Artist statements

Ran Ortner, an oil painter from Brooklyn, won the Art Prize competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan this month. He'll receive $250,000 for winning by receiving the most votes from members of the public.

Here is his artist statement from his website. I thought it might be interesting to read in light of your manifesto project.


Artist Statment

In my art, I contemplate collisions of opposites, from the most tender brutalities to the most devastating sensitivities. These paradoxes register within me and I can see myself within them. I am continually surprised by the reflection between me, as an individual, and the environment within which I exist. As Robert Lax said, “The blood within and the brine without.”

I often think about Rollo May’s idea that “sustained intensity equals ecstasy.” Every day I enter my studio, prepare my materials and, as James Joyce said, “go for the millionth time to encounter the reality of experience.” I find that sustaining the encounter with life’s biting reality is not “miserablism,” but rather intense engagement. The undeniable union of life and death is not dire but majestic as evidensed by the inevitable crash of each cresting wave. In a tempest, distinctions blur registering in me as the rhythm of life’s dance. Life’s beauty is magnificent as it hangs at the edge of death, insisting upon its relevance.

Make your own show exactly as you want with major resources at your fingertips: not actually an impossibility in the world

We have just been given an assignment in which we were asked to curate an exhibition at the New Museum in New York. In another phase of our invitation to manifesto we have been told that we have unlimited resources to do something, anything, at the Whitney, with unlimited time, staff, and budget.

The Rubell Family of Miami, FL completes an undertaking that combines elements of both of these endeavors every year. They mount a large scale show in their own contemporary art museum. The museum is located in a former FBI confiscated goods wearhouse and has a great deal of space. All of the work that they show is from their personal collection. Each year the show is arranged around a central theme and includes a wide variety of contemporary artists.

There are a number of institutions that work this way in Miami. Other examples are the Marguiles Collection and the Cisneros foundation, both located in former warehouses near the Rubell Family Collection in the emerging (or pretty much emerged) Wynwood arts district.

Ever have a conversation with Huck about "rippin' stuff off" from other artists, or "appropriating appropriated imagery?". If you were in my last crit, you know that I have..... Anyways, the next show at the Rubell Collection, Beg Borrow, and Steal deals with these themes directly. Take a look, and see how some major collectors have gone about organizing shows throughout a long career. Many of the artists on our list are represented in their holdings.....

(The above picture shows the collection's largest gallery, as it was seen in last year's show, 30 Americans. Thats a ginormous woodcut by Kerry James Marshall along the back wall.)

Please, Just Give It a Rest

In light of recent studio conversations about "sabbathing", experiencing anxiety attacks, manifesto assignments, applying to grad school, and the fact that I had to skip my sabbath day today...... I would just like to reiterate:

don't panic. sabbath.

R.I.P. Nancy Spero

Cadavre Exquis

Proof that you never have to completely write off anything - even what we do to try out new processes in demos. The surrealists enjoyed the exquisite corpse exercise as a group game to maintain the sense of randomness and intuition that defined their approach to art. Yves Tanguy, Victor Brauner, and others contributed to this one. You can see this exquisite corpse right now in the exhibition Chance Aesthetics in our very own Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. The show is on display until January 4th.