This summer I read this New Yorker article on Mark Bradford titled What Else Can Art Do? — I love Mark for his honesty, I met him while at Yale and something about him felt familiar, a tough love brand of warmth only some family members and neighbors can offer– In the article, he mentioned that he viewed his work as “social abstraction”—abstract art “with a social or political context clinging to the edges”. This description seems so fitting for his work and the work of a lot of my contemporaries. The work of each of these artists is social on many levels; from the way it’s disseminated, the issues they question, their coded visual language and titles. The works are also abstract in the way that each artist considers ideas vs. events, removal, and the anachronisms that come with a generational burden of history. I hope you continue to follow their careers.
Home Field Advantage #1 by Ronny Quevedo
2015 / contact paper and graphite on mylar
Oh, what a feeling, Fuck it, I want a Billion by Awol Erizku
2014 / Seven regulation-sized basketball rims with gold
chains and an official NBA game basketball
Marcus and Jace by Jordan Casteel
2015 / 72×54 in, oil on canvas
Siboney by Jiori Minaya
Performance/Mural
Eastern Promises by Mariana Garibay Raeke
2014 / wood, wire, mesh, gypsum, cement, glitter, die, spray, pigment. 76 x 40 x 2.5
El Pique by Kenny Rivero
2013/ Oil, acrylic, contact paper, oil and chalk pastels, plastic beads, fabric and collage on canvas
