Susan Rothenberg

When Susan Rothenberg makes a piece, she doesn't want the subject matter or theme to be obvious. After all, she wants the viewers to do a little bit of the work too and think for themselves. 

Rothenberg does mainly paintings with the use of acrylic and oil paints. 

Earlier in her art career, the only subject matter Rothenberg would depict were horses. She explains how it was a dream of hers to do a series then, and that series ended up being about horses. The paintings depicted just the silhouettes of horses in various colors against non-objective backgrounds. Rothenberg's works are now more about memories of certain events. For example, one painting she did was about when she found a dead cow in a river sometime in the past. 

Rothenberg's paintings are done in a very impasto style. She adds layers upon layers of thick, globs of paint that create a visible kind of texture. A lot of her paintings are also done in an unusual perspective. Instead of looking at the subject matter straight on, you're actually looking down at it. Also, when creating her paintings, Rothenberg doesn't use the color that comes straight from the tube of paint. She finds the colors too bright and saturated for her tastes, so she has to dirty the color somehow by mixing other colors to it. 

In our world, many artworks are about beauty and representations of it. Rothenberg does not follow this trend, though, and instead pursues the portrayal of truth, which she believes is more important than making something pretty.

Information provided by:

"Susan Rothenberg." Art21. PBS, n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2014.

Matthew Ritchie

For Matthew Ritchie, everything has a story to tell. As an artist, it is Ritchie's job to tell it. 

His artwork consists of materials such as paint and metals.

The main and pretty much only theme that drives Ritchie's pieces is the universe. Everything about the universe interests Ritchie, so all the different aspects of it influences his work. This interest has resulted in pieces such as Ritchie's game that's based off the four forces of of the universe as well his cosmic kind of cell based off of the idea that everyone's place in the universe is like a prison. The universe theme can also be seen in Ritchie's drawing that never ends. What he does with this pieces is continually add to an original drawing that started it all so that it progressively gets larger and larger as time goes on. In a way, this piece is the universe of all his drawings. 

Ritchie's works are mainly constructed of lines. They appear to be continuous and very decorative with lots of loops and overlapping. Sometimes these lines are two-dimensional when he presents them as paintings and three-dimensional when he presents them as sculptures. These same kind of lines appear throughout most of Ritchie's works, so repetition plays a part in his art as a whole as well. 

With some artists, they make everything plain and clear with their art so there is no confusion. However, this is not a goal of Ritchie's. Instead, he wants his works to be more contemplative and for his audience to leave with more questions than what they came in with.

Information provided by:

"Matthew Ritchie." Art21. PBS, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.

Martin Puryear

Martin Puryear is a man of many trades. As a child, Puryear had learned how to make guitars, canoes, and furniture. The skills that were required to make these items has helped him with the art he makes now. 

The media Puryear uses to create his sculptures and public installations are wood, tar, metal, stone, and wire. 

Puryear is very inspired by the history of the making process. Depending on where he's making a piece, that place's unique history of different trades affects the choice of materials he uses. Puryear's pieces are very organic in form, and although many believe this organic quality is due to an influence by nature, he explains that the influence is actually by the evolution of culture. 

Puryear's works are usually non-objective in form, taking on these organically shaped masses. Texture plays a big part in Puryear's pieces as well. Most of this texture is due to the way he treats a certain material, like when he chiseled pock marks into stone to give it a rougher appearance. Other than changing the texture of the surfaces, Puryear usually uses and leaves the materials as they are without adding anything to it. 

When it comes to Puryear's art, he feels like he doesn't have to explain it. He believes the art should speak for itself. 

Information provided by:

"Martin Puryear." Art21. PBS, n.d. Web. 15 2014.

Lari Pittman

For Lari Pittman, his love for decorative arts and the arts in general all started when his family let him make a little vest for his pet chicken. Pittman believes this creative freedom his parents allowed him to have was what initiated the growth of his artistic side. 

The art Pittman mainly makes are these extravagantly layered paintings that he embellishes with color pencil. 

According to Pittman, he thrives on the chaos of American culture. This is evident in his pieces that depict some of the issues that afflict American culture. His paintings are also influenced by the decorative arts and the Mexican "retablos" that he collects. 

As said before, Pittman thrives on the chaos of American culture, and this can be seen in Pittman's fairly chaotic works. There's so many things going on that sometimes you can't tell what the painting's about. No subject matter is off limits. People, animals, text, signs, plants, and many other things make frequent appearances in Pittman's pieces. A wide range of colors are used as well in his unrealistic, cartoon like paintings. 

When you look at Pittman's art, he believes it can take you to places far, far away. And that, to him, is a great thing.

