My mom made paintings with me as a kid and it was something I was always inspired by since then. Then I went to school and started showing at galleries and people kept showing me support, so it showed me I was doing something good.

So what’s your art about?

I explore shape, space, art history, color, and context.

How important is the emotional aspect of art?

My artwork changes everyday because I’m always keeping track of and reproducing processes throughout different bodies of work. Sometimes the actual process of painting can be emotional due to the building and deconstructing of layers in the work. It takes time to produce my work and once I change it, it can affect me because I feel that sometimes those changes are drastic.

What are you currently working on?

A minimal series in which I use just a few colors and shapes throughout the body of work.

Have you been to any exhibit or seen a work of art that transformed your life or change your way of thinking?

Several times I’ve been to great art shows. For example, the Francis Bacon retrospective at Met. The Jules Olitsky retrospective at Goldman Warehouse. I’m influenced by a variety of other shows and artists.

You are part of the upcoming group show Futurespective. Can you tell us more about the exhibit?

I believe in the group of artists that were chosen to be a part of this show. I believe they are all great artists.

Do you listen to music when you paint? What is your perfect soundtrack?

I love Spotify—it allows me to listen to all kinds of different and related artists. Sometimes, I enjoy listening to the Miami Heat or Miami Hurricanes on the radio.

What else do you have planned for 2013?

Marrying my beautiful lady, Kristen Soller.

Congratulations!

Words: Heike Dempster

The post EMERGING: David Marsh appeared first on Wonderland.

Your latest solo exhibition, “Americana”, explored American culture and society. Where were you going with this idea?

Americana is an offspring of a series called Dogville which is based on Lars Van Trier’s film of the same name. I was working on pieces for the Dogville series for about a year and I made the Nuclear Family piece. It got me thinking that since I have a solo show coming up I can transition into something else. All the issues that I was working on Dogville could easily be focused into an American context. What really interests me about the works is the complex nature of violence, how habitualization and socialization are forms of violence and how this can lead an individual to also be violent.

What sparked your interest in social structures, individual identity and the relationship between the two?

Ever since I can remember I was defensive and sensitive to the idea of an individual’s identity and the possible coercion of social structures. Reading Dostoevsky’s “Notes from Underground” when I was younger had a real life changing impact, I couldn’t believe how close I felt to this story. Dostoevsky’s story is all about an individual struggling against the idea of a perfect society of reason and beauty, symbolized by the Crystal Palace. Something within me gravitates to this struggle everyone goes through, I don’t exactly know why.

Why the focus on anxiety and violence, then?

No matter what subject I set out to portray it ends up having a sense of violence and anxiety within it. I think that deep down I don’t trust people and I certainly don’t trust groups. Apart from anything personal, violence is fascinating because, like humor, it’s a transcendental part of society that expresses a lot about the darker more irrational aspects of society itself.

So that sense of danger in your paintings is deliberate?

Yes, there is usually danger just lurking around the corner. One of the first paintings I ever showed was a group of boys around a fire. A very typical Boy Scout camp fire, but I turned it into a potentially threatening ritual in which the group sacrifices one of its members. I definitely don’t plan adding lurking danger in my images but it’s something that is natural about what I make art about.
　
In your recent work you use Xs to mark people’s faces. Could you elaborate?

The first time I found myself using an X in an image, it was purely an act of aggression or disgust for what I seeing in the image. After this I started realizing the amazing implications of a mark like an X. The X is usually used as a symbol of negation or death. Lots of times it’s also a state of mind in my pictures. Often the central characters in the pictures have some sort of mind or perception control over the other characters and their is an interplay of symbols on the characters hands, faces and foreheads.

Have you made any new observations on American culture that you’re planning to explore?

I’m very interested in the detachment that come along with technology in society. Even though we can connect with one another in all sorts of new and faster ways, people are more lonely and detached than ever.

spinelloprojects.com/farley-aguilar

Words: Heike Dempster

The post EMERGING: Farley Aguilar appeared first on Wonderland.

Why are you so drawn to council estates?

It’s not necessarily because they’re council estates. I like showing people’s existence without having to shoe people – their laundry lines and lights. I think early council estates are really beautiful buildings, because of the care and attention put into them at the time. I try to represent that by incorporating as much detail into them.

You’ve painted recognizable east London sights like the infamous Pembury estate, where the riots kicked off. Why?

I’m an observer and I live round here. I just see buildings I like and I try to read up as much as possible on them. The amount of work that went into the Pembury Estate is crazy when you think about it. It’ll never happen again.

What’s the creation process like?

The main image for this show took me about a month. I start on watercolour paper, stretched out onto board. Then I work in lots and lots of layers of Indian ink. I’m using tiny little pots so I get through quite a lot of those! Then I build in the detail on top.

When did you start painting buildings?

About two or three years ago, during my MA. I lived in Norwich before, but I grew up in a little village. When I moved to London, I moved to the big city for the first time and I was very intrigued by it.

When did you start painting?

My mum and dad are both from art backgrounds. I used to paint with my mum in her little studio.

And we hear that you used to be a bricklayer…?

I wouldn’t say I was a bricklayer, I worked for a year as a labourer! A lot of that influenced my work though. I start at nine and try to do a full day’s work, that sort of work ethic comes from being a labourer. I was really bored when I was doing that, because there wasn’t any creativity, but it makes you work as hard as possible at doing what you want to do. You forget how lucky you are if you get to do art and go to art school.

Do you think that in the digital age, people are losing traditional art skills like painting?

I don’t think people’s skills have gone, I think they don’t have time to do it. People want things really quickly now.

So what do you say to all the people who think that council estates are grim?

I wouldn’t want to paint something I actually thought was ugly! I think my paintings look moody, but there’s a beauty about them as well.

Do you have a favourite building in London?

Arnold Circus in Shoreditch is beautiful, but it’s almost too nice to suit my work!

What are your influences?

I don’t really look at a lot of illustrators. A few of my tutors were influential. And Hopper, obviously. Plus George Shaw, which is quite weird because I didn’t know his work before, but it’s quite similar to mine. It’s just one of those things that sort of happens!

Frank Laws’ London Bits exhibition will run from 25 July till 24 August at the Orange Dot Gallery, 11am-5pm, 54 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9RG.

Words: Zing Tsjeng

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