Update

Okay, so it’s been a minute.

I’ve neglected wordpress because I’ve been hanging out with tumblr.
I don’t type much over there though – mostly I use it for pictures – so I will resume posting on this blog.

I’ve missed this place.

As well as hanging out on tumblr, I’ve been working!
So here are some updates:

- I’ve been working on a project for the past couple of months titled “Get Angry”. It will be done this weekend, and I’m pretty happy with the way it’s turning out. The project is a series of paintings on specific protests and revolutions that have happened across the world in 2011. I wanted to present them all at once, which is why I haven’t posted each individual piece as I’ve finished them, like I normally would. I will definitely post each painting and and explain them here once I put them out though.

- I redid my website. Woot!

- I’m currently exhibiting in a group show titled “Dirty Sensibilites” being held at the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI). The show is about southern life and culture. Being from Oklahoma, it was dope to revisit my youth and upbringing in the south for the show. I’ve been in Philly for so long that sometimes I forget about horses, the woods, fish fry’s, etc.

- For “Dirty Sensibilities, I did a new piece, Grandma Minnie. This painting, seen below, is following in the footsteps of my paintings Standing From What Was and Iran to America to Being, in that it uses paper along with oil paint. I love the effect, and am it using the same style in a few of the Get Angry pieces.

Grandma Minnie, oil and paper on canvas, 2011

Stay around. I’m posting more. I promise. lol.

Manifest Equality

Manifest Equality:

The MANIFESTEQUALITY Gallery gathers together a diverse array of hundreds of the nation’s most talented visual artists under one roof to celebrate that role and join with our gay (LGBT) friends, family members and co-workers to demand full and equal rights for all Americans.

The MANIFESTEQUALITY Gallery, issues an inspiring, visual call-to-action, with hundreds of artists motivating public energy toward true reform on a local, state and national level.

I’m very happy to be participating in this show.

Personal Narratives: Diaspora

Clover’s Fine Art Gallery presents
Personal Narratives: Diaspora
February 11th – March 7th 2010
338 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY

Francis Simeni, Sovereignty, Acrylic and Oil on Wood Panel, 48 x 60 in.

Featuring work from:
Johnnie Bess
Noel Copeland
Francis Simeni
Alexandria Smith
and myself, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh

Opening Reception – Saturday, February 13th, 4-6 pm

Closing Discussions – Sunday, March 7th, 2-4 pm

At the “Dawning” opening.

Dawning:Perspectives on Black America

From December 5th – 11th, I will be exhibiting work along side other artists in the group exhibition “Dawning of a New Day: Perspective on Black America.”
This show will be in Brooklyn, NY at the Brooklyn Artists Gym.

The opening afternoon reception will be:
December 5th, 2009
12pm – 5pm
Brooklyn Artists Gym
168 7th Street 3fl
Brooklyn, NY

I will be showing new work!
I encourage all my readers in NY to please come to the opening.

Barkley Hendricks: Birth of the Cool

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh and Barkley Hendricks.
(Please excuse my hair.)

The retrospective of the career of Barkley Hendricks, Birth of the Cool, is now at PAFA in Philadelphia. The show runs until January 3, 2010, and I suggest all of my readers who are in Philly visit the show.

I saw the show a couple of Sundays ago when Hendricks, a Philly native, was there to talk about his work. It was my first time seeing his work in person and the paintings, realistic life-size portraits on flat backgrounds, are pretty remarkable.

During his talk, Hendricks was asked about his flat, one toned backgrounds. He said that he wanted to create the illusion that the figures were in the same space as the viewer and, could seem to walk off the canvas. That illusion was very effective with his “all white series” in particular, subjects dressed in all white and painted onto white backgrounds. Especially given the size of his portraits, the subjects did seem to occupy space in the gallery along side the viewers.

What was interesting about examining his work (I like to look at paintings just inches away from them), was discovering that he works wet on dry. Wet on dry means applying wet paint on to paint that has already dried, as opposed to wet paint on wet paint (the way most oil painters work). I found it interesting because I work wet on dry as well.
It’s a wonderful show with a lot of work. His career spans over 40 years and the retrospective includes paintings that were created just a few years ago, to work created in the late 60′s.

I found it all very inspiring.

Exhibition + Talking About My Stuff

This is a group show featuring myself and two other women artists, Susan Puleo and Ileana Johnson.
It runs from September 2-October 2, 2009, at Cerulean Arts in Philadelphia.

The show will have two receptions.
The second reception is an “artists talk”, so I have to prepare myself to speak about my work – something I’m not very good at.
I think that a lot of my pieces speak for themselves.
Any message, feeling, thought, or purpose that I have for doing a piece, it’s my hope and intent for those things to be communicated completely by the painting, not by my explanation of the painting.
But, that’s not always the case.
And I do understand the need to speak about my process.
This year has given me a lot of chances to talk to viewers of my work about my work. But I’m still getting comfortable with the situation.

Another note: A lot of times people see something in my work that I did not intend for them to see. Which is great, I think. I like for people to examine my paintings and take away some meaning, even if it’s not exactly the meaning I was going for. Sometimes a different person’s perspective on my work shows me something I may not have thought about otherwise.

Sapphire Show

Here are a few pictures I took while setting up my work for the show.

New York City Art Show!

Yesss!

My first anything in NYC.
More specifically, my first art show in NYC.

It isn’t at a gallery.
It’s at Sapphire Lounge, a hip lounge that showcases local artists on it’s walls and it’s small gallery area.

I’ll be having an opening and I’m inviting everyone I know in The City and telling them to invite everyone they know.

I hope it will be great.
But if only one person sees my work who had not before, then it’ll be worth it no matter what.

So, you, come!

July 30th, 2009
7 – 11pm
Sapphire Lounge
249 Eldridge St (btwn Houston and Stanton)

New Faces Exhibit in Philadelphia

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Bodega Steps, Oil on canvas, 24″x24″, 2009.

Wow, it’s June already. This year is going by so quickly.
I was scheduled for this exhibit a year ago and I remember thinking how far away it was. And here it is already.

I’ve been excited for every exhibit I’ve been in so far. I’m always geeked like it’s my first one. But, I’m especially excited for this one.

It’s Artists’ House‘s emerging artists exhibit, “New Faces”, featuring myself and others.
The opening is this Friday, June 5th, from 5-8:30pm in old city.