Quick Bites: Donald Kilpatrick’s Wish Diamonds

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 08:21:13 -0500

Chewing the Fat: Jordan Eagles

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:14:36 -0400

People often ask me what is the most important aspect of choosing an artist to show in the gallery. My response is slightly flippant and always the same; “I show people who I’d want to hang out with.” Besides artistic excellence, attention to detail, and an unwavering dedication to studio practice, it’s right up there. But seriously, most of my life, private and public, is consumed by art so why shouldn’t it be the same for my artists?

So, perhaps not surprisingly, Jordan Eagles was already on a steady roll leading up to his Blood Works opening at The Butcher’s Daughter. Traveling to three cities in just as few weeks installing exhibitions in the LES, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Eagles’ at 35 has achieved in his brief career what a person a decade older would understandably envy. Much like Eagles’ resin and blood works, manifestations of his layered labor is preserved, even suspended, in the work for all to see.

TBD:
You often refer to the works within individual series possessing and omitting different types of energy (e.g., Life Force like a womb, Blood Mirror like a tomb, resurrection, or ascension): can you comment on if you think this is the result of the work or a result of an individual’s projection upon the work (i.e., is it innate or hermeneutical)?

JE:
I think it is both. The blood certainly has an innate energy and this power comes through the works. At the same time, viewers have their own unique relationship with blood and often bring this to the works upon first viewing. That being said, more often then not, the preconceived notions usually disappear and the energy of the material is what seems to resonate.

TBD:
In relation to your works’ medium, is it possible to transcend the material?

JE:
The point is not to transcend the material, but rather to honor its energy. Ideas of transcendence do come out in the work, but more so in the themes that relate to the material, such as rebirth, regeneration, or transitions of death to life and the feelings and energy the work gives off.

Installed: Latency - A Collection of Works by Kevin Beasley

Sat, 26 May 2012 11:57:38 -0400

Prime Cuts

Quick Bites: Donald Kilpatrick’s Wish Diamonds

Chewing the Fat: Jordan Eagles

Installed: Latency - A Collection of Works by Kevin Beasley