Jen Stark was born in Miami, FL in 1983. She graduated with a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2005. Her work has been exhibited extensively around the US, with solo shows in NYC, Seattle, Miami, Washington DC, and Chicago and is part of the permanent collections of MOCA North Miami and The West Collection among others. Through the use of simple paper-cutting techniques she creates complex structures that reveal how remarkable common materials can become. The ideas are based on replication and infinity, echoing patterns and intelligent designs found in nature. She lives and works in Miami.
This week I’ll be working on pieces for Art Basel Miami in December. I’m going to be showing in a solo booth at SCOPE Fair with Carol Jazzar Gallery. This weekend I might go to Fairchild Tropical Gardens, which is a really awesome botanical park in Miami. Also my friend Inah, is re-creating my website and it looks amaaaazing. It should be live by November.
They know what I do and they are very supportive and proud of me… but my dad is still trying to get me to paint pretty pictures to sell in a cheesy gallery or in a bank. Haha. He doesn’t really get it.
My grandpa used to say I look like Scarlet Johansson. Probably on her bad days.
Well, the sense I couldn’t live without is sight… because its just so important in daily life. But my favorite sense is probably smell. I have a very sensitive nose and can smell really subtle things.
I’ve never had chicken pox. Also, I am 3rd generation Miamian – which is hard to find.
For sure! I’ve been in art classes since elementary school, and I think this really helped encourage my creativity and eventually develop my own style. Lots of people hated the colleges or schools they went to, but I think its what you make of it. If you’re really into the work you’re doing, you’re going to be more engaged and get more out of it.
Onamotopea. Haha see? Really spelled: Onomatopoeia.
No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times
Working on getting my art to be better and better and out-do myself with every new show. I’m going to create a new stop motion animation in the next few months. Also I’m planning on applying to a few artist residencies in and out of the US.
There is only Plan A!
At NADA art fair on the beach, there were some colorful and abstract paintings by artist Nolan Hendrickson in Ramiken Crucible Gallery’s booth. The paintings featured surreal images of multicolored humans sitting or standing around. I like the chunky colorful shapes and composition of these paintings.
My favorite artwork at PULSE art fair was a ‘painting’ made by melting hundreds of cute manga plastic dolls into a pool of marbled color. I love how cute and horrible this artwork seems at the same time. In this piece there are some circle shapes where the dolls didn’t melt, revealing plastic faces and limbs squished together. It was by artist collective ‘3’ and exhibited by Megumi Ogita Gallery from Tokyo. The gallerist told me they only melt ‘cute girl’ dolls.
My good friends Sam and Tury, who make up the artist collective FriendsWithYou, put on an amazing environmental installation of inflatable characters and bounce houses in a huge lot in the Miami Design District. Dozens of 20ft. high colorful inflatable characters swayed in the air or blew out puffs of smoke. This installation was inspired by Holi, a festival effectuated by Hindu followers throwing brightly colored water and powder at each other. It was definitely one of my favorite events during Art Basel this year. On opening night, there was even a live concert by N.E.R.D.
In the Art Basel Convention Center, Mounir Fatmi’s skateboards covered in prayer carpet tapestries were mesmerizing. The colors were so vivid, and I enjoy the play between a sacred tapestry covering a skateboard. The colors shimmered on these prayer rugs, and seemed ironic that they were mounted on a skateboard – a fun ‘toy’ meant to ride around the streets with. Maybe the artist wanted to comment on the sacredness of riding skateboards? Either way, I think they are fabulous. They were shown scattered about the floor at Lombard-Freid booth.
This week we have Miami resident and paper-wizard Jen Stark posting on the blog about her first-hand experience of last week’s Art Basel. So, over to Jen…
“Every year Art Basel Miami brings some of the best artwork to town for one chaotic week. It happens each year, and seems to get bigger and better as the years go by. Since Basel Miami’s beginning in 2001, other satellite fairs and events have been popping up and gaining momentum.” (Read more)
Here is a great juicy animation by Takeshi Murata. He does other really trippy colorful work with chopped up video distortions. By hacking the way a computer reads a DVD, Takeshi is able to painstakingly create, frame by frame an image of both painterly abstraction and technological fragmentation.
She is an artist that makes these amazing pen drawings of beautifully intricate things with a grotesque side to it. I love the balance between beautiful and disgusting. Brilliant!
If you don’t know this group, you should. They do really amazing stuff, from crazy psychedelic artwork to performances and videos. Here is one of my favorite animations they made.
He creates playful and colorful drawings of strange cartoon characters. You’ll find creatures similar to the flying-dog in The Neverending Story, Big Bird, blood-thirsty bat men, and all types of other weird things. The drawings border on funny and disturbing, and are always interesting.
I love his designs and artwork. Everything is so intricate and amazing. He just had a solo show titled ABRACADABRA in San Francisco. This image shows a few of the paintings he created for it. He also has a clothing line called FREEGUMS and last year he asked me to make a shirt for it, which is titled Ooey Gooey_. Also, here is a link to a dance video he madeembedded
