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RYAN McGINNESS

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JONY IVE
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KAZU
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DAN WITZ

DAN WITZ

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KAZU

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JONY IVE

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RYAN McGINNESS

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SUZANNAH SINCLAIR

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LEE CHEN-DAO

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$6.99

JANUARY 2015, n168

JANUARY, n168

FRIDA KAHLO

Every Photo Has a Story Tell Yours

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ISSUE 168 / JANUARY 2015

10

EDITORS LETTER

14

STUDIO TIME

PAUL WACKERS

18

THE REPORT

RYAN McGINNESS & JUXTAPOZ HYPERREAL

24

PICTURE BOOK

32

EVENT

36

FASHION

42

INFLUENCES

48

DAN WITZ

60

LEE CHEN-DAO

70

KAZU

78

SUZANNAH SINCLAIR

88

RACHELL SUMPTER AND JACOB MAGRAW

96

BILL SAYLOR

104

TRAVEL INSIDER

108

IN SESSION

110

BOOK REVIEWS

114

PROFILE

118

GIFT GUIDE

120

SIEBEN ON LIFE

122

POP LIFE

126

PERSPECTIVE

JUXTAPOZ.COM

GREGORY HALPERN

FERTILE GROUND IN THE BAY


MATIJA COP
DARIA BRIT GREENE @ SCOPE ART FAIR

KANSAS CITY

SVAS WE TELL STORIES

JAKE FRIED

SNAIL MAIL PRAISE

JONY IVE
Ryan McGinness in his NYC studio
Photo by Jennifer Livingston
Photo courtesy of Ryan McGinness
Studios, Inc. / Art Resource, NY,
Ryan McGinness / Artists Rights Society
(ARS), New York

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DAN WITZ

//

KAZU

//

JONY IVE

//

RYAN McGINNESS

JUXTAPOZ ISSN #1077-8411 JANUARY 2015 VOLUME 22, NUMBER 1


Published monthly by High Speed Productions, Inc., 1303 Underwood Ave, San Francisco, CA 941243308. 2014 High Speed Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in USA. Juxtapoz is a registered
trademark of High Speed Productions, Inc. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Opinions expressed in articles are those of the author. All rights reserved on entire
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information and materials for this issue. Unless otherwise noted, artists featured in Juxtapoz retain copyright to their work. Every effort has been made to reach copyright owners or their representatives.
The publisher will be pleased to correct any mistakes or omissions in our next issue. Juxtapoz welcomes editorial submissions; however, return postage must accompany all unsolicited manuscripts,
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copyright purposes and subject to Juxtapoz right to edit and comment editorially.

JANUARY, n168
$6.99

Cover art by Dan Witz


70 Commercial Street
Oil and digital media on canvas
40" x 54"
2010

Juxtapoz Is Published by High Speed Productions, Inc.


4158223083 email to: editor@juxtapoz.com juxtapoz.com

TRACE MENDOZA
ILLUSTRATION

BFA DEGREES
Animation
Design + Digital Media
Drawing + Painting
Game Art
Illustration

MINORS
Creative Writing
Sculpture

MFA + POST-BACC
Drawing
Painting

LAGUNA
COLLEGE
OF ART +
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/&$'('8-8;7$32=

EDITORS LET TER

ISSUE NO 168
The mosh pit will reveal all the answers. The mosh pit
never lies. Norah, from Rachel Cohns Nick & Norah's
Innite Playlist
ITS A LITTLE AUDACIOUS TO START AN EDITORS LETTER
quoting YA ction. But for the past few months, as we
nished our newest book, Juxtapoz Hyperreal, and began
working with Brooklyns Dan Witz, this line indeed kept
playing back in my head as if to dene a general feeling
I had about Witzs work and his place in the book. We
are working with something real here, and even though
there is an alternate-reality component to hyperrealism
and an abstracted process that goes into the wonderfully
dark, energetic mosh pit paintings of Dan Witz, there are
undeniable revelations about the human condition. As
hyperrealism aims to enhance the illusion of a reality, the
mosh pit intensies the experience of music to an almost
primitive act of motion and action. And Dan Witz has found a
way to forge these acts together.
Dan is a painter, street artist, photographer, documentarian,
political interventionist, musician, and someone I consider
to be a realist in more ways than one. He is simultaneously
anti-authoritarian and oblivious to trends while being a
pioneer who is astutely aware of art history. His forays into
10 |

JANUARY 2015

Dan Witz
Mosh Pit Study (Jets)
2014

street art came at a unique time in the history of both NYC


and Witzs time at Cooper Union in the late 1970s. To be
at art school painting realist, gurative works in the face
of modern arts rejection of the forms, being inuenced by
what he calls graffitied trains, punk rock and a few grownup artists like Gordon Matta-Clark and the Situationists,
puts Witz at the center of many counter-culture movements
that sprung some of the ethos of Juxtapoz.
History repeats itself, and in 2014, we have begun to see
an increasingly popular trend toward abstraction. And
those who perform the act of painting guratively, this new
generation of realists and hyperrealists, revel in the role of
rebellion once again. Now that Dan has begun to explore
raves as another alternate universe of ritualistic release, I
sense a search for truth about the human condition. There
is something revelatory in the communal movement of
people and moving energies, whether in the force of a mosh
pit or the escape of a rave. Witz is right there, painting the
exquisite beauty of these moments.

STUDIO TIME

PAUL WACKERS
A studio with lots of plants, naturally
THIS IS MY STUDIO IN WHAT IS NOW CALLED EAST
Williamsburg, where I have been for about two and a half
years. I really like the studio, and before this spot, I was in
a space shared with about ve other people. It was always
hard to tell that so many people were in there since we were
so crammed in, and I had no windows in and around my
10 x 10 nook. So when I saw this corner spot with a door I
could close, and so many windows (I even I had to board up
a set for wall space), I said, Ill take it."

their own. But this studio works, and I love it. Its not always
as messy as in this picture, but maybe it isseems like I am
always playing catch up for one thing or another. I wouldnt
have it any other way. I love what I do and am always
grateful that somebody out there wants to see it.

It really is a great workspace. I am here pretty much seven


days a week, even though I fool myself into thinking that
next week, I will take a day off. Its just big enough to
work on the projects and things I want and need to do.
Occasionally, some tweaking needs to happen when things
need to be built, like crates and stuff, but I can easily set up
a drawing table when that is more my mood.

Paul Wackers has a solo show at Eleanor Harwood Gallery in


San Francisco up through December 20, 2014.

Part of me always dreams of taking over the space next


door so all my things will each have a permanent place of

14 |

JANUARY 2015

And, yeah, I have a lot of plants.

For more information, visit paulwackers.com and


eleanorharwood.com

JUXTAPOZ.COM / PAUL - WACKERS

Keith Haring, Untitled, 1982. Vinyl paint on vinyl tarpaulin. Collection of Sloan and Roger Barnett. Keith Haring artwork Keith Haring Foundation

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THE REPORT

COMMUNITY IDENTITY STABILITY


The Brave New World according to Ryan McGinness

above
Portrait by Jennifer Livingston (detail)
opposite
Plastic Reality
Oil, acrylic and metal leaf on
wood panel in artists frame,
28" x 36"
2014
Photo courtesy of Ryan McGinness
Studios, Inc. / Art Resource, NY,
Ryan McGinness / Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York

18 |

JANUARY 2015

THERE WAS A TIME WHEN CONVENTIONAL WISDOM


suggested that George Orwells vision of the future
depicted in 1984 was the percipient prophecy of all 20th
Century dystopian novels. Aldous Huxleys masterstroke,
1932s Brave New World, was always the futuristic vision
in opposition to Orwell. Critic Neil Postman wrote in 1985,
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books.
What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason
to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to
read one. Simply put (thank you, Wikipedia), Orwell feared
that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire
will ruin us. As the continued march of the 21st Centurys
technological revolution advances, the latter seems to be
taking the lead once again.

Its fascinating that Ryan McGinness newest body of


work, on display at La Jollas Quint Gallery through the
end of 2014, borrows Huxleys Brave New World mantra
Community, Identity, Stability for the title. A world of
simple pleasuressocial media, smart phones, 24/7 sports
networks, gossip columns, and celebrity culturehas
run rampant over the last few decades. McGinness has
always been at the forefront of exploring universal icons
and how an audience reacts to their presence in ne
art. His overlayed paintings of technicolor women and
symbols are both chaotic and structured, measured and
wild. His Instagram account is a continuously clever use of
the medium, with bold yet almost inscrutable statements
blasted out to the world nearly every daylayer on layer,

RYAN McGINNESS JUXTAPOZ

| 19

as McGinness tends to do, a brilliant satire on our modern


world of pleasurable passivity.
For Community Identity Stability, McGinness has created a
series of works that combine elements from past bodies
of work into studio views, or paintings within paintings.
The show features ten new paintings and ten monoprint
lithographs from stone, published by Edition Copenhagen,
some of which Juxtapoz was able to see at McGinness
studio last fall. Pieces of his works from past series including
Mindscapes, Black Holes and Women appear here again,
but reimagined within new frames made by the artist (the
rst time he has ever done this). Whether the connection

20

JANUARY 2015

between Huxley and McGinness career arc is captured by


the audience is yet to be seen, but the artists continued
exploration of pleasure and symbolism matures, bends, and
blurs show after show. A future of gratifying control is on
display, and McGinness gets to hand out the soma.
Evan Pricco

For more information about Ryan McGinness, visit quintgallery.com


and ryanmcginness.com

JUXTAPOZ.COM / RYAN - MCGINNESS

Black Hole (Dark Energy, Pearl White)


Silkscreen ink on wood panel
48" diameter, edition of 5
2014
Published by Pace Editions, New York
Photo courtesy of Ryan McGinness
Studios, Inc. / Art Resource, NY,
Ryan McGinness / Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York

THE REPORT

TRANSCRIBING THE REAL


Juxtapoz Hyperreal is the latest release in our ongoing book series
NINE TIMES OUT OF TEN, IF I AM ASKED TO GIVE A
talk about art, or even an opinion about art, people want
to know what I think about the relationship between
contemporary art and the Internet. What effect does
the Internet have on distributing art? Are people less
likely to visit institutions and galleries because they
can just experience it on their phones? Is instant
gratication winning out over the protracted process
of experimentation? Unequivocally yes, everything is
changing. If the way you order groceries is evolving,
chances are, everything you need to know and understand
about art is going through an incredible transformation.
Galleries, museums, and the artists themselves are staking
their claim with the 21st Century, creating experiences that
adjust to, and apply to, how we gather information. Because
of this, art is more popular and open than ever.
22 |

JANUARY 2015

Inevitably, in the face of such social hyperactivity, the


recesses of my mind heard the summon back to the studio.
Something has happened over the last few years. In a world
of tiny screens and instantaneous self-realization, painting
became a thing again. Technical skill was reintroduced
to a generation of contemporary painters and sculptors,
and those who championed conceptual art opened the
door to discover brush and canvas. Within this movement,
the obsession with camera phones, social media, and
the Internet as a whole sparked something even more
interesting: artists creating time-intensive and laborious
work that looked like photography, reecting our selfconscious obsession with screens and inated social status.
In a world where 24 hours a day are spent with access to
limitless information, we nd ourselves, more than ever,
probing what it means to be human. Hyperrealism literally

personies an era where analog practice attempts to


recreate a reality as it simultaneously blurs the truth.

a celebration, but a look into what motivates the artists and


inspires them, and the craft of their studio practice.

There have always been gurative painters who created


life-like portraits, pastoral painters who could turn a
landscape into an Ansel Adams photo, but there is a
new generation of painters who have taken the genre in
unexpected directions. Jenny Morgan, Alyssa Monks, and
Jonathan Yeo combine photorealism with slices of the
surreal. Yigal Ozeri, Omar Ortiz, and Jessica Hess induce
a double-take at their accurate portrayals of still life. Eloy
Morales, Lee Price and Ian Cumberland make esh so
vivid and raw, it denes palpable. Of course there are the
masters Hilo Chen, Roberto Bernardi and Glennray Tutor
who have carried the torch for decades and belong in the
history books for their craft. Juxtapoz Hyperreal is not only

Lucian Freud, the great British portrait artist and grandson


of Sigmund, explained that, The longer you look at an
object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the
more real.'' And thus, our motivation. This is reality and
super-reality. This is abstraction in its uber-clarity. This is
hyperrealism. Evan Pricco

Juxtapoz Hyperreal is available at shop.juxtapoz.com and at


bookstores and museums around the world.

JUXTAPOZ.COM / JUXTAPOZ - HYPERREAL


THE REPORT JUXTAPOZ

| 23

PICTURE BOOK

GREGORY HALPERN
Beyond the postcard
LOOKING BACK OVER THE NUMEROUS PHOTOGRAPHY
titles from the last year, The Photographer's Playbook is
a standout, despite having very few actual photographs.
With the assistance of 307 established photographers, the
book provides insight into approaching and understanding
the genre and could be viewed as a guide for the creatively
blocked on how to enjoy taking photographs again. Two
photographers carefully edited the volume, and Gregory
Halpern was one of them.
Back in 1998, while pursuing a B.A. at Harvard, Halpern
embarked on a ve-year-long project that involved
compiling photographs and interviewing service
employees, such as cooks, custodians, security guards
and dishwashers, while working with The Living Wage
Campaign. The goal was to raise awareness that one of
the wealthiest universities in the country not only refused
to pay a basic living standard to the workers that kept
it running, but was actually cutting wages. Halperns
rst publication, Harvard Works Because We Do, was
the outcome of this arduous undertaking which drew
national media attention and resulted in a victory for the

24 |

JANUARY 2015

disregarded Harvard employees whose salary cuts were


subsequently reversed. The experience of engaging
photographs in the service of a cause was what ultimately
led Halpern to a long term venture in exploring the
potential of photography. Halpern has since advanced in
his practice, creating several distinctly different bodies
of work with deviating approaches, many published into
limited edition books. Furthermore, Halpern has given
lectures at various universities and written insightful and
analytical articles pertaining to photography. He currently
teaches at the Rochester Institute of Technology and was a
recent recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship.
The state of California is Halperns current focus, and a
forthcoming book of photographs is anticipated from J&L
Books this year. Austin McManus

For more information about Gregory Halpern,


visit gregoryhalpern.com

JUXTAPOZ.COM / GREGORY - HALPERN

PICTURE BOOK JUXTAPOZ

| 25

PICTURE BOOK JUXTAPOZ

| 27

28

JANUARY 2015

PICTURE BOOK JUXTAPOZ

| 29

EVENT

FERTILE GROUND
OVER THE BAY
SFMOMA and OMCA on Bay Area art history,
from Frida Kahlo to the Mission School
MEANDERING ESTUARIES AND TECTONIC PLATES THAT
surround the Bay Area have cultivated an aura of it being
the end of the world, not in a negative connotation, but
more as a place of endless possibilities and exploration.
What was founded on Gold Rush ambition has informed
groundbreaking culinary, musical and technological
excellence, with the latter endowing the Bay Areas
identity going on two decades. In Fertile Ground: Art and
Community in California, the collections from the Oakland
Museum of California and SFMOMA are grafted into a new
appreciation for Northern Californias consistently prolic
breeding ground of artistic movements.

