Coelacanth sculpture in progress for Underworlds Rising exhibition © Yi Zhou, Courtesy of RH Gallery, 2012

Some might recall Chinese artist Yi Zhou’s 2009 video for Pharell Williams, The Ear, which was a journey through a labyrinthian ear canal, serving as metaphorical bridge to another realm. Her sequel to this film was The Greatness, an animated short from 2010, depicting Williams’ head cast in the shape of a Grecian vase, that shatters from a bullet as part of a narrative referencing Dante’s journey through hell, purgatory and paradise in The Divine Comedy.

Using 3D digital technology, Yi Zhou successfully meshes sculpture and painting to create a vehicle for mythological and poetical explorations. In her first solo exhibition in RH gallery in New York, Yi Zhou has developed sculptures from the animated figments in the film that includes such grotesqueries as a Coelacanth fish eating a human heart.

Sculpture in progress, © Yi Zhou, Courtesy of RH Gallery, 2012

Coelacanth rendering © Yi Zhou, Courtesy of RH Gallery, 2012

Yi Zhou - From film, The Greatness - with Pharrell Williams' head, Courtesy of RH gallery, 2012

© Yi Zhou, Courtesy of RH gallery, 2012

Chinese-born Yi Zhou was raised in Hangzhou and Rome, and currently works out of Paris and Shanghai. Yi Zhou’s work evolves in dreamlike sequences characterized by elements inspired by her subconscious but is influenced aesthetically by both Western Surrealistic traditions as well as those formed from her Chinese heritage.

For more information:
RH Gallery 137 Duane Street, New York
Yi Zhou website

© Francesco Vezzoli, Natalie, with Vezzoli's mother's eyes Courtesy of Prada's 24 Hour Museum

Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli’s latest media ploy has been to design a pop-up museum, open for 24 hours, in collaboration with Prada and AMO, Rem Koolhaas’ think tank in Paris’ Palais d’Iéna. The temporary event will welcome the public in to the traditionally historic building for a night of magic, like a Cinderella’s ball, before it is dismantled the next day.

The theatrical premiere is organized into three event spaces, historic, contemporary and the forgotten, the first being a showcase of Vezzoli’s works enclosed in neon-lit metal cages on the ground floor of the building. Vezzoli poses his portraits of Hollywood divas in the style of classical Greco-Roman sculptures on marble pedestals – the sculptures wear masks with Vezzoli’s mother’s eyes. With these works, Vezzoli continues his exploration of red-carpet rituals of celebrity and stardom that will be further exploited with a party staged in conjunction with the event, and which will be live streamed on the internet. Also, on Facebook, the artist intends to have an interactive game in which he frames people’s faces in classical composites.

© Francesco Vezzoli, Cate Courtesy of Prada's 24 Hour Museum

© Francesco Vezzoli, Eva with Vezzoli's mother's eyes for Prada's 24 Hour Museum,

Vezzoli’s previous performance-events included a live tribute to Diaghilev he did with Lady Gaga and Frank Gehry at LA’s MOCA entitled Ballets Russes Italian Style (The Shortest Musical You Will Never See Again) 2009, and the Democrazy video with Sharon Stone and Bernard-Henri Lévy playing characters in a ficitional political campaign for Venice Biennale in 2007. Prada has also previously collaborated with artist Carsten Holler for the The Double Club, a pop up club in London in 2009.

More information:
24 h Museum – 24 – 25 January 2012
Palais d’Iéna, ADDRESS: 9, PLACE D’IÉNA, 75016 PARIS
TUESDAY 24 JANUARY 2012- WEDNESDAY 25 JANUARY 2012, 7.00 am – 8.30 pm
www.24hoursmuseum.com

The first air show at the Grand Palais in Paris, France. September 30th, 1909. Photographed in Autochrome Lumière by Léon Gimpel

While art fairs have become common, attracting patrons the world over – they are still a long way off from the extravagant theatricality of events from the past century.

An example is Paris’ Grand Palais, a building that was designed as the venue for singular happenings in the 19th c. and became a host for world fairs for over a hundred years.

