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Publisher’s Note

This is a work of non-fiction and fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales can be interpreted as being entirely coincidential.

IBSN 978-0-557-55633-5

As an investigative reporter in the New New New Journalism, a literary movement that combines the postmodern new media techniques of Twitter and MySpace and Facebook with the old school subjective reporting of New Journalism that was popular in the 1960′s and 1970′s and the New New Journalism which was prevalent during the 1990′s, I decided to figure out why New York City and Los Angeles was the loci for the most prestigious contemporary art, particularly in the gallery scene that was reviewed by major art magazines such as Artforum and Art in America. In other words, why was the city that I was living in, Salt Lake City, being overlooked by these well-respected magazines? After all, popularly acclaimed writer Stephanie Meyer was living in Arizona, NOT in New York City.

Premise: invent a fictional character qi peng (who may have appeared in other Albert Wang novels) who would be a solely Utah conceptual artist that would borrow many autobiographical elements from Albert Wang’s life and have leading contemporary art professionals believe that they are being interviewed by a real-life conceptual art or art writer or art critic. Whatever confusion that may ensue from this tireless mess.

Goal: attempt to get qi peng further support and respect within the New York or Los Angeles contemporary art world without having to move to either venue. Land a solo exhibition in either city for this well-invented character resulting from Albert Wang’s double entendre as a performance artist gone undercover for a writer. Can one pretend that he has an art school degree? Possibly procure gallery representation for qi peng despite the odds by testing whether any galleries will accept his portfolio after a mass mailing of artist submissions.

Another desire was to open up the channels for having conceptual art reflect on its own methodology, particularly in the growth of an artist from a pure nobody to someone that was partly recognizable in the art world while attaining friendships with other artists who would be willing to become characters in the larger fabric of this driven narrative. The dialogue about how famous, particularly blue-chip, artists become where they are now remains rather elusive and perhaps non-existent even after a few years of this artistic experiment.

Expectations: mostly failure due the contemporary art world’s essentially conservative approach. Most museum curators and art dealers tend to believe that the critical dialogue and highest number of sales occur within the New York City and Los Angeles premises. Too bad for those other conceptual artists being crowded (or screwed over) out of the multilingual chatter of what the essential issues in the art world. It must be assumed that conceptual artists in Denver or even Dallas must not have a clue about what the hot topics are in any given issue of the high gloss art magazines must entail.

In other words, peng will suffer a rise and fall within the contemporary art world not due to his lack of critical engagement but an inability to secure gallery representation and thus art reviews. He remains a continued unknown factor of the whole art equation.

Results: in July 2010, peng has managed a single solo show that lasted only a single day at a raw New York City space but not much else. Lots of safely respectable shows in Salt Lake City, Utah which I have assumed to be good enough. Perhaps more to disclose before the artist’s untimely death within a few years that gets reported within the New York Times. Apparently his obsession with the overtones of 9/11 would have carried him too far. I, Albert Wang, as his executor must remain mum about his forthcoming adventures due to the twisted surprise within the conceptual artist’s failed life like a postmodern Henry Darger awaiting rediscovery by the blue-chip galleries in New York City or Los Angeles.

I would report here on the misadventures of my fictional alter-ego within this hybrid photographic text similar to that of a Sebald novel. A true journalist must fail to distinguish between fact and fiction because they are mutually dependent on each other’s value systems. To lie in thirty words per second must be impressive.

The underground artists really relished the self-referential solo show at envoy enterprises as a way of reflecting on their stymied attempts to straddle the commercial world of the gallery system and non-profit while entertaining self-created raw spaces, typically in apartments or abandoned warehouses, while refusing to compromise their philosophical or psychological breadth and edgy presentation.

And who would be looking out of the window from the white box galleries? Surprisingly, for all of the contemporary art world’s faith in an endlessly open dialogue, the saturation of experimental (and traditional) artists within the marketplace seems to have killed further interest with artists from obscure cities outside the safe confines of these two metropolises.

As the current financial climate forces shifts in business and culture I feel strongly that it is time for Bellwether to embrace change and open itself up to what’s to come. For the foreseeable future I will continue to represent the gallery’s artists privately and I am working on several shows with them in a Bellwether-at-large capacity. Details to follow in the fall,” said Becky Smith, the former director at the now defunct Bellwether Gallery.

qi peng speaks up that this shift in the values of contemporary art from the commercial to the conceptual could signal the death of contemporary art as a single-value commodity. Unfortunately, he relates to investigative journalist Albert Wang that nothing much will have changed and that New York City and Los Angeles will continue to be the focus of the contemporary art world which has become less democratic since Reaganomics.

As New York Times journalist Sheelah Kolhatkar once related about the character of Becky, he mentioned that “Becky, 43, is not one of the blonde wisps usually seen working at chic Manhattan art spaces — she has a big head of curly black hair and chunky eyeglasses.” The same could not have been said of qi peng, the model failure of this fictional Salt Lake City conceptual artist who failed continually to break into the contemporary New York gallery scene.

So what defines an interview from THE ART ASSASSIN? It’s called a hit, or assassination. My close friend, Jerry Hardesty, was the first victim of my “sharpshooting” skills. Bang. Bang.

Hardesty is represented by Art at the Main Gallery which is located at 210 East 400 South inside the Salt Lake Main Library complex. Even though his work, which has been specifically figurative until his recent foray into more abstract work, seems to be traditional and post-impressionist with its signature impasto, rich handling of colors, and slashing brushstrokes, Hardesty’s abstract work has begun to explore a more happy medium between the color field painting style of Frankenthaler and the heavy-dosed expressionism of Soutine. His approach also reminds one of the rather controversial Howard Hodgkin in terms of casual observers thinking that either Hodgkin or Hardesty “lack technique” because of the “messy brushwork.” I would counter with the argument that if you are pouring your emotions onto canvas, should people object to the personal aspects triumphing over the polished look?

So I had a chance this weekend to let off a few rounds towards Hardesty’s direction and here we have the director’s cut of our little conversation in cyberspace.

If you have any questions about Hardesty’s artwork, feel free to contact his gallery at (801) 363-4088.

Details of the “assassination”:

qi peng: How did you get interested in art when you were younger?

