11 Questions with Paul Lorenz

With an education in Bauhaus architecture, fine art, and music composition, Paul Lorenz (Chicago USA, 1961) has carved an intriguing niche in the international art world: bridging the immediacy of drawing, sound performance, music, and digital collage with the logic and detail of architecture. All media are a balance of physical structure (wood, canvas, paper, mylar); visual structure (brush strokes, scrapes, photographs, lines); and color, whether overt or atmospheric, allowing the creative process to be the final subject.

The recent work in the digital collage is a direct response to his recent relocation to Arizona. The daily need to create has made digital exploration a necessity. By pouring through a cache of photographs, decades in the making, new compositions, and personal definitions are realized. The combination of imagery and geometry evoke architectural elevations and renderings, which has always been the essence of Paul’s work, while also being personal reflections of life, location, and circumstance.

Artist profile PAUL LORENZ

Paul was born in Chicago but has lived and worked globally through personal moves and residency opportunities. After graduating from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, he went on to study oil painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the International School of Art in Italy (under Nicolas Carone and Irving Petlin), and the University of California, Berkeley. Paul recently completed his MFA in Music Composition from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in February 2019.

Paul regularly exhibits with galleries in the USA and Europe. As a member of Pintura Fresca, an international group of abstract artists, he has exhibited worldwide, with past exhibitions in Australia, Singapore, Austria, England, and Sweden. Paul had his first solo exhibition in Europe in 2009 at Galerie Daniel Vignal in Toulouse, France, and was the only US resident artist to participate in the historic Realities Nouvelles exhibition in Paris in 2012 and 2013. At the same time, artist-in-residence at the Shangyuan Art Museum near Beijing in 2014, numerous paintings and music scores were created. His latest European exhibition was with the Accessible Art Fair in Brussels, Belgium, in 2018.

As a performance artist, Paul’s durational pieces, ‘untitled: LINE’ (2016) and ‘Linear Stream’ (2018), performed with his sound ensemble Perception Project, explored interior space amplified/manipulated line drawing with graphite sticks, microphones, and live musicians. His 2019 solo exhibition at Modified Arts in Phoenix, Arizona, combined acoustic sounds of drawing and trumpet. Stay curious, distill ideas down to their essence, and push personal boundaries... always.

paullorenz.tumblr.com | @paul_w_lorenz

ARTIST STATEMENT

“My work is my autobiography.

Current work explores space and volume, line and geometry, past and presents using photography and video as the means to establish image and composition. The pandemic quarantine has allowed me to examine images from sound projects, travel locations, studio life, and an on-going self-portrait series and to let new ways of looking at the relationship of abstraction and representation emerge. Snippets of life, gesture, place, sex, and color are brought together to form visual scapes. For years I have pondered the notion of what is representation/reality and abstraction/truth. Is a photograph reality or truth? Is representation abstraction or reality? In an era of technology-driven media, do boundaries blur, or do they simply stop existing?

Architecture continues to be the most inspirational means to explore my visual, performance, and sound work. The collection of digital images responds to my Bauhaus education at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. It reflects my current life in Arizona, which is new and a bit disorienting. Art is a combination of experiences and current questions needing contemplation. As I review my photographs, the life that made them come back to me affects my current state of mind and creativity. Memories push me forward to find the conclusions that the new works demand. A new life in a new location opens the door for fresh responses and outcomes. What the photographs capture is merely the beginning of the visual journey to what the digital collages become.

Abstraction is not a style, but a state of mind... a balance of subtlety and boldness, confidence and risk... the known, and what needs to be found.”

INTERVIEW

What kind of education or training helped you develop your skillset?

What has always guided my thoughts and work has been my time studying architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. My class was the last class to have the original Mies van der Rohe curriculum that he brought from the Bauhaus when he left Germany for the United States. It is an education and way of thinking that I cherish and respect. Understanding and exploring proportion and materials, strengths and expectations of media, and the curious mindset needed tocomplete a finished composition; all stem from the logic instilled in me from those early years.The same education and logic, years later, evolved my ideas on line and proportion to explore music composition and complete my MFA in Music Composition at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2019.

Please describe the intention behind your art. How do you successfullyexpress this intention?

