Artwork as social interstice

The possibility of a relational art (an art taking at its theoretical horizon the realm of human interactions and its social context, rather than the assertion of an independent and private symbolic space), points to a radical upheaval of the aesthetic, cultural and political goals introduced by modern art.

"It's a kind of ground of sensibility for today. Think of Pop-art in the sixties for example, and you will see that the common ground was the fear of consumption. Today it has shifted to this fear of human relations. We are not living in a society of consumption and production, but in a communication society."

Relational art:
Uses minimalist forms to make political statements (anti capitalist).
It didn't like global capitalism.
It often related to the space in which it was exhibited.
Sometimes it was useful
Some times it was time based/ had limited duration.


Bourriaud N, (1998). Relational Aesthetics. English Edition. Dijon, Les Presse Du Reel.

Lewis, B (2004). Art Safari - Relational Art: Is It An Ism?. available from: http://www.ubu.com/film/relational.html [accessed 6 November 2012].

Program, or be programed?

How algorithms secretly shape the way we behave

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ng40n

Colson, R, 2007. The Fundamentals of Digital Art. Edition. AVA Publishing. Sussex.

Writer's Talk: James Bridle 

Turner Prize 2012.

 Selection of comments from the Turner Prize 2012.

The Eye Framed and Filled with Colour

Interesting and relevant essay by Rudi Fuchs from the book: Jan Dibbets, Interior Light

R. H. Fuchs, 1991. Jan Dibbets - Interior Light. First Edition. Rizzoli, New York.

Download pdf file

Final poster

Notes on talk: Ivan Seal & Carl Freedman

Seal, I and Freedman, C (2012). Artist's Talk Ivan Seal [talk]. Spike Island. 20 November.

Poster ideas

These are some of the initial poster ideas for my essay, working within the brief given to us. I have taken a formal, monotone and quite minimalist approach to these designs. My idea in these was to reflect an act or position of looking, whether that be through the physical distortion of the text, or the illustrations of views within a gallery space.
I wanted the poster to have aspects of relational art itself when stuck to a wall. The main body of the text is at a different line of perspective to the actual piece of paper, inviting the viewer to move around the poster to read it. The design of these posters also comment on the conditions within an ideal gallery space; its even distribution of lighting, the elimination of distractions, focus on artwork and formality of fonts and text.

I am also considering working on a 3D poster, incorporating the L Beams and text into a more sculptural wall composition.

-Also realised that the title Conditions of Display was already used for an exhibition in 2007.

Chosen cultural text and discourse

Robert Morris, Untitled (L Beams), 1965, Fiber glass and steel, 8 x 8 x 2ft

http://www.theartstory.org/movement-post-minimalism.htm

A few notes on critical approaches

Sturken, M (2009). Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. 2 Edition. Oxford University Press, USA.

Bibliography for essay

Berger, J (1972). Ways of Seeing - Episode 1: Psychological Aspects. available from: http://www.ubu.com/film/berger_seeing.html [accessed 27 December 2012].

Bishop, C. (2005) But is it Installation art?, Tate, 1 January, available from: http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/it-installation-art [accessed 14.11.12]

Bois, Y A. (2004) Art Since 1900. New York: Thames & Hudson Inc.

Bourriaud N, (1998). Relational Aesthetics. English Edition. Dijon, Les Presse Du Reel.

Claydon, S. (2012) Talk: Steven Claydon, UWE Fine Art/ Art in the city lecture series, [lecture], Arnolfini, 17 October.

Fried, M, (1998) . Art and Objecthood: Essays and Reviews. Edition. University Of Chicago Press.

Karp, I and Lavine, S D (1991). Exhibiting Cultures, the Poetics and Politics of Museum Display. Paper Edition. Washington, Smithsonian Books.

LeWitt, S. (1967) Paragraphs on Conceptual Art. Artforum Vol. 5 No. 10. June.

Lewis, B (2004). Art Safari - Relational Art: Is It An Ism?. available from: http://www.ubu.com/film/relational.html [accessed 6 November 2012].

Marincola, P. (2007). What Makes a Great Exhibition?. Edition. Chicago, Reaktion Books.

