I have 2 major exhibitions in 2012, both in NYC.  Since I am putting my all into these shows, they are the only ones I will be involved with this year.  I think moving forward, I will be slowing down the pace at which I have shows and instead focus my energies on one or two events.  It is nice to give my mailing list a break from the slue of emails.

So my first show in May and will be at Irving Plaza NYC and my second will be a solo exhibition at the Dorian Grey Gallery (East 9th) in August.  That show is lining up with a very ambitious project I will be doing in-tandem with the show.   In the meantime, I will be in my studio working very hard for the next several months.  Follow my Tumblr account to see lots of art as I make it and I will be posting soon with more details about the shows!

P.S _ I’m not leaving WordPress, I’m just reserving it for larger posts.

That Saturday, I found myself doing some art consulting for Iona College down in NY.  I was told the storm wouldn’t start until around 5pm, giving me enough time to head up to my place and prepare after I was done.  Most importantly, move my art car from the trees it was parked under.   While at Iona, I look outside the window and it is a blizzard at noon.   So I excused myself and started heading home.  I made it about 10 miles and decided it was too dangerous (luckily my sister’s house was on the way) with branches falling onto the highway and cars spinning out.

I worried about my art car but thought it would be better to just hope for the best.  The next morning I drove up to my place and found this…

Devastating.   Surprisingly, the damage is somewhat minimal.  Yes, I will need to replace one of the side panels and re-draw it out.  I’m not yet sure if my insurance covers it either but given the size of the branch and where it fell from, it could have been much worse.

I consider myself lucky that there was not more damage than there was.  Besides which, I have some experience with events like this.  In college, the house that myself and my roommates were renting burnt to a crisp and I lost everything.  That taught me alot about material possessions and how to deal with negative events outside of your control.

No matter, moving on.

To clarify, the student meant a ‘full-time’ fine-artist.   To which I had to respond “I don’t know”.  Many know that I am not yet full-time in the art world and whereas I take my career very seriously, I have had to find alternative forms of income in order to pay the bills (and go out for sushi).   One, of course, is teaching and web development is another.

It is an interesting question and one that has no definitive answer.  What makes it truly interesting is that there are a great deal of young artists who desire to be full-time out of college.  My best advice for these artists is to think small.  You will have to find a job (unless you have support) and slowly build yourself up.  You could always hope for the overnight fame road, but that requires either truly extraordinary art or a billionaire backer.

This can’t be understated, but build up your portfolio.  Don’t expect to be in any gallery exhibition with a catalog of say, 20 paintings.  However, you can start looking to exhibit at libraries and restaurants, who are always open to new artists.  My first showing was at the Enfield library in northern CT.  It was the ugliest and most underdeveloped show on the planet… but it helped me evolve.

The reality is, don’t expect galleries to pay attention to you.  I was once told by a gallery owner (and not a renown one) that they received over a dozen artist inquires a day via email.  Meaning that most artists get completely overlooked.  However, that should not discourage anyone.  Your job as an aspiring artist is to dazzle gallery owners so that they are the ones trying to woo you. Yes, I said woo.

My biggest piece of advice is to either be serious about it or don’t even try.  Trying to become a full-time artist takes years and many aspiring artists give up after several months claiming that it was “too hard”.  So be tenacious and try not to get discourage.  Sometimes art is all about persistence.

Some seem to think that the highest grossing artists will be the ones that are remember.  The Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons connections as it were.  I however subscribe to a different school of thought. One that has so much more public power than the genres of these high-paid artists.  Street art.

To some, this is going to seem obvious.  Street art is the avenue of many young artists these days and it seems to get more press attention than any other forms of art.  But crucially, street art actually accomplishes something.  It breaks the law, changes view points and propagates itself on a global scale.  It refuses the institutions that rejected it for so long and instead focuses on the energies of a generation.  Not money.

With any iconic new genre, the galleries and museums begin to pay attention.  Much like the abstract expressionist movement and the pop movement to follow, the art world will eventually catch up.  Now, street art exhibitions draw larger crowds than seemingly well established artists. Why?

Street art is mysterious and powerful.  It conjures up the anti-establishment and gets us thinking outside of our highly civil and controlled universe.  With the over-saturation of public imagery, it was only natural for street art to come along and react to it.  Thus, the post-cursor to pop-art was not minimalism, but street art.  Pop-arts embrace of all things popular culture is exactly what street art pushes away from.

So when we look at an art history book in the year 2200, long after we’re all dead, we will look back to the street art movement.  A movement that inspired a generation of artists and changed our perception of what art can be and what it can mean.  Luckily, Hirst and Koons will only be footnotes in a meaningful interpretation of the early 21st century.

