Author Archives: Mark

Yoram Wolberger, TROPHY #2 (Baseball), 2017; Cast and Polished Stainless Steel; 78 x 36 x 36 inches (approximate dimensions); Edition of 3 (+ 2 Artist Proofs) – Price Upon Request

Mark Moore Fine Art is pleased to announce the release of a new major sculpture work by MMFA artist YORAM WOLBERGER on September 7, 2017.

Yoram Wolberger uses childhood toys and everyday domestic items to create his large scale sculptures, foregrounding the latent symbolism and cultural paradigms of these objects that so subtly inform Western culture. By enlarging this ephemera to life size, Wolberger emphasizes the distortions of their original manufacture disallowing any real illusion and conceptually forcing the viewer to reconsider their meanings. When enlarged beyond any possibility of dismissal, we see that toy soldiers create lines between Us and Them, plastic cowboys and Indians marginalize and stereotype the Other, even wedding cake bride and groom figurines dictate our expected gender roles.

The artist has just finished a major new work in his series of TROPHY TOPPER sculptures that he began in 2008. Please note that Edition 1/3 and 2/3 have already been sold in each of these editions. The artist still has one example that remains available in the edition of three, as does one Artist Proof.

As the artist states:

My art manipulates and challenges our perceptions of the familiar through a variety of sculptural interventions. I often choose to work with everyday, culturally iconic, objects to which we attach deep-seated and often unconscious meanings. Transformed beyond their expected context, these evolved objects suggest new associations and provoke fresh insights into their larger meaning and relevance.

For this project, I am interested in examining the contrast between the symbolic and the material dimensions of what I refer to as “common sports trophies”. Specifically, these are the small silver or gold-colored figurines typically awarded in recreational sport. With their idealized figures, such trophies are awarded to represent essential qualities of greatness in a participant. As cultural artifacts, however, our common trophies epitomize values that are intrinsic not only to sport, but to American society and community as well.

In the archaeology of American cultural artifacts, common sports trophies are fitting symbols of personal achievement within a democratic society. Cast from non-precious materials to shine like silver and gold, they are at once common objects and personal treasures. Originally reserved for champions, they are now often awarded to recreational players in honor of a variety of achievements other than victory, including participation.

My intention is to design and construct life-size figurines, standing between 6 and 8 feet tall and meticulously replicating the smaller versions found on common sports trophies. Fabricated from stainless steel casts and polished to a chrome-like finish, they will magnify the humble grandeur of the familiar shiny figurines while exposing the typical casting seams, mass-production flaws and design shortcuts that normally escape our attention. Enlarged 20 times beyond their original size, the trophies’ imperfections become relevant and, it is my hope, intriguing.

For some, the sculptures will evoke personal memories, inspiring moments and achievements. For some, they will stand as noble monuments of the American Dream. And for others still, the contrast between the figures’ idealized poses and their structural imperfections, will provoke deeper contemplation of our cultures values of competition, achievement and the risks that accompany the rise to fame.

Yoram Wolberger (b. 1963, Tel Aviv, Israel) earned his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute’s (CA) New Genres Department. He has had solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and has been featured in group exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (NY), deCordova Sculpture Park (MA), the Aldrich Contemporary Museum (CT), Orange County Museum of Art (CA), Museum of Contemporary Art (IL) and the Israeli Museum of Modern Art (Israel) among others. His works have been acquired for the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art (NY), Frederick R. Weisman Foundation (CA), the Orange County Museum of Art (CA), Sweeney Art Gallery, University of California Riverside (CA) and the McNay Art Museum (TX). The artist lives and works in San Francisco, CA.

For more information on this upcoming release and availability, please contact Mark Moore at: mark@markmoorefineart.com

#markmoorefineart #yoramwolberger

Jason Salavon’s work “Rainbow Aggregator” (detail image below) will be featured in the upcoming show titled “Drawn from a Score” at the Beall Center for Art + TechnologyBat the University of California Irvine.

