By now you’ve probably seen Todd Selby’s colourful new book, The Selby is in Your Place (reviewed in The Block issue 22). Yes, it’s a society book. And yes, it’s the offspring of his blog, The Selby. But the people inside aren’t random Joes by any means – they’re his friends (and Karl Lagerfeld).

Selby’s subjects live in spaces that range from cluttered to OCD-organized. But all of them have some kind of special, unattainable magic, lent partially by the Selby’s lens. We caught up with him for the Toronto stop of his book tour to hear more about his uniquely voyeuristic creative vision.

The Block: Can you tell us a about your collaboration on your special edition book with Mark the Cobrasnake?

Todd Selby: I wanted to do an event in LA for my book launch. So Mark had this idea of doing special edition of my book, like a bootleg edition that would come with a chapter on him, his grandma and grandpa. It had a special bag that we designed together and it was launched it at his new store [The Pawn Shop] … so it just kinda happened that way.

TB: Tell us about the Jack Purcell campaign.

TS: Well, I’ve done many ad campaigns through the years. Now it’s really heated up in terms of just working with so many. I did Nike 6.0 this past fall. It was my first the Selby-related advertising campaign. I shot all these Nike athletes in their homes around the world. Cole Haan was the next really big one, and then Jack Purcell.

TB: What do you think about being referred to as a blogger?

TS: I don’t really consider myself to be a blogger. I don’t really care. What is a blogger? I don’t know. It’s humorous to me. It’s a whole new thing, so words haven’t been created yet.

TB: Tell us about your first job at Details magazine.

TS: I did production and assisting. It was an amazing experience. That was better than four years of art school for me. That was Details during 2000-2001, when it was really killing it. Nothing against it now. But then it was at the top of its game. Seeing the portfolios of Tim Richardson, Jurgen Teller, and Philip de Corsa and how these photographers presented their work, and getting to meet some of them. And the basics of putting together a photo shoot. You go to art school and you don’t learn any of that. You learn stuff you won’t even end up doing.

TB: Do you still read magazines?

TS: I barely look at magazines now. Partly because I don’t have as much time. I don’t want to buy magazines anymore. They’re just filling my house. I’m trying to get rid of them. I’ll look at them and then I won’t look at them again. The ones that I keep and that I look at again and again: Self Service or Purple or Paris Vogue. Like really being selective. Because it gets crazy. I get in a magazine store and I love magazines, and just buy every magazine, you know.

TB: What is your take on being compared to Andy Warhol?

TS: He’s influenced me and every artist in the post-Andy Warhol world. I think he was a genius and he made a lot his money doing commissions kind of as his way of financing his art work, you know? But that’s not really my structure. I’m very attracted to his idea of the factory and doing things in-house, and the DIY thing is something I’m really excited about as well. But there’s no factory, it’s just me.

TB: Did you feel uncomfortable doing the Colette show? Was it your idea?

TS: It was my idea for sure. And something I had to put through to Sarah, as they never did something like that in the window before. … So it was my idea and she got on board. She saw my vision and was super supportive. Was I uncomfortable? Not really … What was weird was that I had a bed in there and when I’d lie down people would trip out. They’d see a guy, and it’s like “Is he gonna get naked? Is he sleeping? ‘What is this?” If I was sitting there people would just walk by.

TB: What city provides the most inspiration for you as an artist?

TS: Paris has been the best for me so far. In New York I have tight connections, so it’s been really great. But in Paris people have been so cool and so open. They have such a culture in France and a support for artists which we don’t have in America. We have respect for superstar artists and business people, but there young artists can be like “Hey I’m doing this” to someone like Christian Louboutin and they’d really consider it.

TB: A lot of people from the outside say if you want to make it you go to New York City. What’s your take on that?

