David Hochbaum

Who are you? Where are you from and where do you live now?
I was born in NYC in 1972. I grew up right outside the city in Rockland County. My pops had an apartment in the east village in the 80's so I spent a lot of time as a kid running around downtown NYC. This sparked my romance with this city here and I am sure this had a profound impact on the direction my life took.
I moved back to Manhattan after finishing school up in Boston in 95 and I have been living in the East Village for the past 15 years.


What is it that you do? What media do you use?
My work has many different media and approaches. I love the darkroom for black and white silver printing and painting. I also make sculpture and love to plan installation projects. I love wood, plaster, video, music. I have no intention of being reliant on a single media to satisfy my need to create.

What do you think sets your work apart?
Apart? From other art? I am not sure except that I can only be sure of my personal vision and execution of these ideas. I do not spend too much time considering my differences, better or worse, these are pointless and narcissistic distractions. I have been banging on the door in my head for the past 20 years and I am still hoping that I am developing. I have many influences and places that haunt my memory which reaches into my work. Its not so important to me to a different thing. I will repeat others as I repeat myself at times. Emulation and homage comes into play with so many types of art and behavior. I enjoy the similarities in the sense if a collective unconsciousness.

How long have you been showing your work for? Did you have a “big break?”
I believe my first exhibit I participated in was in 1993. There have been several different sized breaks on my journey so far. Each one having its highlights and disasters. I do try to learn of course from all of them. But it comes down to a chemistry between myself and the people I work with. One of the greatest boosts to my work and personal relationship with my work was when I started to work collaboratively with a greater intensity in 2005. This was when the collaboration group The Goldmine Shithouse started with myself, Colin Burns and Travis Lindquist. This was one of the greatest learning expiriences. But there were so many others along this road that played huge parts for me.
Working with Les Baraney for years, working with the Corey Helford Gallery in LA, having the Strychnin Gallery in Berlin take me under their wing and introduce me to a demographic that I would not have been able to reach without them.

What are some things that have inspired you?
The need to survive is a big fire under my ass. The passion in my peers, lovers. The people I live with who are great artist like Marcus Poston and Patrick Wood. And the people I have had in my life for the past 20 years who have also been through so much in their search to realize their dreams.


What have you been working on recently?
I recently got back from a 3 week residency in Japan which the Strychnin Gallery set up for me. I mentioned a year ago to them that I wanted to do a series about Japanese ghosts, legends and spirits. They set it up so I could go and photograph people there and have the chance to absorb some of the culture first hand. Now I am preparing the works to be shown in June next year in Berlin.

Do you listen to music while you create your work? If so, would you give some examples?
Almost always. There is just so much. Depending on the work I am doing and the mood which helps, I can go with the Melvins, the Fall, Telescopes, Hawkwind, Echo and the Bunnymen, Roxy Music, Pink Floyd, Nick Cave, Einstürzende Neubauten, i love old ska, roots, chamber music and jazz.

Do you do work in any other media? Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work?
Yes As I said before, I do like to sculpt. And although the energy put into these projects is different the ideas and pieces seem to spawn from the same well as the paintings and collages.


What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?
Investigate for places you want to show, which seem to showcase the feeling that is conducive to your own works and engage them. Go to their openings, meet the directors and artist who show their. In the end the best places to show are where you can form a productive relationship with the directors and curators.
Work along side other artist if you can. Push yourself to experiment in other media, take advice sometimes and give it back. Do what you can to help others and learn.

Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of your work that you can mention?
I will be showing the first couple of works from my Japan Obake project in October at Art 21 in Cologne, Germany.
My next gallery show will be in 2011 in Berlin at Strychnin Gallery.

Where can people see more of your work on the internet?
Well there is www.davidhochbaum.com, www.goldmineshithouse.com, http://www.111ladders.blogspot.com/
and the galleries which I work with...
http://www.strychnin.com/_new/_html/fs_cont.html
http://www.yashayoung.com/
http://www.coreyhelfordgallery.com/

Erin Frost

Who are you? Where are you from and where do you live now?

