Author: Oscar Lopez Gibson
Photographer: Allison Specketer
Talon Geer is a Brooklyn-based artist who works with found-wood panels to create intricate, beautiful and surreal works based on popular imagery. Though not a trained artist, Geer is a skillful draughtsman, creating detailed representations of pop icons with both a quasi-religious and psychedelic tone. The works he creates are erotic, provocative and visually stunning.
Originally from California, Geer, like many artists, has led a gypsy-like existence. When he was fifteen he went on exchange to Hungary for eighteen months which he said was “so awesome.” Though he actually studied music in Hungary, upon returning to the US he began to develop his interest in drawing. He moved from Sacramento to San Francisco, then New Orleans and finally Austin, Texas. While he admits that Austin is an amazing city for the talented young, for him it wasn’t the right place: “I was trying to pursue an art career out there but it just wasn’t that kind of city. It was more music than it was art.” It was then that he decided to relocate to New York City.
Moving to New York has been for Geer arguably the greatest influence on his career: “that’s where it just exploded.” Geer moved into the McKibbin lofts in Bushwick. He was living in a space with seven other people who all worked in various creative industries, which created “a lot of creative energy that was just really inspiring. It really pushed me.” Prior to moving to New York, Geer’s work was something of a passionate hobby. Once in Brooklyn he says “it blossomed. It gave more room for creativity.” Geer credits the city itself for pushing him to take his career seriously as a professional endeavor: “there’s something about New York that just kicks you in the ass…it’s all on you.”
However, unlike many Brooklyn residents who have graduated with MFAs from places like Columbia and NYU, Geer is entirely self-taught. The only training he actually credits was in the sixth grade when his art teacher, Mr. French, “taught me how to graph out images to get the proportions right.” Other than that, Geer has been developing his style only through constant sketching.
Once in Brooklyn he began to develop his media more specifically. Though he started using oil paints and canvas, he found that they were “just crazy expensive” and therefore turned to a more sustainable option: ball-point ink and prisma colors on wood. Most of the wood he uses is found material discarded on the streets of Bushwick: he says that he “really liked the texture and how well the pen moved over the wood.” Though the result of this newfound material is that now “I have wood everywhere in my house.”
For inspiration Geer looks to popular culture icons as well as imagery from his own dreams and musings, often blending the two into surreal, colorful works. He talks about how “there’s something about high fashion ads that are so interesting to me” and admits that “I do tend to go towards the more sexualized stuff.” His sixth-grade graphing skills then come in handy as he transposes these glossy magazine images onto large wood panels and details the work in fluid, psychedelic patterns and bright colors. He has become particularly fascinated with “huge gay icons” such as Lady Gaga, Elizabeth Taylor, Rihanna and Lana del Rey.
Geer questions the nature of religion in our contemporary media-saturated world. The final works are reminiscent of large altarpieces or stained-glass windows: the religious overtones suggest the god-like status that these icons hold within our popular consciousness. Simultaneously Geer subverts traditional religious imagery: one of his works ‘Nuns with Guns’ depicts a row of colorful nuns holding machine guns. Another work, ‘Mother Teresa’, shows the revered nun smoking a cigarette. While these illustrations are no doubt drawn from popular, pre-existing imagery, their re-appropriation into a religious context problematizes traditional ideas of religiosity and makes us wonder what place faith has in our current media and celebrity saturated world.
Since being in New York, Geer has steadily increased his following through a variety of forms. Though he admits that he feels some regret at not having the network that an MFA program can provide, he has found his own path to exposure. His first ‘show’ was during the 2012 Bushwick Open Studios program when patrons were invited into his studio space/home to view his work. After receiving positive feedback, Geer began forming an online presence for his work, particularly through Instagram and Facebook. He is planning on starting a Tumblr page, which he says is “the big thing right now” for the art world.
This in turn has allowed him to develop his presence in the New York scene. He has been engaging with ‘pop-up’ art shows in which works are displayed at a venue for a matter of hours. Most recently heparticipated in John McMullen’s pop-up show at the Empire Hotel. He has also begun branching out, printing and selling his work on t-shirts and iPhone covers and has accepted commissions for new works by “throwing myself out on craigslist.”
Now beginning to establish himself as a practicing artist, Geer admits that he faces a new challenge: “it’s hard to see [the works] go, especially if I spend a while on them.” With the proliferation of his work online and the development of his original visual style, this is one problem Geer might have to get used to.
Follow on Instagram to see some his beautiful work: @talonanthonygeer