Jerry Hardesty: Art was not part of the curriculum in the public schools I attended; I should rephrase that – while in elementary school, an art teacher would come to our class perhaps once every six weeks and direct us to do a project which was more craft- based. In spite of that, I was always interested in drawing.  I took one class in college. When I was teaching in the public schools of Missouri, the art teacher and I were friends, and I took a workshop from her.

qi peng: Considering that you had a long hiatus from art during the 70’s to 90’s, do you notice that your style has changed from the past into the recent work? What about the conceptual idea?

Jerry Hardesty: My style has definitely changed, and I believe is still developing and growing. When I finally began painting in the 70’s, I wanted to paint nothing but clowns. I did not really know what I was doing. I was pretty much self-taught. Now, rather than painting from pictures, I would rather paint from life, en plein air; and most recently from concepts.

qi peng: You have been notorious with use of heavy impasto and rather abstracted brushstrokes to create what seems to be impressionistic representational artwork. Why do you think that viewers and some other artists object to this?

Jerry Hardesty: I was unaware that artists and other viewers have objected to my impasto, abstracted brushstrokes; however, I would be interested to know why myself.  But to address the issue, if it is in fact an issue, I have to like what I paint – no, I have to be passionate about what I paint, and if that means heavy impasto and abstracted brushstrokes then that is what I shall paint. One artist with whom I have studied, stated that I should paint like a rich man and paint even thicker.

qi peng: How has your training through Steven Sheffield helped the arc of your art education?

Jerry Hardesty: Since I have not studied that long with Steven, it would be unfair of me to give him sole credit for my art education. I have studied landscape painting with Susan Gallacher of King’s Cottage Gallery; portraiture and drawing with Rob Adamson of Salt Lake Community College; a week-end landscape workshop with Elio Camacho; landscape painting with John Hughes; and finally abstract painting with Steven Sheffield. In the short time that I have studied with Steven, my creativity has been broadened with ideas of conceptual art.

qi peng: What directions do you see your artwork heading into? As a lifelong student, will your technique and conceptual drive shift?

Jerry Hardesty: My conceptual drive has already shifted into right-brain mode. As I study with various artists and practice almost daily, my technique can do nothing but improve. As to new directions, I hope to exhibit in galleries outside the Salt Lake City area.

qi peng: What are some things that you envision yourself experimenting with?

Jerry Hardesty: Certainly more experimentation with conceptual art, with abstractions, perhaps multi-media, figurative painting. In addition to landscapes, I enjoy urban scapes – real industrial type urban scapes.

qi peng: Who are some of your influences, both artistically and culturally? How do they influence your philosophy of art?

Jerry Hardesty: I have already mentioned the people with whom I have studied. In addition, I give credit to my Mother – she was always a positive influence in my life and encouraged me as a singer/performer. My wife and my children also deserve credit. My wife has been very supportive since my illness in 2006; as have my daughter and two sons. My wife and children are my most devoted fans. I paint with a group weekly that I call “Thursday’s Painters” who have been very supportive – my friend Jude, from that group, has been my mentor. Toastmasters International has profoundly improved my ability as a public speaker – I am a motivational-speaker- wannabe. My art is influenced by many people and many things, especially by life experience.

I love the Impressionists as well as the Expressionists, and have considered myself an Impressionistic Painter.

qi peng: You are represented by Art at the Main Gallery at the downtown public library in Salt Lake. What are some advantages being in a central location? How has your gallery helped in your art career?

Jerry Hardesty: Art at the Main is a wonderful little gallery (www.ArtattheMain.com). Its location is a benefit due to the high amount of foot traffic in that area. Being part of that gallery, has given me a great deal of exposure I otherwise would not have had. Rapport with other artists in the gallery has been very helpful. Periodically, the gallery sponsors ‘Studio Window,’ the room next to the gallery where the gallery artists set up their easels and paint so the public can see the creation of art live. I love being able to paint and talk with patrons and answer their questions.

qi peng: How do you visualize the art world in New York City and Los Angeles (or any larger art market)?

Jerry Hardesty: I would love to be a part of the New York art scene, or any large city for that matter. That would be the ultimate goal at this point.

qi peng: What impact will the economic recession have on concerns within your artwork or artistic practice?

Jerry Hardesty: The economic recession is having an impact on all artists and many galleries. Would-be collectors may be reluctant to purchase a piece when they are uncertain if their paychecks will cover all the bills. The recession highlights the term “starving artist.” In spite of this, I shall continue to study, practice, and paint daily so that when the economy strengthens, I am ready.

THE ART ASSASSIN strikes again with his second hit here. This one is a lot more fascinating and perhaps difficult as interviewing a close friend has much emotional meaning in my heart. Alas, I hope that you have a blast reading this one.

Matt Jones, who is a young artist with a developed and mature style, is represented currently by Buia Gallery, one of the hippest and most cutting edge galleries in Chelsea. With his provocative style, Jones has a brilliant craftsmanship that combines the personal subject under the magnifying glass of an impersonal technique which has a unique fingerprint within the contemporary art world that tends to be cookie cutter.

THE ART ASSASSIN decides to drop in and chat up a rather nice storm with Jones (who is a close friend of Kadar Brock, another New York artist whom I will be interviewing later).

For more information about Matt Jones’ work for purchase, contact Buia Gallery at (212) 366-9915 or at info@buiagallery.com.

Here are the details of the official hit on Matt Jones for the record:

qi peng: How did you get interested in art during your early years? Which things attracted you to entering this world?

Matt Jones: Drawing was a way out of boredom as a kid.  My mom told me that when I was two years old I started drawing all the time. The thing that was attractive then is attractive now: direct expression.

qi peng: Who are your biggest influences from an artistic standpoint? Were there any memorable experiences during your time at Cooper Union School of Art and Yale Summer School?

Matt Jones: Martin Kippenberger, Francesco Goya, and Edvard Munch are the most important art historical figures to my practice currently.  Josh Smith‘s current show at Luhring Augustine is a big help, too.

At Cooper I had a series of great professors that nudged me along my path, Doug Ashford, Bobby Bordo, Stephen Ellis, and Jacqueline Humphries. The two greatest influences on my work from that time were David True and Drew Beattie.  I went through several stages of figuring out who I was and what kind of artist I wanted to be.  The professors at Cooper were completely supportive and challenging.

