Table Fights!

This year was my first time seeing Table Fights during ICFF weekend in Manhattan. Table fights is artists and designers who make fully automated, remote controlled tables and fight each other. The table designs are fully characterized like cage fighter and are given names such as Mean Maniac, Deer America and Punch-a-matic. This table fight event was developed by the creative minds of Shaun Bullens and Annie Adams who graduated from the furniture design master program at RISD. Below are some images of the event!

I OBEY Giant

I first came to find out about Shepard Fairey during my freshman year at RISD when I saw the OBEY sticker that had placed him on the map on graffiti art. I was educated by a friend on the brief history of this artist and the massive attention this one sticker that displayed Andre the Giant. He pioneered graffiti art and introduced guerilla art to a larger audience. I’ve always been interested in art where the subject matter is a commentary on pop culture.

There is a current show in the ICA (The Institute of Contemporary Art) that I was able to visit this weekend while I was in Boston. The show exhibits a range of work from the contemporary and sometimes controversial graphic artist, Shepard Fairey. Fairey has become a worldwide cultural phenomenon, which seemed to have come overnight with the image of the century, the iconic “Hope” portrait which pictures our current president, Barack Obama (image above). It displays Obama looking out into the distance with a look of optimism, the image has become such a strong statement for our historic year of change. The image also exhibited Fairey to the mainstream audience, although Fairey has been making work since the early 1990s. His first piece which gained mass recognition in the art world was a campaign sticker her designed while he was studying at RISD.

Pieces also featured in the show…

Art within rural New Jersey

I spent my weekend in Allentown, a small town in New Jersey, about 25 miles from Princeton. Although one can easily miss Allentown in the blink of an eye, inside nests a young aspiring artist by the name of Marisa Keris (picture above). This young talent is a recent graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and earned her BFA in Painting. She is one of my dearest friends and I decided to make her the subject of my first “official” blog discussion. I made a studio visit over to the Keris Tree Farm where Marisa has her studio.

If you open wide the sliding doors of the old barn house set on the Keris property, you see tractors and tools stored like any typical barn house but off to the side is a small room that encompasses the creative world of Marisa Keris. Walking into her studio one sees taxidermy on the wall, the remnants of a deer skull on a work table, a hanging American flag, left over Christmas tree branches and salvaged personals that have been left behind by others. Marisa’s inspiration wall also includes an array of images from fashion magazines to old family photos. There’s a definite influence of Marisa’s upbringing and the different places she has traveled to in her subject matter of the pieces she creates. It is evident that patriotism and family value/tradition are prominent in her work as well. Although a painter, Marisa likes to explore with other mediums. Below are examples of her work.