Danielle Ezzo

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

Danielle Ezzo, artist and curator. I grew up all over New Jersey, spent some time going to school in Georgia, and now I've been living in Brooklyn for six years. Actually, I just had my six year anniversary on the 21st.

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

Technically, I'm a mixed media artist, but most all my work begins with photography. Specifically, with historic processes such as cyanotypes and salt prints. I layer these works with paint and ink.

What do you think sets your work apart?

There are very few people utilizing alternative processes anymore it seems. People are getting out of the darkroom and into digital space, which I can understand, mostly because these older processes are so nuanced and slow. In my experience, the photography community shies away from photographers who add other media to their work, who aren't purists. Maybe photography, and its subsequent practitioners, are still uncomfortable with embracing the medium as a fine art. It didn’t start out that way though, an art form. Maybe people are still hung up on that a little. Nonetheless, I think it's just a matter of staying true your intent. If adding other media to an image is part of the overall concept and process, I say, go for it. I enjoy facing the challenges of combining a variety of elements.

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

I've been showing my work since 2005, and so far its been a steady slope of increased exposure. I'm not sure if I’ve experienced that 'big break' feeling yet; however, I think the curating I've done over the past couple years has only pushed my work further and vice versa. It's like they play off of each other.

What are some things that have inspired you?

An artist must utilize every moment or opportunity to find inspiration, even the most mundane things can be thought provoking. Often, just talking with other artists, sharing the struggles and the triumphs, is most beneficial to me.

What have you been working on recently?

This body of work called, Kindred Systems, of mixed media salt prints. Reanalyzing and contextualizing the term “kinship system” based on the shift in how people define "family" and its ever growing inter-connectivity. 

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

Absolutely. It ranges depending on my mood, but Etta James, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Morphine, Mazzy Star, Jolie Holland, Iron & Wine, Francoise Hardy, Edith Piaf, Lovage, and whatever else that is slow and sultry.  

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

I've been playing around with super 8 video and I hope to get more into video in general at some point. Sculpture excites me, but I’m horrible in three dimensions. I curate, as I mentioned before, which is an art form all to itself.

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

Meet people and have confidence in your work. I've met some pretty amazing people in the city by just sending an email, chatting at art openings, and generally just being a curious and open person. 

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

Right now, I'm making a push to finish Kindred Systems. Once that's done, I'm working on possibility of a solo show, but no details yet. I’m also curating an auction for Daniel Cooney Fine Art April 1, called Shades of Grey: A Cross Section of Modern Sexual Identity.

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

My website, of course: www.danielleezzo.com

I also have two blogs: a photo diary: danielleezzo.tumblr.com and an art blog: dezzoster.tumblr.com

You can also buy limited edition prints of my work here: http://aceditions.com/artists/danielle-ezzo

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/

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