MTV RE:DEFINE

[mtvredefine2014]

STUDIO VISIT: Andrew Zientek

1. Tell us about your current body of work, what motifs are you exploring?

I’m working on two related but separate types of work at the moment—sculptures madewith glass rods and wall pieces working with color and reflection. Both ofthese lines, and my work in general, rest partially on a kind of 1960’s phenomenological lineage. At the same time we live in a very different world now. The core interest is the same; the act of perceiving and assigning value. But displacement or disconnection is very prevalent in our culture now. I often feel like I’m not actually in the place that I am. Not fully anyway. I know that’s weird to say. We lay in bed and watch “TV” on our laptops and play onour phones at the same time because TV is no longer enough stimulation. I think this has seeped into the way we inhabit the world at large. My work is not about a simpler nostalgia but rather is experimenting with this peculiarity of perception and sense of presence.

2. Can you explainhow the Faberge Big Egg Hunt project came about?

AnnPriftis, of Clark Priftis Art, was the Head of Art for The Faberge Big Egg Huntand tapped me to be a part of the project. Ann has known my work for a longtime and I did a gallery installation for her years ago with the musician DaveWilliams.

 3. In terms ofdeveloping the initial egg for Faberge you used the help of some of yourlandscape design students, can you talk about the collaborative nature of the initial designs?

I was teaching at CCNY in the graduate landscape architecture program at the time and ended up working with six of my students (Samuel Berkheiser III, Kathleen Cholewka, Jerome Thomson, Eli Sands, Andrew Joseph, Ivy Harrison). There was a tight schedule and I submitted a concept description of the egg to the organization before I knew what it was going to be. So when I met with the students the first time, I had a title (Half Transformed, Half Transmuted) that described what I wanted the piece to do or to be, but I had no formal ideas as to what it would look like or be made of. So we all went off for a week and collected ideas and made an informal presentation to the group. Nothing anyone presented that day, my work included, was “it” but our conversation was enough to retreat back and coalesce into the submission.

 **4. What does it take to assemble one of the glass pieces? **

The work is extremely time intensive. Nearly all of my work ends up being “dazzlingly obsessive” as one collector put it. These pieces are made entirely from glass rods and a special type of glass adhesive. One of my favorite elements of the completed work is also one of the hardest to deal with during construction – there is almost a sense of vertigo looking into them, as it’s hard for your eyes to find stable purchase, with all of the layers of glass as object and glass as refraction and reflection and the empty spaces between.

 5. How did working on the Faberge egg alter the course of what you do for a living?

I think I was always meant to be an artist and always found reasons not to be. I am a landscape architect and have had my own practice here in NY for the last three years. I love landscape architecture and all that it touches, but a design practice requires some degree of separation. I draw things, then other people build them and sometimes separated by large time spans. The piece I submitted for the Big Egg Hunt was very well received. After the display period it was selected to be live auctioned at Sotheby’s (all of the eggs were auctioned for charity, most online and a select few were at this live auction) and sold for a substantial amount. Following the auction multiple people reached out to me asking if I had other work they could purchase. Those turned into commissions. I took those and the response to the egg and decided to go all-in on pursuing an art practice in a more direct way.

 6. Can you tell us about your plans for doing larger scale pieces with the glass rods?

Being a landscape architect I often think about ideas on that scale. Big art. This is partly due to over a decade of working on that scale, but also due to what I want for all of my work, regardless of size, which is a sense of active engagement. When I finished the original glass piece, one of my immediate reactions was – I want to inhabit this. I want to walk around inside it and lay down under it. So I made a first test at scaling up the pedestal sculptures to room size and am in talks right now with a property development company in Baltimore, Himmelrich Associates, to create a large work for one of their buildings. I’m also looking around for the right venue to do one outside.

  7. In addition to the glass-pieces you are working on these color wheel/circular pieces. Can you walk us through what it takes to make one of them?

Described simply, it’s a dark mirror with thousands (7322 in this case) of small holes drilled all the way through. The interior walls of the holes are then painted by hand, one by one.

8. Viewing one of the color wheel pieces in the flesh is something to behold, what is the significance of the pieces themselves and the colors chosen?

This piece condenses all of the main themes of my work – transparency, reflection, and object in interplay with each other and requiring movement around the piece to fully understand. Viewed straight on, the piece is a mix of reflection and transparency, placing you and the environment directly in the perception of piece. It is only when you move to view the piece on an angle that the paint. The hole, a void becomes an object within the thickness of the panel. One step from perpendicular there is just a suggestion of color. From four or five steps to the side the color is fully revealed. For this particular piece the holes are drilled in a pattern of concentric circles and is painted as a color wheel. It is based on the work of Michel Eugène Chevreul who was a French chemist in the 1800’s and produced one of the first widely accepted color wheels. My version is not meant to be demonstration of physical fact (a scientific color study), but rather I’m interested in my displacement from the original. I’ve never seen Chevreul’s original work. I have only seen a jpeg of it on the Internet. I took that digitized copy and brought it into Photoshop and used the color picker to identify each of the 72 colors in his wheel. But this is problematic as it grabs a single color from a field of subtle variations. Then I took those swatches and mixed 72 paints to match with a painter friend of mine, Erin Treacy. This is the world we live in, first order perception via degrees of separation, and alteration.

  9. What are some of the most challenging aspects of your practice?

All that’s coming to mind at this moment are mundane things like the physical demands of my time intensive work, or affording studio space in the NY market or things like that. The truth is, I’m making a living from making art and I couldn’t be more grateful. There are great struggles in stumbling through the unknown and pursuing that language-failing feeling of “it works.” But even the failures, which out-number the successes, are just more experiments.

 10. What inspires you to push limits and explore new frontiers as an artist?

I don’t know how to answer this question other than to say curiosity. I look at my work as a form of self-education. A professor of mine in college, Yi Fu Tuan, was once asked why he was a geographer and his response was 'I have always wanted to know what it is like to live on earth.' I feel the same way about my practice. My work allows me to explore new ways of seeing the world.

Visit Andrew's website.

[mtvredefine2014]

STUDIO VISIT: DANIEL HOROWITZ

Daniel Horowitz’s studio (which he shares with fellow artist Rachel Libeskind) is a beautiful and imaginative space with equal doses of charm and grit. Located in DUMBO, Brooklyn the space has recently undergone a lot of changes. Daniel had previously worked alone in the space for 5 years and after a chance encounter took Rachel on as a studio partner. The energy in the studio is contagious, the environment is warm and welcoming. Daniel’s work is captivating in the sense that you feel like you are in a dream – distortions, twisted and stretched body parts, vibrant colors – channeling the surreal. While immersing one’s self in the work you realize it’s all very real, it invites us to examine our own lives and the conditions we live in and place upon ourselves. Daniel’s work has been shown world wide. The Invisible Dog Art Center in Brooklyn, Christie’s New York, the Direktorenhaus in Berlin, and the Warsaw Museum of Modern Art have all displayed his diurnal series of 365 drawings. In 2014 Daniel had shows in Paris and Mexico City and was a resident artist at renowned non-profit arts space, Pioneer Works. Daniel was gracious to spend time with RE:DEFINE, walking us through his current body of work, his process, and shared what he has in store for 2015.

