VISIT US IN NEW YORK!
KAC has boots on the ground in the big apple! Bet you didn’t know that our very own, Kimberly Landa has been operating in New York for almost two years covering projects for Kinzelman Art Consulting? We thought it would be fun to catch up with her about officing in the city, navigating NY during COVID and how she’s managing to access incredible art for our clients.
Kimberly @ Perrotin Gallery Gift Shop
Q&A:
Q: You relocated to NYC prior to the pandemic, how has your experience in the city changed during this time and how do you manage to keep work going?
A: Watching the pandemic work its way through the city was a wild experience. Witnessing nightly 7pm applause, a dead empty Broadway Street, protests and riots, then boarded up windows covered in fresh street art made me appreciate the resilience of New Yorkers. Despite the circumstances, it was cool to experience the city in a different, quieter way without the buzz of my busy schedule. Now it feels like NY is getting its groove back, and as hard as some days were, I think I’ve earned some street cred by toughing out the majority of 2020 here!
The key to my tiny apartment-office lifestyle is spending as much time as possible outside, even if it’s for 10 minutes to drink my coffee or between calls. Also, infusing life into my space with my tiny art collection makes my “home office” way more bearable. Lastly, I make a conscious effort to move around my apartment frequently to change it up. Big things happen for KAC when I move from my kitchen table to the couch!
Bloomingdales windows mid-pandemic
Q: Now that galleries and museums are slowly opening, accessing art exhibitions first hand must be a welcome respite. How are you feeling about seeing art in person again after being separated from the gallery scene for so long?
A: I swear I didn't feel human again until I reentered The Whitney last month! Previously, my weeks were packed with openings and gallery appointments. There was never a dull moment and my mental art inventory and iPhone camera roll were always growing at an exponential rate. When the world screeched to a halt in March it was definitely a transition.
I recently attended Tribeca art night and saw a handful of shows in Chelsea. Now I’m far less concerned with my schedule, and spend more time engaging in conversation and really being present with the work. I used to try to pack it all in, and now I am okay with seeing less in a day but having a more meaningful experience. It's hard to top the convenience of speed dating with artwork via online viewing rooms in my slippers, but I really missed the human element, and the irreplaceable experience of stepping into a bright airy gallery and having an instinctual first reaction to a show.
Kimberly at Alex Dodge exhibition at Klaus Gallery, LES
Q: How has living in NY shaped the way you service our projects?
A: I like to say I used to have a long distance relationship with the NY art scene, and now I do with our Texas-based clients. Aside from the obvious answer that I live in the center of endless art opportunities for our projects, moving here pre-pandemic definitely gave me a jump start to working remotely and relying on technology and zoom to manage projects, a way of working we didn’t know would soon be universal!
Q: Can you describe a project that has directly benefitted from you being in NY?
A: Recently, a client of ours had trouble deciding between two artworks that were at a show in Chelsea. It was so convenient (and fun) to have the luxury of hopping over to the gallery in minute's notice to study them further and help our client make a final call. I sent videos in the space to our client so she could understand the scale and texture better, then we had a discussion while I was at the show to make a quick decision based on my first hand experience with both artworks. A decision that can take numerous phone calls and email exchanges was made in just a few minutes, and enriched my work day! We also have a handful of clients with global collections, which result in much easier management of the the New York collections now that I am here and ready to go when something comes up.
Film Forum in Chelsea, mid-pandemic
Q: Got any funny or peculiar stories about life in NY?
A: There are so many I could truly write a book. I tend to be a magnet for peculiar stories, which is only amplified living in the ultimate city of unpredictability. Most recently, I had to hire a “couch surgeon” in order to fit my beloved pink couch into my new apartment because the entrance to my building was too narrow. I drove his car around so he could avoid parking expenses while he deconstructed my poor couch on the sidewalk to it’s bare bones, and completely rebuilt it inside of my living room within an hour. I've since learned that couch surgeons are not uncommon here.
The real kicker was the close proximity of my building entrance to the neighboring, very nice restaurant. I’m sure it really glorified the NYC outdoor dining experience to enjoy a lovely sushi meal alongside an invasive couch surgery!
