Philip Smith on Night Sky
Maake Interviews Wade Tullier
Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in becoming an artist? Who or what were some of your most important early influences?
I grew up in a very small town called Pigeon in southern Louisiana. Needless to say, there isn’t any art happening there but there is a ton of nature. During that time, I would draw nonstop, trees, animals, and these small characters on the packaging, video games, etc. It was seen as a hobby by my parents so I wasn’t really exposed to art or the possibility of being an artist until I was in college. I think in my third year of college, I finally signed up for a basic drawing course and was assigned to learn about Alberto Giacometti, which turned out to be amazing for me. I didn’t know I could do something like be an artist but that really set me onto the course I am today. Shortly, after I began stumbling across and finding artists like Kiki Smith, Thomas Houseago, Jenny Saville, Martin Puryear, Lucy Skaer, and plenty of others.
Where are you currently based and what initially attracted you to working in this place? Are there any aspects of this specific location or community that have inspired aspects of your work?
I am currently based in Detroit, Michigan. I began working in Detroit after having graduated from Cranbrook Academy of Art which is in nearby Bloomfield Hills. I chose to stay and work in Detroit because I had an art handling position right out of graduate school. It was also very easy to stay because a large group of my friends decided to stay as well.
Can you describe your studio space? What are some of the most crucial aspects of a studio that make it functional? Do any of these specific aspects directly affect your work?
My studio space is approximately 400sqft within a larger 1200sqft space that I share with other artists. I do everything in my studio! I have a photo booth set up, kilns, storage, power tools for crating, and of course everything I need to make clay sculptures. My work is definitely affected by my current studio setup–works need to be of a certain size to fit into the kiln, be photographed, etc. but I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way.
What is a typical day like? If you don't have a typical day, what is an ideal day?
On a typical day, I usually spend about 8 hours working in my studio. There is always some kind of paperwork or planning that needs to be done as well. I usually try to cut out as many distractions before I go to work which means doing planning for the day in the morning, running errands, gathering supplies, etc. to then have uninterrupted time later in the day.
What gets you in a creative mindset?
When I see how things and objects operate in the world–mechanical, symbolic, etc. often gets the creative juices flowing for me. I love to think in broad lateral strokes and how things can be applied to what I am doing from another field of study. I am often asking myself, “how can I do that?” and follow it up with drawings about the possibilities. This process I think enables me to then go into the studio and hash it out in clay.
What criteria do you follow for selecting materials? How long have you worked with this particular media or method?
I stick with one or two kinds of clay to work with. The one I use is very sandy and gritty and is made for sculptural works. Clay can vary so much in terms of its malleability, strength, and color that I have settled on only a few kinds to get somewhat predictable results. I’ve been working with this same style of clay for about 5 years now. Periodically, I will do several tests with other clays and glazes and have a bit of fun, but I usually don’t care for the results.
Can you walk us through your overall process? How long has this approach been a part of your practice?
Most of everything I create starts from a series of drawings. I continually sketch and redraw combinations of works to flush out the possibilities. This part of my process happens daily and I have hundreds of drawings that I reference when I am building in the studio. I only create about 10% of what is drawn, mostly due to a variety of technical challenges such as gravity and fragility.
Can you talk about some of the ongoing interests, imagery, and concepts that have informed your process and body of work over time? How do you anticipate your work progressing in the future?
All of the imagery within my work can be traced back to my daily encounters with wildlife, a history of natural disasters, human-made catastrophes, the stories I heard as a child, growing up in the American South, and occasionally my experience as a forensic sculptor and researcher. In the future, I am continuing this exploration of personal myth and storytelling. I’m working to introduce new forms and build upon the previous work to create larger sculptures. Some of the new imagery I am working on within drawings now includes festivals, celebrations, and potlucks.
Do you pursue any collaborations, projects, or careers in addition to your studio practice? If so, can you tell us more about those projects, and are there connections between your studio practice and these endeavors?
I typically do not pursue many collaborative projects but am always open to the idea. I like discussing the opportunity to see what each participant can bring to a collaboration. Two projects I’ve done in the past include making a small edition of sculptures for the online art platform Exhibition A and working with Drum Machine Editions and Rita Mookerjee to publish a collaborative book of drawings and poems.
