Vellum Artzine, NYC

THE REAL THING

The art of abstraction for painter Andy Piedilato is about something
real. A contradiction in terms perhaps since most would consider abstraction
quite the opposite. But when he says real it doesn’t mean painting a tree or
deer. It means finding something real within himself that he translates onto the
canvas. “I think most abstract painters these days aren’t trying to paint
realistically and come up with a new thing. They’re almost like designers
balancing their paintings with things that aren’t naturalistic or the imagery’s
not naturalistic it looks sort of urban or collaged. I’m actually trying to do a
real thing I’m not really sure what it is and it changes from painting to
painting I’m just trying to get one thing in the painting to pop.”

As an abstractionist most of Piedilato’s subject matter is a series of
gestural marks played out in heavy paint. He uses his hands to mark the canvas
and comes up with work that has been described as messy, brilliant, energetic
and whacked. Whatever the case one can safely say it’s never boring. “I just do
what I do. I try to change the paintings. Right now I’m at a point where
whenever I start painting, certain shapes come out and I try to change the
shapes. And so before I start doing my shapes I try to think maybe I will start
a normal abstract painting the way I paint, start with some sort of small idea
and work it into the painting and then I’ll just rub out half of it, because,
that will blatantly change the way I work. So I get little moments or maybe I’ll
paint and do this thing before like I’ll have a clear vision like maybe my image
will pop quicker if I do a little background instead of popping after I
struggled through the painting so much. Sometimes those things work sometimes
they don’t.”

His latest series of canvases could be a breakthrough. A term that
artists, curators and critics use to describe when someone has done something
new and exciting with their work. He’s completed six paintings in the last two
months that he definitely feels are moving in a positive direction. One is
completely different than any of his previous creations. He calls it his ‘crowd
pleaser’. “I was just thinking about some sort of interior/exterior space. I
wanted my gestural painting shapes sitting in something other than a white
canvas. I’ve tried black canvases and that doesn’t really work too well. So,
yeah, maybe I was just feeling a little bit crazy and I wanted to obsessively do
something like that which I don’t usually indulge myself in.”

The painting sits his familiar strokes in between a brick wall and wooden
floor. It provokes interesting contrasts between the abstractionist today and
his realistic narrative from long ago. “When I was a kid I used to like to sit
in my room and draw for hours and hours. I’d think of something elaborate to
draw and just get into the repetitiveness of it alone in my room. I don’t do
that as much anymore in that exact same way, so maybe the bricks was one of
those moments coming back from childhood where I wanted to do that.”

A few months ago he showed a ‘transitional painting’ at Black & White
Gallery’s “Mirror Of Our Obsessions and Fears” exhibit. He wasn’t really happy
about the work but chalked it up to experience. “It’s just one of those things
that happen to artists. Someone will be like ‘okay, we’re having a show can you
give us something’ and you’ll never give them an old painting. It’ll be the last
thing that you did. Sometimes right in the middle of a painting. Sometimes you
get caught in a lull. I don’t usually get caught in a lull. I’m usually pretty
lucky. Usually when I have a show somehow I know it’s coming and I make the time
to work and I have enough work so I can pick out a few things. That just caught
me at a time when I was doing some transitional paintings. You look back on them
and they just look too easy.”

Another easy is describing Piedilato’s work as abstract expressionism.
There’s obviously certain characteristics that connect the two but as the artist
says it’s not really an accurate comparison. “If you actually grabbed an
abstract painting from the 50’s or 60’s and brought it here and put it next to
my painting it wouldn’t look a thing like it. And then you realize what’s really
going on is that the person is only making an observation comparison. I like
when people talk about the work without comparing it to anything else. You can
be just as negative about it without comparing it to other work. It’s just sort
of a lazy way of talking about artwork.”

But mention minimalism or conceptualism and that gets a positive
response. “I don’t mind the word minimalism at all. I’m not doing any extra
marks after the fact. In my mind I’m doing a minimalist painting. Except mine
takes 4500 marks rather than 20 moves y’know? I always wondered at what point
does a painting have a certain number of intervals on it that it becomes and
goes out into the world as minimalism. Like the word implies that you’re doing
the minimal amount of work to me. That’s sort of a minimalist answer from a
realist. I’m trying to do something real and discover something. To discover
something sounds so cheesy. Whenever I have a good painting I bring people down
to look at it and it’s more like ‘look at what I found or what I’ve discovered’.
It sort of doesn’t feel like my painting, it’s like I found this painting by the
way I work. And when I have a bad painting it’s usually because I didn’t find
anything. It’s just a collection of intentional things. It never really opened
up and got free so to speak.”