The exhibition focuses on a wide swath of art history,


from Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in San Francisco in the
1930s, to the California School of Fine Arts in the 1940s and
50s, with artists like Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Richard
Diebenkorn and Imogen Cunningham, to a fascinating look
into the University of California at Davis in the 1960s and
70s, with Robert Arneson, Wayne Thiebaud, William T.
Wiley and Bruce Nauman all pushing the envelope of Pop.
And of course, there is also the Mission School movement of
San Francisco in the 1990s, featuring a group of artists who
not only dened modern DIY aesthetics, but also informed

clockwise from top

Robert Arneson, Study for California Artist,


Polaroids, mixed drawing media, acrylic
and watercolor on paper, 1982, Collection
SFMOMA, gift of Rena Bransten, Estate
of Robert Arneson / Licensed by VAGA,
New York, NY, Photo: Ben Blackwell

32 |

JANUARY 2015

Diego Rivera, Flower Carrier, Oil and


tempera on Masonite, 48" x 47.75", 1935,
Collection SFMOMA, Albert M. Bender
Collection, Banco de Mexico Diego
Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust,
Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS),
New York, Photo: Ben Blackwell

Manuel Neri, Untitled (Seated Woman),


Plaster and dry pigments, 33.75" x 28"
x 21.5, 1979, Collection of the Oakland
Museum of California, gift of the Collectors
Gallery and National Endowment for
the Arts

Johanna Jackson, We Are All On Stage


Together, Acrylic gouache on wood, 7" x
5", 2001,
Collection SFMOMA, gift of Amy Adelson
and Dean Valentine, Johanan Jackson;
Photo: Don Ross

EVENT JUXTAPOZ

| 33

California is the best place for a


person like me who wants to make
things and dream through life. I am
psyched to be in this version of
Mission history and to be gured
into the larger NorCal history as
well. Its a nice show! It gives a real
studio feeling somehow, I think.
The ceramics guys, the weird
picture of Ansel Adams hungover,
young Keegans old painting
Johanna Jackson

34 |

JANUARY 2015

a generation about how street-centric art could be validated


by the establishment. To this day, Barry McGee, Margaret
Kilgallen, Chris Johanson, Alicia McCarthy, Ruby Neri, and
Johanna Jackson continue to be incubators of the urban
folk scene, whether in painting, ceramics, installation or
photography. Seeing them in the pantheon of Californias
rich art history heralds how these artists will help shape the
next breakthrough.

Fertile Ground will be on display at the Oakland Museum of California


through April 15, 2014.

JUXTAPOZ.COM / SFMOMA

clockwise from top

Barry McGee, Untitled,


Mixed media, dimensions
variable, 2009, Collection
SFMOMA, Ruth Nash Fund and
Louis Vuitton N. A. purchase,
Barry McGee;
Photo: Ben Blackwell
Frida Kahlo, Frieda and
Diego Rivera, 1931; oil on
canvas; 39.5" x 31"; Collection
SFMOMA, Albert M. Bender
Collection, gift of Albert M.
Bender; Banco de Mexico
Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo
Museums Trust, Mexico,
D.F. / Artists Rights Society
(ARS), New York;
Photo: Ben Blackwell
Margaret Kilgallen, Untitled,
Acrylic on unstretched canvas,
136.5" x 316", 2000, Collection
SFMOMA, Purchase, by
exchange, through a fractional
gift of Evelyn D. Haas, and
through gifts of Albert M.
Bender, Vicki and Kent Logan,
Janice and Henry Rooney, and
bequests of Dr. Gertrude
Ticho and Dean Barnlund;
Estate of Margaret Kilgallen;
Photo: Ian Reeves

FA S H I O N

NOT AFRAID OF
VIRGINIA WOOLF
Matija Cops unorthodox fashion laboratory
MATIJA COPS DESIGNS INSPIRE INSTANT INTRIGUE.
What are they made of? Who is the mastermind behind
these unbelievable shapes? We tracked down the young
Croatian designer, who is not only inspired by throwback
futuristic lms, but also by literature and architecture.
Reminiscent of exoskeletons mixed with futuristic
Elizabethan regalia, there is no line between art and
fashion in his designs. They are one and the same.
Kristin Farr: How did you get into fashion design?
Matija Cop: Quite spontaneously. I studied at the Faculty
of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, but realized
that I couldnt express myself completely, so I decided to
enroll in fashion design. I see now that it was a good move
for me, but Im glad I got to experience a different approach
to humanity. I now use theory as a starting point for my
concepts, and then I translate it into the visual language of
fashion design.
Tell me about life in Croatia.
Its interesting because we are a country in transition. Until
1990, we were part of Yugoslavia and socialism. People
who are living in socialism are still alive, and they are a
little bit stuck in their own confused thoughts that are then
implemented in society. As we are a young, independent
country, I think younger people have the opportunity
to create and express themselves in a more subversive
way. Thats why we have a lot of subversive, queer and
contemporary performance artists and designers who are
somehow ghting against that socialistic state of mind.
Political structure and economy is also in transition, trying to
develop in a more protable, capitalistic way.
The best part of Croatia is probably the coastline and
islands, which are incredible and possibly some of the best
spots in the Mediterraneanreally authentic and wild, in a
way. Youve maybe heard about Dubrovnik or Hvar as some
of most beautiful parts of our coastline. The whole coast

36 |

JANUARY 2015

and islands are antique, as we were part of the Greek and


Roman empires. My piece, Object 12-1, is actually inspired by
the cathedral of St. James in Sibenik.
What are some other non-fashion objects or interests that
inspire you?
I often draw from textsliterary texts or works on
fashion theory. However, its pictures that inuence me
mostmotion pictures, at that, whether contemporary or
classic, Blade Runner or Satyricon. Of course there is also
photography and painting, depending on the project Im
working on. Lately Ive been drawing from performance art,
which treats the body quite similarly to fashion. It places the
form in different contexts and actually communicates with
the audience through the body itself.
What type of person do you envision wearing your
designs?
I dont dwell on that at this stage of creating. I think my
pieces are quite open and can interpret various identities,
accommodating someone who wants to draw attention
to themselves, or someone who wants to hide behind the
structure of the garment. Its important for me that the
wearer of the garment really does want to wear itand by
wanting it, expresses themselves within the piece.
What kind of unusual materials do you work with?
So far, in my collections, Ive worked with various high-tech
materials, mostly because of the experimental nature. I
experiment with the form and the very idea of the fashion
garment. Among the materials Ive used is the polyester
3D air mesh fabric, which is used in the car and sports
industry as the base material, as well as a fabric softener.
For the project Object 12-1, I used ethylene-vinyl acetate,
a completely technical material widely used in various
elds like medicine, pharmaceutics and the food industry.
I reshaped the material by cutting it with a laser to make it
accommodate the needs of fashion design.

FASHION JUXTAPOZ

| 37

How do you search for materials?


I dont have a unique method. It depends on the requirements
of the project Im working on. I visit shops that dont
usually carry textile materials, and I always nd something
interesting. More often than not, I do additional work on the
material I nd using various techniques, from laser cutting to
traditional weaving.
How has your work evolved since youve been in
grad school?
The work has evolved on all levels, from the materials to
the techniques I use. But the biggest change is certainly
in the way I think about fashion; what it is and how I see it.
Thats the rst phase in the working process, pinning the
concept, which varies greatly from my rst collection to
my latest collections.
What are your biggest inuences?
The biggest inuence in my work is my humanities
education. Its made me approach subjects in an
interdisciplinary manner, so I dont concern myself with
categories and boundaries. That affects my choice of the
subject, material, and the very manner of presenting a
project wherein I dont limit myself to fashion categories.
Is your goal to create designs that have never been
seen before?
That is not my primary goal, no. My intent is to create
something visually powerful that can communicate with
people, something that can instigate in people the need to
communicate solely with just thatthe object. I also come
across a lot of problems with the subject itself, which I
approach quite specicallyI make the subject subordinate

38 |

JUXTAPOZ FASHION

to the concept. It is because of this that its possible to nd


solutions that look like they had never been made before.
But I think this mostly happens because I revolve exclusively
around my own opinions.
Who are some creative people whose work inspires you?
For each project, there are new people, works and
disciplines. At each moment of involvement in a new project,
Im immersed in the works of performance artists and
abstract art, as well as the works of Virginia Woolf. At rst
glance, its probably difficult to connect that to some of my
previous projects, but thats one of my goals as wellto be
a completely different person in each of my projects.
What music would best accompany a show of
your work?
It would probably be some piece of classical music
interpreted in a new way, a complex mix that conveys
something completely new. I love to juxtapose seemingly
opposing sensibilities and expressions.
Whats your favorite outt?
I actually feel the most comfortable with the least clothes on
me as possible when Im at home, unconcerned about what
Im wearing. Perhaps it is because fashion occupies my mind
completely, and to keep a balance, I sometimes need to get
rid of it completely.

For more information about Matija Cop, visit notjustalabel.com

JUXTAPOZ.COM / MATIJA - COP

ARTIST ABIGAIL LARSON

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1600 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC


PhillipsCollection.org l
Generous support for the
exhibition is provided by
The Man of the Light, 2005, Polyester resin, marble dust, uorescent lights, Courtesy Mirella and Dani Levinas, Washington, DC

BERNARDI ROIG
NO/Escape
Through March 8, 2015
Contemporary
art projects
inspired by the
art and spaces
in The Phillips
Collection

INFLUENCES

ALLS FAIR IN MIAMI


Daria Brit Greene, Vice President of SCOPE
Daria Brit Greene pulls the strings behind the scenes of
SCOPE, an organization that produces some of the most
innovative and forward-thinking international art fairs,
shining a bright light on new talent. From modest beginnings
to non-stop shows, SCOPE has set the gold standard while
growing exponentially. Currently embracing pop culture
connections, each event is more spectacular than the next.
Greene gives us the lowdown on SCOPEs magic touch.

Portrait by Thomas V. Hartman


Earrings by Lainie Love Dalby

42 |

JANUARY 2015

SCOPE: Then and Now


Founded in 2001, SCOPE has mounted over 70 art shows in
6 different cities. Beginning as a small hotel art revue and
arriving at its current status as the largest and most global
contemporary fair in the world, SCOPE Art Show has always
served as a platform for young, emerging talent. Originally
conceived to take over several oors of a hotel, the intent
was to provide the intimate experience of a gallery in every
room. Once we started building our own pavilions, we
realized we could do this virtually anywhere and present
an incredible lineup of a galleries, really exploring how we
could affect tangible cultural change in the surrounding
communities. SCOPEs ambitious productions have grown
so large that we now concentrate on our highest performing
markets: Miami Beach, New York and Basel, Switzerland.

The Mission
SCOPE was the rst in what our industry affectionately
calls satellite fairs, but our mission sets us apart: We
create opportunities for young, emerging galleries, artists
and curators to achieve a level of exposure unavailable
anywhere else. We do this by constantly reinventing the art
fair model. A few examples are SCOPEs Breeder Program,
which offers opportunity to young galleries that normally
could not afford to participate in an art fair; our FEATURE
program often works with governmental agencies to
present curated sections of the fair and special projects,
and our strategic partnerships with brands like VH1, Fiat,
Red Bull, Heineken and Bombay Sapphire. As our industry
begins to deeply embed itself in pop culture, SCOPE is
leading the charge in making emerging artwork accessible
and rising artists successful.
Cant Stop, Wont Stop
Non-show months do not exist. As soon as one fair closes,
our staff is already in the throes of planning the next edition.
Its pretty much known that SCOPE throws the best events
from way back when we helped launch the Scissor Sisters,
to our present partnership with VH1. Weve had sprawling
warehouse parties, intimate cocktail events at luxury hotels

and even private dinners inside the pavilion. We want


guests to experience contemporary art in new, unexpected
ways and to understand how art communicates with a
variety of disciplines, most specically music. We are known
for investing in the new contemporary movement, and
collectors of the genre seek us out for new discoveries.
Memorable Moments
SCOPE produced a giant, branded balloon, 10 feet wide
and lled with 550 cubic feet of helium, which was secured
to the tent. Our branding was visible for miles and visitors
could use this beacon as a guide to our entrance from
across the city. One year at Basel, the rope snapped and
our balloon sailed away. Anecdotal evidence had it landing
in France, but we were never sure.
One of my all-time favorite installations at SCOPE was
our 2008 Miami project, FriendsWithYous Rainbow City.
The installation featured multiple bounce-houses and the
now-iconic cast of FriendsWithYou characters. It was such
a treat to take the occasional bounce-breakand of course
FriendsWithYou has moved on to international acclaim
since then, so its a special feeling to have contributed an
instrumental chapter in their story. There are so many artists

who started at SCOPE for whom I can say the same thing.
Curation by Swizz Beatz
For our 2014 Miami Beach fair, I am very excited to be
working with Kaseem "Swizz Beatz" Dean, who is curating a
selection of artists representative of The Dean Collection.
There will be four artists creating site-specic installations
around the fair, all of whom will be working directly with
Swizz Beatz for curatorial direction. This is a big highlight
for me.
I was rst introduced to Swizz Beatz by an artist named
Hebru Brantley. I was in Chicago, judging Red Bulls Canvas
Cooler Project, and I snuck upstairs to visit with Hebru in
his studio. While I was admiring a particular painting, Hebru
mentioned that Swizz Beatz had just acquired it for The
Dean Collection, along with several others. I tucked that bit
of knowledge in the back of my mind and two years later,
when brainstorming on who would be the subject of SCOPE
+ VH1s Art + Music partnership in 2013, I immediately
thought of Swizz and Hebru. I reached out to Hebru, et voil!
Next thing I knew, we were all on set with VH1s creative
team, led by Phil Delbourgo, lming a really awesome spot,
which aired for over a month.
INFLUENCES JUXTAPOZ

| 43

On set, Swizz talked about his travels to artists studios


around the world, and it was obvious that this guy is truly
passionate. When his manager reached out to me this year
about a collaboration, I was very enthusiastic.
@TheRealSwizzz on Instagram is full of amazing works from
The Dean Collection: Kaws, Swoon, Daniel Arsham, Cleon
Peterson, etc., but there is more to him than just collecting.
Swizz has been using his NYC home as a makeshift gallery
for very intimate events with artists and his group of artcollecting friends. He invests nancially and emotionally in
artists careers, and to be honest, some of the ideas hes
discussed with me are really next-level thinking for the
art world.
Signing with SCOPE
The founder of SCOPE, Alexis Hubshman, used to work
across the street from me in Chelsea, back in my gallery
days. Weve been friends for many years, so I have always
been involved in SCOPErst as an exhibitor, then as
a curator, a creative consultant dealing with branding,
marketing, social media, partnerships, etc. Each role I
played at SCOPE seemed to be integral, so in 2010, we
decided I would come on board full-time.
Looking back at my 15-year career in the contemporary art
world, I have always enjoyed exploring how other industries
intersect with ours. All of the artists I work with share the

44 |

JANUARY 2015

capacity to think in these same directions. When I look at


an artists work, I dont imagine it in a museum, I imagine it
integrated into the daily lives of regular people. That is the
most rewarding aspect of my careerbringing art to people
who dont even realize they are consuming it, while making
their lives richer and more interesting.
In the past, I was an independent curator working
with galleries and museums, often mounting a dozen
international shows a year. I gave a lot of rst shows to a
lot of very well-known artistssimilar to the present-day,
where I am in a position to give emerging artists their big
break. I am almost always gifted with artwork as a thanks.
As a result, I have a sizable art collectionover 80 works
from 70 artists. Each artwork is a piece of personal history,
shared between myself and the artist, and there is not one
single work in my collection that I would sell under any
circumstances. The last gift I received was from an artist
named David Shillinglaw. Its hanging in my sons room,
giving him an early art education.

For more information about Scope Miami Beach 2014,


visit scope-art.com

JUXTAPOZ.COM / SCOPE

left
Swoon for Chandran Gallery/Scope
Miami Beach 2014
right
Hilary White for Paradigm Gallery/
Scope Miami Beach 2014

JACK BECKETT
IS THE FOUNDER
OF THE OUTSIDE
COLLECTIVE

Its my dream job


Jack Beckett used to hang artwork in galleries around
London. Now, after studying Graphic Design at Shillington,
hes the founder of his own creative agency.
The best thing I took from Shillington was the quick turnaround on briefs. Ive
worked with a lot of people that are recent graduates from degree courses
and theyre nowhere near as prepared for the tight deadlines and multiple
ongoing projects as Shillington grads are.
I founded The Outside Collective in 2011. We recently helped launch adidas
ZX Flux shoes at the Truman Brewery. For me, it was the dream job! Ive been
into kicks for a long time, and to be working with brands like adidas and
Converse has denitely been one of my career goals.

School of graphic design


shillingtonschool.com
F shillington.fb T @shillington_

ENROLL NOW TO STUDY IN 2015NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY!