Salon de locomotion aerienne 1909 - Grand Palais, Paris

Anish Kapoor Leviathan at Grand Palais, 2011

The pictures here show some of the exhibitions at Grand Palais over the last century, from the very first industrial air shows of the early 20th century to recent sculptural installations by Anish Kapoor and Bulgari’s Black Diamond.

The Air Show in the Grand Palais. Paris, October 1910. © Jacques Boyer / Roger-Viollet

Salon de l'Aviation au Grand Palais. Paris, octobre 1910.

The first Motor Show in the Grand Palais, 1901. © Mondial de l’automobile

Art Paris 2009. Art Paris viewed from the Great Staircase. Events © Collection Grand Palais, François Tomasi

Bulgari, 125 years of Italian magnificence (December 2010 10 - January 12 2011) a huge 30-foot black diamond… © Collection Grand Palais, François Tomasi

Jours de fêtes 2009. The 2nd edition was ablaze with colour © Collection Grand Palais, Cosimo Mirco Magliocca

More information: http://www.grandpalais.fr/en/

©Chris Marker, Untitled # 200, 2008-2010 Color photograph mounted on white Sintra 22 3/4 x 31 1/2 in. (57.8 x 80 cm) Printed 2011 Edition of 3 Courtesy of Peter Blum Gallery

French photographer and filmmaker, Chris Marker (b.1921), best known for his conceptual films Sans Soleil and La jetée, has a show of recent photographs at Peter Blum gallery entitled Passengers.

As an avid documentarian Marker had found an ideal recording device which could candidly photograph people in public spaces: a camera embedded in a wristwatch. Armed with this device he could pretend to check the time while discreetly capturing passersby on film. In this new series, taken in the Paris metro, he uses various photo devices to get a similarly candid feel.

© Chris Marker Untitled # 1, 2008-2010 Color photograph mounted on white Sintra 13 1/4 x 16 1/2 in. (33.7 x 42 cm) Printed 2011 Edition of 3, Courtesy of Peter Blum Gallery

©Chris Marker, Courtesy of Peter Blum Gallery Untitled # 3, 2008-2010 Color photograph mounted on white Sintra 13 1/4 x 16 1/2 in. (33.7 x 42 cm) Printed 2011 Edition of 3

Though this photo-journalistic technique is not unique, the sum of these images portray people caught in inward journeys, revealing fragments of their inner space: A private face, reserved for the time when one is alone, not expecting to be recognized; their bodies sag, their faces are deflated, lacking animation or engagement. People stare through black, opaque windows into the infinite distance.

Sometimes Marker digitally alters the images to enhance their impact – in the Soho Gallery there are 4 portraits of passengers juxtaposed next to historical paintings that draw parallels in aesthetic symmetry. Women being the photographer’s preferred subject, Marker projects his ideal onto their vacant public faces.

Many of Marker’s works are meditations on the moment, and travelogues that intersect physical space and memory. The 29 minute La jetée (1962), narrated through a series of photo-montages, depicts an experiment in time travel where the protagonist returns to an incident in his memory from his childhood in which he recalls an assassination – which later turns out to be his own. This simple, recursive and haunting plot from the era of French new wave films, precedes by decades, such films as Inception with their overwhelming dependence on digital acrobatics.

Untitled # 202, 2008-2010 Color photograph mounted on white Sintra 24 3/4 x 31 1/2 in. (62.9 x 80 cm) Printed 2011 Edition of 3 © Chris Marker, Courtesy of Peter Blum Gallery

Untitled # 201, 2008-2010 Color photograph mounted on white Sintra 25 x 31 1/2 in. (63.5 x 80 cm) Printed 2011 Edition of 3 © Chris Marker, Courtesy of Peter Blum Gallery

Untitled # 203, 2008-2010 Color photograph mounted on white Sintra 25 x 31 1/2 in. (63.5 x 80 cm) Printed 2011 Edition of 3 © Chris Marker, Courtesy of Peter Blum Gallery

Chris Marker, now in his 90’s, continues to experiment with new technologies and humour. Also, at the Chelsea gallery, is a folder containing Chris Marker’s postcards. This series of postcards of “How a Grinning Cat Visits the HISTORY OF ART” is worth a peek. Some time in late 2001 the graffiti of a grinning cat, called M. Chat, more grin than body, began appearing on the Paris streets – and spreading quickly in notoriety, began to be used on political posters and demonstrations occurring in France at the time. Incidentally Chris Marker’s own cat stars in another of his short “bestiary” films – which form part of the diverse reveries of this provocative and imaginative filmmaker.