Merleau-Ponty, M. (2002). Phenomenology of Perception (Routledge Classics). 2 Edition. London. Routledge.

Morris, R. (1966) Notes on Sculpture, Part I. Artforum Vol. 9, No. 6. February, pp42 - 44.

Morris, R. (1966) Notes on Sculpture, part II. Artforum Vol. 5, No. 2. October. pp20 - 23

Morris, R. (1967) Notes on Sculpture part III: Notes and Nonsequiturs. Artforum Vol. 5, No. 10. Summer. pp24 - 29

O'Doherty, B, (2000). Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space. Expanded Edition. California, University of California Press.

O'Neil, P (2012). Relational Aesthetics, Golbalism and Self Organisation [lecture]. University of the West of England, Bower Ashton Campus. 25 October.

Rothkopf, S. (2011) ‪Singular Visions: Robert Morris, Untitled (L-Beams), 1965‬.  Whitney Museum of American Art, Youtube [video] 27 October. available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6Y6LkZblTk [accessed 13.11.12].

Sawyer, M. (2010) The Wizard of Odd, The Observer, The New Review. 18 July, pp 18 - 29

Seal, I and Freedman, C (2012). Artist's Talk Ivan Seal [talk]. Spike Island. 20 November.

Steinmeyer, J. (2006). Art and Artifice: And Other Essays of Illusion. 1 Edition. Boston, Da Capo Press.

Stiles, K and Selz, P (2012). Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists' Writings (Second Edition, Revised and Expanded by Kristine Stiles). 2 Rev Exp Edition. University of California Press.

Tate, (2004) Untitled 1965/71: Display caption. Tate Collection online. available from: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/morris-untitled-t01532/text-display-caption [accessed 14.12.12].

Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (week 5)

Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Film Theory and criticism: Introductory Readings. Eds. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. New York: Oxford UP, 1999: 833-44.

Psychoanalysis noun
a system of psychological theory and therapy that aims to treat mental disorders by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the mind and bringing repressed fears and conflicts into the conscious mind by techniques such as dream interpretation and free association.

Patriarchal adjective
of, relating to, or characteristic of a system of society or government controlled by men : patriarchal values.

Scopophilia noun
pleasure from looking, seeing other people as objects. sense of power from looking.
In psychoanalytic terms, the drive to look and the general pleasure in looking. Freud saw voyeurism (the pleasure in looking without being seen) and exhibitionism (the pleasure in being looked at) as the active and passive forms of scopophilia. The concept of scopophilia has been important to psychoanalytic film theory in its emphasis on the relationship of pleasure and desire to the practice of
looking.

"To begin with (as an ending), the voyeuristic-scopophilic look that is a crucial part of traditional filmic pleasure can itself be broken down. There are three different looks associated with cinema: that of the camera as it records the pro-filmic event, that of the audience as it watches the final product, and that of the characters at each other within the screen illusion. The conventions of narrative film deny the first two and subordinate the them to the third, the conscious aim being always to eliminate intrusive camera presence and prevent a distancing awareness in the audience."

We are encouraged to forget the choices of camera angles and cinematic techniques - seeing it as natural.
Deliberacy in cinematic choices.
   
also-
-John Berger, (2009). Ways of Seeing (Penguin Modern Classics). Edition. Penguin Group(CA).
-Natural Born Killers (1994) [DVD]. Directed by Oliver Stone. USA: Warner Bros.

Paint the Upper Right Hand Corner Black

Still life with tangerines
Oil on primed, coarse grain paper
10 x 14''
2012

"The Higher Powers Command: Paint the Upper Right Hand Corner Black!"

Artnet, Jerry Saltz, (2010). THE DAZZLER. available from: http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/saltz/sigmar-polke6-16-10.asp [accessed 04.11.12]

The indiscipline of painting.

The indiscipline of painting: International abstraction from the 1960’s to now.
Tate St Ives, 8 October 2011 - 3 January 2012

I visited this exhibition whilst on a trip to Cornwall last year. Curated by Daniel Sturgis, the exhibition focused on the visual and conceptual connections between works rather than on chronology or a specific theme. The comprised works of 49 British, European and American artists, show the innovation and diversity abstract art can have. I also found that it highlighted a variety of applications for painting in contemporary art and design.

