art net – nik uzunovski

Artist of the week: Peter Beard

Posted on 14/07/2013 by nikuzo87 in Creative Practice

Peter Beard (American, b.1938) is a photographer and writer known for his collage-work and extensive diaries. While moving around between Long Island, New York City, and Alabama during his childhood, Beard began the habit of keeping diaries that later became source material for many of his collage works. Beard documented his travels and photographs within his diaries from the age of 12, shortly before his first trip to Africa in 1955. In 1957, Beard applied as a pre-med student to Yale before switching to art history, studying under the influential art historian and theoretician, Joseph Albers (1888–1976). After graduating, Beard returned to Kenya where he made his home in East Africa, acquiring “Hog Ranch,” the property adjacent to Karen Blixen’s, near the Ngong Hills.

In the early 1960s he worked at Tsavo National Park where he photographed and documented the demise of elephants and Black Rhinos, and published multiple books on the subject. During this period he began to create photographic collages that explored the interconnectedness of humans and animals. In addition to his own work, Beard has befriended and collaborated with many artists, including Andy Warhol (1928–1987), Andrew Wyeth (1917–2009), Richard Lindner, Terry Southern, Truman Capote, and Francis Bacon (1909–1992). In addition to his collaborations with well-known artists, he photographed prominent politicians, supermodels, rock stars, and New York City celebrities during the 1970s and 1980s. After his art exhibition in 1975 at the Blum Helman Gallery, Beard continued to show his work throughout galleries in Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo, and cities throughout Africa.

Lion pride, southern Serengeti, for the end of the game/Last word from paradise, 1976-2000, Platinum Print on Arches Paper, 40 x 59.7 cm.

MRI, Self-Portrait for Centre National de la Photographie, 1997, mixed media,186.7 x 118.9 cm.

Images and text: http://www.artnet.com/artists/peter-beard/

Artist of the week: John Currin.

Posted on 23/06/2013 by nikuzo87 in Creative Practice

Painter John Currin (American, b.1962) is known for his Figurative works, which draw on sources ranging from Renaissance painting traditions to 1950s advertisements. Currin was born in Boulder, Colorado, and received a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University, and an MFA from Yale University. Currin first received critical attention for his sensual paintings of female nudes, noted for his combination of Old Master painting techniques with 1950s commercial sources.

He frequently portrayed his nude figures as examinations of the various female archetypes found in visual culture, with a caricatured sexuality and studied emotions. His later works include portraits and scenes painted with Mannerist aesthetics, featuring subjects with elongated, disproportionate limbs and in styles drawn from fashion magazines, pornography, and other commercial sources. Currin’s work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, at the Tate Gallery in London, and at the Venice Biennale. He currently lives and works in New York.

Girl In Bed, 1993. Oil on linen, 61.5 x 77 cm.

The Beggar’s Alm, 2002. Etching with aquatint on Somerset paper (edition of 70), 26.7 x 21 cm

Images and text: http://www.artnet.com/artists/john-currin/

Artist of the Week: Sally Mann

Posted on 26/05/2013 by nikuzo87 in Creative Practice

Sally Mann (American, b.1951) is best known for her black-and-white photographs, featuring portraiture and landscapes in the southern United States. Mann was born in Lexington, Virginia, and attended Hollins College. She began working as a photographer for Washington and Lee University after graduation, and her photographs of the construction of the University’s library were included in her first solo exhibition, held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Mann received great acclaim and critique for her Immediate Family series, in which she photographed her own children, often nude, in ethereal, unsettling works, picturing the everyday activities and games of a child while alluding to darker and more serious themes of loss, sexuality, loneliness, and death.

Mann’s more recent works include photographs of landscapes in the Deep South, which incorporate 19th century methods of developing photographs, and use damaged cameras and lenses, giving her work a scratched, unfinished look that continually references the photographic process. Mann has been awarded a Guggenheim fellowship and three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and has published several books of her photography. She exhibits her work around the world, in cities such as New York, Berlin, Chicago, Rome, and Tokyo. She currently lives and works in her hometown of Lexington, Virginia.