VIDEO: MaLLy & The Sundance Kid “Good One”

Along with our cohorts, directors Isaac Gale and David Jensen, Permanent produced a music video for Minneapolis hip hop staple, MaLLy. The single, “Good One” is off the recently released album, The Last Great. 

Credits:

MaLLy

Song Produced By: The Sundance Kid

Directed by: Isaac Gale and David Jensen

Director of Photography: David Underhill

Producer: Kate Iverson

Production Company: Permanent ADG

Editor: Isaac Gale

Camera Operator: Randy Kramer

LINK TO ALBUM

ORDER ALBUM

Special Thanks to: Truth Be Told, The Chalice, Marc Sanyal, K.Raydio, James Barnett, Randy Kramer, William Panzarella, Aegis Foundation, and CO Exhibitions

Nylon Magazine June/July 2012: Polica

Recently, we produced a last minute shoot for Nylon Magazine’s June/July issue featuring hot band of the moment, Polica (or rather we shot Polica’s ethereal singer, Channy Leaneagh). Due to the quick turn around and very limited time with Channy, we opted to shoot in one of our galleries, using artwork by current exhibitor, Isaac Arvold, as a backdrop and also incorporating projections of photographs and graphic design. We did three shots with different moods for Nylon to choose from. The magazine is on stands now through the end of July, so pick it up!

CREDITS //

Photography: Eric Melzer/Permanent ADG

Creative Direction: Kate Iverson/Permanent ADG

Styling: Tricia Khutoretsky/Permanent ADG

Hair: Caitlin Dvorak/Haus Salon

Makeup: Heath Bryant/Haus Salon

Clothing: Emma Berg

Jewelry: Rox Jewelry

Background Art: Isaac Arvold & Eric Melzer

Location: CO Exhibitions

Production: Permanent ADG

Interview w/ Isaac Arvold, “Second Hand Emotion” @ CO Exhibitions

If Van Gogh in his day, had fallen upon the misfortune of losing three of his sketchbooks, likely he would have cut his losses, sulked and moved on. Poor Van Gogh would not have had scans or high-res images of the lost artwork. Nor could he import those images into Photoshop and manipulate them into patterns, change scale, and print on various mediums from paper to fabric. He couldn’t have gone online and reached out to his network with music videos and awesome prizes to raise enough money to paint huge canvases of the images from memory then rent a truck to travel cross country with the re-imaged artwork in tow. Whatever potential for greatness lived in those sketchbooks would have been gone forever. Had Van Gogh lived today he might have seen fame before he passed away.

Much like Mr. Vincent Van Gogh, Issac Arvold refers to himself as a painter in the traditional sense. However, everything about his upcoming show, Second Hand Emotion, opening this weekend at CO Exhibition, suggests that Isaac is much more than a traditional painter. What is most visionary about him is his understanding of the experientality of art. If you follow Isaac on any social media outlet, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, You Tube, or Instagram, etc… you might have already realized that Isaac’s show started months ago. The art of now is undeniably something that happens in time, less a collection of objects and more a memory of events. Documentation is all that remains of a temporary exhibit experience in a world where high paying art buyers are few and far between. Museums are already full of artifacts and technology supports more creative producers than there are collectors. What sets an artist apart in today’s world is their ability to see the possibilities beyond the object they create. Second Hand Emotion suggests that Isaac embraces this idea, but is also incredibly inspired by it.

I chatted with Isaac via Skype, fittingly, a few days before the opening of his show….

I’m friends with you on Facebook and I follow you on Instagram and Twitter. As a result I feel distantly connected to this exhibit that you’ve been working on for the last few months, because you have been continually posting images and bits about your process and journey. Has this been deliberate as a means of getting people interested in your show, or is there more there for you?

Considering how much time people spend on computer screens, the traditional handbill is kind of dead.  Technology allows us to create a new handbill. It’s about adapting and changing. I enjoy playing around with it and yes, sometimes it can consume you, but I’m just trying to have fun with it. I think that we live in an age where to it’s hard to convince people to look at something that isn’t moving. We need constant reminders, or maybe that’s just my perception because I forget things all the time. But lately, documentation has become almost as important as the work itself.

So you haven’t been documenting simply to promote the show through social media. In a sense it’s served as  an outlet for sharing bits of your documentation as you keep an ongoing record of your progress?

Yea, if I am going to do this much work, I’m going to want this documentation in 5 years, I might want it in 2 years.  You just never know what avenues it can lead to. I already know I want my next exploration to involve making weird art videos etc…  to see how far I can take an idea through video.  But, at the same time I’ll admit I am probably over-documenting things because I lost my sketchbooks and I’m probably over-sensitive.  Maybe I’m paranoid? I might just be that too, who knows.

There is certainly some validation in sharing content online. It feels comforting to put something out to the social media universe and not only get feedback but preserve it somehow in cyberspace. Are you affected by the reactions to bits that you’ve shared about your yet to be completed exhibit?