Most of the paintings were made by hand in a controlled or orderly way, using the media itself to represent or portray meanings and ideas, where few of them displayed a gestural or self expressive handling of paint. The paintings throughout the exhibition might have initially come across as having no relevance to one another at all, but each piece of work had its own context and language of abstraction. Even without knowing anything at first glance, you could still find them visually intriguing.

‘Electronic surveillance’ (1989) by Tim Head. Contemporary artist using pattern to obscure rather than decorate, interested in hyper real codes and languages, this piece is a recreation of the pattern taken from the inside of a payslip envelope, magnified onto a large canvas, and is something miniscule and innocuous that everyone comes across once a month.

‘Chronochrome set 3’ (2010) by Cheney Thompson is a technologic abstraction, painting process where he records the amount of light coming into a space, which is then composed using a certain colour theory, ordering the light into individual formatted dates on a calendar. The idea of visually representing a record of light, monitoring data over a period of time interested me in this piece.

also - Triming, L. (2012) An Uncomfortable Armchair, Abstract Critical, 24 January. available from: http://abstractcritical.com/article/an-uncomfortable-armchair/ [accessed 17.11.12].

Autonomy, Abstraction and Unism

Strzemiński
"Abstract art constitutes a laboratory of research in the formal domain. The result of this enters daily life as definitive components."

"A real = autonomous existence in the plastic arts: when a work of art is plastically self-sufficient; when it constitutes an end itself and does not seek justification in values that subsist beyond the picture. An item of pure art, built in accordance with its own principles, stands up beside other worldly organisms as a parallel entity, as a real being, for everything has its own laws of construction of its organism. When we build one thing, we cannot do it according to the laws and principles belonging to another thing."
-principle of unism

"Composition rests on a rhetorical model. Any composition stages a drama (thesis/ antithesis) whose resolution (synthesis) must be convincing."

Autonomous = Self governing

Bois, Y-A. (1991). Painting as Model (October Books). First Edition Edition. Massachusetts, MIT Press.


Piet Mondrian
Neoplasticism is the belief that art should not be the reproduction of real objects, but the expression of the absolutes of life.  To the artists way of thinking, the only absolutes of life were vertical and horizontal lines and the primary colors.  To this end neoplasticisist only used planar elements and the colors red, yellow, and blue.  The neoplastic movement happened in the 1910's and the two main painters of this movement where Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg.

Abstractart, Peter Mackenzie, (2000). Neoplasticism, available from: http://abstractart.20m.com/Neoplasticism.html [accessed 04.11.12]

Notes from talk: Marie-Anne McQuay on 'In Here Stands It'

Marie-Anne McQuay talks about the current exhibition, Ivan Seal: In Here Stands It.
Spike Island, 31.10.12

Spike Island are able to offer solo shows and commissions to artists, inviting them to make use of the large exhibition space. They are interested in artists that haven't/ don't usually show in the UK and invite them to exhibit and collaborate in new/ interesting ways (rare opportunities).

Seal has never done a show of this scale before, and is the largest, predominantly painting show that Spike Island has had. Shows last for 6 - 8 weeks at Spike Island.

Seal has worked with director Helen Legg in transforming the layout of the exhibition, altering the trajectory of the viewing space in relation to the paintings.

"He isn't a 'painter' painter". Ivan Seal considers the installation and sculptural aspects of his painting. "An installational-ly hung painting show." Hanging of the paintings have elements of structure in randomness.

There are approximately 50 paintings in the show (half of Seals work). From selections of his work made by Helen, Seal was able to produce new work with corresponding ideas and techniques.

The layout of the paintings in the exhibition have no narratives, although themes can be seen to reoccur and echo throughout the entire space. Seals career as a professional chef are undermined in some of the paintings, provoking ideas of the temporarity of works and their production.

Seal produces his paintings from memories that may be of a person. Elements such as colour or shape are taken from subject and distorted and isolated.

McQuay, M-A, (2012). In Here Stands It - guided talk [talk]. Spike Island. 31 October.


