Aurelia Butler

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    From Canine Ceramics to Abstract Constructions, a Group Show Opens Hashimoto Contemporary’s Los Angeles Space

    
    Art

    #ceramics
    #painting
    #sculpture

    October 1, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    Laura Berger, “I Remember the Smell of the Sage” (2021), oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches. All images courtesy of Hashimoto Contemporary, shared with permission
    Ranging from Dan Lam’s drippy, neon blobs (previously) to the minimal, bodily paintings of Laura Berger (previously), an inaugural exhibition at Hashimoto Contemporary highlights a diverse array of pieces from two dozen artists working today. The group show launches the gallery’s new space in Culver City and situates Katie Kimmel’s animated ceramic pups (previously) alongside Augustine Kofie’s geometric abstractions and the graffitied scenes by Jessica Hess. If you’re in Los Angeles, you can see the works in person through October 2—keep an eye on Hashimoto’s site for upcoming exhibitions at the new location—and find some of our favorites below.

    Front left: Dan Lam, “No Man Could Resist” (2021), resin, acrylic, adhesive on polyurethane foam, 23 x 21 1/2 x 17 inches. Back center: Dan Lam, “She’s So Heavy” (2021), resin, acrylic, adhesive on polyurethane foam, 18 x 32 x 30 1/2 inches. Front right: Dan Lam, “Pillar of Strength” (2021), resin, acrylic, adhesive on polyurethane foam, 32 1/2 x 29 1/2 x 27 inches
    Left: Stacey Rozich, “” (2021), watercolor and gouache on paper, framed, 22 x 17 1/2 inches. Right: Jeffrey Cheung, “Tangle II” (2019), acrylic on canvas, 72 x 60 inches
    Katie Kimmel, “Bulldog Planter” (2021), ceramic, 20 x 22 x 20 inches
    Jessica Hess, “Break Free Redux” (2021), oil and acrylic on canvas, 65 x 73 inches
    Katie Kimmel, “Bulldog Vase” (2021), ceramic, 8 x 8 x 5 1/2 inches
    Dan Lam, “She’s So Heavy” (2021), resin, acrylic, adhesive on polyurethane foam, 18 x 32 x 30 1/2 inches
    Augustine Kofie, “Disfigure of Speech” (2021), acrylic polymer on duck canvas, strip framed by artist, 48 x 51 inches

    #ceramics
    #painting
    #sculpture

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    Momentary Movements Are Cast in Bronze in Isabel Miramontes’s Segmented Sculptures

    
    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

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    An Eerie, Fairytale Forest and Silhouette Creatures Sprawl Across a Three-Story Mural by David de la Mano

    
    Art

    #animals
    #forest
    #murals
    #narrative
    #night
    #silhouettes

    September 30, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    All images by Sol Paperán, Nicolás Pezzino and David de la Mano, courtesy of David de la Mano
    Set against a forest in shades of blue and white, a dark, twisted fairytale lines the entrance hall of the Catholic University of Uruguay. The three-story mural by David de la Mano is titled “Cosmos” and uses the Spanish artist’s signature silhouette figures and thin, branch-like lines to create a sinister narrative consumed by mystery and disorder: hybrid creatures escape down a stairwell, an army marches along the balcony, and myriad characters twist and flail in chaotic clusters.
    Completed with the assistance of artist Andrés Cocco, the large-scale piece is derived from the shared etymological root of “university” and “universe,” which means a totality or everything that exists. “Cosmos” evokes Fernando Gallego’s 15th-Century painting of constellations and the zodiac that once cloaked a vaulted ceiling at the University of Salamanca library in de la Mano’s hometown, although this new iteration is devoid of stars. “It is a work full of mystery… There is my own iconography. There is the idea of ​​migration, a constant in my work from years ago,” the artist says in a statement. “The stars were replaced by two forests. There is a dark forest that does not let you see, and there is a clear forest in which the light comes.”
    After spending years in Uruguay, de la Mano is back in Salamanca, and you can follow his works on Instagram.