Stephen Ellis exploded at us in his class the day after the Armory Show weekend in 2000.  None of my classmates, including me, went to the Armory and he let us know how irresponsible he thought that was.  The following year I was in his class again and had a full Armory report for him, most of us did.  None of us wanted to be scolded like that again.

Drew Beattie in particular kept feeding me information, things to read, shows to see.  He was and continues to be very inspirational.

David True admitted after I had graduated that when I first started taking his class (a morning class) he’d look at the individual studio visit sign up sheet hoping I’d give him a break and he cursed as he saw that I’d signed up for 9.00AM again.  The next slot filled in was for 11.00AM.  I completely benefited from his mentoring and only feel vaguely guilty for getting him up two hours earlier than he would’ve been getting up otherwise.  He always showed up with his game face on and braved through the coffee fueled morning hours only slightly begrudgingly.

Sam Messer was incredibly helpful at the Yale summer program.  His attitude is fantastic.  Very open, very expressive and free.  He’d suggest things and get you working without you ever knowing he was helping you at all. He’s a master.  Even more than that it was the environment.  Total rural setting with all of these eager young men and women willing to do whatever to get the creative juices flowing, to share ideas.  It was the most intense summer of my life to date.

qi peng: How did you get into touch with Vanessa Buia, who represents your work at her Chelsea gallery?

Matt Jones: Vanessa and I met over two pitchers of McSorley’s Dark at Sophie’s (a bar on East Fifth Street in the East Village) with Kadar Brock.  She visited my studio (a studio I shared with Brock Enright, dubbed Terror Mansion due to it’s unsavory history and appearance) in late 2004 and put on an exhibition of my work with Kadar’s in 2005 called Human After All.  I’ve shown at Buia Gallery ever since.

qi peng: How has exhibiting there help to develop your style, your subject matter, and your visualization of your paintings/works on paper within the white box gallery setting?

Matt Jones: It’s strange – I don’t know if I’ve ever really thought about this.  It’s good to have a gallery, it focuses you, it’s slightly unbelievable (who ever thinks they’ll have a gallery to show paintings in, really?!), it’s totally expected (I do!), and utterly amazing to see your work on the wall at a beautiful gallery in Chelsea.  It gave me a new kind of confidence, a sort of justification for the life style I wanted.  It felt like I was official – “now I’m a real artist” sort of feeling.  Maybe it felt like everything got more serious.  Of course that energy changes into something else and progresses.  It takes on new forms.

qi peng: Your recent drawings from 2009 are a mixture of pencil on paper or marker on paper. Are you attracted to vibrant and surreal colors along with patterns? Also how are the viewers to relate this new series to your large scale paintings? What do you hope to achieve within this current series?

Matt Jones: I’m attracted to all sorts of colors!  I don’t know that I understand color.  It’s interesting and tricky and difficult and fun to even attempt to get it.  Patterns.  Kadar and I were in my studio tonight talking about patterns and the different levels of patterning I’m involved in.  The dots in the background, the pastoral scenes that repeat and end up being squiggles, the stripes, the jungle, etc.  I’ve recently started painting contact sheets from the photo shoots I do for the paintings – so, 15 portraits will be on the same canvas running an emotional gamut creating an emotional pattern (as well as an imagistic one). It’s very exciting for me in the studio right now.

Drawings are usually work meant to inspire the paintings or to figure out things for the paintings.  When I get stuck I fill sketchbooks and then start making larger drawings.  Drawing is a way out of boredom and uncertainty.  The colors, I’m using AD Markers for the first time to try them out. Trying a new material puts me out of my comfort zone and that’s when my creativity and imagination get a bit more freedom to roam wild.  I don’t know what those drawings are yet.

The pencil drawings are of new people and old favorites – an expanded universe.  They’ve sat through one of my photo-shoots.  The sitter holds a card that has drawings of a very expressive cartoon cat and the cat has different expressions on his face.  The sitter mimics the cat’s expression or uses this expression as jumping off point, and I take the photo.  The shoots can get pretty goofy because it’s sometimes embarrassing for most people to open up like that, to have the attention focused on them.

Then I play with the photo in Photoshop and use the new Photoshopped photo to start drawing.  The drawings lead to paintings. I think about painting the cat emotion sheet all the time.  It’s inevitable.

The new work is bringing in aspects of the recent past work and finding the patterns within them.  It’s curious that I started using patterns for the backgrounds of the paintings, to go behind the image and it ends up that I’ve been interested in different layers and conceptions of patterns all along.  It all seems more complex and makes more sense to me.  At the same time.

qi peng: I was struck by your paintings when I first saw your show “Everlasting” last year and thought that they were large silkscreen paintings. When I dug deeper and found out about the painterly technique behind the first impression, I was touched profoundly by the use of what seems to be a “impersonal” technique of looks like high-contrast photography and/or silkscreening to rather personal subjects which include your friends. How do you balance these concerns between the personal life and the imagery from mass media? Do your themes include the concept of celebrity and perhaps its deconstruction?

Matt Jones: I need to work with powerful imagery.  That’s why I use the emotion-card.  That’s why the photographs are broken down the way they are.  The image needs to act like an icon, a powerful icon for happiness, sadness, excitement – iconified emotional experience.  This allows me to spend my time figuring out which powerful image, which colors, what kind of marks will be made because the image takes care of itself.  Selection of the right canvas becomes important.  I got a great deal on these pre-stretched pre-gessoed linen canvases with tacks on the side.  The weave of the linen is thick, something I imagined Kippenberger painting on.  I have stacks of them. I paint and paint so that they pile up.

The impersonal is the initial image making technique, the use of photography and Photoshop.  It’s all pretty impersonal.  Everything’s impersonal if you don’t know the person.  The paintings should feel like I know the person, or that the person is known and not generic.  You could know this person.  Maybe you do. Sometimes I say there’s no meaning as to why I use the people I use in my paintings.  That’s bulls—.  I learn so much about the people I paint as I paint them.  They’re usually picked so I can understand something about them even if I don’t know that’s what I’m doing. Their faces become memorized, their expressive qualities are ingrained in my mind.  My relationship with them isn’t the same after I start painting them.  My knowledge of them is different.  It may not even be real – it could be total imagination.  They become these characters in my mind – they become mine and I get to decide what they look like.  It’s never malicious.  They’re deciding what they look like whether they realize it or not. I’m just the guy with the brush.

