IN-SYNC WITH… ALLEN VANDEVER (INTERVIEW)

January 14, 2013 · by virtualartist33 · in Art, Culture, Fashion, In-Sync. ·

This post continues my series “In-Sync with…” aimed to get a closer look at contemporary artists and art professionals from Chicago and abroad. Read it, enjoy it, share it, and get in-sync with Chicago artist Allen Vandever. Do not miss his personal recommendations at the end of the interview.

After following Allen in Facebook for a while, I finally met him formally during Art Basel weekend in Miami. He was exhibiting in one of the fairs and I had a chance to see his work up-close and personal. I was so delighted by his energy, enthusiasm and what seems to be an insatiable creative mind. I was impressed by his technology interactive clothing line. Very cool. Enjoy the interview!

ABOUT ALLEN VANDEVER

Sergio: Where did you go to school (college/university) and what degree you received?
Allen: I went to Northern State University Aberdeen SD on a scholarship for football Chemistry Major/Art Minor. After receiving a spinal injury that ended my days of football I switched my Major to Psychology, then switched to 3D Art w/Psychology Minor. Then I switched my major again painting. I ended with a double B.A. in Painting & 3D art w/a Minor in Psychology.

Sergio: Do you feel art school prepared you for the art career you have now?
Allen: School did not prepare me for an art career instead what it did was give a passion for learning and sports gave a hard work ethic and drive to be the best.

Sergio: What is one thing you wish you had learned at art school?
Allen: The importance of building a social network & marketing.

Sergio: What is your website?

www.AllenVandever.com

ABOUT YOUR WORK
Sergio: What are you working on and what inspires you right now?
Allen:I am working on paintings for the Winter Bike show. I am mainly working on my fashion and accessory line that are using interactive technology Near field communication. Stay tuned for more this is going to blow every one away.

Sergio: Can you tell me more about your Rescue or Destroy concept?Allen: To shine a light on the importance & value of art. I want people to look at art in different way. It is hard to know if other people actually respect & value art.

I want to know if there is a place in this world for my art & what value it holds. I also wish to weed out what I have produced. Letting the audience choose what will be rescued and which will be destroyed is a way of monitoring my progress & determining which artwork would be considered valuable. Also people tend to be fickle minded. I have been in situation where prospect buyers do keep you on a string for months and months. With Rescue or Destroy there is no next month, there is no tomorrow, there is only now. If you don’t buy it then I destroy it. My work will hang on walls and be viewed by all or it will be destroyed.

Rescue & Destroy is also a great way of getting people to pay closer attention to art. There are so many good artists. Sometimes you need a little something extra to stand out. I have been a creator for so long every once in a while its good to be a destroyer. In fact I believe that the fragments of the work hold value because they are remnants of the original work that can never be recreated.

Over all I’m trying to find the answers to the following questions: What is good art & who decides this? What standards does art deserve to be hanging on the walls of a museum & therefore be immortalized in history? Which artwork will end up in a landfills or be painted over?

Sergio: How does a typical day in your studio look like?
Allen: I balance being with my four-yr-old Son while working in my home studio. My son wakes me up about up at 8 AM, announcing that it is “wake-up time”. I’ll down up to four shots of expresso while checking my emails & social network sites. After getting myself & my boy ready for the day I prepare my studio for my interns that show up around 10. I’ll get them started on projects that need to be worked on. Then I spend the day making art with my son surrounding him with colors and patterns. Even though he’s four he is already developing his own sense of creativity! Around 4 PM we clean up & make dinner before my wife gets home, then back to making art. Now that I will be sharing a studio with Zore at Zhou B Art Center I am really looking forward to working on some large works in the space and sharing ideas with an artist that I respect and feel I have something to learn from.

Sergio: You have participated in a good number of independent art fairs. What advise would you give to artists thinking about participating?Allen: I have found that art fairs are really good for marketing, making connection to create an extensive network. Although, it is very expensive. It’s like taking your life saving and going to Vegas & hope that you will break even. NEXT at Art Chicago was by far the best fair I have been in sadly it no longer exists. Miami during Art Basel Is like the Mecca for the art world. It is my favorite time of year.

Sergio: What type of mental/practical activities do you do when facing a creative block?Allen: I don’t feel like I get mental blocks just financial blocks. I put every thing into my art and sometimes I go all in and come home with empty pockets. That is the hardest thing to over come. I have so many big ideas but money seems to be the only obstacle. To create and to make money are to different states of mind. When I focus on making money my art suffers when I focus on making art my finances suffers. I hope some day I can just focus on the art.

Sergio: Do you find social media to be a distraction or an asset for you as an artist and how do you deal with it?Allen: I love social media its free its easy and you can get your images to the masses.