    #animals
    #forest
    #murals
    #narrative
    #night
    #silhouettes

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    Furry Tendrils and Tufts of Technicolor Hair Erupt Across Shoplifter’s Immersive Installations

    
    Art

    #hair
    #immersive
    #installation
    #video

    September 29, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    
    Icelandic artist Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir, otherwise known as Shoplifter (previously), fittingly describes her immersive environments of hair as “an exploded rainbow.” Cloaking walls with neon fur and hanging tendrils of fuzzy fibers from the ceiling, the artist creates enormous, extravagantly colored landscapes designed to be ruffled and stroked as viewers pass through the cave-like walls and underneath the suspended strands.
    In a new interview with Lousianna Channel, Shoplifter recounts her first encounter with the medium as a child in Iceland and her later move to New York, where she’s spent the last 25 years creating kaleidoscopic landscapes brimming with textures. She perpetually gravitates toward vibrant, bold color palettes because of their therapeutic, playful, and ornamental qualities, and although she creates such strikingly manufactured installations, she describes her practice as a form of “hyper-nature… I’m not competing with nature. I just exaggerate and create this abstraction that resembles it but isn’t literal.”
    Watch the full interview above to dive deeper into Shoplifter’s inspirations and process, and see an archive of her technicolor creations on Instagram.

    “Hyperlings” at the Art Gallery of Alberta. All images courtesy of Shoplifter
    “Hyperlings” at the Art Gallery of Alberta
    “Hyperlings” at the Art Gallery of Alberta
    “Hyperlings” at the Art Gallery of Alberta

    #hair
    #immersive
    #installation
    #video

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    The Plated Project: An Ongoing Initiative Fights Hunger with Artist-Designed Dishes

    
    Art
    Illustration

    #activism
    #dinnerware

    September 29, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “Linked” by Jinkal Patel. All images courtesy of The Plated Project
    Falling at the intersection of art and activism, The Plated Project launched in 2019 with a simple idea: “You buy a plate. You fill a plate.” The ongoing initiative sells decorative, artist-designed dinnerware and donates 50 percent of the net profits to organizations combatting hunger. In the last two years alone, the project has involved hundreds of creatives—see the massive, eclectic collection ranging from abstract portraits to whimsical cityscapes on Instagram—totaling 500,000 meals provided to those in need. Every ceramic plate is released in limited-edition quantities, and you can shop the current offerings on the project’s site. For a similar initiative, check out the People’s Pottery Project, which supports prison abolition through a community art practice.

    “Where I’ll be in ten years” by Clémentine Rocheron
    “Living windows” by Aashti Miller
    “See life blossom” by Snehal Kadu
    “Midnight lights” by Aashti Miller
    “Curtains” by Malika Favre
    “Patched-up hues” by Soumyaraj Vishwakarma

    #activism
    #dinnerware

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  • 175 Shares139 Views

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    A Spectacular Collection of 40 Artist-Built Environments Are on Display in Sheboygan’s Art Preserve

    
    Art

    #immersive
    #installation
    #museums
    #painting
    #sculpture

    September 28, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    Emery Blagdon’s “The Healing Machine” at the Art Preserve. Photo by Rich Maciejewski, courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center. All images shared with permission
    On the edge of the city of Sheboygan in northeast Wisconsin is a new museum nestled into the hillside. Opened earlier this year, the Art Preserve of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center is home to 40 artist-built environments, or “spaces and places that have been significantly transformed by an artist to embody and express aspects of their history, place, and culture, their ideas and imagination.” The first of its kind, the spectacular, immserive space is an ode to the artists and their intellectual and creative trajectories, displaying a staggering array of installations, sculptures, paintings, and myriad works across mediums.
    Ranging from Emery Blagdon’s suspended kinetic assemblages made of sheet metal, holiday lights, and other found objects to Nek Chand’s troupe of more than 150 mosaic figures, the artworks are eclectic in discipline, scale, and aesthetic. Each of the environments consists of thousands of objects, structural components, and ephemera that form a holistic, comprehensive view of the artist’s life and work. Around the circular pathway winding through Ray Yoshida’s reconstructed Chicago apartment, for example, are ritual masks from New Guinea, printed works, pieces of pop culture from Maxwell Street Market, and notes and letters, offering an intimate glimpse into his diverse collection and personal relationships.
    In addition to the environments, the 56,000-square-foot space also houses 11 commissioned responses that included standalone works and projects literally embedded into the preserve’s structure. The stairwell, for example, was designed by the Denver-based architecture studio Tres Birds in collaboration with the late Ruth DeYoung Kohler II and uses concrete pavers that jut out beyond the walls to display a series of “hobo symbols,” or emblems travelers historically used to denote safety. Kohler conceived of the Art Preserve while director of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, where she championed local and international artists and devoted herself to protecting their works and legacies.
    Watch the video below for a tour of the expansive space, and dive into the full collection, which includes pieces from sites in Wisconsin, New York City, Mississippi, India, and other global locations, on its site.

