Interviews by Brainard Carey

France-based artist and illustrator Li Xia, also known as 绿李 Lilou Oh Yeah ( b. 1991,  Chongqing, China), works primarily in oil and watercolor. Her work explores ephemeral moments and commonplace objects in daily life, expressed through carefully composed planes of flat colors and nuanced strokes. Both representational and imaginary spaces come alive in Li’s work, with her sensitive attention to the ordinary and the fleeting.

Lilou lives and works in Rouen, France. Lilou attended the Université de Paris 1 Panthéon - Sorbonne (MFA, 2021), l'École Supérieure d’Art et Design Le Havre-Rouen (ESADHaR) (MFA, 2020) and Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (BFA, 2014). She has exhibited internationally at venues such as the LONG Museum, Minsheng Art Museum, Bananafish Gallery in Shanghai, China, Yi Gallery in New York, USA , Kate MacGarry Gallery, London, UK, Villa des Arts in Paris, France and Rola Bola in Rouen, France.

Lilou Li Xia, Eye Contact (Butterfly Kiss), 2022, Oil on canvas, 51 x 35 1/2 in 130 x 90 cm., Courtesy of Yi Gallery and the artist.

Lilou Li Xia, Turn off the light, 2022, Oil on canvas, 43 1/2 x 31 1/2 in 110 x 80 cm., Courtesy of Yi Gallery and the artist.

Installation view: Lilou Li Xia, Solo Exhibition at Yi Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 2022, Courtesy of Yi Gallery and the artist.

Links:

Artist page

https://gallery-yi.com/artists/122-li-xia-%28-lilou-oh-yeah%29/

 

Solo exhibition at Yi Gallery

https://gallery-yi.com/exhibitions/25-lilou-eye-contact-solo-exhibition/

 

Artist instagram

https://www.instagram.com/lilou_oh_yeah/?hl=en

 

Image captions:

 

3. Lilou Li Xia, Turn off the light, 2022, Oil on canvas, 43 1/2 x 31 1/2 in 110 x 80 cm

In the show, Throughline at Bureau, several artists are exhibited and here only Claudia Peña Salinas is interviewed. The text below is an excerpt from the press release on the show.

Bureau is pleased to announce a group exhibition presenting the work of six artists in various media.

January 14 - February 25 2023. Artists Included: Nour Mobarak, Claudia Peña Salinas, Davina Semo, Jeffrey Stuker, Patricia Treib, Viola Yeşiltaç.

 

Claudia Peña Salinas mines stories of humanity’s ultimate dream: that of divine and mythological belief. Taking inspiration from pre-Columbian symbology and architecture, Salinas’s sculpture and painting here focus on the Mayan temple of Kukulcán (El Castillo) at Chichen Itza. For her sculptures she makes minimal frames out of thin brass dowels which she secures by wrapping with hand-dyed thread. At the base of this airy geometric structure sits statuettes of El Castillo’s related deities Chac Mool, the red Jaguar and Kukulcán, each painted with a blue pigment, sacred to the Maya. Her paintings also focus on the iconography and mathematical logic of the temple and its deities. El Castillo was designed to align with the celestial, and on the equinoxes two serpent figures of Kukulkán at the base of the pyramid appear to have their long tails running down the side of the pyramid. Grounded upon the earth and aligning with the heavens, the earthly viewer may experience and contemplate the throughlines of impermanent matter and the immaterial.

Claudia Peña Salinas El Castillo IV, 2020 Toner and wax on wood panel 20 × 16 in. (50.80 × 40.64 cm)

Claudia Peña Salinas Chac Mool IV, 2020 Toner and wax on wood panel 20 × 16 in. (50.80 × 40.64 cm)

Claudia Peña Salinas Ahua Can, 2023 Brass, dyed ceramic, wood and shell found objects and thread, postcard 72 × 50 × 25 in. (182.88 × 127.00 × 63.50 cm)

Samuel Nnorom (b.1990) is a Nigerian-born visual. He discovered his talent at the age of 9 years while assisting his father in his shoe workshop – where he started making life drawings of customers that visited the shop. He was also influenced by his mother's tailoring workshop –as a kid who played with colourful fabrics with sewing needles and thread. He went further to develop this talent through apprenticeship, training, workshops, Exhibitions, art school and practice.