As a result of the pandemic, many artists have experienced limited access to their studios or loss of exhibitions, income, or other opportunities. Has your way of working (or not working) shifted significantly during this time? Are there unexpected insights or particular challenges you’ve experienced?
Everything for me exploded when the pandemic hit. I had been teaching, which totally changed overnight to a “remote” platform, which is mind-boggling in regards to ceramics. I lost that position at the end of the semester. In addition to this, I was a preparator and art handler at an art museum. That job also didn’t last long in the pandemic and I was forced to try to find work elsewhere. I did quite a lot of freelance art installation for private clients in the time after moving on from the museum but ultimately made a decision to try to focus on my art practice, which had temporarily moved into my basement during lockdown. In March, before lockdown, I traveled and installed a solo show in Columbus, Ohio, which never opened to the public. However, in the following months, I managed to secure several serious opportunities to show my work–mostly thanks to social media. Even with the good news, it was hard to focus while the world seemed to be melting down but it was really one of only a few things I could do to eel somewhat okay. And it was a serious challenge to want to make work. There is a ton of sculptures that I made during lockdown that no one has ever seen. I made them as a combination of habit, emotional support, and sheer will and they were necessary for me to process what was happening.
Can you share some of your recent influences? Are there specific works—from visual art, literature, film, or music—that are important to you?
The film, “Hard to Be a God” by Aleksei German is something I think about often and seems important to me even though I do not know why. It’s a really hard film to watch and is long and disorienting. But I think unfortunately it has a lot of connections to the present state of the world.
My influences come from my past and the experiences I continue to have. Apart from that, I really try to not be influenced by external voices so much- especially in visual art. Some important things to me are revisiting where I grew up, reintroducing myself to that culture, and continuing to hear the stories of the people who live there. Those are the things that drive my work into unexpected directions and self-discoveries.
Who are some contemporary artists you’re excited about? What are the best exhibitions you’ve seen in recent memory and why do they stand out?
‘Adam Pendleton: Who is Queen?’ at MoMA is easily one of the best exhibitions I’ve seen in years. The towering five-story structures supporting sculpture, painting, moving images, textiles, and sound sculptures were stunning. I was completely overwhelmed and engaged with his work. From multiple stories within the museum, you could view Pendleton’s works. It felt as if exploring the works from floor to floor was excavating memories and history.
‘Brie Ruais: Some Things I Know About Being A Body’ at albertz benda gallery was a very stunning recent show as well. Her work is so visceral and raw but transforms into these very beautiful bursts of glazed ceramic. The comparisons between the natural and human worlds as well as the mind and the body are really powerful connections that fascinate me endlessly.
Do you have any tips or advice that someone has shared with you that you have found particularly helpful?
Don’t compare yourself to others. Ever.
What are you working on in the studio right now? What’s coming up next for you?
Right now, I’m focusing on an upcoming solo show at The Sculpture Center in Cleveland. The exhibition will showcase some new dog-themed sculptures, so I’ve been making a ton of dogs, puppies, and dog toys–mostly balls. After that my focus will shift toward completing some large-scale commissions and various works for group shows.
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BIO
Wade Tullier (b.1988, Baton Rouge, Louisiana) is a visual artist working primarily in ceramics and sculpture. His work and process are heavily influenced by storytelling, myth, and being raised within the landscape of southern Louisiana. He holds a BFA from Louisiana State University and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Tullier has exhibited nationally and internationally with shows in Miami, Chicago, Detroit, Reykjavik, and Munich. He was also included in the influential ceramics exhibition, 'Clay Pop' at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in New York.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Storytelling, the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, is an oral form of language, predating the written word, associated with the practices and values essential to developing one's identity. Much in how our ancestors pass down anecdotes to shape the community's morals and educate younger generations, Tullier's practice mimics these verbal processes. The repetition he puts forth develops into a physical myth, adding a multitude of layers to the dominant stories surrounding Tullier's work. "I make sculptures that depict animals, figures, phenomena, and everyday objects. They are always recognizable but become elusive as I continue to reinterpret each piece. In this way, my sculptures act as characters in oral history: they transform as they are retold. While these objects remain familiar and are easily identifiable, the combinations of works remain ambiguous. They echo the layered, nonlinear structure of memory as it is excavated through storytelling."
