The artists profiled in Stories tell tales\u2014autobiographical, fictional, satirical, or fantastical\u2014through architecture, literature, mythology, fairytales, and history. These artists provoke us to think about our own stories, the characters and caricatures, the morals and messages that define our real and imagined lives. Filmed on location in S\u00e3o Paolo, Brazil; New York, New York; Saratoga Springs, New York; [foundry], New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Seoul, South Korea; Seattle Washington; Houston, Texas; and Dallas, Texas.
\nCharles Atlas is a filmmaker and video artist who has created numerous works for stage, screen, museum, and television. Atlas is a pioneer in the development of media-dance, a genre in which original performance work is created directly for the camera. Many of Atlas\u2019s works have been collaborations with choreographers, dancers, and performers, including Yvonne Rainer, Michael Clark, Douglas Dunn, Marina Abramovic, Diamanda Galas, John Kelly, and Leigh Bowery. Atlas acted as Consulting Director for \u201cArt in the Twenty-First Century\u201d (Seasons 2 through 5), creating the original opening programs for each hour-long segment of Season 2, as well as supervising the \u201cStories,\u201d \u201cLoss and Desire,\u201d \u201cMemory,\u201d \u201cPlay,\u201d \u201cProtest,\u201d and \u201cParadox\u201d episodes.
\nBest known for his intricate sculptures that defy conventional notions of scale and site-specificity, Do Ho Suh draws attention to the ways viewers occupy and inhabit public space.In several of the artist\u2019s floor sculptures, viewers are encouraged to walk on surfaces composed of thousands of miniature human figures. Whether addressing the dynamic of personal space versus public space, or exploring the fine line between strength in numbers and homogeneity, Suh\u2019s sculptures continually question the identity of the individual in today\u2019s increasingly transnational, global society.
\nKara Walker explores the raw intersection of race, gender, and sexuality in her work, crafting vivid psychological narratives from a contemporary perspective on historical conditions. Over the past two decades, Walker has unleashed the traditionally Victorian medium of the silhouette onto the walls of the gallery, creating immersive installations that envelop the viewer. Walker\u2019s multi-media work\u2014which includes drawing, watercolor, video, and sculpture\u2014often reconsider grotesque caricatures, probing their persistence in popular culture and reclaiming their subjugating power to alternative ends.
\nIn the 1980s, Kiki Smith literally turned the figurative tradition in sculpture inside out, creating objects and drawings based on organs, cellular forms, and the human nervous system. This body of work evolved to incorporate animals, domestic objects, and narrative tropes from classical mythology and folk tales. Life, death, and resurrection are thematic signposts in many of Smith\u2019s installations and sculptures. The recurrent subject matter in Smith\u2019s work has been the body as a receptacle for knowledge, belief, and storytelling.
\nTrenton Doyle Hancock\u2019s prints, drawings, and collaged-felt paintings work together to tell the story of the Mounds\u2014a group of mythical creatures that are the tragic protagonists of the artist\u2019s unfolding narrative. Each new work by Hancock is a contribution to the saga of the Mounds, portraying the birth, life, death, afterlife, and even dream states of these half-animal, half-plant creatures. Influenced by the history of painting, especially Abstract Expressionism, Hancock transforms traditionally formal decisions\u2014such as the use of color, language, and pattern\u2014into opportunities to create new characters, develop sub-plots, and convey symbolic meaning. Balancing moral dilemmas with wit and a musical sense of language and color, Hancock\u2019s works create a painterly space of psychological dimensions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Art 21 presents contemporary artists and offers you a more intimate view of their creative process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":124749,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"program_type":[15],"group":[542,546],"d_category":[665],"genre":[2492],"class_list":["post-124748","program","type-program","status-inactive","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","program_type-episode","group-creation","group-portraits","d_category-art-pop","genre-entertainement"],"yoast_head":"\n