always free
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA): Free 2nd Tuesdays, “Pay what you wish” everyday after 5pm

Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), LA - Free Thursdays, 5pm - 8pm
Norton Simon Museum - Free 1st Fridays, 6pm - 9pm

UCLA Hammer Museum - Free Thursdays

Miami

Miami Art Museum - Free 2nd Saturdays

Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (MOCANOMI) - Free Tuesdays

New York

Brooklyn Museum - Always “Pay what you wish”, suggested donation: $10

Folk Art Museum - Free Fridays after 5:30pm

Frick Collection - “Pay what you wish” from 11am to 1pm on Sundays
Guggenheim - “Pay what you wish” from 5:45pm - 7:45pm on Saturdays

International Center of Photography - “Voluntary Contribution” Fridays, 5pm to 8pm
Jewish Museum - Free Saturdays
Metropolitan Museum of Art - Always “pay what you wish”, suggested donation: $20

Museum of Arts & Design (MAD)- “Pay what you wish” Thursdays, 6pm - 9pm

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) - Free Fridays, 4pm - 8pm

New Museum - Free Thursdays, 7pm - 9pm

Noguchi Museum - “Pay what you wish” on 1st Fridays

Studio Museum in Harlem - Always “Pay what you wish”, suggested donation: $7

Whitney Museum of American Art - “Pay what you wish” Fridays, 6pm to 9pm

San Francisco

Asian Art Museum - Free 1st Sundays

de Young Museum - Free 1st Tuesdays

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) - Free 1st Tuesdays

Washington, DC

All 19 Smithsonian Institution Museums - always Free
National Gallery of Art - always Free

The water’s edge is the meeting place for land, air and sea. It is a place of opportunity and beauty because it has great energy and bounty. It enriches the people who flock there in many ways, with food, tranquility and inspiration. In this interface, a unique sense of light, color, movement and awe pervades the scene. Ugallery artist Beo Nguyen captures the color planes surrounding life on the water in a painting reminiscent of Rothko’s style. The potential danger of the water’s edge is alluring and frightening when we put a small human against the vastness of the sea. Danielle Gillcrist captures one surfer’s complete dependence on the water, and the hard-breaking waves of Greg Byers’ Monaco Wave are only intimidating when pounding against the structure of a dock. In this week’s Ugallery exhibition, we see the energy of the waves between land and air and our dependence on the constancy of the waters.

by Leah Drake

This week’s artist interview features Ugallery artist, Makana Hansen, on graffiti, inspiration and the tragic qualities of life.

Q. Your portfolio displays two series, one of landscapes and another containing round and often tragic characters. What is the background of these two distinct styles?

A. My landscape series comes from growing up outside of the grand city of San Francisco and always seeing the city lights from a horizon line. Seeing the busy city in one simple shape was so amazing to me. My blue characters and the sad facial expressions show the different people I have met and the situations I have been in.

Q. Your graffiti characters are adorable and tragic at the same time. Do they have a connection with the human condition?

A. The way I have seen my friends grow and fall in the tragic way of life. Every piece has its own individual, sad story. The graffiti in my pieces come from my graffiti background, and being a graffiti artist, I love to incorporate the street style into fine art.

Q. Your landscape pieces have a different emotion associated with them. What was your intention when painting these distant perspectives?

A. When I think of abstract art I think of the emotion you get from the first glance and how it makes you feel inside. But some people feel like there is nothing behind them besides random colors, so I thought I would put a strong focal point for people to connect with, from the skylines of San Francisco to NY and Seattle. I want people to have an emotional connection with them when they look at these pieces of art. I make an aesthetically pleasing composition for everyone to enjoy.

Q. Some of your pieces have a graffiti quality to them. Does all of your art end up on canvas, or does some of it find its way to the walls of Idaho, Banksy-style?

A. [Laughs] Good question. I love to put graffiti on canvas, but I am a graffiti artist, so, I mean, some times it doesn’t always get to the canvas.

Q. Some of your pieces are titled names, such as “Aaron,” “Justin and Jason” and the recently sold “Katherine.” Are these real people? Is there a message for them hidden in the work?

A. The pieces definitely have meaning behind them and the names are real people.

Q. After the beautiful landscapes of Hawaii and San Francisco, what inspires you in Idaho?

A. Living in Idaho is definitely a hard place to be living for art and inspiration; it is nothing like [San Francisco]. I have a few friends that have a style of art that I like a lot so we work together and it helps a lot. Brady Smith is a good friend of mine up here and his art is amazing to me so it helps a lot for inspiration. We usually go skateboard and then do art or play music so it ties in all together nicely.