Hypebeast on Nina Chanel Abney for Miami World Center
Miami's Worldcenter Unveils $5 Million USD Art Initiative
Tapping Nina Chanel Abney as the first to create work for the space.
Worldcenter is a new sprawling multi-use complex in the heart of Miami that seeks to revitalize the downtown area through a range of shopping, dining and hotel attractions. Today, the group unveiled a $5m USD public art initiative that will bring world-class creatives to the burgeoning destination.
As the first artist to be enlisted, Nina Chanel Abney painted several murals that were inspired by the historically Black neighborhood of Overtown. “I created pictorial language to tell an imagined narrative that investigates community renewals and removals,” Abney said in a statement, adding, “The mural location, a tunnel formed by the dark passageway under the building, inspired me to consider the legacy of preserving sacred spaces with story. I hope to spark a dialogue around gentrification and encourage a curiosity amongst viewers to engage with and learn about the previous and adjacent neighborhoods.”
Located just across the street from the FTX Arena, the project was curated by gallerist Jeffrey Deitch and Miami-based art collective, Primary, the latter of which has produced a range of public projects with the likes of Hunter Potter and Derrick Adams, amongst many. “We believe the most successful public art must be visually engaging and dialogue with the immediate environment,” said Primary’s founding partner, Books Bischof, in an interview with ARTnews.
Worldcenter is currently under construction and is expected to open to the public later this year.
ARTnews on Nina Chanel Abney for Miami World Center
A New Public Art Program Launches in Miami with Massive Nina Chanel Abney Mural
By Tessa Solomon
A new $5 million public art initiative will bring major commissions by world-class contemporary artists to downtown Miami. First up is a monumental mural by Nina Chanel Abney.
The work is a joyful mashup of graphic figures, bold color planes, and musical notes that was inspired by Overtown, a historic Black neighborhood in Miami. It spans the length of a passageway under a property within the mixed-used development called Worldcenter, a self-described “city within a city.”
“I created pictorial language to tell an imagined narrative that investigates community renewals and removals,” Abney said in a statement. “The mural location, a tunnel formed by the dark passageway under the building, inspired me to consider the legacy of preserving sacred spaces with story. I hope to spark a dialogue around gentrification and encourage a curiosity amongst viewers to engage with and learn about the previous and adjacent neighborhoods.”
To realize the program’s aesthetic vision, art dealer Jeffrey Deitch, who maintains gallery spaces in Los Angeles and New York, worked with the Miami-based curatorial collective Primary, which has spearheaded a mix of public projects and gallery exhibitions across Miami that center the city’s diverse history.
“We believe the most successful public art must be visually engaging and dialogue with the immediate environment,” Books Bischof, founding partner of Primary told ARTnews. “Historic Overtown is a stone’s throw from Nina Chanel Abney’s mural. Allowing this history to inform her art makes for the most significant public work.”
A wave of real estate construction is currently transforming Miami’s downtown, which had suffered for decades from a lack of local investment. The 27-acre, $4 billion Miami Worldcenter is the second largest of such multipurpose urban developments in the U.S., trailing only Manhattan’s slick commercial playground Hudson Yards.
As part of its commitment to the city, Worldcenter has stressed the importance of community involvement. It created an art advisory committee of cultural professionals that includes Franklin Sirmans, director of Pérez Art Museum Miami; Nicholas Baume, director, and chief curator of Public Art Fund; and Cecilia Alemani, director and chief curator of High Line Art in New York, as well as artistic director of the 2022 Venice Biennale.
In addition to Abney’s mural, Worldcenter has also commissioned designer, sculptor, and performance artist Nick Cave, Miami-based painter Viktor El-Saieh, and Texas-based artist Trenton Doyle Hancock to create new work for the site so far. Worldcenter expects to unveil two more large-scale artworks this year, with more details forthcoming.
