Tuesday, June 19, 2012

More from Miami: Fountainhead Residency

http://fountainheadresidency.com/residency_home_page.html

The Fountainhead residency hosts artists from all over the world to visit and work in Miami. They stay in a refurbished vintage mid-century house, where some work, while others are given studios in a warehouse space with local artists. The residency offers a great way to engage Miami's art scene. Recently, I met resident Yeni Mao, who since returned to New York (www.yenimao.com) and visited current residents Kathryn Zazenski and Trevor Avery at the Fountainhead studio.

Kathryn Zazenski, detail of large drawing

The large drawing in progress--

 And finalizing...she parses commonly used words into lengths and measures
A result of her family's tradition of free-associative wordplay in verbal tournaments?
She also creates drawings that trace and reflect opposite word pairings
www.kathrynzazenski.com

Trevor Amery at Fountainhead: practicing presence at the portal: entry mats

A work in progress whereby he makes and serves Cuban coffees to initiate social exchange
www.trevor-amery.com

The shared studio

I did not visit Jamey Morrill's studio, but he is also in residence. Here is a detail of his work in progress at Fountainhead.
For more on his work visit http://www.jameymorrill.com/

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Summer Gardens, Miami

Miami boasts three gorgeous gardens that offer artist projects for an unbeatable combination of nature and culture. Deering Estates, an hour or so south of downtown Miami, offers studios to local artists (Deering Estate Link) Vizcaya, near downtown, hosts projects by invitation (Vizcaya Museum Link) and Fairchild (Fairchild Garden Link) is a sumptuous botanic garden with lotus pond, rainforest and cactus garden, where one will certainly get lost drawing or looking.

Ruche plants in blossom at Deering Estates at Cutler

Promenade to Biscayne Bay
Pass ancient Indian burial grounds on the property,  originally a hotel to serve the railroad


Entrance / exit gate to Vizcaya grounds
(The mansion was built by Deering in 1916 as a winter getaway for the Chicago-based industrialist)

Statuary and limestone lanterns with beautifully colored, warped glass windows

The Great Stone Ship - a vision for an artist project if I ever saw one!
Also serves as a breakwater for the mansion, but Fellini, if you ask me

Orchid garden at Vizcaya - look at that color!

A blushing beauty under the gaze of a lantern

Such innovative beauty in the flowers at Fairchild! Check the lavendar tutu and multiple-pronged crown

The Rainbow Tree, a form of eucalyptis

More gorgeousness at Fairchild

Lovely cannonball blossoms dispersed at the base of their tree

The lotus pond, glimpsed after the rainforest en route to the bamboo

Sunday, June 03, 2012

Alice Neel and Yan Pei-Ming at Zwirner until 6/23/12

Look at that avocado!

As if you knew them personally

Strange, rock star image from Neel

Another in which you'd recognize the person on the street from seeing this painting

Alice Neel portrait: looks so real

Detail, whole image below

Detail, whole image below--look at the role of yellow here

The whole portrait

Portrait of her son? In amazing ultramarine blue pants--ultramarine is such a vibrant color, it works like a red.



Figure in a wire cage

Sweet flower painting from Neel

Love this painting: soft spot for a figure in space with dynamic shadows

Yan Pei-Ming after Goya: juicy and potentially relevant, but the exploratory quality of the original is not a factor here

Juicy brushwork from Yan Pei-Ming

Perhaps fallout from the other paintings, my favorite  of Yan Pei-Ming