1. Tell us about your current body of work, what motifs are you exploring?

Lately I have been more interested in the intersection of chaos/randomness and order/structure. I show up with an intention though I also invite some of the unexpected. 

2. Why is producing at the rate you consume important in your work?

When most of us are employed as full-time consumers in an ever expanding capitalistic model, artists as creators are arguably busy doing the reverse. I suppose rather than drown in propaganda that is emitted from every taxi cab and elevator monitor I strive to produce at a rate close to that with which I consume, in order to some how neutralize the effect. 

3. Can you tell us a bit about 365? What does the project mean to you?

365 was precisely a marathon project, a discipline of one drawing a day for a year, which for the first time effectively pulled me from the passive stance of sitting at my computer all day. This project ultimately generating an entire library of ideas which I continually refer to even a few years on.

4. Your brush stroke characters (the ones that kind of look like slugs) are in a lot of your work, what do they represent? 

The brush stroke character is anthropomorphized and often sits on a sort of psychoanalytical chaise and simultaneously represents the the ego and the super ego, though I also think of it as an archetypal brushstroke that at once symbolizes all of painting.

5. What is the reasoning behind a lot of your characters having distorted bodies/heads going into the ground?

I often try to not explain my work since it can be interpreted in a variety of ways. I suppose this sort of deformation is drawn from the given limitations of the physical body. Often my subjects are dreaming, or extracting themselves from a repressive circumstance, hence they become stretched as they yearn to escape.

6. How did the Lost Identity project come to fruition? 

This series as with all my work, began with experimentation. I was painting on glass at the time and was trying to attain a perfectly reflective surface. I began a year long period of research into the use of silver nitrate to selectively mirror glass. I became at once fascinated with the beauty of the surface ,but also began to ponder the role of the mirror as an object in society, and what it meant to distort the mirror in the way that I was. Essentially creating the appearance that the mirror was melting or dripping. Ultimately, our sense of identity is in flux and is not something static, I believe that the mirrored works in Lost Identity "reflect" a more authentic self.

7. In October you had a solo show/residency in Mexico, Ceremony Interrupted, you made 7 oil paintings on site. What was that experience like?

Overall the experience was incredible. I was given an unprecedented opportunity to devote full-time to painting in a most surreal environment. I had my studio in a Haussmann era prewar building, full of eccentric characters and architectural flourishes. Half of my time was spent researching the cultural tapestry that is Mexico City, and the remainder channeling it into a new body of work.

8. You have had this studio space in DUMBO for the better part of 5 years, how did you and Rachel meet and decide to become studio partners?

Yes, I have had this precious storefront in Vinegar Hill for the better part of 5 years, and its purpose has evolved alongside my personal evolution. I had participated in a residency this past summer at Pioneer Works  Center for Art and Innovation with Residency Unlimited, and a mutual friend had invited Rachel to the closing show. Though we had just met an uncanny familiarity was apparent. I had never really shared my working space with anyone before, though quickly offered that Rachel move in upon my return from Mexico City since she was also looking for a new space to work. 

9. Since becoming studio partners how has your practice evolved? What is the dynamic like as opposed to previous work environment?

We had never imagined how compatible our different approaches were, I think we have a similar world view and understanding of the roll of art, and we also share similar working materials. Although our work is very different, what I find fascinating is were it converges. We have already begun some collaborative experiments and we have plenty to learn from each other. We both agree that the magic of art is fundamentally in the journey itself. We almost never repeat ourselves and try to learn as much as we can even at the risk of destroying a work.

10. The studio is called the Department of Signs and Symbols, what does that mean to you?

We were looking for a name for the studio that would simultaneously illicit a sense of curiosity in the visitor, but not define or limit what exactly happens inside. The name suggests that we produce objects that are imbued with meaning, but ultimately it is up to whomever walks through the door to determine or recognize what that meaning is. In other words, we salvage signs and symbols from society and repurpose them.

11. What are you most looking forward to in 2015?

I find that my practice is very reactive and is fundamentally informed by the context in which it is produced. I am incredibly excited to be taking part in several residency and exhibition opportunities throughout Europe, including my participation in the Leipzig International Art Programme. I am exhibiting some works in a group show, Profil Perdu, opening  at Gallery MC in New York on January 17th.

12. Song(s) that you currently can’t get enough of?

I listen to a great deal of Timber Timbre, it just makes sense some how. 

Follow Daniel on Instagram.

Visit Daniel's website.

[mtvredefine2014]

STUDIO VISIT: RACHEL LIBESKIND

Rachel Libeskind’s studio (which she shares with fellow artist Daniel Horowitz) in DUMBO, Brooklyn is one of the most inviting art environments you can immerse yourself in. Rachel’s work is an eye-popping mix of large paintings, sculptures, collages, and assemblages on everything from found paper to bathroom sinks. It’s the kind of work that sits with you for awhile, it's personal, it speaks to the present while channeling the past. In Rachel’s young career she has already shown in New York, Rome, Paris, and a gamut of other enviable locations. Her oeuvre expands beyond the traditional gallery scene and circle, this last summer she did a performance installation in Italy, in December she co-hosted a talk on nipple censorship on Instagram at Art Basel, and currently is undertaking a site specific installation for the La Voix Humaine Opera in Miami. Rachel took time to talk with RE:DEFINE about the motifs she’s exploring, how her work is evolving and what’s on the horizon in 2015.

1. Tell us about your current body of work, what motifs are you exploring?

Girlhood, womanhood, modes of gender performance, construction of nationhood, the magic of chaos. 

2. Censorship is a theme prevalent in your work, you paint over eyes, genitalia, etc, is there a message you’re trying to get across?

Less a message and more of an exploration of anonymity. If you disembody the eyes, or mouth or genitalia of a printed image of a human being, what can their bodies come to mean? I’m interested in the perception of bodies, of faces, and how excising crucial visual moments can bring new meaning to personhood. 

3. A lot of your work uses old images from Life Magazines, photo albums, etc., can you explain the thought process behind reappropriation in your work?

Richard Prince defined his own method of re-appropriation in the most, succinct and brilliant way-- by simply using the example of "sampling" in music as a metaphor for what he is doing in his work. I think this is the best way to think about it-- re-appropriating pre-existing images in the world allows you, with immediacy, to imbue the work with aura, with the past, with the strangeness of the forgotten-and then reified-image. 

4. What did you takeaway from the experience of your Traveling Bag performance that you did in Spoleto, Italy this last summer? 

My biggest takeaway from doing my first performance installation was that performing and making art "live" for an audience employs a totally different kind of creative energy than, for example, making paintings in the studio and showing them in a gallery setting. It's a lot scarier, but the reward of success during a performance is astronomically bigger than anything you feel from seeing your work on the wall, the adrenaline and pressure is incomparable to anything I have ever done, "off-stage". It's exciting for me to think about the prospects  this kind of new found performance energy. 

