Forth Magazine » Contributing Artists

San Francisco Art by Michael Shankman

Jessi — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:40:45 +0000

With his recent paintings, Michael Shankman reveals interiors and exteriors of collapsing homesteads from suburban areas of Colorado, the area where he grew up. Shards of color and structural elements are depicted in large, explosive compositions that stand in comparison to his careful and delicate renderings of small clusters of suburbia.

Assemblage
Oil on Canvas
48 x 72 inches
2009

Homestead
Oil on Canvas
36 x 60 inches
2009

Feast of Tabernacles
Oil on Canvas
48 x 48 inches
2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dream Home
a solo exhibition by Michael Shankman
March 1 – 15, 2010
Opening Reception Thursday March 4, 2010 6-8pm
SAN FRANCISCO
January 1, 2010

With his recent paintings, Michael Shankman reveals interiors and exteriors of collapsing homesteads from suburban areas of Colorado, the area where he grew up. He contrasts imagery of contemporary dwellings built adjacent to century old homes. Shards of color and structural elements are depicted in large, explosive compositions that stand in comparison to his careful and delicate renderings of small clusters of suburbia.

The upcoming solo exhibition by Shankman, Dream Home, marks the continuation of an ongoing theme within his work: using the lens of architecture to express human values. Where his paintings once commented on fears of what is to come, this new series embodies the concept of ambition and the American dream. Centuries ago people migrated to this uninhabited frontier to build new lives, full of promise. Shankman sees similarities in the present-day migration of hopeful newcomers who continue to make their way to this mountain region, to build their homes among the skeletal remains of their predecessors’ dreams. The artist defines with paint brushes and pigments the inescapable reality that we have come no closer to finding Utopia in the American West.

Shankman’s process varies, but most of these images were inspired directly by places along the front range of the Rocky Mountains, where mining attracted a wave of ambitious settlers in the mid- to late- 1800s. Abandoned homesteads dot the open space and are intrinsic to the landscape. Using photographs and sketches as starting points, Shankman translates this realistic imagery into a more interpretive aesthetic of decay and abandonment.

The suburban element follows a similar process of interpretive representation. The population of the Front Range has nearly doubled in twenty years, altering the landscape dramatically. Where once there was open space and farmland, suburban sprawl now extends to the horizon. Shankman’s small, square, modular panels mimic the standardization of newly developed enclaves, their modesty a reflection of their fragility.

The artist reception for Dream Home will be held First Thursday, March 4 from 6-8pm at HANG ART. This event is free and open to the public.

HANG ART is located at 567 Sutter Street, between Mason and Powell Streets. Gallery hours are Monday to Saturday from 10am to 6pm and Sunday from 12pm to 5pm. For further information or high resolution images, please call 415 434 4264.

Media Contact:
DJ Harmon
415 434 4264
djharmon@hangart.com

Slam Art – Issue 8

Jessi — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:27:43 +0000

The following are photos of the Vox Humana Live Art Performance, which took place at the LA Art Show in January 2010.

Photos by Tommy Tung

By Retna and El Mac

By Mear One

By Kofie

Art by Deb Ris

Jessi — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:16:40 +0000

Size: 24in x 24in x 12in Materials: All objects inside of tank were found washed up on the beach.

Size: 6ft x 35in x 3in Materials: All firecrackers, cigarettes, streamers and fishing line were found left on the beaches and streets on July 5th. All fireworks were made in China.

Size: 66in x10in x 10in Materials: Washed up balloons, street found lamp. Mixed media.

Size: 55in x 16in x 15in Materials: Washed up balls & brackets, street found mannequin & construction mesh. Mixed Media.

Excerpts from Bureau Spectacular, a graphic novel by Jimenez Lai

Jessi — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:43:44 +0000

Graphic novels aren’t just the province of superheroes and neurotic shut-ins. Forth is proud to feature an example of the new direction of this form, via an excerpt from Jimenez Lai’s Bureau Spectacular. In the author’s words, the work is an attempt “to better understand the spatial implications of the two-dimensional fiction.” Check out these pages for an illustration of a very literate theme: the struggle of man to transcend his environment for something he can’t tangibly describe, but which he intuitively knows is better.

Mixed Media and Paint by Suzanne Erickson

cscheung — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:22:56 +0000

Title: “My bed” size: queen size mattress;
medium: paint, yarn with needlework on bed mattress 2009

Title: “Fissure 1″
size: 60 x 50,
medium: oil on canvas. 2009

Title: “Finally”
size: 28 x 44
medium: plaster 2009

Title: “Fuck the Flock”
Size: 31 x 50
medium: plaster and paint. 2009