works

The Sumter Piece: A slight return, 2017

60,000 wooden coffee stir sticks woven in place and held by tension, 3,600 coffee cup sleeves stacked one inside of another, braided aluminum cable, ferrules, eye hooks

Meandering Ground Line, 2017

Cafe Bustelo Espresso, acrylic resin, Birch plywood, mending plates

The Sumter Piece: A slight return is one in a series of concurrent installations. In particular, it is a companion piece to Hickory Sticks, my comprehensive installation exhibition on view at The Hickory Museum of Art May4 – September 9, 2017. In a larger sense, it is a callback to my third site piece created in Patriot Hall in 2007.  Although there have been 10 years and 50 installations since my first visit to Sumter, there is something poetic about only moving down the hall to create my latest work. With the installation in the gallery, I wanted to draw a line between and connect the two floating walls and create an experience that allows the viewer to navigate the space in a new way. The wall piece is a drawing using espresso grounds to mimic the movement of the sculpture through the space. The drawing  has elements of larger wall drawings I have been making. As with all the work in this series, materials are chosen and removed from the world of the contemporary coffee shop. The sticks and sleeves are chosen not only for their visual and structural uses, but also for their connection to the hand. The wooden sticks and cardboard coffee cup sleeves are materials handled in an everyday context. I remove these materials from the coffee shop and bring them back to the gallery to create my work. I have intentionally used no adhesive or additive in the creation of the work, but instead rely on the transformative power of labor and the physical properties of the materials. The  sculpture materials are only altered through hand arrangement. The show title Compression. Tension. Suspension. refers to the physical state of the materials and the mental state of the artist.

Minimalist Mania,2017
wood, plastic, custom wiring, fluorescent lights, incandescent bulbs, gameshow lockout buzzer, Roland spd11 drum machine, boss loop station,

Minimalist Mania is a functional homemade gameshow set constructed on site for “society of Spectacle” an exhibition on view August 29-October 10 at The Fed Galleries at Kendall College of Art and Design. Curated by Michele Bosak, Society of Spectacle calls upon Guy Debord’s seminal text Society of the spectacle. In the book and by extension the show asks us whether we are products of or willing contricbutors to the spectactle. My installation is designed to be a prop for the use of my character “Brilliant”.

Brilliant the character is a heightened version of artist Jonathan Brilliant’s public persona. A brash, gregarious, irreverent, fast talkin’ Contemporary Art History obsessive TV/talk show/game show host. He is equal parts enthusiastic fan of art while also a dubious southern everyman when faced with “difficult’ work. Through a series of internet based videos, performances and other actions he will attempt to digest artprize in total. Situated in the Fed gallery is his signature game show “Minimalist Mania”. The show is an exhaustively researched love letter to the artists and movements that began with the minimalist of the mid 1960’s and continue with many sculptors today. The set design is based on documentation of the landmark “Primary Structures” exhibition at the Jewish Museum in 1967, and other images of art of the 1960’s the artist has in books at home.  In addition to quizzing his guests on obscure facts about Minimalist artwork he consistently comments on the artwork that is directly in front of him. He interviews and talks with anyone who will tolerate it. Underneath it all is a genuine desire to connect with a work of art by any means necessary.

A series of episodes and performances will happen in mid September for the Artprize festival and will be streamed and presented in the gallery itself.

A monumental site-specific installation and exhibition is now on view at The Hickory Museum of Art. I spent a pleasurable and busy week in Hickory weaving, staining suspending and otherwise assembling on site. This show includes some new works built off site but scaled and installed specifically for the Hickory gallery space. I was especially moved by the iconic spiral staircase and ever shimmering arched windows and vertical blinds.

Full documentation can be viewed here

http://jonathanbrilliant.com/hickory

Hickory Museum of Art

Hickory Sticks is a site-specific installation and exhibition designed to activate and enhance the architecture of the Coe Gallery at The Hickory Museum of Art. The exhibition included a new series of espresso mud wall drawings based on the architecture of the space. Additionally a new woven coffee stir stick and coffee cup sleeve tensile construction was completed on site during the course of a week long residency. This construction plays with and builds on the presence of the iconic spiral staircase within the gallery. The features of the space, including the spiral staircase, the balcony, and high arched windows provide viewers with many unique experiences within the space. Additionally a curved wall alcove gallery allowed for the creation of a new suspended work. This project would not have been possible without the staff and support of the Hickory Museum of Art and our sponsors:

Shurtape

Corning Fiber Optical

United Arts Council

works list:

The Hickory Piece 2017

80,000 wooden coffee stir sticks woven in place and held by tension, 3,000 coffee cup sleeves stacked one inside of each other, 100 feet of braided aluminum aircraft cable

Grounds for Removal, 2017

espresso and water rubbed into the wall by hand

Product Configuration, 2017

black, white, and brown  solo traveler lids afixed to panel with decking screws

Building a Smaller Universe, 2017

wooden coffee stir sticks, coffee cup sleeves, braided aluminum aircraft cable, eye hooks

Corrugated sleeve in 3 parts, 2017

espresso and acrylic resin on panel

The Stir City Piece, 2016

70,000 wooden coffee stir sticks woven in place and held by tension, 4,500 cardboard coffee cup sleeves stacked one inside another, 1,000 feet braided aluminum cable and ferrules, espresso and water.

