Monthly Archives: August 2019

Mark Moore Fine Art is pleased to present “Staycation 2019,” the gallery’s third solo show from Texas-based art collective Okay Mountain. Parodying the American tradition of stay-at-home vacations and the consumerist promises of an escape from the mundane, the nine-member group has created a series photographic works, an installation, and a sound collage for the exhibition.  This show ends on September 8, 2019.

YOU CAN VIEW THIS EXHIBITION NOW AT: http://bit.ly/2JnJtDP

Formed in 2006 as an artist-run alternative gallery space, Okay Mountain has since gone on to create installations and multi media assemblages that riff on the American reverence for commerce. Repackaging our consumerist desires with a sardonic edge, the installations mimic the stock vernacular of our communal materialism, yet tweak them just enough to reveal our superficial insecurities and convictions. 

In “Staycation 2019” the group plays on the iconography of the Zen Garden, as seen through the eyes of western popular culture. Creating a purposely-mediated experience of “Zen,” the installation poses as a pre-packaged version of what could have been a meaningful experience, if the consumer had bothered to leave the house. Like the screensaver images of peaceful monuments floating across a laptop, the imagery plays on a desire for escape, but also immediacy—one desire ruling out the other. The result is a razor sharp wit interpretation of a very American mixture of banality and good intentions — an eagerness for a respite from the mundane, without the will to see it through.

While most artists in Okay Mountain are alumni of the University of Texas at Austin (TX), others are graduates of University of California Los Angeles (CA), Rhode Island School of Design (RI), and the University of Kansas (KS). Institutional exhibitions have included those at the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston (TX), Austin Museum of Art (TX), McNay Art Museum (TX), Arthouse (TX), University of Tennessee, Chattanooga (TN), and the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (MA). Their work is included in the permanent collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (CT), McNay Museum of Art (TX), Orange County Museum of Art (CA), Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (CA), Santa Barabara Museum of Art (CA), and Vanderbilt University (TN).

For further information, contact us at: info@markmoorefineart.com

#markmoorefineart #OKM #okaymountain

Image: Vernon Fisher

“There are things that I’m constantly looking at that I feel should be elevated to greater status, almost to philosophical status or to a religious status. That’s why taking things out of context is a useful tool to an artist. It’s the concept of taking something that’s not subject matter and making it subject matter.” —Ed Ruscha

In “Out of Context” we look at seven contemporary artists that have made the incorporation of text and language a cornerstone for their art – both conceptually and visually. Each artist approaches the subject from their own unique perspective. Artists featured are: Ed Ruscha; Mark Bennett; Kim Rugg; Vernon Fisher; Kay Rosen; Feodor Voronov; and, Ken Craft.

VIEW THIS SHOW NOW AT: http://bit.ly/2YyOcb7

Texts—writings, readings, signs, titles, guides, catalogues, blog posts like this one—are part and parcel of how art is presented in museums. Curious visitors come hungry for enlightening information, for tidbits to connect the dots or stories that humanize the work on view. Art historians act as writers, readers, and investigators whose success can be measured in published output. For those who work with art and appreciate it, language and art are endlessly intertwined.

The history of text and language in contemporary art encompasses most of the last 60 years. Language was an important tool for Conceptual artists in the 1960s. Many used language in place of more traditional materials like brushes and canvas, and words played a primary role in their emphasis on ideas over visual forms. Though text had been used in art long before this, artists like Joseph Kosuth and John Baldesarri were among the first to give words such a central role.

Conceptual artists also used language in the form of instructions detailing how an artwork should be made. Sol LeWitt was among the principal originators of this strategy, which his peers widely embraced. Arguing that ideas alone can be art, he allowed for a measure of separation between the artist and the physical execution of his or her artwork. His work exemplifies this: he would generate ideas for artworks and write instructions on how to make them, which other people—sometimes whole teams working days or weeks—would then carry out.

