John Biebel: That Early Push
I'm a painter, musician, web interaction designer, and general do-er of many things.
I studied at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City.
I was fortunate to study with a wide array of people including painter Don Kunz, sculptor
Day Gleeson, writer and historian James Wylie. Being in Manhattan at the age of 18
was unfathomably exciting, and yet scary as hell, especially when you don't have tons
of money. I worked for sculptors as a studio assistant for people like Maura Sheehan
and Alan McCollum, so I was immersed in the art making going on in the late 1980's.
This was the New York still ruled by Mayor Koch, and it was a grittier and
more dangerous city than it is today, but unmatched
for a young artist trying to experience
the world.
I'm a painter, musician, web interaction designer, and general do-er of many things.
I studied at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City.
I was fortunate to study with a wide array of people including painter Don Kunz, sculptor
Day Gleeson, writer and historian James Wylie. Being in Manhattan at the age of 18
was unfathomably exciting, and yet scary as hell, especially when you don't have tons
of money. I worked for sculptors as a studio assistant for people like Maura Sheehan
and Alan McCollum, so I was immersed in the art making going on in the late 1980's.
This was the New York still ruled by Mayor Koch, and it was a grittier and
more dangerous city than it is today, but unmatched
for a young artist trying to experience
the world.
Different Voice:
Of course some good things must end, and 2 years later I needed to leave England, and I came back to the US with only one bag of possessions.
I decided to move to Boston because I had friends there and it's an easy city to live in. Quickly I found myself working for a student loan company,
and I worked furiously at my painting, music and quickly gained skills in web interactive design. It was a productive but also somewhat listless time
of life; feeling somewhat dislocated in space and time. This had a profound influence on my work as a painter, and the works seen on this site
begin at this period (2003). Although certain themes stayed in my paintings, they took on a quality that I can best describe as 'chaotically
balanced.' I wanted to depict subjects and actions that contradicted their natures (quiet subjects like animals and children, but put into strange
circumstances, dislocated places, time warps.) What emerged were portraits of dogs, children kings and emperors, vast abstract landscapes,
religious figures, historical portraits. I stretched my painting language to involve painting on the floor, exposing paintings to adverse weather
conditions to distort the canvas's surface, drawing on paintings with ball point pens. As always, I want to remove the pristine and untouchable
nature of paintings so that they reflected the actual process from which they were made.
I've often felt a slight pressure that I should 'decide' if I'm a figurative or non-objective painter. I will never decide. I can't ever decide. The two
worlds can be so different and yet they run into each other so often that I truly believe there is no dividing line. Of course some painting (for
instance) is most interested in exploring that area which explores just how far paint can be taken in it's expressive power on its own terms - and I
cherish this notion, but I can equally cherish a painter like Ingres, whose work was primarily about removing any suggestion that his works were
painted at all (as my friend and artist Anastasia Odnoralov Kacedan said, 'Ingres would have loved cameras.'
Of course some good things must end, and 2 years later I needed to leave England, and I came back to the US with only one bag of possessions.
I decided to move to Boston because I had friends there and it's an easy city to live in. Quickly I found myself working for a student loan company,
and I worked furiously at my painting, music and quickly gained skills in web interactive design. It was a productive but also somewhat listless time
of life; feeling somewhat dislocated in space and time. This had a profound influence on my work as a painter, and the works seen on this site
begin at this period (2003). Although certain themes stayed in my paintings, they took on a quality that I can best describe as 'chaotically
balanced.' I wanted to depict subjects and actions that contradicted their natures (quiet subjects like animals and children, but put into strange
circumstances, dislocated places, time warps.) What emerged were portraits of dogs, children kings and emperors, vast abstract landscapes,
religious figures, historical portraits. I stretched my painting language to involve painting on the floor, exposing paintings to adverse weather
conditions to distort the canvas's surface, drawing on paintings with ball point pens. As always, I want to remove the pristine and untouchable
nature of paintings so that they reflected the actual process from which they were made.