They deserve to be beautifully painted and grand in scale.  I’m interested in the idea of celebrity, sure, but for the same reason I stopped using comic book sources in my paintings, celebrity isn’t mine.  It’s not my experience, I don’t know it or live with it.  I’m interested in it from a distance that informs how I interact with and appreciate the people in my life that I have profound love for.  The tenderness I treat their images with is something I would never have expected.

qi peng: Any influence from Sigmar Polke, who paints painstakingly what is the illusion of raster dot/half-tone images onto canvas? How would you place yourself within the overall context of art history in terms of pop art, conceptual art, etc.?

Matt Jones: Polke is a big influence, yes.  When I was at Cooper I read every book I could find concerning his work.  I identify with his attitude, too.  He wants to make these paintings, right? And he wants them to have a look, a very specific look, so he uses the techniques he’s explored to get that look.  I want to paint my paintings – the painting of them is the thing, and I want them to have a certain LOOK.  I want the image to be legible, I want it to have a certain amount of power and clarity.  All of these ideas serve each other and with the right balance serve to make the best painting one can make.  Polke is very good at this.

As far as history is concerned and my place in it: I think about this from time to time – I’d guess that most artists do.  I don’t know if it’ll really matter in the end.  I want as many people to experience my work as is possible.  I want them to feel the paintings, to get them, to get why they are, to feel and think and enjoy them.

Pop art is influential to my practice.  Conceptual Art, I’ve studied it some and at different times have been more or less into it.  I don’t get involved in institutional critique.  Painting is where it’s at for me.  I want to see really good paintings and add to the pile of great work that’s existed throughout human history.  Paintings need presence.  They need to be encountered as we encounter each other in conversation, as we enter into the lives of those we care about, etc.  We need to build relationships. That’s important.

qi peng: Knowing that you are a huge fan of video games and Guitar Hero, how do you see the world of your artwork impacted by the interactive nature of these types of games? Do you derive any inspiration from Guitar Hero when you paint or draw?

Matt Jones: Guitar Hero takes a specific kind of attention.  It’s very focused.  I don’t play to just f— around. I want to be really good.  It’s like this with all things I take on.  Whenever I get into something I really get into it.  It’s all work and work is good.  I dislike doing things in a half-assed manner and try not to get involved with things that I can’t give my full attention.  Getting good at something lets you get what you want out of it.  Guitar Hero isn’t that different from painting.  There’s a path before you and if you make the right moves you get what you want out of it.  Songs are great for memories, too.  Norman Greenbaum‘s Spirit in the Sky is in Rock Band 2 and it’s one of my favorite songs to play in the game.  I downloaded the track and listen to it on my iPod.  I was listening to it earlier and Jen walks in and says “oh that’s the song Tigger (a male burlesque dancer, or boylesque dancer) dances to dressed up as a priest”.  Now that song has a new memory attached to it.  There are Nirvana songs (especially Drain You) and Pearl Jam songs (Alive) in these games that trigger memories and playing them is like reliving and recreating your memory – participating in in the memory in a new way.  That has everything to do with my painting.  Taking something I know or remember and reshaping it with thought and imagination to develop an alternate version, a different dimensional variant of the original memory or thing.

qi peng: What future direction do you hope to take your work into? Do you feel that the recession will have any impact on your subject matter, studio practice, or the art world in general?

Matt Jones: For now I’m going to keep on trucking.  I really just started after quite a painting dry spell of reading, seeing shows, and playing video games (which was reignited by drawing).  My practice is like that.  I’ll work really intensely for four or five months and then take a month or two off to play video games (usually brought on by me running out of interest in the current body of work or an overfamiliarity with what I’m making and/or a new video game coming out that requires my attention – Diablo 3 will probably do this when it drops later this year).

My hope is that the recession will clear out a lot of the junk art that’s floating around.  You know what I mean, the stuff that makes going to see shows a bummer sometimes.  Walking away from a show thinking “really?  That’s what you thought you should make?”, shaking your head slowly and wishing to go see a movie instead of heading back to the studio, hoping that you can avoid contributing to the superficial landfill you just walked out of.  I don’t think it will impact my subject matter because I’m just starting, I’m just realizing what it is that I’ve wanted to do for so long – finally tying it all together!  Unless the recession tears it all apart again… even then I’d have a blast reassembling it or building something new.  When I was in my break/research/videogame mode I wondered if my paintings would be darker but as you see with the new marker drawings it’s just not the case. It’s all a cycle.  Life is filled with cycles.  Birth, death, repeat.  It’s not restricted to our understanding of life.  It’s even bigger than we imagine, the cycle.  We’re going to see some quality art coming out because we need it now, we demand it.  The recession will be a good catalyst for a rebirth.

qi peng: What is a typical day within the Matt Jones studio like? Do you ever feel that you have to paint out of necessity or discipline or is it mostly out of your emotional willingness to enter into the studio?

Matt Jones: Typical day in the studio: I get to the studio pretty early, 8.00AM is usually the goal.  I assess the situation, see what I’ve got to do, turn on NPR (which I listen to all day unless it’s a weekend and then I have to turn it off from noon to 4.00PM because I can’t make myself like or listen to Jonathan Schwartz), and get to work.  I paint or draw or edit photos until around 1.00PM. At that time I go to this great Mexican joint for their $5 lunch special, then I come back and continue working until around 6.  That’s a good day.

Going to the studio is habit and need.  It has an affect on me if I don’t go in.  Sometimes I’m really excited to go in and get work done.  Sometimes I get distracted and call it a day early and head to the Met or go for a long bike ride or watch a movie.  It varies.  Really it’s all the same thing or leads to the same thing. Presently I’m in a “can’t wait to go to my studio” mode.  It’s excellent.

qi peng: Any opinions on art magazines, art blogs, or art fairs in general?

Matt Jones: I don’t read art magazines much unless they’re about something I’m specifically interested in, an artist I love, or someone recommends something.  The same with art blogs.  There’s some interesting discussion going on but it takes too much to get involved beyond certain specific issues.  Getting caught up in that would take away from time spent on my work.  I go to a lot of shows and am a member to all the great art museums in the city (I feel like it’s an artist’s responsibility).  A lot of my time is spent with art books (I’m very proud of my collection).  I’ll read anything Schjeldahl or Saltz write.  I like reading Roberta Smith‘s reviews.  Matthew Collings is another favorite.

