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    Artist Interview: Ji Woo Kim

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    New York-based artist Ji Woo Kim’s work explores themes of identity in the context of race and ethnicity while questioning the concept of home in relation to her own background as a first-generation immigrant. Through her works she examines resulting factors such as cultural identification and social dynamics, as well as their effects on one’s growth from childhood through adulthood.Recently, I had the chance to interview Ji Woo Kim to discuss her latest projects and the concepts & inspirations behind her artworks.Rom Levy: What about art captivated you first, and what led you to become an artist?Ji Woo Kim: I think art was just naturally part of my childhood, as I was exposed to the joys of making art at such a young age. I have very vivid memories of spending hours with my uncle, who is an architect, sitting on the floor of my room and drawing together. We would often create narratives for the figures or scenes that we were drawing, using the drawings as a tool for storytelling. I don’t know if I ever woke up one day and decided to make a conscious decision on becoming an artist. It seems like it was more of a natural outcome in the normal course of things.When did you start practicing art? Do you make any other form of art other than paintings? I started getting into artmaking seriously in high school, which is when I decided that I wanted to go to art school for my college education. This is when I started taking lessons in drawing and painting, which became the basis of my technical skills that I am now applying in my practice. During my undergraduate studies, I explored different mediums, such as sculpture, printmaking, and drawing, but I’ve always enjoyed painting the most. With the current type of work I’m making, painting is the medium that I best see fit, so I’m focusing on just paintings at the moment.What does painting as a medium deliver that other mediums fail to achieve?I can only speak to what painting does for me and the work that I’m currently working on, as different mediums serve different purposes, but I think painting is a highly expressive medium. The subtleties of the paint are so beautiful to me, such as the way a brushstroke can convey so much through the type of brush you use, the way the bristles of the brush touch upon the surface, the thickness or thinness of the paint, the amount of pressure used when applying the paint, the way pigments of color mix together – it all works together to create a very distinctly different way of painting for everyone. It would be incredibly hard to create a painting that looks exactly the same or was created in the exact same way that someone else did, because there are so many variables. In this way, it’s a very personal way of making art, which is why I think it works well with the type of personal narrative I’m unfolding in my work.What is the concept behind your work? My work speaks to my own experience of growing up and living as a minority in a culture and environment that I am not native to. Having spent my formative years in an awkward stage of assimilation and later realizing that I do not/cannot fully belong to either of my cultures, I’ve become interested in creating work that depicts personal fragments of my life belonging to the 2 different physical and cultural environments I grew up in – Canada and South Korea. Creating this type of work has allowed me to investigate my identity further and also examine what determines a place as “home” for people with multicultural identities.The images make the spectator reminisce about childhood memories. Do you reference images from your youth, or are they found pictures of other’s family photos? The source imagery I work with are photos from my own childhood that my family members took. Recently, I’ve shifted focus onto photos that depict scenes from my mother’s college years in South Korea, as I’m interested in comparing my life to hers and observing the differences in terms of her having lived the majority of her life in an environment that she was native to, while I grew up as a minority.What do you aim to deliver to the viewer? For people with similar experiences and identities, I hope to draw out a feeling of being seen, heard, and understood. For people who have been lucky enough to live most if not all of their lives as part of the majority, I hope my work will be a chance for them to at least think about seeing, hearing, and understanding. Ultimately, I want to facilitate dialogue on the topics of Asian American identity and immigrant life.How do you think people relate to your paintings? I’ve been incredibly touched by the way my work has been received by not only Asian-Americans, but with immigrants in general. I’ve had people reach out to me and tell me that seeing my work has been a sort of healing process for them, or that they are grateful that I’m making this type of work. It makes me happier than what