Studio Visits

Marty Machado Studio Visit

2013-12-20T22:26:27Z

SAN FRANCISCO --- A couple weeks back we headed over to Martin Machado's North Beach studio which sits in the back of he and his fiance's flat for a little studio visit and to view his latest works.

Machado's artworks have been featured on the site over the years as well as some of his fishing and traveling trips. The guy fishes for salmon in far off Alaskan waterways and has sailed thousands of miles into the Pacific Ocean to tiny uninhabited atolls. Besides being a working artist, Machado is also a merchant marine working on huge container ships. Read his "how to work & live on a container ship" blog he did a couple years back.

Check that manual wave machine Machado made... So cool.

Containers that have fallen of ships litter the world's oceans.

Love this piece by Martin Machado.

Being a fellow SF Bay lover and sailor, Martin and I walked down to the Dolphin Club for a little view of the fantastic handmade row boats.

Thems a cold swim.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE COMPLETE STUDIO VISIT.

Studio Visit w/ Ferris Plock

2013-12-11T21:51:28Z

SAN FRANCISCO --- Swung through Ferris Plock's studio yesterday to have a quick look-see at this newest body of work which goes on display at The Shooting Gallery with the opening of the solo show Unrest scheduled for Saturday, Dec 14th. PICS

Heavily influenced by Japanese woodblocks of the Edo period, Plock will show 20-25 new character portraits featuring imagery of knights with neighborhood-specific armor and flags, all painted with acrylic, house paint, gouache and gold leaf on panel.

Smell the Glove.

Amir H. Fallah Studio Visit

2013-05-16T19:00:13Z

Following his solo exhibition "The Collected" at Gallery Wendi Norris, painter Amir H. Fallah is in the throes of developing more new works for upcoming international exhibits. We spent some time in his studio in Highland Park, Los Angeles recently, discussing his process and inspiration.

Words & Photos: Kristin Bauer

Amir H. Fallah admits that he's in the studio seven days a week, which is part of the reason he's chosen to build his studio into his home in Los Angeles. Fallah is an incredibly prolific visual artist showing nationally and internationally, and is also the founder and owner of Beautiful Decay, juggling both with incredible dexterity. On the tail end of his very successful and highly reviewed solo exhibition "The Collected" at Gallery Wendi Norris in San Francisco, immediately followed by the opening of "Desaturated Rainbow," a group exhibition he co-curated which opened in NYC at Field Projects, Fallah is back to work without missing a beat. I visited him at his studio on a beautiful sunny day recently to get a behind the scenes view of his process and inspiration.

Fallah is currently working on a number of pieces for a group exhibition at The Third Line in Dubai and several works on paper for another group exhibit in Rotterdam. The exhibition in Dubai is called Arrangement, and he is developing painted and collaged works on paper-mounted-canvas for it that deconstruct and reconfigure flower arrangement. Fallah found himself making these pieces after creating a painting he titled "The Ultimate Mom Painting" in 2009.

He says, "my mom called me up one day and said, 'Can't you just paint me something pretty? Like some flowers or a pond?' She wanted mom art... I made the 7'x5' painting as a joke and halfway through the painting I realized I liked it."

Seeing his work during its developing stages, the dance between abstraction and realism and the spatial tension that Fallah is playing with become clearer. Balancing references to abstract painting, Persian Miniature paintings, Dutch and Flemish still life and graphic design, the works are multidimensional and increasingly textural the closer one looks. --continuing reading

Alex Ziv Studio Visit

2013-01-25T19:41:44Z

Last Thursday we visited the studio of SFAI graduate painting student Alex Ziv located out in San Francisco's Dog Patch. Inside an old warehouse is SFAI's graduate studios, and within the massive building is Alex's studio space sandwiched between dozens of other students' studios.

We first met Alex when visiting Henry Gunderson's studio when he and Henry were undergraduates at SFAI. Back in like 2009.

Jud Bergeron Studio Visit

2012-12-12T22:19:56Z

Speaking of Jud Bergeron, who has been blogging his Miami trip for Fecal Face the last few days... we thought now would be a good time to feature our studio visit with him we did a couple weeks ago.

On the outskirts of the Mission, amongst motorcycle chop shops and other miscellaneous industrial buildings, Jud occupies a 1000 square foot studio where he casts his sculptures and works on his art projects. With enough room for his welding equipment and hardware, Jud is currently using the space to complete a show which he hopes to open sometime the next year- most likely to be shown in NYC.

We spent about an hour chatting with Jud and picking his brain to learn more about sculpting in metals and how the casting process works. It's a painstakingly slow process at times, but Jud's highly efficient having been working with a blowtorch for over a decade.

Jud in his outter Mission studio space.

Love the tall ceilings, roll up door and inexpensive rent.

Let's start with a few samples of Jud's sculptural work.

Kevin Earl Taylor in Berlin (Studio)

2012-11-29T21:00:54Z

San Francisco based painter Kevin Earl Taylor opened a new show of paintings in Hamburg last week at Circle Culture Gallery. He created all the work for the show while staying in Berlin. He emailed over a few pics of his studio while he was creating the show.

Studio Visit & Interview w/ Kelly Tunstall & Ferris Plock

2012-06-21T21:29:17Z

We swung through the home and studio of San Francisco based artists Kelly Tunstall and Ferris Plock. The married couple are putting the finishing touches on the work for their upcoming food-centric show Edible Complex opening at FFDG on Friday, June 22nd (7-10pm). We spoke of San Francisco's love affair with food, got into their working practices, saw what makes them tick and how they keep up with their lively 2 year old son, Brixton while enjoying a couple Coronas.