Bischof added, “It’s magic to see [Abney’s mural] come to fruition; for the program at Miami World Center, this is only the beginning.”
A large-scale mural inspired by Overtown, a historic Black neighborhood in Miami, at Miami Worldcenter. The mural was made by artist Nina Chanel Abney. Photography by Oriol Tarridas.
Jeffrey Deitch & Primary Curate Miami World Center
‘A gift to the city.’ This $4 billion development
is creating an outdoor museum in Miami
BY AMANDA ROSA
At first glance, Miami Worldcenter, a sprawling multi-use complex in the heart of downtown, seems like South Florida’s premier spot to spend, spend, spend.
Worldcenter has been unveiling one attraction after another: an open-air “high street retail” center, a 60-story luxury condo that changes colors and an infinity sky pool overlooking the city. Its latest addition, though, is completely free.
Miami Worldcenter is announcing a $5 million public art program to display museum-quality works at the complex to attract art-loving locals and tourists. The program, which cements Worldcenter’s place in Miami’s growing and profitable arts scene, has already completed its first public artwork: a massive mural inspired by nearby Overtown by artist Nina Chanel Abney.
A large-scale mural inspired by Overtown, a historic Black neighborhood in Miami, at Miami Worldcenter. The mural was made by artist Nina Chanel Abney. Photography by Oriol Tarridas.
“The art was something that had to be here,” said Benjamin Feldman, the executive vice president of Miami Worldcenter Associates, the development team behind the project. “It was integral to the project.”
Worldcenter joins the likes of the Design District and Aventura Mall to implement a robust public art program alongside luxury and trendy stores. The program was spearheaded by prolific curator and art dealer Jeffrey Deitch and the team at Primary, a Miami-based curatorial collective that focuses on public art.
So far, Worldcenter has commissioned five artists for the project, including Viktor El-Saieh, a Miami-raised painter of Haitian and Palestinian heritage, and Woody De Othello, a Miami-born sculptor known for infusing his art with a sense of humor. Two to three new artworks will be unveiled this year, and agreements with more artists are in the works.
The idea for the program was years in the making. Miami Worldcenter — a 27-acre, $4 billion site dedicated to hotels, condos, offices, and retail space — is one of the largest private real-estate developments in the United States. Developers seek to construct Miami’s version of New York City’s Hudson Yards, a flashy, up-scale mixed-use space in Manhattan.
Developers had kept in contact with Primary, which had a gallery in that area before plans for Worldcenter came to fruition, Feldman said. As new buildings were erected, Worldcenter wanted to embrace art as part of the development, not abandon it, he said. “The art is just one of those things that bring people who might not find a unit, they might not buy something at the store, they might not stay in hotels,” Feldman said. “But it fosters a community.”
Worldcenter also created an art advisory committee of renowned curators and museum directors to help shape the program. The committee includes Franklin Sirmans, director of Pérez Art Museum Miami; Alex Gartenfeld, artistic director at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Nicholas Baume, director and chief curator of Public Art Fund; and Cecilia Alemani, director and chief curator of High Line Art in New York.
Primary and Deitch were the perfect fit to curate the program, Feldman said.
Deitch’s vision for the project was to create an “outdoor museum” that focused on figuration, or art that depicts people. Normally, he explained, public art tends to be non-controversial abstract designs. For Worldcenter, he wanted pieces about people, especially Miami’s people, like Abney’s mural.
“The public wants to see art about their lives,” Deitch said.
Abney’s colorful mural, which spans the entirety of a tunnel, is one of the most ambitious works she has done, she said. The work was inspired by Overtown, a historic Black neighborhood in Miami a short drive from Worldcenter. Abney said that she wants the mural to encourage viewers to learn more about neighborhoods like Overtown and to start a dialogue around gentrification.
“I used this project as an opportunity to think about the unfortunate legacies of gentrification that erase the rich histories of vibrant Black and Brown communities,” Abney wrote in an email. “The mural location, a tunnel formed by the dark passageway under the building, inspired me to consider the recognition of sacred spaces with story.”
Deitch said he was especially excited for people to see Abney’s work.
