Showing posts with label comic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comic. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 6

Figuration Non-figuration

“Popeye”. Only his legs and shoes are noticeable. Figuration / non-figuration, it’s endless. March 2021.

Thursday, June 22

Forest Gnome and Cupid

“Forest Gnome with Cupid”. The gnome is the blue/fuchsia raster dot figure that's smiling. 
These are the most successful of all the gnome paintings I've done.  What comprises a landscape painting: a house, a horizon, sky, clouds, and stuff in the foreground like trees or a stream and the subject stuck in the middle. It has a cupid in one hand and a heart in the other.  

Tuesday, April 11

Love's Not Love




‘‘Love's not Love’’ and ‘‘Love's Love”.
From Wally Wood L'll Abner porn comic.
Galería Esther Montoriol with Pere Llobera, JUJA. June to September 2020. 

JUJA Paintings Pere Llobera & Syd Mostow

Collaborative painting show with Pere Llobera. We decided to work the same format, 2 × 1.5 meter paper works on a similar theme. That was in 2020, at Galería Esther Montoriol in Barcelona.

Thursday, April 6

Leaders Aren't Made, They are Created

''Leaders Aren't Made, They’re Created''
Was thinking about the US President, who should never have been elected. The beaver is given special powers—superpowers, by the fairy. Trump is a beaver, a creation. Just a fucking beaver on a tree trunk. That's how I saw the grifter president.
200 × 150 cm, 79’’ x 59”, painted drawing (is that even possible?) on Fabriano paper, 2018. 

4 Happy Bunnies

‘‘4 Happy Bunnies”. The flames coming out of their butts isn't about eating beans. Or farting. They are jetting through the sky. They control cosmic energy. They are really free. Frolicking up and away.         
“3 Happy Bunnies”
Hanging  our show. Pere Llobera and Syd Mostow, at Galería Esther Montoriol. 2020

Mickey Mouse and Pluto

“Love's not Love”. Galería Ester Montoriol, 2020. JUJA. Mickey Mouse.  Ooof !! -- what a hackneyed theme. I am sure Mickey doing it with Pluto has crossed a lot of minds. It crossed mine. Love possess. Cupid has stung them both. 

As vulgar as this seems, it's about the cupid.

Installation View Expo at Atelier Cora Egger, Barcelona



“Love's Not Love” at Atelier Cora Egger, June 6, 2019, Barcelona.
The theme of the show deals loosely with the theme of love in some of its aspects: carnal love, lost love, promised love; and the related themes of gender, power, morbidity, sexism, and what is or isn't pornographic. This was the first time I had shown my work in a solo show in a long time. The work was new, and the timing of the show couldn't have been better. Thanks, Cora!


This was one of the first raster gnomes I painted. They are all the same theme and subject. A landscape, central gnome in the foreground. A knife in one hand, a bleeding heart in the other. 

I was invited to a small group show at Cora's space a few months earlier and then she offered me the space to do a solo show, documented above. Lots of artists and friends that I hadn't seen for a long time came out to the opening. That felt good. 

Beavers R Cute

“Beavers “R” Cute”. Well, beavers are cute. And they are furry too. What else can I say? Beavers are loveable. They are Canada’s national symbol. It's on the 5 cent Nickle coin. So, being a Canuck….
200 × 150 cm, 79 × 59’’ painted drawing on Fabriano paper, 2018.

Wood Gnome

This is the first rastered gnome I did, based on an animated ONCE pixel board ad (ONCE is a Spanish foundation for the blind). The original image was taken from a pixel board animation for Xmas lottery tickets. It was a simple animation of Santa's elves running along. I loved seeing the animation every day in the tunnel leading to the Ferrocarriles (Catalan commuter train).  
200 × 150 cm, 79 × 59’’ mixed media on Fabriano paper, 2019.

Titian

Based on "Mars Venus and Cupid" by Titian. 
The original Titian is such a powerful painting. My dear friend Toni Serra, R.I.P. suggested the image. So I painted it. 

Oh my Ears, my Whiskers 1

First painting in the series, “Oh My Ears, My Whiskers”. 40 × 50 cm, mixed media on wood. A landscape. A house. An exuberant bunny. 

Oh my Ears, my Whiskers 5

‘‘Oh My Ears, My Whiskers 5’’. 40 × 50 cm, mixed media on wood. 

Oh my Ears, my Whiskers 2

“Oh my Ears, my Whiskers 2”. The title is from Alice in Wonderland. 40 × 50 cm, mixed media on wood. 

Oh my Ears, my Whiskers 4

This series of bunny paintings were a return to “narrative painting” and the seed for the painting I am doing now. 60 × 40 cm, mixed media on wood.

Saturday, April 1

Exterminating Angels



Paintings from around 1995. I used to go to a junk store around the corner from my studio in the Raval, which was called the Barrio Chino back then. City Hall (El Ayuntamiento) had tried to sanitize both name and hood after tearing-down the worst parts of the neighborhood and partially eliminating a lot of the marginal activities like prostitution and drug dealing. That still goes on, but it is nothing like it was. Anyway, I'd go to a junk shop around the corner when I was stuck in the studio and I would find stuff, like old photos and figurines. I found this cheesy kitsch cast figure of an angel with a movable head. These are the result. Exterminating Angels. The painting with the male figure is Brains from the Thunderbirds, which fits with this theme.
All these paintings are 230 x170 cm. I believe one of these paintings was shown at Galería Thomas Carsten in Barcelona in 1995—the angel with the turquoise background.



Sunday, June 15

Gratutious Street Agit-Prop Posters





























This is the first poster in a series of 3 street posters, A2 size, that I did and were pasted-up in the autumn of '95 in Barcelona. It depicts a woman in leathers (S+M) painting a fellatio. It says: “Being an Artist is Easy… Intensive 3-week courses….Pastiching…all graduates will show in the most prestigious galleries… collectors to buy your work…learn to paint like Tapies, Picasso….Salon Autónimo de Barcelona, Riereta 10" (which was the actual address of my studio) and there were people actually coming by inquiring about taking classes.  Which astounded me. I did these posters as I was quite fed-up with Barcelona art scene. I moved two years later to New York.

2nd Installment of Gratuitous Street Posters


This is the 2nd street poster A2 size (40 x 58 cm) 16 x 2’’ that went up on the streets in Barcelona in the autumn of '95. It says “You are a Wanker, and you're not alone either --¡Yes Yes!.....Salon Autónimo of Barcelona”. Depicting Dopey (of the 7 Dwarfs) jerking off onto what looks like a Tapiés painting. 
3rd installment which never got printed. It depicts the folkloric “caganet”, the crapping man, the traditional crèche figure which Catalans like to adorn their Christmas Nativity Scenes with. So I made him crapping out a painting instead of, well, crap. Fecundity is creation. It says, “I don't paint my paintings anymore. I crap them out—that way I can produce more art and produce it faster—Barcelona, Autonomous Salon "

Caganer
At that time, the media, and government institutions were referring to “artists” as young creators. This was a way to deflect the “art” debate by changing its name in an attempt to create an art scene. There was a huge concern in general that local artists weren't getting any attention. Neither by collectors in Barcelona, museums, or internationally. But no one seemed to ask if they, the artists, whoever they were, that nefarious group of creators, deserved any attention at all, which they probably didn't. Whining artists that no one cared about anyway. The other side of the coin was this: if the people who were worried about artist activity had any idea of what they were talking about, which they didn't, then maybe they'd realize that what creates an art scene is first taste, then money, but not talk. But in the end, Barcelona was put on the map because of the Olympics in 1992. Now it is overrun by tourists.