Chris Marker's Postcard showing M.Chat in Jan Van Eyck, published by Peter Blum Edition in 2009.

Chris Marker's Postcard showing M.Chat in Vincent Van Gogh, published by Peter Blum Edition in 2009.

There is a book accompanying the exhibition, Passengers, published by Peter Blum Gallery.
Passengers – April 2-June 4, 2011 at Peter Blum, Soho – 99 Wooster Street & Peter Blum, Chelsea – 526 West 29th Street

Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, Adams Theater, Detroit

Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre met online in 2002, drawn by their love of contemporary ruins. Meffre was only aged 15 when he met Marchand, and they began visiting ruins in the suburbs of Paris to capture the lost grandeur of old movie theaters and document architecture in decline. In the beginning they took images separately, but after investing in a large format 4×5, they began their collaboration. They spoke to me recently from Paris about their photographic project, “Detroit in Ruins,” published by Steidl in 2010.

Their visions of Detroit are the record of a fallen empire. What makes the duo’s work different from Robert Polidori’s photographs of post-deluge New Orleans and Chernobyl is that their focus is not a record of the aftermath of a natural disaster but of slow decay, caused by neglect. The photographs reveal the exotic in the ordinary and observe what is overlooked: dilapidated habitations, the hidden backs of dwellings, obsolete machinery, utilities in disrepair, the absurdity of once hi-tech systems, the extravagance of architecture devoid of function. The simple poignancy of a disused dentist’s chair seems to reflect on the collective failure of a civilization to rise. But Detroit is only one of many world cities, and these images are universal in their depiction of the fragility of human empire-building.

© Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, Detroit in Ruins, Ticket Lobby Michigan Central Station

© Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, Detroit in Ruins, Telephone Switch Board, Fort Shelby Hotel, Detroit

Working as a team, the photographers have formed a creative bond, sharing a vision so strongly, they tend to finish each others’ sentences in conversation.

I asked, why America? It is a place where old things are replaced quickly, and still a country evolving its sense of antiquity.

“We’d been taking pictures around Paris when we saw images of Detroit,” said Meffre. “It seemed much more a world-city falling apart. In France there were smaller places – but Detroit looked like a ghost town compared with elsewhere.” It was their interest in modern decay that drew them to America. Says Meffre, “It depends on what you are looking for, Americans probably have the best architectural heritage from the 20s. That is the place where big buildings were made. Early American buildings of the 20th century are symbolic in a way you would not find anywhere else.”

In Asia and in developing countries the speed of urban renewal is much faster than in countries with slower economic climates. “Sometimes buildings are around for only 20 years before they are demolished to make something bigger,” continues Meffre, “In Detroit it is the opposite: nothing was rebuilt and very few buildings were made in the 50s – buildings remained derelict, and those that were demolished were replaced by parking lots. It is a very unusual concept of a city.”

Apart from the decline of the automobile industry, Detroit’s story is one of self-destruction that began with its policies of racial segregation. The wealthy whites migrated to the suburbs fleeing the influx of African-Americans seeking economic opportunities, creating a white noose around the increasingly poor black inner-city, choking off funding for its infrastructure and the cultural incentives it needed to survive.

The boom and bust cycles have left architectural residues – collapsing rings around Detroit’s urban sprawl. Still, we rarely let things lie as our civilization constantly looks back on its own traces, reexamining its own recorded past, too busy dissecting and foraging its own history to let things turn into relics. It is rewarding then to see that a few decades of neglect and forgetfulness can reveal such resonant windows into our past.

