a conversation with Zachary Leener

...
"Since I have a lot of different interests, high and low, I try to exploit that. A sculpture that reads as potentially crude can coexist with one that's more sweet, or fragile. There are a pair of lovers’ graves (albeit dolled up in a sloppy international style).

And two blobs having a kind of unlimited conversation.." - Zachary Leener

work in progress! onwards!

There are many days after looking at art all afternoon you think, why? And other lucky days you think, WHY NOT? The day I happened upon Zachary Leener's tiny ceramic works at IKO IKO, I thought why not!! Zachary, Shin, and Kristin were installing these works in one of Shin's, aka WAKA WAKA, furniture pieces. Within Zachary's works are subtle shifts of color-play, ceramic forms that tickle each other with their stripes and confetti, & monuments perching high upon pedestals only hoping to reach two inches into the air. Confusion and delight set in quickly. I quietly snapped my fingers as I left, and for a moment, I felt home. - David John




"It was familiar to me, The smoke too thick to breathe, The tile floors glistened I slowly stirred my drink, And when you started to sing, You spoke with broken speech, That I could not understand, And then you grabbed me tightly." - DNTEL




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Where was your mind when you were creating these works for this show? The first instinct I had towards your work is play and an element of fun.

Play is a really effective entry into the work. So is the ridiculous. I like to keep things casual — it disarms a viewer and belies some more complex ambitions.

The pieces do have a relationship to toys, tools, artifacts. And they’re shiny, so picking one up is a natural inclination. This may sound basic, but it helps when the work is alluring. You can’t really hand somebody an aggressively decorated, sexually charged object unless you’ve sort of won them over first.


Some of the works appear fragile, balanced, tiny monuments perhaps......

From an empirical standpoint, a forest is a high-density ecosystem covering some limited planar surface. If you Google “beautiful forest,” you’ll get a bunch of picturesque photos of trees. But if you scroll down far enough, you’ll see some crazy shit, gnomes and whatnot. I’m certainly involved in the production of something akin to that. My hope is for the work to encompass a similarly wide range of experience.

My mom refers to one sculpture as the “interlocking purses,” and a photo of that same piece got blogged by a Tumblr called “boner time.” Someone apparently thought testicles. Working in a narrow range of scale and with a cohesive set of surface treatments will naturally unify some pretty disparate elements. Since I have a lot of different interests, high and low, I try to exploit that. A sculpture that reads as potentially crude can coexist with one that's more sweet, or fragile. There are a pair of lovers’ graves (albeit dolled up in a sloppy international style). And two blobs having a kind of unlimited conversation. There are classic sculptural concerns of pedestal and object. And there are definitely tiny monuments, as well as miniatures of those tiny monuments. Regardless, I purposely keep the pieces teetering on the edge of the recognizable, the placeable, so that they’re no longer totally in the sphere of specialized experience. Ideally, you’ll recognize it but you’ve never seen it before in your life. So sometimes it’s difficult to talk about without totally deflating the magic.


What were some of the objects you first made in your childhood, if you can remember?

When I was young, I hated getting dirty so I would just draw nonstop.

above WAKA WAKA's furniture that Zachary's works are installed inside.

How did your work come to IKO IKO, and how did the furniture pairing with WAKA WAKA come up?

I resisted the Internet for a long, long time. When I finally relented and registered a website, the only things I put on it were my telephone number and really terrible photographs of about half a dozen sculptures. Nobody has ever called except for Kristin. She rang me out of the blue and offered to show the pieces. We’d never even met before, but I was obsessed with IKO IKO. It was the weirdest, most fortunate thing. When we decided to do the show, Shin offered to make some sort of armature to house everything. They’re difficult pieces to show because they don’t comfortably fit any conventional notions of display endemic to contemporary art. Right away I decided that the sculptures and their accommodations would have to be inseparable but somehow maintain their independence. I found this shaker table in a book. It was all cherry wood and brass latches with separate compartments for storage. I showed it to Shin along with some photos of Oldenburg’s Mouse Museum. That was that. The man is long on vision. They’re equally perfect with the pieces and without them.


