Short Answer Sunday: Patrick Berran

Meant to elicit quick, intuitive responses, Short Answer Sunday will introduce readers to a wide variety of artists, educators, writers, curators, art enthusiasts and art adjacent individuals whose inclinations I admire. With the intent of getting to know the person behind the artwork as well generating new avenues to artistic discovery, participants may respond with only a few words or an artist’s name, always with the opportunity to elaborate if they wish!

Patrick Berran makes abstractions with attitude. His non-objective compositions are kaleidoscopic, incorporating spliced, contrasting patterns, colors and shapes that layer, mirror, repeat and echo (think flatbed picture plane meets astral plane).  To absolutely no one’s surprise, I’m so into Pat’s use of color. A fellow chromophile, his paintings and drawings are punky, vibrant and playful. Although blue is a color that we culturally link with sadness, Patrick Berran’s blues aren’t the melancholic types. Often used in a primary triadic combo with bright pinks and yellows, a real sense of buoyancy is developed (I don’t know about you, but this is something I can always use a bit more of).

His work ethic is a total inspiration to me and love getting sneak peaks into his studio via Instagram because there is always something exciting going on. As you would expect, his Short Answer Sunday responses are equally generous and insightful. For more about Patrick Berran and his work, find him here and here.

In other news, I’ll be out of the country next week, so I may post something, but it won’t be a Short Answer Sunday. We’ll see! ✌️
xo, Lauren

Name: Patrick Berran
Occupation: Artist & Professor
Astrological data: Gemini
Hometown: Woodbridge, VA
Current location: Kill Devil Hills, NC

Other than Instagram, how do you find new-to-you artists?

Independent research and “word of mouth” conversations

An artwork that makes you laugh?

Paul McCarthy: “Painter” (1995)

An artwork that makes you cry?

“Heroes” by David Bowie. No joke, I cry every time his voice crescendos

Most underrated artist?

Eduard Vuillard

An artwork that you’d like to live inside for a week?

Red Forest by Max Ernst

Max Ernst, The Red Forest, 1970, oil on canvas, 80.6 x 64.8 cm

An artist whose work you can’t stop thinking about?

Mark Bradford

An artwork that feels like a warm hug?

Richard Diebenkorn, Ocean Park paintings

What’s your favorite characteristic in an artwork?

Color

Erotic artwork? (Ed. note: this is a multiple choice question)

No: ✅

What’s an artwork that you secretly hate?

Schnabel paintings

Most insane art piece?

James Turrell “Meeting” at PS1. So simple, but so amazing. Always weather dependent, I used to have so much anxiety/anticipation visiting PS1, would the piece be open, can I visit? Some of the greatest moments with that piece were just a clear day, bright blue sky, silence and no one at the museum.

Fav monograph or art book?

Hilma AF Klint

Last exhibition you saw irl?

Natan Lawson at Foyer Gallery

An artwork that packs a spiritual punch?

Owl with a Coffin, 1835-1838 Caspar David Friedrich

Caspar David Friedrich, Landscape with Grave, Coffin and Owl, ca. 1836-1837, brown sepia over pencil on paper, 15 x 15 inches

What art material do you love to nerd out on?

paper

What was the last thing that you listened to in the studio?

NIN Tron soundtrack

What’s a book that changed your life?

Annie Dillard Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

❤

Patrick Berran is an artist and educator that lives and works in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Berran’s painting practice incorporates drawing, transfer processes and collage. Berran has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally. Berran’s work has been featured in the New York Times, Hyperallergic, the Brooklyn Rail, Bomb Magazine, Style Weekly, New American Painters and Architectural Digest.

For more about Patrick Berran and his work, check out his website and Instagram.

 

Short Answer Sunday: Rachel Jeffers

Meant to elicit quick, intuitive responses, Short Answer Sunday will introduce readers to a wide variety of artists, educators, writers, curators, art enthusiasts and art adjacent individuals whose inclinations I admire. With the intent of getting to know the person behind the artwork as well generating new avenues to artistic discovery, participants may respond with only a few words or an artist’s name, always with the opportunity to elaborate if they wish!

What a delight to get lost in a painting, to be confused and amused and surrender to color, form, pattern, light. Rachel Jeffers’ painterly still lifes offer so much of this smart, giddy, retinal pleasure. Sinks & dishes, lunches about to be eaten, a fried egg in a luminous skillet (the sleepy, muted spatula next to this orange glow really gets me), floral arrangements, slinking house cats, puzzles in process, and the reflective glow of Christmas lights (a personal favorite) are all explored and elevated in Rachel’s compositions. The paintings’ surfaces contain traces of the painting process, in which marks and forms are built, layered, or obliterated over time (sharing a bit of kinship with Richter’s Tisch).