SHILLINGTONSCHOOL.COM

NEW YORK LONDON MANCHESTER


SYDNEY MELBOURNE BRISBANE

Dan Witz and the evolving world of realism


INTERVIEW BY EVAN PRICCO PORTRAIT BY BRYAN DERBALLA

HE FIRST TIME I ACTUALLY MET DAN


Witz was on a ferry boat ride touring the
magnicent fjords of western Norway.
At the time, like most people interested
in the broader emerging art world, I
knew of Witz as the Brooklyn-based
painter who created an indelible series
of mosh pit paintings. There was also
this not-so-secret-but-sort-of-hidden
career as a street artist with a body
of work that started over a decade before any street art
term was coined. And accidentally, on this boat tour, I got
to know what Dan was all about. My conclusion was this:
Dan has been at the forefront, consciously unconcerned
about the trends of contemporary art, grasping an
extensive knowledge of art history and the role of this new
generation. Learning about the art career of a man who
paints motion, energy, interaction and force, in tandem with
the calm and ancient surroundings created by centuries of
natural movement made for a compelling parallel history.
This interview was conducted throughout 2014 in
conjunction with the Juxtapoz Hyperreal book and this
cover story. From music to art, from Cooper Union to PETA,
Dan Witz is a punk chameleon who continues to explore
the possibilities of painting and confrontational interactive
street art.
Evan Pricco: You attended Cooper Union in the late 1970s.
You were a punk rock kid, and the punk rock thing to do at

50 |

JANUARY 2015

Cooper Union at that time was to paint guratively. What


was art school like at that time?
Dan Witz: Yes, it wasnt too long ago that painting
guratively was considered rebelliousif it was considered
at all. Crazy as it sounds now, when I was a student, painting
with technical facility, depicting beauty (unless it was ironic),
and accessibility (especially accessibility), were forbidden
completely off the table if you wanted to succeed in art
school and eventually show in decent galleries. You have
to love the irony: Modern arts very genesis sprang from
its rejection of academic realist painting, and now its the
modernists who have become the blinded establishment
and the realist painters a transgressive force for change.
But as much as I disliked art school, I can see how I
beneted from my time thereeven if it was mostly as
a contrarian in training. In high school Id been led to
believe that the study of traditional painting techniques
was a common jumping off point to more personal types
of expression (think Picasso and Duchamp), but for some
reason, probably my punk hair and clothes, the in-crowd
at school considered my type of tight, facile realism to be
threatening. Its still hard for me to even talk about thisI
dont think I ever have publiclybut this event was so
traumatic and formative that it bears mentioning: one
night my studio at Cooper Union was attacked and my
paintings were vandalized. I never found out who did it.
It was a few weeks later that I committed my rst illegal
artwork, painting graffiti res up and down the back
stairwells at Cooper Union.

Vision of Disorder Frieze Triptych


Oil and digital media on canvas
144" x 24"
2014

Punk rock had opened my eyes enough for me


to understand that art could be about more than
providing expensive wall candy for rich people.
It could actually speak truth to power...
Not being a New Yorker yet, I couldnt get over how zealous
and parochial, and how, well, personally everyone took their
opinions. But as I hung out in the punk clubs and became
more and more converted to those zealous, parochial
attitudes, I began to understand how for young artists
especially those who hadnt accomplished anything yet
their opinions were their identity. Alongside this came the
dawning realization that my romantic dream of becoming an
artist was in reality just another competitive career grind like
fashion or advertising. Young artists who were ambitious
and well connected (and usually attractive) and were good
at marketing themselves, and who aligned themselves with
what was currently in vogue were rewarded with attention
and showsregardless of the quality or originality of their
work. Even back then I was aware that my resistance to
this was nave and idealistic. Deep down I understood

that success, especially in creative elds, has always been


a rigged gamefamously more about who you know
than the actual work. But still my resentment towards the
compromises it seemed necessary to make was really
making me question what I was getting myself into.
Around this time is when I started playing in bands.
And then, after I got out of school, part of the reason I
painted those tightly realistic and blatantly pretty little
hummingbirds on the street was that I just wanted to say,
Fuck it. I dont need anyones benediction or permission,
I can do whatever I want. Punk rock had opened my eyes
enough for me to understand that art could be about more
than providing expensive wall candy for rich people. It could
actually speak truth to power, usually with a message of,
You suck, or Youve totally failed us. I was young and

DAN WITZ JUXTAPOZ

| 51

invulnerable so I was ne scraping by with rent-paying jobs,


doing street art and playing in bands that would never
make it.
Were kids aware, and I mean art school kids at Cooper
Union, that something was beginning to happen on the
streets, graffiti?
Denitely. I mean, we all rode the subways to work and
school and its hard to imagine any young artist could see
those trains rolling into the stations and not be at least a
little affected. This was pre-Beastie Boys and Keith Haring,
though. Art school kids tagging with spray paint was still
a ways away. Those trains were denitely the big hammer
that cracked me open, though. I was in complete awe of
those artists and still am. When I started doing my own
thing on the streets, I was super careful not to tread on their
turfaesthetic or actual. Not only would it have seemed
phony for a guy like me to be bombing with spray paint, but
the way the streets were back then, I probably would have
gotten my ass kicked.
52 |

JANUARY 2015

When did you start working in the streets? Was your work
inuenced by the early punk zine and yer days, or were
you just trying other forms of intervention and straight-up
experimentation?
My rst street works were in the late 1970s. Band posters
were denitely dominating the streetscape, and since I
was in bands, I did my share of wheat pasting. But my big
inuence, beside the graffitied trains, punk rock and a
few grown-up artists like Gordon Matta-Clark and Charles
Simonds, were the Situationists. At some point Id copied
into my sketchbook excerpts from the 1960s book, The
Society of Spectacle, by Guy DeBord. What I took from it
all (and still do) was that artists should provoke moments
that shock the spectator out of their passivity, helping them
towards a more creative and awakened life.
What did your paintings look like at this time?
After a year or so of hummingbirds and all the attention that
got me, I realized I had to either move on to new subjects
or become the hummingbird guy. With my mistrust of

above
Byronesque
Oil and digital media on canvas
40" x 58"
2014
opposite
Mosh Pit Study (Anarchy)
Oil and digital media on canvas
15" x 20"
2014
following spread
ABC No Rio
Oil and digital media on canvas
96" x 56"
2011

success, this was actually an easy decision. All along Id


been systematically trying to learn how to paint guratively.
I was cycling through various realist painting styles: Flemish
precisionism, thick gestural bravura brushstrokes, dark
academic glazesI was consciously acquiring a wide range
of representational experience as a jumping off point. By
this point though, I was pretty sure old master-style realism
was the direction Id be heading.
You were in bands throughout this time, right?
Yes. Noise bandspost-No New York, a very unique and
intense scene. I had my own group with a revolving set of
friends and a job (of sorts) playing in a few of Glenn Brancas
large ensembles. I knew next to nothing about the right way
to play keyboards, which was considered an asset back
then. Besides being an incredibly fun and extreme thing to
be doing in your twenties, it was great for me because I got
to tour Europe and visit the old master museums.
How much does music inuence your decision to create
these mosh pit paintings?
Music has denitely been an important inuence, and its
not just the energy, passion and authenticity of punk and
hardcore that drives the mosh pit paintings. Bob Dylan,
Brian Eno and Agnostic Front have been my teachers as
much as Titian, Velazquez and Fab 5 Freddy.
Talk about the process of the mosh pit paintings, and
some of the new rave paintings you are currently working
on. What does your night out look like when compiling a
body of work?
Mosh pits are more violent, of course, but its a ritualized
violence: theres real threat (and real injury) but there are
codes of behavioran organizing principle to the mayhem.
To get it right, I have to photograph from practically inside
the action which, being an adrenalin junkie, I really enjoy.
This is denitely a contact sport though, and I usually
come home with some bruises. Last night I photographed
a concert by my favorite hardcore band, Vision of Disorder,
and I took some pretty hard hits. Im okay but my camera
got damaged.
Raves are a more voyeuristic experience. Its still deeply
physical: the sub-woofers in these clubs could be used
by the CIA at their black sites. And in a similar way to the
hardcore concerts, the people are in a private transxed
state that Im hesitant to disturb with my ash. Thankfully,
though, the lights and music are so invasive that hardly
anyone seems to notice me. Nothing against the white
boys with the tattoos, but I cant tell you how invigorating
it is to be exploring these raves now. Just painting people
of color is such a relief, and Im completely fascinated by
the dualities of the gender benders. Theres a cultural
resonance there that I think is still highly charged.
At both venues, if its a good band or DJ and a good crowd,
I start photographing and slip into the moment (and the
melee), and improbable amounts of time pass without me,
which is something I dearly love. Then I drag my plunder
home and hole up with Photoshop, which is another lovely

lost world for me. Puzzling together the compositions


can take months. After I have the digital le printed in
monochrome on the canvas comes the long hard slog of
the actual painting, a gestational feat which, to be honest, is
ridiculously difficult but never becomes routine.
Maybe this is too general, but what sort painter would
you consider yourself to be? Are you interested in
photorealism as a genre?
Technically, Im an academic realist, what the Impressionists
used to mockingly refer to as a pompier. This is because
of the way the academic artists back then mostly did
ponderous history pieces, lovingly rendering the reections
on the helmets of the Roman soldiers. These helmets
apparently resembled the headgear that the French
reghters, or pompiers, wore at the time.
In any case, my primary pictorial goal is to create utterly
believable light, space and presence, especially presence
like those technically brilliant but largely forgotten salon
artists. One of the main things that attracts me about
these guys is the anonymity of their techniquehow the
artists brand and ego are sublimated, how the pictures
chief objective isnt about who did it (unlike these days, in
our current salon), but more about the narratives or visual
fancies theyre presenting us with.
Ive always been obsessed by what those salon guys could
do with oil paint and how poignant their failures as artists
were. In fact, Id have to say that their ending up in the
dustbin of history has had an almost motivational effect
on me. I totally understand why their names have been
forgotten, but Im still convinced that something as profound
as this way of painting can be a part of the cultural dialogue.
DAN WITZ JUXTAPOZ

| 53

Photorealism is mildly interesting to me. There are lots of


great painters working in that niche, and as an art student, I
was glad to have something contemporary I could relate to.
But traditional photorealism has always ultimately seemed
to be about atness and emotional distance, which is
exactly the opposite of what Im going for.

hummingbirds were regarded with such polite loathing


like I was some kind of mud person or gate crasher at the
country club. Those tight smiles from gallerists and curators,
that nice to meet you, now please leave lookthat, as
much as anything, galvanized me into making realism my
lifes work.

What is the hardest part of the human body to paint?


Ah, nally, an easy question. The soul

You have seen the trends of the art world uctuate over
the years. Have you seen anything like street art and the
way it completely became this populist movement?
Yeah, Ive been famously wrong about this. Back in about
2004, I was on a street art panel with Marc and Sara
Schiller of the Wooster Collective. We were discussing
the possibilities of this exciting new art movement and I,
as the elder statesman, felt it my duty to bloviate a bit and
remind everyone of that old saying, What is in fashion
must inevitably go out of fashion. So, yeah, I was wrong.
I didnt understand how seismically the paradigm was
shifting. And in my defense, who could have foreseen this?
Its unprecedented. Up until then, the trend cycle of art
movements had always ran a rough corollary to those in
music or fashion or hairstyles. Then came digital technology
and the Internet, and everything changed. All of a sudden,
the quality of your work mattered more than who you knew
or what you looked like. This rst bona de art movement
thats been independent of high cultures mediation has

Is realism a skill that you acquired, or are you naturally


talented with an affinity for realism?
Yeah, I was the guy in my high school that could draw,
though I cant say I ever recall anyone accusing me of
being a prodigy or anything. But whatever aptitude I had,
it was enough to get me accepted into art school. I loved
gure drawing and found out that solid draftsmanship was
the common starting point for the artists I admiredeven
modernist or avant-garde ones like Picasso and Duchamp.
The usual path was to use this classical education as
a jumping off point for more expressive or less literal
approaches to making art. I stuck with the realism, though.
Early on, the punk in me gured out that realist painting
made the establishment art world of the time weirdly
uncomfortable. I mean it was bizarre how those sweet little
56 |

JANUARY 2015

left
Brite Night 1 (detail)
Oil and digital media on canvas
68" x 48"
2014
right
Agnostic Front Circle Pit
Oil and digital media on canvas
82" x 48"
2014

outlasted and been out-liked by anything we ever dreamed


of. Seriously, I dont think Pop Art or Abstract Expressionism
or even Cubism has had as long a run as this.
These days, when I visit contemporary art museums, I cant
help but get the feeling that sometimes all Im doing is
walking around and checking off top brands, as in, Look,
theyve got a so-and-so and hey, theres an early whatsher-name. The art on the wall is beginning to seem like
footnotes from some other cultures art history, or worse,
like the museum trustees investment portfolio. Dont get me
wrong, theres usually some amazing, inspiring art, but after
my own experiences with the energy and accessibility of the
urban art world, modern art museums have begun to seem
more and more like late capitalisms overstuffed closets
mostly featuring past seasons of the emperors new clothes.
One of the things that is interesting to me is that there are
people in the world who know the mosh pit paintings but
not the street art, and vice versa. What sort of freedom
does that give you?
A lot of artists I admire have had dual practices: Warhol
made lms, Degas sculptures, Rembrandt was a master
printmaker. For me, and Im guessing for those guys,
multiple disciplines have a balancing effect. The gurative
paintings I do, especially the mosh pit group ones, are just

too difficult and soul crushingly lonely for me to spend


my entire life at. And the street art is too dangerous and
physically draining. What I do is focus on one of these until
I get completely sick of it, and I mean literally nauseated,
then I switch. With my obsessive work habits, Im pretty sure
I would have burned out years ago if I hadnt stumbled on
this nice little balancing act.
In my case, theres also something to be said for the
freedom that comes from not being too successful. Weve
all seen how destructive that kind of pressure can be on
an artist. Id like to think that by now I could handle it (and
a little more money) but in the past, Ive had my problems,
so Im not really sure. Besides, whos got time for all those
fancy cocktail parties and awards ceremonies? Ive got
a three-year-old who more than satises my need for
extracurricular activities. Career-wise, where I am these
days is ne. I get regular validation and Im still as driven
and hungry and full of productive anxiety as Ive ever been.
Although, again, maybe a tiny bit more cash probably
wouldnt hurt.
In September, I did a street art collaboration advocating
against animal agricultural practices with PETA UK. I
installed non-permissional trompe loeil grates and windows
with farm animals behind them, but I also ended up making
DAN WITZ JUXTAPOZ

| 57

a bunch of painted cast-resin chicken feet and planting


them around London. It wasnt until we were almost nished
with the lengthy, complicated and frustrating process of
guring out how to cast the chicken feet that it dawned
on me that I was making sculptures. This just made me so
happy. I was doing something totally new and something I
knew absolutely nothing about. I was a complete beginner
at my age.
My last question, and an easy one: when you walk into a
museum full of paintings, what is your feeling?
If the paintings are nineteenth century or older, Im crazy.
Im like one of those sports hooligans going to see their
home team play in the championship. The moment I hit the
galleries, I slip into an altered state. Seriously. My pulse
quickens, my eyes widen, all extraneous noises shut off.
These guys on the walls are more than my teachers, or what
I aspire to be when (or if) I grow up. Theyre the serious, real
apostles of my faith. In my day-to-day life, whenever doubts
assail me and I wonder why Im inside all day chained to an
easel, I remember this place, this mental museum and how
utterly engaged I am there. I remember theres a place on
earth where spending a life making paintings totally makes
sense. Naturally, the idea follows that one day itd be nice
to hang there as more than a spectator, but honestly Im
not the type to let myself indulge in thoughts like that.
Although I do love how Lucian Freud had carte blanche to
visit the National Gallery after hours. Thats an ambition I
could get behind.

