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Photos of the Mind: An Interview with Jamie Nares (Part 3)

Exhibition /

Brushes made by the artist, 2013, courtesy of the artist.

Working at the edge of painting, photography, music and film over the course of five decades, Jamie Nares has profoundly explored the relationships between memory, time, movement and thought. I spoke with Jamie about her childhood, her move to New York City in the 1970s, her multidisciplinary practice, and her generous vision of art and life.

Continued from Part 2

 Part 2

COM: And once you moved to New York, it seems that you hit the ground running. When did you begin doing the paintings that you are so known for?

JN: Well, I’d always, like I said been making drawings and stuff. And when the ’70s hit suddenly people were able to make a living making paintings. And I had been trying to make films and I just didn’t see a way to support myself making the films that I liked. And I didn’t want to go to Hollywood. A couple of my friends did. I never really saw the world in narrative terms, it didn’t really interest me to do that. I thought it interested me for a while and I tried. I made that film “Rome ’78,” which was about as close as I ever got to making a narrative film. There’s a funny letter I have from someone at Paramount Pictures saying, “We hear wonderful things about your film Rome ’78, would you like to come out come out to Los Angeles and meet us?” you know, with the idea of making another movie. And I just wasn’t interested at that point because I realized that… I always wanted to do everything. And I realized that you can’t do everything and be successful. Although I had a pretty good shot at it. But at that point, at that time, I figured I needed to focus on one thing and get really good at it. And painting seemed to be the thing that I would be most likely to get good at. So, I started painting. My early paintings were kind of all over the place. I had a couple of years where I was really just finding out what it was that interested me. And I started making work that was closer in look to a lot of the expressionist painters that were around then. I made a piece in 1977 called “Red X,” which was a big enamel red X on a piece of cardboard, which is still one of my favorite paintings I ever made. Julian Schnabel owns it now, but it’s been shown in Gagosian gallery, and in Milwaukee in my retrospective. And it was one of the best things I ever made. Just a simple, bright red, red X, on a black background painted on cardboard. And there’s something about the painting that people just love it. Of course, it stood for the kind of negativity that we were awash in, but it was always the negativity that was that aimed towards something better… We were fledgling iconoclasts, but I really believed in something better to come. But I started making paintings and they changed quite quickly.

JN: The thing that really interests me most in painting was the brush stroke. And I figured there was enough happening with no single brushstroke could keep me interested. And it still does, all these years later. But that wasn’t until 1992 when I was living out at the East End of Long Island, and I had a studio in a barn, and I was working very happily there. And that’s what I really refined what I was doing. I’m working right now on putting together my notebooks in a sort of facsimile edition from that time, because it was a time when I really forged the thing that I was most interested in and started making my own brushes. I started making paintings that were made in one movement. The way I would work then was to make a big brushstroke and if I didn’t like it, I’d get down on my hands and knees with a big sponge soaked in mineral spirits and wipe it off and then and then dry it with a rag. And by the time I’d done that, I had lost the muscle memory of what I was trying to do. And there’s a lot more work to do that. So, I eventually figured out this way of erasing a brushstroke that I didn’t like by squeegeeing it off with the same kind of squeegee to clean a window booth. So now I have a guy with a squeegee while I put down the brush strokes and if I don’t like them, he just Bzoop! and they disappear very quickly. And I’m able to get back into it again, trying to make it better.

Installation views, Nares: Moves, Milwaukee Art Museum, June 14-October 6, 2019, courtesy of Kasmin Gallery.

COM: I’m interested in this idea of muscle memory because your work seems to be very bodily. In a way your whole-body kind of comes through because it requires so much movement. Do you conceive your works as performative in any way? 

JN: Yeah, in that they are the product of an event. They’re not performative like I’m performing painting for an audience. I wouldn’t have any interest in making a painting in public… They are performed paintings, preformed, performed paintings. And they require a certain centering of the mind, which I like. I have to get to a place where I am not leading the brush, but I’m not following the brush. There’s this edge between those two, leading and following, and it’s a place that I have to reach. And that’s the magic can happen. 

COM: That’s interesting. It’s sort of a dance in a way.

JN: Yes, dance is very important. Rhythm, dance, music, photography. The paintings are made in a… what you see, the brushstroke is made in the same kind of time frame that a photograph is taken. It’s just a matter of seconds. So, it’s like you’re capturing a moment in time, like a photograph. And I like that the viewer can kind of participate in that moment of discovery that I had when I made the painting. It all there, it’s just like [being] naked. I don’t hide anything. I don’t go back and correct anything. If there’s something wrong with it, I wipe off the whole thing and begin again. Of course, they have a sort of photographic look, too. It’s always been a conversation between photography and painting ever since photography was invented. The dialog of one kind or another. And this is my dialog. It’s to paint like I was taking photographs. There’s that quote from Kazimir Malevich, where he says the painter has to paint the photos of his mind.

COM: That’s beautiful. Is that how you see your work? 

JN: In one aspect, yes. But it’s like capturing a moment of thought and a moment of a feeling or a moment of some kind of congruence between myself and any given moment. I said somewhere that you could connect all my paintings from one end to the other and you’d have, like, the story of my life in paint.

COM: That’s a great idea for an exhibition.

JN: Yeah.

COM: What do you consider to be your subject matter? Is it about memory time, movement, music, or all of them? 

