V O L U M E

Volume is a Q&A series featuring studio visits and short artist interviews.

[volumequestions]

Erin Raedeke

Where do you live / where is your studio? I live in Montgomery Village, Maryland which is a suburb of Washington DC. My studio is in a spare bedroom of our house.

Can you give a quick description of your work space? Our house has an extra master bedroom on the first level that I use as my studio. The light is southwest so it is really sharp and inconsistent during the day, so I work exclusively in incandescent light.

What’s your day to day studio schedule like? I try to get in the studio every day. I have three young kids and this is the first year that they are all in school at the same time. It has really been life changing in terms of opening up my schedule. I wake up and get the kids off to school and then go straight to the studio and work until I have to pick them up in the afternoon. Some days are broken up with appointments and school related activities, but a really good day is when I can work straight from 8:30- 2:30. Nights have never been a very productive time for me, but I’m trying to change my ways. In the summer, I wake up early and get a couple hours painting in before everyone wakes up.

Who’s work have you been looking at lately? Robert Motherwell, Tomma Abts, Fairfield Porter, Vuillard.

There’s usually a sense of depth in your work, but in most cases the space is really shallow.  What kind of role does spatial illusion play in your work? I’m not interested in the traditional still life space of a table or room. I want the viewer to be in the action. I think of the paintings as inhabiting a type of mental space – a piece of my unconscious that is slowly emerging. Past and present merge and there is no beginning or end to the space. I’m curious to exploit the space as well. The cloth paintings were an example of me challenging how shallow can I make the space. I’m really interested in conveying a particular sensation and for some paintings a shallow space is all I need.

I really like your use of pattern in the still life paintings.  Pattern can be something equally illusionistic and abstract.  You paint from observation a lot, but the paintings seem to engage a lot of abstract issues as well.  How have you been balancing those things? All of my work is autobiographical and pattern emerged as a key part of my work out of necessity. Many of the cloth patterns that I use are old bed sheets that my parents received for their wedding – I would sleep on many of the pillowcases growing up. I have an intense history with them and many strong associations. The other cloths that I use are significant because their particular color relationships spark a memory or sensation. In the last couple of years I started manipulating the actual cloth with cuts, burns, tears, and stains. They’re very physical, aggressive and violent actions. I’m very much thinking about mark, gesture, composition and other formal issues as well as personal experiences when I am destructing the cloth. It’s as if I’m engaging with the abstract issues on the physical cloth and then it then becomes about making an illusion on the canvas. Sometimes I don’t see a clear division between working representationally or abstractly.  For me, the same interests and challenges exist in both approaches.

Do you think that there's a much of a difference between representational painting and abstract painting at this point? For me, abstraction is a direct way to engage with the formal aspects of painting. It’s about the mind and hand of the artist as well as being an object in itself, its own entity. Representation can be about those things too, but it also portrays recognizable objects and becomes about the artist’s relationship to his or her surroundings. It is a window into the world that the viewer comes to with his or her own personal associations. I feel that sometimes the objects in my still life’s can get in the way of the idea or feeling that I’m trying to convey. Titles have become more significant for me in hopes of guiding the viewer. The cloth paintings have also become a way to challenge the limits of representation and abstraction. The painting reads as an abstraction at first glance and then reads as an object the longer one sits with it. In some of the paintings, the paint tricks the eye as to read as literal cloth or threads – it deceives the viewer until they get up close and see the cloth and threads dissolve into physical paint.

What do you do when you’re not working, and how does that impact the artwork that you make...?

I’m very interested in how the mind works. I have been reading Sigmund Freud’s writings and am currently engaged in a psychoanalysis. Painting and the analysis go hand in hand – they really feed off of one another. Both are about observing relationships, thought patterns and projections, as well as challenging preconceived ideas and assumptions. Everything that happens on the couch plays out in the studio in some manner.

Any upcoming exhibitions, projects, or residencies in the near future? I have two solo shows this month. One is at a new gallery in Baltimore called Exeter and the other is at Artspace in Richmond, VA. I’m also really excited about a solo exhibition I have coming up in March of 2019 at Flager College’s Crisp-Ellert Art Museum in St. Augustine, FL.

Thanks to Erin Raedeke for taking the time to answer our questions.  To see more of Erin’s work go to erinraedeke.com

[volumequestions]

Meredith Sellers

Where do you live / where do you work?

I live in Philadelphia, on North Broad Street, just south of Temple’s campus. It’s a strange kind of no-man’s land sprinkled with abandoned buildings and empty lots that are now being developed at breakneck speed. I always liked how it was this little pocket that felt sort of desolate and Lynchian, even though it’s just nine blocks North of City Hall. I recently moved my studio to Port Richmond, which took a little getting used to, but I’m enjoying the pierogies!

Can you give a quick description of your work space?

My work space is split between my partner, Jonathan Santoro, and me. It’s an old school building, so our studio used to be a classroom. There’s something I love about working in the space, it has a feeling of comfort and familiarity that you don’t get in your typical converted industrial space studio. I have a very large desk, which is essential for “thinking room,” and a long wall that I cover with foam core so I can attain a perfectly smooth surface in my drawings.

What's your day to day studio schedule like?

I go to the studio generally about twice a week, more if I’m on a deadline. Jonathan and I typically go together every weekend, and one week night. It takes me a while to feel settled in a space, and I’ll often spend the first hour or so reading or writing before I start working. Art is a huge part of my life everyday, and I’ve set up my facebook feed so that I see websites like Contemporary Art Daily and Art Viewer first every morning. It sort of centers me, and lets me take a quick look at things that are trending and ideas that are important in art at this moment. I am constantly reading about art, collecting images, and doing every day art research. I also frequently stop to take pictures of windows or displays while I’m walking. I consider all of this equally important to the time spent physically in the studio.

Whose work have you been looking at lately?