Kimbelry at Donald Judd show, MoMa
Earlier this month, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston shared exciting redevelopment plans with the community, including a brand new modern and contemporary art building and impressive additions to the institution’s permanent collection. In the upcoming years, the museum’s 14-acre campus will become home to seven major site-specific commissions by internationally recognized artists El Anatsui, Byung Hoon Choi, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Olafur Eliasson, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Cristina Iglesias and Ai Weiwei. Kinzelman Art is honored to have collaborated with two of these distinguished, globally recognized artists, and are thrilled to know that the Houston community will soon be enriched further through their works that will be featured at the MFAH.
KAC x EL ANATSUI
El Anatsui's site-specific commission in the Energy Corridor, Houston, TX
In 2007, Julie Kinzelman worked with Nigerian artist El Anatsui to complete his very first site-specific commission in the United States. Stretching 27 feet high, the impressively scaled sculpture is constructed of thousands of folded and crumpled bottle tops bound together. The piece was specifically designed for our client, a multinational energy corporation headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Anatsui alongside his artwork during a visit to Houston.
Anatsui is now internationally recognized for his alluring assemblages of found, recycled materials that ultimately transform the environment for which they hang. His work is a direct representation of his African roots, while also referencing the environment, mass consumption and waste.
KAC x OLAFUR ELIASSON
In 2016, Kinzelman Art kicked off a three year project working closely with Berlin-based artist Olafur Eliasson. In tandem with his esteemed studio of engineers and architects, Eliasson created a two-part, site-specific sculpture for Texas A&M’s new Zachry Engineering Education Complex. Eliasson’s concept for the commission was to invite viewers to consider mathematically how a cube can transform into a sphere.
Olafur Eliasson's site-specific sculpture at Texas A&M University
Eliasson’s sculpture, “How to Build a Sphere out of Cubes,” includes two brushed and polished stainless steel sculptures situated at the outer ends of the elliptical lawn engaging in formal dialogue with one another. The iconic artwork attracts students and visitors and serves as a desired meeting point on campus. You can learn more about this artwork, and KAC's project with Texas A&M here.
"The Breathing Moon" installed in the lobby space at Park District, Dallas.
KAC also prominently featured Eliasson’s sculpture, “The Breathing Moon”, in the newly completed sophisticated lobby of Park District, Dallas. This sculpture is comprised of 24 crystal spheres to infer phases of the moon. Similar to Eliasson's sculpture at TAMU, and much of his work, the mirrored surfaces encourage interaction with an ever changing appearance dependent on the viewer's movements and the surrounding space.
"The Breathing Moon" Detail Image.
When the Australian mining company, BHP announced their plans to construct a 600,000 square foot sky scraper designed by Pickard Chilton of New Haven, Connecticut along the bustling Post Oak Boulevard in Houston, Kinzelman Art was honored to be selected to place a prominent work of art within the refined lobby. On behalf of BHP and in partnership with Gensler, KAC led the process of selecting New York based artist, Sharon Louden, represented by Morgan Lehman Gallery to create a site-specific sculpture suspended from the 30 foot high lobby ceiling.
Louden's site-specific installation
Louden's ongoing exploration of compelling materials such as large swaths of mirror-polished aluminum set the stage for a dynamic, yet refined installation. The cascading sculpture creates a fluid composition that one could relate to the mining industry and natural geological formations. Among the multi-faceted aspects of the overall work of art is its ability to physically reflect the surrounding environment and changing light as well as the movement of pedestrians below.
installation image
CLICK HERE to watch Glasstire's artist interview.
Ground view of Louden's installation
This project was completed in collaboration with representatives of BHP, Pickard Chilton, Gensler, Harvey Builders, Cushman & Wakefield, Morgan Lehman Gallery, and TYart Museum Quality Services.
BHP building in Post Oak, Houston
In KAC’s latest Interview, Houston-based painter and professor Bradley Kerl shares an inside look into what originally focused his creative journey towards painting, where his body of work is headed and exciting news about his growing family.
Kerl's work at Texas Contemporary Art Fair, 2016.
Kerl's site-specific still life set at Gensler, Houston.