To certain things, yes and some things, no. I made four short video clips leading up to the show. Some of them had a couple hundred views and some of them had 50 views. I could care less if anyone sees them or not. I think its fun to play around and not be bound by anything…

Of course it’s fun in theory… but artists are sensitive people. Let’s say you post an image of a work in progress and you don’t get any “likes” or positive feedback. How much does putting yourself out there affect your confidence as an artist?

Not at all. Like any artist I get self-conscious or worry about how things are going to be perceived, but then I come to the conclusion that I’m just going to do me, and that’s okay. I want people to have a good time. I want people to come and look at art. Of course, the end goal is to sell it and I would love for this to be my full time job but really, I just want people to be interested in seeing it. I haven’t shown art in 2 years and I feel like despite a lot of traveling and moving, it’s still me but I’ve grown and changed. I’m excited to share it.

Let’s get to the sketchbooks…. which is where this all started. Tell me what was in the infamous lost sketchbooks.

One of the books I brought on every single tour that I did with Rhymesayers. A majority of those tours were with Atmosphere and Brother Ali. I filled that book with sketches during my downtime. Sitting and drawing on the road, a lot of fun stuff came out. The other 2 sketchbooks were from when I moved to New York. A lot of the material had to do with ending my relationship of 6 years, which resulted in drawing real things.  All three of the books were no bullshit sketchbooks. There were no doodles in between…. every page was a well thought-out, completed piece. No erased edges or unfinished drawings, they were like picture books front to back, fully finished.

Three precious books filled with the visual journal of your life’s trials and tribulations. Sounds valuable… how did they end up getting lost?

I got home one day in NYC after hanging out with this new girl at the dog park, and they were gone. Basically, I must have left my bag with the books on the side of the road or the top of the cab when I put some paper down for my dog to sit on in the car. It was crazy, it happened so fast. They were just gone.

But luckily, you somehow had the books documented. What did that entail? Scans? Images? Why did you document them to begin with?

I’ve always documented my work. On my YouTube page, I have time lapse videos posted since 2006. I’ve always been into sharing the process of creation. After finishing a painting I always take a photo of it. With regard to my sketchbooks, I had just bought a new camera and happened to snapshot all of the pages instead of scanning them in. The experience of losing the books has confirmed the need for it. Now I’m faced with how far I take it without being neurotic and crazy about it. Does everything need to be documented? What needs to go out there into the universe and what is just documented for my sake?

So we’re full circle back at social media and sharing content online. What’s becoming clear to me is that your exhibit is really not just about the end product. It’s been about the journey and about the process and really, your “showing” of this work has been ongoing and will culminate in an exhibit in a gallery. So when how did the content of the books lead to the idea for a gallery show?

I had no intentions of doing anything with the sketchbook drawings until they were lost. I was so bummed out. I didn’t go to the studio for a month because I was so down about it. It was stupid, now that I look back on it. People lose shit all the time.  

I sense a turning point coming on…

It was sad and I was a bum for a month, so I definitely took my time but eventually I was like…. life is still good. You’re not that tortured. I felt inspired to do something since in reality I didn’t lose it completely, I had it documented.

It makes me think of the classic saying: “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone,” right? Essentially what was just sketchbooks, when lost, revealed their potential to be something more. So why did you decide to do something with it in Minneapolis instead of New York?

I would love to show it in New York but I wanted to have this be a catalyst and an example of what’s possible. In Minneapolis, I am blessed with a network of amazing people that support me, and friends who are talented. In Minneapolis, people gather around to bring each other up, so it seemed like the right place for this to happen.

You definitely reached out to your network to make this happen, how did it all end up coming together…. from the Kickstarter campaign to raise money to bringing in various collaborative aspects of the show.

Everything came down to the cost of renting a truck and getting things made and printed. Kickstarter seemed like a viable way to make it happen and I had a network of people who were willing to put it out in the universe and see what would happen.

It constantly evolved and progressed. I didn’t set out originally to make video installations and custom shoes and everything else that it became. I said I wanted to make something out of this work and then one thing led to another. I thought one of the designs might make a really cool fabric. My sister happens to do upholstery work and she got a couch from a Minneapolis public school auction from an old teacher’s lounge. So we got fabric made to upholster the couch. Crystal Quinn and Luisa Fernanda Garcia-Gomez are doing some incredible things with custom shoes, so I asked if they would be interested in a collaboration using the leftover fabric. I also have my sister and Nicole Mills-Novoa creating cupcakes that have my illustrations on the frosting. 

It sounds like you set no boundaries, people can see, feel and even eat your art. The process of resurrecting the sketchbooks has really become a catalyst for creativity and collaboration in various forms.

Yea, my roommate Maria Juranic filled and edited the videos with me, and BK1, Nick Collis, and Eric Anderson gave me original music. Marijuana Deathsquads also contributed some music. It’s awesome to come back to a network of people who are willing to help out. Why not celebrate each other’s talents? Everyone I’ve asked to contribute, I respect in realms even outside art. I want work with them so why be bound by limitations? If I have an idea why not try to make it be feasible instead of just thinking, “that would be cool.” We live in a time where if you can think it, you can do it. This show has inspired so many ideas about how I can make more art. Being an artist is about finding ways to evolve and push forward. I’m not the same person I was 5 years ago and I hope that my art evolves because I have as an individual.