LITA ALBUQUERQUE, SONUS, 1988 / mixed media and gold leaf on panel / 12 x 12 x 2 inches

I might suggest you review the Mark Moore Fine Art ARTSY page as I just updated it with some wonderful new works available. To check it out, please go to:

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

Some highlights include works by: Lita Albuquerque; Mark Bennett; Tim Bavington; Sebastian Bremer; Deborah Butterfield; The Clayton Brothers; Mark Di Suvero; Chris Duncan; Julie Heffernan; Kris Kuksi; Annie Liebovitz; Julie Oppermann; Zemer Peled; Richard Prince; Andrew Schoultz; Christoph Schmidberger; Allison Schulnik; Ali Smith; Marc Swanson; Robert Therrien; Ryan Wallace; Andy Warhol; Kehinde Wiley; Yoram Wolberger; and, Kenichi Yokono.

Check out the new MARK MOORE FINE ART VIDEO CHANNEL and subscribe at the following link HERE.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGXgOaj_6Gp5gYH3zETamZg

Recently posted: New video interviews with John Bauer, Zemer Peled, and Andrew Schoultz – to name a few.

#markmoorefineart

Image: KEN CRAFT, Ain’t Like I Thought, 2017 / watercolor, pen and ink / 17 X 14 inches

Mark Moore Fine Art is very pleased to be featuring the much-acclaimed works of artist KEN CRAFT in our upcoming exclusive online ARTSY exhibition titled “Cornbread Think Tank” opening August 29th. I wanted to preview this work to you first and formally introduce you to this very talented artist.

You can view this show today at the follwing link: https://www.artsy.net/mark-moore-gallery/shows

KEN CRAFT
Too Far, 2016
Oil and India Ink on Canvas
45 × 60 in (114.3 × 152.4 cm)

Ken Craft (b. 1967 New Mexico), is an artist based in Dallas, TX. He and his wife, Carolyn, live just east of Dallas. His work reflects an interest in representational scene painting alongside cartoon story telling. He is creating original comics characters for his paintings. The work is meant to exist as both traditional easel painting and as a form of comics.

Craft himself has existed in two worlds for over 20 years now, maintaining a career as a professional firefighter while painting as often as he can. He has been in numerous group exhibits in Dallas and has had 3 solo exhibits there. He recently exhibited 3 paintings in a juried exhibit at Artspace 111 in Ft. Worth, TX and was awarded the Top Choice prize by juror Vernon Fisher.

In the words of the artist:

The work I’m doing these days features a combination of painting and cartooning. In some ways, I am a painter who sometimes wishes he could be cartoonist. I’ve been painting most of my adult life so I’m most comfortable with that part of the work. But I also have a great love for the long tradition of American cartooning and comics. From the tender melancholy of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts to the wild and grotesque beauty of Tony Millionaire’s Maakies- there is so much richness and diversity of tone and theme to be found in comics. And when combined with somewhat traditional scene painting done in oil, I have found that the possibilities for exploration are endless.

Flirty La Morte and Chief. These are the central characters and they serve as any comics character might. Through them, I may work out silly jokes or very real anxieties, loves and fears. There is occasionally a little philosophical meandering and also a steady sense of wonder at the natural world.

A cowboy and a Native American. These are visual tropes and stereotypes that are deeply infused in our consciousness as Americans. They are loaded images I suppose for some. But for me, Flirty and Chief are simply friends. Friends who sometimes help and sometimes antagonize each other as befitting the scene and story. Flirty is perhaps the heart of the story, being prone to emotional outburst and reactionary behavior. Chief (not his real name, it’s just what Flirty calls him) is a little more worldly and sophisticated. They both wear costumes that vaguely place them in late 19th century America but they exist in no particular time.

The painted image and the cartoon bounce off of each other. Sometimes they are directly relatable and sometimes not. It’s never random, though. I’m always aiming for either an intellectual or emotional connection between the two.

Ken Craft (April 23, 2016)

KEN CRAFT
Desert Solitaire, 2016
Oil, India ink on canvas
10 × 26 in (25.4 × 66 cm)

This work is all available subject to a prior sale. Shipping, customs (if applicable), and/or viewing expenses, if any, would be additional.

