Chapter 3: The Fair

• I really enjoyed the part where she talks about the relentless boom in the art Markey is a topic of conversation.  “When is the bubble going to burst?” “We can’t answer that question here?” Then an older collector said, “Nothing goes on and on” he then goes on to talk about how he has spent two million dollars in collecting. The one line that really resonated in my mind was, “A bubble misunderstands the economic realities,” “only a century ago, no one had a car. Now people have two or three. That’s the way it’s going with art.”  Which is very true to our times now. For example, back in the 60’s the new technology that was sweeping the nation was for a house to have one TV. Nowadays besides the 10 TV’s in your house and car, your phone is also a TV. Which just shows how commodity has been forced down the consumers throat to the point of no return
• I thought it was funny when she talked about how tight the security was that the Art Basel even had its own Jasper John in the form of Seglot. AN unmistakable Frenchman with the extravagant helmet of hair transformed himself, with the help of Hollywood makeup artist, into a bald man entered the fair on a shipper’s pass. Basically pulling a mission impossible scheme to slip into the fair. But it’s all rumors, according to the phone call she makes. 
• Another part I enjoyed was when she was introducing LA gallery collectors Blum & Poe. One of their artists used to call them “Double or Nothing” referring to their symbiotic relationship and the confused setup of the gallery’s early days. When I told Blum, a catholic boy from Orange County, that a rival dealer had complained that there was “way too much dude” in the gallery, he shrugged and said, “I guess they mean we’re macho, testosterone-driven, hard drinkin’. Yeah well, we’re raw.” This kind of makes me think of this art fair as like a total male infested Frat Party that advertises itself has a great time to meet girls. And when you get there, hoping to meet someone cute and nice, you are greeted by a bunch of Vienna sausages. 
• When she talked about Blum explaining the installation of Takashi Murakami’s 727-727 painting really made me believe this book as more fiction than just a non-fiction account of the art world. It was like she was foreshadowing the chapter about Murakami and how hard Takashi worked on the painting leading to many of his staff to quit. 
• I liked the part about how she talks about The Ruebells a Miami based collector group, and how beside the art they collected from the 1960’s they are more interested in “emergent” art. She says this is a term that is indicative of the changing times. I liked how people in the 1980’s got uncomfortable with the word avant-garde, causing them to use the euphemism cutting-edge. This makes me laugh that because they didn’t want to seem like old farts they needed to adapt to the basic theme of the 80s, which was to make up new and more interesting names to describe older movements to make them seem fresh. 
• I thought it was funny when she asked the couple if she could shadow them through the fair to observe their buying. They freak out at her screaming, “Absolutely not!” “That’s like asking to come into our bedroom” further supporting the thought that people are crazy about collecting art. 
• The part where she asked Poe who bought the Takashi painting and after he says he cant tell her she asks how much it was bought for. “One point two million, but officially one point four.” She then talks about the discrepancy between the real price and the PR price, which is, a embellishment compared to the shamless whoppers told by other dealers. It reminds me of the way that someone would advertise that there product grossed more money than it actually did or set their price at a ridiculous level, to either convince consumers to buy it because if they have the money they think they are part of an elite group or scare the competition into matching the price or just quit the race.

MFA Graduate Schools

So even though i am probably not going to Grad School after i graduate, compiling this list has opened my eye to the possibilities that are out there for me if my initial career fails.

Enjoy.

School of Art Institute of Chicago

Master of Fine Arts in Studio- Photography or Film, Video and New Media

Each semester, MFA students select from more than 100 graduate faculty advisors in SAIC representing myriad disciplines, approaches, and intellectual positions. As the main component of their studies, MFA 6009: Graduate Projects allows students to develop their work with faculty who guide them through an informed dialogue around content, form, theory, and professional practice.

Rhode Island School Of Design

MFA-PHOTOGRAPHY

At RISD photography is seen as an ever-changing set of technical, conceptual and aesthetic conditions that exist within a broad social and cultural context. Our students develop visual and critical expertise through course work, seminars, independent studio investigations and critiques.

