Surfaces

Caroline Achaintre at BALTIC, Gateshead

Level 3 of the BALTIC is currently host to an exhibition of work by French artist
Caroline Achaintre. 

Achaintre "works across a diverse range of media that includes textiles, ceramics, prints and watercolours, using techniques typically associated with the applied arts. 

Her work is colourful and potent, evoking the subversive spirit of European carnival and creating an atmosphere that is simultaneously playful and absurd. 

Citing German Expressionism, post-war British sculpture and Primitivism as influences, her work also makes reference to more contemporary sub-cultural strands of sci-fi, the Goth-metal scene, psychedelia and horror films."

http://www.balticmill.com/whats-on/caroline-achaintre

I find both the work and her means of installing the work interesting, considered and inviting. She varies the scale and type of work throughout the exhibition, and forces the viewer to engage with the work in different ways. Large-scale handtufted woollen hangings are impressive both from a distance and up close. Ceramic masks are displayed both in a line on the wall and on bespoke stands that resemble figures.

The 'false wall', (for want of a better term), was specially built for the gallery and the work that she was going to exhibit. 

Colourful drawings in a line face a line of black framed prints, one set neatly aligned to the bottom of the frame whereas the black prints seem to be hung from their central point.

I admire Achaintre's use of colour, not only in her artwork, but also in the means of display such as the different coloured plinths. 

In a recent interview for Aesthetica Magazine Achaintre revealed:

"Colour is an important part of my work, it sets the tone for the world/character the piece is from, often bright, but sometimes also muted and subtle. Again, I play with associations, also through colour. The tufted piece Ray-Inn radiates sun rays, whereas the ceramic sculpture ‘Mola’ looks like it comes from the bottom of the sea."

http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/qa-caroline-achaintre-baltic/




Nowhere is the colour more vibrant than some of the woollen hangings.         

                                                                                                                                                                                                            
"Shooting the threads through a canvas, working from the back to the front, she is basically working blind. She mixes the lengths of threads, producing an uneven surface and allowing accident, something that appeals to her, inspired by her professed love of expressionism."

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/caroline-achaintre-artist-its-the-first-time-i-am-in-a-studio-and-its-warmer-inside-than-outdoors-a6853676.html

Andrea Cohen at Walter Maciel Gallery

LOS ANGELES, CA.- Walter Maciel Gallery presents a new series of work by New York based artist Andrea Cohen. 

For her third solo show at the gallery, Cohen introduces a series of highly textured and patterned hydrocal sculptures cast from bubble wrap, Styrofoam, plastic and foil. In previous work, Cohen has used these materials as her medium to make concurrent references to nature and industry. Now, through the casting process, the legacy of these materials is imprinted on her new work. The liquidity of pigmented hydrocal allows for varying effects when it cures; for example, foil and plastic folds generate both stone-like and fleshy forms in contrast to bubble wrap which leaves behind bold yet mutable patterns suggestive of pock-marked landscapes and perforated architectures. 

Cohen continues to build her sculptures as assemblages, working with play, improvisation, and a deep curiosity in the physicality of her material. She pours, tints, blends, folds, squashes, models, fragments, and assembles the components of each piece and works with a painterly palette that is both quiet and cheerful. Some of the works have a relationship to her previous sculptures made from carved Styrofoam and inspired by Chinese scholar’s rocks. Overall, it is clear that the new forms continue Cohen’s interest in Chinese landscape while at the same time are also influenced by the textures in the sculptures of Jean Dubuffet, Franz West and Paul Soldner. Cohen’s latest forms and processes, like her previous mixed media work, continue a dialogue between binaries, including control and exuberance, humor and contemplation, product and experiment. 

Cohen received a BA from New York University in 1993 and her MFA from Tyler School of Art at Temple University in 1999. She currently teaches in the School of Design Strategies at Parsons New School for Design in New York City. Her large-scale sculptures were featured in the seminal exhibition, The Uncertainty of Objects and Ideas: Recent Sculpture at the Hirshhorn Museum of Art and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC in 2006-07. Cohen was featured as a Critic’s Pick in ARTnews magazine in the October 2006 issue. She has recently exhibited at Project 4 Gallery in Washington DC and the Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University in Fullerton, CA. Cohen exhibited in group shows at Walter Maciel Gallery including Size Matters in 2012 and Political Draw in 2009 and at our auxiliary gallery in the Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood in 2010. Her work is included in many important private collections.

Relief printing with all sorts of materials (excuse the pun)

polystyrene panel and liquorice allsorts

liquorice allsorts

liquorice allsorts

liquorice allsorts

liquorice allsorts

liquorice allsorts

polystyrene panel

polystyrene panel

foil crumpled before being inked

foil crumpled before being inked

foil crumpled after being inked

foil crumpled after being inked

dried nori seaweed

dried nori seaweed

dried nori seaweed

dried nori seaweed

dried seaweed

dried seaweed (front)

dried seaweed (back)

More experiments with screen printed paper

I am trying to make use of material that I have already generated, and think about new ways to do so. Today I have been experimenting more with the strips of screen printed paper. Some of these explorations make me feel slightly uneasy because they are verging on the decorative, but that in itself is as interesting problem. 

At the moment, the image above shows one side of the work, and so it is existing in a more painterly realm. However, I could turn my focus to exploring what happens when there is imagery and colour on both sides of the paper, therefore moving the work into a more sculptural realm.

Relief printing

I've gathered together some materials with interesting textures and surfaces, and want to try out printing them.

 

 

 

I'm pleased with some of the prints, and want to work on them further. I am going to try to increase the scale of the print, removing it from being a direct tracing or rubbing of the surface, and will also play with layering images. I'm going to screen print the enlarged image onto different surfaces and see where it takes me.

 

 

Although the biscuits do take the ink which I roll over the surface, it has not been possible to get a good print, probably because not enough pressure can be placed on it for the ink to be in good contact with the paper, and for the biscuit to remain intact.