Short Answer Sunday: Kyle Kogut

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!

This week I’m excited to share a Short Answer Sunday with Norfolk-based artist and professor, Kyle Kogut. Kyle is an interdisciplinary artist whose work often takes the form of drawing and sculpture. His work blends high- and lowbrow cultural motifs (culled from advertising, art history, music, movies, etc.) and merges complex and loaded references, conflating symbols of religion + the occult with American consumer culture (plenty of dark humor, too). Kyle’s work possesses an intense visual power, developed through a devotion to craft, an attention to detail that can only be described as totally killer (academic term) with an attentive integration of form + meaning. Though the combination of these tactics, he renders the familiar uncanny and asks broader questions about how we (individually, nationally, globally) assign value, cultivate belief systems and mediate desire.

I came to Kyle’s work through Instagram, but we also have many mutual art acquaintances across various US cities such as Detroit, Baltimore and Richmond. One kernel of motivation behind Short Answer Sunday is that I (and you!) get recommendations from people who are doing cool things and then I (we!) get to read/watch/listen/view whatever each subject suggests. This is always exciting whether I know someone well or tangentially. I love all of Kyle’s responses—I learned about several new-to-me artists and was prompted to reread John Berger’s Ways of Seeing for the first time in (roughly) two decades. For more about Kyle Kogut, head to his website and follow him on Instagram. Get to it!
xo, Lauren

Name: Kyle Kogut
Occupation: Assistant Professor of Drawing
Astrological data: Gemini
Hometown: Kennett Square, PA
Current location: Norfolk, VA

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

Residencies have been an incredible resource for creating new connections. I also love when someone shows me an artist I’ve never heard of.

An artwork that makes you laugh?

Misanthrope by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. I love a good weird little dude.

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Misanthrope, 1568, tempera on canvas, 34 x 33 in.
Image Source

An artwork that makes you cry?

Its hard to make me cry, but Wind from the Sea by Andrew Wyeth comes close. Wyeth is from my hometown, and while this work was based on his home in Maine, it retains the way he paints Pennsylvania and perfectly captures the melancholy of the American Northeast. I’m very nostalgic for all of Wyeth’s work as his was the first art I can consciously remember seeing as a child.

Most underrated artist?

James Castle. He is truly one of a kind and his work is much weirder than expected.

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

I’d love to meet some of Leonora Carrington’s creatures and wonder through her landscapes.

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

Robert Gober’s work is always on my mind.

An artwork that feels like a warm hug?

Lying with the Wolf by Kiki Smith

Kiki Smith, Lying with the Wolf, 2001, ink and pencil on paper, 223.5 x 185.4 cm (Centre Pompidou, Paris)
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What’s your favorite characteristic in an artwork?

When a work is enigmatic and continues to ask questions the longer I sit with it.

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

Yes: ✅

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

Robert Smithson’s Mirror Displacement: Indoors

What’s an artwork that you suspect that you shouldn’t like, but you do (guilty pleasure)?

Much of Richard Prince’s work frustrates me but I’m happy that he’s doing it.

What’s an artwork that you secretly hate?

Cezanne does nothing for me.

Most insane art piece?

Do Ho Suh’s large scale installations are hard to wrap your head around and a wonder to explore.

Do Ho Suh, Seoul Home/Seoul Home/Kanazawa Home/Beijing Home/Pohang Home/Gwangju Home/Philadelphia Home, 2012 Silk and stainless steel tubes 1460.5 x 723.9 x 397.5 cm
Image Source

 
Fav museum or gallery in your current location?

The Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, VA is a wonderful museum.

Last exhibition you saw irl?

I just spent a month in upstate New York and had a chance to see Modus Operandi at The School by Jack Shainman Gallery in Kinderhook and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by James Esber and Jane Fine at the Re-Institute in Millerton.

An artwork that packs a spiritual punch?

Mike Kelley’s Ectoplasm Photographs.

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

The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch

What art material do you love to nerd out on?

Because I approach all of my work through drawing, I’m drawn to any medium that expands or challenges the boundaries of what drawing can be.

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

I’m listening to a lot of dungeon synth specifically Warlock Corpse (Труп Колдуна).

What’s a book that changed your life?

I read Ways of Seeing by John Berger my freshman year of college and it had a huge impact on my understanding of art.

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

Dead Man directed by Jim Jarmusch.