For more information about Dan Witz, visit danwitz.com


JUXTAPOZ.COM / DAN - WITZ

Brite Night 2
Oil and digital
media on canvas
72" x 48"
2014

58 |

JANUARY 2015

DAN WITZ JUXTAPOZ

| 59

LEE CHEN-DAO

The mysteriously pleasurable world


of a Taiwanese surrealist
INTERVIEW BY ALEX NICHOLSON PORTRAIT BY THE ARTIST
YOU'VE ACTUALLY NOTICED IT! CHEN-DAO EXCLAIMED,
the characters in the paintings all carry a hint of happiness,
yet are you able to feel and experience this expression?
The look on the faces in Lee Chen-Daos paintings arouse
and attract interest in how the characters are feeling about
the situations we nd them in. Their emotions seem open to
interpretation. Are they enjoying themselves? Do they have
a choice, or do they just go with the ow?
While most of us will probably never nd ourselves in
scenes like these, we have all experienced the same
emotions, ambiguous interactions and relationships he
describesconfusion, embarrassment, helplessness,
phoniness, lust, indulgence, anger and sadness. A selfdescribed modern day storyteller with an old soul, Lee
Chen-Dao expresses these sensibilities with hints of
irony and an air of elegance, employing classical painting
techniques to describe timeless human emotions and
interactions in a modern context. I rst connected with
Chen-Dao while putting together our Juxtapoz Hyperreal
book and jumped on the opportunity to reconnect and
delve further into his upbringing, the artistic climate
in Taiwan, and what world this idiosyncratic cast of
characters inhabits.
Alex Nicholson: I am curious what your interests were as a
kid. How was the majority of your time spent?
Lee Chen-Dao: My memories from my youth are a little
blurry. As a child growing up in Taiwan, especially in the
large metropolitan cities, a typical day involved attending
school, and then going to after school homework and
prep programs. It was pretty much like this until I was 19

60 |

JANUARY 2015

when I passed the exam to attend college. A majority of


my childhood interests came from reading manga novels.
Japanese manga were really popular during my childhood
and I had a collection of my favorites.
Apart from the drawings in comic books, when did you
rst become interested in art and decide it was something
you wanted to pursue?
My father is an artistic educator and my mom once ran a
gallery. Only because of that was I assigned to take part in
various art competitions when I was a kid. No special talent
showed at that time, but I still entered an art school later.
After graduation, I started to know myself more and felt that
being an artist was something suitable for me.
Tell me more about your fathers art career and your
mothers gallery. What types of art did she show?
The art at my mothers gallery was composed primarily of
works from Taiwanese artists with styles that were heavily
inuenced by more modern western styles. My father is a
well-known portrait artist and he has dedicated his whole
life to learning and perfecting the classical, Renaissance
style of oil painting. This had a profound impact on me,
and early on, I considered oil painting as the only form of
art. Later, as I attended my father's alma mater, my own
path to art began and everything naturally just kind of fell
into place.
What do your parents think of your art now?
I'm not sure, and I don't really dare to ask. I believe even if
they were to see my works, they'd probably have no clue
whats going through my head.

LEE CHEN-DAO JUXTAPOZ

| 61

So, what was your experience in art school like?


The purpose of attending my father's alma mater was to
become the type of artist he is: to be a great and skilled
painter. What I did not realize as I entered into school was
that there was a 30-year generation gap between my
father and me. During this period of time, many things have
changed, including art. So, as I spent those four years in
art school, I devoted a lot of effort and time to studying art
history and learning how to appreciate the various types of
art from different eras. I also dabbled into other genres, but
after a good period of time, I returned to painting. The world
of art is vast, and every day I constantly try to nd new and
interesting things that will keep me motivated and yearning
for more. This approach I take to art is a result of my time
in college.
What sort painter would you consider yourself to be now?
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JANUARY 2015

Once an art critic described me as a modern storyteller


with an old soul. I like that. Even though I was learning oil
painting in a formal academy, funny themes with contrast
interest me more. It bores me to see an artist who only
knows how to paint.
As someone who pursued your undergraduate and MFA
degrees in cities around the world, can you give some
perspective on the art community in Taiwan? What is it like
being an artist in Taipei today?
Taiwan is a small country, and looking back on its recent
history to the present day, it has a strong, self-sustaining
type of mentality that is reected in the politics, culture
and economy. The Taiwanese are a very diligent and proud
people. Though our population is small, we do not lack
determination and will. On a national level, we yearn to be
recognized as equals in the international community. These

above
Cat Fight-Love Kick
Oil on canvas
55" x 41.25"
2013
opposite
Valentine II
Oil on canvas
23.5" x 35.75"
2013
following spread
Swan Lake
Oil on canvas
92.5" x 68.75"
2014

Translation: Shawn Sun

cultural characteristics have a strong impact and inuence


on our perceptions of art, and they allow us to have a strong
appreciation of western art.
Consequently, we like to use western art as a bar to
measure the quality of our work, and because of this, we
have a problem with self recognition. Taipei is the capital
of Taiwan, has the highest standards of culture and can
be considered the Mecca of modern Taiwanese art. Many
aspiring artists will choose Taipei as a place to start their
career. This is a situation that is probably similar to most
major metropolitan areas in other countries.
Enjoyed Couple was one of the rst paintings of yours that
I saw, and it immediately became a topic of conversation
in the Juxtapoz office. Can you tell me the story behind it?
Of course! Enjoyed Couple is one of my artworks that was
completed back in 2009. At the time, I did a series of works
that were similar to classical styles of painting, yet my work
only depicted similar movements and had nothing to do
with the themes and stories that are commonly found in
classical paintings. So, one hot night, as I was on a vacation
with friends, the silhouettes of two of my "bigger" friends
came into the room from the showers. Even after showering,
there were still beads of sweat on them. They were sitting
in the group, immersed in our conversations, and all of a
sudden, at this moment, the scene in front of me reminded
me of the painting Gabrielle d'Estres et une de ses soeur
from the Louvre. It's interesting because it is a vastly
different era, yet the scene in front of me was very similar
to that particular painting, so I took a few quick pictures.
I never would have thought that this would be one of my
works that garnered notice from people.
Do you mostly work from reference material, or purely
from your imagination?
Most of my work is not a product of my imagination, rather
it is a product that expresses my observation of current
society mixed along with some of my own atypical styles
and humor.
Who are the recurring characters in your paintings, the
girls in the cat ghts, the heroes, the bosses and the
BFFs? What kind of world do they live in?
The characters in my paintings have numerous types of
outts and each represents a different story and message.
My more recent paintings can be divided in two categories,
the rst being the overweight men in suits with masks, with
the suits representing civilization and order, and the masks,
deceit and phoniness. Obesity represents the typical,
ordinary nature of man, as well as desire. This combination
of order, desire and lust, along with deceit, has allowed
society to give them the title of "hero" or "boss."
The second category is the naked female characters with
ries. The nudity represents the weak and helpless while
the ries are a symbol of resistance. This character is a
representation of many of the common people today. I put
a lot of emphasis and observation into the interactions and
relationships between people, and I've found that these

two types of characters in my paintings both represent


the reality we live in today. It is my aim to use my artwork
as a medium to express the reality of the world around
us, and thus, I decided to vividly depict the contradictions
represented in their interactions.
How do sexuality and violence play a role in the paintings?
Yes, there are subtle hints of sexuality and violence in my
work. When you strip away etiquette, discipline and order,
sex and violence are a direct representation of mankind's
true nature and instincts.
There is a playfulness to the physical contact in your
paintings, though, and most of the characters seem to
be enjoying themselves or, at the very least, having a
decent time.
You've actually noticed it! The characters in the paintings
LEE CHEN-DAO JUXTAPOZ

| 63

all carry a hint of happiness, yet are you able to feel and
experience this expression? Whether its through a
smile, maybe a sense of reluctance, or a even a little bit
of sadness?
You have said that you are trying to describe emotions or
relationships, which are ambiguous, embarrassing or even
helpless. Are these emotions that you nd in your own life,
people around you, society? Does your personal history
shape the content, and is there any part of your paintings
that is self reective?
I like to interact with people from all walks of life, because
everyone has their own unique story, and I can have a
chance to be part of that story. Any particular event or story
has many reasons behind it, and learning about them has
sometimes been a very moving experience, whether with
anger or sadness. I believe that some of these interactions
were vital for me to experience, and perhaps later become
66 |

JANUARY 2015

something I can draw from in creating new pieces of work.


In using painting to express specic situations, I often
employ elements of sarcasm, yet I do it in a style that is
also elegant and decadent. This also kind of highlights and
combines the themes of conict and harmony. In terms of
characters that resemble me the most, I'd have to say it is
probably the suited men with masks.
Our worldview naturally evolves as we grow older. How
has your own perspective been inuenced directly by
painting, and has it changed who you are?
Completing a piece of work requires a substantial amount of
time. Painting has denitely changed my life, yet it actually
isn't what inuences my thoughts and views. I don't look
much into the problems involving the styles of painting; I
care more about the content and the meaning of a painting.
My views are drawn from the reality that surrounds me in
combination with my personal creativity. On the topic of

left
Sabrina & Lydia
Oil and gold foil on canvas
58.25" x 33.5"
2014
right
Tender+M203
Oil and gold foil on canvas
32.25" x 23.58"
2014

art as a whole, it has denitely been a major inuence. I do


harbor doubts towards art. I constantly want to be able to
dene the boundaries of what art is as I want to be able to
establish and dene what represents my style of art, and
what I strive for every day are those aspects of art.
Can you describe the evolution of your work?
I want to establish a style of art that denes me. From the
inuence of Internet, blogs, and online community, this is an
era of rapid global and personal development. Everybody
has the opportunity and capability to dene and evolve
the relationship they have with the global community, and
this includes artists as well. This philosophy is something I
learned from the work of modern day Japanese artists such
as Takashi Murakami, an artist who developed his own style
of visual language, something that corresponds to the world
around us. Whether or not a style of art is able to connect
and correspond with the surrounding reality is something

that will dene the legacies of today's artists.


Are you interested in mediums other than painting?
Painting is a hobby that I'm skilled at, yet it's not necessarily
my favorite medium of expression. I do have an interest in
photography and other things. If possible, though, I would
love to write a novel.
Do you have a favorite photographer or lmmaker who has
inuenced your world?
There are many photographers who have inuenced me: Jan
Saudek, David LaChapelle and Terry Richardson, just to name
a few.
Do you have any heroes, not necessarily artists, but
anyone you look up to?
One person comes to mind, a Mainland Chinese writer
and author named Han Han (). He is part of the new

LEE CHEN-DAO JUXTAPOZ

| 67

generation of intellectuals under the modern day communist


party. I admire his critique on the current state of China's
attitude, and he is someone who has admirable intellectual
character and strength. He is a talented individual who
can write, speak, act, and is also a professional racer. He
is someone born of the current generation, yet he is an
immensely talented young individual who is precise, acute,
and also very gung-ho. If you are going to elicit change
and have an impact, it needs to be done by someone who
possesses these types of passionate qualities.
What do you do during your free time? What are your
interests outside of art?
I like to learn anything that has to do with coffee because
everyone in the world drinks coffee, yet the methods in
preparing it vary drastically. I am familiar with different
styles of preparing coffee and learned a lot of it from the
Japanese who are very interesting; they often like to employ
complicated procedures for relatively simple tasks. I feel it is
a type of attitude of chasing perfection that they emphasize.
Do you collect anything?
You may have noticed from some of my works that they
have very nice frames; these are frames that I have
collected from all over. After some of my own personal
tweaking, they've become a part of my various artworks.
I have a couple hundred of them.
What is your dream project?
My dream project would be to have an exhibition at
the MoMA in New York.
What is next for Lee Chen-Dao?
Aside from some art fairs, I am currently preparing for my
third solo art exhibition, which will take place at Aki Gallery
in Taipei at the end of 2015.

For more information about Lee Chen-Dao, visit leechendao.com

JUXTAPOZ.COM / LEE - CHEN - DAO

Enjoyed Couple
Oil on canvas
45.5" x 35.75"
2009

68 |

JANUARY 2015

LEE CHEN-DAO JUXTAPOZ

| 69

K A Z U

An Academy Award nominee for makeup


takes his talents to South Beach
INTERVIEW BY DAVID MOLESKY PORTRAIT BY THE ARTIST

LAST YEAR WAS THE COLDEST WINTER IN NEW YORK IN


30 years, so I readily accepted my neighbor's invitation to go
to the Miami art fairs in December. First stop was the SCOPE
pavilion, a huge temporary space right on the sand in South
Beach. Waving my credit card-sized pass to the guards, I
was swept in by the color and pattern, pulled straight back
to Copro Gallerys booth. Before me stood a hyper realistic
bust of Andy Warhol resting on a stand as if formed from
liquid mercury, daring me to reach out to touch the life-like
skin. I felt like I was meeting Warhol deep in contemplation.
I wanted to know what he was thinking but I also didnt want
to interrupt him.
It felt intimidating to meet someone capable of reviving the
dead, but a tall, elegant Japanese man stepped forward with
the kind of calm that brought me to ease. I later learned that
Kazus piece was the most written about in Miami that week.
I met him again this past spring when he was exhibiting
two new sculptures at SCOPE art fair in NYC, and we talked
about the breadth of his career, from lm to ne art.
David Molesky: What were the telltale signs in your youth
that presaged you becoming an artist?
Kazu: I had a really strong curiosity. I picked apart

everything. Id go to junkyards and take apart radios,


watches and televisions. I wanted to know how things
functioned. I applied the same curiosity to animals and
insects, how they move and how they are living. I was
fascinated with how things were made. There was one TV
show that would show a Japanese craftsman making a chair,
pottery and blowing glass. I would watch that all day. And If I
saw painting and sculpture, I tried to do it myself. I was really
fascinated about why a ower looks like it does and how a
seed grows to sprout leaves and its life cycle. These are the
things that helped me be an artist.
I didnt so much like Japanese traditional art because, to
me, it looks so at. They dont do too much perspective. Its
so simplied, like a cartoon, though the colors they use are
unique. I am interested in Renaissance period works. I really
love those sculptures and paintings.
How did you become interested in European art growing
up in Japan?
When I was a kid there was no Internet. I used to visit the
bookstore art section and look through everything. There
wasnt really a good European art museum in Kyoto where I
grew up, so it was hard to get exposure to that kind of work.

As I try to recreate nature,


I realize more how beautiful,
complicated and perfect it is.

Did you receive any art education or were you self-taught?


Im self-taught for the most part; I hated school and
education. Maybe I am the one who didnt know how
to be educated or didn't nd good teachers. Textbooks
werent interesting so I searched for other food for thought.
Sometimes I would watch someone making something
in a store window, and there I learned the mentality of
making work.
What did you end up studying in college?
I have never been to college, so I never had a formal art
history class or anything. Right after high school graduation,
I moved to Tokyo and immediately started work.
Wow! How did you land a job like that being so young?
I started special effects makeup at about 17 years old and
decided that would be my job. I got some books and started
practicing every day. In June 1987, I found Dick Smiths P.O.
box in a magazine and decided to write to him because his
works really inspired me. I asked him, How can I do this;
should I go to school in the United States? He responded
there was no good school; I just needed to keep practicing. I
would send him my work for feedback and he would help me
that way. In 1988, he was supervising a Japanese lm and
he hired me to be on the crew. The movie was called Sweet
Home and it was shot in Tokyo. It was a horror movie so I
made burn victims and fake heads and arms, mostly things
like that.
Back then, were you working with silicone?
No, there was no silicone for skin. We were still using foam
latex or gelatin, you know, the stuff you can eat.
After that rst lm gig, where did you go next?
For two and a half years, I was an artist at Makeup
Dimensions owned by Etsuko Egawa. In 1991, I made my
own shop to work on lm and TV. The makeup industry was
very primitive in Japan at that time, so I was considered
good enough to teach, even at that age of 22. Takuya Wada
started a makeup school and got permission to use Dick
72 |

JANUARY 2015

Smiths Advanced Makeup Course as the main textbook.


