There’s a lot in this painting, maybe too much, especially if you’re a minimalist.
It conveys the feeling of being overwhelmed. When someone shares factors contributing to their stress level, your first impulse may be to sympathize and say, “That’s a LOT!” Just as in that scenario, this painting has many elements in motion; even the color is high-key.
Upon first encounter, the painting hits you, and you may wonder, “What am I looking at?”
The picture is demanding because there are opposing forces at work. There is the rational/measured/scientific/cerebral perspective pitted against the nonsensical/impulsive/emotional haptic expression of the world. Two formal devices in picture-making reflecting these oppositions inform the spatial structure: linear perspective (measured) and gestural brushstrokes (improvisational). The term “Gesture” relates to the movement of the body as opposed to the mind, but they are interrelated.
These gestural lines are ragged, visceral. The ones in the center of the picture compress the space – the world collapses in on itself. A windy black line drops and stretches forward, looping to a house that has come loose, falling. Turn the painting upside down, and the line defines a walkway or driveway.
I can paint a world as I feel it, ignoring the laws of gravity. Human behavior can feel as inexplicable as this scene. If the world was different…if people were different…
Our perspectives can change. The painting’s title, New Jupiter (Turtle Two) refers to the photos from NASA’s recent Juno Mission, as they allow us to see Jupiter in a new way. They are scientific but also elicit an emotional response. They expand our knowledge, but there is more to know. Mystery is as important to science just as in art, because mystery makes us imagine and want to learn more.
The door of the main house on the lower left is a crossword puzzle. A puzzle (unlike a game) has a specific solution. Knowledge is required to unlock the door.
The windows on the left wall of the house sit on two planes: on the left wall that is in shadow and on the invisible front wall facing the viewer through which you look into the backyard. The backyard is visible through an opening that is either a missing door or an open wall. Flowers carpet the floor.
The interior of a room is depicted in the upper left corner of the painting. I’ve finished the first volume of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, in which he observes subtleties of relationships and French society at the time. Class-conscious societal mores can feel tedious to me. Rejection of social norms can signify a break in stability, a derailment from safeguards. My black lines cut through the striped wallpaper of a foyer, the entrance to this world. Framed on the wall is a detail of Chardin’s playing cards, objects that are a part of a social system of interaction, assertion, luck, and skill.
Next to Jupiter are Monopoly-like houses, sitting like the cranberry glass my grandmother used to keep on our windowsill. I was a shark of a Monopoly player as a kid.
Our turtle is self-sufficient with its own house that doubles as armor. It can retreat inside its shell until it’s ready to venture out again. Under the turtle there is a curved shape which was a part of a railing that I took a photo of in Amsterdam. It is evocative of a horseshoe, a wishbone, or a large magnet.
The purple awning and yellow alcove feel like a carnival. Rufus Wainwright’s song, Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk, has a carnival feel to me. In his review for Allmusic, Matthew Greenwald wrote that the song “combines classic Gershwin/Brian Wilson pop feels along with a strong sense of French cabaret show tunes“, and called the shifts in modulation coupled with dissonant chords “intoxicating”.
I also relate my gestural lines to Billy Joel’s Piano Man, in which he sings about daily life and talent. Listening, I wait for the song’s crescendo:
“And the piano, it sounds like a carnival
And the microphone smells like a beer
And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar
And say, “Man, what are you doin’ here?“
There are musical and comedic tension and release tools that are analogous to what I’m doing in painting. I hope this helps to open a window into my process.
Institution, oil on linen, 30″ x 40″ in the Center for Emerging Visual Artists group exhibition in partnership with The Science Center, Philadelphia, PA, juried by Natasha Zeta. Photo credit: @anaphotography.org
New YouTube Series: Art Education Video Shorts!
Join me at the Bakehouse Art Complex for Open Studios on Saturday, May 13th from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM. This is a part of Fountainhead Artists Open, an event where artists across Miami-Dade County welcome the public to their studios.
See my work in Blue Chips at Club Gallery
WHEN:FRIDAY May 5th 6-9public reception and fundraising activation
WHERE: Club Gallery at the Citadel 8300 NE 2nd avenue
Miami, FL 33139
ABOUT:
ArtDeli is a curatorial project by artist, Philip Lique. Each Deli activation is an unconventional art exhibition which merges communal food experiences with the measured destruction and distribution of unique works of art.
Artdeli’s purpose is to explore the practices of the art world through food based activities. The project draws parallels between the meaning of taste, consumption and digestion as related to both food and the arts – offering a familiar point of entry for deeper discussions about the business and culture of the “art world”.
For BLUECHIPS, Lique has assembled a group show from an open call to artists within the Miami community and from his own network. Hung in a grid format and identified by number, this show demonstrates a non hierarchical approach to exhibiting both emerging and established artists on the same wall.
Sky City Series, digital drawings
See By the Pond in The BluPrnt Show
Read the full article by Brett Sokol in The New York Times.
Curated by Robert Chambers and assembled by the artists, The BluPrnt is a zero-commission multi-disciplinary, inter-generational cross-section spanning over 100 years of art in Miami, self-assembled by an all-volunteer team of participating artists, assistant curators, art historians, and producers.
It will be up until February 5th and then transition to a web archive with even more artists.
EVENTS:
Art Brunch
Noon – 4pm Sunday 22 January 2023
Closing Party
5 —10pm Saturday 4 February 2023
Free Admission
Open by Appointment
Bridge Red
bridgeredstudios.com 12425 N.E. 13th Avenue North Miami, FL 33161