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Geometric Shapes

Constructivism art Rafael Montilla
Constructivism art Rafael Montilla

Geometric Shapes Paintings

Geometric shapes have been used in art for centuries, and they continue to inspire and fascinate artists today. In the world of painting, geometric shapes are often used to create abstract compositions that explore form, color, and space.

One of the most famous artists who worked extensively with geometric shapes was Russian painter Kazimir Malevich. In 1915, Malevich created his iconic “Black Square” painting, which features a perfect square painted in black on a white background. This simple composition was a radical departure from traditional painting, and it marked the beginning of the Russian avant-garde movement. Malevich continued to explore geometric shapes in his subsequent works, creating complex abstract compositions that are still admired today.

Other artists have also used geometric shapes in their paintings, including Piet Mondrian, Josef Albers, and Frank Stella. Mondrian, a Dutch artist, was known for his abstract compositions that used primary colors and simple geometric shapes like squares and rectangles. Albers, a German artist, created his “Homage to the Square” series of paintings, which featured nested squares in different colors. Stella, an American artist, used geometric shapes to create dynamic compositions that play with light and shadow.

Contemporary artists also continue to experiment with geometric shapes in their paintings. Some artists use geometric shapes to create optical illusions, while others use them to explore themes like identity, memory, and spirituality. Many artists also combine geometric shapes with other elements like color, texture, and line to create complex and visually stunning compositions.

Overall, geometric shapes continue to be an important element in the world of painting. They offer artists a versatile tool for exploring form, color, and space, and they can be used to create both simple and complex compositions that engage and inspire viewers.

Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami

Beyond identity politics, the art of Jeffrey Gibson

A Different Corner, 2018 Painting Acrylic and graphite on raw hide over wood panel
A Different Corner, 2018

Beyond identity politics, the art of Jeffrey Gibson

Amy Zion

The artist effortlessly weaves Native American heritage into geometric abstraction

To visit  Jeffrey Gibson, I headed upstate. As New York City receded into the distance, I retraced the route the artist took back in 2012, when he moved his studio from Brooklyn to Hudson and began teaching art at Bard College. A couple of weeks before we met, the first leg of Gibson’s major touring exhibition, ‘Like a Hammer’, had closed at the Denver Art Museum. The show is a major milestone for the artist and focuses on works produced since 2011, when his practice started to incorporate references to his Native American heritage. Thus, conversations with Gibson almost inevitably begin by addressing the Great Identity Problem: that by asserting someone’s identity you might qualify them unnecessarily (for example, ‘the female prosecutor from Arizona’) or reductively. And that by asking someone to self-identify, you simultaneously grant them agency and create a framework that cannot be challenged. Yet Gibson, who is all too familiar with these issues, professes a strikingly open attitude to the subject. 

Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California. Photo by Jessica Goehring
Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California. Photo by Jessica Goehring

His background and subjectivity are arguably more multilayered than most. The artist has ties to Mississippi and Oklahoma, where his Choctaw and Cherokee forebears are from, but as the son of a civil engineer in the US Army, he grew up in Germany and Korea. He went to school in England and married a man from Norway – his is a kaleidoscopic perspective of the world that is evident in the way he approaches art making. ‘This kind of movement through different forms of identity has made me grow and see the world in a very broad way,’ he says. That translates in his work as a wide range of references, techniques, and histories smashed together. In each piece, the idea of authenticity and purity is further challenged.

Today, Gibson lives and works in Claverack, near Hudson, New York. As I drove north, I looked out for an old schoolhouse. Around the back, an assistant greeted me and led me into its former gymnasium, where I found the artist finishing a couple of emails and a few headphone-sporting collaborators working silently on a new series of the elaborately beaded punching-bag sculptures for which Gibson is best known. These works and others like them, as well as paintings and tables covered with multicolored supplies, were spread out over the floor, which still bears the markings of overlapping sport arenas. 

Peeking out from Gibson’s sleeve was a whimsical tattoo of a childhood drawing of his that was found tucked into the bible of his Baptist minister grandfather. As we spoke, the backdrop of the studio came into focus. Behind him was a finished sculpture based on papal garments and the ghost shirts worn during the 19th-century Native American Ghost Dances (which are related to Mormon undergarments, Gibson explained). Its sleeves were adorned with Native American jingles and its details related to the artist and activist Sister Corita Kent, as well as elements from Gibson’s dreams and more personal iconography, such as song lyrics from his youth.

Jeffrey Gibson, LIKE A HAMMER, 2016. Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Project, Los Angeles, California. Photo by Eric Swanson.
Jeffrey Gibson, LIKE A HAMMER, 2016. Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Project, Los Angeles, California. Photo by Eric Swanson.

Despite his range of references, Gibson says he hates the word ‘eclectic’. He prefers to characterize his approach in terms of anthropophagia, a concept initially developed by the Brazilian poet Oswald de Andrade, which sees the absorption (or ‘cannibalism’) of other cultures as a source of strength. Jingles were originally made from rolled-up tobacco lids but, today, they are mass-produced in Taiwan expressly for the purpose of decoration. ‘That is a foreign material that clearly has been reinvented and become part of another culture […] What a powerful ability that is to claim something and use it exactly for what you need it,’ he says. For the artist, having different worlds collide in this manner is creative strategy for breaking apart reified historical metanarratives. It is also a way to confound ideas of identity – that any one culture has ever been totally separate from one another, or that appropriation has only ever occurred in one direction: by the colonizer from the colonized. 

‘Like a Hammer’, which is touring to the Mississippi Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, highlights a fundamental turning point in Gibson’s work. Prior to 2011, the artist was producing more classic, albeit innovative, abstract painting. The shift followed a period when Gibson was ready to call it quits as an artist. While trying to figure out what to do next, he received a grant to travel to Winnipeg in Canada, South Dakota, Oregon, and Oklahoma, to meet with traditional artists who were making things for their communities. Gibson felt their sense of conviction was absent in his world in Brooklyn: ‘When I came back I decided, “You need to stop trying to perform what you think an artist is supposed to be doing and focus on what you want to do, what you want to say.”’

Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California. Photo Peter Mauney.
Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California. Photo Peter Mauney.

Around the same time, he began making what he calls ‘rawhide paintings’, inspired by the parfleche bags produced from animal skin by nomadic tribes in the Great Plains. Traditionally, the rawhide would be laid flat, painted in geometric designs, and then folded over to form bags. Gibson tells me that they were painted by women, who would have treated their brushes or painting tools as ceremonial objects. ‘They might have been saying a prayer [while they worked] and made it for a specific person,’ he says. Yet the glossy pages of an auction catalogue in which he used to see them conveyed none of that content. 

The works Gibson is showing at Art Basel Miami Beach are an extension of this series. The irregularly shaped diptych canvases are framed together and named after songs from the artist’s high-school years, a period when Gibson was coming to terms with his sexuality, amid the Aids crisis. Stretched from skin, each canvas preserves a clean, taped-off border, revealing the organic material supporting the hard-edge abstract motifs. Gibson’s work comes after the more conceptual approaches by Indigenous artists such as James Luna and Edgar Heap of Birds, who created a bridge, to use Gibson’s term, from more traditional Indigenous, or at least separated, art spheres into the framework and context of contemporary art. Gibson’s work, with its references to multiple cultures, techniques, and narratives, owes its nimbleness, in part, to the efforts of these predecessors.

Discussing his Native American influences, Gibson muses on their relationship to Modernist painting and the history of geometric abstraction, which was so key in shaping his own early practice. ‘Why has no one ever done an exhibition comparing these histories?’ he asks. ‘To have had this conversation as part of my education would have benefited me tremendously.’ As he says this I realize Gibson has been letting this conversation evolve within his own work. The language of hard-edge abstraction and traditional parfleche-bag designs and materials do not simply come together in his latest works – their conflation is like a chemical reaction that wildly reshapes the format of the support and its frame. This is perhaps why one can’t sum up an artist’s identity through labels and hyphen. Great work never fails to confound preconceived ideas. 

Amy Zion is a curator and writer based in New York City. 

Jeffrey Gibson’s work will be shown by Roberts Projects in the Nova sector of the 2018 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach. Discover more artists and galleries participating in this year’s Nova sector.

Jeffrey Gibson, A LOVE SUPREME (detail), 2017. Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Project, Los Angeles, California. Photo by Peter Mauney. Filmmakers Cristobal Leon and Joaquin Cociña turn Chile’s darkest hour into a stop-motion fairy taleInspired by the brutal history of Colonia Dignidad, the film is a must-see at Art Basel Miami Beach

A Different Corner, 2018 Painting Acrylic and graphite on raw hide over wood panel
A Different Corner, 2018
Enjoy the Silence, 2018 Roberts Projects Painting Acrylic and graphite on raw hide over wood panel
Enjoy the Silence, 2018g Acrylic and graphite on raw hide over wood panel
Unfinished Sympathy, 2018
Unfinished Sympathy, 2018

Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami

The Pepperoni Pizza Project: Red Edition

The Pepperoni Pizza Project: Red Edition
The Pepperoni Pizza Project: Red Edition

The Pepperoni Pizza Project: Red Edition

Fridge Art Fair is pleased to present “The Pepperoni Pizza Project: Red Edition.” In a time of renewed passion for the arts, the color Red best represents art’s healing power and ardor.

Returning to the Lower East Side’s fabled Gallery OneTwentyEight, this year’s fair will also collaborate with both the nearby 2B&2C @ 9B9 Artspace and Two Boots Williamsburg.

Exhibition highlights at Gallery OneTwentyEight – aka as “Deep Dish” — include an eclectic range of works in varied media by Chris Cobb, Michelle Hill, Victor Pedelty, Phoenix Roberts, Dayle GinsburgPeter Stefanides, ART BreakOUT and Fridge Fair founder Eric Ginsburg.

For this year’s ninth edition, Matt Sullivan, esteemed musician and director of 2B&2C, has joined the Fridge creative team. Featured at 2B&2C – aka “Thin Crust” — will be a selection of artworks by Matt’s longtime collaborative partner and husband, the late ecosystem-painter, sculptor, and teacher, Ken Cro-Ken (1957-2020). Other highlights at 2B&2C include: the opening of Ken Cro-Ken Memorial Gardens, multi-media performances and Fridge pop-ups.

Two Boots Williamsburg – aka “The Brooklyn Slice” – will present a vibrant range of art by artists – both emerging and established – representing Brooklyn’s distinct creative, countercultural flavor. Exhibiting artists include: Optimo Primo, Sam Diaz, Shayne Bovell, Ben Wilson and Samantha Sabatino. There will, also, be a performance by SoulProduct and friends.

