Some Painters Are Cool

February 23, 2010 in Design, Fine Art, Others' Work, Painting, Print
Tags: aaron nagel, album art, baroness, converge, jacob bannon, john baizley, rxbandits

I am a designer, and not a painter. Or an illustrator for that matter. Well, I’m not trained as an illustrator, however, in this contemporary world of ours, I feel that designers are often called upon to fulfill the role of illustrator/painter, and vice versa as well. Many of the best posters I have seen have a combination of illustration with good use of type, or photo with type, or a combination of all three—concert posters, as well as posters for art exhibitions, galleries, and other artistic means fall heavily into this category. Likewise, many of the best design pieces I have seen at school use a combination of good concept, good layout/type/design, and good hand-done illustration. Often, painters create some of the most beautiful “graphic designs.”

Enoc Perez at Mitchell-Innes & Nash

October 1, 2009 in Painting, Review
Tags: architecture, chelsea, Enoc Perez, gallery, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, nyc, oil paintings

Enoc Perez’s show consisted of 13 very large oil paintings hung far apart from each other. The subject matter of the paintings consisted primarily of architecture—buildings from the past appearing to be from the future. Two of the paintings were figurative; one, a nude with her back turned, painted in mostly black, white and purple; two, a painting of a couple painted in mostly blacks, whites, purplish-reds, and blue. All of the pieces were painted in a granular, impressionistic, almost grunge style with flat swaths of bright color that end up looking dirty, faded, and ultimately, old. James McNeill Whistler’s Nocturne: Blue and Gold—Old Battlesea Bridge comes to mind.

Perez’s style brings a feeling of somber nostalgia and even sadness, as the viewer looks upon the degradation that has befallen once beautiful wonders of architecture.

I liked this show quite a bit.

-rgm