One of the things I love about getting to visit an artist studio, is that you never know what you will see. Sure, you may be familiar with his/her work, but you’ll never truly understand the inner workings until you are privileged enough to step inside the studio space. Such was my experience upon visiting Kai Teichert’s studio for the second time. Previously, he showed me some of his smaller scale paintings that engage both in a fantastical and representational way. Upon the second visit, during conversation, he mentioned some of his older work which is predominately in black and white. The paintings are so large that they must be “assembled” placing smaller canvases on top of each other to form the larger-scale final image. The piece above depicts a reproduction of Peter Paul Rubens, Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus, and even the decorative frame is constructed in paint, within the structure of the stretcher bars.

Painted into the composition is a moment of disturbance. A “splash” if you will, purposefully defacing the image that now becomes an entity unto itself. My New York eyes thought of the Splasher, the street artist who was throwing/splashing paint onto the walls of New York buildings a few years ago.

Image courtesy of Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times, 2007

More soon!
xo