The Stir City Piece was a new commissioned site-specific installation for The Taubman Museum of Art. The work was part of the two person exhibition “Eye of the Needle” with artist Amanda McCavour. The installation was created as a response to the architecture and experience of the Museums iconic architecture. Installation was completed over the course of 8 days on site.

From the Curator Amy Morefield:

Using the gallery as a studio space, Brilliant often refers to his site responsive installations, as“drawings in space”as the repetitive process of weaving over 70,000 stirrers is similar to the mark-making gesture known as crosshatch. Additionally, the stacked coffee sleeves that meander through the gallery and held by tension wires give the effect of a lines floating in space. Viewers are encouraged navigate the installation and with the addition of a espresso grounds wall drawing, providing the pungent aromatic fragrance of your favorite coffee shop, it becomes a fully sensory experience. As Brilliant aptly comments “ No prior knowledge is assumed or required” to enjoy The Stir City Piece.

The Stir City Piece, 2016

70,000 wooden coffee stir sticks woven in place and held by tension, 4,500 cardboard coffee cup sleeves stacked one inside another, 1,000 feet braided aluminum cable and ferrules, espresso and water.

The Stir City Piece was a new commissioned site-specific installation for The Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke Virginia. The work was part of the two person exhibition “Eye of the Needle” with artist Amanda McCavour. The installation was created as a response to the experience of the Museum’s iconic architecture. Installation was completed over the course of 8 days on site.

From the Curator Amy Morefield:

Using the gallery as a studio space, Brilliant often refers to his site responsive installations, as“drawings in space”as the repetitive process of weaving over 70,000 stirrers is similar to the mark-making gesture known as crosshatch. Additionally, the stacked coffee sleeves that meander through the gallery and held by tension wires give the effect of a lines floating in space. Viewers are encouraged navigate the installation and with the addition of a espresso grounds wall drawing, providing the pungent aromatic fragrance of your favorite coffee shop, it becomes a fully sensory experience. As Brilliant aptly comments “ No prior knowledge is assumed or required” to enjoy The Stir City Piece.

Fortune cookie fortune drawings 2015

Jonathan Brilliant : On Site is on view now through August 26, 2015 at the Greenhill center for North Carolina Art in Greensboro NC. The installation includes new site works, recent editions and works on paper, crate pieces and some of my genuine craptastic process videos.  This was a unique experience because rather than living entirely in the Greensboro community for the duration of the installation I was commuting 80 miles each way. The commute impacting my thinking a bit but had no real effect on the work. It was unusual for me though to have to drive away and leave at the end of each day when traditionally I stay in the place where I am doing the work.

Ten days were spent  in residence creating this installation for Greenhill center for North Carolina Art. The work was created to literally weave it’s way through and around the row of columns that define the space within the gallery. The image is loosely based on that of a Mobius strip and brings forward developments  from prior installations. The room has a frieze drawn in coffee grounds directly into the wall, with an image created as a response to the historic moulding in the gallery. In addition to the coffee shop materials, an excessive amount of braided aluminum cables and ferrules are used to draw attention to the tension within the sculptural work and the gallery. The hundreds of eyelets still resting within the ceiling of the gallery  create a kind of ghost of installations past providing a connection point for this work. The three most dominant features of the Greenhill gallery are the historic moulding, the row of columns and the overwhelming amount of eyelets and hardware left behind in the gallery ceiling, these elements ultimately defined this work. This show also marks the first time that a fully functioning espresso bar was housed within the gallery.

The Greensboro Piece, 2015
70,000 wooden coffee stirrers woven in place and held with tension, 6,500 coffee cup sleeves stacked one inside of another, braided aluminum cable, ferrules and found hardware

Product Configuration, 2015
Black, Brown and White Solo traveler lids affixed with satin pins in a corner of the gallery

Grounds For Removal, 2015
espresso and water

A Thin Green Line, 2015
iced coffee straws

Crate 1, 2013, coffee cups, vibrators, motion detecor

Crate 2, 2013, coffee cup sleeves, custom wiring

Crate 3, 2013, woven stir sticks, custom wiring, tour paraphanelia

The Fresno Impression, 2012, Woven Stir Stick Embossing on rives white

Fresno Ellipse, 2012, One color screenprint in silver grey reflective ink on revere edition

The GR Impression, 2011
Woven stir stick embossing on cotton rag

The Radiating Sleeve Print, 2012
9 unique edition coffee cup sleeve collagraphs on paper, 22”x30” each

Sine Wave Sleeve, 2012
one color screenprint on chine colle starbucks napkins on rives white

]]> http://jonathanbrilliant.com/onsite/feed/ 1 http://jonathanbrilliant.com/the-mankato-piece-2015/ http://jonathanbrilliant.com/the-mankato-piece-2015/#comments Tue, 20 Jan 2015 19:25:09 +0000 admin http://jonathanbrilliant.com/?p=3598 I’ve just finished installing this work for Minnesota State University Mankato and am now beginning work on some new editions in their printshop. Hang tight while I get my hands dirty.

The Mankato Piece, 2015
Conkling Gallery, Minnesota State University
40,000 wooden coffee stir sticks woven in place and held by tension, 2,600 coffee cup sleeves stacked one inside of another, braided aluminum cable, ferrules