Artist in conversation: Gerard SterniK
We are excited to present a chat we recently had with the Toronto based artist, Gerard Sternik.
Artistic Education:
Fine Art, 1981-83, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Visual Art, 1983-88, AOCA Diploma, Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto, Canada
Artistic Anatomy, 1989-1993, in conjunction with University of Toronto, Dept of Gross Anatomy
Sabbatical Year-1994-1995 Florence Italy, Drawing and Sculpture, in conjunction with OCAD
”I am a visual artist working primarily in the field of drawing, sculpture and photography.”
Follow Gerard here.
- Many thanks for taking the time to chat with us, Gerard! Great to have you join our "Persona" online exhibition!
G:
Thanks for having me on board!
- Having studied a wide range of subjects in a number of Institutions, how would you say that shaped you as an artist?
G:
That's a good question. I think that casting the net wide in terms of idioms and approaches to art making, especially in my formative years, helped a lot to dispel notions of art being a single thing - a kind of proscribed path of any type. Mainly, I learned that idiom isn't really the important part of 'the quality of the art' one makes; it's the content, what one has to say, and the disposition of the heart in creating work that translates into the energy we get back from a piece of art when we encounter it. Knowing your practice area deeply is very important as well, and coming at it from the position of a musician helped a lot. I started out as a musician.
THE RISEN PHOENIX
- It's interesting to say this; it must be very liberating not to be locked in one medium as a creative.
And interestingly enough, there's a sculptural quality in your photography work.
G:
At this stage, I feel and experience art making as a vehicle for liberation, mainly as an activity that calls out all of the best facets of being a humanoid: intellect, feeling and, most importantly, a path for using awareness as the source for discernment of what art is and how to create it, which in effect, allows for a transcendence of the smaller self.
Thanks a lot for noticing the sculptural quality in the photos. I spend most of my time trying to feel out space in those and to make a transposition from real to pictorial space.
- Have you had formal education in photography by the way?
G:
Yes, LOL...David Hockney.
I have never studied photography formally, but I am a draughtsman. So making the connection between any photo making and drawing is a reasonable step, if one is depicting things. Photography and drawing share so much and appear to be interchangeable. But then of course, there are huge differences between the two approaches that will arouse an artist’s curiosity immediately, haha.
REFLECTIONS
- Yes, I guess in our time mediums merge and blend so much. It just makes me wonder how you begin working on an idea. Does it start with a more traditional way, a sketch perhaps?
G:
Indeed, they (mediums) do currently and I believe that's a sign of health. When invented, boundaries dissolve with respect to the thinking that ‘something has to be this or that’ - not so in art. Wasn't it Wassily Kandinsky who said something to the effect that there isn't a right or wrong in art because art is free? And tech has helped this tremendously.
- I guess this presents even more opportunities for artists with a background in what is 3D dimensional work like a sculpture. I particularly liked Jon Rafman's digital sculptures and, although very different in their aesthetics, I can see similarities when looking at your work.
G:
I always tell my students that we live in a time where anyone can watch a Miles Davis performance on YouTube from 40 years ago, while drawing from Egyptian wall paintings, Byzantine mosaics, Corot paintings, and throw in some David Hockney iPad prints for good measure...Technology has brought art directly to artists all over the world, to study as a living body, completely available as one entity. And I find that pretty cool.
- Possibly taking his quote out of context but since I mentioned him, Jon Rafman said “While celebrating and critiquing modern experience, the technological tools themselves show how they can estrange us from ourselves.”
Does that accessibility have any downsides maybe?
G:
Of course it does. The pandemic has impacted every aspect in life and, more particularly, with technology the human touch has been replaced with virtual sessions. And with art, technology indeed helps extend our reach but in itself increases the fact that the reality that all of us experience as artists, simply doesn't have a tech substitute.
LOOK BOTH WAYS
- Am I guessing right by saying the pandemic has not affected your art making process?
G:
It has, unfortunately. Getting myself involved with composite photography was an effect of the pandemic as I was unable to continue on larger sculptural projects already in motion.
- Ok, so it was more about trying to adapt to the new reality we are all experiencing.
G:
I had to stay on hold for a while, and in order to continue creating I had to adapt to the new norms, like many of us. Maybe it's fair to say the pandemic intensified the art making process that I already had going on, but, like in music, a ‘motif transposition’ was required to keep the ball rolling under the new set of circumstances. It's been an interesting learning curve for sure.
- For people following art for a while this is not something new; from Miltos Manetas' websites as art, internet art in the 90's and most recently NFT, do you think online exhibitions are here to stay?
G:
Oh yes, indeed. And why not, right?
At once, artists are utilizing tools that are available to us to make and show our art, as well as communicate with each other about it without conventional boundaries interfering with that interface. The Holy Art is doing that with the gallery; connecting with artists worldwide. and artists of course are responding to that outreach on your part.
A FORGOTTEN CASUALTY
- Yes, we'd love to be able to go as far as 3D scanning sculptures and present them online.We have experienced the democratization of the photography tools moving from analog to digital and now this. Is that going to have an impact on sales in your opinion? That used to be a popular topic in the photography world, how commission prices dropped with the transition.
G:
Well, that’s great and kudos to photoshop and the brilliant phone cameras, LOL. Great idea that you have there with respect to showing sculptures and it’s not surprising that artists, including myself, are completely comfortable with experimenting with all of this in new ways.
well Chris, again, lose and gain right, with respect to sales
With the world becoming the market, I think that it opens up new potential for galleries to sell and reach clients in a way that maybe wasn't even seriously considered before 2020. The question is what kind of changes will occur when we move into the new normal.
- Interesting to know you have been experimenting more within the digital. Do you see yourself exploring that more in the future?
G:
Absolutely. To me, digital is another tool and a great way of extending the reach in terms of expression, while nothing can be off limits. I think an open healthy attitude about the neutrality of idioms and mediums is essential.
- Last but not least, as you have been a student and also a teacher, for our younger audience: how important is formal education in art in your opinion?
That is a great question. The key is exposure. Get as much exposure to the area, tools, concepts and language of your area of interest as you can. I am mainly a musician, so , like any musician, I'd say learn everything you can about the language you are going to speak, and make sure all of that becomes a second nature to you as something like brushing your teeth every morning is, LOL. David Hockney says it best: “Hand, eye, heart” - when they all come together, bingo, art with rocket fuel!!
If you can get this in a school environment that you're comfortable in ,great. If you can get this anywhere else outside of a school...just as great.