I've often felt a slight pressure that I should 'decide' if I'm a figurative or non-objective painter. I will never decide. I can't ever decide. The two
worlds can be so different and yet they run into each other so often that I truly believe there is no dividing line. Of course some painting (for
instance) is most interested in exploring that area which explores just how far paint can be taken in it's expressive power on its own terms - and I
cherish this notion, but I can equally cherish a painter like Ingres, whose work was primarily about removing any suggestion that his works were
painted at all (as my friend and artist Anastasia Odnoralov Kacedan said, 'Ingres would have loved cameras.'
New England, and England:
I painted for a while in New York after school, then returned to Connecticut ('the country') to breathe fresh air
and see if that had a beneficent influence on my work. The 90's were strange days - I was fortunate to have
some shows early on, and in 1994, I exhibited 18 large paintings at The I. M. Pei Arts Center at Choate
Rosemary Hall, a great opportunity for me, and one of the largest and most beautifully-designed spaces I
could imagine. At that point in time I was working for the Connecticut Post Newspaper doing paste-up work,
and then eventually becoming the resident illustrator. Ridiculously underpaid, I still did enjoy making art 'for
a living,' but was told that some of my illustrations were too dark and (well), let's face it: Intelligent. Many of
the original art and files of those newspaper assignments have been scattered and lost, but I can't deny the
importance of making hundreds and hundreds of drawings over that span of years.
A strange series of events made the year 2001 very eventful - I was laid off by the newspaper, met a new
boyfriend, and moved to London. All these events were interrelated so they seemed driven by fate. Before I
knew it, I was residing in a council flat in the little neighborhood of Haggerston, London, and teaching English
as a Second Language in a school on Oxford Street in the center of the city. I lived with film makers,
musicians, students; people from all over the world. London is a kaleidescope of people, and it is also a very
musical city, and so I began delving into music along with my painting.
I painted for a while in New York after school, then returned to Connecticut ('the country') to breathe fresh air
and see if that had a beneficent influence on my work. The 90's were strange days - I was fortunate to have
some shows early on, and in 1994, I exhibited 18 large paintings at The I. M. Pei Arts Center at Choate
Rosemary Hall, a great opportunity for me, and one of the largest and most beautifully-designed spaces I
could imagine. At that point in time I was working for the Connecticut Post Newspaper doing paste-up work,
and then eventually becoming the resident illustrator. Ridiculously underpaid, I still did enjoy making art 'for
a living,' but was told that some of my illustrations were too dark and (well), let's face it: Intelligent. Many of
the original art and files of those newspaper assignments have been scattered and lost, but I can't deny the
importance of making hundreds and hundreds of drawings over that span of years.
A strange series of events made the year 2001 very eventful - I was laid off by the newspaper, met a new
boyfriend, and moved to London. All these events were interrelated so they seemed driven by fate. Before I
knew it, I was residing in a council flat in the little neighborhood of Haggerston, London, and teaching English
as a Second Language in a school on Oxford Street in the center of the city. I lived with film makers,
musicians, students; people from all over the world. London is a kaleidescope of people, and it is also a very
musical city, and so I began delving into music along with my painting.
Select Exhibitions
1992 - 2011:
New Haven Arts Council, New Haven, CT, US
I.M.Pei Arts Center, Choate-Rosemary Hall, CT, US
New Haven Store Fronts Project, New Haven, CT, US
Discovery Museum, Group Exhibits, Bridgeport, CT, US
Battersea Arts Center, London, UK
Cafe Saville, London, UK
Tremont 647, Boston, MA, US
Cafe Nation, Brighton, MA, US
DadaTek, Berlin, Germany (June 2011)
Watertown Public Library, US (July 2011)
1992 - 2011:
New Haven Arts Council, New Haven, CT, US
I.M.Pei Arts Center, Choate-Rosemary Hall, CT, US
New Haven Store Fronts Project, New Haven, CT, US
Discovery Museum, Group Exhibits, Bridgeport, CT, US
Battersea Arts Center, London, UK
Cafe Saville, London, UK
Tremont 647, Boston, MA, US
Cafe Nation, Brighton, MA, US
DadaTek, Berlin, Germany (June 2011)
Watertown Public Library, US (July 2011)