Interviews by Brainard Carey

Ruben Ortiz-Torres was born in Mexico City.

Educated within the utopian models of republican Spanish anarchism soon confronted the tragedies and cultural clashes of post colonial third world. After giving up the dream of playing baseball in the major leagues he decided to study art. He went first to the oldest and one of the most academic art schools of the Americas (the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City) and later to one of the newest and more experimental (Calarts in Valencia CA). After enduring Mexico City's earthquake and pollution he moved to LA with a Fullbright grant to survive riots, fires, floods, more earthquakes, and proposition 187.

During all this he has been able to produce artwork in the form of paintings, photographs, objects, installations, videos, and films. He is part of the permanent Faculty of the University of California in San Diego. He has participated in several international exhibitions and film festivals. His work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid Spain and others.

Tierra y Libertad, 2013 Thermosensitive urethane over composite 122 x 183 cm

Black Star Spangled Banner, 2013 Urethane and crystals over composite 274 x 144 cm

Lisa Corinne Davis is an abstract painter exploring themes of racial, social and psychological identity.

Born in Baltimore, MD, currently living and working in Brooklyn, NY, Davis received her BFA from Pratt Institute in 1980, and has exhibited her work in the United States and in Europe, including one person shows at Spanierman/Modern (New York), Zolla/Lieberman Gallery (Chicago), and The Mayor Gallery (London).

Her work is included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.  Davis is the recipient of numerous awards, including The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant, a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowship, and two New York Foundation for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowships.

In 2017, she was inducted as a National Academician at the National Academy Museum & School.  Her essays on art and culture have been published in the Brooklyn Rail and Art Critical.  Davis has previously taught painting at the Cooper Union School of Art and Yale University; she is currently Professor of Art at Hunter College in New York.

Analytical Anarchism, 70 x 55 inches, oil on canvas, 2017

Cerebral Calibration, 60 x 45 inches, oil on canvas, 2017

Photograph: Brooke Williams, 2017

Ellen Harvey is a British-born artist living and working in Brooklyn.

This is the second interview with Ellen, the first interview (part one) is here.

She is a 2016 recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in the Visual Arts and a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program.

She has exhibited extensively in the U.S. and internationally and was included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial. Solo exhibitions include Metal Painting at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, The Unloved at the Groeninge Museum in Bruges, Belgium, The Alien’s Guide to the Ruins of Washington DC at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC, The Nudist Museum at the Bass Museum in Miami Beach, Ruins are More Beautiful at the Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Poland, Mirror at the Pennsylvania Academy in Philadelphia and A Whitney for the Whitney at Philip Morris at the Whitney Museum at Altria in New York.  She has completed numerous commissions, including Arcadia for the opening exhibition of the Turner Contemporary in Margate, UK and permanent public works for New York Percent for Art, New York Arts in Transit, the Chicago Transit Authority, the Philadelphia International Airport, the Federal Art in Architecture program and the Flemish National Architect.

Her Belgian project Repeat, won the Wivina Demeester Prize for Commissioned Public Art in 2016.  She is currently working on Atlantis, a new permanent installation commissioned for the renovation of the Miami Beach Convention Center.  Her work has been the subject of several books including New York Beautification Project, published by G. R. Miller & Co. in 2005, Mirror, published by the Pennsylvania Academy in 2006, Ellen Harvey: The Unloved, published by Hannibal in 2014 and Ellen Harvey: Museum of Failure, published by G. R. Miller & Co. in 2015.  She is represented by Danese / Corey Gallery in New York, Locks Gallery in Philadelphia, Meessen de Clerq Gallery in Brussels, Belgium and Galerie Gebruder Lehman in Germany.

This current show at the Children’s Museum of the Arts mentioned in the interview is here. And the book mentioned in the interview is here, a click away.

New York Beautification Project. Ellen Harvey, 1998–2001. Gesso and oil on forty graffiti sites and photographic edition in frames, each painting: 5 x 7" (12.7 x 17.7 cm), orientation variable. Photograph: Ellen Harvey Studio

The Irreplaceable Cannot Be Replaced. Ellen Harvey, 2008. Painting 3 of 11 oil paintings on gesso board and thirty framed texts, each painting, board, and text: 16 x 20" (40.6 x 50.8 cm).

Exchange Your Luck. Ellen Harvey, 2012. Two sets of seventy-seven bronze charms, Polaroids, swapped items, and two wood shelves, each charm: approx. 1–3" (2.5–7.6 cm) high; each shelf: 19' (579 cm) long, acrylic on wall. Edition of charms: 2 plus 2 artist’s proofs. Commissioned by Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and Art Production Fund. Installation view, Exchange Your Luck, Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, December 5–23, 2012

Paige Wery is the owner and curator of The Good Luck Gallery, the only commercial space in Los Angeles dedicated to showing Self-taught art including Outsider, Folk and Visionary work.

