Paradigm Magazine recently had the pleasure and the honor to cover the Hanni El Khatib show at Johnny Brenda’s here in Philadelphia. I was sitting at the bar drinking a Maker’s on the rocks and I looked to my left and Hanni pulled up a stool and ordered a drink. We started chatting about his tour and our recent interview. Hanni and Nicky are some of the most humble, down-to earth guys I have met. ...
“You are only lost if you want to be somewhere other than where you are.”
-Mikael Kennedy
Mikael, what is “Pieces of the Moon”?
“Pieces of the Moon” (an exhibit opening June 30th at Catalog Gallery, Vancouver) is a selection of images from my first solo show in NYC in 2009 called “Shoot the Moon.” Peter Hay Halpert Fine Art, NY, who represents my Polaroids, rented a room in the historic Chelsea hotel in the spring of 2009, where ...
“We are acutely attuned to the differences between people, especially the sexes, but the differences are nothing like so interesting and useful as the similarities. We are driven by this contradiction. Looking at other people is a way of looking at yourself. The other aspect to this, of course, is the curious relationship between men and women, locked in a perpetual dance of intelligence and need.”
-Harry Holland
Introduction by Adria Leeper-Sullivan
Interview by Theo Constantinou
***Harry Holland is ...
“I know art comes from within, but that all I really want to do is be that social mirror that reflects back; let us see things we might miss!”
-Jason Bryant
Jason, why do you use film stills or cropped photos as your primary source of inspiration?
Well , like a lot of us, I have had a long romance with film. It started when I was very young, back to a time that I could barely formulate ...
“I think that the classic aesthetic of American style in the 50s has inspired me, but not in such a way where I live my life with the constraints of trying to replicate the era personally/musically to a tee. I don’t think I can authentically replicate it anyways.”
-Hanni El Khatib
Hanni, where are you from and how did your ‘environment’ lead to the life you are living today?
I grew up in San Francisco, CA. That was ...
“I was hired to really make the classes I taught MINE, I started to love it. It’s a way to reach and affect so many people on very personal levels. I like working with students individually and helping them to find their own ways of working and thinking. I think that for even those students who won’t continue after my classes as artists (many of them won’t make art after class ends), I can give ...
“We wanted to be the opposite of all the bullshit Hollywood and LA brands. Instead of selling sex, ads and celebrities, we decided to sell jeans.”
-Brandon Svarc
In the recent decade, the influence of denim in the United States has grown substantially. The introduction and subsequent popularity of new brands employing certain superbly crafted denim fabrics such as selvage denim (denim previously available only in Japan) has thrust the word jeans from its previous perch as ...
“I never really plan on realizing any image in particular when I start a painting. I just paint, sand, and rotate the canvas until something I like to look at stands out and convinces me that it’s actually important.”
-Eben Kling
Eben, how did your time in Mali affect not only your art but the way you see the world?
That’s a good question. One that I have actually given much thought. The way it informed the work ...
“Because for me, it is really about the quality, not the quantity. This may seem like an antiquated philosophy, but in an age of immediate gratification and disposable culture, it gives me real satisfaction to work as long as I do on each piece. The map work is not about the novelty of the idea. With each piece, I honestly attempt to create something that will hold up next to a Velasquez or a Vermeer.”
-Matthew ...
“I’ve always been on the outside of society, and skateboarding has taught me to see that way. I look at everything through the eyes of a skateboarder. Photography was just second nature to skateboarding, they go together, so many similarities. I would be nowhere without both in my life.”
-Jon Humphries
Jon, I have been taking pictures for some time now and photographing movement can be quite difficult. Do you find it difficult taking pictures of skateboarders, ...
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