I asked why they thought the owners of these deserted properties had chosen to forget them. “It depends,” said Meffre, “most of the building owners in downtown are billionaires who own entire blocks. The price went too low, and there were no valuable projects. They were waiting to turn them into condos and new lofts – the owners have been waiting for 30 years…”

They cannot remain vacant forever. I imagined that they would eventually be demolished?

“It might happen in downtown Detroit within a few years,” says Marchand. “Most of the buildings we’ve been to will be converted into luxury condominiums. They try to make rich people from the suburbs move back downtown. But in other areas where they have no money for electricity and rent, they have to close the buildings. So they are sitting empty and decaying, waiting to be demolished or to fall apart.”

© Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, Detroit in Ruins, Dentist Cabinet Broderick Tower

On the other hand who can complain when vast tracts of downtown Detroit are being reclaimed by nature. Like the ancient temples of Cambodia the earth always wins against the will of men. The city’s asphalt is cracking open and reverting back to prairie; foxes and deer are making malls and parking lots their new hunting grounds. The green invasion may enable a new vision for urban agriculture.

The pair do extensive research before each trip, and I had wondered how they had come across the dilapidated buildings and gained permission to enter them. “We researched from books,” says Marchand, “and also online Google maps, Bing maps; aerial views where you can find potentially closed buildings. Concerning access, we usually wait for the door to be opened by some scavenger… admits Marchand, wistfully adding that “in Detroit it was just a matter of time [before these buildings disappeared]… Even when Detroit tries to secure them, it will not stay that way for very long.”

They had a similar experience photographing old movie theaters and performance spaces: “It was not possible to modernize or renovate the big theaters. Most of them are sitting there to be developed into a concert hall or a new project but [sometimes] they are too big… In New York, Chicago Los Angeles, it is the same. A lot of them are being demolished.”

© Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, Detroit in Ruins, Public Schools Book Depository, Detroit

In some ways they are modern archeologists, unearthing the forgotten splendors of the past, the abandoned and the discarded leftovers of civilization. Were they interested in going back deeper into the past, to photograph castles and mansions of old Europe?

“Sometimes we go back earlier to the 19th century,” said Meffre. And in Europe they had explored remodeled castles that went back originally to the 16th century: “It is monumental, delusional architecture. [But] we are more interested in the current epoch,” said Romain Meffre.

Though the Detroit premises are largely devoid of people, they remain stained by the lives of those that had inhabited them, which makes them more captivating than the hosed-down artifacts of museum archives. The photographers try to add notes on their histories, their architecture, and function. “We try to find pictures of the place while it was alive just to imagine how it was,” said Meffre, “there are also lots of books concerning how those places were before; and we get a lot of emails from people who tell us they used to live in these places. Quite moving.”

© Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, Detroit in Ruins, Remains of blood samples, Highland Park Poilice Station, Detroit

At the Highland Park Police Station they came across blood samples and evidence from the investigation of a Detroit serial-killer who had murdered several women.

So you photograph these remnants, then leave them, and walk away?

“We try – we don’t know what happens – it is on Ebay probably right now… we can find some of the old polaroids being sold on Ebay,” they say, amused by the sudden onset of interest.

Once unearthed, photographed and published, the places are irrevocably changed, and attention can either bring the public’s awareness to the need for preservation, or it can hasten demise. “A lot of the buildings are not very cheap and we hope that some people will buy and restore them,” says Meffre. “Sometimes attempts are made, and at times it doesn’t work. As Detroit is coming back and there is international attention, people will realize maybe there is a lot of heritage buildings and some people want to preserve them – but there just is no money.”

Some of the sites seemed abandoned in a hurry, as though disaster struck mid-day, Pompeiian-style, leaving dusty closets still filled with clothes, kitchens fully stocked, the grand concert halls had suddenly emptied, laboratories appear to be deserted in the midst of experiments. One almost hopes, that like enchanted palaces, they remain buried for another thousand years, preserved as time-capsules for future treasure-hunters to break their spell.

© Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, Detroit in Ruins, Laboratory-Cass Technical High School, Detroit

© Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, Detroit in Ruins , Lobby Broderick Tower, Detroit

© Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, Detroit in Ruins, Old Lobby Michigan Theater, Detroit

Here is poem that resonates to me on the rise and fall of past ambitions, Shelley’s Ozymandias:

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveler from an antique land 

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, 

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, 

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read 

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, 

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal these words appear: 

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: 

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

View more photographs by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre

Video Still, "Joie de Vivre" by Ruth Hogben for Gareth Pugh, Courtesy of Ruth Hogben, 2010

At the opening of Paris’ Fall fashion week Gareth Pugh opted out of the usual runway display and showcased his designs instead with an eleven minute video done in collaboration with filmmaker Ruth Hogben.  Hogben came to my attention through her earlier work for Celine and  Pugh with her original use of lighting and texture, which emphasized the sensuality of both the fabric and the wearer.

Hogben had worked with Nick Knight on Alexander McQueen’s last show, and also on videos for Lady Gaga’s recent stage performances. I asked the young filmmaker about her inspirations and aspirations for carving out a new medium for herself.

KL: How did you first start assisting Nick Knight?
RH: I studied photography first; I wanted to be a photographer since I was twelve.  I was very persistent and we went to the same secondary school and it was probably my winning letter that I wrote. I always wanted to learn from him. I had two or three years of assisting others and learning from my mistakes. And then I finally applied and worked for Nick – worked very, very hard for a few years. I was the motorized magazine rack – give me three seconds to reload the film …

When Nick went to digital, I had to take a step back – you didn’t need four people to change the lens on a Hasselblad and so I had to reinvent myself. [Later], I was at a Visionaire shoot, and kept looking through the view-finder and Lily (Cole) was playing with motion and light, and I said to Nick that I thought there was some really nice footage there, and could I edit it? I then spent half a day in the studio learning Final Cut. Nick and Charlotte (his partner) were very supportive and let me use the footage and the soundtrack; they gave me a lot of freedom – then, it was two years of editing, of trying and playing, and working hard.

Gareth Pugh S/S 2011 Collection – Director: Ruth Hogben from SHOWstudio on Vimeo.

KL: Are you inspired by the architectural forms in Gareth Pugh’s designs?
RH: The third film (Joie de Vivre) was influenced by art deco architecture. That was how I approached the film, making her into a building, making her very tall. But then she moved so well – and gave me so many varying poses, it meant I could go wild when I had an amazing soundtrack. The audio is by Lukid. I talked with him about the film I wanted to make and he went away for a couple of weeks and came back with something that fit so perfectly that we decided to go with it instead of starting from scratch.

KL: What’s the difference between this work and making a music video?
RH: Fashion drives my inspiration. I’d be quite scared to be led by music; it’s not how I really work. I work with the beat but as a way of accentuating the work.

Video still from Director Ruth Hogben's film for Celine

KL: Do you choreograph the movement?
RH: For Celine (Perfect) I was led by the lines of how the coat moved. But with the leather jacket, when she rolled her shoulders, the leather just moved in this sexual way…The movement is a fine line between the freedom of expression in the way the model feels as a woman inside the clothes, to how I think the movement should be communicated.

KL: The movement when it is slowed down is very erotic. You get to really see how the human body moves.
RH: I never really thought about how I slow things down. But sometimes I just feel the viewer needs to appreciate what I am showing them, and in real-time you don’t get to appreciate a crease or a movement; it gets the audience time to breathe it in. But it does push it away from reality, which is sometimes right for certain films – or sometimes isn’t. I also repeat, I accentuate… I am not a trained editor and don’t follow conventions of the film genre.

KL: Maybe you are creating a new genre – it’s more like a performance.
RH: Whatever edit rule I use, I just feel it. It’s a visual language that pleases me. I just follow my instinct.

