Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

[Inaflash]

Revisiting a series of paintings that I painted years ago using the "Bride" as a symbol of transformation. I was asked to post some of my paintings on this thread once before ... hope its ok to do so again

 

Fabulous work!

 

Ken

[comicnoir]

Revisiting a series of paintings that I painted years ago using the "Bride" as a symbol of transformation. I was asked to post some of my paintings on this thread once before ... hope its ok to do so again

 

Incredible technique. Beautiful imagery. Come to Toronto and stage a show for us

sometime.

[sartre]

What kind of show?

[comicnoir]

What kind of show?

 

A show of your art.

[sartre]

where and how

[comicnoir]

Well, I live in Toronto. I don't know how to go about getting a show together, but I could make inquires.

 

Would you consider making a trip to Canada?

[Flex Mentallo]

Well, I live in Toronto. I don't know how to go about getting a show together, but I could make inquires.

 

Would you consider making a trip to Canada?

 

Steven is hardly going to say this and will probably hate the fact I'm drawing attention to it here, but he is widely regarded as one of the best artists of his generation. Pretty much any venue you care to think of would probably agree to show his work without hesitation, so you shouldn't have any difficulty persuading curators of prestigious venues in Toronto.

 

From Wikipedia:

"Steven Assael (born 1957) is an American painter recognized nationally as one of the leading representational figurative artists of his generation.His portrayal of the human image is empathic, ennobling, and psychologically penetrating. Assael's figure compositions synthesize the characteristics of the past masters with a selective eye for the present, suffusing elements of naturalism and romanticism to blend contemporary techniques with those of the past.

 

"His paintings have been called Post-Post Modern and works strictly from live models. Arlene Raven describes him as wanting "the greater possibilities of duration. More variety, and a broader range of values and colors, a chronicle of the transformations of changing light, spent over real minutes and hours with his model." In speaking of his work and how it contributes to contemporary art, Assael stated that, "Even though art is dead as we have known it, painting is not."

 

"Born and raised in New York, NY, Assael showed an enthusiasm for art at a young age, taking art classes at the Museum of Modern Art at the age of four. He attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and currently teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York and at The New York Academy of Art.

 

"Assael's work is included in public and private collections around the world. Some are, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (Kansas, MO), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY), Yale University (Hartford, CN), and the Chicago Institute of Fine Arts (Chicago, IL). Solo and group exhibitions have included the Staempfli Gallery (New York, NY), Forum Gallery (New York, NY), Fendrick Gallery (Washington DC), National Arts Club (New York, NY), Yale University (Hartford CN), San Francisco Museum of Fine Art (San Francisco, CA), Arkansas Art Center (Little Rock, AR), Kennesaw State University (Kennesaw, GA), Stephen F Austin State College (Nacogdoches, TX), University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC), Phillbrook Museum of Art (Tulsa, OK), and the National Museum in Gadansk, Poland.In 1999 his work was exhibited in a ten-year retrospective at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, Washington and CBS Sunday Morning ran a feature on the artist and the show.

 

"Assael is represented by Forum Gallery and currently resides in New York City."

 

 

Shoot me down in flames, but it seems to me that - the logisitical nightmares associated notwithstanding - more international exhibitions are needed on that impressive cv, Steven!

 

I don't think you have any new realms to conquer in the States!

[Flex Mentallo]

Seeing more of Steven's wonderful paintings has reminded me of some work I did a few years back in photography. There is no direct connection with his themes, and given the extremely high quality of his work, it would be really quite foolish to draw comparisons, but I'll post a few of them anyway.

 

For several years I had a long commute - out of the house by 5.00am, sometimes not home until after 10.00pm.

 

To stop myself going quietly insane, I took to carrying a cheap digital camera around with me on the journey, and gradually, various themes and interests emerged, mainly around revealing what is hidden in plain sight.

 

I also consciously sought to create images that might resonate with the art of the past - from post-impressionism to abstract expressionism and beyond.

 

I make no claims - it's just me playing with a camera, but still, here are a few, beginning with me on the train...

 

[Flex Mentallo]

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