Interviews by Brainard Carey

Robert Straight is an artist based in Wilmington, Delaware. 

He has been working as a painter for the past fifty years, during which time he has exhibited  his work throughout the United States in both solo exhibits and group exhibitions.  In addition to keeping the studio fires burning he is an avid gardener and enjoys time at the beach.

His work is represented by Schmidt / Dean Gallery.

The book he mentions in the interview is Lakota America, A New History of Indigenous Power by  Pekka Hamalaien.

P-632, 2019 48" x 48" x 3" acrylic, canvas, paper, foam, wood

P-634, 2020 59" x 48" x 3" acrylic, paper, canvas, foam, wood

Jason Bayani is the author of Locus (Omnidawn Publishing 2019) and Amulet (Write Bloody Publishing 2013).

He's an MFA graduate from Saint Mary's College, a Kundiman fellow, and works as the artistic director for Kearny Street Workshop, the oldest multi-disciplinary Asian Pacific American arts organization in the country.

His publishing credits include World Literature Today, Muzzle Magazine, Lantern Review, and other publications. Jason performs regularly around the country and debuted his solo theater show "Locus of Control" in 2016 with theatrical runs in San Francisco, New York, and Austin.

"Locus" Omnidawn Publishing

Yasue Portraiture photo by Kyle Knodell

Yasue Maetake is a Japanese-born, New York-based artist. While Maetake respond to a range of influences such as Animism, Baroque, natural forms and industrial constructions, her work centers on the creation of evocative sculptures that grapple with non-controllable forces of nature and serve as a proxy for the human body.

Maetake was recently named by Artsy as one of 20 international women advancing the field of sculpture and, her work was exhibited at Palazzo Benzon, in conjunction with the 58th Venice Biennale and The Chimney, Brooklyn.

She was a resident of El Anatsui’s studio in Nigeria with a research grant from Cultural Ministry Japan. She holds MFA from Columbia University.

Symbolic Atmosphere VIII 2020 H30 x 44 x 24 inch. assorted animal bones & seashells, steel, brass, copper, cotton pulp, synthetic clay photo by Kyle Knodell

Precarious Windbreak  2019 H115 x 67 x 71 inch. copper corrosion and steel corrosion on pulp, steel, bronze, cane photo by Allegheny Art Galleries, PA

Tilbøyelighet", Galleri Babel, Trondheim, photo credit: F. Susann Jamtøy

Through long-lasting processes, the artist duo GIDEONSSON/LONDRÉ search for a dissolved state in-between paralysation and ecstasy. Their practice involves performances, installations and interventions that consist of different forms of highly regulated everyday activities, in relation to different experiences of time. How changes in rhythms and time flows open up for other positions and temporary detachments from established ideas about subjectivity.

GIDEONSSON/LONDRÉ live and work in Kallrör, Sweden, and received an MFA from The Royal Institute of Art in 2014. Recent exhibitions includes Change, Havremagasinet, Sweden (2019), I am vertical, ESPAI 13, Spain (2018) and The Swamp Biennale, Art Lab Gnesta, Sweden (2018).

”The Hour of the Wolf”, Andquestionmark, Stockholm, photo credit: Nayab Ikram

Sarah E. Brook is a Brooklyn-based sculptor and installation artist from the Nevada high desert.  Brook explores the relationship between external and internal (psychic) vastness through the use of translucency, layering and color gradients to morph her architectural structures into perceptual experiments.

She is particularly interested in the way perceptual experience can align (queer) identities. Brook has exhibited at Lesley Heller, Field Projects, Re:Art, the (un)Scene, NARS, Ground Floor Gallery, The Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art (NY) and was included in the 2019 BRIC Biennial in Brooklyn.

She has been awarded the 2019-2020 Leslie-Lohman Museum Fellowship (NY), the 2018 Media Arts Fellowship from BRIC (NY) and residencies from Marble House Projects, I-Park, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Jentel Foundation, Playa and Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts.  Public art sculptures include Open Shelter (Prospect Park, NY, 2016), Viewfinding, a year-long installation and collaboration with queer poets (Riverside Park, NY, 2018-2019), Align (permanent installation, Crystal Park, NY, 2019) and a forthcoming permanent work commissioned by the City of New York (2023).

Here are the book mentioned in the interview - Interrupted Life and Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal.

JWS2, spray paint on synthetic poplin, string, rebar, photography, dimensions variable, installed in rural Wyoming, 2017. JWS2 is an example of the types of short term, low-impact installations I create in solitude in remote landscapes.

Andrea Giaier was raised in a typical Midwestern town just outside of Detroit, Michigan. From an early age, she developed a deep connection to nature, which later blossomed into a profound admiration, respect, and concern for the environment and the collective future of those who inhabit the earth. Andrea currently lives in Kathmandu, Nepal, and has taught and created in Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, Honduras, Sri Lanka, and Guatemala over the past 15 years.