5. Talk to us about the last year, you’ve participated in shows all over the world, what have been some of the highlights?

The performance installation I did this past summer was probably the highlight. Another great moment this year was when my work was included in the National Lithuanian Arts Festival (that's my work's eastern most point to-date)-- definitely a surprise, albeit a very positive one. The most recent highlight was hosting a discussion on nipple censorship with friend, artist Ally Marzella at Miami Beach during Art Basel (orchestrated by the amazing BHFQU). 

6. Any other performance pieces on the horizon? If so, what and where?

I will definitely be doing The Traveling Bag again, in NYC this year. I have a cooking show performance piece in the works at the moment. 

7. This February you’re going to be working on the La Voix Humaine Opera in Miami, what is your role in that project?

In May of 2014, I did the production design on a very small scale French opera,  La Voix Humaine alongside the brilliant direction of my friend and collaborator, James Danner (of Amanda+James company). Through hard work and good luck, the production was tapped by the Knight Foundation to be brought to Miami for 2015. I will be doing a site specific installation, which will be the set for the opera at the Bas-Fisher Invitational space in Wynwood. It's a truly interesting project, particularly merging contemporary art with opera in a city like Miami. 

8. You recently moved into this studio space in Dumbo, how did you and Daniel meet and decide to become studio partners?

Daniel and I met through a mutual friend who was curating Daniel's closing show at Pioneer Works. As soon as I stepped into his studio, I felt an affinity to his work and imagery. Little did I know that he and I share a very similar biography (we both have Jewish fathers who grew up in anti-semitic post-war Poland, both of whom immigrated to New York and went on to be artists in their own right). Somehow the coalescence of meeting and seeing each other's work just worked-- I was moving out of my space and he needed a partner to split the rent. 

9. Since becoming studio partners how has your practice evolved? What is the dynamic like as opposed to previous work environments?

I have only ever worked alone or alongside artists who work in a totally different medium. Daniel is the first studio partner who is a painter and also uses found objects/imagery to employ in the work. Although our work is totally related, we couldn't be more opposite in the way we work. Daniel is careful, precise, and works in an incredibly efficient way. I am a mess-- my studio motto is "nothing is precious"-- paint flying, things being destroyed as quickly as they are made. In many ways, this studio partnership is totally symbiotic, since we both need what the other has too much of. 

10. The studio is called the Department of Signs and Symbols, what does that mean to you?

Our experience in this world is largely visual – the way we interact with news, with memories, with consumption. Signs & Symbols is a reference to the illusory inventory we all keep of the signs and symbols we recognize, we hold as our own, we hate, we love, we discourage, we illuminate. McDonalds, Ghostbusters, Chanel, the Holy Cross, SOS, Apple – we live in a time where logos are symbols of consumption and images are signs charged with complex layers of meaning. It's only fitting that artists dedicate themselves to the reification and simultaneous deconstruction of signs and symbols. 

11. What are you most looking forward to in 2015?

2015 is exciting. I have a solo show in New York at Hansel & Gretel Pocket Utopia coming up. I will be showing my work in Austria for the first time, and I will have my first show in my hometown, Berlin. Also: I'm doing a residency in Iceland which is definitely a life goal fulfilled. 

12. Song(s) that you currently can’t get enough of? 

I rediscovered MF Doom in 2014, definitely can't get enough of all of his brilliant music. Currently binging on Phil Spektor, bands like the Crystals, the Ronettes etc. as good studio music. Hate Katy Perry, Love Lana del Rey. 

Follow Rachel on Instagram. 

Visit Rachel's website.

[mtvredefine2014]

MTV RE:DEFINE Art Basel Miami Beach Cocktail Party

Our first ever MTV RE:DEFINE Art Basel Miami Beach Cocktail Party was a smashing success. Held Friday, December 5th at the Shelborne Wyndham Grand sponsored by Aristocrazy Jewelry we raised awareness for our annual auction in Dallas. The guest list was filled with movers and shakers in the art world. Peep the pics below to get a recap of the night.

[mtvredefine2014]

STUDIO VISIT: DUSTIN YELLIN

Dustin is a world renowned artist known for his intensely intricate, multi-layered glass sculptures and 3D collages. We caught up with Dustin and he graciously showed us around his buzzing studio (he employs 14 full-time art assistants that are an essential part of what he does), as well as the non-profit he founded, Pioneer Works which is adjacent to his own space. 

1. How is Pioneer Works different from other communal art spaces that exist?

The traditional art space has undergone significant change over the last 50 years. Certain distinctions, like the distinction between the private and the public, have evaporated. Even the categories of the basic states of matter has changed s to include more complex iterations of life as we know it. Electron degenerate matter. String net liquid, and so on. 

2. How does the social aspect of Pioneer Works influence your work/thoughts?

In so many ways—it’s hard to say. You walk into the building. There’s an eyeball trained on the smallest possible particle. There’s someone painting. There’s someone mapping out flight trajectories. There’s a poem being written.

The influence really is in the making.

So much is always being built.

It makes anyone who comes in feel like man, I should be doing something.

Then you find paper, get some crayons, and start going to work.

3. What does the process as well as the finished product of the Psychogeographies mean to you?

The process of the work is everything, which I think is why I’ve chosen the title.

Creating these works, smallest particle and image by image, layer by layer, is a more linear representation of the way de bord figured the mind as mapping its environment and vice versa.

The process is the mapping. I think of these as large microscopic slides, moving and dynamic real time maps that have been momentarily suspended.

4. Your work is super labor intensive, how does your team help make your vision come to life? 

The staff is involved from the moment of production to the very end.

Just sheer scale of the work demands involvement from many people.

But it’s always people. The more people the better. You have an idea. You share it. You hear what people have to say. You adopt. Adapt. You listen and receive. It’s the messaging system. The inbox is always flooded.  

5. Some of your smaller glass pieces are the Caves. You described them to us as these “Post-its that have all kinds of stuff crammed on them,” what do they represent?

The caves are these occult places, these recesses these access spots to deeper sub connections, the subterranean, the primordial beginnings of knowledge.

6. You used to work with resin and after a series of accidents/health concerns you transitioned to glass, aside from the health benefits, how has working with glass allowed for your work to evolve?

The switch allowed for greater control over the process. With resin, if I poured a layer, that was it. With glass, I’m able to move between layers, to shuffle them around, to build more complicated fields of depth. It was the material move that allowed for the increased complexity and scale of the work. 

7. Pioneer Works has developed rapidly in the short time it has been open as a collective space for artists, what is on the horizon?

The moon is on the horizon. Boats and large birds of prey swooping down to catch small purse dogs named Mimi and Socrates. We’re going to advance stem cell research at Pioneer Works. We’re going to show amazing work. We’re building a music studio. The third issue of our magazine just came out. We’re going to start publishing more books of poetry.

