New Baroque is a blog featuring young artists from Kentucky, Los Angeles, and New York.  It came about when I noticed that a group of artists working in the New Baroque style were not getting the attention that I thought they deserved.   The art of the Baroque was stylistically complex with a tendency to exaggerate emotions with grandiose gestures, and the artists that I feature on the blog are using these elements to produce works that relate to this time period.  I wanted to create an atmosphere where young artists have a chance to be recognized, but I also wanted to challenge them to continue creating and to push their style.

I am really particular about what I choose to post, and I thoroughly investigate the artists’ work to avoid the ‘flash in the pan.’ New Baroque focuses on artist such as Aurora Childs, whose work I have watched change over many years.  Childs works with sculpture, installation, and performance to create an overwhelming, nostalgic experience for her audiences.  Working with a range of materials including feathers, glass, ceramic, and even her own voice, Childs provokes emotional reactions and makes the viewers consider their relationship to these materials.

I just finished curating a New Baroque exhibition entitled Conditional Reality. The nature of the blog creates a disjointed relationship between the viewer and the work, so I wanted to present the artists who have been featured on New Baroque to provide my audience with an intimate view of the work from the blog.  The exhibition not only created connections between the viewer and the work, but it also highlighted the baroque nature of the art through the location.  Griffin’s Modern Motel is an old mansion in downtown Lexington that boasts details that are perfect to create a Baroque atmosphere.  The Baroque was about drama, detail, and grandeur, and I felt that the nooks and crannies and the elaborate detailing on this late Victorian mansion presented that, while adding to the experience of the exhibition.

Fashion has also found its way onto New Baroque, creating more of a cultural experience rather than simply an art experience.  Fashion has had an increasingly important role in the arts lately, and some designers seem to be making art more than clothing. We see this with Alexander McQueen who draws our attention to form, line, and the silhouette. I am also featuring up and coming designers such as Creatures Of The Wind, whose whimsical creations are almost over stimulating but keep us grounded with their intricate designs and their extravagant textures and colors.  I am very interested in Haans Nicholas Mott at the moment because his hand-made creations are akin to a conceptual art project. Mott is very particular about who buys his clothing and how the articles are documented; I hope to have images for New Baroque soon.

With New Baroque, I am interested in actively engaging the community as opposed to blogs that passively post photographs of artists’ work. For example, I am holding a competition for local writers, both in Academia and out, to write a review of the first exhibition.  The winner of this competition will have their review of the exhibition on New Baroque.

As for the future of New Baroque, I am interested in curating group and solo exhibitions through collaborations with established galleries. I am looking at the Land of Tomorrow as well as a few other spaces to hold future New Baroque exhibitions.  Finding ways of bringing the community into the picture through exhibitions and competitions is also on my agenda.  More than anything however, New Baroque will serve as a platform for discovering artists, such as Aurora Childs, Ming Ying Hong, Clint Colburn, and writer Robert Weickel, who have not had the chance to be seen by a greater audience.

–Aaron Michael Skolnick