Aug 4th, 2020 • 9 minute read
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The Weekly Curation: People
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As humans, we are programmed to find ourselves in patterns, nature, reflections, and, of course, art. We see faces in wood stains on the bathroom door, clouds shaped like people, even Jesus and Mary on burned toast. That’s why it’s not surprising that people are some of our favorite subjects in art. Art in Res is filled with so many amazing artists capturing the human body and face that it was nearly impossible for us to pick just 8 this week!
As we are hardwired to see ourselves, many of our abstract artists last week could have fit into this curation as well–– abstraction and figuration are not all that different and often overlap in discussion and technique.
That leads us to this week's curatorial discussion; how do we identify a person in a work of art? It seems simple enough, but, of course, when it comes to art the answer is always more complex. Do we recognize people by their faces? Bodies? What about a few toes, dipping into the edge of a canvas or the close up of the skin of someone’s hand? Art can portray bodies in motion, bodies at rest, abstract figures, and more. Is the abstract mind of a person still a portrait - their thoughts, feelings, and memories? What makes a portrait and what makes it recognizable to the viewer?
This week artist and curator Mel Reese brings together a collection of Art in Res pieces which explore exactly what a portrait can be and how we show humans through art.
And, as always, summer is the perfect time to hit the refresh button. Let’s refresh each of our own homes with a window into a whole new world.
Scroll through the post to see Mel’s placement of each piece, as well as how the selected works come together in a thoughtful, coalescent collection. Make sure to also catch Mel’s helpful educational tips on curating your own collection!
Now let’s scroll onward –– happy browsing!
Personality
This iconic face from artist Sylvie Mayer is a painting, but not a likeness. We know it is a specific person, Carol, listed in the title of the piece. We may not recognize Carol’s face on the street, but we know her personality –– through muted tones, frenetic brush strokes and drips. Perhaps the artist reflects Carol’s thoughts, the inner workings of her mind, as she was painted more than her physical self.
Sylvie works mostly in painting and drawing. She is informed by transitions; the last days of fall when the leaves barely hang on to the trees, the moment of reaching a hand out to give or receive, the passageways and thresholds that mark our lives as we navigate aging. She paints moments that serve as turning points, capturing the implied possibility that something is about to happen.
Portraiture
Ah the traditional portrait. It is a bust painting, showing the face and shoulders, cropped at the torso like a Roman emperor in marble. It is a gorgeous and accurate rendering of a man. It’s specific and accurate –– we feel we could recognize him in a crowd. However, unlike Carol, we are not given this man’s name… he is only identified by the color shirt he is wearing. We know him by face, but do we really know anything about him? Do we know humans by face or name or some other ephemeral quality?
Renée has lived between the United States and Paris, France studying fine art and art history. Aesthetically, Renée’s work is influenced by her classical sensibilities and art historical background that have developed throughout her travels and studies. In these paintings and her continued work, Renée explores ubiquitous themes through the eyes of a millennial such as identity, feminism, death, equality and addiction, making her work not a quotidian narrative but rather a relevant and relatable story.
Individuals
Here we see a take on the traditional portrait, an iconic framed photo every viewer is familiar with –– the mug shot.It shows a group of six black men, all clad in the same shirt. They are connected, though each man is distinctly different in age and appearance. We aren’t given their names, only the identification number around their necks. With our current political climate and lifetime of learning American history, we feel a pressure of pain and sadness seeing these men lined up. Through the title Tell Him we are given only hints, left to fill in our own stories.
Imani Shanklin Roberts is a Washington, DC native currently based in New York. As an artist and enthused educator who peels apart topics on race, gender, and identity, she seeks to create and facilitate socially responsive work that encourages ideas of self-realized liberation.
Body
The works of Carly Bodnar are both narrative and abstract –– the human skin she shows is tantalizing, intimate, and sometimes frightening. In this medium scale painting, Bodnar has captured the gravity and shape of the entire human form. Though she does not show a face or even the head of the figure, we understand this as a person. It is a being with an entire body, an entire presence, trapped in the confines of the canvas edge. We are voyeurs in our viewing of the anonymous naked body, the subject unaware that we may be peering in, faces pressed to the glass. This painting is about the body, the flesh itself, in action. Frozen in a moment, it is not an individual, but the body of anyone.
Carly Bodnar is a painter of flesh and the figure. Her recent work explores the way the natural body intersects with the conflicting demands of society.
Memory
Though this piece feels so similar to the traditional bust, this woman seems to fade before our very eyes. Like a tower of sand into water, she disappears into the canvas, blowing away in the wind. It’s a fragile moment, suspended forever as she dissolves. The woman is painted in the exact same color as the foreground she exists within - the background colors and textures providing only the sense of groundedness in the illusion of a possible horizon line. She fades away, like an old memory, lingering feelings left behind. We can understand this portrait as commentary on what it means to be remembered –– how do we portray those that exist only in our memory, slipping and fading away over time?