Q. What are your post-university plans? Are you going to return to the Bay Area or explore a new part of the world?

A. After [Brigham Young University-Idaho], I would love to attend an art school for two years and just get some more education. I love to learn new things. It can only help expand my creativity. And after that, I plan on traveling, just taking a break from everything and seeing the world. Then, I plan to come back and really focus on my art career.

City S

City B

City Y

Fly to Never Land

Mak

Mobakobanoba

A Wish Can Come True

by Leah Drake

At the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Paper: Pressed, Stained, Slashed, Folded, is a fabulous exhibition, examining the most humble yet versatile medium, paper. Many of the artists in this exhibition emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, when an interest in everyday objects and familiar materials caused artists to focus on the mutable properties of paper. In this show, Robert Rauschenberg and Sol Lewitt embrace its delicacy, while Lucio Fontana slashes and Ed Ruscha stains the material. Dorothea Rockburne and Eva Hesse challenge the three-dimensionality of paper, and Howardena Pindell’s Untitled (#7) was perhaps my favorite work, using the confetti of paper-punched wholes to make an intimate wall relief.

Although this exhibition primarily focused on artists of the 60s and 70s, the subject matter of this show could use artists from any decade; after all, Picasso made is infamous “Guitar” from cardboard and cut paper, and Matisse in his later years only made paper cut-outs. Certainly a younger generation has also embraced the tactility of paper - for example, Michaela Fruhwirth with her ink-soaked drawings, Tara Donovan and her rubber band prints, or Ugallery artist Jin Ju Lee with her crumbled brown paper.

Unfortunately this show at MoMA closes today, but there are a number of other paper exhibitions currently on view. Here is a selection:

Unica Zurn at the Drawing Center, New York - through July 23rd

John Baldessari: a Print Retrospective at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Legion of Honor - through Nov 8

Drawings on Site: Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen at the Menil Collection, Houston - through Oct 11

Modern and Contemporary Works on Paper at the Art Institute of Chicago - through Sept 13 

Or even better, you can view works on paper in the comfort of your own home, by using Ugallery’s advanced search option, here.

It was never my intention to mention the famed movie star in two consecutive blog posts, but I finally got around to reading the reports from Art Basel 40, the international art fair in Switzerland that closed this past Sunday. Skimming headlines and blogs from the fair, it would be easy to miss the following information: attendance was its highest ever, the quality of art was superb, and sales exceeded expectations. It would be impossible, however, to miss the report that Brad Pitt purchased a 1998 Neo Rauch painting, “Etappe”, for a little under $1 million. The now-famous painting depicts a Formula One-style race car on a swirling rainbow colored race track, and can be viewed here.

Nearly every Art Basel article mentioned Mr. Pitt, and many included his purchase of the 9-foot painting in its headline. This kind of media frenzy over a sensational sale of art has, in the past, had an impact on collecting habits and tastes. In early 2006, newspapers went crazy over then-unknown Chinese artist Zhang Xiaogang fetching over $2 million at auction - and suddenly Chinese Contemporary art boomed. The headlines over Lucien Freud’s and Francis Bacon’s auction records, set within the same week of each other in May 2008, vindicated figurative painting and turned the art world’s eyes towards expressive portraiture.

While Pitt’s purchase is not quite as expensive as these other influential sales - his celebrity status adds value, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the headlines from last week turned people’s attention towards contemporary surrealist painting.

You don’t have to spend a fortune to own your own “Etappe”. Take a look at some affordable contemporary surrealist art, and maybe you’ll find yourself ahead of a trend!

Being a celebrity in our world means receiving constant attention. The public sees the image stars present, usually as beautiful demi-gods who grace our silver screens and living rooms with their perfect figures. Ugallery artist Lara Wolf captures the sultry side of the beautiful Bridget Bardot below. But we see even more, we see the creativity and spunky personalities that entertain us. MIA’s performance while nine-months pregnant inspired Rachel Goede’s portrait, and Evan J. Smith shows the invisible inspiration that follows Radiohead’s Thom York. But there is more to the limelight, and we can also see the abuses and imperfections that unite celebrities with the rest of us. The physical and emotional self-destruction that some celebrities endure for lasting stardom is a sobering reminder of the pressure that comes with constant attention. Look for the perfection and see the faults that these Ugallery artists have captured on canvas.

Lara Wolf - Bridget Bardot

Jennifer Kearney - Brad Pitt

Rachel Goede - MIA

Evan J. Smith - Thom

Max Jones - Augmentation

Christian Orozco - Eloquent Consumption

Amber Dixon - Ochre

by Leah Drake

I came across an audio clip with designer Nate Berkus (you have probably seen him on Oprah) and interior designer Alessandra Branca. Alessandra speaks of not being able to design another person’s space on her own. She needs to know what the client likes and their surroundings, because each person has their own style.

