I was recently interviewed for a podcast for CreateHub, talking about all aspects of modern painting, including its future.

Click on my episode, which is the final one: Episode 6. I hope you will listen and enjoy the discussion.

http://josebechara.com/pinturas-em-vidro/

Simply perfect.

Charlene uses oils, acrylics, crayons or charcoal to create paintings with areas that seem to step away from the idea of making a painting. They inhabit the canvas, supported or surrounded by graphic elements more conventional in design. They create a dystopian beauty, that elude easy assimilation. They are waking dreams.

http://www.petzel.com/artists/charline-von-heyl/

I am intrigued by this description of the current ‘moment’ in painting. It really rings true for me.

From the MoMA, NY:
http://press.moma.org/2014/04/forever-now/

“

This profligate mixing of past styles and genres can be identified as a kind of hallmark for our moment in painting, with artists achieving it by reanimating historical styles or recreating a contemporary version of them, sampling motifs from across the timeline of 20th-century art in a single painting or across an oeuvre, or radically paring their language down to the most archetypal forms.

The artists in this exhibition represent a wide variety of styles and impulses, but all use the painted surface as a platform, map, or metaphoric screen on which genres intermingle, morph, and collide. Their work represents traditional painting, in the sense that each artist engages with painting’s traditions, testing and ultimately reshaping historical strategies like appropriation and bricolage and reframing more metaphysical, high-stakes questions surrounding notions of originality, subjectivity, and spiritual transcendence.

”

Kerstin Brätsch Blocked Radiant D (for Ioana) 2011 Oil on paper 110 × 72” (279.4 × 182.9 cm) Courtesy the artist and Gavin Brown’s Enterprise Copyright the artist Photo: Filippo Armellin
The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World
December 14, 2014–April 05, 2015
Posted on April 22, 2014

The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art Gallery, sixth floor

Press Preview: Monday, December 8, 2014, 9:30-11:30 a.m.

The Forever Now presents the work of 17 artists whose paintings reflect a singular approach that characterizes our cultural moment at the beginning of this new millennium: they refuse to allow us to define, or even meter our time by them. This phenomenon in culture was first identified by the science fiction writer William Gibson, who used the term “atemporality” to describe a cultural product of our moment that paradoxically doesn’t represent, through style, through content, or through medium, the time from which it comes. Atemporality, or timelessness, manifests itself in painting as an ahistorical free-for-all, where contemporaneity as an indicator of new form is nowhere to be found, and all eras co-exist. This profligate mixing of past styles and genres can be identified as a kind of hallmark for our moment in painting, with artists achieving it by reanimating historical styles or recreating a contemporary version of them, sampling motifs from across the timeline of 20th-century art in a single painting or across an oeuvre, or radically paring their language down to the most archetypal forms.

The artists in this exhibition represent a wide variety of styles and impulses, but all use the painted surface as a platform, map, or metaphoric screen on which genres intermingle, morph, and collide. Their work represents traditional painting, in the sense that each artist engages with painting’s traditions, testing and ultimately reshaping historical strategies like appropriation and bricolage and reframing more metaphysical, high-stakes questions surrounding notions of originality, subjectivity, and spiritual transcendence.

The exhibition includes works by Richard Aldrich, Joe Bradley, Kerstin Brätsch, Matt Connors, Michaela Eichwald, Nicole Eisenman, Mark Grotjahn, Charline von Heyl, Rashid Johnson, Julie Mehretu, Dianna Molzan, Oscar Murillo, Laura Owens, Amy Sillman, Josh Smith, Mary Weatherford, and Michael Williams.

The exhibition is organized by Laura Hoptman, Curator, with Margaret Ewing, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture, MoMA.

Major support for the exhibition is provided by The Jill and Peter Kraus Endowed Fund for Contemporary Exhibitions.

Additional funding is provided by The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art, Craig and Lynn Jacobson, Ronald Marks, and the MoMA Annual Exhibition Fund.

Special thanks to the Aishti Foundation, Beirut.

You are invited to the opening reception for my solo show…

January 18th

7pm until 10pm

Luminarte Gallery

E Levee St, Dallas

Aurora was a really great event, and I’m proud to have my films featured as part of it. For one night, Dallas Arts District was lit up with light installations from around the world in a huge free celebration of art.

Thanks to my husband, Daniel, who showed up and projected for me (I was away on an artist’s residency). Also, thank you to Joshua King and Shaun Pennington for having the vision and persistence to make it happen. Here are a few snaps in case you missed it….A short film of one of the beginning of A Day in the Life of the Sun, projected on the night in question…

>>>>  click here to watch a short bit of the film   >>>>> aurora-dayinlife-live <<<<<<

I’m working with a company in the UK who have developed a new way to print vibrant images onto high-quality leather. The leather is being used as upholstery on twelve custom pieces of furniture, that will be shown at the Best of Britannia expo, in London, this October (2013).

Here is a work in progress shot; I’ll post photographs of the furniture as soon as they are finished. I am excited to see the result!

I am offering a one-day workshop as part of my Arboretum Residency, as is the talented Erika Jaeggli, my co-Resident artist.

Come along and spend the day painting in the lovely gardens with me or (and) Erika! I’ll be painting with you, and discussing how to bring your unique artistic vision to life on a canvas. I’ll be painting in oils, but all mediums are welcome. I’ll be offering critique and guidance.

Visit this page on the Arboretum site to browse the list and sign up…

From the Arboretum’s Fall Program Guide:

I’m pleased to announce I’ve been selected as one of the Dallas artists who will get a chance to create art on a cooler, and possibly  be selected to exhibit at Art Basel in Miami. 

Come along to the party to showcase the coolers and celebrate art at Life in Deep Ellum, in July. You get a chance to vote on your favorite work (mine, of course!)

Find out more by clicking on the image.,,, The party is free, but requires an RSVP. Hurry – it’s likely ‘sell out’.