Interview with KwangHo Shin

q)please tell us a brief info about yourself.

a)I am a Korean artist who do art.

q)please tell us a brief info about yourself.

a) When I was 7, I got shocked about creation by the cartoon that my cousin drew. The passion of creation, instead of the thinking of being an artist, made myself.

q)What are your tools of the trade and why?

a) I usually use oil paint or acrylic paint, but I'm trying to use variety materials in needs. I'm also planning to do sculptures in this year. I think the tools are just the way to transmit, so they should not be the purpose of art.

q)Who or what gives you inspiration on your morbid art?

a) All people around me, and myself. The complicated emotions that I feel through people are my motive.

q)Is your artistic background self-taught or did you go to college to study?

a) I studied fine art in art college.

q)How do you keep “fresh” within your industry?

a) I just forget about last artworks. I just do art without plans.

q)What are some of your current projects?

a) Most of current works are oil paintings, but I'm thinking of many kinds of works.

q)Which of your works are you the most proud of? And why?

a) Painting, [1]. It's better to say that it's the first paiting that I've done when I got back to Korea from Germany. There's no specific reason.

q)Are there any areas, techniques, mediums, projects in your field that you have yet to try?

a) I'm planning of many kinds of art, but I'm not afford to do that yet. Sculpting and video art.

q)What do you do to keep yourself motivated and avoid burn-out?

a) I just live in my studio and it's my daily. And I look a lot of young artists' works on internet.

q)how do you spend most of your free time?

a) Almost everyday is my free time. I usually spend time at my studio if I don't have any special schedule.

q)What contemporary artists or developments in art interest you?

a) Alex Kanevsky, Antony Micallef, Amazing Works, and Justin Mortimer.

q)We really like some of your pictures, how can we get our hands on them? Do you sell them? How?

a) They are being sold on Saatchi online, or you can trade with me directly through e-mail or Facebook. It's better for me to trade directly with me, honestly.

Interview with Eric Mistretta

q)For the people who don't know your work - how would you describe it ?

a)It’s like a hangover after a party, when you have to start drinking again to avoid feeling sick.



q)What are the key themes running through your practice?

a)Most of the work addresses themes of romance, sexuality, nostalgia and a sense of the absurd. These themes can be articulated through implied narratives or the juxtaposition of pre-existing materials and objects.



q)Your favorite place on earth?

a)I like watching dumb TV shows with my girlfriend while laying on my pullout couch. Also, during the winter I love the Corner Bistro in NYC. Eating cheeseburgers and drinking cheap beer and watching people walk in the snow.



q)What influences your work?

a)My work is mainly influenced by strange things I witness just walking around. In New York City, the things you see can be very bizarre - in a David Lynch sort of way - and that kind of absurdity inspires me the most. Like a guy dancing with a garbage can, or a child on a leash.



q)What music are you into right now?

a)Lately I really enjoy listening to boring talk radio shows. And always The White Stripes and Nine Inch Nails.



q)Describe your thought & design process...

a)Usually the idea for a piece will come from a particular object that I find. If I’m out looking for materials, I see things that register as having potential for a work. Whether it’s an old piece of furniture or a weird dress or a large dog bone or something. So I try to acquire the materials and then let the idea develop afterwards.


q)Which emerging artists are you looking forward to seeing more of?

a)Andrew Brischler is a young painter from NYC. And also Austin Lee, another young artist who studies at Yale and makes very weird paintings. And Jayson Musson, who turns sweaters into art. Also Cassandra Levine, who is studying at the School of Visual Arts.



q)Favorite place on the internet?

a)I like looking at pictures of weird animals on google. And now that I am in Florence for a few months, I’m writing about all of the amazing food on my blog: www.openwideny.com.



q)Do you have any upcoming projects/exhibitions we should know about?

a)I currently have work in an awesome group show called Deep Cuts, curated by Wendy White and David Humphrey at the Anna Kustera Gallery in NYC. I’m also incredibly excited about my upcoming solo exhibition on April 30th at the F_AIR Gallery in Florence, where I am the artist in residence.



q)Tell us something we don't know - but should...

a)I’m working on a couple of short videos for people that will be out soon. One is a promo video for Joyce Pensato’s upcoming solo exhibition at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. The other is a happy birthday video celebrating the one year anniversary of Maurizio Cattelan and Massimiliano Gioni’s Family Business Gallery in NYC.



q) Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

a)Images of my work are on my website www.ericmistretta.com. And if you like food, which most people do, check out my blog www.openwideny.com.

