{"id":17410,"date":"2013-08-09T13:12:39","date_gmt":"2013-08-09T18:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/?p=17410"},"modified":"2013-08-22T20:31:17","modified_gmt":"2013-08-23T01:31:17","slug":"nicholas-steindorf-back-toyale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/the-bomb\/2013\/08\/09\/nicholas-steindorf-back-toyale\/","title":{"rendered":"~NICHOLAS STEINDORF . . BACK TO YALE"},"content":{"rendered":"

so, who is NICHOLAS . . ?<\/p>\n

the man in the lake, in Maine.<\/p>\n

well, that would be . . NICHOLAS STEINDORF.<\/p>\n

(and originally from land-locked Wisconsin, bye the way.)<\/p>\n

he’s a friend of Kate’s. I first saw his work in a very casual setting, a few small paintings tossed around the walls, at a small dinner party in Brooklyn. they caught my eye – right away, and I’ve been following his meanderings, as in wondering, questioning, always changing, roaming .. the range of visual expression running from precise digital animation to . . quiet, yet intense . . colorist minimalist sculpture … ever since.<\/p>\n

if you’ve been following these pages, you’ve seen . . . his 2012 Bushwick Open Studio presentation from last year<\/a>,<\/p>\n

and 2 very different, yet both . . very vivid, very poetic, digitally animated screenings, at . . ENTWINE in the city. both CoWorker presentations curated by YULIA TOPCHIY. <\/p>\n

He’s also been in a few groups shows at 109, in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

see: ‘What Have You Done for Me Lately’, 109 Gallery, Brooklyn.<\/a><\/p>\n

see: CWP PRESENTS: 3 SHORT WORKS by NICHOLAS STEINDORF<\/a><\/p>\n

see: ‘SWOLLEN FOOT’ – VIDEO by NICHOLAS STEINDORF \/ MUSIC by DARREN WILL<\/a><\/p>\n

though both video presentations, do their ‘artistic’ traveling .. mostly on the ‘abstract’ vector – both are narratives, though of a purely visual, and yes: a .. purely ‘conceptual’ kind. <\/p>\n

the latter, ‘SWOLLEN FOOT’ had particular meaning for me, and I’m sure others . . . as it retold for another generation, that great Greek myth, the compelling tragedy of Swollen Foot . . or, as he’s better known to us .. OEDIPUS.
\nOEDIPUS REX \/ OEDIPUS WRECKS. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nNICHOLAS STEINDORF – some kind of digital print on vinyl. about 14 x 12 ft. something like that.
\nYale MFA Open Studios, APRIL 27-28, 2013<\/p>\n

so when Nicholas went off to grad school at Yale, many stories followed. it seemed like a pretty intense experience, so when I was invited to actually see what went on, I jumped at the chance, having seriously never been interested in the place at all, before. ever.
\nwell, things change. nothing is written in stone, esp in the art world. <\/p>\n

this was the first piece to strike my eye when I entered the painting studios. I didn’t know it was a work by Nicholas. it was part of an ‘ad hoc’ hallway display, there were no descriptive info, or artist labels.<\/p>\n

it reminded me of the first anti-art brown ‘rug’ piece I had seen 10 years ago, by JOE BRADLEY. so funny, so quirky. so smart, so minimal, and soooooo .. outside the box.<\/p>\n

I esp dug that ethereal, and unaccounted-for . . transparent, translucent, transformative (!!) hem . . at the bottom.
\nphoto ‘realist’ art that makes the big .. shark jump to … non-objective !!
\nnow you’re cooking. with MY MIND.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nNICHOLAS STEINDORF . . in his painting studio at Yale. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nlike Nicholas himself, it was very much .. a work in motion.
\na place of ideas. a place of input.<\/p>\n

I believe that is DARREN WILL, with his back to us. he worked with Nicholas on the soundtrack for the ‘Swollen Foot’ project, and is a driving force in the Brooklyn-based, up and coming .. LUKE RATHBORNE band.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nin the center of the room – Nicholas’ conscious, or was it unconscious (?!!) ode to grad school – esp in the visual arts .. and that would be:
\nthe twin towers of: ‘commerce’ meets ‘skills\/artistic vision’.
\nor simply put: commerce vs art.
\nan age-old battle, or maybe not.
\nnot, if you read your history, and esp ancient history .. right.
\nGreeks, and all. <\/p>\n

haha. <\/p>\n

it got a ‘conceptual’ laugh out of me. though of course – it seemed friggin serious. and beautiful. at the time.
\nand so, does grad school. tell me<\/em> about it.
\nand then, ya’ll come back, and hit the streets of New York City. again.
\nsplatt.
\nhaha, it’s still summertime – so, let’s drink to that<\/em> !!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nthis was the almighty dollar, commerce side.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nand this was the almighty idealist .. side.
\nI liked this side because it referenced the video work .. in a real & very neat way. <\/p>\n

and also because .. it spoke to intellectual, poetic, romantic, even heroic . . . VISIONS.
\nthere was a sense of just how far and wide, a mind could travel.
\nthere was a kind of bio-ness, a human-ness in what was really at heart, a purely ‘abstract’ platform & a simple squared-off abstract ‘image’.
\nit was the opposite of hyper-realism, yet in essence it was, an expression of .. hyper-realism, humanism at it’s best.
\nthe proverbial .. mental ‘leap’.
\nthe artistic transformative at work .. and, damn it, yes. that side is gonna win. no matter how pastel and ‘puny’ it looks – compared to that huge black gloomy paper dollar – giant black $$$.<\/p>\n

you get .. the feeling, just through the visuals – that the ‘big’ $ money image on the opposing side .. was also freighted with .. it’s own sub-text of contrasts: mainly desire to achieve, and, yet .. damn you, F you – if it don’t .. ‘materialize’. <\/p>\n

a kind of in-the-box, we live .. and so, yeah a pay day would be nice. but still, if it don’t materialize, you know what ?
\nthis is what I do.
\nso .. you know what: f-ck you.<\/p>\n

it’s called living inside the head of an artist – if he was .. John Malkovich, is all. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nNicholas’ headquarters . . his desk, against the wall, when you enter.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nand a view beyond, to the outer wall. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nto the side: what is life, anyways. but a game of chance, or skill ?
\nyou tell . . me. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nthere were a lot of ideas, and lot of sculpture . . at play.
\nit was fun to see so much play with ‘light’, and ‘space’, and ‘form’ – in a painting studio.
\nhaha.<\/p>\n

you can put an artist into a box – but that doesn’t mean you can keep him there. the gears in this brain .. are always working. always at play. always transforming. questioning, pushing boundaries. making plays. the big energy, and seriousness .. reminded me of the tales of the golden days of the long past New York City art scene of the Abstract expressionists.
\nand can we even say, then and now: ‘contrary’ r-u-l-e-d. <\/p>\n

contrary is . . as contrary does.
\nabstract to narrative, sculpture to painting, and back again, in one big easy, beautiful .. swoop of the non-stop .. ‘mind’.<\/p>\n

NICHOLAS STEINDORF. YALE MFA OPEN STUDIOS. APRIL 27-28, 2013.<\/p>\n

PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

so, who is NICHOLAS . . ? the man in the lake, in Maine. well, that would be . . NICHOLAS STEINDORF. (and originally from land-locked Wisconsin, bye the way.) he’s a friend of Kate’s. I first saw his work in a very casual setting, a few small paintings tossed around the walls, at a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17410"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17410"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17497,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17410\/revisions\/17497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}