Gallery OneTwentyEight, located at 128 Rivington Street and 2B&2C, housed at 9 Avenue B, will hold their grand openings on Wednesday, May 17 from 6-9pm. Fair hours at both Lower East Side spaces will be from Thursday, May 18 to Saturday, May 20, 2-9pm and Sunday, the 21st , 12-6pm. Two Boots Williamsburg will open on May 18, 4-10pm and will continue through the 21st from 4-10pm daily.

Since its inception in May 2013, Fridge Art Fair has presented concurrent with Frieze (yes, the name is a play on that week in New York City!) and Art Basel in Miami. We have lived up to our tagline, “Can you fit into the Fridge?” by accepting numerous and diverse exhibitors in spaces from tiny to huge that were either affordable or donated to us.

Admission is free, but as a 501c3 not-for-profit, we accept tax deductible donations from the public.

Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami

Artists

Unfinished Sympathy, 2018
Unfinished Sympathy, 2018

Geometric abstract art artists

John McLaughlin (1898-1976)
Frederick Hammersley (1919-2009)
Bill Komodore (1932-2012)
Margaret Wenstrup (1930-2008)
Josef Albers (1888-1976)
Anni Albers (1899-1994)
Richard Anuszkiewicz (1930-2020)
Ed Mieczkowski (1929-2017)
Julian Stanczak (1928-2017)
Francis Hewitt (1936-1992)
Charles Hinman (b. 1932)
Al Loving (1935-2005)
Reginald Neal (1909-1992)
Ralph Iwamoto (1927-2013)
Tadasky (b. 1935)
Paul Reed (1919-2015)
Francis Celentano (1928-2016)
Paul Reed (1919-2015)
Karl Benjamin (1925-2012)
Howard Mehring (1931-1978)
Mon Levinson (1926-2014)
Leroy Lamis (1925-2010)

Geometric abstraction

Horacio Garcia Rossi
Luc Peire
Nino (Antonio Calogero) Calos
Hans Jörg Glattfelder
Winfred Gaul
Dadamaino
Grazia Varisco
Aurélie Nemours
Franco Costalonga
Claudio Rotta Loria
Alberto Biasi
Toni Costa
Edoardo Landi
Agostino Bonalumi
Jorrit Tornquist
Marcello Morandini
Roberto Crippa
Sandro de Alexandris
Arturo Bonfanti
Roberto Crippa
Sandro de Alexandris
Sol LeWitt
Piero Dorazio
Arnaldo Pomodoro

Günter Fruhtrunk

Winfred Gaul

Ulrich Erben

Imi Knoebel

Günter Umberg

Wolfram Ullrich

Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami

Vinyl Wraps for Food Trucks

Vinyl Wraps for Food Trucks
Vinyl Wraps for Food Trucks

Are you looking for a better way to make your food truck design stand out from the crowd? Are you looking for a cost-effective advertising solution that will help drum up more business wherever you go? Food truck wraps provide the ideal design solution for getting people excited about tasting your food. All of our food truck graphics are specifically designed to meet the needs of each unique business in order to ensure that each business’ advertising is being properly geared toward their target market. Get in touch with us today to learn more about our food truck graphics.

taco food truck vinyl wrap

What is a Food Truck Wrap?

Food truck wrap graphics are a large decal that can be applied to the exterior of the truck in order to display the business’ branding and menu to people passing by. Not only can food truck graphics help improve the overall design and feel of a food truck but they also make it extremely easy for potential customers to know exactly what kind of food is being served, even from a distance. Food truck graphics can be completely customized with any design elements, colours, images, or messaging you can dream up and can be removed at any time without damaging the underlying paint. This means that you can easily change up the food truck graphics for your menu or business branding as often and as many times as you need. Get in touch with us to learn more about food truck graphics.

vibrant food truck wrap

Benefits of Food Truck Graphics

Food truck wraps are specifically designed to help create business recognition and repeat customers through mobile advertising. Since food trucks are often moving from one location to the next, using food truck graphics will allow you to create a mobile billboard design that will be potentially seen by thousands of people every day. A well-designed food truck wrap will not only create a professional appearance but also a recognizable look and appeal that customers will come to know.

All custom food truck wraps are make using the highest quality materials—3M and Avery cast vinyl—and are coated in a special UV layer for added protection against dings, scratches, and sun damage. Our custom food truck graphics are also printed using the latest printing equipment in the industry and are only installed by our team of highly trained professionals, so you can rest assured that you will be receiving the best food truck graphics possible. Get in touch with us to learn more about the benefits of food truck graphics.

Food Truck Graphics Design from Wrap Guys

Whether you are wanting to learn more about the average price of a great food truck wrap graphics or you are wanting to discuss your food truck wrap design ideas, we would love to chat with you. Our team of professional graphic design artists can help you create the perfect graphics for your food truck, incorporating any colours, messaging, images, or branding elements that you want into the design. Get in touch with us today to learn more about how we can help you create the perfect food truck graphics and design for your business.

Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami

Steven Pressfield

Steven Pressfield
Steven Pressfield

If you’re an aspiring writer or artist,
I’ve got good news and bad news…

First the bad news

1. THERE IS AN ENEMY

The playing field that you, the aspiring artist, stand upon is not level. It is stacked against you.

2. YOU ARE THE ENEMY

Resistance (self-sabotage, procrastination, fear, arrogance, self-doubt) is inside you. No one inflicts it on you from outside. You bring it with you from birth.

3. RESISTANCE WILL KILL YOU

If you don’t believe me, look around at friends and family who have talent and ambition in spades … but are drinking, doping, abusing themselves and their loved ones, wasting their lives because they can’t get out of their own way and do the work they were put on this planet to do. Trust me: you will NEVER, NEVER achieve your dreams until you learn to recognize, confront, and overcome that voice in your head that is your own Resistance.

4. YOU ARE NOT ALONE

You’re not “wrong” if your head is your own worst enemy. You’re not “weak.” You’re not “sick.” Everybody experiences Resistance.

Resistance is an objective force of nature, as immutable as gravity.

5. RESISTANCE CAN BE BEATEN

There’s no magic bullet. No hack, no trick, no tip, no class, no degree.

But you, armed with the right knowledge and resolution, can acquire the self-motivation, self-discipline, and self-belief necessary to become a focused, mentally-tough working pro.

6. YOU’VE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE

Whatever brought you to this site—luck, chance, maybe reading or hearing about The War of Art—doesn’t matter. Welcome! You have found an ongoing resource to help you fight and win the inner war of the writer, the artist, and the entrepreneur.

TWO MANTRAS FOR YOUNG WRITERS

From my (fictional) 96-year-old literary agent, Marty Fabrikant, as quoted in The Knowledge:

1. Talent is bullsh*t

“I’ve seen a million writers with talent. It means nothing. You need guts, you need stick-to-it-iveness. It’s work, you gotta work, do the freakin’ work. That’s why you’re gonna make it, son. You work. No one can take that away from you.”

2. The work is everything

“And I’ll tell you something else. Appreciate these days. These days when you’re broke and struggling, they’re the best days of your life. You’re gonna break through, my boy, and when you do, you’ll look back on this time and think this is when I was really an artist, when everything was pure and I had nothing but the dream and the work. Enjoy it now. Pay attention. These are the good days. Be grateful for them.”

Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami

GLOSSARY OF ART TERMS

GLOSSARY OF ART TERMS
GLOSSARY OF ART TERMS

GLOSSARY OF ART TERMS

Acrylic Gesso

A primer which dries with a coarser texture (or ‘tooth’) than regular acrylic primer. Acrylic gesso can be sanded down if desired. It is made from a mixture of chalk and pigment (usually titanium white), bound in a 100% acrylic emulsion binder. It can be used as a ground for both acrylic and oil painting.

Acrylic Ink

High-fluidity acrylic colour, made from pigment suspended in an acrylic based vehicle. It is usually sold in glass bottles, often with a pipette. Acrylic ink can be used in stamping, pen and wash, airbrush and drawing and painting. It is not re-wettable and is permanent and non-clogging.

Acrylic Painting Block

A stack of paper that has been specially prepared for acrylic painting (usually sprayed with acrylic primer), and glue bound on all 4 sides. A gap in the glue will be found on the corner or part of a side of the block, so that when the painting is finished and dry the top sheet can be separated from the block by running a clean palette knife around the underside of the sheet. A block is a lightweight support for acrylic painting that will not buckle during the painting process as the glue binding will keep the sheets taut and flat.

Alla Prima

A painting approach that involves completing a painting in one session. Usually refers to oil painting, the alternative is to complete an oil painting in layers waiting for each to be touch-dry before applying the next, so involves the fat-over-lean principle. Alla prima, meaning all at once, does not require observance of the fat-over-lean principle, as it is essentially one layer.

ASTM

ASTM is the International Standard for testing and material qualities. On the labels of oil paints the ASTM rating will refer to the permanence of colours.

Binder

In acrylic painting, the binder is an acrylic polymer which pigment particles are suspended in to make paint. The binder is also known as the vehicle or emulsion.

Bloom

Patches of cloudiness that can appear on the surface of varnished paintings if they have been kept in damp conditions. It occurs when moisture is trapped underneath the surface of the varnish or when the painting that has been varnished has not fully dried.

Canvas

A woven material used for centuries for painting. Usually made of cotton or linen. Can be stretched over strong wooden stretcher bars, glued onto a board or panel or used unstretched. Although acrylic can be painted on raw canvas, most artists prime the cloth with a ground that allows control over the absorbency, texture and colour of the surface.

Canvas Board

Canvas glued on to a hard board (thin MDF or compressed board). A rigid surface for oil and acrylic painting. Canvas board usually has shear edges (i.e. the canvas does not wrap around to the back, unlike a canvas panel).

Canvas Pad

A pad of unstretched, primed canvas sheets glued at one side ready for oil painting. Also available in blocks glued on four sides.

Canvas Paper

Pads or sheets of paper that are textured and coated to have the appearance and feel similar to primed canvas. Used instead of canvas for economy and convenience.

Canvas Panel

A piece of board or wooden panel on to which a piece of primed canvas has been glued to the front and wrapped around to the back.

Canvas Pliers

A tool which helps to stretch canvas tightly around a frame in order to make a satisfactory surface on which to paint. Canvas is usually fixed to the frame using staples on the reverse of the frame, or tacks on the side of the frame.

Canvas Sheets

Sheets of rectangular or square pieces of primed canvas that can be glued to a board to make a panel, or painted on as they are.

Colour Shaper

A tool with a silicon or rubber tip and a wooden handle similar to a paint brush. Colour shapers can be used to draw into wet paint and create lines and textures, and are useful for closely scraping away small areas of paint.

Colour Strength /Saturation

Another term used to define colour strength is saturation. Colour strength can refer to the ratio of pigment to binder as well as the natural characteristics of the pigment, and is descriptive of how vibrant / brilliant / clean the colour appears.

