HAPPY TO BE FEATURED ON THIS SITE

http://www.cymascope.com/cyma_research/art.html

FUZZY EDGES

I remember as a child seeing all the hip-hoppers, boom boxes, b-boys and tagged subway cars in NYC, and all the COST/REVS murals all over. Graffiti had a special flavor then...and now, well it's amazing that it's an accepted fine art (almost). Photography also used to be on the fringes. In the fringes, or the fuzzy edges there seems to be more freedom...there are no Picasso shadows to struggle to grow beyond, and into the source of nourishing light. Painting is always there for new voices, but the market through which it reaches an audience is a complex machine. That was the appeal of street art and graffiti to begin with. But now its graduated from its outsider status, and growing in interesting ways, like how in Germany there is a program to get the elderly out of their house by teaching them how to spray paint. Its a cute concept, and allows people to communicate to their community in new ways as well as adding color to the urban palate.

So what art forms remain outside the realm of commerce? Outside the influence of predecessors and a marketplace and dealers and critics? Even community based work is absorbed into the mainstream institutions these days (which is great). And all this intellectual conceptual art, sure I sometimes cultivate projects grown in that soil, but its fruit rarely yield art that you can sink your teeth into.

I guess this is a left brain way of talking about the right brain activity of adorning the body with paint, which is where I have been bringing my mark making lately. The body as the canvas. The material ephemeral. No storage necessary. No studio. No archival concerns. No openings. No reviews. Just creation unfolding through one body onto another. Sure, there are body art painting competitions, where artists paint their painting onto the body, but then its not about the body, but about their imagery. And some of the work is so cheezy that I think it lets people pass judgement in a negative way. Which is perfect, because the fewer people who take it seriously, the more freedom and room there is for people to explore and play.

 photo © Polina Sirosh and Oliver Halsman Rosenberg 2012

So now I am in Tulum, playing with the muse, and collaborating with photographer Polina Sirosh. What washes or sweats off in a matter of hours is now being recorded thru the eyes and lens of a very talented photographer. The images we are getting are amazing, but I will not post them on-line for the most part. To follow the story more closely, check my other blog devoted to this form of expression:

http://bodyglyph.tumblr.com/

Works Available

If you are in Paris, swing by Galerie Estace (near the Pompidou) where I have some works on paper available for sale.

http://www.estace.fr/

PIX from PARIS

Vey-Yo's Hello Halo Echo 

BRACHFELD GALLERY, PARIS

JULY 11-SEPT 15

The last time I mounted an art show in Paris was 4 years ago, right before I left for India, so it’s nice to return from India and show in Paris the work I made since I was last here. Brachfeld gallery has also allowed me the use of the space for the month of August to use as a residency, hosting different teachings/lectures/workshops/presentations/events.

I knew I had a lot of pieces to choose to show, all small paintings/drawings/collages on paper (cause that’s the easiest to work on when living out of a backpack and traveling). I wanted to do something site-specific that could make all the individual works operate individually or as a group. I decided to put murals on 3 of the walls that the pieces could relate to thematically/conceptually. Also I wanted there to be a blend of the East and the West, not just a display of work made abroad.

 

For this mural I revisited a mural I did a year ago, when I showed some work in Sweden after my first year and a half in India. I called him my Quantum man, jumping from one location to another, shedding identifying features. It seemed appropriate now to use him again as the Large Hadron Collider in nearby Zurich just confirmed the “God-particle” existence. I wanted all my art to be flying out of his briefcase, like a commuter late for the train. But on a deeper level I am thinking about strings of memories unfolding into the past, each linked and expanding meaning by association, all traceable back to the briefcase, open in the present moment (caught between the door of the past and the door of the future).  The quantum man now has an outfit (with matching hat and briefcase) of sacred geometry (flower of life pattern, also seen in many of the works on paper), which speaks to this French Haute-couture culture of luxury branding. The pieces transition from chaotic strings into salon style hanging, which also references the history of Paris.

