Ghosts Of The Great Highway: Trompe l'oeil Chelsea Art Gallery

Saturday, June 20, 2009

The artwork of Tim Liddy.

While at the opening for my show at Kidder Smith Gallery in 2007 I noticed a vintage board game on a shelf in their office. I asked where they had gotten such an interesting old game and they handed it to me to hold. It was unusually heavy as well as solid, and then I noticed that it was actually painted to look as if it were an old board game. There were even the details of yellowed tape and ragged edges. The painting was "Cowboy" and it was so incredibly detailed. I was holding a Tim Liddy painting!

Liddy's artwork starts as a steel or bronze box to the exact dimensions of the board game that he is creating. Then, in
a trompe-l'oeil style he paints every minute detail down to the yellowed scotch tape holding the box together, faded price ticket and worn edges. Liddy is extremely concerned with details and his interpretation is spot on. His work brings you back to your childhood with games like Candyland and Monopoly, and introduces you to some that you never knew existed!

You can see more of his work here and here.

"Cowboy"

"Candyland"

"Lucky Shot"

"Cootie"

"Battleship"

"Hot Rod Kit"

"Monopoly"

Monday, February 9, 2009

The artwork of Vik Muniz.

Unfortunately I missed Vik Muniz's "Verso" show at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. in Chelsea, but I was able to see the catalogue of the work. Not only is the concept brilliant but the execution is flawless. Muniz recreated the backs of some of the worlds most famous paintings with every detail intact right down to the yellowing of the aged labels from different museums. It includes all of the scars and travel history that one never gets to see because it is on the unseen side.

Here is a brief statement of the work:

"Whenever someone wants to see if an artwork is 'real', the first gesture is to look at its back or at it's base; the part of it that normally isn't visible to anyone else but experts, dealers, museum conservators or the artists' themselves. This happens because while the image's objective is to remain eternally the same, its support is constantly changing, telling its story, showing its scars, its labels and periodic clichés. So when a cousin of mine told me his 7-year old could paint a Picasso, I told him 'probably, but he couldn't do the back'. As a teenager, I used to fix the neighbor's TV as a hobby. I wanted to learn how to fix clocks too. Whenever something's function is basically visual, there is always an opening in the back for the curious to do it damage."

Artist website