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Contemporary Artist Nicholaas Chiao

From 2013: Contemporary Art: Questions and Answers 2013 (updated in 2024)

Q: What is the most crucial thing in the age of contemporary Art?

A. What is the most important in the era of industrial fabrication, mass production, and overproduction of nearly ALL types of goods (cars, houses, paintings, watches, just anything else)? The strength of the Brand is the supreme ruling authority. The Artist's responsiveness and adequacy to problems and technologies of our time, skills, and knowledge in composition, drawing, and painting, as well as their ability to market themselves and build fame, are all essential criteria for establishing new brands. See - oil paintings are historical products. It was produced in crazy numbers previously. Some museums have storage facilities that exceed their public galleries. With the new methods and technologies, producing paintings is increasingly more straightforward. Mass produce, some time. Artists sometimes think that they do not have to know how to draw anymore - they have photography, software, projectors, ink-jet, and robotic printers, and the Art of painting has become different. An increasing number of artists use industrial methods to produce their Art. More new artists are appearing and using AI generators without even learning composition. Is this bad, or is this good? It does not matter how; it matters "what." After all, this is all about branding one's aura and personal lifestyle; it is about making the highest quality items possible and getting mass media coverage.

Q: How can Nicholaas Chiao's Art be briefly described?

A: Nicholaas' artworks reflect the realities of life and the experiences accumulated over the years in Belarus and the United States. They are autobiographies through Art. They are sometimes revealing, shocking, and breathtakingly beautiful.

Q: Some of the artworks we see here are provocative. How can an artist get people to accept these ideas? Why does one need to disturb people?

A: Nicholaas Chiao has many works of a controversial shock value, often disconcerting and displeasing in character. Some of them are on themes of terror, suicide, politics, and insanity, and some of them on the issues of medicine and ethics. Some themes of these paintings often are the same as what is persistently delivered to the public by news agencies, so people deal with this daily. We can not force anyone to accept this as Art. All we can do is explain the work and thus allow the people to look at these problems through the Artist's eyes. The most profound Art is life itself in all complexity, and we tend to think of Chiao's Art as a strong reflection of life. As artists, we often choose to paint tragedies but always add optimistic colors and striking compositions to our works.

Q: Why does Nicholaas Chiao have so many styles in his work?

A: Yes, some people might have a question - why should one Artist have several styles in his work? Chiao's photo-based paintings sharply reveal and reflect the physical world, whereas the deconstructivist and other styles tend to penetrate the complex abstract world of the soul and experience. Life is complex, so Nicholaas' Art responds to pluralism in modern culture/world. Also, he will be bored (perhaps the same as the respectful public) to paint in the same style all the time.

Q: Besides conceptual and deconstructivist oeuvres, Nicholaas Chiao produces a lot of photo-based paintings, especially the images of museums. Tell us more about these paintings.

A: Why are there so many images of museums? We can quickly answer this question. There is some constant demand for it from the art collectors. Paintings of museums with visitors are an image of authority in the art world; also, they are a good metaphor for human life. Birth, aging, and Death are all metaphorically present in the multiple artworks in the museum galleries. Visitors are also usually of all ages. Of course, the images of museums are visually rich and have complex narratives, which makes them an excellent subject for any painting.

Q: How does Nicholaas Chiao explain works such as The Thousand Years and The Midday Suicide?

A: The Thousand Years, this sculpture is just a drop of semen on a glass square. Damian Hirst has an iconic work with the same title. This sculpture is a slight sarcasm to his side. Thousands, millions of years since the beginning of life, the sperm (or any similar mechanism) transmitted the life of one organism to another, hence the name. Well, opposite the meaning of generations of dead after dead and unspeakably simpler than Hirst's masterwork. The Midday Suicide is indeed a sadistic piece of Art. It depicts the collapse of a young and sexually attractive woman on a candy-colored background. The reason for the suicide is unknown - perhaps denied religion of her love, or midday excessive heat, excess hormones, just an unfortunate accident? We think this artwork is quite an iconic representation of the controversies of modern life.

Q: What will be the Art of the next century?

A: Similar to Contemporary. Something relevant to the lifestyle and values of the future. At best, this will be sensations produced by knowledge of the CIA and KGB mixed with science and psychiatry. We may contemplate life in new, more intellectual, and richer ways. We have color, form, art mediums, composition, specific rules of philosophy and aesthetics - and multiple ways to combine them on a larger scale endlessly. In around 2027, AI robot painters could seriously challenge human artists everywhere, even at auction houses. By 2034, stopless AI image generation will lead to the overproduction of Art in all versions, and conventional art history will be over. We consider Nicholaas Chiao's project, The Idols of Niertismus, the last influential historical work of Art. After 2034, AI robots will do most jobs, and most people will not be employed anymore. We will live in the likeness of computer games and artful virtual realities. Everyone in the 2030s can become an artist and create their art history.