8. Can you talk to us about your new paintings on wood? 

The paintings are brush free, self-freeing therapeutic bursts. With the other work being so deliberate, detailed, and painstaking, I needed to create something that felt more gestural, spontaneous, freeing. I refer to them internally as squirt paintings. I say to my staff Ok, I’m going to go squirt. Like a squid, who retreats into his hiding spot, and releases his ink sack. The squid has three hearts. These squirts are a second or third heart in this greater organism.

9. What inspires you?

The ocean. Phong. Crab tracings on the beach. The banana. The mountains. Facial hair. Razors. Joseph Beuys. 

Follow Dustin on Instagram.

Visit Dustin's website.

Visit the Pioneer Works website.

[mtvredefine2014]

STILT CITY: Community-Based Artist Workspace In The Rockaways

Recently, we had the chance to meet Robyn Hasty, the artist/mastermind behind a collaborative project with New York City design firm, Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects. 

Robyn had always dreamed about creating a community-based arts residency and exhibition space in New York but real estate prices made it seem out of reach. After 2012's Superstorm Sandy she was able to afford a bungalow that had been flooded in Rockaway Beach. With the pro bono support of Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects, she is one step closer to making her dream a reality.

While Stilt City could still be adversely affected by future floods it is being constructed with materials and methods that incorporate anti-flooding measures, keeping damage and repair costs to a minimum. 

In a statement Robyn said, "The project was born out of the belief that artistic vision is essential to communities after crisis." At RE:DEFINE we could not agree more. Today, Robyn kicked off her Kickstarter campaign to get the rest of Stilt City funded.

Click here to donate and find out more about Stilt City!

[mtvredefine2014]

Q + A with Neil Raitt

1. Can you tell us a bit about your current show at the Goss-Michael Foundation? What motifs are you exploring?

The show expands on ideas that are rooted in Bob Ross's cult classic television programme The Joy of Painting. The work appropriates motifs from the programme which includes mountains, cabins and evergreen trees. I chose these in particular because they represent pivotal elements in a landscape that lend themselves well to the language of repetition, and function well as symbols for their natural counterparts. 

2. Why did you choose the name Cabinectomy?

The title Cabinectomy refers to a description Bob Ross uses when painting a cabin. The process involves scraping the shape of a cabin out with a palette knife and removing the excess paint already on the canvas before laying down a dark mixture to form the base layer. The word ectomy has scientific connotations and denotes the surgical removal of a specified part of the body. I like how this simple word play anthropomorphises an object that is otherwise arbitrary.

3. You have a signature style that is hypnotic, natural and repetitive, right now it would seem that this style of painting is distinctly Neil Raitt. Was there a moment or something that occurred where you made the conscious effort to continue to develop this style?

During my time at the RCA studying for my masters, I became inspired by the idea of taking the work as close to pattern as possible before changing direction just before it collapses into repetition. I think that this works particularly well with the aspect of my work being so inspired by nature, you can see natural patterns, but there will always be something unique about each one. This is almost what makes the work hypnotic in the sense that your eye can see the pattern, and knows there is an imperfect repetition but can't focus on what makes it so.

4. How did you get connected with the Goss-Michael Foundation?

I exhibited at Dallas Art Fair earlier in the year and was invited to donate a work to MTV:Redefine charity auction and exhibition that is also in Dallas. The director of the foundation, Kenny Goss then got in touch about the possibility of making a show and so it went from there. 

5. How do you see your work evolving as your career progresses?

Building further on the language of repetition and also further towards ideas that are rooted in abstraction. 

6. What currently inspires you?

I find inspiration in anything and everything. A lot of my process involves a lot of thinking time, reading and listening to music, I like to take from different sources. this is often just a feeling that sometimes grows into an idea. Currently being in Dallas has been a huge inspiration, getting to see a new culture and landscape.

7. You were granted a residency from the Martini Arte Internazionale in Turin, Italy in 2013. Right now you are a resident artist at the Goss-Michael Foundation. How does painting in different places influence your work?

Being able to make work where it's going to end up is always a fantastic privilege and a brilliant opportunity for me. To be able to step out of my usual studio setup and discover new places is of course extremely inspirational and uniquely challenging. I think I take different things from each place I go, but I always enjoy learning about a place's history that usually impacts itself on the work one way or another. The reference for this work is a part of American popular culture so it is very interesting to open a dialogue with an audience that is generally more accustomed to this language of painting than in Europe for example. 

8. Can you tell us about any upcoming shows/future projects?

I have a future show planned in April next year with Anat Ebgi Gallery in Los Angeles. I am also looking forward to being back in London and exploring opportunities there, as well as a solo show with Hus Gallery also next year.

View more of Neil's work here.

[mtvredefine2014]

Studio Visit: David Horvitz (Pioneer Works)

David is an artist that uses mail art, photography, performance art, water color and art books as mediums. He has also created some fascinating online projects, the “241543903/Head-in-a-Freezer” meme involved people taking a picture with their head in a freezer, uploading it to Google and tagging it with “241543903.” When you Google that sequence of numbers there is a plethora of images of heads in Freezers. David has exhibited at SF Camerawork, MoMA, the New Museum, Tate Modern and most recently The Brooklyn Museum.

1. How long have you been at Pioneer Works and what brought you here?

A few months. Clara Halpern, a curator from Toronto, is including some work of mine in a show there in a few months. I was on the west coast a lot over the summer and gave up my studio in NY. When I visited the space with Clara I thought it'd be a good idea to have a studio here to think about work for the show. And there was an opening. So I got in. 

2. Can you talk to us about your upcoming show at PW? 

It's really Clara Halpern's show. I'll have some work. Maybe some enchiladas from Marfa. Maybe a bag of clothes left in Holland. Maybe solidified hours in the shape of vases. Maybe roses. Or lilies. Maybe a bicycle on the beach. Maybe windows. Honey locust trees.

   3. One of the mediums you work with is the mail, what first inspired mail art projects?

When I was in High School I would go to the post office in El Segundo, CA every week and mail things to my friend Mia Nolting, who moved to Orinda, CA. I tried to mail her the craziest things I could think of. Usually giant pieces of cardboard. This was just me being a teenager and trying to do crazy things at the post office. Later I would learn about mail art. 

  4. One continuous mail art project involves MoMA, there are a few pieces in the studio that you’re getting ready to send. How has this particular project evolved over the last couple of years?

You are talking about MoMA Cubicle, a secret show in the administration offices of MoMA. There's actually so much work in it that the show is now traveling to other cubicles inside the museum. This body of work is one of the works of mine that I am really drawn to. Mostly because it is something that happened organically and unplanned. It was just spontaneous, and over time it grew. I randomly started sending mail artworks to someone I know at MoMA who specializes in mail art. Over time I started to send more. It evolved. Things changed. I was told that anything I sent to her was automatically considered property of the museum since it was an artwork and she was an employee of the museum. So that added another layer to it. At one point all of the works went to a show in Den Haag. And then back to MoMA. Over the year people have visited it, some have written about it. It just happened. It's a work that I wouldn't really be able to plan out, or to outline in a future proposal. It just came together over time. And none of it is mine anymore. Which is nice. I don't like clutter. I don't like having things around. 

