Aaron Nagel On His New Direction & Juxtapoz 20th Anniversary Painting

1xRUN Thru Interview
Sinew by Aaron Nagel

1xRun: Tell us a little bit about this piece, is it still for sale?
Aaron Nagel: This piece was created for the “20 Years Under the Influence of Juxtapoz” show curated by Thinkspace and Copro that opened in Los Angeles last month. It’s still up actually, at the LA Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdale Park. To my knowledge, it’s still available.

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1xRun: Was this piece part of a recent theme you had? If so how did it fit into that given grouping?
Aaron Nagel: This was the first larger piece in a while that wasn’t created as part of a larger body of work actually. I’m in-between shows at the moment, so right now I’m trying some new things, playing with new ideas that may or may not carry over into a larger body of work. This piece has since led me into some much weirder territory — that will hopefully see the light of day.

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1xRun: What materials were used to create this piece with?
Aaron Nagel: The original was done with oil on panel.

1xRun: When was the piece created and how long did it take to complete?
Aaron Nagel: I did this piece in December of 2014 thru January of 2015. Most of it went pretty fast, although once I got the figure and background down, the positive and negative shapes in the entire composition created were bothering me. I pay a lot of attention to the weight of a piece; how all the elements are laid out, almost as if it were graphic design. So the composition was driving me nuts (which is how things go usually). I ended up adding some texture and more or less merging the figure and the background towards the bottom of the piece, so that it didn’t sit on top of the background, as much a emerge from it.

1xRun: Tell us how the idea and execution came about?
Aaron Nagel: The model for this piece was my good friend Brooke, who is also from the Bay Area. I painted her a lot a few years ago, when I was still living in Oakland. I was in town for Thanksgiving and managed to get in a shoot with her. She’s an amazing model — one of those rare people that can just turn their face on and every shot looks great. And she’s got amazing lips. I didn’t have any plans for the shoot, so we just played it by ear. I got the idea for the black and gold hands a few weeks later, so we hadn’t done any of that when we took the pictures. I painted my girlfriends hands with black and gold acrylic and had her model in a similar position to the shot of Brooke I liked the most. She’s got great hands. Then I photoshopped them together. Magic!

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1xRun: What do you feel is unique about this piece?
Aaron Nagel: The panel is made from space plastic and I only painted one of them.

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1xRun: Why should people buy this print?
Aaron Nagel: Because you have to buy it! And you like to support the arts and artists, and your house will look fresh-er.

1xRun: Describe the piece in one gut reaction word.
Aaron Nagel: Gold.

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1xRun: Where else can people find you?
Aaron Nagel: WebsiteBlogTwitter + Instagram@aaronnagel

-1xRUN