Artist of the Week: Tara Donovan

THE GENIUS OF LITTLE THINGS

Tara Donovan

(b. New York) 

Education:

1987-88  School of Visual Arts, New York 

1991  BFA--Corcoran College of Art and Design, Washington, D.C. 

1999  MFA at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU)

Before attending VCU, Donovan tended bar and waited tables for six years, and didn't quit her day job until 2003, when her first New York solo show, at the Ace Gallery proved a breakout success.

Donovan's work uses everyday manufactured materials such as Scotch tape, Styrofoam cups, and drinking straws to create large scale sculptures that often have a biomorphic quality. Her sculptures must be assembled and disassembled carefully, which sometimes involves an extremely tedious process. With regards to her artistic process, Donovan explained that she chooses the material before she decides what can be done with it. She noted in an interview that she thinks "in terms of infinity expanding.”

Toothpicks

Styrofoam Cups

 Styrofoam Cups

#2 Pencils

Buttons

Paper Plates

Paper Plates

Sewing Pins

 Sewing Pins

 Sewing Pins

 Sewing Pins (detail)

 Sewing Pins (detail)

 Sewing Pins

 Sewing Pins

Tar Paper

 Tar Paper

Plastic Cups

Mylar

 Mylar

 Mylar

 Mylar

Interview with Tara Donovan

Tara Donovan has been represented by The Pace Gallery, New York since 2005 and by Stephen Friedman Gallery, London since 2007.

Artist(s) of the Week: The Royal Art Lodge

The Royal Art Lodge. The name itself conjures images of secret ritual practices, exclusive membership, brave stands taken against the elements. But this is not your father's lodge, nor even your father's art lodge. A collaborative of eight young, wildly inventive, modestly self-effacing Canadian artists--

Marcel Dzama

Neil Farber

Drue Langlois

Myles Langlois

Jonathan Pylypchuk

Adrian Williams

--The Royal Art Lodge enjoys a far-ranging and free-wheeling practice, producing everything from works on paper to film, video, musical performances, and puppets, with drawing, that most personal and immediate of art forms, providing the link between the various products of their whimsey.

The Royal Art Lodge: Studio shots

Text reads: "amplified yelps: 200 watts."

Text reads "EAT THE BUNNY > Lucky Number=5"

Text reads: "ALONE"

LINKS: The Royal Art Lodge Website

Marcel Dzama, a hero of The Royal Art Lodge, discusses his own personal direction and projects he is working on in New York.

Gallery Director, Cameron Shaw discusses Marcel Dzama's exhibition, "Even the Ghost of the Past" at David Zwirner Gallery in New York.

Animation/Video/Music Video

Featuring the drawings of Marcel Dzama

Playing Cards

Here is the link to more playing card images:

Playing Cards