LAUNCHPROJECTS - Studio visit today with Patrick McFarlin. Patrick is such an incredible painter and it is always a treat to see his latest projects. This trip blew our minds and prompted us to schedule a solo show for McFarlin this September, 2010.
Two years ago he began creating drawings based on Art in America's annual obituary section. The "all-stars" of the recently deceased, the practice was a sobering homage to the artists who had passed away that year. Patrick recently folded the project into something he had long wanted to do - painting covers of some of the most notable painters and paintings in modern history. As a musician covers timeless standards, this series "covers" such iconic artists as Francis Bacon (pictured above, Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, Allan Kaprow, Theodoros Stamos, and Larry Rivers. This new body of work is such a testament to his skill, and these little paintings are unquestionably masterpieces in their own right.
LAUNCHPROJECTS - This weekend we met with Stephan Stoyanov of Stephan Stoyanov Gallery (formerly Gallery Luxe) located on Orchard Street on the Lower East Side. He was in Santa Fe for the weekend and immediately connected with Clayton Porter's work both in the gallery and in the studio. Predominantly interested in video art, he was immediately taken with the video installation "Mouths Have no Gender" (video still pictured above). It is a provocative and luscious video that I debuted as the Curator of the Center for Contemporary Arts. Stoyanov will introduce this video and Porter's works on paper at his gallery in the coming months - a critical step for Porter's career. We are in discussions with Stoyanov about accompanying his gallery to Art-o-rama in Marseilles in September, co-curating a show in New York in October, visiting NADA art fair in December (in conjunction with Art Basel Miami Beach) and attending Art Brussels in April. This man has an interminable amount of energy and it looks like we are coming along for the ride...so stay tuned.
