Chambers Response
Paul Winstanley’s Utopia, an oil painting, is the kind of art I like, realistic. When I am in a gallery I am always drawn towards the paintings and drawings that look like they could be photographs, but they’re not photographs. I don’t know if I am just super impressed with the artist’s talent or if I am
just stunned that I cant tell that I am looking at a painting or drawing. Wait a minute is someone playing a trick on me, this is a lie that has to be a photo, right?
Paul’s piece also had another quality that I liked. Shininess. Shiny metal surfaces seemed to be the dominant surface to most of the work. This trait only added to the realism of the art. I just thought of some art at the university of Minnesota Fresheworks show, it seems to have such a similar style as this. But I believe that one is a photograph. I think it was called something like Ghettos Of Utopia.
The similarities are the black, white, gray qualities to both these works. Also the subject matter is the same; Paul Winstenley’s work seems to be a public interior of a high class downtown office building. The students work seemed to be a photo of a public hallway in front of a large window, with a built in standing binocular overlooking the city.
I definitely plan to return to the Chambers Hotel and spend more time with the art. Many other pieces intrigued me, like the one with the Asian guy and the blow-up doll. The idea of a self-contained life was sad. I don’t know if I would have understood that that is what the idea being portrayed had someone not have told me.