Samuel holds an MFA in sculpture from the University of Nigeria Nsukka and is a full-time practising studio artist with many awards, exhibitions and residencies which include 3rd and 1st prize for the National Gallery of Art 2010 and 2012 respectively, won prizes in 2016, 2017 and 2019 editions of the Life in My City Art Festival. He was the first prize recipient (leatherwork category) of the Icreate Africa 2019. Nnorom has received invitations to important workshops and group exhibitions, including the international art workshop by IICD at the United States Embassy, Abuja (2019), Rele Young Contemporary Bootcamp 2021, published in an international magazine the UK (zine, issue 11, artist responding to issues) and Haus-a-rest, issue 17 Material Damage 2021,  Cassirer Welz Award, Bag factory and Strauss & co South Africa 2022, recipient of 2022 Royal Over-Sea League and Art House Residency London, recipient of Guest Art Space (GAS) fellowship and residency from Yinka Shonibare Foundation 2022, shortlisted for Prince Claus Funds CAREC and Mentorship 2022/2023, Noldor fellowship and Residency 2023,  and several others. He belongs to the New Nsukka School of Art and he is currently exploring Okirika clothes and Ankara fabric using bubble techniques as sculptural media while interrogating human experiences that relate to consumption, environment, sociopolitical and economic issues through questioning. 

Kates-Ferri Projects, Installation of Dark Matter

Samuel Nnorom: Burnt Roses, 2022 Dye, acrylic, foam and fabric 63 × 47 × 10 1/2 inches

Samuel Nnorom: Yellow Quake (2022) Dye, acrylic, foam and fabric 63 x 36 x 8.5 inches

Julia Wachtel(b.1956, New York, NY) lives and work in New York and Connecticut. Wachtel’s oil, acrylic, and silkscreen-on-canvas paintings, which are drawn from popular culture, explore the impact of our image-saturated world. A figure of the Pictures Generation artists who emerged in early-1980’s New York, Wachtel’s early work mined posters of movie stars, pin-up girls, political figures, and pop music icons, as well as cartoon figures drawn from commercial greeting cards.

Her current work primarily explores the vast space of the internet, a place of constantly replenishing images on a disorienting scale. Wachtel appropriates, juxtaposes and ultimately distills these images into concentrated paintings, shifting the original logic and proposing an examination of the emotional, political and aesthetic conditions of an image dominant world.

Selected exhibitions include MoMa, New York; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. ; The Whitney Museum Of American Art ; Bergen Kunsthalle, Norway ; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis ; Le Consortium, France ; MAMCO, Geneva ; Migros Museum, Zurich ; Zabludowicz, London ; Cleveland Museum of Art ; ICA, London ; Kunthalle, Bern. Julia’s work can be found in institutions such as the MoMa, New York ; MOCA,Los Angeles ; The Whitney Museum of American Art ; FRAC Normandie ; Saatchi Collection, London ; Cleveland Museum of Art ; Brooklyn Museum ; Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brussels ; and the Zabludowicz Collection, London.

Julia Wachtel Within and Between, 1984 Oil on canvas 274.3 x 81.3 cm 108 x 32 in © Julia Wachtel. Courtesy Lisson Gallery

Julia Wachtel Untitled (Life Blood), 1984 Oil on canvas 274.3 x 83.8 cm 108 x 33 in © Julia Wachtel. Courtesy Lisson Gallery

Julia Wachtel Mutant Ninja Chernobyl, 1991 Oil, lacquer ink and Flashe on canvas 152.4 x 335.3 cm 60 x 132 in © Julia Wachtel. Courtesy Lisson Gallery

Ben Tong (b.1981 Toronto, Canada) is an artist based in Los Angeles, California.

His work has been exhibited at Night Gallery, Los Angeles; Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles; K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong; Art Basel Film program, Hong Kong; Europa NYC, New York; Island, New York. He was a fellow at the Villa Aurora Foundation, Berlin, and in residency at the Soma Summer Program, Mexico City.

Tong received a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, a BFA in Photo from CalArts, and an MFA in Art from CalArts.

Ben Tong, Evening’s Revelation, 2022, Oil on canvas, 60 x 60 inches

Ben Tong, I Lost All My Money to You, 2022, Oil on canvas 66 x 56 inches

Ben Tong, Dog Star, 2022 Oil on canvas 66 x 66 inches

Shala Miller, also known as Freddie June when she sings, was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio by two southerners named Al and Ruby. At around the age of 10 or 11, Miller discovered quietude, the kind you’re sort of pushed into, and then was fooled into thinking that this is where she should stay put. Since then, Miller has been trying to find her way out, and find her way into an understanding of herself and her history, using photography, video, writing and singing as an aid in this process.

Miller's work in photography and film meditates on the intersection of desire, mourning, pain, and pleasure. Taking up skin as a site of history and intimacy with the self and across generations, she holds space for the body’s vulnerabilities and maladies. Miller lives and works in Brooklyn.

The exhibit discussed in the interview is at Lyles & King.

Shala Miller Becoming Obsidian, 2023 Archival pigment print on William Turner paper 20 x 16 inches, 50.8 x 40.6 cm Edition of 2 + 1 AP Courtesy the artist and Lyles & King, New York.

Shala Miller Modern Day Sisyphus I, 2023 Archival pigment print on William Turner paper, hand engraving on lava stone 48 x 28 inches, 121.9 x 71.1 cm Edition of 2 + 1 AP Courtesy the artist and Lyles & King, New York.