Fear is the mind killer

There is an artist talk with Ivan Seal on Tuesday 20 November, Spike Island.

More artists (not necessarily contemporary / living)

31
Name: Robbert Morris (Untitled, 1965/ 71)
Media/ materials used: Sculpture, Installation, land art, performance.
Themes/ context of work: "Early childhood experiences have always been central to my art making." Geometric Forms, audience interaction and awareness, artwork and its containment/ relationship with its surroundings, minimalism, relational aesthetic.
Source: Tate, Simon Grant (2008), Simon Grant interviews Robert Morris, available from: http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/simon-grant-interviews-robert-morris [accessed 31/10/12].

32
Name: Steven Claydon (Mon plaisir… Votre travail…)
Media/ materials used: Sculpture, installation, public art, video, print.
Themes/ context of work: Aggregation, thoughts as objects, equivalences, lowest common denominators, reoccurring experiences, connections between migrations and associations of objects.
Source: Claydon, S. (2012) Talk: Steven Claydon, UWE Fine Art/ Art in the city lecture series, [lecture], Arnolfini, 17 October.
http://www.lasalledebains.net/index.php?lang=uk#exhibition26

33
Name: Richard Hamilton
Source: Cumming, L. (2012) The art of looking both ways. The Observer, The New Review. 14 October, p. 29.

34
Name: Francis Alÿs
Source: Godfrey, M. (2010). Francis Alys: A Story of Deception. Edition. London: Tate Gallery Publishing.

35
Name: Tim Davies (Venice Biennale)
Source: Celf Cymru ~ Arts Wales, Tim Davies, (2011), Wales in Venice TIM DAVIES, available from: http://vimeo.com/27447510 [accessed 03.11.12]

36
Name: Hollis Frampton (Nostalgia)
Source: Ubuweb, Hollis Frampton (2012). Film index - Hollis Frampton (1936-1984), available from: http://www.ubu.com/film/frampton.html [accessed  03.11.12].

37
Name: Olafur Eliasson (Nature of Nature and Artifice)
Source: Guggenheim, unknown, (2012), Olafur Eliasson. available from: http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-full/piece/?search=Olafur%20Eliasson&page=1&f=People&cr=2 [accessed 31.10.12]

38
Name: Olaf Breuning
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/olaf_breuning.htm

39
Name: Piet Mondrian
Source: Cheetham, M A, (1994). The Rhetoric of Purity: Essentialist Theory and the Advent of Abstract Painting. Edition. Cambridge University Press.

40
Name: Robert Smithson
Source: Robert Smithson, Robert Smithson, (1966), Entropy And The New Monuments, available from: http://www.robertsmithson.com/essays/entropy_and.htm [accessed 03.11.12]

41
Name: André Thomkins
'Lackskin'
Source: http://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/38/andre-thomkins/images-clips/3/

42
Name: Joëlle Tuerlinckx
Source/s: http://www.moma.org/learn/resources/library/council/tuerlinckx.
Frieze, Katie Kitamura, (2008). Joëlle Tuerlinckx. available from: http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/joelle_tuerlinckx2/ [accessed 13.11.12].

43
Name: Marcel Broodthaers
Themes/ Context of work: Fictitious museums, was a surrealist poet. "Broodthaers was among the first artists to question the role of the institution, display, and text in an art object's reception".
Source: http://www.mariangoodman.com/artists/marcel-broodthaers/

44
Name: Ian McKeever
Source: Tate, Morgan Falconer (2000). Ian McKeever - artist biography. available from: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/ian-mckeever-2335/text-artist-biography [accessed 03.11.12].

45
Name: Gary Woodley
Source: Chelsea Space, Donald Smith (2005). Gary Woodley: Impingement no. 47. available from:
http://www.chelseaspace.org/archive/woodley-pr.html#top [accessed 9.11.12]

46
Name: Morgan Fisher
Source: This is Tomorrow, (2012). Morgan Fisher: The Frame and Beyond, available from: http://www.thisistomorrow.info/viewArticle.aspx?artId=1412&Title=Morgan%20Fisher:%20The%20Frame%20and%20Beyond [accessed 11.11.12].