JN: All of the above. Memory, time, movement, music, thought. It’s making manifest, manifesting an abstraction of a moment in time using the traditional tools that a painter uses: a brush, a canvas or surface of some kind, and paint. And I’ve come up with my own versions of those tools and make my own brushes and mix paint in a way that’s a bit unusual. And I prepare my surfaces. My whole practice of painting is something that I think I’m the only one who does it. But it was all necessity, you know? My invention is always because of necessity. 

COM: It allowed you to achieve something you couldn’t with the readily available materials.

Jamie Nares playing with the Contortions, 1977, Betsy Sussler.

JN: Yes, I couldn’t buy a brush that does the things that my brushes do. I just repurposed things to suit me the way I wanted it to be. There’s something very Zen about it, my practice. There’s something kind of tantric or shamanistic about it, too, in some ways. And there’s a lot of influences. 

COM: I’d love to talk about your influences. 

JN: Well, you know, I’ve been influenced by just about every other artist ever met. Something rubs off, even if your influenced in a negative way. And then I’m influenced by the things I see, the things I see other people doing. I was very influenced by my peers early on because it seemed like we were kind of forging something, figuring something out together. Those were good times, in a way. Oh, they were good times. Those seventies were rough too, the city was dangerous, and nobody had any money. It was a tough time. But it was great.

COM: A formational period.

JN: Yeah, so my influences are every place and everything I’ve ever done or been or heard or saw. It all filters through to who I am and what I do. 

COM: That’s a very generous way of looking at it, and very true about life in general. 

JN: I think so, yes. It’s life in general that interests me. I mean, there’s so many things going on in this world.

COM: It’s a matter of slowing down and looking closely. 

JN: Yes.

COM: You had a major retrospective a couple of years ago at the Milwaukee Art Museum. And now you’re returning to London after so much success. How do you see your journey from this point in your career? 

JN: Oh, it is very strange. It seems like if you make it to a certain age, people suddenly get interested in you. I made it to an age and survived. A number of people I’ve known who gave up or passed away or just disappeared. There’s something just by having stuck around. People like you when you stick around and keep going. I do have this thread of my own personal histories and it seems to be interesting to people right now. But it also seems that people are interested in that period that I was talking about when I said I was coming of age, the seventies and eighties in New York. And I have something to say about that just by virtue of being there, you know. Oops, I forgot the question.

STREET, 2011, HD video, 61 mins.

COM: Oh, well, it must be interesting to look back at so many decades of production, having that perspective. 

JN: The show in Milwaukee was just great because we worked on it for about six years. Marcelle Polednick who curated it and became the director of the museum during the time that we started working on it. So, everything just came together nicely, and she was so wonderful and supportive, and she’s the first one who really saw me and understood what I have been doing all my life. She put this show together and curated it, and we organized it thematically rather than chronologically. It was really a lovely show for me to wander around. The effort that people put into it, the exhibition designer, everybody. It was a magical time for me.

Plus, I’d just come out. I mean, it was a very intense time. I had just announced my true nature to the world, and I’d had a show that opened five days earlier in New York and I had showed up as my true self, so to speak. And had spoken to all the gallery and announced, it was like a formal announcement, that sort of thing. And I went down to Milwaukee five days later to start installing this show and was greeted with a newspaper article calling me the inadvertent advocate. I was like, “No, I’m not an advocate, I’m just trying to figure out who I am.” And of course, it was a surprise for everybody. And I could see these two trajectories converging. One was the retrospective with my life story, in a way. It was like these two trains, the other one was my transition that was coming to a head, this new life that was happening. And I could see they were going to collide, which they did at the Milwaukee show. It couldn’t have been a more perfect time and place. And Marcelle to her endless credit just jumped right on board and supported me like a 100% and sent out memos to everyone in the museum, and changed some of the bathrooms to gender neutral, and did all these little things to make it nice for me. People were so wonderful. It was just a wonderful experience. 

COM: That’s great to hear. Big moment. 

JN: Yeah, it was. It was a very big moment for me. And I think very fondly of it. There’s a wonderful catalog from that show. Just “Nares: Moves,” that’s it. But my transition is an ongoing process. 

COM: What keeps you going today? And are there any projects that you’re excited about looking towards the future? 

JN: You know, it’s very strange because I have so many things I want to do. I’ve never had so many ideas and thoughts and things I want to do. And it’s kind of tragic that I’m declining physically at the same time… It’s more difficult for me to do the things I want to do. A lot of the things I want to do I can’t do, which is frustrating. But you know then I just do things I can do. I’m perpetually motivated and interested. Something keeps me going. It’s just the same thing I’ve always had. It’s like a life force, I guess.

COM: That same sense of direction we talked about at the beginning. 

JN: Yeah, yeah, I think so.

Continued from Part 2

 Part 2

Photos of the Mind: An Interview with Jamie Nares (Part 3) Read More »

Exhibition

Moon Mixer 6/21

Exhibition /

Highlighting the intersection of community and art, the installation “Monomania” features fine art pieces at local venues in the Fort Greene neighborhood such as Brooklyn Moon and other cultural centers.

In tandem with this constellation, we host a weekly mixer series, where specially curated performance artists gather on Tuesdays to perform and represent their crafts at the iconic Brooklyn Moon and present a combination of rehearsed and improvisational performances.