I’m Erin Frost, I grew up in Montana, and currently live in Seattle, Washington.

What is it that you do? What media do you use?

My main body of work, and what I keep coming back to, is self-portraits. Film, cameras, and darkroom.

What do you think sets your work apart?

I suppose that I am the very thing that sets my work apart; my exposure makes the work accessible and intimate. That’s what I find so intriguing about self-portraits; it’s an intuitive process that relies on the intangible combination of vulnerability and that which remains concealed.

How long have you been showing your work for? Did you have a “big break?”

I don’t know if there is such a thing as a big break. But I definitely feel fortunate for some of the opportunities I’ve had/people I’ve met along the way.  I’ve been showing my work for about the past six years across the country as well as internationally.

What are some things that have inspired you?

My  primary inspiration is the process of transformation. I’m interested in the psychology of sexuality; ideas of power and lust. Visually I find inspiration in everything from vintage magazine ads to things I collect, props, odds and ends that seem to have a life of their own.

What have you been working on recently?

Some of my recent work has been playing with a more cinematic scope.

(see #8)

Do you listen to music while you create your work? If so, would you give some examples?

I prefer no music while I’m shooting; it’s easier to get lost that way. I like to get rid of the distractions that can pull me out of the moment. But there’s definitely music when I sit down to work on other projects, or am in the darkroom. Honestly, my taste in music varies as much as the personalities I adopt.

Do you do work in any other media? Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work?

I’ve been really interested in printmaking recently. I’m learning the art of letterpress, and absolutely love it. And just finished a 3’x5’ linocut that was printed via steamroller.

What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?

Patience. Persistence. This is advice I give myself.

Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of your work that you can mention?

I’m in a group show in Seattle, coming up next month. And beyond that, I really want to flesh out some new ideas/processes before committing to another solo exhibit.

Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

www.erinfrostphotography.com 

Buddy Nestor

Who are you? Where are you from and where do you live now?
I am a human named Buddy Nestor.  I was born in Camden, NJ and grew up in Collingswood, NJ.

What is it that you do? What media do you use? 
I paint loose portraits in acrylic, spray paint, charcoal and graphite on canvases.

What do you think sets your work apart?   
Uhm.  I work from photographs in tinted tones of gray, I try to leave hints of the photo in the portraits, but it is probably the glowing red blobs that set me apart, if anything.

How long have you been showing your work for? Did you have a “big break?” 
I’ve been showing since about 1997 in California and on the East coast near Philadelphia.  The biggest break I’ve had was a solo show at the “Toothless Cat” Gallery in Philadelphia, PA. J.L Schnabel decided to put me in there and introduced me to a lot of the local artists in town.  That opened the door for me and I’ve been showing consistently since then.

What are some things that have inspired you?  
Multiple wars, watching my wife give birth to my son, skateboarding, ghosts, cell phones, meat eating, veganism, Republicans, soccer, hippies, dreams, disease, vacations, baseball, self identity, sadness, love, morality, gluttony.............the gray area.

What have you been working on recently?   
The last painting I finished was a clown portrait of my son for Distinction Gallery in CA.  I’ll be doing some food portraits soon for a show at Copro Nason in October.  I have one large painting and three drawings that I haven’t done yet for the “Subtleties in Character” show at WWA gallery in December.  I’m constantly working on paintings for the Bloom Art Fair that is coming up at the end of October in Koln, Germany.  Once all of that is done I’ll be concentrating on full sized human portraits for a while.

Do you listen to music while you create your work? If so, would you give some examples?
Slayer, Butthole Surfers, Melvins, A Storm of Light, Unsane, Pavement, Acacia Strain, Elliott Smith, Pinback, Blood Fountains, Pig Destroyer, Mastodon, Baroness, High on Fire, Jesus Lizard, Heavy Vegetable, Black Cobra, Decap Attak, Beyond Dishonor, Neurosis, Mono, Pantera....among many others.  Music is the fuel.

