Gordon Fraser profile picture

Gordon Fraser

www.gordonfraserfinearts.com

About Me


New blog for painting and abstraction up and running. Join the discussion at theblindswimmer.com
Also, check out my new works from this past fall that I just finished uploading to my website www.gordonfraserfinearts.com
Best Wishes!!!
Tucked into her hair
2007
Egg Tempera
30" x 36"
©2007-2008 Gordon Fraser.
All Rights Reserved.
www.gordonfraserfinearts.com
Buddha
2007
Watercolour
22" x 30"

Gordon Fraser was born in Boston, MA in December 1975. Shortly after, his family moved to Stamford, CT and then later to Princeton, NJ. Early on he wanted to be an architect and studied mechanical drawing and architectural drafting. Gordon went on to attend Kenyon College in Ohio where he studied comparative religion and Asian Languages and Cultures.

In 1996 Gordon traveled to India, Nepal, and Tibet, living in the Tibetan exile communities in Dharamsala, Katmandu, and Sikkhim. In India he was introduced to the Tibetan traditions of Thangka and mural painting, visiting many temples and monasteries throughout the region, photographing the historic wall paintings, learning the iconography, documenting the ongoing restoration work, and meeting many artists practicing the traditional Tibetan painting techniques. Eventually Gordon studied Thangka painting with Tibetan artist Tashi Palden.

In 2000, Gordon moved to New York City where he engaged in a rigorous study of artistic anatomy with William Weltman and figure drawing with Minerva Durham. He attended the Pratt Institute drawing, painting and printmaking. Gordon is a member of the Art Students League New York and has studied with abstract painter Frank O'Cain, learning many of the 14th and 15th century techniques of egg tempera and egg oil emulsions. He has also studied with Paul Ching-Bor, focusing on contemporary approaches to water-based media. In addition, Gordon has studied Japanese calligraphy with Kaz Tanahashi.

Currently, Gordon lives and works in Jersey City, New Jersey. His works are exhibited in galleries in New York and New Jersey. He is part of an emerging group of international artists whose abstract works draw upon the global roots of painting, merging and fusing a diverse range of sources and traditions into an exciting contemporary abstract idiom.

www.gordonfraserfinearts.com


all images copyright © gordon fraser

My Interests



introversions
an exhibition of paintings
by gordon fraser

9 february – 21 march 2008
opening reception
saturday 9 february 7 – 10 pm

grassroots arts facility
143 christopher columbus drive, third floor
jersey city, new jersey 07302
gallery hours 3 – 8 pm th, f, s
www.gordonfraserfinearts.com

1 block from the grove street path station
7 minutes from world trade center
20 minutes from 33rd street/herald square

About the Show:

Internal observations. Initial interpretations. Looking to memories, emotions, and imaginings as inspiration, the paintings are introspections. Arising and emerging simply and unpredictably – sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly – with clumsiness and grace, tentatively and with force. Observing the inner relationships – the interrelationships of shape, form, color, structure, gesture, and the resulting perceptions of space. Beginning with a question: What would that look like? What if?

A presence, an evocation, an inspiration. Will you stand and look? Introspect? Paintings ask us to be present and observe. Present with them and with ourselves, if only for a moment, in the way that we are present with our partners, a mountain vista, or our own thoughts and our own breath. They are the beginnings of creating and exploring some of the limitless possibilities of inspiration. They are introversions.

Cecille in the Studio
2007
Watercolour
3.5" x 5""

Drawing, Painting, and learning crazy hard languages like cantonese and sanskrit, dancing dance dance! human forms and bodies moving!

I'd like to meet:

Check out some of my work in my picture galleries. Or visit my website www.gordonfraserfinearts.com for a more extensive catologue. Hope you enjoy!

Music:

Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Roy Haynes, Christian McBride, Rashaan Roland Kirk, Mingus, Eddie Palmieri, and any far out jazz and experimental music. Etta James. Billy Holliday. Bang on a Can - Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, David Lang, Icebreaker, Don Byron; Alarm will Sound; Kronos Quartet; Gutbucket; Erik Satie; Morton Feldman; Stravinsky; Phillip Glass; Terry Riley; Steve Reich; Martin Bresnick; Elliot Carter; Rachmaninoff; Shostakovich; Fela Kuti; Antibalas; The Mean (formerly The Swamp); Dub is a Weapon; Ratdog; The Police; R.E.M.; Joy Division; Echo & the Bunnymen; Yo La Tengo; Kraftwerk; The Legendary Pink Dots; New Order; Pixies; Massive Attack; Morrissey; The Smiths; Talking Heads; David Byrne; Robyn Hitchcock; Mos Def; Outkast; The Pharcyde; The Roots; Prince; King Brit; DJ Spooky; Dub Tribe Sound System;