This week, we had the honor of hosting three master musicians: Sheila Anozier, Daniel Carter, and Tiga Jean Baptiste at the 6/21 culture mixer. Combining Haitian Folk Music, Jazz, and Haitian drumming, this magical combination of crafts created a moment in musical history.

Sheila Anozier: Haitian Folk Musician

Sheila Anozier is a multidiscplinary artist that combines dance, songs and visual art into her work. Her creativity has given her opportunities to perform with other notable artists across the world, such as Wunmi Olaiya at Ageha in Tokyo, Japan and the Alstadtherbst Festival in Germany with Tamango’s Urban Tap.

Daniel Carter: Free Jazz Musician

Daniel Carter is an avant-garde free jazz musician and performer that has been active since the 1970’s. He has become extremely well known, and is an inspiration to many up and coming musicians. Carter is skilled at playing multiple instruments, including flute, saxophone, clarinet and trumpet. He has performed with artists such as Yoko Ono, Thurston Moore, and Yo La Tengo amongst many others. He is also a member of the cooperative free jazz group Other Dimensions in Music.

Tiga Jean Baptiste: Percussionist

Tiga Jean Baptiste is an eclectic musician who began drumming at events in Haiti with his father Bonga, master of the Haitian drum at a very young age. He has performed with many of Haiti’s other most respected artists as well, including Emeline Michel and Jean-Paul Bourelly. Baptiste has also branched outside of tradition, performing with Zimbabwean artists such as Stella Chiweshe and Thomas Mapfumo, as well as American artists John Legend and Grace Jones.

Moon Mixer 6/21 Read More »

Exhibition

Moon Mixer 6/14

Exhibition /

Highlighting the intersection of community and art, the installation “Monomania” features fine art pieces at local venues in the Fort Greene neighborhood such as Brooklyn Moon and other cultural centers.

(Explore the Fort Greene Constellation.)

In tandem with this constellation, we host a weekly mixer series, where specially curated performance artists gather on Tuesdays to perform and represent their crafts at the iconic Brooklyn Moon and present a combination of rehearsed and improvisational performances.

This week, we had the honor of hosting three master musicians: Sixty Second Assassin, Daniel Carter, and Ibrahima Diokhane at the 6/14 Culture Mixer. Combining Hiphop, Jazz, and African Drumming, this magical combination of crafts created a moment in musical history. 

SIXTY SECOND ASSASSIN: Hip Hop Artist

Sixty Second Assassin is a legendary hip hop artist and rapper, born and raised in Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn, New York. He is heavily affiliated with the Wu-Tang Clan and Sunz of Man, and was a close associate with Wu-Tang rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard. Sixty Second Assassin is an enigmatic figure that never fails to wow the crowd with his unique style and voice.

DANIEL CARTER: Free Jazz Musician

Daniel Carter is an avant-garde free jazz musician and performer that has been active since the 1970’s. He has become extremely well known, and is an inspiration to many up and coming musicians. Daniel is skilled in playing multiple instruments, including saxophone, flute, clarinet and trumpet. He has performed with artists such as Yoko Ono, Thurston Moore and Yo La Tengo amongst many others. He is also a member of the cooperative free jazz groups and Other Dimensions of Music.

IBRAHIMA DIOKHANE: Drum Master

Ibrahima Diokhane is a seasoned African drummer originally from Senegal. He opened his drum store Keur Djembe 25 years ago in Gowanus, Brooklyn, offering authentic handmade instruments and drum lessons. Ibrahima makes his own drums with an expertise gained over years of learning, dedication and hard work.

Moon Mixer 6/14 Read More »

Exhibition

Nature’s Course: An Interview with John Newsom (Part 5)

Artist Profile, Exhibition /

John Newsom, Dense Armor, 2008-09. Credit: Oklahoma Contemporary Museum

Combining realistic representations of animals and vegetation, Abstract Expressionism, and hard-edge geometry, John Newsom’s paintings explore our intricate and complicated relationship with nature. I spoke with John about his origins, his practice, and his upcoming exhibitions – a mid-career retrospective at the Oklahoma Contemporary Museum and a two-person show with Raymond Pettibon in Palm Beach.

Continued from Part 4

PART 4

Nathalie Martin: So I was talking to my friend, a young painter who’s in the studio all day and has an incredible work ethic. But he’s always so hung up about originality or making the most original thing. And I always tell him that maybe originality isn’t the goal. Maybe you’re working towards a certain goal or idea and then your voice or that originality just comes, almost like a symptom or byproduct of whatever you’re working towards. Just not being so fixated with making the most “original” thing. You mentioned Morandi – people have painted cups before. But he makes it totally his own.

John Newsom: Well I would say your friend is looking outside of themselves. What they have to do is turn that vision inward and it’ll be new. It’ll be new because they’ll be discovering themselves for the first time. Everybody, honestly, has a unique spark within them. This is what I’m saying, Nathalie. You got to bring it all in, in, in, but then you’ve got to let it go, go, go. You have to get rid of it all. That’s why you have to learn everything to unlearn everything. If that makes sense. I really mean that. You have to go out there and just learn and take in as much as possible, and then edit it down to get rid of it all. Then you’re going to be at a place that is totally new. You’re going to have an option if you’re a painter in the painting context, because your friend may discover that they can do what they need to do, but they have to do it training dolphins or something. But anyway, I do think that is something that particularly young artists struggle with. I think it’s a healthy thing. You have to be diligent about it. The cream always rises to the top, it always does. So then you go with that, whatever that is, whatever that means. I actually just finished a nine by eighteen-foot canvas that’s going to debut in the museum show in March.

