Peripatetic School, The Drawing Room, London

Brigida Baltar

Time Out, London. Link here.
By Rosalie DoubalPosted: Wed Oct 5 2011
It is not unusual for medium-specific galleries to exhibit works that broaden the parameters of their chosen discipline. Frequently, this is attempted by presenting works by artists who predominately use an alternate technique. Only rarely is this done well. Whether desperate to unshackle the perceived constraints of the medium, or longing for contemporary validation (to appear à la mode), in doing this, spaces dedicated to one medium often appear to reduce their discipline to functioning as a conceptual tool. Impressively, this Drawing Room exhibition in its new south London venue, bringing together the work of ten 'itinerant' Latin American artists, kicks against this trend. It manages to expand notions of the gallery's specialism while remaining utterly respectful of its lineage and traits.

The forms in Mateo Lopez's 'Nowhere Man', a life-scaled installation featuring a low slung folding-bed, luggage and a writer's desk strewn with tools, are mostly fashioned from paper. Like a stage-set for the idealised processes played out in this exhibition, it feels like the makeshift abode of an itinerant diarist or sketcher. Elsewhere, Nicolas Paris's conceptual 'Portable Garden', a solitary green pencil, characterises the unified concerns of this show. BrÌgida Baltar's inclusion of a site-specific work, a vulnerable drawing that intricately patterns the floor with red brick dust, is subtler. And less wistful are Tony Cruz's animation works and Andre Komatsu's 'Constructing Worlds' series, both of which look at urban impacts on the landscape.

Premised on the age-old affair between drawing and walking, each work featured in this show engages with the landscape as a subject. Further, each artist has used a range of strategies to explore the boundaries of drawing, mapping or recording. While some may find the selections a little neat or similar, it is undeniable that the curator has succeeded in presenting works that stretch and enrich our understanding of the discipline at hand.

The Peripatetic School continues at The Drawing Room until November 24 2011.

Monika Grzymala, Tape

Monika Grzymala. See and read on Colossal. 

Hiroyuki Doi, Artist

This artist offers inspiration for the Layers Quick Challenge - layered mark making. 

“Obsessive Drawing” highlights contemporary interpretations of line by five emerging self-taught artists. This is the first museum exhibition in New York to showcase this international group: Eugene Andolsek (USA), Charles Benefiel (USA), Hiroyuki Doi (Japan), Chris Hipkiss (England and France), and Martin Thompson (New Zealand). The immediacy of the art masks painstaking processes, and the act of drawing becomes a surprising necessity. The artists’ motivations for making art are married to their self-taught survival skills to help them cope with illness, loss, loneliness, fear, and regret. Inevitably, though, the process of drawing eventually dominated this motivation, and making marks on a page became captivating, so that it is now an obsession for each man. The lust for line trumps everything. Each artist thus discovers what John Ruskin (1819–1900) said about drawing years ago, that one purpose of drawing was to record things that could not be described in words.
Brooke Davis Anderson, Curator, American Folk Art Museum

Link here.

Student Work, Jackson Holbrook, Fall 2011

A collection of portraits in cardboard frames. 

Wrapped, Student Work

Kristen. See more images and an explanation for the work on Kristen's class blog. Link here.

Challenge: Wrapping

Maya

Yarn wrapped around skin. 
Challenge: Wrapping

Callie

Callie Cheney
Photograph wrapped in plastic wrap. 
Challenge: Wrapping or Transparent

Student Work, Maya de Ceane-Vivas, Fall 2011

Challenge: Charts, Maps, Diagrams

Mind Diagrams

For this series I wanted to focus on the human mind and how we make connections and relate ideas and information. In school we are often assigned the task of creating mind maps to explore thoughts and concepts in order to propel the creative process. In keeping with this idea I created mind maps with three other people. Each map sparked very interesting and sometimes profound conversations varying from food to greed to God. All were very unique and individual to the persons life experience and opinions.

The center topics are as follows:

Empty

God

Keep

Lucid

Maya

New York

Perceptions

Time


See more on Maya's class blog. Link here.

Final Project, Working Crit Schedule, Spring 2012

Coming Soon