Art Is Free

Ordered and Controlled

2009-11-28T13:16:00.000-05:00

Abstract paint areas are real areas--lofty, alive, emotionally ordered and intellectually controlled. ... Maybe you think things are o.k. and that you're "doing all right." But someday the monotonous and ugly spaces you live and work in will be organized (by your children) as intelligently and as beautifully as the spaces have been in some paintings. A painting of quality is a challenge to disorder and insensitivity everywhere.

Ad Reinhardt, "How to Look at Space," Editorial cartoon, PM, April 28, 1946.

The Hardest Thing in the World

2009-09-02T08:00:00.000-04:00

An honest picture has to be aware of itself, and the hardest thing in the world is to make an honest picture.

Spencer Finch quoted in Meghan Dailey’s article on the artist in Art+Auction, Sept. 2009, page 52.

The Knife Edge of Nonsense

2009-08-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

...We are constantly worried that we are being played for fools [by abstract works of art]. What makes the anxiety even worse is the fact that this is an art that, by its very nature, willfully and knowingly flirts with absurdity and emptiness, dancing on the knife edge of nonsense and beckoning us to come along.

Kirk Varnedoe, Pictures of Nothing, 2006, page 42.

Barnett Newman

2009-01-09T13:00:00.000-05:00

An artist paints so that he will have something to look at; at times he must write so that he will also have something to read.

Barnett Newman, “Why I Paint,” in the journal The Tiger's Eye, 1947.

New Paintings

2008-10-02T08:00:00.005-04:00

New 2008 paintings and drawings were added today.

Click here to see them.

New Photographs

2008-08-08T08:00:00.000-04:00

New 2008 photographs were added today.

Click here to see them.

Otherwise it's fashion

2008-07-18T20:00:00.000-04:00

To have something that lasts - that says something - that means you've really gotten hold of the essence of things. The only thing that can last is really the essence. Otherwise it’s transitory, it’s fashion.
...
[Architecture] has to be something that somehow relates to life itself, of that particular time and place.

I.M. Pei as recorded in the documentary film First Person Singular.

Participation in the actual events of the day

2008-04-01T20:00:00.000-04:00

The collector of contemporary art actually participates in the discourse of the day, adding through acquisition his or her particular inflection to this tumultuous conversation. Hence, the collecting of contemporary art... confers a voice upon the collector with regard to the formation of the larger culture and allows for real participation in the actual events of the day.

- Critic and curator Robert Pincus-Witten as quoted in Artforum, April 2008, p. 296.

Near Lancaster, PA

2008-02-24T08:00:00.002-05:00

A willing individual

2007-11-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

Art is, and should be, the act of an individual willing to say something new, something not quite familiar.

- Maya Lin as recorded in the documentary film A Strong Clear Vision.

One Night Only

2007-10-09T20:32:00.000-04:00

Playing For Keeps

2007-05-01T08:00:00.001-04:00

At its best, art school is the more or less productive meeting of as many supple and unpredictable minds as can be arranged. It's the partially organized but largely ad-libbed exchange and differentiation of interests among a group of semi-strangers, all of whom are playing for keeps.

- Robert Storr as quoted in Art in America, May 2007.

Retail

2007-04-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

A retail masterpiece photographed in Atlantic City, NJ.

CUAC Show Closes

2006-03-15T19:00:00.000-05:00

I am grateful to everyone who contributed to the exhibition at the Central Utah Art Center. I feel honored to have been welcomed so warmly by the Ephraim art community.

This is some of the media coverage of the show:

What Art Is: Sean Morello at the CUAC by Geoff Wichert, 15 Bytes, ArtistsOfUtah.org.

CUAC probes 'What art is' by Jill Cox, Sanpete Messenger.

CUAC features Sean Morello by Carolyn Fernandez, The Snowdrift Feb 16, 2006, page 6.

What is art?, Daily Herald, Feb 09, 2006.

Show at CUAC

2006-01-25T11:41:00.000-05:00

SEAN MORELLO

10 FEBRUARY - 15 MARCH 2006
OPENING RECEPTION AND ART TALK
FRIDAY, 10 FEBRUARY, 6-9 PM

CENTRAL UTAH ARTS CENTER
86 North Main Street, Ephraim, Utah
www.cuartcenter.org

Open Studio

2006-01-08T18:56:00.000-05:00

Please come to see some new work by five New York City based artists:

Brett Carron
Juozas Cernius
Sean Morello
Ryan Mrozowski
Mike Womack

One night only:

Tuesday, January 10th, from 7 - 10 pm.
At the studio near the World Trade Center.

142 Fulton Street, 3rd floor (just east of Broadway).

Upcoming Events

2005-12-01T07:30:00.000-05:00

10 January 2006
Open Studio featuring the work of five NYC-based artists at Fulton Street studio near the World Trade Center site.
One night only

10 February - 18 March 2006
Exhibition at Central Utah Arts Center, Ephraim Utah.
10 February, 6-9pm, Opening and presentation by the artist.

Press: NY Arts

2005-09-30T14:04:00.001-04:00

To read the full text of Shane McAdams review of Foundations at Gallery Boreas, as published in NY Arts Magazine, click here.

Announcement: What Art Is

2005-09-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

Upcoming Exhibition

2005-07-13T07:30:00.000-04:00

Foundations at Gallery Boreas.

21 July - 15 August 2005
Reception Thursday 21 July 6-9pm.

Works by: Peter Barrett, Paul Daniel, Yasmin Etemadi, Peter Finnemore, Sean Morello, Zhu Wen Qing, David Shull, and Mike Womack.