For this mural I am integrating East and West concepts of beheading. I am using many images of Kali, a fierce and often misunderstood goddess from the Hindu pantheon as well as that of the guillotine  (the show opened close to Bastille Day -July 14th, the celebration of the French 1789 Revolution), and the iPhone (as the guillotine blade) that makes people “loose their head.” The angel is there to catch the head, and serves as an image to relate works on paper to.  Like a diagram, the strings in this and the next installation come out of specific places and connect to relational visuals. Over all, I liked the image to look like a computer desktop as well as a diagram. Each work on paper was like a folder that could be conceptually double clicked on, accessing more information about the subject. Many relations of images need time in the mind to create meaning for why they were placed together.

The final mural references the fake book cover series I did in India, 6 of which are also on display in the gallery. GalapaGhost in the Machine allows me to talk about technology vs. Evolution/nature, and bring in imagery I made in India, which connect directly or indirectly, to these themes. The main graphic I use on the book cover is a medieval alchemy woodcut of man looking beyond nature to get a glimpse into the mechanisms of heaven. This also allows me to integrate East and West mystical imagery from the past and the present.  Again, the works on paper serve individually as file folders, or create as a whole a feeling of a chart or diagram.

Wall of fake book covers

Limited edition prints available from BRACHFELD Gallery

Window installation

VEY-YO'S HELLO HALO ECHO

Oliver Halsman Rosenberg
July 11th - September 15th 2012
Opening : Wednesday, July 11th 2012, 7 - 10PM

Om. This summer Brachfeld Gallery is pleased to present a site-specific installation and new work by nomadic artist Oliver Halsman Rosenberg, who has been traveling through India for the majority of the last 3 years. Also, during the month of August Rosenberg (as his alter ego: "In Praise of the Void"), will be curating the gallery as a pop-up healing space; Hosting lectures, workshops, hapenings, music events, sound-bowl meditations, screenings, and other surprises, facilitated by his community of fellow nomadic scholars and practitioners met during his Indian travels. Please check  IN PRAISE OF THE VOID for an evolving calendar of events.

Rosenberg has been making works on paper (no larger than the bag he has been living out of) that reflect his inner and outer journey through the illuminating  and overwhelming landscapes of India. Themes, techniques, and materials often vary from one body of work to the next. From Sacred Geometry re-mixed to fake spiritual book covers...one location would inspire collages, another painting, and another photography. Trying to use local materials and inspired by folk techniques and motifs, the works shown may include any of the following: hand made dung washed paper, eucalyptus paper, rice paper, incense burns, henna, gouache paint, god eyes, and odds and ends from Indian spiritual  ephemera shops. From minimal tantric images, to explosive rainbow energy chaos, to deities emerging from patterns...all that is found in the ever-changing ancient culture and land of India is also reflected in the body and mind. Om

Rosenberg comes from a long lineage of artists and artisans including Ludwig Moser the Bohemian glassmaker,  and Philippe Halsman the celebrity photographer. He studied Art and Art History at Skidmore College (NY) , and SACI ( Florence, Italy). His work has been exhibited in a variety of international galleries and institutions, including: The Drawing Center (NYC), The DESTE Foundation (Greece), Junsthalle Wien (Austria), Berkeley Art Museum (CA), and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts(CA). His work and writing has appeared in The New York Times, Parkett, The Japan Times, D.A.P.,Dwell, Planet, and various art web sites.

PARIS INVITE

Welcome back to NYC Oliver. You have had an amazing 6 month journey to India, learning about tantra, yantras, and mantras as you desired. Now it's time to organize what you created, and get ready for your show in Paris that opens July 11th at Brachfeld Gallery. Not sure to post pix on-line or not. Most of the work is meant to be seen in person.

New work

Just posted some new work from this series on my other site:

http://spherism.tumblr.com/post/18244804385/2012-sacred-wheels

India 2012 *new drawings/paintings

Back in my favorite living museum...India...eucalyptus paper, gouache, bird calls dancing in ears, temple views...back to the sacred geometry and spiritual iconography...unfolding flowers and stars with symbol of divine devotion with-in...

.

