Scope is a great way for us to close out the year, and 2017 didn’t disappoint. We want to thank everyone that came to the booth and a big round of applause to the entire staff of Scope. Also, major kudos to both James Bullough and Michael Reeder who sold out their solo shows during the fair. Below is our interview with Jame Bullough on behalf of his mini solo at Scope.
Was this your first time at Scope? If not, what is your favorite thing about Scope? Any good stories from this year to share?
2017 was my third year in a row showing at Scope, each time with Thinkspace Gallery. My first two years, however, I only showed one or two pieces versus the 7 that I showed this year. Maybe because it takes place in December but I see Scope and the whole Miami Basel week as a culmination of the years work for everyone in the industry. It’s a place where you can come and see a good percentage of the active people in the scene all in one place and see how their work has progressed since the last year (or not) and who is showing with who. It’s kind of like a “state of the union” for the art world. Add on top of that that many of the artists make the trip to Miami so it’s also kind of a family reunion of sorts for everyone to catch up and party and let loose to celebrate the end of another successful year.
Every day and especially every night is an adventure with that many friends in town. There were a couple epic nights this year, the stories of which I should probably keep to myself, but one that stands out was definitely the night of the Secret Walls battle which I participated in followed by a secret birthday party for my man Alexis Diaz… that was a HEAVY night.
What did you want to push and explore whether in technique or theme in your body of work for Scope?
Showing 7 paintings at Scope allowed me to showcase a few different techniques and styles that I’ve been playing with over the past couple years. Seeing my work online and in person are two very different experiences and I knew that more actual people would see my work in person at Scope than any other exhibition so I took the opportunity to really push each painting and show the world what I can do. I showed 5 of my more traditional “fractured” paintings but with each of them, I pushed them further than I normally had in the past. I added more complex backgrounds and use more complex clothing on my models and I also fractured the figures more than I normally would to really blow peoples minds. I also worked with one model for two of my paintings who has a very intricate full sleeve tattoo which I highlighted to emphasize the technical quality of my work. On the final two paintings, I showed a new technique I’ve been slowly incorporating into my work where it appears that the painting is peeling off of the canvas (or wood panel in my case). When done correctly the effect is really grabbing and I enjoy watching people walk up to the painting to see if it is really peeling off or just painted to look like it is. My work has always been about distorting or disrupting the traditional idea of portraiture so, in a way, the peeling paintings are actually no different from the fractured paintings, it’s just a different way to break up and disrupt the portrait.
Who has been a major artistic influence in your life? Not influencing your style of art, but influencing your approach to art.
There are two very different worlds that have influenced my work heavily, both in style but also approach… Graffiti and street artists, and traditional ‘Old Mastery’ type oil painters. The two couldn’t be more opposite in many ways. The technique, style, approach, desired outcome, target market… almost every aspect poses the two worlds against each other. But perhaps that’s exactly why I look to both of them for my inspiration. From the traditional oil painting worlds I take the discipline and passion for technique and detail as well as the ability to spend weeks or months on one piece until it’s absolutely just right, but if I lived only in that world all the time I would go absolutely mad. Luckily for me, I also paint murals and am influenced by the street art world as well which is more about collaboration and working within restrictions such as time and physical limits. When I’m working on the streets I’ve got to be much freer and more open to making adjustments on the fly. It’s also a more physical work where I’m moving around a lot and climbing up on scaffolding or using huge machinery, versus the hours on end I sit in my studio at my easel not moving more than a few inches for an entire day. I need both situations in my life to feel whole.
What does a cram day in the studio look like? What are you eating? How much coffee are you drinking? What are you listening to? – Did you cram to finish pieces for Scope?
Cram DAY??? more like cram month(s). I paint slowly so I am methodical about planning things out and setting goals for finishing paintings and starting the next one. It took me roughly 6 months to paint the 7 pieces for Scope and I was working on the last one, one-week before the show opened in Miami. I take on average about three weeks per painting and I know if I go beyond those three weeks I’m eating into the time for the next painting so I get stressed out about every three weeks as one piece comes to an end. In all honesty though, I’m a pretty hard worker and my studio days weather stressed or not are mostly the same.
I get in around noon after spending the morning do administrative work or going to the gym. Then from around noon until 7 or 8 pm I’m painting solid without many brakes at all. I try not to drink too much coffee or beer (which is extremely difficult) so i’ve switched to Yogi Tea which I’m not sure is any better and I snack on terrible cheap german snacks from the corner shop throughout the whole day, just to ensure that any work I did at the gym that morning was completely nullified. As for what I listen to, it’s mostly NPR, and science and comedy podcasts, including the best podcast ever… VantagePoint!
What’s coming up next for you?
This year I’ll be quietly working away on a new body of work for my big solo show at Thinkspace in 2019. I’ll also be traveling around painting murals from time to time starting off with a mural in Hawaii for Pow Wow in February followed by a few big projects I have in the works for the spring and summer. Other than that I’ll be doing my best impersonation of a good dad and hopefully go on a family vacation for the first time in a couple years with my very supportive and patient wife.
We can’t wait to be showing more of Bullough’s work throughout the year and his solo coming in 2019!