In the past few years there’s been a wave of younger painters who are working with ideas of mediated representation, and are playing with a flattening of the image in a way that references an amalgamating of images, or a screen. Jamian Juliano-Villani is a master of this. I also look at artists like Avery Singer, Louisa Gagliardi, Sascha Braunig, Melanie Ebenhoch, Victor Man, Sayer Gomez, Jordan Kasey, and David Korty. I see this trend as the inheritance of the image-based sensibility of some of my favorite artists, like Ed Ruscha, R.B. Kitaj, Vija Celmins, R.H. Quaytman, and Gertrude Abercrombie.

I look at a lot of art historical painting as well, and recently I’ve been influenced by Piero Della Francesca and other early Renaissance paintings. I really love the ones that have a slightly-less-than-perfect understanding of perspective, because I think it speaks to something inherent in the flaws in human perception.

What museums or galleries do you visit regularly?

I’m a writer for the art criticism blog Hyperallergic, and I recently took on an editorial role with Title Magazine here in Philly, so I try to keep abreast of what’s going on and I go to a lot of spaces in Philly with regularity. I always go to ICA openings, and openings at High Tide, which has been doing some really interesting things. Rosenwald-Wolf at UArts presents some of the best shows in the city. Kamahira, Pilot Projects, and, recently, Fleisher Ollman have all been showing some great, young local artists. I think Ryan McCartney and Tim Belknap have presented some really great projects at the Icebox, and I usually to first Fridays at the 319 Building.

It’s heartening to me to see Philadelphia moving away from a self-showing collective model, which creates an incredibly closed, insular, and solipsistic gallery system, where it becomes very difficult to show if you’re not willing to “pay to play.” I think curatorial collectives and apartment galleries are the only ways to move to the conversation forward, to expose Philadelphia to artists from other places, and vice versa.

What was the last show you saw in person that impacted your work?

Matt Freedman’s show “Slapstick” at Fjord. Matt was the only professor I worked with in grad school that I felt really supported my work. I hadn’t seen much of his work in person until the show at Fjord, but it made so much sense why Matt had been interested in what I was doing. His objects, like mine, function almost like props, but have a loose, provisional quality that I struggle to achieve. I especially love his painted backdrop, which covers every wall with imagery appropriated from the “Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner” cartoons.

I also recently saw Sascha Braunig’s show at PS1, which was incredible, and Mark Leckey’s show, which I hated. It was totally vapid, deeply patronizing, and totally didactic, with the artist literally speaking in your ear as you walk through one of the galleries. I think figuring out why you hate work can sometimes be as important as seeing work that reinforces your practice.

What do you do when you're not working, and how does that impact the artwork that you make...? 

I watch a lot of films, I especially love silent film, and early experimental cinema like Jean Cocteau’s Blood of a Poet and Orpheus. Films like that have heavily influenced video projects I’ve done in the past. Because they were made before digital effects and gigantic budgets, they make me feel like anything is possible if you can just find the time. They have a handmade quality that requires a certain suspension of belief, which I find really intriguing. I also love Pedro Almodovar. His films have an atmosphere so thick you could cut it with a knife, and the color is unlike any you’ll ever see in American cinema. I have an annoying habit of taking screenshots of films I’m watching that sometimes become references in my paintings.

Any upcoming projects or residencies in the near future?

I have an upcoming solo show at Black Oak House gallery, and a show slated for the fall at Pilot Projects with Jonathan. We will be building a sort of theater set and curating a few performers to interact with it. I’m making backdrops and he is making furniture. We’ve done several collaborative projects together, which have all referenced film or stage sets, but this is the first where the promise will be fulfilled and we’ll actually be working with performers, I’m really excited about it!

Thanks to Meredith for taking the time to talk with volume.  You can see additional images and learn more about Meredith’s work at meredithsellers.tumblr.com

[volumequestions]

Will Hutnick

Volume:  Where do you live / where do you work?

Will Hutnick:  I currently live in Wassaic, NY, in Dutchess County, about two hours north of NYC.  I’m working as the Residency Director at The Wassaic Project, an arts non-profit organization that exists to provide a genuine and intimate context for art making and strengthening local community by increasing social and cultural capital through inspiration, promotion and creation of contemporary visual and performing art.  We have year-round programming including a huge summer exhibition, as well as 10 artists in residence per month.

Can you give a quick description of your work space?

My studio is located in an old livestock barn in Wassaic, so I have a relatively large and funky space where I can spread out and work on (and see) multiple projects at once.  The space is really raw and open, and is surrounded by the Wassaic Project’s artists in residence’s summer studios, so there’s a communal “grad school we’re all in this together” vibe happening, which is really inspiring.  I usually have all of my materials laid out (on the floor and scattered around tables) at all times, that way I can move quickly between works and materials and get out of my head a little bit.  So it’s definitely a little chaotic and disheveled, but I’m organized in my own way. A friend came into my studio the other day and said that my desk looked like I was a “maniac”, which was nice and weird.

What's your day to day studio schedule like?

I devote Mondays to my studio practice and really try to shut out emails and social media that day.  My work schedule with The Wassaic Project is flexible, so I’m also able to get into the studio some afternoons and evenings during the week as well, and because I tend to work rather quickly, even an hour in the studio can be very productive.  I gravitate towards laying down a lot of information on several works at a time, and then at some point carve out those areas to edit down the information and see what is really needed, what the work is trying to say/be.  It’s a constant dialogue between the work - I really value that exchange.  I love going back into works from a few years ago and “collaborate” with my past self - most of the time, if not always, I see that the things I was thinking about then are still very much relevant.

Whose work have you been looking at lately?

I’ve been looking at/thinking about lately: Devin Balara, Leslie Baum, Mark Joshua Epstein, Joanne Greenbaum, Angela Heisch, Shara Hughes, Meg Lipke, Kelly McCafferty and Ben Pederson, just to name a few.

What was the last show you saw in person that impacted your work?