A large-scale mural inspired by Overtown, a historic Black neighborhood in Miami, at Miami Worldcenter. The mural was made by artist Nina Chanel Abney. Photography by BEN FELDMAN
“It’s just remarkable,” he said. ”This is one of the major public murals in the United States right now.”
For Primary, now based in Little River, the opportunity is a “homecoming,” said co-founder Books Bischof. The group has deep roots in Miami’s public art scene. In 2007, as Art Basel Miami Beach grew in popularity, Bischof and his partners invited muralists and graffiti artists from around the world to flood Wynwood with its now-celebrated murals. Bischof, who stressed the importance of accessible art, said he looks forward to people revisiting Worldcenter to discover new works as they roll out over time, just as visitors would return to Wynwood every year to see new murals. “It’s romantic. It’s exciting,” he said. “It’s like giving a gift to the city.”
Chana Budgazad Sheldon on Philip Smith for Curator
MOCA North Miami Director Chana Budgazad Sheldon speaks with artist Philip Smith on the occasion of his latest exhibition, Night Sky at Primary in Little River, Miami.
“As Director of MOCA, one of the benefits of my work is that I have the opportunity to meet and speak with artists, curators, and collectors. Over the past decade, I have enjoyed many conversations and studio visits with Philip Smith. On the occasion of his most recent exhibition Night Sky at Primary in Miami, I thought it was the perfect time to sit down and talk about the vision behind his latest work as well as his background as a PICTURES artist and working with Andy Warhol.”
— Chana Budgazad Sheldon
Chana Budgazad Sheldon: As a young artist, your first New York exhibition was the PICTURES show curated by Douglas Crimp along with artists Robert Longo, Sherrie Levine, Troy Brauntuch, and Jack Goldstein. Can you tell us a bit about that important moment in time?
Philip Smith: Even though we were all so young, I think we all felt we were creating something important that needed to be seen. None of the galleries were showing work like ours. Minimalism and conceptualism were the reigning art movements of the day. Image-based work was nowhere to be found. It was Douglas Crimp’s genius that he saw a new form of art on the horizon. Don’t forget this was pre-digital so images from television, magazines, and movies were immutable. However, we felt that there was meaning behind the meaning that no one was seeing. We felt there more to the culture than what was being shown to this. On many levels, we were engaged in dissecting fundamental notions about our culture.
Many of the PICTURES artists seemed focused on contemporary culture, film, television, irony, and social concerns. Your work became increasingly concerned with metaphysical issues as opposed to irony. What influenced this?
I had an unusual upbringing. Back in the sixties, my father, a designer and artist, suddenly discovered that he could talk to the dead and heal the sick. Overnight, our house became like Lourdes with my father performing miraculous cures on people that the medical profession said there was no hope and were left to die. Talking spirits and inexplicable cures were part of my daily life. I witnessed so many events that I still can’t explain. It was this experience of metaphysics that eventually became paramount in my work.
Your incredible life story is captured in your memoir, Walking Through Walls—the true story of growing up with a father who discovers he has supernatural powers. It is quite a talent to be so successful visually and through language. How did your success as a writer impact your visual arts practice?
That’s an interesting question that I’ve never been asked. Actually, the writing and the painting have constantly influenced each other. Early on, I couldn’t figure out how to make a living so I started writing art criticism for ARTS Magazine. I interviewed everyone from Bob Rauschenberg to Roy Lichtenstein. And, the paintings are a pictographic language with their own visual vocabulary. Possibly because of that, I tend to be a very visual writer. From the moment the book came out people were saying, “this should be a movie” because the writing is so visual. Hopefully, that is about to happen as the book has been optioned for television. In many ways, Walking Through Walls is the Rosetta Stone for the paintings. Warhol once said, “If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings…” In my case, if you want to know about Philip Smith, read Walking Through Walls, it’s all there.
Shortly after the PICTURES show you started writing for Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine. Tell us about your friendship with Andy.