I am building on something already incredible, and I make it more graphic or sumptuous with backgrounds, makeup, movement and wind. I am communicating through a performance, a film. I adore working with Gareth; his work is so strong. In the initial stages he spends a long time speaking about how he feels about his work, then he lets me react to it…With Gaga it was more fashion oriented…there were art pieces embedded in the concerts – but she also gave me a lot of freedom.

SHOWstudio: The Fashion Body – Buttocks from SHOWstudio on Vimeo.

KL: Do you think the artist in you takes over – or are you just showing the clothes to the best advantage?
RH: That’s a bit tricky. I try to improve on my past work. I’ve been working with a great DOP, Simon Chaudoir and learning a lot, playing with lenses, feeling more confident…

But the communication between Gareth and I hasn’t changed. I refine the communication, and with film it is a lot more direct than with a still photograph. I fine-tune the communication with the pace of the edit and movement. I don’t think as an artist I overtake his work, but knowing the medium more, helps improve what and how I communicate his vision.

I spent 4 months working with Gaga, and when I finished I needed to do a film that was purely just for me. It was self-funded. It will go to some festivals, and I love how it is presented and shown at Showstudio; I love working with the team there, and I get a lot of control of how the film looks.

[In my videos] I try to show what type of a woman she is in a thick heavy wool coat; or a flowy see-through dress. It all means something and I try to understand what that means and communicate it on a whole new level.

Martin Margiela's "Wig-Coat," in Make Up Your Mind, directed by Nick Knight and Ruth Hogben

Make up your Mind

KL: You communicate that without clothes too, through the movement of flesh. Showing women’s bodies in a different way is challenging because it’s one of the most exploited subjects in art.
RH: Those two burlesque dancers were so much fun to work with (See Buttocks above). I love fashion and I love women. I study skin moving – making it look like milk and being inspired by Man Ray’s daylight nudes. I am lucky to live in this time with this new medium – this touchable way of using digital formats. [And also] having all these exquisite artists to be pulling on like Man Ray, Helmut Newton and Allen Jones – but putting my own spin on them. It’s important that we question ourselves as women, about equality – I think a lot about whether a stripper is an object or is she something to be desired, and whether that’s powerful enough. I’d like to do a lot more work in exploring women and their bodies, and whether they are just pieces of meat or whether they are something to enjoy in splendour and celebrate. There is a fine line between exploitation and celebration. I am lucky to be working in this time where fashion film has a platform.

Ruth Hogben  video for Phillipe Starck

KL: Is your work just part of the fashion world – or do you consider yourself an artist.
RH: I don’t know how to answer. I did a film for Phillipe Starck – a still-life of a chair– shot and lit in different ways with calligraphy writing; it abstracted the shapes…brought out the form of the chair and then faded away…I don’t quite know what that is, or what I should call myself – I love it and feel it and put my heart and soul it.

“Joie de Vivre,” Gareth Pugh’s A/W 2010 Collection (Directed by Ruth Hogben).

For more information on credits view Ruth Hogben/Gareth Pugh’s Joie de Vivre at Showstudio.

View of the The Louvre's Ceiling by Cy Twombly Photo: Christophe Ena

Giotto's star-ceiling in the Cappella Scrovegni, Padua.

Cy Twombly’s newly commissioned ceiling at the Louvre in Paris is monumental in scale, and covers more than 350 square meters. It was painted with the assistance of several artists and apprentices in a warehouse outside Paris before being affixed like wallpaper to the ceiling of the Salle des Bronzes. Looking up one sees an immense blue sky, painted with spheres and white insets inscribed with the names of leading Greek sculptors from the 4th century: Cephisodotus, Lysippus, Myron, Phidias, Polyclitus, Praxiteles and Scopas. The round shapes appear like shields, planets, or coins, while the blue background evokes either the sky or the sea.

Cy Twombly is the third contemporary artist invited to install a permanent work at the Louvre. He follows in the footsteps of a long lineage of artists including Le Brun, Delacroix, Ingres that have been honored in this tradition.  In the 20th century, the invitation has been extended to Georges Braque, (who has painted a ceiling with black birds against a starry midnight-blue sky ) and more recently to François Morellet, and in 2007 to Anselm Kiefer.