It’s apparent to me that your art has aesthetically evolved. Especially with this exhibit, I can see a new flavor in your work… a bit subdued, maybe darker but it still carries your playful lightness. There’s certainly a heavier weight, where is this coming from?

Touring has been one of the greatest experiences of my life but I lost a little bit of my rhythm with making art because I’d be gone for a month or two and then home for a month. Moving to NYC also changed my rhythm, I was out of a studio space for a year, which hadn’t happened to me in 10 years. Once I got in a space, my relationship ended. I finally decided to settle down and not worry about anything but making art and that’s when it all started to come out. There’s always been a dark side to my art and I see myself as a kid, so those elements are still in the illustrative base of my art. But with this batch there’s been life changes and growing up. I don’t know, maybe the heaviness is just because I’m a sad person on the inside. Maybe sometimes the feelings inside hurt the other feelings inside. I’m not sure.

Having all that work in front of you at CO right now as a complete body of work, how do you feel about it, does it feel true to where you are as an artist?

I could work on these paintings for another year, but I think that happens with any painter, you just continue to find those picky details. It is nice to come to a spot where you can stop. I’m happy with it. I have 54 paintings. Two of them are 6x8 ft and a completely different style, more detailed and colorful. Two are 4x8 ft and there are 48 smaller paintings. There is also installation, we built a shanty-town tattoo booth with some voyeur holes where Jon and Zack from Uptown Tattoo will be doing free tattoos at the opening. I masonited one of the walls so I could do some more on-site painting. But, as far as the body of work, I’m proud of it. I can find flaws and look for things I would change, but you always do that as an artist.

The final exhibit includes various mediums, large scale and small scale work, fabrics, installations, collaborations, cupcakes, videos, tattoo artists, etc. In recreating the content from the sketchbooks you’ve created a whole inspired empire. Do you think that losing the notebooks in some way has given you this freedom to explore?

Losing the sketchbooks was the best thing ever. It got me out of a rut. It put me in the mindset of ‘just make more… you can always make more.’ The funny thing is that now I’m hoping to lose it again. I hope that I can get rid of it, ironic because I was so devastated the first time that I needed to recreate it. Now I’m recreating it to lose it again…. because hopefully it sells, and of course it will eventually be de-installed. Once it is all done, I’ll be left again with just documentation.

I’m sure summing this whole journey up into a title had to be tough. What inspired the title “Second Hand Emotion”?

Initially I came in to CO and told Wes, Kate, Joe and everybody that as cheesy as it sounds I was thinking about calling it “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” It was a bit obvious though, having to do with the love of traveling, the love from relationships, losing the sketchbooks. So Wes suggested the second line of that song, “what’s love but a second hand emotion.” Second Hand Emotion had a nice ring, fitting since it’s the second time I’m recreating these drawings. It’s about resurrecting them, about relationships, new beginnings and a second breath of air for all of this work. And if you take the acronym: S.H.E. it’s perfect because a lot of this came from “she”…in terms of my ex.

You’re two days away from opening a rather ambitious show what will go down as “Isaac Arvold: Second Hand Emotion.” Are you feeling ready for it?

When you say 2 days I get freaked out but it’ll come together. Basically everything is ready to go despite a lot of moving parts, everything seems to be falling into place.

You seem to be handling a high-pressure producer/promoter/curator/artist role well.

You should see me when I try to sleep.

Are you getting any sleep?

I go through waves. It’s hard to turn off my brain. I have notes everywhere and I keep thinking this would be a good idea… or next time I should do this or that. When do you quit? When do you turn off? I forgot to email someone something….

It’s all awesome though. I’m embracing it and feeling like a lucky guy.

Second Hand Emotion opens at CO Exhibitions on April 21 at 7pm. Show runs through May 20th.

-Tricia Khutoretsky

Q & A With Aaron Maurer

Permanent partner Joseph Belk Interview’s and catches up with his old friend Aaron Maurer. A designer, art director, and artist currently living in New York, born in Ann Arbor MI, but grew up in always balmy Minneapolis MN. 

JB: How do you come to this balance with your art and your commercial design work? And how did it lead into you learning motion?

AM: Finding that balance is always hard, probably one of the most difficult things about living in NY. To work a creative job and keep focused on your own personal art and have a social life in the city is a tough thing to maintain, one thing is always going to suffer. Doing freelance work allows for a lot more flexibility and time to make that work, its a nice luxury to be able to make significant time to put into your own personal art.

I got into Motion Graphics pretty unexpectedly. After Moving to NY and working a lot of unfufilling film production jobs I had an opportunity to get an internship through a friend at Stardust NY. The idea of working in Motion Graphics seemed like the best possible path for a young broke creative type to make a good living in NY while still getting to be creative. I ended up on staff there for 4 years and had a great experience but was left slightly dissatisfied with only working digitally, everything I made was trapped behind the computer screen. I started doing collage and painting as an response to that, to make things with my hands and have a one of a kind piece left when finished.

