bau 5: press release, part II. artist info
Donald Alter
was born in New York City, attended the High School of Music and Art,
where he learned of Black Mountain College, the prestigious and
innovative school of the arts which spawned the careers of many
leaders in the contemporary art movement.
At Black Mountain College, Don Alter studied painting under the
direction of Josef Albers, Warren Jennerjahn and Joseph Fiore and
textile design with Anni Albers and Trude Guermonprez.
After continuing his education at the Pratt Institute and the U.S. Army,
he became a well known and respected designer of textiles, founding
Design Logic Inc.
Don Alter has exhibited widely in the United States, and locally at
Garrison Art Center in Garrison, N Y, Collaborative Concepts in
Beacon, N Y, Watermark Cargo Gallery in Kingston, N Y,
Albert Shahanian Gallery in Poughkeepsie, N Y,
#2 Round Street Art Gallery in Piermont, NY, and the Greystone
Art Gallery in Middletown, NY.
He lives and works in Newburgh, NY.
Jim Tyack on Don Alter:
"The restless activity on Don Alter's paintings engage the eye like a
traffic accident. From the depth of expression, in the mysterious
infinities of color and line, in shimmering light and evanescent shadow,
the artist emerges and his inner workings become manifest. His work
reflects the jazzy rhythms of New York juxtaposed against the staid
temperament of the suburbs and is infused with the isolated bohemia
of his Black Mountain roots. Once one looks past the surface, into the
abyss opened by Alter in these paintings, his entropic, elemental world
becomes breathable, satisfying, a sanctuary."
Donald Alter - contacts:
Melissa Greaves
Solo Exhibitions - selection
2003 "Scenes Unseen" Painter's Gallery Cornwall, NY
2002 "Scenes Unseen" (S)(H)(O)(W) Gallery, New Windsor, NY
2001 "The Tree Series" Newburgh Free Library, Newburgh, NY
Group Shows - selection
2005 bau 5/...stages...
2003 Women Artists of the Hudson Valley, Cornwall, NY
1995 SVA Gallery, New York, NY
1995 The Lime Light, New York, NY
Achievements
1996 Published by American Photography Publishing
1995 Awarded full scholarship to attend Frog Hollow Studio, Manchester, VT
1994 Published in Idea Disk
Melissa Greaves on Scenes Unseen:
"Scenes Unseen is a project caught peripherally_ capturing those
universal moments where you think that you have seen something,
caught a glimpse and whipped heads around to try and catch it_ but
the moment is gone even before you had time to process it. I have
tracked these moments, hunted them like wild animals and these
images are what I have brought home in my bag of prey. I photograph
what others have tossed aside, people, and stuffed toys…the private,
candid moments of another that many avert their eyes from.
These are all the moments that are forgotten in the trek through the
mundane, daily routine.
There is a certain humor in the images beyond the initial darkness
presented. There are times when I raise the camera and people
notice me; they stop what they are doing, and the moment is lost.
Many times I don’t raise the camera - I take my stance as an old
western gun slinger, shooting from the hip with a freeze frame stop
motion gun, rushing to steal their moment, The result is often blurry,
but I think that the soft focus gives the images a fleeting feeling, as
if your driving by and just barely catch a glimpse.
The final images are uncropped, uncut, because I feel that the
background and what is going on around the subject is just as
important in telling the story as the subjects’ actions. You can’t
crop out the peripheral when you’re walking down the street, it’s
there and even when you turn your head to get away from a
certain image it creates another peripheral that you have to cope with.
Furthermore the background allows the viewer to see the subject’s
environment, what is going on around them and why they are reacting
or not reacting the way they are. Billboards, advertisements, people
walking by on the street all play a role in how the subject is viewed
and it is important to keep it in there even if it isn’t always visually
pleasing. However, I try to counteract any inundation of the existing area
by using black and white film and keeping the background in its
place as a prop.
Babies when they are first able to focus their eyes have an easier
time seeing in black and white because it is less confusing and
easier to focus on. I used black and white film in this series to cut
down on the visual overload. I want my viewer to see what is really
important, how life is filled with irony, and the world’s stage which
we walk through is a constant reminder that the lives we lead are
fragile and should never be taken for granted.
While looking at these photographs for the first time many people tell
me that they are very familiar, and I think that is because they are all
things that are right outside of our car and office window waiting for us to
take notice. Very often we don’t look at these scenes directly; we pass
them quietly wrapped up in the conundrum of daily existence. These images
are the background noise, the white noise of society with the volume turned
all the way up.
Melissa Greaves - contacts:
Claude van Lingen
was born in Vereeniging, a small steel-manufacturing town near
Johannesburg, South Africa in 1931. He studied at the
Johannesburg College of Art from 1949 to 1952, in Paris, France
under Henri Goetz at the Academie Notre Dames des Champs,
and gained a MFA at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn in 1980.
He taught high school from 1953 to 1964 and was appointed
Chairman of the Teacher Training Department at the
Johannesburg College of Art in 1965, and was Chairman of the
Fine Art Department at the same school from 1972 until 1978.
