A luxurious artist book by Michael Manning gathering a selection of 100 digital drawings, each from four distinct series of paintings.
The experimentation of this medium started with Manning's regular contribution to phonearts.net, a website dedicated to art made with smartphones. In this way he continued to explore the painting emulation software's possibilities, thanks to Microsoft 8 operating system and his touchscreen interface, and FreshPaint also, a finger painting app. The book features a previously published essay on the mobile practice of the Microsoft Painting series, written by Brian Droitcour. He analyzes our condition of users and what is possible to do with no studio and no gallery. Gene McHugh summarizes the influence of Southern California sun on Manning's palette. “Amphibious Materiality” by Peter J. Adam describes the gooeyness in “Wild Fusion” gestural affectivity. Finally, as Manning said in conversation with Lucy Chien: “It's like coconut bath wash, sandy hair, palm tree sunset vaped out pelican art lol”
Michael Manning (born 1985, lives and works in Los Angeles) explores alternative approaches to producing and distributing traditional art objects using technology and social networking. Manning makes paintings, videos, and installations that stem from the internet and software, utilizing the crypto-materiality of computer technology in conjunction with his interest in punk counterculture movements.