Information provided by:

"Lari Pittman." Art21. PBS, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.

Judy Pfaff

Becoming a sculptor never crossed Judy Pfaff's mind, yet she has had an excellent career being one so far. Pfaff employs the media of steel, fiberglass, things found in nature, and paint to create her pieces. 

Pfaff's emotions definitely steer how her works turn out depending on what's going on in her personal life. One of her installation pieces, for example, dealt with darkness because she had recently experienced several deaths of close friends and family members. It has also been observed that plant life, medical illustrations, and maps are themes she commonly uses. 

Pfaff's works are non-representative and organic in form. This organic perception may in part be due to the natural materials she uses. Pfaff brought the outdoors indoors with one piece when she constructed and painted tree roots (and big ones at that) into these nest-like shapes. Color plays a big part in a lot of Pfaff's works as well. Sometimes, her works are monochromatic or uses only two colors while other times a broad range of colors are used. This is true with her drawings that employed a multitude of warm colors reminiscent of fire. 

There are times when life gets hectic and is full of drama. However, Pfaff is able to find the "sweeter sense of things", no matter what life throws at her, by the act of creating her works of art.

Information provided by:

"Judy Pfaff." Art21. PBS, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. 

Raymond Pettibon

Although Raymond Pettibon is an artist, he admits that he writes more than he draws. Most of Pettibon's pieces are drawings combined with text, and he executes these pieces through paint and ink. 

Themes such as history, politics, culture, and literature often appear in Pettibon's pieces with a touch of humor. Things that interest him as well, such as trains and baseball, become recurrent subject matter in a number of his works. Pettibon's emotions about certain issues also becomes reflective in his pieces, like how some of his illustrations are drawn with angry, hard lines when he depicts corrupt people. 

The majority of Pettibon's works are black and white. Strong, dark lines are used in his pieces that are very reminiscent of a page from a comic book due to the fact that these pieces also include a lengthy portion of text. Text is integral to many of Pettibon's works because they help get across what he's trying to convey in a way that a drawing could not do alone. The TV character Gumby also appears frequently in Pettibon's art for he sees Gumby as a kind of alter ego of himself. He has a great respect for Gumby and other classic cartoon characters, which is evident in the way he draws. 

Even though Pettibon's art is very cartoon like, he doesn't view his art as cartoons. He believes his art has a meaning and a kind of purpose that a cartoon does not possess. 

Information provided by:

"Raymond Pettibon." Art21. PBS, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.

Pepón Osorio

For Pepón Osorio, the only way he can communicate the message he wants to get across with his art is by going "beyond something on the wall". Osorio does this through his intricate installation pieces that employ the use of everyday objects. 

Before his life as an artist, Osorio used to work in The Bronx as a social worker. The experiences he accumulated because of his occupation deeply affected him and his works as well, making a lot of his installations look as if they've been pulled straight out of one of his cases. Many of Osorio's works are about contradiction as well as he tries to blend opposing emotions together in one piece. 

The majority of Osorio's works are recreations of different places. These places include bedrooms, jail cells, living rooms, dining rooms, and barber shops. He enhances some of these places in different ways, such as making a certain room into a crime scene or by adding video installations. Osorio's time as a social worker has made him garner a desire to give back art to the community. This desire has resulted in a piece that actually goes home to home instead of just staying put in a gallery. 

The installations Osorio creates are meant to be thought provoking. His goal is that as you piece together what he's trying to say, you'll begin to change in a way that matters. 

Information provided by:

"Pepón Osorio." Art21. PBS, n.d. Web. 8 Mar. 2014.

Elizabeth Murray

Elizabeth Murray's pieces border between the realm of paintings and the realm of sculpture. 

To create her art, Murray uses paint and her uniquely shaped canvases. 

In her works, Murray focuses on creating conflict and tension in a way that works by arranging her shaped canvases in various ways. Another goal of Murray's is to have her art communicate how a child plays. She wants her paintings to look as if a child had arranged them like if they were blocks. 

Many of Murray's paintings are abstract in form. Her canvases are both organically and geometrically shaped and are placed in non-representative formations. Murray's pieces as a whole are cartoon like due to the bright, bold colors she uses and the playful shapes her canvases take on. Her paintings are three-dimensional in quality since they jut out of the wall, which is the reason why people may have trouble labeling Murray's art as either paintings or sculptures. 

Sometimes for artists, it can be easy to give up on a piece when it doesn't look like it'll turn out well. This isn't the case for Murray, though. She'll keep working at a piece until "the right thing happens". 

Information provided by:

"Elizabeth Murray." Art21. PBS, n.d. Web. 8 Mar. 2014.

