Curation
Transmogrification
June 21 - July 16, 2017
Opening Reception June 21 6:30-9:30pm
Repurposing a commercial Long Island City space to exhibit the work of twenty-six realist artists, Transmogrification is the embodiment of the brave new world that is contemporary realism. This newer, more inclusive brand of realism offers a virtual melting pot of subject matter: urban landscapes, gritty interiors, opulent still lives, painted and sculpted figures, scenes of nature and of war. Curated by artists Tun Myaing and Panos Papamichael, Transmogrification boasts an array of realist works as diverse as Long Island City itself, paying homage to its evolving landscape by featuring works that exemplify cultural and temporal change.
Transmogrification celebrates Long Island City’s industrial past and ever-dwindling industrial present. Neil Plotkin’s atmospheric Queensboro Plaza is inspired by the iconic L.I.C. subway station landmark, and is echoed by Jon De Martin’s luminous Golden Rails, a depiction of an industrial railyard from Anytown, U.S.A. Like the metamorphoses of so many other New York neighborhoods, Long Island City’s gentrification has been incubated in the cocoon of the artist enclave. Myaing’s own 5 Pointz labyrinth series is of lushly painted interiors depicting the basement rooms of the once iconic L.I.C. artist haven, revealing that they had been as adorned with graffiti tags as its famous facade. Before its demolition in 2014, the 5 Pointz building offered its exterior as a sanctioned canvas for graffiti artists and its interior as affordable studio spaces. Now, it is a glossy condominium complex. Compounding the loss of 5 Pointz studios was the whitewashing of its eclectic exterior, a commonplace urban chore deftly captured by fellow exhibiting artist Alex Smith in his oil painting, First Coat. Smith and Myaing’s works document spaces on the cusp of transformation, giving viewers a chance to absorb and appreciate the process in a rare moment of stasis.
The eclectic show also focuses on the ebb and flow of emotion and the human condition. Brett F. Harvey and Michael Aviano each lend their considerable talents to addressing male psychology in a time when masculinity has become increasingly complex. Using classical Greco-Roman ideals as inspiration, Harvey imbues his male nudes with a sense of vulnerability that offsets their heroic proportions. Harvey’s world is one where powerful male figures are allowed to display emotional fragility alongside physical strength without apology. At the other end of the spectrum, Aviano’s masterful oil sketch, Cain, depicts the biblical figure brazenly challenging the almighty himself with his unbridled defiance on full display. By pitting confidence against sensitivity, these artists carve out a space in which to reexamine modern society’s contradictory expectations of masculinity.
As our surroundings and social order continually evolve, we look to artists to reflect and interpret the changing values and standards of our time. If the continual influx of museums, galleries and artist studios to L.I.C. is any indication, art and artists remain an essential touchstone of modern society. Transmogrification is an invitation to experience the diversity of thought and message contained within a carefully curated slice of contemporary realist artists, as exhibited within a space emblematic of unceasing social and urban flux.
Participating artists:
Michael Aviano, Daniel Bilodeau, Dina Brodsky, Neilson Carlin, Brad Craig, Jon DeMartin, Matthew Durante, Natalie Featherston, Angela Gram, Brett F Harvey, Yunsung Jang, Liz Adams Jones, Marshall Jones, Kendall Klingbeil, Will Kurtz, Michael Meadors, Livia A Mosanu, Tun Myaing, Panos Papamichael, Neil Plotkin, Christopher Pugliese, James Raczkowski, Simón Ramirez, Beatrice Scaccia, Alex Smith, Jorge Vascano
Website: http://paintanyway.com/?p=1445
Location: 2320 Jackson Ave, L.I.C., NY
Tell Them Stories: Origins
Oct 8 - Nov 12015
Opening Reception Oct 8 6-9pm
Tell Them Stories: Origins
Once upon a time in a land far, far away… And so it begins. Human beings are driven to tell stories to capture events and immortalize them, to share what we know and come to a better understanding of those events or to take us out of them and escape. Joseph Campbell places responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the artist when he claimed in The Power of Myth, “The function of the artist is the mythologization of the environment and the world.”
Tun Myaing and Marshall Jones have assembled eighteen artists, including illustrators, comic book artists and fine artists in the exhibit Tell Them Stories: Origins open at the Mark Miller Gallery from October 8th through November 1st. The works range from sequential drawings to video, painting and sculpture. They share in common a response to popular culture. From science fiction to real time politics they are a commentary on our times that blurs the lines of demarcation present in art world hierarchical standards. Recognizable imagery from Star Wars and Star Trek mix ranks with Kermit the Frog and Batman. Mythical heroic icons share the stage with otherworldly creatures. Anthropomorphized machines and armed horsemen pave the way to man’s destruction.
