Interview with JOLENE LAI:

Your childhood ambition:

Fly. I would sprint really fast through zigzagging crowds of people on the streets without a collision. I had believed that the process, if done swiftly, would somehow lead to levitation, and if and when it happened, flapping my arms vigorously would allow me to take off. I guess I wasn’t fast enough.

Something you treasure:

My dreams. Some of them have such rich and contrasting colors that continue to linger in my waking hours. Or the otherworldly characters whom I encounter that are equally sinister and enigmatic. I think essences of my dreams subconsciously appear in my paintings, resulting in psychedelic color palettes and peculiar subjects.

Your worst habit:

Fruit Loops. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Had quit the addiction, and then my friend Aaron Geman had to come up with a new and ingenious approach to eat this cereal. So, looping myself back into these sinful fruity circles.

http://m.instructables.com/id/Cereal-Tea/?ALLSTEPS

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

The narrative part of it. It’s always challenging to weave and fuse somber and whimsy as a pair, with an added tinge of provocative into the storyline, and still managing to not churn out gore.

Your first job:

Waitressing at a restaurant that specialized in ribs. My colleagues and I had a great time concocting a special tartar sauce for a very nasty and rude customer. Be nice to your servers.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

Eugenio Recuenco—photographer. Breathtakingly spellbinding, and where nightmares come to life.

See more of Jolene Lai’s work here.

Interview with RICCARDO MAGHERINI:

Your childhood ambition:

To be a superhero. And a barber, during the pauses from being a superhero.

Something you treasure:

Pleasure.

Your worst habit:

Thinking too much.

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

The taste that gives me to do it.

Your first job:

Caster, in a jewelry lab.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

Richard Serra, Jesper Just, Anders Petersen, Desiree Dolron.

See more of Riccardo Magherini’s work here.

Interview with TOBBE MALM:

Your childhood ambition:

I wanted to be a hockey player.

Something you treasure:

Free speech, love and solidarity.

Your worst habit:

Eating too much ice cream.

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

I want to express something true by capturing moments, meeting with other people and situations from life. I always try to do it my way. I used to say to myself, “Remember that you are free to do and express what you want.”

Your first job:

I was 15 years old and worked some weekends in a hospital for mentally ill people.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

I recommend Malin Engström.

http://sculpturaldrawing.com/

See more of Tobbe Malm’s work here.

Interview with FRANK BJORKLUND:

Your childhood ambition:

Architect. I’ve always been interest in constructions. My favorite building is Fred and Ginger, Prague. I’ve built and designed more than 15 houses during the years.

Something you treasure:

A little invention of man called TIME.

Your worst habit:

To misplace glasses. (I need them when I paint details.)

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

Every picture should tell a story (in general for all). Political, environmental, existential, and so on. But I’m not so interested in the answers. I like the questions, why, where, time?

Your first job:

Driving a forklift on an industrial site.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

Ola Billgren, (1940-2001) Swedish painter, photorealism.

See more of Frank Björklund’s work here.

Bacchanal
Oil
2013
125×105 cm

Pablo & Francesca
Oil
2013
90×70 cm

Amazons
Oil
2015
135×140 cm

Two Lovers
Oil
2012
100×75 cm

Interview with NICK ALM:

Your childhood ambition:

I had no ambition at all. Just lived in the moment.

Something you treasure:

Nice weather!

Your worst habit:

Thinking in circles.

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

Right now I would say composition.

Your first job:

Illustrator.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

Odd Nerdrum.

See more of Nick Alm’s work here.

State of the Union
41 x 66
oil on canvas
2011

Breaking News
18 x 24
oil on canvas
2013

Dinosaurs Eating CEO
55 x 60
oil on canvas
2013

Fatigue (Version 2)
48 x 60
oil on canvas
2011

Terrarium
32 x 36
oil on canvas
2012

Interview with JOHN BROSIO:

Your childhood ambition:

My childhood ambition was to be a herpetologist—basically study and work with reptiles, mainly snakes in my case. Had I gone ahead with that I would have of course gotten into conservation and possibly toxicology. Many of my early drawings were of reptiles.

