Pinot Gallizio

Skylar Fein was born in Greenwich Village and raised in the Bronx. He has had many careers, including teaching nonviolent resistance under the umbrella of the Quakers, working for a gay film festival in Seattle, stringing for The New York Times and as a pre-med student at the University of New Orleans, where he moved one week before Hurricane Katrina hit. In the wreckage of New Orleans, Fein found his new calling as an artist, experimenting with the color and composition of the detritus of Katrina. His work soon became known for its pop sensibility as well as its hard-nosed politics. After a few starring roles in group shows, he had his first solo show in May 2008 at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans. In the fall of 2008, his Prospect.1: Biennial installation, Remember the Upstairs Lounge, shined a spotlight on an overlooked piece of New Orleans history, a fire that swept through a French Quarter bar in 1973, killing everyone inside. The worst fire in New Orleans history has never been solved. His installation walked visitors right through the swinging bar doors and offered visual riffs on politics and sexuality. The piece was praised in Artforum, Art In America, The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker, among others. In late 2009, Fein had his first solo museum show, "Youth Manifesto," at the New Orleans Museum of Art. The exhibition was an ode to punk rock as a force for social and cultural upheaval. True to form, the opening reception was shut down by police responding to the look of the unlikely art-going crowd. In March 2010, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery presented Fein's solo installation, Skylar Fein: Rise of the Youth Front at the VOLTA Art Fair in New York during Armory Week. This installation drew thousands of people and delved into revolutionary politics past and present, a continuing theme in Fein's work. In May 2010, Fein was invited by the New York curatorial project No Longer Empty to recreate, Remember the Upstairs Lounge installation in a vacant Chelsea space. The exhibition, once again, drew thousands of visitors and sparked renewed interest in this piece of history. In September 2011, Fein exhibited over 80 new works in his solo exhibition Junk Shot at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans. This exhibition embodied this artist’s turn towards formalism and art historical reference while maintaining Fein’s iconic sensibilities and aesthetic. Fein's solo exhibition "Beckett at War" in September 2012 at C24 Gallery in Chelsea was praised as one of the top ten exhibitions of the year in New York, in The Village Voice. He followed that up with his November 2013 installation of The Lincoln Bedroom which received wide media attention. Fein unveiled his Giant Metal Matchbook series in his 2014 solo exhibition at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery. Since then, the series has been exhibited nationally at art fairs including a solo presentation at VOLTA NY, as well as, Miami Project for Art Basel Miami Beach, Texas Contemporary, artMRKT San Francisco and the Seattle Art Fair and has continued to gain momentum in rave reviews and collector acquisitions. Skylar Fein was the recipient of a 2009 Joan Mitchell Foundation Award and his work is in several prominent collections including The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Brooklyn Museum, The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, The Louisiana State Museum, The Birmingham Museum of Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, curators Dan Cameron and Bill Arning, and collectors Beth Rudin DeWoody, Lance Armstrong, Lawrence Benenson, Brooke Garber-Neidich, Stephanie Ingrassia and Thomas Coleman.

Used to refer to a time rather than an aesthetic, Contemporary art generally describes pieces created after 1970 or being made by living artists anywhere in the world. This immediacy means it encompasses art responding to the present moment through diverse subjects, media and themes. Contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, performance, digital art, video and more frequently includes work that is attempting to reshape current ideas about what art can be, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s use of candy to memorialize a lover he lost to AIDS-related complications to Jenny Holzer’s ongoing “Truisms,” a Conceptual series that sees provocative messages printed on billboards, T-shirts, benches and other public places that exist outside of formal exhibitions and the conventional “white cube” of galleries.

Contemporary art has been pushing the boundaries of creative expression for years. Its disruption of the traditional concepts of art are often aiming to engage viewers in complex questions about identity, society and culture. In the latter part of the 20th century, contemporary movements included Land art, in which artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer create large-scale, site-specific sculptures, installations and other works in soil and bodies of water; Sound art, with artists such as Christian Marclay and Susan Philipsz centering art on sonic experiences; and New Media art, in which mass media and digital culture inform the work of artists such as Nam June Paik and Rafaël Rozendaal.

The first decades of the 21st century have seen the growth of Contemporary African art, the revival of figurative painting, the emergence of street art and the rise of NFTs, unique digital artworks that are powered by blockchain technology.

Major Contemporary artists practicing now include Ai Weiwei, Cecily Brown, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Kara Walker.

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Mixed media is a type of art that sees artists using a range of materials or more than one medium. Find a range of mixed media paintings and other artworks for your space today on 1stDibs.

Mixed media is distinct from multimedia, which describes art involving electronic media, including video, computers and digital elements. Artists combine painting, drawing, photography and sculpture for mixed media art. Instead of sticking to one form, they aim to break boundaries and create unique pieces. Pop art is one of the vibrant periods for mixed media art, with Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg among its most fabled producers. Rauschenberg, like many mixed media artists, used found objects in his work, from cast-off furniture to newspapers.

Collage is one of the most well-known areas of mixed media. Artists use various types of paper, fabric, photographs and more to create one cohesive work. A type of collage is assemblage, which involves 3D objects.

While artists may use fabric in collage, it can be the very substance of the art itself. Fabric art makes extensive use of texture. Artists may paint or embroider on fabric to create layers of texture and color to evoke a specific feeling. They can also transfer photos onto fabric for innovative ways to display visuals.

Resin-based art has clean, sharp lines and a definitive shape. Resin is a liquid that hardens to a high-gloss surface and is used to seal wood, counters and floors. Resin can also seal artwork, and many artists tint it using pigment powder, ink, spray paint and other vivid materials. If water is added, the resin will turn milky instead of being completely transparent. It’s common for artists working in mixed media to use resin on nontraditional surfaces like glass, wood, metal and stone. This creates a shine that’s perfect to brighten a dull space in the home or office.

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