One day, Dick mentioned the school to me and asked if I was
interested in teaching there. The economy was very bad in
Japan at the time and there was only V-cinema, which was
lm only released on video. No time, no money and it was
hard to make a living just by working on it. So I accepted
the teaching job and still worked lms on the side. For
three years, I was teaching people only a few years younger
than me.
My dream was to come to the US and do special effects
makeup, so I decided to move here. I talked to my friend
Eddie Yang, who I befriended while working on Sweet Home.
He had just started to work on Men in Black, and Rick Baker
was looking for a crew. Eddy mentioned my name and also
Dick and the other artists were talking me up. Rick then
decided to get me a visa to come to this country.
So Rick got the visa and you worked on Men in Black. Then
what happened?
I worked with Rick for 12 years. When Rick stopped taking
jobs constantly, I started to get my own show and lm jobs.
In 2007, I started my own company.
In 2002, I made a portrait of Dick Smith in celebration of his
80th birthday, just to thank him for his great guidance and
support of my career. When I showed the sculpture at the
special effects trade show, the reaction from people really
inspired me. I felt a more powerful connection between what
I made and the audience, and that was how I realized this
was something that I wanted to do. When I talked to Rick
Baker, he said that art doesnt make money. His father was a
painter. Every year I got more frustrated by the lm industry
and I began to lose interest. Finally, in 2011, I thought Id
had enough, but at that moment, I got a job offer from Paul
McCarthy, and that jump-started me as an artist. Around the
same time, I began to work on my Lincoln portrait.
Aside from frustration with some Hollywood egos, what
were some of the best moments?

Portrait of Andy Warhol


Oil based clay, polyester resin,
silicon rubber, fabric, chrome plating,
human hair and silicone pigments

That would be when I met a really great talent, like some


director or actor. Its always hard to realize what kind of
person they might be when you only see them on the screen.
When meeting some great actor, like Joseph Gordon-Levitt,
Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt, they are so famous you think they
are a different kind of species, but I found them each to be
just a human being with a great soul.
Before I met Akira Kurosawa, I heard all these scary stories
about him. But he was really a sweet man who loved what
he did and was a really powerful person. I was crew on his
movie Rhapsody in August. Just being next to him gave me a
lot of energy.
I enjoyed looking at your lifecast collection of celebrity
heads and learning about the process and difficulties
you might encounter subjecting someone to this kind of
immersion into liquid silicone. You had a good story about
one famous actress.
I was asked if I could make her look 70 years old for an HBO
movie. They said she didn't want to take a new lifecast.
74 |

JANUARY 2015

Actually, I had one job offer from a different production that


involved turning her into a man, but that didnt happen. I had
to take a lifecast and she kept refusing. We tried to get one
from the past, but the only one available was the one from
The Hours and that was a long time ago. I said we needed a
new one because her face is quite different from that time. I
explained the process and she agreed to it. We got started,
but she got scared from beneath the silicone layer and
started hitting her leg like a frustrated kid. We tried to nish
as fast a possible, and even though the plaster bandage
wasnt set up yet to support the silicone, we had to take it off.
I had a lot of repair to do on that life cast.
I wanted to ask you Ira Flatow's favorite question: If
someone gave you a blank check that could be used on any
equipment or materials, how would you spend it?
That is a fun question. As of now, I want to expand my
workshop since Im starting to work on bigger pieces. I need
more space and equipment. I would like to get a large 3D
printer and scanner.

Portrait of Dick Smith


Oil based clay, polyester resin,
silicon rubber, fabric,
chrome plating, human hair,
and silicone pigments
opposite
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Oil based clay, polyester resin,
silicon rubber, fabric,
chrome plating, human hair,
and silicone pigments

In the near future, I would like to gather artists I like and


invite them into a creative sanctuary. I could design and
produce a space that gives artists freedom to create with all
kinds of tools and equipment, and a gallery space attached
kind of an all-in-one space where we can just concentrate on
creating. We need that kind of space.
Yes, we do. What are you working on right now?
I am planning and researching the design for my next piece.
Im also working with Paul McCarthy, and working with an
actor on some furniture design. Sometimes I make realistic
portraits for a computer game company for scanning. Its
not such a stressful job and I can get funding for my
sculpture projects.
How do you like working with Paul McCarthy?
It is an amazing experience working with Paul. He is one of
the biggest artists and keeps giving me great inspiration for
the possibilities to exist as an artist in this world. Most of his
projects are done in massive scale. He has a huge heart and
soul. I really enjoy working for him.
Whose portrait will you sculpt next?
Salvador Dal. I am planning to nish by SCOPE Miami
this year.
Do you feel like your interaction with technology,
especially regarding the visual interpretation of human
emotion, contributes to what philosophers are calling "the
singularity" where articial intelligence will catch up to
human intelligence? For example, have you heard about
how they will be able to record personalities onto CDs that
can be run on a computer to facilitate a conversation?
I have two thoughts about it. One, I am sure its going
to happen and I am not sure how good it will be. Human
reaction and relationships should be humans communicating
to one another. Computers will be much more complex
in the near future and it will be very close to human brain
function, but a human being is a lot deeper than a computer.
In the human mind, there will be lots of mistakes and good
things happening in the perception of each person that will
connect people. The difference is people have a history
that will inuence decisions and feelings, and that will make
each person unique. I worry about Japanese people, where
there are a lot of introverts and people with communication
disabilities. They might substitute it for a relationship since it
is easier than real humans.
So does that mean you are going make a plastic fantastic
lover, like the Jefferson Airplane song?
No, Im against that. If that becomes normal, there will be
many people who wont know the correct interaction with
other people. There will be a species of robots devoted to
human relationships, and those who use them will probably
never have a normal relationship.
Are there similar types of things happening today?
Yeah, there are many people that are so used to
communicating through computers or the Internet that they
are not able to communicate in person.

So, with your sculpture, even though its an articial face,


are you are hoping that it will, in the end, help people in
their real face-to-face encounters?
Im not trying to substitute or replace nature. Im trying to
talk about what is beautiful about it. If someone lost a limb
or part of the face, I could help them by recreating what they
lost. But Im not trying to replace individuals or the existence
of a human with my work.
You mentioned that part of the silicone sculpting
technology comes from the medical industry. Have you
used your skills to help out in that arena?
Yes, I have. I made one for an actor who wanted to avoid
paparazzi. That is part of it, and I have done medical
prosthetics. The hard part is there are a lot of restrictions
when putting articial parts on a real human body.
Are there other ways you could use your art to help people
and society? What ways might you try in the future?
One thing would be a communication tool, similar to what
you were talking about earlier. Eventually, they will probably
KAZU JUXTAPOZ

| 75

be replacing humans on some jobs. For what I am using right


now, in 10 to 20 years, there will be a different way to make
it. I might be using an organic biomaterial to create a portrait,
using actual living cells.
Have you ever thought about using mechanics as an
armature to support the silicones?
Yeah, I have. The only difficult thing is the longevity. When
the silicone keeps moving, it deteriorates and breaks
down, and also the mechanism wears out eventually. If
they make something stronger, it would be possible. Thats
why I mentioned there might be new skin material that will
repair itself, so it can move and keep rejuvenating. They are
printing organs and skin now.

Welcome to the Ka-Zoo! Its great you are dreaming along


with these developments.
Ha ha, thats how many people pronounce my name. Its
really possible, and not that far off now. So far, computers
cant beat human and animal ability, but eventually
technology will be mixed with biology. As I try to recreate
nature, I realize more how beautiful, complicated and perfect
it is. Eventually, I will get to the point that I have to use more
than conventional material. Instead of imitating nature, I
would use it.

Kazus latest sculpture of Salvador Dali will be on display at the Copro


booth at SCOPE Miami Beach 2014.

What are the next technological advancements that will


come to your studio in the near future?
Maybe I can design and grow something real, like plants and
animals. I can make a zoo with those creatures. Its more
humane than caging animals from nature. But things can
get dangerous at this level, and we will have to make
serious guidelines.
76 |

JANUARY 2015

For more information about Kazu, visit kazustudios.com

JUXTAPOZ.COM / KAZU

Process and nal piece of


Portrait of Abraham Lincoln
Oil based clay, polyester resin,
silicon rubber, fabric,
chrome plating, human hair,
and silicone pigments

SUZANNAH
SINCLAIR
The dawn of a new phase:
no more naked ladies
INTERVIEW BY KRISTIN FARR PORTRAIT BY JENNIFER DUMONT

80 |

JANUARY 2015

NE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT


challenges for an artist is to
abandon the standard. You
become known for something
specic, and people come to
expect it. Either that, or be branded
a one trick pony. You really cant
win. Its not an easy profession, and
it often chooses you. Suzannah Sinclair became known
for her sensual paintings of nude women, but her works
werent communicating as feminist watercolors in the
way she wanted, so she took a left turn. She eliminated
the gure. I caught up with Sinclair amidst this signicant
transition. Her new work proves that abandoning your
standard doesnt have to mean losing your signature vibe.
The maker remains constant, and thats what counts.
Kristin Farr: Can you describe the recent shift in
your work?
Suzannah Sinclair: The work evolves with each show, but
in 2012 I had my rst year without a solo since I graduated
from undergrad. I took a break from deadlines and my own
expectations, as well as the perceived expectations of
others, to let that shift happen. I was feeling the itch that
something needed to change, but at the same time, I
didnt want to force it. It had to happen organically for it
to be sincere.

Did you get tired of being known for nudes?


Yes, I did. Its great to be recognized, known, and, dare I
say, Google-able, but it started to become like, Oh yeah,
the naked ladies. Thats you. I was getting more requests
to contribute to things that had the erotic modierI dont
like that word; its not for me. Its ne if thats your thing,
but it isnt mine. I dont want to be subcategorized; it feels
diminishing and marginalizes what I do. Its not lost on me
that, yes, I paint from vintage Playboys, but Im drawing
from that genre, not trying to feed back into it.

previous spread
Field Study
Watercolor and pencil
on birch panel
24" x 24"
2011
left
Lack of Conclusion
Watercolor and pencil
on birch panel
28" x 24"
2010

The new work still has the same vibe. How would you
describe the common feeling in your paintings?
Im glad it has the same vibe. Im trying to visually converse
about the same things, but tweak them to be clearer and
more purposeful. I started to feel that people werent
getting it and that was my fault. If they dont get it, I am not
speaking clearly. I want to be less obtuse and vague. As for
the common vibe, thats me! I see through my own set of
rosy-colored glasses. I paint from that view. The soft focus,
ethereal colors... its all very easy going.

Were you born in the 70s? I gravitate towards that


decades aesthetic, and it seems like you do too.
I was born in 1979. And like most families not on the cutting
edge of culture and acquiring the newest stuff, it was the
70s in my house well into the next decade. I have deep
nostalgia for the 60s and 70s: the music, the vinyl, the
clothes. My parents are awesome and they met in California
in 1971 in between my dads two tours of Vietnam. My
mom was a social worker and then a special education
teacher. My cousin likes to tease her that she was a hippie,
but she wasnt. She was her own thingtraveled a lot,
got involved in things she doesnt talk about, made pottery,
cooked international and healthy foodsa super smart,
independent lady. Im always intrigued by my folks
pre-kid lives, especially now that I am a parenta whole
life lived, kind of mysterious, and rightly so. Its not like Im
planning on telling my daughter stories about my single,
kid-free days.
Did having a daughter affect how you felt about your
paintings?
Im sure it did, even if wasnt consciously. Its not that I dont
want that imagery around my child. In fact, my studio is still
plastered with nudes because I still paint from old Playboy
magazines as my reference images. I just take out the gure
and paint the rest of the scene. When I became a parent, a
lot of fears arose, rational and irrational, including What if
people dont want their kids playing at our house because
they think there will be naked paintings everywhere?
Silly, maybe, but I live in a very small town of 1600 people.
Everyone knows everyone elses business. I love the small
town vibe, and I think its going to be an awesome place
for my daughter to grow up, but I do worry about being the
oddball artist.
Tell me more about life in Maine.
I grew up spending my summers at the beach in southern
Maine with my grandmother. I never thought I would actually
live in Maine, but here I am, living in the woods of central
Maine, which is a whole different beast than the coast.
Its rural and wild, with a last-frontier feeling. I was living
in Brooklyn when I rst started coming up here, and I did
the back-and-forth for a while, then moved here full time
a little over three years ago. I love it up here. Its beautiful
and quiet. Weve got some land and most of our free time is
spent preparing for winter: collecting, splitting and stacking
wood. I dont have much of a green thumb, but Im trying
to garden more. We have chickens. I want to raise pigs and
goats but livestock really limits how much you can travel.
SUZANNAH SINCLAIR JUXTAPOZ

| 81

My husband hunts for wild game for the dinner table. We


are not total homesteaders, but we try to live off the land as
much as we can.
Have you been experimenting with materials or mediums
lately?
Ive mainly been working with watercolors for a long time.
Ive always been interested in what the paint really is: the
history of materials and techniques and how to make it
work for me. When I started painting watercolor on birch
panels, I had an artist friend question the archival nature of
the process. He suggested sizing the panel rst with rabbit
skin glue. It worked like a charm and made it a more stable
surface to paint on. I loved getting out the double boiler
and measuring out the ingredients; I love a good recipe. I
love when the studio turns into a science lab. After working
on birch panels for a while, I started to feel that there was
a certain quality I wanted in some of the paintings that I
82 |

JANUARY 2015

couldnt get with those materials. I wanted deep, colorful


darks, especially in some of the interior paintings I had
started doing. I had no interest in oil paint, but I loved egg
tempera paintings when I saw them in museums or books
the soft quality, the richness of the pigments, the not-quitematte eggshell nish. So I set out to learn about it a year or
so ago. I got some books, pigments and other materials and
took a week-long class in New Hampshire with a master of
egg tempera, Koo Schadler. I learned in a week what would
have taken me years of fumbling around to gure out. It
was amazing, and that is what Ive been working with since.
I make the paints: its just egg yolk, water and pigment. I
use fresh eggs from my own chickens. The paint dries very
quickly and can be tricky. But a good egg tempera painting
has many layers, the more the better. It can look really bad
at rst, but you just keep painting and it starts to come
together. Its more forgiving than watercolor; I can scrape
things away and get more physical with it.

above
Karla by the Fireplace
Egg tempera on gessoed harboard
9" x 12"
2014
right
The Odds
Watercolor and pencil
on birch panel
36" x 24"
2009

84 |

JANUARY 2015

Tell me about your installation work.


I like to make environments for my paintings and add things
like plants, rugs and furniture to set the stage. It hopefully
changes the viewers experience. Sometimes its just
adding rugs to absorb sound and quiet the space, or adding
a bench to encourage people to hang out and spend time
with the show. Those things are more about exhibition
design, but the farthest Ive gone was when I duplicated a
set from a Playboy photo shoota okati rug with a large
potted houseplant in front of a mirrored wall.
Lets talk about your recent show in Boston and the citing
of Linda Nochlins essay in the press materials.
Writing artist statements has always been a struggle for me.
I tend to err on the side of being mysterious and leaving
a lot open for interpretation, but really that was just me
being chickenshitnot having the guts to put it all out
there, fearing that its not cool or relevant. With the most
recent solo at Samson, the gallery was asking for text for
the press release. I tried to type something up and was at a
loss, so I quoted some passages from Nochlins Why Have
There Been No Great Women Artists? and also included a
statement I wrote in applying for an artist residency that
I didnt get. I didnt want that writing to be used verbatim,
but rather as a point of reference for them to come up with
something, but they asked if they could use it as the press
release. I blushed at the thought of putting it out there, and
then, with some encouragement, I decided to do it. Why be
shy? This is it, this is my life. Ive made all these choices to
get me here, and here I am.
Linda Nochlin rocks. People are still trying to discover great
women artists and it was helpful to reread her piece and
think about opportunity, circumstance and why I turned to
painting from nudes in magazines in the rst place. I have
Nochlins article and Laura Mulveys Visual Pleasure and
Narrative Cinema from 1975 saved on the desktop of my
computer, and when I need to give that other half of my
brain some exercise, I reread them.
It seems you hit a tipping point with gender disparity
in the art world (or in the whole world). Did something
specic push you over the edge?
I never really wanted to talk about gender equality. I just
wanted to make paintings. I wanted to paint well, to capture
emotion, to develop my own language, to travel with
my work. Most of the group shows I am curated into are
women artists shows. And they have been great shows,
but I would like my work to converse with other works by
different people who are doing different things than I am.
Ive had my pricing questioned knowing full well what the
prices of my male peers works are. Maybe this makes me
seem ungrateful, but why should I be happy just to be in the
game? Sometimes when I make demands and stand up for
myself, I feel like a major bitch. It makes me cringe and want
to apologize, but then I just have to think, What would a
dude do? Becoming a mom, especially to a girl, rekindled
some of these things.