Before opening The Good Luck Gallery in early 2014, she spent six years as the publisher and advertising director of Artillery Magazine, a contemporary art print publication based in Los Angeles.

Paige has served on the board of MOCA Contemporaries, the executive board of Art Table’s Southern California chapter and on the founding board of the Los Angeles Downtown Art Walk.

Artist Willard Hill's installation of masking tape sculptures at The Good Luck Gallery

Artist HelenRae at her first solo show in 2014 age 76 at at The Good Luck Gallery

Barbara Takenaga’s paintings have been viewed in many ways – as abstract or representational, micro or macro, cartoon-goofy or cosmic-psychedelic.  With a range of references that include astronomy, fractals, sci-fi and invented landscapes, the work involves a labor-intensive process.

Her most recent solo exhibition was a 20-year survey at the Williams College Museum of Art curated by Debra Bricker Balken and accompanied by a 144-page illustrated catalogue published by DelMonico Books|Prestel.  Recent large-scale wall projects include Space/42 of the Neuberger Museum and the Hunter Lobby of MASS MoCA.  Upcoming shows include DC Moore Gallery in New York City, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, and the Huntington Museum.  Takenaga’s work is in the collections of the DeCordova Museum, the Smith College Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, and the Crocker Art Museum, among others.  She is represented by DC Moore Gallery, Gregory Lind Gallery in San Francisco, and Shark’s Ink, Lyons, CO.  Takenaga lives and works in New York City and teaches at Williams College in Massachusetts.

The books mentioned in the interview are, Kiss Me Someone, by Karen Shepard and The World to Come by Jim Shepard.

Lines to the Center 2014 45x54

Night Painting, 2016, 60x70 inches

Rachel Klipa works for the Office of Public Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Her current research pertains to New Deal post-office murals by industrial designer Alexander J. Kostellow (1897-1954), and Serbia's first modern artist Nadežda Petrović (1873-1915).

 

Howard Cook, Steel Industry, 1936, commissioned by the Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture Photograph courtesy of the United States General Services Administration

Stuyvesant van Veen, Pittsburgh Panorama, 1937, commissioned by the Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture Photograph courtesy of the United States General Services Administration

Panel for Atlantis by Ellen Harvey

Ellen Harvey is a British-born artist living and working in Brooklyn.  She is a 2016 recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in the Visual Arts and a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program.

She was also interviewed a second time by this program (part two) which is here.

She has exhibited extensively in the U.S. and internationally and was included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial. Solo exhibitions include Metal Painting at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, The Unloved at the Groeninge Museum in Bruges, Belgium, The Alien’s Guide to the Ruins of Washington DC at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC, The Nudist Museum at the Bass Museum in Miami Beach, Ruins are More Beautiful at the Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Poland, Mirror at the Pennsylvania Academy in Philadelphia and A Whitney for the Whitney at Philip Morris at the Whitney Museum at Altria in New York.  She has completed numerous commissions, including Arcadia for the opening exhibition of the Turner Contemporary in Margate, UK and permanent public works for New York Percent for Art, New York Arts in Transit, the Chicago Transit Authority, the Philadelphia International Airport, the Federal Art in Architecture program and the Flemish National Architect.

Her Belgian project Repeat, won the Wivina Demeester Prize for Commissioned Public Art in 2016.  She is currently working on Atlantis, a new permanent installation commissioned for the renovation of the Miami Beach Convention Center.  Her work has been the subject of several books including New York Beautification Project, published by G. R. Miller & Co. in 2005, Mirror, published by the Pennsylvania Academy in 2006, Ellen Harvey: The Unloved, published by Hannibal in 2014 and Ellen Harvey: Museum of Failure, published by G. R. Miller & Co. in 2015.  She is represented by Danese / Corey Gallery in New York, Locks Gallery in Philadelphia, Meessen de Clerq Gallery in Brussels, Belgium and Galerie Gebruder Lehman in Germany.

This current show at the Children’s Museum of the Arts mentioned in the interview is here. And the book mentioned in the interview is here, a click away.

The Museum of Failure (front view of installation at Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA), Ellen Harvey, 2008: Collection of Impossible Subjects, 2007, rear-illuminated hand-engraved plexiglass mirrors in hand-engraved aluminum frame, 8 ft (2.44 m) x 12 ft (3.66 m); Invisible Self-Portrait in my Studio, 2008, oil on six wood panels, 8 ft (2.44 m) x 12 ft (3.66 m). Photograph: Locks Gallery

The Museum of Failure (side view of installation at Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA), Ellen Harvey, 2008: Collection of Impossible Subjects, 2007, rear-illuminated hand-engraved plexiglass mirrors in hand-engraved aluminum frame, 8 ft (2.44 m) x 12 ft (3.66 m); Invisible Self-Portrait in my Studio, 2008, oil on six wood panels, 8 ft (2.44 m) x 12 ft (3.66 m). Photograph: Locks Gallery

Repeat. 2013. Partially demolished church with terrazzo floor: 112' 2 3/8" x 53' 9 9/16" (34.2 x 16.4 m). Architect: Pol Sileghem & Partners. Terrazzo fabrication: Nino Tondat. Commissioned by the Municipality of Avelgem in collaboration with the Vlaams Bouwmeester Team. Installation views, St. Amelberga Church, Bossuit, Belgium. Photograph: Nino Tondat.

