This jpeg of a print by Ryan McGinness comes from Paddy Johnson's blog. She's talking about the marketing of this image and this artist and it's worth a read to show you the mechanics of the hype and real estate and brand-building. I'm posting it on a slightly different topic, which is the "defaults" school of digital art. This strikes me as a very good example. It's got the flat "Adobe Illustrator look" but this artist doesn't make any bones about it. It's a preset, and he is using it very well. There's no getting around the content, either--any collector who buys the print will be looking through a prison camp fence, stylishly dressed up and tastefully layered as it might be. Several years ago I wrote about an installation by McGinness in a gutted building, soon to be renovated, on Lafayette--it also didn't hide the digital "facture." It was kind of the reverse of the above image--instead of a bleak adornment of a tony loft, the Lafayette show presented slick product logos on the inside of a "pre-owned" structure.
This post could probably read in tandem with one on Nasty Nets showing the similarity of some recent work by abstract/conceptual photographer James Welling and an Adobe Illustrator promotional graphic. Compare and contrast the relations of artists to well-known imaging software.
It could also be read together with my short interchange with a commenter about the use of presets in music (or more specifically the familiar interface Cubase.)
I saw the James Welling show at David Zwirner and thought it looked like hotel art.
I'm out of it--I didn't know he'd moved "up" to Zwirner. I couldn't believe he was doing those flowers, based on the jpegs, but a commenter at Nasty thinks the photogram technique is impressive.
Yeah I didn't know much about his artistic career prior this show, so between the two of us we can probably paste a history together. Or just look at his CV.
I really can't believe his technique is all that impressive if this is the result. He's no Man Ray that's for sure.
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This jpeg of a print by Ryan McGinness comes from Paddy Johnson's blog. She's talking about the marketing of this image and this artist and it's worth a read to show you the mechanics of the hype and real estate and brand-building. I'm posting it on a slightly different topic, which is the "defaults" school of digital art. This strikes me as a very good example. It's got the flat "Adobe Illustrator look" but this artist doesn't make any bones about it. It's a preset, and he is using it very well. There's no getting around the content, either--any collector who buys the print will be looking through a prison camp fence, stylishly dressed up and tastefully layered as it might be. Several years ago I wrote about an installation by McGinness in a gutted building, soon to be renovated, on Lafayette--it also didn't hide the digital "facture." It was kind of the reverse of the above image--instead of a bleak adornment of a tony loft, the Lafayette show presented slick product logos on the inside of a "pre-owned" structure.
This post could probably read in tandem with one on Nasty Nets showing the similarity of some recent work by abstract/conceptual photographer James Welling and an Adobe Illustrator promotional graphic. Compare and contrast the relations of artists to well-known imaging software.
It could also be read together with my short interchange with a commenter about the use of presets in music (or more specifically the familiar interface Cubase.)
- tom moody 4-11-2007 6:49 pm
I saw the James Welling show at David Zwirner and thought it looked like hotel art.
- Paddy Johnson 4-14-2007 9:41 am
I'm out of it--I didn't know he'd moved "up" to Zwirner. I couldn't believe he was doing those flowers, based on the jpegs, but a commenter at Nasty thinks the photogram technique is impressive.
- tom moody 4-14-2007 10:03 am
Yeah I didn't know much about his artistic career prior this show, so between the two of us we can probably paste a history together. Or just look at his CV.
I really can't believe his technique is all that impressive if this is the result. He's no Man Ray that's for sure.
- Paddy Johnson 4-16-2007 9:26 am