Luke Murphy at CANADA NYC

Luke Murphy's exhibition at Canada is one I'm glad to visit again and again.

While I stand here typing this into my phone a skull just ran up the side of his piece titled... '1 Degree Off'. A tall piece at over 100 inches. A slew of vertical clouds stream down the digital surface of the work. Ever changing from green and yellow to...hey there goes another skull. So many variations of colors that a painter like myself just can't help but enjoy. And now my peripheral compels and it's a barrage of yellow with the intermittent skull to give, maybe, a sense of the post modern...who knows. I'm not trying to tell you what he's trying to accomplish here. I am simply enjoying the work in all it's glitchy glory. 

Luke is not afraid to give away information about how they were made. Especially if you have a background in electronics, which I do. To me, the uses of the digital materials makes the work all the more interesting and enjoyable. Eyes darting around the cabling and computers sitting to the sides, obviously a part of the piece. It's haphazard like installation really brings so many things to mind, obviously the installation wasn't rushed, but it looks like it was left there. The cabling and keyboards, just a part of the work really tells you this was not JUST left there, but systematically placed. Maybe

Sitting here in the gallery and thinking about that I can't help but wonder how a collector would place a work from this show in their home. These sculptures in light look fantastic here in the gallery with lots of space around each one, would the power be lost in a smaller more residential space? I don't know, but I wish I could try. Would dig having one of these in my home.

P-10 Tower/Piece of work: 2018

Makes me think of the Grenfell tower in England that was on tv as it burned for hours one early spring morning. 

This is where the viewer gets to do their thing. Use your imagination in each of these works and there is so much you will be surprised with what your imagination helps you with.

Everything Must Go: 2018
On my first visit it was the piece that spoke to me the loudest. With it's slowly changing colors every now and again blasted with what seem to be stamps in the coding, growing from super hot pink to dark dingy browns. A selection of specific ever-changing glitches streams across the second grouping of LED panels in the work. It's placement is one of the most fascinating as it really looks as if it was literally thrown on the ground and the artist saw it and immediately said "that's it!" Makes me wonder what the placement has to really do with the artists thoughts.

Come spend some time with Luke at Canada through July 15th.

And don't forget to see the mystery piece in the exhibition, here's a hint, it's not lit up.

Thanks for your enjoyment. Jeffrey Collins

Jeffrey Collins - Special Event Exhibition NYC

So during my last trip to NYC, I was in the process of making some new work in Peter Reginato's studio. He's been very kind to me in letting me work some in his place. I didn't get too far that trip with my work but I did get the basic structure done for what was eventually to become HIVE #1. A new development in my work, delving into perception and seeing how deep I can get into ideas of perception and comprehension of vision.

I got here in May and began working on the piece again. This time I definitely knew more of what I wanted to do and how to go about doing it. Funny how you think you know what you are doing when trying something new but after you actually attempt it, you are blessed with so many new thoughts on how you will make the next one and the next one. Ideas flow like water. Get out there and stick your hand under the faucet.

Fast forward to June 13th. I had my first one person show at Reginato Studio in Soho. I presented a large group of work to fellow patrons and friends, and the reception was wonderful. Lots of great conversations and lots of wonderful warm feelings after.

When I spoke with Peter about my upcoming trip to the big town, I asked if he'd be into helping me do an exhibition in his loft, he agreed and we sat about making it happen. One thing I really wanted to accomplish was to have two large paintings to really show off the depth of what I do. Unfortunately only one got made but it is a stunner nonetheless. I also was able to finish up a number of Rope artworks for exhibition. So what the public was seeing was a true overview of almost ALL the types of work that I do. From Paintings on the wall to freestanding paintings, to the cube structures.

Well, enough talk. Here's the pics courtesy of Peter Reginato, Allen Strombosky and Francine Tint.

And now photos with people in them....

Art Guerra, Anders Knutsson and John Zinsser

Me speaking with Michael Paoletta.

Brad Darcy and Rodney Dickson

Daniela Zahradnikova and MD Tokon

Anders Knutsson, Peter Reginato and John Zinsser

Allen Strombosky and Jeffrey Kurland

Horst and his lady friends.

Look at that light in the painting. YES!

Peter Reginato and Myself

G Scott Lamanna hanging out.

Jean-Luc Richard checking out a painting

Francine Tint and Daniela Zahradnikova

Rodney Dickson, Myself, Nils Hill and Ivy Dachman 

Francine Tint, Art Guerra and Laura Fay Lewis

Daniela Zahradnikova, The limited edition Peter Reginato bag, Myself, MD Tokon

Laura Fay Lewis and Daniela Zahradnikova

Francine Tint and Myself

Francine Tint with one of the limited edition Peter Reginato handbags.

Francine Tint and Myself

Anders Knutsson and Rodney Dickson talking painting with my painting.

Joyce and Moishe Kampin

Francine Tint

Ivy Dachman and Nils Hill

Jean-Luc Richard with Peter Reginato

Horst Hoetzer, Myself, and Laura Fay Lewis

Wish I could have gotten photos with the other people who were in attendance, so many wonderful people stopped by and we didn't get pics.

Thanks for coming by. The show is still on until the end of the month but you need to get in touch to make an appointment as these are very busy times. THANKS!