❤

Kyle Kogut (b. 1990 Philadelphia, PA) is an interdisciplinary artist working primarily in drawing and sculpture. Raised a devout Roman Catholic and the son of an auto mechanic, Kogut's work uses the symbols of the Occult and Christianity, art historical motifs, icons of pop culture, and the ubiquitous iconography of brand logos to dissect the politics of American zealotry, myth, and despair. Kogut graduated with an MFA from the Mount Royal School of Art multidisciplinary program at MICA in 2016. He received his BFA from Tyler School of Art in 2012. His work has been included in group shows nationally and has had solo and two person exhibitions in Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, College Park MD, Detroit, Richmond, New York City, and Wilmington NC. Kogut was a member of FJORD in Philadelphia, attended residencies at the Anderson at VCU in 2019, Wassaic Project in 2022, and ChaNorth and Vermont Studio Center in 2026. He currently resides in Norfolk, VA serving as an Assistant Professor of Drawing and Foundations at Old Dominion University.

For more about Kyle Kogut, go to his website and find him on Instagram.

Short Answer Sunday: Mariah Anne Johnson

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!

An artist’s studio research is often described as a practice, and while I’ve heard some grumble about this in the past, I feel that it’s a pretty apt descriptor for what an artist actually does in the studio. Perhaps it is an unpopular opinion, but I think being an artist is yoked to the action of making, showing up on a regular basis, researching through making, trying, failing, improving and turning nothings into somethings, again and again and again (thinking is good, but it’s not enough). The ‘success’ here is embedded in the showing up and making of the work, not in any potential financial compensation or critical acclaim (and the trick is to keep showing up with honesty, integrity and humility even if any of these external factors actually do occur). I see a sincere embodiment of this type of practice in Mariah Anne Johnson’s inspiring work.

Playful and liberating, but also consistent and devoted, Mariah’s work leans heavily into landscape and often the landscape of the domestic realm. The home (and its accoutrements), the neighborhood, the mundane ephemera of the household and the inhabitants of these spaces, become subject, media and content for creation. Citing her body as a primary tool of her practice, she takes this to the max by using all of her senses, as well as the physical dimensions of her body to interpret, explore and organize the world around her. Mariah’s work is not beholden to a singular media and takes many forms (her chromatic bedsheet installations were the first that I fell hard for, but today I am equally enamored with her suspended cardboard constructions, her aesthetically arranged collections of found scraps and her videos of movement sequences).

I was first introduced to Mariah’s work many years ago through her very smart artist-run space, Porch Projects, which existed in Washington, DC for two years in the early 2010s (I’ve already used the SAS platform to expound on my love for artist-run exhibition spaces and I’m not afraid to do it again). Mariah’s curation for Porch Projects (arguably an art piece in and of itself) disrupted traditional notions of media and installation, often creating unique conversations between the various artists’ work, as well as the space of the home (more about the amazing history of the DC artist-run scene past & present can be found here).

Not surprising even a little bit, Mariah has given us another gem of a Short Answer Sunday. Hope you enjoy! For more about Mariah Anne Johnson and her work, take a look at her website and follow her on Instagram.
xo, Lauren

Name: Mariah Anne Johnson
Occupation: artist
Astrological data: Taurus
Hometown: Little Rock, Arkansas
Current location: Los Angeles, California

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

Seeing their work in exhibitions.

An artwork that makes you laugh?

Jan Erichsen’s performative sculpture videos on Instagram.

Klara Liden’s video Untitled (Trashcan) that I saw in the Julia Stoschek Foundation exhibition in Los Angeles.

An artwork that makes you cry?

I saw the Monuments exhibition at MOCA (of works shown with and in some cases made about removed Confederate statues and memorials) just before it closed. I had a moment of shock and sadness when I rounded a corner and saw a familiar place (front steps of Little Rock Central High School) in one of Jon Henry’s Strange Fruit photographs. This exhibition continues to resonate, with the recent actions against voting rights in Louisiana, Tennessee, etc. I wish those who need to see it would.

Most underrated artist?

The female ones!

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

Monet’s house and garden in Giverny, France. I feel this should count as an artwork.

Maison et jardins de Claude Monet, Giverny
Image Source

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

I have been thinking a lot about Louise Nevelson recently. Last year I read the biography of her by Laurie Wilson, and my hometown art museum (Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts) had an exhibition of her work that I got to see on a trip to visit my folks. I also saw an exhibition of her small collages a few years ago that has stuck with me. Her relentless pursuit of her own vision, consequences be damned, is inspiring.