My first interview for Interview was with Jasper Johns in his studio. That is an afternoon you don’t forget. For most people, Warhol was about celebrity and glamour. His public persona was very much about the rich and famous and their flaws. But I saw a different side. Andy was always very kind to me. I would drop by the Factory from time to time. We would chat while he was applying colored backgrounds for his paintings using a kitchen sponge mop. Often, I would join one of the many group lunches held around a big, old wooden conference table. You never knew who you would be sitting next to. The lunches were often tape-recorded and ended up in Interview.
When he had just finished the collaborative paintings with Basquiat, I went up to look at them. They were magnificent. He offered to sell me one for $5000. At the time, I lived on that amount of money for an entire year. In many ways, Andy was a Zen master. One day I was up at the Factory to photograph Andy. He started sneezing and I lowered my camera until he finished. He immediately said, “Don’t stop, these are the best photographs.” That was a huge lesson for me, that every moment is important and every moment is interesting. On Saturdays, Andy would call me to chit-chat. Later on, Andy asked me to be the Editor-in-Chief of Interview. I turned him down because I felt that I would get caught up in the Studio 54 crowd and no one would take me seriously as a painter.
Your work is always rich with multiple pictographs. It is its own visual language. Tell us about that.
As a kid, I wanted to be an archaeologist and would devour books on Egyptology. The idea of multiple images probably emerged from looking at this type of early pictographic work. In preliterate days, the churches and governments would use visual devices for communicating their ideology. I also think experiencing different dimensions with my father made me want to represent in some way all these different realities and energies that are always around us.
You have just opened an exhibition of new paintings called Night Sky at Primary Gallery in Miami. Having followed your work, this body of paintings seems to have evolved. Can you share some of the thinking behind this body of work?
I agree, this body of work is related but also somewhat different than all my other work. In some ways, I was thinking about thankgas, which are paintings of Buddha created by monks in Tibet. These are not just illustrations of Buddha’s life but are energetically alive. They impart teachings, bestow blessings, and answer prayers. These paintings are a conduit to a higher power—a very active form of art. Given all the training I had under my father, I wanted to produce art that provided an energetic benefit for the viewer.
What do you hope to accomplish with these new works?
Open people’s hearts and minds. Whether you’re a bus driver or a scientist, an artist or gardener, we all have a responsibility to make this world a better place. In Judaism, there is the concept of Tikkun Olam which means to “repair the world.” I can’t think of a more important job that any of us have right now, other than Tikkun Olam. We can all find a way to make a difference. For now, these paintings are my contribution. All of us can make contributions and they are cumulative. They make a difference. Everybody pitching in is how we get to a better place.
I love this. It connects to this moment of time so beautifully and it is a lovely way to end.
Untitled (Night Sky No. 2) : Photography by Oriol Tarridas - Courtesy of Primary.
Art in America on Philip Smith at Primary.
ASTRAL PLANES: PHILIP SMITH AT PRIMARY
By Gean Moreno
Philip Smith has always seemed the oddball of the “Pictures” generation. In theory, he worked with all the right ingredients: a generic sign system of illustrations resembling those of instruction manuals, a way of painting that ironically highlights mark-making and the medium itself, and compositions that mimic diagrams, charts, and other pedagogical tools. And yet, the results always turned out a little too quirky. No matter what he tried—building up surfaces until the pigment felt like silly-putty and then gouging out generic forms, or scratching schematic imagery onto monochrome fields—every gesture toward depersonalization further accentuated an edge of weirdness. He’s like a folksy Matt Mullican, but harder to pin down.
The quirkiness, we finally came to learn, has a specific source. Smith published a memoir in 2008, Walking Through Walls, that tracks his father’s 1960s mutation from a successful interior designer to a psychic healer, astral traveler, ashram visitor, exorcist, and macrobiotic pioneer. Characters in direct contact with the realms of the dead and the extraterrestrial fill the book. As his father masters his powers, young Philip, too, becomes aware of his own, often waking up in the middle of the night hovering above his bed.