words can describe when I’m met with this type of feedback, as I could have never imagined that so many people with different upbringings could relate and connect to the work on such a deep level. At the same time, it is very saddening to hear that the same amount of people have had experiences where they were marginalized. “Lunchtime Heaven and Hell” is a painting that has drawn out numerous conversations with people over a collective experience of being made fun of for being part of a different culture in a Western society. I think the most rewarding part of making the type of work that I make is that I get to hear all the personal stories people share about their own private experiences of growing up and living as an immigrant.How does the fact that you are a first-generation immigrate in the US affect your work? I’ve mentioned in a previous interview with my friends at The Here and There Collective that being a first-generation immigrant (technically 1.5 generation) is perhaps the largest part of my identity, and that it has absolutely everything to do with everything for me. I would not be making the type of work that I make if it wasn’t for my experience of immigrating to North America at such a young age, spending my formative years and adolescence in a constant state of self-doubt, and being regarded as too Asian by non-Asians, while being labeled as whitewashed by fellow Asians. Even if I wasn’t making work that was directly talking about this issue, I’m sure it would’ve made its way into my work in one way or another, as it’s impossible to separate myself from such an impactful experience.When do you know a painting is done? Is your aim to duplicate your reference photo or deliver something else that the photos fail to address? It’s hard to describe in words when and how I know that the painting is done. I think it’s best put that it’s when you’re at a point in the painting where after observing the work from a few feet away, you get an intuitive feeling that this is the right moment to put the brush down – that if you make one more mark on the canvas, it will cross the line from being complete to overworked. It’s difficult though, and I’ve definitely had instances where I wished that I hadn’t done the last step in the painting, and realized that it would have been just as good (maybe even better) if I had left it as is at an earlier stage.I am interested in the ephemerality of paintings, do you view your own work as precious? If you are unhappy with a work, do you tend to destroy it or would you rather put it in storage for a while and alter them at a later date?I think I view my work as being precious in the sense that I would obviously be upset if something were to happen to it, like being destroyed or getting lost in transit, but I don’t have any issues with it being altered in my hands through my own decisions. So far, I’ve never left a painting finished that I’m unhappy with, so I’ve never destroyed anything. And I’ve never put a painting away for months to come back to it at a later date either. I’m quite a single-minded person – sometimes to a fault, so if something isn’t working in the painting, I have to fix it right then and there. I’ve had instances in the studio where I struggle with a part of the painting and end up lying on the floor and crying, before getting back up, neatly tying my hair back again, and then repeat the process of wiping away and repainting the same area for 6-7 hours in one sitting. Another time, I wrapped up in the studio feeling ambiguous about a specific cloud in a painting, thinking that I would come back to it the next morning and fix it. As soon as I cleaned up and washed my brushes, took off my apron, turned the lights off, and was ready to leave the studio, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to sleep as long as the cloud was bothering me, so I set up my palette again and repainted it.Have you ever painted a mural? If not would you be curious to try this medium? I have not had the opportunity to paint a mural yet. With the nature of my work in terms of its context and what I’m trying to convey, it would be very interesting to try something like a mural, which is in the realm of public art. It would allow for a larger audience and a bigger conversation, but I’m not sure how the work would translate onto a much more expansive surface in terms of the brushstrokes I use in my work. The largest size I’ve worked on to date is a 72×48 inch canvas, so I can imagine that working on a mural would be a big jump in terms of size.What are you currently working on, and what are your future plans I’m currently working towards a solo show planned for next May with a Canadian gallery called Blouin-Division in Montreal. This will be my first show in Canada, which is where I grew up and spent most of my life, so it’ll be a very meaningful show for me. The body of work that I’m creating for that show will focus largely on portraying group scenes, which speak to the community that I never had when growing up as a minority. More

