Conceptual Art (with Guest Curator Ottoman)

(Note from Curator Beatrice: today’s Guest Curator is the immensely talented artist behind the shop Ottoman. In fact, Ottoman was our very first Solo Exhibit here at Etsy Stalker! I am beyond thrilled that she was willing to curate an exhibit for us, and hope I can twist her arm into doing it again! Her own blog is a fantastic daily read, as well.)

Conceptual Art

When I was in college, I fell in love with conceptual art (as you may know, there are several different types of fine art; I will be referring to visual art in this post). There’s something about art that makes one think rather than art that is simply decorative that appeals to me. When I decided to start selling on Etsy a couple of years ago, I did some searching to find conceptual art (I didn’t find much at the time) and the first shop I ran into was kateconsumption. This shop features “daily purchase drawing(s) of something dumb/awesome” that she bought. Then each month, a zine is printed which includes the daily drawings. There’s a way to make you think about what you buy! I also love the sense of humor in the shop announcement and item descriptions. Here’s a visual of one of the zines:

Another shop I found in the beginning and that I love was somethings hiding here. The married duo also have a zine out entitled “your message here” which is a documentation of a project in which they did a call for messages (a few virtual places including their blog) for a marque that they hand-built and set up; the messages continued to change on the marque with ones that they hand-picked. Say that five times fast. The zine includes all the entries.

Trixie delicious is a fantastic shop. Not only do I love the badassness (I don’t think that’s a word) of the subversive nature of the shop, but the juxtaposition between fussy grandma dishes and words such as “dumb ass” hand painted on them. And, what helped me get this gig was my mention to Curator Beatrice of this plate (Miss Beatrice, you haven’t bought that yet? :

I’ve known about Six Hours Photography for a bit, and the photographs in the shop often at first seem very sweet, but a closer look shows that the stories told are more sinister or creepy. Here’s what the artist says about her own work: “My work focuses on the transformation of personal spaces into surreal landscapes of life. The majority of my ideas are born out of a desire to capture common themes, experiences and stories from everyday life, but with an ironic twist. I see everything I do as a picture of the human mind, magnified tenfold, so that we see all the darkest corners.”

Another photographer on Etsy whose work is conceptual is elle moss. This photograph entitled “oh dear” was in a show by The Center For Fine Art Photography called “Idea Of Self”.

Conceptual art not only forces the viewer to think, but it can at the same time be beautiful (not that none of the others mentioned aren’t). PLANS by Kwitham is brains + brawn:

Here’s a little more about the inspiration for the piece: “Do we enjoy the little steps to complete our desires? What do the hatch-marks in planning mean to us? In the end, I think it’s the journey that is important.” Yes, I’ve had many an art professor mention that it’s not about the outcome, it’s about the process.

Lastly, I’ll leave you with another photographic image that you can think about, “Failed Opportunities” by JenniPenni:

Thank you Curator Beatrice!