Vellum

JUST LIKE I PICTURED IT
Words by Stephanie Young

NYC’s energy is what you think of….the loud beeping horns and crowds of people, the four seasons, shopping and art. Nowhere on the planet are there more galleries, museums and studios. Nowhere are more artists from all over the world concentrated in a twenty mile radius. And like the boroughs, here’s five connected by the pulse of
this wondrous town.

The man that made collages out of MylarKurt Lightner’s nature abstractions were reflections of a childhood spent on his parent’s Ohio farm. His paintings built a collection of abstract shapes and vibrant colors, a unique tribute to a rural environment slowly disappearing. Lightner translated his memories using acrylic ink on Mylar collaged onto watercolor paper. The result an amalgamation of organic
elements that danced. Recently, three-dimensional possibilities have preoccupied him, manifesting in an installation at the Bronx nature sanctuary Wave Hill. “Undiscovered/Covered” looked at the overgrown layers of the place and nearby Riverdale. Kurt used recycled mylar, mirrored-like substances and foam to complete his vision. The miniature forest was displayed in the Wave’s Glyndor Gallery. Lightner will have his first solo museum show at The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Feb ’06. Approximately fourteen of his paintings will be on display. Around the same time, a one man exhibit is planned for his Chelsea Gallery. He lives in Queens, NY.

The Georgian who painted in an instantAndy Piedilato’s work was a throwback to the ab expressionists from the 50’s and 60’s. Atrue abstractionist in the sincerest sense, his temperament was similar to Jackson Pollock’s. And like the originator, his work was pure energy. He captured it working in lively short sessions using his hands to mark the canvas. The technique summitted in his masterpiece
‘Orange Triangle.’ The right hand corner had layers not unlike dante’s inferno, a complex series of symphonic swirls. His most recent showing at The Susquehanna Museum of Art saw the curator describing him as ‘frenetic’, a testament to Andy’s unpredictable personality. In Jan 2006, he’ll show with two other abstractionists at Black & White Gallery. He paints in Bushwick, BK.

The musician who built minimalist sculpture Tom Kotik conducted an Architecture Of Silence, an ongoing series which investigated the attempt to mute sound. It also reminisced nostalgia and utilized the clean simple line. Pieces known as “Josef’s Song”, “Soundbase” and “Brown (Maximum Volume)” also harbored political overtones. Earlier ‘sound’ structures included samples from Kotik’s rock band, Mighty High, a rhythm powered unit currently playing gigs all over the city. Last year, the bassist exhibited at The Bronx Museum, Black & White Gallery, NurtureArt, and Hofstra University. Born in Prague, and lived most of his life in Brooklyn, Tom was the quintessential Renaissance man.

The sculptor that constructed an empire in high school and college, Wade Kavanaugh competed as a cross country skier. He also made art and by accident became aware of movement. He saw that as he stretched certain materials his personal space was measured by the action. This resulted in excel graphs and creating structures as large as 35 feet in diameter. His choice of matter included wood and metal. He recently moved from Maine to New York and in 2005, exhibited at The Bronx Museum, Franconia Sculpture Park, and Islip. In college, Kavanaugh made a series of guitars using soda cans, birch bark and pencils. He resides in Kings County.

The woman who painted like VelasquezJanice Handleman’s paintings reflected ‘family values.’ Her eerie renderings of kin lent themselves to the outer limits. The portrayals were taken from family photos and had an underlying dark side that both intrigued and disturbed the viewer. In 2005, her ethereal gouache drawings were shown in several Boston and German galleries. Her latest project was a series of clay ‘Handleman’ heads, a grouping of busts that smirked and winked their way into a dim nether region. When not excavating her family tree, Janice liked dressage and hiking. Originally from New York, the artist lived in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Stephanie Young


Stephanie published an ‘artzine for the masses’. She started the mag so people could become interested. Get a copy by dropping a line to the magazine’s executive email: thirdman3@netzero.com Stephanie and Hercules live in Brooklyn, New York.

Check out the full article in our debut issue!!