RISD's Photography professors are accomplished working artists, scholars and educators with a passion for both teaching and their own studio work. Visiting artists, curators, critics and gallery directors also regularly critique student work and/or make presentations, and state-of-the-art facilities allow for the exploration of film-based and digital photography, digital video and multimedia production.

The School Of Visual Arts IN nyc has many grad programs i am interested in.

MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media-The graduate program in photography, video and related media at SVA brings together traditional and digital lens-based arts. Students in the photography graduate school are encouraged to explore ways they can utilize new technology to engage creative potential and advance in their fields.

MFA Social Documentary Film-Documentary films have helped shape our history and, more importantly, the stories we tell about ourselves. This program guides and supports emerging artists to explore fully the social documentary film form and, in so doing, to find innovative ways to examine and communicate the core experiences and events that define us.

MPS Digital Photography-The School of Visual Arts Masters in Digital Photography is an intensive one-year degree program that addresses the technical and creative needs of professional photographers, photographic educators, and visual arts professionals who are looking to advance their skills in digital image capture, asset management, and high-quality output. The program welcomes those who wish to embrace the challenge of mastering the latest tools and techniques to create technically perfect and aesthetically compelling images.

Yale University School Of Art

PHOTOGRAPHY(MFA)

Photography is a two-year program of study admitting nine students a year. Darkroom, studio, and computer facilities are provided. Students receive technical instruction in black-and-white and color photography as well as nonsilver processes and digital image production.

The program is committed to a broad definition of photography as a lens-based medium open to a variety of expressive means. Students work both individually and in groups with faculty and visiting artists. In addition, a critique panel composed of faculty and other artists or critics meets weekly, as well as for a final review each term, to discuss student work.

Montclair State University

STUDIO (MFA)

in Studio Art is a 60-credit program designed to prepare students for careers as practicing professional artists. Comprised of a diverse group of students who share in a vision to explore, synthesize, innovate and create, the rigorous MFA program is a full-time two-year in-residence program that fosters opportunities for critical discourse in an environment where individuals can collaborate or work independently and make meaningful contributions to contemporary culture. A professional degree for studio artists, the MFA is also usually required for college-level teaching

Midday at the Museum: Battle For The Zimmerli

It twas a rainy October Day. I ventured out to the fabled Zimmerli Museum in search of knowledge and power. I chose this venue primarily for the soviet photography exhibition, which displayed a lot of social documentary themes. I am very much interested in the way documentary photography can capture so much emotional texture that isn’t staged or posed and depicts real life all at the same time. I study the framing of the images, what was left in the frame and what subject matter works best. I hope to use this information as a guideline when I begin to work on my thesis.

The first artist I look at is Boris Mikhailov. He is known as being the founder of Soviet Conceptual Photography. I can relate a lot to his work in the sense that he is interested in people and the things they do. I am always interested in what people are doing when they are living out their daily lives in public places. The nervous ticks that they try to hide, the nonchalant butt-scratch or nose pick, and the crazy bag lady that just spews out nonsense to herself. Witnessing these moments I then think to myself, what is actually going on in their minds? Are they having a good day, do they hate their marriage and wish they could find someone younger and less controlling... or are they thinking, “ Why the hell is that guy staring at me?”

His photos, in some way, capture this essence of “wanting to know more”. I really like how he chooses images that document the passage of time that are then transformed into artistic renditions of those documents. Two images that resonate in my mind are from his superimposition series.

I like how, through the use of superimposing, he creates a kind of painterly photo collage that seem very surreal and dreamlike. It is almost as if he is combining social life with commodities and objects creating an abstract reality that blurs that line that differentiates painting and photography. I like this series more so than his other ones because it is more artistic and abstract at the same time. This is something I am very much interested in experimenting with for my thesis.

Next on the menu is the work of photographer Valdimir Kupriyanov. I am just amazed at how almost every artist I have seen has had at least some kind of aspect that interests me greatly. In this case its how Vladimir claims to have been interested in photography because of its “objectivity”. What he means by this is that photographs both have the special ability to show reality as it is in all its materiality, and also show its distinction between paintings in a non-subjective way. After I read that I gasped and whispered to myself, “I think I just found the basis to my artist statement and thesis. Laugh Out Loud. I really like his series entitled, BELOGORODSKAYA Region 1983-85. The way they are arranged in diptychs reminds me of a cinematic feeling you would get when you would look into those portable movie players that you had to put your head over it and look through the viewfinder.

