June 12, 2015 - Amy Pleasant & Pete Schulte
Sometimes you need to stay in your own backyard...
Thanks to Clayton Colvin for the great studio visit, to Nelson at Stewart Perry Construction for the private tour of the historic Lyric Theatre that is currently under renovation, and to Michael Straus for giving us the opportunity to curate Drift. We were happy to share opening night with Jo Nigoghossian who unveiled her commission Mast (Alabama).
May 8, 2014 - Tilted Arc
A charcoal line, crumbly and raw, is easy to see without illusion.
When I was an undergrad, I would try to find demo tapes of bands, usually sold by street table vendors, or maybe a live album (usually referred to as a “European Release”). Some of the demo tapes were shit quality, but they usually had some edge that I craved. The best one was a demo of the Pixies first album. It was even more Pixies than the produced release. The form was wonderfully awkward and plastic. I prefer the raw and untethered to the artificially perfect.
I don’t think there is a necessary distinction between drawing and painting. Neither is isolated. Both, always, are in flux with the world. I work between drawing and painting on purpose. I am interested in feelings, flawed and visceral. I am fragile. I am amazed. I am thankful. It is dirty stuff...
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April 20, 2014 - Paul Behnke
April 19, 2014 - Rowan Ricardo Phillips
The nine paintings that comprise Birmingham, Alabama–based Clayton Colvin’s “Put Down Your Stars” operate within that inchoate space between stoic, Apollonian formalism and exuberant figural expression. Shapes—particularly squares, rhombi, strokes, and arabesques—vibrate and twist on the canvas in response to Colvin’s manipulations of color, depth, and repetition. At times, painting seems to give way to drawing, and at other times, drawing seems to give way to painting. Erasures and additions reveal and conceal other layers, complicating ideas of before and after, original and addition, right-side up and upside down. The paintings thrive in paradox: They can seem crowded and full of movement, a sense of unsettled energy populating their spaces; after sustained viewing, however, a calm and measured contemplativeness saturates the canvases.
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March 31, 2014 - Oscar Laluyan
The dreary and gray winter mitigates a splash of color to rouse up our dull stupor from this never ending cold spell. Thank God for Margaret Thatcher Projects in presenting dual shows where their artists are bold significant users of color meant to chase away the winter blues.
Last March 27th, AF came to the opening of Clayton Colvin: Put Down Your Stars and Tegene Kunbi: Melting Pot. Softness in the application of color on linen was key in the work of Colvin where a sense of space seemed to take one into another plane that makes it a transcendental experience. Kunbi with his blocks of mid-range tone color defined spaces and sections where one explored places within the quadrant. Both were a visual treat to the senses and a real color laden palette that punctuates a breath of verve to decrease the desolate feeling of that last grasp of winter.
March 20, 2014 - Brian Edmonds
I recently visited the studio of Clayton Colvin in Birmingham, Alabama. The conversation below took place during the visit and through an exchange of emails over a period of time.
Brian Edmonds: Clayton, could you explain your studio routine? I know you recently moved into a new studio space. Has this affected your work, if so then how?
Clayton Colvin: I work in a studio at my home, which makes it possible for me to work when time presents itself. I try to work 4-5 hours, 5 days a week, but it is not so predictable.
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