Ken Solomon

There have already been a few posts about our activities and the artists we met Thursday but I wanted to post about an artist that I am highly intrigued by. Being a veteran on this trip I met Ken Solomon two years ago but was very eager to hear him talk about his work again. He is very high energy and excited about his work. Two years ago we visited him in his studio and were shown numerous projects he has worked on throughout his artistic career. This year we switched it up a bit (the trip is never the same) and we met Ken at his show in the Chelsea gallery josee bienvenu. He talked about those prior projects somewhat to bring us up to speed before delving into his current works.

24/7/360, 2010, Installation view, Josée Bienvenu Gallery

If you want to know more about this body of work, you can hear it directly from Ken in a short 5 minute clip. This is similar to what we experienced but on a smaller scale. We allowed Ken to first talk about his work and then asked our own questions about his methods and ideas. His work is very meticulous and time consuming. He spoke about the seeming repetitive nature of his work and how it is often right between "God I love this" and "Fuck! I hate this". I can easily relate to this and I love how true it really is. Evidenced below is his attention to detail.

Google Portrait- Lichtenstein Red, White, and Blue, 2010, (detail), Watercolor on paper, 59 x 48 inches

His talk about his work was very enlightening and I also thought his outlook upon the art world was really ingenious. I found his insight to finding a gallery that fits your work extremely helpful. He talked about how galleries are like artists but they use artists as their medium instead of oil, watercolor, etc.. It really put perspective into the importance of finding the right gallery for your work is so important.

I didnt' do it, 2010, Oil on canvas, 34 x 26 inches

Overall Ken was a great speaker and I loved his work. There were many other things he did I would love to talk about but no one wants to read a ten page blog post... So instead, you should go check out his show at josee bienvenu. If you go, be sure to check out the video and back room as well. I found his mail work on Iraqi soldiers extremely moving and brilliant.