Contextual Painting

This studio takes place in the Future.

Art takes place in the future. In a space envisioned but not yet experienced. What does a world beyond the current social constructs of class, race, and gender looks like, a society that has replaced power-serving structures with care systems? I want you to feel, breathe, occupy that future space; you are entitled to it. Color it in with as many details as possible, and please, report back in your works. After all, the line between the real and the imagined is a mirror.

Our work towards radical imagination is twofold. First, unlearn our fear and scarcity-based socialization ( fear of blackness, brownness, fatness, transphobia, disability, difference, otherness, fear of scarcity of resources), and build the muscle of a pleasure-based imagination. Nurture an imagination based on a feeling of inert adequacy and natural abundance. Secondly, filter this future vision in a way that can start becoming accessible to the mainstream today.

This studio takes place in the Here and Now.

Your peers are your biggest allies and asset. We will expand our toolbox through regular group and skill-sharing exercises, make space for healing and trauma processing, and nurture a collective agency. What freedoms can we already enjoy, right here, right now in this group setting?

This is a Trans- space. Trans-Media, Trans-Genre, and Transgender.

Pleasure is your compass. Find the Yes!

What is Your Trigger? What is the one thing you have such a positive emotional reaction to that it overrides your fear and catapults you to, well, a climax? Grid. Shape. Form. Color. Line. Gesture. Pattern. What brings you pleasure, right here, right now? Start there.

Kill the Masterpiece offer Access.

I think it is essential to emphasize and demonstrate access in your practice. The construct of the masterpiece and the artist as a (male) genius is outdated and exclusionary, and frankly, I don’t think the art world can afford to be either right now. I see successful art-making as an open-source system in which at least the idea is publicly accessible and can be viewed, changed, and edited by the viewer. This is also how I see a successful art professorship. An open system where ideas and resources are publicly available and can be viewed, modified, and used by the students.

The Art Market

I would be remiss not to note how the current market system often works against the very principles that make art possible. Art is a progressive process, naturally geared towards change and innovation. The market, however, is a system of commodifying the art object as a status symbol, feeds on repetition, and thus always gravitates towards the status quo. That is a paradox all artists have to work with. While the class is geared to teach students to use their “art muscle” and think originally, we will also have an extensive discussion on what it ultimately means to be a part of the market today and, most importantly, how we can continue the work of subverting it. There are certain paths to success in the existing system, mostly made for white male artists; we will explore ways to carve one’s own path.