Something you treasure:

What I treasure most are the people in my life. My fiancée, my friends, my family. But that is the boring answer, no? If I had to pick something silly?! I have some really cool masks and movie costumes that are still a lot of fun. At one point I was going to go into creature and monster making and a good deal of that is left over. In a way I am glad I did not pursue that career since so much of it is now typed into a keypad instead of sculpted and molded. There are some very, very talented folks who have been sent out to pasture by the excess of CGI, much of which is still too cartoony. As for right now I am looking forward very much to the next Star Wars film as JJ Abrams and LucasFilm have made the claim that they are using computer imagery as one of their tools in the midst of a return to models, sets, costumes, etc. I am eager for the results.

Your worst habit:

Worst habit?! You trying to start trouble?!!! Let’s just say that distraction and procrastination are always the end result.

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

The aspect of my work that is most important to me is the freedom. And what I mean by it is the freedom to explore what I want. And not only does that have to do with circumstance, luck, finance, and all of that, but it is also quite necessarily particular to art. Critic and writer Robert Hughes wrote a book on painter Frank Auerbach. In the front of the book he states:

“Auerbach’s work suggests a way…out of the morass of ambivalence and coarsened self-reflexiveness in which so much of the art of the last twenty years has foundered. It reminds us that painting may still connect us to the whole body of the world, being more than just a conduit for debate about novelty, cultural signs and stylistic relations…What counts most in Auerbach’s work is the sense it projects of the immediacy of experience—not through the facile rush of most neo-expressionist painting, but in a way that is deeply meditated, impacted with cultural memories and desires which do not condescend to the secondhand discourse of quotation…Auerbach’s struggle (is) not to ‘express himself,’ but to stabilize and define the terms of his relations to the real, resistant and experienced world: which is what art must do, today as yesterday, if it is to be more than chatter.”

To be working in a field that allows me this kind of exploration is what is most important to me. It is rare. And I am lucky to be able to attempt it.

Your first job:

My first job ended up not happening. My cousin had gotten a summer job working at an ice cream shop. I wanted to do the same but my father prevented it. I forget why but he was very proud of being able to support his family. My summers, though dotted with little jobs here and there, were primarily free. Between junior and senior year of high school I got a job doing storyboards for New World Pictures but never got paid in the end.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

It is very difficult for me to single out someone whose work I recommend but I will say Michael Hussar. He is a dazzling painter who, though already “known,” deserves another look I think.

See more of John Brosio’s work here.

Firestarter
25 x 60
oil on aluminum panel
2014

Black Veil
29 x 35
charcoal on paper

Headwinds
23 x 26
oil on linen

Candice in Yellow
8 x 10
oil on copper
2010

Amaranth
14 x 21
oil on linen

Interview with JULIO REYES:

Your childhood ambition:

I wanted to be a professional soccer player, got damn close too. I played on some serious club teams, played and traveled through Europe, and was very close to playing in college… Also, ever since I read Will Durant’s “The Lessons of History”, I secretly dreamt I would be a writer/philosopher/historian/professional soccer player…  I think I was 17 when I realized that I wanted to seriously pursue an art career.

Something you treasure:

My memories. My wife and my two boxers.

Your worst habit:

My worst habit is often the flip side of my greatest asset. I obsess on projects and tend to let the rest of the world disappear from view. This can be awfully lonely. When I come back to the world, after a painting is done or a deadline is met, I realize just how much life I’ve missed, and the feeling that arises is one of loss, melancholy, and longing. To me, the passage of time is marked in giant leaps. It seems that focus and single mindedness, if taken too far, can come at a great cost.