He was examiner for all the art schools under the Department
of Higher Education South Africa on a number of occasions in
subjects such a Composition Painting, Portrait Painting,
Figure Painting and Drawing, as well as Anatomy and the
Theory and Methods of Teaching Art and Art Appreciation.
He was an instructor at the School of Visual Arts, New York
from 1982 to 1985.
In South Africa, Claude van Lingen wrote art criticism for a
daily newspaper for a number of years, and made appearances
on TV and radio talk shows.
In 1973 he was awarded the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Award
at the Art South Africa Today exhibition, judged by a curator from the
Tate Gallery, London and was included in the same show, judged by
Clement Greenberg, the following year. His work was shown in the
Sao Paulo Biennial in 1975.
He has shown in New York, and other venues in the US and Canada.
Currently Claude is writing a book on the creative process in art
based on the very successful course designed at the
Johannesburg College of Art and also taught at the SVA in New York.
Art and the Creative Process—Developing a Personal Vision and Generating Ideas
(working title) is aimed at young artists at the beginning of their careers,
and those artists wishing to develop new areas in which to work.
The book explains the principles of the creative process,
and demonstrates how they may be discerned in the work of
artists of note—both past and present. It then shows how
these principles were applied in art school situations with great success
—a number of students subsequently showing in situations such as
the Venice and Sao Paulo Biennials, in museums and galleries
in the US, Canada and Europe, and teaching in prestigious schools
such as Harvard University, the Maryland Institute, and Concordia University
in Montreal Canada.
The final chapters discuss how the reader may apply the principles
posited in the book to developing a personal vision, and generating
ideas, and gives hints on various aspects of being an artist and the
different venues and approaches to exhibiting work.
Claude van Lingen: statement: 1,000 Years From Now
Mental time and space have been the central concern of my work since 1978.
With this in mind, I have explored the theme 1,000 Years From Now
by employing both figurative and non-figurative means. A number of these
works incorporate broadcast TV sets or mirrors in paintings that track
and reflect the passing of time.
Since 1992, I have layered names from lists, as well as dates for one thousand years
into the future. Rather than indicating the passing of time in a linear fashion,
the denseness of paint or graphite/pencil in these works coalesces the past, present,
and future into an inextricable whole. This amalgam forms a matrix from which may
arise emotional, metaphoric, and associative responses in relation to experiencing—
and projecting thoughts about—the ever/never changing human condition and events
through time and space.
Claude van Lingen - contacts:
Harald Plochberger
lived for almost fifty years in Vienna, Austria.
After graduating from the Academy of Applied Arts in 1971 he
was teaching art at high school for eight years.
Solo shows and group show participation since 1967.
Works are held by public and private collections in Austria, Germany,
Switzerland, Great Britain, South Africa, USA.
Harald Plochberger lives and works in Ossining/Beacon, NY since 1999/2003.
Founding member of beacon artist union - bau.
Harald Plochberger: statement
Integration of scientific and philosophical aspects is prominent in my
artistic concepts. Especially Ancient Greek civilization, science and mathematics
I feel attracted to. It is the strive for formulation, analysis and understanding
that makes us call Ancient Greece the cradle of our own civilization.
With my work I intend to visually explore the structures of language, mathematics
and aesthetics. Simplification, based on such found structures, determines my
artistic decisions. The ways computers work show many equivalents to the basics
of language and mathematics. I therefore appreciate creating drafts for my drawings,
paintings and objects on the computer, or I create them directly by utilizing specific
programs.
The ancient Greek myths, Greek poetry and tragedies provide thorough reflection
on the human condition. They often inspire my projects, as did the
Herakles theme and poetry by Sappho and Archilochos.
The physical part of my work is equally important to me. Feeling the material, fighting
obstinate problems in a building process, finding adequate solutions for my
demands - these are too essential stages in my creative process.
Carl van Brunt /press release (excerpt), September 2004 -
Harald Plochberger: You Make Me Hot at vanbrunt gallery, Beacon
"...that there is something new and intriguing going on becomes even
more apparent in the artist's multi-layered works in which ancient
Greek poetry is contrasted side by side with the artist's abstract
pictorial translations. In fact, Plochberger is engaged in the exploration
of the structure of language and mathematics and the newness of his work
is rooted in his fascination with Ancient Greek culture and civilization.
However, you do not need to be a scholar to appreciate the beauty
of the resulting images. Plochberger has succeeded in making art that can
be appreciated on many levels, not the least of which is the beauty of its
seductive surface."
D. Dominick Lombardi, New York Times, Westchester, September 2004 (excerpt):
"...the markings look somewhat like computer bar codes.
Archilochos' phrases - "against the wall fists on hips they leaned
in a fishnet of shadows" or "truth is born as lightning strikes" -
when linked to their geometric counterparts, put you right there, in the
momentarily quiet edges of a brutal conflict. Sappho's writings
- "sometimes she closed her eyes all night long" and "dawn with
small golden feet" - fall on the other end of the emotional spectrum,
where hearts and minds find pleasure and lust.
By creating shapes from the poetry, Mr. Plochberger heightens the
meaning of the words, an ultimate compliment to the poets."
Harald Plochberger - contacts:
posted by b a u at 5:18 AM
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