Art Du Jour: Leslie Nolan



Displacement -

©

Leslie Nolan, 2011

Recently, I attended an opening for Art Deck-O at the Touchstone Gallery in Washington, DC.  While I enjoyed many of the works in the show, what literally stopped me in my tracks was a piece that wasn’t even part of the exhibit – Displacement, by the Virginia-based artist Leslie Nolan.

Nolan says her works “explore emotional themes through figures and landscapes to convey the energy and spirit of modern life.”

The dramatic contrast between Nolan’s use of vibrant colors and the pensive mood of her subjects is visually stunning, moving…and all too relatable emotionally.

Check out Nolan’s Web site to see more of her art.  It’s masterful work.

5 Questions With The Artist

What’s your comment on modern life, as conveyed through your paintings – good or bad?

Rather than "good or bad," I feel modern life is complex and difficult.  Sometimes the fast pace of life, competitive working environment, and worries over finances and personal relationships can be overwhelming.  I try to convey that complexity by infusing a feeling of aloneness, anxiety, and confusion in my new painting series called Dissed.  The idea is to interject emotion into the subjects' physical stance and facial expression, allowing the viewer to interpret the ambiguity.

There seems to be a sense of isolation and restlessness - particularly in the Dissed and What’s To Come? series - that practically jumps off the canvas.  Would that be a fair characterization?

Yes, your comment is right on target.  These paintings are all about feelings involved in trying to cope.  There are so many expectations and worries in modern life.

You’ve studied with a number of artists. Were there any who particularly influenced your work? If so, how?

Maryland artist "Skip" Lawrence influenced my work tremendously.  He encouraged me to make paintings that are both personal and about ideas.  In doing so, I've found that the passion I interject into paintings about my own life and feelings resonates strongly with viewers.  The worst thing that can be said of an artwork is that it's boring – I try to be completely unique and honest, and that tends to be the opposite of boring.

Have your travels abroad affected your work? Again, if so, how?

Travel and work have been critical to my development as an artist.  I spent years at CIA, the U.S. Information Agency, and State Department doing national security work – keeping secrets, living in and traversing dangerous locales.  The need to be secretive and surviving alien cultures has had a long-term personal impact.  Things are not always what they seem.  Ambiguity rules.  I think these emotions continue to permeate my artwork.

Who are your favorite artists, and are there any contemporaries you particularly admire?

Favorite artists – Richard Diebenkorn, Nathan Oliviera, Kathe Kollwitz, Amy Sillman.  Touchstone Gallery has a particularly talented, uniquely creative stable of contemporary artists and I am proud to exhibit my work alongside them.

A Beady Eye'd Swagger

For people with gentler sensibilities, I'll start this politely...

People either loved or hated Oasis.  For a mere rock band - ok, the best British rock band since The Police - it can even be argued that your opinion of them revealed more about you than them.  They were a sort of musical Rorschach test.  You will probably have the same sort of reaction to Beady Eye, the new band featuring all the members of Oasis sans Noel Gallagher...

...ok, politeness just got thrown out the window...

If you’re someone who thinks Oasis were a two-hit wonder band from 1995, stop reading right now and go listen to whatever all your know-nothing friends are listening to at the moment.  If you think Oasis are nothing more than a Beatles rip-off band, first have your ears tested as soon as possible to rule out hearing impairment.  If you get a clean bill of health, have someone kick your head repeatedly until you can’t hear anymore...

…For the rest of you, check out Different Gear, Still Speeding.  If you like Oasis, you’re going to like Beady Eye.  It’s got the Liam Gallagher vocal swagger, the wall-of-guitar Be Here Now moments, the mid-tempo nouveau-psychedelic excursions of Dig Out Your Soul, the wink-and-a-nod Beatles references (and rather blatantly so, on “Beatles and Stones” - ok, so maybe I was being a bit harsh earlier..), and a couple of earnest ballads.  As much as Noel Gallagher may have given the impression that he was the irreplaceable brains of the band, little brother Liam and company have pulled off an album that’s every bit as good as Oasis. Noel’s absence is little more than a footnote.

Beady Eye's Different Gear, Still Speeding is deliciously mindless ear candy with all the requisite Oasis bluster.

The Swagger:  "Four-Letter Word"  (© 2011, Dangerbird)

The Mid-Tempo:  “The Roller” (© 2011, Dangerbird)

The Earnest:  “Kill For a Dream” (Live from Abbey Road Studios)
(© 2011, Dangerbird)

Art Du Jour: Damien Hirst



Damien Hirst - For The Love of God

 The platinum cast of an actual human skull is covered with 8,601 diamonds and is estimated to be worth more than £50 million. 

See more of Hirst's work at the Art Beast.





"Edie Factory Girl" - Biography of Warhol's Femme Fatale

It’s probably a safe assumption that Edie Sedgwick – the original Reality Star – is probably someone that Kim, Kloe, Koo Koo, and whatever other Kardashians there are know nothing about. 

In their book, Edie Factory Girl (VH1 Press), writer David Dalton and photographer Nat Finkelstein give an insider’s glimpse into the dysfunctional, speed-fuelled, short life of Sedgwick during her brief but meteoric tenure as Andy Warhol’s muse and mid-‘60s It-Girl. 

In an appropriately pop-artsy, collage-like format with rare photos taken by Finkelstein, the biography is written from the authors’ perspective as inhabitants of Warhol’s inner sanctum at the notorious Factory.  Dalton writes in a colorful, wildly veering, and decidedly opinionated tone that captures the fabulous era, the avant garde circus that was The Factory, the Technicolor drugs, all of which mirror the trajectory of Sedgwick’s manic life.  The inclusion of interviews and quotes from many of the scenesters including Betsey Johnson and Marianne Faithfull adds to the immediacy of the biography. 

Whether Sedgwick was a unique product and footnote of the times or wholly a creation of Warhol’s or all of the above, for a fleeting moment she was America’s answer to Marianne Faithfull, Anita Pallenberg, and Twiggy.  However, unlike her closest British and European counterparts, Sedgwick was famous only for being famous.  Her sole accomplishments were being Andy’s visually arresting female twin at groovy NYC happenings and for starring in Warhol’s art films, which were usually mind-numbing, plot-less, script-less, hours- or day-in-the-life documents in bizarrely contrived, stoned-out scenarios.  Her mere presence in Warhol's films inadvertently made Sedgwick the world’s first reality star.  In retrospect, the films were Keeping Up With The Kardashians minus the editing, plus the drugs.    

Edie Factory Girl is a fast read in a good-looking package befitting its subject.  

For Sale: Imaginary Art - bidding starts at $160,000

One of the most sought after works at this year's Great Art Basel fair in Switzerland was "conceptual art" - art that either hasn't been created yet or never will be.  One such piece by American artist Lawrence Weiner was called "2 Metal Balls + 2 Metal Rings (Set Down in the Groove)."  It was nothing more than words painted on the ground that described Weiner's idea for a sculpture.  The lucky person to purchase his concept (starting price $160,000) receives a certificate allowing them to write the phrase in a room, or come up with their own sculpture. 

According to one collector of such art, "You may think more about a Weiner [text piece], over time, than about some canvas you've bought...An idea may not be material, but it's powerful."  The argument for wanting such pieces is that "it makes you wonder if it's even art - and therefore might be the art that's breaking new ground."

..Sound Duchamp-ian?  Zoolander-ish, even?  Read more in Blake Gopnik's Newsweek piece "Buying Art You Can't Take Home."

...Or don't read it, but pretend that you have read it, because the idea of reading it may be more powerful than actually reading it....