Bart Johnson is featured in the upcoming Explicit Content later this April and to prepare art ambassador, Mark Murphy, caught up with him and reveals more about his new etchings. Read complete interview here.
Bart Johnson Interview
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Tag Archives: Bart Johnson
Explicit Content Opens—April 14—May 19
Mindy Solomon Gallery opens Explicit Content April 14 as a pre-cursor to tax day and a good reason to explore sexual expression. Explicit Content reveals “behind closed doors” perspectives on nudity and sexual activity as expressed by leading contemporaries not afraid to disclose social taboos in an “erotic” nature.
Explicit Content-Exploring the non-romantic nature of sex
The purpose of this show is to create a visual and sensory pictorial of the most intimate, yet unemotional aspects of human sexuality. Through the black and white photo journalistically inspired works of Los Angeles prostitutes by Scot Sothern, the sculptural couplings of Christina West, graphic video diaries by Barbara DeGenevieve, fantastical erotic drawings of Bart Johnson, and in your face photos by Becky Flanders, the show will plumb the depths of the most innate physical yearnings.
Artist Scot Sothern states: “LOWLIFE is an illustrated diary of dysfunction; the confessions of a befuddled baby-boomer maintaining a precarious connection to propriety and fatherhood while side-tripping into nourish infatuations. These stories and images, shot mostly in Southern California between 1986 and 1990 record the existence of the many disenfranchised Americans, men and women, hawking body and soul for the price of a Big Mac and a fix, struggling in a culture that deems them criminal and expendable.” Sothern’s images put a human face to the sex industry-one that defies judgment in the face of desperation, drug addiction, and instant sexual gratification. (Interview here).
Christina West’s figurations are depicted to be anatomically correct at a slightly smaller than normal scale. Their ghost like anonymity implies a level of dispassionate provocation. The highly charged erotic interplay forces the viewer to confront images of sexual arousal not often on display in the public forum.
Bart Johnson’s storied life is punctuated by a voyeuristic journey’s into the darkest realms of the human society. His visits to strip clubs and an interest in the marginalized members of society provide visual fodder for his endless array of eye-popping images. Johnson’s lurid, stream of conscious drawings push the viewer into a visual world of bizarre couplings. The graphic depictions are both repellent and disturbing-the idea of public sexual interactions as normative in a purgatory like environment references Hieronymus Bosch and the medieval notion of Hell. (Interview here).
Barbara DeGenevieve is the grand dame of erotica. Her ground-breaking, voyeuristic works reflect an independence and fearlessness in a world desperate to categorize and qualify. DeGenevieve reflects in her artist statement: “I have used sex as subject matter for more than 25 years in combinations of photographic images, videos, theoretical writings, and sexually explicit monologues. I often call my current work pornographic — when I don’t, I can always be sure someone else will. When I do, it becomes an unstable signifier. What does it mean for a middle-aged woman, a professor, a teacher of theory, a feminist – to write like this, to speak like this, to think these thoughts, to exhibit such bad behavior? I like playing with the vulgar, with the low-class, low-brow, language of traditional porn. I’m suspicious of distinctions that elevate erotica over porn as well as create incommensurability between art and pornography. I’m fascinated by what happens when private language and action enter the public domain, when vernacular “pornographic” vocabulary intersects with cultural analysis, when everything we believe about political correctness is subverted by intemperance, indulgence, desire out of control, and logical reasoning.
My work is not a critique, but rather an embracing of what has been vilified. It is also an acknowledgment of the ways in which pornography [locates/implicates] [me/us] in a realm of what Judith Butler has described as “psychic excess,” that which is systematically denied by the notion of the volitional subject. “The refusal to conflate the subject with the psyche marks the psychic as that which exceeds the domain of the conscious subject.” It is that realm of the unconscious she describes that that becomes so problematic, the consciously inaccessible that creates such turmoil because it compromises volition — what we think we are or what we’re told we should be. In a vain attempt to keep this excess under control, priests deny their obsession with little boys, evangelists with prostitutes, business executives with infantile humiliation fetishes, and feminists with rape fantasies. These are not accusations but rather recognition of the fact that fetishes, whether horrific or benign, become part of this psychic excess.”
Another young feminist striving to express an independent sexual spirit is Becky Flanders. Flanders often uses herself as subject, masking her face, so as to force the viewer to confront genitalia, and in some cases urination. Her uninhibited use of her own body as subject is a bold statement about freedom in sexual expression, and the ability to share it with an anonymous audience. Her spot on camera techniques provide a window into fetish like sexual practices and the viewer’s ability to digest them.
Explicit Content is show that explores raw human sexuality without apology. The works are provocative and dispassionate-a metaphor for the animal longings that are constantly at play within our society. Explicit Content opens Saturday, April 14, 6—8PM and will be on exhibition through May 19, 2012. Please note: we will be presenting material not suitable for young children and a XXX rating does apply. (Above, Bart Johnson).
SCOPE Pavillion Booth No. C21 11/29—12/4
The Mindy Solomon Gallery is an international showcase for contemporary art with an eye for the unique with an emphasis on pottery, ceramics, photography and abstract painting. This week we head to Miami to participate in the SCOPE Pavillion, part of the week long Art Basel fair November 29 through December 4, 2011.
We will be presenting modern contemporary, sculptural forms and outsider art works by the imaginative artistry of Gregory Green, Bart Johnson, James Kennedy, Kate MacDowell, Wookjae Maeng, Sean Noyce, Einar & Jamex de la Torre, Sunkoo Yuh and Wanxin Zhang. Please visit us at Booth No. C21 as we occupy an impressive booth presenting 50 high-quality art pieces. For more information, please read more here.