I was blown away by the Stuart Davis retrospective at the Whitney a few months back, In Full Swing.  Davis has always been an influence on me, but I hadn’t seen his work in person in a while, so it was great to see so many different works across so many years.  His interest in repetition and time and how that manifests itself in the work is remarkable; I was obsessed with some of his earlier more-representational-like images/still-life compositions as well.  Also, Caroline Larsen’s show Kabloom! at The Hole this summer was really great: her surfaces are so seductive and mesmerizing, how they are constructed and physically interwoven.  Her color is everything too.

What influences your practice outside of the studio?

Outside of the studio, I read a lot of novels.  I think a lot about time travel and interconnecting narratives and interstitial and inter-dimensional spaces, and I think a lot of those queries are further manifested through novels by David Mitchell, Murakami, Jennifer Egan, Ishiguro, etc.  Jenny Offill’s “Dept. of Speculation” was the last book that I read that really got under my skin and is something that I think about constantly.  It’s such a beautiful and heart-breaking work.  I also play the cello, something that I’ve done since I was a kid, so music is a huge influence on my work and practice.  I recently participated in the pit orchestra for a local production of “Dogfight”, which I’ve had stuck in my head for the past month or two.

Any upcoming projects or residencies in the near future?

I have a few upcoming group exhibitions, including at Automat in Philly (an Ortega y Gasset Projects exchange), Trestle Contemporary Art Gallery in Brooklyn (Trestle Gallery’s new space) and Tiger Strikes Asteroid in Brooklyn (for their 2017 Flat File Program).  I also applied to this year’s SPRING/BREAK Art Show, so fingers crossed that that plays out.

Volume:

Big thanks to Will for taking the time to talk with us.  You can see more of will’s work and learn more about upcoming projects / exhibitions at his website:  www.willhutnick.com

[volumequestions]

Volume:   Can you tell us a little about fjord and how you got involved there?

Sarah Coote: I met the members of FJORD after I graduated from RISD in 2013. I knew about the space before I moved to Philadelphia and met everyone that summer. Later on I became a member and briefly had a studio in the original location. I’m still close with everyone since leaving for graduate school at VCU last August and I was thrilled that my proposal for their September show worked out. The new gallery is great.

When did you begin working on this project?

I organized Porous Coverage’s proposal over the summer. I’ve been wanting to curate a show with all of our works since knowing Wesley, Avery and Anthony at VCU, and I’ve been a fan of Rachel’s sculptures since knowing her while she was a graduate student at RISD in 2012. A huge part of my practice inside and outside of the studio is making space for ideas and exhibitions - a curatorial practice. So, for this show I wanted to carve out a space for the conversations I was having in my own studio and extending it to these other amazing artists who are thinking about similar themes and yet working with different materials and subject matter.

What are the general parameters of the show?

The concept of skins, body, the absence of a body and the queering of mundane objects and space all coalesce into the show’s main concept - a Porous Coverage. As the description in the press release states: the paintings, sculptures and vides in the exhibition collage various materials collected from personal archives, cultural artifacts and painted parts. The result is a porous coverage, one with fragmentation and flexibility for growth. Their surfaces seduce the viewer into believing their structure is solid and clean, only to witness the spillage of parts once the wholeness is exposed.

Who are the artists included?

The artists include... Wesley Chavis www.wesleychavis.com Myself (Sarah Coote) www.sarahcoote.com J. Avery Theodore Daisey www.theodoredaisey.com Anthony Iacono www.anthonyiacono.com Rachel Klinghoffer www.rachelklinghoffer.com

Can you talk a little about each person's work?

Wesley Chavis’ floor piece, The Oily Wrapping of Us, is made with fabric dye, pigment, red wine, cocoa butter, baby oil and seabreeze on canvas. The shape and palette of this piece clearly references an animal hide as well as a human skin. The skin is perforated with bullet-shaped holes, a maroon liquid dried and bloody. What I love about this piece and Wes’ work is that there is a mystery to his process, and in The Oily Wrapping of Us, a figure is so clearly presence and absent.

J. Avery Theodore Daisey’s two-channel video projection, hi, i don't understand, okay, bye (you don't own my history) and i don't either, is colorful and layered and complicated. The two videos are meant to be in a corner and the way they are projected in fjord’s gallery allows one to walk closely between them. I wanted to the audio to fill the gallery so that you are drawn into the enclosure.

Anthony Iacono’s paintings are graphic and lure you in. The subjects are performing tasks observed and fetishized. Each of the four paintings: Tie, Man with Belt, Tea, Pencil inject a mundane scene with drama, sex, and absurdity. They are constructed with hand painted paper that Anthony prepares in his studio and cuts for an inlay of each piece for the scene, so the image is whole but created with many fragmented parts.

(Sarah Coote) The subjects of my Schoolgirls series are young women dressed as girls in uniform. I sourced the images from mainstream porn sites, and cropped the screenshots from the videos to painted portraits of the characters. They are meant to be seen in a series and the direction of their gaze guides you through the piece.

Next to the paintings sits my small sculpture, Stained and Soaking, a sponge embellished with gold beads and stained underwear parts in argyle patterning along with Wesley Chavis’ A Medium Cup created with raw beeswax, evaporated wine, and plaster cast on a used popeye's cup.

Rachel Klinghoffer’s sculpture, Ya' Look Good to Me, ties the room together with its texture and color. It was made from used stretcher bar, lingerie, underwear, jeans, dresses, studio ephemera, jewelry from collector, lace from her husbands great grandmother, quilt made by her mother-in-law, leftover leather from friends, fabric glue and acrylic.

Next to it hangs, Busy Tryin' to Charm, made from used paint brushes, gold, black diamonds, rubies, sapphires, amethyst, citrine, quartz, pearls, wire, magic sculpt, acrylic and metallic powder. Both sculptures reveal and hide all important elements the artists’ presence and a body’s history through material.

Volume: Our thanks to Fjord and to Sarah Coote for taking the time to talk with Volume.  Learn more about each artist in the links above and check out Fjord’s upcoming, current, and past shows at www.fjordspace.com

Porous Coverage is on view at Fjord in Philadelphia through October 20th.