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      Artist Interview: Rafa Macarron

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      Spanish artist Rafa Macarron is a young self-taught artist. His work leaves a touch of dreamlike influences and childish reminiscences. Despite the drama and deformity in his characters, the scenes portray tenderness, kindness, and harmony.I recently caught up with the talented Rafa Macarron and talked about his artistic influences, inspirations, and plans for 2022.Rom Levy: To begin, can you tell me a little about yourself and your background?Rafa Macarron: From a very young age I have had a pencil in my hands. When I was 4 years old, I traveled with my parents to Paris coinciding with the inauguration of the Picasso Museum. When I entered one of the rooms I asked for a notebook and colored pencils. I spent the whole morning trying to understand what was in front of me. At the age of seven I used to make drawings full of color, animals or people taken out from some unknown world. By the time I was supposed to go to college, it was the Spanish painter Juan Barjola who encouraged me not to apply to the Academy of Fine Arts.My studies as a physiotherapist have helped me a lot to know the human anatomy. I know the structure of the body perfectly. Afterwards, I started trying deformations and saw that they worked very well. It’s a bit like creating your own body characters, each with their own soul.Cycling has also provided me, not only with the desire to go beyond, but also the solitude, freedom, and also many landscapes, which have influenced my painting so much. When I used to ride a bike, I entered the same state of flow that I reach when I paint. I could be painting for eight or ten hours nonstop and not realize the passage of time.Who and what inspires your work?A small sunrise, the time I spend with my children, a walk with the dogs… To look at the small, ordinary, and daily details. It is very important to me and for my practice, to feel, perceive and keep painting to learn how to create new work. those are the little things that inspire me.Who are the characters in your paintings?The characters come out of my everyday life and I take them out of context. They could be individuals living with us. When I create them, I always like to imagine where they come from, what they do, where they go, what life they have…It is clear to me that I want to speak about life on the street, the everyday life, and my own existence. And I want to speak about these things with humor, more white than dark humor, more compassionate than cruel.I also like that the characters relate to the viewer, and I play with the formats and scales. I go from a large portrait, where the contact with the figure is direct, to panoramas in which dozens of characters seem to be starring in multiple scenes simultaneously.Although your subject engages in daily human activities and has human resemblance, they have a more cartoonish quality. What do you aim to deliver through that, and do your subjects stand as separate entities from ordinary people?My characters don’t go towards the caricature. I flee away from all kinds of cartoonish ornamentation. They are born from a fantastic, surreal, and expressionist figuration. I consider them hybrid characters that are closely related to my admiration for Dubuffet, Bonifacio, and Alfonso Fraile. My characters live in a transcended daily life, clean days, sunsets, and fresh air.What can you tell us about the flat characteristics of your work?I have always liked to transgress reality and invent like-cosmic spaces that relate to the characters. With flat backgrounds I manage to enhance the figure, and thus give more prominence to the character. When it comes to making more worked backgrounds, as it happens with the beach-scene paintings, illusions of perspectives are generated, it happens the other way around as in with the flat background paintings. I create the background and then I place the figure. I use the extremities of the figures, textures, or background elements to break with the flatness and generate volumes, textures, and a sense of perspective. Colors also help me create atmospheres, like when I use magentas to generate warmth.The materials used in my painting give me total freedom of expression. The spray gives modernity, dynamism, and color. The pencils and the marker create the weft, the waxes, the acrylics and the gouaches, nuanced transparencies and the oil brings complexity.When I saw the oeuvre you exhibited in your first solo show at CAC, the first artist that came to my mind looking at the paintings was Picasso and when I saw the sculptures, the first artist I thought of was Salvador Dali. Do they influence your work? How do cubism and surrealism come together with expressionism in your art?Picasso of course. I admire Picasso’s work much more than Dalí’s, for me he is the painter par excellence, but it is true that the sculptures can be a little like Dalí’s work because of my interpretation of the shapes of dogs. But my painting has expressionist features for the immediacy, the stroke is direct, even though I do a lot of sketch work and previous study.Following up on my last question, how does your work relate to art movements?I have had a very direct relationship with the Spanish painting, I have practically grown up in the Prado Museum, the best art gallery in the world. I am very proud to be part of Spanish painting tradition. Goya’s black paintings have always moved me, and of course Las Meninas by Velázquez, which I consider the best work.My parents are both architects, and I feel that architecture has a very important relationship with my work. I have traveled a lot to see art and have visited fairs and museums around the world. I think everything I see influences me in some way. But if I have to mention specific movements, I would mention El Paso Group in Madrid, the New Figuration or the American Abstract Expressionism as movements that have been able to influence me. I look at your work, and for a moment, I am dwelling in the ordinary moments in life, in a peaceful sense. What do you aim to deliver to the viewer?I invite the viewer to look at thigs differently as I’ve mentioned it above. I’d like the viewer to relate to my interpretation of reality and what surrounds us. I hope they experience my painting and its characters the same way I do, asking themselves: who are they? What is their life like? Where do they come from and, where do they go?I am interested in the ephemerity of paintings, do you view your own work as precious? If you are unhappy with a work, do you tend to destroy it or would you rather put it in storage for a while and alter them at a later date?No, if something doesn’t convince me, I destroy it. I don’t like to look back, I’m not capable.How does being a self-taught artist affect your style? Do you think it is liberating, or was it ever constraining?It’s always liberating.Did you ever paint a mural or have any interest to do so in the future?I’ve never been interested, really.What’s next for you in 2022?The truth is that I am very excited because many interesting things are coming up in 2022. I’m going to have a show in Los Angeles with Nino Mier gallery, I will participate in Arco Madrid and many other projects that I still cannot talk about, but that I find very exciting. More

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      Artist Interview: TIDE

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      TIDE is an emerging name in the art scene both in Japan and internationally. Since 2009, his palette consisted mostly of monochrome colours. Recently, TIDE had his first solo exhibition ‘DEBUT’ (2020) in Harajuku, Japan.