  5. How might one go about viewing this work at MoMA?

It's a secret. If I said how to do it on the internet someone would get mad at me. You have to know whose cubicle it is. Then you send her an email or call her, and she gives you a tour. It is by appointment only, unless you happen to be inside MoMA's offices. I'm not saying what department it is in. Or... What departments... But if you see me in person, I'll tell you who it is you have to email. Word of mouth only...

  6. This past spring/summer you had a show at the New Museum titled Gnomons. In one of the pieces titled Let Us Keep Our Own Noon, 47 performers collectively ring bells and disperse around the city and museum until they couldn’t hear the other bells, what did you want the viewer to take away from this?

This piece is actually on view at the Brooklyn Museum right now. Well, what do you mean by viewers? People who view the performance? Or just view the installation? Or the participant as viewer? The 47 bells were made from a French church tower bell that was made in the 1740's. It used to ring the hours of the day. The bronze was melted down to form the 47 bells that hang in the installation, bells that are the same style as the big bell, and that fit inside of the palm of ones hand. This bronze had rung the time of the day for centuries, this literal metal. I was trying to think of a way to hold time in your hands. Here the bell is a materialization of this past time. But its also this melting and fragmenting of this old bell. So I'm thinking about subjective time. About your own time. YOUR OWN TIME! Not the time of schedules or centralized time telling devices which dictate your behavior - but a time that is yours.  

  7. Your film The Distance of a Day was also exhibited at the New Museum, you filmed the sunrise from the Maldives and your mother filmed the sunset in LA (locations half way around the world from each other) at the exact same time. Can you tell about the significance of this project to you? Was there a particular reason you chose your Mother to film part of the event?

I wanted one video to be shot in California from the Palos Verdes Peninsula, a place I used to make work when I was younger. So it was about my home in a sense, where I am from. It's watching the sun go down in California, and imaging being on the otherside of that. So I traveled to the other side. And since it was about where I am from, my mom, it just made sense that I should ask my mom to do it. 

  8. A lot of your work deals with space and time, what attracts you to these themes?

Because no one has time anymore.  

  9. So far what has been the most rewarding part about your time at PW?

Sunlight. 

View more of David's work here.

[mtvredefine2014]

Studio Visit: Brett Swenson (Pioneer Works)

Brett is a multimedia artist whose work explores the intersection of natural objects and those that are manmade. His work is organic and carefully calculated. His experiments aim to capture the moment of transmutation between forces/objects, providing the viewer a glimpse of stories and phenomena that are rarely experienced in such a personal way.

What are the motifs you are exploring in your current body of work?

My work deals with the intersections of action and reaction, intention and occurrence, and finding the space between two points that exists as material potential.  Right now, I’m particularly interested in this idea of the Anthropocene, where humanity has influenced the earth to such a degree that nothing we see or experience remains truly natural or unaffected.  For me, its the idea of a feedback loop, where the more you look to the outside world for answers, the more you see yourself reflected back at you.  I’m interested in the implications of this kind of entanglement, something irreversible that seems to be both cyclical and exponential.  Its a question of identity really, in the sense that your identity pieces itself together over time through response to external signals.

  What inspires you?

Natural phenomena, materials, forgotten places, geology, history.   

  Can you tell us about your gypsum and found object piece, Strewn and its continual evolution?

Strewn began as a response to my fascination with an area once known as Barren Island.  It was New York City's dumping grounds a century ago, and now objects are being pulled out of the earth along the shore by the tide.  Its a museum on the ground where you can witness a blip in the entropic timeline.  I became interested in conveying my experience of the space on an internally focused, physical level.  For me, it resonated back to a time of industrial strength, when a sort of blind faith existed in the power of the machine.  I chose the spark plugs because they functioned as conductors, which to me has a poetic potency, and because they are neat little hybrids of reclamation and engineering.  Their steel bottoms have been transformed into oxidized concretions resembling meteorites, while their porcelain insulators are relatively unaffected.  The title comes from the term "strewn field", which is used to describe the site where meteorites are dispersed from a single impact.  The objects are encased in these bricks to function as a time capsule on the surface.  These things were in a process of mergence with their surrounding matter, exposed for a brief moment, and I've attempted to slow down that process further while giving a hyper-saturated view of the actual decomposition taking place.  The plaster is like a sponge and draws in moisture from the air, the rust auras bloom from the plugs over time, and so I’m continuing to watch them evolve.   

  Standards of Measurement is Obsidian that looks like its wrapped in plastic, in reality its melted glass. It’s man made and natural existing together. What is the significance of this juxtaposition?

The idea for the Standards of Measurement series initially was to take a tool of measurement, the laboratory flask, and completely alter its structure through a corresponding material expression.  The obsidian for me is elemental, its the stuff literally oozing out of the earth.  The flask is this impermeable standard, a tool whose function is not supposed to be vulnerable to the material it contains.  Categorically the flask and the obsidian are the same material, so I liked the idea of fusing these physically similar materials with totally opposite connotations.  In a broader sense, these pieces question human systems and their stability or lack thereof.  It may be cliche, but I believe it's important not to assume that what you know to be true is impermeable.  I originally wanted to try to melt the obsidian, and instead I found it expanded to about three times its size.  In this way, they are kind of an homage to the scientific process, with a rawness that relates back to the pursuits of alchemy.

  Your work is fascinating in the sense that you explore natural phenomena using manmade resources, prime example, Door is Opened, Power is High. Can you explain what this piece represents/the thinking behind it?

I had done some work prior creating artificial fulgurites (the result of lightning passing through silica rich material like sand) out of the expanded obsidian material.  Door is Opened, Power is High began as an attempt to create physical evidence for a loosely understood phenomenon called ball lightning.  Its the stuff of folklore and pseudoscience, but it also has some real basis and study around it to be sure.  The general idea is that its a self contained electromagnetic field, literally a glowing ball of electricity that can either float around in a dreamy kind of way or blow a hole through someone's kitchen window.  They've been described everywhere from airplane cabins to the middle of the desert, and there's no shortage of fanciful stories and illustrations to go along with them.  Proper documentation is pretty scarce, but a recent insight on the matter actually showed the ball to contain material from the soil it hovered above.  My idea was to utilize a self contained electromagnetic field that we're all familiar with, a microwave, to act as the environment to produce some kind of result.  The vintage microwave especially is such a loaded, iconic thing, that I wanted to incorporate its aesthetic and connotations into the work.  I took the desert as a reference, and that rich red earth that is ubiquitous throughout the southwest was my material to be affected.  After some experimentation, I had these very strange, hollow, tumor-like glass formations which resulted from microwave radiation.  The setup in Door is Opened is the preliminary iteration of something thats been percolating in my mind for a while now.   

  While Door is Opened, Power is High currently lives in your studio, do you have future site specific plans for it (or any of your other work for that matter)?

The piece was a focal point of my recent solo show "Potential Difference" which brought together several works of mine through ideas of electromagnetism.  I went out to Moab, Utah this summer to bring back the red dirt used in the piece.  While I was out there, I was completely blown away by the landscape and its geology.  I definitely think the work needs to exist in some way out there in an otherworldly, barren landscape, so during my residency Im working on ways to pursue that.  I’m also working on the possibility for an outdoor iteration right here in the city.

