Pakayla Biehn

Pakayla Biehn's paintings derived from double exposure photography. Check out her whimsical paintings from her site: http://www.youshouldtakecare.com/

Contemporary Photorealist: Natalia Fabia

Proud "Hooker" painter, Natalia Fabia presents her latest collection East Village Sparklers featured in gallery from April 17, 2012.

Past Artworks

Photography into Painting

  

Kim Jong-un, 39 pieces (each 8"x11"), mixed media, 2012. 

 

Kim Jong-un, 54'x60', mixed media, 2012

by jihae Park


In this semester, I tried to study screen print and digital print technique.
I believe my works are related with this class; Photography into Painting. People can easily notice about specific figure picture at my works even though it was destroyed and painted.
I used digital print, silk screen, transfer images with yupo paper, and then acrylic and oil paint on papers and canvases. I'd like to express about photography as a painting itself with my perspective. I transferred his photography found at online and then painted overlapped of photographs itself with my statement about work process.

When I went to the Art Institute of Chicago, I stuck by Andy Warhol's Mao. I'd wanted to reference from it and make mine with Kim Jong-un image because I have some personal experiences about North Korea that I never forget it.
When I was young, my grandmother talked to me about the war between North and South Korea.
Few years ago, I could travel Gaesung city which is second capital city of North Korea. That made me remind of Kim Jong-un. However, I do not focus on political issue for my work. I'd like to think about just as one man who is just four years older than me. 
Kim jong-un is the current Supreme leader of North korea. He is born 8.January 1983. I kept considering to express and imagining about his non political and his unknown personal life. His life could be really different from our lives. I am wondering and interested in  his unveiled life to my work.

From Sang Ha,

Why we prefer a photorealist painting over a photo

Psychologist Paul Bloom does a really interesting TED Talk about how our brains value something more or less based on our perception of its origins. He begins with a story about a Nazi officer who learns that his prized Vermeer painting is actually a very precise forgery, and commits suicide soon after.


This explains why someone might pass over as image they perceive as a photograph without a second glance, and look at it for hours if they later learn its really a painting. Though I feel that we've sort of resolved this issue in class already, Blooms does a very thorough job of explaining why our experience with an object is altered according to our perception of it's history. A Richter painting, for example, would be received very differently if it were a photograph. I'm totally guilty of this. I kept walking through the Richter room in AIC without a second glance at that painting of the yellow flowers, thinking absentmindedly that it was a photograph. Only upon learning that it was a painted image did I begin to grow a fondness for it. When we experience a painting, we imagine that it takes time and effort. We are dissatisfied with simply the image, and need illusions of labor and process in order to respect or appreciate it.


The video's kinda long, but Bloom is a really engaging speaker and I bet if you start watching that you won't stop until the end. 

Andy Warhol (Marilyn Monroe)

        Andy Warhol who is one of the most influential and well-known artists around the world. Having made multi productions on a same object, especially famous for paining Marilyn Monroe, he is a leading figure in pop art. Warhol started to paint famous objects or people: Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor, Dollar Signs, and Coca Cola Bottles, with the series of other paintings called “death and disaster.” However, Warhol painted Campbell’s Soup cans not because they were very special, but rather he painted them because he wanted to paint nothing. In most of Warhol’s work, he often based on the photographs, and he made mass-produced objects, drawing on his extensive advertising background. Most importantly, Warhol liked using Fauve colors, the non-representational colors of Pop Art, or better known as artificial or flash colors. However, he did not know which colors were the right colors when he was in a progress of painting. Warhol was very fascinated with morbid concepts, but his art works came out with very beautiful and brilliant colors, especially in the images of Marilyn Monroe.

        Warhol painted Untitled from Marilyn Monroe in 1967 after sudden death of Monroe. While at that time, Warhol was really into pop culture, obtaining a black-and white photo of Monroe, taken in 1953 for her film Niagara. Warhol used this photo to create multiple series of images, and he used dramatic colors and shadow. Warhol was able to produce this multi images in a fast rate due to printing technique and the help of his assistants. In addition, Marilyn is a good example of Warhol’s multi-production piece and process. I really like how he used different colors in each images of the Marilyn Monroe, and the idea of multi-producing the same image of the piece.

Robert Doisneau

Robert Doisneau was a French photographer. In the 1930s he used a Leica on the streets of Paris. He and Henri Cartier-Bresson were pioneers of photojournalism. He is renowned for his 1950 image Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville (Kiss by the Town Hall), a photograph of a couple kissing in the busy streets of Paris. Robert Doisneau was appointed a Chevalier (Knight) of the Legion of Honour in 1984.

He worked at Renault before photographer career, but he soon got fired because of constant lateness. He first started his career as a postcard photographer, and he got fame because of his Le Baiser de L’hotel de Ville. He mostly took snapshots of paris living people. He was very skillful to take a picture of a moment. I really like his fun pictures.