SUZANNAH SINCLAIR JUXTAPOZ

| 85

Are there any specic questions you try to ask or answer


with your newest work?
Can I say the same thing in a paintingcapture a certain
feelingwithout a face, without the gure? Thats where the
new interiors work comes from. When I rst started working
with the gure, it was just a gure on the paper or panel, a
lot of negative space. An artist friend asked me what would
happen if I painted everything else except the gure. Took
about a dozen years but now I am exploring that.
When you were painting gures, did you have
specic muses?
Ive been drawing from the same era and source material
for such a long time that I know the models by name. I nd a
lot of the images online now, as opposed to using the boxes
and boxes of magazines Ive collected. I save the images
by name. And I always wanted to do what I refer to as porn
portraits, for a lack of a better namecropping out the rest
of image and just painting the head in a classic way. I was
nally able to do that in 2012-13, and 12 of those portraits
86 |

JANUARY 2015

became the piece Names and Faces that I exhibited in


Stockholm. I want to do a similar series but with still lifes.
I have a folder on my computer called Fruit and Flowers
from the same source material, but I want to make the bowl
of fruit the focus of the painting and only have the nude in
the background.
When is your next show?
My next solo show is in September in Stockholm with Stene
Projects. Its a great spacea small, white-washed brick
room with tall ceilings that I think used to be some kind of
stable. Its interesting to see the work in that environment.
I have some ideas for another rug...
Tell me more about the rugs.
My new favorite thing is making rya rugs, which are
Scandinavian shag rugs. I like to teach myself how to do
things from books. I taught myself how to knit, and now
I really enjoy knitting. Especially in the winter, at night, in
front of the TV. Im at my best, painting-wise, in the morning

previous spread
Nowhere, Somewhere
Watercolor and pencil on paper
34" x 47"
2010
above
Installation view
Nature Nudes and Interiors, Sams
Boston, MA
2014
right
Linne on Wire Bench
Egg tempera on gessoed hardboard
9" x 12"
2014

and daytime. I still want to make things at night but am


totally out of juice after my daughter goes to bed. I have
been using rugs in the staging and installation of my shows
for a while, and when planning the recent show in Boston,
I was researching rya rugs, which were big in the 70s, and
I decided to make one. I found an artist in Maryland who
had all these hard-to-nd supplies and so much knowledge
to share, and she helped me gure it out. Its very satisfying.
It took over my life for a while, working on it during my
daughters naps, and every night I would try to get two rows
done out of a total of 125 rows. Two rows would take three
hours or so. Everyone in my household was happy and
relieved when I nished. It took over the house; there were
skeins and bits of yarn all over the place.
What is a dream project that youd like to work on?
I want to make prints again. I studied printmaking at MassArt
and havent made a print since then. When I saw Nicole
Eisenmans wall of monoprints in the 2012 Whitney
Biennial, I was blown away and reminded of the fantastic

things my peers were doing in the MassArt Printshop.


I troll Craigslist and Uncle Henrys for presses. I want a big
one that I could do full bleed prints on, and I have a great
studio for it. My studio is a third grade classroom in an
old elementary school that was closed and turned into a
community center. There is an empty space for rent right
next to me that would make a great printshop, only 50 cents
a square foot. But I would want people to come up and hang
out with me and make work too. Like a retreat for them, and
company for meit does get a little lonely up here. I miss
my old studio mate from Brooklyn and the way we would
do our own totally different things in the same space. Now
thats a dream.

For more information about Suzannah Sinclair,


visit suzannahsinclair.com

JUXTAPOZ.COM / SUZANNAH - SINCLAIR


SUZANNAH SINCLAIR JUXTAPOZ

| 87

RACHELL SUMPTER
& JACOB MAGRAW
Escaping to the beautiful landscape of Puget Sound,
the collaborative efforts of Sumpter and Magraw have
turned nature into technicolor explosions
INTERVIEW BY GABE SCOTT PORTRAIT BY ALLISON WEBBER

N UNINCORPORATED ISLAND ON THE


Strait of San Juan has been home to
Rachell Sumpter and Jacob Magraw for
the past several seasons. Only relatives
and occasional weather have lured
them back to the mainland, and the self contained life with
their two children has strengthened familial and creative
bonds. Rachell now teaches in Seattle, but Jacob's roots on
the islands go back to his grandparents, and their property
remains a deeply inspirational workplace. It is rare to see
such a composite of visionary work that encompasses both
the literal and imaginative, intertwined in a cerebral union
between two people who seemingly can forge as one.
However, in order to comprehend the sum of the parts, it is
crucial to decipher the attributes of each.

work some more. Kids come home, chaos, homework, draw


together, make dinner, kids bathe in a plastic box, bedtime
stories, bank the re, turn it down, and sleep!

Gabe Scott: Id like to have a perspective from each of you


about a typical day on a bucolic island in Puget Sound.
Rachell Sumpter: Bird songs usually wake us up. If it's
winter, it's dark. If it's summer it is light when we get to bed
and light when we wake. Well grind some coffee, Jacob
chops wood and starts a re, and the kids ght over helping
him while we gure out the plan for the day. When the kids
are out of the house, theres work on sketches or nals,
checking the re, as well as email. Eat something, drink tea,

Hit the beach. Pick up rocks of interest. Pull likely logs


above the tideline. Lunchtime. Birds y into the water, seals
creep. Stop by the farm, do farming. From there pick up
Mica at school, talk to the teachers, gather the coats, books,
lunch. Back to the cabin.

Jacob Magraw: Wake up early. Too much light. Chop wood,


start re, grind coffee, breakfast. Pile kids in mini truck and
go to school. Say hi to everyone; there's only 13 kids. Spend
a couple hours at the school library. It's small, but eclectic.
Guess who checked out Ramona the Pest in 1976? Aaron.
He was making his way through the Beverly Cleary books
that November. There's a lot of Bradbury in this library,
and miraculously, the entire Nausicaa series. Its January
and there wont be wood in April. Hunt around the woods
for fallen logs to cut up. Get better at telling the difference
between Douglas Fir and White Fir.

Fire is still going, add wood. Music, books while making


dinner. Rice, cabbage, beans, cheese, greens. Look at the
water, watch the shipping lanes. Bath water heats, help Mica

90 |

JANUARY 2015

with her reading. Bath, stories, bed. Check the re. Make
paintings, stitching, drawings. Use a headlamp.

pretty well, material wise. I don't do acrylic, though; those


are all Jacob.

How long were you into the relationship before starting to


collaborate seriously together? How did that affect your
individual growth?
JM: For the Needles and Pens fth anniversary show in San
Francisco, which was in 2008, we had done a fair amount
of work on each other's pieces but in an assistant capacity.
That was the rst time I remember putting both our names
and actually trying to make it seem like we both worked
on a piece. I think it let us move on from the little stylistic
whirlpools in which our paintings tended to get stuck
otherwise. It was a good way to examine why I made certain
decisions and if there was a better way to make things.

Rachell, so much of your work, particularly in the last few


years, has exhibited and maintained an ambient, ethereal
quality. Do you nd that comes from an internal part of
your character, or is it more of a representation of how you
see things in the natural world?
RS: Both! What is now seen every day is not necessarily
the way the world has been seen by people prior to three
hundred years ago. Really, the beauty is everywhere.
I'm trying to capture the magical little bits before theyre
gone. Part of it, too, is from my grandmother who was an
illustratorand a little crazy! She would paint me pictures
of purple and blue unicorns on icy cliffs with fuchsia skies
behind them. I think that taught me the world you paint can
be the world the artist sees rather than the reality that has
been constructed for us to live in.

RS: Our relationship was built around making art, both


together and apart. I think we both wanted that. Sometimes
we do not work on each others pieces at all, but most of the
time it is collaborativeat least from my perspective! It has
denitely changed my development in that I have someone
around whose opinion I respect and who I can toss around
an idea with anytime. Plus, there are the kids; we tag team
with them, no babysitters. So if there is a deadline to meet,
one has to pick up where the other left off. Our work meshes

opposite
Fruit (detail)
Gouache and pastel on paper
7" x 10"
above
People Who Matter
Gouache on Paper
20" x 12"
2010

For some time your work has focused on indigenous


cultures and small, isolated populations that are heavily
rooted in longstanding traditions. You've also spent
a good amount of time traveling to remote areas to
experience and study them rsthand, simultaneously
using these experiences to help formulate a body of work.
SUMPTER & MAGRAW JUXTAPOZ

| 91

Do you feel this comes from a more anthropological point


of view, where you are engaged in a study of sorts,
conveying your ndings through your paintings? Or do
you simply hold a strong fascination with the geography
of these places and cultures, leading to a compulsion to
immerse yourself within your images as more of a diary
of discovery?
RS: The latter. There are many amazing anthropological
studies out there and I seek them out to help inform my
work in a way that a fact checker would. What fascinates me
are societies that rely upon their own collective histories,
environment and knowledge to inform daily life. I like
isolated communities that retain their way of living through
generations and often choose to turn their backs on modern
conveniences. Its the uniqueness of what to them may be
92 |

JANUARY 2015

everyday that I like to capture. The clouds of beautiful dust


blown behind a farmer as she hand-tills her soil. The lean of
owner-built homes. Technicolor sunsets lled with birdsong.
Snow and rainbows. Salmon, crabs, lambs, eagles and
otters.
Talk to me about the new embroidered direction. Where
did it come from and where do you see it going?
RS: I was hired to do some book covers for Penguin, and the
art director there thought that I embroidered because I lived
a rustic type of life. I took on the work and learned quite a
bit, but the embroidery for art and fun is Jacob's thing now.
JM: It's where I've been putting most of the hours lately, but
its one of those things we're not directly collaborating on.

above
Rachell Sumpter
Brothers in Sport
Gouache and pastel on paper
14" x 11"
2011
opposite
Jacob Magraw
Signal
Embroidery thread on cloth
9" x 13"
2014

I feel like I started doing it because of Rachell. I thought it


was really similar to the core of the type of painting I was
doing. Suddenly, we were hunting down thread and fabric
and learning how to mount fabric on stretcher bars. I liked
how close to drawing it felt, and how it changed slightly the
attitude of my line. I found the stitching removed some of
the style and sort of smugness of the brush but still had a lot
of the color and improvisational qualities that I like.
How similar is the technique you apply to the intricacy
of your paintings to that of the needlework in the
embroidery?
JM: Very. I approach it in a very similar way, and I layer
and try to tie things as close together, but at a much
slower pace.
RS: For me, painting is much more fun. There is more room
for discovery. Maybe with Jake it is being reeled into a
single line that he nds freeing.
Jacob, what kind of needlepoint or application device do
you work with when you're working in gouache?
JM: A small brush; you have to have something that can
hold paint. A lot of the painting process is mixing. Most of
what I do is mix colorsthere's a drawing stage, but most
of the painting stage is mixing and holding paint. The brush
has to be large enough to hold enough paint so I can paint
certain areas on the picture simultaneously. It's important to
the process in terms of what I'm referencing. It's sort of like
printed materials: charts, graphs, scientic illustrations and
diagrams that explain large scale ideas. Because those are
printed, and there are technical obstacles to printing, you'll
have a few colors. Since I left school, I've been taking a
few colors and assigning them meaning. Im using a few
colors over and over again with slight variations throughout
the piece.
Are you saying that you've developed your own color chart
for certain meanings? Is that a different series of variables
from piece to piece?
JM: It usually varies, but there will be general themes. When
I was starting to work that way, there was a palette where
I was trying to chart a specic incident. I'll work in similar
forms and also similar colors for the extent of a certain
emotion or memory within that phase of my personal history.
But it does vary and reect what I'm trying to express in that
process. It depends on what issue I'm dealing with in order
to change it.
Do you maintain a similar approach with stitching?
JM: Actually, I think even more so. Because you're
referencing textiles and quilts, or things like that which
contain meanings for people. Quilts and blankets,
especially, collect experience. By referencing that stuff and
incorporating the color scheme, it's kind of like a hierarchy.
When you're in painting mode, does that mean that there
is also a systematic approach? A sectional breakdown that
you might see in a textile process, so the painting will have
a coded fabric as well?

JM: Yeah, the process of doing the drawing rst, then doing
the coloring is very much like having a pattern. I think the
drawing does function that way. The pencil drawing is your
pattern, then there's another way of thinking with color
where you ll that in.
Do you bounce back and forth between the two mediums?
Is there a conscious comparison or evaluation of the
stitching versus painting?
JM: I do, but more of the straight stitching pieces because
I haven't really mastered them yet. It's a little more exciting
at the moment, but not as visceral, as it moves slowly. The
process can sometimes be a little less exciting, but the
nished product, and having a couple pieces together, has

SUMPTER & MAGRAW JUXTAPOZ

| 93

been quite interesting. I do think the references for the


embroidery are a little more intriguing and accessible than
what I was doing with the paintings.
What do you mean in regards to the references?
JM: They are ways people can relate. I think it's a lot easier
to describe the stitching pieces as stations or receiving
devices for history and experience. That does exist in the
painting too, but it is sometimes hard to get out of my own
way in order to get my point across. Obviously, with the
paintings, there are a lot of other steps involved. Being
trained as an illustrator, I developed certain habits, as I've
drawn since I was three years old. But with the stitching, I'm
able to communicate what's going on a little more easily.
People approach stitching and fabric much differently than
they do painting.
What do you feel you gain from collaborative work that
you can't produce on your own?
RS: It is usually more fun to work with someone else. I tend
to be the more practical one and there is less pressure to
make some "thing" with him around. The level of production
did go up; once Calder starts school in two years, we will be
able to work at that level again.
JM: Kenan Juska and his friend have a radio show in New
York called Chances With Wolves, which I was listening to.
94 |

JANUARY 2015

They play a lot of oddities, weird songs, covers. They always


seem to have some weird cover of a Beatles song. It's sort
of a staple of the show. So, in this interview he was asked
about it, and he said that if he plays a cover of a song he
knows really well, he feels like he's actually able to hear it
again for the rst time. It sounds a little bit cheesy, but that's
sort of the way it works. Working on something together,
you're outside it enough to sort of see what you're doing
from a different perspective. I'll give Rachell a piece, and
she'll do something that I never would have done. Its sort
of like seeing your own work in a cover song. Then I get to
respond to what she's done, and her to me in a whole new
context. We live together, we have kids together, and we're
always talking together. There's so much shared material
there that it's not coming out of left eld. It's certainly not
anything I've been able to do with anyone else.

For more information about Rachell Sumpter and Jacob


Magraw, visit rachellsumpter.com and richardhellergallery.com
JUXTAPOZ.COM / SUMPTER - MAGRAW

above
Habituation
Gouache and pastel on paper
7" x 10"
opposite
Rachell Sumpter
Everything is Golden
Gouache and pastel on paper
11" x 14"
2014

SUMPTER & MAGRAW JUXTAPOZ

| 95

BILL SAYLOR

As abstraction is nurtured in Brooklyn,


Saylors creative output grows and grows
INTERVIEW AND PORTRAIT BY AUSTIN McMANUS

APPILY, I SPENT MOST OF THE LAST


warm day of fall inside, conversing
and observing the craft of Bill Saylor in
his Brooklyn studio. Located near the
invariably rugged Myrtle stop on the
JMZ line, Bills high-ceilinged, naturally
lit studio emits an air of creative refuge.
A panoramic view from the roof gives a clear perspective
of the obviously old versus the bona de new that make
up the evolving neighborhood. Within the studio walls
are large canvases with multiple layers of paint already
poured, smeared, scratched and brushed onto them. None
appear nished, all seem to be in the under-construction
phase. Tables are overwhelmed with several stacks of 8.5
x 11 drawings, some layered thick with the application of
multiple mediums. Every inch of space is occupied with
some sort of painting supplies, more artwork, and a plethora
of books. There is also a kitchen and makeshift, partially
enclosed bedroom. To me, it seems ideal; for Bill it may be
getting too small for the scope and size of work he is
currently producing.