John Newsom, Nature’s Course, 2021-22. Credit: Oklahoma Contemporary Museum

NM: Your retrospective? Tell me about that.

JN: Yeah, I have a mid-career retrospective, and I’ve been struggling with even saying that phrase because it’s so freaky to say out loud. But I do have a mid-career retrospective opening on March 24th at the new Oklahoma Contemporary Museum, which obviously is very meaningful because that’s the region I’m from, but it also happens to be an extraordinary building and staff. The programming is exceptional. Ed Ruscha just had a full-scale retrospective at the museum, and I’m very honored to be following him. The programming that’s coming up is very, very dynamic and international. This exhibition has been a few years in the planning. We started it

before the pandemic. Fortunately, my dates landed a little bit afterwards. It’s going to be comprised of 31 large-scale paintings from the past 20 years. The majority of works are coming in from private collections all over the United States. We decided to keep the show within national borders at the time because of COVID restrictions and shipping. There were some works abroad I would ideally liked to have brought in, but it’s okay. We were able to get the show to a hundred percent with what we have and it’s going to be outstanding. I’m excited about it. They chose the paintings and I felt like I needed to make one to debut at the show.

I jumped into this painting. I was sitting with a friend of mine, watching a horse race on television. I was talking with my friend about the race because he’s into it, I’m not into it, but it just happened to be on the screen. He said that it was the races at Longchamp. I was like, oh yeah, like the Manet painting, because that was the first time a painter had painted a painting like that, from the perspective of seeing the racers and the horses directly coming right at you. Until then the scene was always presented from the side. So that sparked an idea in my mind. Now I’ve got the title. The title of the exhibition at the museum is Nature’s Course, which I feel I just

walked the entirety of in the last hour talking to you, which is amazing. It’s a herd of five charging bison with a flock of eagles soaring above this open sky. It’s the great Mid-western Plains.

NM: I was just going to say, there’s the Kansas and Oklahoma coming back right back in.

JN: Yeah, exactly. But Nathalie, there’s no way I would have thought I would be painting this painting five years ago, ten years ago, twenty, thirty years ago. How insane? But it might be my strongest painting to date. We’ll see. I mean, a few people that have seen previews of it, I’ve been really pleased with the reaction. So I’m very excited about this. It’s going to open on March 24th and run through August 15th.

NM: So the show is called Nature’s Course. Obviously, your work deals with our complex relationship with nature. And I think you have this visual language or this mark-making style that kind of exists between abstraction and figuration, or soft and fierce, or the beautiful and the terrifying or menacing. Are these binaries representations of how you view this relationship?

JN: Yeah, there’s definitely a duality in the work. But I just feel like it needs to be there because it’s got to be there. The language is such that it incorporates a wide variety of applique and thought, but there are parameters on that. Meaning there are specifications to it. You know, there are rules, for lack of a better word. That’s not to say that you can’t break the rules. It’s just to acknowledge that there are rules and those are for the most part of my own making at this point,

because it goes back to early on. You try to learn and get on something more organic, you just got to figure out what’s working and what’s not working. Where the energy is right. You go in the direction of the good energy. Even if it’s a painting that is made during a challenging period of one’s life. The tableau of the canvas can absorb the hit of any energy that you bring to it. That’s the magic of it. It’s just kind of a tremendous thing. And then it exists in the painting, it

becomes manifested. So whatever it is, if it’s a Goya painting of a certain theme, you can see

where his energy was. It’s now transferred into the canvas – it’s in the picture. When I say you get good energy, I mean that you worked through whatever energy it is and then you hopefully will feel better. This is about healing. I think ultimately great painting is about healing. Whether it’s yourself or the viewer – and it’s really important to note that a painting doesn’t exist unless it’s got eyes in front of it.

John Newsom, Harvest, 2011-16. Credit: Oklahoma Contemporary Museum

NM: I always say this!

JN: This is really interesting because I don’t paint the human figure, I paint an allegorical representation of the human figure. The physical reality of a human figure doesn’t appear in my work. It appears through the observer of the work. I’m very conscious of that. The viewer completes the picture. Because if they’re not there, the painting doesn’t exist. It’s like if the tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? It’s a little existential, but it makes sense. So when people say, “Oh, why don’t you paint the figure?” I’m like, “You’re the figure, you’re right there!”

But to get back to the questions, I paint in allegorical terms. There are kind of two ways to read one of my paintings. One is in the literal sense, of whatever flora and fauna or expression of manner you may find within the painting, and then the other is what’s its meaning, what’s its allegory, what’s its allusion. What is it alluding to? Then that gets interesting. It gets complex. Sometimes I make that definition a little bit more reachable, but sometimes I put it out of reach because I want to give people a mystery. That’s something that I think is really important and I think is missing in a lot of today’s art. Everybody is so engaged in meaning, or getting this or that point across. It’s like, I don’t need to know! And so what I want to do is give you both. You can get this or that, or you can leave it there. It doesn’t matter. You know what I mean?

So Nature’s Course is the idea that it’s going to be what it’s going to be. And that’s what it is. You take your time with the paintings because you have to sit with paintings. People are scrolling through Instagram and their attention spans are like goldfish, just like boom, boom,

gone. Painting is the opposite of Instagram. You have to sit with a painting and you have to read it like a book, but it’s visual, you know.