Images, biography, reviews, on-line catalogs, video interviews, and general information on the artist and their work can be found on our website for your reference. Please double-click the link below or cut and paste it in your browser to view these works at the following link.

We are all very exciting about the debut of this work in our upcoming exhibition and being the first to show Craft’s work on the West Coast. I highly recommend you preview these fresh and original new works that we will present in this exhibition by special preview now if it all possible.

Please contact me if you have any questions at: mark@markmoorefineart.com

#markmoorefineart #kencraft

Houston, Texas residents are in a dire situation following immense flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. The hurricane, which at its peak was a Category 4 storm, made landfall in Texas on Friday night.

There are several ways that people may help, from giving time to both professional and volunteer services, to donating a place to stay or aiding with a monetary gift. If you have a few extra bucks to spare, the Red Cross will need it during the relief efforts. Donations are accepted in any amount on the Red Cross website, or you can text REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10. The Red Cross also accepts donations by mail, or you can call 1-800-RED-CROSS to discuss other options.

Mark Moore Fine Art is proud to present “Altered States” an exhibition of paintings and mixed media drawings by interdisciplinary artist, Ben Weiner on view now and continuing through September 10, 2017.

This body of work demonstrates Weiner’s adept ability to synthesize abstraction with illusionism. Paired with his conceptual interest in consumerism and mortality, Weiner’s technique yields arresting compositions rife with provocative intrigue.  You can view this exhibition now in preview at:

https://www.artsy.net/show/mark-moore-fine-art-ben-charles-weiner-altered-states

In this exhibition, Weiner debuts his “Altered States Drawings”. As the artist put it:

“For these new Altered State drawings, I soaked my drawings in recreational drugs and inks, creating psychedelic, prismatic patterns that occur as the black inks chemically break down into a startling array of colors. I used a different drug in each drawing (Molly, Cocaine, 5-hour energy, Vodka). Thus, each drawing is a material embodiment of mind-alteration through drug use. These drawings continue my synthesis of process painting and photorealism, using principles from gelatin sliver printing to record an imprint of the chemical reactions between inks and recreational drugs.“

Ben Charles Weiner (b. 1980, Burlington, VT) received his BA from Wesleyan University (CT). He also studied under Mexican muralist José Lazcarro at Universidad de las Americas (Mexico) and has worked closely with artists Jeff Koons, Kim Sooja and Amy Yoes as an assistant. He has exhibited his work widely across the United States and in Mexico with solo shows in Los Angeles, New York and Puebla, and group exhibitions in Chicago, New York, Miami, New Haven, Ridgefield, Los Angeles and Riverside. His paintings can be found in the Sammlung/Collection (Germany), the Progressive Collection (OH), and the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation Collection (CA). The artist lives and works in New York City.

For additional information on Ben Charles Weiner, please check out our website at:

http://www.markmoorefineart.com/artists/ben-charles-weiner

#markmoorefineart #benweiner #bencharlesweiner

Image: Mark Bennett, Wayne Manor, 2016 / Mark Moore Fine Art

Check out the feature article on MMFA Artist Mark Bennett titled Artist’s ‘TV Sets’ Are A Blueprint For FameArtist’s ‘TV Sets’ Are A Blueprint For Fame By Jonathan Welsh from the Wall Street Journal at:

https://www.artsy.net/mark-moore-gallery/article/mark-moore-fine-art-artist-s-tv-sets-blueprint-fame-jonathan-welsh-wall-street-journal

Since his induction into the gallery in 1995, Mark Bennett has been included in over three dozen significant museum and group exhibitions, including those at the Corcoran Gallery of Art (D.C.), Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art (CT), Walker Art Center (MN) and Los Angeles County Museum of Art (CA). His work has been acquired for the permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art (NY), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (CA), Orange County Museum of Art (CA), Corcoran Gallery of Art (DC), West Collection (PA), and the Portland Art Museum (OR), among others. Earning reverence from both critics and collectors alike, Bennett has been coined a master of nostalgia and social evaluation, acting as “the most earnest of his generation of West Coast artists drawing on popular culture” (Grady T. Turner, Art in America).