In the past couple of years, Smith has opened up his work to these astral and spiritual forces, which freed him from the need to clearly outline and organize his symbols. In his latest exhibition, at Primary in Miami, it’s clear that Smith is still working with a limited set of signs, even if it is increasingly beholden to that of occultist traditions. Untitled (Night Sky No. 2), 2022, features various outlines—spoked and swirly wheels, marked hands, medicinal plants, cellular models, and what could be divination and numerological charts—all held together by the double helix of a DNA molecule that snakes throughout the nearly eight-foot painting. Smith draws these outlines with oil pastel and then vigorously smears them. The process rhymes with his other strategies, such as grattage and inscription, but activates the paintings in a different way. The lines, embracing a vital irregularity, come alive, and the forms start to blend. Colors, spread in a range of densities, become complex structures of varying values. In Untitled (Night Sky No. 2), the blue Smith employs alludes, at once, to cyanotypes, architectural plans, and Delft pottery, while in the equally large and vibrant Untitled (Night Sky No. 1), the black background and smeared white outlines take us back to the constellated firmament suggested in its title. The ground in these new paintings, too, now picking up pigment that comes off the outlines, carries the prickly, all-over energy of static electricity.
Untitled (Night Sky No. 1) : Photography by Oriol Tarridas - Courtesy of Primary.
Whatever it was that convinced Smith to align his pictorial practice to his everyday one of healing and taking dictation from the spirits, it has yielded interesting results—not because the paintings have gone New Agey, but because they have grown pictorially more complex and dynamic. They demand more of the viewer, in part because they offer so much information to digest and because the information is no longer presented in the schematic arrangements of earlier works, where an interpretation was already implied. The more Smith aligns his canvases to the stars, the more his compositions activate potentials that are anything but otherworldly. The potentials arise, instead, from a more interesting handling of material factors—pigments, surface, scale. Rather than suggesting portals to somewhere else, the paintings emanate an intense and vibrational here-and-nowness.
Installation View : Photography by Oriol Tarridas - Courtesy of Primary.
NADA Art Fair - Wade Tullier - Booth 10.06 - Primary.
Typoe at The Andy Warhol Museum
For immediate release
The Andy Warhol Museum announces Over The Rainbow, a new mural by artist Typoe.
The site-specific mural, on an exterior wall of the museum facing Rose Way, is inspired by Pop Art, memento mori and Froebel Gifts, colorful blocks that encourage children to make connections in their learning and experimentation.
“This mural is an opportunity to engage the public with a selection of playful forms and allow room for individuals to discover and interpret the composition,” says Typoe. “With Froebel’s gifts, children stack and align blocks within a zone of uninhibited play; with Over The Rainbow, the general public can exercise their imagination through unbridled viewing. I hope that all who visit The Warhol are welcomed by these fields of color and leave having experienced their own journey in form.”
Based in Miami, Typoe is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice plays upon the constant tension between dark and light subject matter. He has participated in gallery and museum shows around the world and exhibited his work in Mexico City, New York City, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Basel. Typoe is cofounder and Creative Director of PRIMARY, an art collective and gallery in Miami.
“Conceptualizing an outdoor commission created the perfect opportunity to invite and engage with a celebrated Latinx artist who has not exhibited in Pittsburgh but is also inspired by the life and legacy of Andy Warhol,” said José Diaz, chief curator. “This mural allows our curatorial programming to extend beyond our walls and will lead to additional projects in the future.”
The Warhol will present a free public celebration to unveil the mural – with the artist on Friday, November 12, 2021 from 6 –10 p.m. with music by Jesse Ley of Diamond Life and a cash bar. The museum will be open to the public until 10 p.m. and will offer half-price admission beginning at 5 p.m. as part of Good Fridays.
Over The Rainbow is organized by José Diaz, chief curator.
Over The Rainbow has been made possible with the generosity of the Richard King Mellon Foundation.
The Warhol receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; and The Heinz Endowments. Further support is provided by the Allegheny Regional Asset District.
The Andy Warhol Museum
Located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the place of Andy Warhol’s birth, The Andy Warhol Museum holds the largest collection of Warhol’s artworks and archival materials and is one of the most comprehensive single-artist museums in the world. The Warhol is one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
Established in 1895 by Andrew Carnegie, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh is a collection of four distinctive museums: Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Science Center, and The Andy Warhol Museum. The museums reach more than 1.4 million people a year through exhibitions, educational programs, outreach activities, and special events.
