Austin works on a large sketchbook at her desk, which is cluttered with 3-dimensional collage pieces made with scraps from her sketchbooks.
I stopped by Austin Thomas’s studio yesterday where she and Julie Torres were deep into a twelve-hour artmaking session.
Julie arranges a grid of paper on the floor then paints them in a contemporary version of action painting, combining aspects of time-based performance. In this picture she’s tacking the finished pieces to the wall. Some of Austin’s earlier work is on the wall at left.
Austin holds up a new collage that incorporates a piece of her sketchbook with a figure drawing.
Julie’s work area on the floor is covered in plastic. I suggest that the plastic, which has a colorful grid painted on it, might look good stretched.
Here’s a charming 3-D paper piece that Austin tells me was inspired by her visit to the deKooning show at MOMA earlier in the day.
I'm not getting the social practice element. It looks like 2 artist working in a communal studio space, which doesn't necessarily speak to social practice.
Hi Anon– Thanks for the comment. The headline was meant to be a play on words rather than a literal description of what Torres and Thomas are up to. –Sharon
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / For over twenty years, Matthew Miller rendered arduously meticulous yet mysteriously otherworldly portraits, mainly of …
Thanks for documenting this. These two have the kind of energy and raw creative talent that must be shouted from the roof tops. I want more!
I'm not getting the social practice element. It looks like 2 artist working in a communal studio space, which doesn't necessarily speak to social practice.
Hi Anon–
Thanks for the comment. The headline was meant to be a play on words rather than a literal description of what Torres and Thomas are up to.
–Sharon