Each year as this list is compiled, certain truths are found. Some are known and can be said of almost any artist anywhere, working at any time: that he is compelled to do the work, that he is driven down a path of exploration. Others are new, revealing something about our specific corner of the planet at this exact moment.
Our annual collections capture aesthetic tendencies, but also ideological ones—prevailing themes are almost always unearthed. There are commonalities among each group even if they are working independently, never having met before.
This year, there was an advent of focus upon the meditation of mark making, the obsolescence and disposability of our culture, process and mortality. Each artists’ contributions are fingerprints on our collective conscience, revelatory statements punctuating our daily lives. Together, they are a reflection of our body politic. As well as our 2015 Pulse 9 in Art.
Scott Bluedorn, East Hampton
Print making, painting, drawing
image: rick wenner
Scott Bluedorn works in a variety of artistic modalities and at the heart of his work is an interest in how we relate to objects.He’s working through the disposability of materials as one theme but not with a social or political bent. instead it’s more about looking at the world on both micro and macro levels. Read more.
Michelle Carollo, Farmingdale
SPARKBOOM installations
image: matt furman
Good art can envelope viewers in an idea or emotion, and Michelle Carollo takes this to the hilt by making works that are environments. Her installations have a thrust—being participatory or contemplative or, at minimum, setting a tone for a public space. Read more.
Sue Contessa, St. James
Color fields, paint and pencil
image: matt furman
At first glance, this artist’s works are just unified accumulations of marks. But of course they are journeys. They take her through an exercise of color and mark making to render tablets of zen. Read more.
Robert Hooke, Sag Harbor
Sculpture
image: rick wenner
The irony of working with stone is the exceptional gentleness it takes to pull the humanity out from it. Robert Hooke carves stone in a quest to create a visual experience that is about that tenderness, but also about flow— flow of the eye over the piece and the flow of emotion through it. Read more.
Jeffrey Allen Price, Lake Grove
Installations
image: matt furman
Conceptual artists chase the articulation of an ideology. in that vein, Jeffrey Allen price is a conceptual aggregator, developing three main bodies that work independently but also together. “One theme that runs through my work is this dialogue of capitalism and materialism. Read more.
Bastienne Schmidt, Bridgehampton
Painting, photography, weaving
Bastienne Schmidt’s art is about relationships. Relationships between space, time, color, shape, gender and even invisible things like a sense of country and the borders that separate us. She works equally between photography, painting and weavings but the common theme is “a quest for a sense of identity and place… I always felt that people want to pin you down to one place and… I’ve tried to find different ways to communicate the sense of creating my own sense of mappings and plans that is not really connected to just one cultural thing.” Read more.
Sally Shore, Locust Valley
Weaving
image: matt furman
The debate over art versus craft is a longstanding one. Sally Shore keeps herself both firmly in it and completely outside of it by creating works that are a good amount of both. Her panels are derivative of a strong command of graphic design, which shore was trained in early on. Read more.
Leonora Wolfeld, Jericho
Printmaking
image: matt furman
Sometimes an artist has to hold back. There is an instinct to overdo things in a work, but Leonora Wolfeld exercises restraint on her monoprints even when she pursues overprinting them. “I have a tendency to want to be perfect.” Read more.
Darius Yektai, Sag Harbor
Painting and sculpture
Darius Yektai is a locomotive. Fast but not furious, his art has a physicality and strength. language is his tracks and speed is the lyrics. “To move through ideas quickly I developed a shorthand and a quickness.” Read more.
*Inclusion in the Pulse 9 in Art is contingent upon various factors including consistency of exhibition, sales and a minimum part-time residency on Long Island. All artists featured were nominated through a call for entry sent to an extensive list of gallerists, dealers, curators and other artists.