Do you do work in any other media? Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work? 
NO.

What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?  
Make art everyday.  Make it when you are tired and sick.  The”Genius” thing is bullshit.  Art is a craft that takes time and dedication to perfect (or become semi-pro).

Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of your work that you can mention?
Yep, see question 6.

Where can people see more of your work on the internet?  
buddynestorartwork.com (which I don’t update much, because I’m lazy) or on facebook-Buddy Nestor.

Steven Johnson Leyba

Who are you? Where are you from and where do you live now?
I’m Steven Johnson Leyba I live all over the world but I am currently living in San Francisco California

What is it that you do? What media do you use?
I paint, I write, I perform, I make music, & movies. I am a published artist and author with several books out. I have 2 cd’s of music and spoken word out. I am primarily a fine art hand made book artist. My medium is oil over acrylic over collage and I use, blood on all my works and sometimes other bodily fluids like semen and excrement. I paint biological forms so I use part of those forms.

What do you think sets your work apart?
My work is a layering of many meanings, symbols and forms mostly organic usually human forms and sexuality in a political context. I do not hold back on my expression and have been called the “father of Sexpressionism” but my work isn’t about human sexuality necessarily it is about the totality of the human experience about the physicality, spirituality and all that makes up our individual and collective biological life experience. My work is a ritualization of the totality of life and embracing everything to reach that witch is most meaningful. I would never call me work “erotic” I would say I paint biology in a new way to express what it is like to be alive now. Simply put I PAINT NATURE, I PAINT MY NATURE because I AM NATURE.

How long have you been showing your work for?  Did you have a “big break?” 
I first started exhibiting my work when I was 16 at the Arkansas Arts Museum and have never stopped, I’m almost 44 now. Yes when my book Coyote Satan Amerika was published. A book of my first 5 hand made books as well as many of my blood ritual political performances and my manifestos. This book put me on the map.

What are some things that have inspired you?
My biggest inspiration has been nature and especially human nature, magic and ritual, my heritage as a Native American and the belief in an animistic connection of all life. The early Surrealists inspired me Like Dali and Max Ernst, the abstract expressionists especially Pollock and de Kooning. William S Burrough’s “sabotage of control” theme of his work I have found very inspiring, the political philosophy and performance art activism of The American Indian Movement, The Black Panther party and Anton LaVey. The Satanic Bible and Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” have had great influence on my art. In the early days Salvador Dali and his writings especially “The 50 secrets to Magic Craftsmanship”. It seems to me artists of today have forgotten that spirit of innovation, exploration and REVOLT in Art. I consider myself a sort of mad scientist of the arts and I believe it is up to the artists of today to create the great metaphors for our times especially in the age of potential ecological disasters and the new discoveries in Quantum Physics. While we are busy looking at our reflection in cyberspace some extraordinary things are manifesting within science. Being a good artist doesn’t mean worrying about your outfit or bank account it’s about contributing to the long history of art , philosophy and science and forging a new path forward.

What have you been working on recently?
I am finishing my 12th hand painted book “TRAPezoid godsanto CODEX Arlimentarius “ which marks a new level to my ART WAR. I feel the whole discourse in art has been stolen from the artists by the Art System (museums, art schools, art magazines, galleries and critics) and artists are supposed to shut up and do art and to never speak of what they think is great and what they think is shit. Postmodernism Art World’s term for almost all art today (and it’s a branch of so called philosophy and should be considered contemporary sociology) says, “everything is art” and “no art is better than any other art”. I say the “express yourself” generation needs some standards and quality control or at the very least TO MEAN IT. People don’t think artists MEAN IT or have TRUE PASSION and I’d have to agree that most artists don’t.
I recently finished my first movie “What is Art? Inside the Mind of the Artist as They Speak the Truth” and it is a direct attack on the one-dimensional view of Art. In the movie I create a TRUE ART list that has proven that there is a taboo around talking about TRUE ART. My new book marks the next stage of this ART WAR. The new book I am currently writing is “TRUE ART” (I need statements of TRUE ART from people for my book leybaart@gmail.com) Much of my new work is an exploration and protest of the genetically altered food we are all eating. It is an exploration into why we feel the need to change life, to change biology for profit and to focus on the fact these companies like Monsanto have waged a war against us and our bodies. We are their guinea pigs and we are eating the foods created by the same company that gave us DDT and Agent Orange and we have no say in the matter? And there are laws that make it a felony to speak out against this (“Veggie Libel Laws”). It is up to the visual artists to convey this atrocity. We need new metaphors and a new visual vocabulary to fully understand and process this biological attack and art can be a very good weapon against apathy.

