I got a chance to see the exquisite works of Berlin based Pius Fox at Pablo’s Birthday on the lower east side recently. To say this show is a gem is an understatement. I was positively vibrating when I stepped back out onto the street after viewing this show. The works are, on the whole, quite small. Many are just around 9″ x 7″ and yet they pack quite a punch. They have a certain contained gravity as if tiny abstract worlds had been compressed into the picture plane. They draw you in like tiny windows daring the viewer to come closer, and then they capture you. These works reminded me of the concentrated power of the small cigar box lids of Richard Diebenkorn. They have that same focused energy. Light, but powerful. Like if you cut one open it would engulf the room.

http://www.pablosbirthday.com

http://www.piusfox.com/home.html?s=katalog-a

I had the recent good fortune of seeing Natalie Edgar’s show Abstract Journey at Woodward Gallery in New York. Woodward Gallery was my first stop on a 2-day round of gallery visits in the city. Natalie’s show set the bar very high. You could feel the shimmering color vibrating all the way out on the street. The works have a delicate muscularity. The paintings feel lighter than air, but the expressive brush work grounds them. They are at once buoyant and anchored. I could hardly stop myself from leaping into them.

http://www.woodwardgallery.net/edgar.html

Island of Hydra, 2010, Oil on Canvas 46″ x 56″

Letter From Uccello #1, 2012, Oil on Canvas, 42″ x 56″

Letter From Uccello #1  (Detail)

Bentley with Watermark in the background

Watermark, 2012, Oil on Canvas, 46″ x 56″

Excursions, 2011, Oil on Canvas, 36″ x 42″

South Ferry, 2013, OIl on Canvas, 42″ x 55″

South Ferry (Detail)

Letter From Uccello #2, 2012, Oil on Canvas, 42″ x 56″

Paula Roland has a new exhibition, Navigating,  currently running alongside the 9th Encaustic Invitational at Conrad Wilde Gallery in Tucson.        Paula’s ethereal monotypes have their visual roots in her childhood on the Gulf of Mexico. There is something both loose, expansive and yet delicately structured in these prints. They seem to roll like the sea, and the way they are mounted off the walls heightens their sense of breath, in and out, like waves.

For more information about Paula and her work:

http://www.conradwildegallery.com/roland-9aei.html

http://www.paularoland.com

 View of the right wall. From left: Navigating Series: True North, Undertow and Uncharted

Paula Roland Navigating Series: Uncharted Encaustic Monotype 40″ x 20″

Paula Roland Navigating Series: True North Encaustic Monotype 40″ x 20″

Paula Roland From left: Navigating Series: You Are Here and True North 

Paula Roland Navigating Series: You Are Here Encaustic Monotype 40″ x 20″

From left: Paula Roland Navigating Series: Portal, Ocean at my Feet and Passage, Encaustic Monotype Collage, dimensions variable

The Encaustic Invitational at Conrad Wilde Gallery in Tucson, Arizona is an annual event that celebrates artworks created with encaustic, and the exhibition is always exquisitely orchestrated by gallery owner and curator Miles Conrad. Encaustic,  a mixture of beeswax, resin and pigment, is one of the world’s oldest fine art mediums and can be traced back to the ancient Greeks in the 5th century BC. The process of using encaustic is unique because it must be heated in order to activate it and make it fluid. Contemporary artists have embraced this ancient medium and there has been a wave of interest in its use in the last several decades. This 9th Encaustic Invitational is devoted to the encaustic print and the exhibition highlights the many ways in which artists create prints using these materials. There is also an exhibition highlighting new encaustic printwork from the artist Paula Roland running concurrently. A post on that exhibition will follow shortly.

Here is a link to more information about the gallery, the artists and their work.

http://www.conradwildegallery.com/encInv9.html

From left: Debra Blair, Deborah Martin, Donna Hamil Talman, Birgit Huttemann-Holz, Amelia Currier, Nanette Newbry and Larain Matheson

Debra Blair Outpost, 2011, Encaustic Monotype 19″ x 23″

Donna Hamil Talman Timeless the Flow, 2013, Encaustic, India Ink and Pastel on Kitakata, 37″ x 25″

Amelia Currier 35 Blooms 2, 2013, Encaustic Monotype 20″ x 26″

From left: Nanette Newbry, Larain Matheson, Karen Riley and Binnie Birstein

Binnie Birstein Untitled Black & White 10, 2014, Encaustic on Paper, 22″ x 16″

From left: Mari Marks, Pat Spainhour and Kay Hartung

Mari Marks Thoughts and Afterthoughts 4, 2011, Encaustic Monotype, 12″ x 18″

Pat Spainhour Ocular, 2013, Encaustic on Paper, 40″ x 26″

Kay Hartung Pathways 4, 2013, Encaustic Monotype, 9″ x 12″

From left: Pat Spainhour, Kay Hartung and Winston Lee Mascarenhas

Winston Lee Mascarenhas 105 Sonnets, 2014, Encaustic Monotypes on Thai Mulberry Papers, 24″ x 24″

