Forum Art Space Presents:
ART on ART
featuring work by-
Christina Day
Harris Johnson
Will Laughlin
Brian Sabalausky
April 16th - May 15th, 2010
Historically, Art has been a term used to describe one’s skill or mastery. Phrases such as “The art of blacksmithing”, “the art of baking”, or “the art of drawing” were all used to describe a plethora of actions. The Arts, referred to music, theatre, and dance while an Artist also encompassed painters and sculptors. Court Artists became masters of a skill, which they used to earn a living glorifying their patrons .
Enter the twentieth century. After decades of intense turmoil and new artistic frontiers, the term has become much more faceted. No longer is beauty the defining quality of art, nor is there a single subject that art deals with. In fact, it seems that art has no bounds. It has become an institution of thought and association, utilizing the human senses to deliberately inflict tailored experience to an audience. Yet what then, does one wish to convey with this vast array of sensation?
Art on Art examines and showcases the work of four young artists working in the Cleveland and Akron area who build immensely and knowingly on Art. Will Laughlin continues West Coast Abstraction, picking up where artists like John Mclaughlin and Karl Benjamin left off. With his chronological (and geological) distance, Will is able to merge styles and ideas, acting almost as a curator while creating. Harris Johnson has been looking to Picasso, reevaluating style, thought and subject. These new paintings have little to no basis in reality, and instead explore the spatial relationship of the painting.
Christina Day’s work comes from a strong material love. Dissatisfied with the contemporary perception of glitter, she has integrated it and other ‘craft’ materials into painting. The eye-catching qualities of these materials fit into the role of painting, since they are also made to be looked at. Brian Sabalausky’s work is grounded in different concerns about contemporary art. Instead of drawing from the art itself, he pulls from the community and social standings that Art has formed. Looking at commodification and the formation of identity, his tongue-in-cheek work borrows from both sides of the advertisement industry, with the Art World as both subject and audience.
Pulling from both historical and contemporary sources, Art on Art examines, comments on, and explores multiple facets of Art.