47
Name: Sol LeWitt
Source: http://www.diaart.org/exhibitions/introduction/88
http://www.oca.no/programme/projects/sol-lewitt.1

48
Name: Mel Bochner
Source: http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/mel-bochner-if-the-colour-changes

49
Damien Meade
http://www.damienmeade.com/index.php?directory=.&currentPic=28

50
Humphrey Ocean
http://www.humphreyocean.com/docs/works/prints/thumbnails01.html 

51
Jane Dixon
http://www.janedixon.net/model.html

52
Bada Song
http://www.badasong.com/http%3A__www.badasong.com/home.html

53
Simon Callery
http://abstractcritical.com/article/simon-callery-interview/
http://www.sumarrialunn.com/Exhibitions/painting/painting05.html

54
Rafal Bujnowski
http://www.modernedition.com/art-articles/polish-art/polish-art-now.html
Lamp Black Hexagon (1), 2008
Untitled (Corner 1), 2010

55
Ian Kiaer

Choose three practicing artists from your list and assess the consumption of their work. (week 3)

01 Cecilia Edefalk
Themes/ context of work:
Lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. Edefalk works primarily as a painter, her work is concentrated and accumulated over long periods of time and features elusive imagery with pale colours and suffused light. Exhibits work on an international scale. Her exhibitions are calculated, as to impose an element of performance on the viewer, to allow for comparison and correspondence between large series of works.

How much does their work sell for? 
At the moment untitled, 1997-98, oil on linen, diameter 61.3cm, 99,474 USD

Where is the work sold/ viewed?
Works are sold at various auction houses, Sothbeys etc. and have been exhibited at galleries such as Parasol Unit London, Gladstone Gallery New York, Kunsthalle Bern, Brändström & Stene Stockholm.

Who are consumers of the work?/ Commissions
Large amount of work is owned by Gladstone Gallery New York & Brussels. Also has work in various private collections such as Jan Kamras Collection.

02 Rod Maclachlan 
Themes/ context of work:
Rod Maclachlan works with sculpture and large format projection. He explores the different ways of seeing, and challenges how we observe things analytically/ receptively. The artist uses a combination of early optical and electric devices, and combined with sculptural compositions, he investigates visual perception and embodies the viewer with its captivating physical and analogue qualities.

How much does their work sell for?
?

Where is the work sold/ viewed?
Maclachlan has exhibited at venues such as The Arnolfini, The Bluecoat, Tate Britain, Battersea Arts Centre, and Spike Island. Also produces work with Blackout Arts collective in Bristol.

Who are consumers of the work?/ Commissions
Maclachlan has over 12 years of experience working as an Audio-Visual technician for arts and music events. He has also worked collaboratively with community groups, musicians and Artists such as Faster than Sound, Snape Maltings. He also runs Beam Productions.

http://rodmaclachlan.co.uk/project/aftertime/ 
http://www.beamproductions.co.uk


03 David Clarebout 
Themes/ context of work:
Clarebout works mainly in film and photography to explore perceptions of time and narrative. He is interested in the nature of photography and the relationships that can be achieved with the sill and moving image. His work also presents viewer interactions when installed within a gallery space, where his multichannel pieces of work can create virtual and imagined spaces that are experienced by the viewers movement throughout the space.

How much does their work sell for? 
?

Where is the work sold/ viewed?
David Clarebout is represented by galleries such as Hauser & Wirth, Johnen Galerie, and Yvon Lambert. He has sold limited edition prints of his work, through galleries and auction houses.

Who are consumers of the work?/ Commissions
 Work is owned by both his represented galleries and is in private collections such as the Collection of Pamela and Richard Kramlich

Key words that define independant practice and influences. (week 3)

-Process based application of media
-Elements of time/ durational aspects
-Mutable subjects
-Unconventional viewpoints
-Determining viewer interactions
-Abstraction
-Algorithms
-Minimalist
-'All over art'
-Progression
-Obscured realities/ representations
-Memory
-Prior knowledge
-Interpretation
-Familiarity
-Identifiable/ relatable  interfaces
-Subdued tonality
-Mass
-Volume
-Reductive processes
-Peripheral vision
-Anonymity
-Banality
-Diagrams
-Ideology
-Data
-Proximity
-Light refractions
-Contingency
-Equivalences
-Inevitability
-Instability
-Calculated variables
-Paradoxical acts of looking
-Cybernetics
-Hierarchies