    [embedded content]
    Loy Bowlin’s “Beautiful Holy Jewel Home” in McComb, Mississippi
    Installation view of works by Nek Chand at the Art Preserve (2021). Photo courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center
    The glittery “Beautiful Holy Jewel Home” by Loy Bowlin is flanked by an installation of paintings by Gregory Van Maanen at the Art Preserve. Photo by Rich Maciejewski, courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center
    Installation view of works by Jesse Howard at the Art Preserve. Photo by Rich Maciejewski, courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center
    Installation view of works by Ernest Hüpeden, Carl Peterson, Fred Smith, and Eugene Von Bruenchenhein at the Art Preserve, 2021. In the foreground is Fred Smith’s “Untitled,” concrete, glass, paint, and wood, 78 x 41 3/4 x 41 inches. Courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center

    #immersive
    #installation
    #museums
    #painting
    #sculpture

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    Evoking Dutch Genre Paintings, Intimate Scenes Peer into the Lives of Mushroom Characters

    
    Art

    #insects
    #mushrooms
    #painting

    September 27, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “The Nap” (2021), oil on cradled wood panel, 16 x 20 inches. All images © Bella Ormseth, shared with permission
    In her ongoing series Human Nature, Dutch artist Bella Ormseth paints lavish domestic scenes inhabited by central mushroom characters and a cohort of plants and oversized insects. The evocative subjects stem from those the artist encounters around her home in Puget Sound off the coast of Washington and are human-like in their gestures and poses, whether draped over a chair during a nap, embracing over wine and oysters, or staring out the window.
    Each of the oil-based pieces is a study of Dutch genre paintings and their light, composition, color palettes, and techniques—Ormseth shares glimpses into her process and longer descriptions of specific references on her site. The ornate, tied-back curtains in “The Nap,” for example, mimic those in Johannes Vermeer’s recently restored “Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window,” while “The Conversation” (shown below) works within the subgenre doorkijkje, or look-through, that offers a view of one room while in another, with the intimacy of family bonds present in Pieter de Hooch’s “The Bedroom” and “A Woman with a Child in a Pantry” apparent, as well.
    Although the works glean elements common in the Dutch Golden Age, Ormseth veils each with contemporary contexts, including the pandemic-induced loneliness that exudes from the character in “Waiting by the Window.” She explains further in a statement:

    Dutch genre paintings, with their depiction of everyday scenes of ordinary life, marked a significant turning point in Western art, away from biblical and historical subjects. It stirs me to see this elevating of domestic life to a subject of art—of seeing not only beauty but something profound in the everyday business of life… While I look to history for guidance, my paintings depict my own time. The idea for a painting always starts with an emotional response to something that is happening in the world, either in my own life or the world at large.

    “The Nap” is currently on view through October 2 at Copro Gallery, and Ormseth is working on another Human Nature piece for a January group show at Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle. She’s also starting new series about an adventurous group of women in the 1920s and their connection to the intertidal life of the Salish Sea, which you can follow on Instagram. (via This Isn’t Happiness)

    “The Booth in the Back” (2020), oil on cradled wood panel, 24 x 18 inches
    “Waiting by the Window” (2021), oil on cradled wood panel, 12 x 9 inches
    “The Conversation” (2020), oil on cradled wood panel, 24 x 18 inches
    “The Wish” (2020), oil on cradled wood panel, 20 x 16 inches
    “Abandoned Reading” (2019), oil on cradled wood panel, 24 x 18 inches

    #insects
    #mushrooms
    #painting

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    Colorful Raw Wool Is Twisted into Expressive Busts by Salman Khoshroo

    
    Art

    #busts
    #sculpture
    #self-portrait
    #wool

    September 27, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    All images © Salman Khoshroo, shared with permission
    Complementing his series of raw wool portraits, Iranian artist Salman Khoshroo shapes chunks of dyed fibers into expressive busts. The figurative sculptures capture an array of emotions and vary in abstraction, sometimes using aqua rovings for lips and eyelids and others remaining more faithful to a subject’s features. Whether an intimate self-portrait or mischievous character outfitted with jackal teeth, the pieces are evidence of Khoshroo’s perceptive, nuanced practice. “Constructing the face with transparent layers of thinned wool creates depth, much like glazing in painting,” he writes about his process. “I make self-portraits regularly about one every year. This one is the first sculpture and has a unique presence. (It) reminds me of my own mortality.”
    Khoshroo recently moved from Tehran to London to study at Goldsmith’s University, and you can follow his work, which includes impasto portraits and other fiber-based sculptures, on Instagram.

    #busts
    #sculpture
    #self-portrait
    #wool

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