All About You...Emily Bennett Beck

Now for some q & a goodness from Emily Bennett Beck, Untitled 8 artist:

1. What is your first art related childhood memory?
I had the fortune to attend an after school art club in the 5th grade. My art teacher, Ms. Schmidt, had all these wonderful art posters for us to leaf through and I found this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkie_(Lawrence_painting), stared at it, put it away, and began a painting of it back at my desk. When I was done with my painting, went back to the stack of art posters and when I flipped to the real ‘Pinkie,’ I felt as though I could literally feel the wind blowing and the ocean roaring at me. I was SO ashamed of my own work. My work felt dead in comparison.

2. As an artist, who is your biggest influence?
All the fabulous contemporary figurative painters of course; John Currin, Elizabeth Peyton, Lisa Yuskavage and Dawn Mellors, to name a few. The pre-raphelites continue to amaze me, and Sargent and Whistler. I am influenced by so many artists- it’s hard to name them all.

3. What did you listen to in the studio while creating this show?
I rely on Pandora quite a lot… I’ve been listening to a lot of George Micheal and 80s romantic pop ballads this year. I’ve been trying to channel lots of teen angst.

4. Name three unexpected items one would find in your studio. I have lots of old ‘How to Paint’ magazines and books from the 1960s. They’re very instructive.

5. What is your least favorite famous work of art?
I can’t come up with an answer for this one…. I’m stumped.

6. What art do you have hanging on your walls?
Lots of paintings by my late grandmother in-law Phyllis Beck, and lots of work from fellow artist friends.

7. What are you working on now?
Several series at once. Gouache paintings, digital paintings. Some of my new work deals with the desperations of youth, and some with the desperations of middle age.

8. What will the title of your retrospective at MOMA be?
Probably something campy like, “Painted Ladies.”

Thanks Emily!

To see more of Emily's work visit HERE.
Untitled 8 is up through August 21st.

All About You...Erika Lynne Hanson

Now for a little q & a with Erika Lynne Hanson now exhibiting in Untitled 8.

1. What is your first art related childhood memory?
Learning how to use a bead loom

2. As an artist, who is your biggest influence?
Nietzsche, Bruce Nauman, and Thomas Cole

3. What did you listen to in the studio while creating this show? Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (first 4 books)

4. Name three unexpected items one would find in your studio.
Buckets of water (from collecting ice melt run off), A Huge Loom, a dollar bill on the floor.

5. What is your least favorite famous work of art?
I find Lichtenstein paintings pretty annoying

6. What art do you have hanging on your walls?
Exclusively landscape prints and paintings that have been collected from thrift and antique stores.

7. What are you working on now?
new weavings, sculptures and videos for my upcoming exhibition The Icebergs, in Kansas City this fall

8. What will the title of your retrospective at MOMA be?
Sabotage: transitory objects, microscopic cataclysms.

Thanks Erika!

To see more of Erika Lynne Hanson's work visit HERE. Untitled 8 will be on view through August 21st.

All About You...Donna Dralle

This week the blog is back to featuring artists from Untitled 8...this time Donna Dralle.

1. What is your first art related childhood memory?
Drawing on used office paper my father brought home after discovering that I started drawing on the end papers of hardback books. I was 3.

2. As an artist, who is your biggest influence?
Cy Twombly

3. What did you listen to in the studio while creating this show?
Shostakovich, Bartok, Britten, Monteverdi, Bryars, Cage, Schnittke, Ives, Paert, Crumb, and many others.

4. Name three unexpected items one would find in your studio.
A baseball (baseball is art), an image of Rilke, carved wooden birds.

5. What is your least favorite famous work of art?
Monet- all of it- I don’t like Monet. A lot.

6. What art do you have hanging on your walls?
A photo I modeled for; a drawing by Susan McDonald; images of birds (I like birds); a ceramic life mask of Beethoven; a ceramic life mask of me made by my best friend John Poulos in High School.

7. What are you working on now?
Naked composer Series: Monteverdi; after that, another self-portrait- I’ve been working on a sketch.

8. What will the title of your retrospective at MOMA be? A Life on Paper: Sculpture in 2D (Incidentally- this is why I don’t like to mat my drawings- I really think of them as 3 dimentional objects- hence why they are framed in shadowbox frames.)

Thanks Donna!

For More of Donna Dralle's Work Visit HERE.
Untitled 8 will be up through August 21st.

All About You...Jake Freeman

This time I am mixing it up with one of our SooFUZE Artists, Jake Freeman (he is sixteen). This one is definitely one to watch.

1. What is your first art related childhood memory? My first art related memory would have to be coloring in characters like Aladin, Ariel, and Tarzan with my Mom.

2. As an artist, who is your biggest influence? I would say my biggest influences are the photographic duo known as Mert & Marcus or the photographer Terry Richardson. I love how Mert & Marcus use color and light and I love how Terry is twistedly sexual with his work.

3. What did you listen to in the studio while creating this show? A lot of Lissie, Local Natives, Crystal Castles, etc. Basically a lot of Indie tunes.