JB: What is one of your favorite commercial/client projects? 

While working at Stardust I did a short little logo animation for JWT, its really one of my favorite things I’ve done commercially because it was so hands off and we were really just allowed to do what we wanted. Obviously that’s not the way the commercial industry operates but when you can get a project that really is open all the way through the process its very special. 

JB: Whats one of your personal favorite art-based projects?

One great personal project I recently participated in was Electric Projected in Beacon NY. A series of animations were projected on the side of a huge warehouse, each on based off a different mural painted in the windows. Always fun to have your work culminate in a community based event of some kind. 

JB: What companies and organizations have you worked with that you enjoyed?

AM: I’ve had a long and very positive experience working with Stardust. Over the years there I worked with so many awesome people and learned a ton not only about design and technical knowlege but also working with and directing others in a creative environment.  

JB: Do you have a studio outside of your home in NY?

AM: I have a studio in a warehouse space in Bushwick. There was a period where I was making all my art at home, collage materials and paint piling up on my little desk and spilling out onto my kitchen table and counters. Having a separate space is so key though, somewhere that you can make a mess and totally focus on a project and not break up the flow of working because you have to clear space away to eat dinner. 

JB: Art wise what are you looking to accomplish career wise? (I.E - Solo shows, group shows, more 2d work, etc.)

AM: I’d love to keep developing my own personal style and be able to apply that to the creative things I do commercially as well as in a fine arts environment. Having shows (group or solo) is always great and I’d love to do more of that although its not my main drive for making art. I think getting your work out in front of people is really beneficial for an artist and is an important part of the process; seeing that kind of communication between a viewer and an artwork is always inspiring (hopefully they like it). 

  

JB: How has your artwork inspired/driven your commercial/client work? Or vise versa.

AM: I think there are overall visual themes that I like to explore in both kinds of work whenever I get the chance: mixing graphic and natural forms, playing with visual space and finding various ways to explore depth etc. When a commercial project comes along that fits together with the styles I am drawn to its always a huge plus but that’s rarely the case.

I do think that there is a certain element of pop design that has influenced my personal work a lot, not in terms of subject matter but more in a graphic sense. When I make image after image, whether its for a dish soap or a personal piece, I’m always learning something and its key to be open and aware of that and apply it to then next image you make. 

Please checkout more of Aaron’s work here: http://aaronmaurer.net/  

Q&A with Leann Standish: Hurricane proof at the new MAM

We checked in with Leann Standish who is the Deputy Director of External Affairs at the Miami Art Museum. In case you haven’t heard, the museum is moving and being rebuilt from the ground up—complete with some pretty amazing design features that are specific to the structure’s coastal area. The MAM was founded in 1996 as a contemporary art museum located in downtown Miami; the new iteration of the museum is scheduled to re-open in 2013. We asked Leann about some of the architectural features, design thinking, and how the new structure’s technology is going to exist on the ocean’s edge in Florida.

The new MAM. What initiated the move, and where are you working currently?

The current Miami Art Museum is in a facility that was built as strictly an exhibition space. As part of an institution-wide reorganization, MAM dedicated itself to collecting and exhibiting international art of the 20th and 21st centuries. The collection has grown rapidly and now numbers more than 1,000 works of art in all mediums. The new facility will provide vastly expanded exhibition space to present these growing collections, while providing space to continue to grow our education program. Although we are busting at the seams in terms of physical space, the great thing about our current state is that we all work very closely in a rather open office format, and I find that everyone’s work is better and more collaborative because of that.

So you new office will have quite a view, will your window glass be hurricane proof? 

Indeed!  The staff offices at the new facility are on the third floor surrounded on all sides by 16’ windows, which are indeed also hurricane proof.  In fact the largest such windows ever made. 

Could you give us some details on the new structure and its design?

The museum’s setting is phenomenal.  Museum Park (formally Bicentennial Park) is 30 acres right on Biscayne Bay, right where all of the cruise ships turn around.

South Florida’s climate allows people to enjoy the outdoors year round, yet there seems to be a shortage of outdoor spaces. Rather than creating the conventional notion of the museum as an isolated jewel in a park, the new Miami Art Museum provides a shaded veranda, overlooking Biscayne Bay, where people can meet, gather, and spend time with friends.

Working with local and international landscape designers and horticulturists, the architects transformed the veranda into a multi-dimensional garden. This design was meant to bring the park into the museum in new and innovative ways.

The structure is primarily architectural concrete, which although beautiful, can create challenges including weight. We are the first US facility to use a new technology called Cobiax voided slab technology which eliminates concrete where it is not required, considerably diminishing dead weight while maintaining the flexural strength of the slab. The reduction in concrete allows for overall cost reduction, design flexibility, increased seismic performance, and environmental sustainability.

We are also in a hurricane/flood zone, so the museum is designed with this in mind. In addition to having some of the largest sheets of hurricane proof glass in the U.S., the museum has been designed to withstand flood and wind damage.

I think the whole Permanent team might have to fly out for the opening of this facility…. Hmmm…

Sidenote: Herzog & de Meuron are responsible for the design of the new MAM, they also did the expansion of the Walker Art Center, in Minneapolis (2005).