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      While his cat-inspired work has been gaining increasing popularity in the international art scene, I had the chance to interview TIDE to discuss his oeuvres and talk about it conceptually and technically, as well as getting an overview of the artistic influences behind his work.

      Rom Levy: To begin, can you tell me a little about yourself and your background?
      TIDE: My real name is TATSUHIRO IDE, but I work as TIDE by combining the first letter of my first name and my family name. I began to paint while I stayed in Australia at the age of 22, and when I was 24, I started my career as a painter based in Tokyo.
      Could you please describe your work process in terms of composing an image as well as a technical approach to creating the work.
      For the cat and bedroom series I’m mainly drawing at the moment, after deciding the position and posing of the character, I roughly decide the bedding, furniture, and background after which I compose a draft. I value the harmony of the curves, straight lines, and silhouettes of each part.
      The painting process is the reverse of the draft, starting with the background and finally finishing with the character. I change matiere in each part, and each layer has a change. For example, I spray the outside of the window to express abstract elements, and the window frame is represented by rough brush strokes to express wood grain. In addition, I use an airbrush for the bedding to create a delicate atmosphere.

      Let’s talk about your current subjects. What inspired them, and what are your source materials?
      The influence of the work covers a wide range of topics, but the heaviest inspiration is the works of Japanese manga artist Shigeru Mizuki. I have been familiar with the Yokai he drew since I was a child, and in particular, my encounter with his work “Nonnonba” inspired me to draw a picture. As for recent materials, I often refer to animations from the 30s to 50s, scenes from old Hollywood movies, manga magazines, and still life around me.
      How long have you been developing this visual language?
      It was 10 years ago that I started drawing and aspiring to be a painter. At first, I used pointillism to draw trees and imaginary landscapes, but about two years later, I started pencil drawing, and mainly produced imaginary seascapes for 5-6 years. During that time, I also tried a little watercolor painting, and I started the acrylic painting which is my current drawing style about two years ago.
      In the beginning, I painted the stuffed animal my daughter had very precisely on a monochromatic background, but reversing that relationship I got to my current style of letting a flat character juxtapose together in the elaborate background.

      About your color palette, can you tell me more about the reason you chose to paint in greyscale and would you consider anything else?
      I don’t even know the real reason myself.
      Maybe it is because I started drawing inspired by cartoons drawn in monochrome, or because using a lot of colors probably exceeds the capacity of my technique. However, I feel it is most beautiful to draw my work in grayscale. When the color scheme, density, area, and balance and rhythm of black, white, and grey are in harmony, the painting looks like it’s shining.
      One thing I can say for sure is that it becomes unclear blurry when other colors get in there.
      Speaking of art history, do you have a particular artist or art movement that influences or inspires you?
      One is Roy Lichtenstein. His flat works are an important element of my current style. On the contrary, Christopher Wool is also a significant figure to me. His attitude towards art is my mental support of my creative activities. In addition, it is because of Takashi Murakami’s concept of Superflat that I can draw a character as a Japanese artist and announce it as a piece of art.

      As a Tokyoite, how is your relation to the local street culture?
      There may not be much relation. I tried skateboarding, but it didn’t take root in my current life. However, I long for street culture that appears as an expression of emotions.
      Have you ever been intrigued to transfer your studio work onto a mural / public art ?
      I’m interested in any field of expression that I have never tried. Facing mural paintings would require a different kind of mental toughness from canvas. It would be an opportunity to provide feedback to canvas works by exploring new ways of drawing and new processes.
      I am interested in the ephemerity of paintings, do you view your own work as precious? If you are unhappy with a work, do you tend to desstroy it or would you rather put it in storage for a while and alter them at a later date?
      There is always a correct piece which will complete my artwork. I will continue to paint until I find it. I talked about how paintings ‘shine’, and I keep working on it until I feel that way.

