Pattern Pulp

Power Plays & Transparent Barriers




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I recently worked on four sets of FW 16/17 palettes for The Color Association for our biannual meeting. Whenever it’s time to convene, I spend a few weeks fixated on key visuals from the fashion, art, news and technology worlds and try to wrap my head around general cultural themes that have evolutional staying power.

I collect imagery and toy with ideas tied to politics, pop culture and generational shifts while attempting to trust my gut with what’s relevant and what feels tired. Sometimes it’s optimistic, other times it’s a bit grim. Mostly though, it’s a balancing act of positive and negative forces.

Here are a few magazine tears that caught my eye and fed some of my thinking in the last report. The palettes are for women’s fashion, so I always try to consider the commercial messaging I’m being fed. These fence and fishnet themes kept popping up in the pages of editorial shoots and fashion advertising. Looking at them, I see lust, capture, bondage, transparency, barriers, and female role playing.

Personally, this not-so-subtle messaging seems to both endorse and artistically react to the sexualization and confinement of women, a theme with unfortunate staying power in past and present realities.

This imagery contradicts the Lean In mentality society embraced in 2013.  Can you imagine Tavi Gevinson, Taylor Swift or Leandra Medine – all thought leaders and Gen Y role models modeling in fetishized meek poses? It seems to go against the grain of art by women for women – especially with a lack of underlying humor and irony (except for maybe the blue face mask).

There’s a fine line between art, fashion and propaganda, and while these magazine pages have abstract beauty to them, they also convey stark messaging. It’s simply hard to detach them from today’s political matters – specifically in regard to gender power plays and violence against women. In absorbing these works as a whole, I wonder where we’re headed over the next few years.

I’m also curious how you all read into them. Are you seeing what I’m seeing? And, does the 2016 election paint a brighter picture for women or are we just momentarily circulating within a culture that celebrates these ideals?

December 11, 2014 | By: Shayna Kulik

Tuesday's Gallery Picks




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Nerds rejoice! This week’s gallery picks highlight the delight of books and the written word.

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1. In this exhibition of new work, Sam Jaffe continues her investigation into the tensions between the handmade and the industrial made. Jaffe states, “Above all, my work is about surrendering to materials and the fetishistic nature of material culture.” at 65GRAND
2. The Archives, Tony Bevan’s latest series, sees the artist taking on infinite space. Inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Library of Babel”, a story depicting the universe as a library, these labyrinthine repositories of books allude to the vast spaces of the imagination at Ben Brown Fine Arts
3. When Danae Falliers explored the extraordinary, Rem Koolhaas-designed, Seattle Public Library, she photographed the building and its endless stacks and shelves of neatly organized books. Due to the relatively low lighting conditions, all of the text along the book spines softly disappeared, and Falliers recognized that her library photographs had edged closer to pure abstraction, an idea that she with ran with when creating the work for this exhibition at Craig Krull Gallery
4. Charlotte Cornation’s porcelain books inspired by her oniric life using Jung dream interpretation at Galerie BSL
5. Dwyer Kilcollin latest work is deeply invested in an examination of the image from the inside out. Kilcollin’s work encapsulates a fluency in the virtual that is subsequently rendered materially-cast by hand using a gestural application of crushed rock and resin.  Many of the works evoke familiar forms: a sweater, a book, a backpack, a pair of binoculars-their forms pigmented by the view beyond the fence  at M+B
6. In Self Illuminated, Christine La Sala asks, “What can we learn from The Giant Quiz Book?” This propels her to explore the possibility of illumination through assemblage, dioramas, and light, offering interpretations on questions from the book at Alter Space

December 10, 2014 | By: Shayna Kulik

Color & Craft with Mira Hecht




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While exploring Artsy this morning, I stumbled upon Mira Hecht’s kaleidoscopic patterns. Her line work has a softness that’s distinctly abstract in comparison to the mathematic perfection of computer animated art. The dream-like quality and defined color palettes have craft roots in African, Asian and Middle Eastern arts blending cultures, moods and references. “Inspired by glimpses of perfection within the mind’s eye, each painting is meant to be a small gesture of exhalation, pointing to joy, connection and wholeness,” Hecht says. The works are currently on display through March in Washington, D.C. at the Addison Ripley Find Art Gallery. Pop in for a visit if you’re in and around the Dupont area!

 

December 8, 2014 | By: Shayna Kulik

Enjoying Marcus Oakley's Art




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Last night, I discovered Marcus Oakley’s work on instagram. I was reeled in by this image, but found myself scrolling through his blog til 1 in the morning. I love the sketches, the shapes, the color ways and the painted cardboard objects. The process makes a lot of sense, as one style begets the next, and so on. To view Oakey’s steady stream of work, check out his blog, it’s filled with gems of the texture, pattern and illustration variety.

 

December 4, 2014 | By: Shayna Kulik

Creative Ensambles & Art Basel




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As the art and fashion worlds descend upon Miami this week, you can bet that the clothing will mirror the gallery exhibitions. Beyond interesting styling, there are patterns and textiles that are truly going the distance this season, presenting themselves are works of art. Here are a few favorites that incorporate color blocking, surrealism, asymmetry and line work, reminiscent of Sol Lewitt. Any favorites in the bunch?

1) Bottega Veneta, Net-a-Porter  2) Ellery, Moda Operandi  3) Alice Mccall, Moda Operandi  4) Alexander Lewis, Net-a-Porter  5) Kenzo, Moda Operandi  6) Fendi, Net-a-Porter  7) Dries Van Noten, Barneys 8) Muller, Moda Operandi

 

December 3, 2014 | By: Shayna Kulik

Tuesday's Gallery Picks




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This week’s gallery picks are all about observations and the interpretations of moments.

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1. For true enough, Mary Temple debuts lush paintings on canvas and panel—text based abstractions embedded with philosophical and political phrases culled from cultural observation at Mixed Greens
2. POSE’s work explore the ever-evolving notion of the American Dream and its sometimes tenuous relationship to an experienced American history at Library Street Collective
3. Agostino Iacurci takes inspiration from everyday life creating bright multi-layered images, playing with synthetic shapes, bright colors and open titles. “Match Mismatch” is a consideration around the crucial role given to coincidences and correspondences in the interpretation and codification of reality at 19 Karen
4. Michelle Andrade debuts a series of seven acrylic-on- linen paintings that extend her text-based drawings into new figural ground. The work retains the poetic and diaristic qualities of Andrade’s earlier Notebook drawing series, commingling the mundane, the poetic, and the confessional amidst a swirl of brightly colored, nostalgic graphic forms at Charlie James Gallery
5. Jason Willaford’s latest body of work, “Bring into the Fold”, explores his constructivist methodology of quilted, cut and sewn discarded, petroleum-based billboards. It references the prolapse, the idea that these pieces are captured of galvanized at intervals in space and time by sewing pieces of vinyl together, as well as conglomerate constructions, where the artist either revisits or remains in the moment with the pieces at Galleri Urbane Marfa + Dallas
6.The work in Polly Apfelbaum’s exhibition “Colour Sessions” grew out of the artist’s experience Rome and, in particular, her fascination with the drapery and colored fabrics depicted in Renaissance and Baroque paintings which she saw there at Frith Street Gallery

December 2, 2014 | By: Shayna Kulik

Tracking Repetitive + Awesome.
On Instagram.