Marcus Leslie Singleton believes paint mediums are different languages being spoken from the same tongue

That’s Six Bro Pt. III, courtesy of the artist

Storm Ascher: Where are you currently? Did you have to relocate your studio during the shutdown?

Courtesy of Marcus Leslie Singleton studio

Marcus Leslie Singleton: I’m in Brooklyn, and nah, I’m still painting here in Brooklyn.

Storm Ascher: What is it like to be an art teacher during these times? Are you in contact with your students?

Marcus Leslie Singleton: We’ve been doing this remote teaching thing. I don’t like it, I think for all of us, we’d rather be in the school together. But we have been using Zoom, there are so many possibilities so we have had to get creative in how to approach our curriculums and attendance etc. But this was my last year teaching.

Storm Ascher: Can you elaborate on your experiences on these recent accomplishments of yours: SPRING/BREAK booth in NY and your show with Superposition in LA for FRIEZE

Marcus Leslie Singleton: Being in both Frieze LA & Spring/Break NYC were great experiences, I really love to see what everyone is making and visiting different galleries all in the same place. It was great.

Storm Ascher: Placement in the residency that decorates their hotel with your artwork?

Marcus Leslie Singleton: The hotel is named Sincerely Tommy Eat & Stay. It’s ran by a close friend of mine, Kai Avent de-Leon. All of these opportunities came around the same time. It’s wild how that happens. Before I was spending lots of time in the studio just creating. And then opportunities start funneling in, now I have a lot of work outside of the studio being seen by more eyes. It’s a new thing, it feels good to share your ideas and beauty with the world.All of these opportunities came around the same time. It’s wild how that happens. Before I was spending lots of time in the studio just creating. And then opportunities start funneling in, now I have a lot of work outside of the studio being seen by more eyes. It’s a new thing, it feels good to share your ideas and beauty with the world.

Storm Ascher: Do you think your artwork is received differently depending on its exhibition location? ex. LA vs Seattle vs New York.

Protestors On Eastern Pkwy, 2020, courtesy of the artist

Marcus: The art scene in all these places differ. I love how vibrant the LA community is, lots of new ideas and concepts for what galleries look like and how they operate. New York has been the pinnacle of the art world for a number of decades but I think that’s changing. Also, you have the reflection of personalities, I’d never live in LA although I do love that city, I like the grind and grittiness of NYC. You just have different personalities and attitudes on each coast.

Storm: Have you exhibited in your home town?

Marcus: I had a couple of group shows, this was early, when I was first starting out in Seattle. I had a lot of work but I wasn’t showing much of anything, not selling anything. When I came to NY I started to gain momentum, people started expressing interest in my work.

Storm: You render paintings very similarly whether using watercolor, acrylic, or oil. Can you talk about that process, and how you decide which medium for each subject?

Marcus: I think of each paint medium as a language to communicate an idea through. Watercolor is in its essence fluid, which creates a soothing flow to the paint being applied. I love the versatility of acrylic. But oil is by far my favorite to use, the smell, texture and vibrancy of the color that good oil paint provides is unique. They are all different languages being spoken from the same tongue.

Storm: What is the story behind “No Home Here, 2017” that we showed at Labor of Love, where are the figures running from, or towards? I especially am curious because of their outfits as if they’ve dressed up for a night on the town, but the title is ominous.

No Home Here, 2017 featured in Labor of Love, Superposition Gallery

Marcus: It’s about this country. Is this our home? Doesn’t feel like home to me. We built this country, we got style, we are music. But we were here before the slave ships, this painting is talking about slavery’s affect on us.

Storm: I’ve noticed you’re using a lot of lighter hues in your recent paintings, why?

Marcus: Gotta brighten up this dark ass time a bit. I was running out of paint so to change this a bit I went mixing white paint into my colors.

Storm: Do you consider yourself prolific?

Marcus: Nah, not in a capitalistic sense. Not at all, I take my time in every aspect of my life.

Storm: What’s the most recent piece of criticism you received that changed your practice?

Marcus: This might sound egotistical but I don’t listen when it comes to criticism of my art. I’ve always created from my heart. I put all my energy into it. It exhausts me, but I love it. It’s a matter of endurance.

Storm: What books are you reading right now?

Marcus: I’m reading Futures of Black Radicalism by Gaye Theresa Johnson and A Philosophy of Loneliness by Lars Svendsen.