From the press release (Gallery Boreas):
"The artists in this show... replace fear and misunderstanding with open-ended investigations.
...
The sculptures and paintings of recent Pratt MFA graduates Sean Morello and Mike Womack discuss the formal language of art and expression. Art itself as a foundation is discussed in their work as contemporary art exists in a situation of indeterminate change and lingering traditions."

Review: Karin Davie’s Perfect Heritage

2005-06-24T07:00:00.000-04:00

Karin Davie’s show of recent work is a lively collection of ambitious paintings full of painterly bravado. Davie’s energetic gestural abstractions make a gorgeous contribution to the historical project of painting, and are surprisingly evocative of painting from the dawn of the endeavor.
Viewing the work, I was reminded of my first trip to Italy as a young art student. In the Botticelli Room of the Uffizi museum in Florence, surrounded by such giants as the Birth of Venus, Primavera, and the famous Centaur, hangs Domenico Ghirlandaio’s work from 1484, Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Saints. Following a familiar theme, it depicts a group of figures worshipping the Christ child on his mother’s lap, with kneeling portraits of two patrons in the foreground. The painting is a masterpiece. About six feet square, every inch is bejeweled in stunning detail. Figures, drapery, flora, and every other minute feature are portrayed with both grace and naturalism. The thousand parts form a whole, miraculously fusing into a picture of completeness through complexity.
Standing in front of that painting for the first time, I had the clear impression that it was somehow a perfect painting. Upon reflection, I think its perfection is neither the sort that excludes other possibilities nor the dubious sort that purports to embody a culmination of history. This painting is perfect in the sense that it lays out in clear terms what its intention is, and by what means it will be accomplished, and then it proceeds with unflinching rigor to the end. It is at once exulting and shattering, and for me, unforgettable.
One of the finest works in Davie’s exhibit is the large Between My Eye and Heart No. 18 (2005). Long, unbroken brushstrokes of rich purple, fleshy peach, pink, and lush green squirm and pulse over a deep field of grey-blue. The relationship of the work to renaissance painting is not dependant on the superficial chromatic similarity that some of the images bears to that period, though it deserves mention that her use of color is admirable. Rather, the work’s classical qualities begin with its command of the depth of pictorial space, its delicate balance of material indulgence and pious control, and its pursuit of the most sublime beauty in its natural haunt, just on the edge of ugliness. Davie’s is perfect painting, her parameters are clear, and she accomplishes her objectives with unimpeachable skill and remarkable poetry in a way that I believe Ghirlandaio would applaud. Achieving all this by means of her own bold, idiosyncratic brushwork enriches the world of painting. It is a pleasure to see such work while the paint is still drying.

Karin Davie was at the Mary Boone Gallery in Chelsea, 30 April - 25 June 2005.

What Art Is, Introduction

2005-04-27T21:12:00.000-04:00

The primary artistic gesture is to designate something as art, to point to that which is important. This essential statement, ‘this is art, this is meaningful,’ is indistinguishable from, ‘art is this, this is what art is.’ I see my work as framing a specific definition of art, which, I believe, functions to imply an entire configuration of values. By positioning itself, the work invites viewers to reevaluate their own value system in relation to it.
My work defines itself against the vacuous values of consumer society. Rather than addressing the specifics of particular products or markets, allusions in my work are most clearly understood as references to underlying value systems. I think of each piece as a case study, a unique visual contemplation of contrasting values.
The vocabulary of the work is drawn from recognizable artistic modes as well as commercial imagery such as food and fashion. I see the present and history of art, culture and commerce as an open catalogue of possibilities. My work results from a process of intuitively combining these different images until something resonant emerges.

What Art Is, Part 7: Conflict Resolution

2005-04-24T21:06:00.000-04:00

Meaning is under continual attack. King, corporation, stupidity, and superficiality conspire to replace life with entertainment, understanding with information, and identity with apathy. Art is about meaning. Ultimately meaning is restored by cultivating profound connections to other people, to nature, and to eternity.
City Love (mixed media on panel, 2005) consists of two small square panels, hung close together on a wall, faced with rough concrete. The close physical proximity and visual similarity of the two panels links them as a pair. They are not identical, but their differences seem insignificant. They have been raised from horizontal --the orientation in which concrete must be applied-- and elevated together on the wall, where they lose their resemblance to pavers, where they cannot be put to use or walked on.

What Art Is, Part 6: Art and the Market

2005-04-21T21:03:00.000-04:00

Art is free. Unlike businesses, artists do not respond to demand, they make things whether people want them or not. Art is an unavoidably awkward combatant in the arena of buying and selling because it is already paid for, the artist having donated labor and materials. So-called buyers are actually endorsing ideas and enabling artists, rather than simply acquiring objects.
Flesh and Blood in Herringbone (acrylic on canvas, 2005) is a geometric abstraction based on a common woven pattern, in warm, bodily colors. The painting is about warmth and coldness in visual, interpersonal and economic terms.

What Art Is, Part 5: Art and Fashion

2005-04-18T21:00:00.000-04:00

Fashion as a commodity can be considered anti-art. Far removed from merely meeting the human need for clothing, fashion’s purpose is to gratify personal vanity and promote social distinction. Fashion is the materialization of ideals such as appearance, self-absorption, and conspicuous consumption. Fashion reinforces one’s ideas about self and the world, pandering to the craving for acceptance and power. Where art celebrates the connectedness of individuals, fashion homogenizes the crowd into fleshless corporations of sellers and uniformed hordes of buyers.
Abstract Painting with Houndstooth (oil on canvas, 2005) is a fundamentally abstract painting, a mode associated with the spiritual, or the purportedly spiritual. The houndstooth pattern quotes a currently fashionable weave. A generalized gestural brushstroke interrupts the matrix, invoking the rhetoric of the spiritual upon the anti-ideals of commerce and the fashionable.