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Conor Backman

We Went to Baltimore: You Should Too (Part One)

by Paddy Johnson Whitney Kimball and Michael Farley on April 12, 2013
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The New York art world may run on cash and glitz, but emerging artists usually don’t. So we’ve been looking around lately to see what it’s like where the money never was to begin with. This week, we went to Baltimore, where the people are still weird, the space is still cheap, the work is still exciting. Let me tell you, the grass is a whole lot greener. May New York never figure that out.

In part one, we visit NUDASHANK’s Conor Backman show, Gallery Four’s Lisa Dillin exhibition, and Sophia Jacob’s Harrison Tyler gallery take-over with writer, artist, curator, and hands-down, best-ever Baltimore tour guide, Michael Farley.

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(e)merge and The Washington/Baltimore Divide

by Paddy Johnson on October 5, 2012
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“This fair isn’t about making money” (e)merge art fair co-owner Helen Allen told me last night. According to Allen, it’s more about building community, a point evident in the attendees. Walking through the halls of the Capital Skyline Hotel in Washington took several hours last night, as everyone seemed to know everyone. (e)merge is the definition of a community-based fair.

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Tuesday at Mixed Greens by Mr. and Mrs. Amani Olu

by Art Fag City on January 13, 2011
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Tuesday – Curated by Mr. and Mrs. Amani Olu Date: THURSDAY, JANUARY 13TH 2011 - SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12TH 2011 Venue: Mixed Greens, 531 West 26th Street Mixed Greens offers a show, curated by Amani Olu of Humble Arts Foundation fame, focusing on the everyday in art. Included are works by AFC favorite Conor Backman – whose edited beer boxes featured […]

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In Our Masthead: Conor Backman

by Paddy Johnson on May 27, 2010

art fag city, conor backman
Conor Backman, Cold as the Rockies After the Adventure, 2010, Oil on Canvas, 8 x 10 x 5 inches, 2009

Offering a different take on work like Toni Matelli’s bronze beer cans, Conor Backman makes trompe l’oile landscape paintings from used beer boxes. He removes all non-landscape imagery and text from the source material, stretches canvas over the surface and hangs the completed boxes on the wall. The work can be read as a commentary on the commodification of art, though mixing the high and low is at this point well charted territory. More interesting is the artist’s sincere interest in the tradition of landscape painting and Bob Ross. The great public access star would be proud.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Conor Backman lives and works in Richmond VA. Backman is also co-owner of REFERENCE Art Gallery, a newly formed artist-run space in downtown Richmond that focuses on exhibiting young emerging artists from around the world that are working in new media.

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