Mark Moore Fine Art Blog

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

Image: Zemer Peled (Israeli, born 1983), Untitled 1, 2016. Ceramic, 22 x 19 x 19 in. Crocker Art Museum purchase, Becky B. Krisik Fund and Marcy and Mort Friedman Acquisition Fund, 2018.47.

EXHIBITION TITLE: Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics
VENUE: Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento, CA)
DATES: July 21, 2019 — July 19, 2020

From raw textures to meticulous details, to glazes bursting with color, the Crocker Art Museum acquisitions featured in the exhibition “Cool Clay” provide insight into the experimental nature of the medium, and the diversity that will define its future.

While the Crocker collection already includes one of the nation’s premier ceramics collections, this exhibition of approximately 40 works features gifts that strengthen the scope and variation of the Museum’s holdings. Pieces in the exhibition span six decades of studio practice and highlight ground-breaking achievements by 20th-century artists known for pioneering aesthetics and techniques.

Zemer Peled (Israeli, born 1983) uses hand-crafted (often smashed) porcelain shards to capture the fluidity or firmness of nature. “From a distance, the sculptures look soft,” says Peled. “But up close, you realize they’ve got bite.”

These seemingly conflictive perspectives manifest in many of the artists’ presentations. “Crucible Series Jadeite” by Tony Marsh (American, born 1954) is one in a series of works that refer to ceramic containers used to melt substances at high temperatures, as well as the tradition of the ceramic vessel. Yet the “Crucible” works, encrusted with glaze, are neither industrial tools nor functional vessels. The artist challenges these definitions by presenting this “crucible” as a purely sculptural form.

Image: DIRK STASCHKE, Beyond a Shadow, 2017 / Ceramic, Wood, Epoxy / 27 × 22 × 20 in (68.6 × 55.9 × 50.8 cm)

And, in a twist whereby Dirk Staschke (American, born 1971) invites viewers to explore the space between sculpture and painting, the artist acknowledges Dutch “Vanitas” still life themes in his ceramic homage to classic art that challenges its traditional mode of creation.

Other renowned ceramic masters represented include Rudy Autio (American, 1927 – 2007), who was known as the “Matisse of ceramics” and gained international acclaim for his torso-shaped, abstracted vessels; and Jun Kaneko (American, born Japan, 1942), whose elegant, minimal style is represented in a hand-built stoneware platter.

Other artists in the exhibition include:

• Anthony Bennett (British, born 1949)
• Claude Conover (American, 1907–1994)
• Annette Corcoran (American, born 1930)
• Viola Frey (American, 1933–2004)
• David Gilhooly (American, 1943–2013)
• Babs Haenen (Dutch, born 1948)
• Matthias Merkel Hess (American, born 1978)
• Anne Hirondelle (American, born 1944)
• Sergei Isupov (Russian, born 1963)
• Cliff Lee (American, born Austria, 1951)
• Ah Leon (Taiwanese, born 1953)
• Whitney Lowe (American, born 1958)
• Kris Lyons (American, born 1966)
• Calvin Ma (American, born 1984)
• Mineo Mizuno (American, born Japan, 1944)
• Steven Montgomery (American, born 1954)
• Peter Olson (American, born 1954)
• Edwin Scheier (American, 1910–2008)
• Nancy Selvin (American, born 1943)
• Peter Shire (American, born 1947)
• Mara Superior (American, born 1951)
• Akio Takamori (American, born Japan, 1950–2017)
• Claudia Tarantino (American, born 1944)
• Cheryl Ann Thomas (American, born 1943)
• Peter VandenBerge (American, born The Netherlands, 1935)

High resolution images and interview opportunities are available upon request.

MEDIA CONTACT
Karen Christian
(916) 808-1867
communications@crockerart.org

EN ESPAÑOL
Para leer este comunicado en español, por favor haga clic aquí. Si eres miembro de los medios de comunicación y buscas más información sobre esta exposicion o necesitas ayuda para facilitar una entrevista con alguien relacionado con la exposicion o algún programa, por favor de contactar a Maria Segoviano, 916-808-1186 o msegoviano@crockerart.org.

ABOUT THE CROCKER
Through engaging, innovative, and life-changing interactions with art, the Crocker Art Museum provides meaningful opportunities for people of divergent backgrounds to find common ground. Founded as a public/private partnership in 1885, the Crocker features the world’s foremost display of California art and is renowned for its holdings of master drawings and international ceramics, as well as European, Asian, African, and Oceanic art. The Crocker serves as the primary regional resource for the study and appreciation of fine art and offers a diverse spectrum of exhibitions, events, and programs to deepen visitor’s understanding of art, including films, concerts, studio classes, lectures, and an array of activities for families and children. More information about exhibits and programs can be found at crockerart.org

#zemerpeled #dirkstaschke #markmoorefineart #crockerartmuseum

Featured Work by YORAM WOLBERGER

Torrance Art Museum (TAM) presents a bold summer exhibition exploring the intersection between art and warfare, enlisting 16 artists who reflect a world of increased military engagement across the globe. Utilizing a wide range of media in its artistic arsenal, deftly maneuvers through the defining trait of our conflicted times to investigate the invisibility of things in plain sight and the daily relationship to war that underlies the culture at large.

Featured Work by JOSH AZZARELLA

Internationally renowned contemporary artists Vanessa Beecroft and Shaun Gladwell are among the assembled artists who focus their art practice toward political expression and social critique of the institutionalization of war into the fabric of society.

21-year olds have never lived during a time when the US was NOT at war. How and where can we see this reflected in the art works of our time? Where does patriotism end and nationalism begin? How much militarism in a democracy is too much?

Curated by Ichiro Irie and Max Presneill.

Featured Work by KIM RUGG

Featured artists: Shusuke Ao, Josh Azzarella, Vanessa Beecroft, Dan VanClapp, Melanie Friend, Shaun Gladwell, Ben Jackel, Jerome Lagarrigue, Dinh Q. Lê, Hillary Mushkin, Simon Norfolk, Isabel Rocamora, Kim Rugg, Joaquín Segura, Allison Stewart, and Yoram Wolberger.

GENERATION W(ar) will be on view from June 15, 2019 – August 24, 2019 at the Torrance Art Museum.

The opening reception will be held on Saturday, June 15th from 6 pm – 9 pm

For more information visit www.TorranceArtMuseum.com or call 310-618-6388.

Museum Hours:
Tuesday – Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Admission to the Torrance Art Museum is Free.

Torrance Art Museum
3320 Civic Center Drive
Torrance, CA 90503

TorranceArtMuseum.com
TAMAdvocates.com/
facebook.com/TorranceArtMuseum
Instagram: @torranceartmuseum
Twitter: @TorranceArt

#GENERATIONWar #TorranceArtMuseum #markmoorefineart #yoramwolberger #kimrugg #joshazzarella

Image: Ed Ruscha

“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

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 Opening August 2, 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

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.   

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