THE FOCUS

Rachel Bubis: You describe your work as having “a strong connection to the bold color fields found in 17th century Japanese folding screens," and "the fluid brushwork of the 19th century ink painter Uragami Gyokudō.” What draws you to Japanese art and culture? Jeffrey Morton: I lived and worked in Sendai, Japan (about 250 miles northeast of Tokyo) during my 20s; it was in the mid-1980’s and I taught English as a Second Language (ESL) to college students and businesspeople. Even wi...

Rachel Bubis: Your work examines sinister social forces seen through the lens of “unreliable” female protagonists in culture - anti-heroines such as Martha Mitchell, the wife of Nixon’s attorney general, Rosemary, from Rosemary’s Baby, Typhoid Mary, and most recently, Suzanne Pleshette's character in an early episode of Columbo. What draws you to these figures? When did this interest begin? Morgan Ogilvie: Moving to Los Angeles county in 2018 to attend the MFA program in painting at CalArts amplified my interest...

The Focus contributor Ansley Gwin recently visited Knoxville's renowned artist-run gallery space Bad Water, caught the exhibition Piselli by Angélique Heidler, and documented her experience. Check it out! Gallery Visit, Bad Water, November 2021 (feat. Piselli by Angélique Heidler) Gallery Visit, Bad Water, November 2021 (feat. Piselli by Angélique Heidler) Attraction and repulsion, innocence and violence, obsession and indifference; in her new body of work, Paris-born artist Angélique Heidler investigates the paradoxical dualities embedded within mainstream depictions of both...