(view from my outside studio)

Rest In Peace Erik "DC" David Carlson (1982-2011)

New Blog

This new blog focuses just on my spherism/vibrational body of work. It's nice to see a concise thread in my work emerge over 6 years. I know the longer I'm working, the more it will all make sense to everyone else.

http://spherism.tumblr.com/

The tantra of imagination in the public sphere

I'm a philosophy buff as well as being an artist. A favorite past time of mine is to take conceptual views of reality for test drives. After India certainly things made more/less sense when returning to America. Nonetheless, Public art/intervention remains a fluid form. Reality is the canvas, your body becomes the brush, and your intention becomes the paint (so to speak). When I say tantra, I point pack to its original and non-sexual definition, which is a "weaving" of the fabrics of reality, where all becomes holy and divine, and the launching pad for transcendence. As an artist, life becomes the ultimate creative act/action/experiment. As a lineage holder of the surrealist and atomic mysticism art movements I like to inject irrationality into the public sphere as an action, not only as a static image charged with symbolic potential knowledge. To weave play into the reflection becomes the intention.

My latest public action was a collaboration, mostly with my partner Djamilla, and some dear artist friends. I created for her a catalog of planets that she could fill in descriptions about. It was like a tourism brochure: "Don't like your planet? Visit one of ours!" Once it was filled out, she sold tours to people, and I used my body script to paint the boarding passes directly on the bodies of our customers (usually their right fore-arm). This was all done with a very straight face, as I asked them how long of a journey they would like to take (whether they wanted to travel one-way or round trip), and then I would send them down the line to my associates Frank Callozzo who was signing them up for Liability Insurance, and Shrine was making sure they had Collision Coverage. Anahata even showed up for some time to serve as the Galactic Linguistic Liaison. We called ourselves the Perpetual Epiphany Galactic Travel Agency, and probably sent 100 people on journeys.

The art in this piece for me is more in the intention of connecting people with imagination and play, where-as the results is the body adorned with different temporary paint indicating travel itinerary and types of insurance coverage. Our nomadic galactic office was temporarily set up at the Black Rock City art festival in Nevada.

Here are some pix of the crew in action. More detailed pix of my codes can be seen on my body art site: http://bodyglyph.tumblr.com/

Sphereism makes a come-back!

The art techniques and vocabulary I develop often reach a certain stage of growth, and then put on hold till another time, while I explore a new modality. Like a room full of musical instruments, they remain in waiting till I choose to take them out again and play. Sphereism was a conceptual vocabulary I developed a few years back. Similar to how cubism was a way to re-see space, Sphereism is a way to see through space (conceptually), it intends to show how everything isn't actually solid, but rather made up of over lapping vibrations. At first I was doing highly esoteric symbols as vessels to contain knowledge about the nature of the universe, but after some time I figured perhaps this was over the head of the audience, so I decided to go supermarket low-brow. Cereal boxes, and trashy magazines became my new vessels to reveal the vibrational nature of "reality". When I saw this recent cover of STAR Magazine with "Plastic Surgery Confessions," I couldn't pass up the opportunity to alchemize this American trash, and elevate it to something perhaps higher...

Pix from the SpinCycle show opening

Show is up till the 27th of Aug.
Hope you get a chance to see it in person, as these pix are pretty low res..

(me and David Aron, good friend and other artist in the show)
(me and mom, my first art teacher)
(opening)
(25 foot calligraphy scroll from the J.B. Blunk residency. Ink on paper)
(1 framed piece from a series of 7. Ink on paper)
(2 nine foot batik pieces. Dye on silk)
(Series of 10 energetic Kabbalah totems. Gouache on Eucaliptus paper)
(Kaballah diagram)

NYC exhibition coming up...

Been BUSY! Wow.... heres the info on what's happening shortly....

Spin Cycle - a show by Oliver Halsman Rosenberg & David Aron

hpgrp Gallery
529 West 20th Street #2W
New York, NY 10011
212-727-2491
hpgrpgallery.com

July 29th to August 27th, 2011
Opening reception Friday, July 29th, 2011 from 6 to 8pm


Artists Oliver Halsman Rosenberg and David Aron present a show that explores spirituality, energy, the mind, and body in their show Spin Cycle. Both artists are influenced by Eastern culture and practices and channel that through their work.

