First Friday: October 2024 - SFOS Open Studios Preview
Inspiration & Updates from Brian Madden Studio
“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”
— Michelangelo Buonarroti
Hi Friends,
Each month, I write the First Friday newsletter to reflect the inspiration and energy of an open art studio event. And this weekend, that feeling will come to life again!
I’ll be opening the doors of my studio for the 50th annual Artspan San Francisco Open Studios, a citywide arts festival highlighting the diverse range of artwork being created around SF.
In this edition of First Friday, I’ll outline some of the new work that will be on display, along with sights and sounds from a lightning trip to Paris and Rome in late September.
I’ll share:
WHAT I’M SHOWING: SF Open Studio - October 5 & 6, 11am-5pm
WHAT I’M SEEING: A Tale of Two Chapels
WHAT I’M READING: Bernard Piffaretti, Works: 1986 - 2015
WHAT I’M HEARING: Alors on Danse
You’re getting First Friday because you’ve supported my creativity, visited the studio, or otherwise signed up to stay in touch. Thank you!
WHAT I’M SHOWING: SF Open Studio - October 5 & 6, 11am-5pm
The 50th anniversary of Artspan’s San Francisco Open Studios marks a special opportunity for artists across the city to welcome in the community to share what they’ve been creating, and where they’re going, in their artistic practices.
This weekend, on October 5 & 6 from 11am-5pm, I’ll be showing work from four ongoing bodies of work at my studio (SFOS MAP #316), including Sonic Monument to the Morning Dew (above), a 10-ft tall mirrored poplar sculpture created to reflect its surroundings. I’ll also be showing Bed of Mussels, a 5 foot by 5 foot marble mosaic based on a meditative hand drawing of bivalves.
Next I’ll be displaying Six Months in Dogpatch, featuring the newest framed iteration of an ongoing celebration of my sculpture process.
And I’ll be showing explorations from Time in Motion, a collection based on a range of organic marks made in transit during my travels through Australia, Japan, and Europe over the last couple years.
I’ll also be offering a small assortment of drawings, paintings, and objects for sale, like this Sonic Monument study I made last year while living in Sydney, Australia. You’ll have to stop by to see what else is available :)
There are dozens of other open studios happening this weekend across the southeast quadrant of the city. Other artists in the AIC and a range of printmakers in the Graphic Arts Workshop down the block will also be opening up their doors as well.
Even if you don’t live in SF, but you’re interested in connecting with artists in person, or finding new artwork for your home, I encourage you to check out the interactive SFOS map to see which studios pique your curiosity.
And Bay Area friends, I highly recommend checking out some studios before you grab a spot on the lawn at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.
WHAT I’M SEEING: A Tale of Two Chapels
When people ask me about the artwork that I make with marble, known as pietra dura or Florentine Mosaic, I often describe it by saying, ‘kinda like the floors you see in Italian churches.’ I practice a contemporary take on a classical technique, painting with the various colors and textures of marble and natural stone to create patterns, paintings, and sculptures.
My main point of entry to exploring stone as a medium was a summer spent studying design in Milan, Italy, exploring cathedrals, museums, and walking from l'appartamento to l’accademia to l'aperitivo and back again. That summer instilled in me a lifelong drive to make pilgrimages to the places that fuel my creativity, spots where my favorite art and designs were created or shown, in galleries, museums, and artists’ studios. In Italy, this also means visiting a lot of Roman ruins and Catholic cathedrals, thanks to all the patronage of artists and craftspeople throughout the millennia.
I had the chance to visit Paris and Rome this September and I was eager for the chance to simply tap back into my early material inspiration. But on the trip, I was instead greeted with two entirely different religious interpretations that expanded my horizons.
The first experience came through a visit to an exhibition of artist-designer Ronan Bouroullec’s furniture at Galerie Kreo in Paris. For years I’ve looked up to Bouroullec, whose creative practice ranges between fine art, craft, and industrial design. Throughout his childhood in France, he had passed by the Saint-Michel chapel, perched on a striking hilltop in Brasparts, Brittany called Monts d’Arrée. After the area was made desolate during wildfires in 2022, Bouroullec had the opportunity to design the furniture for its restoration in 2023. He created a set of functional interior design elements to breathe a calm sense of life back into the chapel interior in its new chapter.