Art fairs are like working out your eyes, mind, and heart.  They’re all over the place but one really must go to them if they’re in your area.  It’s hard to not attend the Armory Show every year.  There’s just so much one could see.

qi peng: Also, on a more lighthearted note, do you have any favorite musicians, artists, and/or stuff you would like to recommend to us?

Matt Jones: I listen to a lot of 90s rock like Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, NIN, Tool, Deftones, Rage Against the Machine, Pearl Jam, etc. and a lot of electronic music like Proem, Aphex Twin/AFX, Clark, Autechre.  The Sword is a favorite newer band.  I’ve been listening to a lot of Muse and System of a Down, as well as the Analord tracks. My taste is all over the place.  The music I grew up listening to is still in heavy rotation on my iPod.  Right now it’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

qi peng: Do you have any advice for aspiring BFA or MFA graduates who are trying to make it into the big leagues such as the New York or Los Angeles (or any large city for that matter)?

Matt Jones: Don’t let anything stop you from making your work.  If you let things stop you then you shouldn’t worry about it.  Maybe you aren’t an artist, and that’s totally OK.  Working a 40 hour week at a job and then working six hours nightly after work and all weekend is how you build your practice.  It’s not going to pay for itself.  You have to work and you have to make work.  Your ideas need to continue to develop.  Forget what you think being an artist means and focus on making work.  Go to museums, go to any show you can, read books you like, read books you aren’t interested in.  Try EVERYTHING.  Talk to people about your work as often as you can and LISTEN to what other people say about their work.  Be sincere and honest with yourself and those around you.

There’s a thought that creeps up on me when I doubt myself. I’ve actually dreamed it a couple of times. It’s kind of a perverse evil fantasy:

# I’m 45 years old, sitting in an arm chair with a can of beer.  I’d long since quit making art or thinking about art.  My kids toys lay all over the carpeted room I’m in (I strongly dislike carpeting), there are stains in the floor.  The TV’s on but I haven’t actually paid attention to the millions of hours of TV I’d watched in ages.  There’s this nagging feeling as I sit there that I’ve wasted my life, that I could’ve done something more, participated in a more positive way, jumped outside the normal day to day into the exceptional and I missed it. I f—ed up.

The thought-dream always ends with the beer can hitting the floor and me walking out my already open front door into the brightest light you can imagine.

qi peng: Your fellow Cooper Union graduate artist Kadar Brock and you had some wonderful experiences exhibiting together. What was it like to be amongst friends? Any cool stories you wish to share about the fun times?

Matt Jones: Kadar used to have this crazy apartment in a gated community on Atlantic Avenue in Bed-Stuy.  We formed this group called 1980 (we were all born in and around that date) and we’d have group critiques in our studios and put on these shows with other artists we were friendly with (some from Cooper, some from the Yale Summer program, some from the scene) under the title The Atlantic Conference.  His front room was huge and gallery-like so we invited everyone to hang art and curated a couple of shows there, having a big party to celebrate each one.  We needed people to see our work so it wasn’t just us looking at it all the time.

Having a good peer group is one of the most important things a young artist can do.  Don’t live an isolated life. You need to make work and you need perspective as to how people view what you’re making.  Feedback, you really need feedback.  It’s also crucial to know what other people are looking at, reading, making.  It can only help your practice.

Coming up with the exhibition card for Human After All was a particularly fun experience.  Kadar and I wanted our paintings on the card and we both wanted it to be different/interesting.  We started brainstorming.  The second half of our tenure as students at Cooper we, along with Mark Gibson and Brian Dulaney, discovered we were all Magic: the Gathering players.  We played a lot then.  So on the card we decided to reference that time in our lives (it really was conducive to our imaginations and creativity and even led to some M:TG related paintings in 2002 out of my studio) and we played M:TG for the card with our paintings behind us.  We asked Vanessa to be in the photo off to the side on her phone making some business deals.  She was great at it!  Having the whole team in the photo was important.  Mary Mattingly shot the photo at our request.  She’s a great photographer.  We met at the Yale summer program and continue to be great friends.  It was a totally pleasurable experience.

qi peng: Where are some places that you would enjoy traveling to? Any other art hot spots that you dream of visiting?

Matt Jones: I’d love to do a residency or spend some time in lots of places.  My center now is very much in New York, in Brooklyn.  Jen and I took a trip to Berlin and it was fantastic.  I’d love to spend more time there, make some work there.  Mexico City looks interesting.  LA was a little stressful for a New Yorker but I could see myself getting used to chilling out very easily – the weather is so goddamn nice!  I want to go to Spain, to the Prado.  Ireland/Scotland are big musts for me (Giant’s Causeway).  For a while at Cooper I was obsessed with Freemasonry and the Knights Templar, reading every book I could on the subject, so I’d love to visit Rennes-le-Château and the surrounding landscape.

qi peng: What is your opinion on technology within the art world? Do you think that painting is influenced heavily by the technological advances we have, ranging from the iPod to the Blackberry?

Matt Jones: Technology has and will continue to advance at a pace far beyond our own mental, emotional, and spiritual evolution.  It’s incredibly rapid the way technology progresses.  I think we haven’t caught up with it yet in the art world.  The best use of technology beyond traditional oil on canvas painting that I’ve seen was Josh Smith’s pasted on print outs in his current show. He’s taking slightly pixelated images and printing them very large on one sheet at a time, creating a kind of mosaic, on the surface that from a distance looks like a painted image.  This is further confused by the actual painted paintings and the collage plus paint paintings also in the show.  This is the NES 8-bit system to today’s technology’s PS3, sure – Smith slowed down, took technology that was within his reach and applied it in a way that he understood and that served his practice.

I look forward to what technology will bring to art but I’m not anxious about it. I’m against using technology for technology’s sake.  Where’s the art in that?  That sounds like science and art isn’t science.

I totally love my iPod and my Blackberry.

The third hit interview turned out to be a rather fascinating view into a different art scene of Philadelphia, a venue that has been considered to be an alternative to the high-powered New York one.