4. Name three unexpected items one would find in your studio. The most unexpected thing in my studio would have to be a military knife from World War II.

5. What is your least favorite famous work of art? My least favorite piece of famous art would have to be the potato eaters by Vincent Van Gogh. Actually, I don’t really like any of Van Gogh’s work.

6. What art do you have hanging on your walls? I don’t really have much art on my walls these days. At one time I had a giant photo of New York City hanging on my wall, along with some other photos of the city, but now I only have a deer skull and some personal photos.

7. What are you working on now? Currently, I am in the process of scheduling/planning a beauty shoot that explores the idea of being two faced through color blocked makeup, emotional expressions, and fake body parts.

8. What will the title of your retrospective at MOMA be? I can’t really say at the moment. I am still so young and have a lot of figuring out to do when it comes to my work. You will just have to wait and see.

Thanks Jake!

More of Jake Freeman's work HERE
SooFUZE will be up until August 21st...visit HERE for more info.

All About You...Laura Hallen

1. What is your first art related childhood memory?
My grandpa was a kooky inventor and artist himself, and let me have a corner
in his studio where I kept crayons and paper, and my own personal vacuum. I think he liked that I cleaned up after him…

2. As an artist, who is your biggest influence?
It’s pretty hard to narrow it down to one, since there is an abundance of talent right here in Minneapolis, but I’d have to say Ray Kruskopf, my grandpa. And Eva Hesse.

3. What did you listen to in the studio while creating this show?
Let England Shake by PJ Harvey.

4. Name three unexpected items one would find in your studio.
Bottle rockets, a feather boa and a vintage mink coat

5. What is your least favorite famous work of art?
this may not count as famous, but anything by Thomas Kincaid

6. What art do you have hanging on your walls?
I have art by Greg Euclide, Jaron Childs, Eleanor McGough, Cody Kiser, Eddie Hamilton, Casey Opstad, Jeff Baker, Gene Pittman, Jennifer Davis, DC Ice and of course, my beloved framed family collage wall.

7. What are you working on now?
I’m experiencing a dance between the internal and external landscape of the plexibox and entering a phase where I want the internal landscape of my plexiboxes to be oozing out of the box, down the wall, onto the floor. Or, better yet, an empty plexibox on the wall with a messy pile of stuff on the floor across the room. Even better, a video of me filling the plexibox with bottle rockets, and BOOM!

8. What will the title of your retrospective at MOMA be?
Bottle Rockets, Feather Boas and a Mink Coat

Thanks Laura!

More of Laura Hallen's work HERE.
Untitled 8 will be up through August 21st at SooVAC.

All About You...Steven Lang

For the next couple of months we will be highlighting artists from Untitled 8 and SooFUZE. First up is Steven Lang (exhibiting work in Untitled 8):

1. What is your first art related childhood memory?
When I was four years old, my father left me alone “only for a minute” with an open can of deck paint and a brush. I painted myself red.

2. As an artist, who is your biggest influence? a.) Artists who are funny, e.g. Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Martin Parr, Bruce Nauman b.) Artists who repeat, e.g. Bernd and Hilla Becher, Jenny Holzer, Ed Rusha. c.) Artists who appropriate, e.g. Richard Prince, Sherry Levine, Robert Heinecken

3. What did you listen to in the studio while creating this show?
My intuition.

4. Name three unexpected items one would find in your studio.
A stove, a refrigerator, and a sink. I work in the kitchen.

5. What is your least favorite famous work of art?
“American Gothic.” I look exactly like that guy!

6. What art do you have hanging on your walls?
Allen Brewer, Eric Ruby, Samuel Bjorgum, Alec Soth, soon to be Jim Denomie. My own stuff is up, if only to keep it off the floor.

7. What are you working on now?
Paying off my credit card.

8. What will the title of your retrospective at MOMA be?
“I came, I saw, I concurred.”

Thanks Steven!

More of Steven Lang's work HERE.
Untitled 8 will be up through August 21st at SooVAC.

All About You...Mary Johnson

Here is our last highlighted artist from Sideshow Soo...Mary Johnson. I wonder what she is doing with 3000lbs of cement...I hope it has something to do with the inflatable bunnies. Images below our of Mary Johnson and Amy Toscani's contribution to Sideshow Soo.

1. What is your first art related childhood memory? Sewing a rabbit for my grandma.

2. As an artist, who is your biggest influence? Mike Kelley, Liz Craft, Liza Lou, Jeff Koons

3. What did you listen to in the studio while creating this show? Amy Toscani, my collaborator.

4. Name three unexpected items one would find in your studio. Lithographic printing plates from 1950’s cheesecake calendars, 3000 lbs cement, 20 inflatable vintage rabbits

5. What is your least favorite famous work of art? That depends, do you consider the Mary Tyler Moore statue famous ?.

6. What art do you have hanging on your walls? Erik Ullanderson, Lynn Gray, a taxidermy bat, some things by my kids

7. What are you working on now? Working on the wall, latest in the series of shrine-like assemblages. 8. What will the title of your retrospective at MOMA be? It’s All Good

Thanks Mary!

For More of work by Mary Johnson visit HERE.