Interview with Ben Venom

q)For the people who don't know your work - how would you describe it ?

a)I’m interested in juxtaposing traditional handmade crafts with extreme elements found on the fringes of society. My work can be described as opposing forces colliding at lightening speed. Imagery found in Heavy Metal music, the Occult, and Motorcycle Gangs are stitched together with recycled materials using techniques usually relegated to your Grandmothers sewing circle. Serious, yet attempting to take on a B movie Horror film style where ridiculousness becomes genius. The question remains… Can I play with madness?

q)What are the key themes running through your practice?

a)Some of my more recent pieces are heavily influenced from tattoos and certain aspects of biker gang culture. The majority of the work borrows from the Occult, Mysticism, and Music. 

q)Your favorite place on earth?

a)San Francisco, CA

q)What influences your work?

a)Reading books and researching ideas on the internet.

q)What music are you into right now?

a)The new Baroness album Green / Yellow , YOB, Hazzards Cure, Zoroaster, Acid King, Black Cobra, Kylesa, Red Fang

q)Describe your thought & design process...

a)The process begins with a hand drawn sketch transferred into photoshop for further manipulation and re-sizing. Each t-shirt is then hand cut to a corresponding piece within the overall design and appliquéed onto the top layer using my Juki F-600 sewing machine. The final step is to bind all layers of the piece by sewing the quilting stitch. In the end...even the beasts of Hell need a warm blanket to sleep with!

q)Which emerging artists are you looking forward to seeing more of?

a)Erin Riley, Bill McRight, Kevin Earl Taylor, Jeff Eisenberg...

q)Favorite place on the internet?

a)Netflix

q)Do you have any upcoming projects/exhibitions we should know about?

a)I will be exhibiting work at Circle Culture Gallery in Berlin, Germany and Milton Keynes Gallery in England in the next 2 months. My work is included in the book Milk and Honey: Contemporary Art of California that was just released via Ammo books and is now available through Barne and Noble or Amazon.comAmazon.com. Get This! Gallery will be exhibiting some of my quilts at the Aqua Art Miami fair in the early December. Check out HUCK Magazine: The Identity Issue....I have a small interview in there. 

q)Tell us something we don't know - but should...

a)I am a self-taught quilter and am still learning...Ha!

Interview with Krys Fox

q)For the people who don't know your work - how would you describe it ?

a)It's always weird for me to describe my own art.. I guess cause I'm so close to it. I tend to shoot somewhere in between surrealism and realism. I like to add a stylized element to an emotional and/or gritty everyday reality. Mostly I shoot people, but always have my camera and try and create something new everyday.

q)What are the key themes running through your practice?

a)Lately it has been death actually.. ha. I've been shooting a 31 Days of Halloween series all this month of October.. recreating horror films and switching the characters gender, but trying to remain as close to the original films' tones, textures and emotion. I've also been shooting a series I call The Styx Series.. motivated by my love of Greek Mythology. It's a 500 shot project of people with totems over their eyes, in a death pose.. Every subject has different totems, locations and color schemes.. Creating (hopefully) a whimsical, vibrant quilt of life and death afterwards..

So death, and the beauty and uniqueness it can present.

q)Your favorite place on earth?

a)So far New York. It's like my other lover. I recently was in England though for an exhibition, and it changed my life. I am in love with the UK...and can't wait to return.

I also want to live in Africa in a tree house for a year... someday.

q)What influences your work?

a)Other artists/people i love inspire me and fill my creative well. I watch a lot of film, and many films/filmmakers inspire me. Nature and getting lost in it. And showers.. whenever I can't think of how to shoot someone, I often close my eyes in the shower and the image pops in my head like a hallucination.

q)What music are you into right now?

a)My favorite albums of the year have been Fiona Apple's newest and the new solo album by Dresden Doll singer Amanda Palmer. I am late to the party but have been into Sleigh Bells and Die Antword a lot too.