[volumequestions]

Matt Smith Chavez

Volume:  Where do you live / where do you work?

Matt Smith Chavez:  I live on Mission Street in San Francisco, right at the boundary of Bernal Heights and a neighborhood called College Hill, which is an actual hill. My place is within a cluster of latino restaurants and corner shops and a couple of blocks from a beautiful park called Holly Park. I have a live/work space in an old warehouse that has been occupied by artists for over 30 years. There’s a bakery in the first floor and 6 studio spaces in the second floor.

Can you give a quick description of your work space? My space is 900 square feet, two floors. Me and wife use the second floor as a living room and guest room and my studio space is on the first floor by the kitchen. There’s a separate bedroom which is pretty cozy. And there’s a huge north facing window.

What's your day to day studio schedule like? I work from 4:00 to 8pm on weekdays, so I’m usually in the studio from the morning until 4:05pm. I’m late to work just about every day. On a good day I’m working in the studio by 9am but usually it’s 10 or 11am. Sometimes when I’m feeling extra motivated I’ll come home from work at 8pm and put in a couple of hours of studio work before going to sleep. Then I get up and do it all over again.

Who's work have you been looking at lately? I’ve been into the work of a couple of young euro painters -- Leo Gabin, Jon Pilkington, Jonas Lund. Also been into Yevgeniya Baras, Erika Ranee, Ryan Nord Kitchen

What museums or galleries do you visit regularly? I tend to keep it all close to my house, so I usually don’t leave SF. Ratio 3, Jessica Silverman, Altman Siegel are a couple of my favorites. And the galleries at Minnesota Street Project. Just got a membership to the newly reopened SFMOMA as a gift so I’ll be spending lots of time there too.

What was the last show you saw in person that impacted your work? “Ten Paintings” by Laura Owens at the Wattis. Incredible show.

What do you do when you're not working, and how does that impact the artwork that you make?  What influences your practice outside of the studio?  I teach a photography class online for the University of Maryland University College and I think that keeps me focused on photography and digital media a lot of the time. So that tends to find it’s way into my work. Sounds weird but I also think that the act of being on my phone influences my work -- Facebook, Instagram, and all the visual information I’m scrolling through all day. And rap music. I listen to Kool AD 24/7. I’d like to find his address somehow so I can mail him one of my paintings.  

Any upcoming projects or residencies in the near future? I’m in the upcoming Pacific Coast issue of New American Paintings, which I’m pretty excited about. The issue is coming out in December. I’m also in a group show at Tiger Strikes Asteroid in New York in December as well.

Thanks to Matt for taking the time to answer our questions.  For more images or information on Matt’s work please visit mattsmithchavez.com

[volumequestions]

Matt Allison

Volume:  Where do you live / where do you work?

Matt Allison:  I live in Los Angeles, CA with my wife and creative partner Katie. The answer to “where do I work” is a bit trickier: I spend about a 1/3 of the year traveling the U.S. for work, so a piece rarely begins and ends in the same place. Add the fact that walking is an integral part of my practice (both as a research tool and as a mode of production) and my answer to the question “where do I work” is “a little bit of everywhere.”

Can you give a quick description of your work space?

It’s 12ft x 20ft space on the 5th floor of a historic garment building in downtown Los Angeles. It serves equally as my studio, a production space for our creative services company MNK Studio, and headquarters for Sea Farm City.

What’s your day to day studio schedule like?

My studio schedule varies wildly based on what time of year it is. Several wonderful weeks of working 9am-5pm in the studio are usually followed by months of being confined to my laptop while on a plane or a hotel bar. That might be followed by travel for a Sea Farm City project, then back out for our client work… I’m enormously grateful to be in this situation, but I’ll admit that maintaining my studio practice requires a lot of patience and a super organized planner. (As I’m sure it does for most people.)

Who’s work have you been looking at lately?

People I know: The Center for Imaginative Research and Cartography.  People I don’t know: Abraham Cruzvillegas, Carol Bove, and Bill Bollinger

What museums or galleries do you visit regularly?

I’ve visited the Hammer quite a few times in the last year, and anytime I’m in the Bay Area I make sure to stop by Yerba Buena. As for as smaller spaces go, Monte Vista Projects in LA is a personal favorite.

What was the last show you saw in person that impacted your work?

William Pope L’s Trinket at MOCA last year was an incredible display of the way scale can be subversively politicized. Having a 50ft long flag blowing itself apart is impressive, but to command an entire wing of a museum with just a few decomposing onions? That was the real display of power. The installation reconfirmed that the scale of a work isn’t always determined by its physical edges.

What do you do when you’re not working, and how does that impact the artwork that you make…? What influences your practice outside of the studio?

The vast majority of my influence comes from things outside of the art world. It’s always been that way for me, going back to an early obsession with Rauschenberg and his Combines. As a youngster, I responded more to the “everyday” in them than I did the “art” side of them. I’ve been trying to find new ways to access my own “everyday” ever since.

I think it’s really important for artists to diversify their points of reference. I see the arts community (at least the small portion of it that I operate in) as a big, ongoing conversation between artists, spaces, artists who run spaces, curators, artists who curate, the occasional writer, etc… And I can’t think of anything less creative than a conversation where everyone is talking about the same thing.

So… a few recent “non-art” related influences have been: the videos of Bill Strobeck, the city of New Orleans (past, present, future;) the vines that constantly threaten to over take my garden; and our country’s mental health epidemic.

Any upcoming projects or residencies in the near future?

Yes! Sea Farm City will be hosting “Open House/ Expanded Flat” on August 27th for Maiden LA and I’m collaborating with my dear friend Matthew Usinowicz on a show at OMAS opens in November.