Though Twombly is American born, he has been living in Italy since 1959, and this work not only evokes the spirit of the Mediterranean, but also the colors of Chinese prints, and the lapis lazuli paint used by Italian Renaissance artist Giotto – who the artist says he has also been inspired by.

By Kiša Lala

Diane Detalle

French-born artist Diane Detalle has very unique conceptions about the creative process. A trader-turned artist, Detalle now lives and paints out of an elegant Tribeca loft whose walls are adorned with her sizable canvases. Sitting in her office, she effortlessly describes her paintings with a far-away look in her eyes, whimsically re-creating their emergence.

With a range of up to 4 years to finish and a base of collectors reaching Buenos Aires, Paris, London, and Toronto, Detalle is an emerging talent that is being recognized the world over. SPREAD ArtCulture visited her studio for a tour and a synopsis of her work, influences, and background.

SPREAD ArtCulture: Tell us about your creative process.

Diane Detalle: I see a specific color or texture and I will think about it and be a part of a visual stage. When I go into an apartment or a gallery or museum, I always visualize something on all sides. The process is I go to an art store and buy my materials. I choose the texture, I choose the colors, I choose the material, then I bring it here [the studio] and I start playing with it. It’s like a game for me. I start mixing it, and it’s a very strange thing how it comes together in its own way and what I seek the most in my art is balance. I’m all about the balance. I do big canvases and I always try to figure out the balance. Working on the floor, it gives me the opportunity to be over the work, which gives me more perspective. After that, I look into the texture: am I going to use the knife or am I going to drip? I don’t know. It’s a bit like a love story, I walk with it. It starts with me and finishes with the canvas.

I usually create when I’m bored; I like being a risk taker. It’s my calling to do what I want and to create. It’s a conversation with yourself. I start something and then go back to it. It goes in different directions. You can get frustrated. It starts drying and you don’t want it to, so you have to start creating something else. Colors inspire me also.

SAC: What kind of story does a blank canvas tell you when you sit down with it?

DD: It’s usually very soft. It’s a very unique moment that I’ve never experienced in anything else. It’s a bliss. The creation process keeps going, even when the canvas doesn’t react the way that I want. It’s a blind journey and as I’m walking through it, it’s only good discoveries. Some take years to complete. It’s frustrating, as it can be in any love story.

On the floor of Diane Detalle's Tribeca Studio

SAC: What is your background prior to becoming an artist?

DD: Painting is in my family. My grandfather painted, as did my father. We always had easels and canvases around. I really started contemplating painting when I moved to New York. I was a banker in London, then moved to New York, where I worked on the trading floor. I had a big apartment with big, white walls and no real money to buy art and I kept visiting galleries and thinking, “I could do this.” I went to buy some paint on Canal Street and a big canvas.

This memory came to me lately: when I was a child, my mother had a friend who was an art dealer. he had this massive canvas, which was not usual at the time to have in your house. Even in her kitchen she had a huge canvas. I was so intrigued by it. I thought it was incredibly magical. It was like having a big window. I always thought that one day I would have big paintings like that. It was really a goal I’ve always had.

SAC: Who are some of your influencers?

DD: I’ve been compared to Pollock, but I’ve not copied him. I was frustrated and started dripping the paint and it just happened, and it was cool. He moves me a lot. When I visit his room at the MoMA, I’m definitely moved. I love Rothko and Goya, but at the same time, I’ve not a figurative person.

SAC: Do you do mostly spec pieces of do people commission your work?

DD: I’ve had both. Commission are difficult pieces for me. There’s always an expectation. Normally, it’s just between me and the canvas, but when someone’s expecting something, it’s different. Most pieces I sell are from the shows, where people come and call instantly fall in love with the works.

SAC: What do you want people to experience the first time they see your work?

DD: I want them to be moved. I want them to see some magic. If they’re buying it, I want them to take it home and live with it. It’s very personal and you have to look at it every day.

Diane Detalle