Chad Attie Snow White and Friends May 15 - June 16, 2010
Chad Attie's book Princesses, a collection of all the images from his exhibit at Frank Pictures Gallery is available for purchase for $120 + $15 shipping. Please call the gallery with payment information and allow 2-3 weeks for delivery.
Please scroll down to view Images, Biography, and CV
Artist Statement:
Childhood imagery is an ever-evolving theme in all my work, a theme that creates an ongoing pivotal tension—between a powerful desire to return to a childlike state of innocence on one hand and a complex response to the impossibility of this desire on the other, particularly in a world that seems increasingly post-innocent. The imagery might at first appear to be very simple, because I am using very basic materials often with childish associations (such as pencil, paper, pen, glue, tape, and crayon). Add to this that my process is similar to that of a child’s artistic process. As is true for a child’s early artistic ventured I try to find materials I have never worked with before. Through experimentation with new materials, my work represents an effort to understand and manipulate the new medium as a child might. However this process frequently integrated with highly sophisticated, even precarious methods, as though acknowledging that the limited frame of the child’s world is too limited to contain the complexities of the adult world. One series of paintings was created by using a flaming newspaper like a brush over paint color chips; in another, I used ice picks to carve images onto vinyl. Other images are burnt, ripped, taped, tied, incised, torn, smoked, cut, smashed, kicked, soaked, and gauged into the painting. In my newest work, I have tried to reinterpret the idea of the princess in children’s fairy tales. As an adult I see these books as a perfect medium to further explore the sadness, beauty and conflicting and often shocking messages put forward in these tales. By drilling and burning these books I am attempting to explore the volatile nature of these stories and their messages. The image of Infanta Margarita from Velazquez's Las Meninas, was a key inspiration for these larger paintings. The 5 year old princess personifies the traits often associated with that of a princess; nobility, sophistication and unattainability. To emphasize the idea of this being a modern princess and the antithesis of Velazquez's princess, I placed my girls over materials that could never have been associated with historical princesses. These paintings are made from recycled papers, detritus from schoolyards and freeways, plastic bottles, and imitation gold. As opposed to Velazquez's Margarita, at the center of these works is the ultimate symbol of innocence lost, the ephemeral image of a fragile, sometimes-elusive young girl princess. This image is a powerful symbol of purity and joy, yet one that is potentially profaned by the girl’s haunting indeterminacy and anonymity and by our gaze turned on her.
Chad Attie
Works:
Princess 20, mixed media, 12" x10" 2009
Princess 21, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
Princess 22, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
Princess23, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
Princess24, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
Princess25, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
Princess 26, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
Princess 27, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
Princess 28, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
Princess29, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
Princess 30, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
Princess 31, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
Princess32, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
Princess 33, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
Princess 34, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
Princess 35, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
Princess 37, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
Princess 38, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
Princess 39, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
Princesses 40, mixed media, 12" x 10" 2009
The Experience of Art
Film by: Michael Comte
Featuring Artist: Chad Attie
B I O G R A P H Y
Chad Attie was born in Los Angeles, California. He attended UCLA and Boston University and was an N.E.A. Presidential Scholar in the Arts. He also spent a year studying at Villa Rosa School of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy. His works are primarily mixed-media paintings which incorporate emotionally and sexually charged abstracted figures and landscapes. His smaller scale works on paper include The Wonderlust series which consist of over 700 personal stories and illustrations, and the Princess Paintings, all of which were made inside vintage fairy tale books. Attie is always inclined to incorporate found and innovative material in his work. Many of the ideas in his most recent paintings have come from environments, textures, and objects that he has photographed or collected while traveling abroad. Attie began showing at Newspace Gallery in 1996, Wooster Projects in New York in 2004, Caro d'Offay Gallery in Chicago in 2006. His work has been shown also at galleries throughout Los Angeles, at MOCA, the Santa Monica Museum of Art and the Zimmer Museum. In 2010 Attie began showing at Carl Berg Projects and Frank Pictures in Los Angeles, and The 4th Wall gallery in Dallas. Atiie’s work has been the subject of various projects. Italian Vogue photographed Attie’s home, studio and paintings in 2005. A collection of Attie’s Journals was published in 2006, which was a compilation of 27 journals. In 2008 Attie was the subject of a film by Michel Comte, which documented his painting process. In 2008 Attie was commissioned by Mini Cooper to create 6 paintings for their Creative Use of Space campaign. Mini Cooper also published a magazine documenting the making of these paintings.