TS: There’s infinite ways. The internet has broken down so many doors. You can do something on your computer and be anywhere, not know anyone, and if it catches on in the right way it can blow up and really happen for you. And sometimes having the outsider card is the real nice card to play. When I started doing photography I was the New York guy, but I worked for so many London magazines. I worked for Dazed & Confused, which was my big one. If I was a London guy going to Dazed as a photographer I would have just been a London guy compared to a million other ones. So I had a bit of an edge because I was someone else. I was doing something from a different perspective from the scene, so being the outsider can be really good. But you’ve gotta be smart about those kinds of things.

Interview Safra Ducreay

Entrance Romance (it felt like a kiss) by Ryan McGinley
Featuring Carolyn Murphy

The surreal fantasy of Julia Randall’s hyper-realistic drawings

Words Ali Gitlow Art Julia Randall

Looking at Julia Randall’s insanely rendered coloured pencil drawings of tongues, headless dolls, and Rococo wigs, it’s easy to be distracted by her flawless technique. Subtle creases in a lower lip, stray strands of wispy hair, and gleaming spit bubbles are captured in perfect detail, seemingly more realistic than the naked eye can see.

The 42-year-old Wesleyan University professor finds it humourous that people often remark on her work as being true to life, wowed by how accurately she’s depicted any given object or body part. “It’s kind of ironic, because clearly a lot of my drawings operate in the realm of fantasy – they’re not objects that exist. I’m using my technique as a way to persuade the viewer that they could possibly exist,” she explains. She’s also quick to note that the work doesn’t fall under the banner of realism either, since she draws things in more painstaking detail than is possible to perceive. “I guess I’m using a hyper-realistic technique to give that surrealistic feeling to the images,” she clarifies.

In 2003, Randall was working on a large drawing of a wheel of fortune covered in tongues based on a Brueghel painting – “like a cunnilingus machine” – when she became frustrated with how the tongues were turning out. “My husband said, ‘Why don’t you do studies of your own mouth? Take a sidebar and learn how to draw them more persuasively, then go back and fix the drawing,’” she recalls.

The pair set up a mirror and light source so Randall could make faces at herself. She soon switched to Macro lens photography to pick up minute details of her mouth, and so she could try out more difficult poses. “I wanted to use moisture and spit bubbles, and there’s just no way to hold a spit bubble for three weeks, I’m sorry. You gotta eat, right?” she says, chuckling.

Pleased with the results, she decided to turn these renderings into a standalone series, Lick Line, which was exhibited at Jeff Bailey Gallery in New York City in early 2004. As she began to excel at this type of drawing, Randall noticed the way spatial games played out within the work in a way she hadn’t anticipated. “The cavity of the mouth started to function like a puncture in pictorial space, and it was like [the tongue] was reaching out into the viewer’s space. There was something really visceral about it, and at the same time kind of funny, like a drawing is sticking its tongue out at you.”

After conquering the coloured pencil, Randall took her images of tongues and mouths to the next level, melding them with additional organic and inorganic imagery that coalesced into a series called Decoys and Lures in 2007. In “Decoy 1,” twigs emerge from a lush open mouth covered by a glistening spit bubble; a portal to outer space appears to lie just beneath this moist surface. A butterfly and moths flap about nearby, and a hummingbird yanks at one of the twigs, all atop trompe l’oeil stains and tears. She knows it’s easy for people to be seduced by such technically proficient work, but that this can’t be the sole driving force behind her drawings. For Randall, “The technique has to be in the service of the concept.”

Her latest work has taken a new tone, with Randall adding more complete human forms to images like “Popped,” which features the confounding combo of a female figure reflected in a pool of water in which floats what appears to be a Ken doll’s head. To create this, she used a model to draw the face, studied dolls in her studio, compiled photos of reflections, and even filled a wheelbarrow with water to perfect it. With these drawings, Randall cobbles together disparate visual elements, ultimately convincing viewers to suspend their disbelief. “Is it a boy, is it a doll, is it a mannequin, is it a plaything, is he a victim, is he sleeping, is he post-orgasmic?” Whatever the case, she succeeds in conveying opposing sensibilities, hinting at the complex emotional layers that exist between people. “I really like if it’s discomforting,” she admits. “I like the intersection of the erotic, the grotesque, something that’s both beautiful and perhaps a little cruel.”