KAC announces a solo exhibition with Houston artist Hillevi Baar on view at Gensler Houston. The inspired creator of intricate installation-based works, Baar views herself as not only an artist but also as a facilitator who assists her medium of Mylar to reside in it's intended and natural state. Her active interplay with medium explores variations in form, often derived from interactions observed between wind, water, plant life and shadow play.
"Float" by Baar in Gensler's reception
Baar’s experimentation with Mylar is particularly evident in "Float," a site-specific installation created for Gensler’s reception. This elegant suspended sculpture investigates the balance between meticulous strategizing and spontaneous on-site manipulation in response to the environment. Baar began creating this piece by carefully scoring the Mylar to intentionally mimic the linear forms throughout Gensler’s space.
"Wild Flowers" by Baar in Gensler's Conference Corridor
References to nature are also seen in "Wild Flowers," a wave-like form installed along Gensler's Conference Corridor comprised of Mylar and steel pins resembling delicate branches. These complex elements seem to grow from the wall, fusing into one fluid shape that gently sways with the flow of foot traffic. These slight movements expose individualized drawings hidden between the intricate layers.
Detail of "Wild Flowers"
This interactive component allows the viewer to experience the piece in its entirety, while also inviting the study of each self-contained drawing. Conversely, "Unraveled" in the Coffee Corridor beckons the viewer to quietly approach the finely cut and tapering suspended Mylar sheet to fully experience the highly detailed graphite drawings within.
"Unraveled" by Baar in Gensler's Coffee Corridor
Detail of "Unraveled"
Baar is continuously experimenting with the dimensionality and boundaries of medium to transform the environments of numerous corporate and private spaces. This exhibition was curated by Kinzelman Art Consulting on behalf of Gensler.
Strikingly articulate and exceedingly experimental, artist Gabriel Dawe is breaking down barriers of a traditional male Mexican artist as he constructs geometric and fantastical illusions through the use of textile and thread. KAC had the pleasure to meet with Dawe in Dallas during his residency at Fairmont Hotel. Located in the bustling art district of downtown Dallas, Dawe innovatively transformed his temporary studio space into a colorful and dynamic solo exhibition.
Dawe's studio at Fairmont Hotel in Dallas, Texas
Responding to the architecture and environment, Dawe's installations become an open dialogue between art and space. While this process creates unique, site-specific works of art, there is a found unity throughout his collection. Every installation is developed from the full color spectrum, resembling light rays. Only experimented once before, the installation presented in Dallas, explores the cooler side of the spectrum, staying exclusively with blues, violets, and shades of pink. Here Dawe begins to omit part of the color spectrum, a preliminary investigation into the absence of color. This new departure is one he addresses further in his current exhibition "Plexus 37" at Conduit Gallery.
Dawe in front of his site-specific installation
Detail of Dawe's installation
Living and working in Dallas, locals have come to familiarize themselves with Dawe's brightly colored thread installations. Therefore he decidedly turned a 180 in his recent endeavor by masterfully abandoning color through the use of gray, silver, and black threads. The viewer is forced to see beyond the spectrum, cerebrating this omission to be not an act of defiance against that traditionally associated with color, but perhaps as a "silver lining" on what is next for the renowned artist and his forthcoming work.
Spools of silver thread in front of a work in progress
Gabriel Dawe is represented in Dallas, Texas by Conduit Gallery. Dawe is on view now with Conduit Gallery through May 13, 2017.
Repurposed thread installation
Portland based artist Elizabeth Atterbury talks art, inspiration, and the transition of being a new mother with KAC in our latest Interview Interview.
Elizabeth Atterbury, "Happy Sunny Jade" 2016, installation view
Elizabeth Atterbury, "Relief (Studio Taupe)," 2015, MDF, paint
Myke Venable's work investigates the infinite potential and purity in shape indicating a visual representation of his own paired-down universe. From detailed sketches in an open notebook on the worktable to mathematical drawings tacked to the wall, Venable's studio is a perfect diagram of his working and theoretical process. During our visit, KAC viewed Venable's newest body of work and saw how his paintings have evolved into what they are today.
Door to Myke Venable's studio space
While teaching at The Art League in Houston, Venable rediscovered his love of drawing. He has since dedicated one of the largest walls in his small studio to colorful geometric explorations, mapping out on paper his ongoing study of the complex relationship between shape and color. While he views his drawings as independent works, they also serve as inspiration for shaping his large canvas and panel paintings.