Commissioner on Philip Smith
Filmed by Jorge Gonzalez-Graupera
“All of us live miraculous lives, whether we know it or not.”
Learn more about the astonishing creativity of Philip Smith in this video, and check out the interview in The New Tropic written by Commissioner co-founder Rebekah Monson.
With the seminal 1977 exhibition PICTURES, Philip, along with other emerging artists of the time such as Robert Longo, Richard Prince and Cindy Sherman, helped shift the way we see art today. Journey with the formidable storyteller through his move to New York, artistic practice, and unusual trajectory as a bestselling writer and celebrated visual artist.
New Times on Typoe - Die Form
Words by : CAROLINA DEL BUSTO
It's one week till artist Typoe's first-ever solo show at Primary. Wooden crates that once held new, never-before-seen sculptures stand in corners of the gallery space. A thin layer of fresh sawdust covers the floor.
The artist, whose real name is Michael Gran, is co-owner and co-founder of Primary with his friends and business partners Books Bischof and Cristina Gonzalez. Although he represents one-third of the Little River gallery, "Die Form," opening Saturday, is his first solo exhibition at the space.
There's no particular explanation other than timing.
For the past five years, Gran has focused on creating large-scale pieces all over the world. He has also painted plenty of stunning outdoor — and indoor — murals. His 2016 sculpture series, "Forms From Life," even traveled to places like Argentina and, more recently, the Arkansas-based Crystal Bridges Museum.
After a much-needed reset, Gran began a journey to get back to basics and create smaller-scale pieces for a gallery show. "Die Form" is the evolution of his "Forms From Life" sculptures, featuring ten new pieces — each with the same building-block aesthetic.
The artist explains how he was inspired by German educator Friedrich Froebel, who invented the concept of kindergarten in the early 1800s. Froebel believed in the power of early education in children and its positive effects on their development. Poetically, Gran's block sculptures speak to both children and adults — to one set, they encourage creativity, to the other, they remind them that life can be both fragile and still playful.
"Die Form" is meant to be an expression of "the evolution of learning, building the world around us and how we think about life and death," Gran adds.
The sculptures in the gallery show feature some of the familiar shapes one has come to associate with the Miami artist. There's a raven, a skull, and a gravestone. Additionally, Gran has incorporated new shapes, like a blood drop and a flower. He explains that he intends to add new building blocks of life with each progression of his block pieces.
"Every time I do these pieces, more and more [blocks] will keep getting added, and eventually it will be like this hieroglyphics language that I'm sort of creating over time," he explains, extending his arms to either side of his body as if envisioning a room full of Typoe building blocks.
He smiles and looks at his partners, Bischof and Gonzalez, seated across from him.
The three creatives and art lovers founded Primary with the intent of showcasing works and artists they love.
"At the end of the day, we showed it because we were in love with it," Bischof says as his partners nod in unison.
The three have been working together in the local arts community for nearly two decades. They met in the early aughts and over the years they've become a family. One can understand what the other is thinking by dint of a simple glance or a subtle movement of the lips.
Arms crossed, Bischof silently gazes around the gallery space, pausing for a moment on every new piece hung in its place.
"He understands the space differently than anybody else would," Bischof says of Gran's show. "Typoe was a part of every step [of the gallery's design and creation]. There's just a different type of spirit that I think he's going to bring to the property [with 'Die Form']."
Reflecting on assembling Gran's first solo show with Primary, Bischof adds, "The public works felt so amazing, but there was a different body of work being made in the studio versus what people were experiencing with the public pieces and murals. So how do you then bring that energy indoors?"
"I play more outside, and I'm trying now to come back inside," Gran puts in, grinning like a kid.
"The continuation of 'Forms From Life' into 'Die Form' just shows that there are infinite combinations and infinite possibilities and that, in a nutshell, is who Typoe is and how he approaches life," Bischof explains.
"I think with everything in life — with age and experience — comes this sense of really getting to know yourself and knowing the why," Gonzalez adds. "In these works, you can see the why, the intention behind the pieces, and you can see [Gran's] progression [as an artist] and it's really beautiful. The work really shows that."