My intention has always been to create a clear connection between all media I explore: architecture, painting, drawing, photography, music composition, and sound performance.Depending on life, location, and time, my work does have different outcomes. My drawings give me great satisfaction and focus, and I have found many architects and designers understand and appreciate the precision and intellectual challenges. The new digital collages seem to combine the worlds of painting, drawing, and photography in ways that speak to my true intentions on composition, media, and self. Thedigital collages explore and expose my ideas on balance and conclusion and explore my history as a man and as an artist. They test my privacy and openness. The collages play with the past and the present. All of my music compositions are based upon visual media, which is also the case of my sound performances.My desire has always been to let the art have its own identity. I was just the vehicle, not the focus. By using photography, I am finding a more complex arena that involves not just a final composition but also myself, which excites me. Lately, I have been pondering using digital collages as a means to develop music scores.

You have been noted saying: "Abstraction is not a style, but a state ofmind...a balance of subtlety and boldness, confidence and risk...the known, and that what needs to be found." Can you expand on this philosophy and its importance?

I find 'abstraction' endlessly complex. The concept of abstraction as a state of mind comes from my Bauhaus roots. If you look for a solution or conclusion that is intriguing or profound, you must seek it with curiosity and objectivity. There is no room for 'style'...that just clouds the outcome.I have found that there is great power and balance when opposites are explored...a tension of balance that can easily shift with the blink of an eye. One bold mark does not need much to bring its value. Too much boldness needs quiet to keep it in check. These waves of dominance and submission are very intriguing to me. Personally, without some level of risk, nothing is very important. I rather enjoy panting myself into a corner,sometimes physically and intellectually, before a conclusion can be reached. The play of power can lead to very surprising outcomes. Sometimes the elements that you love and want to save in a piece are the ones that need to be destroyed to bring the piece to a conclusion or higher level. As artists, we all have to stay open to the possibility ofdestruction as the way forward. Maybe I am not talking about art any longer..?

What aspect of your work do you pay particular attention to?

I pay attention to all aspects intently, but I pay attention at different times during the process. I am very aware of the physical media I am going to use and the logic behind how I want to go about working on a piece, whether it is a drawing, painting, digital image, etc. Once the physical realities are determined, then comes the play and the process. That can be quite loose and fluid but always becomes grounded as a conclusion is being reached. Some pieces take many weeks, months, and years to complete, so my attention ebbs and flows as necessary, or how life is affecting me.Art is a balance of living and creating; it's the visual response to physical acts or situations. Being present while working is essential. I cannot have distractions; otherwise, I am just going through the motions. Sometimes that is part of the process of being alive, but no conclusions will be found.

How do you approach the notion of memory using abstraction as yourartistic expression?

Memory is intriguing. I am not a particularly sentimental person, but memories and past actions are part of moving forward. I think what is important is to learn from your past and not repeat it. Though I use older photographs for my digital work, I typically only use an image once not to be repetitive. An idea may get investigated in numerous ways over time, and there may be similarities between outcomes, but nothingis repeated as an intention.The idea of memories and the present coming together is very provocative. We see the past as we need and use it as we need. One reason I like collage is that I can re-examine and share my memories in ways that only I can truly understand and acknowledge. An image is just an image, on one level, for a viewer, but it may be something very personal for me. The fact that only I know for sure is rather comforting.

You are also a performance artist; please tell us more...

Performance is an organic evolution from my drawings, my history in architecture, and the intrigue of letting the public into my 'studio'. My performances to date involve the physical act of drawing a line, which my drawings explore and paintings touch upon.How does drawing a line react to the environment I am drawing it in? Typically I explore the making of a line as a way of exploring the architecture of a space. The last performances were part of my last two solo exhibitions, one near Chicago and the other in Phoenix, Arizona. In the performances, I explored the length of the art galleries bylaying paper or mylar on the floor and drawing a series of lines or gestures to record the textures of the floor and the length of the gallery. Performances can last from one hour to up to three hours (so far). Typically I have musicians or sound artists to explore the sound I am making while drawing... a sound improvisation of sorts.I find the performances challenging in good ways. They keep me present. They force me to react in particular and peculiar ways. They create a collaborative situation, which I really enjoy. They open my mind up to possibilities that a traditional drawing may not expose me to. I am now actively looking for buildings or rooms to explore for line andsound opportunities. I would love to record the aisle of a cathedral with line and sound.I would love to explore the sound possibilities in Palladio's Villa Rotonda in Italy. I love abandoned buildings for their mystery and unknown qualities of sound.

