Praeterita

I suppose it's to be expected that when I am going to be in Florence for three weeks, my drawing in art museums and galleries is going to look completely different from how I have come to draw in the last ten years or so. That is, like this: This chap was a marble relief sculpture on a tomb in the floor right beside me, where we were having our introductory meetings yesterday (in a 12th century chapel, of course). As I said, I don't draw like this much any more, and when I teach drawing I don't, either (my emphasis is much more on making marks, any marks, as expressively as possible, and as soon as possible from the start of the first class). And while some people may look at the drawing above and think it's not bad (which it isn't), there are many artists better than this kind of life drawing than me who will see the same fault in it than I do. Shorter version: drawing like this is hard! It got me thinking about what kinds of other drawing there are, and w...

A few months ago, I wrote about a project by a friend of mine, artist Deborah Doering, who was starting a collaboration with the Keiskamma artists in South Africa . These artists, mainly women, started making art several years ago in order to raise money for an AIDS clinic in Hamburg, which is in a valley right on the Indian Ocean between Port Elizabeth and East London. Deborah has just returned from a 15 day trip to begin the project. She was accompanied by Dr. Grace Carreon, shown in the following photos of the clinic: After making a presentation to the lead artists in the community (there are about 150 artists there altogether), Deborah then began collaborating with the local artists on making a series of paintings that combine Deborah's abstract symbology with patterns that occur in their work: There are paintings on the ceiling because as they worked, they began to see the resemblance between Deborah's forms and night constellations. After working for a few days together...

In the final post from Art Basel 2010, guest blogger Deborah Doering considers work from the satellite fairs that co-exist with the main event. As if Halls 1 and 2 of Art Basel were not enough to satisfy my visual appetite, I also sampled selections of art at the smaller "satellite" fairs, Volte, Liste, and Scope, which I reached by a short tram ride from the center of Basel. I must admit that by the time I reached the satellite fairs I was bordering on visual overload and physical exhaustion. I took many photos, but failed to note names of artists and galleries as I had done at Art Basel. I did, however, have some very good conversations with gallerists at the smaller fairs, most of whom were very happy to speak with visitors. If you're interested in find out about the selling record at the smaller fairs, click on the following links: http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/34980/rain-and-exhaustion-keep-scope-from-soaring-at-basel/ http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/3...

Guest blogger Deborah Doering offers her impressions of the art exhibited in the main halls at this year's Art Basel in Switzerland. The huge, airplane-hanger-like Hall 1 featured "Art Unlimited" and also "Art Conversations/Art Salons." Both of these were among my favorite experiences at Art Basel, but even though l visited Hall 1 each day, I was not able to visit everything I wanted to see. "Art Unlimited" showcased artist installations which varied in size and scope. Annely Juda Fine Art Gallery of London showcased the work of Yuko Shiraishi (b. 1956, Tokyo) in a very original and thoughtful installation titled "Space Elevator Tea House": Shiraishi elegantly expresses her dual Japanese and English cultural influences by using a 1.5 x 2 meter tatami-mat as the basic dimension to build her art work. Unfortunately I do not have the space here to include all that Shiraishi wrote about her influences (Arthur C. Clark, Buckminster Fuller, ...

Guest blogger Deborah Adams Doering, who I interviewed for this blog back in March, will be writing some posts about her trip to Art Basel in Switzerland, which took place in the middle of June, 2010. Deborah's website address is www.deborahdoering.com . Art Basel in Switzerland has been going for 41 years, and it is considered by many curators and collectors to be the most comprehensive art fair in the world. I attended for the first time this year from June 14 -18 (the fair was officially open from June 16 - 20). Why did I go? I wanted to increase my understanding of visual art in the context of global culture, and to experience both the non-commercial and commercial aspects of visual art as they relate to collecting, curating, exhibiting, and creating.  Even though I attended the fair for five days, there was so much to see and do that it was difficult to choose, and therefore it’s difficult to condense the whole experience into a few blog posts. But for brevity's sake, ...

I attended quite a special event on Thursday night, in a striking venue. Artist Deborah Doering (pictured above, right) held a fundraising party/installation on the 84th floor of the Sears Tower, the monolithic quarter-mile high skyscraper that dominates the skyline of downtown Chicago. The event was to publicise and benefit a collaboration that she is initiating with a group of women artists in South Africa. These South African women, many of whose families are affected by AIDS, made these large tapestries which in the past few years have been purchased and exhibited all over the world. The Keiskamma Altarpiece, a tapestry based on the Isenheim altarpiece This group of women from the Keiskamma Valley have agreed to collaborate with Deborah by turning sketches and paintings created by Deborah into tapestries. The aim is eventually to install the finished tapestries in 100 public institutions across the globe. It's an amibitious project, but Deborah is already being helped b...

Deborah Doering talking about a show of her own work at Finestra Art Space What's it like to be a working artist, and also to run your own gallery? I posed this and other questions to Chicago artist Deborah Adams Doering. In addition to having an impressive exhibition record, Deborah has run a highly-regarded gallery out of the Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue, Chicago, for a few years. This is the first in a series of interviews with artists and gallery owners who reflect on what makes them tick. Philip : Tell us a little about yourself. You're an artist who runs a gallery, yes? Deborah : Yes, first and foremost I consider myself a visual artist. I create three-dimensional installations, based on my two-dimensional drawings, paintings and prints. In the past few years, I have used a "core language of form," which I also call "Code" as a point of departure for both 2D works and the installations. My installations evolved from having rente...