Do you work with other materials, if so which? and do you throw pots as well?

In the past I kept a relatively promiscuous relationship to material — allowing myself to do anything, whatever, whenever. It helped me to stay open. The consequence frequently being work that was unfocused and, for a time, that seemed like an asset. Gradually, though, I’ve reversed course. A sustained engagement will necessarily yield a complexity of result. I’ve been working with clay and at this scale for about a year now, almost exclusively. Unfortunately, that kind of restraint is not something that’s in my nature, but I’ve come to understand the need. Once I established the limits, the world really opened up. Lately, though, when I’m absolutely stuck, I work on perversely polite abstract oil-pastel drawings. They’re coming along. I have thrown some pots, but honestly, I haven’t figured out how to own it.



What sort of kiln do you use, and where is your studio? Is it ideal for making work?

My studio is out in Riverside, about an hour east of Los Angeles. It’s a haul, but well worth it. I try to get out there for a few days at a time. I’m on the second floor of a former Ramada Inn, in a gutted motel room that looks out over the Box Springs Mountains. It’s really deserty, and when the moon comes up, it’s like listening to Neil Young albums. Back in the 70s and 80s, there was a speedway nearby — the Riverside International Raceway — and it was a notoriously dangerous track. I’m guessing it would get pretty rowdy back at the motel, and you can still feel that energy sometimes. Technically, I’m a total cretin. I have almost no formal training in ceramics. Matt Merkel-Hess, a real clay expert, told me the work was good because a ceramist would never give himself the permission to make it. I use an electric kiln that’s about as complicated as a toaster, and a bunch of pre-formulated commercial glazes manufactured for kids and old ladies who craft. If I don’t bring my laptop and I don’t answer my phone, then the studio is ideal for making work. Somewhere I got the idea that serious artists don’t listen to music in the studio. It’s an easy place to focus. What’s not ideal is transporting loads of tiny, delicate pieces across Southern California in a pickup. It’s excruciating, and things used to break all the time. Now I line the cab with foam and it’s not such a problem.




















When I saw the works at IKO IKO, I immediately thought of Sottsass and 80 designers.

80s designers are incredible for their incomprehensibly hedonistic (and at the same time incomprehensibly serene) appropriation of Bauhaus essentialism. Sottsass was a visionary — all those Italians were totally bananas. I’ve always dug Peter Shire, being a California boy myself. Hopefully someday I won’t wear it so much on my sleeve.


What influences you to make work?

Honestly, If I don't work nonstop, I'm not very pleasant to be around.



















Zachary Leener's works
at IKO IKO...Please, visit.....

1298 w. sunset blvd.
Los Angeles,Ca 90026 323.719.1079
HOURS : TUES-SAT 1-7 SUN 1-5

thank you Zachary Leener, Kristin, and Shin.....









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YHBHS interview with Ian McDonald

....
"I also think this is where the sculptural arrangements are born, in that the difference between the support (pedestal, furniture) and the object (sculpture, accessory) is so small that I just collapse it all together. I don’t really start out thinking functional or non-functional, it’s all happening at once."

details of current works from "Wearing"

Ian McDonald's latest exhibition "Wearing" is at Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco until April 23, 2011. I'm psyched to post this conversation with Ian about his latest show, as well as his practice as an artist. Also, for those that do not know his fantastic blog called THE ARM. I suggest bookmarking it now. It's been a daily read for me, and was a huge influence early on for YHBHS.




"Wearing, refers to the displays of non-functional ceramic objects hung, assembled, or arranged to evoke clothing or containers re-configured for puzzling purposes." Can you talk about the ideas behind your current exhibition at Rena Bransten. Where you were in your mind when you were working on these pieces? Are there any direct sources that you worked from in conceptualizing these works? How is this body of work different from your "Decline and Fall" show?

