The TAM Studio System Experimental Museum-As-Residency Project is a unique attempt to bridge the gap between artistic practice and the public. By opening up the processes and methodologies of a studio based approach to the engagement of a wider audience we have set the stage for you to see 'behind the scenes' as it were. This continues TAM's dedication to exploring new ways of understanding and engaging with the art of our time and those that produce it.

Due to C19, the third edition of the Studio System series has been postponed to 2021, but throughout the month of June 2020 we will present an online edition featuring videos and photographs from the selected artists, which provides a glimpse into their studio practice in lieu of them taking over TAM’s Main Gallery space.

SS2020 Artists: Karolina Pernar (Lux), Jan van der Ploeg (Netherlands), Dimitra Skandali (Greece/USA), John Sollom (USA), Terri Thomas (USA), VideoKaffe (Germany, Finland, USA, Russia), Riette Wanders (Netherlands), Tan Yi (China).

SPOTLIGHT: KAROLINA PERNAR

Artist Statement: My practice consists of works that challenge audience’s preconceptions and expectations; questioning aspects of perception, memory, time and space. The main features of my work are the use of gallery space as a framework for defining artistic work and affirmation of the imaginary as an authentic art place. I'm examining the physical and temporal circumstances of the space in which I work and this approach is at the core of all my forms of expression (sculpture, installations, video, collage and computer graphic).

Video followed by gallery of still images below:

SPOTLIGHT: VIDEOKAFFE

Enjoy a video selection of recent work created by the following members of the artist network who live in various locations between North America and Europe: Heini Aho, Mark Andreas, Jack Balance, Tom Burtonwood, Holly Holmes, Jenny Mild, Thomas Westphal, Sebastian Zeigler, & guest artist Jip de Beer

For more information, please visit: http://www.videokaffe.com/

SPOTLIGHT: TAN YI

Enjoy this video sent to the TAM from China by Studio System 3 artist-in-residence Tan Yi (pronounced Tanya), who shares images from her most recent mixed media work from her studio to give an idea of what next year may bring.

SPOTLIGHT: JAN VAN DER PLOEG

During Studio Systems 3, van der Ploeg will be giving the Torrance Art Museum a brand new exterior look, painting a mural along the upper part of the building. To give an idea of just how TAM may transform in 2021, here are some samples of van der Ploeg’s work in public spaces.

Excerpt from Michelle Grabner’s “Jan van der Ploeg, Wall Paintings 2005-2009”

His wall paintings conjured from the visual properties prevalent in graphic design aspire to be first and foremost art. Van der Ploeg is a skilled designer and exquisite draftsman who navigates between innovation and familiarity, mischievousness and pragmatism. As a problem solver van der Ploeg assesses a given site, public or private, and with a refined abstract vocabulary he dramatizes architecture and place. Organizing information and assigning it active meaning is a role shared by both the artist and the designer. Yet distinct from the graphic arts, van der Ploeg conveys, like Giotto before him, a desire to communicate abstractions and ideals that lay beyond function kindling the extra-ordinary and the unexpected.

With color, repetition and scale, van der Ploeg eschews static functional design dialogue, opting instead for lively visual attention. One needs to approach his wall paintings with the same curiosity that one would approach a Sol LeWitt wall drawing or an Ellsworth Kelly shaped painting. Despite their graphic and generous scale, close and intense observation is required to understand the visual patterns and motifs comprising their composition. As Philip Fisher writes in Wonder, the Rainbow and the Rare Experience, “To profit from wonder man cannot be either inattentive or passive, since in these cases he would not notice differences, nor can he feel himself to be living in a world that is fragmented, anarchic, and unpredictable.” Van der Ploeg works here, in the margin that separates the familiar from the wondrous, between abstract and the concrete.

More about the artist at: https://www.janvanderploeg.com/

SPOTLIGHT: RIETTE WANDERS

Artist Statement: In my drawings I combine a range of expressions and emotional content through an abstract visual language that leans toward the organic. The work is an ongoing questioning of inherent meaning and the expressive potential of unusual stylistic combinations. Through the limitations of colourless mediums (charcoal, acrylic paint and Siberian chalk), the technique and my personal abstract language, I develop series that are worked on repetitively. Paradoxically these limitations and repetitions serve to show how endless my possibilities actually are. Ultimately my work is about the process of drawing itself and the essential boundaries within the genre.

Recently, I have been reviewing the series that I have developed in recent years, both in terms of content and in their (technical) details. For example, I have started working on canvas. This new approach gives me the opportunity to realize my ideas at a museum sized scale and allows me to work on drawings, in which everything comes together, for longer periods of time. I would love to continue this development within the context of a residency at the Torrance Art Museum.

SPOTLIGHT: JOHN SOLLOM

Images from some of his recent large scale assemblages.
Artist Statement: “In all of my work I like to expand my understanding of artistry as my content asks the viewer to question their own Social and Political beliefs. I like to juxtapose imagery with collage, sculpture and text, that creates a visual back and forth between sarcasm, reality, and nostalgia. My current series of work addresses pop culture, Americana and the controversial aspects of our changing times with an unsure future. Sometimes politically charged, other times a plyaful look at color, texture, and the romantic notion of being a contemporary artist and social activist. The current outbreak of the Covid-19 virus has encouraged me to continue to create work that challenges the political, humanitarian, and social aspects of everyday life.

SPOTLIGHT: TERRI THOMAS

Video of recent works by Studio System 3 artist Terri Thomas. Sample images of her work in the gallery below.

sPOTLIGHT: Dimitra Skandali

Video by Dimitra Skandali about her studio practice sent to TAM from the island of Paros, Greece. Sample images of her work in gallery below.