2018 Testers

In 2017 I had the vision of what became the TESTERS. The original vision had a small piece on a wooden table in someone's office with nice views of the NYC skyline outside. I have yet to make one that small, but maybe I need to, just to see how small I can go with these and what it would do. I'm beginning this series of posts by showing the first one of the new year.

TESTER #5
9.5" X 6" X 2" Freestanding
Acrylic Paint on Acrylic Yarn on Painted Wood Chassis

The tale of 07-01-2011

A nice story about a painting. This painting began it's life as a finished painting on 07-01-2011. I always name my paintings by the date I finish them on. It began life as a 36 X 30 Inch Painting. The pics in the next few entries are all part of it's life. Our story begins with the painting in my studio the day I took photos with my small cheap camera, using photoshop to balance out the colors. I could have chopped out the background and added a new one, but I don't care for fake shadows. It's a highly transparent color which you can see right into the canvas color below. I was really into what I refer to as a japanese landscape style of making the textures, I always felt it helped with such transparent colors, especially the way the color gravitates toward the bottom leaving behind veils of color that show off the natural color of the wood filler texture behind. This group of work will always be something I want to get back to in the future, I need to make a larger scaled group of these paintings. It will happen.





The first exhibition this painting was in was actually a two person private residence show...with Joseph Marioni in his private home in PA. It was actually the third show we did together, very few people got to see it in person. I've only got photos of two of the shows we did together. I drove these paintings from Columbus Ohio to his place in Pennsylvania to stay for a week. Joe usually would let me stay for an extended time, always nice to me. I would also at one time use his place as a stopover on my trips to NYC. That way I could take the bus to NYC from his place instead of driving into town. Later I just began driving in as I had found out how to park in NYC for cheap.

The photo in this entry was installed by The Painter himself. I woke up on the 2nd day and he had moved everything around in his place to accommodate my work. Very kind of him. He had enough room to give our works ample space on their own, it was a wonderful pairing. And gave me many memories I'll never forget.



More tales.... So here it is 2013 in Williamsburg Brooklyn at Sideshow Gallery for the big yearly group show. This was the painting I picked to enter into the show. I later learned that if you wanna be able to see all of your work at eye level. Make sure the work isn't this big. The work from the next year was 22X16" and sat in a really great place. This one went right to the ceiling. Hehehehe.

One more pic to go and I'll have the story for this almost finished.

One more thing. This wasn't the painting I originally wanted to put in the show. It was my second choice. The original painting was 48x36" and ended up too big to send through the usps so we had to bring it back home and re-box it up with this painting. Ended up being easier to put in our car to take to ups this time. The painting before in its box was so big that I had to ask my neighbor who happened to be home that day to help me get the box to usps. And then when they wouldn't send it. Mom and I had to find a way to get it home. I had to sit in the back of the car and hold the painting down so it wouldn't catch air. It was so big the trunk wouldn't close. Funny times. Cheers.



Me with mine way up there.
This was one of the very few times I haven't been able to stay with anyone when I visited NYC. The day before I had driven to NYC from Columbus. My friend Dee said I could stay in her studio. So I ended up on 38th street trying to sleep while a jackass was making music until 4am that night and right after was the garbage trucks. How people can sleep with all that is beyond me. Heheheh. I ended up sleeping at the Leo house that night. Great place to stay in NYC. Had a wonderful time at the opening. Hung with a lot of friends and made some new ones.
The painting now sits in my mother's bedroom.

If not for Dee and Peter Reginato I would have had a real bear to deal with getting it back home.

Story originally appeared in my Instagram feed.

My first diptych.

I began writing these stories on Instagram as a way of giving people a little more insight into myself as a painter, and not just letting the paintings do the talking, because paintings can't tell you a fucking thing other than how they look right then. :D A lot of the idea for these stories comes from one of my favorite people on the planet... Joey COCO Diaz. The guy is an ace storyteller, and he helped me realize I had stories of my own that weren't the "regular" style. Thanks for tuning in, enjoy!

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My first diptych. I remember making the chassis for these with my Dad in the wood shop at Children's Hospital in Columbus. Each panel was 36 X 60 Inches. We came in on a saturday and spent a few hours cutting up the wood and shaping it all. I remember the rush of emotions when they were sitting on a table and we took them off to look at them as if they were joined together, even without the canvas on top, I was still feeling the joy of knowing I was going to be able to make this. I always get that same feeling when making a new painting, but this time was very special to me as it was one of the few times I got to make the chassis with my Dad. I remember these were the perfect size to paint upon in my bedroom at the time. Taking the canvases from my bedroom to the garage and back again during the making was something special to me. I was also painting on this the night of Y2K. I felt if I was gonna go out, i'd go out working on something I loved. I remember sitting on the chair beside my bed with a small bottle of the deep violet red and slowly making progress on coating the panels in the same beautiful violet blue red, raising my head to see 12:01 and thinking how stupid all the people were who thought we were gonna die that night. Then I went right back to painting. Later, both canvases were poured on at my friend Garth's place in the basement, as I needed a large enough place to do the pouring and didn't have one myself. The garage I would normally use was too cold in January. SO I asked my friend. His Mom Joyce said it was cool, and I brought it my paint supplies to his basement. I remember looking around that room and wishing I had a studio as big as that basement room. It was probably 16 X 32 feet.