As a short disclosure, I used to live in Philadelphia right before I moved out here to Salt Lake City. This was about four to five years ago and I was working as a documentary photographer (under a different name) then. Do I regret having moved out here? Not really considering that my studio and living expenses are much less substantially in Salt Lake City. However, with the proliferation of wonderful galleries like the F.U.E.L. Collection, Projects Gallery, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, and so on, I sometimes feel slightly jealous of having left the Philadelphia area (although the crime and homicide I don’t miss too much as I was nearly mugged and killed near Tasker Street back in the day) years ago.

Apart from the rambling about my old stomping grounds, this is the proper time to introduce an upcoming, cutting-edge artist named Alexis Granwell whose installations are rather innovative, proving her as a successor to Eva Hesse and Jessica Stockholder. I first saw Granwell’s work in the publication New American Paintings last year and was struck by its utter bravado and profound spiritual medium. By combining her ideas about how painting can be reinvented onto new supports such as foam, she proves herself worthy of invitation to the Whitney Biennial.

Peep and respect her work. She is going to be where we are going to be in five to ten years. For more information about her artwork or background, please check out her website at http://www.alexisgranwell.com/ and if you wish to procure her pieces, please contact Tiger Strikes Asteroid at TigerStrikesAsteroid@gmail.com.

So here are the details of this late night hit by THE ART ASSASSIN, a rendezvous straight from the pages of a John Le Carre book.

qi peng: What is the origin of the newly formed artist-run cooperative Tiger Strikes Asteroid? Why such as poetic and Dada-sounding name for the gallery? What the other artists in the cooperative like?

Alexis Granwell: I must give a huge thanks to Alex Paik.  He is the idea man.  A couple months ago Alex sent out an email looking for members to help him start this collective space.  As soon as I heard, I jumped right on the bandwagon. The whole project came together really fast.  I am so thrilled to be a part of this gallery. I have been frustrated with the lack of contemporary art spaces in Philly.  While there is a burgeoning art scene here, there needs to be more happening in this city. I know so many talented artists in Philadelphia who never  have the opportunity to show their work.  We hope to broaden the scene with new local artists.  In addition, we plan to show artists from New York, LA and Chicago.

The name “Tiger Strikes Asteroid” was created on a whim.  We were trying to conjure up an image of something explosive to contrast with the small scale of the space.  I know it is a bit long but I think it works.

All of our art is very different. My installations and works on paper deal with the metaphysical. Alex Paik is inspired by pop colors and videogames.  Caroline Santa draws brightly colored creatures to diagram systems of communication.  Phillip Adams renders charcoal portraits of individuals with anonymous backgrounds (the newest images are taken from Google).  Timothy Gierschiek paints minimalist symbols on collaged panels.  Nathan Pankratz works with collage mixed media and paint to create layered and tactile imagery evoking images of maps or advertisements.

qi peng: How will your experience at Tiger Strikes Asteroid differ from exhibiting at a commercial gallery space? What do you enjoy about the thriving contemporary Philadelphia arts scene as compared to the hypercommercial New York scene? Is there more experimentation in the area?

Alexis Granwell: I think the main difference between running a collective and showing at a commercial gallery is that you are in control of the art in that space. Our goal is not to make money off the work.  We are solely focused on showing the best and most interesting work possible.

The greatest part about living in Philadelphia is that it is cheap…..and I say this sincerely.  We decided one day that we were going to start this gallery and two months later we rented the space.  In Philadelphia, there are plenty of run down warehouses just waiting to be converted into art studios, galleries or music spaces.  Everything here is very DIY and if you are proactive you can make things happen.  I don’t think that this scenario would be as easy in New York or LA.

I would say that Philly’s contemporary art scene would compare to what is currently happening in Bushwick. I am not sure if there is more experimentation happening here.  Each city seems to take on its own aesthetic though and I hope to shake that up a bit.

qi peng: I first saw your fabulous installation paintings and works on paper through the curated journal New American Paintings. How has the exposure through the magazine boosted your career? Would you recommend this or any other juried competition for emerging artists who are in art school, etc.?

Alexis Granwell: NAP did give me some exposure.  It is a well-produced publication and Janelle Porter did a good job selecting artists.  It is beneficial to apply to juried shows when you are first starting out.  I think it is good to be choosy though.  Apply to shows with established curators.  Sometimes one show can lead to another if the curator connects with the work.  Artist registries are another great way to gain exposure.

qi peng: What is your studio practice? How do you gather the materials that you use for the sculptures? How do you fashion the final pieces from the ingredients that you discover like an archaeologist? Do you consider yourself a process-oriented conceptual artist?

Alexis Granwell: My practice often begins with a text.  I am usually inspired by a passage in a book.  Often, the idea that intrigues me is something that is not physically manifested in the world.  I try to find a way to diagram, map or structure the idea.  Most of the text is based on psychology or philosophy.

Many of my materials are gathered on the street by my studio; old branches, foam packaging, broken furniture etc.  This detritus is either caste in paper, wrapped in pulp or painted.  I keep boxes of these fragments and categorize the pieces.  Once I begin working on a sculpture, I can pull out the fragment I need and begin to collage.  I come from a painting background and I guess I organize my forms as painter might organize colors on a palette. The process begins with a specific idea but is heavily material oriented.  I try to remain as open as possible when working.

qi peng: Who are your strongest artistic and/or cultural influences? Do you have any music, artists, books, movies, etc. that you wish to recommend to your fans here? How do your hobbies and interest manifest themselves into your pieces?

Alexis Granwell: I am really influenced by the Arte Povera movement as well as female sculptors of the late 1960s and early 1970s.  Some of my favorite artists are Charles Simmonds, Rachel Whiteread, Alan Saret, Eva Hesse, Lee Bontecou and Cy Twombly. I spend a lot of time listening to music.  I feel particularly inspired by the lyrics of Will Oldham who often combines the abject with the beautiful. As for books, I have a whole pile by my bed that I am trying to read.  One of my favorite books is “Night Studio” written by Phillip Guston‘s daughter.  I also just finished “Poetics of Space” which I would recommend.

qi peng: What are some your favorite galleries and/or memorable exhibits that you have experienced recently? Do you have any favorite art magazines, columns, or blogs that you wish to recommend to the readers?