Tracey Adams Imago 3, 2008, Encaustic Monotype and Encaustic on 5 panels, 11″ x 55″

From left: David A. Clark, Deborah Kapoor and Milisa Galazzi

David A. Clark Study for Relic #2, 2013, Encaustic Monoprint on Sakamoto Heavyweight 25.5″ x 38″

Deborah Kapoor Cloud Messenger 7, 2013, Deconstructed and transferred Monotypes with Encaustic on Wood, 12″ x 16″ x 1″

Milisa Galazzi Loose Ends 1, 2 & 3, 2013, Layered Encaustic Monotypes on Japanese Papers, 18″ x 15.5″

Milissa Galazzi Loose Ends 2 (Detail)

Elizabeth Harris If Such Things Are Possible, 2013, Encaustic on Kozo, 22″ x 17″

Eileen P. Goldenberg Circles 3, 2014, Rice Paper and Encaustic, 72″ x 18″

I had the good fortune of seeing LA n CV, a survey of contemporary LA area artists, recently at the Coachella Valley Art Center in Indio, California. LA n CV is the brainchild of artist/curator Mike Mclain. The show was produced at the Coachella Valley Art Center in conjunction with LGT!, a Southern California arts organization that creates member generated exhibitions and alternative art presentations across the LA metro area. The Coachella Valley Art Center is a new arts destination in Indio that provides resources for the local arts community including classes, studio space, a gallery and a theatre. The CVAC portion of LA n CV was conceived as part-one of a two-part survey that investigates the interplay between artists working in the Coachella Valley, which is essentially a desert environment, and artists working in the sprawl of Los Angeles’ urban landscape. Part-two of this curatorial effort will take place in Los Angeles and will feature desert area artists.

For more information on the Coachella Valley Art Center and Mike McLain please check out their websites:

http://coachellavalleyartcenter.com

http://www.mikemclainart.com

Foreground Jacob Fowler Inservice – Disservice – Pee Nervous, 2014, Plywood, white concrete, red oak

Background Kristin Frost Recognition, 2014, Mixed media

Kristin Frost Recognition, 2014, Mixed media

http://www.kristinjfrost.com

Nano Rubio, Detailed Devil, Acrylic on canvas over panel

http://nanorubio.com/index.html

Marion Lane, Spontaneous Utterance, 2013, acrylic on panel

http://www.marionlane.com

Mihyang Kim, It has been Like This, 2013, acrylic on canvas

http://www.mihyangkim.org

Thinh Nguyen, Trinity, 2013, mixed media

Thinh Nguyen, Trinity  (Detail)

http://www.mbartdepartment.com/thinh-nguyen/

Nano Rubio, Paragraph, 2012, acrylic on canvas

Nano Rubio, Afterguard, 2014, acrylic on canvas

Dion Johnson, Giant, 2013, acrylic on paper mounted to Dibond and framed

http://www.dionjohnson.net

Dan Taulapapa McMullin, Fa’afafine Memoire, 2013

Personal and historical photographs on mylar transparency, threaded steel rod and stand

Dan Taulapapa McMullin, Fa’afafine Memoire (Detail)

http://www.taulapapa.com/sculptures.html

Shiva Aliabadi, Envelope Obsolete, 2013, copper, imprints, various artists’ bodies

http://shiva-aliabadi.com

Conchi Sanford, The Confessional, Part II, 2013

http://www.conchisanford.com

From left, Marion Lane, Spontaneous Utterance, Conchi Sanford, The Confessional, Part II, Nano Rubio, Detailed Devil and Shiva Aliabadi, Envelope Obsolete

Welcome to The Artist’s Periscope a blog dedicated to getting out and seeing what’s going on in the world beyond the walls of the studio.

This is the view I see everyday. It’s a wonderful place to work and some weeks, I admit, it’s difficult to leave. But getting out and seeing what’s going on and engaging with other artists, looking at work and experiencing the outside world all feeds the interior world of the studio and the work that is created there. This blog is dedicated to the world outside these walls. There may be the occasional post about what I am working on or exhibitions and classes, but this blog is really about what I see when I poke my head out of the studio and look around. It’s about influences and experiences and communicating with other creative individuals, but above all, it is about engaging and seeing. It’s time to open the door and step outside. Please join me and see what I see through The Artist’s Periscope.