Thanks to Matt Allison for answering our questions.  More images and information on his work can be found at www.mattallsionprojects.com

Information on Sea Farm City is at:   www.seafarmcity.com

For more Information on Open House / Expanded Flat visit:  www.seafarmcity.com

MNK Studio is at Facebook:@MNKstudio

[volumequestions]

High Tide

Silos, Windmills, Graveyards at High Tide

Although the show just finished, volume had an opportunity to swing by the closing reception Friday and view the show before deinstallation. We thought we’d share a few of their installation photos and links for the artists involved. As always, outstanding work from the folks at High Tide. If you’re in Philadelphia be sure and check them out...  www.high-tide.us

Clark Mizono: Clark Minzono is an artist and freelance photographer living and working in New York City.  His work is at www.clarkmizono.com

Sophia Belkin: Sophia Belkin is an artist working in Brooklyn, NY.  Her current work uses dye on fabric in combination with photography and found materials.  See more of her work at www.sophiabelkin.com

Matt Kayhoe Brett: Matt Kayhoe Brett is an artist working in Chicago, IL.  He received his MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago and has attended residencies at Skowhegan, ACRE, and Tyler School of Art.  His website is at www.mattkayhoebrett.com

Izakk Schlossman: Izakk Schlossman’s work looks at architecture, landscaping, urban planning, and advertising.  He currently resides between Philadelphia, PA and Oakland, CA.  For more information visit www.izaakschlossman.net

High Tide is an artist-run gallery and project space located in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia.  More information on High Tide is at www.high-tide.us  Photos courtesy of the artists and High Tide.

[volumequestions]

Michael Ciervo

Where do you live / where do you work?

I rent a live/work space on the edge of Northern Liberties in Philadelphia. About 1/3 of the space is dedicated studio.  I’ve been here since 2008.  


What’s your day to day studio schedule like?

I have a day job as Assistant Director of the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery at the University of the Arts.  This can and often does take up a large portion of my time.  I’m happiest when I can get between 4-6 hours a night of studio work. Weekends are, or course, more flexible.  Saturday mornings are good for research.

What kind of work are you currently making?

I like thinking about images existing in a non-functioning static space (an in-between otherness).  They usually (often) are the result of collaged images pulled from vintage fashion ads, the internet, staged photos.  Loss, memory, perception, and sex are all things that inform the work - but narrative ambiguity is key for me. I go back and forth between painting as prop and painting as spiritual surrogate – I’m not sure of their function yet.  On a fundamental level, the craft of painting is something that I’ve always struggled with – but the system of painting (things like labor and illusion) and problem solving is endlessly appealing.  My goal this year though is to think outside of images.

Who’s work have you been looking at lately?

Lately: Richard Aldrich, Willa Nasatir, Gerard Malanga.

What was the last show you saw in person that impacted your work?

I’m generally a quick read when it comes to seeing exhibitions, unless it’s an immersive environment or something that’s really confusing or transcendent. Working at a gallery, in a preparatory capacity, I have the weird luxury of dismantling exhibitions, repairing the space, working with artists, etc.  Artists that maybe I would’ve dismissed before – I usually gain an appreciation for, sometimes deeply.  The Paul Lee show we did last year was exceptional. I think there is a lot of struggle there, in those works. And vulnerability and intimacy through objects is something that can be very moving and universal. Also – on a surface level - our show with Hugh Scott-Douglas really demonstrated the impact of presenting 2d works with sonic accompaniment.

[volumequestions]

Giordanne Salley

Where do you live / where do you work? I live in Bed Stuy and work in Dumbo, both in Brooklyn, NY

Can you give a quick description of your work space? My studio is on the 8th floor of what used to be the Grand Union Tea company. I have North/East facing windows with a nice view of the Williamsburg Bridge, a scalloped brick ceiling, and a long wall to work on. I share the space with two lovely studio mates who are both illustrators. We are rarely there at the same time. I lucked into this studio.

What's your day to day studio schedule like? I usually work my day job 3-4 days per week, so I am in my studio mostly on nights from about 7:00pm until 10:00pm and full days on the weekends. If I had the opportunity to paint full time, I would work Monday through  Friday 9-6, and  Saturday from 11-7ish. That is the dream.

What kind of work are you currently making? I am currently working on a group of paintings about love and nature. Most of the paintings are loosely based self portraits. Figures in the paintings are in the woods, free of care or responsibility of day to day life, but there is usually some implication of time passing or running out. The figures are not in denial. They know that nothing lasts forever.

Who's work have you been looking at lately? I am always looking at my usual heroes such as Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Kerry James Marshall, et al.. more recently I have been looking at painters who place their figures within a very specific, yet improbable if not impossible world such as Peter Doig, Kyle Staver, or Mamma Andersson. Also the recent Amy Sillman show at Sikkemma Jenkins really got me thinking about dry but transparent paint moments and scumbling.

What influences your practice outside of the studio? Being in love with a person influences my work, and having to reconcile that relationship with my love for painting influences my work. Also, the obvious answer is nature/ the woods/ water (specifically Maine and Vermont woods and water)

Any upcoming projects or residencies in the near future? I am part of a few group shows coming up this spring and summer. Boston Painter Anthony Palocci runs a project space called CASTLEDRONE (all caps). He has included me in a group show of odd representational/figurative painters like Nat Meade and Albert Gray. Secondly, I am absolutely thrilled to be included in a summer group show this June-July about intimist painting and artists who are influenced by that tradition at James Cohan Gallery in Chelsea. For the foreseeable future, I plan to stay put in Brooklyn working as much as possible.

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Dan Perkins

Where do you live / where do you work? I live in Baltimore, and work primarily in Washington, DC. Mostly teaching Drawing/Foundation classes at a couple schools and doing occasional workshops at the National Gallery of Art.



Can you give a quick description of your work space?


I maintain a studio at the School 33 Art Center in Baltimore. It’s an awesome space. Private, 2nd floor studio with north and west facing windows, nearly 13 foot ceilings(I measured one day this summer when I didn’t really know what to do with my paintings), and two large working walls, its roughly 500 square feet.