      Let’s talk about the work you are making for 2021. What type of works are you preparing? Does it connect to previous works, or did you try something new?
      Every time I draw new work, I always try new things even if they are small. I will continue to make the CAT series, but at the same time, I will use trial and error to show the next stage.
      There are also ideas for other themes, so you can see a series of works that go one step further in 2021.
      Will you be showing your work somewhere any time soon? Any other plans for the foreseeable future?
      The schedule has already been roughly decided until 2022, but in the near future, it seems that there will be an opportunity to show my artwork next spring.

      How else will you be keeping yourself busy this Christmas Season?
      Everyday life will continue without anything in particular. However, it is my favorite season of the year. The atmosphere of the city is calm and I feel very comfortable just looking out the window. Happy Holidays. More

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      Artist Interview: Travis Fish

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      Contemporary American artist Travis Fish has been a rising name in the global art scene. Originally from Wisconsin, Travis lives and works in New-York City.
      Travis Fish paints catchy motifs, shirts, pants, luxury sweatshirts and portraits as if he had put them on his large format canvases in no time. His art seems childish, naive, without clear lines, with watercolor colors, random spots and deliberate mistakes: “I paint as fast as I can, for fear of becoming too perfect. Spontaneity should be preserved at all costs.”
      Travis fits well in the current trend of naive painting with child-like motifs. Seen in this way also with artists like Robert Nava, Oli Epp or Katherine Bernhardt.
      I caught up with Travis to talk about his artistic process and the influence of fashion to it.

      Jonas Wood and Travis Fish at Carl Kostyál booth in Felix, Los Angeles, 2020

      Rom Levy: To begin, can you tell me a little about yourself and your background ?
      Travis Fish: I was born in Wisconsin 1989. Went to art school at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After that I worked as a studio assistant for some painters I really respect. Following that I lived in Hong Kong and Korea for a few years, Then moved to New York in 2015.

      What’s your working process like?

      My process is a bit manic. I feel manic when I paint, you can see it in my eyes. The painting is on the ground. I dance around it a bit, trying to reach the middle. I use really watered down paint so things might spill around, so gotta deal with that. Usually I’m watching one layer dry so I can put the next layer down at the right time. Watching the paint dry is a part of it for me.

      Let’s talk about your current subjects. What inspired them, and what are your source materials?

      Currently I’m painting jackets, sweaters, and T-shirt’s. Mainly designer and grateful dead stuff. I started doing the clothes after a year of painting portraits of Migos. It started off where I would do a portrait of Offset, then Quavo, then Takeoff, repeat. I follow a bunch of fan pages that post daily. Then I started painting the clothes they would wear. I am a super fan. Fan art.

      How long have you been developing this visual language?

      I’ve been painting this way for about 4 years. It has been incubating over a decade and the visual language I am working within is a result of years of bad painting.

      Offset at Malmö Sessions by Travis Fish

      How did your interest in fashion become such a prominent part of your creative process?

      My interested in fashion and adornment have not been lifelong. For most of art school I owned a single sweater. My interest in fashion was born out of my love for Offset. These are items of adornment that signify a certain level of wealth and mobility. This fashion is so fast. The speed at which new collections are released works with the speed of my painting. Fast fashion and fast painting. I find this contrasted with the permenance of painting, a very fruitful space to work in. From the technical perspective the sweater can give me so many different things to paint. It could be a sweater with text, or a nature scene, or a print, or whatever. There is always something there to push and pull.

      Have you ever been intrigued to work on a mural / public art & urban art ?

      I have made some big paintings(10×15’). So I think I would have some fun with a mural.

      I am interested in the ephemerity of paintings, do you view your own work as precious? If you are unhappy with a work, do you tend to destroy it or would you rather put it in storage for a while and alter them at a later date?

      I’m usually pretty happy with how they turn out ha. But if I’m not happy with it, I take it off the stretcher roll it up and put it away. Ive never destroyed a painting. I never rework paintings. I just like to start a new one. They are not precious when I am working on them, I have even been know to sleep under them, but when its finished it becomes a little more precious and the work becomes preserving it.

      Let’s talk about the work you are making for Carl Kostyál in September. What type of works are you preparing? Does it connect to previous works, or did you try something new?

      I’ll be working on the show with Carl right up until it’s time to hang. Right now I’m painting sweaters, but a lot could change in a month.
      In addition to that, Travis Fish will have an upcoming solo show at Carl Kostyál, Stockholm in September and will be showing in Carl Kostyál booth at Dalla Art Fair in April 2021.

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