SCOPE Art Show 11/29—12/04 C21
Mindy Solomon Gallery will be participating in this year’s SCOPE Art Show in Miami, FL November 29—December 4 located at Booth C21. This year we will be featuring a thought-provoking line up featuring Bart Johnson, James Kennedy, Einar and Jamex de la Torre, Sean Noyce, Sunkoo Yuh, Gregory Green, Kate MacDowell and Wookjae Maeng.
The following are pieces featured in this year’s SCOPE Booth C21. Please contact the gallery for a complete preview list and to learn more.
Kate MacDowell, Serpentine, 6x5x6 inches, hand built porcelain, cone 6 glaze
Bart Johnson, Sonny Boy, 11×14″ oil on paper mounted on panel
James Kennedy Dilution Diagram, Framed White, Mixed Media on Incised Masonite,
64″ x 64″
Einar and Jamex de la Torre El Cakeito, 2010 Archival pigment print, epoxy, found objects, resin, mixed media 59″ x 162″ x 3.5″
Sean Noyce, Mac & Frieze, Oil on wood, 48″ x 48, 2011
Sunkoo Yuh I want to know you better/WOR, Porcelain, Glazed, Cone 10, 2011,
27″ x 24″ x 17″
Gregory Green Biblebomb #1907 (Russia Style, Tampa) 2008, Mixed Media
32″ x 23″ x 13″
Wookjae Mang (Above, (L) Rhino Gaze, (R) Wild Cow Gaze, porcelain slip casting, 5.9”x5.9”x8.3”
This year’s Miami edition of the fair, November 29-December 4, 2011, will present the Mindy Solomon Gallery and 79 additional galleries upholding SCOPE’s unique tradition of solo and thematic group shows presented alongside museum-quality programming, collector tours, screenings, and special events.
In over thirty five fairs spanning the past ten years, SCOPE has solidified its position as the premier show-case for international emerging contemporary art. With art fairs in Miami, Basel, New York, London and the Hamptons, SCOPE Art Show has garnered critical acclaim attracting over 350,000 visitors.
2013 Gallery Schedule
Mindy Solomon Gallery Exhibition + Fair SCHEDULE
May 25-June 29, 2013
Material Inspiration
Gareth Mason
June 10-16, 2013
Scope Basel 2013
June 30- July 13, 2013
Gallery Closed for Holiday
July 20- September 14, 2013
The Paintings of Erin Parish
September 21- October 26, 2013
Generic Art Solutions Solo Show
November 2nd- December 7, 2013
Southern Fried
John Byrd, Jeremy Chandler, Jeremiah Jenkins
December 14- January 25, 2013
FOCUS KOREA
Artists to be announced
February 1- March 15, 2014
Solo Exhibition: Christopher Winter
March 22- May 3, 2014
Wood Fire Show
Josh DeWeese, David Peters and friends
ARCHIVE
January 7-February 18, 2012
Rock-Paper-Scissors featuring fine artists from balzerARTprojects, Basel, Switzerland
January 20—23, 2012
ArtPalmBeach featuring James Kennedy, Josh DeWeese, David Hicks, Sylvia Hommert
February 16—20, 2012
Art Wynwood International Art Fair featuring Gareth Mason, David Hicks and James Kennedy
February 25-March 31, 2012
Meditative Journeys: Sungyee Kim and Kang Hyo Lee
March 7—11, 2012
SCOPE NY Booth A-11 de la Torre Brothers, Generic Art Solutions, Marc Burckhardt, Bonnie Marie Smith, Kurt Weiser, Sunkoo Yuh and James Kennedy
April 14-May 19, 2012
Explicit Content: Bart Johnson, Becky Flanders, Anne Drew Potter, Christina West, Scot Sothern, Bonnie Marie Smith, Léopold L. Foulem and Barbara DeGenevieve
April 20-23, 2012
SOFA New York: Korean Artists featuring: Lee Kang Hyo, Ree soo Jong, Lee Inchin, Sungyee Kim
May 17- 20, 2012
artMRKT San Francisco
May 26-July 7, 2012
Detailed Information
John Byrd, Kate MacDowell, Marc Burckhardt, Wookjae Maeng, Christopher Torrez and Carrie Anne Baade
June 12- 17, 2012
SCOPE Art Basel, Switzerland
July 19- 22, 2012
artMRKT Hamptons
July 26- 30, 2012
art southampton
July 14- Sept. 8, 2012
Organic Inhabitants
David Hicks and Patricia Sannit
September 7- 9, 2012
Shanghai Contemporary
September 15- November 3, 2012
Constructions and Compositions:
The Work of James Kennedy
September 28- 30, 2012
Art Platform Los Angeles
October 4- 12, 2012
(e)merge art fair
October 18- 21, 2012
Texas Contemporary Art Fair
November 2- 4, 2012
SOFA Chicago
November 10- December 15, 2012
The Work of Bart Johnson
December 4- 9, 2012
Art Miami
December 22, 2012- February 2, 2013
Home for the Holidays
The de la Torre brothers
January 24-27, 2013
The Metro Show NYC
January 12- February 23, 2013
Subversive Narratives: Exposing the Raw Side
balzerARTprojects
February 14-18, 2013
Art Wynwood
March 7-10, 2013
VOLTA NY
February 9- March 30, 2013
Post Coital
Rebekah Bogard, Georgine Ingold, Muir Vidler, Scot Sothern, Christina West, and Becky Flanders and Marta Soul courtesy of Kopeikin Gallery
April 10-14, 2013
Zona Maco Contemporary Art Fair
April 6-May 11, 2013
Solo Exhibition: Sylvia Hommert