Louise Nevelson, Untitled, 1969, cardboard, paper and sandpaper collage on board, 20 x 16 in.
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An artwork that feels like a warm hug?

Open Window, Collioure, by Henri Matisse (1905). This painting lives at the National Gallery in Washington, DC. I used to visit it often when I lived there.

Henri Matisse, Open Window, Collioure, 1905, oil on canvas, 21 3/4 × 18 1/8 in.
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What’s your favorite characteristic in an artwork?

When I was teaching, I talked to students about “rewarding the viewer,” giving those who spend the time to look at your work a reason to do so, perhaps inviting them to look longer and closer. I suppose that’s what I appreciate in a work, and I try to reciprocate by being generous with my time and my senses, really paying attention when I am present to experience a work.

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

Many of Sam Scharf’s works. I especially love his benches and his PVC pipe pieces, the way they try so hard to fit into the vernacular built environment around them, but their craft, thought, and care give them away.

What’s an artwork that you suspect that you shouldn’t like, but you do (guilty pleasure)?

I really love Monet. The more I have learned about him in recent years, the more I appreciate his work and his practice as an example to follow. Set me down in the middle of Musee de l’Orangerie in Paris, and let me be.

What’s an artwork that you secretly hate?

I don’t like Renoir too much.

I didn’t enjoy the Tala Madani exhibition at MOCA a few years ago. The room after room of huge smeary paintings irritated me! I did enjoy her videos in the same exhibition, and I wish they had not seemed like a side project or secondary practice.

Most insane art piece?

The earthworks from the 1970’s. Gordon Matta-Clark slicing up houses. The Vienna Actionist performances. James Turrell’s Roden Crater.

Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting, 1974 (SFMOMA) © Succession of Gordon Matta-Clark and Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark
Image Source

Fav museum or gallery in your current location?

Joan and Monte Vista Projects in the Bendix Building downtown are always good. So are Chris Sharp Gallery and Guerrero Gallery.

Last exhibition you saw irl?

Over the past week I have caught the last day of several exhibitions. I especially loved Neighborhood Ecology at the Brand Library & Gallery in Glendale, CA (included two amazing Megan Mueller wall installations, a beautiful imaginary community made from wood scraps by Susan Feldman, and a moving short film by Jazmin Garcia); and Roksana Pirouzmand’s everything was once something else (the land was the sea, the sea was the land) at Joan, a meditation on the relationship between the elements and our bodies, and bringing up the next generation inside this relationship.

An artwork that packs a spiritual punch?

Solo keyboard works by J.S. Bach.

What art material do you love to nerd out on?

At the moment I am excited by sketchbooks, colored pencils, and water activated tape. I am not an expert about any of these materials, but I love them and use them daily.

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

Sofiane Pamart’s Planet Gold album. John Adams’ Road Movies album.

What’s a book that changed your life?

I really love Claudio Magris’ Danube, as well as the travel writing of Cees Nooteboom. Their mapping of personal experience, poetry, literature, and history onto place probably informs my current work in ways I haven’t thought about. Plus, they are both just beautiful writers.

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

Everyone should read Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake trilogy. But not at bedtime.

❤

Mariah Anne Johnson explores bodily experience in the landscape through drawing and movement. She creates videos, installations, and works on paper from the knowledge she collects through these processes. Originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, she studied art and literature at Rice University while performing with Rice Dance Theater, earning her MFA from the University of Illinois (2006). Recent projects include a residency and video installation at Zaratan Arte Contemporânea (Lisbon); participation in the 29th Recontres Internationales Traverse in Toulouse, France; inclusion in Los Outsiders’ Chai’n Brai Laika Daimon (Laredo and Austin, Texas); and an ongoing project about her neighborhood, Rhythms Around Us. She has received the Riddergade Fellowship from Viborg Kunsthal (Denmark) and performed with Hayley Cutler’s darlingdance. She lives with her family in Los Angeles.

Short Answer Sunday: Nikki Painter

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!

Nikki Painter is a good friend and an artist whose work & practice I absolutely revere. She also happens to be one of my Art Habit blogging co-conspirators and the instigator of our artist support group (every artist should really have one of these btw), so I’m especially excited to feature her here for a Short Answer Sunday.