The idea behind “wearing” was really born from the word “wareing”, a sort of complication of language and display. I sometimes think my sculpture is really just a fancy set up to show pottery or wares. Most of the titles for the current exhibition start with “house wearing” or “house wareing”, referring to house clothing or accessories, but in the case of my show, everything exists in one place, an all in one environment. The idea of the all on one environment is something I have been working with for a while now which is related to the still life, but more akin to rearranging the furniture and deciding what one can live with and live without. In addition, all or most of the work is hanging on coat or hat hooks, a further reference to clothing, use and storage. As far as direct sources I was mostly looking at artists and designers that are heavily committed to a type of handmade detail. There are so many sources from Amish quilts to Arte Povera, Marguerite Wildenhain and the California Bauhaus, to my early apprentice days.



Artists that work in ceramics as a medium often make work that is functional and non-functional. Do you work in both realms? Do you separate when you begin with a body of work, whether it will be functional or non-functional?

I work in both realms for a few reasons, but mostly because I don’t see any difference. In most cases the separation is sort of an academic exercise, but it doesn’t change the way I think or work, so I leave it alone. Sometimes I am heavily involved at looking at pottery, thinking about its use, the detail in the rim or a small subtle component. This in many ways then becomes no different when thinking about sculptural arrangements, thinking of subtle components, and it’s possible use. For me, the idea of the functional or use value is a conceptual approach in that parts of my work eschew the purely referential and exist in the world in the form of the real thing. It looks like a bench and acts like a bench because it is a bench. I really like all of this complication, and prefer to stay open to multiple avenues of thinking. I also think this is where the sculptural arrangements are born, in that the difference between the support (pedestal, furniture) and the object (sculpture, accessory) is so small that I just collapse it all together. I don’t really start out thinking functional or non-functional, it’s all happening at once.

























Your sculpture references ideas of multiplicity, and the idea of factory made work. Is this a comment on the potter's life perhaps? Why are you attracted towards repeating certain forms in your shows?

I would shy away from the notion of the factory, as I prefer the individual hand to factory reproduction, but you are right about a sort of “potters life” in that the process in which ceramics goes through is pretty epic. In that case, some work doesn’t make it through the process for one reason or another, and in order to be efficient, almost all of the ceramic components are made at the same time. This probably explains why forms are often repeated, in that I am trying to work something out visually and to make sure I get some of them through the process. Either that, or I am not capable of making anything different. Let’s go with the process response.




Los Angeles in the last few years has been having an awareness around ceramics. Monique Van Genderen and Roger Herman curated some beautiful ceramics shows at the PDC and ACME "Los Angeles Museum of Ceramic Art" this past year that included Ruby Neri, Matthias Merkel-Hess, Kelly Breslin, David Korty, Anna Sew Hoy, Adam Silverman. Is this happening in San Francisco?

The short answer is no, this type of re-energized ceramic is not really happening in San Francisco. The longer answer I think has more to do with the fact that San Francisco and the Bay Area has had a long history with artists dedicated to ceramics over a long period of time, Richard Shaw, Ron Nagle, Annabeth Rosen, Voulkos (after leaving LA), Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, even the original Heath factory is located here. The shows you mentioned feature artists that work in multiple disciplines, and that freshness is evidenced in the ceramic projects. I would be interested however to see what the work would look like over a period of time, investigating ceramics through duration rather than naiveté. Some of the artists you mentioned have been working with ceramics for sometime, and I actually find their work to be more rigorous and interesting. The key is to not fall too much in love with the material in order to keep some edge, while also not just showing work you made one day in ceramics. Those shows have been interesting in that they are embracing ceramics from pure potters to sculpture which hopefully breaks down any hierarchy of thought and process.