Curatorial Perspective: ACR, Vadim Gershman

Vadim doesn’t want to discuss with me whether or not his work is art. And it’s not that I want to argue with him, my effort towards showing his work should confirm my feelings on whether or not it is art.

The first time I saw one of Vadim’s cloudscapes was at the Burnet Gallery, where his work was included in the ‘Get stARTed’ group exhibit featuring MCAD M.F.A students. I went specifically to the show in search of emerging talent. The gallery had Vadim’s piece displayed on one of the walls that faced the windows, which puts you in awkward close distance to the artwork since you are sandwiched within the 2 feet separating the window and the wall.  Staring straight up at the canvas blanketed in blue sky and white perfect clouds, I was willingly locked in.

Disclaimer: I’m one of those people who happens to look at the sky everyday to make a mental observation of the cloud conditions. I’m not quite sure why I’m so obsessed with the sky, other than the fact that it is entirely endless and completely transformable depending on time of day, weather and the position of the sun or the moon. The sky can make your day with clear blue sunshine and ruin another with rain and gloom.

On second thought, perhaps those are reasons enough to be a cloud nerd. The sky is simply all encompassing, a representation of the universe. I’m into it.

Printed on top of the cloud canvas was translucent text, “the sun also rises, and sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it arose.”

I loved it. I loved the way the clear text faded into and out of the clouds, barely discernable. I remember inspecting the piece, trying to figure out what it was… a photograph? A screen print? The medium wasn’t instantly obvious because it was stretched on canvas as if it were a painting. I examined the Google trademark at the bottom and the Google compass in the top corner. Unsettling. What was Google doing there in the midst of my inspirational moment with a work of art? The Google presence kept glaring at me. Maybe that meant it wasn’t art?  

The piece sold almost immediately. I Googled Vadim, found his website and subsequently his contact info, and I emailed him. I told him how much I loved his piece at the Burnet show, and was curious where the text was from.

He wrote me back, the text was from Ecclesiastes 1:5.

The Bible. I was floored. I’m not religious, but I consider myself intensely spiritual. Yet something about the connection I felt with from that text on the cloud image wavered when I realized the text was from the Bible. The feeling was momentary though, because I couldn’t stop thinking about the art itself. What Vadim created was crazily powerful. The clouds were perhaps Google generated/digitally produced in some way and the words came from a religious context I don’t identify with, but none of that changed the soulful experience I had when I saw the artwork. Despite being fabricated, it made me stop and observe the way I do the actual sky and more than anything… it made me really happy.

8 months later and we’re 2 days away from opening Vadim Gershman’s Alternative Cloud Research at XYandZ Gallery. Since my first encounter with this work, I’ve gotten the opportunity to work with a graphic designer building a solo gallery show. Vadim is the best kind of artist, the kind that over-thinks everything and takes it all seriously, but stays fully aware of the absurdity of it all. His work is exceptional on several levels and expansive in interpretation. I struggled a bit with writing this piece because I wasn’t sure what to address. There’s the presence of Google, the way in which the work is produced, the argument of virtual vs. the real, the screen-printed texts, which since the Burnet Gallery show Vadim has expanded to include philosophy and art texts. We haven’t even touched on the automated web gallery of cloudscapes generated and built to accompany the exhibit…

The other day, as we worked on patching and re-painting the gallery as pristine white as seems fit to house large scale canvases covered in clouds…  I found myself staring at the 10 thumbnails on my computer of the cloudscapes that Vadim ultimately chose for the art works. Even as 2“x2” rectangles the cloud images seemed to glow. Vadim doesn’t simply navigate the sky in Google Street View and snap a shot of the first cluster of clouds he finds interesting. Cloud research requires substantial observation upon which to measure results. These 10 images of the clouds captured in a particular moment are deliberately composed. Imagined as a painting and chosen for some revealing beauty.

The best part is, we haven’t once shown the final works in an image anywhere online, because this art is truly better in reality.

Alternative Cloud Research opens March 31, 2012 at XYandZ Gallery.

—Tricia Khutoretsky

Exhibit Review: Os Gemeos @ Prism (LA)

I think I heard my inner child squeal as soon as I walked into Prism Gallery, and caught my first eyeful of Miss You by Brazilian street art duo and twin brothers, Os Gemeos.

Admittedly, I spend a lot of time looking at art. Besides the fact that I truly believe in order to be good at what I do as a curator, I need to pay attention to as much art as possible… at the core of it I’m really just an art junkie. I can never get enough visual stimulation. And because I look at almost everything with a critical eye, I am always searching for that experience that will blow my mind and leave me speechless.

Os Gemeos did just that.