Joel Meyerowitz

http://vimeo.com/38937942
An award-winning street photographer who has been creating memorable images in the great photojournalistic tradition since 1962, Joel Meyerowitz pioneered the use of color in this slice of life genre, and his classic book on Cape Cod, “Cape Light” was instrumental in changing the prevailing dismissive attitudes toward color photography. Within a few days of the 9/11 attacks on The World Trade Center, Meyerowitz began to create an archive of the destruction and recovery at Ground Zero that consists of over 8,000 images of the aftermath of the tragedy. In this latest Leica Portrait video, Joel shares the story of his transition from junior art director to legendary photographer.

Blind Man, Spain, 1967

The Twin Towers, 2001

Cypresses, Early Morning, Tuscany, 2002

Before being a photographer, he studied painting and medical illustration, and then worked as an art director some time. These experiences of wide range are core of his style of photography. In other words, he does not limit photography of means. His photography range is very broad: space, architect, portrait, and nature. He is one of pioneering color photography.

David Hockney by Kristy Chae

Though photography and paintings are similar in a way both of them can capture moments in time that are accurate, David Hockey, one of the famous leaders of the pop art movement, says, “Photography will never equal painting!” David Hockney is a painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer, and also, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the twentieth century. In addition, Hockney is well known for taking detailed individual photographs and putting or compiling them together like a puzzle. During 1980’s, Hockney made lots of photo collages and photomontages.

Merced river, 1982

My mother

Noya and Bill Brandt

Pearl blossom highway

The Cubism and photography exists together in these works.  He used grids to show the multiple reference points into photography. I think it is really interesting to see how each images are put together to complete the work. I like the fact that while a single photograph only show one point of view and only need a small period of time to look at it, his works need several minutes to look at and the slight changes of light and composition into the next image are beautiful. Also, as one can see in “My mother”, I like how the composition of putting the images together, or the edges of the images, matches with the subject matter.

One can see the same idea of dividing them into grids in Hockney’s several paintings, especially in his swimming pool series.

A Large Diver  (Paper Pool 27), 1978
colored and pressed paper pulp, 72x171 in.

Schwimmbad Mitternacht  (Paper Pool 11), 1978
colored and pressed paper pulp, 72x85 1/2 in.

I like how he uses colors and the brushstrokes of the swimming pool. I also like how he painted the reflection inside the swimming pool.

Some great images of that tacky Marilyn Monroe statue coming down...

Richter movie playing again at siskel

Just wanted everyone to know that there are more opportunities at the end of May to see the Richter movie if you haven't already seen it....hooray!
http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/gerhardrichterpainting

Edgar Degas (Place de la Concorde or Vicomte Lepic & His Daughters) -Dana Kim

“Place de la Concorde” is an oil painting by Edgar Degas in the year 1875. This painting is also known under the title “Viconte Lepic and His Daughters.” The painting portrays cigar smoking Ludovic-Napoléon Lepic with his two daughters crossing the Place de la Concorde. I find this painting of Degas very interesting and appealing for its innovative composition, artistic drawing, and sharp analysis of movement. Degas followed the style of Impressionism. This painting of Degas is representational in form similar to his other works. It almost depicts what is there in reality. In “Place de la Concorde,” Degas pays utmost attention to the drawing of figures and faces in the picture. Apart from effectively using formal elements of art such as lights and colors, Degas skillfully captures his subjects. In this painting, Degas depicts movement in different directions. The lines and the high walls depict the theme of alienation in modern society. The contrast of light shades the center of the City Square and slightly darker shades toward the sides provides the painting a realistic touch. The way in which the subjects in the painting face different directions and the use of large amount of space shows that a photograph influences it. Thus, “Place de la Concorde” remains to be one of the best impressionist paintings with a perspective analysis of movement.

Thomas Eakins (The Swimming hole) -Dana Kim

“The Swimming Hole” is one of Thomas Eakins’ masterpieces and was painted in the year 1885. Eakins is known as one of the greatest American realists of the nineteenth century. In “The Swimming Hole,” Eakins portrays the male nude by painting himself and five other friends on a creek near Philadelphia. This painting can be considered one of the finest of Eakins’ outdoor pictures, as depicting the human body is known to be the most challenging subject in art. The reason I like this painting of Eakins’ is that it exhibits his mastery over painting the human form. “The Swimming Hole” accurately captures the movement and details of the subjects. Eakins has also made effective use of formal elements of art such as line, space, shape, color, texture, and perspective in this painting. The composition of “The Swimming Hole” is pyramidal in shape., which is the important aspect of the painting. The figure of the man reclining at the left leads to the one pointing his arm upward. This in turn leads to the man at the apex of the pyramid. The man in a diving position at the right leads to the figure of Eakins himself in a swimming position. From Eakins’ figure, the attention is driven back to the painting’s focal point. The uniqueness in the painting lies in the way male nudity is portrayed in outdoor setting. Eakins’ use of color is remarkable in this painting. He provides a dark background against the light skin tones of the swimmers. This helps in drawing attention to the focal point of the painting. Each figure in the painting is skillfully arranged to imply a continuous movement such as reclining, sitting, standing, diving, and swimming. Also, each of the figures is carefully positioned in such a way that their genitals are not exposed. Thus, the conventional aspects coupled with innovative elements make “The Swimming Hole” an interesting and lively painting. 