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

The most important part of my work is translating my deepest feelings into imagery. In the same way a poet can evoke far more than the static definition of a word when artfully placed so as to be in its proper relation to the greater whole—I try to evoke complex stories and histories by grafting together all of the many different elements that go into my pictures, in just such a way. I try to juxtapose deliberate and uncomplicated compositions with highly personal symbols and objects to imply a subjective narrative that looms larger, more important, and more obscure than can be immediately grasped. To me, a picture is a still-point between the abstract and the actual, the tangible and the intangible.  I aim to, as the artist Odilon Redon put it, “[put] the logic of the visible to the service of the invisible.”

Your first job:

When I was in the 7th grade my brother and I got a job cleaning the bathrooms and mopping up the shop floor at an auto shop in Van Nuys, Los Angeles. I remember going to work there every day during the summer months, and thinking just how damn big that place was, and how filthy it could get in just one day—it was hard, nasty work. The owner offered to put me through mechanics school, which I always thought was pretty cool of him to offer, but I had a different future in mind, even at that age.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

This is like asking what mood I’m in. There’s so many great artists I’m inspired by…but at the moment, I would say, the Korean artist Sam Kim.

See more of Julio Reyes’ work here.

Passersby, Transcendental Persona
40 x 50 cm with frame
Oilbar on linen
2015

Passersby, Arrest, March
Oil on linen
30 x 19.4 cm
2013

Passersby, Inward, April
Oil bar on linen
39 x 29.5 cm
2013

Passersby, Notting Hill, London
Oil Bar on linen
30 x 20 cm
2011

Passersby, Repassage
Oil bar on linen
30 x 20 cm
2012

Interview with JAEYEOL HAN:

Your childhood ambition:

Scientist, graphic novelist.

Something you treasure:

Family.

Your worst habit:

Sleeping.

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

My next painting.

Your first job:

Concept designer.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

Jannis Kounellis.

See more of Jaeyeol Han’s work here.

Interview with CHRISTOPHER BUCKLOW:

Your childhood ambition:

To live in Venice.

Something you treasure:

A stone from Kunisada’s grave.

Your worst habit:

The neighbors would say it was playing the Mars Volta too loudly…over and over.

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

Its growth.

Your first job:

Museum curator. I looked after the William Blake collection.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

Alfred Sisley. Matthew Barney. Philip Guston.

See more of Christopher Bucklow’s work here.

Solids in the Frame
handmade woolen carpet
150 x 100 cm
2014

Liquid
handmade woolen carpet
200 x 250 cm / Bottom 200 x 290 cm
2014

Oiling
handmade woolen carpet
100 x 150 cm
2012

Flood of Yellow Weight
handmade woolen carpet
100 x 150 cm
2007

Tradition in Pixel
handmade woolen carpet
100 x 150 cm
2010

Invert
handmade woolen carpet
150 x 200 cm
2014

Interview with FAIG AHMED:

Your childhood ambition:

I think my childhood ambitions were probably such as ambitions of children all over the world—I wanted to travel and explore. I usually spent my summer in the village; I was walking around the nearest forests and mountains. And it was the best game for me. I was enjoying the observation. This ambition is left the same—the journey in all its manifestations. I am still traveling around the world and within my inner space.

Something you treasure:

There are a lot of things, people and ideas that I cherish. But the most important treasure is the moment. In one moment you can cherish one thing, and the next moment you are relishing absolutely different objects. It turns out that you can treasure everything and nothing at the same time.

Your worst habit:

I am always thinking too much about art and can’t stop and focus on one thing.

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

Not happened yet.

Your first job:

Cook’s helper and waiter in quick service Turkish restaurant.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

Farkhad Farzaliyev—a young artist from Azerbaijan. I think he will be the one of those who would completely change the art of the region.

See more of Faig Ahmed’s work here.