The subjects in Rachel’s paintings may be casual domestic scenes, however they are developed in such a way that they become extraordinary worlds. In these worlds, mimesis and playful expression mingle, and pictorial depth expands and collapses. In her interview, Rachel shares that she would like to live in one of Vuillard’s interiors for a week (fully support this). If given the opportunity, I would like to live in one of Rachel’s paintings and I’d choose this one. Just look for me in the middle, playing in the paint.

Last week, I saw Rachel’s phenomenal show Monday Alchemy at Foyer and highly recommend that all those in the Richmond area make a trip to see her work in person. The show is up through May 29, with an artist talk on May 21 . A friend of the blog, Rachel was also interviewed on Art Habit by Nikki in 2023 (check it out, if you missed it). I so appreciate Rachel’s honest and insightful responses for Short Answer Sunday and I know that you will, too.

For more about Rachel Jeffers and her work, head on over to her website and follow her on Instagram.

xo, Lauren

Name: Rachel Jeffers
Occupation: Artist
Astrological data: Scorpio sun, Virgo moon, Taurus rising
Hometown: Tennessee
Current location: Richmond, VA

Other than Instagram, how do you find new-to-you artists?

When artists I like are in group shows, I look up the other artists in the show, which often leads me to more galleries, and then to more artists.

An artwork that makes you laugh?

The Ham by Paul Gauguin. The first time I saw this at The Phillips Collection, I was fresh out of grad school, and going through a lot of turmoil about what painting is for. The message I had absorbed was that for art to be meaningful, it had to be ‘Important’. I turned the corner and came upon this absurd painting - of course still life has been around forever, but there was something so surprising about the formality with which he treated a slab of ham. This painting reminded me that there are many ways for painting to have meaning.

Paul Gauguin, The Ham, 1889, oil on canvas, 19 3/4 x 22 3/4 in

An artwork that makes you cry?

I have a hard time looking at Picasso’s Guernica.

Most underrated artist?

Childe Hassam. Georges Braque

An artwork that you’d like to live inside for a week?

Any of Vuillard’s interiors. I’d especially like if I could blend into the wallpaper and just observe without being noticed.

Edouard Vuillard, The Flowered Dress, 1891, oil on canvas, 38 x 46 cm

An artist whose work you can’t stop thinking about?

Lisa Sanditz has been a favorite since I saw her show Sock City at CRG Gallery in 2008.

What’s your favorite characteristic in an artwork?

Color, evidence of the hand, seeing residue of the painter’s decision-making process, and ideally, a composition that arrives at an unexpected solution in combining all of these elements

What’s an artwork that doesn’t look like art?

I really like Richard Tuttle’s work.

Richard Tuttle, Sylva Head, 2020, plywood, spray paint, wood glue, and nails, 21 x 15 1/8 x 2 inches

Fav monograph or art book?

Drawings of Jim Dine
Cindy Sherman The Complete Untitled Film Stills
Tina Barney Theater of Manners
Alex Katz Collages
The Hours of Catherine of Cleves

Fav museum or gallery in your current location?

VMFA

An artwork that packs a spiritual punch?

Alison Hall’s paintings. You have to see them in person. Fra Angelico Entombment

An artwork that you’d like to see before you die?

I would’ve answered Impression Sunrise by Monet, but I got to see that last year when it came to DC. Another answer would’ve been Sargent’s The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit but I saw that in Boston in 2019. I think next on my list has to be Matisse’s Woman with a Hat.

What art material do you love to nerd out on?

Color wheels and color charts. My training in color theory was based on the Munsell System. It reminds me of a lot of musical scales and music theory. I don’t understand why everyone isn’t as excited as I am about color wheels.

What was the last thing that you listened to in the studio?

I’ve had Grimes’s 2020 album, Miss Anthropecene on a constant loop for the past couple of months.

What’s a book that changed your life?

The Alphabet Versus the Goddess by Leonard Shlain

What song, book, podcast or film do you think everyone should know about?

2 books that made a huge impact on me are Deborah Tannen’s That’s Not What I Meant! and You Just Don’t Understand
They’re not art books, but they’re about language, and the subtle differences in communication styles that lead to misunderstandings. I love anything to do with linguistics, grammar, and psychology. It’s one thing I really enjoy about painting, the infinite number of ways there are to say one thing.