Alain’s words about this painting, “A flow state is fluid and of no mind and therefore it does not bounce around or get distracted or stuck in awareness. It just is and like water leveling with gravity's pull it is perfectly removed from surface and self. Flow is of the moment yet out of the conception of time. As ephemeral as hair whisping in the wind near waves.”
Commonalities
In the work of Becca Shmuluvitz we see a totally different form of portraiture. In these primal scenes, the artist depicts imagined scenes, set in the deep past or distant apocalyptic future. This shows a community –– people together in action, swimming, fishing, diving, and splashing. With an outstretched arm clutching a wriggling fish and feet suspended in the water, we can feel the movement and community of this group. It’s a moment caught in time, figures in motion, finding food and at play. It’s fun, but also a dark imagining. We recognize the movements –– splashing through water, diving deep, trying to catch a fish wet between our fingers –– but it’s also foreign, a time and place that does not belong to us.
Becca Shmuluvitz is a Brooklyn born artist working out of Westchester, NY. Becca's work involves images of an imagined pre-historic/post-apocalyptic landscape. She uses this world as a backdrop to express ideas of solitude, survival, and rebellion as well as current personal and collective anxieties.
Narrative
Like Sylvia Mayer’s Carol, we know Jeanne Jalandoni’s portrait shows a very specific person, Tricia. But here we are given much more about the subject –– from her detailed clothes to her abundance of food to her smirk. We learn about Tricia from the objects that surround her, lush and plentiful. She holds fruit in one hand, an iPhone in the other. What makes her laugh? What’s the little secret playing at the corner of her eyes? These are all purposeful visuals as a tool for the artist to tell a story, to create a narrative for us as the viewer to have a better understanding of who the subject is, of who Tricia is.
Born and raised in New York City; based in Uptown Manhattan. Her paintings explore cultural identity, with a main focus on her Filipino American identity.
The New Portrait
In this glorious, colorful romp by Caroline Burdett we see a new type of portrait - showing the era of COVID-19. This has been a long, scary, strange road for us all - thrown into both isolation and fear - our minds unraveling during a global pandemic. This bright painting shows the chaos of our solitude, the moments we danced around, undressed, wore masks, and threw ourselves across the floor. It’s an embodiment of each of our struggles to entertain ourselves, to find a bright moment, a little dance through this time. But how do we recognize each other through a mask when our features are obscured? How do we see others in portraits like that? We have an instant recognition of the mask, something we know will stick with us for a lifetime - the iconic mask now signifying forever the year 2020.
Caroline Burdett is a visual artist living in Los Angeles, California. The artist began producing paintings in 1999 while living in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico. After years of working in the field of healthcare she has returned to her roots in fine art and is a full-time artist in Los Angeles.
Bringing it Together
On curating the collection:
Let’s learn how and why I brought these pieces together –– I want to walk you through what I’ve considered. Whether you’re an experienced collector or totally new to the art world, it’s always fun to thoughtfully discuss what makes a great collection.
This week I’ve brought together just a few of the countless amazing figurative artworks available on Art in Res. Although each piece has a similar subject, a human being, we have seen just how many different ways artists can approach portraying the human figure.
Subject Matter:
As we said, each piece shows a figure –– a person. Yet each artist approaches their subject in a completely different way. For many portraits, the face is front and center. We lock eyes with the portrait, confronted by a specific person, a memorable face. Others, we see their gaze averted, avoiding us. But we also see bodies, faceless and anonymous, figures in motion we have caught off guard.
Titles:
Since our subjects are so specific, title plays a huge role in understanding the intention of the artist. Some are direct –– like Sylvie Mayer’s Carol or Jeanne Jalandoni’s Tricia. We recognize these works as specific people, portraits intended to share that one personality. Others are more descriptive, like Becca Shmuluvitz’s Swimmers or Caroline Burdett’s Quarantine No. 40, giving us a glimpse into the story of the artist, what they imagined beyond the canvas. Other pieces lead us to a deeper meaning, another hint from the artist, taking us into their vision, like Carly Bodnar’s Passant and Imani Shanklin Roberts’ Tell Him.
Materials:
Each week we are lucky enough to see work all across the spectrum of materials. Today. I’d like to highlight the unique drawing Swimmers by Becca Shmuluvitz. She works in a material we have not fully explored in our curations, though every collector is very familiar –– graphite pencil. Graphite is both a strong, durable material, as well as very delicate in its application. It has a hard consistency –– each stroke of the material on paper produces a light, delicate grey line. To achieve a darker, heavier area Becca would need to build her work, slowly with each stroke. It’s a time consuming, meditate process, producing detailed, gorgeous pieces like Becca’s.
With these new viewing tools in hand, happy collecting!
Curated by Mel ReeseZhuzh by Emily Berge
Virtual installations courtesy of ArtPlacer