For his current exhibition at Galerie Kreo, he dove deeper into the work he created for the Saint-Michel Chapel, creating water-like glass and hammered steel furniture and mirrors that reflected the candlelight shining above steel and stone structures, presented on crushed stone gravel from a local quarry. Amidst the hustle and bustle of Paris, I found Bouroullec’s creative restraint in this minimalist collection to reflect a sense of calm that I imagine I’d feel during a quiet moment of reflection inside Saint-Michel.
Then, in a literal tale of two cities, or two chapels I should say, I had the chance to tap back into my natural stone inspiration and so much more the following week in Rome. I marveled at the use (and reuse) of stone in Rome, which was repurposed from ruins like the Colosseum to use in cathedrals and other cultural landmarks around the city as the city’s leadership and landscape transformed throughout the millennia.
I was particularly moved by a visit to the Vatican Museums, and specifically, the Sistine Chapel. In a complete departure from the austere Saint-Michel Chapel, this sacred space was truly ornate, with paintings and marble inlay mosaics that competed for attention with their colors and complexity. It was almost overwhelming. But that might have also been the hundreds of other visitors shuffling along beside me, marveling together in countless languages, before we were all periodically shushed by the guards over the loudspeaker.
Craning my neck skyward in the Sistine Chapel, the audio guide told me that the accomplished 33-year old stone sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti was commissioned in 1508 by Pope Julius II to paint the 500 square meter roof of the Sistine chapel. It was intended to be a punishing test and a comeuppance for the artist, since he had never even painted al fresco before. FYI, al fresco is a time-intensive painting technique in which the artist painstakingly applies pigment to wet plaster on the wall or ceiling, effectively embedding the color into the wall.
4 years of back-breaking work spent looking upward (though not laying in his back as previously thought) resulted in one of the greatest paintings of all time, flanked by wall frescoes by Botticelli and other masters, and finally anchored by an additional 65-ft tall mural that Michelangelo reluctantly created 30 years later, known as The Last Judgement.
The intricate marble inlay floor mosaics on the floor, created in the geometric Cosmatesque style, also tried to compete for attention with their colors and shapes, and most of those faces gazing upward knew who the real star of the show was, but if you make it to the Sistine Chapel sometime, do yourself a favor and look down. You never know what might inspire you.
WHAT I’M READING: Bernard Piffaretti, Works: 1986 - 2015
After visiting galerie frank elbaz at LA Frieze this year, I kept an eye on the gallery’s newsletter updates, which led me to visit his gallery in Paris last week. Strolling along with Jen on a rainy day, I was drawn into a fascinating alley, which gave way to the beautiful gallery.
The exhibition featured striking paintings by abstract process painter Bernard Piffaretti that had a sense of double vision. I learned that this was Piffaretti’s 6th solo exhibition at the gallery and the show’s title, Pour finir encore, was borrowed from Samuel Beckett’s short prose book title, For to end yet again, which the artist used to refer to the two part process through which he created his work: first by bisecting the canvas with a bold vertical dividing bar marking the first chapter of the painting, then beginning again by creating an entirely new composition on one side of the bar, before repeating the same composition from memory on the other side.
After catching up with one of Frank’s teammates I’d spoken with previously about the work of Mungo Thomson, we ended up having a rousing chat with the gallerist himself. As we left, Frank was kind enough to offer us a parting gift of Bernard Piffaretti, Works: 1986-2015, a catalogue by Karma, surveying the artist’s painting oeuvre throughout 30 years of practice. I collect art books and exhibition catalogues, and felt especially grateful for this gift!
Back in SF, I leafed through the book at the de Young museum, and what the book underscored for me was a certain beauty, patience, and wisdom in diving continually deeper into a theme or technique over the course of a career. It strengthened my resolve to double down on the exploration I’m doing in my own creative practice.
WHAT I’M HEARING: Alors on Danse
I enjoyed visiting Paris, Burgundy, and Rome for the first time this September, and my ears were perked with each croissant, café, and cacio e pepe. Special shoutout to longtime First Friday contributors, Nico & Celine, for the opportunity and musical inspiration at their epic wedding dance party!
The First Friday Playlist can only consist of songs I’ve heard, received, discovered, or rediscovered out in the world, songs overheard at coffee shops, restaurants, bars, galleries, or received from friends and family IRL & online.
Thanks for your time. Take care and talk soon,
Brian
brian@brianbmadden.com
“Don’t wait for inspiration. It comes while working."
– Henri Matisse