Lately, we often hear and talk about the impact of virtuality on the way we present ideas and artworks. How do you relate this to your philosophy about Here & Now?

The virtual world is now a real-world for art and expression. The Covid-19 pandemic brought the virtual world to our lives, whether we wanted it or not. My digital collage work is part of my acceptance of the virtual as an art platform. The images are created on a computer and may stay on the computer. I say that with sarcasm because all of my digital images are being printed as very limited edition prints (three prints perimage). Though we communicate globally through our computers, seeing work in person in a real space is still the most profound way of experiencing work. My digital images are printed larger than my computer screen, so the impact is different in real life.Aside from digital work, virtual possibilities with software and AI are pretty amazing. I am just starting to ponder the possibilities. I am a very computer naive artist, so it will take me some time to figure out how I can effectively combine my philosophy on line, density, composition to a completely virtual format...but; it is fascinating.

Could you talk about your creation process?

The process of creation is very organic and instantaneous. I may have an idea about a material to work on, like mylar, for instance. Do I want to work on sheets or a role?Once that decision is made, the process of drawing or painting becomes immediate, and I just start. Somethings will be good; others maybe not, but the collective whole will be about the materials, media, and my reaction to them. When I start a music composition, I first determine the drawing, painting, or photograph I want to analyze and work from. Once that is set, I usually start sketching over the image to determine what shapes or lines an instrument might play, how long the piece will be, etc. Intellectually I will stop when I surprise myself. Working with graphic scores can be very complicated for musicians, but ultimately the results can be electric.Sound projects are less spontaneous. There are parameters of space, scale, and distance. There are practical matters of media that have certain limitations. Performance is much more cerebral and planned.

What is the hardest part of your creativity? How do you overcomeobstacles in new projects during the pandemic period?

Luckily, I am very flexible and adaptable. When the building my painting studio was enclosed because of pandemic circumstances, I realized that painting and large-scale drawing would be on hold for a while. My home studio is about my computer, so the digital collages, video, and sound work became the focus. With the idea of making a line as the basic concept for my work, floating between one medium to another is not as jarring as it could be. I enjoy the thought that all of the different media play together and that life and circumstances can decide which get more or less attention. I never planned for or realized that a line could be so endlessly intriguing.

Any shows, galleries, or publications where our readers can find yourwork?

Oddly, the pandemic has offered numerous opportunities to come my way. The virtual world is vast, so I am happy to have a few online galleries and publications showing my work.'EXISTIMOS' is an online and live group exhibition (through Dab Art in Los Angeles on artsy.com and PRMX in Mexico City for the live exhibition) that features a marvelous group of artists showcasing what 21st-century queer art represents. Stills from my video 'Indigo' are featured in this exhibition.I am very happy too have thirty-three pages devoted to my digital collage images in the September/October 2020 online issue of Noisy Rain (www.noisyrain.com)Two photographs from my' Body as Landscape' series are in the online exhibition "Curated" By Social Media, curated by Beam Collective (www.beamcollective.net).I am scheduled for a group exhibition featuring my newest digital collage work at Work In Progress Galerie in Brussels, Belgium, in May 2021. Hopefully, a sound performance will part of the event as well. Covid-19 willing, I am hoping to be there in person with the work. While in Europe, I would love to exhibit more of the digital collage pieces andbe involved with sound collaborations in other cities.

What's the coolest art tip you've ever received?

When I started my MFA studies in 2016, the degree program started with a week-long residency to start the life and education process. Going into the program without a strong music background (I studied the piano when I was a child, age 8-17) and not being a professional musician started me off unconventionally. I have the skill set of an architect and visual artist... I had a conceptual logic of analyzing the visual to determine the audible. I went into a small panic during the residency and texted a nephew telling him my situation. He immediately responded by saying, 'You got into the program, just be yourself.'From that moment on, I did not question or worry about my place in the program or my outcome... I will always 'just be myself.'

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