Storm: What does “Nomad” mean to you?

Marcus: Nomad to me means mobility, to simply say it. 

Melanie Luna redefines flesh and reflections

Storm Ascher: Where are you currently? Did you have to relocate your studio during the shutdown?

Melanie Luna: At the beginning of the shutdown I stayed with my family in the Bronx for over a month. I took with me limited supplies so I can continue working while sheltering in place. For surfaces I painted over old pieces and started fresh. Now, currently in my studio in Brooklyn I am continuing to work on new paintings and old ones. 

Storm Ascher: What is it like to be an art student at Pratt? 

Melanie Luna: Art schools breed a kind of artist that is susceptible to the current waves. While being a student at Pratt I constantly asked myself if my career choice was right. First in my family to pursue a college degree and to top it off an art degree I definitely had my ups and downs. Pratt Institute nourished me and allowed me to take my potential to new heights. 

Storm Ascher: You are working on a large commission, can you speak more about the project and what the subject of the painting is? 

Melanie Luna: I’m working with the Drake Hotel in Toronto, Canada on a large painting that will be placed in the lobby. A project that was supposed to be due around this time, has been pushed for a later date by Covid-19. An inconvenience to some, I mostly saw it as an opportunity to give this piece more time and attention. This is the biggest commission I’ve ever received and at the moment I’m on the drafting stage of the painting since I’m unable to work in my Brooklyn studio. The subject is open ended, I’m in constant flux so my ideas can change any day. I definitely have a criteria for this specific piece. Larger than life figures painted out of meat, usually in the middle of an activity. 

Storm Ascher: Why do you choose mylar as a material?

Melanie Luna: One night, junior year of college I placed a sheet of reflective mylar on my dorm room ceiling reflecting my bed. Every night I looked up and saw my naked body distorted with my bedsheets and on occasion the bodies of others. It took a full year to actually begin working on mylar. I was mesmerized by the effect it had on my eyes. I never wanted to break the evenness of the mirror. I was stuck in the traditional canvas and never  imagined mylar being sturdy enough to become a surface. One day I had enough of the reflections constantly moving and never staying fixed I decided to paint what I saw. EUREKA! I thought I was hot shit that day. I still very much love the movement and the effect it has once paint is placed on top but I am once again growing and painting on different surfaces. It never lasts long, does it? 

Storm Ascher: Imagine a fresh canvas was delivered to your door right now, what would you paint and what is your game plan? 

Melanie Luna: My fingers, wrist, elbow and shoulder are much more loose when it comes to painting on canvas. I mean, I can always gesso if I messed up. I would create a scene of an anchor news woman staring right at you, on the top right of the composition there would be a very badly drawn police sketch of the suspect at large. A stage microphone dangles right above the anchor woman, just to remind you this is all staged. After, I would wrap a mylar sheet on top and create a new painting while the anchorwoman painting stays fixed under it. 

Storm Ascher: What prompted you to use marbling in your paintings?

Driving Stick, 2020 | acrylic and sand | 36 x 48 inches

Melanie Luna: There’s a pause when painting with a brush I can't seem to enjoy. Running out of pigment while painting  and stopping the progress altogether to pick up some more. These kind of minor inconveniences tick me. I like instantaneous movements you can’t correct, like spray paint and dripping paint. I mostly work flat on the floor with ketchup bottles and syringes. I move the corners of the surface accordingly to where I want the marbled effect to stop. The meat look is simply just white paint with a red pigment. It sometimes feels like I’m performing surgery on my subjects, constantly correcting them and at times botching them.  

Storm Ascher: What is the concept behind your figures not having skin?

Melanie Luna: Anatomy. I can’t seem to agree with choosing a palette of skin for my figures so I decided to focus on the layer after flesh. The marbled meat was an an accidental discovery, I chose to stick with it because of the actual happenings while you drip paint, you can’t predict where gravity and time will make the paint to flow. It was a distraction from focusing on skin tones, something I've always tried to avoid. 

Storm Ascher: Your solo show with us was supposed to be this month in NY, how are you pivoting for the future? 

Curing Fat, 2020 | oil and acrylic | 18 x 24 inches

Melanie Luna: Just like the commissioned painting with the Drake Hotel, I see this timed setback as a great opportunity to keep refining and redefining my body of work. I’m curing my meats and by 2021 they will be ready for tasting. 

