Philosopher, and art-critic, Arthur Danto’s “The End of Art” is considered one of the most important and influential essays on art in the 20th century. The influence is undeniable, the importance determined by how important people take it to be, and the underlying arguments in relation to reality bonkers. Art ended before I was born,…
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If you are new to this series all the images are based on recent photos of me after basically being fed through a neural network (which can change age, gender, etc.), then edited and painted using various programs. None of the people actually exist, and thus they are like self portraits from alternate universes. Dear…
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With each new piece I try to do something a little different, and there are a few things about this one that are new to the series. First, this is the only one where I used my digital impasto technique. It seemed appropriate for another new thing, which is the under-water location. Another odd bit…
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I wouldn’t bother writing about such a piece of fluff if I hadn’t read several reviews in which the critics bent over backwards, and forwards, to not address the central problem or issues of the exhibit, or else denied it. Everyone is panning the show because of how it was executed, but also being extremely…
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You might remember Milo Moire as the infamous egg-expressing, Expressionist painter. I was critical of that piece, but blamed the art world for rewarding that kind of work, pitied her, and gave her a measure of the benefit of the doubt. No more. In her latest stunt – a performance entitled, “How Much Abstraction Can…
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On Kawara is most recognized for the “date paintings” he began in 1966. He essentially decided to make one painting a day of the date, on a monochrome surface, by hand. This didn’t work out practically, so he missed days, and nobody seems to mind this. More than 25,000 of these paintings are credited to…
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You might have heard that Paul Gauguin’s painting of two Tahitian girls, When Will You Marry”, sold for $300m (£197m), which it the most any work of art has ever sold for, but nobody is talking about the dramatic flaws in the painting. And yes, I do know the difference between exaggeration, abstraction, stylization, combinations…
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I’m speechless. Here’s what was said in the German art magazine, Dorfzeitung, which I translated into English using Google translate. First, I had this piece Groos has worked for 4 years as a more postmodern text panel. I laughed. I snorted. But I did not leave the show. Generations and artistic impact of the target, confusion,…
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Christopher Wool has always been a hard-ass kind of artist, that likes to taunt the viewer. His B&W stencil paintings challenge the bourgeois sense of what art or painting is, and his messages, such as “FUCKEM IFTHEY CANT TAKE AJOKE” are just a little hostile. Wool is a bad boy with bad spelling and punctuation,…
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Artist pranks the original prankster, and makes us reevaluate what art isn’t. Art history tells us Marcel Duchamp’s submission of a urinal to the exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in 1917 was the greatest artistic achievement of the last century, creating the avant-garde and setting art on a bold new trajectory. The comically named…
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Any takers? Can you guess what I think is the problem here? It seems to point to a real problem with contemporary art, and how we think about it, which significantly DOESN’T apply to other creative genres like music, film, or literature.
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Manhattan. Why stencil over Banksy, and why a giant ugly bug? Artist, Eric Küns stenciled over You Complete Me, Banksy’s most famous piece from his October, month-long-residency in NY. Many were surprised at the audacity of someone painting over a world-famous artist at the peak of his recognition, but Küns argues it’s no big deal because Banksy…
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Magazine cover and feature article about my sculpture, “Exhibitionist Fly”. Click on the image to see the high-rez, readable version.
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Jeff Koons’ new paintings represent a radical departure from his prior work, though recurring motifs such as foil balloon animals and mild erotica give a false impression of sameness and continuity. However, unlike any of his previous works, in the new body of paintings Koons hasn’t merely appropriated already existing objects or images in their…
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The fine art crowd had been fooled again. They’ve fallen for forgeries of Abstract Expressionist paintings by a Chinese artist; paid record amounts for one-striped paintings; crowned a businessman who can’t sculpt the greatest living artist when he merely makes reproductions of the most innocuous kitsch; and now they’ve bought a cheesy mall sculpture mistaking…
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If you saw my last piece, you might be surprised at how different this one is from it. The last one looked like a painting and was all drawn from the imagination on the computer. This one is a very elaborate collage of photographs I took in Vientiane (I’ve lived in Asia for about 7…
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Six weeks ago I announced I was going to take a year off teaching and devote myself to making art. I resigned from my job, but stayed on to finish out the term. Now the journey is underway. And what hubris it takes to “quit the day job”, and tempt fate to teach me a lesson…
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These are my more serious new images. All are digitally created using only Photoshop, my own photos, drawings, and endless tablet work. Bellow the “gallery” are all the same images in standard format. Below are the same images. Some have links to in depth posts about them with close-ups, and background information about the process,…
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Read the blog post about this image here. Prints available:
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For the full gallery experience, click on any image below: To read a longer post about this image, including the process and interpretation, go here. If you like this piece, you might like this one: Prints for sale!
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I haven’t done a lot of non-representational pieces, and that has something to do with me thinking they are a cop out. Typically, one doesn’t have to deal with subject matter or meaning. One doesn’t have to call upon one’s life experience (or lack thereof) or have anything significant to say. Just flinging paint about…
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A Chinese artist made fake big-name Abstract Expressionist paintings in his garage, and nearsighted chumps hoping to make a fortune on their investments snapped them up. This story is all over the news, but the focus is on the art world, buyers/sellers, and the law, whereas my interest is from an artistic and a cultural…
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I created a gallery so people can see the images optimized to their monitors and with less distraction. See the original blog post with explanations, a process animation, influences and more…
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I just completed this image to my satisfaction. Like so many of my pieces, it started as an experiment. The idea was to make a non-representational image with all the qualities of being representational: foreground, background, modelling, and shading. There are figures, recesses, protuberances, open space, geographic and architectural elements. All the building-blocks of reality,…
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“Ryman is the undisputed master of showing precisely which part of the wall you are supposed to stare at.” Back in the day before the dawn of photography artists would paint illusionistic pictures that were windows into another world, be that the world of their imaginations or just someplace other than where you were actually standing,…
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One of the very best artists I’ve discovered through prowling around on the internet (in this case at Deviantart) is Andrew Newton, who did rather tight photo-realistic paintings in the past (the type that show every wrinkle, reflection, and wayward hair); but whose new work has broken out imaginatively into new terrain that faithfulness to…
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Humorous art by me (sort of an existential-angst-karma joke.). The idea comes from song lyrics by, “The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Ensemble Band.” I’ve just been going around saying, “Help! I’m a rock!” a lot. It kinda’ got in my head and I thought about how it would suck to be a rock, and…
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