Yes, I know I’m kind of obsessed with house art, but I didn’t even realize this installation was a house (of sorts) until watching the video below. I swear! Reminds me of Jim Houser’s installations.
The Free Life Center is “…a movable gallery space, built of reclaimed materials, in a modular fashion. At its full size the structure is a pretty large free standing building (10 ft wide x 16 ft long x 10ft tall), complete with lighting, a tin roof and a wood floor… At each location along the journey we’ve been setting up the structure and filling it with our artworks, video works, process documentation, interactive installation elements, music, good vibes. Along with our own artworks we’ve asked members of each local community to join in…” – Mark Warren Jacques
Maxwell Loren Holyoke-Hirsch, a San Francisco-based artist, has a great show, Megarealms, open through the end of the month, in which his bright, imaginative paintings and collages are clustered like mosaics.
In an effort to learn more, I read Maxwell’s interview for the show and was really disappointed by the presence of self-aggrandizing and hyperbolic statements. First, Maxwell makes the claim that he “is the hardest working illustrator and artist based in San Francisco, California.” Secondly, he attempts to explain the title of his show and goes down an ugly path: “A place I have created from the conscious and subconscious mind, a Megarealm is where I explore the areas of my brain, ideas, of thought itself, as they pertain to an image.” This statement feels contrived and purposefully obtuse, and as far as I’m concerned, the gist of what he’s saying is fairly obvious, that he used his brain to create his work.
Despite the over-the-top interview, Maxwell succeeds at creating art that is fresh and compelling which, in the end, is what really matters. Below I’ve picked out my favorite pieces available through the gallery’s website.
Houser is an imaginative self-taught artist whose work is born from his most personal experiences and thoughts which he meticulously translates for the viewer. To this effect the show includes a site-specific installation and music the artist composed just for the show. Houser’s work has a distinct typographic style as a result of his bold but limited color palette and use of words and repetitive shapes.
For more insight on the artist, check out Fecal Face’s in-depth interview by the artist’s friend, Adam Wallacavage.
The Soap Factory is a gallery and raw space in Minneapolis that hosts a monthly TV show called SFG4. The October show, below, tours the space midway through the installation of The Austerity Cookbook and interviews the artists about their process.
Wendy DesChene (4:37) “There’s no quality control on google (images)… I just started thinking about what that was doing to art and how it was playing with our perceptions. All of these things that were originally done by artists then became these things that they couldn’t even imagine. And people were having art experiences that nobody intended through all this digital distortion. And so it kind of comes full circle back here because this is only a temporary painting, this will only be up for the duration of the exhibit, so to see this the way I intended it you have to physically be here.”
Discovery:
Wendy DesChene (10:10) “I know exactly what it’s going to look like usually before I begin. I take a picture of the space and then I use Photoshop to lay it out. I went through probably about 40 different designs before I settled on this one… And so before I even made a mark on the wall I knew exactly what this would look like.”
Peter Owen (17:20) “With my practice, there’s nothing laid out, there’s no overall plan. It’s very intuitive. On one hand it’s really exciting seeing how things develop, on the other hand since there is no plan there is that possibility of failure.”
Yesterday I stopped by Cinders Gallery in Williamsburg to see the Circle of Plenty exhibit which just opened this Friday. As per usual, the folks at Cinders did an awesome job of organizing a show with a consistent and relevant theme, humanity’s relationship with the natural world, complete with a fun, dynamic installation. I love the painted trash installation in the corner of the gallery (see below) which sets a fresh and playful tone for the show!
Fecal Face profiles the Aug. 30th opening of Flotsam’s Wonder Tonic @ Soap Gallery. The exhibit, which brings to mind psychedelic carnival/sailors’ watering hole by Mike Shine is extended through Sept. 28th. If you’re in San Francisco, it definitely looks worth a visit! I love the painted buoys. As a sailor myself, I can’t help but wonder if they’re waterproof…
Maxwell Loren Holyoke-Hirsch
