Interview with ManuelPabloPace

q)Who are you? Where are you from and where do you live now?

a)My name is Manuel Pablo Pace, I was born in a post-industrial city, in the north-east of Italy.

I have been living here and there, especially in Spain, at the moment i live in Bassano del Grappa.

q)What is it that you do? What media do you use?

a)I realized for several years collage full of information; in the last year I felt the need to isolate the single scrap/frame so that it could enlarge and deepen... a story in the story.

Specifically I create portraits of children, adolescents with their families, using acrylic, pencil,

watercolor on paper, canvas, wood.

However I don't preclude any type of media and support, working with video, site-specific

installations, toys, assemblies, walls and everything is emotionally related.

q)What do you think sets your work apart?

a)My work is a reflection of reality loaded with a strong subjectivism, and as such is evolving and in perennial movement. Non-static, the imbalance in the daily creeping doubt to whoever is willing to incorporate free images from superstructures. A sort of univocal conceptual line that plasmas itself with the flow of time, that changes shape but not substance. A cathartic process of self-analysis that works through the de-contextualization and self-appropriation of images of others to describe an intimate and personal experience.

q)How long have you been showing your work for? Did you have a “big break?”

a)I draw and paint since ever. In '93 I was doing graffiti.

At the age of twenty, while travelling, notes and sketches I worked as art-director on several short films, therapeutic art workshops and small self-managed exhibitions.

From an institutional point of view and visibility I consider the experience in Scope New York 2008 with the Stuart gallery ( Santiago de Chile ) has been very important, maybe a good opportunity.

q)What are some things that have inspired you?

a)The things which inspire me are many, and their level of importance is univocal, therefore hard to select some or apply a ranking. Of course there are elements which recurs me: Clockwork Orange, Georges Bataille, Friedrich Nietzsche, Marcel Duchamp, Dostoevskij, Mozart, Crass, Fluxus, Situazionismo, Caravaggio, Basquiat, Goya, Picasso, ecc. ecc.

q)What have you been working on recently?

a)“Humanoid” a collective in Milano at Mad Agency.

http://www.four-roses.it/blog/four-roses-presents-%E2%80%98humanoid

%E2%80%99-250311-photo-gallery/

“Ex-Voto” in Verona at Malacarne a site-specific installation made four-hands with Diego Knore

http://ammalarti.blogspot.com/

q)Do you listen to music while you create your work? If so, would you give some examples?

a)Absolutely, I listen to music.

Rock'roll, surf, garage, classic, punk, jazz, blues, minimal, electronic,...

q)Do you do work in any other media? Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work?

a)Also in this case I don't want to preclude me anything. Every period has its own support and own technique, In addition to painting I am part of the Infart collective, organizing events and essentially exhibitions; for a couple of years I have followed the artistic direction of Ortobotanix, the physical gallery of Infart Collective.

I've also followed the artistic direction of various short films, I would to select one in particular in 35mm, made in Barcellona, with the director Juan Miguel del Castillo.

http://vimeo.com/8013360

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

a)Don't wait for anyone: collaboration and self-promotion are the fundamental elements for begin to show own work and to continue to show it.

q)Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of your work that you can mention?

a)“Pulsart” in palazzo Fogazzaro in Schio by Anna Pezzin on 2 July and

“Vulpem Pilum Mutare” at the civic museum in Bassano in the Infart event, exhibition curated by Carolina Lio, on 2-3-4 september.

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

a)http://www.deliriohouse.com/residents/ManuelPabloPace

http://www.infartcollective.com/

Interview with Jonh Brosio

q)Who are you? Where are you from and where do you live now?

a)Who am I?! Still trying to figure that one out. I was born in Pasadena, CA and live just a mile or two south of that hospital now. I am currently 43. Incidentally, much of my family is from Piedmont and Torino but I have only been there a couple times. There is still family there.

q)What is it that you do? What media do you use?

a)I do just about everything but one day realized that life wasn't long enough for that so I stuck to oil painting - very traditional oil on canvas.

q)What do you think sets your work apart?

a)Not sure. I do recall when I kind of "gave up" on a few things and decided to just paint what I wanted to see. That is the secret. One cannot second guess their audience. It is most often a mistake to even try. You can dialogue with your audience because that is what you end up doing in any case. But my proclivities had me working with imagery that edges close to both life and death at the same time: tornadoes of course, dinosaurs, sharks, US military craft - things that are gorgeous in one way, deadly in the other. There is a lot of "definition" in what these objects represent, the degree to which they put us in our place and let us know how big or small we are.

q)How long have you been showing your work for? Did you have a “big break?”

a)One big break? I don't think so. As soon as I started showing my tornado paintings they sold rather well. But even some of the attention I originally sought was wary of my subject matter. I guess that can be a good sign too. But there is definitely quite a range of subject matter coming up. Stay tuned... :)

q)What are some things that have inspired you?

a)The power of nature, the cruelty of sadness, the need for noise to keep from thinking too much. As I get more mature these elements will hopefully become more palpable in the work. Right now it sometimes looks like a kind of goofy subject matter anchored in place with competent execution. I got that latter dynamic from Wayne Thiebaud, a very influential teacher of mine who would paint bright little toys out of a connection to more than was always depicted. A great little bright toy can be such a sad little miracle - something so optimistic in a world that always ends in stone cold death. I think he caught that.

q)What have you been working on recently?

a)My octopus on a house painting, called "Fatigue," is both recent and has become very popular. It set the tone for a departure from twisters although there are many of those in progress. I have started seeing more brides show up in my paintings too - not so much like "Fatherless Bride" but as close and distant figures in my scenery. There are some still lifes coming up too.

q)Do you listen to music while you create your work? If so, would you give some examples?

a)I enjoy film scores very much but Beethoven is a huge influence. There are few things as visual to me as his music. I'm not even sure of what I'm seeing but I sometimes almost feel as if I'm stealing from him. Lately I've gotten into more obscure, modern classical of the last 50 years or so.

q)Do you do work in any other media? Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work?

a)My hobby is still mask making. It happens from time to time still but takes more effort than I have time to give in doing it right. I also write. I have a book I've completed but still poking away at it, making it better. Don't know if I'll do much with it but hopefully!

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

a)Be excited about showing the work but not excited about "the scene." Work, yes, to be accepted by your peers. Start of showing in a coffee shop or some place you enjoy - some place where your friends already go. Perhaps slightly "underprice" your pieces at first. Maybe. Understand that a gallery addresses your work as product, as whether or not they can sell it, not whether or not it is any good. And a lot of galleries, if they do sell your work, will ask more of you than you can produce. Be careful not to become an employee of the art market. DEFINITELY watch out for that. Art, if it is any good, results from a need to codify and reconcile your relationship to the world, to realize something for yourself - if you lose this intimate experience then you are done already. I have been lucky in working with some galleries that are run by good people but I have definitely run into rapacious types as well.

q)Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of your work that you can mention?

a)Right now I am building up work. A lot of work. I hope to be approaching galleries very soon with the results. In the meantime I am in group shows here and there.

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

a)My site is best: www.johnbrosio.com