The two images seem to be slightly complimentary with each other but from different aspects or point of views. This reminds me of my own work in which I also displayed my images in a diptych creating a dueling sense of emotions. I then added sound to the images that I created myself from what I was experiencing from the images.

Moving along in the gallery you come upon the work of Fransico Infante. I am very much interested in the group he started with his wife called ARGO, which occupied them with creating kinetic art and artificial environments. Especially in the concept, that was conceived in this collaboration, “artifact”. The whole explanation of what an “artifact” is interests me greatly- which is a thing made by a person and thus autonomous in the relation to nature. Such an object interacts with nature, at the same time revealing itself.” After I read that I kind of had an understanding of what “artifact” meant, but then I kept reading on and was furthermore explained. “The exceptional importance of this momentary artistic event established the camera as a means and as a technical instrument, which allows the artist to fix chosen moments. Photography here is used to capture and convey the feeling of mystery and infinity of the world that rules the artists consciousness.” I know this is a lot to write from the wall text but this one paragraph really resonated in my mind and helped me understand where they were going with the photographs and also something I might try and achieve in my photography. I really liked how this is basically at first just a document of kinetic art or earthwork but through this momentary artistic event of photography the physical work can be conceived in a way that either fools the viewer or affects them. The ones that really achieve this greatly are these.

This one looks like it was just a regular picture of land water and the horizon line that someone has pasted a circular image on top of it. In actuality it is all real objects being captured in a way that makes them question your beliefs.

The last artist of the exhibition is quite possibly my most favorite. Alexander Slyusarev’s work is very close to what I want to achieve in part of my thesis project.

I really like how his images consist of normal everyday objects that through the use of shadows and light reflections create an abstract pattern that alters a viewer’s reality. This is inspiring me to actual focus on using the shadows and lights and reflections that are around the objects I photograph and use them to enhance the visual appearance of the image. I just love how they are so simple yet are filled with so much beauty from the abstract shapes that are created in the frame of the picture.

Even though it was a small exhibit with only four photographers, each one had their own specific style of creating photographs that I will take in and put into my arsenal.

Blurring the Lines between Painting & Photography: the last minute gallery visit story

            Our assignment was to find a gallery of our choice that we had an invested interest in.  I went searching for this invested interest and at first had my eyes set on the exhibition at the Zimmerli. I was even set to go and realized they are closed on Mondays. So I had to do some last minute clutch gallery searching.  Just when I was about to give up I stumbled upon this one gallery via my iPhone.  Bruce Silverstein Gallery on 24^th street it said.  The two artists that where being exhibited had work on the website and from my tiny little screen they both looked like paintings and at first I was very disappointed. As you may know I’m not too fond of painting. No offense. But on closer inspection of the work it turns out both artists are Photographers. Photographers that I myself would have an enormous amount of invested interest.  The gallery closes at 6 and I got out of work at 515 so I had to run to catch the F train to 23^rd street and then for the first time in my life took a bus to 9^th ave. I ran the rest of the way to 535w and got there at 535pm which was more than enough time to soak in the wonderful large format prints of both Todd Hido & Nicolai Haowalt.

First I will talk about Nicolai Haowalt’s “Car Crash Studies” piece, which is a photographic study of cars that have been involved in severe and fatal accidents.  I really enjoyed how the series goes back and forth from being a documentation of the wreckage and an abstraction of it as well.  My favorite ones were the close-up of the slashed metal body of the cars, which turn into an abstract landscape that is filled with vivid color and amazing texture. You can’t help but think how beautiful they are without stopping yourself and thinking of the pain and agony that was suffered to create them. The close-up color plains remind me of my last project I did with the close-ups of man-made and natural objects around me. This is also part of what I will try to achieve in my thesis with imagery.  