  What new projects are you working on?

I just kicked off a new print edition called Reignition, also existing as a video piece, which corresponds with Strewn.  Its kind of the positive to the negative, showing one of the spark plugs discharging a plume of hydrogen gas as it undergoes the process of electrolysis.  Along with a couple other print editions, I am currently expanding on some work I've done involving the generation of crack patterns in tempered glass with heat.  There's a performative iteration of the work that I feel needs to go further, and I’m also working out ways to take prints directly off of the glass to isolate the fracture as more of a line drawing.  

  What has been the most rewarding part of working out of Pioneer Works so far?

Aside from the marvel of the building itself, Pioneer Works is an excellent environment for connecting with new people.  For me, I really appreciate that aspect of the residency more than anything.  

View more of Brett's work here.

[mtvredefine2014]

Studio Visit: Robyn Renee Hasty (Pioneer Works)

Robyn is a multi-faceted artist whose work spans photography, installation, printmaking, sculpture and the streets. She employs obsolete technology and pre-industrial practices, juxtaposing fine craftsmanship and the unpredictability of these outdated methods.

How long have you been at Pioneer Works and what brought you here?

I've been teaching at Pioneer Works since Summer of 2013, and became a resident in March 2014. I met Gabe,the Director of Operations, when he took my Introduction to Tintype class at 3rd Ward. He mentioned that Dustin had a few antique cameras that he'd like to refurbish to use as equipment for the Pioneer Works photography program. I started refurbishing the cameras, teaching tintype courses, and eventually I started using the cameras I had refurbished. This led organically to my residency at Pioneer.

What current motifs are you exploring in your work?

My practice deals with cycles of crisis, revolution and transcendence. Particularly, how these are processed inwardly, and become manifestations of emotional landscapes and social structures in the physical world. My current body of work at Pioneer deals a lot with sexuality through the precarious balance of empowerment and vulnerability. I think this is coming from my own internal process of dealing with my father's death, who was a lifelong sexual abuser. I am trying to present something that disassembles that baggage, and hones in on an aspect of our sexuality that is pure and free, the element that is neither a victim nor a predator, that wants to connect to others through the body in a totally essential manner. 

You use obsolete and labor intensive technology to take a lot of your pictures (i.e. the portraits hanging to the left), why is this important to you?

I think the struggle against the material world is part of the artistic process that really excites me. I like that the chemistry is always slightly beyond control, and that it can surprise you no matter how well you know your technique. The labor-intensive aspect appeals to me because it is impractical and inefficient, and therefore is difficult to assimilate into a world of mass-production and commerce. These are one-of-a-kind images that cannot be reproduced, and they are objects with a distinct physical presence. It is a mode of producing imagery that exists in refreshing opposition to the digital process. 

In addition to using out of date cameras, can you talk about the ways you’re exploring photography as projections, sculpture, and altering how lighting techniques can change the way we perceive images?

Now that I have a pretty strong body of work at Pioneer, I'm starting to explore the physicality of the images, their existence as objects in the world. The Ambrotypes--images made with silver on glass--- are very strange in the sense that they are both extremely ephemeral and extremely physical. If you hold them over a white wall, the image practically disappears. You can project them on the wall using a lens and a clip light. They can be stacked and produce a kind of layered "multiple exposure" effect. They have a dimensionality more like sculpture than photographic prints. I want to push the object quality of these images because it highlights the basis of photography in simple physics and chemistry. It's a process that directly captures light in a chemical substrate. It almost feels like witchcraft. 

What photography projects do you have in the pipeline?

I've been thinking about the way the collodion process can dramatically shift skin-tone, a project that documents New-Orleans 10 years after Katrina, photographing Native-American reservations, taking the Collodion rig to Antarctica. Some of these might be more pipe-dreams. 

Your work extends far beyond the studio, you are part of the Miss Rockaway Armada Collective, can you tell us how you got involved in the project and what the experience of traveling down the Mississippi for 1,000 miles by raft is like?

I got involved with the MRA by complete serendipity. It's a thing that maybe happens once in a NYC lifetime. I was doing 3 different things separately, and all of a sudden the separate people and projects became connected. I answered the call of lady fortune and ended up on a greyhound out to Minnesota to catch up with the raft. My first stay was short, but I was utterly awed. I was involved from the beginning the second year, and spent 4 months building in the backyard of a biker bar, traveling down the river putting on vaudeville-esuqe variety shows with the crew, and crash landing in St. Louis. A typical day might go like this: wake up to rafts beached in 2 ft of mud, spend 1 hour prying them off with poles, cook lunch for crew of 30 while underway, motor for 6 hours going 15 miles downriver to to a new town, fill up water barrels with buckets that have to be carried 100 yards and over gangplanks, dumpster food, give tours to curious passerby, make flyer for the show, cook dinner and sing songs, wake up in the middle of the night to torrential rain, lower tarps and secure lines so we don't float away. It was completely insane and amazing. It also really exposed me to radical culture in a way that continues to inform my way of life and art practice. DIY culture, autonomous zones, alternative social systems and economies, all continue to overlay my work and how I engage with the art world. 

You have also undertaken work on the streets, murals and wheat pasting – how does this work differ from your studio practice/or how is it similar?

There's a common thread of altruistic belief in the ability of art to move people, and therefore the capacity of art for social change. I think this was one of the reasons I started to do street art and public art. I liked the democratic nature of the street, and bringing art into a more accessible zone outside of institutions. It was a little bit about reclaiming the streets for the individual as well, in a world where advertising and commerce controls the imagery we see on the street. I think these ideas still inform my practice, I'm just experimenting with different media, and exploring aspects of the capacity of art to produce social change that are more intimate and emotional. 

Tell us about the collective/space you are planning to build in the Rockaways this spring?

I'm working on a project called Stilt City, which will be an art and community space rebuilt in a vacant bungalow in Rockaway Park that was flooded by Superstorm Sandy. It's an ambitious project, and I've had a lot of support so far, especially from my collaborators, Jaklitsch / Gardner Architects. They have created a design that maintains the bungalow character, makes the space more versatile to diverse artistic uses, opens the space architecturally to be more inviting to public participation, and redesigns the structure to make it more resilient to future floods. The idea is to run the bungalow as an artist residency and gathering/exhibition space that will develop programming around some of the issues the Rockaways are facing post-Sandy. We are launching a kickstarter campaign on November 20th with a fundraising goal of $100,000, about half of the construction costs. If you'd like to know more or support the project, you can go to the project website at http://www.stiltcity.org

What has been the most rewarding part of your time at Pioneer Works so far?

Developing relationships with a community of talented artists who both challenge and support my work has been an incredibly rewarding experience. Being able to create my own work and teach the process on-site is also a very unique aspect of working at Pioneer Works. I also appreciate the open-studio layout, which allows the people passing through to give feedback on in-progress work, an experience you can't have in a private studio. 

