Browsing all articles in Artist Features.
Billy Al Bengston
It’s hard to be misunderstood when an uncensored tongue wags like Billy Al Bengston’s. But the man and his legacy may be just that. His art isn’t fetching millions at auction, and his name doesn’t radiate in Hollywood neon like some others. It should, but all that glitz just makes him limp anyway. “I don’t [...]
THE OXFORD PROJECT
What do people do in Oxford, Iowa? Euchre is popular. Some of the men go “coon huntin’.” Women clean houses and cook – anything from koloches to sliced deer in cream of mushroom soup. Oxford is quintessential flyover, small-town America, a town of 700 people. It’s got black sheep, Christians and Buddhists. Death brings with [...]
MR. BRAINWASH
Two industrial-sized buckets full of pink paint rest on the floor of a dimly lit Los Angeles garage. Mr. Brainwash picks them up and grunts as he heaves the contents against two bare, off-white walls. The stomach soothing shade splatters everywhere. Much of it oozes like lava onto the pale concrete below. The artist grabs [...]
WAYNE THIEBAUD
Wayne Thiebaud hates the word art. “It’s one of the dirtiest words in the English language,” he purges. “We all can say, ‘Oh yeah, that’s art. This is art.’ It’s a very abstract term that’s still developing. We’re still trying to find out what it is.” Art has an appetite that needs constant burping and [...]
Jack Swanson
Jack Swanson is living proof that horsing around can be the best kind of living. The self-described loner says horses are his life. He’s ridden them for as long as he can remember. Some he’s raced real fast. One even tied a world record; twice. He’s painted thousands of horses and today each piece goes [...]
ED RUSCHA
Ed Ruscha makes communication interesting. He’s a story teller who defies definition, giving words a life and language all their own. They are abstract forms that have bubbled, bled, crumpled and smoothed out again over the years. They’ve smelled like chocolate, been stained in blood and drawn in gunpowder. Ruscha is pop, conceptual, surreal and [...]
PACO ROSIC
With his head anchored to the floor, Paco Rosic spins around like a top. Above him, God is creating Adam. His body twists and turns to the rhythm of James Brown’s “Sex Machine,” while the origins of mankind look down upon him. Minutes go by and he’s still going at a dizzying speed as the [...]
KEN PRICE
By all accounts, Ken Price is a real artist. No dollar chasing, concept borrowing or gimmicky pan flashing, just a guy who has spent at least 60 hours a week in his studio for his entire life. “For me, the creative process is a deeply personal, subjective, private activity,” Price says. “I’m not trying to [...]
WILL BULLAS
Red shoes make the average bird stand out in a flock, and in the world of watercolor, only Will Bullas can make that concept fly. His latest project is called “dux in the city,” and from Pier 39 east to Union Square, up Nob Hill then down Lombard Street, Bullas’ birds are ruffling feathers throughout [...]
JOE RAMIRO GARCIA
The air in Joe Ramiro Garcia’s studio is stuffy. The summer afternoon sun in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is baking the place. Garcia’s long, wet, black hair is tied behind his head in a sloppy ponytail. Loose strands stick to his face. The armpits of his baby blue button-down shirt look like wading pools, yet [...]