Lagerfeld’s latest book of photography, The Beauty of Violence, captures model Baptiste Giabiconi (Lagerfeld’s muse) writhing ecstatically in a pair of tights.

Whether The Beauty of Violence is an homage to the male form, a personality study, or simply Lagerfeld perving on his latest boy-toy, its title doesn’t lie: this is one beautiful book.

Images: The Beauty of Violence by Karl Lagerfeld
Published by Steidl

Alex Prager never had formal training as a photographer, but her short film Despair starring Bryce Dallas Howard has us fooled. While the photographer’s select film stills will be featured this fall at MoMA’s New Photography 2010, you can catch her photo exhibition of inspired damsels, Week End, at Michael Hoppen Contemporary gallery in London until July 17th.

Painted in watercolour and acrylics, Woo’s series, He Wears It, has Darth donning Band of Outsiders, Jango Fett in Comme des Garçons, Scout Trooper in Viktor & Rolf, Boba Fett in Supreme, Clone Trooper in A.P.C., and Stormtrooper in Thom Browne. As during Phantom Menace, we’re a little put off by the addition of Jar Jar Binks, but we’ll admit he does look smart in Maison Martin Margiela.

The Block: This is the ninth Cheaper Show, and it’s a big event – 200 artists, 400 pieces of art at $200 a pop, and if this one’s anything like No. 8 there’s going to be a big crowd and long lineups. Can you tell me what Cheaper Show 1 was like?

Graeme Berglund: Cheaper No. 1 was an unexpected success. It was very slapdash as far as how it came together. We called some friends and asked them if they would be into selling their artwork for $75 a piece and asked The Sugar Refinery if they would be into hosting. We cut and pasted some flyers, photocopied them and took them around to the headshops, tattoo shops, hair salons, and that was pretty much it. That night about 200 people passed through the room and we sold about 45 pieces and a bunch of beer. It really wasn’t a ton of effort but it turned into an immediate success. Years later, we’ve become very good at throwing these shows. We took note of some of the frustrations at our last show, particularly with the lineups and have reworked every system in our entire show to ensure everything is far more accessible. In addition to the 12 members of The Cheaper Crew, we have 110 volunteers who are all putting in hundreds of hours in order to make this the tightest show we’ve run.

The Cheaper Show team – image by Justin Tyler Close

TB: What gave you the idea to start the Cheaper Show back in 2001?

GB: The original genesis behind the show was simply frustration due to the lack of opportunity in our city. Myself and my friends were not getting any attention from any galleries within the limited art scene here, so in conversations over pints we decided that we would reinvent the wheel a little and refit it so that it was in an environment of inclusivity as opposed to how Thursday night openings felt on South Granville. You had the ability to come down with a bunch of friends, buy some drinks, listen to music, meet the artists and buy your first piece of art and walk out with it that night.

TB: With the art priced so well, the show’s great for getting exposure for emerging artists. Who are some people who’ve gained notoriety after exhibiting at the show?

GB: Local street artist The Dark is a pretty good example. We met Devitt back in 2002 when he was still working under the name Star 7. We were one of the first people to showcase his work and he immediately drew people in like a tar pit. At the next show people showed up specifically looking for his work and each time he stepped up his game. His work started pouring into the streets, stencils that spoke clearly to all that passed, beginning a dialogue that still goes on to this day. Years later, Mr. Devitt Brown is undeniably notorious.

The Dark – Dry Cat, 2009 (left); Tricks, 2009 (right)

TB: I think it’s notable how The Cheaper Show pulls established artists as well as emerging ones – it’s a good example of artistic camaraderie. Do the bigger names readily volunteer, or do you have to go to them?