Fav Music is Morphine, Pixies, PJ Harvey and Thom Yorke.

q)Describe your thought & design process...

a)I think in angles.. Funny how math and I have never been a good match. But I naturally see images in angles. I storyboard images about half the time (my shower hallucinations) and the other half is improvised during the shoot. Design is the same way.. half planned to a tee and half pulled out of my ass.

q)Which emerging artists are you looking forward to seeing more of?

a)I love Al Benkin's painting and installations. Scooter LaForge endlessly inspires me. Designer Wren Britton's work is brilliant and very much in my macabre/whimsical sensibility.

q)Favorite place on the internet?

a)Is it douchey to say my fan page on Facebook? I love the feedback and enthusiasm of my fans.. It keeps me going when I feel like a creative husk.

www.Facebook.com/krysfoxphotographyha.

q)Do you have any upcoming projects/exhibitions we should know about?

a)I do! I'm exhibiting some new work at Tribes Gallery in NYC on November 8th (the day before my birthday ) and in the spring in Manchester, UK alongside (the awesome) Pam Van Damned.

I'm still shooting Styx Pictures daily, and cooking on a 31 Days of Halloween book.

q)Tell us something we don't know - but should...

a)I'm quite shy.. People assume cause i have tattoos and wear colorful clothes that I'm an extrovert, but I'm actually pretty introverted. I hate having my picture taken.. but seem to do it for others all the time. Karma I guess, due to all the things I make my models go through..

Interview with Samuel Sarmiento

q)Introduce yourself, name,age, location.

a)My name is Samuel Sarmiento, I live in Madrid. I was born in Venezuela in 1987.

q) Can you describe your path to being an artist? When did you really get into it?

a)I try to work with discipline and be very consistent, I started painting in 2002, and have not stopped ... I have participated in solo exhibitions as well as in group exhibitions in Venezuela, Spain, Aruba and Germany.

q) Describe your ideals and how they manifest in your work.

a)I try to tell stories, stories that are to be freely interpreted. I am interested in the issue of children, also in the symbolism ...
I talk about characters and symbols, decontextualising the painting and generating other types of discourse. These are some of the Ideas that will arise in the my next production, working in large and medium size formats, using a wide range of materials. [:P]

q) Is music a part of your studio time? What do you listen to?

a)Lately I've been listening nirvana, tindesrsticks , elliot smith, ismael rivera; my music taste varies when working, I also like the selection of classical concerts of The Spainish National radio ...

q) How would you describe your work to someone?

a)I would lie if I said my work is based on elaborated stories. I just try to describe sensations that are joint by elements like symbols, characters, graphics and other pictorial elements.

q) Influences?

a)I like the work of Armando Reveron, Luis Mendez and Christian Vinck. 
These are Venezuelan painters with works that in my opinion seem from another planet ... I like Jonah Hill films, I think he shows real generation conflicts of the moment I belong to…hahaha!

q) Describe your process for creating new work.

a)I am interested in working in open spaces where sunlight and other elements can interact with my works ... I always start by spots and from them I create scenes and characters.

q) What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?

a)Do not stop working even when things go wrong, the art schools do not guarantee commercial success. If someone tells you to change your career do not pay attention, learn the basic techniques and follow your intuition, respect your proposals and work in them.

What are you really excited about right now?
There's nothing specially exciting to me right now. I would love to have enough room to work in large format ideas ...

q) What do you love most about where you live?

a)Mainly the safety; I can walk the streets without anyone robbing me or shooting me, …

q) Best way to spend a day off?

a)Painting all day and then see the results at the end, before going to bed

q) Upcoming shows/ projects?

a)I'm currently participating in The Barcelona Artists Residence Summer 2012 at the the Pantocrator Gallery; an excellent opportunity to work and meet other artists.

q) Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

a)My website is www.samuelsarmiento.net 

Interview with Paul DeFlorian

q)Introduce yourself, name,age, location.

a)Hey everybody, I am Paul DeFlorian, 31 years old austrian artist, based in Berlin, Germany in the moment.


q) Can you describe your path to being an artist? When did you really get into it?

a)It was a decision, contemporary art world is a place where i can deploy myself best.
So I don't hold the view about genius, mastership, or stuff like that.

q) Is music a part of your studio time? What do you listen to?

a)the cheaper the better hahaha

I switch between mainstream radio stations and music like Current93, Coil, …to old music, contemporary to pre-classical music, as well as minimal techno.

q) How would you describe your work to someone?