House Wearing (flaxen) 2011

Ian McDonald graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2000 with an MFA and currently teaches at the San Francisco Art Institute. McDonald was part of the exhibition “Bay Area Now 5” at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 2008 and his work is included in the collections of The Museo Internazionale della Ceramiche in Faenza, Italy, and the International Ceramic Center, Denmark....






go to Rena Bransten here....
77 Geary Street (between Kearny and Grant Streets)
San Francisco, CA 94108

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2 objects by
Mathieu Leguern











2 objects by
Mathieu Leguern



Something about Mathieu Leguern's work just feels California to me.

From reading his site in French, it appears he lives near the sea in France, and possibly in Paris. These ceramic works call to mind the work of David Cressey, (and in particular his Glyph Wall, go here) and other mid-century ceramicists that have gained recognition in California the past few years.

Looking forward to seeing more work of Leguern's!










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Y H B H S (card catalog) selection 12

India Carpenter, artist, London
"It's such a simplistic statement that it's almost embarrassing to admit, but every time I look at it, I can't help thinking about the people 500... 2000 years ago who sat down and made these objects, with their hands and their knowledge, and with such skill and such elegance."























Two Thousand Years of Oriental Ceramics



India Carpenter writes: "It was quite an easy choice to be honest. It's a big book. The shelf it lives on is pretty rickety. I know it's going to cause an accident and I will be the victim. But, in the meantime this is what I have to say about it........

My book is Two Thousand Years of Oriental Ceramics printed in 1961 by Thames and Hudson.

It lives within easy reach on a shelf above my desk in my studio. It's an exquisite and epic book, thick heavy pages full of large black and white prints and beautiful hand mounted colour plates.

The objects in this book really do blow me away. Each piece, without exception has been created with such immense skill and refinement. They are quite intense objects, just beautiful and full of soul. It's such a simplistic statement that it's almost embarrassing to admit, but every time I look at it I can't help thinking about the people 500... 2000 years ago who sat down and made these objects, with their hands and their knowledge and with such skill and such elegance. It's pretty wondrous. I find it enormously inspiring."















India Carpenter is an artist living in London. Go here to see more of her work. Or follow this link to read a previous YHBHS interview with India Carpenter here...

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Y H B H S (card catalog) selection 10

Anna Sew Hoy, artist, Los Angeles












Environmental Ceramics: Stan Bitters
1976 Van Nostrand Reinhold Company
Litton Educational Publishing



Anna Sew Hoy writes, "Stan Bitters is a local ceramicist who has been making work for many years. I love to imagine living in a home made of ceramic, surrounded by ceramics - Stan Bitters works hard to achieve this."






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"Stan Bitters’ career in ceramics, which has spanned five decades, officially began in 1958, upon his graduation from the University of California at Los Angeles. Armed with a BFA in painting, he was recruited by the Hans Sumpf Company of Madera, California. Sumpf was the country’s largest manufacturer of stabilized adobe brick, and wanted to expand their profile.

Influenced by his fine arts background and some time he had spent working with iconic ceramist Peter Volkous, Stan began to design and create custom ceramics, which included burned adobe brick, handmade floor and wall tile, mosaic murals, wall reliefs, garden sculpture and pottery. All were all suited to both interior and exterior applications.

This large scale work was featured in public spaces, banks, hotels, schools, churches, and industrial complexes. As a result, his influence has been present in the language of California architecture since the 1960s. Bitters’ created a unique niche in the decorative arts arena.

He envisioned a specialized market among architect and builder clients - the time was right for adding an earthy and sometimes whimsical element to the architecture of the day, which was in contrast becoming more mechanized. The goal was to offer “the most creative statement possible, guided by experience and imagination.”

(taken from Ten10 profile. here.)





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Anna Sew Hoy was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1976.
She lives and works in Los Angeles. Anna Sew Hoy’s work has been included in numerous museum exhibitions such as the California Biennial 2008, at the Orange County Museum; “Now You See It,” at the Aspen Art Museum; “Eden’s Edge,” at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and “One Way or Another,” at the Asia Society in New York.