Sergio: What is your biggest challenge as a contemporary artist?Allen: Money. From the materials that you use, to the agents marketing you, to participating in shows & fairs-everything in the art world costs money & it gets more expensive the farther you are in your career. Also you do need to be careful of who you work with in your career to prevent from being exploited. Because there is a whole industry of profiting of off artists Then theirs every one that is selling a dream, you have to paying to play it is quite the racket and they all say they are there to help the artist.

Sergio: How much does the art market influences your art production/output?Allen: Not at all.  I am a doer. I make art. The art market has no influence. I am always working on creating. Some times I focus more on marketing and driving sales but I am always producing.

Sergio: What’s next for you?Allen: I am doing an installation in the Podmajersky pods spaces for March and April. I am traveling to Denver for some meetings. Then to New York to do a fair during armory week. Winter bike show in March. And will be doing something special every third Friday at Zhou b art center in studio 404. I will manly be focusing on my inter active clothing line and accessories

ABOUT CONTEMPORARY ART

Sergio: What excites you about your local art scene?Allen: I love Chicago Art scene I think Zhou B art center is the best thing happening right now. I think there is way too much emphasis on people who graduated from the Art Institute, but I understand it is the biggest Art institution in Chicago. I do wish I was part of the click some times I guess I am just jealous.

Sergio: Do you believe gallery representation today is as important as it has been in the past?Allen: I don’t Know. I really want gallery representation but I am holding out for the right fit. I want a gallery that believes in me and loves my art & wants to help nurture my career. In return I can help them grow I will always be on an up word trajectory

PERSONAL RECOMMENDATIONS
Bad at Sports is amazing if you don’t listen to it start I especially like the older podcast. it’s one of my goals to be interviewed on their show. In fact it is one of the things I have sent as marker for my success.
Art student switch majors unless you are fully ready to sacrifice and struggle. Yes its lots of fun along the way but to be a true artist you walk a path that is almost impossible but a few will make it. There is barely room for 1% of you to make a career as a professional artist.

I am Time Loop

Can you imagine running into not just one but hundreds of yourselves all from different realities and times converging on one day and one spot for the universes most stupendous Party!!! Allen Vandever will be asking Time Travelers to come back and rescue his art work in his latest version of Rescue or Destroy. Vandever will be bringing out the axe at Zhou B Art Center and destroying his work if no one decides to rescue it. This event is in conjunction with other time loop events in Katmanduh, New York,  Fargo, Portland, Seattle, Hawaii & Puerto Vallarta, Cairo & London. All events will be happening simultaneously and live feeds will be shown at all events The details for this event are just beginning to take shape. Streaming Live At: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/iamtimeloop

Street Project Rescue or Destroy Miami

You can see the art work that will be up for Street Project Rescue or Destroy Miami on my FaceBook page in my album Street Rescue or Destroy.

https://www.facebook.com/allen.vandever  here is a link to my facebook

and here is a link to the album  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200105652669162.2194711.1385575519&type=1

This painting will be destroyed if you do not rescue it!

This December at Verge Art Fair Allen Vandever will be bringing you Rescue or Destroy, an interactive installation where it will be up to the public to rescue the artwork on display or witness its destruction. Each participant will be presented with a list of challenges to choose from and complete to guarantee the safety of one piece. If they are unable to step out of their comfort zone to spare whatever is on the chopping block, the art will be obliterated using various tools and devastating techniques. Vandever will also be bringing Rescue or Destroy to the streets of Miami for Art Basel. Random passersby will be presented with a work of art and asked to decide its fate on the spot: save the art with a donation or watch it meet its violent end. In addition to orchestrating these roving street performances, Vandever will be exhibiting from work from Team Art!, a Chicago artist collective comprised of Jason Davis, Mario Gonzalez, Jr. (Zore), Mike Reynolds, Elisa Sandoval, Sofia Moreno, and Katrina Petrauskas, at the Essex hotel as part of Verge Art Fair. He will also have a solo space at Verge featuring his new series titled OpErotica, a combination of Op Art and Erotica painted in an inwardly 3-D style that Vandever has developed over the course of his career.

VERGE ART MIAMI BEACH AT THE ESSEX HOUSE AND CLEVELANDER HOTELS
1001 Collins Ave. & 1020 Ocean Drive @ 10th St. (across from the Wolfsonian)
December 6-9, 2012

_{Allen Vandever 725 w 18th st unit B Chicago il 60616 8475713813 allenartist@gmail.com AllenVandever.com}  

Post From NewTimes Miami

Artist Allen Vandever Plans to Destroy Art Basel (Or Rescue It)

By Briana Saati Tue., Nov. 6 2012 at 8:02 AM

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Categories: Art, Art Basel Miami Beach, Culture

Allen Vandever

Art Chicago 2012 Next Rescue or Destroy

During Art Basel, Miamians take great pride in the art flying in from all parts of the world. It's a chance for us to show up everyone who thinks we're just a place for the Kardashians and Jersey Shore to capitalize on our nightlife and say, "Hey, we're cultured too." So we'll walk around sipping our fancy drinks and wear our stupid scarfs, even while we still have the low 70 degrees on our side. We'll take in the art, pouring our eyes over the many exquisite works on display.