a)All over the place, expansive, switching, moving, like a dance without a clear choreography, bright, intellectual, poetic, political, polysemous, and a lot of fun

q) Influences?

a)I draw a lot of energy from Austrian literature like Frederike Mayröcker, Thomas Bernhard, Elfriede Jelinek, Ernst Jandl, H.C. Artmann …

and all the militant Homosexuals like Paul Thek,Tom Of Finland, Da Vinci, David Hockney

q) Describe your process for creating new work.

a)Being in some kind of work flow, reading, doin`daily stuff, makin' concepts about future works. It does not feel like working for me and this I enjoy the most.

q) What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?

a)Aint no shame and do ya thing.

q) What are you really excited about right now?

a)Painting and Drawing ! It maybe sounds strange but I am so into it and there is so much to discover within this medias !

q) What do you love most about where you live?

a)The People living here

q) Best way to spend a day off?


a)Get Wasted On The DanceFloor

q) Upcoming shows/ projects?

a)I have plenty of Group Shows this year and planning a Solo Exhibition in Vienna, Austria in Autumn.

q) Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

a)pauldeflorian.blogspot.com

pauldeflorian.blogspot.com

Interview with Ben Sloat

q)Introduce yourself, name,age, location.

a)I'm Ben Sloat, a multimedia artist born in New York City, now living in Cambridge, MA. I'm 34 years old.

q) Can you describe your path to being an artist? When did you really get into it?

a)My parents are artists in New York, so I've been exposed to art my entire life. I didn't really pursue art seriously until I finished college and decided to go to graduate school for art. That was about ten years ago.

q) Describe your ideals and how they manifest in your work.

a)Originally, my art was very much based in photography. More and more, I'm interested in how the photograph reflects culture, history, and the artist's perspectives, but I've been exploring that in multiple mediums now. The root of the word photography: "the graphics of light", is something I'm more specifically interested in now, so I've been exploring light as a character, but also how cultural items can be reproduced in numerous ways.

q) Is music a part of your studio time? What do you listen to?

a)I always listen to music! Often with large headphones on. Most recently, the albums I listen to the most are Radiohead's "The King of Limbs remix from the the basement" and Kanye West's "My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy"

q) How would you describe your work to someone?

a)My work often takes recognizable cultural materials and modifies them to expand its embedded meaning.

q) Influences?

a)Lately I've been looking at a range of artists, from David Altmejd to Sarah Sze, Olafur Eliasson, Mark Bradford, Yayoi Kusama and Anselm Kiefer.

q) Describe your process for creating new work.

a)I've got a lot of ideas! It takes a certain amount of strategy to figure how how to achieve the ideas, but also enough flexibility for the work to change and evolve over time. Often it's a matter of seeing what the material wants to do, and simply allowing it to do that. Other times I have very specific ideas of what I would like to accomplish and I focus very intently on that.

q) What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?

a)The world of art to me is about a large exchange of ideas, a conversation perhaps. How to communicate effectively is very important. I think it's essential to understand one's own art, how to relates to the greater art world, and what kind of conversations it hold. Then it becomes easier to share with gallerists and curators. The art world is also a very human place, it's important for the artists to get to know people in the art world as people first, the conversation and shows come afterwards.

q) What are you really excited about right now?

a)Text and materials really excite me. I'm making a number of text pieces that I feel strongly about, it's amazing to spend time with text as aesthetic symbols rather than just as language. I think of the quote by Rilke: "color is enslaved by line that becomes writing."

q) What do you love most about where you live?

a)The amount of artist talks in the area are phenomenal. In the last year I've seen: Wolfgang Tillmans, Olafur Eliasson, Dan Graham, Tomas Saraceno, William Kentridge, Sally Mann speak about their work, to name a few. Walid Raad is speaking at Harvard on Thursday, Spencer Finch soon after at RISD.

q) Best way to spend a day off?

a)With my family!

q) Upcoming shows/ projects?

a) I have work in a show opening on Monday at the Beehive, which is in the Boston Center for the Arts. There are a few group shows coming up and a number of large scale installation projects in the works!

q) Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

a) A few good places:

www.bensloat.com

http://stevenzevitasgallery.com/ben-sloat

http://larochejoncas.com/artistes.php?id_artiste=62&menu=&lang=gb