A Neo-Roman Landscape
mixed media assemblage
47″ x 37″ x 15″
2010

Capricorn Rising
mixed media assemblage
72″ x 80″ x 30″
2012

Ascension of Eos
mixed media assemblage
42″ x 56″ x 10″
2014

Compromising Enlightenment
mixed media assemblage
44″ x 38″ x 15″
2013

Der Ubermensch of the Post-Post World Calamity Variety
mixed media assemblage
48″ x 54″ x 16″
2013

Eros at Play
mixed media assemblage
16″ x 21″ x 8″
2010

Interview with KRIS KUKSI:

Your childhood ambition:

Artist for sure by age 5, though during second grade I wanted to grow up and be president of the U.S., then an astronaut in third and fourth grade, jet fighter pilot in fifth grade, then back to artist by sixth grade. Remained unchanged since.

Something you treasure:

Complete silence with solitude and a Vodka/Cranberry.

Your worst habit:

Vodka/Cranberry. And leaving parties without saying goodbye.

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

Always in the perpetual state of “in the moment” of making art. Having to actually finish something sucks.

Your first job:

Sign painter’s assistant. Like, actually hand-painting letters for commercial usage and advertising on signs, trucks, buildings, etc. Precision and skill, a real craft.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

The American architect Louis Sullivan. Bernini.

See more of Kris Kuksi’s work here.

Interview with SERGIO GARCIA:

Your childhood ambition:

I really liked art. I also liked animals. I wanted to be a marine biologist when I was super young. Then I got into graffiti.

Something you treasure:

I’m not really materialistic. I’m pretty simple. I think my wife and my dogs. I have a little Italian Greyhound. That guy always cracks me up.

Your worst habit:

My worst habit may be not keeping my studio clean. I’ve had a lot of people be like, “I want to do a studio visit.” I’m like yikes in my head but I respond ok that’s cool. Ha! I have to do a major clean up when I’m expecting company. I mean major.

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

I like to change it up a lot. I like welding. I’ve recently gotten into glass blowing. I use shiny automotive paints to ultra flat oil paints. I like switching it up, it gives me more freedom.

Your first job:

My first job was a volunteer at the Red Cross. I taught special needs children to swim. It was really rewarding. Back then I was always anxious to get off work so I could skateboard. Looking back I’m really glad I did it. The Red Cross gave me a free lifeguard certification and CPR classes. I later became a lifeguard.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

Henry Darger is one of my favorites. I love outsider art a lot. Henry’s work and the story behind his work is so amazing.

See more of Sergio Garcia’s work here.

Untitled 2015
Analogue C print
Courtesy: TORCH Gallery Amsterdam

Untitled 2015
Analogue C print
Courtesy: TORCH Gallery Amsterdam

Untitled 2015
Analogue C print
Courtesy: TORCH Gallery Amsterdam

Untitled 2015
Analogue C print
Courtesy: TORCH Gallery Amsterdam

Interview with POPEL COUMOU:

Your childhood ambition:

Since I was 7 years old I said I wanted to become an “Art Woman”.

Something you treasure:

The days together with my son.

Your worst habit:

Biting my lips when I am stressed or worrying too much.

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

Stillness.

Your first job:

Serving drinks during a theater play at the Parade (a traveling festival).

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

Jan Dibbets, Matthias Weischer and David Schnell.

See more of Popel Coumou’s work here.

Interview with KEN KEIRNS:

Your childhood ambition:

I’ve always wanted to be an artist.

Something you treasure:

Time, there just doesn’t seem to be enough of it.

Your worst habit:

Second-guessing.

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

The narrative.

Your first job:

I worked in a restaurant.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

Kent Williams.

See more of Ken Keirn’s work here.

Interview with ALEX GARANT:

Your childhood ambition:

To be an artist, and a space rocket mechanic.

Something you treasure:

My Family, my friends, my dogs, my art supplies hoarding.

Your worst habit:

Forgetting I am a human being and not a supremely multitasking superhero.

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

Evolution, progress, pushing the boundaries of my imagination.

Your first job:

Lemonade stand manager, 5 years old.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

Richard Ahnert, Travis Louie, Casey Weldon, Leonardo DaVinci.