Myaing and Jones give us a peak behind the curtain by asking each artist to explore the origins of their art. They have posed three questions: Why did you create this work of art? Why did you choose this profession? and, If you could own any work of art what would it be? The answers, unique and thoughtful as the artists themselves, will be revealed at the opening which takes place on October 8th from 6 to 8 p.m. Neil Gaiman said it best in Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders, “Some stories, small, simple ones about setting out on adventures or people doing wonders, tales of miracles and monsters, have outlasted all the people who told them, and some of them have outlasted the lands in which they were created.” Time will tell the final outcome, but for now this story is just beginning.
Participating Artists
Ian Bertram, John Brosio, Adam Coldwell, Tony Dimauro, Peter Drake, Wade Furlong, Christina Graf, Michael Grimaldi, Caitlin Hackett, John JacobsMeyer, John Paul Leon, Shana Levenson, Christopher Pugliese, Nate Simpson, Allison Sommers, Gus Storms, Melanie Vote, Zoe Williams, Roberto Zaghi
Website: Tellthemstories.org
Mark Miller Gallery
www.markmillergallery.com
92 Orchard St
New York, NY, 10002
Often when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream. – Aristotle, “On Dreams”
The territory between wakefulness and the dream-state is one widely traversed by artists. Curators Diana Corvelle, Cara DeAngelis and Tun Myaing have collected the works of twenty-three New York Academy of Art alumni whose works challenge, unhinge and altogether shift perception of what should be called a “real” experience.
Lucid dreaming, a phenomenon in which an individual is aware of their own dream state enough to attempt control within it, is a cannily apt comparison to the creation of art. Possessing the ability to give form to fleeting memories and semi-lucid moments, these artists call into question the very perception of reality at will and offer up alternatives of their own.
Bringing together local and international artists based in Brooklyn, Jersey City, and Manhattan these selected works speak to the endless possible deviations from reality as envisioned by an unfettered mind. The playfulness and confidence of these works show how completely at home the artists are in their alternate reality.
Featured artists include: CHARIS C. BRAUN, ILSA BRITTAIN, MICHELLE DOLL, SAMUEL EVENSEN, MEGAN EWERT, SHAUNA FINN, STEVE FORSTER, ANGELA GRAM, BRETT HARVEY, CAITLIN HURD, YUNSUNG JANG, EVAN KITSON, WILL KURTZ, JAMES LINKOUS, GUNO PARK, DAVID PETTIBONE, MARTIN SAAR, NICOLAS SANCHEZ, AMANDA SCUGLIA, JESSE STERN, GREGORY TOMEZSCO, TYLER VOROUS, MELAINE VOTE, SHANKAI KEVIN YU.
Gallery hours Oct 16, 6-9pm, Oct 18 & 19, 12pm-6pm & by appointment.
PANEPINTO GALLERIES
371 Warren Street, 4th Floor
Jersey City, NJ 07302
“Tell them stories. They need the truth, you must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories.”
- Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass
Stories are powerful. Through stories we connect with places, with objects, and with one another. Stories foster love and breed hate; they give us new experiences, and allow us to relive old ones; they exist in every act we are proud of, and in every act we regret. Stories have made us what we are.
It was through stories that art began. The primal narratives we painted on the walls of caves evolved into hieroglyphs and pictographs; the prism of time and culture shattered storytelling into African art, Indian art, the art of the Americas, the art of the Renaissance, and countless others – all part of what we today call Art. But our love for stories never left.
In the hands of a skilled artist, a story is more than a record – it is the very spirit of a place, of a time, and of the storyteller herself. In recent history, such storytellers worked under many different labels – illustrators, comic book artists, fine artists. They matured on their own, achieved their own heights, and, ultimately, grew apart. But, as families do, they are now rediscovering each other. This rediscovery is what drives our exhibition: it is our hope to play a role in reassembling the various storytelling disciplines, to reunite their strengths, and to remind the viewer of the oldest and most fundamental of pleasures art can offer. We invite you, the narrative artist, to be part of our show.