The entire gallery is painted from floor to ceiling in red and accented by circular, orange to yellow gradations that resemble halos. From the center of each of these circular shapes is a glowing yellow-headed sculpture, peering sometimes at the viewer, sometimes at a painting on the wall. Each painting is a surreal dreamland masterpiece…. depicting storybook, childlike characters who all seem to exist in a parallel more colorful, mysterious reality. From the tiny sequined embellishments on each painting to the exquisite use of patterns and textures, everything is wrapped up in an Os Gemeos signature San Paulo meets street art aesthetic vernacular. There is an awe-inspiring large-scale mural on the wall leading up a staircase. A square box painted with a face, once climbed inside, reveals a cubed space to take in a kaleidoscope of mirrors, lights and sounds. Words that might float around in your head as you look at the exhibit: whimsical, wonderful… wow.  There is no space between art and wall, gallery and artist. The entire space is art.

The exhibit speaks to the impact of an installation-based approach for a solo show. With Miss You, Os Gemeos not only showcases paintings, but allows you to enter their world and experience the place from which their fantastical approach makes the most sense. As street artists they have the advantage of being able to work with scale and see gallery walls as canvas. As a result, their show maximizes the experiential advantage of seeing art inside a gallery. Viewers have unlimited access on the internet to art images. You can Google ‘Os Gemeos’ and find images upon images of their paintings on walls around the world. More than ever, it is becoming important for artists, curators and galleries to aggressively differentiate the in-person experience of the gallery show. In order to be considered exceptional art in today’s visually saturated world, art has to deliver a fully sensory, tactile, and authentic experience. For art to resonate, it has to look and feel better in person. I read several reviews of the show online, and the unanimous conclusion was that this exhibit was everything that art should be, in general agreement that it was an amazing experience.

When I think back to the Os Gemeos show, I can’t stop feeling the warmth that seemed to emanate off the red walls, floor and ceiling surrounding the paintings and the characters within them.  The carefully created environment left me contemplating how the art in the space made me feel rather then what I simply saw. Inspiring indeed, to have seen a show and conclude that every aspect was perfect. Nothing I will ever see online by Os Gemeos will compare to seeing it in person. Because in person, there is nothing to doubt about it’s affect on you.

A present day rare experience for sure, to find art that seems like magic.

—Tricia Khutoretsky

Exhibit Announcement: Vadim Gershman : Alternative Cloud Research

Join Permanent at our XYandZ Gallery for the opening reception of Vadim Gershman’s Alternative Cloud Research - Opening Saturday, March 31st from 7-10pm. 

Alternative Cloud Research is a response to the experience of virtual tourism and an exploration of spiritual potential of digital media. This project consists of an automated web archive, which continuously searches, processes, displays and archives images of clouds from Google Earth. Another component of the exhibit is a series of printed works on canvas, which confront the spiritual/transcendent dimension of Google. 

Gershman’s concept for Alternative Cloud Research came spontaneously during a Google Earth excursion to Sao Paolo in the Summer of 2011. In an attempt to navigate out of a tunnel, Gershman accidentally found himself facing the clouds, arrested by an unexpected richness of color and light. He was inexplicably struck by this experience and consequently began to travel inside Google Street View with a specific purpose of seeking out and capturing compelling skyscapes. During busy workdays the process of virtual travel would often become a much needed meditative reprieve and the purpose of these excursions, a valuable destination. To behold a vivid, vast yet entirely lifeless sky is at once exciting and slightly unsettling. In a world where more and more experiences are re-directed to and mediated by digital media, a place where virtual reality persistently seeps into the physical world and vice versa, how clear is the line between the real and the virtual? 

The automated aspect of this project was created with support from Jayesh Iyer. 

Watch our studio visit video with Vadim:

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Vadim Gershman is an artist/designer. He works collaboratively, across disciplines, creating projects that range from formal to conceptual, working in 2d, video, installation, web and performance. Despite a certain resistance to definition, Vadim approaches his practice as a form of critical address as well as a catalyst for exchange. Currently his work explores portable communities, simulation and the nature of a lived experience at the intersection of the real and the virtual. 

Vadim was born and raised in Ukraine. He received a BFA in Communication Design from University of Connecticut and studied book design at the London College of Communication. He currently finds himself in the final stretch of his MFA in Design at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. 

OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, March 31st / 7-10pm / Free
The exhibit runs through May 5th

XYandZ Gallery / 3258 Minnehaha Ave S / Minneapolis, MN 55406
www.thexyandz.com

Exhibit Review: Lifelike @ Walker Art Center

Considering that we spend our entire existence surrounded by objects, it’s no wonder we tend to overlook them while also being guilty of overvaluing them. What is a consumer society if not materialistic and trivial? If there is one thing that artists are more obsessed with than the human condition, it is perhaps the object. The new exhibit at the Walker Art Center is an examination of the artist’s fascination with simply, the everyday.

Browsing through the collection of over 50 works by international artists spanning decades from the 1960’s to today, the viewer is presented with an amalgamation of objects exemplifying trends from some of the most disciplined of contemporary art movements. Outside of a necessary nod to pop art upon immediately entering the exhibit, in the form of two Andy Warhol Brillo boxes, expectations for anything glamorous are swept away by a muted palette of mundane things. From surrealist pieces, photo-realistic paintings and conceptual art… the influence of Dada (the social movement that simply aimed to bring attention to the sheer meaninglessness of life and art) threads through the exhibit, and it’s almost impossible not to sense a Marcel Duchamp approach of presenting seemingly random objects as art.

