FRANKLIN PERKINS

Franklin Perkins grew up in Los Angeles until he left for school at age 18. He inherited his interest in art at a young age. His parents would keep series of paintings and sculptures in the house from the rental gallery at the LA County Museum as well as buy other gallery works and outsider pieces from the Barnsdall Park exhibitions. Being constantly surrounded and intrigued by such works, led Perkins to start creating art of his own using watercolor, poster paint, and collage.

Franklin Perkins has a BA from Stanford in English literature, a degree in American art from Sotheby’s Institute New York, and attended the San Francisco Art Institute: the place where he found art to be his calling. He has been in several publications and exhibitions since 2001. He now lives and works as an artist full time in Brooklyn, New York.

Artist’s Statement

My work is concerned with some of the basic building blocks of visual expression: line, shape, form, scale, and color. I have experimented with applying to painting the properties of graphic art, advertisements, posters, and block prints. What I investigate in each series of paintings is much like the territory that a composer explores within the format of theme and variation. I see in my work the influence of the artists that have affected me most: Kelly, Warhol, Mondrian, Matisse, and Cornell.

These are two chief concerns when I paint: The idea of the modern. What is modernism today? What does the modern eye want to look at? What might a modern painting look like? And then there is color: the only jewel in the crown of art to which painters can still make the primary claim. What does modern color look like?

Exhibitions

Williamsburg (Brooklyn) open studios, 2001, 2002, and 2003.

DUMBO (Brooklyn) open artist exhibition, 2002 and 2003.

Garment district (Manhattan) open studios, 2006, 2007.

“Night of 1000 drawings” at Artists Space, Soho NYC December 2008.

Eileen Lane Antiques, Soho NYC, spring 2008.

Participant in ongoing group exhibition, Jan Larson Gallery, DUMBO, from 2005 to present.

Education

Stanford University B. A. in English literature.

Loyola University of Chicago School of Medicine M. D.

San Francisco Art Institute

Sotheby’s Institute, New York. Graduate Certificate in American Art.

Publications

Art Calendar, Sept. 2008, p.7 (Photo of Blue Willow)

Road to the Auction House, by Jung Mihn Park. Amazon Books, Seoul, South Korea, 2005, p.116. (Photo of artist and his painting).