Image: Vernon Fisher

At about the same time, a cultural revolution was underway, led by activists, thinkers, and artists who sought to change, and even overturn, what was, in their eyes, a stifling social order ruled by conformity. The Vietnam War incited mass protests, the Civil Rights Movement sought equality for African Americans, and the women’s liberation movement gained momentum.

It was in this climate of turbulence, experimentation, and increased consumerism that a new generation of artists emerged in Britain and America in the mid- to late-1950s. These artists began to look for inspiration and materials in their immediate environment. They made art that mirrored, critiqued, and, at times, incorporated everyday items, consumer goods, and mass media messaging and imagery. In reference to its intended popular appeal and its engagement with popular culture, it was called Pop art.

Pop artists strove for straightforwardness in their work, using bold swaths of primary colors, often straight from the can or tube of paint. They adopted commercial advertising methods like silkscreening, or produced multiples, downplaying the artist’s hand and subverting the idea of originality and preciousness—in marked contrast to the highly expressive, large-scale abstract paintings of the Abstract Expressionists, whose work had dominated postwar American art. Pop artists favored realism, everyday (even mundane) imagery, and heavy doses of irony and wit.

But many Pop artists, including Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, were very aware of the past. They sought to connect the traditions of fine art with the mass culture of television, advertising, film, and cartoons. At the same time, they challenged traditional boundaries between mediums and techniques, merging painting with photography and printmaking, combining handmade and readymade or mass-produced elements, and bringing together objects, images, and sometimes text to make new meaning.

It is out of this convergence of Pop Art and Conceptual Art from the Sixties that artists like Ed Ruscha and Vernon Fisher were born and influenced generation of artists to follow, like Mark Bennett; Kim Rugg; Kay Rosen; Feodor Voronov; and, Ken Craft. From this collision of pop culture and high art, we find that some of the most interesting art and ideas born of this period are nothing more than our own lives taken Out of Context.

For more information: http://www.markmoorefineart.com

#markmoorefineart #edrusha #markbennett #kimrugg #vernonfisher #kayrosen #feodorvoronov #kencraft

PENELOPE UMBRICO

Solo installation for Ballarat International Foto Biennale 2019
August 23rd – October 20th, 2019
Ballarat International Foto Biennale – Ballarat, Australia

PENELOPE UMBRICO offers a radical reinterpretation of everyday consumer and vernacular images. Umbrico works “within the virtual world of consumer marketing and social media, traveling through the relentless flow of seductive images, objects, and information that surrounds us, searching for decisive moments—but in these worlds, decisive moments are cultural absurdities.”

She finds these moments in the pages of consumer product mail-order catalogs, travel and leisure brochures; and websites like Craigslist, EBay, and Flickr. Identifying image typologies—candy-colored horizons and sunsets, books used as props—brings the farcical, surreal nature of consumerism to new light.

Penelope Umbrico (born in Philadelphia, 1957) graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, and received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York. She has participated extensively in solo and group exhibitions, including at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York. Umbrico is core faculty in the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media Program. Selected public collections include the Guggenheim Museum (NY), International Center of Photography (NY), McNay Museum of Art (TX), Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY), Museum of Contemporary Photography (IL), Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (CA), Museum of Modern Art (NY), and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (CA), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (CA), among others. She lives in New York City.

For more information, go to: 

http://bit.ly/2Lm1TGt

#markmoorefineart #penelopeumbrico

Image: Kara Maria, An Exercise of Freedom, 2006 – 2018 / 56 x 46 inches / acrylic on canvas

Upcoming Events for artist KARA MARIA

Strange

August 21, 2019 – January 5, 2020

Group exhibition featuring diverse works from BAMPFA’s collection that invoke strangeness and resonate with the spirit of Surrealism

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA)

2155 Center Street

Berkeley, CA 94704

510-642-0808

https://bampfa.org/program/strange

DETAIL Image: Kara Maria, An Exercise of Freedom, 2006 – 2018 / 56 x 46 inches / acrylic on canvas

Additional GROUP SHOWS upcoming:

Encounters: Honoring the Animals in Ourselves

September, 14 – December, 29, 2019

Group exhibition of artwork depicting revelatory encounters with animals, real or imagined

Palo Alto Art Center

1313 Newell Road

Palo Alto, CA 94303

650-329-2366

https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/gov/depts/csd/artcenter/exhibitions/upcoming.asp

Kara Maria produces paintings and work on paper that reflect on political themes such as feminism, war, and the environment.  She borrows from the broad vocabulary of contemporary painting; blending geometric shapes, vivid hues, and abstract marks, with representational elements. Maria received her BA and MFA from the University of California, Berkeley. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States at venues including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University; the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Texas; the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art; and the Katonah Museum of Art in New York; among others.