Q: What influences Nicholaas Chiao?

A: Life, literature, music. He likes music. Richard Wagner, Bach, basically all classical music, Depeche Mode, Lily Allen, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, different music could give a lot of different moods, which he tries to use in Art. In literature, this is "Stranger" by Albert Camus. Friedrich Nietzsche, Bible, Torah, Sigmund Freud. Cinema: Ingmar Bergman's movies, Quentin Tarantino, and David Lynch. Also, biographical movies about Artist's lives, like the film Basquiat by Julian Schnabel. Science and technology influence him, as does everyone else.

Q: Politics and Art, enemies or friends?

A: Art served the Church and Kings. Now, it also serves the government - Presidential prestige, economic goals, patriotic propaganda, education, luxury, and even so-called Potemkin villages. The current history of Art is robust; it was written by the government and institutions and rarely by artists—only the most prominent artists shadow institutions. Contemporary Art will bring little money (if any) unless you trigger someone with political and economic powers to become interested in it.

Q: The September 11 terror themes seem important for Chiao; why?

A: He recognizes the necessity of recording them as historical precedents and their impacts. Moreover, he tries to do it respectfully, delicately, and truthfully—and beautiful, a sort of sacred beauty. Chiao hopes to produce a final record for tragedies. So they are not to be repeated. He tries not to produce too much work themed by global catastrophes. It could be more ethical sometimes to keep silent.

Q: What is Nicholaas Chiao's opinion about Art as a business practice?

A: Only if one manages to create an instantly recognizable and known Brand does it become a business. Otherwise, making Art is simply an investment of time into manufacturing quite personally essential and exciting items. Then, upon years of serious practice, the Artist starts to develop certain publicly demanded qualities, sound themes, and recognizable styles that could bring him to the top.

Q: What do Nicholaas Chiao think people expect to receive from the experience of Art?

A: This was always a solid sensual and spiritual experience. Art is sometimes a substitute for travel. Time and technologies change forms and media, but messages are always the same. People get new Ideas, Inspiration, Different moods, and a desire to follow artists and live. Finally, he assumes, to experience love.

Q: Who among twentieth and twenty-first-century artists is most important to Chiao?

A: We will not pretend to give any final opinion; no such thing is ever possible in Art. One can calculate the cultural value of Art or Artists. How? All we have is a measurable social impact. We must mention Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Max Beckmann, Marc Chagall, Kazimir Malevich, Arshile Gorky, Yves Tanguy, Roberto Matta, Piet Mondrian, Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Jean Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, On Kawara and he loves much more names. We name Damien Hirst, Maurizio Cattelan, Eric Fischl, Tracy Emin, Neo Rausch, Gerhard Richter, Takashi Murakami, Andreas Gursky, Yayou Kusama, Marlene Dumas, Luc Tuymans, Ghada Amer, Pipilotti Rist, Peter Doig, Dana Shutz, Lemour Pelli, Andrei Molodkine, Boris Zaborov, Gavriil Vashenko and so much more. Everyone can achieve 15 minutes of fame or paint an outstanding work of Art. However, the matter is how to make a lasting impression and historical impact for hundreds of years, which can do just a few chosen ones. We believe the masters listed above are essential in many aspects.

Q: What does Nicholaas Chiao think about Charles Saatchi? Do his speculations inflate the value of contemporary Art? Should one expect the market bubble around Contemporary Art to burst soon?

A: There are some trends, fashionable artists, and trend makers. Also, there is a demand for different Art from different levels of collectors. People want to collect exclusive, coveted, socially approved, and rare things. It is a fact that most wealthy people know each other in person. For example, Warren Buffet would call everyone on this Forbes Top 100 list to greet every person who is there. There is also something familiar about the set of quality marks required for the wealthiest group to accept value in Art; there are fashions to own works by specific artists that are coming up and down. When he was more active in sales, Charles Saatchi was for the art market, the same as Warren Buffet for the stock market; he was a mega collector adman that many followed. His collection of Contemporary Art is challenging to Tate and MoMA collections. Chao sympathizes with Saatchi, especially about making names for Damien Hirst and other YBAs. There are some speculations, and some artists' prices are sometimes rising higher and higher. The global contemporary art market will likely stay strong. However, besides high points, it could also slow down, and crashes and "bankruptcies" may occur in the markets of some individual over-hyped artists or artists who will be producing too many low-quality efforts. By 2030, the Art market will be flooded with all kinds of Art by AI and a growing number of Artists and robot painters. Most Contemporary Art for 2030 and after might be denied any value by then, and only historical works will remain highly coveted.

