Naomi Clark
Artist and Co-Founder of Fort Makers
Naomi Clark received her MFA in painting from Pratt Institute. Her initial collaboration with Fort Makers, The Blanket Project, was a natural progression from the work she did for her Pratt thesis show. At Pratt, Naomi painted found objects, and she related her approach to that of Marcel Duchamp’s. For The Blanket Project, Naomi continues this approach by painting on found, old, wool blankets. In her exploration of breaking free from the canvas, Naomi has painted Fort Makers’ ties, blankets, scarves, dresses, lamp shades and pillows, as well as stage backdrops for MoMA PS1’s Warm Up series. Naomi’s major influences include Louise Bourgeois, Marcel Duchamp, Joan Mitchell and Willem De Kooning. She continues to paint canvases, and her paintings can be seen at naomi-clark.com.
What are you working on now?
I'm working on many projects at the moment including gearing up for a show of paintings coming up at Legion in San Francisco in October. I am also working on various textile collaborations with Fort Makers, like a new season of the acclaimed 'The Dress Project'. I'm excited for this series of dresses because it was one of the earliest Fort Makers colllabs and fashion is a fascinating medium for all of us. We will also be releasing hand-painted scarves and curtains soon.
Describe your artistic practice
My artistic practice is first and foremost a practice. I work on my art daily, and I have many projects in different mediums happening simultaneously. One of my cornerstones is an ongoing series of gauche paintings that I use to sketch ideas about color, form, and place, and as an exercise of the hand. My practice is punctuated with large paintings and projects influenced by landscape, scale and color. Many of these projects are in collaboration with Fort Makers and have taken the form of Action Paintings. These moments are captured with film and photography which has influenced the way I think about other more static mediums such as paint. Like, does line and form have a narrative?
Naomi's Breakfast
How Naomi gets to work
Naomi's Favorite Tool
Describe your biggest artistic influence
It is always changing. Last year and this summer Nick Cave was very inspiring to me. It culminated with seeing his show at Park Avenue Armory which was just out of this world! Now I am looking at Jean Dubuffet and Sheila Hicks. I've also been thinking a lot about Anges Martin and Tanya Aguiñiga.
