Jim Nutt

Jim Nutt

Coursing, 1966, acrylic and collage on plexiglas

Trim, 2010, acrylic on linen

Jim Nutt is a founding member of the Chicago surrealist art movement known as Chicago Imagists, or Hairy Who. His pop culture influence is evident in his work. He often paints fantasy, characters, and political commentary.

In his portraits, he paints expectations of faces instead of actual faces.  His faces could be compared to that which a child would draw. He uses mixed media and collage. They could be classified as cartoon versions of people, kind of remind me of Ren and Stimpy. His flat areas of color bring to mind digital versions of paintings.

The shapes of his figures could be compared to John Currin.

These two paintings have over a 40 year span but elements of distortion and strange shapes remain constant.

Cy Twombly

Cy Twombly

Red Painting, 1961, oil, crayon, and pencil on canvas

Untitled, 1968, house paint and crayon on canvas

Cy Twombly evaded the dominant styles of the time: Pop, Abstract Expressionism, and Minimalism in favor of his large-scale, calligraphic, graffiti-style paintings.

He works in mixed media: sprayed graffiti-like paint on solid fields of gray, white, or tan. They appear to have been scribbled by a child.

His influences of each individual work are suggested in the titles. He sites the lines and smudges as the subjects of the paintings. He paints with cultural memory and sometimes evokes landscapes through use of color.

During the 1960s, his exhibitions were negatively received; people said their kid could paint that. His later works have been categorized into Romantic Symbolism.

Rosy Keyser

Rosy Keyser

A Blind Torpedo Walks Into a Bar, 2013, raffia, enamel, glass, wood, and basket

Saturday Nite Special, 2013, enamel, oil, and rope on canvas

Rosy Keyser can be classified as an abstract painter, although I might think she's more non-representational? She works beyond her medium's natural habitats by including materials derived from upstate New York like corrugated steel, beer cans, sawdust, and tarps. In fact some of her "paintings" appear to just be collages of materials and not paintings at all.

Her use of unusual materials seems to be about exploration and place.

Tal R.

Tal R.

Victory Over the Sun, 2000, oil on canvas

Sisters of Kolbojnik, 2002, oil on canvas

Tal R. represents what is at front and back of the mind in conjunction with the bodily and the emotional. He shows melancholy and ecstatic states of transformation. He describes painting as a lunchbox. Subject matter includes imaginary pastoral scenes, primitivism, and patterns to convey a generosity of spirit and joy!

Colors are off, broken, or dense. Paintings exhibit spatial realization through a dynamic horizontal field. He uses collage, pencil, and oil in a variety of techniques (splatter, drip, brushstrokes, etc.)

Uses images from pop culture, and his cultural works are narrative.

Janaina Tschape

Janaina Tschape (two dots over the a)

Janaina Tschape creates photographs, videos, performances, and paintings. She paints journeys, romanticism, and dream states.

She uses color, line work, and overlapping shapes to create depth. Drips of paint remind viewers of the surface. She often works with cut paper.

video

Karin Davie

Karin Davie

In Out In Out #5 and #6 (diptych), 1992, oil on canvas

Slip-Up, 1998, oil on canvas

Karin Davie is known for her Modernist striped and looping hyperbolic abstractions. Her process can be viewed in context with painting as performance.

Her paintings are constructed from repetitive physical movements. She works in large scale with bright colors.  Line and color are strongly emphasized.

She has been linked to/compared to Pop art, Op art, and Abstract Expressionism.

Fabian Marcaccio

Fabian Marcaccio

The Predator, 2001, mixed media installation

Fabian Marcaccio extroverts abstraction by deconstructing, dissecting, unraveling, and reconstructing Modernist ideals of painting. He creates sculptural composites with mixed media.

Formally he uses canvas as both a support and an image. He uses clear silicone gel to enhance the textural quality of brushstrokes.

He works with themes of manipulation, destruction, and reconstruction. His work could be considered abstract or non representational.

He says he engages the generic elements of painting to create mutual betrayals.

Fred Tomaselli

Fred Tomaselli

Untitled (Expulsion), 2000, leaves, pills, mushrooms, photo collage, acrylic, and resin on wood panel

Gravity's Rainbow, 1999, leaves, pills, photo collage, flowers, acrylic, and resin on wood panel

Fred Tomaselli works with a variety of unorthodox materials in an attempt to transcend the banality of our everyday world. His life in Southern California has had a profound effect on his work, as he looks for a spiritual transport to the idea of "somewhere else". He includes themes inspired by Disneyland, music and drug culture, and wilderness.

His works are very aesthetically interesting. At first glance they appear to be patterns of paint on a wood panel, but they're actually composed of pot leaves, pills, wings, stems, petals, and photographs. He then uses acrylic paint and seals it with resin. The unusual materials reinforce the concepts of his paintings.

Ellen Gallagher

Ellen Gallagher

DeLuxe, 2006, mixed media on magazine ads

Dirty O's, 2006, pencil, watercolor, plasticine, and cut paper

Ellen Gallagher's identity as an African American woman is at the forefront of her artworks. Formally, she uses a variety of materials and processes. The language of magazine ads is reactivated in her work; she's especially interested in tackling physical transformation. Her works include themes of fashion, modernism, mass media, and race.

DeLuxe, seen above, was and possibly still is at the Walker Art Center.

A lot of her works are untitled which makes them hard to research.

http://www.art21.org/artists/ellen-gallagher