Q: How many artists could make a living from Art?

A: Many famous artists, plus some emerging, if they win fellowships and grants or have a talented art dealer(s). Many artists achieve government, business, and private commissions and sell online to their clients without dealers and classical gallery representation.

Q: Whom, if anyone, should one listen to for some advice while acquiring Art?

A: Someone should listen to their necessities, feelings, and reasoning. To whom should one listen when choosing a husband or wife? Same with the Art. One should buy Art that will comfort them every day. Start collecting cautiously from affordable prints, posters, catalogs, books, and cheaper studies and autographs. We advise anyone to become familiar with the History of Art before investing serious money in Art. Nicholaas Chiao had a great library of all historical and contemporary Art. He admires all of Art, from ancient Egyptian Art to cave paintings. Chiao admires a lot of contemporary artists. If individuals are planning to gain while buying Art, then be careful - Art is rather philanthropic. Some people trade works of Art like they trade stocks, and some are in profit. Then, if one buys Art for a profit, one should think about how many other people could wish to buy work by selected Artists or how many other collectors could present on the Artist's client waiting list.

Q: What is philanthropy in Art?

A: Yes, many masterworks would have been impossible without philanthropic patrons. Just remember the Medicis and Vatican commissions. However, for them, philanthropy was not the only thing; they gained much prestige, obtained mind-control weapons, and enjoyed the luxury of it.

Q: Should Art be popular?

A: Yes, it must be popular. Acceptance of different Art should be widespread. Mass Acceptance. We have mass media and education to popularize it. Every school should hold Art lessons. Thankfully, Art is already popular. There are ways to obtain more popularity. For example, more specialized Art lessons for the public in schools, colleges, and Universities. Using social media networks to spread it more professionally. For example, street artists, mostly Banksy, Kaws, Invader, and others, use risky but logical ways to get attention, such as making Art in highly exposed public places.

Q: Are paintings a better investment than sharks in formaldehyde or bananas on the wall? Diego Velazquez canvases still look terrific for 400 years, and it is much easier to keep unrotten.

A: Art is an Investment only when fashion and its demand will not quickly disappear. Science will never disappear. Most historical masterpieces are above fashion; it is timeless historical and social records and governmental prestige, like science. Preservation is an important issue, and it is quite doable for sharks, too.



Haunting Beauty, Fear of Death and Protection We live in the informational age when the importance of an image and the relation of the viewer to it often comes from endless repetition of the image by media outlets.

However, does the repetition of Art by the media outlets make it any good? Not really, but if it is about making it important to the audience, then it does.

Contemporary Art still involves good drawing, novel and interesting composition, and striking and harmoniously balanced color in the first instance. However, games with the authority of the Artist are also essential, heavily utilizing instincts, addictions, and audience beliefs.

Nicholaas Chiao has a variety of styles. Life is too complex to fit in one style, he affirms.

In his work, the Artist seeks not only beauty but often a different measure of importance - it could be the fame of a sitter in a portrait, the importance of a thing, event, or place, or the memorable style of the work.

His first commercially successful project was "Museum Paintings," where artists used the authority of museum backgrounds in figurative scenes to produce and sell paintings that art collectors quite coveted. Then, he introduced a new style, which he called deconstructivism. The mix of cubism and abstract expressionism, this style produced memorable results using unconventional treatment of form.

People always fear Death and the end of something, but there is always the end, and new beginnings exist. Moreover, in the end, and above everything else, there is a theory and ways to use it. Paintings, Drawings, Installations, and Sculptures are objects of infinite production in exceptional and varied forms. Nevertheless, which is important for them? Promoted by museums and media? Hauntingly beautiful? Sold for millions? Historical Records? Or those having a clear explanation of importance? Maybe all of this? Furthermore, Chiao's medical series came into play. Utilizing the Warholian approach to the design of pieces with Hirst's shock value, Chiao created the "Last Judgment" series. It is just a bright package, a reminder of the possibility of synthesizing the human body and supporting the life of the cells and tissues. These works were partially lost. End of nature and triumph of science, victory over Death (likely available finally for a crimeless man in the situation recalling the Biblical story of the Last Judgment and resurrection of all dead), but also, the end of the history of a man and beginning of Uberman. Beyond the Death of Homo Sapiens, there is a demand for ultimate Genius only.

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