When I first met Steven Ferri, he was the art director of a new media company. In the parlance of the mid-nineties, “new media” was an all encompassing idiom for that new-fangled fad called the internet. During the rise of Indiewood and the fall of OJ, I was fresh out of school with a Bachelor of Arts in computer animation and design; I was all about this new media. Dreams of Pixar and visions of ILM danced in my fanboy head. The wireframe renderings of Brett Leonard’s The Lawnmower Man – “I Am God Here!” – was an inspirational mantra.
Of all things new media, I quickly learned I was not god. I was a mere Daniel-San. And Steven would become my Mr. Miyagi.
I fondly recall one of Steven’s pieces from those studio days. One of our benefactors was sponsoring a golf event that was all polo-shirt proud and cigar-time celebratory. Steven was commissioned to design the poster. Instead of using a generic photo of a greenway with a hazy Photoshopped filter of sunlight and lawn clippings, Steven designed the entire piece in Illustrator. He built the ball and manually added shadows and dimples, ensuring each element captured the light in a perfectly natural way. His typography wrapped around the ball informing and enhancing, not spoiling with an info dump of copy. As a true artist, he was never completely pleased either. He labored in order to work toward perfection. He demanded the same from me.
“What is the theme?” he would ask. “I want you to show me movement in stillness,” was a design critique. And of my rampant use of all those fantastic Photoshop filters? “Just because they are available, does not mean you need to use them.”
We worked together at two different “new media” studios. Capitalized on the dot-com boom. Went separate ways during the bust. Grew older and lived life. Marriages and mortgages. Children and car leases. For Steven Ferri, art has always remained a passion. Using his chic surname “Ferri”, he paints and draws, mixes photography and film, and often all within a digital (read: new media) environment.
Ferri recently graduated from the Art School Masters, founded by British artist Stuart Semple, and is part of an online exhibition called Just Show Up. Inspired by Semple’s book Make Art Or Die Trying, Just Show Up is an online experience that combines mixed media and digital concepts. The virtual art gallery cleverly allows the viewer to zoom in, observe, and interact with a number of pieces that range in color, beauty, and theme all without a pesky museum guard.
Ferri’s piece features another of his artistic motivator’s, the contemporary artist Anselm Kiefer. Titled “Anselm Kiefer’s Bicycle”, Ferri’s 52-second video shows the artist bicycling around in his massive studio. Keifer pedals and contemplates. He stops to check out a larger-than-life mounted piece only to resume by passing by a giant 1950s-style rocket.
Ferri is enamored with a studio space large enough to spin around in on a bike. He wants the viewer to think about space – space big enough to get lost in. The accompanying sound of a passing airplane and the echo of a whistle lends to this cavernous idea. Big ideas which can lead to a bigger jumping off point. The video loops in a mesmerizing way allowing the viewer to get lost in thoughts, or to simply enjoy the ride.
Ferri’s online site is a mixture of monochromatic drawings and vivid photography. His “Tell Me Prototypes” combine linework animation with righteous beats you can dance to.
Throughout the long time I have known Ferri, he has constantly kept an ever-evolving artistic style. His photographic eye always captures color as he purposefully seeks motion. Together, we laughed our way through the Alcatraz tour, somehow talked our way into a private club in New York, and got caught in a rainstorm while in line for Danny Boyle’s Philadelphia premiere of Trainspotting. Ferri continues to think big even in small places. And when it comes to art, just showing up is a perfect theme for him.
The Just Show Up is available through the Virtual Art Gallery from 12 December 2024 through 12 January 2025
Steven Ferri’s online portfolio is available at Ferriart.com
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