What's your day to day studio schedule like? It varies depending on my teaching schedule. Currently it’s not so bad. I teach night classes Monday-Thursday, so a couple days a week I’ll try to get up early put some time in before teaching. Prime studio days are Friday, Saturday, Sunday though.

What kind of work are you currently making? Currently, my paintings are exploring the interplay between image and geometry. In terms of subject matter, I’ve been interested in the history of landscape painting, particularly 19th century Romanticism for some time.

Increasingly, I have been thinking about different representations of the transcendent or sublime experience that proliferate in contemporary culture. Often using those found images as sources to fracture, splice, and recombine with one another to make odd and pleasing new wholes.

Who's work have you been looking at lately? Sacha Braunig, Matthew F Fischer, Loie Hollowell, Matthew Craven, Tauba Auberbach

What was the last show you saw in person that impacted your work? Hmm, just went up to New York in mid February and saw a lot of good stuff. Particularly liked the Flatlands show at the Whitney: functions as a survey of contemporary painting that addresses image. Now I know that sounds dry, but I really connected with the way that most artists in the show willfully and playfully embraced the ubiquitous nature of digital reproduction, while speaking to odd sense of malaise that often comes with its easiness and accessibility.   Also really enjoyed Tauba Auberbach new work at Paula Cooper, especially her 3-D printed (cast?) visualizations of different patterns, thinking about their dimensionality perhaps through time.

What influences your practice outside of the studio? I have to admit I am a little bit of a NASA/ Sci-Fi / Pop Science nerd, you know poorly understood conceptions of quantum mechanics, and radical conceptions of the multiverse etc., etc. 



Any upcoming projects or residencies in the near future?
 Gearing up for a two-person show with Alejandro Pintado at the Hamiltonian Gallery in Washington, DC. Opens May 14th!

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Jonathan Santoro

Where do you live/ where do you work? I currently live in Philadelphia and for the past three years I’ve had a studio in a warehouse space in Kensington. From 2007-2010, this studio space was home to the Philadelphia Institute of Advanced Studies, or simply P.I.F.A.S. This is how I was originally acquainted with the space and how many people in the city remember it. Currently, the building houses around 20 artist studios.

What’s your day-to-day studio schedule like? My process ranges and each day can be different, but generally each object is fabricated through some odd combination of material. Each piece starts with either a general hypothesis about certain materials and their potential flexibility, or an observation of how one of these products reacted with another by pure accident. Beyond studio experimentation, I binge-watch hours of tangentially relevant youtube tutorials that demonstrate various casting methods. This is teamed with hours of scrolling content featured on Cos-play and prop forums, which also focus on some of the same materials and methods, though to entirely different ends. The information I process during these research sessions never directly matches any of the projects I am contemplating, but fragments of these demonstrations consistently inform my work.

What influences your practice outside of the studio? The work I have been recently making deals with an architectural uncanny. The models I construct are generally selected from an index of stock household items and other generic interior referents. Beyond the influence of my own living space and the mundane objects cobbled there, classic stories by E.T.A. Hoffman and Edgar Allan Poe have recently been insightful to my work. These masters of the uncanny often attribute a psychological dimension to the settings of their stories and in these personifications anthropomorphic fantasies and/or mental distortions animate the objects surrounding their characters.

I also find constant inspiration from film. Recent screenings at the International House have reintroduced me to the work of Federico Fellini. I discovered Fellini when I was a teenager and haven’t really watched many of his films since. His short film “The Temptations of Doctor Antonio” was particularly great. I grew up in a very Italian- American household and although my family was not very religious, they perhaps had traces of Catholicism through the guilt and shame that is bred in that sort of culture. This film humorously addresses that sort of trouble in morals.

Whose work have you been looking at lately? Carl D’Alvia, Ben Mendelewicz, Guy de Cointet, Rachel de Joode, Jacques Louis Vidal, Sarah Lucas, Wharton Esherick, Eric Stanton, Christopher Forgues, Pierre Klossowsky, Guy Bourdin, and vintage Jean Paul Goude.  

What was the last show you saw in person that really changed your work? I am not sure if it changed the way I was working in any direct way, but the exhibition Christopher Knowles: In A Word at ICA Philadelphia was simply enchanting and greatly inspiring. Particularly his performance of “The Sundance Kid is Beautiful.” Set within his own artwork, Knowles put on a 60 minute performance where he danced to Harry Nilsson’s “Jump into the Fire” repeatedly, referenced his collaborations with Robert Wilson and Philip Glass, tuned his portable radio in nostalgic glee, drank a soda during a reflexive intermission, and closed out with Elton John’s “Philadelphia Freedom” blaring over the P.A. system. It might sound like a grab bag in my retelling, but it was truly a gift to witness.

What kind of work are you currently making? Tim Belknap and Ryan McCartney of Icebox Projects asked my partner Meredith Sellers and I to curate a show in the gray space in the Crane Arts building. With its multiple shades of gray, four obstructing columns, and six massive curtained windows, the gray space has a commanding presence not common to many art exhibition spaces. Rather than attempt to alter the peculiarities of the space with white paint and florescent lighting, we are making the room into something that will resemble a black box theatre with artworks from 10 artists punctuating the space. The show is called “Chewing the Scenery”.  This title was chosen off a list of antiquated stage terms and is used to refer to an actor who is overacting. We selected works that had an overstated ambiguity about them in order to present a unique narrative propelled by the juxtaposition of objects we are pooling together for this exhibition.

Beyond logistics and object selections, I am building exhibition furniture that will go beyond general support structures and will activate further dialogue between works and emphasize references to theatrical staging.  

Chewing the Scenery opens March 10, 2016 and more information can be found here:  Chewing the Scenery Facebook

Thanks to Jonathan for talking with volume.  Learn more about his work at www.jonathansantoro.tumblr.com

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Alexis Granwell

Where do you live / where do you work? I live and work in Philadelphia. This is my 11th year here.

