Mark Wiener keeps the door of his studio open seven hours a day, six days a week. Working in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, he invites the public to visit not just his ink spattered work space, but also his artistic thought process. He is interested in the effect his daily work has on whoever might walk through the door. As Wiener describes it, “Every piece of mine is the beginning of a conversation.” This openness to feedback and serendipity is central to Wiener’s process of painting. He is influenced by Abstract Expressionism, a style of painting that is anti-figurative, emotionally charged, and spontaneous. As the American art critic Harold Rosenberg says of abstract expressionism, “What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event.” Wiener believes that each of his paintings is born of his immediate experiences; the work is an ongoing dialog between himself and the world around him.
The strength and beauty of “Spiral,” as in much of Wiener’s work, lies in the pairing of gestural drawing with geometric structure. Here there is a magnetic dance between chaos and order. The swirling axis of energy in this painting nearly buzzes with sound as it unleashes itself from the grid. Wiener believes that the composition of a painting should work regardless of how it is hung. There need be no right side up or upside down; the integrity of a painting should stay intact regardless of how it is viewed. Many of his pieces make you feel as if you are lying on the ground looking up at the sky, imagining what lies beyond.
—Adelaide Tyrol
I rode the entry express line, aka I skipped a whole bunch of people so that I didn’t have to wait with the masses and once I was inside I was served a magnificent feast of delectable art. It was a creative extravaganza at The Chelsea Art Museum for the opening night of The Four Artist in Concert. The exhibit was a fusion of emerging music ensembles and visual artist and featured the works of Morgan Russell, Mark Weiner, Fedele Spadafora and Stephen Folwkes and music by Konrad Kaczmarek, Red Hooker, Tristan Perich, Build, Now Ensemble and William Brittelle. The works of art emulated the themes of a concert series held by the Museum. Two of the artist were chosen by the curators of CAM and two were chosen by the people via a voting system hosted by the art networking site artlog.com.
Excited by the premise of the Four Artist presentaion, I was however pleasantly surprised to see that another exhibition was being held titled Iran Inside Out. It was a compilation of 56 Iranian artist whose point of views touched on all aspects of life Iran. There is only one word that can be used to describe it, PHENOMENAL!!! And it couldn’t have been a more socially current exposition.
Due to the visual overload, I didn’t really know where to begin but finally stumbled upon the Project Room for New Media that housed the Four Artists. It was a room dressed in black paint that gave me the feeling of Alice traveling down the Rabbit Hole. My attention was first drawn to Russell’s paintings. But while they possessed a great sense of movement and color they did not captivate me for long. ...
I was however very intrigued by Wiener's images which were done in Sumei ink with thin white pen strokes in no particular pattern that seemed to stand alone, almost as though they were floating off of the wall. Wiener expressed that the white was a total last minute decision and I think it served him well. There were also booklets with Rorschace-esque images that embarrassingly enough made me think of the comic The Watchmen… I’m a big kid I know...
I continued to explore what felt like an art maze, with surprises at every turn. Although the contemporary art on the 3rd floor was kind of a bore. But the infectious good energy of the crowd made no one to want to leave, other than the security. I guess they weren’t being paid overtime. I have to say that the Chelsea Art Museum definitly knows how to throw a party. What a night!!
by Jenaya Socially Superlative Ezine
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reviews & articles 2006 - 2011
Northern Woodlands Magazine - winter 2011
ART + NYC - Published by Museyon - 2011
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Socially Superlative Ezine - 2009 Chelsea Art Museum - "Four Artists in Concert" Project Room - Socially Superlative Ezine
Excerp From the FINACIAL TIMES - MAY 21, 2008
Mark Wiener and Take Dance Take Dance Company, Miller Theater, NY Excerp From the FINACIAL TIMES - MAY 21, 2008 By Hilary Ostlere © Looking For Water (left), first seen last year, has a gentle timelessness to its opening, where Jason Jeunette and Mark Wiener’s visual effects scroll across a black backdrop like puffs...
of exhaled smoke. Against it, three white-clad dancers sink and stretch as if dipping in water. They are joined by others, who move in unison, stretching and pacing slowly, long skirts swirling, to Damian Eckstein’s music, with sounds like distant train sirens punctuating a percussive beat. Kate Hirstein dances a solo prone on the floor, languidly moving her arms like wings. The tempo picks up and all seven dancers whirl about, flipping up their long skirts ...
