Paolo Ventura

Ventura’s Winter Stories series is a collection of surreal photographs that blur the boundaries of what a 2-D image can be. Each image is a mixture of paintings, performance, and costume captured in digital then printed on paper; just the mediums are enough to consider. However we are further bombarded with concept as these theatrical scenes boarder reality and fantasy as well. Knowing that we exist in a post-modern, and post-Freudian society, this work automatically will get slammed into a surrealist dialogue where the artists dream psychology will be informing how we interpret what we see. However, I think that there is more to it than old fashioned dream analysis. There is a sense of nostalgia and memory here but overriding that is a macabre aesthetic that seems to desire creating a fantasy. Fantasy to me is equivalent with miracle, and leaves me with a sense that the world can be more than what we make it on a day to day basis. The potential for miracles is almost realized in Ventura’s Winter Stories, and I’m left inspired.
http://www.hastedhunt.com/photos.php?a=paolo_ventura&i=57806

Winter Stories, #48, 2009, digital C-print 40x 50

Winter Stories, #31, 2009, digital C-print 40x 50

Hiroshi Watanabe

This is from the introduction of his book: “Ideology in Paradise” by Mado-sha, Japan

"In fact, the experience of looking at Hiroshi Watanabe’s images is eerily like stepping into a Social Realist painting: the ruddy-cheeked young girl playing the accordion, the traditional gowns in brilliant pinks and greens of dancers swirling beneath the omnipresent image of the dear leader and the DPRK flag. One is quietly lulled into the sense that life in North Korea might, in fact, be just as it appears within the frames of these images—normal—instead of like the stories of kidnappings, military posturing, and famine. To Watanabe, it is this sense of tension between the news stories flooding the media in both Japan and in the U.S. and his experiences traveling and photographing—under careful surveillance of his two guides and assigned driver—that interests him in this topic. The results, engaging, yet still mysterious, bring us one side of this closed-off place, introducing us to a vibrant, compelling set of individuals, but still leave us to wonder."
Lesley A. Martin, Aperture Book Program


This work actually makes me think about Matthew Barney’s theatricality and heightened drama of a simple moment taken out of context. An odd correlation, I know.
While much of his work has a documentary feel, and may actually be documentary, it seems Watanabe makes even simple feel very important with a burden of context on their shoulders. Again, the photos of North Korea allow a western viewer to see some images that we normally wouldn’t, but like a social-realist painting, we have to question how much of this content was constructed, either by photographer or official people.
http://www.hiroshiwatanabe.com/index.html

“Kim Il Sung’s Birthday” Photograph, 2006, dimensions and specifics of media unlisted

“Lim Chun Sil”, Photograph, 2006, dimensions and specifics of media unlisted

Georgina Valverde

Valverde’s work seems to be about connecting things, in a literal way. While the objects have a simple grace about them, so simple at times that it is on the edge of poignant and cliche. Using many found objects, yarn, and a camera. Valverde installs in and out side of the white cube, and place seems to be important to her work.
Her website:
http://www.georginavalverde.com/

Blue Extension, 2004, Nylon, acrylic, and synthetic hair, 18’x 17”x 17”

Untitled Installation View, 2002, mixed media, dimensions vary

Route of Exposure, Installation View, 2006

Terry Braunstein

Braunstein’s work adresses different levels of looking. Working in miniature, with photos, found objects, and wire, Braunstein sets up whimsical scenarios. The added layer of photos of this work is also interesting to me. However, gallery information (Craig Krull Gallery in LA) was quite limited, I would have liked more to go from as I am interpreting the work online.
Here is the website for the gallery:

http://www.craigkrullgallery.com/

Installation, 2008, mixed media/ assemblage, dimensions unknown

Installation detail

Haegue Yang

Using interactive media, where the elements are triggered by the movement of visitors, Yang develops changing spaces. These installations reference community, how we interact within space, and how spaces separate us too. Inspired by Maurice Blanchot’s Unavowable Community, where community is defined by distances between people, Yang explores the tensions between being connected and being independent.  I’m not a big fan of her website, but if you have 20 minutes here is a link to a great article from ArtForum:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_5_41/ai_96223226/

“Three Kinds”, aluminum venetian blinds, moving spotlight, floodlight, 2008

 

“Series of Vulnerable Arrangements- Shadowless Voice over Three”, aluminum venetian blinds, moving spotlights, mirror, infared heater, fan, sound system, scent emitters (Fresh Air, Fresh Cut Grass, Earth, Dinosaur Dung, Buddha Temple, French Bread, Coffee Shop, Garlic Butter), 2008

Jen Bandini

Bandini is the author of one of my favorite blogs : Escape to New York: the life of an artist in new york city, where I live vicariously (temporarily).
http://escape-to-new-york.blogspot.com/

Bandini recently had an exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery. She is an excellent art critic and while I don’t always agree, I always appreciate what she has to say.
Bandini often works with portraiture, both in photography and painting. There is an emotional sense of urgency, noting the sometimes awkward and beautiful everyday moments of human interaction. Also, she would probably critique the hell out of my little critique...extra awesome.

wil, 2008
 

 Untitled, from Domestic Bliss series, 2008

Aaron McIntosh

McIntosh explores the abundance of “heteronormative ideals of love” that overwhelm contemporary visual culture.  Using printed material, patterned cloth, lace, romance novels, and erotic magazines McIntosh selects and edits the content from the print material and juxtaposes the images with different materials in a witty critique. He is an MFA student (Fibers) at Virginia Commonwealth University
http://aaronmcintosh.com/home.html 

“Captive Heart Boyfriend”, straight romance novel pages fused to canvas, pen, marker, gouache, highlighter, colored pencil, 49”x 82”, 2009