Archive for October 9, 2014

Artist of the moment…….Ay-O

{ October 9, 2014 @ 8:09 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Ay-O is a contemporary artist associated with the Fluxus movement and his “rainbow” style of painting. Ay-O was born in Takao, Iijima, Japan in the year 1931.

It was performance artist Yoko-Ono who introduced Ay-O to a leader in the Fluxus movement named George Maciunas. Ay-O joined the movement in 1963.

Ay-O is known as the Rainbow artist as much of his work deals with the gradations of the colors of the rainbow. In some large works he has done nearly 200 different gradations of color and light.

The artist is also known for his sculptures that are called “finger boxes.” These finger boxes must be seen and touched to be part of the art. On the inside of these boxes are materials including hair, cotton, nails, and sponges amongst other materials.

Below is a an example of Ay-O’s finger boxes.

What a creative artist! More on the Fluxus movement of anti-art coming up in the next few weeks!

Price range information: Sorry no price range information available.

In this clip we catch up with Ay-O at a Rainbow Banquet event that took place in 2012:

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Artist of the moment…….Allan McCollum

{ October 9, 2014 @ 1:18 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Allan McCollum is a contemporary artist renown for his solid black paintings surrounded by white matte and a framed in wood. These works are titled “surrogates” by the artist. McCollum works in many mediums and is a painter, printmaker, sculptor, and collage artist.

The artist enjoys working with themes of mass consumption. In many works the artist will produce as many as one thousand or more objects that seem similar, but are in a little different.

McCollum found inspiration for his art by reading from the Fluxus group of artists. The Fluxus group was similar to the D.A.D.A. group in that both groups were anti art. The famed Yoko Ono even took part in some of the groups performance art.

 

McCollum’s parents both enjoyed acting and his father was a character in the 1930s movie “Reefer Madness.”

Allan McCollum was born in Los Angeles, California  in the year 1944. The artist attended a trade school and studied restaurant management. He found employment as a cook preparing meals for the airplane flights. After a few years he decided to try his luck in the art world.

The artist took a job as a driver and box builder for a an art company based out of Hollywood in California. Here he would go on to make many contacts in the art world.

 

In this clip we visit the artist in his studio from the wonderful PBS series Art21:

 

 

In this clip we visit a show featuring Allan McCollum from 2013:

The artist has participated in the Venice Biennale.

McCollum is now based out of New York City.

Below a link to the website of Allan McCollum:

http://allanmccollum.net/allanmcnyc/

Price range information: Photographs start at $5,000. Works in other mediums including graphite, acrylics, enamel, and sculpture range from $10,000 to $300,000.

With his focus on mass production its possible that Andy Warhol has a smile right now!  This idea of the mass consumer as a subject is just as popular today as it was when Andy first made his Brillo boxes.

Even the Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei has used the same principle in creating some of his works my favorite being the Ming Dynasty vessels with Coca Cola labels on the side.

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