Julia Halperin over at Art Info has a great interview with Eric Fischl that overviews the America: Now and Here project from dream to process to future.
A quick excerpt:
When I did the shout-out to these artists, I wasn’t about to tell them what to do, other than in the most general sense of it. I had no idea what I was going to get back. It could have been a highly politicized, polarizing visual diatribe — “America’s Inequities,” or something. It was a crapshoot. I was very surprised by all the work that was suggested. It was kind of self-organizing. It became very clear that there were three broad topics that the work fit under. One was “America as Icon,” one was “America as People,” and one was “America as Place.” “America as People” was about a sense of community, a sense of family and relationships, different interest groups. For “America as Place,” it was connected to the history and tradition of landscape in America, that sense of the vulnerability to what was once considered majestic, powerful, and entitled to us. And “America as Icon” was represented by things like Jasper Johns’s “Flag” — images that recreate a sense of forward-looking America against the backdrop of Depression-era soup kitchens. Some of it was pretty straightforward, but there was also a lot of humor, irony, and cynicism.
Check out the full article. Very interesting.
America: Now and Here makes its first stop right here in Kansas City May 6th. Come down to the Leedy-Volkus Gallery in the Crossroads and experience this one of a kind, cross-discipline arts dialogue. It is a great blend of national and local art and artists.
America: Now and Here will be installed here in Kansas City through May. The gallery will be open from 11-7, Wed-Sun. Come join us!
Coleman Crenshaw 