Steve Powers, a graffiti artist, has just returned to New York after spending nearly six months in Ireland on a Fulbright scholarship. His idea was to create public artwork with the help of teenagers from housing projects in Dublin and Belfast. Here, he puts the finishing touches on a piece in Dublin.
In today'sNYTimes
May 28, 2008
Paranoid
by
Leslie Weiner
Paranoid personality disorder is characterized by a distrust of others and a constant suspicion that people around you have sinister motives. This chair swivels to constantly look behind itself to see what is going on behind its back. It has literally made itself sick with paranoia, resulting in a putrid green color.
Pretty Sweet: The Sentimental Image in Contemporary Art
Curated by Nick Capasso
An installation of 75 laser cut acrylic mirrors configured in a loop-de-loop installation
In March 07 I traveled to Shezhen, China to sort out production for a series of paintings. The factory painters were mostly young and all talented. Like 1980's art students they wore concert t-shirts, took frequent smoke breaks, and played alternative music very loud from a tinny CD player. All of the painters were either friends or relatives of one another.
The factories themselves looked less warehouse and more apartment building. The office of the factory I visited had not only wall to wall carpeting but wall to ceiling. It was a plush environment.
The Da Fen district, where all of the oil painting factories reside, is marked by a giant, (very communist) statue of a hand holding a paintbrush. Surreal doesn't quite express the region. The images shown do not depict the artwork I was working on, but rather, the artwork these factories all too often produce.