]]> http://tedmikulski.wordpress.com/2011/10/17/why-this-period-in-history-will-be-known-for-its-street-art/feed/ 1 tedmikulski street art street art street art http://tedmikulski.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/in-the-studio/ http://tedmikulski.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/in-the-studio/#comments Thu, 06 Oct 2011 22:45:02 +0000 tedmikulski http://tedmikulski.wordpress.com/?p=769 ]]> So as September comes to a close, so does all the exhibitions and events.  I found myself to be completely swamped with various happenings involving my work and as fun as that is, I am happy to have a break.   It is about time I focus on my work.  I truthfully haven’t been able to put some serious hours in since before my European adventure.  So I purposefully have not booked anything for the next few months so that I can focus on new work and the advancement of my current series.  For example, I am not looking into new ways of creating the “Peek-through” series…

This is just an experiment of course, but it is already more dramatic than the earlier Peek-Through works.   With some refinement, these can be extremely expressive.  I have also developed a new series I like to call “In Your Eyes” which features the ‘bubblification’ of CCTV cameras…

Two of these debuted at my show at Norwich University on the 30th.  They poke a little fun at this very serious and often invasive element of our society.

Beyond these new advancements, I will also be taking a more developed path regarding my robot sculptures.  You see, up until now, I have been hand-making each robot.  Unfortunately I cannot afford to have them fabricated yet, so I am stuck producing them myself.  Now I don’t mind that, but the way they are built now do not offer longevity of design.  The reality is that they are rather fragile and ten years from now I don’t want all of my hard work ending up in the garbage… with much dismay to the collectors.

Instead, I will be investing some of my money into silicon molding.   These materials are not cheap but I think they are crucial to the art and will make for outstanding final products.  So I will be starting with the small robots using silicon and resin.  If this process turns out to be successful, I can produce several dozen robots from a single mold and also have something that is limited edition.  If this process works then I will be moving to my large-scale robots as well.

So you can expect some great new work to come out of the studio in the coming months and stay tuned for a big show announcement for 2012!

Also, for those  of you who could not make it out to the lecture, here is that lecture on Youtube… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UcmDhaZy7w

September 9th (Friday) – Group exhibition at the Fernando Alvarez Gallery (Stamford, CT from 6-9pm) in tandem with the solo show of John Bedoya.  A new robot will be unveiled.  Show goes until mid October.

September 11th (Sunday) – The show that I have been curating for the past 8 months opens at Iona College from 1-3pm.  The show is called ‘Double Vision: A Collaborative Experience’ and features 10 exceptional artists (although I’m in it too) from New England and NYC.   Show goes until October 27th.

September 20th (Tuesday) – I will be the featured artist at ‘Art After Dark’, a social event put on by the Mystic Arts Center.  I will be creating a piece of art LIVE and it will not be a splatter painting! The event is from 6-9pm and costs $12 for non-members (though it has dinner and free drinks!).

September 24th (Saturday) – I am featured in “The Art of Contemporary Illustration” at the Bendheim Gallery, put on by The Greenwich Arts Council.  A group exhibition that runs until mid-November and opens on a Saturday from 1-3pm.  Show goes until November 6th.

September 24th (Saturday) – I will be on hand at the Iona College gallery to facilitate a collaborative painting with the general public, as well as giving a talk on the show.   I will be there from 2-5pm… It’s a busy day.
September 30th (Friday) – I will be giving a lecture at Norwich University (my alma-mater) alongside a solo exhibition.  The lecture is at noon and I will be talking about my hysterical and intriguing journey as an artist.  Show goes until mid October.

So needless to say, its a busy month.  On a side note, I am working on a huge new robot sculpture:

Made from fiberglass, this piece will top 7 feet and will be debuted at the Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery whenever it is finished.   Hopefully within the next 2 months….

Back in 2010, the Freight Street Gallery in Waterbury, CT had a show called LIMBO.  This show had an open call to artists to start a work and then by random selection, finish one of the works.  The result was very intriguing to me.  So I took this concept and went with a more hands-on approach.  So I selected 10 artists from New England and New York to participate in the show.  Some I’ve known for years, others I’ve never met.  All have exciting aesthetics and I knew would be fun to work with.  They were asked to start 2 works and then to finish 2 works for different artists.  An amazing array of work came in and an equally amazing array of finished works were completed.  The show opens this Sunday (Spetember 11th, 2011).  Here is an example:

This work was started by Dave Estes...

...and finished by Erica Harney

As you can see, the results are amazing.  Come see the 19 other collaborated pieces at “Double Vision: A Collaborative Experience” opening at Iona College on Sunday September 11, 2011.  Opening reception is from 1-3pm and food and beverage will be provided.  Hope to see you there! directions

Anyways, I might end up posting here a couple times during the trip but I just might be too busy sketching.   Cheers!