Movies:

2046, Chungking Express any Wan Kar Wai Film, Almodovar, Infernal Affairs, the Departed, Amores Perros, Before Night Falls, Before Sunset/Sunrise, he Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation and Sophia Copolla, Rushmore, The Royal Tennebaums and Wes Anderson, Traffic, Babel

Television:



When they have stopped crying
2007
Egg Tempera
24" x 30""

Books:

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle; Vineland; 100 Years of Solitude; Dostoyevski; Kafka; The Counterfiters; Andre Gide; Jean Genet; Octavio Paz; James Baldwin; Death in Venice; Portrait of Dorian Gray; Dark Angel; Anything about DeKooning or Matisse or pretty much any art book that has nice pretty pictures to look at. Saigyo, Ferlinghetti, Whitman, Tu Fu and any of the 500 other books on my shelf or in a pile waiting to be read.

Heroes:

Arshile Gorky, John Coltrane, Romare Bearden, DeKooning, Joan Mitchell, Matisse, Hans Hoffman, Milarepa, Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King

Untitled (after cecille)
2007
prismacolor
5" x 6"

My Blog

The Great American Service Program for the 21st Century - A Message to Barak Obama

Dear Senator Obama, About a month ago in the NY Times there were two articles next to each other. The first discussed a shortage of workers for the apple and fruit orchards in upstate New York, brough...
Posted by Gordon Fraser on Sun, 22 Jun 2008 07:54:00 PST

should craft matter?

http://theblindswimmer.com/2008/04/29/should-craft...Powered by ShareThis Should craft matter? In the age of maufactured obsolescence when products are designed to be discarded in six months or a year...
Posted by Gordon Fraser on Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:52:00 PST

Thomas Nozkowski @ PaceWildenstein

http://theblindswimmer.com/2008/04/17/thomas-nozko...Powered by ShareThis If you havent figured out yet, I am qute enthusiastic about the Thomas Nozkowski show at Pace. Ive been twice so far and wil...
Posted by Gordon Fraser on Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:15:00 PST

Nihonnga Painting

http://theblindswimmer.com/2008/04/17/nihonnga-pai...Powered by ShareThis I was able to run down at lunch today to the Dillon Gallery to catch the Ma: New Traditions in Nihonga exhibition before it cl...
Posted by Gordon Fraser on Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:21:00 PST

Thomas Nozkowski on a Hike

http://theblindswimmer.com/2008/04/16/thomas-nozko...Powered by ShareThis Abstract painter Thomas Nozkowski on a hiking trip talking about painting, nature, and finding inspiration for his work in the...
Posted by Gordon Fraser on Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:53:00 PST

a red river and a black castle in 1958

http://theblindswimmer.com/2008/04/15/a-red-river-...Powered by ShareThis The image has a clumsy, awkward appealhomely and hand-wrought. It is a painting you can sink into, read and roam around in. F...
Posted by Gordon Fraser on Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:16:00 PST

Stanley Whitney

http://theblindswimmer.com/2008/04/05/stanley-whit...Powered by ShareThis Whitney works out of a tradition that includes Mondrian, Jackson Pollock, and Alma Thomas. He is a fiercely independent painte...
Posted by Gordon Fraser on Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:11:00 PST

Ghada Amer: Love Has No End

Ghada Amer: Love Has No Endhttp://theblindswimmer.com/2008/04/02/ghada-amer-l...Powe red by ShareThis While she describes herself as a painter and has won international recognition for her abstract can...
Posted by Gordon Fraser on Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:43:00 PST

after cecille (or my kid can do that)

after cecille (or my kid can do that)http://theblindswimmer.com/2008/03/28/after-cecill...Po wered by ShareThis from the impassioned defense, to the legitimate questioning, to the ridiculous dismissal/...
Posted by Gordon Fraser on Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:00:00 PST

that fabulous canned luncheon meat

that fabulous canned luncheon meathttp://theblindswimmer.com/2008/03/28/that-fabulou...Pow ered by ShareThis What I like about this work is how he has given form to this meat, materialized it out of th...
Posted by Gordon Fraser on Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:05:00 PST