It's a Process – Details, episodes & analysis

Sean Cairns is a painter, living in Dallas, Texas. He just closed a solo show at 12.26 Gallery in Dallas, titled Wearing Away The Mountain. We had a really great conversation about many things including why landscape may be the hardest genre of painting, using the element of surprise, not working from a formula, the freedom to be yourself in your work, spirituality as a process, nature as inspiration, why painting can never die, Andrei Tarkovsky and what I call a “cinematic” quality in his work, and “going off script” / making up your own reality.

https://gallery1226.com/Sean-Cairns

I catch up with Zuriel Waters for a second time on location from his Spring solo exhibition Jitterbug Waltz at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, and later we chat a bit more from a really good taco spot in Chelsea. Conversation topics include color theory, musical inspirations, the speed and rhythm of painting, what motivates Zuri's forms, spirituality and wanting to be a cult lead, and even touch on Quentin Tarantino. Please enjoy the first of this new season of It's a Process interviews!

https://zurielwaters.com/

https://www.markelfinearts.com/exhibitions/175/works/

Jonathan Allmaier is a painter who lives in the Bronx. We talk about the work in his solo show The Howling Wind at James Fuentes Essex (on view through May 2, 2021). We also talk about the writing he does about his process, paintings as personhood, being a student of your work, starting over after moving to NYC, seeing the painting as a space or an object, dissolving the mind-body problem, Pearl Blauvelt, experiencing time through color, the influence of baseball and fatherhood, using the form of painting and altered objects/images as forms of painting, making versus showing, inanimate objects are people too, painting with and without a brush, the stubbornness of being an artist, Paul Thek, and including the space between the paintings.

Jonathan Allmaier - The Howling Wind
https://50.62.71.108/exhibitions/2021/essex-the-howling-wind

Jonathan Allmaier website
https://allmaier.wordpress.com/

https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/art/jonathan-allmaier-2

Pearl Blauvelt
https://kerryschussgallery.com/pages/exhibitions_past_3.php?page=1

https://www.moma.org/artists/28566

Alfred Adler - The Courage to Be Disliked
https://www.amazon.com/Courage-Be-Disliked-Phenomenon-Happiness/dp/1501197274

Thich Nhat Hanh - Clouds In Each Paper
https://www.awakin.org/read/view.php?tid=222

Nathaniel Hawthorne - The House of the Seven Gables
https://www.amazon.com/House-Seven-Gables-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486408825

Iching Online (I love to ask it questions)
https://www.ichingonline.net/

Clare Grill is a painter who lives and works in Queens, NY. We talk about her beautiful solo show There’s the Air at Derek Eller Gallery, currently on view through April 24, 2021. The conversation also covers her way of collaborating with studio light, “changing the choreography”, the differing speeds of painting and drawing, making work that feels urgent, learning to look at the painting itself, complicated artifacts, drawings as a database, making abstract paintings in a field of feeling, the bones of a painting, working without a plan, becoming a painter, spending time with your work, and leaving room for not knowing or being in control all the time.

Clare Grill - There’s the Air
https://www.derekeller.com/exhibitions/clare-grill

https://claregrill.com/

The Brontës’ Secret
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/the-brontes-secret/480726/

I Had a Miscarriage by Shaina Feinberg
https://cupofjo.com/2019/07/miscarriage-story/

Fabienne Lasserre is an artist who makes work that is both painterly and sculptural. We discuss her solo show Eye Contact which is currently on view at Turn Gallery in NYC, and a range of other topics including the relationship between material and the immaterial, accepting imperfection, sacredness and playfulness, art as transformation, using transparency to dissolve boundaries, the need for more care in the world, sound and dance, seeing your work through someone else’s eyes, the sensuality of color, Niki de Saint Phalle, and different ways of being a feminist.

http://fabiennelasserre.com/

https://turngallerynyc.com/

Philip Guston talk:
https://www.pwf.cz/archivy/texts/articles/philip-guston-talking_2165.html

Niki de Saint Phalle:
https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5111

Lynn Tillman - Men and Apparitions:
https://softskull.com/dd-product/men-and-apparitions/

La Monte Young - Dream House:
https://www.melafoundation.org/directions.htm

David Hammons - Five Decades:
https://www.mnuchingallery.com/exhibitions/david-hammons#tab:slideshow;tab-1:slideshow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gagaku

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/niki-de-saint-phalle/niki-de-saint-phalle-room-guide/niki-de-6