Storm Ascher: What’s the most recent piece of criticism you received that changed your practice?

Melanie Luna: “I don't feel anything towards your work”. This statement by an established artist really touched me to the core. I admit I’m out of touch emotionally with my work and the works of others. I can’t seem to stop what I’m doing and feel. I’m in a rat race with time and I’ve always felt left out of the feeling department. I ask myself what someone else sees when looking at art; life changing experiences, memories, the future, themselves… or do they all feel nothing? What makes them acquire art?  Is it emotional or purely for profit? From that day forward I have tried to keep a journal of my thoughts. Words cannot describe what I am feeling at this moment as we speak. One thing is certain, I know every single living artist thinks of this. 

Storm Ascher: What does “Nomad” mean to you? 

Melanie Luna: Wandering with no destination, time and place does not exist to a nomad its all about getting from point A to B and so on. 

Storm Ascher: What books are you reading right now? 

Melanie Luna: Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke & One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Layo Bright Explores Xenophobic Histories Through Sculpture and Printmaking

Storm Ascher: Where are you currently? Do you have access to a studio set up during quarantine?

Layo Bright: I’m in Long Island City, New York, in my shared living space. Half of my room is a makeshift studio, where I keep my sculptures and materials. I just learned screen printing, and have a separate space in the apartment where I work on that.

Storm Ascher: What to you makes a “successful” sculpture?

Layo Bright: Success is relative. I don’t think of comparative ways of assessing my works when I’m making them. Instead, it’s a kind of dance with each work — the ‘dance’ here connoting free thought and expression — it doesn’t have to be perfect but I make my own moves and enjoy what each one brings. If I don’t let myself ‘dance’ freely, then it’s back to the start for me.

Storm Ascher: When casting your own face in your sculptures, can you talk about that process? Set time, how long are you in the alginate? Do you have a mold that you reuse?

Abelmoschus esculentus (Okra), 2020

Abelmoschus esculentus (Okra), 2020 (verso)

Layo Bright: I work with a mother mold mostly, but make variations and additions to create new molds (especially with glass works). 

Storm Ascher: What thoughts run through your head during casting?

Layo Bright: I can’t pinpoint that. It’s more like white noise — I’m usually listening to one song on repeat for hours when I’m working so I can settle into a flow state — to let myself instinctively ‘feel’ my way through the process  

Storm Ascher: Do you see the busts that you are making as formal sculptures, plants, idols, totems, an altar? Is it a self portrait?

Layo Bright: They are and then they aren’t. It’s one thing for me to make the works, but they take on their own agency. Though based on my likeness, the scarification, head dress and flora/fauna start to shift it away to different realm. One of  history, cultural legacy, identity and imagination.

Storm Ascher: Your use of textiles and softer materials to embellish your busts have a painterly quality to them, do you paint or draw these out first?

Layo Bright: I don’t draw, sketch or paint my sculptures beforehand. I like to sit with the materials and individual components of the sculpture. Then I observe, touch and think about each material and what it signifies. With the gele sculptures, I think of my mother and how she has worn each gele to various occasions (weddings, church, funerals, family celebrations, etc.) Then I build from the base up.

Storm Ascher: What techniques do you use to combine both hard and soft sculptural materials into a cohesive piece?

Layo Bright: Intuition — I reach for what feels essential or important to me in the work. Occasionally I have come to a point where the materials seem like polar opposites, but rhyme together really well once brought together. It’s exciting to discover as I create. I keep an open mind to materials around me and trust my judgment to experiment.

Checkered: Red on Blue, 2020 Screenprint on paper Edition of 5 + 1 AP 14 x 20 in

Checkered: Blue on Yellow, 2020 Screenprint on paper Edition of 5 + 2 AP 14 x 20 in

Checkered: Orange on Purple, 2020 Screenprint on paper Edition of 10 + 1 AP 14 x 20 in

Storm Ascher: Are you always sourcing more Ghana Must Go bags as material for each new project? What is the level of access to this material? Is the pattern commonly used still in Nigeria or is it seen as offensive (sort of like we see the confederate flag)?