98 |

JANUARY 2015

Curious about his method of applying large quantities of


paint to canvases, I asked if I could observe a part of his
process, and Bill was happy to oblige. Bill leaned over
the sizable canvas on his knees and I witnessed a tactical
splash of the entire containers worth of blood-hued paint
into the center of the canvas. Bill then lifted and tweaked
the frame in various directions, then ran around to the other
side of the canvas doing the same. I pointed out that a few
objects in close vicinity had fallen victim to paint shrapnel
speckling, but Bill was unconcerned with the collateral
damage. He appeared to have tunnel vision directed
towards his newly applied layer and was pleased with what
resembled a gruesome stabbing crime scene.
Austin McManus: Whats a typical day like for an artist
named Bill Saylor living in Brooklyn?
Bill Saylor: Staying in Brooklyn, I usually wake up around
5:30 or 6:00 to the sound of my neighbor walking through
a huge pile of bottles that he collects for recycling. I make
some coffee and breakfast, then head down to the parking
lot and check my car windows to make sure theyre not

left to right
Untitled
Mixed-media on paper
24" x 36"
2013
Lupo
Oil, collage on canvas
2011
Untitled
Mixed-media on paper
24" x 36"
2014

smashed out. If they are and you catch it early, you can have
them replaced by the afternoon. Ive done six so far. Maybe
go to the gym, return some emails, turn on the radio and
start kicking around in the studio. Maybe read a bit, start out
with some drawings or just get into some paintings. Make
some dinner later; watch some TV or movies online.
What was growing up in Pennsylvania like for you?
I grew up about thirty minutes north of the city center of
Philadelphia, in a suburban town named Willow Grove. My
grandfather owned the last old dairy farm in town, about 26
acres that was used for a big construction company he built.
Our house was also on the property and at night, when it
closed, I had it all to play on: riding motorcycles around,
skating on the farm lake, playing ice hockey. Willow Grove
had a famous amusement park that was started in 1896, but
by the 70s, it was old and run down. We would sneak in
under the fence and run around in this crazy old-world park,
where every hour women came running out of a saloon and
gunghters would have shoot-outs in the Western town
area. It had a giant wooden roller coaster that ran through
a paper mache copy of the Swiss Alps. There were fun
houses, freak shows and mirrored rooms to get lost in. But
mostly I spent a lot of time in the woods.
Do you recall the rst time you drew something or made
something that you would consider art?
Maybe I was around ve. I used to lie on the oor and
make drawings of my favorite comics. I thought they were
pretty good.
What was the attraction at age 19 when you moved out
West? I attended Santa Barbara City College too.
My older brother was going to photography school in
Santa Barbara and I went out for a weeks visit when I
was fourteen. Coming from the landlocked Northeast, the
California Ocean seemed like a paradise. After high school
in Pennsylvania, I worked the summer and moved out
there thinking Id stay a few months and help my brother
drive back East, but I ended up staying about eight years
between Santa Barbara and Long Beach, going to school,
surng, skateboarding, and scuba divingnot a bad life for
a while.
Youve been showing your work since the early 90s. What
was your very rst show like?
It was in 91 with Kenny Schacter down in SoHo: The
Unlearning Show. Rachel Harrison was archiving her
tampons and Jonathan Horowitz had a video with the song
"Je T'aime playing on loop for two months. Someone was
fermenting vodka on the counter at the entrance, and Dan
Asher had a feedback loop created by two talking parrot
toys. I showed two sculptures, one a row of salt licks, the
other a meat hook tree made from steel hooks that were
left in my studio in the Meat Market. It was about ten feet
tall and I was nervous that someone would tug on it and it
would come crashing down.
You worked on a collaborative project with Harmony
Korine that was published as a zine. How did you meet him
100 |

JANUARY 2015

and how did that project materialize?


I met Harmony through The Journal magazine. He saw my
work in one of their issues and wanted to do a trade, so
The Journal hooked us up and suggested we do a zine
together that they would produce. We each started about
thirty to forty drawings, then traded the piles and worked
on top of each others work, which eventually became HO
BAGS. I never saw all the works complete until the zine
came out. Later, he came back to the studio and bought a
big painting. I didn't know what to expect at rst but I really
liked Harmony. He was cool and genuine and kept saying,
Just make the most radical shit you've ever made. He was
a big supporter who connected me to Dan Auerbach and
Patrick Carney of The Black Keys who both bought a lot of
work when I was broke.
Having lived in Brooklyn for a while, Im sure you have
witnessed a slew of changes. Im curious about how you
view the current artistic climate.

left to right
Blow Back
Oil, charcoal and spray
paint on canvas
64" x 84"
2013
Untitled
Mixed-media on paper
25" x 38"
2014
Untitled
Oil, charcoal, and
pencil on paper
25" x 36"
2014

Honestly, I lived in Manhattan for 12 years before coming to


Brooklyn, and I was never that connected to any galleries
here except a small show at The Journal. My corner of
Bushwick has been slow to change, but it is starting. My
grocery store has been getting better, less ratty, more food.
Thats been a good change.
I really enjoyed your drawings and paintings at NADA this
year, especially the pieces with the extraterrestrial gures
in them. Can you tell me a little about this body of work?
I wanted more works with imagery for NADA and I had a
lot of drawings at the time, too many for framing, so I glued
a number onto panels along with the paintings. I did have
some alien gures in there, plus others that were more like
octopus squid gures, which kinda look like aliens. For
me, it was more about the abstraction of all these images
coming together and starting to develop a quasi-narrative.
You told me an entertaining story about a past exhibition

you did in Las Vegas. Can you share some anecdotes from
that trip?
In 2002 my dealer, Leo Koenig, was asked to install a show
in a 20,000-foot unused part of a shopping mall called
Neonopolis at the head of Fremont street. He came over
to my studio and saw a 4 x 5 loose black-and-white Hells
Angels California painting I made. He loved it and wanted
it to go in the show. I knew it could be a problem but didn't
let on and let him take it anyway. I guess it was just one
of those taboos that made the painting feel dangerous,
however silly that was at the time. We unloaded the show
into the space while construction was still nishing up, so a
lot of local guys got to see the works. I had about thirty feet
of wall with all kinds of paintings and drawings, and I guess
the word got out to the local chapter about the one painting.
After the show opened, we left, went back to NY, and then
a few days later, three dudes came into the Vegas show
from the Hells Angels. They scared the shit out of the young
girl sitting at the reception desk, demanding it be removed.
BILL SAYLOR JUXTAPOZ

| 101

They were pretty pissed about it, though they did like a
drawing I made of Sonny Barger. They decided that could
stay but they wanted the painting out. The president of the
New York chapter called my gallery and really intimidated
Leo by saying he wasn't able to control the Vegas chapter
and anything could happen if we didn't get it out. They also
said they knew who I was and where I lived which got kinda
weird. Leo offered to sell it and give the money to a charity
of theirs but they weren't interested. It was taken out. I did
make a few more after that but changed the text to famous
hurricanes and some that said Jet Stream Loser.
You have piles of drawings at your studio. Do you nd
satisfaction in the immediacy of drawing on 11x14 paper as
opposed to working on a large canvas?
Ive always made lots of drawings of all sizes. I leave them
on the oor, pin them on the wall or pile them in boxes and
reference them later. I like their immediacy but its just part
of the process for me, a way to come up with new forms and
images that can be bumped up. I also really like the more
sustained focus you need for large paintings, making them
so that they appear to have been dropped there with the
same intimacy as a small drawing. Thats the real trick.
102 |

JANUARY 2015

Since you also work in Pennsylvania, how do the varying


environments affect your practice besides the obvious
difference of working inside versus outside?
The city has a lot more mark making and graphics going on
in the streets. In PA, were on the river with trees and wild
animals, ooded with a different energy, but I don't think
theres any big change between the two as far as my attitude
about making things. I just rented a studio for the winter, and
that gives me more room to spread out, which is great.
What is most rewarding about making art for you?
Deciding that a work is nished.
What are some of the greatest challenges you've faced in
your artistic career?
Just holding onto my studio after the recession. Those
days sucked.

For more information about Bill Saylor, visit billsaylor.com

JUXTAPOZ.COM / BILL - SAYLOR

left
Installation view of
Audio Tuna Sunshine
Courtesy of Leo Koenig Inc.
2011
right
Muddy Waters
Collage, oil,spray paint
on canvas
76" x 99"
2010-2014

BILL SAYLOR JUXTAPOZ

| 103

T R AV E L I N S I D E R

KANSAS CITY
Dispel your notions of Kansas City, and see it through the
eyes of photographer and performance artist Jaimie Warren
KANSAS CITY HAS BUILT A REPUTATION, WITH THE
help of the Kansas City Art Institute, for churning out great
artists who consistently contribute to the fabric of its small
but strong contemporary art community. Young artists are
joining forces with local establishments that are giving
generous grants, curatorial and exhibition opportunities,
and free studio and exhibition space, such as the Charlotte
Street Foundation, the Rocket Grants program through
the Warhol Foundation, and the H&R Block Artspace at
KCAI. The city clearly wants artists to succeed in order for
it to grow into a vital art center and hub, which is a
wonderful way to work, especially if your practice has
collaborative components.
Opportunities for artists in KC are often in sophisticated
art venues like Bill Brady Gallery, a recent transplant from
NYC, and Haw Contemporary. Both take advantage of the
affordable real estate in the West Bottoms, a neighborhood
consisting of mostly vacant warehouses which used to
house the now defunct Kansas City Livestock Exchange
and Stockyards.

104 |

JANUARY 2015

The world famous Nelson-Atkins Museum is an enchanting


and massive museum of historical and contemporary art by
day. At nightfall the glow of the new architectural addition
and the eerie expanse of the undulating sculpture lawn
transform the area into surreal place to converge with
friends. Grand Arts and the Kemper Museum are
also excellent places to view contemporary art projects
and exhibitions.
For a three-day visit, here is a guide to experiencing all
things weird and great that you might not expect in Kansas
City. Two tips: First, dont go where everyone will tell you
to goWestport, the Plaza, or the Power & Light District.
Second, you will need a car, especially if you want to see the
good stuff.
Day 1
Start with breakfast at You Say Tomato or Succotash, both
known for their brunch, then head out on a 45-minute
drive to St. Joseph, MO, where the Glore Psychiatric
Museum houses a spectacularly odd array of dioramas

torture chambers, witch burnings, blood-letting, lobotomy


instruments, and fever cabinetsplus a collection of
over 1,000 items found in a patients stomach, in addition
artworks made by patients. There is also a secret, ultraweird surprise in the basement, but youll have to go to nd
out what it is!
Head back to KC for lunch at El Patron for the freshest and
best tasting Mexican food in the city. Not only do they have
a nice patio, but they also have the best margaritas, as in,
extraordinarily strong. Next stop is shopping at the Landing
Mall on Troost Avenue, a weird, desolate place with an old
Topsys candy store and 80s faux brick and rock walls. The
stores are straight out of the 90soor-to-ceiling mirrors
and neon everywhere, not to mention contemporary fashions
mixed with items they are literally still pulling from 90s
backstock. You can nd some serious bargains and amazing
fashions here.
Next stop is the nearby National Toy and Miniature Museum,
located inside of a mansion that houses over 300,000 toys

and ne-scale miniatures. Its often overlooked, but it has


truly incredible treasures inside.
Finally, dinner and drinks in Westport. I know I said not to
go here, but I really just meant dont get stuck here. Have
dinner at Harrys Bar & Tables, Port Fonda or Westport
Caf & Bar. For a quieter evening, head to 39 th Street for
amazing Mongolian BBQ at Ghenghis Khan, or the familys
other restaurant, Blue Koi. And if you like gay bars with
great drag shows, dancing and karaoke, Missy Bs is also
on 39 th Street. Ron Megee is a local drag theater star, so
if you see his name in an upcoming drag or theater show,
go! David Wayne Reed and De De DeVille are also fantastic
performers. Kansas City has an impressive drag scene.

clockwise from left


H&R Block Artspace at the
Kansas City Art Institute
From the patients stomach
Glore Psychiatric Museum
Photo by Patrick P. Evenson
A meal at Succotash
opposite
Sissel Tolaas
SmellScape KCK/KCMO 2007-2012
Grand Arts, 2011
Photo by Megan Mantia

Day 2
Head to breakfast at Happy Gillis in Columbus Park
because its cute and delicious, then drive about two hours
(I know its a stretch, but its worth it!) south to the Precious
Moments Chapel where they have remade Michelangelos
Sistine Chapel out of Precious Moments gures. Its simply

TRAVEL INSIDER JUXTAPOZ

| 105

too weird to miss if youre out here. Then drive back for a
late lunch at Arthur Bryants or Gates BBQ. You will hear a
million arguments over a dozen BBQ restaurants in Kansas
City as BBQ pride is big here, but these two are the best! I
swear! Gates is a more memorable experience and has the
original 70s interior, so go there.
Next, some local shopping on West 18th Street. Designer
Peggy Noland, who straddles Los Angeles and Kansas City,
creates a new installation there every few months. The
stores on this strip are locally owned, and YJs snack bar,
a local artist hangout, is at the tail end (Mondays Mayan
tostadas are fantastic). Nearby is an art installation that has
luckily stayedmultiple hammocks amidst green pastures
overlooking the grandiose Kauffman Center for Performing
Arts. Its a great place to let that BBQ digest, especially
since we are on our way to the next restaurant!
Scope out those few West Bottoms galleries I mentioned,
then have drinks, snacks, or a giant steak at the historic
Golden Ox restauranta carpeted, cowboy-themed
restaurant and bar full of period saloon dcor. Its all about
the atmosphere and the history of the stockyards, which
is fascinating.

Oceans of Fun and enjoy a thousand water slides and roller


coasters. The Belly-Up Bar at Oceans of Fun is the best bar
in Kansas City. Its in a pool, though, so if someone throws
up, the party is over.
In the mood for one last road trip? Go to Branson, Missouri.
Essentially a theme park for senior citizens, it has some of
the strangest live shows Ive ever seen. Picture Vegas and
Dollywood mixed with Hee-Haw.
If you want to stay in Kansas City, head toward the Farmers
Market and into Columbus Park for a fantastic meal at
Vietnam Caf. Its authentic, cheap and the huge portions
are bonkers. Have the sweet potato fries with cilantro and
shrimp, and the spicy tamarind soup with tofu and peanuts.
Next, a 20-minute drive to Leilas Hair Museum to round out
your odd museum tour. Leilas has an outrageous amount
of rarely-seen hair wreaths and hair jewelry predominantly
from the late 1800s.
Back to Kansas City proper for our last night in towndinner
at the intimate Le Fou Frog for French cuisine, or Westside
Local for farm-to-table dining with an inviting atmosphere.
Have some local Boulevard beer while youre there.

If you are lucky enough to be here in October, you are


right in the middle of the infamous West Bottoms haunted
housesgiant warehouses (The Beast, The Edge of Hell,
etc.) that are nationally known for being legitimately
frightening. Some end in giant, ve-story spiraling slides!

For more information about Jaimie Warren, visit dontyoufeelbetter.com

Day 3
For the last day, there are three choices, depending on the
time of year. In summer, spend the day at Worlds of Fun/

JUXTAPOZ.COM / JAIMIE - WARREN

106 |

JANUARY 2015

Thank you to the great people of the Kansas City Art Institute for
their help.

