Artist Spotlight: Marisa Adesman

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery is excited to showcase Marisa Adesman’s video installations in our “The Person-less Portrait” booth at Spring Break Art Show this March. Adesman often challenges the stringent social connotations of grotesque female bodies through paintings, works on paper, and videos. Instead of shaming, she celebrates the beauty of the grotesque and the erotic in female subjects. AOG recently had an in-depth conversation with the artist about her views on video-making and social media. Despite the various digital conveniences, she felt those “digital iterations of ourselves are so highly stylized, idealized, and fabricated that these depictions ignore and negate the messiness of real life”.

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery (AOG): How were you introduced to the arts, and when did you know you wanted to pursue it? 

Marisa Adesman (MA): When asked as a young child the quintessential question “what do you want to be when you grow up?,” my original answer was “a circus performer.” However, ever since that phase passed, I have wanted to be an artist! My parents tell me that when I was old enough to sit up on my own, I would sit for hours on the floor organizing the carpet lint by color.

I was introduced to the arts from a very young age -- and apparently had a “creative instinct” since my toddler years. I am very fortunate to have amazing parents who wanted to expose us to as many things as possible when we were kids; so, in my grade-school years, I was signed up for ballet, softball, flute lessons, karate, etc. My painting class was really the only extra-curricular activity that truly excited me. (You should have seen the tantrums I would throw on the way to ballet!) 

Beginning in elementary school, I attended weekly classes at the Roslyn School of Painting; then, for my final two years of high school, I attended classes three times each week at the Huntington School of Fine Arts to study drawing, painting, and sculpture. I remember my high school guidance counselor warning me (maybe jokingly?) that if I kept up with this “art thing,” I wouldn’t have much of a social life! Little did she know that choosing a career in the arts would lead me to find such an incredible and supportive community. 

AOG: How does your creative process differ when you are working on a video versus a painting?

MA: My videos have been a fun way for me to delve deeper into exploring my studio practice as a whole, and to really hone in on what it is that I want to paint. I have found a really productive feedback loop between my paintings and my videos in the ways that each informs the other. In many ways, my videos have helped me become more improvisational and whimsical in the studio. Working with video has introduced a series of new questions into my studio practice: How can I perform in my paintings in ways that I cannot do with video? How can I maintain and extend the absurdist logic that I use in my videos into my paintings? When presented together, how can the videos inform the paintings, and vice versa? 

I have also been able to use humor in my videos, which is something that I hadn’t previously done (at least not intentionally) in my paintings. As I have been working more with video, I have come to appreciate humor as a new component to my work. Along with this, it has been important for me to consider the many facets of humor, such as the differences between parody / critique / satire, and to learn how to be incisive and poignant without being excessively mean or judgmental. Humor can be a powerful tool for broaching painful or sensitive subject matter, but it is important to make sure that the humor is not at anyone’s expense. 

I also love that working in video allows you to wear so many different hats and it essentially encompasses all artistic mediums at once (installation, sculpture, photography, design, etc.) I learned more than I could have ever imagined while working on my last film project, as my collaborator and I wrote, directed, filmed, produced, and edited the entire hour-long film on our own. Throughout this project, each day was completely different than the next -- from hand-painting a faux-marble finish on a mini refrigerator, to designing/creating costumes, to hiking into a ravine to shoot a dance sequence, to even getting leeches in a lily pad pond! While every day was a new adventure, there were definitely some days when I missed the solace of painting alone in my studio. 

AOG: How has your vision and process changed over time? Was there a pivotal moment for you?

MA: My studio practice is constantly evolving. The biggest shift recently in my practice has been moving away from a close use of source imagery and reference photographs. I have become much more interested in how I can create my own narratives in each painting -- making up stories and learning about the characters I create as I go. I have spent a lot of time over the past few months learning about my fork characters and the world that they inhabit. I have felt so much more freedom and excitement as I have shifted away from a reliance on the photographic reference, and more towards creative writing, sketching, and researching symbolism and mythology. 

AOG: A lot of your work speaks to consumption and social media/YouTube. How do you, as an artist, feel about social media? Has it affected your work?

MA: Like everything else in life, I think social media is good... in moderation. Social media is a wonderful tool and resource, allowing artists across the world to share their work, ideas, and creations. This platform allows people to network who would have never had the opportunity to otherwise connect. It breaks down barriers and, in many ways, levels the playing field.

Conversely, social media platforms can be dark vortices that drain your time, productivity, and, most importantly, self-confidence. These platforms are set up so that we are constantly comparing ourselves to one another, becoming a popularity contest of sorts, and there is a real danger to this. I am now a professor at a liberal arts university, and I have too often heard students discouraged and filled with self-doubt because their most recent artwork post didn’t get many “likes” online. 

While it is incredible to have access to photos from every gallery opening, museum show, and live performance no matter the location, it is also essential to remember that this should not take the place of seeing real art in real life! I fear that social media is changing the way people are thinking about and making their work; artists and gallerists perhaps now privileging work that is louder, faster, bolder, bigger... striving to elicit a double-tap. I sometimes feel frustrated by this since most of my work is slow and detailed, which doesn’t make for great day-to-day “content.” 

In my studio practice, I have become especially interested in the internet tutorial as a format because of its prevalence and influence today. How-to videos and tutorials are the second most watched category of videos on YouTube! I am especially interested in the numerous ‘how-to’ video tutorials created by women that highlight the various ways in which women believe they should act and present themselves. So often these digital iterations of ourselves are so highly stylized, idealized, and fabricated that these depictions ignore and negate the messiness of real life. 

Although I recognize that social media is also a powerful resource for marketing, networking, and gaining access to parts of the art world that may otherwise be unavailable, I try as much as possible to limit my time online when I am working in the studio. 

AOG: What are your hobbies outside of the arts?

MA: When I’m not in my studio, I love to cook, travel, hike, hang out with my dogs,
and do crossword puzzles and yoga. My yoga practice started just as a way for me to just get out of the painting studio, move my body, and get out of my head -- but over the years it has become part of my daily routine and a practice that I cherish. I now also teach yoga classes at a local studio a few times a week. This has been really nice getting to share my practice in a new way!

AOG: What types of pieces have you been working on recently? Are there any experiments you’re eager to try?

MA: In my studio, I am surrounded by my paintings, drawings, and prints that are all in various stages of completion -- some barely started, others nearly done. Recently, I have been cranking out lots of fork monotypes -- I have dozens of these prints floating around the studio, from which I then select just a few to work back into with gouache, colored pencils, and graphite. I really love working on these monotypes because they feel so free and intuitive (especially in their early stages), and then working back in to these prints gives me the opportunity to refine the narrative or add new visual elements. I recently started two large oil paintings, so I am eager to see where they go! I have been very interested in the imagery of a distorted fork -- sometimes bound or entangled, and sometimes freed and liberated. For me, this “dance of the fork” represents the ways in which life is always a negotiation of limitations, inherited forms, and release from those obstructions.

I am also eager to make more video work soon, but after my two-year long endeavor creating “The Ballad of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow,” my collaborator and I are taking a much needed break! 

AOG: Any advice for the next generation of artists?

MA: Stay curious; ask questions; take walks, always remember the reason you started
making art in the first place, apply to as many opportunities as possible (and get a lot of rejections!), and just keep making art! Research and rigor in the studio are essential, but just as important is the ability to embrace play and playful experimentation! 

For more Marisa Adesman’s works, visit Spring / Break Art Show 2020 from March 3 - 9, 2020
625 Madison Avenue, New York, NY