Education: UCLA, School of Fine Arts
Boston University, School of Fine Arts
Solo Exhibition//
2010 "The Blind Nymph" The 4th Wall, Dallas, TX
2009 "Princesses" Carl Berg Projects, LA, CA
2008 “8 tracks” Caro d’Offay Gallery, Chicago, Ill.
2007 “Confessions of an Ice Cream Man”,Storyopolis, Los Angeles, CA
2007 “Rocket Launcher Girls” Caro d’ Offay Gallery, Chicago, Ill.
2006 “Plushgirls” Wooster Projects, New York
2004 “The Juliet Suite” Wooster Projects, New York
2003 “The Orpheo Stories” POP, Santa Monica, CA
2002 “The Wonderlust” Modernbook, Los Angeles,CA
1997 "The Horrifying Beauty" NEWSPACE Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1996 "GirlsFlowers AnimalTrees" NEWSPACE Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Group Exhibition//
2010 "Incognito" Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
2010 Carl Berg Projects, LA, CA
2009 “Incognito” Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
2009 “Fresh”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angele, CA
2009 “Art of Language”, Zimmer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2008 Lumetype New Prints, Caro d’Offay Gallery, Chicago, Ill.
2008 “Supastore”, Elizabeth Paige Smith, Venice, CA
2007 Bridge Art Fair, Chicago, Ill.
2007 “Incognito”, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
2007 “Fresh”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
2006 Los Angeles Art Show, FADA, Wooster Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2006 “Good to Go”, NEWSPACE Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2005 “Incognito”, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
2005 “Lunchbox”, Wooster Projects, New York, NY
2004 Ace gallery, shared water foundation, Beverly Hills, CA
2002 “Shirt off your Back”, Santa Monica Museum of Art , Santa Monica,
2002 Modernbook, Los Angeles, Westwood, CA
2002 Creative Artists Agency, Beverly Hills, CA
2002 City Hearts Silent Auction, Los Angeles, CA
2001 ArtHeals, New York, NY
2001 Imagistic, Venice, CA
2000 Imagistic, Venice, CA
1999 Empire State Pride Agenda, New York, NY
1998 Empire State Pride Agenda, New York, NY
1996 Gramercy International Contemporary Art Fair, Chateau Marmont,
1996 “Quirky Little Abstractions”, Harbor College Art Gallery, CA
1995 Gramercy International Contemporary Art Fair, Chateau Marmont,
1995 Group Show, NEWSPACE Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1994 Group Show, NEWSPACE Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Awards//
Installation Grant, Sculpture at UCLA
Winner of National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts
Presidential Scholar Award in Fine Arts, Washington, D.C.
Projects//
2009 Paintings and Prints used for Navyboot add campaign
2008 The Experience of Art, documentary by Michel Comte
2008 Paintings for Mini Cooper add campaign
2006 Publication of Book of Journals 1998-2006
2005 Drawings for film, “War 12 x12”
2005 Italian Vogue magazine, layout
2004 Dutch magazine, layout
2004 “Laurel Canyon”, painting used in film
2000 “Kama Sutra Album,” Prince paintings used for compact disc
Collections//
Mitch and Joleen Julis, 2009
Michel Comte, Zurich, 2009
Michael and Kimberly Muller, Los Angeles, 2008
Sam and Kana Gilbert, Los Angeles, 2008
Matthew Poiset, Los Angeles , 2007
Paul Linden, Los Angeles, 2007
Wendy Greiner, Los Angeles, 2006
Franca Sozzani, Marrakech, 2006
Betsy & Bruce Gill, 2005
Bill & Carol Achenbaum, Hotel Gansevoort, New York 2005
Dr. Sam Wald, UCLA, Los Angeles 2002
Sue Tsai, Los Angeles, 2002
Susan and Jerry Fine, Los Angeles, 2002
Bjarne Tellmann, Coca Cola Company, Vienna 2002
Martha Bardach, Time Magazine, Los Angeles 2002
Jeremy Barber, Catch 23, Los Angeles 2002
Joni Sighvatsson, Palomar Pictures, Los Angeles 2002
Doug Hirsch, Yahoo, Palo Alto 2000
UCLA Medical School 1999
Stephanie Schrader, J. Paul Getty Museum 1996
Heinz Widauer, Vienna 1996
Joni Gordon, Los Angeles, 1996
Susanne & Dr. Jost Vielmetter, Pasadena 1999
Union Capital Finance Corporation, Los Angeles 1993
Robert & Susan Thau, Brentwood 1993
Gail Ravins, Westwood, 1993
Bob Ruttenberg, Los Angeles 1992
Lippman Scott Associates, Century City 1990
UCLA, Ackerman Student Union 1987