Center For the Advancement of


Transmodern Awareness
Peggy Noland

IN SESSION

WE TELL STORIES
School of Visual Arts brings back alumni
for massive illustration celebration
KNOWN AS A BOUNTIFUL BREEDING GROUND OF
illustration, the School of Visual Arts in NYC has been at
the forefront of connecting the illustrative arts to ne art
appreciation. One of our favorite degree programs at SVA
is Illustration as Visual Essay, attended by many artists
who have graced the pages of Juxtapoz, including Nathan
Fox, Martin Wittfooth, Sam Weber, Yuko Shimizu and
Aya Kakeda.
On display through December 17, 2014, the SVA Chelsea
Gallery hosted We Tell Stories, an exhibition of work by
more than 340 artists who graduated with an MFA in
Illustration as Visual Essay in the 30 years since the degree
was rst offered. Curated by founding chair Marshall
Arisman, the show brought together an alumni that has
produced everything from editorial art, childrens books,
comics, graphic novels, animations, products and ne art.
Juxtapoz has championed illustration as a prominent ne art

108 |

JANUARY 2015

form and We Tell Stories shows how the SVA has nurtured
the spirit in multiple generations of artists.
Underscoring the success and ubiquity of the SVA
Illustration program, Arisman noted, If, in the past 30
years, you bought a book because of its cover, thumbed
through the illustrations in a magazine or newspaper, read
a childrens book to your child, thought a graphic novel or
comic would make a great movie, purchased an app for
your iPhone or visited a gallery, you have seen the art of
our alumni.

For more information about the SVA, visit SVA.edu

JUXTAPOZ.COM / EDUCATION

clockwise from left


Art by Aya Kakeda,
Clay Rodery,
Ned Gannon

&$66-$&.(7

REVIEWS

BOOKS
The titles Juxtapoz is currently reading
BRETT AMORY: THE COMPLETE WORKS AND SELECTED ESSAYS
BY BRETT AMORY
Sittin in the morning sun, Ill be sittin when the evening comes. Sittin here resting my bones, and this
loneliness wont leave me alone. Like Otis Redding, Brett Amory left the South and came out West, nding
himself pondering, among other things, the big city and its expanse of solitude. Brett Amory: The Complete
Works and Selected Essays, published by Vivant Books, presents, among other works, soul-grabbing
studies from his Waiting series, depicting the unique shades of San Francisco, New York City and London,
while reecting on the urban experience of ticking time and endless hours where daytime challenges and
taunts, and nighttime harbors and haunts. Like a masterful collection of short stories, each piece awakens an
emotion. The captivating paintings invite observation, illuminated by thoughtful essays, which just might invite
the reader to stay awhile as the entire portfolio lends a fuller knowledge of life as we learn it. Gwynn Vitello
Vivant Books, vivantbooks.com

EPITOME
BY NICK CAVE
Out of a riot comes a dream. After the collective pain of the LA Riots of 92 sparked by the Rodney King trial,
Nick Cave felt depressed: I remember thinking that my identity is really only protected in the privacy of my
own home. That the moment that I leave this space, I could be just another prole. Then I was thinking about
myself as a black male, and that on top of art, on what Im trying to be as an artist It was really hard... At that
moment he caught sight of the glitter of litter on the street, and from that trash came the inspiration to grow an
armor in which to hide. So began his Soundsuits. Cave is not alone in seeking artistic remedy for community
trauma but his art is like none other. Caves new and most comprehensive survey, Epitome, explores the
brilliant materials that the artist uses for his mixed-media performance and installation work. Exciting and
colorful, this monograph is a must for any modern art lover. Lal Shafaghi
Prestel Publishing, prestel.com

ED EMBERLEY
BY TODD OLDHAM AND CALEB NEELON
Ed Emberleys drawings inuenced a generation of artists who grew up to be the inuencers of today. Since
the 60s, his popular how-to-draw books molded millions of young artistic minds, and if you ever made a
thumbprint drawing, Emberley is the man to thank. For a hefty new monograph of his work, Caleb Neelon and
Todd Oldham explored Emberleys life and his Massachusetts studio, which holds everything the artist has
ever made, every drawing that went into his 100+ books for children. In his fun and thorough introduction,
Neelon talks to a collection of artists whose impressionable young minds felt a big Emberley imprint, including
Mel Kadel, Josh Keyes and Souther Salazar, and the intergenerational dialogue becomes loud and clear. Like
all the best childrens books, Ed Emberley does not skimp on the pictures, and the incredible range of style,
subjects and technique is showcased beautifully. Emberleys inuence is unstoppable, and luckily, this book
will be around for future generations. Its a book that had to be made. Kristin Farr
Ammo Books, ammobooks.com

110 |

JANUARY 2015

THE KATLASH | SANUK.COM

JUXTAPOZ.COM / SUBSCRIBE

PROFILE

FRAME ON FRAME
The hand-drawn animations of Jake Fried
IN 2011, JAKE FRIED CREATED NIGHTFALL, THE FIRST
of his-ten-and counting animations. Headache, Last Meal,
Waiting Room, Sick Leave, The Deep End, Raw Data, Down
Into Nothing, Headspace and Brain Lapse would follow.
Hand drawing ten or twenty frames a day, Fried scans each
as he moves along. For many animators, this would mean
thousands of stills and in-betweens lying around,
but not for Jake. He makes his dark, primarily black-andwhite designs directly on the image as he proceeds,
obliterating the drawing below with layers of Wite-Out,
gouache, ink and coffee. Yet for so much work in the past
two years, the resulting physical product is eight thick
and crusty pieces of drawing paper. They look like the
accumulated mess of a painter's mixing palette layered
and dried to half an inch thick.
Fried keeps these relics, but they aren't the end product.
I've never been interested in creating traditional animations
using individual cells, he says. Rather, I approach my
work as moving paintings where one image morphs and
evolves, each frame building on top of the last. The stills
visible here, for instance, are now as buried under layers
of art media as a long-since-covered piece at a popular
graffiti spot. Each of Frieds animations has since racked
up hundreds of thousands of online views from around the
world. As a painter, he didnt know what to expect.

114 |

JANUARY 2015

I have always reworked my images over long periods of


time. Fried explains: I realized eventually that I was more
interested in the evolution of the image rather than reaching
any nal state. So my animation process is really an
extension of what Ive always done. I just didnt see them
until I began recording the process.
For the sort of person who nds the gallery setting a most
inconvenient, awkward and supremely uncomfortable place
to watch anything on a moving screen, Jake Fried hears
you. While the ideal setting for his animations is in a theater
or gallery setting without distraction, putting the works
online has elevated the role of the pause button. I think of
each individual frame in my lms as their own work of art,
and online viewing encourages one to stop at any point for
closer inspection. Though you may not be able to hit pause
in a museum video room, its entirely within reach while
wearing sweats in a dark bedroom. Caleb Neelon

For more information about Jake Fried, visit inkwood.net

JUXTAPOZ.COM / JAKE-FRIED

Still from Headspace

Stills from Down Into Nothing

PROFILE JUXTAPOZ

| 115

PROFILE

3 MUST-SEE ANIMATIONS BY JAKE FRIED


Described by the artist himself

Headspace (2014)

Brain Lapse (2014)

Raw Data (2013)

A portrait morphing in and out of his


surroundings.

This is all about images being built-up, torn


away and recongured. Everything is shifting
around you.

Im working on the idea of man vs. technology


A sense that the animation watches you as you
watch it.

116 |

JANUARY 2015

GIFT GUIDE

THINGS JUXTAPOZ IS AFTER


For the holidays, dog days, and New Years days

LIQUITEX COLLECTION
Spray paint, brushes, paints,
and acrylics
liquitex.com

WAT-AAH LIMITED
EDITION BOTTLE SERIES
Created for WAT-AAH!s
Taking Back the Streets
initiative, the collectors
box can be purchased
online at wat-aahstreets.
com and select bottles are
also availabe supermarkets
nationwide. Get your bottles
by Kenny Scharf, HAZE,
Lady Aiko, Posh Dog,
Technodrome1, Concep,
Vesa, and SMURFOUDIRTY.
wat-aahstreets.com

THE MIRANDA
BY MIRANDA JULY
Made in collaboration with
Welcome Companions, each
pops with colorful punch.
welcomecompanions.com
openingceremony.us

EXCEL BLADES
Every artist is in need of
a good knife set, blade,
hammer, cutting mat, or
scissor. Our office has been
using the Excel Grip-On
Knife and Light Duty Knife
all season long, and they
are durable we have used.
American made!
excelblades.com

118 |

JANUARY 2015

ONE YEAR MEMBERSHIP TO


THE DE YOUNG MUSEUM
Give the gift that lasts all 12
months. If you dont live in SF,
a membership to your local
museum should work!
deyoung.famsf.org

ED01 - T NATO WATCH


BY ELECTRIC
Electric has an extensive
collection of sunglasses,
watches, snow goggles,
bags, and apparel, and the
T Nato watch is a must-have.
Available in seven different
band colors, the camo being
our favorite.
electriccalifornia.com

CONVERSE CHUCK TAYLOR


ALL STAR COMBAT BOOT
Available in Black and
Pine Needle for the urban
and wilderness survivalist in
all of us.
converse.com

WOODROCK
BY VICTORIA WAGNER
One-of-a-kind painted
wood sculptures
hmxaa.com

GIFT GUIDE JUXTAPOZ

| 119

SIEBEN ON LIFE

MAKE A ZINE
Snail mail is the best mail
RECENTLY, I MADE A NEW ZINE WITH MY BUDDY SHAUN
Mefford. I used to make tons of zines when I was younger
and I immediately remembered what I liked about it: it's a
quick and extremely affordable way to disseminate an idea,
aesthetic, opinion or whatever the hell you want. The beauty
is that there are no rules, so you're free to do anything you
like with your money and time. You get to call all the shots,
a rare opportunity in adult life. It's also a really easy way to
promote your work.
I get emails from younger artists requesting advice on
how to get their work out there. My suggestion is always,
"Make zines and send them to companies/people you're
interested in working for/with. I honestly owe the bulk of
my commercial success to zine making. In my mid-twenties
to my early thirties, I was constantly working on zines that
showcased my illustrations and writing. I'd send them to
skate companies, publishers, galleriesanyplace where
I thought I might get work. This practice led to freelance
writing for Big Brother magazine (RIP) and later secured
a staff position with Thrasher magazine. The nod from
Thrasher opened tons of doors, and all of that can be
directly traced back to zine making. I still trip out on that.
Enough about what I did. How does this relate to you? Well,
nowadays everybody has access to the same technology.
Everybody is trying to get more Instagram/Twitter/Facebook
followers; everybody has a website; everybody is sharing
everything with everybody. But when is the last time you
found something really awesome and handcrafted in your
mailbox? I imagine most art directors and gallery owners
are in the same boat, inevitably bombarded constantly with
emails and other unsolicited social-media nagging. A clever
zine with a handwritten note sent via USPS is way harder to
immediately trash as opposed to hitting the delete key on
a computer.
I'd like to conclude by stating that I'm not trying to make a
case that zine making should only be used for commercial
purposes. You can make a zine for you and your best friend
and never show it to anybody else in the world. Like I said
earlier, no rules. Well, actually, one rule: staple that shit
together. You're not making a newspaper for crap's sake.
Michael Sieben

Page from Fume Coaster zine.


Photo: Shaun Mefford,
Illustration: Michael Sieben

120 |

JANUARY 2015

JUXTAPOZ.COM / MICHAEL - SIEBEN

/EzKhZ&Zd
z:

The Oceans Calling


Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
S/N prints available

Hunter S. Thompson
Oil and Acrylic on Panel
S/N prints available

Punk Rock Zebra


Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
S/N prints available

ttt:Zh>KD

POP LIFE

LOS ANGELES // SAN FRANCISCO


Neil Young, Shepard Fairey, Mercedes Helnwein, Jony Ive

SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS

COREY HELFORD GALLERY

1 | Neil Young and his daughter, Amber


Jean, with Shepard Fairey at her recent
exhibition, Theres A Shape In These Hills
I Know

4 | Eric Nakamura, Soey Milk, Luke Chueh,


Chloe Noh, and Kent Williams at Chuehs
solo show

KNOWN GALLERY

MERRY KARNOWSKY GALLERY

2 | The stars of See Life: Tatiana Suarez,


Amandalynn, and Lady Mags

5 | The uber-talented Mercedes Helnwein


with artists Vonn Sumner and
Kim Kimbro

3 | Tristan Eaton, Shane Jessup, Just Willie T


supporting See LIfe

122 |

JANUARY 2015

JULIA MORGAN BALLROOM, SF


6 | Apples Senior Vice President of Design,
Jony Ive, with SFMOMAs Director Neal
Benezra at the SFMOMAS Bay Area
Treasure Award dinner honoring Ive.

Photography by
Sam Graham (1-5)
Drew Altizer (6)

FRAGILE VENTURES are proud to present the global launch of


URBAN[E] BY BEN EINE at MEGUMI OGITA GALLERY, TOKYO.
Bringing the inimitable typographic style of Eine to life in 3D,
limited edition cubes presented in concrete, metal and wood.
PRIVATE VIEW
Friday 5th December

PUBLIC VIEW
6th/7th December

Pre-orders now being taken - info@fragileventures.com


Cubes will be available to buy at the show and online from Friday 5th December
ZZZIUDJLOHYHQWXUHVFRPZZZPHJXPLRJLWDFRP
WZLWWHUFRPIUDJLOHYHQWXUHVLQVWDJUDPFRPIUDJLOHYHQWXUHVLQVWDJUDPFRPHLQHVLJQV

POP LIFE

NEW YORK CITY // LONG BEACH // COLOGNE


David Choe, Nick Walker, Andrew Schoultz

345 BROOME STREET, NYC


1 | Nick Walker recreates his own British
Invasion as he runs into Crash at Walkers
pop-up show

RUTTKOWSKI 68 GALLERY
3 | Andrew Schoultz changes up his game
in Cologne

LONG BEACH MUSEUM OF ART


22 LITTLE WEST 12TH STREET, NYC
2 | Drago Publishings Paulo Lucas von
Vacano celebrates the release of WK
Interacts new book

124 |

JANUARY 2015

4 | Theres James Jean at Masterworks


5 | Nathan Spoor, Ron Nelson, and 3x Jux
cover artist, David Choe

R.JAMPOL PROJECT(S), NYC


6 | The legendary Martha Cooper paid
respect to Elbow Toe at his opening

Photography by
Joe Russo (1, 2, 6)
Sam Graham (4, 5)

PERSPECTIVE

DESIGN FOR LIFE


SFMOMA awards Apples Jony Ive its Bay Area Treasure Award
PLAY THIS GAME WITH US: THINK OF YOUR FAVORITE
household or daily product. Look around your room, house,
car, or office and try and name the industrial design team
behind it. You may know the company, but probably not
the designer, and youre not alone. Still, the name Jony Ive
rings a bell; the Senior Vice President of Design at Apple
has been hailed as one of the greatest designers of the
last century. He and his team have actualized products that
have literally changed the way we live our lives, interact with
technology, and communicate in the 21st Century. And may
we add that he is a Knight?
In October 2014, our friends at the San Francisco Museum of
Modern Art awarded Jony Ives accomplishments at Apple
with the SFMOMAs Bay Area Treasure Award, previously
won by the likes of George Lucas and Richard Serra, to
name a few. This is a special award, one that allows us
to celebrate the unique innovators in the San Francisco
Bay Area, from lm to tech, ne art to photography. Ives
recognition not only illuminates SFMOMAs pioneering

126 |

JANUARY 2015

commitment to design, but shows the museums expanding


grasp of what art and creativity really means to the SF
Bay Area.
The award and accolades bestowed upon Ive are not
hyperbole. Even if you are not a professed Apple person,
there is an undeniable fact that what Team Ive has achieved
in the world of industrial design challenges rival technology
companies to create products with both subtle and
tangible beauty that is both smart and simple to grasp.
He qualies as a worthy addition to the canon of Bay Area
artistic aristocracy.

For more information about Jony Ive and the Bay Area
Treasure Award, visit sfmoma.org

JUXTAPOZ.COM / DESIGN

Los Angeles, CA
October 25th 2014

MARCO ZAMORA

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