Friday, August 5, 2011

Art Critic Brian Sherwin Interviews Art Critic Mat Gleason

This article, originally posted on FineArtViews by FASO, is by Brian Sherwin, Regular contributing writer for FineArtViews. Brian Sherwin is an art critic, blogger, curator, artist and writer based near Chicago, Illinois. He has been published in Hi Fructose Magazine, Illinois Times, and other publications, and linked to by publications such as The Boston Globe, Juxtapoz Magazine, Deutsche Bank ArtMag, ARTLURKER, Myartspace, Blabbermouth, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Modern Art Obsession, Citizen LA, Shark Forum, Two Coats of Paint and Art Fag City.

Mat Gleason is known for being a bare-knuckle art critic. He founded Coagula Art Journal in 1992-- which has focused on giving the lowdown on high art for nearly two decades. Coagula Art Journal has been described as "the publication that the art world loves to hate, and loves to read" by the Village Voice-- and has been referred to as “The National Enquirer of the Art World" by the New York Post. Gleason describes Coagula Art Journal as an antidote to the theory-addled and fashion-driven forces in the world of contemporary art.

Brian Sherwin: Mat, you founded Coagula Art Journal-- a freely distributed contemporary art magazine-- in 1992. The publication, which is known for its tabloid style, has been praised widely for the love/hate relationship it has had with the mainstream art world-- including mentions of the influence it has had on art writing by art critics such as Jerry Saltz. Can you reflect on the founding of Coagula Art Journal? What spurred you to see it in print?

Mat Gleason: In college I had success publishing an underground newspaper so I kept the same model with a raw approach. I prefer immediacy in writing and art and reactions and was deeply into punk zines, so it was just a word dominated punk zine for the art world.

Art Critic Brian Sherwin Interviews Gallerist Edward Winkleman

This article, originally posted on FineArtViews by FASO, is by Brian Sherwin, Regular contributing writer for FineArtViews. Brian Sherwin is an art critic, blogger, curator, artist and writer based near Chicago, Illinois. He has been published in Hi Fructose Magazine, Illinois Times, and other publications, and linked to by publications such as The Huffington Post, The Boston Globe, Juxtapoz Magazine, Deutsche Bank ArtMag, ARTLURKER, Myartspace, Blabbermouth, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Modern Art Obsession, Citizen LA, Shark Forum, Two Coats of Paint and Art Fag City.

Edward Winkleman is a gallery owner, curator, author and blogger from New York. Winkleman's blog has long been a point of contact for artists who desire to learn more about how mainstream art galleries function. His blog features discussion about art, culture, and politics. Winkleman is known for being an art dealer who embraces social media and the Internet. He spearheaded Moving Image, an art fair focused on contemporary video art, and participated in VIP Art Fair.

Winkleman Gallery has participated in Art Chicago, Pulse, ARCO, NADA, Aqua and several other art fair venues. Exhibits at Winkleman Gallery have been reviewed in The New York Times, Art in America, The New Yorker, Artforum, Flash Art and several other art publications. Winkleman Gallery is located in the Chelsea arts district in New York City.

Winkleman tends to represent art that has an edge-- art that slices deep into societal exploration. He has represented Janet Biggs, Jennifer Dalton, Joy Garnett and The Chadwicks-- among others.

Brian Sherwin: Edward, your art blog is considered by many to be one of the most influential art blogs active at this time. Why did you decide to start blogging?

Edward Winkleman: I began blogging originally about politics, back in the early days of the George W. Bush administration when I couldn't find any semblance of the outrage I felt about our march to war in Iraq being expressed in the main stream media. Bloggers were much more willing to say the things the news anchors apparently were not, and it became a haven of sanity for me. Even when I disagreed with the other commenters, at least people were acknowledging what was going on. Most important to me about all that was that I was actively learning about things I wouldn't have known how to go about learning if left to my devices...the community of bloggers were very generous in pointing out the best summaries of issues and/or best critiques of policies.

It took me a few years to realize that this same resource could be applied to discussing art and the art gallery system. I launched my current blog in 2005 mainly as a marketing tool for the gallery, but it quickly evolved into a forum on how to navigate the gallery system. I've enjoyed being part of the discussion (loving galleries as I do) and so continue it today.