As an artist and an educator, Andrea focuses on collaborative, performative, and Social Practice Art, which allows people from diverse backgrounds to find their visual voice, empower themselves and create positive change through meaningful art.

Andrea received a Bachelor of Fine Art at Montana State, a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Washington, and a Master of Arts in Teaching from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

The book mentioned in the interview is The Jealous Curator’s Book.

The street sounds mentioned are here -

https://museumofnonvisibleart.com/interviews/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/lockdown-sounds.m4a

 

Natural ink study, 2020

Sound and Ink study, 2020

Milica Pekić, PhD, art historian and curator from Belgrade. She graduated and received her PhD at The History of Modern Art department at Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. In her research she is focusing on confrontational artistic practices as well as on alternative forms of collective authorships, institutional transformation and potential of interdisciplinary approach both in research and production. She is co-founder of KIOSK platform for contemporary art, and since 2002 is actively engaged in creating and developing the platform’s curatorial, research and art projects. She was curator of O3ONE gallery from 2004 until 2007 and program director of Gallery12HUB in Belgrade from 2013 till 2018. As a curator she has participated in numerous projects on local, regional and international level. Currently she is a member of the program board and mentor on the Nelt interdisciplinary educational program for students. She is also one of the founders of the Association of the Independent Cultural Scene of Serbia and KOOPERATIVA – a regional platform for culture. Her essays are published in numerous magazines, publications and catalogues.

KIOSK Project Yugoslavia, Museum of Yugoslavia, Installation View

KIOSK, Performing-Democracy Project.

Studio portrait

Kevin Kearns studied at the Art Institute of Boston and went on to a successful career as an illustrator, designer, Art / Creative Director. Kearns worked in this field for over twenty five years. He transitioned to painting full time in 2002.

Kearns has had several solo, two person, and group exhibitions. He is currently represented by the Stricoff Gallery, New York City; Blue Gallery, Kansas City; Claire Carino Gallery, Boston; and Julie Nester Gallery, Park City.

His work is housed in many private and corporate collections throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. He works in Newburgh, NY.

Kearns has a forthcoming show at the Art Complex Museum in Massachusetts.

The book mentioned in the interview was George Inness and the Science of Landscape.

Untitled Landscape 30 x 40 inches, oil on wood panel. 2014

Untitled Landscape 48 x 48 inches, oil on wood panel. 2020

Seated in my studio between "We can't have Heaven Crammed" and "Bring Home the Bacon", both oil on linen.

Barbara Friedman is an artist based in New York City and a professor of art at Pace University. She has exhibited widely, with multiple two- and three-person shows in the last few years, at spaces including Five Myles in Brooklyn, NY; (2020), Sara Nightingale Gallery in Sag Harbor, NY (2019); and Amy Simon Fine Art in Westport, CT (2017); as well as 36 solo shows, most recently at CAS in Livingston Manor, NY and Hamilton Square in Jersey City (2017), Buddy Warren Gallery in New York, NY (2016); BCB Art in Hudson, NY (2015); Ober Gallery in Kent, CT (2014); Ethan Petitt Gallery in Brooklyn, NY (2014); the Painting Center (2012); and twice at Michael Steinberg Fine Art in New York, NY (2007, 2009).  Earlier solo exhibitions were at Art Resources Transfer, The Queens Museum, and White Columns (all NYC); Carnegie-Mellon University, Cleveland State University, the Roanoke Museum of Fine Arts, and the Dana Wright Gallery in San Francisco among others.

Reviews of Friedman’s work have appeared in the New York Times, the New York Sun, The Irish Times, Newsday, Art in America, ARTS Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor and Artweek.

Interviews have appeared in Artspiel.org, Figure/Ground and by Paul D'Agostino.

A group of her paintings was selected for the 2007 issue of New American Paintings, and another group for the 2010 issue. She was an Artist in Residence twice at the Marie Walsh Foundation Summer Seminar and has also been awarded residencies at Yaddo, The Virginia Center for the Arts, and the Bogliasco Foundation.

The books mentioned in the interview are: Eleanor Heartney, Doomsday Dreams: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Contemporary Art (Silver Hollow Press, 2019) and Richard Powers, The Overstory (W. W. Norton, 2018)

Self portrait with Pig

Watercolors on Studio Wall

Caveh Zahedi is an autobiographical American independent filmmaker whose feature-length films include The Sheik and I (2012), I Am A Sex Addict (2005), In The Bathtub of the World (2001), I Don’t Hate Las Vegas Anymore (1994), and A Little Stiff (1991).

He is also the writer/director of the BRIC TV series The Show About the Show.

The Show About the Show: Caveh directing his wife and her lover to re-enact their infidelity