Saturday, December 15, 2012

Style Magazine Interview



STYLE MAGAZINE
ARTS BY SU BYRON

Elena De La Ville is a mixed-media artist with a passion for paint, rust
and wax. She was trained as a painter, photographer and textile designer
and her work encompasses all of these mediums. De La Ville studied textile
design at the Chelsea School of Art and Design in London and photography
at the Art Institute of Boston. She teaches photography and mixed media at
Ringling College of Art and Design and serves on the exhibition committee
at Art Center Sarasota. To view her work or make an appointment to see
her work, visit edelaville.com.

Usually this is a simple question, but in your case it isn’t: What’s your
medium?
I have been working almost exclusively with encaustic for the past 10
years, which is a mixture of beeswax and damar resin that’s applied while
hot and fluid. It dries very fast and provides texture and translucency at the
same time. I find it incredibly seductive. I combine that with film-based and
digital photography, plus other alternative processes.


What role does texture play in your artwork?
For me, wax is texture upon texture. It’s built up in layers that hide and
reveal at the same time. On some pieces there are over 20 such layers. Markmaking in the soft material provides yet another level that builds up relief.


Your work is filled with light and color. Is your sense of color intuitive
or is there a theory behind it?
I love color! I would say my color sense is intuitive. One of the reasons I
moved to Sarasota was to find that tropical sense of color after many years of
living in the Northeast.


What does your “Totem” series represent?
These pieces are very important to me because they came to me at a time
in my life when I needed to prove to myself I could accomplish them. I was
facing debilitating symptoms and wanted to work through them. The totems
are the biggest pieces I have produced; they’re more than 6 feet tall. I see
them as “protectors of space.”


Is there an implied narrative element in your artwork or are you simply
interested in form for form’s sake?
As I work, my mind is constantly thinking, evaluating, responding to the
work in front of me. I always work in series and let each piece inform the
next. In a way, I am creating a dialogue or story between them.


Who are your artistic heroes?
As a child I was influenced by Calder, Gego, Vasarely and Matisse. Later on
it was Rothko, Agnes Martin, Klee, Helen Frankenthaler and Anselm Kiefer.
My colleagues also inspire me.


Herald-Tribune 12/02/2012
Copyright © 2012 Herald-Tribune - All rights reserved.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Studio News





News from Sarasota, FL

Ringling bridge at night. © Elena De La Ville

I will be  a presenter at the 7th Encaustic Conference in Provincetown, MA. And will also be teaching a post conference workshop on Photography and Encaustic at Castle Hill Center for the Arts.

I am currently showing at the Boston center for the Arts, Mills Gallery: The Future of the Past: Encaustic Art in the 21st Century
http://www.artscopemagazine.com/asdyn/index.wr?is=40&a=4

 

Other links:

Notes from Land's End: June 6

By Laura Shabott
June 6th, 2011 I stopped by Kobalt Gallery (336) to view the conference’s juried show. Curator Francine D’ Olimpio selected works that encompassed a wide range of composition and content. One standout is “Bee Habitat” by Venezuelan Elena De La Ville, a piece using fabric, rust and beeswax. “The sculptural form even attracts bees”, said the artist/bee-keeper. "Over 120 participants are also attending post confehttp://www.provincetown.com/fine_provincetown_art_craft/gallery_dealer_photo/_/18474/

Blurbs:
 Elena De La Ville begins a documentary photo project at Bodyworks Gym. Images from the series are shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Caracas. Elena was one of five Venezuelan artists selected for the exhibit; the five American artists were Robert Mapplethorpe, Annie Leibowitz, Bruce Weber, Herb Ritts, and Arnold Newman.
http://www.historyproject.org/resources/latino_timeline.php

5 X 5:
150 Anos De La Fotografia = 150 Years of Photography Leibovitz, Mapplethorpe, Newman, Slavin, Weber, Beaufrand, De La Ville, Scannone, Sigala, Vogeler

PARADIGM GALLERY:
Elena De La Ville's encaustic panels operate beyond objective reasoning. They reach us at a visceral level; free from intellectualization.

301 GALLERY:
This group exhibition features 20 artists from across the US, selected from a group of 61 entries by Nick Capasso, Senior Curator at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Mass.  Capasso selected the theme Beauty and Its Opposites to challenge participants to go beyond the beauty of the wax.
DIRECTOR'S PRIZE: Elena de la Ville


Palm Beach Art
27 of November 2010 to the 26th of February 2011 – Art Museum-Araure Acarigua
A  curatorial project by Rolando J. Carmona, The exhibition  comprised  30 portraits of entertainers and models, with an  evident and continuous attempt to represent the desire, either from the intentions of the photographer in the captured image, or the ego of the photographed object displayed as  seduction.
Artists
Alexander Apóstol / Toni Catany / José Joaquín Figueroa / Milton Greene / Annie Leibovitz / Malika / Edward Mapplethorpe / Robert Mapplethorpe / Alila Morillo / Herb Ritts / Deborah Samuel / Margarita Scannone / Antonio Ugarte / Elena de la Ville / Guillermo Vogeler / Bruce Weber / Jenny Woodman


International Encaustic Conference 2007 ,2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and invited speaker and presenter for 2012

The Fourth Annual Encaustic Painting Conference
Description: at. Panel
Saturday Morning Panel: "Making a Career in Encaustic". (From the left) Barbara Moody, Conference Director Joanne Mattera, Jane Allen Nodine, Eileen Goldenberg, Alexandre Massino, Elena de la Ville, and Montserrat Dean Laura Tonelli.


BEST FOOT FORWARD:

Elena De La Ville is adjunct faculty @ Ringling College of Art, a member of the Sarasota County Art Council, The Arts Center in St Petersburg, Art Center Manatee and Art Center Sarasota, where she is part of the Exhibition Committee.