NM: I think learning how to see a painting is really like learning how to read again.

JN: You just said it, learning how to see again. It’s just a different process. Myself and others have had the potential to fall in love with that process, you know, and I’m certainly in love with that process.

NM: So you have a two-person exhibition with Raymond Pettibon coming up as well, opening March 15th at County Gallery in Palm Beach. How does that differ from the retrospective or the idea of Nature’s Course? Does it differ?

JN: I’m very excited about that. Yeah, well, the title of, and the theme of that exhibition, is the five classical elements: fire, air, water, earth, and aether. So Raymond and I each made five new works for the show. There will be 10 pieces in all – my five versions of the classical elements and Raymond’s five versions of the classical elements. I’m really excited about it because just thematically speaking, it’s such a tried and true iconography of art. It goes back to the beginning of it all and everything in between. It was a fascinating project to work on. Having it open simultaneously with the museum show is just perfect. Raymond and I formed a friendship over the bond between our two sons. Our sons are good friends, so it was through them that we started our friendship and discussions and I really just admire Raymond. But you know what? It was through nature’s course itself – through the boys playing around, swimming, making little films, and going on excursions like Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. Those two are just like dynamite. It’s just great.

John Newsom in his studio, 2022.

Photo Credit: Jonathan Mannion

COUNTY is a young gallery, a very good gallery in Palm Beach. They approached me and Raymond with the idea of doing the show and we had some really healthy discussions, landed on this and I couldn’t be more pleased with how the process has unfolded and the staff at COUNTY. I’m really looking forward to both exhibitions.

NM: That’s incredible, it sounds seamless. So what keeps you painting? What inspires you?

Is it your family? Is it this internal drive? Is it outside influences?

JN: Well, it’s all of the above and more, you know, at this point – you know what, it goes back to the beginning, it’s just the same, Nathalie. It’s just that life itself brings to it what it needs to be. You know, whether it’s something I feel, observe, or experience, I put it into the paintings. And this goes back again to the idea of generosity. I want to serve up a very full meal. I want to make it a big plentiful meal, and I’m just always cooking.

NM: Always in the kitchen.

JN: I’m always in the kitchen, yes, I’m always in the kitchen. You find me in the studio or with my kids, that’s it. That’s my world.

NM: And they’re the same, probably, as far as the return you’re getting.

JN: Yeah, but you know what, that brings us back to the very beginning of our conversation, even before we hopped on the recording. I used to be incredibly social when I was younger. I was out at a thousand openings. I never slept, I was working, I was going to parties. It was exhausting. Just exhausting. It was amazing. I’m glad I lived through it, to be honest, now I’m eight years sober, I’m a sober guy. And life is golden. I don’t regret anything. But I’m glad I lived through it to get to where I am now because it’s really good right now. It wasn’t always about this balance. It was like being tied to the mast heading out to rough seas, but I learned a lot and I have a lot to be thankful for.

NM: I think that directly relates to how you work and your practice. You’re gonna go where you go or shit’s going to come from you and happen to you, but you just got to work through it. You constantly have to work through it, whether it’s painting or life –

JN: Thus, nature’s course.

NM: Nature’s course. Exactly.

Nature’s Course: An Interview with John Newsom (Part 5) Read More »

Artist Profile, Exhibition

Nature’s Course: An Interview with John Newsom (Part 3)

Artist Profile, Exhibition /

John Newsom in his studio, 2022.

Photo Credit: Jonathan Mannion

Combining realistic representations of animals and vegetation, Abstract Expressionism, and hard-edge geometry, John Newsom’s paintings explore our intricate and complicated relationship with nature. I spoke with John about his origins, his practice, and his upcoming exhibitions – a mid-career retrospective at the Oklahoma Contemporary Museum and a two-person show with Raymond Pettibon in Palm Beach.

Continued from Part 2

PART 2

Nathalie Martin: It’s also interesting that your first encounter with art was through Rauschenberg and Warhol and kind of all the guys that sought to “break the rules,” then going to school and studying the rules yourself, is a really unique way to get into it or to get into the history.

 

John Newsom: Yeah, definitely. Definitely, because there’s a generation in between. If you look at it really by decades and things, there was a generation in between there that was such an incredible, momentous time for painting in the eighties. So the Pop Art that I was really looking at, it came earlier, when we were moving out of Abstract Expressionism into Pop. Like real early Pop into middle Pop. That was a really interesting period, but it was also a very popular period. So that’s why I was able to get access to it in rural Oklahoma because I couldn’t get to some of the things that were happening in the European context, or even the Far East, which I eventually made it to. I studied abroad and lived in Kyoto. I was in Yokohama, Osaka, Tokyo, and then I was down in Mexico City for a while, around San Miguel and Palenque. So I traveled a lot. I was very interested in broadening my knowledge. I wanted to get the knowledge. And so it wasn’t exclusively linear like with the New York context. But for me, it’s always been about the journey.