Layo Bright: I get them from various parts of New York where I’m based (Harlem, Bushwick, Queens, etc.), and I sometimes get them sent to me from Lagos (Nigeria). Some are the common red/blue/black, others are quite colorful and have patterns. The moniker “Ghana Must Go bag” is widely and commonly used, and is still known by that name in Nigeria. Globally, the bags are usually named after a predominantly immigrant demographic in an area and I explore the xenophobic histories that it often connotes e.g. Ghana Must Go bags’ in parts of West Africa, ‘Shangaan or Zimbabwe bags’ in South Africa, ‘Türken Koffer’ in Germany, etc.

Storm Ascher: What the most recent conversation you had that changed an aspect of your art practice?

Layo Bright: “Don’t overthink it. Just make what comes to you.”

Storm Ascher: What books are you reading right now?

Layo Bright: Drive by Daniel H. Pink - on the truth about what motivates us and Kiriji Centenary (1886 - 1986) edited by Dr. G. O. Ekemode -  a book on the Kiriji war and my great great grandfather’s heroic efforts in the war.

Raelis Vasquez reflects on his many homes

Storm Ascher: What is it like to be an MFA candidate at Columbia?

Raelis Vasquez: It is a great privilege yet overwhelming. The program has pushed and challenged me tremendously and so I feel like it has helped my development as an artist. It is also great to be among a great community of artists.

Storm Ascher: What were you focusing on at school before the lockdown? Is the curriculum translating to online?

Raelis Vasquez: I was mainly focused on a large painting for the 1st year show that was supposed to be in March. Also, I had started a series in my studio that was based on old family photos. I have been able to continue that series in my home studio here in NJ. The curriculum does not translate online at all. A large part of the program is having critiques from individual faculty, outside artists, critics, and our own cohort. In order to get a true critique, it’s important for the viewer to be in the presence of the work. Since we have had to revert to online options, it has tremendously devalued the feedback and conversations with others. We also had other parts of the program that we don’t have access to.

Storm Ascher: What are you studying outside of studio practice?

Raelis Vasquez: At the moment, I was studying printmaking silkscreen and creative writing. I am always studying psychology and history for my practice. They are subjects that I have been studying on my work for over a decade.

Storm Ascher: Though you are known as a figurative painter, your attention to still life within the portrait is also highly worked and developed, what are the recurring objects within immigrant life in the U.S. that you render?

Raelis Vasquez: The objects that I represent usually change. Some of the recurring secondary signifiers are plants and trees, tables, and the light. The secondary signifiers allow me to help the painting communicate what I am seeing. Oftentimes, my main focus is connecting the figure to the space which they are in. The objects that come into the painting are to help the overall narrative of the painting. As an immigrant, I am often looking for ways to subtly state that the person I am representing belongs to multiple places at once.

Storm Ascher: Can you expand on your painting, ​Spaces Like This ​? It is unique in style in terms of brushstrokes and materials compared to the other works I’ve seen of yours, breaking down the background and playing with abstraction.. is this something you are incorporating into more paintings in the future?

Raelis Vasquez: That painting took a lot longer than my other works to complete. I worked on it on and off for a few months. I wanted to push my medium usage in the painting and have a childlike approach to creating the space. I wanted to see what that did to the relationship of the figure to the space that they are in. I have used these different ways of making in many of the paintings that came after that one in a more controlled way.

Storm Ascher: How do your earlier paintings made back in Chicago exist within your larger narrative of storytelling?

Raelis Vasquez: The paintings that I made back in Chicago are not too different in terms of what I am fighting for and who I am depicting. I have become a lot more specific and intentional about what I am including in the work. I am also constantly evolving as an artist and a painter. As I continue to research aspects of my family, my community, and the history of the new world, my work shifts. I am also always pushing myself as a painter by improving my technique and exploring different ways of making an image.

Storm Ascher: How do you compare your experiences in Chicago to New York? As an artist? As an immigrant?

Raelis Vasquez: Chicago and New York are very different for me. I love Chicago to the point that I am thinking about moving back in the future. One of the things that was helpful about me leaving NJ to go to Chicago is that it took me out of my context. It was the first time that I started to think about story and narrative because I was outside of it. There is also the aspect that there are not that many people that I encountered from Dominican Republic in Chicago where in NJ and NYC, you can’t go too far without encountering one of us. Also, SAIC is a very different school than Columbia University. One is an art school and the other is a university which includes all subjects, which means that the diversity of the student body and the politics change drastically. I consider both Chicago and NY to be parts of me. They both feel like home.

Storm Ascher: What does “nomad” mean to you?