Monday, September 10, 2012

Venezuelan Artists



In this post I will be showcasing 3 well known and 2 not so well known Venezuelan artists. They have all developed successful careers in painting and sculpture as well as pioneered new genres that involved less conventional art-making methods and materials.


JESUS SOTO


Cercle bleu dans le carré
2000
63 x 62 x 17 cm (photo Béatrice Hatala)
 

Jesús Rafael Soto was born on June 5, 1923 in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela, an old colonial town on the edge of the virgin forest on the banks of the Orinoco.

"Until I arrived in Europe my work was above all investigative: finding new possibilities, getting to grips with what modern painting was about at the time to see if I could add anything to it."

He was the eldest son of Emma Soto and Luis García Parra, a violin player, who were to have four other children.
While working to make a contribution to the family's upkeep, he went to primary school and, when he was about twelve, began to learn the guitar. It was also at this time that he began to copy reproductions of paintings he found in magazines, books and almanacs.
At the age of sixteen he became a poster painter for the movie theaters in Ciudad Bolívar.

El tambor (The Drum)", 1963 -

http://www.jr-soto.com/fset_menuprincipal_uk.html


Make sure to visit the 3D Gallery.


Blue Penetrable



CARLOS CRUZ DIEZ:


Carlos Cruz-Diez's crosswalks in Art Basel Miami Beach
Carlos Cruz-Diez redesigned painted crosswalks, transforming the social experience of passersby. By playing with visual rhythms and using the characteristic line 'structures', this work changes and evolves according to the path of light and to the spectatorʼs angle of view and distance."

 December 02 - December 05, 2010
Art Basel Miami Beach – Art Public
Convention Center Drive and 17th Street
Miami Beach, Florida

42-Couleur-Additive-1959-1998

I had a chance to see some his work at the Hirshhorn Gallery in DC this spring.. A whole room installation: this is the pic from my visit:

At the Hirshhorn. Photography by Elena De La Ville



GEGO:

Gego
 ‘Gertrude Goldschmidt (1 August 1912–17 September 1994) also known as Gego, was a modern Venezuelan artist and sculptor. Gego's most popular works were produced in the 1960s and 1970s, during the height of popularity of Geometric abstract art and Kinetic Art. Although these genres influenced her somewhat, Gego tried to develop her own style and break from the popular art of Venezuela.’   Wikipedia


Reticularia

Her series of Reticuláreas is undoubtly her most popular and most talked about group of artworks. Her first series was created in 1969. Pieces of aluminum and steel were joined together to create an interweaving of nets and webs that fills the entire room when exhibited. Her use of repetition and layering in the massive structure causes the piece to seem endless. Indeed, Gego's attention to line and space creates a beautiful artwork for the viewer. Since her death, the permanent collection of Reticuláreas is in the Galeria de Arte Nacional in Caracas, Venezuela.[

Reticularia





ANNABELL VILLET


Show Invitation
I just ran into the work of this artist last week and have been trying to find out more. Her installation is now showing in Caracas and has certainly piqued my interest.
She is currently showing at Centro de Arte Los Galpones, Caracas


La Ventana: Lo que no pesa

Detail, Lo que no pesa

Some of herwork in Facebook


Another link to her work:


Hope to find out more about her, will let you know.


VIOLETTE BULE


Topless Matisse protest

Early one recent morning more than a dozen women wearing nothing but red genie pants gathered at the doors of the institution from where Henri Matisse's Odalisque in Red Trousers went missing, to ask for the prompt return of the painting they were emulating.

The women were photographed by the Venezuelan artist Violette Bule in poses reminiscent of the 1925 post-impressionist work that was replaced with a fake over a decade ago.

"My main goal is to have the original returned but I also want to call attention to the irony behind the way the art market works," said Bule

 






 

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Found Images



In my recent travels I was without a painting studio, but took my camera(s) everywhere I went.

I will be posting some of those images here.

Red and Green, 2012
All Rights reserved, 2012

 
 

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Salem, Ma and the witches’ story


Salem witch trials
Taken from Wikipedia:



“The central figure in this 1876 illustration of the courtroom is usually identified as Mary Walcott, the daughter of Jonathan Walcott and a key accuser in the Salem Witch Trials.
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people (mostly women)  accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693.”


Most of these were women that did not conform to the puritanical beliefs of the time; and were blamed for causing medical and psychological bewitchment.

The cause of the symptoms of those who claimed affliction continues to be a subject of interest. Various medical and psychological explanations for the observed symptoms have been explored by researchers, including psychological hysteria in response to Indian attacks, convulsive ergotism caused by eating rye bread made from grain infected by the fungus Claviceps purpurea (a natural substance from which LSD is derived)

This is a trippy town, what can I say??











 and, of course, they all need a way to get around:




Thursday, May 31, 2012

Encaustic Conference

P-Town Harbor at dawn


Off to an incredible start, the 6th International Encaustic Conference is now officially under way. Have been seeing old friends, meeting new ones and enjoying the view.

Many openings will be happening all around town, got to take a peek at some of them yesterday; I have work at the Kobalt Gallery, opening on Fri eve.

Today, I am very exited to  be teaching an all day workshop at Castle Hill. It is a full class and materials are ready to go.


And was just informed that I have been selected to be part of:

The Future of the Past: Encaustic Art in the 21st Century
The Mills Gallery at the Boston Center for the Arts
October 5- December 2, 2012
Opening Reception, 6 – 8 pm, October 5, 2012
I am one of 31 artists selected for this important show in Boston in the fall.

All in all, a very good week!