Curated by Tun Myaing and Marshall Jones, “Tell Them Stories” will gather the work of narrative painters and draftsmen from various genres and professions. The work ranges between the probing silence of John Jacobsmeyer, the alarming starkness of Tony Dimauro, the deadpan playfulness of Peter Drake, the subtle glamour of Dorian Vallejo, the unabashed and passionate narrative of Gus Storms, and many others. On Oct 10th we will come together at Art Foundry to celebrate storytelling, and to take part in reaffirming the power of narrative in Art.
The show will begin at 6pm, and will exhibit the works of ten artists. Of those ten, three will be comic book artists, three will be fine artists, and four will be illustrators. Prior to the show there will be a two-hour moderated panel discussion addressing the differences and similarities between fine art, illustration and comic book art.
Art Foundry is an emerging art gallery located on 23rd street on the east side of Manhattan. It is a project space for artists striving towards unity among visual thinkers, the empowerment of conversation, and the dominance of creativity over the market. Tun Myaing, the co-founder of the space, is an academically trained painter and curator dedicated to the many contemporary artists who share that goal.
Art Foundry
310 East 23rd Street, No. 12F
New York, NY 10010
theartfoundry.us
For immediate release:
Art Foundry
is proud to present
Living Things
September 21 – October 12, 2012
Opening reception September 21, 6 - 9 pm
New York, NY. The Art Foundry celebrates its grand opening and presents the exhibition Living Things, a group show curated by Heidi Elbers and Tun Myaing featuring original paintings, drawings, installations and more from 16 emerging and established artists in the NYC area.
“But after a time allowed for it to swim,
“Instead of proving human when it neared
“and someone else additional to him,
“as a great buck it powerfully appeared.”
-Robert Frost
We are creatures built for encounters. Some of our favorite past times revolve around meeting new people, talking to them, passing a judgment, and, if we are lucky, understanding them a little. This is who we are – frequently judgmental, occasionally insightful, hopelessly social, and hopefully, empathetic. These are traits we living beings picked up from our encounters with fellow living beings.
Once in a while, however, this peculiar chance presents itself to us: to encounter not a person, but an object. Not to simply see and acknowledge it, but to meet it; not to simply consider it, but to empathize with it; not to see it through our eyes, but to see ourselves through its eyes. This moment is almost always fleeting, indecipherable, and indescribable; we feel it for a moment – and often walk away with a cautious shrug, unable to tell anyone precisely what we felt. What we felt, however, was a kind of encounter – an encounter with a nonliving being, a greeting from the universe, a momentary conversation with Everything Else. The Living Things Exhibit has one aim – to make the conversation longer.
Our penchant for using objects as metaphors is well documented. Dutch still life is replete with depictions of spoiled fruit, bones, half-empty glasses, and human skulls – objects that represent our fears, our mortality, and us. The work of a few newer artists (such as Antonio Lopez Garcia) expands on that idea. An object is no longer a symbol. The sense of time and decay tells us the story of the object; our story, merely one of many, takes a back seat to the stories of Everything Else. Changed and molded by time, the object lives a non-life, emphatically still and indifferently different.
We too are objects. The human body – our first birthday gift, a collection of mechanical and electric machinery, is among the most familiar and least understood objects. Intricate and capricious, it has its own rules that we are not privy to. It grows and withers, it becomes hungry, it lusts after other bodies, it gives away our deepest secrets. Sometimes it is treated as a tool, traded for pleasure and, in its workings, it remains an object - an object that frustrates, fascinates, and inspires. Only in death does the body reveal what it truly is – a thing, an object, a story of Everything Else. The living world of animals and botany all live to tell this tale, a union of universal conversation. This connection of the living world and the world of things has inspired many artists throughout centuries - to this day.
The artists exhibited in Living Things continue and expand on this tradition, bringing their unique contemporary vision of the bizarre and eloquent world of the insentient. Acknowledging and celebrating the materiality of their work the artists of Living Things talk to the viewer with the voice of Everything Else.
Hi-resolution jpegs of the selected works and artists bios are available upon request: tmyaing01@gmail.com
For further information on the Art Foundry, please visit: theartfoundry.us
Art Foundry 310 East 23rd Street, No. 12F, New York, NY 10010 T: (917) 378-3700
The Drawing Room: Artist and Their Sketchbooks Occupy New York Gallery by Patrick McGinnis
Drawing is a highly intimate form of expression. Even thought it's highly relatable (we've all done it at one point or another), it's underappreciated. With the endless rush of blockbuster auctions and the celebrity-driven art scene, representational art is out of fashion. The tweeting masses aren't looking for the quiet beauty of a sketch. Drawings, it seems, get lost in all the noise.