Raelis Vasquez: A nomad to me is someone who keeps moving from place to place and doesn’t have a fixed home. With my work, it is more about the aspect of belonging to multiple places at once. Immigrants sacrifice tremendously to leave their homes but they carry home with them, whether they want to or not.

Ludovic Nkoth’s painting style changed after going back to cameroon

Courtesy of the artist

Storm Ascher: I noticed your style has changed a bit recently, can you talk about that change and whether it was deliberate or happenstance?

Ludovic Nkoth: I would definitely say it was deliberate, the work started changing a bit after a trip I took back home to Cameroon. After leaving Cameroon at the age of 13, I spent 11 years in the states before returning to Cameroon so this trip allowed me to reconnect with my roots and some memories I left back home. When I came back after that trip I wanted every piece I created to feel like that same connection I felt when I was home so I started questioning every move I made with my brushes and this led to different ways of making.

Storm Ascher: Do you consider yourself prolific?

Ludovic Nkoth: I do, I treat my practice as an athlete treats their sport. Meaning if you are not training you are allowing yourself to remain stagnant resulting in losing your touch. So I paint or create everyday when ever I can, firstly because I enjoy what I do and secondly because repetition is key.

Storm Ascher: What makes a successful and finished painting?

Ludovic Nkoth: I think the idea of creating a “successful” painting is something a lot of artists struggle with. Because I always ask myself and my peers what is a successful painting? The closest I’ve reached to an answer is, a painting that starts a conversation. And I know a painting is finished when I feel that the next move would not add much to the piece.

Storm Ascher: What is your favorite color palette?

Ludovic Nkoth: I honestly have too many to mention. I just love playing with color butttt anything with yellow have my name on it haha.

Storm Ascher: Have you worked in oil paint? Why do you choose to use acrylic?

Ludovic Nkoth: Yes I have in the past. I have so many reasons, I love that my acrylic paint isn’t trying to kill me slowly and I love the drying speed and the fact that it dries into a plastic form.

Money Grows on Trees, 2020 Ludovic Nkoth

Storm Ascher: I remember one of the works we showed of yours at Superposition had corn meal mixed in the paint, (Money Grows on Trees) can you expand on why you made that choice?

Ludovic Nkoth: There’s actually a funny story behind that but I'll tell you the short version. Haha so I went down south during the holidays to visit my family and I had the urge to paint by day 3 of my stay. I set up a quick studio with whatever I could find around the house, while painting I needed something to make my paint slightly thicker and all I could find in my moms kitchen was corn meal. After that I started thinking of how we have corn growing on every single corner of Cameroon. Corn could grow out of concrete there, I promise, and I remembered how corn was such a huge part of my diet when I was there and how that same corn is being used around the would and the connection the diaspora has with it. These are some of the reasons I started using it.

Storm Ascher: I felt it was a very innovative and powerful choice to include the green card identification numbers in the paintings of your family members, did you feel at all hesitant given privacy and the threat to immigrant communities (ICE)?

Ludovic Nkoth: Yes I did and my father advised me against it, but that made me want to use it even more. The way I looked at it was we immigrants with green cards are identified by numbers in a system and that seemed a bit dehumanizing and this has happened in history before our time and I think it's a good starting point for that conversation and I would like to continue pushing that forward.

Storm Ascher: Do you use Cameroonian influences in your paintings?

Ludovic Nkoth: Yes I think the biggest influences is in my use of color. The colors I grew up around were so rich in knowledge and coded in meaning if that makes any sense. Most tribes had and still have specific colors that separates them from other tribes. And within those tribes more colors are used to acknowledge social status.

Storm Ascher: What was it like to relocate your studio practice from NY to SC for quarantine? Are you used to moving around?

Ludovic Nkoth: I’m used to moving around but moving around due to an epidemic is a different story. First I had to drive because the airports were slowly shutting down and the lines were up to a 6 hour long wait. Relocating this time made me focus more on my physical health and mental health, I slowed down a lot with my work and started doing more to stay healthy during these times. This time painting at my family’s home down south feels different and I am still trying to figure it out day by day.

Storm Ascher: What does “nomad” mean to you?

Ludovic Nkoth: Hmmm. I would say to me a nomad is someone moving from place to place in search for a home. Due to the fact that I’ve relocated to a different country to be with a different family (father's side of the family) I now question the idea of what a home means and what makes a home. This is what plays in the displacement of bodies in my practice.