Venable with his geometric studies on paper
The drawings come to life on wood panels covered with pristine layers of acrylic paint squeezed straight from the tube. Mixing colors, he explains, would complicate his process of instinctually matching color and shape. Venable then focuses on creating thought provoking relationships through the particular arrangement of each element on the wall.
Cluster of Venable's paintings in his studio
Venable’s newest paintings cleverly juxtapose not quite symmetrical shapes with slightly irregular placements and parings. Tension builds within the negative space between the paintings as they barely touch, leaving the viewer to question whether the forms are merging together, floating apart or statically coexisting. Every combination creates a new dynamic that alters the energy of the cluster itself, therefore impacting the space in which it resides.
Detail of Venable's clusters
Looking ahead, Myke seeks to push boundaries of depth, scale and color. Myke Venable is represented in Houston by Gallery Sonja Roesch where his next exhibition opens on January 21, 2017.
California based artist Klea McKenna walks KAC through the evolution of her first beginner photography class to her ongoing experimentation with photograms. Read our interview below to learn how McKenna continuously pushes the boundaries of traditional photography practices, producing an innovative body of work.
Klea McKenna, "Archipelago," 2012-2013, photogram
Klea McKenna, "Rainstorm & Rain Studies," 2013-2016, gelatin silver photogram
McKenna is represented in Los Angeles, California by Von Lintel Gallery.
Hidden at the end of a beautiful lot densely populated by lush Houston greenery, Libbie Masterson's studio feels like her own personal oasis. The high ceilings and large windows yield a flood of soft natural light ideal for viewing her vast array of work including photographs, paintings, watercolors, glass mosaics and even stage set maquettes.
Outside of Masterson's studio
Masterson's lively persona is a striking counterpart to her tranquil, contemplative work. Our studio visit began with a look at her new glass mosaics, an extended exploration of her large-scale installation at the Houston Hobby Airport. These works are heavily influenced not only by Masterson's affinity for nature, but also music. Masterson shared her life-long fantasy of composing a symphony, and explained to KAC how she incorporates this hidden passion into her work by listening to songs on repeat and allowing the music to dictate the emotional direction of each mosaic.
KAC in Masterson's studio
Close up of Masterson's glass mosaics
The imaginative glass compositions provide a splash of color to Masterson's otherwise monochromatic studio, filled with icy landscape photographs of deep grays, blues, and whites. These mesmerizing and meditative photos are back-lit and displayed as illuminated light boxes. Masterson walked us through the rewarding process of working with the light boxes, and calculating the perfect hue and strength of light to properly enhance the imagery without overpowering it.
Masterson's light box photographs
Masterson’s dream project: set design for an entire opera! Her infinite sources of inspiration and matching talent pose a promising future of endless possibilities and exploration. Be sure to attend her upcoming exhibition, opening September 10th 2016 at Catherine Couturier Gallery, who represents Masterson in Houston.
Masterson's glass mosaic work station
Texas based artist, Michael Kennaugh, talks art with KAC. In this exclusive interview Kennaugh describes his experience in the growing Houston art scene and the colorful inspiration behind his process. He also reveals a glimpse into his forthcoming body of work.
Michael Kennaugh, artist
We first discovered artist, Yamini Nayer, at a presigious art fair last year. Brooklyn based, Nayar, has been on our radar since, and we recently had the pleasure of doing an interview with her! Check it out now on our Let's Talk Art Interview below to see what her art process is all about.
Yamini Nayar, Strange Event, 2015, photograph
Yamini Nayar, Garden for Laborers, 2015, photograph
While we were in Mexico City, we had the pleasure of doing a studio visit with Tomás Díaz Cedeño. We were initally introducted to Cedeño at the Texas Contemporary Art Fair in 2015 at Yautepec Gallery, so we were eager to meet him and learn more about his intruguing process. Take a look at our Let's Talk Art Interview with Cedeño for more on his inspiration and reflections on being an artist in Mexico City.