Interview: Alex Uhrich & John Trippe
Photos: John Trippe

Edible Complex
Kelly Tunstall & Ferris Plock
June 22 - July 14, 2012
Opening reception: Friday, June 22nd, 7–10 pm
@FFDG

Your upcoming show at FFDG, opening on June 22nd, focuses a lot on San Francisco's intense food culture. How do you guys, as a family, fit in? Do you eat out a lot?

Ferris: Well... we order a lot of food in... Having a 2 year old with an attention span of 10 seconds means that when we eat out, we often eat in shifts... We eat a lot in Japantown because our son Brixton really loves to run around there and he loves to eat sushi.

Kelly: We also have a very unique place that we're coming from- being kind of insiders and outsiders of the food bit at this point in our lives. I love so many places, and we've been lucky to be tangentially and directly involved in many efforts.

It's truly a special occasion that we're out for dinner together- and frankly, we're more often grabbing food from a truck at events and stuff, but yeah- a little more out of the loop than I used to be, so it's interesting to see how eating in the Bay Area has shifted in focus and intensity in just the last five years or so.

Do you think San Franciscans are too focused on food?

Ferris: I think everybody is focused on food because we all die if we don't eat.

However, I feel like I have seen enough photoblogs of peoples' food to last me a life time.

Sometimes I feel like our food culture renaissance is a bit like couture... It is based more on concept and pushing the outrageous and less on consumption. Isn't weird there is a cupcake store downtown that puts cupcakes in its windows to show their outrageous culinary inventions... but no one ever eats them? They all get thrown out?

Brett Amory Studio Visit

2012-04-19T17:55:06Z

Brett Amory emailed over some studio shots taken by Shaun Roberts as he prepared for tonight's show "Waiting 101" at The Outsiders Gallery in Newcastle, UK

Photo sources

Sickboy Studio Visit

2012-03-16T20:42:57Z

On a sunny February afternoon, I visited the studio of London based artist Sickboy, as he prepares for his solo exhibition at White Walls Gallery in San Francisco (opening Sat, Mar 17th). Famed for his street art throughout the world, this is Sickboy's debut solo exhibition in the United States. As he continues to paint one of the three canvases currently pinned to the wall, I ask him how he's getting on in the lead up to the show, about his history in street art, and his progression into galleries.

Interview by David Shillinglaw

Your show is called 'Wonder Club'. What is the Wonder Club?

It's a few different things to me. I have a lot of crazy dreams, and I wanted to base the work around these dreams, as a personal surrealism. It's given me more room for freestyle. A lot of the content is based on childhood memories and fairytales. There's quite a whimsical theme running throughout.

So do you feel the work for this show is more personal than before?

Definitely. As you move through life you shouldn't lose track of what is important to you. I want to highlight the fun element in my work. A lot of the pieces are made up of drawings from sketch books that I make while having fun; hanging out, eating and drinking with friends.

You told me earlier that you're working seven days a week. With so much preparation to do for the show, how do you balance working between the studio and the street?

I try to make it all roll into one. Painting outside is like an exercise for me. I stay true to my graffiti roots and allow those experiences to fuel the paintings. I'm not knocking the kinds of artists who replicate what they do on canvas in the street, but I'm just kind of more lazy when I paint outside. I do it for the fun. I do it for the experience of hopping over hedges.

Even Hecox Studio Visit & Interview

2011-12-28T18:25:33Z

I first met Evan when I moved to San Francisco's Mission district from New York City in 2001. Evan, whose work I was not only familiar with but also loved, welcomed me to his home where I got to know him, his family and his studio. I ended up photographing him shortly before he and his wife Shawn moved to Denver Colorado in 2003.

Several years had passed until I took a trip out in both 2009 and 2011 to spend some extended time with Evan and his family, photographing him working in his studio, his home and throughout Denver. I have always loved being a bit of a fly on the wall watching him so methodically make art. There's are real sense of technique and pride in everything he does. These photographs represent my most recent trip to Denver, in Autumn of 2011, where I was fortunate enough to stay in their new guest home on their property, which shares a wall with his studio. It's lovely. I hope you enjoy these photographs of Evan and his world. -Andrew Paynter

Photos: Andrew Paynter
Interview: John Trippe

So your most recent show in November was at London's Stolen Space where you created works based on buildings and scenes you saw in London. Can you tell us a little bit about the show?

The show in London started with a trip there in June when I wandered all over the city for several days just making observations, shooting photos and trying to get a feel for London. When I make a body of work about a specific place it's important to be there myself, not only to take photos but just to have the experience of what it's like there, the overall feeling of a place. For the rest of the summer and fall I worked on about twenty new pieces based on my trip. The work ranges from pieces that are nearly photorealistic, to other pieces that are a combination of abstract, geometric forms combined with people and elements pulled from the urban environment.

Trying to comprehensively capture London would be nearly impossible, my goal with the show was to offer a glimpse of what London felt like to me as an outsider.

I wanted to avoid showing the most typical, tourist attractions of course. I found myself drawn to the more traditionally working class parts of east and south London that have remnants of post-war industrial buildings, factories, canals, old pubs and such.

Do you travel much? Big fan of London?

I travel out of the country about two or three times a year, and domestically a few times a year. I have a family so I can't be traveling all the time, but I do get out and see a lot of the world. Since I live in Colorado I think it's good for me to travel frequently, I like living in a quiet, easy place but I like to experience things and get inspired. London is pretty fascinating. I love traveling in any really old city. The sense of history, traversing streets where people have been for centuries. In London there is the feeling of all the difficulties that city has had to endure over time and yet it's still there, stronger than ever, it feels important and weighty.