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Gilbert Hsiao is an amazing contemporary painter and a close FOF (I’ve know Gilbert for, ahem, 40 years, and we worked together at WKCR-FM, MTV and Fred/Alan). In conjunction with his latest New York show, Jump & Flow, at Minus Space gallery in Brooklyn, Gilbert was interviewed by Brent Hallard over at Visual Discrepancies. Brent: It came as a bit of a surprise that you were not really aware of or interested in op/perceptual painting when you first began painting. What, then, prompted you to start making art that way? Or, is ‘that way’ a misnomer? Gilbert: When I was studying art history, I became interested in what I saw as musical elements in the work of artists as diverse as Uccello, Cezanne, Mondrian, Stuart Davis and Pollock, and I wanted to find a way to make work that incorporated similar elements. I also had a radio show at WKCR, Columbia’s radio station, and was exposed to a wide array of music including, most influentially for me, the minimalist music that Philip Glass and Steve Reich were writing at the time. The basic structural motif of this music seemed simple enough, but the simplicity was deceptive, and from these simple structures emerged a complicated music that was mesmerizing, but not overwhelming or overdone. For me, it was an aural counterpart of what I call perceptual abstraction, which is how I refer to my work. (More via @ Jump and Flow – Gilbert Hsiao) Painting ©2012, Gilbert Hsaio. All rights reserved.

June 8, 2012

Gilbert Hsiao is an amazing contemporary painter and a close FOF (I’ve know Gilbert for, ahem, 40 years, and we worked together at WKCR-FM, MTV and Fred/Alan). In conjunction with his latest New York show, Jump & Flow, at Minus Space gallery in Brooklyn, Gilbert was interviewed by Brent Hallard over at Visual Discrepancies.

Brent: It came as a bit of a surprise that you were not really aware of or interested in op/perceptual painting when you first began painting. What, then, prompted you to start making art that way? Or, is ‘that way’ a misnomer?

Gilbert: When I was studying art history, I became interested in what I saw as musical elements in the work of artists as diverse as Uccello, Cezanne, Mondrian, Stuart Davis and Pollock, and I wanted to find a way to make work that incorporated similar elements. I also had a radio show at WKCR, Columbia’s radio station, and was exposed to a wide array of music including, most influentially for me, the minimalist music that Philip Glass and Steve Reich were writing at the time. The basic structural motif of this music seemed simple enough, but the simplicity was deceptive, and from these simple structures emerged a complicated music that was mesmerizing, but not overwhelming or overdone. For me, it was an aural counterpart of what I call perceptual abstraction, which is how I refer to my work.

(More via @ Jump and Flow – Gilbert Hsiao)