Tomás Díaz Cedeño, Untitled (Black, White, Flesh), 2015, Vel-mix, pigment, plastic mesh, aluminum
Kinzelman Art Consulting recently organized a temporary exhibition with Houston based artist Natasha Bowdoin at HOK Architect’s crisp and beautiful new space. Bowdoin’s The Daisy Argument Revised is a striking and dynamic spray of feathered elements that recall the aquatic flora of her native Maine. She has installed many iterations of this layered cut paper piece over the years, the first being in 2010.
Professor of Painting and Drawing at Rice University, Bowdoin is known for her painstakingly detailed cut paper installations and collages. Process and content are equally important to Bowdoin in her work. She spends hours hand-cutting the paper elements in direct and visceral response to the even more labor-intensive drawings and transcriptions of significant literary texts. Here the artist has fluidly recorded the text of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and portions of Through the Looking-Glass throughout the abstract composition of the piece.
Natasha Bowdoin’s The Daisy Argument Revised will be on view at HOK through mid-December, 2015.
During the installation process, where Natasha intuitively attached individual elements to HOK’s feature reception wall, KAC’s Adrienne Johnson had a conversation with the artist about the piece and about her work in general.
Q: What was the first text you transcribed?
A: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Before, when I first started to use writing in my work it was much more fragmentary. I would transcribe clips of overheard conversation, portions of remembered song lyrics, and bits of my own stream of conscious writing: things that were floating around the studio as I worked. My work is now made up of other authors’ texts. I was drawn to the idea of using others’ writing as a kind of found, raw material, in that it introduced an element into the work and process that wasn’t personal to me and wasn’t something I could predict. This particular piece includes transcriptions of the entirety of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and a portion of Through the Looking-Glass.
Q: How long does it take you to make a piece like this, in its original iteration?
A: This piece in my mind will never be finished. Firstly, I want to complete the transcription of Carroll’s second Alice book. As I mentioned before, I have only partially completed Through the Looking-Glass. Secondly, while at some point the drawings and component parts will be complete, I see this piece staying in flux and transition, resisting any one finite form. The piece is intuitively recombined in each new space it comes to inhabit, never going together the same way twice. Each installation is to a certain extent improvisational. Drawings for a particular installation are usually in the making for several years, as I tend to work on a lot of different pieces at once. If I sat down and focused solely on one installation alone it would come together faster but I like splitting my attention across different works and projects in the studio, in the hopes that different pieces might influence one another in a way I can’t predict.
Q: Is it your intention that viewers read your works?
A: I hope people are neither prevented from reading the work nor feel obligated to. I’m not particularly interested in using text as a means to directly articulate a message or illustrate a meaning. There is a tradition of text in art, established especially in certain kinds of artistic investigation that really took off in the 1960s, that focuses on text as a device for communication or a signifier of meaning. I’m more interested in and inspired by artists like León Ferrari, Robert Smithson, and Mira Schendel, who I think were really interested in the abstract potential of text. People can look for meaning in my drawings, but the structure defies any sense of logic. I don’t give anyone a specific place to begin. Text I think isn’t always straightforward, obvious, or transparent. I like channeling this room for flexibility, ambiguity, and a text’s potential.
Q: Will you tell me about the inspiration for the forms themselves?
A: A lot of the pattern I gravitate towards as source material is nature based. I’m fascinated with how humans over time have tried to depict and document the world around them. With this piece, I’ve had people tell me that they are reminded of life under the sea, seaweed and sea fans for instance. These weren’t forms I intentionally had in mind but I guess it’s impossible for me to get away from where I grew up. The natural surroundings of my home state of Maine and elements of my upbringing I think work their way into my work subconsciously.
Originally this piece was kept in a palette of black, white, and yellow in that I was thinking of the color of type in a book, and of Alice’s blond hair. Eventually I began to add more and more color in an attempt to reference the wackiness and the vibrancy of Carroll’s Wonderland.
Another reason the work remains in flux is that in a way it’s meant to mirror Alice’s own experience. As she travels through Wonderland she is constantly shrinking or expanding to make her way through the space. There’s a lack of fixed boundary to her own body as she continues on her adventure. This piece is meant to evoke that sense of boundarylessness I find so appealing.
See the installation time-lapse video here:
