News

• Interviewing Art Southampton: A Double Shot From Art Miami Fairs Director Nick Korniloff

  7/14/15

  by Art Southampton

  

  Art Miami Fairs Director Nick Korniloff talks Art Southampton 2015 to Whitewall Magazine and Hamptons.com. 

   

  Read all about the 4th Annual Edition of the Fair here and here.

• Blouin Art Info Q's a Few Great A's from Art Miami Fairs Head Nick Korniloff

  7/07/15

  by Art Southampton

  

  Blouin Art Info's own Archana Khare-Ghose goes for the know with Art Miami Fairs' Director Nick Korniloff in advance of the 4th annual Art Southampton...   

   

  The result? A rather comprehensive take on the Art of the Fair.  

• Interviewing Art Southampton: April Gornik Curates the New York Academy of Art

  7/01/15

  by Art Southampton

  

  By John Hood

  
  

  Blame William Everett Chase. Not only did the flamboyant fine artist’s 1891 founding of the Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art inspire Samuel Longstreth Parrish to open the Parrish Art Museum in 1897, but he set the stage for the East End of Long Island’s so-called Gilded Age, which, like the Parrish, will never go away.

  
  

  Or blame the numerous Hudson River, Ashcan and New York School grads who’ve made the Hamptons home, from the rogue Brit Thomas Moran (“whose vision of the Western Landscape was critical to the creation of Yellowstone National Park”), through Pollock and Krasner and the De Koonings (whose visions were critical to post-modern art).

  
  

  Or blame the numerous Art Students League and School of Visual Art alum who now populate that sacred strip of island, and whose life and works continue to infuse the East End with its own brand of unmitigated vivid.

  
  

  Whomever you blame, or credit, the fact remains, there’s no place in the whole wild world with the robust art history of the Hamptons.

  
  

  Keeping that tradition -- and propelling it a significant step forward -- is the New York Academy of Art, which boasts Andy Warhol among its founders and Eric Fischl, Susannah Coffey, Donald Kuspit and Jenny Saville among its faculty and critics.

  
  

  The Academy also boasts longstanding relationships with some of the East End’s most accomplished artists, as well as an increasingly close connection to the annual Art Southampton, with whom the institution teams each summer for something exquisite.

  
  

  This year that exquisiteness will come courtesy of the impeccably accomplished April Gornik, who divides her time between the End End and Manhattan, her grace between Small and Large depictions of the most breathtaking landscapes n/ever before seen, and who will turn her considerable talents to curating a site specific exhibition which will bring everything into a fully learned circle.

  
  

  Art Southampton asked the go-getter to fill us in on what’s in store for this summer’s stock of art ops and afficianadoes; here’s what she had to say:

  
  

  What have you got slotted with NYAA at Art Southampton?

  
  

  The title of the show is simply Academy at Art Southampton. The NYAA will have booth AS10 and will feature Academy artists who’ve been chosen by me to be represented, with great work for sale. The show previews on Friday, July 10 with a cocktail reception and the work on view will be stunning, I can guarantee.

  
  

  

  Who all is in on the action?

  
  

  David Kratz, Peter Drake, Lisa Kirk and I all discussed my choices for the show, and the list now includes:

  
  

  James Adelman, Tamalin Baumgarten, Nicholas Borelli, Dina Brodsky, Garrett Cook, Alexis Hilliard, Joshua Henderson,William Logan, Elisabeth Mcbrien, Gary Murphy, Nicolas Sanchez, Buket Savci, Sarah Schlesinger, Stephen Shaheen, Chie Shimizu, Krista Smith, and Moses Tuki.

  
  

  How’d you get roped into the project?

  
  

  This show repeats the Academy’s participation at Art Southampton for the last couple of years, and it’s been a highly successful venture both in helping worthy artists have their work be seen and sold, and in terms of spotlighting the very worthy NYAA itself.

  
  

  

  
  

  Will this be your first colliding with the Academy (of this or any sort)?

  
  

  No, I have given a few talks at the Academy and have done a little teaching there, most recently doing a Master Class weekend workshop there this past February. I am a longtime friend of Eileen Guggenheim and Russell Wilkinson as well, who have been so instrumental in making the Academy the fine institution it has become.

  
  

  Are there plans for subsequent collidings and/or co-conspirings?

  
  

  I can only hope so! I enjoy the Academy environment, the seriousness and talent of the students, and have enjoyed seeing the trajectory of the school expand and improve yearly.

  
  

  If you had but a single sentence to sum up the exhibition’s objective, what would it be?

  
  

  I can only quote from their website, to do them justice. It says:

  At the New York Academy of Art, we believe that the world of visual art is built upon the essential cornerstones of figurative drawing, painting, and sculpture. Mastering these disciplines is critical to the development of an artist's personal vision and, ultimately, to the creation of vital contemporary art.

