Clinton King
Clinton King (b. 1976) is an American born artist based in Brooklyn, NY, working in painting, sculpture and video. He received his MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design. He has been awarded residencies in the United States, Europe, Hong Kong and Japan.
Hi Clinton, can you tell us what is your background and how this affected to your professional career?
I spent my childhood freely exploring the forests of Ohio. This early exposure to nature gave me a sense of freedom that has influenced the way I explore my work and navigate the world.
Why do you make this type of art? What does Abstraction mean to you?
I've made many types of Art, from installation, sculpture, performance, to video. Regardless of the medium, it has always been about intuition, immediacy, and mystery. As for why abstraction, I believe one answer is in the interpretation. In contrast to abstraction, it's easier for the recognizable image to communicate the language of story or myth. Whereas abstraction, like geometry, expresses a universal language of discovery and can more readily convey an unknown.
Your works are very colorful and bold. How do you select the colors you use?
I choose colors four different ways:
Randomly
Intuitively
Planned
A mix of all thee.
What does your artwork represent?
This is a challenging question… At the deepest level, it may be an attempt at creating a self-organizing or self-sustaining autonomous object. Or, it could be an attempt at making a kind of mirror capable of reflecting a parallel existence. Or… on the surface, it may only be a reflection of my own being.
How has your practice change over time?
Very slowly, consistently, and with many sudden rapid changes.
Your current exhibition, ‘Free Radical’ opened at Allouche Benias gallery in Athens. Can you tell us what the show is about?
I leave the words “Free Radical” open for interpretation. The term often describes a highly reactive atom, molecule, or ion with an unpaired electron that, in its instability, borrows an electron from a neighboring atom. This exchange leads to a host of chain reactions that, in the process, create new free radicals. This description, in many ways, mirrors the way my new spectrum paintings are formulated, in the sense that one mark borrows, responds, and informs the next. A free radical could also be an individual that freely thinks outside of a collective mindset. To me, anyone consciously and actively participating in personal transformation is, in a sense, radically free.
Describe a real-life situation that inspired you?
Once while approaching the eyepiece of my telescope, I simultaneously caught a glimpse of a star as seen through my pupil reflected back at mean almost accidental cosmic unity.
How does the city you are living and working influence you and the art you make?
I see Art as a reflection of our Self and believe that all things affecting the individual are transmuted back into the work. Therefore even a conscious attempt to deny an external influence would still, indirectly, transform the Art. NYC is in my Art, but it may be too intimate to comprehend how and to what extent. Maybe when I leave the city, I will see it more clearly.
What is your dream project?
A large stained glass window installed in an abandoned church located somewhere in a small European village.
Is there anything else you would like to explain about you/ your career?
You can be charming, intelligent, and entertaining, but at the end of the day, someone has to make the work.