Seminar task 2 - Consider the spaces that your fields work might be consumed. Analyse and compare the environmental factors between two institutions of your choice. (week 2)

The Art Voyeur: A glimpse at art through the eyes of others
Quakers Friars, Bristol 04.10.12

Size/ style of exhibition space:
    Unthemed, modern interior.
    Rentable, two storey space for hire.
    Situated on expensive high street - Shoppers passing
    Large shop front windows.
    Moderately sized rooms.
    Restricted accessibility.
    Aprox. 11ft celing height - unable to drastically alter layout for specific installations or works.
    Standardised/ disposable space.
    Irregular shaped dimensions.

Lighting:
    Yellow Hue.
    Not purposely positioned in relation to artwork.
    For moderate/ casual viewing.
    Non intense and non specific.

Paraphernalia:
    No sign on building indicating an exhibition.
    Brief, informative A4 paper handout (black and white)
    Generic font used.
    Lack of original graphic design.
    Contact details.
    Artist available to talk with.
    No labels on any of the work.

Matti Braun: Gost Log
Arnolfini, Bristol 17.10.12

Size/ style of exhibition space:
Clean, multi-storey gallery spaces.
Established arts institution in the centre of bristol.
iconic.
Good accessibility (lift and stairs).
Mutable gallery layout (to an extent).
High budget for large scale installations.

Lighting:
High quality.
Light fittings are altered depending on exhibition.
For this specific exhibition neon lighting has been installed in the first gallery over the artist series of abstract paintings 'Pierre Pierre'.

Paraphernalia:
Internationally recognised art space.
Tasteful signs, window graphics and posters can be seen from outside the building as well as the surrounding area.
Leaflets can be found within other arts and culture centres around bristol.
Free informative and thorough exhibition guides available inside.
They also have a free guided exhibition talk on saturdays at 2pm.
Artwork labels are included, however this particular exhibition had them quite dispersed and detached from the artworks.

Seminar task 1 - List of 30 living, contemporary practitioners. (week 1)

Identify 30 (living) contemporary practitioners within your own field of practice (Fine Art).

01
Name: Jan Dibbets
Media/ materials used: Painting, drawing, photography, print, collage.
Themes/ context of work: Perspectives, perception of surroundings, light, view points.
Source: Book: Jan Dibbets 'interior light'
R. H. Fuchs, 1991. Jan Dibbets - Interior Light. First Edition. Rizzoli, New York.

02
Name: David Claerbout
Media/ materials used: Film, photography, video.
Themes/ context of work: Perception, movement, time, manipulation. "The artists main concern is to question our conventional ideas of time and narrative processes".
Source: Book: David Claerbout (book published for the occasion of four international exhibitions) ISBN: 3-88375-880-9
David Claerbout, 2005. David Claerbout (German Edition). Bilingual Edition. Walther Konig, Koln.

03
Name: Anri Sala
Media/ materials used: Film, performance.
Themes/ context of work: He explores the relationship between sound and image in film works about the history of a site or place.
Source: Frieze magazine 149 september 2012

04
Name: Dexter Darlwood
Media/ materials used: Painting, collage.
Themes/ context of work: Unconventional/ surreal landscapes, interiors, imagination, fragmentation.
Source: Frieze magazine 149 september 2012

05
Name: Luc Tuymans
Media/ materials used: Painting (oil).
Themes/ context of work: Abstraction through representation, visceral depictions of cultural taboos that confront the viewer. still lifes, interiors, landscapes, portraiture.
Source: Defining contemporary art - 25 years in 200 pivotal artworks.

06
Name: Cecilia Edefalk
Media/ materials used: Painting (oil, tempera), Sculpture (casting)
Themes/ context of work: Mutability, Time, progression, memory, comparison.
Source: Parasol unit - Cecilia Edefalk and Gunnel Wahlstrand 'Time and Memory'.

