Art

#bronze
#sculptures

September 30, 2021
Grace Ebert

“Rock my Heart” (2018), bronze, 23 3/4 × 11 × 7 3/4 inches
Bisecting torsos with spirals or extending fringed ribbons from a figure’s side, Spanish artist Isabel Miramontes (previously) embeds motion within the bodies of her anonymous subjects. She casts fleeting gestures and poses in bronze, appearing to capture the twirl of a child’s dress or a deep forward bend. Each work, most of which stand between 20 and 30 inches high, contrasts the full, supple bodies of the figures with the emptiness created by the artist’s coiled interventions.
Miramontes is currently represented by Canfin Gallery in New York, where she currently has a few pieces available, and you can find a larger collection of works on Artsy.

“Tango” (2021), bronze, 30 7/10 × 23 3/5 × 7 1/10 inches
“Edge of the World-Standing” (2017), bronze, 27 1/2 × 9 7/8 × 5 7/8 inches
“Amor” (2017), bronze, 24 3/8 × 15 3/4 × 4 3/4 inches
“Angel Passes” (2021), bronze, 24 2/5 × 10 1/5 × 8 3/10 inches
“Glissade,” 20 x 20 x 6 inches
“Come On” (2021), bronze, 26 3/4 x 24 3/8 x 11 1/8 inches

#bronze
#sculptures

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member and support independent arts publishing. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about contemporary art, help support our interview series, gain access to partner discounts, and much more. Join now!

 
Share this story
  More


Art

#aliens
#drawing
#graphite
#science fiction
#technology

September 21, 2021
Grace Ebert

“Engineering Consciousness.” All images James Lipnickas, shared with permission
New Haven, Connecticut-based artist James Lipnickas conjures towering sci-fi structures filled with futuristic labs, clashes with aliens, and massive laser beams shooting from rooftops. Working in graphite, Lipnickas uses heavy shading to shroud his architectural renderings in mystery and unfamiliarity as tentacled creatures crack through the walls and humans become science experiments. “This series really grew out of my interest in advanced technologies integrating with humans and how it shapes us moving forward,” he says.
Amidst the machines and eerie contraptions, the artist interrupts each building with a level containing a garden bed or an illuminated tree grove. “The future holds many unknowns (technology and lifeforms).  We can’t forget the natural world while we move further from it,” he says.
Before the end of the year, Lipnickas will show some of his works at Chicago’s Vertical Gallery and in a few virtual exhibitions with WOW x WOW. You can find more of his drawings, and keep an eye out for an expansion of the series shown here, on his Instagram. (via Jeroen Apers)

“Through Different Identities” (2021)
“Way of the Future” (2021)
“Intelligent Machines” (2021)
“More than Human” (2021)
“A Simulated Reality”
“Techno Human” (2021)

#aliens
#drawing
#graphite
#science fiction
#technology

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member and support independent arts publishing. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about contemporary art, help support our interview series, gain access to partner discounts, and much more. Join now!

 
Share this story
  More


Art
Food

#installation
#plastic
#satire
#stores

July 7, 2021
Grace Ebert

Photo by Tony Lewis. All images courtesy of UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance, shared with permission
Wander into a new pop-up grocery store in Downtown Los Angeles, and you’ll find all of the typical options with an unusual twist: freezers stocked with tubs of “Bag & Jerry’s,” a robust produce section with bananas and tomatoes printed with advertisements, and mysteriously gray “polluted sausage” stuck to styrofoam trays.
Dubbed “The Plastic Bag Store,” the witty and satirical installation is the project of Robin Frohardt, who repurposed scores of bottle caps, packaging, and other single-use materials into a full-fledged grocery. Each of the non-edible items—many of which have undergone clever rebrands, meaning you’ll find family-sized boxes of Yucky Shards cereal, cases of Bagorade bottles, and clamshells of Earthbag Farms non-organic spring mix in the aisles—is made entirely with discarded waste that the Brooklyn-based artist, puppet-maker, and designer collected from garbage bins and trash sites.