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON MARK BENNETT:

Check out the artist discussing his work in a recent interview on National Public Radio by clicking on the following link:

http://blogs.kcrw.com/dna/artist-mark-bennett-explores-the-architecture-of-pop-culture

More information and images of this artist and his work can be found at the Mark Moore Fine Art Website at:

www.markmoorefineart.com

#markmoorefineart #markbennett

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.

In the featured article on ARTSY posted today, Umbrico outlines the concepts behind her iconic “Suns From Flickr” Series works of the last decade.

You can read this ARTSY Writer Feature at:

https://www.artsy.net/mark-moore-gallery/article/mark-moore-fine-art-penelope-umbrico-discusses-suns-series-works-08-02-17

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 a full biography and curriculum vitae, please click the link below:

http://www.markmoorefineart.com/artists/penelope-umbrico

For an overview of current works available by Penelope Umbrico, please visit out ARTSY artist page at:

https://www.artsy.net/mark-moore-gallery/artist/penelope-umbrico

#markmoorefineart #penelopeumbrico

Image: Home of Dr. Richard Kimble (The Fugitive), 1999 / ink on graph vellum / 24 x 36 inches

Mark Moore Fine Art is proud to present “Mark Bennett: Dream Houses – The Blueprint Drawings 1992-2017” an exclusive online ARTSY exhibition focusing on the Mark Bennett unique original “SitCom” drawings of the last two decades just recently released from the artist studio.

Image: Home of Dr. Richard Kimble (The Fugitive), 1999 (detail)

Mark Bennett’s (b. 1956, Tennessee) whimsical works engage with pop culture and celebrity to an extreme degree. His blueprint lithographs of Baby Boom era sitcoms and popular television series depict the ultimate pairing of flight of fancy and stoical logic; the purely imaginary floor plans grounded by the dry format of an architect’s design. His works are both pleasingly nostalgic and vaguely disconcerting in their premonition of a society obsessed by television and celebrity culture.

For the past 25 years, Los Angeles-based artist Mark Bennett has made art firmly rooted in the collective American experience of television. His drawings and lithographs are “blueprints” of famous television houses from such classic sitcoms as The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Brady Bunch, and Perry Mason. Drawing these fictional dwellings from memory, Bennett documents the minutiae of the characters’ lives by constructing their environments with a painstaking level of detail. His floor plans narrate the American Dream, charting not only the architecture, but also the subtext of our culturally accepted models for living.

Image: Wayne Manor (Revisited), 2015 / ink & pencil on graph vellum / 24 x 36 inches

You can view this exclusive ARTSY online exhibition of these works now by clicking on the follwing link below:

https://www.artsy.net/show/mark-moore-fine-art-mark-bennett-dream-houses-the-blueprint-drawings-1992-2017

Born in 1956 in Chattanooga, the artist was a self-described “television addict” as a youth, watching and re-watching episodes until he had memorized the details of more than 45 situation comedies. The instant familiarity inspired in viewers who see these imagined spaces — “homes” where many Americans of the television generation, in effect, “grew up” — reflects the penetrating influence of this medium into our own private houses from the 1950s onward.

Unlike American Pop artists of the 1960s such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, who appropriated images from mass media as subjects for their work, Bennett has reconstructed spaces that were intended only to flicker on the screen. In labeling his seemingly straightforward blueprints with colorful details about the interiors, architecture, and inhabitants, he reflects on the idealized and stereotyped notions of American life as perpetuated by mass culture. He also makes us realize how often that these ideas are, in turn, mirrored in our own domestic architecture.

Image: Home of Laverne & Shirley, 1996 / ink & pencil on graph vellum / 24 x 36 inches

For additional information on this work or this artist please visit the website at www.markmoorefineart.com or contact Mark Moore Fine Art at:  info@markmoorefineart.com

#markmoorefineart #markbennett