Jumaldi Alfi

Jumaldi Alfi

Footnote #4 (Blackboard painting), 2012, acrylic and oil bar on canvas

Renewal/Verjungung Series 2-B, 2009, acrylic on canvas

Jumaldi Alfi surprisingly removes his art from socio-political themes in favor of formal elements. He identifies as an Indonesian artist. His background as a poet is evident in his work (through use of text and subject matter). His work is about naivity and minimalism.

Formally, he uses color, line, texture, and meaningless doodles in his compositions. Text is present in nearly all the ones I've seen and sometimes is even the sole subject. Skulls are a very common theme in his work bringing to mind death and decay.

chalkboard paintings reminiscent of Cy Twombly.

Allison Miller

Allison Miller

Wave, 2003, oil and acrylic on canvas

Repeater, 2013, oil and acrylic on canvas

Allison Miller is an abstract artist who includes unique materials like dirt into her oil, acrylic, and pencil works. She combines linear mark-making with abstractions. Her pieces use bright colors, bold forms, and heavy textures. Her line work has been described as a gravity-defying 3D sculptural effect. Formally, she is deliberately inconsistent but in a way that does not evoke collage.

Black is consistently dominant in her paintings. Other colors are drab and institutional with bright colors peeking through.

She explores new territories while she paints and doesn't like to talk about her work. One of her preoccupations is figure-ground relationship. Her use of depth and layers cause viewers to question what they're supposed to be looking at.

Yoshitomo Nara

Yoshitomo Nara

Cosmic Eyes, 2007, acrylic on canvas

Yoshitomo Nara is a Japanese Pop artist. He paints illustration-like innocent children with a sadistic twist. Big-eyed, scowling, and malevolent kids. He also incorporates text into his paintings for a narrative clue.

He draws influence from loneliness and freedom.

Formally he uses flat areas of bold color , thick outlines, and stylized forms.

He says the children in his paintings are thinking about what you're thinking about ;)

Bernard Frize

Bernard Frize

Vibisi, 2001, acrylic and resin on canvas

Neobi, 2004, acrylic and resin on canvas

Bernard Frize is a French artist whose works question the materiality and processes of painting. Viewers often wonder how he creates his seemingly impossible line variations and patterns.

Formally, he uses acrylic and resin to create works that appear to have entered the world fully formed. He works on a large scale and uses a variety of often unusual colors. They appear sort of like he melted crayons and then drew with them.

He creates process paintings that have been compared to a choreographed dance. He created Reciproque by following directions shouted to him by someone else in the room.

His line work is comparative to Karin Davie.

Jane Callister

Jane Callister

Yellow Falls, 2005, acrylic on paper

Jane Callister challenges notions of representation through her unique paint application process. Rather than painting onto the canvas, she pours and drips paint and other materials. In addition to questions of abstraction vs representation, she also challenges figure vs ground, color vs line, content vs form, and personal vs political.

Visually they include hard-edged drips, lacy stalagtites, and melted ice cream colors.

Her earlier works include representations of human bodies, but in her more recent works they are only implied. Now, she includes off-the-wall additions to her canvases.