Aurelia Butler

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    Miniature Watercolor Works by Ruby Silvious Are Painted on Stained Teabags

    
    Art
    Illustration
    #landscapes
    #miniature
    #painting
    #tea
    #watercolorNovember 26, 2021Grace EbertAll images © Ruby Silvious, shared with permissionRuby Silvious’s quaint seaside scenes and bucolic landscapes nestle between the torn edges and wrinkled folds of a used teabag. The Coxsackie, New York-based artist (previously) paints miniature scenes of everyday life on the stained paper pouches, leaving the string and tags intact as a reminder of the repurposed material’s origin. Silvious sells prints of her watercolor pieces on her site, and you can follow her latest projects and news about upcoming exhibitions—she will be showing her upcycled works in France and Japan in 2022—on Instagram.
    #landscapes
    #miniature
    #painting
    #tea
    #watercolorDo 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

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    In States of Ruin, Architectural Sculptures by Peter Callesen Spring from a Single Sheet of Paper

    
    Art
    #architecture
    #paper
    #sculptureNovember 24, 2021Grace EbertDetail of “Human Ruin.” All images © Peter Callesen, shared with permissionTowering over cut-out voids are artist Peter Callesen’s sculptures of existing architectural ruins and stately edifices. Constructed with a single sheet of white paper, the miniature buildings appear to surface from their original flat piece into three-dimensional forms complete with crumbling facades and tipped columns. Each work juxtaposes the soft, fragile material with the sturdy subject matter and “is a reminder of what once was present and that even material like stone can change and break,” the artist says, explaining further:Almost as creation in reverse, the ruin as a motif for my works deals with the themes of rise and fall, through typical gothic architecture inspired by romantic painters. The ruins are rising from their intact and undamaged silhouettes. The work ‘17.8 Tall Tower of Babel’ is also linked to brokenness and failure, because of the Tower of Babel myth.Callesen, who is based in Mors, Denmark, is showing some of these smaller sculptures at Vestjyllands Udstillingen through January,  and you can explore more of his intricate miniatures and sprawling installations on Instagram.“Human Ruin”“17.8 Tall Tower of Babel’”“On The Other Side”“Little Erected Ruin”“Little Ice Castle”“Erected Ruin”
    #architecture
    #paper
    #sculptureDo 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

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    Ornate Assemblages Cast Vintage Pressed Glass as Flourishing New Scenes in Amber Cowan’s Sculptures

    
    Art

    #found objects
    #glass
    #sculpture

    November 23, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “Visions of the Night Muse in Jade” (2021), 20 x 15.5 x 7.5 inches. All images by Matthew Hollerbush, © Amber Cowan, shared with permission
    Philadelphia-based artist Amber Cowan (previously) molds found and flameworked glass into narrative sculptures brimming with ornate flourishes and enchanting details. Her delicate works are often monochromatic and revitalize vintage elements, including a figure from a McKee Glass Company vase in “Visions of the Night Muse in Jade,” for example, or the baubles in varying shades of purple that comprise “Hummingbirds Feast on Helio and Lavender.” The pressed glass pieces pay homage to the once-thriving industry by recasting antique scenes and motifs in new tableaus.
    Diverging slightly from the precisely sculpted forms that comprise much of her work, Cowan has started to incorporate long drips into her more recent sculptures. In her vertical cornucopia and fountain pieces, leaves and other botanicals hanging over the edges of the vessels appear malleable as they splash into small, circular drops.
    In January, Cowan’s solo show will open at Brunnier Art Museum at Iowa State University, and if you’re in New York City, stop by the Museum of Arts and Design in February to see some of the artist’s work as part of Craft Front & Center. Otherwise, keep up with her latest sculptures on Instagram.