Complementary Colours

They can be found directly opposite one another on a colour wheel. Because they are diametrically opposed they cause the appearance of one another to intensify when painted unmixed side by side. When mixed together they are capable of producing neutral greys.

Composition

The arrangement of shapes, colours and lines across your picture surface, sometimes referred to as a design.

Cotton Duck

A heavy plain woven fabric that is a popular material for artist canvas as it is relatively low cost in comparison to linen. Cotton duck is most commonly available in 10oz or 12oz weights.

Crackle Paste

When applied to a rigid support with a thickness of at least 3-4 mm, crackle paste will form cracks as it dries, which gives work an aged appearance or can be used for special effects showing through colours from underneath. It can be applied on its own or mixed with colour. The thicker the application the deeper the cracks. When dry, oil or acrylic paint can also be applied over the top of the paste.

Curing

The second stage of drying of acrylic paint. Acrylic paints dry when all the water found in the paint has evaporated, leaving the dried paint (pigment mixed into acrylic polymer). As the moisture leaves the paint film, the remaining tiny polymer spheres move closer together, causing the paint film to contract slightly. The pressure that is created by these spheres pushing against one another causes a capillary force which pushes the last of the moisture out of the paint film, until the polymer sphere start to deform and make bonds between one another. This results in the paint coalescing and forming a continuous paint film. Curing times will vary across brands so it is worth checking the manufacturer’s information if this is of particular concern.

Dry Brush Technique

The application of paint with very little water content in it using a dry brush. Applying paint in this way is also known as scumbling. The results can have a powdery appearance.

Easel

Wooden or aluminium support which holds your support in place as you paint on it. H or A Frame easels are designed for indoor painting, are sturdier and can hold larger supports. They are usually less compact and more difficult to move around. Radial easels are also for indoor painting but tend to hold a smaller size of support. They are more compact and easier to stack. For outdoor painting tripod field easels are available in wood and metal. These are lightweight, compact and easy to carry.

Emulsion

An emulsion is any mixture that doesn’t separate. In art this can be a cold wax medium or an acrylic polymer (acrylic paint).

Ferrule

The metal collar into which the hairs of a brush are bound. This can be crimped once, twice or three times to the brush handle.

Flag

In brush making terminology, the flag refers to the natural split found at the end of hog hairs. This improves the liquid holding capacity of the brush.

Flat Colour

A uniform application of paint, i.e. without any texture or undulation in tone.

Flow Release / Flow Medium

Reduces visible brushmarks and increases the fluidity of acrylic paint. The go-to medium if you want to create stains and washes on a porous or non-porous surface. Flow release breaks the surface tension of water, so allows fluid acrylic to spread rather than bead up. Many brands are very concentrated and you just need a drop, so they recommend making a bottle of water with diluted flow release to use. Some brands, like Jackson’s are already diluted so you use a full amount – so be sure to read the instructions on the label.

Fluorescent Colours

Bright glowing colours that absorb invisible ultraviolet light and reflect more light than they receive. By their nature the pigments are fugitive, both the fluorescent effect and colour will fade over time and should not be used for work intended to be permanent.

Fluid Acrylic

Fluid acrylic is made of pigment suspended in a polymer emulsion with a more fluid consistency than heavy body acrylic. It is not diluted with water and colours will be as stable and luminous as the equivalent in a heavy body range. Fluid acrylic is easily thinned for spraying as well as suitable for brushing and staining and can be modified with acrylic mediums.

Fugitive Colour

Fugitive colour refers to pigment that may fade or discolour when exposed to environmental conditions such as sunlight, heat or water. Fugitive colours will be indicated with a low lightfastness or permanence rating.

Gel (acrylic)

Acrylic gels are available in a range of consistencies and sheen. They are effectively acrylic paint without the pigment and can be used to increase transparency, extend colour and increase viscosity of paint. They can also be applied on their own to create transparent impasto effects on your surface. Gels tend to retard the drying time of paint and can also be used as a water, chemical and UV resistant adhesive in collage.

Gelli Plates

A printmaking matrix for a monoprinting technique that is especially effective when used with Open Acrylics.

Gesso

Pronounced with a soft g like gypsy or George. From the Italian for gypsum, a major component. This thick white liquid is primarily used as a ground for painting but can also be used to build up areas for carving on frames and is used underneath gilding. It can be coloured. Gesso for gilding is often coloured red. You can buy ready-made black “acrylic gesso”.

Gesso is made with calcium carbonate (also called whiting, chalk and gypsum) in a binder. It is painted on the canvas, paper or wood panel surface to create a ground on which to paint. Sometimes white pigment (usually titanium, sometimes zinc) is added to make the gesso very white.

Genuine gesso (also called true gesso) uses animal skin glue (hide glue or rabbit skin glue also called “size”) as the binder and the artist often makes the gesso him/herself, using a double boiler to melt the glue powder and adding the whiting. Rabbit skin glue is now also available ready made and just needs to be warmed.
One recipe for traditional gesso: 3 parts size, 1 part chalk (whiting), 1 part pigment powder. It is a rather lengthy, messy, smelly process of soaking, heating in a double boiler and mixing.

“Acrylic gesso” is more correctly called “acrylic primer” and should not really be called gesso. It uses an acrylic polymer as the binder for the chalky powder. It is made up of upwards of 14 ingredients. You can also buy ready-made black acrylic primer.

Genuine gesso is less flexible than the “acrylic gesso” and is usually painted on a non-flexible surface such as a wood panel rather than on stretched canvas, so that it will not crack. For paints that need an especially porous surface, like egg tempera, genuine gesso is usually preferred to the acrylic gesso/primer.

The acrylic primer varies a lot in quality and poor quality products can provide a less absorbent ground than is often preferred. Good quality acrylic primer is a very good product for oil painting and acrylic painting. It does both steps of the surface preparation in one- it both sizes (seals) the surface and gives a ground for painting. It can also vary in absorbency, with some products called “acrylic gesso” rather than “acrylic primer” being more absorbent and chalky and particularly suited to applications which require an absorbent surface.

Acrylic primer differs in thickness, opacity and grittiness of surface texture, depending on the manufacturer. It is usually too thick to use straight out of the bucket and should be diluted with water until it is the consistency of heavy cream. Most primers have instructions that advise you apply three thin coats rather than one thick coat. A very thick coat may crack as it dries. The first coat is often scrubbed into the weave of the raw canvas in circular motions to be sure that it is well sealed. The first coat will soak into the canvas or panel and act as its own sizing (sealer). Then subsequent coats are applied in alternating directions across the canvas. To get a very smooth surface you may wish to sand with sandpaper between coats. Some acrylic gessos are designed to have a harder surface specifically so they may be sanded smooth, but as they are less flexible they may crack on a movable surface such as stretched canvas, so should only be used on rigid surfaces.

For oil painting it is especially important that the oil never reaches the substrate as it will rot the canvas, paper or wood. Traditionally oil painters seal the surface with rabbit skin glue and then prime the surface with gesso (glue with chalk). Using these two layers assures that none of the oil will seep through. Some artists who use ready-made stretched canvases will apply an additional layer of acrylic primer to the surface to ensure that it is well sealed.

For painting on paper you may wish to prime both sides of the paper (one after the other dries) as the paper will curl when it is wetted by the primer. Painting the other side then un-curls it. For oil paint on paper you may want at least three coats.

Priming your painting surface is part of properly creating a painting. The underlying structure is very important to the longevity of the painting as well as to the appearance. Primer creates a surface that is sealed just enough to prevent the paint seeping through to the substrate (canvas, paper, wood), but is absorbent enough to hold onto the paint. If you were to paint on an unusual surface like a rubber toy, the paint might not adhere properly. But if you prime the surface with acrylic gesso/primer first, then your paint will go on properly and stay on. The primer is stickier than paint and will glue the chalk to your substrate and create a better surface to paint on.

While the gesso/primer is wet it may leach colour up from the substrate and cause discoloration to the whiteness of the gesso. The glues in plywood, the resins in wood panels and in stretcher bars may be water-extractable. Sealing the wood or canvas first with a sealant medium such as Golden Acrylic’s GAC 100 will prevent Support Induced Discoloration (SID). Sealing (sizing) with rabbit skin glue does the same thing if you are using genuine gesso. Then prime as normal.

Some artists prefer that the substrate shows through underneath the paint and so they use a clear primer. This is usually an acrylic matte medium. This is a thick white liquid that dries clear so you can see the canvas. The texture is very different to gesso since it does not have the chalk powder in it, the surface is smooth and not as absorbent.

Be warned that priming can be a messy business. Gesso/acrylic primer dries quickly on brushes and can stain clothes. Be sure to use drop cloths and wash everything as soon as possible.

Many artists use the word gesso as a verb meaning “to prime” as in “I will be spending the day gessoing canvases in the studio”.

Some artists mix gesso in with their paint as a painting material.

Glaze

An application of transparent colour over already dry paint. In acrylic painting all clear acrylic mediums can be used to increase the transparency, flow and suitability of your colour mixes for glazing techniques.

Gloss

A surface that is shiny when dry is said to be gloss. Some oil paints appear more gloss than others depending on the size of pigment particles and their concentration in the oil binder. Gloss can be increased by using a medium when painting (most mediums, with the exception of those designed to thicken paint, such as beeswax, appear gloss when dry). A popular oil painting medium to use that will increase gloss is a mixture of linseed oil and retouching varnish, diluted with solvent.

Ground

A term often used to describe a prepared surface ready for oil painting. The word ‘ground’ could refer to anything from a primed piece of canvas to an aluminium sheet.
A painting ground is the surface onto which you paint. It can be anything.
It is usually on top of a sealant/sizing layer of the surface.
To be structurally sound it should be compatible with both the underlying support and the paint that is going onto it. Just a reminder that an artist concerned with the permanence of his/her paintings should be as concerned with the proper preparation of the foundation layers of the painting that are perhaps not visible (the support, the size and the ground) as the layers they do see (the paint, mediums and varnish).
The ground is required both to give a suitable surface texture and also to give an opaque colour, to cover the canvas or panel colour with white or a tinted ground, or occasionally a dark colour.

Acrylic primer (less correctly called acrylic gesso) is an example of a ground that is also a size. It does both jobs, sealing the substrate and providing a good surface on which to paint oils or acrylics. Genuine gesso is a painting ground for oil paint and egg tempera in particular, but any paint can be used on it. An oil ground is oil paint painted on top of a sizing over the entire surface to prepare the surface for painting with oil colours. So using an oil primer means you cannot paint on that ground with acrylics as the ground will repel the paint.

