"Wild Exaggeration..."

I found a great article on an exhibition that used grotesque.  "Wild Exaggeration" was a group show that exhibited works by Israeli and international artists.

 "The common denominator underlying most of the works featured in this exhibition is a concern with the grotesque body - an exaggerated, distorted and ridiculous body that exceeds its own limits, and whose different parts are incompatible with one another. At times it may take the form of a hybrid body composed of animals, objects and plants, while in other instances it appears as an exaggerated and distorted human body"  

See more at: http://www.artiscontemporary.org/agenda_detail.php?id=360#sthash.12WvcS7C.dpuf

I also researched where the exhibit was and who they showed in the exhibition.  Here is another link:

http://www.hms.org.il/Museum/Templates/Showpage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=841&FID=1521&PID=3434

If you look through the images and artists, the grotesque theme is obvious but different at the same time.  There is a wide range of creepiness, humor, satire, ridicule, and confusion.

The first thing I thought when I read this article was dammit, I wish I found this article when I was doing my research for my paper.  Second, I agree with the description of grotesque where it is about chaos and over stepping boundaries.  Artists use their creativity as an outlet to question everyday life standards.  For me, the grotesque allows me to be messy and confrontational things I am hesitant to be in other parts of my life.

Some of the artists I liked were:

Shira Zelwer

Peter Jacob Maltz

Adi Nachshon

Heidi Stern

Anan Tzuckerman

THE GROTESQUE CERAMIC ART OF MARIA RUBINKE

These ceramics figures/figurines are terrifying and cute in a twisted way.  I like how she contrasts the white of, I'm guessing, porcelain combined with the deep crimson.  I haven't been able to find more information on the content of her work, just that she combines child-like innocence with grotesque elements.  Here is a link and a sneak peek of her work.

http://mashkulture.net/2013/04/30/the-grotesque-ceramic-art-of-maria-rubinke

 

The Mutter Museum

I came upon this museum after speaking with a fellow classmate.  It is a medical history museum that is located in Philadelphia.  It displays preserved collections of anatomical specimens, models, and medical instruments in a 19th century "cabinet museum" setting.  What the site doesn't advertise is that many of the items in the museum were required illegally or mysteriously.  

http://muttermuseum.org/

September 11, 2014 - Andrea Hasler

I found a new artist that uses grotesque imagery to fuel her work.  She creates bloody 'human' sculptures.  She renders objects such as purses, clutches, shoes, and tents out to be made of intestines and human material.  They are repulsive yet I don't want to look away.  Though the main context of her work is different than mine, I appreciate how much guts (no pun intended) she has in creating graphic and disturbing imagery.  Its the kind of work that holds the viewer's gaze, no matter his or her  opinion.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/24/andrea-hasler_n_4816576.html

Here is a peek of Andrea Hasler's work:

September 3, 2014- LAUREN GALLASPY

I was browsing through the library's articles and I found an article on Lauren Gallaspy.  She is a ceramic artist that creates intricate ambiguous forms.  I find her work entrancing how she combines three dimensional and two dimensional imagery. I love the grotesque quality to her work, how she creates the illusions of these fleshy mounds of flesh, with ears or anatomical-esque features.  Also the surfaces are to die for with layering of under glaze,gouache and varnish.  As the viewer, you are pulled in the simulated depth.

West, Christina.  "Lauren Gallaspy's Workmanship of Risk."  Ceramics:  Art and Perception.  90 (2012): 54-57.  Academic Search Complete. Web 28 Aug 2014

Here is a link to her website, where she has numerous examples of her awesome surfaces!

http://www.laurengallaspy.com/

Finally, here is an artist statement from Lauren Gallaspy.  I included her description/ artist statement because I like the exploratory nature of her ambiguous forms.  At the moment in my own work I have started dealing with anamorphic sculptural forms that deal with the unknown.  I have attributed them to the grotesque genre but they may be something entirely different.

"My attention centers around a longing for interaction with objects existing within the border space between the known and the unknown.  I wish to make work in which controversial hierarchies of value- the concrete over the imaginary, fact over fiction, efficiency over pleasure-- are dismantled, their parts rearranged to form objects through which pathos, obsession, and imagination are encouraged. Imagination is not utilized as a retreat from, but rather a recognition of, the startlingly specific ways we make sense of ourselves and our surroundings.  In material form, the imaginative act becomes a way to help shorten the distance between what happens inside our heads and outside our bodies.  Clay is utilized in this activity as a covert material-- a thicket in which animals of association may hide."

Lauren Gallaspy.  Ceramics Monthly. May 2010, Vol. 58 Issue 5: 46