Monday Inspiration ✨
Artist: Alan Neider
Alan Neider has an MFA in sculpture, but he’ll tell you he’s a painter. He just happens to sew U-Haul moving blankets and IKEA bags together before he paints them.
Most painters mix pigments to get colors. Alan uses the colors already in found fabric—the blue of an IKEA bag, the gray of a moving blanket, patterns from old clothes. He cuts fabric into random shapes, sews them in collaged layers onto quilted blankets until there’s a thick textured surface. Then he paints over it with spray paint, tar, acrylics.
The fabric stays underneath. It shows through, creates depth, gives the painting something that mixing colors on a palette never could. Working within the constraints of what already exists—what colors the manufacturer chose, what patterns are out there in the world—forces different decisions than infinite choice would.
His paintings don’t stretch flat on frames. They hang loose. They fold, drape, expose only parts of themselves depending on how they’re installed. Paintings that behave more like quilts. They move.
“I create difficult and challenging surfaces to paint,” he says. “I believe these surfaces in conjunction with the inherent textures of fabric lead to a richer, more complex experience.”
He could paint on regular canvas. Instead he spends hours sewing household objects together first. The process is the point. The difficulty is the point. Collage methodology applied through a sewing machine instead of glue, then painted over until fabric and paint become inseparable.
Text by Max-o-matic