From Anna:


I found it interesting that photography has been playing such a major role in painting and continues to do so.  I never really gave it much thought, but after taking this class, I realized that most of contemporary painters are borrowing directly from photographic images and very few are actually studying the figure, the landscape, etc. by observation.  We live in an age when the romantic beauty of nature or human form is not such a cool thing to worship whether it is in painting, music or other form of art.  We are trying to distort it and find new unconventional beauty in everything that surrounds us.  Photography and Photoshop make it all so more tempting and inviting to take images apart and reassemble.  I am not an advocate for revival of the naturalist beauty aesthetic, but I am just curious when this era of ugly truth in art will be over.  What has been traditionally thought of as the ugly things in life that we currently see in art such as violence, pornography, and poverty are deemed beautiful and meaningful now and have been for a while.  I do feel that they are in a way more interesting and more beautiful than some of the straightforward, conventional types of beauty that we discard; yet, I think this is a social, economic and political issue.  The United States is a wealthy country and most artists here grow up in a somewhat predictably comfortable atmosphere.  Few are severely malnourished or physically and emotionally scarred by the societal problems.  In other countries, for example in India, that is not the case.  For instance, when "Slumdog Millionaire" won the Oscar prize in the States, very few people in India wanted to see this movie, because  it portrayed their bitter survival so vividly.  Most people in India want to see happiness and beauty in their art, not poverty and despair that surrounds them in daily life.  I just wanted to share this thought and observation and wondering what others think about such trends in art.

"Too Hard To Keep"

I recently ran across the blog of Jason Lazarus (SAIC photo faculty) "Too Hard To Keep":

http://toohardtokeep.blogspot.com/

This blog is requesting photos that are deemed "too hard to keep" by those who have come into their possession.  Lazarus only asks that after the photos are mailed to them, any existing digital copy be deleted.  The blog speaks to the changes that the photographic medium is going through as appropriated images gain a new kind of force and the meanings of individual photographs shift with their shifting owners.  As Elizabeth Parker from the Times points out in her article also posted on the blog,  "The photos expose the pain and ecstasy of everyday people.  It's a public partnership to create art".  I'd recommend checking it out.  It will be interesting to watch this project unfold.

Art as Sign Post

I'm not sure if anyone has yet been to see Parcours in the Modern wing but if you are a Modernism nerd you def need to check it out.  Works by Liz Deschenes and Florian Pumhösl.

Parcours takes inspiration from an unrealized 1930s exhibition proposal by Austrian-born Bauhaus designer Herbert Bayer. Bayer conceived of a gallery space configured into a maze, with text and the works of art serving as a guiding thread for visitors. Expanding on this premise, Deschenes and Pumhösl selected photographs from the permanent collection of the Art Institute, such as Florence Henri’s Self-Portrait (1928), and László Moholy-Nagy’s Untitled (c.1923/25), and placed them like route markers on temporary walls modified expressly for this show. The artists’ own works–a set of specially tempered glass panels by Pumhösl and lustrous photograms by Deschenes–will reflect these works and the surrounding space.


http://arttattler.com/archiveparcours.html

Another post from Daniel...

Daniel Granitto
Blog Entry One

When looking at the work of Luc Tuymans in class, it reminded me of my
experience with his paintings at the MCA. I had virtually no background knowledge
on his life and how it informed his work. In fact, I hadn’t even seen his paintings
until I stepped into the gallery last year. I remember feeling disinterested, and
somewhat confused as I slowly made my way through the first room. I
thought, “Okay, so I ‘m looking at yet another contemporary painter who just isn’t
very good at painting.” I became more interested as I made my way deeper into the
show, but I do not think I realized that his work was so politically informed until I
got to the image of Condoleezza Rice. But even in front of this painting, I was not too
engaged with the political content and back-story. Instead, I began to appreciate
Tuyman’s style of painting. I was drawn to the speed of the painting, as it appeared
that it might all be applied in one layer somewhat like a puzzle of shapes and tones. I
was later informed that most of his pieces are completed within a day. I was also
suddenly quite drawn to his color palette. The tones of the face were chalky, hazy
and subtle. There was something very quiet; yet powerful in the way he was
presenting color. I left the show with almost a complete change of heart and I now
find his work quite engaging and exciting.
All of this to say, that I was not interested in the political content, though I
know that it is important to his practice. Ultimately, I still ended up appreciating
these works simply for their formal qualities. This is encouraging to me because it
suggests that perhaps people need not know the complete background to an image
in order to enjoy it or at least find it interesting.