But if you're one of the select few approached by Chicago-based artist Allen Vandever and his team of street canvasers, you might actually get the chance to do more than just look at the art. You'll have the chance to rescue it -- or destroy it.

Vandever will present random Basel goers with an art piece, letting him or her decide its fate right then and there. The person is faced with the daunting task of either rescuing it, by pledging a minimum donation of $10 and keeping it, or personally demolishing it.

"I prefer if they rescue it. A big part of it is myself letting go of my possessions...Everything from high school sketchbooks to collage photographs to collage paintings, drawings and prints and everything until now," Vandever said of the pieces up for destruction, all original works of his own.

Allen Vandever

Art Chicago 2012 Next Rescue or Destroy

Almost 300 collage pieces are made entirely from recycled art and personal belongings. Vandever makes a dozen at a time over a three to four hour period, 20 minutes to a half hour for each, and then coats them with epoxy resin and pigments them. It's an enormous body of work, time, and effort up for complete and total annihilation at the whim of someone who just happens to walk by.

Rescue or Destroy began almost two years ago when Vandever and his assistant, Mike Reynolds, were discussing the value of art -- who decides it and its place in the world. The first installment was made up of Vandever's and a group of his interns' work. This time, the art at stake is all his. Aside from the performance-based Art Basel walk ups, Vandever will take part in the Verge Art Fair as a gallery curator and exhibitor for Team Art! and the stakes are higher than usual.

Mess is More

October 25, 2012

By Jon Brozdowski

“Nothing Lasts Forever” at Rezidentz Collective

“I’m going to pick you,” said a glitter-green figure to my left.
“Sorry?” I looked over at a bald and bearded man, looming large, yet unintimidating.
“Pick one of these, or I’m going to destroy this painting,” said artist Allen Vandever, pointing to a list beside an abstract blue piece, casually smug. Twenty-one choices were typed under the heading “Rescue or Destroy,” including, 1. Kiss a Random stranger in the gallery, and not just a peck. 11. Buy a work of art in the gallery. 18. Give someone a foot massage.
“Okay, I suppose I can say the alphabet backwards while hopping on one foot,” I said, agreeing to the benign embarrassment.
Vandever’s project was just one part of the event at large, “Nothing Lasts Forever,” by the Rezidentz Collective. The collective’s manifesto of complaint proclaimed the “insatiable consumption of everything” in our “throw-away culture” leaves behind a wasteful mess. This collaboration of artists, situated in a working art space-cum-house on South Morgan in Bridgeport, promised to help “make sense of the mess.” The creative commune gathered artists and friends for drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and friendly discussion of their latest projects.
The longest-standing member of the collective, George “Sunny” Keller, wasn’t fazed by the commune’s ambitious ideals. Sunny has lived in the building for three years, working a regular job and selling his art only to recoup the costs of making it – “otherwise it would just pile up.” The Rezidentz Collective wasn’t always as active as it is now. “It was originally just a group of friends, and I was the only one doing art,” he told me, smiling over his PBR. “It’s been a mixing group of people in the space, and now we do a theme-based show every month or two.”
A girl with light yellow hair sidled up next to him, clearly amused. “Sunny, there’s a woman that wants to buy your piece.” He offered a garbled wave at a nervous guest, and then walked over. I moved towards a girl coming from behind the main attraction of the show – a giant rectangular frame with strings connecting about 50 roughly sewn stuffed-animal pelts.
Kristine Shulke, the piece’s creator, was outwardly bohemian, with short black hair, bright red lipstick, and large spiral gage earrings. She was exploring the “fine line between brutality and beauty,” touching on subjects that normally make people uncomfortable. Although she grew up around hunting and taxidermy, the project still wasn’t natural to her. “It’s really weird psychologically speaking, cutting up really cute stuffed animals,” she told me, looking guilty. The stuffed animals were all bought in thrift stores and then sewn into a canvas, leaving behind a large pile of white filling.
I asked if Shulke had a certain message in mind with the piece. “I like the feeling that they evoke,” she told me judiciously. “It’s better when there’s no clear answer… it’ll stay with you longer.” Here, the theme of consumption and waste shone through brightly. Children grow out of their old favorite comfort object and cease to care, much like we care little about the work of a pleading artist or the change falling through our hands.
“…So here goes,” I heard behind me, turning just in time to see Vandever shoving his knee through a canvas. The room watched him in bemused silence as he pulled apart the frame, throwing pieces on the ground with histrionic relish. It was time to make sense of the mess.
Rezidentz Collective, 3145 S. Morgan St. Fridays, 6-10pm
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