Alexis Granwell: Louise Bougeouis at the Guggenheim was an incredible retrospective.  That might be the best show that I have seen in the last couple months.  My favorite art space in Philly is The Fabric Workshop.  They have a wonderful permanent collection and they bring in top international and emerging artists.  In New York, I like Tanya Bonakdar, Sikkema Jenkins and James Cohan Gallery.  There are so many blogs I have been reading lately but Modern Art Notes is a good one.  I also want to mention that Ed Winkelman has a great article on galleries and representation. Definitely worth checking out.

qi peng: Your sculptures give an illusion of fragility on the surface but an inner strength holding it all together. What concept is behind this or am I way off base?

Alexis Granwell: I would say that is a perceptive comment.  In my work, I use a vocabulary of abstract forms to explore the complex structures of psychological states.  Some of the new work deals with diagrams that depict how the body and mind relate to the state of emptiness. I want these pieces to be seen as still occurring: forms fall apart, forms are rebuilt.

qi peng: Do you consider yourself a feminist? How do you place your artwork within the context of general art history? What is your opinion about female artists and the way that they interact together?

Alexis Granwell: I consider myself to be a feminist but my work is not about making any kind of feminist statement.  I would say my sculptural work is related to early assemblage and late 1960s formless sculpture.  My works on paper seem more related to process art.

qi peng: What advice can you provide for emerging or student artists as they graduate from school? What are some potential pitfalls of having to deal with the gallery system? Any pluses or minuses of having to deal with gallery owners?

Alexis Granwell: I would advise students to make sure that they maintain a community once they leave school.  Start a monthly crit group.  It is important to continue the dialogue once you leave school.  Also, try to find a job that can feed your work in some way.  Or, at the very least, find a job that gives you enough time to work in the studio.

I have been fortunate enough to have good experiences working with gallery owners.  Getting involved with a gallery before you are ready to show your work is a potential pitfall.  It also seems difficult to research and find a gallery that truly is the right match for your work.

qi peng: What accounts for the proliferation of artist collectives within the Philadelphia area such as Vox Populi, Muse Gallery, Inliquid, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, etc.? Is there a strong interaction between artists, collectors, galleries, and the overall public in the city?

Alexis Granwell: Collectives and non-profits do better in Philadelphia because they do not depend on sales to remain open.  There is just not the same kind of art market here as there is in New York.  I would say that there is a good interaction between artists and galleries.  Most of the galleries participate in “First Fridays” which are citywide monthly openings that usually have a successful turnout. I think the combination of artists, galleries and art collectors becomes a bit of a grey area.  I am not sure that I could accurately answer that question.

qi peng: Any hidden treasures at the Philadelphia Museum of Art that you wish to give props to? Does its presence influence how you do your artwork?

Alexis Granwell: The PMA has a solid collection.  My favorite room is the Cy Twombly room “The Battle of Iliam“

qi peng: Do you have any cool stories that you wish to share from your art school days at the University of Pennsylvania? What are some of the challenges that you had to face during that time?

Alexis Granwell: Dave Hickey caused quite a ruckus when he came as the visiting critic.  He basically insulted everyone and forced the secretary to continually buy him venti vanilla mocha lattes.  He seemed to be having a lot of fun.

I might be part of a small population when I say this,  but I though grad school was completely awesome.  There was constant dialogue with faculty and students, an amazing library, facilities to produce anything imaginable and most importantly TIME.  I think the realizations and breakthroughs I had in school were due to the fact that I could sit in my studio all day and work.  It is more difficult to get that consistent time now.

The biggest challenge in grad school was that sometime there were too many voices in the studio.  I am perhaps still grappling with that.

qi peng: What are some challenges that artists are going to be facing during this time of economic recession? Does the dampened mood influence your artistic concerns and methods?

Alexis Granwell: I have seen a lot of artists lose gallery jobs or teaching jobs. It is hard to financially stay afloat right now.  For me, I have not had the experience of living off my art and so not too much has changed.  It is disheartening to see so many galleries closing in New York.  But, my hope is that people will just have to become more creative in how or where they show their work. It could also be a positive change to have the art scene less saturated with commercial work.  Perhaps the mood of the recession has subconsciously helped me choose more humble materials but I would say it is not part of the text that I am working with right now.

qi peng: How does your works on paper relate to your sculpture from a philosophical stance? From a visual stance?

Alexis Granwell: Visually the 2-D and 3-D works feed each other.  Both hold the same sort of tension and language.  I like how when I am investigating the language with one medium it will completely inform another medium even when the processes are so different. Each medium seems to bring a new perspective to the problem I am trying to solve.

Having met Anne Becker one day a few weeks ago at the Art at the Main Gallery down near the public library in Salt Lake City was quite a relevatory experience. Her quiet demeanor and powerful lyricism evident within her personality and thus her artwork manifests a rather beautiful outlook in life that continues strongly in the modernist vein.

Her paintings are marked with clear cut yet impassionated brushstrokes with geometric lines and loose blocks of color. With a surefire mastery of the muted palette, Becker can evoke the silent beauty of landscape with the arrangement of the colorful prisms across the densely applied background. Her earlier figurative work incorporate elements of collage to create scenes of the suburb, often with figures placed in the foreground.

I decided to talk with her before her debut at the Art at the Main Gallery in her first group show “Introductions” starting today during the February Gallery Stroll. Guess that THE ART ASSASSIN had a lot of free time on his hands.

If you have any questions about Becker’s artwork, feel free to contact her gallery at (801) 363-4088.

Now here are the details of the “assassination”:

qi peng: Since you are represented at Art at the Main gallery, what excites you most about your first group show there? Which pieces did you select for the show and why?

Anne Becker: Having a show is always exciting, whether you have one painting or forty to show.  I created some new pieces for the show because I like to have something fresh to put out there when I’m having a show.  The new pieces are not collage like the others, but that may show up again in future paintings.

qi peng: What are some of your hobbies that you enjoy? Do you have any music, art, books, etc. that influences the themes and style of your artwork? What fascinates you about the work of Diebenkorn and Scully? Do you see yourself as a painter working in the modernist vein?

Anne Becker: I spend my days painting, doing family things, reading, going to pilates, hiking a little in the summer,  cooking healthy food, and getting together with friends.  Some of my past  work was influenced by a book I read called Suburban Nation.  The book examines how modern suburban planning effects how we live.  I also recently read Johannes Itten and the Art of Color.