Checkout more of Robyn's work here.

[mtvredefine2014]

Art Amidst Conflict: Tammam Azzam's Story

Photograph by Sueraya Shaheen

Tammam Azzam is a Syrian artist living in Dubai. He was displaced by the Syrian Civil War, much of his work reflects the continued violence in his home country. Tammam sat down with Voices, here is his story…

“I left Syria three years, one month and five days ago.

Life as I knew it has ended. The revolution made me another person in life and in art. My family left with nothing, just our suitcases, we started life from zero. No materials, no studio, nothing. When people ask me what I miss most about home I tell them I miss my studio above all other things, it was my sanctuary, especially during my military service. It’s gone now, just a memory… but I am relieved to be in a safe place where I continue with my work and I know that I am among the lucky ones. Slowly we have begun to rebuild our lives here. I now work from my studio attached to Ayyam Gallery in Dubai. It is safe and secure here but it is not permanent.

Syrian Olympic, 2013

When I left Damascus I was working on a series that I had to abandon as it was no longer relevant – it was made up of stories about people from my city – that was extremely hard and it took a while to recover. My work has changed beyond recognition since then. In Syria, I was a painter, which is what I was known for, now I work mainly in graphic art. At first this led to criticism but as my work has developed people have begun to get used to it. I have also had a fair bit of my work featured in the media in relation to the ongoing crisis in my country so I am particularly proud of that.

Freedom Graffiti, 2013

One work in particular changed my life within the space of four hours. When Freedom Graffiti from the series Syrian Museum went viral I remember posting it online and leaving my house, when I came back a few hours later I was bombarded by journalists and by people that I didn’t know on every social network. The series was my attempt to highlight how the whole world could be interested in art and blindly neglect the fact that two hundred people are killed every day in Syria at the time. Goya created a work to immortalize the killing of hundreds of innocent Spanish citizens on May 3, 1808. How many May 3rds do we have in Syria today?

I left Syria three years, one month and five days ago.

Life as I knew it has ended. The revolution made me another person in life and art.”

We’ ll Stay Here, 2012

Find out more about Tammam and view his work here.

Follow Tammam on Instagram.

Follow Tammam on Twitter.

[mtvredefine2014]

Studio Visit: Julie Thevenot

Top photograph by Emile Dubuisson

Julie is an artist and designer that hails from Paris and lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. While visiting her studio she was constructing one of her giant wall hangings. She shared her influences with us, as well as talked about the the importance of working with her hands and why she transitioned away from the traditional fashion world. 

How long have you had your studio space?

I have been in my studio space 4 years now, it was not always an art studio, there is a time where it use to be a small store, the space is evolving with my work.

What is the best part of your studio?

The windows, It is very important for me to have direct natural light, an eye on the outside, that way I feel less isolated!

What are your favorite places in the neighborhood?

Isa, it's a beautiful restaurant that reminds me of being at the mountains, and Nighthawk because I love a glass of wine during movies.

Originally you had a background in fashion – how/why did you transition from that to wall displays, print editions, and accessories?

I didn't really feel fashion was for me, I didn't like the production world and the straightening of the calendar, I was mainly doing business and couldn't create anymore. With wall displays, jewelry and objects I am free and can design whatever I have in mind and I don't have to worry about production since I am spending most my time taking care of this part. I need to make things with my hands and I love the handmade work that comes with it. Now I have time to develop other one time projects like I just did for J.Crew. 

Can you talk to us about the concepts behind your hanging wall pieces?

I wanted to have some objects that are not gallery pieces and not industrial design but a mix between them, more like lifestyle pieces. When I started those "jewelry for walls" I didn't really see anything like it. When creating there is a big part that is intuition and what I feel like making, that is the result of my music/movies and travel influences. My style is a mix between minimal, 70s, contemporary aesthetic, and 80s/90s colors.

What inspires your work?

Architecture/ A LOT of music/ movies and travels.

What music in particular influences your work/i.e. what are you listening to right now?

House music, new wave,  disco, nu disco, psych, a bit of underground techno and new bands as well.

You make everything yourself by hand in your studio, why is this important to you?

Yes, it is important for me because I am a very hands on worker and I would not like doing industrial scale products.

Is there a movie(s) in particular that you draw inspiration from while creating?

Not in Particular but there is nothing better than watching movies to relax I love dark comedy taking place in the old NY like After Hours or with crazy white landscape like Fargo.

In a conversation we had you mentioned that minimalism and Iceland influence your work, can you elaborate on this?

Those colors of sulfuric and blue shades of Iceland’s hot springs influenced me for the gradient necklaces that I did, and Scandinavian interior design in general.

Checkout more of Julie's work here.

Follow Julie on Instagram.

[mtvredefine2014]

MTV:REDEFINE heading to Miami for Art Basel

We'll be throwing a shindig on Friday December 5th to celebrate the art fair and our up-coming show in Dallas, TX on April 10th. If you're interested in attending, drop a note to [email protected]

[mtvredefine2014]

Frieze Cocktail Party at MTV London HQ

MTV RE:DEFINE are hosting a cocktail party on Friday 17th October 2014 at MTV HQ to mark Frieze London and the official announcement of Michael Craig-Martin being our 2015 honoree. Check back soon for photos and full write-up of the event.

[mtvredefine2014]

A Conversation with Michael Ned Holte

Get to know Michael Ned Holte, Co-Curator of the Hammer's Made In LA 2014 exhibition. Michael along with Curator Connie Butler put together a roster of 35 of LA's most renowned artists – A mixture of young, old, mid-career, unheralded and everything in between. In an age where its easy to get caught-up with art celebrities Made In LA reminds us of the importance of supporting and nurturing local arts communities.

[mtvredefine2014]

Studio Visit: Adam Ball

We recently had the chance to stop by Adam's studio and talk about his new show at the Goss-Michael Foundation, The Space Between, as well as the new motifs his exploring in his work, and the other projects that he's got in the pipeline, amongst other things. If you're in the Dallas area be sure to checkout The Space Between as it's running through October 4th.

1. Where is your studio located in the UK? 

I'm currently based in South London.

2. How long have you been there, what’s your favorite part of your studio?

About a year and it overlooks an ancient cemetery so I love the peace. It really helps me to work.

3. Are there any spots in your neighborhood that you go to for inspiration/take a breather from work?

The parks for downtime with my 3 year old son, and my studio is also situated immediately above Volcano Coffee which is an amazing independent roastary with a coffee shop for energy when I'm putting in long nights in the build up to a show.

4. Can you tell us a little bit about the work in your new solo show at the Goss-Michael Foundation, The Space Between?

Much of the imagery reflects life in all it's forms - man made or naturally occurring, visible or invisible, micro biological or galactic. By challenging the context or scale, I found that everything can potentially become interchangeable. My work is essentially abstract, but much of the core imagery is distilled from source material that has been constantly layered, edited and reworked.

5. Hailing from the UK, how did you get connected with the Goss-Michael Foundation? What are your thoughts on the current Dallas art scene?