Drawing, both in its intimacy and its immediacy, is the theme of a new show called "The Drawing Room," that runs through May 22 at the Milavec Hakimi Gallery in New York. The show, which is curated by Dina Brodsky, Karl Koett, and Tun Myaing, strips down and re-imagines the gallery experience by taking it back to the drawing board, err, drawing room.
The eponymous "Drawing Room" is a substantial installation that has taken over Milavec Hakimi's space on Cooper Square. The gallery walls, painted in the hues of Victorian England, are covered with a chaotic arrangement of pieces hung salon style. The space, taken as a whole, evokes the kind of drawing room where side conversations about life and art are not uncommon.
In one corner, a large desk, in this instance co-opted as sculpture, is cluttered with what seem to be found items -- there are books, sketching pencils, and small animal skulls. The installation's designer, Ian Gaudreau, conceived the space with a sly wink to "Sleep No More." As with "Sleep No More," the spectator is compelled to explore his surroundings. A desk drawer opens to reveal a glass display case of mounted butterflies. A miniature shark suspended in liquid among the clutter reminds us that we're not in DamienHirstLand anymore. On the surface of the desk, a half-filled sketchpad and a set of pencils sit at the ready. Some intrepid and evidently talented passersby have already taken up the invitation to add their own works to the drawing room's artistic conversation.
The clutter on the desk is not by happenstance, but instead is a collection of "oddities" contributed from the nearly thirty artists represented in show. It turns out that artists like to keep the things that they sketch. These items are little pieces of inspiration, the models of past sketches that now hang on the walls of this drawing room or perhaps another.
The works, while largely figurative, range from highly technical studies to ambiguous narrative scenes. James Adelman, who has three pieces in the show, favors a monochromatic approach with pieces in both charcoal and oil, albeit oil that has been deployed with the sensibility of a sketch artist. In another part of the gallery, a sketchbook by Nic Rad, sits open, as if awaiting his return. The characters, interspersed with shreds of writings, are impatient. They seem ready to jump off the pages.
This is Milavec Hakimi's last show in its current space, and the impending closure of the gallery has liberated the creative team and the show from commercialism. There is enormous talent represented, but there are no obvious "art stars." Instead, the presentation shows artists in their essence and it wins with intimacy rather than noise. As one attendee commented to me, "if you really want to get to know an artist, look at his drawings." In this particular drawing room, artists reveal what they draw when the galleries are closed, the auctions are over, the twitter accounts are silent, and the art buyers have returned to their lofts.
For Immediate Release
LINE
@ the cell
338 W. 23rd Street (btwn 8th & 9th), New York, NY 10011
Thursday, April 5, 2012 – April 25, 2012
Opening reception: April 5, 6PM – 9PM
Curated by Dina Brodsky, Karl Koett and Tun Myaing, LINE features drawings from some of the most talented and intriguing artists in New York City on view at
the cell from April 5 – April 25, 2012.
Perhaps more so than any other form of art, drawing reveals the pure intent of the artist. Drawing does not allow for multiple revisions; it is for the artist what improvisation is for the actor. The raw talent, the creative spirit of the artist is tangible in the drawing. Thus LINE allows you a rare glimpse into the private universe of the artist, with all the intricacies of structure and elegance of creative motion revealed. Using a diversity of approaches, the artists reveal themselves as they are: inventive, sublime, thoughtful, playful, absurd – stripped of artifice and pretense.
Ranging from the inarticulate to the sharply defined in their unbroken linearity, these masterful renderings will draw you in, engage you, entrance you with the unique promise of meeting some of the most interesting and talented artists of today mind to mind. It is our sincere hope that the viewer will leave aesthetically engaged, but also with a sense of connection; that particular solace offered only by the well-crafted thoughts of an articulate mind.
Featuring Art by:
Jean Pierre Arboleda, Bonnie DeWitt, Dina Brodsky, Matthew Conner,
Cara DeAngelis, Nancy Ke Fang, Robert Fundis, Caitlin Hurd,
Karl Koett, Maria Kreyn, Michael Meadors, Guno Joe Park, David Pettibone,
Nic Rad, Misha Rosnach, Vithya Truong, Melanie Vote, Tyler Vouros
and Daniel Esquivia Zapta
With a special performance by the Art Liars
——————————————————–
the cell, A Twenty First Century Salon™
to mine the mind, pierce the heart, and awaken the soul…
"Salvaged"
They say that artists see the future ahead of the rest of us. What does it mean then that the new show at Island Weiss Gallery is named “Salvaged?” The dollar is collapsing, the euro is collapsing even faster, Wall Street is under occupation and Washington is helpless to save us. Salvaged may be the word they'll use to describe what's left of our civilization when they finally get it all worked out.
