While working on the interviews for my last post, I had an opportunity to meet two artists who were putting the finishing touches on their respective exhibitions. Serkan Ozkaya’s work A Sudden Gust of Wind is still on view at Boots Contemporary Art Space and Pepe Mar’s exhibition Who Needs Guitars Anymore? is at White Flag Projects.
Georgia Kotretsos, Editor-in-Chief of Boot Print (which is, in my opinion, is one of the best art publications out there; click here for their online archive) interviews Serkan about his work. His piece is a reference to a Jeff Wall’s photograph of the same name, which references the work by Hokusai. Here he describes this connection, as well as the other ideas behind the work:
[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jksPtuM0N4]
For additional background on Serkan Ozkaya, check out their website. Among other articles, they link to a great video of his previous project with the New York Times.
At White Flag Projects, Pepe Mar discusses his exhibition with White Flag’s Director, Matthew Strauss. Pepe’s work consists of three-dimensional “monsters,” which confront the viewer with their explosive color and form. Here he talks about his inspiration and why he chose to present his work here:
[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbMkL3AZg1g]