What's your day to day studio schedule like? I am definitely a night owl and I like to work from afternoon to late evening. I live in West Philly and I have a studio in South Philly. During these cold months, I have enjoyed setting up a second studio in my house on my kitchen table. I am currently creating a body of work for a solo show at Dickinson College.  I want to live with the work as much as possible. It is nice to wake up in the morning and drink coffee with my sculptures.

Who's work have you been looking at lately? I have been looking at the Mono Ha Artists. Mono Ha is a group of Japanese Minimalist artists whose works relate to Arte Povera. Often, natural materials are incorporated and the work is ephemeral. I have also been enjoying contemporary Maximalists like Jessica Jackson Hutchins. I love how she combines furniture and lumpy ceramics together.

What was the last show you saw in person that really changed your work? Noah Purifoy! I had heard of Watts Tower but I never had the opportunity to visit. I happened to be in LA for the Purifoy retrospective at LACMA. His color sensibility and sense of materiality are incredibly inspiring. He seamlessly weaves together social activism and abstraction.

What influences your practice outside of the studio? Geology, architecture, walks in the city

What kind of work are you currently making?  Any upcoming projects or residencies in the near future? I recently finished a residency at Dieu Donne through the generous support of The independence Foundation I am currently making sculptural works that incorporate handmade paper. Paper has always been the thread that connects my two-dimensional and three-dimensional work. The varying formats and textures of different papers make them malleable, able to be utilized as either surface or sculptural material or both. Paper can be simultaneously substrate and object. My new work builds on this duality. Sculptures incorporate handmade paper with pulp painting that is layered and collaged over built forms, creating a relief effect as well as a deep sense of color. Other forms incorporate cast paper. Some of the intaglio prints use handmade paper to achieve unique textures. These new works will be in my show Wait for the Echo at Dickinson College opening Feb 2nd.

Thanks to Alexis for taking the time to talk with us and inviting us to her studio.  For more information on Alexis and her work visit her site at www.alexisgranwell.com

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Stacia McKeever

Volume: Where do you live / where do you work?

Stacia McKeever: I live and work in Philadelphia, PA and share a studio at the Crane Arts building.

What's your day to day studio schedule like? Truly varied. I like to have multiple pieces going at once and sort of jump around. Sometimes I spend the whole day just looking and thinking. I don’t usually have an end goal in mind when I begin so the process is very intuitive. I also enjoy taking trips to the hardware store, thrift shops, and dollar store to brainstorm and collect materials.

Who's work have you been looking at lately? Claire Barclay, Tauba Auerbach, Assemble (a collective based in London), Richard Tuttle, Agnes Martin.

What was the last show you saw in person that really changed your work? The Iza Genzken retrospective at the MCA in Chicago. I had just finished my MFA and was beginning to hoard strange materials with no real idea of what they would become, just an urge to do so. That show reminded me that I wasn’t crazy and to trust myself.

What influences your practice outside of the studio? interior design, architecture, the history of pattern, plants, typography, and visual identity design

What kind of work are you currently making? I gather and obfuscate materials, unhinging their form and function so that they remain accessible and emotive, but in an unfamiliar or odd way. By removing their context I hope to blur the boundaries between representation and resemblance to explore how we organize and perceive. They've been taking form as a hybrid between painting and sculpture.

for more work and information visit Stacia's website at www.staciamckeever.com

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High Tide

Volume:  When did you decide to start High Tide and who are the people involved?

High Tide: High Tide is Zoe Axelrod, Matt Bettine, Katie Coble, Gus Depenbrock, Charlie Ellis, Geoffrey KixMiller and Dietrich Meyer. We had been talking about starting a gallery for some time, but didn’t have a space for it. We had looked into some buildings in the area, but nothing was a good fit. Around April, we were all living together at the Berks Warehouse and when a bunch of us were moving out, we realized that we could convert the space into a gallery and studios.

What were some of the challenges that you faced while building and organizing the space? Money was an issue; we threw a couple fundraising parties to help cover the cost of construction. The biggest struggle had to be coordinating everyone’s schedules during construction. All of us work day jobs, and we all travel a decent amount for work. So getting everyone together to help out or for meetings is an ongoing challenge. Luckily, it’s the year 2016 and we have Google Video Chat.

Is there a unifying curatorial direction that you follow, or is the programing more open ended? Our approach to curating is open ended, but one of the main goals of the space is to bring in work of contemporary artists that we felt we hadn’t been seeing in Philly. We want to work on strengthening ties between NYC, Philly, Baltimore and LA, and engage Philly in a broader conversation about art. Another goal of the space is to offer consistent monthly programming that coincides with the exhibitions. This way we can encourage people to interact with the work outside the environment of the opening.

Were there other spaces that influenced the development of High Tide? There are obviously a lot of different and robust artist-run spaces in Philly with long and rich histories that we were able to draw from. Dietrich used to be a member of Space 1026, and Geoff and Matt were a part of Open Space in Baltimore at its inception. Spaces like Extra Extra and Bodega introduced innovative programming and critical discourse. Now that those spaces have closed, there aren’t as many artist-run spaces in Philadelphia anymore, especially in Kensington, and we’re motivated to help fill that void.  We are excited by spaces in other cities, such as Springsteen and Current in Baltimore; American Medium, Signal, and Interstate Projects in NYC, just to name a few.

Can you give us some info on who you have showing now? Andrea McGinty’s “Spiritual Awakening Tailgate Party” just closed a few days ago. Andrea is from Philly, by way of Florida, and now lives in New York. Andrea creates compelling assemblages using humidifiers, dollar store finds and inspirational graphic t shirts that speak to contemporary anxieties and coping mechanisms. In Andrea’s words: “The feeling of the show is when you decide to quit smoking, haven't yet, but still feel good about yourself, high on that positive decision, even though it's likely to fail. There's a hopefulness to these aspirational objects, but they are left with an overarching sadness.”

Our next show, “Garden Variety”, a 2 person show by Jessica Hans and Brendan Timmins, opens on January 9. Jessica is a ceramicist, and Brendan makes semi-functional aestheticized objects.  They are turning the gallery into a functional flower shop for the duration of the show.

