#adriannerubenstein

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20 QUESTIONS FOR: ADRIANNE RUBENSTEIN

“Magic Eye”, 2016, oil on panel, 40" x 30" (image courtesy of the artist)

1.Name: 

Adrianne Rubenstein

2.Occupation(s): 

Artist, Gallery Director and Curator

3.Where are you from and what is your education? 

Montreal, Canada.  Studied at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design & San Francisco Art Institute.

4.Where do you live/work (neighbourhood/city/country)? 

Chinatown/Lower East Side, New York, USA

5.Does your location affect your practice?  

I think living here makes me very strategic about time.  I could easily spend all my time just looking at art, but being able to have a studio here is such a privilege.  I’m the kind of artist who needs to spend time in the studio to be able to make things, so there’s a bit of a competition between those two aspects.

6.What is your favourite tool in the studio? 

Paint brush for sure. I ruin them on the regular, but I love the way those things work. I know it seems really obvious, but what a great tool, the scruffiness in particular, it can be so expressive.

7.Where do you look for your source material? 

ebay, museums, memories, art fairs, text messages, the sidewalk, dreams, books, npr, nature, conversations.

8.What is you daily art world read? 

Instagram, followed by the gallery inbox, and once in a while Art News for gossip and tallying which galleries most blatantly court the press.

9.What is your daily non-art-world read? 

Novels. I just finished reading ‘A Little Life’ by Hanya Yanagihara. I thought it was going to be terrible but ended up deeply enjoying it. I love books that are about the present day, family, life and culture, and with a kind of broad story that touches on history, psychology, and dysfunction. I like to try and read what I think everyone else might be reading so I can talk to other people about things and have something in common with them. Also to practice empathy and to move through other lives.

10.What role does writing play in your practice? 

I write unconventional press releases that are descriptive and loopy.  I could write pages and pages about every painting but it feels like I can get that information to the people who are willing to indulge me just by talking.  Plus, I think it’s better to talk than to write about those things because it disappears after and you can change the way you express yourself every time and it’s less embarrassing.

11.What role does research play in your practice?

 I wish I could do more directed research into stuff like Claes Oldenburg’s ray guns, or Jim Dine, or Tetsumi Kudo and be one of those people who pursues a scrap of knowledge to its fullest extent, but I’m just not very methodical. Instead, I pick up information from random encounters and conversations. I tend to think this is just as good as precise information about something I might already care about. I’m around artists and art professionals all the time though, so the stream of information coming at me is pretty good quality.

12.What role does collaboration play in your practice? 

My closest collaborator is my best friend Al.  Although we have completely different tastes and interests, I run everything by her. I also have an open line of communication with dozens of other artists who I also consider friends. When curating, I sometimes try to angle for a desired performance from everyone, which I want to be a collaborative process, but internally, I worry that it’s just me being bossy. Everything is a discussion and everything is collaborative, even integrating other people’s desires or expectations into a given project feels collaborative.

13.How does success affect your practice? 

It’s really fun to make a bit of money selling paintings and to be able to buy more panels to paint on and supplies. Living on more than 31k a year in New York really makes your life a lot easier and better and you feel more free and confident. You spend less time crying about bills which can be very depressing. I have always had very low expectations which might have something to do with being Canadian. I’m really just happy to be able to make art and I would feel superstitious asking for anything more than that.

14.How does failure affect your practice? 

It feels horrible in the moment, but obviously it’s the most important and vital experience. Being able to go there and feel like shit and look back out and get yourself out of that situation is hugely important to being an artist of any kind. You have to have flexibility and strength. My parents always used the word ‘loser’ on us as kids as a term of endearment and I think that’s how I became comfortable with the concept of being one.

15.What do you identify as the biggest challenge in your artistic process? 

Growth. As soon as you get comfortable with something you have to push forward and challenge yourself more. Everyone always thinks I must have some crazy internal struggle about being a gallery director and a painter at the same time, but that’s definitely not the worst part. Maybe from withstanding the awkwardness of that for so long I have become relatively fearless.

16.Who are some historical artists you are thinking about? 

Susan Rothenberg, Lee Lozano (who I think was a dick), Ree Morton, Elizabeth Murray.

17.Who are some contemporary artists you are thinking about? 

Gina Beavers, Mira Dancy, Laura Owens & all the CANADA artists.

18.How do you describe what you are making now? 

I’ve been making paintings that I characterize as underwater paintings. They are mostly of a dark and drippy sort of nature: forest floor, floating sponges and sea flowers. I am thinking about moving from there into made up creatures, maybe monsters? Inhabitants of the spaces. My work is basically abstract painting, even though I am trying to be descriptive of things with the paint. It’s all about feeling and psychic channeling.

19.Who is an artist that you think deserves more attention? 

Alicia Gibson. She’s the best painter in New York and people are starting to know it.

20.How can we find out more about you (relevant links etc)? 

I have a show coming up at Reyes Projects in Birmingham, MI (just outside Detroit), and will have work at NADA Miami with The Pit from LA and White Columns. 

Then I’m organizing a show in Madrid at Galeria Alegria in January with some friends, Al Freeman, Chris Hood and Andy Robertson.

Next, I am in a group show in San Francisco at Guerrero Gallery with Rachel Eulena Williams and Sahar Khoury.  

I have a website adriannerubenstein.ca that I am told is overly developed for the stage I’m at in my career.