Posts Tagged 'Stephen Lapthisophon'

Dynamic Duo

Tomorrow, artist Stephen Lapthisophon, featured in the current Concentrations 56 exhibition at the DMA, will join his lifelong friend actor John Judd for a conversation about the creative process. Get to know these best friends before Thursday’s event:

John Judd and Stephen Lapthisophon, 1978

John Judd and Stephen Lapthisophon, 1978

Do you involve each other in your creative processes?
SL: John and I speak frequently now about our influences, the creative process and the various ways that we feel our work reflects the time in which we live. There is no direct integration of his work in mine—rather, it is an implied dialogue—constant, permanent and generous.
JJ: It’s impossible to estimate the degree to which Stephen influences my work. My relationship with Stephen is almost like one of family in that even though we’ve ended up pursuing different avenues in the arts, and are no longer collaborators, we shared formative creative experiences, and we were almost constant companions for many years. Stephen is always in there somewhere.

What is one piece/work of art of the other’s that you most enjoy or inspires you?
SL: I have seen him perform many times but perhaps my favorite piece I have seen him in is Austin Pendleton’s Orson’s Shadow, where he played Laurence Olivier.
JJ: I can see his hand in this simple small piece [below] as indelibly as I do in his current work. It represents something essentially Stephen—a quality that remains and has always been present in his best work.

Stephen Lapthisophon, House, 1977, paint on wood,

Stephen Lapthisophon, House, 1977, paint on wood, courtesy of the artist, photo: John Judd

How has your friendship evolved over 40 years?
SL: I met John Judd walking into my first art class as an undergraduate at UT Austin in 1974. We have known each other and trusted each other’s work since then.
JJ: From our first conversation there has existed an unspoken agreement—that we will confront this world as allies. We are like-minded and determined to take what we were given and make more of it. To leave some marks behind. We have lived our lives in very close proximity and miles apart, we have at times collaborated and pursued separate endeavors, we’ve had individual triumphs and defeats, have even exceeded each other’s expectations, but we have always been able to pick up a phone or sit down together and resume the conversation.

For more insight, stories and discussion, join us tomorrow night, December 5, at 7.30 p.m.!
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Liz Menz is the manager of adult programming at the DMA

Rooms Within Rooms – Stephen Lapthisophon

Stephen Lapthisophon shared with “Uncrated” what he hoped visitors would see and take from his exhibition Concentrations 56: Stephen Lapthisophon—coffee, seasonal fruit, root vegetables, and “Selected Poems,” currently on view at the DMA.
Stephen_Lapthisophon_Studio_2013_066 - Copy

This is an exhibition that can be approached in many ways. It is an exhibition about how we approach the art. How our bodies move through space, and the things, materials, and stuff we carry around with us. It is a show about closeness and distance. The exhibition is divided into two distinct but related rooms. And rooms and walls within rooms. And boxes and drawers and suitcases within the rooms and underneath the drawers. The layers of accumulated dirt, marks, stains, scrapes, and scratches are an invitation to stay. I hope the works ask you to ask questions.

Pencils, ink, cardboard, olive oil, and rust. Bacon fat, spray paint, sheetrock, nails, bricks, rosemary, and books. String, coffee, eggshells, dirt, wax, saffron, and more dirt. A desk, a ladder, and books. This exhibition exists in tribute. Reading, thinking, and acting through and with things. “Denken ist Danken.”

Before the opening, Lapthisophon sat down with us to discuss his art and process. Find out more in the video below:

What did you feel and think after visiting “Concentrations 56: Stephen Lapthisophon”?

Stephen Lapthisophon is an artist and educator.

coffee, seasonal fruit, root vegetables, and “Selected Poems”

How do you install coffee, seasonal fruit, root vegetables, and “Selected Poems”? Below, get a sneak peek, including a look at works from the DMA’s contemporary collection, before the opening of Concentrations 56: Stephen Lapthisophon—coffee, seasonal fruit, root vegetables, and “Selected Poems” on Sunday.

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