❤

Rachel Jeffers holds an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art's Mount Royal School of Art and a BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design. She studied with Turps Correspondence Course and is now a course mentor. Her work has been exhibited throughout the Eastern US, with recent appearances at Shockoe Artspace, Stay Home Gallery, and My Pet Ram. Her current solo show, Monday Alchemy, is on view at Foyer Gallery until May 29. She is a member of Zeuxis: A Collective of Still Life Painters. She lives and works in the Richmond, VA area.

You can find out more about Rachel Jeffers and her work on her website and on Instagram.

Short Answer Sunday: Ali Kaeini

Meant to elicit quick, intuitive responses, Short Answer Sunday will introduce readers to a wide variety of artists, educators, writers, curators, art enthusiasts and art adjacent individuals whose inclinations I admire. With the intent of getting to know the person behind the artwork as well generating new avenues to artistic discovery, participants may respond with only a few words or an artist’s name, always with the opportunity to elaborate if they wish!

I was first introduced to Ali Kaeini's work at 1708 Gallery in Richmond almost exactly three years ago (my memory is not normally this precise, but for some reason this has stuck). I was struck by the whole show--a fantastic two-person exhibition called Earth Blossom with Ali’s work alongside equally awesome artist Eleanor Mahin Thorp.  

Ali makes stunning work that is closely aligned with painting and drawing, but also incorporates techniques associated with textiles. His paintings on raw canvas are sewn, dyed, and printed, in addition to including fabric collage, inks and various types of paint. Many of Ali’s paintings hang like unconventional tapestries. Amplifying their sculptural and architectural qualities, they hover off of the walls and jut into the gallery space. There are a good number of reasons why I’m drawn to Ali’s work, including but not limited to his collage methodology, his material intelligence, the imagery that refuses to settle and slips elusively between abstraction and representation and my inclination that destruction & production intertwine in his creative practice.

I highly recommend this video developed in conjunction with Ali’s recent solo show Missed Mist at Nika Project Space in Paris, in which he talks about many aspects of his practice and process.  Big thanks to Ali for his time and thought on this Short Answer Sunday—I know you guys will love it.  

For more about Ali Kaeini and his work, go to his website or follow him on Instagram.
xo, Lauren

Name: Ali Kaeini
Occupation: Artist and Educator
Astrological data: Taurus
Hometown: Tehran, IR
Current location: Brooklyn, NY

Other than Instagram, how do you find new-to-you artists?

Residencies, Studio visits, Open studios, Galleries

 

An artwork that makes you laugh?

 

The recent show by Paz Sher called Justice [laughter] Justice 

 

An artwork that makes you cry?

Marina Abramovic works and Francesco Clemente

Francesco Clemente, Perseverance, 1982, Oil on linen, 78 x 93 in.
Image Source

An artwork that you'd like to live inside for a week?

Chinese landscapes maybe from Song dynasty - mountains and rivers

An artist whose work you can't stop thinking about?

It changes regularly, but right now: Renate Druks, Duane Linklater and Kiki Smith

An artwork that feels like a warm hug?

Persian carpets and Anni Albers works

Anni Albers, Design for a Rug, 1927
Black ink and watercolour over graphite with drawn and cut paper additions on off-white wove paper
Image Source

 

Carpet, circa late 16th-early 17th century, silk, metal wrapped thread; tapestry weave
Image Source

 

Erotic artwork? (editor's note: this is a multiple choice question)

Yes: ✅

What's an artwork that doesn't look like art?

Delcy Morelos, her show at Dia -El abrazo last year was amazing

Fav museum or gallery in your current location?

Dia Foundation, Drawing center, MOMA PS1

Last exhibition you saw irl?

Wendy Red Star at Sargent’s Daughters

An artwork that you'd like to see before you die?

Nazca lines in Peru

What art material do you love to nerd out on?

Natural homemade dyes and Woodblock printmaking

What song, book, podcast or film do you think everyone should know about?

Wim Wenders movies (Ed. note: 1000% percent 🙌)

 ❤

Ali Kaeini, an Iranian interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY, earned his MFA from VCU in 2023. He has received the MacDowell Fellowship, VMFA Professional Award, and Hamiltonian Fellowship and attended the Skowhegan residency. His work has been exhibited across the U.S. Europe and the Middle East.

For more about Ali Kaeini and his work, check out his website and follow him on Instagram.