The next artist in the gallery was Todd Hido. He was exhibiting his series “A Road Divided” which Hido focusing on the American landscape.  A quote from the press release explains why he is my new favorite photographer.  “Crossing the double lines’ between painting and photography” This entire statement explains what I really love about photography and what it can do.  This is also what I have been trying to do with my last few projects and hopefully try to achieve with my thesis. Photos that do blur the line between painting and photography, creating landscapes with vivid colors through the use of a lens rather than the use of a brush.  I also am very intrigued at the way he went about shooting these images. By using the vantage point of his car seat and shooting towards the surrounding area out in front of him. It almost feels like he is going on a journey and capturing whatever crosses paths with him. His photos are filled with so much emotion that you can’t help but get an eerie and creepy vibe from them.  I also love the way that the condensation on the window causes parts of the image frame to be out of focus or not recognizable.  They are also very cinematic and remind me of shooting with slide film and put stuff on the slide to create a hazy dream like state when projecting them.

In the end it was yet again another successful and inspirational gallery visit for the third straight time in a row.  Now I am left to wonder what will be in store on my next journey off into the city.

 

Jeffrey John Masino  

The Studio Visit

Here are my 11 favorite quotes and passages i thought were interesting in the chapter "The Studio Visit"

1. The driver is wearing white gloves and a surgical face mask. He looks like an extra in a bioterrorism B movie, but here it's the sartorial norm for those with colds and bad allergies. On the back of his seat, a sign informs us that our driver's hobbies are (1) baseball, (2) fishing, and (3) driving.

2. When blum & poe opened in 1994, the partners sold Cuban cigars out the back of the gallery to help make ends meet.

3. Murakami then turned the tables on the big brand by pulling it into his own oeuvre with a series of paintings that consist of nothing but the multicolor LV pattern. "the vuitton paintings are going to be important later on," declares Poe. "People just don't realize it yet. They look at them as branding and that's boring, but they're as 'superflat' as anything he's done," he says, using Murakami jargon to refer to the way the artists works flatten the distinctions between art and luxury goods, high and popular culture, East and West.

4."when people think of artists studios, they imagine Jackson Pollock dancing around a canvas"

5. Two women had laid the second and third paintings flat on a long trestle table. One sat cross-legged on the floor with her eyes two inches away from the pictures edge. She had a thin round bamboo brush in her left hand and a q-tip tucked into her hair. The other, an artist named rei sato, knelt on the floor, reaplying platinum particles. They were all wearing standard-issue brown plastic sandals and white cotton gloves with the thumbs and foreingers cut out. No one had more the a speck or two of paint on his or her clothes. They worked in silence or in their own iPod worlds. When I asked Sato of there was any room for creativity in the work, she replied, "None at all."

6. While the sega corporation has Sonic the Hedgehog and Nintendo has Super Mario, Kaikai Kiki was named after the mascots that appear on it's letterhead and cultural goods. Kaikai is an anodyne white bunny, while Kiki is a wild three-eyed pink mouse with fangs. Both characters have four ears each, a "human" pair and an "animal" pair, suggesting that the company is all ears.

7. I liked on page 193 when she is brought to the temporary merchindise showroom where she found Mika Yoshitake shuffleing through 20 items of merchandise.

8. The part where she talks about going to murakamis slick headquarters. "it was at least an hours drive, past more rice paddies and light industrial facilities, over a major river and along an elevated highway engulfed in soundproof fencing to the plush neighborhood, not far from the designer stores of roppongi hills. Once there, we ascended to the studio in an elevator. When the doors drew apart, we faced a stainless steel and glass door for which a fingerprint scam and a four digit pin number were required

9. Murakamis answer to her question about what he did not like about the American pop artist. He answers very warholian and goes on to mention and refer to warhol alot. It's interesting to see how they are very similar yet vastly different.

10. "The bomb that landed on Nagasaki was originally destined for the town where takashi's mother lived. He grew up being told, 'if kokura had not been oust that day, you would not e here.'"

11. Lastly I would like to include a few quotes from the last two pages of the chapter.
"Unfuckingbelieveable!"
"it's entertaining as fuck. So entertaining that it may backlash," says Poe. "I just hope it fits on the plane when it's crated. At the moment we've only got two inches of clearance."
"I'm happy with OVAL BUDDAH but thinking to next change. Not ambition. Really pure feeling. Instinct. Next work must be much bigger. Much complicated. That is my brain. "