online research

spent 4hrs seeking art online. mainly just looking to be surprised & to look for "the new." best deal for me was hooking into a saatchi gallery website that had an extensive global art gallery link. so, i visited gallery sites in many countries & found there was not really any geographical identity>>>in a new sense. homogenization due to technology has set in so soon? that is not to say one would not find cultural referencing, there was, yet not what i had hoped for. for one thing, most of the artists in the "less" mainstream countries were trained elsewhere. if in europe, they trained in uk & if asian they often trained in japan & oz or u.s. as for abstract paintings, same stuff/style that was going on in the 1920-40s. did find a few treats in berlin, zurich, & seol. thought i would find some in the scandinavian countries, yet not. the stuff i did like used new materials, or at least incorporated stuff that has been around a while in a new way. for example the use of plastics.

of course, as soon as i mention "new materials" the sol le witt's statement in paragraphs on contemporary art about confusing new materials for new ideas pops up & usually ruins the moment. yet, new materials are markers/identifiers for our "now">>>sort of time capsules. i look at some of the household refuse i used in mixmedia images in the past that do not exist in mercantile today>> like teabags tags, plastic binder on soda sixpacks, jetdry baskets.

anyhoo, a few of the ones i liked:

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/

http://www.haeusler-contemporary.com/index.php

http://www.annedevillepoix.com/main.html

http://www.galleryihn.com/eng/mainframe.html

http://www.art-center-berlin.de/deutsch/ausstellungen/frame.html

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after viewing, one thing i would like to try is working with metal, patinas/chem reactions & surface manipulations as paintings. having grown up in an investment casting foundry& machine shop i have the background for it>>> just not the tools/resources anymore. cutting into, welding, grinding to create surface relief/patterns/texture & then playing with toxic stuff /chemicals to color the surface has appeal. the stuff i have seen of this genre hardly touches the possibilities readily available.

translucent plasitic overlays or fiberglass cloth sewn to encase a painted object & then lighted/presented properly engaged me/looked like fun too. for me it would be play.