Photo by Bailey Holiver
Paired with a performative component that envisions how future generations will interpret the inordinate amount of waste produced in today’s world, the installation literally displays the longevity of the items many of us use on a daily basis. According to recent estimations, the amount of plastic in the ocean is predicted to exceed the volume of fish by 2050, an ongoing crisis Frohardt wants to make more apparent. “’The Plastic Bag Store’ is a visually rich and humorous experience that hopefully encourages a different way of thinking about the foreverness of plastic, the permanence of the disposable and that there is no ‘away’ when we throw something out,” she says.
The grocery, which debuted in Times Square last fall with the tagline “Fake Food, Real Garbage,” is open at UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance through July 11. You can find more of Frohardt’s projects, many of which critique mass consumerism and capitalism through a humorous lens, on her site and Instagram. (via Hyperallergic)

Photo by Bailey Holiver
Photo by Bailey Holiver
Photo by Maria Baranova
Photo by Tony Lewis
Photos by Maria Baranova
Photo by Maria Baranova
Photo courtesy of Rundle Mall

#installation
#plastic
#satire
#stores

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member and support independent arts publishing. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about contemporary art, help support our interview series, gain access to partner discounts, and much more. Join now!

 
Share this story
  More


Art
Illustration

#animals
#art history
#cross-stitch
#landscapes
#nature
#tattoos

May 3, 2021
Grace Ebert

All images © Havva Karabudak, shared with permission
Havva Karabudak, who works as Eva Krbdk, thrives on inking minuscule details. Focusing on innumerable lines and dot work, the Turkish tattoo artist (previously) illustrates textured florals in cross-stitch, realistic portraits of animals, and micro-paintings in the likes of van Gogh, Magritte, and Fornasetti. Many of the vivid renderings are small enough to fit into a perfectly round circle or a skinny stretch of a client’s upper arm.
Karabudak’s background coalesces in her tattoos, including her formal education at the Fine Arts Academy of Ankara in Turkey and her love of textiles. “It’s pretty customary for young women to learn (embroidery) from their grandmothers in Turkey,” a statement about her work says. “As a result, tiny cross-stitch patterns were among the first tattooing styles that Eva embraced.”
Karabudak just opened her studio Atelier Eva in Brooklyn, and although she’s currently booked, you can watch for openings on Instagram.

#animals
#art history
#cross-stitch
#landscapes
#nature
#tattoos

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member and support independent arts publishing. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about contemporary art, help support our interview series, gain access to partner discounts, and much more. Join now!

 
Share this story
  More


Art

#installation
#plastic
#sustainability

July 19, 2020
Grace Ebert

“Floating MAiZE.” All images © Jean Shin and Ryan Muir, shared with permission
In her installation “Floating MAiZE,” artist Jean Shin employs more than 7,000 plastic bottles to create a stunning suspension above an atrium at Brookfield Place. The window-lined space allows light to refract through the translucent tendrils, which are hung in a staggered, circular shape. Layered with sustainable practices, the latest installation reuses the green, plastic bottles from the 2017 project, “MAiZE,” which utilized Mountain Dew that was consumed and collected in Iowa, the nation’s leader in corn production. Living and working in Brooklyn, Shin also sourced some pieces from Sure We Can, a nonprofit recycling center in her neighborhood.
The recycled piece falls at the intersection of environmental consciousness and commentary on food consumption in the United States. “Following the food chain from industrial-scale agricultural practice producing corn in America that ends up being consumed as high fructose corn syrup in soda and other processed foods, served up in plastics that become harmful pollutants in our oceans,” the artist writes on Instagram.
Shin tells Colossal that her works help to expose “the interdependency of their consumer habits to the larger ecosystem,” which she elaborates on by saying:
I use everyday objects and detritus that are often overlooked or obsolete to transform them into large scale installations. The lifecycle and accumulation of these consumer objects have a huge environmental impact. I am interested in where these materials come from, where they end up and who engages with them.
Along with her sweeping piece “The Last Straw,” “Floating MAiZE” will be on view through August 30 at Winter Garden at Brookfield Place. (via Hyperallergic)

#installation
#plastic
#sustainability

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member and support independent arts publishing. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about contemporary art, apply for our annual grant, and get exclusive access to interviews, partner discounts, and event tickets.

 
Share this story
  More