See more of Alex Garant’s work here.

Interview with BRIAN VIVEROS:

Your childhood ambition:

My childhood ambition was to become a successful, well-known artist & to leave my mark in history. Also that my Dirty Land army would take over the universe!

Something you treasure:

The bond that me & my wife have. No words can explain it but she’s a true Super Hero.

Your worst habit:

My worst habit would probably be not being able to stop thinking. I never shut down. I tend to obsess on things and the process of getting things done. It’s a habit that can drive me a little mad but in a good way. To be a little crazy is good.

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

The Strength & Power I try to convey in each girl I paint.

Your first job:

My first job was at the hospital cafeteria. I was fifteen & I used to wash dishes.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

My good friend Dan Quintana.

See more of Brian Vivero’s work here.

Interview with RICHARD AHNERT:

Your childhood ambition:

I always had an appreciation for James Bond’s lifestyle.

Something you treasure:

Painting instead of working for a living. That, and pizza.

Your worst habit:

Assuming that tomorrow is a better day to do what I want to do today. That, and pizza.

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

Every mistake that I make.

Your first job:

Prep cook.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

Keita Morimoto, Phil Hale, Edward Hopper.

See more of Richard Ahnert’s work here.

A Picture Book of House Plants
acrylic on cotton cloth
72.7 x 91 cm
2015

Unobtrusive Japanese Plum
acrylic on cotton cloth
45.5 x 53 cm
2014

The Person Who Like Spring
acrylic on cotton cloth
27.3 x 22 cm
2014

A Big Cactus and A Small Pine
acrylic on cotton cloth
27.3 x 27.3 cm
2015

Interview with SACHIHO IKEDA:

Your childhood ambition:

To be baker or author of children’s book. Anyway, I wanted to be a person who makes something.

Something you treasure:

Friends and family.

Your worst habit:

In the private, I sleep too much. In the process of my works, I stop before I fail.

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

Keeping fresh feeling.

Your first job:

Teacher in drawing class to children.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

Waka Yoshida.

See more of Sachiho Ikeda’s work here.

Destruction: domestic deed
paint and stitching on fabric
104 x 183 cm
2011

Outer Voice: we crossed the bridge for the first time just like this
paint and stitching on bedding
139 x 98 cm
2011

The Conundrum
paint and stitching on fabric
147 x 250 cm
2014

Diplomacy
paint and stitching on found fabric
147 x 206 cm
2014

Interview with GOZDE ILKIN:

Your childhood ambition:

As a child I lived in different cities in Turkey. I traveled, met different people, discovered different cultures and collected many memories. Now I mostly collect fabrics from different places. These fabrics play a role as part of the narrative of my work.

Something you treasure:

Meeting interesting people and sharing ideas is important to me. Friendship and conversations guide me in life and inspire new directions in my work. I like working with people from different backgrounds.

Your worst habit:

When I start I tend to focus too much on details and miss the bigger picture. I collect connections, ideas and adapt them to my working map. But that is also an essential process for my work.

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

Face my problems, recover and adapt.

Your first job:

I worked as assistant art director for a film.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

Güneş Terkol.

http://gunesterkol.blogspot.com.tr

See more of Gozde Ilkin’s work here.

Interview with DINOS LIANOS:

Your childhood ambition:

To be something like a vet and to have a farm and a horse.

Something you treasure:

The search of aspects of life that give me a reason to ignore vanity.

Your worst habit:

Playing online chess and making hasty moves.

The aspect of your work that’s most important to you:

Directing the themes and the forms of my paintings entirely from my imagination I guess…

Your first job:

Tattooing.

Someone whose work you highly recommend:

This last question is the most difficult, there are a lot of artists, directors, writers and even common people that I appreciate their work, the way that they perceive things and how they express themselves…but ok, one of those people that his work moved me from the first time I saw it some years ago, is Adrian Ghenie (random choice).

See more of Constantine Lianos’ work here.