Do you listen to music while you create your work?  If so, would you give some examples? 
Some say I listen exclusively to Billy Joel. He’s still one of my favorites. I like most Rock in Roll. Currently I am obsessed with and put on repeat “Hawkwind” and the “Yeah Yeah Yeah’s” I am obsessed with Karen O of the “Yeah Yeah Yeah’s” love her voice and lyrics. Recently I have put on repeat “Little Shadow” and painted all night while crying.

Do you do work in any other media? Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work?
Writing especially aesthetics of TRUE ART and created a whole branch of philosophy I am still developing called “Coyotel”.
I never thought I’d be a filmmaker but somehow I became one. I’m working on my second film “PAINing POORtraits” I am an animist and I believe everything of life and spirit is connected so all of my projects relate. Recently I have been experimenting with stand up comedy and may do a comedy tour in 2010 called the “End of the World Again Yesterday”

What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?
You need authenticity. This is the age of the disingenuous. If you don’t mean it don’t show it. Give up the traps of “individualism” and “originality” it is a dead end trap of western thinking. Create from passion and from who you truly are. Once you do that your drive for exhibiting will give you motivation and energy to know and to seek out the very places you should show your work. Be TRUE to yourself and get good at conveying your totality and doors will open for you.

Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of your work that you can mention?
TRUE ART
The Warehouse Gallery
September 11th
www.warehousegallery.net
1234 International Blvd. Oakland Ca.,

Gallery 54B
2128 S Halsted St,
Chicago, IL Sept. 24th 6pm- 11:30pm

Where can people see more of your work on the internet?
www.stevenleyba.com and you can obtain a copy of my movie on DVD at http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00JJPGLV and I am on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/steven.leyba

Ellen Jane Rogers

Who are you?  Where are you from and where do you live now?Hello I am Ellen Jane Rogers, I live and work in London, I am from Norfolk, alongside very cold and bizarre beaches. 

What is it that you do?  What media do you use?
I am a fine art/ fashion photographer, it is my full time job and I use a multitude of analogue cameras and films in order to experiment, but on the whole my media or medium is the darkroom. 

What do you think sets your work apart?
Well, very little sets me apart from other experimental analogue photographers, but in the fashion industry there are not so people using film so it’s more down to the arena I’m in that makes me stand out, I think.

How long have you been showing your work for?  Did you have a “big break?”
I’m still waiting for the fabled ‘big break’ as it stands, I refuse to shoot bands or celebrity, despite being asked more than I would like, but to answer your first question I have been doing editorials in fashion rags for about 2 years, or since I left ‘art school’, I hate that term, sorry to use it

What are some things that have inspired you?

Believe it or not, there are some video games that have left a lasting impression on me, and many many comics, comics by David Mack, Bill Sienkiewicz, Simon Bisley, Arthur Ranson , Yoshitaka Amano and so on.  

  

 

What have you been working on recently? 

I have three stories I just shot for various September issues in fashion magazines. So really I have been meeting deadlines. Other than that I was working on a project with my partner, you can see it here http://thedissolution.prizme.co.uk/. 

 

 

Do you listen to music while you create your work?  If so, would you give some examples? 

My boyfriend and I share a studio space, we mainly listen to Magma whilst we work, it is kind of good to send you into a trance like state. 

 

 

Do you do work in any other media?  Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work? 