07
Name: Michael Readecker
Media/ materials used: Painting and embroidery.
Themes/ context of work: landscape, painterly abstraction, urban life, banality, emotion + colour.
Source: Volume, Hauser and Wirth gallery London.

08
Name: Eberhard Havekost
Media/ materials used: Painting (oil on canvas)
Themes/ context of work: Mechanical distortion of colour and perspective, cinematic techniques, illumination/ brightness, "democratic light". Urban landscapes.
Source: Online interview: Havekost, E. (2010) Dematerialized Seeing: A conversation with Eberhard Havekost, Interview by Hortense Pisano, ArtMag, 15 january, [online] http://db-artmag.com/en/59/feature/dematerialized-seeing-a-conversation-with-eberhard-havekost/ [accessed 3 october 2012]

09
Name: Wilhelm Sasnal
Media/ materials used: Painting.
Themes/ context of work: Society, observation of capitalist culture, mass media, predominately black and white palette. "It strives to define personal experience of an impersonal world".
Source: Kai Althoff, 2006. Saatchi Gallery: The Triumph of Painting. Edition. Walther Konig, Koln.

10
Name: Pennie Elfick
Media/ materials used: Painting and print. (abstract)
Themes/ context of work: Juxtapositions. rhythms. transient nature of light. representational elements suggesting changes in spaces or landscapes. minimalism.
Source: Somerset arts week - artist open studios. Dove studios.

11
Name: Thomas Demand
Media/ materials used: Sculpture, photography, documentation.
Themes/ context of work: historic places of reference, deceptions of scale. banal and mundane scenes. He creates accurate, scale paper models of interior scenes and photographs them to create a realistic illusion.
Source: Daniel Birnbaum, 2011. Defining Contemporary Art: 25 Years in 200 Pivotal Artworks. Edition. Phaidon Press.

12
Name: Vija Celmins
Media/ materials used: Painting (oil on linen), Drawing (graphite).
Themes/ context of work: Time, timelessness, materiality of painting, 'all over' painting. Morality.
Source: Daniel Birnbaum, 2011. Defining Contemporary Art: 25 Years in 200 Pivotal Artworks. Edition. Phaidon Press.

13
Name: Rod Maclachlan
Media/ materials used: Sculpture, photography, light projection.
Themes/ context of work: Investigates visual perception. tensions between physical and virtual spaces. Observation and imagination. Physicality.
Source: Spike Island studios 'like being'. http://rodmaclachlan.co.uk

14
Name: Albert oehlen
Media/ materials used: Painting (Post-non-representational)
Themes/ context of work: engagement with the history of painting, challenges traditional abstraction. provocation, representation through abstraction.
Source: Saatchi online artist profile.

15
Name: Christopher Wool
Media/ materials used: Spray paint, screen printing, digital media, photography.
Themes/ context of work: Reinterpretation, methodical procedures, depersonalising the act of painting, repetition, obscuring, deconstruction, recomposition.
Source: Christopher Wool exhibition at Musee D' Art Moderne - 30 march/ 19 august

16
Name: Martin Creed
Media/ materials used: Installation, sculpture, painting.
Themes/ context of work: Simplified choices of two elements (not being able to choose), embracing two opposites, order, 'things'.
Source: Daniel Birnbaum, 2011. Defining Contemporary Art: 25 Years in 200 Pivotal Artworks. Edition. Phaidon Press.

17
Name: Tim Head
Media/ materials used:
Computer programming, drawing, painting, digital prints, installation, photography.
Themes/ context of work: Abstract artist whose work exposes the digital mediums physical, and basic form of pixels and hyper real codes.
Source: The Indiscipline of Painting: International abstraction from 1960's - now. Tate St Ives

18
Name: Callum Innes
Media/ materials used: Painting (oil and turpentine), watercolour.
Themes/ context of work: Explores the possibilities of paint on canvas, also the process of removal, 'unpainting', abstract painting techniques involving additive and subtractive processes.
Source: www.calluminnes.com

19
Name: Thomas Schütte
Media/ materials used: Sculpture (Bronze, ceramic, fimo, fabric)
Themes/ context of work: Figurative, politics, emotional states, elusiveness.
Source: The Guardian article. Thomas Schütte: Faces and figures, Serpentine Gallery.