She has had solo exhibitions at LA X ART and Karyn Lovegrove Gallery in Los Angeles; and Renwick Gallery and Massimo Audiello Fine Art in New York.

more images :2010 Sikkema Jenkins & Co. & site here...









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LAMA's
50th Auction!











Los Angeles Modern Auctions.

I just received the catalog today in the mail for LAMA's 50th Auction. I can't even begin to tell you the amount of art, design, and craft they have managed to collect for their upcoming 50th auction. Take a look at the online catalog here...

Peter Loughrey is the founder and director of LAMA, and has steadily been producing ambitious auctions since 1992. LAMA recently co-sponsored one of my favorite local exhibitions: Gaetano Pesce’s first solo West Coast exhibition, “Pieces from a Larger Puzzle” at the Italian Cultural Center. (Go here to read more about that event.)

The preview is right around the corner, so mark your calendars..

"The October 17, 2010 Modern Art & Design Auction will be LAMA’s 50th auction since opening 1992. This landmark auction will feature fresh, first-time offerings of important 20th century Fine Art, Design and Furniture.

Highlights will include a strong selection of Fine Art, such as original works by Pablo Picasso, Ed Ruscha, Bernard Buffet, Niki de Saint Phalle, and John McLaughlin, as well as rare fine prints and multiples by David Hockney, Claude Lalanne, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Also, a collection of five Gertrud and Otto Natzler ceramics will trade hands for the first time since original purchase in the 1950s, one of which is a very large exhibition piece with the desirable volcanic glaze. The auction also includes a rare table by Diego Giacometti and a large selection of Architectural Pottery."

two lots from the upcoming auction:
1. Pablo Picasso, Tete de Satyr (Head of a Satyr) 1960
Colored crayon on paper Signed lower right and dated lower left "10.4.60"
Sold with copies of sales receipts and original photocertificate and letter from Claude Ruiz-Picasso. This work has recently been examined by John Richardson who reconfirmed the authenticity.

2. Gertrud & Otto Natzler Glazed Bowl Studio circa 1958 Ceramic bowl with green and brown crater glaze with drop Signed "Natzler"




















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Peter Fink
vs
Damien Hirst
vs
Dusty Springfield.

Got a bad case of the blues
Its what I get from lovin you
Such a bad case of the blues
Its what I get from lovin you, yeah
A bad case of the blues
What I get from lovin you, baby

Peter Fink
vs
Damien Hirst
vs
Dusty Springfield.



images:
1. Peter Fink
2. Damien Hirst's 1993 We've Got Style (The Vessel Collection-Blue)
3. lyrics by dusty springfield, "bad case of the blues"




"Since Lehman Brothers went belly up, art vultures have been circling its orphaned art collection, waiting for the bankrupt bank’s culture comeuppance. On September 25, the good stuff—Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Liu Ye—goes on the block at Sotheby’s to raise an estimated $10 million for Lehman’s creditors. In a moment when auction houses continue to suffer from lowered prices and depressed sales, modern art is a timely investment."





text via
vanity fair.....








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Louise
Nevelson
(on 1st dibs)

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"”When you put together things that other people have thrown out,
you’re really bringing them to life –
a spiritual life that surpasses the life for which they were originally created."


louise nevelson



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Incised Plaster Sculpture
by Louise Nevelson

This is a striking yet somber sculpture by the famed NYC abstract expressionist. It is cast plaster with incisions throughout and mounted on a stained wood base.

"Untitled" is an edition 2 of 4.

Born in Russia, Nevelson grew up in Rockland, Maine then moved to NYC with her husband after 1918. She studied at the Art Students League under George Grosz , worked as an apprentice to legendary master, Diego Rivera and taught at the Educational Alliance in the Lower East Side


via 1st dibs here.
more nevelson here...

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