Brock & Ferris > Rockin My World

Kadar Brock

all i can think about are 2 amazing shows i've seen by nyc painters Kadar Brock at Thierry Goldberg Projects and Keltie Ferris at Horton Gallery. i'll quote from their press releases in a bit, but really, i don't tend to read them. but they may help to understand the work if you're not slapped in the face by their fucking talent!

Kadar Brock

Kadar Brock

those black areas are holes. he sanded and scrapped the fuck outta these canvases. sorry for the lack of captions but the gallery website and his didn't have names. there's a whole lot of erasure going on here. something i've been playing w/and trying to get used to in my own work over the last year. he does it so beautifully that it totally inspires me to keep on and buy a big ass tub of gesso. there is something scary and liberating about totally covering up what you might have spent months working on. it allows you to say fuck it and start over. or for what i think is going on here, the erasure is the point. becuz of the aggressive sanding you see bits of color come thru. the surface was so inviting that i totally wanted to run my hand over its surface to feel the slight bumps & ridges, the huge X in the center and stick my fingers in the holes.

from the Thierry Goldberg press release:

The paintings on view are the result of old work that the artist has transformed through a process of erasure. In this sense, the new work consists of residues, traces, specters—end products, evidence of what's left over, after the original images have been almost completely destroyed. In this way, Brock pushes the image to its threshold, stripping away and discarding what the canvas, and by extension, the artist himself, once held fast to, in order to see what remains.

Toying with the notion of what painting is in this way, we have a new understanding of what it really means to "kill your darlings," as William Faulkner once advised. And yet, while Brock, by destroying his early work, has rejected it in one sense, he has, obviously, not disposed of it completely. Rather, through a process of deletion that recalls the practices of Brice Marden or Lucio Fontana, the artist has used a method of eradication to make something new.

Keltie Ferris, <<<>>>, Oil, acrylic, oil pastel & sprayed paint on canvas
80x80"

Keltie Ferris, ((!!!!!)), Oil, acrylic, oil pastel & sprayed paint on canvas
80x80"

Keltie Ferris, oooo000()()(), Oil, acrylic, oil pastel & sprayed paint on canvas
100x80"

these looked like giant out of focus old atari games. the fuzzy spray paint was disorienting in all the right ways! reminded me of what the world looks like to me w/out my contacts in. while w/kadar's work i saw the courage to cover shit up and move on, in keltie's i saw a wonderful reckless abandon w/color, materials and form - something else i've been working on. both artists' work are not clean and neat - they're messy and you can see that they've been there. she layers the shit out of all kinds of bright materials that adds up to a dense explosion in your face. she also has the courage to cover old stuff up too. what's great is that you see all that, you see a bit of her process. i kept walking back and forth from the paintings, squinting my eyes wondering if i could get the paintings in focus - i had created a game for myself. i'd like to go back w/out my contacts in and see what kinda crazy happens.

from the press release:

Treating  every mark like a found material, Ferris builds her work like a bird builds a nest, or a beaver a dam. Each mark remains openly and honestly itself, and of its material: the spray is not masked, the oil pastel is not blended, and all 48 colors from the box set are used. However each mark is tightly knit to the structure of the painting.

The work is non-verbal, more like noise then language, more akin to flashing lights and potential energies then anything namable. Therefore each painting is titled by a set of punctuation marks, such as (((!!!))) created by the artist to emblematize the emotive, nearly expletive nature of her work. Other titles (including the title of the show) allude to bathroom graffiti, notebook valentines, as well as the ambition of marking a space and marking a future.

both shows are up until the end of the month; kadar brock until the 23dec, keltie ferris until 30dec. if you're in nyc, CHECK THEIR SHIT OUT!