GB: It happens rather organically and in different means each time. The two most notable artists showing in Cheaper No. 8 and No. 9 respectively are Attilla Richard Lukacs and Lawrence Paul Yuxwelupton. Both are friends of mine, so this made for an easier ask. However, since our third show we started getting contacted by gallery represented artists who wanted to participate and offer their names to cause a higher stature. This was unforeseen; many of them expressed an appreciation for the discourse the show caused within the industry and many loved the energy of the audience. This crowd is young and hungry; and they want to buy art.

Lawrence Paul Yuxwelupton – New Chiefs on the Land, 2006

TB: How many people submitted art in the hope of showing at Cheaper No. 9?

GB: We received over 950 international submissions from over 200 cities around the world. Unreal. We’ve received interweb traffic from over 1700 cities this year. It was amazing seeing entries from places as far away as Argentina, Croatia, Lithuania, and Poland. We still have a strong focus on supporting our local Vancouverites and Canadian talent.

TB: It must have been tough to whittle that down to 200. What sort of criteria did you guys look for when choosing artists?

GB: This is the first year I have hired curators for The Cheaper Show. Lisa Giroday is our Lead and Jessica Delorme is the Associate Curator. The focus of our event has always been quality and diversity. We are looking for artists that are dedicated to their craft, whose work speaks of innovation, and artists whom are creating work that is relevant to current climate of international art. Despite the task of carefully combing over 950 submissions, Lisa and Jessica did an exceptional job and have presented the strongest group of artists we have shown to this date.

Mark Warren Jacques – Falling into Love, 2010

TB: The Cheaper Show won a grant from Absolut. Would you have been able to do the show without that windfall or did it just help to make things even better?

GB: We were dead set on doing the show for this year, and as a matter fact we’d started working on new concepts, pre-production and a business plan in August 2009. We didn’t find out about the contest until last October and weren’t declared a winner until early April of this year. We had to move forward without any expectation of that money coming through. We did win the competition but in fact, we were awarded far less than half of the advertised winnings. We are grateful for this bursary. My friend Steve Rio joined our crew as Executive Director this year and since early January we have been doing fundraising. It has been the first time for both of us and it has proven to be an interesting process. We’ve met some incredibly influential people in this city and received amazing support from everyone that we have spoken to.

Tod Seelie – Matt and Kim, 2009 (top); Jon Bocksel – Untitled, 2009 (bottom)

TB: For some of the people who will come to Cheaper on June 26, it’ll be their first time purchasing art. Any advice for them on how to buy?

GB: The best advice is to look past the sheer volume of work and really get right up to the pieces and check them out one by one. Simply find a piece or two that you love and take note of the number listed below and walk over to our sales area and make a purchase. Very simple.

Exploration 6: London Pirate Radio is Palladium’s newest documentary (just one of six shorts made thus far). Former pirate radio DJ and author Matt Mason straps on his boots and shows us the secrets of London’s pirate radio: from rooftop radio antennas, to interviews with DJs and artists, to a revealing history of the origins of pirate radio in the 60s.

While you’re waiting for Exploration 7, you should catch up on Palladium’s previous tours. We suggest starting with Exploration 1: The Ruins of New York, where Brooklyn-based designer Shawn Joswick uncovers abandoned landmarks of NYC.

Palladium – Exploration 6: London Pirate Radio

Fashion loves art, no question. But the functional canvases of YSL, Marc Jacobs, or Alexander McQueen aren’t frequently seen as a painter’s muse. However, we like to think the line between art and fashion is a little blurry, so discovering California artist Serena Cole’s fashion-fantasy paintings was a bit of a revelation. A life-long worshipper of fashion, Cole questions our veneration of pop culture by melding images from fashion ads with traditionally saintly symbols (think halos and haunted eyes). Her goal is to create iconic faces that explore “the strange double-edged sword of being wanted.”

The Block: What’s your life story, in a nutshell?