20
Name: Stuart Duffin
Media/ materials used: Painting, Printing (etching with mezzotint), Digital art
Themes/ context of work:
Source: Featured artist in Scottish Royal Academy: Annual Exhibition. April - June 2011

21
Name: George Shaw
Media/ materials used: Enamel paint on MDF
Themes/ context of work: semi- realist, nostalgic, highly detailed suburb subjects, eerie atmospheres.
Source: Vitamin P - new perspectives in painting.

22.
Name: Carla Klien
Media/ materials used: Painting (oil / enamel on canvas)
Themes/ context of work: Spacial rendering, broad, mono tone, containment, liminal/ transitional terrains, momentary spaces that you pass through, devoid of figures, ambiguous.
Source: Barry Schwabsky, 2004. Vitamin P: New Perspectives in Painting. Edition. Phaidon Press.

23.
Name: Toba Khedoori
Media/ materials used: Oil and wax on paper
Themes/ context of work: Identifiable isolated forms, transitional time and states, architectural forms, in-between elements, integrated functions of inhabited spaces, solitude.
Source: Barry Schwabsky, 2004. Vitamin P: New Perspectives in Painting. Edition. Phaidon Press.

24.
Name: Julie Mehretu
Media/ materials used: Paint (acrylic), pencil, ink
Themes/ context of work: conveys a layering and compression of time, space and place and a collapse of art historical references. Imagined narratives, abstracted cities.
Source: White Cube, (2012), Artists: Julie Mehretu, http://whitecube.com/artists/julie_mehretu/ [accessed 3 october 2012]

25.
Name: Dan Graham
Media/ materials used: Public Sculpture, performance, video based installation or text.
Themes/ context of work: Social/ psychological subjectivity, viewer interactive, spectating, observation, illusion, uncertainty, temporality, binary structures/ forms.
Source: Hauser and Wirth (2012), Hauser and Wirth- Artists- Dan Graham- press. Available from: http://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/9/dan-graham/press [accessed 12/10/12]

26.
Name: Bruce Nauman
Media/ materials used: Sculpture, drawing, site-specific installation, sound pieces, neon, photography, film, video, performance and text/language.
Themes/ context of work: Spatial and bodily encounters, the passage of time, constructed environments, systems of language, psychology, ever-changing place, self awareness.
Source: Institute of Contemporary Arts (2012), ICA, Bruce Nauman: Days. Available from: http://www.ica.org.uk/days [accessed 12/10/12]

27.
Name: Pierre Soulages
Media/ Materials used: Oil paint, printing, drawing.
Themes/ context of work:  Black, linear, gestural, visual tension, physical processes in painting, Tachisme (abstract expressionism), visual effects of light.
Source: Editors of Phaidon Press, 1999. The 20th Century Art Book. Edition. Phaidon Press.

28.
Name: Donald Judd
Media/ materials used: Sculpture, industrial, machine based processes, Painting
Themes/ context of work: Minimalism, where design and sculpture meet, removing the artist from physical equation, simplistic forms that have a unity of their own.
Source: Editors of Phaidon Press, 1999. The 20th Century Art Book. Edition. Phaidon Press.

29.
Name: Cezary Bodzianowski
Media/ materials used: Installation, Video,
Themes/ context of work: Alienation, removal of objects from original contexts, alternate circumstances, displacements, familiarity, re-appropriation.
Source: Aesthetica (2011), The Alienation Effect | Savage presents Jean Michel Jarre and Cezary Bodzianowski's Tea Back | Spike Island | Bristol, Available from: http://aestheticamagazine.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/alienation-effect-savage-presents-jean.html [accessed 11/10/12].

30.
Name: Mary Martin
Media/ materials used: Painting, sculpture, reliefs and drawings
Themes/ context of work: English constructive artist 1950s - 60s, geometric and mathematical work involving colour, line and form. abstraction, unfolding and evolving forms, modern architecture, distortion.
Source: Art Daily (2007), Kenneth Martin & Mary Martin: Constructed Works, Available from: http://artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=21992&int_modo=1 [accessed 11/10/12]