    Detail of “Visions of the Night Muse in Jade” (2021), 20 x 15.5 x 7.5 inches
    “Hummingbirds Feast on Helio and Lavender” (2021), 20 x 15.5 x 7.5 inches
    Left: “Cornucopia in Shell” (2021), 8 x 5.5 x 4 inches. Right: “Fountain in Rosalene” (2021), 17 x 8.5 x 8.5 inches
    Detail of “Hummingbirds Feast on Helio and Lavender” (2021), 20 x 15.5 x 7.5 inches
    “Autumn Fan in Mandarin and Bittersweet Orange” (2021), 17.5 x 17.5 x 8 inches
    “Garden Snail with Feather and Pearls”

    #found objects
    #glass
    #sculpture

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    Carved Organic Patterns Highlight the Natural Wood Grain of Carbonized Mahogany

    
    Art

    #carving
    #sculpture
    #wood

    November 22, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “By any other name” (2021), carbonized mahogany, 27 x 2 inches. All images courtesy of TERN Gallery, shared with permission
    In Splinters and Shards, artist John Beadle enriches the beauty of wood’s natural grain with a series of gouged dots, line carvings, and smooth, supple curves. His small, circular sculptures and vertical towers accentuate the texture and subtle gradients of carbonized mahogany through etched patterns that reveal the pristine reddish hue peeking through the charred surface. Always highlighting the potential of the raw material, Beadle, whose background is in painting and printmaking, evokes these mediums through layering dimension and motif in a single work and drawing on the subtraction inherent in carving into a blank woodblock.
    Splinters and Shards is on view at the new TERN Gallery in Beadle’s hometown of Nassau, The Bahamas, from December 11, 2021, to January 22, 2022. Until then, check out the artist’s Instagram for a look at his process.

    “Fruit & Texture one” (2021), carbonized mahogany, 28.5 x 2 inches
    “Artifact II” (2020), carbonized mahogany and metal, 52.25 x 11.875 x 2 inches
    “Fruit & Texture” (2021), carbonized mahogany, 27 x 2 inches
    “Eclipse” (2021), carbonized mahogany, 52.75 x 2 inches
    “Well Rooted” (2020), carbonized mahogany and metal, 69.5 x 7 x 2 inches
    “What’s left behind” (2021), carbonized mahogany, 27 x 2 inches
    “Before the chaos” (2021), carbonized mahogany, 27 x 2 inches

    #carving
    #sculpture
    #wood

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    Ephemeral Compositions Use Sand and Stone to Create Hypnotic Works on Land

    
    Art

    #land art
    #nature
    #sand
    #stone

    November 19, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    All images © Jon Foreman, shared with permission
    The wildly prolific Wales-based artist Jon Foreman has spent much of 2021 on a new batch of mesmerizing land pieces. Expanding on the swirling, organic shapes he’s known for, many of his recent works take on minimal, geometric formations in diagonal stripes or colorful, concentric circles. Foreman created a 2022 calendar featuring some of the compositions shown here—ordering instructions are on his Instagram—and you can find prints of his ephemeral pieces in his shop.

    #land art
    #nature
    #sand
    #stone

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    Ornate Rugs by Artist Faig Ahmed Ooze Onto the Floor in Drippy Fabric Puddles

    
    Art

    #glitch
    #rugs
    #sculpture
    #textiles

    November 18, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    All images courtesy of Sapar Contemporary, shared with permission
    Azerbaijani artist Faig Ahmed (previously) has amassed a staggering archive of sculptural carpets that blur the boundaries of digital distortion and traditional craft techniques. Often monumental in scale, his fringed rugs are woven with classic, ornate patterns on top before they billow into a pool of glitches and skewed motifs.
    Ahmed weaves conceptual and historical relevances into his most recent trio, which is on view as part of his solo show PIR at New York’s Sapar Contemporary through January 6, 2022. Each piece draws its name from a spiritual leader who profoundly impacted Azerbaijani culture, including Shams Tabrizi, Yahya al-Shirvani al-Bakuvi, and Nizami Ganjavi. The carpet inspired by Tabrizi, who was Rumi’s mentor, for example, “gradually dissolve(s) into a black woolen space of nothingness, much like the final stages of a mystic’s spiritual journey: annihilation (fana’) of one’s individual ego within the divine presence, like the flame of a candle in the presence of the sun.”
    Visit Ahmed’s site to see behind-the-scenes photos of his process and to explore a larger collection of his fiber-based sculptures.

