Painting the Built World The Intersection of Architecture and Art

Organized by The Bridge Arts Foundation, the "Urban Pulse" Open Call Exhibition is now on view at The Scholart Selection Gallery in San Gabriel, California, running through February 22, 2025.

As part of the exhibition, The Bridge Arts Foundation’s Art Director, Tia Xu, sat down with several participating artists to discuss their creative process and artistic vision. In this interview, we are delighted to feature a conversation with artist Alan Robert Garry.

—— Q&A ——

Tia Xu: Could you please share your background and what inspired you to pursue a career in art?

Alan Robert Garry: I have always enjoyed looking at pictures & sculptures, and making them, when I was able. In the sixth grade I was introduced to the impressionists, Cezanne & Picasso. I continue to be inspired by my teachers and other artists.

My impetus is to give back, or enter into, however whispered, a conversation with all artists, for some of the great feelings they have given me.

I am not a great, possibly not even a good artist. But it is my only way of saying thank you.

Tia Xu: What does "Urban Pulse" mean to you, and how does your artwork explore this theme? Can you tell us the story behind your artwork from the exhibition?

Alan Garry, *Rocinha Series 3 No 1*, 2021, Oil and graphite on canvas, 32 x 32 x 1.5 in, photo courtesy of the artist.

Alan Robert Garry: I think that buildings and therefore cities are not applied art, but art in perhaps its highest state. When I go to Europe, I go to see, of course the museums, but mostly I think people come to see the buildings and the cities. And this is what the Urban Pulse is.

My work is about the builtscape.

A geometry is created by the multiple decisions made as people built without a pre-conceived framework. There is a beauty and movement in their assemblages, even in the most economically impoverished areas, as each builder had to deal with what their needs were and what had been constructed before them.

How different this is for me, an architect practicing in NYC, where the zoning ordinance creates pre-conceived (and poorly sometimes) envelopes on all sites, and the streets are, mostly, grided.

Rocinha 3.1 (Series 1, Variation 1) was for me, my breakthrough piece. I had done two other variations of the area (a favella outside Rio de Janiero). I hope it is not (like Rachmaninoff’s Second) my best. Prior to this piece I had only done little vignettes, 8x8 to max 24x24, so to go to 32x32, with, instead of say 20 buildings to well over 200, was a stretch. It took me many weeks, because each building, each brushstroke, is as critical as the next. I worked building by building, so I really had no sense of the whole until it was mostly done.

Tia Xu: What materials and techniques do you prefer to use in your art, and could you explain your choices?

Alan Robert Garry: The initial image starts from Google Maps. From there I work with graphite drawings & color studies before I create the larger image.

I work with graphite on paper, which I have done all my life.

I was always attracted to color, and oil paint provides me with the strongest colors. I love the feel of the brush with oil paint on the canvas: the shock of creating color on the white. I do not like the canvas moving away from the brush, so I back all my canvases with MDF board. It also makes drawing on the canvas easier, and safer to travel. (During my glass sculpture years I never sent a piece to a competition that did not crack – not a particularly durable medium)

I make my own frames & canvases: that way I am not confronted for the first time with the white canvas, and have already started the creative process: like sticking one’s toe in a pool. I work on heavy cotton canvas. The surface of the canvas must have tooth for the paint but be smooth enough for the graphite cartoon or layout: layers of gesso & sanding.

I initially project the images from google maps, but then I have to retrace and redraw to get the relationships between the lines & spaces I want. Lately I have been using colored pencils as they require require less fixative before the paint.

Sometimes the pieces come out alla prima; other pieces require re-working and glazing. I like the alla prima pieces (Rocinha 3.1 is one) because more of the graphite remains in the final image. The great thing about oils is the ability to erase. However, I am impatient so I often add accelerator to the medium.

I keep it simple: no plates, shopping carts, pieces of other material.

Piano vs symphony orchestra.

Tia Xu: Can you describe a challenging moment or obstacle you've encountered during your artistic journey and how you successfully overcame it?

Alan Robert Garry: There is usually a point, midwayish, where your impulse is to throw the painting out, and then empty the entire studio into your car and bring it to the dump. That is a tough hurdle, it sort of affects all your waking moments until you breakthrough. I think I run just slightly more than 50-50: ( interesting and good) vs. (how should I cut this up or should I just toss it and save the frame). But of course, if you know how it is going to turn out, why paint it?

Viewers should take away

That we are, in everything we do, part of the beauty of this world.

Tia Xu: Are there any other series that you are currently working on? Would you mind sharing them with us?

Alan Robert Garry: I found an image in the Times of a town in Mississippi after a tornado removed roofs & destroyed buildings. I did not want to record disasters, but I liked the idea of images of buildings without the roofs. Buenos Aires has provided several locations, so for the last year plus I have been working on them

Music

I work to music. I need something I can listen to that lasts the entire day, and I can binge (in some cases years) on a single series. Currently it is the Mahler Symphonies.

Other suggestions: Beethoven Piano Sonatas & String Quartets, Schubert Sonatas, Wagner Operas, Peter Grimes, Bruckner Symphonies, Sibelius Symphonies, Goldberg Variations.

The Bridge Arts Foundation's "Urban Pulse" Open Call Exhibition Installation View, Photo: ©The Bridge Arts Foundation / Luna Hao

ABOUT OPEN CALL EXHIBITION PROGRAM

Bridge Arts Foundation's Open Call Exhibition Program is committed to supporting emerging artists by providing them with opportunities to showcase their work. "Urban Pulse" features 16 outstanding artists selected from over 100 submissions through a rigorous jury process involving art professionals. This exhibition runs from January 20th to February 22nd, 2025, at The Scholart Selection Gallery, offering a dynamic exploration of the energy, complexity, and human connections within urban spaces.

ABOUT ARTIST

Alan Robert Garry was born in 1950 in NYC. He attended Stuyvesant HS, and then Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he received an architecture degree in 1972.

After college studied painting and sculpture. During the 1970’s he created a series of glass sculptures using the Tiffany techniques and exhibited in several competitions and shows. In the 1980’s he started his own architectural firm in NYC, and is still currently practicing. Although he was plein air painting for several years, in 2020 he started studio oil painting. His passion for travel, cities & architecture, for building, is the impetus behind his painting. His process is a combination of drawing and drafting from his background in architecture and plein air painting.

Alan is currently submitting his work to regional, national and international juried exhibitions, and he exhibits each year at the Armonk Art Show.

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