In 2016, Maria’s work was featured in a solo exhibition, Head Over Heels, at the University Art Gallery at California State University, Chico, which included an accompanying monograph.  Her work has garnered critical attention in the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Art in America. Maria has completed residencies at the Montalvo Arts Center, Recology Artist in Residence Program, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and at the de Young’s Artist Studio. She is recipient of multiple awards and honors, including a grant from Artadia and an Eisner Prize in Art from the University of California, Berkeley. Maria lives and works in San Francisco.

For more information, contact: mark@markmoorefineart.com

#karamaria #markmoorefineart

Mark Moore Fine Art is pleased to present “Gel Variations,” an exclusive solo ARTSY online exhibition of Ben Charles Weiner’s recent paintings on view now through September 29, 2019.

VIEW THIS SHOW NOW AT: http://bit.ly/2GVsLu6

In these works, Weiner acts out the adage that “we are the sum of our habits” through a sort of painterly double entendre: by executing a series of rigorous formal operations upon his long-favored subject of hair gel, Weiner iterates his own identity as an aggregation of daily routines—whether in the studio, or in front of the bathroom mirror.

This show is on view through September 19, 2019.

For additional information on this artist and their work, please go to our website at http://www.markmoorefineart.com or check out their artist page on ARTSY at the following link:

https://www.artsy.net/mark-moore-gallery

#bencharlesweiner #benweiner #markmoorefineart

Mark Moore Fine Art is pleased to present “Gel Variations,” an exclusive solo ARTSY online exhibition of Ben Charles Weiner’s recent paintings on view now through September 29, 2019.

VIEW THIS SHOW NOW AT: http://bit.ly/2GVsLu6

In these works, Weiner acts out the adage that “we are the sum of our habits” through a sort of painterly double entendre: by executing a series of rigorous formal operations upon his long-favored subject of hair gel, Weiner iterates his own identity as an aggregation of daily routines—whether in the studio, or in front of the bathroom mirror.

This show is on view through September 19, 2019.

For additional information on this artist and their work, please go to our website at http://www.markmoorefineart.com or check out their artist page on ARTSY at the following link:

https://www.artsy.net/mark-moore-gallery

#bencharlesweiner #benweiner #markmoorefineart

Image: Kim Rugg

“There are things that I’m constantly looking at that I feel should be elevated to greater status, almost to philosophical status or to a religious status. That’s why taking things out of context is a useful tool to an artist. It’s the concept of taking something that’s not subject matter and making it subject matter.” —Ed Ruscha

In “Out of Context” we look at seven contemporary artists that have made the incorporation of text and language a cornerstone for their art – both conceptually and visually. Each artist approaches the subject from their own unique perspective. Artists featured are: Ed Ruscha; Mark Bennett; Kim Rugg; Vernon Fisher; Kay Rosen; Feodor Voronov; and, Ken Craft.

VIEW THIS SHOW NOW AT: http://bit.ly/2YyOcb7

Texts—writings, readings, signs, titles, guides, catalogues, blog posts like this one—are part and parcel of how art is presented in museums. Curious visitors come hungry for enlightening information, for tidbits to connect the dots or stories that humanize the work on view. Art historians act as writers, readers, and investigators whose success can be measured in published output. For those who work with art and appreciate it, language and art are endlessly intertwined.

