Today we visit the studio space of Brooklyn-based Ethan Greenbaum, where the artist is working on a number of pieces for his upcoming shows. Known for his sculptural work, Ethan has been exploring new mediums with prints that provide a meeting place for conventional and non-conventional materials.

 

POST NEW: Where is your studio based?

Ethan Greenbaum: I'm located in the murky space between Gowanus and Sunset Park in Brooklyn. A realtor could give you a better answer.

 

PN: What do you like about its location?

EG: Well, the price is right. Also, the area feeds into my work. It's in an Industrial strip separating Carroll Gardens and Park Slope. Between these two very picturesque neighborhoods is an area filled with giant scrapyards, trash dumps and continuous construction. Biking through it on my way to the studio is stimulating.

 

PN: Are you influenced by any particular art movements?

EG: Sure, although I'm more interested in individual artists. I'm typically drawn to bodies of work that are too idiosyncratic to fit into one movement. Some favorites are Robert Overby, Richard Artschwager, Rachel Harrison, John Divola, and Gordon Matta Clark. They all share a disregard for genre boundaries and have an ability to draw out the strangeness in the everyday that I love.

 

PN: What draws you to sculpture?

EG: I like the material fact of sculpture. I often have my head in a more abstract space and there is something very sober and grounding about objects. I think thats why I return to architecture as subject matter. Buildings are the most pervasive and undeniable objects around. 

 

Having said all that, I have a background in painting and I still mostly make images. Images have a unique ability to combine my tactile and psychological experiences within a compressed space. Making images lets me have it both ways.

 

PN: What's that you're working on?

EG: 
I've recently been making a series of double sided prints on plexiglass that layer images of organic and synthetic building materials like stone and formica. I'm also making vacuum formed photos of concrete sidewalks and paper presses of different wall textures. 

 

PN: How is concrete significant to your work?

EG: Metaphorically.

 

PN: Do you have any exhibitions lined up?

EG: I'll have work in a show about Plato's Cave at Boston University soon along with some great artists. It was organized by Dushko Petrovich, an artist and editor at Paper Monument. I also currently have work up at the Aldrich Museum in Connecticut and at Blackburn 20/20 which is part of the Elizabeth Foundation, NY.

 

 

ethangreenbaum.com

 

Jack Smylie

Photographer - Clément Pascal