Archive for June 13, 2013

Artist of the moment….John Ahearn

{ June 13, 2013 @ 5:31 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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John Ahearn is an artist renown for working with the figure in plaster. Born in Binghampton, New York in the year 1951 he is now a cultural icon of the Brooklyn area. His brother Charlie Ahearn,  is a movie and film producer who was in charge of early 1980s movie Wild Style. I have written about this movie as another producer and former MTV host Fab 5 Freddie is also a painter. This movie chronicled hip hop activities like break dancing and tagging or making graffiti.

He often works with another artist named Rigoberto Torres when making his plaster casts. Torres was working in a shop producing religious figures when the two met. Torres has done works all over the world. His main collaboration with Ahearn took place from 1981 to 1985. The two did four murals together featuring people from the Bronx.

Ahearn uses fiberglass or plaster to cast his subjects then uses acrylic paints to further enhance the detail of the face/ portrait.

For his collegiate studies Ahearn attended Cornell University located in Ithaca, New York.

John Ahearn is based out of New York city.

price range information: Most plaster casts range from $2,000 to $6,000.

What is incredible about the clip below is to see the artist at work as he makes one of his renown plaster life casts.

What a unique and quick way to work with the figure!

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Artist of the moment….Joe Talirunili

{ June 13, 2013 @ 3:57 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Of all the Inuit artists covered here, Joe Talirunili has the auction record for a work of Inuit art and just over $290,000 with the auction house premium. Joe Talirunili was born in 1893. Two locations are given for the artist’s birth. Both were Inuit river camps. The artist claimed he was born in 1906.

Price range information: Many works available in the $1,000 to $5,000 range. Larger more intricate mixed media works that can range from $20,000 to $100,000.

At this time the Inuits were still living the traditional hunting and trapping lifestyle. The Inuits would in fact follow the caribou.

The artist is a great story teller. The Migration incident stems from a time when hunters were trapped out at sea and made a temporary boat out of sealskins, rope, and wood. Some people perished and the artist would use this incident in many of his works.

Talirunili and cousin David Ialuk were the founders of the Puvirnituq Print shop. Over his life he produced more than 70 prints. So for this reason alone he must be considered at the top from the business side of being an artist.  And remember what ANDY WARHOL said, making art is the best business!

Even designed a postage stamp for Canada in 1978.

In this clip we visit a fantastic mixed media work featuring many people on a ship titled Migration. The pre-auction estimate was $100,000 to $120,000 and the piece went for $290,000 so this artist is probably the hottest from the region.

An Inuit woman sitting down by Joe Talirunili.

A hunter made by Joe Talirunili.

What is so unique and awesome about this artist is his use of multi media. I used to think a work with 3 or 4 figures was a lot, then I saw this man’s ship and dropped my jaw to the floor. And his detail on the tools used by the hunter with their harpoons, spears, and bows are quite remarkable for their detail.