Shala Miller Obsidian as Kneeling Inaction Figure, 2023 Polymer powder printed with ink and filled with resin, hand-painted 5 1/4 x 3 x 2 1/2 inches, 13.3 x 7.6 x 6.3 cm Courtesy the artist and Lyles & King, New York.

Gyan Shrosbree received her B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute, and her

M.F.A. from Cranbrook Academy of Art.

She has had recent solo and two-person

exhibitions at Ortega y Gasset Projects, Brooklyn, NY; JEFF, Marfa, TX; Wrong

Gallery, Marfa, TX; Ola Studio, Pound Ridge, NY: nx.ix Gallery, Detroit, MI; Haus

Collective, San Antonio, TX; Grapefruits, Portland, OR; Grand View University,

Des Moines, IA; Yellow Door Gallery, Des Moines, IA; Ripon College, Ripon, WI;

Lovey Town Space, Madison, WI; and The Iowa Arts Council and State Historical

Museum, Des Moines, IA.

Her work has been included in recent group exhibitions

Drake University, Des Moines, IA; Western Exhibitions, Chicago, IL; Cleve Carney

Art Gallery, Glen Ellyn, IL; Ground Floor Gallery, Nashville, TN; The Woskob

Family Gallery, State College, PA; NYSRP, Brooklyn, NY; and Artstart,

Rhinelander, WI. Gyan has been an artist-in-residence at MacDowell, Yaddo, The

Vermont Studio Center, Two Coats of Paint, and The Maple Terrace. Recent

publications featuring her work include Hyperallergic, New American Painting,

Egomania Magazine,The Coastal Post, Inertia Studio Visits, Precog Magazine, and

Maake Magazine. Gyan is currently an Associate Professor in the Department

of Fine Arts at Maharishi International University. She lives and works in

Fairfield, Iowa.

Instagram for Gyan Shrosbree and Ortega y Gasset Projects.

Gyan Shrosbree/Kathleen Shrosbree wearable art on OyG crew acrylic on cotton duck.

Gyan Shrosbree, The Dress/What Touches the Floor #5, , acrylic on canvas tarp and stretched canvas, 100” x 60” each, 2022.

Gyan Shrosbree Installation, Ortega y Gasset Projects.

Steve Keister (b.1949, lives and works in New York, NY) earned a BFA and an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and a Gottlieb Foundation Grant, among other awards. He has had solo exhibitions at Freddy, Harris, NY; Underdonk, Brooklyn, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Texas Gallery, Houston; Blum Helman, New York; Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne; Feature, Inc, New York; and Mitchell Algus, New York. Steve’s solo exhibition BIO MESO is currently on view at Derek Eller Gallery through February 4, 2023.

Steve Keister Installation, Derek Eller Gallery

Steve Keister Siamese Cat, 2022 glazed ceramic, acrylic on wood 11 x 14.25 x 3.5 in.

Steve Keister Flying Bat 2, 2023 glazed ceramic, acrylic on wood 10 x 23.5 x 10 in.

Dan Perkins lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He received his MFA from American University. His paintings channel architectural motifs that connote space: crossing through a threshold, gazing through a window, passing from one plane to another. However the spaces depicted sit in an ethereal haze, where color and form are primary. Scale, time and space are all negotiable, up to the viewer to frame and understand.

He has shown at Deanna Evans Projects, Sperone Westwater, Hashimoto Contemporary, Launch F18, Mana Contemporary, and elsewhere. His work is held in the collections of Capital One, Fidelity Investments, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Katzen Museum of American University, as well as in many private collections. His work has been featured in Juxtapoz Magazine, Booooooom, Wired Italia, Art of Choice, Archive 00, Two Coats of Paint, Artsy, ArtMaze Mag, and the Washington Post.

Lunar Archway, 2022, oil on panel, 50'' x 40''

Pearl, 2022, oil on panel, 36'' x 30''

Red Star, 2022, oil on panel, 36'' x 30''

Katie Bell is an artist originally from Rockford, Illinois (b.1985).  She received her BA from Knox College and her MFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design. Bell makes sculptural paintings based off architecture and found objects, fabricating forms that confuse naming. Using construction materials as her palette and woodworking tools as a form of mark making, she builds paintings and sculptures. Bell has shown her work at a variety of venues, including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Smack Mellon, Locust Projects, and the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. She was an artist in residence at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation’s Space Program and awarded a fellowship in painting by the New York Foundation for the Arts. Bell lives and works in New York, NY.

Katie Bell, Day Shift, Wood, acrylic, plexiglass, paper, sand, rope, and nail, 34 x 26 x 4 inches, 2022.

Katie Bell, Middy, Acrylic, wood, aluminum, and plexiglass, 31 x 22 x 4.5 inches, 2020.

Katie Bell, Middy, Acrylic, wood, aluminum, and plexiglass, 31 x 22 x 4.5 inches, 2020.