Yet not everything is simple enough to wander past nonchalantly. While a plate of shrimp pad thai by Rirkrit Triavanija and speaker stacks by Kaz Oshido’s appear to look as eerily lifelike as possible, other pieces deliver a trompe l’oeil effect… tricking both the eye and the mind. Is a cigarette pack actually floating? Is a bee really a bee? Is this kitchen a place? Do those elevators actually work? Are those leaves really growing from the crack in the wall?

These questions are not exactly at the core of any deep philosophical contemplation, and yet the exhibit feels exceptionally perplexing. The exhibit poses the question of reality. Simply, what is “real?” Further, why is any object worthy of a tribute or painstaking re-creation in the form of art? The collection of art makes it clear that across decades, countries of origin and influential art movements… regardless of our societal circumstances… artists are undeniably obsessed with making things look and feel as real as possible. There is a need to re-create in some form a memory, a moment, or a mundane object in order to preserve it and give it attention. After all, what is the point of life if we don’t take the time to appreciate even the smallest things? Who but the introspective artist would feel obligated to make them bigger, give them weight and ultimately acknowledge them? Thanks to these artists we are given the opportunity to contemplate our attachment, or lack of connection altogether.

While the obvious experience of self-awareness is readily available through this exhibit, Lifelike left me feeling unsatisfied. In a flawless attempt at familiarity the art feels alienating, creepy and at times morbid. Yes, I know this is also the point, but I’m personally not floored by art that pretends not to be art because simply, it’s boring. How stimulated should I be by a piece of cardboard leaning on a wall that seems to ask, “Why can’t I be art? I’m not actually cardboard.” Besides feeling intrigued about the curious threads between these art works that span decades and subject matter, I didn’t feel connected to it. I didn’t feel amazed, in awe or inspired. It’s bewildering to feel this way about art, especially art that is obviously skillful and contributed by major worldwide contemporary artists.  However this exhibit is still powerful, simply for making me think for days about why I didn’t necessarily love anything about it. Ultimately, it taught me more about what it is in life and art that I do value and appreciate.

I’ll admit that a few pieces in the exhibit did have me lingering in contemplation for more than a moment, a Chuck Close self-portrait (always awesome to examine the thousands of lifelike strands of facial hair in varying lengths) or an entire installation re-creating every last detail in the kitchen of artist, Keith Edmier’s childhood memory (nostalgia is inescapable). Taken out of this collection many of the pieces are exciting works of art, yet surrounded by so much else that similarly addresses the ordinary, it becomes difficult to feel stimulated. This exhibit might have been touted as a “crowd-pleaser,” but I think not so much. To me, it’s an exhibit that shamelessly asks you to love it or leave it. Some will delight in the dual real and surreal feel of the entire collection and revel in the many photo ops of amusement. Others perhaps like me, will need a little more beauty and idealization in art.

And that is perfectly okay, either way.

—Tricia Khutoretsky

Phil Harder: The Evolution of a 16mm Filmmaker

Minnesota-bred filmmaker and erstwhile Permanent ADG collaborator, Phil Harder, has directed music videos for everyone from Prince to CSS to Hilary Duff, but his start began with a 16mm camera and good old fashioned creative vision. And it was that vision, along with the equally formidable talents of former biz partner, Rick Fuller, that spawned videos for iconic and era-defining midwestern acts like The Jayhawks, Soul Asylum, Babes in Toyland, and Low. Harder’s eye for design and his visual concepts have definitely made an impact in the music scene, but he’s also immersed himself in the advertising world, directing commercials for major players such as Apple iPod, Target, HP, Smirnoff Vodka and many more. We recently chatted with Harder, who’s currently residing in New York, about his beginnings, his life, and his current projects…

What got you into film? How did you get your foot in the door?

In 1985 in Eau Claire, Rick Fuller and I had a public access TV show about punk/alt music. We shot bands in Minneapolis at 7th St. Entry and First Avenue Nightclub. It was performance mixed with interviews with bands like The Jayhawks, Magnolias, Breaking Circus, and Rifle Sport. In 1987, I joined Breaking Circus on Homestead Records. We toured the U.S. I met several popular indie bands and made Super 8 videos. My first note worthy super 8 video was for Naked Raygun’s “Vanilla Blue”. I had a brief clip on MTV in 1988 for Steve Albini’s band, Big Black.

Rick Fuller and I bought a 16mm camera and I traveled around and shot about 100 low budget music videos. Rick edited most of these. Many played on MTV’s 120 Minutes in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

My first indie “hit” on MTV was Soul Asylum’s “P-9”  in 1988 (the kid scenes were shot on my family farm in Christie, Wisconsin). Also, The Magnolias “Pardon Me“ was influenced by my favorite music video director, Chuck Statler. I ripped off Chuck’s skinny legged, low camera angles and symmetrical band shots with the singer front and center. Chuck made 16mm clips, pre-MTV, for bands like Devo and Elvis Costello. My first major label video came out in 1993: the Afghan Whigs “Debonair” (smoking was still allowed) 

In 1995, Lori Barbero gave me an opportunity to make the video for Babes in Toyland “Sweet 69” on Warner Brothers. I still work with the post house, Pixel Farm, who introduced graphics into my work with this clip.