Yeah I use super 8 to make my films, so far my films have been pretty personal, although they are arguably connected to my main body of work.  

 

 

What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work? 

That is a tricky one, although I’m convinced that online presence is one of the most important things you can master in order to display your work to the fullest audience, I certainly don’t underestimate the power good bloggers have. 

 

 

Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of your work that you can mention? 

As soon as the funding for mine and Prizme's collaborative project comes through we hope to do a couple of shows with the original artwork. But it doesn’t look like it will be on the cards in the near future.

 

Where can people see more of your work on the internet? 

www.ellenrogers.co.uk = my main site 

www.satanicdrugthing.blogspot.com = my personal blog 

www.flickr.com/beep_peep

Denis Forkas Kostromitin

Who are you?  Where are you from and where do you live now?

Denis Forkas Kostromitin, Forkas (Форкас) being a nickname I was given in my childhood referring to my small hands. Born in a small town on the river Volga deep in the guts of Mother Russia. I currently live and work in a Moscow suburb.

What is it that you do?  What media do you use?

I am a painter and a draftsman. I use all conceivable (traditional) media including tempera (both egg-based and acrylics), oils, pastels, ink, pencil and scratching. I honestly believe that a true artist should be able to conjure convincing work with any available supplies, be it shoe dirt or hand-made oils.

What do you think sets your work apart?
All my work incorporates two major hallmarks:

(a) I never design objects; the appearance/exterior of my shapes is born from research, implied by the spiritual value of each composition. I design neither monsters nor beauty; both are secondary in my work.

(b) I don’t feel restrained by “genre”, “tradition” and “direction” limits or some artificial “personal manner/style” due to the above reasons and enjoy it being completely beyond such trifles.

How long have you been showing your work for?  Did you have a “big break?”
It’s been nine years already, private gallery shows in Moscow, St.Petersburg, Bergen and Vienna. I am doing my first humble steps at the international art market now, and looking for European and American projects to participate in. The “big break” is surely ahead.

What are some things that have inspired you?

Spiritually I am deeply inspired by the numberless facets of human nature, especially the hidden, primal, less comfortable emotions. This, in turn, leads to studies of the occult, mythology and mysticism of various cultures of the past.

I draw aesthetical inspiration mostly from the work of romantic painters of XIX-XX centuries - Vrubel, Stuck, Boecklin, - but also fantastic realists/surrealists of the XX century like Fuchs and Ernst.

Technique-wise, I highly appreciate Flemish school (which I have adapted for acrylics by reducing the number of layers, revising the palette and solving the blending/correction issues with my own chemical recipe) and Renaissance in general.

Moreover, Kandinsky’s approach to colour and rhythm, Spare’s automatic drawing theory, Bacon’s volatile shapes and the work of American “abstract expressionists” have all affected me profoundly over the years.  

What have you been working on recently?
It so happens that I am entering the international community with commissioned artwork. The highly successful collaboration with the always-inspiring Utech Records and the extraordinary American rock band Horseback last year led to yet another Horseback commission (a cover for their next LP, “Half Blood”).

I have also just finished a series of drawings for a project by an acclaimed American artist Stephen O’Malley.

I am planning to return to my gallery work after I am done with a few more commissions lined up here as I have two major paintings to finish before the upcoming shows later this year.
 

Do you listen to music while you create your work?  If so, would you give some examples?
Yes, I always do when I have all the preliminary work sorted and a picture becomes a matter of painting/drawing. Music is very important to me. I normally listen to all sorts of progressive rock (Univers Zero, Magma, Genesis, King Crimson, Black Widow, etc.), hard rock/heavy metal (Sabbath, Priest, Vitus, Mercyful Fate, Death SS, etc.) and krautrock (Amon Duul II, Organisation, Ash Ra Tempel, Faust, etc.). Besides, I often will turn to industrial (Neubauten, SPK, Test Dept, Toniutti, etc.) and I have been playing much of death metal too ever since I discovered the beauty of it a while ago (Immolation, Gorguts, Carnage, etc.). Free jazz, ambient, experimental music are also welcome guests in my studio’s cassette deck and CD player.

