Comments on: The art of Laurie Hogin

The art of Laurie Hogin

homunculus — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 22:11:04 -0800

Monkey Portraits: Allegories of Brand Loyalty, by Laurie Hogin. [Via Right Some Good.]

Hogin was previously mentioned here and here.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 22:57:11 -0800

Laurie Hogin: Forest of the Future

By: CitizenD

CitizenD — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 00:16:14 -0800

monkey portraits!? for me!?! aw, you shouldn't have! but i sure am glad you did! thanks, homunculus.

By: dakotadusk

dakotadusk — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 00:17:35 -0800

On the photography side, check out Jill Greenberg's Monkey Portraits. Also available as a book, handy for those of us with opposable thumbs. And while you're at it, Andrew Zuckerman's Creature is also quite coffee table-rific.

By: dakotadusk

dakotadusk — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 00:23:18 -0800

Oops - Greenberg previously Metafiltered here. My late night searching skills are a bit out of synch with my need to share. This makes dating awkward.

By: rottytooth

rottytooth — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 06:21:35 -0800

Beats the monkey portraits you find on eBay.

By: zach4000

zach4000 — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 08:10:37 -0800

These paintings comment on the phenomenon of social identities as constructed by consumerism in the 21st century economy, with it's proliferation of products and services that seek the loyalty if not the very sense of identity of their consumers through various "branding" strategies: logo, color, slogan, sound, naming, and association with "lifestyle". Wah?

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 08:13:39 -0800

ooh, those are such interesting paintings. Campy and disturbingly sumptuous. She is really intense in her message: the painterly style, as well as the composition, color, and narrative, are meant to simultaneously evoke visual strategies from the history of European portraiture, Dutch still life, and contemporary advertising. They are all sets; variations on a theme that vary in color, pattern, accessories, emotional states, or the orientation of the monkey. This is a reiteration of the current marketing trend to present the consumer with a taxonomy of product, suited to the specific moods or minutely differing preferences of the brand-loyal consumer. For example, Dawn dishwashing liquid comes in five colors, each with a different title, fragrance, and attendant mythology, such as "Fresh Rain" or "Spring Blossoms".

By: notyou

notyou — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 08:34:27 -0800

Well, zach4000, all that's a key piece of the artist's branding strategy -- slogan, naming, association -- designed to seek the loyalty -- if not the very sense of identity -- of gallery owners and patrons. Those aren't portraits of monkeys you're buying. They're comments on the phenomenon of consumerism-constructed social identities. A little too colorful for my walls, and the subjects are too menacing, but sure, I can see those hanging in somebody's living room.

By: extrabox

extrabox — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 09:50:15 -0800

Her artistic progression reminds me a little of Louis Wain....

By: aladfar

aladfar — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 10:06:58 -0800

That's painfully heavy handed stuff. And a statement written in a first year grad student meets Unabomber style doesn't help matters . . . Extrabox: I had the same thought! Not only is the progression similar (though I think the more abstract images represent her earlier work) the subject matter is about the same.