Julie Mehretu

If you're looking for a story in Julie Mehretu's work, you're not going to find one. According to Mehretu, her pieces are something to be felt. 

To make her works, Mehretu mainly works with acrylic paint, water colors, and air brushes. 

Almost everything influences Mehretu's paintings. She explains how it can't be helped to be inspired by the people, places, and things that make up her environment. Experimentation is also a big part of her works, like when she experimented making the surface of her paintings waxy. Geographical and cultural aspects can be seen throughout her pieces as well. 

Mehretu's paintings are non-representative. A combination of different lines in a grid-like pattern occupy her works, resulting in a chaotic, yet beautiful, mess. Her paintings (which are described to be painterly and atmospheric) are ginormous in size, some turning out to be 21' x 18'. Several of these paintings are just one big painting while others are composed of smaller paintings that make up one gigantic piece. 

To Mehretu, it's all about getting lost in the painting. It's about making the work of art itself.

Information provided by:

"Julie Mehretu." Art21. PBS, n.d. Web. 8 Mar. 2014.

Margaret Kilgallen

In a world filled with computer generated images, Margaret Kilgallen had found a love for anything that was handmade. As a matter of fact, all of Kilgallen's works are handmade through printmaking and the use of paint. 

Handmade signs were a definite influence to Kilgallen and her works. Even though she suspected that the business owners that owned these signs would rather have a lit up, electronic sign, Kilgallen found these signs beautiful and tried to emulate that kind of aesthetic in her pieces. Also, Kilgallen's interest in folk art (especially American and Indian folk art) had an affect on the appearance of her works. 

Kilgallen's pieces are very simple and flat. There's no depth or shadows and she uses a limited range of colors. The subject matter Kilgallen chose were mostly people. Her characters are cartoon-like in style and not very realistic. Line is integral in Kilgallen's pieces for this element was strongly used to define her characters. The lines she employed are very fluid and organic, making her characters seem more alive than as stiff, rigid drawings. 

Kilgallen tried her hardest to maker her lines as perfect and straight as she could. No matter how long she tried to perfect them, though, they were never truly straight. Even if they appeared that way form a distance, you could instantly see the imperfections once you got up close. However, Kilgallen believed that those imperfections was what made her pieces beautiful.

Information provided by:

"Margaret Kilgallen." Art21. PBS, n.d. Web. 8 Mar. 2014.

Barry McGee

You may know Barry McGee by another name (his tag name to be more specific), Twist. McGee has been doing graffiti art for a very long time and is a big part of his works. Some of the media he uses are acrylic and spray-paint, and pretty much anything you can find on the street such as empty liquor bottles, tagged signs, spray-paint cans, scrap wood, metal, and wrenches. 

A lot of McGee's pieces have to do with urban culture. He believes graffiti (which many perceive as vandalism and destructive) is "closer to the truth" than the billboards (which many believe are acceptable) that bombard you with advertisements with subliminal messages everyday. McGee also likes the reputation he gets form doing graffiti art and finds this art form as an integral way to communicate. 

The subject matter that dominates McGee's pieces are these highly stylized characters. These characters are mostly men with dark circles under their eyes with blah expressions. McGee also does these large-scale paintings on walls for art galleries. His pieces are mostly black and white and can be found anywhere (even on trains) in San Francisco since graffiti is what McGee mainly does. 

McGee not only creates two-dimensional works, but also constructs three-dimensional sculptural forms. McGee frequently works with items that are thrown away and no longer wanted. After he's through with them, though, he makes them a treasured and wanted item again in a process that's reminiscent of a second chance.

Information provided by:

"Barry McGee." Art21. PBS, n.d. Web. 8 Mar. 2014.

Allan McCollum

It may appear as though Allan McCollum's pieces are part of an invasion, but global conquest is not on their agenda. Through the use of metal and wood, McCollum is able to make his many pieced projects. 

McCollum is captivated with the idea of everyone having their own object. Although he knows this is an impossible task, this does not stop McCollum from trying. What also drives McCollum's works is whether or not it would tell an interesting story. 

The pieces McCollum facilitates have a quality of mass production to them. He makes thousands of objects that you can only tell are different (and only slightly at that) when seen up close. So even though his objects are not quite the same, repetition still plays a big part in McCollum's art in the way he displays the objects and the materials he uses to create them. The shape McCollum's works take are dominantly organic and non-representative in nature. They actually look like those inkblots psychologists use. 

Before, it would take McCollum a long time to come up with different shapes for his objects. Now with the help of computers, he is able to choose from a variety of parts to mix-match in literally billions of different shape combinations in a matter of seconds. So maybe his idea of an object for everyone isn't so far-fetched after all.