Thanks to the folks at High tide for taking the time to talk.  For more information about the space and upcoming shows visit High Tide at www.high-tide.us

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ML Dodge

Volume: Where do you live / where do you work?

ML Dodge: I live and work in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.

Can you give a quick description of your work space? I have a freestanding two-car garage on our property that I converted into a studio. It’s a huge plus to own a studio, but I look forward to stretching out a bit in the future so I can have more studio time with larger scale works. Our house has a quirky history for those interested:  LA Times Article Here

What's your day to day studio schedule like? My schedule as an artist varies wildly. The type of work that I do allows for a lot of freedom to work from wherever I am. I can make objects in the studio, make drawings/plans from a computer, or a specific site. I particularly enjoy site work like the High Desert Test Sites project from last summer. Any chance to be in a new environment and make work is invigorating.

What kind of work are you currently making? My work involves pulling back the veil about how our physical space is built around us. To do this I create or appropriate systems of production that I intuitively destroy or leave unfinished revealing traces of how the object was created.

Have you started using any new materials that have changed the direction of your work? Recently I started cutting up and redesigning discarded art shipping crates as installation spaces. I like changing the original intension of how the space was intended to create new meaning.

Who's work have you been looking at lately? Mel Bochner, Gordon Matta Clark, Walter de Maria, Bernhard Leitner, Robert Irwin, Chung Sang-Hwa, Leo Villareal, Kwon Young-Woo.

What was the last show you saw in person that impacted your work? This last year I really enjoyed the Pierre Huyghe at LACMA and the Henri Matisse Cut-Outs show at MOMA. I appreciate both artists in completely opposite ways. Huyghe has no reservations about using any medium to convey an idea. On the other hand, the Matisse retrospective clearly illustrated an artist with such a clear vision and passion for what he was trying to achieve within a single medium. Seeing the earlier iterations of his iconic collages was truly fantastic.

What influences your practice outside of the studio? Architecture/ construction, meditation, the High Sierras, my close friends and my wife.

Any upcoming projects or residencies in the near future? Yes, 2016 is shaping up. With encouragement from Sam Scharf and Megan Muller, I'm putting together a limited edition book of my Instagram #surroundingexperitualfield photos.  I have an ambitiously conceived a solo show in May at Elephant which an artist run space in Glassell Park. Artist Jay Lizo and I are having a collaborative exhibition at CSULA's Luckman Gallery in the fall. We've applied for the Mike Kelley Grant to help finance this show and will hear back in the Spring. Fingers crossed. There's also talk of a solo show in San Francisco as well.

For more images and information check out mldodgestudio.com

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Samuel Scharf

Volume: Where do you live / where do you work?

Samuel Scharf: Downtown Los Angeles, CA in the Fabric District.

Can you give a quick description of your work space? It's a live/work in an open style studio layout above fabric distributors.  My wife is also an artist and we split 3/4 of the space into the studio with 1/4 for living.

What's your day to day studio schedule like? After the day job during the week we work nights late and Sunday/Monday are days off so those are our full work days.

Who's work have you been looking at lately? The west coast art scene has been incredibly eye opening.  I’ve been looking at Glenn Kaino, Andrea Zittel, Victoria Fu and Ry Rocklen.

What was the last show you saw in person that impacted your work? We were out in the Joshua Tree area again and stopped by the Noah Purifoy site.  It was just a stunning amount of art all in one place with such a clear vision.

What influences your practice outside of the studio? Comedy, specifically standup and interview podcasts.  LA as living experience,  especially downtown.  My friendships, mostly with other creatives.

What kind of work are you currently making? Recently, I've been breaking down my larger installation works into artifact wall works.  My major concern with the work lately has been waste.  Reusing materials and making art that can transport well, while not jeopardizing the conceptual outcome.  I've also been really interested in prints and works on paper lately.

Any upcoming projects or residencies in the near future? -Group show at Merchants of Reality in San Francisco called Full Circle and on view until December 12th. -Two person show at Winning/Losing Studios in Los Angeles in April. -Exciting curatorial project with Megan Mueller launching in January (details to come soon)!

Thanks to Sam for taking the time to talk.  Check out the links below for more images and information…

Samuel Scharf

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Megan Mueller

VOLUME:   Where do you live / where do you work?

MEGAN MUELLER:   Live/work space in Fashion District Downtown LA.

Can you give a quick description of your work space?

MM:  1000 square feet on third floor of warehouse, wall of windows facing west.  Have access to the roof where I do anything particularly loud or smelly.

What's your day to day studio schedule like?

MM:  Both incredibly focused and incredibly all over the place.  I try to group activities like sourcing materials, reading, writing, drawing, painting, cutting wood into groupings of time.  But I give myself full permission to work on multiple pieces/projects at once.

Who's work have you been looking at lately?

MM:  Amanda Ross Ho, Rachel Harrison, Alexis Smith, Richard Tuttle

What influences your work outside of the studio?

MM:  I am extremely influenced by stand up comedy and improv.  I love the idea of performer and audience coming together with the goal of connection, that sharing experiences and storytelling can create (but is not guaranteed) a completely new experience - the point where silence becomes laughter.

What kind of work are you currently making?

MM:  Right now, I'm developing work around the idea of materialization and specifically the moment when images collapse into each other.  So I'm working with military camouflage, animal markings, magic eye patterns, and infinity pools in paintings, drawings and sculptures.

Any upcoming projects?

MM:Group show at Field Projects in New York called Impossible Geometries, curated by Lauren Haynes and on view until December 19th.

Group show at Merchants of Reality in San Francisco called Full Circle and on view until December 12th.

Two person show at Winning/Losing Studios in Los Angeles in April.

Exciting curatorial project with Sam Scharf launching in January (details to come soon)!

VOLUME: Thanks to Megan for taking the time to talk.  Check out the links below for more  on Megan’s work...

Megan Mueller on Tumblr

Megan Mueller Website