  The Academy at Art Southampton curated by April Gornik runs from July 10th through 13th at the Art Southampton Pavilion on the site of Nova’s Ark Project 60 Millstone Road Bridgehampton NY. For more information log on here.

  
  

  Pictured, from top:

  Chie Shimizu, Maquette No.7, 2013, ultracal, plaster, pigment, white gold leaf, 22 x 20 x 9 inches, edition 1 of 5, courtesy of the artist and Dillon Gallery

  James Adelman, Untitled Meditation (Hanging Heart), 2014, oil on linen, 40 x 30 inches

  Elisabeth McBrien, At the Motel, 2015, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches

  Krista Smith, Hide, 2015, oil on canvas, 56 x 54 inches

• Interviewing Art Southampton: Ellen De Meijer Takes Ceremony Portraits in Arte Fuse

  6/11/15

  by Art Southampton

  

  UNIX Gallery artstar Ellen De Meijer provides some crucial background on the cast of characters who make up her Ceremony Portraits. As featured in Arte Fuse.

  Interviewing Ellen De Meijer: The Dutch Painter’s Ceremony Portraits Cross the Digital Divide to Art Southampton

  An array of vivid ties spring to mind upon encountering the work of Dutch painter Ellen De Meijer. The first is of Margaret Keane, the American creator of that mid-century phenomenon colloquially known as Big Eyes. And while there are indeed similarities between the two, in tone as well as of features, there’s a different sort of more than meets the, er, eye with De Meijer. That is the more of Dutch painting itself, a lineage and heritage that no American can ever lay claim.

  We speak of the Dutch Golden Age tronie (that is, face), a phenomenon that traces back to the 16th Century grotesques created by Leonardo. Breughel the Elder also applied his deft hand to tronies, as did Rembrandt. But whereas the masters concerned themselves with exaggerating the elements of a particular face (or faces), De Meijer strips away the heat to get to the cold hard fact of what matters. You might even say she’s taken out the melodrama, and in its place provided an entirely new perspective in portraiture.

  But who are these creatures created by De Meijer? We know she calls the series Ceremony Portraits; and we know her recent Unix Gallery exhibition of said creatures was entitled “Digital Divide.” But that’s about all we know.

  Or all we did know, till Arte Fuse reached out to De Meijer on the eve of Art Southampton and asked the neo-Traditionalist to provide background for the cast of characters encompassed in her Ceremony Portraits.

  If you had to pin an actual place of origin to the cast of characters captured in your Ceremony Portraits, where might you say they came/come from?

  Any metropolitan. My characters are really city people. They are hardcore city people who are the furthest away from nature one can be. People in New York, London, Hong Kong, cities like that.

  If you had to hazard some sort of actual bloodline, what ethnic composite might course through their veins?

  Definitely old European. My characters have old blood with history flowing through their veins. They are the archetype. THE human.

  If you were to now add an era (or eras) to the mix, which era(s) might the characters exist?

  The present. These characters have huge family trees that go back centuries, but they are modern clearly. Hence their choice of fashion and their interest in technology. They symbolize the human mind kind of our modern day. But important to note; they are not individuals, they are us. You and me. We all have centuries of history behind our names but share the same color blood.

  What language(s) do they speak?

  Engels or German. Not both. Leaning towards German. Some Hebrew.

  What music is on their playlist?

  Mostly Bach, but also Antony [Hegarty], Bowie, Amy Winehouse. There is a certain rebellion in their taste of music.

  What cinema provides them the most pleasure?

  Movies directed by the Coen brothers. They have perfected the art of visualizing the nakedness of people, their bizarre behavior and absurd send of humor. I love how the Coen brothers show how humans wrestle through their lives. People have no choice but to survive while coping with the burden and weirdness of life. Their opening shots of the Coen brothers typically show how grand nature is and how small and harmful people actually are.

  What deities do they find to be the most divine?

  Absolutely none. They are all atheist.

  Do any of the cast of characters have names?

  No, and that is also not possible because they are not individuals but represent THE individual. A woman, a child, a man. But strangely enough my female characters represent THE girl. For some reason she is always more defined by me than my other characters. My latest painting probably shows this best.

  Are any of those faces in any way based upon anyone you actually know?

  Of course; but that is not the intention. But all gestures, mimic and strong features are based on people I have met throughout my entire life. Big eyes, often eyes that are deep in their case. I try to make sure that my characters look like they to have old roots that go way back.

  Finally, why does the Ceremony Portrait cast of characters come to us courtesy of a Digital Divide?

  They present a universal time of mankind. The characters more or less unwillingly have to go with the flow of modern society that is characterized by digitalization of our daily lives, which itself is defined by the survival of the fittest.

   

  Interview by John Hood