    “Yahya al-Shirvani al-Bakuvi”
    “Nizami Ganjavi” (2021), handmade wool carpet

    “Shams Tabrizi”
    Detail of “Nizami Ganjavi” (2021), handmade wool carpet
    “Yahya al-Shirvani al-Bakuvi”

    #glitch
    #rugs
    #sculpture
    #textiles

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    Cleverly Collaged Portraits Layer Vintage Ads and Magazine Spreads into Dramatic Daydreams

    
    Art

    #collage
    #found photographs
    #humor
    #paper
    #vintage

    November 18, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “Did You Ever Really Love Me.” All images © Shane Wheatcroft, shared with permission
    With a flair for spectacle and clandestine activities, the perfectly coiffed characters of Shane Wheatcroft’s collages face a deluge of intrigue and drama. The Kent-based artist snips vintage ads and editorial spreads that become the musings of professionally photographed subjects: a woman replays an excruciating party scene, a businessman envisions a wholesome family gathering, and quite a few protagonists imagine scenarios they likely keep covert.
    Having worked with the medium for the last five years, Wheatcroft boasts a body of work that includes a broad array of collages, from bold typographic sayings to cheeky compositions that use ad slogans and outmoded headlines to poke fun at social conventions. Surreal and witty, the new portraits feature imagery from periodicals published between 1945 and 1975. They’re spurred by “being a big fan of John Stezaker and buying old movie annuals that had stunning publicity shots of film stars on plain backgrounds. The recent series I’m making is really my attempt to reflect everyday dramas and scenarios through the medium of collage,” he says.  “They’re kind of like a hybrid of Dalí’s portrait of Mae West and Coronation Street.”
    The main portrait sets the tone for the piece, Wheatcroft tells Colossal, with the background image, furniture, and figures pasted on top. These additional elements compose an abstract representation of a face and generally feature a single eye peering through a television set or frame on the wall. “I’ll often have a song or personal experience in my head that’ll become the theme of the piece,” the artist says. “I can spend hours searching for an image of the right-sized chair or person that will fit. It’s a bit like making a jigsaw puzzle and hunting for the missing pieces.”
    Represented by Lilford Gallery in Canterbury, Wheatcroft has been sharing a variety of flat collages and 3D diorama-style pieces—see these layered works up close on Instagram—and he also has a few pieces available for purchase on Artfinder. (via Kottke)

    “Tough Room”
    Left: “Parents Outgrown.” Right: “The Merry Widow”
    “You Are My Sunshine”
    “RGB”
    Left: “Private Eye.” Right: “Notice Me”
    “The Gables”

    #collage
    #found photographs
    #humor
    #paper
    #vintage

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    Reality and Imagined Meditative States Converge in Tomás Sánchez’s Tranquil Landscapes

    
    Art

    #acrylic
    #graphite
    #landscapes
    #nature
    #painting
    #trees
    #water

    November 16, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “Light: Outside, Inside” (2021), acrylic on linen, 100 x 80 centimeters. All images © Tomás Sánchez, shared with permission
    Through serene, idyllic landscapes, Tomás Sánchez visualizes his long-harbored fascination with meditation. The practice, the Cuban painter says, is “where I find many of the answers to questions that transcend from the personal to the universal. Meditation is not always a fleeting time. Meditation is not a punctual exercise; it is a constant practice.”
    Rather than conceptualize the exercise as a temporary state, Sánchez views mediation as a lens to interpret the world, a recurring theme that has foregrounded much of his work during the last few decades. His acrylic paintings and hazy graphite drawings, which take months if not years to complete, highlight the immensity and awe-inspiring qualities of a forest thick with vegetation or a nearby waterfall and offer perspective through a lone, nondescript figure often found amongst the trees. Distinct and heavily detailed, the realistic landscapes aren’t based on a specific place but rather are imagined spaces available only through a ruminative state.
    If you’re in New York, stop by Marlborough Gallery to see Sánchez’s solo show, which is on view from November 18 to January 22. Titled Inner Landscape, the exhibition encompasses multiple pieces never shown before, including the pristine scenes shown here. Until then, explore more of his works on Instagram.

    “Inner Lagoon…Thought-Cloud” (2016), acrylic on canvas, 200 x 199.3 centimeters
    “La batalla” (2015), acrylic on linen, 200 x 250 centimeters
    “El río va” (2020), acrylic on linen, 121.3 x 99.1 centimeters
    “Aislado” (2015), acrylic on canvas, 199.7 x 249.9 centimeters
    “Diagonales” (2018), conté crayon on paper, 30.5 x 40.6 centimeters

    #acrylic
    #graphite
    #landscapes
    #nature
    #painting
    #trees
    #water

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