Serena Cole: I am a native Californian, born to a musician father who went to work at eBay and an artist mother who went to work for the Post Office. Seeing my parents giving up their own dreams has made me work even harder to see to my own goals realized. I spent my childhood in the Sierra foothills – the middle of nowhere – drawing in my room, creating piles and piles of fashion designs, complete with tilted lines of clothing. The glamour and fantasy of fashion always intrigued me. As I began studying art more seriously in high school, I realized that fashion design was a childhood dream better put to use in my art. Painting allowed me something really satisfying, but until I started showing my art, I had not realized that it truly made me different. I didn’t believe I would ever be able to go to art school and become a professional artist; it seemed too far-fetched, like wanting to be a rock star. It wasn’t until my early twenties working at crappy jobs that I knew I had to go to art school to study what I loved, regardless of the practicality. I saw the alternative in my parents and everyone else I knew who worked jobs they hated and were filled with regrets of not following their own passions.

TB: We love the gold details in your work. How did you discover this particular method?

SC: I have developed a large body of work over the past five or six years using mostly watercolor, colored pencil, gold leaf, and some other mediums as well like dye, acrylic, and gouache. I am a medium nerd – I like to collect and try everything. In art school our professor gilded a hammer in class, and after that the possibilities were endless. What I like about using gold is that it is both beautiful and completely superficial. I only use imitation gold, so at the same time that it is reminiscent of older styles of art, it is a completely contemporary reference to our fascination with the surface of beauty.

TB: Your art has a great Klimt vibe. Do others often make the comparison?

SC: Thank you for the compliment. Yes, I do often have conversations with people comparing my work to Klimt. He was a seductive artist, painting beauty and colour and pattern into a frenzy of desirable images. I do admire his work, but I am interested in how I can transition some of those themes into a modern day practice that says something about our contemporary culture.

TB: We see fashion everywhere in your paintings. How does fashion inspire your art?

SC: Fashion is pure adult fantasy, in the way that The Lord of the Rings is fantasy. You couldn’t live in an ad even if you had the clothes – it isn’t there. I desire a world that I can only be a part of through my art. The designers that I love to look at are the strangest ones, the ones who create the biggest spectacles, like John Galliano for Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Christian Lacroix, and sadly, the late Alexander McQueen.

TB: Your recent art focuses on images of the human face taken from ads and made rich with symbolism. How do you choose your subjects?

SC: In the past I worked fairly intuitively, finding imagery that I was somehow intrigued by and attempting to create an iconic painting, crafted in paint and gold. What I have been interested in more recently, with the images from ads, is how depictions of a human face have changed from an honoured way in historical imagery to become a vehicle of advertising. I was investigating how historically the mainstream masses revered images of a saint as a means of escape in the same way the masses still look toward a beautiful face in a campaign as a means of escape.

TB: You mention magazines a lot on your blog – what do you like about magazines?

SC: I love magazines because they encapsulate what is most desirable about fashion. A good fashion magazine acts as its own better-than-real world, with a big dose of escapism to fulfill those fantastical needs to be transported to another dimension. Our worlds are mundane, and magazines make them colorful, beautiful, glossy, and newer than new. Some of my very favorites are AnOther Magazine, POP, Wonderland, and V.

TB: Where do you plan to take your art in the future?

SC: I have some fun projects in the works, including collages and drawings, as well as a side project taking photos of my friends as if we were re-shooting a catalog for Urban Outfitters. I would love to have some more exposure internationally, as well exhibitions in other US cities such as Los Angeles or New York. As far as what shape my work is taking, we will have to see as I finish my graduate degree next year!

Serena Cole has exhibited in Germany, Miami, and LA, as well as her hometown of San Francisco – the perks, she says, include free wine and hugs. You can find her work at Triple Base Gallery, www.basebasebase.com.

If DIY’s your thing, the Storefront also hosts Nieves Zine Library, a collection of 100 limited-edition art zines, while fans of video art should check out Forms of Stand Up Comedy, a video series of book-related talks.

Motto Storefront @ Artspeak
May 15 – July 22
233 Carrall Street, Vancouver
Tues – Sun, Noon – 5 pm