Open Studio, finally!

Last week, I had my open studio at our New York Workspace on West 39th Street.

And with that, my splendidly fruitful, full of sleepless nights and over flowing fascinations and joys with arts quarter in New York was finally ended.

I would just like to take this moment to give thanks to everyone who helped me, supported me, and encouraged me through out the quarter. I was never alone or lonley because of you. Thank you so much, our Painting Department, and the Off-campus Program at SCAD, for giving me such an opportunity to spend the entire quarter here in this amazing city. Everyone I've met and talked with here seem to think it's a fantastic idea to send students to this city for all the possible experience they may get and discover. Finally for those of you who haven't considered appyling to the workspace opportunity. Think again. I could not recommend this to you more highly.

The Armory

The annual contemporary arts fair, The Armory Show has started on the piers on Hudson River this Wednesday.

Due to the event, (due to the busy schedules that the event is causing the people this week, to be exact,) I've postponed my open studio by a week.
Couldn't possibly compete with the international arts festival. Not just yet anyway.

Newi works announcement

You and you, and also you are all invited to my first open studio in the big city!

another memorable birthday

It's the birthday of the country music legend, Johnny Cash today. I never knew that. Although, I always knew I liked him for a reason... So this is it. We share the same birthday.
Exactly a year ago, I had a very lovely birthday in France, having a faux filet plate for lunch... It feels about such a long time ago now. Completely different world, different lives, going on here and there, only a year apart. This year, I was cleaning a glass freezer display case for an Arctic ice sculpture by Tavares Strachan, which will be featured at the grand opening of the Boiler, the new exhibit space of Pierogi that opens on the 7th of March.
Another very special and memorable birthday it was.

A few new mirror pieces

A few experimental/ work-in-progress pieces that I started working on this past week to share with you today.



This first one is called "world through google," and it is designed so that you get the reflection of yourself, and the wee view of the world beyond the mirror through the parts that have been "covered" by the "google" when you look at the mirror.
The light-shining-through-effect (photo above), was an accident that happened to occur when I held the piece up to take a photo, and was not in my origial plan at all, but it's something, isn't it?Anyhow I like it.

This one is actually two pieces: 1. "the protected mirror," on which surface, 2."the googled studio wall" is reflecting.

w.i.p, w.i.p. more to come.

Lacoste?! in Downtown

Perhaps because I've been thinking of the painters in Lacoste lately,
I found "Lacoste" in New York on my way to work.
Do they look a bit alike? or am I just seeing things...

Hiya, guys. How are things with you over there?

Peter Doig's new paintings

It's been almost a whole one year since I saw Peter Doig's paintings in person in his retrospective at Tate last year. I saw the advert for the exhibit of his new paintings at Michael Werner Gallery in a magazine, and I wanted to go and check it out.

The gallery is located in upper eastside, near the central park. It was the President Day, but the streets were surprisingly very deserted. Once in side the gallery (after going through two buzzered doors) on the 2nd floor, there were six small landscape paintings (14" x 16"-ish sizes) hanged in the narrow hallway, and to the left was a small main gallery with three large paintings(120" x 140"-ish), each had its own wall.

The new works seem to be done with very much thinner paints and perhaps less layers of their application on the surface than his previous works had seem. His signatuer "dream-like" color pallet is very present, if anything, the paintings seem only more dream-like than they were before. I was intrigued by how his work manages to become more and more "Peter Doig" with less and less paints and evident marks.

The only thing I wasn't quite sure about was the extreme wobbliness of the smaller paintings that seemed as though they were stretched over the stretchers after they were painted. Whatever the reasons might have been, they didn't look right.

Still, I liked this small, private, and very intimate, quiet exhibit of the artist. Very perfect for this quiet winterly season in New York.