Who we’re some of your mentors or people who’s work you were influenced by?

Minutemen and later working with Mike Watt on Walking Into the Cow.

Ralph Nader had a consumer educational show distributed to schools in the late ’70s. Eye opening for a small town kid. Nader taught me to question everything. I remember him analyzing a tire commercial which stated that “their tires were better” then Nader asks “better than what? a doughnut?”

In London I often went to cinemas that showed foreign films by Bergman, Tarkovsky, Kurosawa, Fellini, Polanski, Antonioni, Ozu, Rossilini, Godard, Truffaut, Wenders, Herzog, Varda,Satyajit Ray. I learned a lot watching those filmmakers.

I also collect 16mm educational films by the Charles and Ray Eames, Saul Bass, John and Faith Hubley, Malcolm McLaren, National Film Board of Canada. All are influential.

Tell us one of your most interesting stories.

The clip that made my name as a music video director was Cornershop “Brimful of Asha” in 1997. The video almost got banned. I featured Cornershop playing within the graphics of several 45 record covers. That year MTV began censoring music videos due to a Beavis and Butthead incident. A five year old burned his trailer home and killed his little sister after watching the show. MTV censored violence, some sex, no “headless torso” shots, no smoking, no guns, no drugs, and absolutely no fire. Labels could not advertise releases or merch in music videos. The Cornershop 45s were fictional but MTV made us cut half the record covers, from 48 to 24. I realized the word “Cornershop” was similar to “Censorship” so I altered the ’70s style font from Cornershop to Censorship for a scene. A few days later the video commissioner discovered it just before the video was to be submitted to MTV. She was pissed and told me I would have ruined any chance of MTV ever playing this or any other Warner videos (or something like that). MTV had a monopoly on music videos. We had to remove the “Censorship” scene. The video and song went on to be a hit. Warner didn’t hire me for a while but eventually they forgot and I went on to make many videos for them. I have the “Censorship” version of that video somewhere.

What was the first video you shot?

Rick Fuller approached me to make a video for my Eau Claire punk band, summer ‘85. I thought videos were pop crap, for Prince or Michael Jackson, not punk rock, but Rick persisted so he shot us in our practice space. There were always a bunch of junior and high school kids hanging around because our drummer was in 8th grade. Anyway, I asked Rick if I could sit in on the edit (rule number one-never let a band member watch the edit process). I made suggestions and pushed for effects, changed colors etc to more it more “punk”. I think he liked the result because we worked together for 20 years as Harder-Fuller Films. Rick is now an agency producer and I’m still a freelance director. I can’t find the video but here’s a still.

You have had relationships and continued to work with bands such as Low. Are there others?

Some relationships lasted for years. I did the first Low video for the debut album in ‘94 and continue to work with them. We did a dozen or more videos in 17 years. 7 for Afghan Whigs,  6 Barenaked Ladies, 4 Local H, and more than few for Liz Phair, Betty Serveert, Incubus, Rob Thomas/Matchbox Twenty, Magnolias

What is something you directed that someone even a friend might not know you’ve done? 

I did a feature in 1994. There’s only one 16mm print and I won’t show that to anyone. 

I didn’t tell people about this at the time but it’s now my biggest youtube clip with almost 25 million hits. Hilary Duff “Beat of My Heart”. It’s a long way from my early punk roots. 

I also make dance films with Brazilian choreographers chameckilerner.

I’m not known for hip hop but I’m proud of a video for Goodie Mob. Cee Lo is an amazing rapper. 

You also work with your wife and son on film projects. Could you touch on this? 

Isabelle, our son Otto and I make funny home movies together and we just did a Nada Surf video. 

We ran around New York and basically made the entire video with the three of us. Filming my son is like asking him to eat his vegetables or getting him to go to sleep. He doesn’t really want to do it (He’s 14).

And we did this for a library contest, “The Earthquake Machine”. Otto was into Nikola Tesla.

Our home movies include “Loose Tooth”. Otto’s tooth was hanging by a thread so I thought I would document the moment. The problem was the tooth wasn’t as loose as I thought. We tried it several times. It was rather gruesome in macro closeup but the tooth wouldn’t come out. The next day a classmate pulled it out for Otto so I missed the moment anyway. I discarded the takes until a few years later when I realized it could make a strange film. I put it on Otto’s Youtube site. Now he gets angry youtube messages about this disturbing film. If you can stomach it, watch Loose Tooth- also Otto’s other movies are here. 

What are you working on currently or what have you recently released?

A CSS video “City Grrl”. Isabelle did the wardrobe. 

“The Claw” A movie about pro wrestler Baron Von Raschke (in post production)

“Low Movie” about the Duluth band, 1994 to 2012,  (in post production)

For more info on Phil Harder visit Bob Industries website HERE.

Submitted by Joseph Belk, partner, Permanent ADG