Laumeier welcomes artist Sam Falls this Saturday
morning hosted by Curator Dana Turkovic at the Aronson Fine Arts Center on
August 24, 2019. I came to the COFFEE + CONVERSATION with one question for the artist in mind.
(Maybe I will ask it. Maybe the answer will be apparent.) My question: What
brings you more joy: the art of creating your work or the business of
presenting it?
Dana assures a level of approachable intellectual
discourse with questions for Sam Falls. She is always impeccably prepared.
After all, she is instrumental in bringing the artist here in the first place. I
learned the artist is a 35 year old and has two small children at home. I
suspect he’s the sort of soft-spoken papa that lets those kids know that the
world is a wonderful place to explore. “How has the study of photography
informed your work?” Dana poses this question knowing Sam was born in Vermont,
lived in San Diego and studied at Reed College (undergraduate) and ICP-Bard
(masters) in New York. His response is measured as he tests the mic to make
sure he can be heard. “My masters in photography evolved into something
different…” His process clearly leverages principles of photo sensitivity but
his journey seems to suggest a narrative that is more closely aligned with
contemporary art. “I started working with found tires…” In another illustration
he says “I started to know what was happening in a piece…” The artist peppers
his comments with a sort of quest for "honesty" in his endeavors. Dana prompts him with questions about how he responds to the “abundance in natural
surroundings” and his experience meeting Yvette Moody, the park’s master
gardener. Two I-beams with inset ceramic tiles placed in the woodland bring
Falls work to bear in a monumental contemporary installation that now live as part of the merger of art and nature right here at Laumeier.
Sam Fells is artful in navigating Dana’s queries as he
is with those assembled for this event. The group meeting begins in the gallery space and
migrates to the woodland installation. Fells was assisted by local ceramic
artist Dryden Wells and Laumeier preparator Marty Linson (each an artist in his own
right) and the enthusiastic staff at Laumeier (including executive director
Lauren Ross). The result is a sort of reception in the woods that could well
have had wine and cheese, a string quartet and formal attire. I, for one,
infinitely appreciate the “purity” of coffee and lack of pretense. The net-net
is a feeling of an experience that is welcoming. Nice job Laumeier!
One guest question evoked lines read from the William
Wordsworth poem Tintern Abbey in blank verse from 1778. I decided not to ask my
“smart question” after all. I smiled later when in the woods I greeted that Wordsworth
fan. (It was a near perfect end-cap to my earlier encounter with ceramic artist
Dryden Wells.)
ARTNET write up on Falls:
Sam Falls is a
contemporary American artist whose boundary-defying work applies artistic
processes to natural phenomena. The resulting paintings, prints, sculptures,
and videos, often insert organic structures into art and man-made objects into
nature. "We change the work by being present, and the work changes us by
being present,” the artist’s said. “We are breaking down and being built up,
just like every moment." Born in 1984 in San Diego, CA, he received his
BFA from Reed College in 2007 and his MFA from the International Center of
Photography-Bard in 2010. The artist’s work has been exhibited in spaces such
as Metro Pictures, LAXART, and DEPART Foundation in Rome. He lives and works
between Hudson, NY and Los Angeles, CA.
