A Minute With Rachel Labine
Hi! This is a newsletter about artists I like.
I began acquiring art through some friends that worked in galleries. I started small, working on a limited budget, for stuff I could afford. As time passed, my collection grew, and it was exciting to watch many of the artists I'd collected go on to bigger shows and critical acclaim. My goal with this newsletter is to make a digestible resource for anyone interested in artists that are making great (and still affordable!) work, whom you haven't heard about... yet.
I came across Rachel’s work I think a decade ago or so and have been a fan since. I have a painting of hers and it’s one of the first pieces of art I bought and I can’t get enough. She was kind enough to answer some questions. Should you want more info, her site is HERE.
**I like seeing artists in their spaces so Rachel shared some studio shots….
Can you describe your painting style?
RL: I use silhouettes, color, shapes from cel animation, weather and light phenomena that I’ve observed, photos I’ve taken, movies, graphic forms that I find in the world or online. Most often what I’m layering these together to depict is a space, somewhere that feels simultaneously outdoors, internal, a flat graphic, existing at multiple scales at once. I had a conversation with a friend recently who has known my work for a long time, about how I came to images through abstraction. And before abstraction, my education at RISD began with a traditional, even academic way of oil painting, during my year in illustration before switching to the painting department, which also focused on oil but with a more expanded approach. Now I use both oil and acrylic paint, textiles, and plastics.
Was there a “ah-ha” moment when you knew you wanted to paint and be an artist?
RL: I made drawings, watercolors, and crafts starting at a very young age, and when I was around 9 started painting with acrylics. Growing up in North Dakota, I didn’t go to museums, or learn anything about art history, much less contemporary art, but I was always very interested in and even devoted to observing and making. During my first year of college at the University of Minnesota—my loose plan had been to study journalism, which I quickly realized was a terrible fit for me—I met people who introduced themselves as artists or who were going to art school, and this was pretty revelatory, that the possibility even existed of having a serious art practice and pursuing a career in it. So I applied for transfer to a few art schools, was fortunate to be accepted to RISD, and that was really the moment it became my path in a material sense.
What’s your routine for painting and creating? Do you have a set schedule of sorts?
RL: I like to spend long days in the studio, ideally starting in the morning. I have a couch in my studio for taking breaks to rest. I have a daily meditation practice each morning and often that leads to writing or a bit of drawing before biking to my studio.
What is on your calendar for the rest of 2023? Any shows we can tell our readers about?
RL: I have no plans for the rest of 2023! Anything could happen :)
For our readers who may not live in a big city with access to museums, galleries, etc. are there any resources you recommend for people to use?
RL: I have a small collection of monographs, catalogs, and other artists’ books, which, other than seeing an exhibition or a studio in person, is my favorite way of really focusing on an artist’s practice, without a screen. If there are galleries whose programs you like, joining their email lists could introduce you to artists with related sensibilities. And social media can be mind-numbing, but it could be a helpful first step in finding and following artists whose work you respond to.
What is inspiring you lately? Could be a friend, book, music…?
RL: My friend and incredible artist who is working on her PhD, Xirin Abrishamian.
I usually read a few things at the same time, right now:
How Forests Think, by Eduardo Kohn
Ansibles, Perfiladores, y Otros Máquinas Ingenias, by Andrea Chapela
W, or the memory of childhood, by Georges Perec
How I became one of the invisible, by David Rattray
And often in the studio I listen to mixes on NTS radio, for example by Rachel Grace Almeida, 8ulentina, or Bergsonist.
Who should we have on next?
RL: Xirin, Kate Liebman, Ángela Ferrari, Phoebe Osborne, Jeffrey Meris, Liz Capote, Emma Schwartz, Tamen Pérez, Emily Ludwig Shaffer, Kiyan Williams…there are so many I could say!