Ranging in scale from intimate to immersive, Nikki’s work takes the form of drawing, painting, collage and sculptural installation. In her recent work, she creates invented environments that feature the garden as subject. In conjunction with a deep investigation into pattern and color, Nikki’s gardens are dynamic, emotive and optical. Deceptive from a distance (from afar elements of her drawings may appear printed), a close inspection reveals that the graphic patterns and imagery are laboriously drawn, cut out and layered by hand. Nikki and I share a love of working on and with paper, as both a surface and also for its sculptural capacities.

I’ve just returned to the US from Berlin and remain in that strange liminal (sorry, usually I try to avoid this word due to art-speak overuse, but in this case it really is the best choice) headspace when one has just traveled from one place to another. I’m seeing evidence of my time there everywhere, from my sunburnt toes to the leek scape in my garden that resembles the TV Tower. Although I’m most definitely influenced by recent experiences, I don’t think it’s off base to say that Nikki’s work evokes a Berlin-in-springtime aesthetic, especially with the interplay of floral forms, grids and stripes that recall the city’s symbiosis of wild, resilient flora next to the rectilinear grid of the plattenbau and other urban structures. Nikki’s botanicals remind me there’s little I love more in a city than vigorous weedy blooms that sprout upwards from cracks in the sidewalk. When looking at Nikki’s work, I’m also reminded of the garden as sanctuary, its regimen an incantation for hope during times of great difficulty (highly recommend checking out Kenneth Helphand’s book Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime).

Once again, I just want to voice how exciting it is for me that this interview process allows for so much discovery in spite of being a relatively casual thing. I can know someone well and still learn new things about their interests (seriously, every time I open up a new Google form response, it feels like my birthday). I loved Nikki’s Short Answer Sunday and I know that you will, too. For more about Nikki and her work, check out her website and follow her on Instagram (and make a plan to go see her upcoming solo show at Foyer in November)!
xo, Lauren

Name: Nikki Painter
Occupation: artist
Astrological data: Privileged info
Hometown: Roanoke, VA
Current location: Richmond, VA

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

Listening to podcasts, reading art magazines/publications

An artwork that makes you laugh?

work by Red Grooms

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

Judy Pfaff

Judy Pfaff, installation view of Picking up the Pieces, Sarasota Art Museum, Sarasota, FL, 2023
Image Source

 
What’s your favorite characteristic in an artwork?

surprise, humor, absurdity, beauty

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

Yes: ✅

What’s an artwork that you secretly hate?

There is a sculpture at VMFA that I have a love/hate relationship with. Whenever I think of it, my first reaction is “Ugh, ew,” but then I also immediately think “Oh, I hope that thing is on view the next time I am there, I really want to see it again!” I can’t remember the artist right now, but it is a head, and it is very late ‘70s/’80s.

Most insane art piece?

Gregory Barsamian sculptures

Gregory Barsmian, Artifact, 2010. Steel, glass, polyurethane foam, motor, strobe lights

Image Source

Fav monograph or art book?

Currently: “With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art”

Fav museum or gallery in your current location?

VMFA and Foyer

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

a comprehensive Louise Nevelson retrospective

What’s a book that changed your life?

An M.C. Escher book a teacher showed me when I was in fourth grade

❤

Nikki Painter is a Virginia artist whose mixed-media works are inspired by the natural world. She has had solo shows at Second Street Gallery, Shockoe Artspace, COOP Gallery, and Purdue University's Rueff Gallery, among others. Her work has been part of numerous group exhibitions, including shows at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, the Taubman Museum, and the Daegu Arts Center in South Korea. Painter has attended artist residencies in Virginia, Vermont, Wyoming, Georgia, and Florida. Her work is part of many private collections and public collections including those of: Notre Dame of Maryland University, Capital One, and the Katzen Museum. In 2022, she was awarded a Fellowship for Works on Paper by the Virginia Commission for the Arts. She resides in suburban Richmond with her husband and a growing collection of houseplants.

Find out more about Nikki on her website and on Instagram.

 

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: Arjan Zazueta

Meant to elicit quick, intuitive responses, Short Answer Sunday will introduce readers to a wide variety of artists, educators, writers, curators, arts professionals, 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 have been an avid follower of Arjan Zazueta’s work since meeting him in the late 2000s. He works in a broad range of media, however, I see drawing as a through line between bodies of work. The first work of Arjan’s that I came across, probably in 2008 or 2009, was certainly aligned with drawing, although the delicate marks were constructed using stitched, cotton thread on (wait for it) paper towels. These ephemeral works on this most accessible of surfaces was eye-opening for me as a recently-MFA-ed artist figuring things out (and I still think of them often).