How many times have you had a friend ask you (or vice versa!) “do you like these pants?”, “how does this look?”, or “do you like this painting?”. Reassurance feels good and with the ever changing fashion trends, it might not be a bad idea to seek out(especially if you live in NYC!). But with artwork and interior design, this is not the case. I know I had trouble with my first original art purchase. I bought because I loved it, knowing everyone necessarily wouldn’t agree, but it gives me joy each and every day. Nate spoke with Alessandra and listed her 5 tips for “Creating Your Own Signature Style” which I thought every person (especially new art buyers) should know!

• Buy what you love. “If you buy something now that you love, it will fit into your life, and if you instead follow [trends] - these trends are [just] for manufacturers,” she says.

• Find your own style. “You should go back into your history and try to remember the things that made you happy and try to bring those into your home,” Alessandra says

• Educate yourself. “Read, go to museums,” she says. “Then put the books down, walk away and go to town! Have fun!”

• Go junking. “I love going to resale stores and finding old furniture,” she says.

• Put your own twist on design. “[My] effort is to change [design] all the time by taking old things and making them new and then taking new things and making them unique by putting antique textiles and vintage textiles on them,” she says.

Our first interview of the blog features Ugallery’s Gallery Director Alex Farkas on fun times in the art world, insider collecting advice, and most importantly, nudity in art.

Q: You have been working as Gallery Director at Ugallery.com for three years, how do you keep work interesting?
A: There are many fun parts to my job. At the top of the list is working as one of the curators for the gallery. Each day, I spend a few hours reviewing and talking about the new art submissions. We get into some very interesting discussions, and I love being the first to see what we exhibit. Quite dangerous on the pocketbook though! I also really enjoy planning and working at the art fairs we participate in and the events we host. Selecting the art for each particular show is an amazing process. Our team begins with a simple theme and a pile of jpgs, and by opening night, we have brought together the work of artists from across the country. And once the art is on the walls, it’s great fun to talk with artists and collectors. I could talk your ear off about art.

Q: Do you have a favorite piece of art on the site?
A: My favorites so far are all hanging on my walls. One of the first lessons I learned was that if you love a piece of art, buy it while you still can because it might not be there tomorrow.

Q: Here is the age-old question, where is the line between naked and nude in art?
A: I am going to answer your question with a question. Would you feel comfortable having grandma over for dinner with that [nude/naked] painting on the wall? One of my observations is that nudity in art deals with form and beauty while nakedness represents sexuality.

Q: What is your favorite nude painting?
A: One of my favorites, and quite appropriate for our discussion of naked versus nude, is Manet’s Olympia. The painting references a long list of classical nudes, but is decidedly naked. I love controversial art!

Q: Thanks for answering my questions, I just have one more… which Ugallery artist is going to be the next big thing?
A: We are working towards a cultural revolution. It is my goal that the group of artists we represent will become internationally recognized, both individually and as a whole.

by Leah Drake

If you have even just a mild interest in architecture, check out “Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward” at the Guggenheim. The Guggenheim’s website has a great online tour if you will not be visiting New York soon, but there’s nothing like viewing Wright’s drawings and models while winding up his corkscrew rotunda of the Guggenheim’s landmark building. If you make it to the top, you’ll be rewarded with renditions (including a pink version) of the Guggenheim museum as Wright developed his plan in the 1940s and 1950s. This exhibition commemorates the 50th anniversary of its building, and gives a little nod to the first home of Ugallery.com: most of the works in this show are borrowed from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Maybe you don’t love Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings, or don’t approve of his many love affairs. “Loving Frank” (excuse my reference to Nancy Horan’s novel), was secondary; instead, the best part about this show for me was the reminder that architectural drawings are masterpieces in their own right. Many of his sketches are stunning; a drawing of Chicago’s 1910 “Robie House” breaks down architectural elements into color blocks - similar to Abbey Golden’s depiction of the Brooklyn Bridge. A tempura night rendering of the Lenkurt Electric Company in California (1955, unbuilt) evokes Seurat’s pointalism and detail; Wright’s watercolor renderings of “Fallingwater” (1934) could be framed and hung near Chris Weiermiller’s Japanese Tea Garden. While all of Wright’s drawings are part of his process, viewing them as art adds a whole other element to the architect. I’ll be returning to the Guggenheim in the future with a greater appreciation of its architect’s breadth!

After viewing this exhibition, you might be inspired to look at other 2-dimensional renderings of architecture.

We are kicking it up a notch on the Ugallery blog, and starting today we will aim to update this blog daily, with museum/exhibition reviews, art world news, Ugallery promotions, Q & As with Ugallery artists and interior designers, etc. We hope you enjoy, and please check back often.