The history of text and language in contemporary art encompasses most of the last 60 years. Language was an important tool for Conceptual artists in the 1960s. Many used language in place of more traditional materials like brushes and canvas, and words played a primary role in their emphasis on ideas over visual forms. Though text had been used in art long before this, artists like Joseph Kosuth and John Baldesarri were among the first to give words such a central role.

Conceptual artists also used language in the form of instructions detailing how an artwork should be made. Sol LeWitt was among the principal originators of this strategy, which his peers widely embraced. Arguing that ideas alone can be art, he allowed for a measure of separation between the artist and the physical execution of his or her artwork. His work exemplifies this: he would generate ideas for artworks and write instructions on how to make them, which other people—sometimes whole teams working days or weeks—would then carry out.

Image: Ken Craft

At about the same time, a cultural revolution was underway, led by activists, thinkers, and artists who sought to change, and even overturn, what was, in their eyes, a stifling social order ruled by conformity. The Vietnam War incited mass protests, the Civil Rights Movement sought equality for African Americans, and the women’s liberation movement gained momentum.

It was in this climate of turbulence, experimentation, and increased consumerism that a new generation of artists emerged in Britain and America in the mid- to late-1950s. These artists began to look for inspiration and materials in their immediate environment. They made art that mirrored, critiqued, and, at times, incorporated everyday items, consumer goods, and mass media messaging and imagery. In reference to its intended popular appeal and its engagement with popular culture, it was called Pop art.

Pop artists strove for straightforwardness in their work, using bold swaths of primary colors, often straight from the can or tube of paint. They adopted commercial advertising methods like silkscreening, or produced multiples, downplaying the artist’s hand and subverting the idea of originality and preciousness—in marked contrast to the highly expressive, large-scale abstract paintings of the Abstract Expressionists, whose work had dominated postwar American art. Pop artists favored realism, everyday (even mundane) imagery, and heavy doses of irony and wit.

But many Pop artists, including Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, were very aware of the past. They sought to connect the traditions of fine art with the mass culture of television, advertising, film, and cartoons. At the same time, they challenged traditional boundaries between mediums and techniques, merging painting with photography and printmaking, combining handmade and readymade or mass-produced elements, and bringing together objects, images, and sometimes text to make new meaning.

It is out of this convergence of Pop Art and Conceptual Art from the Sixties that artists like Ed Ruscha and Vernon Fisher were born and influenced generation of artists to follow, like Mark Bennett; Kim Rugg; Kay Rosen; Feodor Voronov; and, Ken Craft. From this collision of pop culture and high art, we find that some of the most interesting art and ideas born of this period are nothing more than our own lives taken Out of Context.

For more information: http://www.markmoorefineart.com

#markmoorefineart #edrusha #markbennett #kimrugg #vernonfisher #kayrosen #feodorvoronov #kencraft

Mark Moore Fine Art presents the first ARTSY Online Exclusive Career Survey of the works of painter KARA MARIA. The show, titled “Nevertheless” features twelve paintings scanning nearly two decades from the artist’s private collection is on view now through October 6, 2019.

In this exhibition we survey 12 painting from the career of the San Francisco-based painter. Maria’s work reflects on political topics – feminism, war, and the environment. She borrows from the broad vocabulary of contemporary painting; blending geometric shapes, vivid hues, and abstract marks, with representational elements.

VIEW THIS SHOW NOW AT: http://bit.ly/32kcQ1g

Kara Maria produces paintings and work on paper that reflect on political themes such as feminism, war, and the environment.  She borrows from the broad vocabulary of contemporary painting; blending geometric shapes, vivid hues, and abstract marks, with representational elements. Maria received her BA and MFA from the University of California, Berkeley. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States at venues including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University; the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Texas; the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art; and the Katonah Museum of Art in New York; among others.

In 2016, Maria’s work was featured in a solo exhibition, Head Over Heels, at the University Art Gallery at California State University, Chico, which included an accompanying monograph.  Her work has garnered critical attention in the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Art in America. Maria has completed residencies at the Montalvo Arts Center, Recology Artist in Residence Program, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and at the de Young’s Artist Studio. She is recipient of multiple awards and honors, including a grant from Artadia and an Eisner Prize in Art from the University of California, Berkeley. Maria lives and works in San Francisco.