Repeat. 2013. (Top View) Partially demolished church with terrazzo floor: 112' 2 3/8" x 53' 9 9/16" (34.2 x 16.4 m). Architect: Pol Sileghem & Partners. Terrazzo fabrication: Nino Tondat. Commissioned by the Municipality of Avelgem in collaboration with the Vlaams Bouwmeester Team. Installation views, St. Amelberga Church, Bossuit, Belgium. Photograph: Nino Tondat.

 

 

Genevieve Leavold is a self-taught painter.

Characterized by shifting organic forms, Genevieve Leavold’s enigmatic paintings and subtle drawings evoke a sense of things existing just outside the known world. Taking an intuitive approach to her practice, Leavold allows compositions to evolve as an attempt to communicate questions about civilisation and human nature. The forms within her work are extracted from glimpses of wilderness in urban landscapes.

Genevieve Leavold has exhibited across the UK, Europe and the US and has work in private collections worldwide.

The Book mentioned in the interview is The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt

Butterfly Ball - Oil on canvas 60x60cm 2016

Forces of Nature -60x60cm Oil on Canvas 2017

"I like to make pictures.  I like it when people put them up in homes and museums.  But mostly I like it when someone comes across my pictures taped to a wall or inserted into their newspaper or on a bus or subway because photography has the ability to show us what we don’t see." - Bill Arnold

Self-Portrait

California Fire

Bike Path Memorial, NYC

Julie Harrison has been an artist in New York City for more than thirty-five years, moving between video, photography, painting, performance, installation, books and digital images. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards and has exhibited widely. From 2003–2010, Harrison founded and directed the Art & Technology B.A. Program at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, and currently works with Granary Books, publisher of artists books and works exploring the intersection of word, image and page.

Julie Harrison’s early time-based works in the 1970s traversed through private performances for video to multiple video camera/monitor performances and installations. A single-channel extension of these ideas was developed with image-processed videos, utilizing multiple-source systems in real time, produced on-and-off for a period of 15 years at the Experimental Television Center (ETC). During this time, Harrison recognized the importance of the collaborative process, working with other artists, writers, musicians, dancers, architects, and educators. She was an early member of the artists’ group, Collaborative Projects (Colab), participating in seminal theme shows and working in many capacities on the artists’ cable TV show, “Potato Wolf.”  She was co-founder of Machine Language, a video art group, and later, through her own company, Julie Harrison Productions, produced and directed video art, documentaries and art educational videos which have aired on PBS nationwide and were featured in festivals such as the Toronto Film Festival, The World-Wide Video Festival in The Hague; Video Roma in Italy; Video/Culture Canada in Toronto; the National Video Festival in Los Angeles, among others.

Museum exhibitions include the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Museum of Arts & Design in New York, The Neuberger Museum/Purchase, The Albany State Museum, the Bronx Museum for the Arts, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, Smith College Museum of Art, the Astoria Museum of the Moving Image (NY), Clark Humanities Museum, The Walker Art Center; and in Germany, the Staatliche Museum in Baden-Baden, the Munchner Stadtmuseum in Munich, and the Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt.

Awards include the National Endowment for the Arts (2), New York State Council on the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Creative Artists Public Service Award (CAPS), Funding Exchange / Paul Robeson Fund, the Film Fund, Barbara Lathum Memorial Award, Colorado Video Award / 1st Prize from the Athens Film and Video Festival; Gold Apple / 1st Prize from the National Educational Film & Video Festival; Honorable Mention from the Atlanta Film and Video Festival.

Julie Harrison’s book and video works reside in the private and public collections of: The Getty, the Library of Congress, Harvard University, Brown University, University of California/San Diego, Yale University, University of Delaware, University of Iowa, University of Southern California, Scripps College, University of California/Santa Barbara, New York Public Library/Berg Collection, Albany State Museum, Staatliche Kunstalle, Stichting Kijkhuis, The Kitchen Center, Park Library (Central Michigan University), Experimental TV Center, Women Make Movies, Ampersand/Athens Center for Film & Video, Video Inn (Vancouver), Metropolitan Toronto Library, University of Connecticut, SUNY/Binghamton, and others.

Julie Harrison’s work is represented and distributed by Granary Books (New York), Women Make Movies (New York), Stichting Kijkhuis (Netherlands) and Video Out (Vancouver Canada). Learn more on her website.

diptych, untitled, graphite on paper, 2017

diptych, war series, archival pigment print, 2014-2015