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Meet the Artist – Taymour Grahne

Organized in collaboration with Career Services of Webster University, this Career Talk – formatted as a presentation followed by a lively Q&A with an audience of students, staff and faculty — is a great introduction to the art market. The speaker was London-based art advisor and gallerist Taymour Grahne, whose work focuses on contemporary art. Between 2013 and 2017, Taymour founded and directed Taymour Grahne Gallery in New York, where he presented an ambitious and rigorous exhibition program and through which he built a profile for exhibiting finding young and mid-career artists – whose careers have grown significantly since – artists like Maia Cruz Palileo, Hassan Hajjaj, Nicky Nodjoumi, Whitney Bedford, Zineb Sedira, and Radames Juni Figueroa, among others. In 2017 Taymour returned to London to focus on both his art advisory practice and a nomadic exhibition program, he launched a series of pop-up solo shows by leading emerging artists including GaHee Park, Dominique Fung, Matthew F Fisher, and Nadia Ayari. In 2020 he founded Taymour Grahne Projects in London, a gallery which provides a space for audiences to discover new, exciting international artists. More information about Taymour’s forthcoming projects is available at: www.taymourgrahne.com

Taymour Grahne

by Julianna Sandholm-Bark

Meet the Artist – Didier Schwarz

On Feb. 4, the students from ARHS 2200 Current Art met with Didier Schwarz, who founded 1m83, an art collective whose mission it is to create innovative open-air exhibitions that bring culture and creativity to city dwellers’ everyday lives. For their final project, the students in this course will have to think of innovative ways to engage an audience in an experience involving the visual arts, and it was a pleasure to brainstorm ideas with Didier, who shared stories of his most visceral and life-changing encounters with art.

Didier Shwarz

by Julianna Sandholm-Bark

Vices

VICES

A practice, behavior, or habit generally considered wrong or taboo in a society.

A fault, negative character trait, or bad and unhealthy habits.

For my vices project I decided to portray common and often overlooked vices in everyday life. The series follows what could be considered “a day in the life” of anyone, rather than a specific person. Some of the vices apply to me, some do not, but they are all devices or activities that are considered socially acceptable and yet they have negative effects.

The photos go from bed to bed, from waking up to falling asleep. Each photo has a linking element to the photo prior to show that they are happening in order and one vice often leads to others. The linking element changes in each photo but it’s everything from a phone, to wine glasses, and lipstick on the cigarette. They are hopefully noticeable but not where the eye goes first and maybe even require a second look.

Most of the vices are self explanatory, but religion slightly less so. From my perspective religion is meant to be a good thing but people often miss-interpret and miss-quote scripture to justify bad behaviors such as homophobia.

Excuse Me, What Just Happened?

For my final project in Introduction to Media Production I had to create a short film with the prompt “Excuse Me, What Just Happened?” We had to combine knowledge that we had gained through the semester to showcase what we had learned. I decided to have a lot of fun with it and chose a concept inspired by skits I had seen on YouTube. I embraced the craziness of 2020 and had 4 characters, who are all parts of my internal monologue, have a conversation in my own head to try to figure out what’s going on.

It was incredibly fun to make. Enjoy!!

Meet the Artist – Christopher Gallego

On Thursday Jan. 21 2021, the students enrolled in the Current Art course met with the acclaimed New York-based realist painter Christopher Gallego, who spoke about his work and creative process. He also discussed his breathtaking painting “Interior with Three Rooms” (pictured here), housed in the permanent collection of the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut. For more information about the artist and his work, please visit: www.chrisgallego.com/works/

Christopher Gallego

by Julianna Sandholm-Bark

First Ascent: Falling for Climbing

First Ascent

Falling for Climbing

“Don’t look down,” Jay yelled up at me, his voice already far below.

Well, that’s not helpful, I thought. I couldn’t bring myself to look down anyway, I’d always had a bad head for heights. I could only focus on my hands in front of me and making sure each hold was within reach.

“Three of four on the wall, you won’t fall.” An old climbing mantra I learned from a children’s book ran through my head, reminding me to move slowly, one hand at a time.

My legs began to shake, slowly at first and then so intensely it hurt. I called down for tension to be put on the rope and rested against the wall until the shaking stopped. I later learned that this phenomenon is called “sewing machine leg,” an embarrassing thing that happens to every inexperienced climber.

I refused to look up or down, focusing only on the wall in front of me. When I reached the top, I made the mistake of looking down to tell Jay I was “falling” and done with the climb. My stomach dropped and twisted into knots. Suddenly the idea of letting go of the wall seemed ridiculous, I could just climb down right? Nope. The muscles in my arms and hands had had enough and my grip let go.

I let myself be lowered until my back was flat against the mat and I was staring straight up at the route I had just navigated. I tried to untie the rope from my harness, but all of the strength was gone from my fingers. I just laid there trying to catch my breath with my muscles on fire and bright red hands that were peeling even through the layers of chalk.

I had been climbing for hours and my entire body was exhausted, but there was just one thing going through my head. I want to go again, I can do it better this time.

I’ll never forget that feeling of intense satisfaction when I completed one of my first “projects” (a route that you work on for several sessions) and hearing my belayer, the person who holds the rope for a climber, say, “Your mask comes off when you climb, I’ve never seen you smile like this.”

He was right, I was grinning like an idiot without realizing it. That was the exact moment I knew I needed to keep climbing in my life. It’s a very high intensity sport that is a full body workout, but also requires complete mental focus. If you think about anything other than your climb and where your body needs to go, you’ll fall.

The first time I set foot in a climbing gym was to study muscle groups for a high school anatomy class. My teacher, a climbing fanatic, used this and subsequent trips as an excuse to get back into a gym. I will always be grateful for it. That day changed my life.

Growing up, I was never one for sports, especially team sports, but I was suddenly immersed in a whole community, meeting new people and learning new slang. It taught me to trust my body and my abilities, but more importantly, I learned to place complete trust in others. As a belayer, the climber’s safety is in your hands, which can be very scary and potentially dangerous. I’ve experienced the dangers of having a distracted belayer, which only adds appreciation for the truly good ones.

I wouldn’t say that I’ve completely gotten over my fear of heights but now the fear turns into adrenaline and excitement. The holds feel more solid in my hands and I wonder how I ever struggled on such easy climbs.

Now I tie myself in without looking as I evaluate the route in front of me. I play out the moves in my head until I know exactly what beta (sequence of moves) I need to use. It’s just a warm up climb, something to loosen up my muscles, but it’s miles more difficult than the climb I did with Jay three years ago.

I don’t have the opportunity to climb as much as I want to anymore, but my love for it hasn’t faded. I now understand when people talk about their passions, because this is one of mine.