John Newsom, The Bright Side, 2017. Credit: Oklahoma Contemporary Museum

I’ve done a lot of exhibitions in Los Angeles. I’ve had good experiences in LA. I’ve always been based in New York and coming up I never had the dream of going to Los Angeles. I always knew I wanted to get to New York and it’s a different place to paint here. It’s just a little different than it is in LA. And it’s not to make a value judgment. It’s just to say that it’s a different type of context to be painting in. I think that’s benefited my particular type of work again because of the tactility of the surface. That’s kind of a uniquely New York historical way of approaching the canvas. If you look at my work, for the most part, the works are rather large in scale and they’re also very tactical. They’re tough, they’re heavy, and they’re physical paintings. So I always found it kind of a nice juxtaposition when I would go to Los Angeles and see friends and artists out there and shows where it became about light and space. It was all about light and space and atmosphere and it was amazing. It was a trip, but then I get back here and it was like we’re back in this earthen realm of the physical, up-in-your grill surface structures. I love that because I feel like paintings are made as much as they are painted. I mean, there’s the idea of the mark.

 

NM: I agree and see that in your own work.

 

JN: There’s a certain attribute about mark-making in New York that is different than anywhere else, and I love it. That’s why I continue to be encouraged by the energy of it. I was talking with the painter Ed Moses about this one time, and he was an interesting painter because although he was in Los Angeles, he was a very physical type of painter. His surfaces were very physically driven. So if he had stayed in New York, he would’ve had a very different history. And if a painter like Brice Marden had gone to Los Angeles, with his type of work, those Cold Mountain paintings would have a totally different feel to them. I just think it’s interesting to really take note of the context of where it is you are painting in a landscape. Corot was painting in a certain landscape, Turner was painting in a certain landscape, Van Gogh too, and it’s just all this kind of stuff. So it’s really fascinating. I am so blessed and grateful to be able to have the opportunity to get up every day and go to the studio and do what I do.

 

NM: Where is your studio?

 

JN: My studio right now is located at Mana Contemporary. So I’m actually in Jersey City. But my studio was in Soho previously for twenty years. That was the right amount of time to be in Soho. I’m glad I was in Soho when it was like that. Especially in the nineties, because coming into Soho in 92, we got the backwash of what was there, but there was enough. From 92 to 95, it was still jamming. There were still unbelievable, pivotal types of presentations happening with exhibitions there and these artists and it was amazing. It was amazing. Things shifted, which is okay.

John Newsom in his studio, 2022.

Photo Credit: Jonathan Mannion

NM: As they do.

 

JN: Yeah, the city doesn’t go anywhere, you just get offered different options, but being there at that time was just incredible to come in on that period, you know? So listen, every generation comes in on their own time.

 

NM: That’s what I tell myself at least.

 

JN: Yeah, for sure. So I was planning a move of studios and my wife and I found out we were pregnant with our first child and we had been living in Soho prior to having kids. So we moved to Brooklyn and we live in Park Slope. I decided to move my studio, and through a chain of associations I was offered to take a look at the current space, and I built it out. I really like it. I’ve been at the current studio maybe six, seven years, something like that. It’s a long commute, but I’m glad I have it. I walk, I take the trains. I love living in a walking city. As a painter, I love it. That’s another reason why I could never be in LA. There was an apartment I had access to for four years through the gallery I was with in LA and I’d stay there and I’d either get a car or have a driver or some way to get around, but I never really drove. You get to run into people here. You want to have experiences. You feel a part of the city, you feel closer to it. So I walk, I take the trains. I don’t go to the gym, but I go to the studio. It helps you a little bit. But it’s all good. Everything’s good. Everything’s in a real good space. So yeah, totally. I’m happy.

 

NM: Good. I want to talk about your influences too. Your fauna definitely reminds me of Audubon and your backdrops remind me of Pollock or Mitchell, and your flora reminds me of Kahlo even.

 

JN: Well, I love all those artists you’re mentioning. It’s really important to do two things. It’s really important to address your influences, to work with and through your influences. You have to do that, but you have to literally work through your influences until it’s digested fully and it’s yours now.

John Newsom, Keep Watch, 2020. Credit: Oklahoma Contemporary Museum

NM: Absolutely, so you’re not just regurgitating.

 

JN: You have to do that. I mean, the Greats study the Greats in order to be great. You have to do that in anything, in music, sports, entertainment, in writing. Again, because I kind of started out early, I got to go through a lot, and quickly. I gathered a lot, I went through a lot. When I say a lot, it wasn’t like I was looking at a dozen artists. I was looking at hundreds of artists. Really, hundreds of artists, trying to see what it was all about. And there are many, many false starts. You’re not going to hit it out of the park every time. There’s going to be a lot of strikes, and you have to embrace it. Sometimes it’s like, “This is interesting, but it’s kind of a dead-end,” and so now I’m going to go over here and, “Oh, wow, this is happening.” But you have to keep an open mind, always have to keep an open mind. You never know where it’s going to come from, where that spark is going to be. So you’re mentioning artists like Audubon to Joan Mitchell, which is interesting. Who the hell is thinking of that together? You know what I mean? You make an interesting point because it’s like, “I want it all.” Going back to Rauschenberg, when you look at Skyway, it’s like he was cramming everything he could into every square inch of that painting. That’s what I love about Rauschenberg and certain other artists that I’ll get into – the level of generosity. I just love when I walk into a show, wherever it is, I’m like, “Oh, wow. Whoa.” You know, it’s just, “Oh my God, look at this!” So if I’m flipping through Artforum or whatever, I see an announcement for an exhibition by a certain artist, then it’s like, “Oh shit! I can’t wait to see this!”

 

NM: Me too! And when it hits, it hits.