Rosenberg has been traveling for the past three years to India and Indonesia where he has been studying traditional folk art. Much of his work in the show uses a channeled, calligraphic script evocative of Asian or Arabic font forms. This script is used to create larger forms and work as atoms, cells, or even organs, energy wisps and blips. He uses them like building blocks within beings, places, or to create time and space on the page. Some of the pieces use a batik technique he learned in Bali. The fabric evokes fluidity through material and the bright colors express immense amounts of light and spirit. In addition to these Eastern ideas and techniques, Rosenberg mixes in Jewish culture as well as Jewish mysticism in his large scroll paintings that hearken back to sacred texts and in his totem series based on the Sephirot of the Kabbalah.

Aron has been meditating through Vipassana, an ancient Buddhist technique from Burma, for many years. In contrast to Rosenberg’s vast use of color, Aron uses a decidedly monotone palette for this show with the idea that the simple and unburdened is of clear thought and something he wishes to attain. His main pieces are white painted, wood sculptures evoking a sense of togetherness or community or oneness, and peaceful protest with a happy ending. He uses universal, simple shapes to convey a quiet optimism.

As the title of the show implies, the exhibition incorporates circles and natural cycles but also is about cleansing; like the finishing off stage in a washing machine spin cycle. Although both artists come at this idea of cleansing from different angles, both have strong individual interpretations about the human condition and how one might start on the path of attaining a higher state of mind and being. Together they show us what our eyes may not see but what may exist right now under our breath.

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Oliver Halsman Rosenberg was a recent recipient of the J.B. Blunk residency in northern California. He edited the book “The Unknown Halsman”, a collection of the more unusual photographs from his grandfather Philipe Halsman’s archive, which Oliver also illustrated and designed. His work is in the Dakis Joannou and Berkeley Art Museum collections.

David Aron was one of the founding artists shown at the legendary Alleged Gallery. In the past few years he has traded urban skateboarding for making art and experimental music in the quiet country. His band Koi Pond will be releasing a new record in the near future.

This show is curated by Hanna Fushihara Aron. As the former Director of Little Cakes, she and her gallery graced the pages of everything from The New York Times, Paper Magazine, Tokion, to The Journal. She now lives in the Hudson Valley.

New text in Book

Now that I'm back in NYC I have access to a bunch of projects I've been involved with that I never saw the fruit of. For instance here is the catalog of a Dali/Halsman exhibition up now in Pubol, Spain. I was asked to contribute text and wrote an essay about the alchemical influence on these two artists' collaborative work.

Statement of the day

Existentialism was my modus operandi before I knew the word existed…the search for meaning has led me to destinations alluded to on philosophical system’s maps. …meandering through the forest of life, again and again passing over the same places, weaving, interlacing, memorizing the moss on stones, and watching as it grows each time I pass. My art is my map…my understanding of a certain path….my travel guide through different modalities of consciousness, which we can all wear as masks through the tragedy/comedy of life. The work is diverse, because it emanates from this place of open mind and experimentation, but each piece can lead back to specific philosophical seeds. I create work in series/suites…sudden bursts of expression after a process of understanding, where often times the process of creation mirrors the philosophical concepts visually. Different symbols/vocabularies/tropes emerge and then dissolve, and can be re-born years later in a new series, where they integrate, the way two schools of thought would come together to form a new way to explain what is “What Is.”
The past 3 years I have lived like a nomadic art history and art technique researcher, learning different traditions from different folk artists from cow dung painting in India to silk batik painting in Indonesia. Exchanging ideas at roots level. ..Injected with inspiration fuel from ancient caves and lineages of ancestral artists… I also come from a long artistic lineage. Past generation’s fresh Surreal juice has become fermented over the years, and as its caretaker, I sneak sips of this wine with my inner DaDa. My creative output finds the appropriate clothing for the idea it is intending to express. Categories I would check off, but not limit myself to include: Drawing, Painting, Site-specific Instillation, Photography, Video/New Media, Community Based Projects, Writing, Curating, Conceptual/Visionary Ideas.

Bali Batik

Here in Bali, pushing my script into new mediums to see what the results will look like...

...found a Batik factory who transferred my ink drawings into wax on silk, and let me dye the fabric as I like...

fun/love/play

...my 2 silks gets boiled this weekend to melt off wax and reveal white space beneath...

...pix to follow....