Arjan’s recent work, which I’ve loved getting to see on Instagram, is more easily recognizable as drawing. The sensitive touch is still there, in these lovely, layered colored pencil drawings of oobleckian figures in a range of positions and environments. The drawings are simultaneously silly and beautiful and the aforementioned blobby subjects hint at the collective mood (exhaustion and absurdity in particular) that totally nails the contemporary zeitgeist.

Arjan and his partner Jennifer Bryan also jointly run REDHEAD, an artist-run exhibition space in Brooklyn.  No secret here, I have a giant soft spot in my heart for artists who are also opportunity creators and I’ve been enjoying following the gallery programming from afar.

I absolutely loved Arjan’s responses to my Short Answer Sunday questionnaire and I know that you will, too — thanks Arjan!

For more on Arjan Zazueta and his work, check out his website and follow him on Instagram.

xo, Lauren

Name: Arjan Zazueta
Occupation: Artist
Astrological data: Aquarius Sun, Libra Moon, Scorpio Rising
Hometown: Bridgeport, CT
Current location: Brooklyn, NY

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

 

It's MFA thesis season here in NY, so this is a great time to see lots of emerging artists. 

 

An artwork that makes you laugh?

 

Charles Ray, Portrait of the Artist's Mother at the Pompidou 2022.

 

An artwork that makes you cry?

 

I know it seems cheeky, but I still think about the Ann Hamilton "weeping" wall installation at the 1991 Carnegie International. This is still one of the most powerful pieces I've ever experienced. (editor's note: I couldn't find good images of this particular installation, but "Kaph", another of Hamilton's "weeping" pieces is linked.)

 

Most underrated artist?

 

Bonnie Collura. Her work is so good. I think she is one of our great American sculptors.

 

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

 

Stephen Mueller, Kabir 2011

 

Stephen Mueller
Kabir, 2011
Acrylic on canvas
57 ½ × 36 inches
Image source

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

Louise Bourgeois. On my art family tree she is definitely one of my art mothers. She had such a tremendous art output in her lifetime.

 

An artwork that feels like a warm hug?

 

My other art mother is Helen Lundeberg. She is the best LA Hard Edge painter. I love her work so much.

 

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

 

Yes: ✅

 

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

Felix Gonzalez Torres, Untitled (Perfect Lovers). Damn, such a poignant piece.

 

Félix González-Torres's artwork "Untitled" (Perfect Lovers) (1987-1990) at the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art
Image source

 

What's an artwork that you suspect that you shouldn't like, but you do (guilty pleasure)?

Anything Frida Kahlo and David Hockney

 

What's an artwork that you secretly hate?

Yeah I hate some things, you won't know, but there will be signs.

 

Fav monograph or art book?

Louise Bourgeois catalog from Cheim and Read 2001. The fabric works.

 

Fav museum or gallery in your current city?

I love PS1 because I'm always surprised by something unexpected. It also holds a lot of nostalgia for me.

 

Last exhibition you saw irl?
 

Kenny Rivero at Charles Moffet Gallery - A real knockout show

 

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

The Giotto Chapel in Padua

 

What art material do you love to nerd out on?

I love paint - I'm not sure it loves me

 

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

Gamelan

 

What's a book that changed your life?

I usually have several books I'm reading at once, but never finishing. But, Trickster Makes This World by Lewis Hyde is one that is really important to me.

 

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

As a family we just watched the entire Alien(s) franchise including Alien Earth, in movie chronological order. These movies are oddly timely.

❤

Arjan Zazueta (b. 1977, Loma Linda, CA) is a visual artist based in Brooklyn, NY. He received a BFA in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2002 and an MFA in Sculpture from Syracuse University in 2009. His primary work is grounded in drawing, focusing on color and form while considering the ways the figure, landscape, and abstraction can coexist. His exhibitions include Jenkins Johnson Projects, Brooklyn, NY, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY; Rush Arts, New York, NY; Dog and Pony Projects, Buffalo, NY; Bemis Underground, Omaha, NE; Munson Williams Proctor Museum of Art, Utica, NY, among others. He has attended residencies at The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Vermont Studio Center, and The Ora Lerman Trust at Soaring Gardens. He lives with his partner Jennifer Bryan, a fiction writer and his daughter Sadie and is a competitive powerlifter. 

For more info on Arjan Zazueta, visit his website and his Instagram!