 

JN: Oh man, when it delivers? Because it might not deliver. But when it delivers, you know, it’s like watching Pacino in a film or something…. and it delivers! You walk in and you’re like, “Wow, this is it!” It didn’t happen overnight. Paintings don’t make themselves. You’ve got to get up, get your coffee, get in the studio, grind, flow – however it gets done – and you have to paint every day. This reminds me of a quote by Alex Katz that I’ve always loved. I really admire Alex Katz. He’s amazing. And he said, “Go to the studio, paint 10 hours a day every day for 10 years, and then come see me.” And that’s just such a pretentious, badass, New York quote. That’s just awesome. So that’s what I did. I painted 10 hours a day for 10 years. And then I went to see him. He gave me a drawing of his wife Ada reclining on the beach, and my wife has it hanging in our bedroom and it’s signed: To John, Love Alex. So I took his advice and if you’re a painter like that, I’m giving you Alex Katz’s advice, because it was really good advice. Just get in there and grind, and that’s really it. You’re also going to find out a lot about yourself and if you’re cut out for this, because not everybody is built for this nor should they be. It’s just following your own bliss, figuring out what that means, and what’s that about.

John Newsom, Solstice, 2016. Credit: Oklahoma Contemporary Museum

So I can get into influences. Certainly, there have been many, many, many, and I gotta tell you, it’s at a point now where it’s become self-referential in the work. And that’s a strange thing to say. It’s not completely self-referential, but it’s to the degree that… like, the Jasper Johns show just closed at the Whitney, and it’s been a very busy time for me and I didn’t get to see it.

 

NM: What! No way.

 

JN: No, no, no, but it’s fine. I’m not stressed about not seeing it because I’ve seen other Johns’ shows. He’s a great painter, but I’m at the point where I can’t see anything right now because I’ve got to be on my shit. But it hasn’t always been like that. There was a point earlier where I would have made sure to see a show like that because I needed to see it. Or I had to see it or whatever, but you know what, I’ve seen iterations of it. I hope I’m getting this across because it’s an exciting place to be at. It’s like, wow, I finally have so much on my plate with my own painting that I actually can’t go see this stuff, but it’s okay. Because I know it, I know what it is. I’ve really enjoyed sharing these stories with you because it’s a time to look back. It’s a time to take a moment of self-reflection and to look back and to take stock and see what things have happened, what paintings exist now that are particularly important and strong in my own lineage, and then see where I’m going with it. Then I’ll have a period that opens up where I can exhale and go see something, and then you see what happens. It’s interesting, things that you would have never imagined you would’ve been into at a certain period, you’re obsessed with, you know what I mean?

 

NM: Totally. Some of my favorite painters now are artists I originally didn’t understand or like.

 

JN: And then vice versa, you know, you’ve got to be like that. You can’t just stay on one thing. If you’re on a type of painting or an artist as an influence, and you’re looking at it and you know it back and forth, it doesn’t mean you have to stay on it forever. You can set it down and you can evolve into other things, knowing that it was there. It is there. But you don’t have to feel obligated to take it with you everywhere. Not that you should either, because the most important thing is to find your own voice as a painter. You have to work through your influences. You look at Velazquez or Caravaggio or late Manet – this is capital “P” Painting, and you have to get through that stuff. You have to go to the Prado and see Spanish painting, you have to see the Louvre and the French painting. You’ve got to do all that stuff. I was told that when I was young, and I’ve been to those places. So you get into a certain moment in your development and then you process it, and it gets better. It just keeps getting better, and you get wiser too, just by doing the work. Because the work leads the way.

Combining realistic representations of animals and vegetation, Abstract Expressionism, and hard-edge geometry, John Newsom’s paintings explore our intricate and complicated relationship with nature. I spoke with John about his origins, his practice, and his upcoming exhibitions – a mid-career retrospective at the Oklahoma Contemporary Museum and a two-person show with Raymond Pettibon in Palm Beach.

Continued in Part 4

PART 4

Nature’s Course: An Interview with John Newsom (Part 3) Read More »

Artist Profile, Exhibition

ABOVE FRESH AIR

Exhibition /

SUNDAY JUNE 27 2021

FEAT:

DJ SMOKE

CATCH THE VIBE

Kareem Taylor – Catch A Vibe is a pop up dance improvisation session based in NYC. It is a safe space that is curated to explore movement through various prompts that are meant to challenge the minds and bodies of the participants.

THE SHOW

ABOVE FRESH AIR (FASHION SHOW)

STYLISTS

Joshua Joseph (@swordofthemornin) – Joshua Joseph is a fashion designer and stylist born in Trinidad, based in New York. Joshua has been creating since he was young, having learned with his father about sewing and working with leather. Now, he is the founder of his clothing line “Rebels to Dons”, and a stylist to many people across the fashion, film, music and sports industries. Joshua is curating “Above Fresh Air”, an experience that looks to encourage and uplift local creators who would like to show their work to the world.

John Taylor (@jtizalive) – John Taylor is a Menswear designer and Art director based inNew York City, he has designed for some of the most acclaimed menswear in the city, such as Thom Browne, Aimeé Leon Dore, and Willy Chavarria. John Taylor will be officially launching his line “Moment Homme” in Fall 2021.

DESIGNERS

Rebels to Dons (@rebelstodons)

Rebels to Dons is an innovative brand founded in 2012 by Joshua Joseph. Joshua’s label, rooted in the upcycling of garments, looks to encompass the merging of island and city culture through his designs. Elaborations such as cut and sew techniques on sportswear silhouettes make Rebels to Dons stand out as a brand that merges luxury with leisurewear. 

