“Art, whatever it takes” – Michael Ajerman interview

Michael Ajerman was born in New York.  Studying at the Corcoran School of Art and the New York Studio School, along with taking part in the Yale Summer School at Norfolk.  In 2003 he completed a Masters Degree at the Slade School of Art.  Consistently exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions. Recent solo shows are Grip at Aleph Contemporary, London UK and Walker House at Diane Rosenstein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.  He received the Royal Academy’s British Institute Award in 2003 and the UCLA Kitaj Research Fellowship in 2018. He divides his time between painting and his online lecture series focusing on the visual arts.  He lives and works in London.

“Art, whatever it takes” – The RomeArtProgram has made a series of interviews with people involved in art, living in Italy, the USA and the UK, to know their feelings and orientation during these times of emergency.

–Interview with Michael Ajerman:

RomeArtProgram: What is your definition of “Art” today?

–Michael: The “art” feeling I can describe.  It is something that we connect to, that intensifies our existence. A reboot to our senses and sensations that takes us out of flatlining.

RAP: Art is dynamic and regenerates itself… how does it change, and how did it change us?

–Michael: Art, I would say it mutates from our world and our wants.  It has the ability for us to see or feel things slightly differently.  It should be a window for our senses.

RAP: When (and how) did you understand that art was becoming very important in your life?

–Michael: When I was drawing on the floor in a worn down Victorian house in Staten Island. My father had recently purchased it. The drawing pad was huge for me as I was a kid. I went from one end of the page to the other with colored markers. I still feel that sensation.

RAP: What role does art play today? What are the “great figures” who have recently changed it?  Do you feel close to any of these figures? 

–Michael: The figure to recognize is Matthew Burrows.  Burrows created the Artist Support Pledge program where works of art were to be sold for 200 GBP / 200 USD / 200 Euros during the Covid Pandemic. Mostly using Instagram, artists were able to sell work and connect to a whole new realm of interest and collectors.  People are still intimidated by galleries, unfortunately.  From my experience people that always wanted to buy, now could.  They felt comfortable to do so and follow their interests and their own independent tastes.  The ‘Pledge’ helped many artists, myself included pull through and treat water through this new time.  Along with acquiring art by artists that I admire.

RAP: Are there still traditional figures such as collectors, muses, mecenate and patrons, in today’s art and society interaction model?

–Michael: I’m happy to say that there are.  Some collectors are big and want to be seen.  Some play in the shadow.  Both are important.

RAP: How have the new technologies and media culture changed art today, improving or worsening it…?  What do you feel are your biggest challenges?

–Michael: In some ways social media/Instagram is wonderful tool (see Answer 4).  In other ways in shrinks everything down to an odd miniature Western perspective cage. A funnel vision. That really isn’t how painting and sculpture works.  It isn’t even how live music or a performance works. Disconnecting from the physical or tangible is frightening in many ways.  That is another thing to kick against.  The great thing is that I can see images of a show 5000 miles a way in a few moments.  Days of shooting and developing slides. Even taking an overexposed polaroid photo of a painting you are working on to show someone, those times are clearly over. 

RAP: Art as a mirror of man, in this moment of emergency seems to be shattered …what do these fragments reflect now?… Shadow or light of the moment?

–Michael: Good times or bad times, it has always been a party of both. I don’t see anything that is shattered.  Was it hard to work during the pandemic, yes.  Everyone who made anything deserves a gold star.  Anyone who said it was easy, or the same – had their head way in the sand (good for them I guess).  But it is nothing compared to the Bubonic Plague hitting Venice, or AIDS’ siege on New York and the world in the 1980’s.  Look at all that art and culture that was made in the 1930’s and 1940’s when Europe was becoming a pressure cooker. I really think it is way early to judge our time.  As comedians would say to a peer when they were addressing a current raw and treacherous topic, “Too soon.” 

RAP: Understanding, interpreting, and then possibly judging the work of art; which is the right path when we are in front of a piece of art? 

–Michael: I judge my cup of coffee every morning.  It is the same thing.  No hierarchy.  Two blinks, one blink, and you know.  You may not understand it completely, actually that might be the best response for a piece of art.  It is personal choice to choose which works you sit down in front of and let time work on it and you.  Or to walk on by.

RAP: Which is the real role of Academies and Art schools today? What can artists learn from these institutions today?

–Michael: From what I hear class sizes in University Art school are full.  Too full. 60 students in a class.  I really don’t know if anything can be taught in such a situation. Nevertheless, students gather and truly want to learn.  Places that are skilled based, those should continue.  Though Matisse did close his own atelier as it was becoming what he hated.  I think the most important thing an Art school can do is choose students that can respond and react to each other as a unit.  You actually do learn more from your fellow students than your tutors.

RAP: Art too has undergone a complex process of globalization; can having an authentic and genuine style be an advantage or a drag for an artist? 

–Michael: It can be an advantage.  Though we have seen time and time again in history that sometimes being the first one to do it, to do that thing, you’re actually damned.

How do Art Galleries and Museums position themselves today, and, in your opinion, how should they?

–Michael: Some position themselves like the characters in Michael Lehmann’s film  Heathers.   Shoulder pads and all.  Thank goodness for the ones that follow their own intellect and beliefs of what is important in the now. 

RAP: “Figuration” or “Abstraction”? Which of the two is better descriptive of the period we live in? Which one will have a better future?

–Michael: These two descriptions, I loath.  I think it comes down to Duke Ellington saying there is two types of music – good music and bad music. That is it.  Art has always been a way to announce, “I am here, you are here, I exist, and in this brief moment we actually matter.” And more importantly one matters to oneself.

RAP: Today we often speak of “emerging artists”; what advice based on your experience do you feel you can give to young artists?

–Michael: Get a coffee pot or a hub stove to make coffee in the studio.  Save your money from the coffee shops.  Paint and supplies cost enough.

RAP: Art as a lens for reading the present, can it modify the space and time we pass through? …will art save us?

Nothing saves you but yourself.  And a few dear friends.