For more information, contact: mark@markmoorefineart.com

#karamaria #markmoorefineart

Image: Dirk Staschke

Opening Friday: IN BLOOM (AGAIN) – An Exclusive ARTSY Online Group Exhibition. View this show now at: http://bit.ly/2XQZsm0

This exhibition includes works by: Andy Warhol; Ben Charles Weiner; Kenichi Yokono; Allison Schulnik; Julie Heffernan; Amy Elkins; Sebastiaan Bremer; David Klamen; Kim Rugg; Okay Mountain; Jeffry Mitchell; Joshua Dildine; Jimi Gleason; Dirk Staschke; Robert Standish; Kris Kuksi; Yoram Wolberger; Zemer Peled; Meghan Smythe; Kara Maria; and, Ken Craft.

This exhibition marks the third incarnation of “In Bloom” for Mark Moore Fine Art and the first ARTSY online exclusive exhibition from this series. Mark Moore Gallery proudly presents “In Bloom (Again)”, a group show featuring work by twenty artists from around the globe. 

Image: Amy Elkins

Webster’s dictionary not only defines “Bloom” to refer to “the period of flowering”, but also “the state or period of greatest beauty, freshness, or vigor” or, “(of fire, color, or light) become radiant and glowing”. Bloom – as it turns out – for such a simple word, has many different meanings an interpretations.

As the current “blooming” nature of art and commerce has facilitated industry-wide conversations about the evolving role of artists, galleries, museums, art fairs, and the Internet, Andy Warhol’s philosophies appear more topical and relevant than ever before. Using his iconic “Flowers” painting from 1964 as the foundation for this show, we assembled twenty artists we have worked with over the last 35 years to present “In Bloom (Again)”.

“In Bloom (Again)” uncovers a through-line between artists with disparate practices and preoccupations, prompting a larger “art world” dialogue that is truly Warholian and is blossoming with possibilities.

For more information on these artists, go to: www.markmoorefineart.com

#markmoorefineart #BenWeiner #KenichiYokono #AllisonSchulnik #JulieHeffernan #AmyElkins #SebastiaanBremer #DavidKlamen #KimRugg #OkayMountain #OKM #JeffryMitchell #JoshuaDildine #JimiGleason #DirkStaschke #RobertStandish #KrisKuksi #Yoram Wolberger; #ZemerPeled #MeghanSmythe #KaraMaria #KenCraft #AndyWarhol

Mark Moore Fine Art presents the first ARTSY Online Exclusive Career Survey of the works of painter KARA MARIA. The show, titled “Nevertheless” features twelve paintings scanning nearly two decades from the artist’s private collection is on view now through October 6, 2019.

In this exhibition we survey 12 painting from the career of the San Francisco-based painter. Maria’s work reflects on political topics – feminism, war, and the environment. She borrows from the broad vocabulary of contemporary painting; blending geometric shapes, vivid hues, and abstract marks, with representational elements.

VIEW THIS SHOW NOW AT: http://bit.ly/32kcQ1g

Kara Maria produces paintings and work on paper that reflect on political themes such as feminism, war, and the environment.  She borrows from the broad vocabulary of contemporary painting; blending geometric shapes, vivid hues, and abstract marks, with representational elements. Maria received her BA and MFA from the University of California, Berkeley. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States at venues including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University; the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Texas; the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art; and the Katonah Museum of Art in New York; among others.

In 2016, Maria’s work was featured in a solo exhibition, Head Over Heels, at the University Art Gallery at California State University, Chico, which included an accompanying monograph.  Her work has garnered critical attention in the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Art in America. Maria has completed residencies at the Montalvo Arts Center, Recology Artist in Residence Program, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and at the de Young’s Artist Studio. She is recipient of multiple awards and honors, including a grant from Artadia and an Eisner Prize in Art from the University of California, Berkeley. Maria lives and works in San Francisco.

For more information, contact: mark@markmoorefineart.com

#karamaria #markmoorefineart