Friday, April 04, 2008

Eric Sall


Eric Sall's LMCC studio, with Meridith Pingree.

Went to the LMCC open studios last week... I'm posting Eric's stuff because he has a show opening at ATM tonight, but I'll post some of the other artists by next week.

I remember last year talking to Eric about how we had both applied to this LMCC thing... it would be so good to have a big bright studio space again.

UPDATE - installation shots from the ATM show


Click the picture to see it bigger. Love purple and green together... Joker colors. The purple drips in the black and green are tight. I don't mean tight like slang talk... can't think of a better word. Same tightness feeling I get with Jakub Julian Ziolkowski (scroll down)... tension tight, oppressive. I try to get that...

Ron Johnson gets it. I want to be in a show with Eric and Ron.. I think it would look good together, and there are some interesting differences and overlap, a mutual creepiness.


Wow... it's the same one I liked two years ago, but he's completely re-worked it.

It's funny, because in the post featuring the previous incarnation of this painting I wrote "I've enjoyed my few visits to his studio, seeing how he struggles with his paintings. The same painting might still be in process months later, almost unrecognizable. I'm not sure if all that is fun for him, but I like knowing about the process"... and now he's exhibited it and re-worked it even more.

Eric Sall
Sci-Fi Quills, 2006


Painting with child. This painting needed a baby, so I put Isaac's photo of his daughter on it.... CUTE!

11 comments:

  1. Someone told me the most valuable experiences with art have nothing to do with whether you like something or not, and someone else said that's wrong.
    The color here is definitely very accomplished: but hard to explain. I just deleted a string of adjectives.

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  2. it blew me away. I love this show. LOVE it. love it.

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  3. There's my disadvantage. Maybe ATM will post some more images or installation shots.

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  4. i would imagine the show is pretty kick-ass, because those paintings in the studio above are the ones that were NOT selected for the show.

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  5. great stuff,I ,too am loving Sall,and didn't realize the work was as large-it's kickin my teeny ass

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  6. great stuff,I ,too am loving Sall,and didn't realize the work was as large-it's kickin my teeny ass

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  7. great stuff,I ,too am loving Sall,and didn't realize the work was as large-it's kickin my teeny ass

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  8. dolphin gallery in kc was hanging a new (big) eric sall last time i was there. it looked pretty sweet. vc's comment is interesting; i tell people a lot that they shouldn't worry so much about whether or not their reaction to art is "like" or "not like"--there are so many other reactions and experiences out there. but there's something about sall's work--me LIKE it.

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  9. I am conviced Sall's work is important, partially because I don't like it. Sometimes I feel guilty for liking something, because I wonder if it is stretching my aesthetics enough. Leo Stein called Matisse's Woman with the Hat the "nastiest smear of paint I had ever seen." But now nasty smears of paint are about as academic as you can get (old fashioned gesture painting). Of course one can start chasing one's tail here in a futile search for novelty. I think Sall's work is extremely well-done, skillful and inventive. I wonder if it re-structures and re-invents painting like a good old fashioned modernist such as myself would prefer, like Cezanne did, Matisse, Pollock, Warhol, Richter, Heilmann and Murray and Buren?. Or am I just hung up on empty codes for restructuring? Certainly painting can and does more than that. It also delights, intoxicates, and Sall does that.

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  10. The thing about 20th century progress, in arts and aesthetics is that it became this continuum of more and more microscopic tweaks with less and less pay off for the audience. The last 3 names on vc's list there elicit big yawns every time i think about their work. what's nice about sall's work is that i feel this reward, challenge, stimulation from the work. i read an interview with dana schutz the other day where she used the word 'pragmatic' to describe her ideas. i think that relates to sall's work--it's a pragmatic place for painting to be, and that, i think, is a good place for painting to be right now.

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  11. thanks for the post martin!
    i like the baby on the painting.
    I've changed that painting since you were here too, even though its been shown already and is in New American Paintings. I can't help myself...

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