For September's Artwalk we asked Cold Cube Press, aka Minh Nguyen, Aidan Fitzgerald, Michael Heck, and Raya Leary, to showcase a collaborative piece - the results are the expansive illustrated banners "Now Look Here, You" now on view at Cairo. For the opening they asked Katy Lester and Max Cleary to create an installation - a monolithic pillar with faded paint and two hammer's for smashing. In addition poetry was read by Hillary Johnson and some music from Free Music was danced to!
How did you arrive at your chosen medium?
Minh: I had never painted acrylic before! I learned on the banners that you now see at Cairo.
Aidan: I made some large banners for Vibrations last year with house paint and acrylics and really fell in love with the size and scale of such large pieces, as well painting on loose canvas. I wanted to replicate some of that feeling in this collaboration with Minh. We chose the color palette together - we wanted the paintings to be as close to a printed CMYK color palette as we could get, and that palette really allowed us to have fun with the process.
What is your favorite part of your process?
Aidan: My favorite part is usually just after I get started. With this collaboration, we extensively planned out the three banners, then gave each other room to push the paint around and get messy and improvise. I get such an adrenaline rush from painting, and it felt great to share that space with Minh.
Minh: It was very cathartic. I went over to Aidan's studio, we listened to Melt Banana and proceeded to ruin our clothes with bright paints. We took a break to eat Sichuan noodles and gave each other pep talks. Making art can actually be fun, I forget that sometimes because outcomes hold such weight. Also, gesso is my new favorite tool. Gesso is miraculous. Gesso forgives all.
How do you begin work on a new piece?
Minh: It depends. This one was more spontaneous than others. Aidan and I are similar in that we are both obsessive about composition... it was nice to say "I think there should be a black ball in this upper left corner... to balance it out" and hear "I know what you mean."
Aidan: I usually take a lot of time before I start in one a piece. I work pretty consistently on small drawings and ideas, and when the time came to start on this, I compiled and compressed a lot of the ideas that I had been playing around with in my sketchbook and smaller paintings. Minh and I showed each other our ideas through out the process and gave each other edits and encouragement, which was a really generative way of working.
What artists are you excited about right now?
Aidan: I've been really excited by the work of Clay Hickson and Tauba Auerbach, their work makes my head spin. I love the work that Max Cleary and Katy Lester are doing right now, and I'm a big big fan of the comics of Elaine Lin. Justin Duffus just had a show of paintings at Linda Hodges gallery that was superb and made me want to run home and paint.
Minh: Right now I am into art that is clever in idea and crude or simple in drawing. Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber always. Brian Rea. Harriet Lee Merron. I am grappling with tough issues in my day-job so I just need some crude drawings for balance.