That much said, “Salvaged” is a superb show, illustrating very well the excellent work currently coming out of The New York Academy of Art down in Tribeca. It's stuff you'd actually consider hanging on your own wall. (When was the last time you saw that in a Manhattan gallery?) The whole show is rich with the kind of old master craftsmanship that's so sadly absent from much of what's hanging nowadays.
The most impressive detail work is the painterliness of Dina Brodsky's enchanting miniatures. You sense at once this woman must have a whole can full of brushes with only one bristle each. This kind of concern with precision is out of fashion nowadays, and yet it's as engaging today as ever. Most notable is her “Farewell 5 Pointz,” a minutely exact rendering of throwaway, nickle-deposit empties, apparently just a pile of cans until you remember that the theme of the show is Salvaged. Also, as if to remind us that the pigeons will survive come what may, her “Union Square” offers an enchanting collection of miniature pigeon portraits (symbols of self), done in oil on mylar on plexiglas. The word miniature is no exaggeration – most of the pigeon portraits are a mere 2” x 2”, far from huge, and yet every one is a model of precision.
The Salvaged theme is found throughout the show. The catalog speaks of it as salvaging evidence of life after life is ended, but real art always speaks on many levels at once, including the salvaging of society itself. One can scarcely believe that serious artists are or could ever be divorced from the reality afflicting the society around them. Heidi Elbers sensual self-portrait in a red negligee, for example, “Wishing I Could Wrap Them in Fur” isn't about erotica but instead features the artist's legs wrapped in bandages. Could the metaphor be more obvious? The official reason was a passing injury that Ms. Elbers actually experienced, but thematically the idea of depicting what remains after the damage is done comes through clearly. This thematic coherence speaks of a well-curated show.
Michelle Doll, whose portraits have long been a pleasure, was wisely included in the show, but her recent pieces like “Stole” and “Zephyr” have a darkness of hue and lighting that one doesn't remember in her earlier, more optimistic work. Likewise Peter Drake's “Shell Shock Study,” exactly what it sounds like, a portrait of contemporary man if ever there was one, frazzled, electrified, more skull than face. Ours is a time of gathering darkness and the artists sense it.
Maya Brodsky's (Dina's little sister) “Mendelsohn Family Reunion” seems so innocent until one realizes it's a group portrait of dead people. Likewise Mischa Rosnach's “St. Francis Saving the Eggplant,” in which the Saint's anguished face makes it plain that there's plenty more to that eggplant than just an eggplant, and Brian Drury's evocative but unpeopled paintings of an empty New York City. The artists see the future ahead of the rest of us, and what they're see is a salvaging. Salvaging after what? Which of us wants to try to guess? Maybe we should be stockpiling canned goods.
Tun Myaing, one of the curators of the show, also contributes some fine, enigmatic oils of machinery, and two portraits of “The Rat King,” although they appear to be more a study of the Rat King's remains than a portrait of the Rat King himself. Myaing paints a stark picture of the future but metaphorically it's incisive. If the Rat King himself isn't going to make it, who will? Bonnie DeWitt's “Horse Massacre,” in turn, is every bit as jarring as it sounds. But when you see the horses as symbols for all of us living in these last hours before the collapse, you realize the blood on the canvas is ours, not the horses'.
Also intriguing is Jean-Pierre Roy's “Brokenspectre,” a mountain whose sides have collapsed to reveal a building inside. At the base and peak both there are doors, and horses trying to find their way to the top in spite of the collapse. A few have done so. Most have not. How like us humans.
In the same vein, Karl Koett's paintings of sea shells. Not the marine life within, but the shell that remains after the marine creature's life has ended. Likewise Melanie Vote's “Excavation” and “Discovery,” pictures of statues, but broken not whole. John Wellington, in turn, offers two strong paintings of undisguised ruins populated with unsmiling faces. Cheerless, but forceful and clear.
“Salvaged” is on display at the Island Weiss Gallery, 201 E. 69th Street, one of those cozy, ultra-quiet penthouse galleries, until December 22. By appointment only. It's a cutting-edge show, timely as few recent exhibitions have been. But also painful. It's a picture of what's coming, done well, and and it's beautifully truthful but as unsettling as the future itself.