 Do you do work in any other media?  Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work?
No, being a professional artist I hardly have time for anything beyond painting these days. Sculpture is the realm I have been meaning to explore for a long time and will most definitely do sooner or later.

 
What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?
Without a doubt drawing is the key to understanding the world. Mastering it will ensure that you always have someone interested in your vision. In our age of internet a good exposure is hardly a trouble.

Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of your work that you can mention?
Yes, there is a one-picture show (for the painting “Athenian priest dressed as Pan”) scheduled for early autumn in Moscow. And I am participating in a huge international collective show in late August, also in Moscow.

 
Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

My friends and I are working on a proper portfolio site (still), which I will launch quite soon. Meanwhile there is a temporary blog thing where I post some of my work: joch-so-tot.blogspot.com

 

Terence Hannum

 Who are you?  Where are you from and where do you live now?

I am Terence Hannum, I live in Chicago.  I've been here about 9 years after living in Florida

What is it that you do?  What media do you use?

I make art.  Paintings, drawings, video and sound installations.  I use a lot of different media, mainly gouache on paper or oil on panel, and analog tape, plus video projections.

 

    

 

What do you think sets your work apart?

Maybe my subject matter, which is the location of the seminal rites of subcultures in the arena of live music, its gear and ephemera.  How it acts as our new mythology.
How long have you been showing your work for?  Did you have a “big break?”

I've been showing my work for about 10 years, at very different levels.  You know that's a weird question, sometimes something appears to be a break and is a dead end and other time you think it'll be this small thing and you get a ton of press or more people see it than you originally thought.  

What are some things that have inspired you?

Records, live shows, and a lot of books and ephemera.  I would say lately it would be vintage Acoustic Control Corporation catalogs, Watteau's paintings and drawings and Julia Kristeva's "Powers of Horror" plus my weird 7" collection.

    

 

 

 What have you been working on recently?

In January 2010 I started a monthly zine of drawings, and sometimes collaborators.  Varying sizes and formats on different stock.  And after 8 issues I am pleased to see the end ahead.  It's been a great project.  Helps me generate work around themes or edit work or source material into themes to fit the zines.

 

 

   Do you listen to music while you create your work?  If so, would you give some examples?

Oh yeah, all the time.  The last week I started listening to all of my 7"s, a collection I started 18 years ago, and it is all over the place.  I am not even through the first box yet.  So I am going through stuff like Professor's "Academizer" or Blunderbuss "Road to Arizona" or Lords "Moral Darkness".  Just weird one offs I picked up and it's great to be reminded of that time.  Though I break it up with a few LPs like Boris' "Amplifier Worship" or the Thou/Leech split LP.  

 

 

 

Do you do work in any other media?  Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work?

I play in Locrian, we were a duo but are now a trio.  I play synthesizers and do vocals plus tape manipulations.   

 

 

 

What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?

Well from my limited experience it pays to be patient and let things grow.  Focus on the work, finding time and honing it along all sides.  I would say more important than a studio visit with some gallerist or curator is a visit with another artist who may see something you don't see or help you refine a point or just help you along during the lean times.  Remember, this is the long haul and art takes time.  Just because you do not have an opportunity doesn't mean your work is not good or relevant, eventually people will get what you're doing after some time or, in my opinion, they don't matter anyway.  Oh and most people do not matter anyway.  Seriously, it's not just me being misanthropic, like I only trust maybe five people's opinions about my own work.

 

 

Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of your work that you can mention?

Sure, I am in a group show now at Johalla Projects (http://johallaprojects.wordpress.com/) called "Who's Yr. Shaman?" with some artists I dig like Elijah Burgher and Rebecca Walz to name a few.  I have a solo show titled "New Rites" opening at DePauw University's Peeler Gallery (http://www.depauw.edu/galleries/2010/new_rites/) in the end of September.

 

 

 

 

Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

At my site www.terencehannum.com