What I love about Sean Scully is his ability to paint with such simplicity and elegance.   I first saw one of his paintings in London and it was very powerful for me and I felt his language is one that applies to my own thinking about order, repetition, and beauty.

Deibenkorn is also of some interest to me.  I have certainly spent time looking at his work, particularly his use of color.  Color interaction is a favorite interest of mine and I would consider myself a modernist.

qi peng: Considering that you do a lot of works on paper, are these preparatory studies for the larger paintings or complementary? In what ways do you choose to explore different types of visual vocabularies?

Anne Becker: I don’t actually do a lot of works on paper, although I have a couple in the gallery.  The ones in the gallery were simply me having fun exploring abstraction.

qi peng: Do you believe that working in the studio is result of practice and habit or brute inspiration whenever you feel like it? Do you consider yourself a formalist and how do you incorporate your personal emotions and social concerns into the work itself?

Anne Becker: I have to schedule time in my studio or it won’t happen.  Once I set the time I tell people I am unavailable.  Inspiration comes at the most inconvenient times so I have to take notes and wait until studio time comes.

I am definitely a formalist.  Beauty, or at least visual interest, is something I look for everywhere I go and try to incorporate into my work.  When painting, I try not to get too bogged down in negative emotions or social agendas because that is not my ultimate goal.  If I have something to say, an ax to grind, I might incorporate the idea in a subtle way while keeping the formal aspects of the painting in the forefront.  Matisse said something to the effect that he wanted his paintings to uplift the tired businessman at the end of a hard day.  I like that philosophy and think that moments of visual enjoyment can stir one’s soul in a powerful way.

qi peng: How does being part of an artist’s collective help your relationships and perception of the art world? What do you think about being within the Utah, and specifically the Salt Lake City, arts scene here? Do you think that the monthly Gallery Stroll helps to get people to interact with art better? If so, how?

Anne Becker: Being a part of the collective keeps me motivated to paint and provides some interaction with other artists. It is a great place to try out new ideas too.

Salt Lake City has a lot of talented artists working in varied styles and mediums and it has wonderful resources for local artists.  Gallery stroll is an example.  The more people get out and look at art, the greater chance they will experience something extraordinary and get hooked on the pleasures art has to offer.

qi peng: How does being a mother and a wife within a family help to inform your viewers about the nature of your subjects and your collage-influenced style? When you set to plan a piece, how do you decide to pursue a more figurative or more abstract style?

Anne Becker: My life experiences have everything to do with what I paint.  I paint entirely about my own life experiences and impressions.  My collage-influenced work has to do with the nature of living in the suburbs of America, piecing our lives together, facades, but also emphasizing the formal elements of design and shape as part of what I see in the landscape.
I have been experimenting a little with abstract painting since I received my degree in painting and drawing from University of Utah last year.  In art school we were asked to create mostly figurative works.  Ideas can be expressed just as well,  and in my opinion, sometimes more poetically, through abstraction.   At the moment my work lies somewhere in between.  I love the abstract work of Sean Scully, Brice Marden, Joan Mitchell, Franz Kline as well as the more figurative work of Alex Katz, Milton Avery,  Edouard Vuillard, and Pierre Bonnard.   I like to look at my favorite artists, steal what I like, mix it up together and try to make something new that speaks of my own experience.

qi peng: How does your undergraduate studies in art and sociology and graduate studies in information science influence what you pursue within your artworks? How do you examine the relationships among people, cities, and the physical environments?

Anne Becker: I majored in sociology my first time around in college and have always been interested in why people behave in certain ways and how societies are set up to perpetuate certain behaviors. The current credit crisis is a fascination of mine and I was painting about the endless sea of houses that played center stage a few years ago before we really understood what was happening. In fact, quite a few artists, photographers, and writers, were finding the endless sprawl an interesting subject.  Our daily lives are influenced by our physical environment.  For instance, in the suburbs, we all drive cars to the store, rather than walk.  This means less human interaction, less exercise, we can buy more because we can put it in our cars, and on and on.  All because of the way our environment has been designed.

qi peng: What are some galleries or recent exhibitions you wish to tell us about? Any memorable experience interacting with other artists’ work in either a museum or gallery setting? Which paintings touched your heart or impressed your mind?

Anne Becker: I look at art whenever I can in galleries, museums, hotels, the airport, wherever it can be found.  I go to New York every couple of years and try to enjoy whatever is on display.  I love to take the docent led tours because you can learn so much.  I recall a wonderful tour I took of the Sol LeWitt exhibit at the Whitney, as well as another very interesting tour of Alice Neel‘s work.  These were both quite a few years ago but they made a big impression.  I love the Rothko room at the Tate in London.  I fell in love with the work of Sean Scully and Cy Twombly in London as well.   I even went to the Marlborough gallery in London and got a special peak at some Euan Uglow paintings which was a big thrill since I was deep into figure painting classes at the time and admire his style.  I could go on and on, but these are some more recent highlights.

qi peng: Do you have any recommendations for emerging artists or students in fine art programs during their programs that would help their careers? Do you have any memorable experiences with your fine art professors? If so, what were they?

Anne Becker: If you really have the desire to paint then you have a chance at being good at it.  People always say they wish they were talented enough to paint.  I don’t think all artists are talented to begin with, rather, their desire to paint  is so strong that they figure out eventually.  I hear it takes ten years to become good at painting, so patience will help too.

One of my professors never shied away from an opportunity to tell you that your painting was not working or that a color choice was not good.  I appreciate that and have learned to constantly question myself while painting.   Another professor did a painting demonstration one day.  He painted a figure and when he had made it just perfect, he began destroying parts of it by putting large globs of paint on, claiming it was too fussed over and not very interesting.

qi peng: What are some of your future plans as a new member as part of Art of the Main Gallery? What is the upcoming direction for your artwork that we can expect?

Anne Becker: Art at the Main is a great place to show small to medium sized work.  My style is unique to the gallery and I am happy to bring something new and different to the collection.  I plan to bring in some larger pieces that will be displayed next door in the Artists Studio on occasion.

qi peng: Is there anything else that you wish to share with us?

Anne Becker: Not at the moment.  Thanks for the interview.