Information provided by:

"Allan McCollum." Art21. PBS, n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.

Josiah McElheny

When looking at Josiah McElheny's art, it can feel like you've been transported to some futuristic utopia. McElheny achieves this effect through his use of glass. 

All of McElheny's glass objects are based off of things that already exist. However, he puts his own spin on it that makes the piece uniquely his. McElheny also tries to make his work balanced yet elegant at the same time. 

A lot of McElheny's pieces are reflective due to the fact that he almost exclusively works with glass. His glass objects usually take on the shape of vases, bottles, or organic non-representative forms. Sometimes he alters the glass, making the surface look like chrome, which gives the objects he makes the appearance of belonging to some time in the distant future. McElheny also experiments with placing reflective objects on reflective surfaces, resulting in a very visually interesting effect. Some of these reflective pieces also connote to how individuals in today's society over reflect on themselves. 

In the end, what McElheny tries to do is have his art seduce people. Seduce not in a romantic sense, but to lure the viewer to take a closer look.

Information provided by:

"Josiah McElheny." Art21. PBS, n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.

Kerry James Marshall

 

When it comes to the principles of design, Kerry James Marshall goes straight to their origins for guidance. Marshall incorporates what he learns in his works through paint, markers, ink, and wood.

 

 

Art history's influence can be seen throughout Marshall's pieces. Since artists have stepped away from age-old techniques, Marshall tries to infuse them in his works, hoping to achieve a kind of newness since these techniques have often been neglected in the current world of art. Not only does art history find its way in Marshall's works, but also African American history through the scenes and characters he depicts.

The colors Marshall uses play a big part in his art. Whenever he paints a character, Marshall most often chooses to paint them completely black. One reason he does this is because he believes the outcome is really beautiful. Another reason is because he wants to make black a symbol of power again. Marshall's pieces also have a narrative quality to them. This is especially so with the comic book he created about African sculptures that come to life as superheroes.

The many works Marshall has created all seem to be communicating something different from one another. One thing, though, that he equally hopes for his works to accomplish is a meaningful reaction from his audience.

 

 

Information provided by:

 

"Kerry James Marshall." Art21. PBS, n.d. 1 Mar. 2014.



Robert Mangold

 

Robert Mangold not only likes to create art, but to also create visual problems for his audience. Mangold does this through using paint, graphite, and his own unique canvases.

 

 

Mangold really enjoys making his works in ways that mess with viewers' preconceptions about paintings. He does this by making circular canvases with a hole in the middle. The middle of the painting is where people generally think the action will take place. However, since the middle is gone in Mangold's pieces, viewers can experience discord in what they see and what they previously thought a painting should be. Nature also seems to work its way into Mangold's pieces. Although he claims that his works are about culture and not nature, Mangold does admit that certain scenes from nature somehow infiltrate his work.

Line, shape, and color are the elements that dominate most of Mangold's pieces. His art is geometric in nature, consisting almost entirely of circles. Within these circles are lines that crisscross, making new shapes as they intersect, and lines that accentuate the roundness of the canvas. Mangold's works are mainly monochromatic, adding to the simplicity of his simple yet complexly-shaped pieces.

A big part of Mangold's art is the "idea of what's missing." Perhaps, though, if you were to take a closer look at Mangold's pieces, you'll realize that there's nothing missing at all.

 

 

Information provided by:

 

"Robert Mangold." Art21. PBS, n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.



Glenn Ligon

 

A lot of Glenn Ligon's works border between art and literature. Whether one sees it as one or the other depends on the viewer.

In order to make his pieces, Ligon employs the use of oil crayons, letter stencils, silkscreen, neon, paint, and coal dust.
 

 

As a young child, Ligon garnered a deep love of books, which has obviously seeped into the majority of his works. Ligon often incorporates quotes from books he has read directly into his pieces through smudging oil crayons over letter stencils. His works are also influenced by historical people and movements.

Text is a major components in Ligon's pieces. In fact, the majority (if not all) of his works have words in them. Ligon also frequently uses repetition in his art. When he finds a quote he likes, Ligon will repeat that quote over and over again until the whole canvas is filled up. The way Ligon executes his pieces can be seen as pretty messy. Sometimes so much so that the words he is trying to depict become unreadable. This messiness, however, is often intentional, as when he tries to make himself paint or draw like a child.

Language is integral to Ligon's art, communicating not just the quotes that are displayed, but the messages behind them as well.

 

Information provided by:

 

"Glenn Ligon." Art21. PBS, n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.