Painting with soft pastels requires a ground with a tooth to pick up and hold the pigment particles. This toothy pastel ground can be painted onto paper, canvas or panels, or surfaces can be purchased with the ground already applied to them.

To create an absorbent paper-like surface on canvas or panels for painting with watercolours, Absorbent Ground can be used. It is painted onto sized or primed canvas or panels. It is the ground, not the size and the substrate must be sealed first.

Heavy Body

Heavy body acrylic paint has a buttery consistency. When used straight from the pot or tube impasto effects can be achieved and brush marks will retain in the paint. The consistency and characteristics can be manipulated with the use of acrylic mediums.

Hue

A hue is the actual appearance of a colour, i.e. you might describe a river to have a greenish brown hue. But it is also put at the end of the name of colours found in paint ranges where the colour is made from a mixture of pigments that have been combined to replicate a genuine pigment. Paint makers will do this to offer a less expensive alternative to the genuine pigment. Mixing with ‘hue’ colours may result in noticeably different results to the mixes achieved with the genuine versions of the same colours.

Impasto

A term to describe paint that has been applied thickly to a support. Oil paint applied straight from a tube in impasto marks will take a very long time to dry. The drying time can be reduced by combining the paint with a thickening medium such as beeswax or an alkyd impasto alternative.

Imprimatura

In italian ‘imprimatura’ means ‘the first layer’. In painting it refers to a thin transparent layer of colour that is laid on to a ground evenly in order to colour it. The layer is thinned with solvent or with a fast drying medium. It is then left to dry before the actual painting of the picture begins. Many artists will leave patches of the imprimatura layer showing through in their work. It is an alternative preparation to a tinted or coloured ground, where the primer is mixed with a colour prior to application to a support.

Interference

Intereference colour paint is dual-colour and possesses reflective properties and visible interplay with light. The result of this is that a certain colour will appear at a certain angle, and its complementary will appear at another angle. This causes a shimmering quality. Interference colours are very transparent and work well in glazing techniques.

Interlocking

Interlocking describes the way the hairs are arranged in a good brush. The hairs are interlocked in the ferrule so that as they protrude out from the ferrule the natural curve of each hair helps to form a brush head shape that will maximise the liquid holding capacity of the brush, as well as keep a fine point or sharp square or curved edge.

Iridescent

Iridescent colours have a pearlescent or metallic like quality. The finest metal coated mica particles give the paint its unique metallic sheen.

Lightfastness/Permanence

Refers to the stability of a pigment when exposed to prolonged periods of ultra violet, found in natural sunlight. It is measured using the Blue Wool Scale in the UK, and ASTM in America. Permanence takes into consideration the effects of other elements on the stability and appearance of pigments, including humidity, light, heat, water, acidity, alkali levels etc. The permanence of a paint will be indicated on the label using a rating system determined by the manufacturer and explained in the manufacturer’s colour chart or on their website.

Linen

A natural fabric made from long threads woven together which is stronger and more elastic than cotton duck. It is usually darker than cotton duck and can be stretched on a frame, glued on to a board or panel or painted on unstretched. Linen needs to be sized with rabbit skin glue or an acrylic substitute prior to painting with oils. Linens are available in a range of weights (the heavier the weight the tougher the fabric will be) as well as a range of weaves, from fine to coarse. Which you choose will impact on the overall look of your painting.

Mahl Stick

Mahlstick is from the Dutch for ‘painter’s stick’. A stick made from wood or aluminium with a leather bound cushion at one end. A mahl stick is designed to keep your hand steady when painting intricate passages. Rest the stick against one edge of your canvas and hold in place while resting your painting hand against the stick in the position you want to paint in. A mahl stick is helpful in ensuring that you do not smudge drying paint as you work.

The Mahl Stick is a classic tool that hasn’t changed much over the years because it doesn’t need to. It performs the function of a ‘bridge’ over your drawing or painting on which you can steady your hand to perform accurate work. It is the difference between writing with the heel of your palm on the table or writing with your whole hand in the air. The bracing action gives you control but you don’t smudge or smear your artwork because your hand doesn’t rest on the work. The mahl stick we have at Jackson’s is a sturdy metal rod almost a metre long with a padded end. The stick is made of lightweight but sturdy aluminium and the suede covered cork end has a bit of friction so it won’t slip around easily. It unscrews into 2 parts for portability and storage.

The usual way that artists use it is to hold the mahl stick with your non-dominate hand, propping the padded end of the stick on the table if drawing flat or on the edge of the canvas, easel or wall if painting vertically, or on a dry part of your painting – and positioning the rod above the area that you need to reach. Then brace the heel of the hand that is holding the pencil or paintbrush on the rod, lower it to the height you need and make your marks. You can adjust the stick during the drawing and painting if you need to get closer or further away. With practise you can control the end of the mahl stick with just two fingers and so still hold a palette as well with your non-painting hand.

Tip: If you cannot find a suitable position for the resting end because the work is raised above the surface so the end of the stick will be too low you can build an instant raised structure with a tub of paint or tin of soup or the like to act as the other side of your ‘bridge’.

Mass Tone

How the colour of a paint looks when it is squeezed from a tube into a condensed ‘blob’.

Matt

Also spelled ‘matte’. A complete lack of shine on the surface, the opposite of gloss.

Medium

An additive that is mixed with paint in order to extend the colour or alter some of its properties such as consistency, texture, transparency and drying time.

Mica Flake

Mica is the sparly flakes of mineral that glitter in granite. These flakes are used in iridescent acrylic paints and mediums. Mica flakes of all different degrees of coarseness are used in acrylic paints and mediums.

Milling or Mulling

Milling is the process of dispersing the pigments into the binder (in oil painting this is usually linseed oil, but could also be safflower, poppy or walnut oil). It is usually done with a glass muller on a slab.

Monochrome

The use of only one colour in a painting, which is likely to appear in a range of differing tonal values.

Motif

A feature within a composition.

Mottler

A wide flat brush that can evenly apply paint or varnish.

Moulding Paste

Moulding (or molding) paste is a white opaque acrylic paste that can be used to build surface layers and create texture on a painting surface. It can be tinted with acrylic colour or applied on its own, left to dry and then painted afterwards. It dries hard yet flexible.

Open Acrylic

Open acrylics are slow drying acrylic paints which allow for painting approaches that were previously only possible in oil paint.

Open Time

The length of time in which it is possible for a brush to move applied paint around on a surface before it dries. Also used for the time a gilding size (adhesive) stays sticky for metal leaf application.

Palette

Can refer to a surface on to which you mix your colours, or the selection of colours an artist has chosen for their painting, e.g. ‘the painting had a palette of mauves and greens’. Suitable painting palettes for acrylic paint are usually made from plastic. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some are designed to be held as the artist is painting and will have a thumb hole, others are designed to be placed on a table.

Palette Knife

Palette Knives are also known as painting knives and are used by painters to mix colour and apply paint to a support. They are usually made from plastic or forged stainless steel. They are easy to wipe clean with a rag which means it is easy to keep colour mixes clean as well. As a painting tool it is ideal for impasto technique and also for applying colour in a flat and uniform layer.

Panel

A rigid painting surface for acrylics, oils, encaustic, pastels or watercolours. Made from solid wood, plywood, mdf, compressed card or aluminium. They are often braced to prevent warping both during the priming and painting period and over time. May also be wood with canvas or paper adhered to the front. Especially useful for encaustic or oil painting where a rigid surface helps prevent cracking of the paint surface over time.

Paper

Watercolour Papers

Watercolour paper has a “hard size” on top of the paper that allows the water to penetrate and the pigment to remain on the surface. This gives the painting its brilliance and also allows for corrections.

Watercolour paper comes in different textures. ‘Hot Press’ (HP) is the smoothest, it is also a bit less absorbent as it has been compressed to a harder surface. ‘Not’ (also called cold pressed) has a medium textured surface and is the most popular finish, it is especially good for beginners. ‘Rough’ is highly textured paper and is the most absorbent. Botanical artists often prefer hot pressed paper as the smoothness allows them to be very accurate in their rendering.
The weights of the papers range from 90 lb to 400 lb. The heavier the weight of the watercolour paper the less the paper will buckle when wet. For lighter weight papers (140lb and below) the paper is usually stretched (wetted and laid out on a board and taped down with gum-strip tape, or you can use a specially designed paper stretcher device like the Keba Artmate).
Watercolour papers can vary in whiteness from bright white to a creamy off-white and are available in tinted colours.

Watercolour papers come in sheets, pads, rolls, and blocks. Blocks are pads of pre-stretched paper that are glued on all four sides except for a small space on one side. This allows for painting without stretching and when the painting is dry you can remove the top painted sheet by running a butter knife around the edge from the gap in the side.

Drawing Papers

Cartridge paper is a high quality type of heavy paper used for illustration and drawing. It comes in a variety of smooth textures. It is available in loose sheets, pads (glued or spiral), hardbound and softbound sketchbooks and rolls.
Bristol paper is a strong and durable, all-purpose drawing paper. It has a very hard surface that is heavily sized, polished, and compressed. It is also used for airbrushing.
Other papers that are suitable for drawing include the very popular Stonehenge paper.

Pastel Papers

Pastel paper is used for soft and hard pastels and charcoal. It is usually coloured paper, with the colour chosen being very important as it will be a major component of the finished work. It comes in a few different textures, all with some amount of tooth or weave that will catch hold of the pastel particles. Ingres is a laid paper with a mesh imprint from a screen. Random texture gets its surface from a cloth matt imprint, similar to Not texture watercolour paper. There are a few types with toothy textures from ground cork or sand that are similar to sandpaper. A few come with the colour screenprinted on and some are waterproof for working the pastels with water. Paper for oil pastels is hard and white and usually comes in a pad with glassine paper interleaving to protect it from smudging.

Oil and Acrylic Painting Papers

These medium to heavyweight papers are usually canvas textured and primed for painting with either oil or acrylic. Most of the papers prepared for acrylic paint are universally primed to accept both oil and acrylic. Paper must be sealed completely if painting with oil paints because the oil will separate out if the paper is absorbent and form a halo of oil around the colours and it will also rot the paper over time. Although acrylic paint can be used on any paper, acrylic painting paper is usually designed to mimic canvas or it is very heavyweight. Oil and acrylic painting papers are especially useful for taking to classes or using in the field and are an economical choice for making a study or sketch prior to the major work on canvas.
You can also get sheets of primed actual canvas (as opposed to the canvas-textured paper) in pads.

Fine Art Digital Papers

Inkjet papers that allow high quality reproductions of your artwork or prints of your digitally designed original prints come in a wide variety of textures and weights. They are coated to accept inkjet inks. They can be sprayed with an inkjet fixative to prevent smudging if that is a problem. They are archival. Sheets of primed canvas designed to go through your inkjet printer are also available.

Paste (acrylic)

A thick, white opaque medium that can be tinted with acrylic colour or used on its own on to a support to build up texture and impasto marks. There are a number of different acrylic pastes available with a variety of consistencies and textures/characteristics.

Pastels

Working with pastels is usually called pastel painting. It is a way for artists to paint directly with pigment without the intermediary of a brush. Blending can be done with the finger, blending tools or a brush. Pastels come as oil pastels, soft pastels and hard pastels. Health concerns about breathing in dust from the soft chalk pastels have caused some pastel artists to switch to oil pastels.

An oil pastel has the pigment bound with non-drying oil and wax. Quite different results can be achieved using a variety of techniques. For example: oil pastels dissolved with solvents look very different to ones used lightly over the surface of a textured paper. Some wax or oil pastels are also water-soluble. Some artists use fixative to protect the work as the colour remains somewhat smudge-able but mounting and framing behind glass is usually sufficient protection from smudging.

soft pastel is made to be as soft as possible without falling apart or breaking too easily. The surfaces used with soft pastels usually need to have a tooth to hold the powdery colour onto the surface. Because colours are mixed on the surface and not mixed on a palette beforehand pastels usually come in a huge range of tints and shades of colours. Finished paintings should be sprayed with a fixative for longevity as the soft colour may not adhere completely to the surface (especially if many layers are built up) and framed with a mount and glass to protect the work, though some artists do not like the look of fixative and simply frame the work. Soft pastels can be used dry or with water and also come in a pencil format that is tidier to use.

Hard pastels are usually square and are often called carre crayons. They have been baked at a higher temperature and their hardness allows finer lines to be made with their edges. Like all artist materials the quality of a pastel is measured by the amount and quality of pigment and the higher quality pastels have little or no filler and the minimum amount of binder required to hold the pastel together.

Every artist develops a preference for a particular brand, often based on colour choice or level of softness or hardness. A beginner would be wise to buy a colour in each brand and as they need to replace each colour buy the brand they have come to like best. Pastel painting is usually done on pastel paper, which comes in a variety of colours and textures, though there is a textured ground for pastels by Golden Acrylics that can be painted on primed wood or canvas so that those surfaces can hold the pigment from soft pastels.

Permanence

Permanence takes into consideration all factors that may influence the stability and appearance of pigments, including exposure to UV rays, humidity, heat, water, acidity, alkali levels etc. The permanence of a paint will be indicated on the label using a rating system determined by the manufacturer and explained in the manufacturer’s colour chart or on their website. Some manufacturers say permanence when they mean lightfastness (which only considers UV), so it’s worth double checking if this is of particular concern.

Pigment

Pigments don’t just give paint its colour. They will also alter how the paint behaves as you work. Tinting strength, opacity, granulation and other handling properties are all a result of the pigments used in a paint, and when different brands produce even the most familiar colours to numerous varying recipes, it’s best not to rely on titles alone.
Pigment numbers are grouped into 9 categories, each prefixed with a code that will help you
decode how your colours are made. These codes are PR, PO, PY, PG, PB, PV, PBr, PBk and PW, and refer to red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, brown, black and white respectively.

Some pigments will crop up again and again across a colour chart; PBr7 represents the natural iron oxide used to produce raw and burnt umbers and siennas. Others will appear in variations, either denoted by a colon and a secondary figure such as PW6:1 for buff titanium derived from PW6 titanium white, or listed in brackets after as in PV23 (RS), a Red Shade of the Dioxazine Violet pigment. It can be useful to look at the paints you use most often and make a list of your preferred pigments, especially when considering purchasing from new brands.

While there are plenty of good reasons for a manufacturer to mix pigments, painters will often prefer to use colours with one pigment when possible. Single pigment paints are more predictable in mixes and tints, whereas a paint made from multiple colour components might create unexpected combinations on your palette. Still, mixes can be beneficial. They are commonly used in the production of hues, convenient replacements for dangerous or expensive pigments and are often the only form in which defunct historical colours can be found.

Pigment Load

Pigment load refers to the ratio of pigment to binder in a paint.

Plein Air

To paint out of doors in front of the subject. Famous artists who painted en plein air include Pisarro and Renoir.

Pochade

A pochade box will open up to hold a small painting panel in place, and can also transport tubes of paint, medium, brushes and a palette. They are most commonly used for painting en plein air. The pochade box will usually have space for carrying wet panels in them without smudging one another, and will fix on to a tripod to position at the right height for painting.

Polymer Medium

Extends colour and increases transparency and gloss as well as increasing film integrity. It is particularly useful in making acrylic glazes.

Primary Colours

The traditional primary colours for painting are Red, Yellow and Blue. They are used because they can produce the largest range of colours around the spectrum. Other triads, such as Cyan, Yellow and Magenta are also used, producing gamuts of different intensities. A split primary palette will include warm and cool versions of each colour.

Primer

A surfacing material used to coat a support to get it ready for paint application. Acrylic primer is made from calcium carbonate suspended in an acrylic binder. It can be applied directly to a support without the need for a prior application application of size. To create a very smooth surface apply 2- 3 coats and allow to dry fully and lightly sand between applications. Gesso is a more absorbent variety of primer. Multiple coats of acrylic gesso will increase the absorbency of the surface, and light sanding between layers will optimise the smoothness.

Acrylic primer varies a lot in quality and poor quality products can provide a less absorbent ground than is often preferred. Good quality acrylic primer (can contain upwards of 14 ingredients) is a very good product for both oil painting and acrylic painting. It does both steps of the surface preparation in one- it both sizes (seals) the surface and gives a ground for painting.

Priming Brush

Usually a flat wide brush, made with synthetic or hog hair. For an even application, load the brush and apply whilst holding it at around 45 degrees to the support. Brush the primer on in all directions to make the coverage even. Allow each layer to dry fully before applying the next layer.

Printmaking in Acrylic

Acrylic printmaking inks will dry more quickly than oil based inks, which can work to both one’s advantage as well as disadvantage. Acrylic paint can be used in relief and screen printing with the aid of special printmaking mediums – without these the paint may dry too quickly and will not have the best consistency for successful printmaking.

Print Rack

A Print Rack or Print Browser is used for storage or display of works on paper. Useful at art fairs for buyers to browse through the work these can be table top of floor-standing displays. Often the work is placed in a poly bag with a stiff card for protection and the work on paper is flipped through like at a record shop.

Pumice Gel (acrylic)

Pumice gel is available in a variety of textures, from fine to extra coarse. When dry this opaque white gel dries to a concrete like surface, mottled with craters, just like pumice stone. The fine pumice gel is particularly useful as a drawing ground. As with other white opaque acrylic mediums, pumice gel can be tinted with acrylic colour or applied on its own.

Rabbit Skin Glue

A strong glue made from animal parts, that is an ingredient in genuine gesso, is used for sealing (sizing) panels and canvas before priming and is used as sizing for papers. It stiffens canvas in preparation for gesso primer in oil painting. Also called hide glue.

For preparing canvas and panels the usual method is to soak the pellets or powder overnight, the next day heat in a double boiler and brush onto the canvas while still warm (do not overheat as the glue will be weak). Two coats are preferred to seal the canvas well, the first being scrubbed into the canvas to get well into the weave. Discard any left over as it does not re-heat well. Then prime the surface as normal.

Retarder

A clear acrylic medium that will slow the drying time of acrylic paint.

Scaling Up/Down

The process of transferring a composition from one surface to another. To scale up is to transfer and enlarge the image, and to scale down is to transfer and reduce the image. To do this a grid is placed over the top of the original composition. The same number of squares are drawn on to the surface you are transferring to. The artist will then carefully match the drawing in each square to the original. A projector can also be used to scale up or down without the need for a grid.

Scumbling

Applying opaque or semi opaque colour over the top of already painted areas, in a ‘broken brushmark’, i.e., the scumbled mark will be uneven and only cover some of layer of paint underneath. Scumbling will add depth and texture to your painting.

Sfumato

Painting thin glazes to give a misty effect to areas of a painting. For example sfumato might help to push some mountains on the horizon in a landscape painting further into the distance.

Sight-Size

To paint or draw at the exact scale that you see the subject. Holding a pencil or paintbrush up at arms length against the subject helps to establish at what size you actually see the elements of your composition, and compare lengths and sizes with one another.

Sinking In (oil painting)

When paint is absorbed by the surface it has been applied to and the colours appear less saturated than when they were first applied. This can sometimes cause some areas of the painting to appear more shiny and colour filled than others, as often there are inconsistencies in the absorbency of a surface, which affects the varying degrees of ‘sinking in’ on a surface.

Snap/Spring

The speed at which the hairs of a brush will ‘snap’ back into place if held away from its natural position from the ferrule. Many artists look for good snap in their brushes as it means the brush will make sharper, more vibrant looking brush marks.

Spray Acrylic

Spray paint enables you to apply acrylic colour in thin and even layers. As the paint is dispersed in tiny droplets it tends to dry more quickly than if applied with a brush (within minutes). Colours are easy to blend with one another. Professional acrylic sprays will have low pressure handling, this means that the artist has a greater degree of control over the paint application.

Stay Wet Palette

Stay wet palettes are usually made of plastic and are lined with a sheet of paper that feels a bit like greaseproof paper, which helps keep the paint wet for longer. Keeping the lid on the palette will also reduce the amount of air getting to the paint to help keep it wet for longer. Refill packs of the paper to line the palette are available.

Stretched/Unstretched Canvas

A piece of linen, hessian or cotton duck that has been tightly wrapped around a frame made of wood or aluminium and fixed at the back.Sizing and priming the stretched canvas will increase the tension in the stretch. This creates a vibrant, drum like surface to paint on. Stretched linen and cotton duck canvases can be bought ready made. They are available unprimed or primed with acrylic or oil primer. Unstretched canvas can be purchased from and by the roll, ready to be stretched on to a frame at home or worked on unstretched.

Stretcher Bars

Stretcher bars will assemble to make a frame onto which canvas can be stretched over. They are available in pairs and made of wood or aluminium.

Support

A general term for a surface ready to be painted on. A support can be anything from a canvas to a wooden panel.

Synthetic Brushes

Synthetic brushes often replicate the characteristics of traditional, natural hair painting brushes, such as those made from hog or sable. They are known to be resilient and easier to clean (as the hairs are less absorbent than natural hair). Not all synthetic hair is the same and so characteristics vary across brands.

Tacks

Tacks are a similar shape to drawing pins and are made of metal, and are used to fix canvas to the sides of a stretcher bar. Staples are generally considered to be more successful at keeping canvas fixed to the stretcher, but tacks are often still used to add a traditional aesthetic to the overall look of the support.

Tar Gel

A colourless and clear gel that when poured has a stringy consistency. Tar gel is great for pouring over a surface as it will continuously flow, and you can control the thickness of application by how you pour. The gel can be applied clear or can be coloured with fluid acrylic paint.

Tinting Strength

The power of one colour to overpower another colour when mixed together.

Toning a Canvas

Painting on a white canvas can cause you to paint in colours lighter or brighter than you intend that you need to then adjust after you have more of the white covered. To avoid this some artists apply a middle value on the whole canvas before they start, this toning of the canvas also prevents unwanted bits of white canvas showing through your brushwork and you can leave bits of the tone colour showing for added liveliness.

Tooth

Tooth in acrylic painting usually refers to how coarse a surface feels when dry. Often used to describe the surface quality of gesso, primer and acrylic pastes and mediums.

Transparency / Opacity

The measure of how much light is able to pass through an applied paint and interact with the surface beneath. Transparent paints appear more luminous on a white support because they allow a larger proportion of light to hit the surface they’re laying on, like a filter placed over a light bulb. Opaque paints block this reflection from occurring, and can be used to cover layers of colour underneath. Transparent paints are better suited to glazing techniques, though these can still be achieved with opaque colours if diluted sufficiently or mixed with a suitable medium.

UnderTone

The appearance of a paint when it is spread across a surface in a thin film.

Underpainting

The initial layer of painting, usually executed in a minimal number of colours to establish areas of tone and ‘map out’ the composition on the support.

Value

This term means ‘tone’ in visual art. ‘The value of the object’ is a description of how light or dark the object is. The lightest value is white and the darkest value is black.

Varnish for Acrylic

Acrylic varnishes offer a protective coating to a finished painting, keeping it safe from dust and surface damage (scratches etc.). Some varnishes also have UV light resistors which will prevent colour fade. We recommend applying an isolation coat over your painting prior to varnishing – a soft gloss gel medium would be ideal for this. This will allow for the varnish to be removed in future, if necessary, with no damage risk to the painting itself. Always ensure that you varnish work in a dust and dirt free environment, and remove any dust or dirt from the surface of your work prior to varnishing. Varnish can be applied with a spray or a brush.

Varnishing Brush

A varnishing brush should be kept in good condition and have clean, soft hairs. A square ended brush will make it easier to achieve an even application. A synthetic mottler is a good choice of brush for applying varnish. Several thin layers are better than one thick one. Lean your painting image side down against a wall during the drying process to ensure that dust does not settle on the surface.

Velatura

Applying a glaze with a semi-opaque paint. A trace of the painting underneath will show through the layer of velatura which acts as a veil.

Weave

The weave of a canvas can be completely smooth or very prominent, depending on how it was made. It will have an effect on how your painting looks. Artists who like to explore textures in their work might prefer a coarser weave, whereas artists who paint very fine detail may prefer a finer grain. The set of threads that are aligned lengthways in fabric is known as the warp, and the weft is the set of threads that weave in and out of the warp. In painting it is important that the warp and weft are similar so that when the canvas is stretched it will do so uniformly, without inconsistencies such as wrinkling. This is particularly worth noting if you are working with a linen that was not purchased from an art supplier.

Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami

Brooke Frank

Brooke Frank
Brooke Frank

Miami Visual Artist Studios

Brooke Frank

Artist Studio: 
290 NW 73rd Street
Miami FL 33150
Accessibility: ADA Compliant
Free street parking

BIOGRAPHY

Brooke Frank was born in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and lives and works in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Frank received an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin (2019) and a BFA in Studio Art from Florida Atlantic University (2015). She was part of a two-person exhibition at FAR Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, called “Making Sense” and selected solo exhibitions include “Channels” at IS Projects in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (2016) and “Wrapped: New Work” at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts at FAU in Boca Raton, Florida (2016), selected group exhibitions include “ZOONOTIC HEX” at Field Projects in New York, NY, “Inner Out” a virtual exhibition at Moonmist in Houston, Texas (2020), and “Real and Imagined Spaces: Brooke Burnside, Brooke Frank, and André Fuqua” through the Visual Arts Center at the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas (2021). Frank received residencies at IS Projects in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Art Farm in Marquette, Nebraska, and the Jaffe Center for Book Arts in Boca Raton, Florida.

She is an emerging artist living and working in South Florida. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with her BFA in painting from Florida Atlantic University, and spent most of her undergraduate degree as a student assistant at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts. This spring, in addition to her residency, she is working professionally in technical theatre, specializing in scenic artistry and prop making.

The work she’ll be completing at the Jaffe Center revolves around the manipulation of pages from National Geographic magazines, notorious for their simplification of images and ideas to their most palatable details. The objective is to revive, retain, and record only that which is vital to the convection of genuine content.

Her work mimics the processes of natural forces like erosion, decay, and sublimation as they occur in seemingly controlled environments, in order to substantiate abstract and poetic thinking. Ultimately, every work seeks to interpret its catalysts––however banal, morbid, or cynical––as things to live for and through.

EDUCATION:

2019 University of Texas at Austin (UT), Master of Fine Arts, Painting

2015 Florida Atlantic University (FAU), Bachelor of Fine Arts, Studio Art, Painting

 

RESIDENCIES & AWARDS:

2016 Artist in Residence, IS Projects, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

2016 Artist in Residence, Art Farm, Marquette, NE

2016 Spring Artist in Residence, Helen M. Salzberg AIR Program, Jaffe Center for Book Arts, FAU, Boca Raton, FL

2016 Spring/Summer Fellowship, Girls’ Club Collection, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

2015 Rothenberger Fellowship, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL

2014 Studio Assistantship at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Craft, Gatlinburg, TN

2013 Delray Art League Prize for Painting, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL

2012 Rothenberger Endowed Scholarship for the Humanities (Drawing), Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL

 

SOLO & TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2021 Making Sense, FAR Gallery, Ft. Lauderdale, FL (Two-Person)

2016 Channels, IS Projects, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

2016 Wrapped: New Work, Jaffe Center for Book Arts, FAU, Boca Raton, FL

2016 Open AIR Studio, Jaffe Center for Book Arts, FAU, Boca Raton, FL

 

EXHIBITIONS

2023 BluPrnt, Bridge Red Studios, Curated by Robert Chambers, Miami, FL

2023 Art Hollywood, Organized by Harumi Abe and Jesus Petroccini, Historical Society at the Hammerstein House, Hollywood, FL

2022 Faculty Exhibition, Gallery 217, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL

2022 Exposed, Art and Culture Center/Hollywood, Hollywood, FL

2022 BookBound: The Art of Books and Printmaking, Curated by Meaghan Kent, Art and Culture Center/Hollywood, Hollywood, FL

2022 ZOONOTIC HEX, Curated by Jacob Rhodes and Kristen Racaniello, Field Projects, New York, NY

2021 Real and Imagined Spaces: Brooke Burnside, Brooke Frank, and André Fuqua, Curated by Donato Loia, Visual Arts Center, Austin, TX

2021 Expanding Printmaking: South Florida Artist-Run Presses, Curated by Carol Prusa and Joseph Velasquez, Ritter Art Gallery, FAU, Boca Raton, FL

2020 Inner Out, Curated by Ariel René Jackson, Moonmist, Houston, TX (digital)

2020 In Union, Remotely, The Shaker Museum Mount Lebanon, Mount Lebanon, NY (digital)

2020 Willing the Season, Curated by Jessica Cannon, FAR x WIDE, Brooklyn, NY (digital)

2019 Hero Ready, Visual Arts Center, UT, Austin, TX

2018 Another Green World, Curated by Gilles Heno Coe, Visual Arts Center, UT, Austin, TX

2018 subjective perspective, The Dude Ranch, Austin, TX

2017 Eleven Strangers and a White Wall, Fieldworks Gallery, Visual Arts Center, UT, Austin, TX

2016 (With The Cabbage Palm) Ft. Lauderdale Small Press Fair, ArtsUp!, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

2016 (With The Cabbage Palm) Opening night projection) Florida Dreaming, curated by Erica Ando, FAU, Boca Raton, FL

2016 Flip Out: Artists’ Sketchbooks, Girls’ Club, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

2016 Dialogues: Revisited, Jaffe Center for Book Arts, FAU, Boca Raton, FL

2016 Maker Meet: Fine Art Edition, Social House, Lake Worth, FL

2015 Art Fallout, Girls’ Club, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

2015 Human for Real, Social House, Lake Worth, FL

2015 Chromis: Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition, Ritter Art Gallery, FAU, Boca Raton, FL

2015 Student Juried Exhibition, Ritter Art Gallery, FAU, Boca Raton, FL

2015 Art Open House, FAU Visual Arts Center, Boca Raton, FL

2014 Featured Artist, Art Fallout at the Girls Club, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

2014 FAU Arts Day, FAU Visual Arts Center, Boca Raton, FL

2014 Student Juried Exhibition, Ritter Art Gallery, FAU, Boca Raton, FL

2013 Lake Worth 100 Mail Art, Lake Worth Museum, Lake Worth, FL

2013 Festival of the Arts, FAU Visual Arts Center, Boca Raton, FL

2013 Art Journaling, Jaffe Center for Book Arts, FAU, Boca Raton, FL

2013 Student Juried Exhibition, Ritter Art Gallery, FAU, Boca Raton, FL

 

PUBLICATIONS AS EDITOR

2019 Bat City Review, Issue 15, (print and web)

2017 The Crescent: Vol. 1, (print)

2016 The Cabbage Palm, (print)

2016 Flip Out: Open Up, (print)

 

PRESS

2021 Meet Brooke Frank | Artist, Shoutout Miami, Miami, FL

2019 Hero Ready, MFA Thesis Catalog, Essay by Sofia Retta, Austin, TX (print)

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2021 – Present, Adjunct, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL

2020 – Present, Adjunct, Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

2019 – 2020, Lecturer, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

2017 – 2019 Teaching Assistant, University or Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

2016 – 2017 Curatorial Assistant, University Galleries, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL

2016 – 2017 Gallery Coordinator, IS Projects, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, October

2014 – 2015 Studio Assistant to Dorothy Simpson Krause

2012 – 2015 Student Assistant at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts, Wimberly Library, FAU,

 

SPEAKING

2021 Conversation with Brooke Frank and Amalia Mermingas, FAR Gallery, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

2020 Panel Discussion: Inner Out, Moonmist via Zoom, Houston, TX

2018 Gallery Walkthrough: Another Green World, Visual Arts Center, UT, Austin, TX

2018 Panel Discussion: Another Green World, Visual Arts Center, UT, Austin, TX

2016 Panel Discussion: Now What? Recent FAU grads discuss various tracks in the South Florida art landscape, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL (April 20th)

 

SELECTED WORKSHOPS

2021 Simple Bindings, Small Press Fair ’21 at South Regional/Broward College Library, Pembroke Pines, FL

2021 Leather Travel Journal, IS Projects, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

2020 Guest Artist: Sketchbooks, The Art Local via Zoom, Austin, TX

2016 Workshop Series: Sketchbook Club: Habits, IS Projects, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

2016 Texture, Rubbings bound in a simple book, ages 4 – 12, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL

2016 Collage and Bookbinding, SunServe LGBTQIA+ Youth Group, Girls’ Club, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

2016 Commit to Sketchbooks, Jaffe Center for Book Arts, Boca Raton, FL

2015 Sewn Boards Binding, Jerry’s Artarama, Deerfield Beach, FL

2015 Papier-Mâché, Armory Art Center’s Spring Break Camp, West Palm Beach, FL

[email protected]

Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami

Louis Blanc

Louis Blanc photographer

Louis Blanc Great Photographer

It is his own body that he declines in black and white, composes with meticulousness, utopia, sublime madness, irony, between resemblance, likelihood and dissimilarity.

Beyond the visual, his bodily self-portraits invite us to exercise an individual look at ourselves or others focused on the unique and living axis of a personal polymorphic body that poses in “disorder” in a neutral time space.

Louis Blanc photographer

Born sixty-four years ago in Saint-Étienne (Loire), I have lived in the Toulouse region for about fifteen years and in the very heart of the Ville Rose for five years. After two photographic experiments (a brief one with a Minolta XG2 silver SLR in the 1980s and a longer one in the 2000s with a digital compact) I realized in 2010 that my equipment was becoming limited and I acquired my first digital SLR a Canon EOS 550D and there… I rediscovered photography! Self-taught, I learn shooting and post-processing techniques in specialized magazines and on forums dedicated to photography, not hesitating to submit my photos to constructive criticism. This interest in photography quickly turned into a passion and it is naturally almost unintentionally that two areas of interest emerged: First axis of my practice: architecture (in the broad sense) religious and historical buildings, urban landscapes. Second axis: work on the image of the body, its own language that can arouse questioning or even emotion when the body is staged and photographed in a certain way. The “cORpuS” series presented here is part of this second approach.

The first prize for the said competition was the chance to exhibit at the Palais de l’archevêque d’Arles. Blanc showed twelve photos from his Corpus series and eyes were opened. Not only to the talent of this photographer but also into his fantastically explorative mind.

The photos in the Corpus series are self-portraits. However, they are not your usual set of portraits. In most, we find it very difficult and more often than not impossible to see the face of the subject. When one thinks of self-portraits we imagine someone trying to capture themselves in a photo or painting, usually, this involves the full features or body of the artist. Louis Blanc breaks this common ground with his expressive use of perspective. Hands and feet are pushed forwards towards the camera with the body retreats into the background, this gives the viewer the illusion that these parts of the body are of a vastly different scale. The photographer makes incredible use of this altered scale and perception to completely transform his physical form. The subject becomes almost monster like in many of the images with his hands and feet obscuring the face and torso to create bizarre part human entities, images of Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth spring to mind, in particular, the eerie character of the “Pale Man”. A demon whose eyes are implanted in his hands with the creature famously putting his hands to his head to place the eyes in the right place. This image is echoed in the photo by Blanc where he crouches with both hands out in front of his face, claw-like and reaching out to the viewer.

It would be easy to say that the photos of Louis Blanc explore a surreal side of portraiture with the artist wanting to manipulate the image that we see of him. We never see his face or when we do it is obscured or constricted by his body as if the body is in control of the person and that the face is of no importance to the form of the whole. The saying “a picture says a thousand words” flits through the mist of confusion when I look at these images, they certainly tell many stories if we care to listen. However, it is the hands which draw one in, the idea that you can tell much about a person by the sight of their hands. Rough hands speak to a life of physical work where they have toughened to protect from harm, small delicate hands adapted to control and finesse, the calloused fingertips of a musician honed to their art. It is not just a person’s face or body which can convey the life or emotion of an individual, our hands are what allow us to interact with the world around us, be those fellow humans or the natural elements. Perhaps Louis Blanc is putting his forward, for us to observe and connect with the artist through the hands that made it. The man behind the camera but instead the hands behind the artist.

What makes the Corpus series so striking, aside from the new ways of seeing, is the wonderful use of true black and white photography. Composed beautifully to always have the subject in the centre of frame mixed with the interesting square crop of the images creates a photo which is instantly pleasing to look upon. The simple mix of tone and sharp contrast works brilliantly with the subject matter, we can see every tiny line and crease in the skin giving the photos a very tactile quality. It is an unforgiving light, completely different to our airbrushed and edited colour images in magazines and on the internet. It is a light which this artist is shining on himself, to say “this is me, every part tells a story” The background of this series is particularly important to the images as a whole. These were not taken in a bright, crisp, clean studio space, they are taken on marked and rough surfaces almost like a stone floor. This choice of space really coheres all of the elements together, adding a textured, gritty depth to the photos. 

Corpus is a genuinely fascinating series of photographs in which Louis Blanc unquestionably challenges the norm of self-portraiture. He seems to allow his body to move, flow and contort, the forms captured through the images evoke a body expressing itself as if throwing off the chain of facial expression as a singular form of conveying emotion. We see a living entity which we associate as the human form but one distorted allowing itself to explore every aspect of its shape almost appearing to tackle and convey its own very dynamic language. 

Education

Bac E diploma AFPA of surveyor-topographer

Exhibitions

2019
– Ravanille et Framboise, Arles
– Voies Off La Boucherie, Arles
– La Boucherie, Arles
– Humanit’Art, Geneva
– Galerie du Hérisson, Paris 4e

2018
– FOTOFEVER Carrousel du Louvre, Paris
– La Boucherie (Voies Off), Arles

2017
Expo Clutch / Ombres Blanches Bookstore, Toulouse

2016
– Voies Off, Arles
– Galerie Gaston de Luppé, Arles
– “alter cORpuS” Le Cactus, Toulouse
– Clutch Ô coup dans l’aile, Toulouse
– Festival Fotografico Europeo, Milano

2015
– RPPC Esplanade des Invalides, Paris
– Espace culturel Lamanon, Salon de Provence
– Galerie-Musée de la Faïence, Ancy-le-Franc
– Festival de la sculpture, Montauban
– Festival Européen de la Photo de Nu, Arles
– Millésime Gallery, Paris
– Maison des vins et du tourisme, Fronton
– Rendez-vous Image Palais des Congrès, Strasbourg
– Expo Poussière d’image, Toulouse

2014
– Sweet Lounge, Le Mans
– Galerie Siméon, Brive-la-Gaillarde
– Night of Contemporary Photography, Invalides, Paris
– Galerie Les Carmes, Pamiers
– Galerie Bettina, Paris
– Galerie des Schiste, Cabrières

2013
– Balt’art Exhibition, Nogent-sur-Marne
– Night of Contemporary Photography, Invalides, Paris
– Le Cloître des Carmes, Montauban
– “Nude” Congress Centre, Prague
– Festival Visa Off, Perpignan
– Gallery Sens Intérieur, Cogolin
– SoHo Art Gallery Osaka, Japan
– Millésime Gallery, Paris
– Atlantic Gallery, New York
– Salon Photo, Fronton
– Galerie À La Barak, Montpellier

2012
– Le Cactus, Toulouse
– Galerie Photon, Toulouse
– FIEC Ulianovsk, Russia
– Dyeing in Cogolin, Gulf of St-Tropez
– Infini Tea, Toulouse
– European Nude Photo Festival, Arles
– Le Rad’Art, Toulouse
– La Cantine du Salin, Toulouse

Source:

https://www.maecene-arts.com/louisblanc

https://www.kazoart.com/en/artiste-contemporain/1494-louis-blanc

https://www.photographize.co/articles/louisblanc

Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami

Susanna Temkin, curator

Susanna Temkin, curator,Art History, Museum Studies, and Painting
Susanna Temkin, curator,Art History, Museum Studies, and Painting

Susanna Temkin

Art History, Museum Studies, and Painting

Curator at El Museo del Barrio

Susanna V. Temkin is Curator at El Museo del Barrio, where she recently co-curated the museum’s inaugural Triennial exhibition, La Trienal-ESTAMOS BIEN (2020-2021).  At El Museo, she also co-organized the recently opened exhibitions EN FOCO: The New York Puerto Rican Experience, 1973-1974 (2021-2022); Popular Painters & Other Visionaries (2021-2022); as well as the museum’s fiftieth anniversary exhibition, Culture and the People (2019). Temkin earned her master’s and PhD degrees from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, where her research focused on modern art in the Americas, with a focus on Cuba. Prior to El Museo, she served as Assistant Curator at Americas Society in New York, as well as the research and archive specialist at the Cecilia de Torres, Ltd., where she assisted in co-authoring the digital catalogue raisonné of artist Joaquín Torres-García. Temkin has published essays and reviews in exhibition catalogues and magazines including the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Alice Neel: People Come First; the Rutgers Art Review; Burlington Magazine; among others.

EDUCATION
PhD May 2016, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York
History of Art and Archaeology
Dissertation: “Un arte social y revolucionario: Marcelo Pogolotti and the International
Avant-­‐Garde “
Advisor: Edward Sullivan
M.A. 2010, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York
History of Art and Archaeology
Qualifying Papers: “A Pan-­‐American Art Exhibit for the World of Tomorrow: The 1939 and
1940 Latin American Art Exhibitions at the Riverside Museum”
“Juxtapositions in Composition: A Re-­‐evaluation of The Conversion of
Mary Magdalene by Juan Correa”
B.A. 2007, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
Magna cum laude; Art History (with distinction), Spanish, English minor

CURATORIAL AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
July 2018 Curator, El Museo del Barrio, New York

  • Curated and co-­‐organized Culture and the People: El Museo del Barrio, 1969-­‐
    2019
  • Co-­‐curated Diálogos section at 2019 Frieze New York art fair
    July 2016-­‐Nov. 2017 Assistant Curator, Americas Society, New York
  • Research, coordinate shipping, and supervise installation of all exhibitions
  • Lead exhibition tours and participate in public programming
  • Assist as managing editor for exhibition catalogues: Told and Untold: The Photo
    Stories of Kati Horna in the Illustrated Press (2016); Erick Meyenberg: The wheel
    bears no resemblance to a leg (2017); José Leonilson: Empty Man (2017)
  • Maintain department budget
    Sept.-­‐Oct. 2016 Curator, Atmospheres and Entropies: Works on Paper by Catalina Chervin, Art Museum
    of the Americas, F Street Gallery, Washington D.C.
    Sept.-­‐Oct. 2016 Curator, Catalina Chervin’s It and Canto, Herman Maril Teaching and Research Gallery,
    University of Maryland Art Gallery
    2011-­‐2016 Research and Archive Specialist, Cecilia de Torres, Ltd., New York
  • Led project for the public release of the online catalogue raisonné of
    Uruguayan modernist artist, Joaquín Torres-­‐García (www.torresgarcia.com)
  • Curated 2016 Summer exhibition, Under the Influence
  • Researched and organized gallery archives related to Torres-­‐García and his
    workshop, the Taller Torres-­‐García
  • Wrote and edited gallery texts, press releases, applications, etc.
    2014-­‐2015 The Great Hall Exhibitions Co-­‐Curator, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
    Spring 2015: FÉLIX GONZÁLEZ-­‐TORRES
    Fall 2014: EXPAND//FOLD//COLLAPSE//Sculptures by Marta Chilindron
  • Curated two contemporary art exhibitions held in the historic Great Hall of the
    Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
  • Organized events related to Great Hall Exhibitions, including opening
    receptions, artist conversations, and panel presentations

Summer 2010 Curatorial Intern, Abu Dhabi Department, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York

  • Assisted with research for exhibitions for the Guggenheim, Abu Dhabi
    2009-­‐2010 Curatorial Assistant (Temporary Hire), Curatorial Intern, El Museo del Barrio, New York
  • Contributed to preparation and installation of the exhibitions Nexus New York,
    Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement; and Retro/Active: The
    Works of Rafael Ferrer
  • Researched and wrote artists’ bibliographies for Nexus New York exhibition
    catalogue, and accompanying Google Map highlighting New York City locations
    of artists’ homes, studios, and commissions
    http://www.elmuseo.org/en/nexus-­‐new-­‐york-­‐map
    2007-­‐2009 WebWise Coordinator, The Wolfsonian-­‐Florida International University,
    Miami Beach, Florida
  • Executed and managed Wolfsonian-­‐FIU grant from the Institute of Museum
    and Library Services to co-­‐host the 2008 and 2009 WebWise Conferences,
    which convened 350 museum, library, and archive professionals to discuss the
    impact of emerging digital technologies on cultural institutions
    Summer 2007 Curatorial and Registrar’s Department Intern, The Bass Museum of Art, Miami, Florida
    ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
    Spring 2012 Adjunct Professor, History of Western Art I, New York University
    Kerry Barrett, New York University
    Spring 2011 Course Assistant, Latin American & Caribbean Art in Paris 1880-­‐1990
    Edward Sullivan, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
    Fall 2010 Course Assistant, Modern Art in Four Latin American Centers
    Edward Sullivan, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
    Fall 2010 Student Assistant
    David O’Connor, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
    FELLOWSHIPS & GRANTS
    2015-­‐2016 Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship, New York University
    2015 Bader Student Travel Fellowship, Institute of Fine Arts
    2013 and 2012 Institute on the Study of Latin American Art Research Grant, Institute of Fine Arts
    2012 Graduate Studies Enhancement Grant, Social Science Research Council
    2010-­‐2011 Samuel F.B. Morse Fellowship, Institute of Fine Arts
    Summer 2009 Shelby White and Leon Levy Travel Fellowship, Institute of Fine Arts
    Spring 2009 Lila Acheson Wallace Scholarship, Institute of Fine Arts
    Fall 2008 Sheldon Solow Scholarship, Institute of Fine Arts
    2005-­‐2007 Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship
    PUBLICATIONS
    Ongoing Freelance writer, Latin American Art Department, Christie’s, New York (since 2014)
    2018 Contributor, Art Market Dictionary, De Gruter
    2018 Contributor, Grove Encyclopedia of Latin American Art, Oxford University Press
    2018 “International Intersection: Marcelo Pogolotti at the Galerie Carrefour,” Passages à Paris,
    Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris (forthcoming)
    2018 Exhibition Review “Adiós Utopia: Dreams and Deceptions in Cuban Art Since 1950” College Art
    Association http://www.caareviews.org/reviews/3286

2018 Exhibition Review “Tarsila do Amaral: Inventing Modern Art in Brazil,” The Burlington Magazine,
No. 3282, Vol. 160
2017 “José Leonilson: Empty Man” in José Leonilson: Empty Man (New York, Americas Society). Co-­‐
authored with Cecilia Brunson and Gabriela Rangel
2017 “Curating on the Divide” Americas Quarterly, Volume 11, Issue 2, p. 128-­‐135. Co-­‐authored with
Verónica Flom
2016 Chronology and biographies Concrete Cuba: Cuban Geometric Abstraction from the 1950s (New
York: David Zwirner Books)
2015 Joaquín Torres-­‐García Catalogue Raisonné. http://torresgarcia.com Co-­‐authored with Cecilia
de Torres
2015 Exhibition Review: “Eighth Floor, Please” The Institute of Fine Art’s Contemporary Art Consortium
blog, September 21 http://ifacontemporary.org/the-­‐eighth-­‐floor-­‐please/
2014 “Conversation between Susanna V. Temkin and Linda Kohen,” Linda Kohen: Private Life: My House,
My Table, My Bed, My Self (New York: Cecilia de Torres, Ltd.)
2014 “Cuban Art and Culture In and Around the 1939-­‐1940 New York World’s Fair,” Journal of Curatorial
Studies, Volume 3, No. 2-­‐3, p. 238-­‐263.
2014 “EXPAND//FOLD//COLLAPSE//Sculptures by Marta Chilindron,” electronic exhibition catalog, The
Great Hall Exhibitions, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/fineart/events/great-­‐hall-­‐exhibitions.htm
2012 “Paris Politics, and Soto: A Conversation with Estrellita B. Brodsky,” The Institute of Fine Art’s
Contemporary Art Consortium blog, January 29
http://ifacontemporary.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/paris-­‐politics-­‐and-­‐soto-­‐a-­‐conversation-­‐ with-­‐
estrellita-­‐b-­‐brodsky/
2011 Exhibition review: “Nueva York: 1613-­‐1945: El Museo del Barrio in collaboration with the New York
Historical Society,” Hemisphere: Visual Cultures of the Americas, Volume IV, p. 129-­‐136.
2011 Exhibition Review: “Luis Camnitzer at El Museo del Barrio,” The Institute of Fine Art’s Contemporary
Art Consortium blog, March 10
http://ifacontemporary.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/luis-­‐camnitzer-­‐at-­‐el-­‐museo-­‐del-­‐barrio/
2011 “A Pan-­‐American Art Exhibit for the World of Tomorrow: The 1939 and 1940 Latin American Art
Exhibitions at the Riverside Museum,” Rutgers Art Review, Volume 27, p. 49-­‐67.
2011 Catalogue Entries: “Elena del Rivero” and “Gloria Ortiz-­‐Hernández” Art=Text=Art: Works by
Contemporary Artists, electronic exhibition catalogue,
http://www.artequalstext.com/category/susanna-­‐temkin/
2006 “The Transition to El Greco’s ‘Extravagant’ Late Style,’” The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship
Journal
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
2019 Zilia Sanchez Sympoisum, The Phillips Collection
Paper: Zilia Sanchez at El Museo del Barrio
2019 Sixth Latino Art Now! Conferene: Sight Lines and Time Frames
Respondant: Self Help Graphics at Fifty
2017 College Art Association Annual Conference, Washington D.C.
Moderator: “Alternate Revolutions: Re-­‐Examining Cuban Art Beyond 1959”
2016 New Directions in Cuban Studies Conference, University of Miami Cuban Heritage Collection,
Miami, FL
Paper: “Contested Cubanidad: Marcelo Pogolotti”
2016 College Art Association Annual Conference, Washington D.C.
Paper: “Authorship and the Workshop: The Case of Joaquín Torres-­‐García’s Monumento”

2015 Immunity/Community, Cultural Analysis and Theory Department at Stony Brook University
Paper: “Bourgeois Immunity and Revolutionary Community: A Case Study of Marcelo Pogolotti’s
Cadeau a la maitresse“
2013 Passages through Paris International Conference, Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris
Paper: “International Intersection: Marcelo Pogolotti at the Galerie Carrefour”
2013 College Art Association Annual Conference, New York
Paper: “Cuban Art and Culture In and Around the 1939-­‐1940 New York World’s Fair”
2013 Latin American Art Bibliography Symposium, New York Public Library
Presentation on New York based research practices about Latin American art
2012 Fine Arts Graduate Student Symposium at La Maison Française, New York University
Paper: “Cubans in Paris: Carlos Enriquéz and Marcelo Pogolotti”
2010 International Research Forum for Graduate Students and Emerging Scholars at The University of
Texas at Austin
Paper: “From International Exposition to the Archive: Latin American Art at the 1939-­‐1940 New
York World’s Fair”
2010 El Museo del Barrio Simposio, New York
Paper: “The Impact of Alfred Stieglitz: Marius de Zayas’ Up and Down Fifth Avenue”
2010 Institute of Fine Arts, In-­‐House Symposium, New York
Paper: “A Pan-­‐American Art Exhibit for the World of Tomorrow: The 1939 and 1940 Latin
American Art Exhibitions at the Riverside Museum”
UNIVERSITY AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
2019 Jury, UMEZ [Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone] Arts Engagement Grant
2018 Invited Speaker, DEMAN [Duke Entertainment, Media, and Arts Network]
2016 Organizing Committee, IFA-­‐ISLAA Symposium: Realisms: Politics, Art, and Visual Culture in
the Americas
2015 Mellon Mays Fellows Professional Network Mentoring Program
2010-­‐2011 Graduate Student Association Committee, Institute of Fine Arts

  • Liaison between graduate students and faculty and staff
  • Communicated information about academic and job opportunities to students
    working in the fields of Latin American and Spanish art
    2009-­‐2010 Spanish and Latin American Student Representative, Institute of Fine Arts
  • Communicated information about academic and job opportunities
  • Organized events for students working in the fields of Latin American and
    Spanish art
    2006-­‐2007 Duke University Union Visual Arts Committee Chair
  • Managed a programming budget of $17,000+
  • Coordinated art exhibits by local North Carolina artists in the Louise Jones
    Brown Gallery as well as two student galleries in Duke University Libraries
    2005-­‐2007 Nasher Student Advisory Board, Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University
  • Liaison between Duke University student body and Nasher Museum of Art
  • Coordinated programming for monthly “Art for All!” series.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Alliance of Museums
Association of Latin American Art
Catalogue Raisonné Scholars Association
U.S. Latinx Art Forum
LANGUAGES
Spanish, French (reading), Italian (reading), Catalan (reading), Portuguese (reading)

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Pérez Art Museum Miami
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