Niki de Saint Phalle - Daddy, 1973:
https://letterboxd.com/film/daddy-1973/

Vlad Smolkin is a painter who lives and works in Baltimore, MD. He also runs CPM, a multifaceted exhibition space. We talk about making art as psycho-spiritual alien shit, taking the long view, the language of abstraction and the synchronicity of found objects, the exhibition as a collaboration, running a gallery as an artist, and the underestimated culture value and power of artists.

https://www.vladsmolkin.com/

https://cpmprogram.com/

https://coustofwaxman.com/Vlad-Smolkin-Faberge-NeckOctober-19th-November-23rd-2019

Glenn Goldberg is a painter who lives and works in NYC. We had a very beautiful and deep conversation about being committed to growth, learning not to hide, art and teaching as a spiritual practice and the influence of his Jewish upbringing, art as a way of enlarging your awareness, making work that is really alive, the awakenings of early success, considering what effect your work will have on others, allowing for inconsistency, creating relatable characters, the importance of sports, and the relentless pursuits of a creative life.

https://nyss.org/exhibition/glenn-goldberg/

https://brooklynrail.org/2015/04/art/glenn-goldberg-with-phong-bui

http://www.bettycuninghamgallery.com/exhibitions/glenn-goldberg

Byron Katie: The Work 
https://thework.com/

Caitlin Keogh is a painter who lives and works in New York. We talk about her current solo show Waxing Year which is currently on view through April 3rd at Overduin and Co in Los Angeles, CA. We also discuss a book called The White Goddess about ancient pagan poetry, Sylvia Plath, collaborating with poet Charity Coleman, making relationships between text and image, ideas about edges, collage as a process, surrealism, making pictures that don’t feel virtuous, Marguerite Duras and Chris Kraus, and her early ballet practice and the continued inspiration it holds for her.

Waxing Year solo show:http://www.overduinandco.com/archive/caitlin_keogh/installation.htm

https://bortolamigallery.com/artist/caitlin-keogh/

Red Comet - Sylvia Plath biography:
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Comet-Short-Blazing-Sylvia/dp/0307961168/ref=sr_1_1?crid=38CUHUT9S8WY2&dchild=1&keywords=red+comet+sylvia+plath&qid=1615305809&sprefix=red+com%2Caps%2C182&sr=8-1

Charity Coleman - three:
https://brooklynrail.org/2017/12/poetry/three-coleman

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/20/magazine/the-life-and-loves-of-marguerite-duras.html

Maya Plisetskaya - Dying Swan 1959:
https://youtu.be/6_9AjAflHNA

A Woman Under the Influence - Dying Swan:
https://youtu.be/qAmO7GxJQ4o

Seung-Min Lee is a NY-based interdisciplinary artist. We talk about her recent solo show Light White at International Waters in NYC, as well as her early years in Maspeth, Queens, beatnik poetry, NFTs, Morandi, the original season of the Real World, technological fascism, fear of being cancelled, political correctness as a rapidly shifting horizon, and the power of being able to change your mind.

https://www.seungminlee.com/

Seung-Min Lee -Light White:
https://internationalwaters.international/

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/consumer-reports-seung-min-lee-11995/

NYTimes: The Original ‘Real World’ Cast Reunites, Older but Still Not Polite
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/26/arts/television/real-world-homecoming-cast.html?referringSource=articleShare

Vanessa Conte makes paintings, drawings, and stories that involve erotic images of fleshy women’s bodies being being punished and pounded. We had a very deep and sexy conversation about kink, Italo Calvino, obliteration fantasies, submission and domination, origins in erotic writing, playing with and denying narrative, fantasy vs reality, making art that people jerk off to, vulnerability, being artistically driven my need and desire, translating physicality and feeling into images, and being inspired by film.

Vanessa Conte - Never Enough
https://www.randomman.net/publications/never-enough

Vanessa Conte - Heavy Penalties
https://www.printedmatter.org/catalog/53713/

Vanessa Conte - Cures for Pouting Girls
http://ginervagambino.com/vanessa-conte-cures

http://moussemagazine.it/vanessa-conte-moritz-scheper-2019/

http://ginervagambino.com/vanessa-conte-up-to-your-neck

http://commonwealthandcouncil.com/exhibitions/to-the-torrid-sea-i-fall

https://artviewer.org/vanessa-conte-at-hester/

The Night Porter - Lilana Cavani
https://youtu.be/0zJbxDk3Iow