I first exhibited at the Goss Gallery in Dallas in 2007 when Kenny and George started to collect my work. I've since worked closely with the Foundation on exhibitions such as RE:DEFINE, which happens to also involve the curator of The Space Between, The Future Tense. However this is my first solo show since they became a foundation and also my first major institutional US show. I will be in Dallas 3 times this year so it's almost becoming a second home. It's changed dramatically since I first visited there is a real hunger and knowledge for contemporary art here. 

6. What are some of the new motifs that you’re exploring in your work?

A lot of the work in this show originates from images created by collaborating with a range of specialists - mostly microbiological. I've been examining what is possible and how it can be made. 

7. A lot of your work incorporates abstract DNA as a visual language, how did you become fascinated with using these forms?

I've always been extremely interested in how we are made and function and how everything is connected. The fact that we are all essentially made of stardust is pretty hard to comprehend when you think about it.

8. In The Space Between is there a statement that you are attempting to make or something that you want the audience to walk away with?

I hope it feels like a cohesive body of work, investigating different aspects of the world around us but also that it feels intimate and optimistic. Science is playing an increasingly interesting role in our lives and poses some fundamental questions about the way we exist.

9. What other projects do you have in the pipeline?

My next show is later this month at the XXV anniversary exhibition at Galeria Xavier Fiol, Spain, and I've also collaborated with The Halo Trust on a unique signature artists version of the classic Desert Boot, which is something very different from my usual gallery shows. 

10. What is the greatest part about being an artist?

Pushing myself to see what I can create and constantly trying to learn. Oh, and traveling to lots of interesting places and meeting and working with very interesting and different people.

Visit Adam's website here.

[mtvredefine2014]

Studio Visit: Scott Indrisek

We recently had the chance to stop by Scott's live/work space in Bed Stuy. Scott is a painter, writer, and has two of the most awesome cats you will ever meet, Uni and Chloe Zola Volcano.

How long have you had your studio?

My studio is also my apartment, a 2-bedroom in Bedford-Stuyvesant (coincidentally one block away from where Spike Lee shot the entirety of Do The Right Thing.) I've lived and worked here for just about two years—before that I was in East Williamsburg. My advice to anyone living in the neighborhood: Find a great, rent-stabilized place you love. And then don't let them get rid of you without cutting a hefty check.

Best part about your studio?

It's affordable, in the context of the city. There's a lot of light, and a back patio. Plus, I get to spend time with my two intrepid cat-companions, Uni and Chloe Zola Volcano, who blog at SHITMYCATSREAD.com.

Secret/favorite spots in the neighborhood?

The immediate vicinity is a bit lacking in terms of bars, restaurants, and cafes, secret or otherwise, but it's centrally located and accessible to a lot of great stuff nearby. I can't say enough good things about Outpost Cafe on Fulton Street, which has an amazing back yard (with trees, plants, free WiFi, and ample outdoor electrical outlets). Trophy Bar on Broadway is pretty great, as is Nostrand Avenue Pub down in Crown Heights, which also has a spacious backyard. (I'm not claustrophobic, but I do like to paint, and drink, en plein air). The Carolina buffalo wings at Sweet Science are dangerously delicious, and the 2-for-1 happy hour special at Duck Duck is just plain dangerous.

What currently inspires you/influences your work?

A pretty broad mix, from pop culture to intensely personal, fairly obscure experiences. In other words: Things that are shared by everyone, and things that are most definitely not shared by anyone beyond myself. I interviewed Christopher Williams a few weeks back and, on my Facebook wall, a fellow art critic blasted his work for being “soft and hermetic.” I thought that was great—maybe even a goal to strive toward. I'd like to make Soft & Hermetic a rallying cry. I'm fine with making paintings that are both enjoyable on a surface level and impossibly obtuse on a personal level, a sort of self-communication that may or may not be legible to anyone else.

Why do you paint?

I used to make about one huge painting a year, growing up—strange, borderline obnoxious things. My mom still has one in her bedroom, a huge canvas featuring a cartoon dog, a collaged-on woman, and LITOST, an 'untranslatable' Czech word discussed at length by Milan Kundera. When my father passed away in 2009 I inherited his paints and brushes and other supplies, and I started making work more in earnest. Initially I had been 'painting' with colored Duct tape, and some of that stuff is probably still floating around out there.

Tell us a bit about your current body of work, what motifs are you exploring? 

Most recently I've been experimenting with how two distinct canvases change each other when paired together. I was in a three-person show at Beverly's in the L.E.S., curated by the very awesome Leah Dixon, and she hung a lot of the works like that—in rows, without any breathing room between them. I've also been making a series that incorporates a degraded version of the New Directions publishing logo; the first one's background was inspired by a description of powerfully clashing clothing colors in The Driver's Seat, by Muriel Spark. That painting got paired into an older diptych with an abstract oil-pastel-on-panel piece inscribed with the words FUCK IT UP MORE, PEDRO—Pedro being an old nickname for my father, and this being a sort of posthumous exhortation for him to take more risks, to get messier and weirder in his work. So, yeah: Soft and hermetic, for sure.

The name "Dick Wolf" appears on a number of your paintings, who is he and why is this significant?

Dick Wolf is the producer of LAW & ORDER:SVU, among other things. He's also a rabid right-wing Republican, evidently, which I didn't know when I first began making these paintings. Wolf appears in these works as a sort of powerless, sad clown. I'm obsessed with SVU—my real dream job is to write for this most compulsive and formulaic of shows—and of course the name Dick Wolf is hilariously evocative on its own. Occasionally one Wolf reaches out to another, as in a small painting I did that overlaid the DW character over a pastel forest landscape, my own faux-attempt at a Wolf Kahn composition (one of my dad's favorite painters).

Can you tell us a bit about your work that uniquely explores/reinterprets paintings your father left you?

Not to be too cheesy about it, but I definitely started copying or reinterpreting paintings my father had made as a way to communicate with him, or his legacy, after he died. Going through his archives my brother and I were always drawn to the one-offs, the strange or inexplicable paintings, the weird ones. My dad painted a lot of very studious still life compositions as well, and even with those, I was always most fond of the ones that had some sort of mistake inherent in them—where the level of the table behind some fruit-in-a-bowl suddenly jumped a few inches from one side of the canvas to the other. The main project I've done in this vein has been to copy and alter a single painting my dad made in Manville, New Jersey, when he was in his mid-teens. It's a grisaille still life of some bowls and plants presided over by an enigmatic little bearded wizard figure. The series I made from this was titled “YR FUCKING STUPID MAGIC”--for some perhaps obnoxious, definitely hermetic reasons I won't go into here. I made perhaps 8 of these, and have since drawn a version of the painting which I then had tattooed on my arm, which probably marks the end of this particular appropriation.

What projects are you currently working on?

I'm interested in further exploring how these paintings can change or evolve in combination with each other—treating them less like independent entities and more like words in a sentence. I'm also interested in making more unique photo prints, some of which would be painted (like a recent work featuring a foil-pack of Sudafed, the empty pill slots filled in with red acrylic). 

Follow Scott on Instagram