Daily Paper (@dailypaper)

Daily Paper is an Amsterdam based fashion brand founded in 2012 by Abderrahmane Trabsini, Jefferson Osei, and Hussein Suleiman. The three founders have been friends since school and creating together since 2008, evolving what once was a streetwear blog into an internationally recognized clothing brand. The designers look to make their African heritage an intrinsic element in the creation of their designs and prioritize giving back to communities across Africa. Daily Paper looks to represent a generation of underrepresented creators while breaking away with limiting barriers in the fashion world.

LAAMS nyc (@laams.nyc)

LAAMS is a streetwear shop located on 74 Orchard street that is difficult to confuse with any other clothing store. When it was first elaborated, its founder, Scott Selvin, envisioned a space that could house a vintage boutique, bookstore, juice bar, screen printing lab, and a tattoo shop, among many other things. The essence of community and creation can be seen within the multidisciplinary space. At LAAMS, creatives are welcomed to browse merchandise and are simultaneously offered an accessible space to view and produce art. 

Barriers NY (@barriersny)

Barriers NY is a New York based brand that uses its platform to commemorate important activists and revolutionaries such as Angela Davis, Malcolm X, and Fred Hampton among others, as it also offers a platform for upcoming artists to show their creations and get involved in streetwear culture. On their website, it is mentioned that the mantra “Create Your Opportunity” transcends across the brand’s vision.

Reus Laboratories (@reus_labs)

Established in Brooklyn, NY in 2018, ⓇEUS is a BIPOC-owned mind lab and high-fashion streetwear brand focused on sustainability and hand craftsmanship. The creator presents one-of-a-kind Upcycled and Reworked Custom designs to create timeless and environmentally conscious style.

New Way of Life (@newwayoflife.world)

New Way of Life is a clothing brand that consists of streetwear often displaying the brand’s name in the Pan-African colors of red, yellow, and green. On their website you can find tote bags, t-shirts, and jeans reading “New Way of Life”, often embroidered, making their pieces intricate and one of a kind. A recurrent phrase seen among their pieces is “We are from and of the people.” Besides clothing, other items such as the book “Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes”,  and necklaces with the Ethiopian Coptic cross can be found on their site. 

Pat’s Pants (@pats.pants)

Pat’s Pants, founded by Pat Hoblin and Cassandra Mayela, looks to produce sustainably made clothing and make use of all scraps and extra fabrics. The brand is currently run by Pat, who maintains a goal to make clothes that are intentionally sustainable as it is useful to whoever wears it. Pat’s Pants has a vision to make that one pair of comfortable and functional pants that you wouldn’t want to take off.

Gangsters Buy Flowers (@gangsters.buy.flowers)

Founded by Maxime Hilaire, The “Gangsters Buy Flowers” brand is about highlighting the duality of man. The art of being tough but having a softer side. Hustling & grinding all day, but picking up a bouquet or a few roses for the house on your way home. Having that tough exterior but still having a love & admiration for life & the beautiful atmosphere that flowers. 

Maison Monsieur Mikey (@maisonmonsieurmikey)

Maison Monsieur Mikey New York is a contemporary lifestyle designer brand, founded, designed and produced by Mickal “Mr. Mikey” Stubblefield, that seeks to answer the question ‘what is contemporary from a classic NYC style perspective?’ It is an anti-fast fashion experimental brand that offers a selection of ready-to-wear outerwear & apparel, accessories, home goods and jewelry that aims to appeal to both aspirational and luxury clientele. Its current Spring-Summer  2021 collection, titled “No Man Is An Island,”  seeks to find unity after going through an especially difficult and isolating time.

True Yorkers (@trueyorkers)

The True Yorkers brand represents “a connection between those that walk the talk and those eager to right NYC history.” Their apparel is made to represent the city lifestyle and energy, and, as seen on many of their pieces, True Yorkers are “often imitated, never duplicated.”

Western Elders (@westernelders)

Western Elders is a “physical representation of heritage, legacy, and culture.” Its founder is heavily influenced by their West African heritage and its culture, sharing in their website a fond memory of their grandmother reminding to “respect your elders.” Western Elders is an expression of the duality that is growing up in New York with West African roots, it is “built by Africa, Made in New York.”

Vinnie’s Styles (@vinniesstyles)

Vinnie’s Styles first opened up on Flatbush Ave in 2002. The store is named after the Panamanian grandfather of the three brothers who founded the space-Jacob, Paul, and Desta Parris. One of their most iconic pieces are their “Brooklyn” t-shirts written in varying scripts, besides these, Vinnie’s Styles supply shoppers with a wide range of streetwear coming from collaborations or their in-house brand, Paulie’s. The three brothers from Vinnie’s have also expanded their operations, setting up a store in Atlanta.

It’s important that we create a vision of what it looks like when we support each other and our communities. The concept of Above Fresh Air is to introduce people to new up & coming brands and artists.

This summer, the branded runway show and exhibition presented by The Trops will focus on highlighting the freshest brands from NYC communities.

This fashion show at FSG Park in LES is uniquely designed by some of the most creative stylists of NYC, combining different garments from each brand to create a series of unique looks for the runway.

ABOVE FRESH AIR Read More »

Exhibition