(the men wear them too), jumping and snatching up their feet as if dancing on something hot. There is no literal seeking of water in this abstract piece but there are aquatic images, such as everyone swaying back and forth like sea anemones. to view more photos CLICK HERE
Artist Mark Wiener as seen in ARTINFO - July 13, 2008
Artist Mark Wiener as seen on VHK - Bridgehampton , NY click for the TV clip (Please go to last half of the TV Clip to view)
Avenue Magazine 2008
Artist Mark Wiener & Bjorn Ressle of Bjorn Art projects at the Avenue Magazine
House Magazine 2008
Artist Mark Wiener as seen in HOUSE Magazine - SEPT - OCT Issue
Mark Wiener: Inside Out
This time, it was that very abstract expressionist painting I mention above - a work which encompassed the windows and floors of the space. Mark Wiener had been working there for just over five days by the time I got in town to see it, and the space was transformed. The windows were painted, with clear spaces here and there for peeking in and through to the interior, so anyone could look inside – day or night – to see the changes. In the interior space, Wiener created a symphony of lines, drips, splashes, and spills in black and white – just the way one might begin an under painting on canvas. But in this instance, the next layer of color and fine lines that would normally be applied directly on top of the under painting, was applied to the outside edges – in this instance, the windows. The result reminded me of that Rachel Welch film Fantastic Voyage, where the characters are shrunk down small enough to enter a man’s body though his blood stream. It is as if you could enter the painting and see the inside of the work, experiencing the inner thoughts of the artist. And it was that sense of scale and perspective that made the whole project so successful. But it is all gone now, the entire thing scrapped off the windows and painted over – making the space ready for the next performance or installation.
Inside Out III 60" x 30"
However, there is a second show of Wiener's works in the lobby of the Roger Smith Hotel that will be up through September. These are the easel paintings of the artist, works created with those same automatic lines and gestures. In fact, the show is
titled Gestures; a Timeline, and I assume it shows the artist’s approach and progression to this type of expression over a period of time. If so, the one big flaw here is that none of the works on the price list are dated, so you can’t unravel the timeline. Perhaps this is the intention of the artist, to show that when something is done matters little. What is most important is what is being discovered, and how what you find works visually and viscerally. - D. Dominick Lombardi As seen in " CultureCatch.com "
Wiener & Ivanov - "Cross Narratives" Nov. 2007 We all know those moments, standing before an exhibited object and thinking, "I wish I understood..." But when it works, it works, and when 2 artists who dedicate themselves to creating this connection from one inner life to another collaborate, the concept reaches a new level - the intrepid viewer can not only react to each individual expression, but share and respond to the way each artist perceived the form and content set down by the other, and the response he created in turn. "Cross Narrative," the collaborative series recently begun New York artists by Iliyan Ivanov and Mark Wiener, invites us to jump into the feelings of the artists in a literally big way. By choosing to create the work on 30-foot long sections of paper 36 inches high, the artists have given themselves time and space to develop the work not only from their original conception, but from new ideas that evolve in their mutual process of marking and viewing the piece in sections and as a whole. Friends as well as colleagues, they began the series when, having been offered a dual exhibition, the decided the best way to celebrate their camaraderie would be to create pieces together that reflected the shared sense of rhythm that runs through their different stylistic choices. Another passion that both artists share is music. Ivanov, a musician himself, declares as an objective the infusion of his art with the same spirit and energy that drives his music, his visual improvisations consisting of an interplay between abstract and figurative imagery. Wiener incorporates music into his process, always painting to a recorded soundtrack in the studio, seeking out sessions with live performers and, when attending concerts, filling a sketchbook with his abstract response to the music, in ink on paper. Sometimes working together and others, alone in their separate studios, in the course of a few weeks and many sessions, Ivanov and Wiener decided the first piece was ready for presentation. At its debut, "Cross-Narrative" is a complex work - simultaneously monumental and intimate - that addresses the viewer in 2 distinct voices (with a cameo appearance by Ivanov's 6-year-old daughter, Hannah) - Wiener's light, gestural touch with the brush, dancing in and out, over and under the Ivanov's strong expressions in charcoal, ink and acrylic. The dialectic here has generated a visually tantalizing work, with deep points of focus to match the extreme width of the paper, abounding in detail, approachable in sections, but unified in impact. Two styles, here in harmony, there in counterpoint - returning to the musical model, invite the viewer to listen to one, to both, to their favorite song, or the whole "album." While visual artists often present their works together, and some are identified as pairs or team, it is still not the norm to find 'solo" artists collaborating on a project. The beginnings of the "Cross-Narrative" project show the promise of a future that could spur more interest in working in this way, a step in the evolution of the way fine art will be made, presented and appreciated as we move through the 21st Century.
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The Studio is located in the heart of Chelsea on 21st and 11th Avenue. Studio visits by appointment m - F 9:30 - 5:30
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