Aurelia Butler

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    Using Long Continuous Strokes, Thomas Yang’s New Print is a Zen Meditation on Cycling

    
    Art
    Design

    #bicycles
    #ink
    #posters and prints

    June 28, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    All images © Thomas Yang, shared with permission
    In his new print “Journey to Zen,” artist Thomas Yang (previously) focuses on the mental benefits of his favorite pastime. The Singapore-based artist is behind 100 Copies, an ongoing print project in which he releases limited-edition works centered around his love of cycling—previous iterations include architectural renderings inked with bike tires and a competitive peloton of riders.
    “Journey to Zen” renders a lone cyclist in a manner similar to a Japanese sand garden, using long, uninterrupted strokes of black ink. “To simulate that particular style with continuous lines or samon (砂紋) in the gravel, I had decided to use a rake paintbrush as part of the tool. To familiarise (myself) with the brush, it took me quite a while to practice on the strokes and shades, especially for those curvy ones,” the artist shares. Once complete, Yang digitally enhanced the brushtrokes and printed the piece on textured paper to deepen the stone-like effect.
    Born out of a period of uncertainty, the fluid and composed lines represent the meditative qualities of the sport and its ability to serve as an outlet for stress and anxiety. “Sometimes, taking our bike out for a ride brings us on an inward journey,” Yang says. “Almost like a form of Zen meditation, the noise fades, our mind clears, and all we are focused on is the path before us. The longer and farther we go, the more we learn about ourselves and the nature of our mind.”
    There are still a few “Journey to Zen” prints available on 100 Copies, where you can find more of Yang’s available works.

    #bicycles
    #ink
    #posters and prints

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    Glitches Distort Household Objects and Art Historical Figures in Sculptures by Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford

    
    Art

    #art history
    #sculpture

    June 25, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “Garden Gipsoteca: Hercules” (2019), marble, resin, pigment, urethane foam, steel, abd wood, 84 x 36 x 24 inches. All images © Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, shared with permission
    Artist Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford reenvisions classical sculptures as chaotic, glitched assemblages that piece together fragmented bits of the original work. His interpretation of “Hercules” is teeming with textured pockets of the figure’s beard and facial features that become increasingly smaller and indiscernible toward the base, while “Venus” is reimagined in a similarly disjointed fashion with fractured body parts forming an upward curve.
    Although many of his works evoke ancient art history, Hulsebos-Spofford’s pieces are rooted in modernist aesthetics and understandings of functionality, which manifest more apparently in his oversized Moka pot and Mr. Coffee sculptures. Each piece alters the traditional forms with an implied digital malfunction, which a statement about the works explains:
    Inspired by the history of the 1927 architectural competition in Geneva, which asked architects to submit plans for the creation of the Palace of Nations, Hulsebos-Spofford points to the unsettled quandaries and contradictions between classical design and modernist functionalism. Repeating classical sculptural figures remind us of copy-and-paste multiple errors that reference the history of the gipsoteca galleries…Behind all of these references, we are presented with a global constellation of history and technological decay.
    If you’re in Chicago, you can see the works shown here as part of League of Nations, which is on view between June 2 and August 29 at the Chicago Cultural Center. Find more of Hulsebos-Spofford’s sculptures on his site and Instagram, where he also shares glimpses into his process.

    “Hyperlexia: Venus” (2021), marble, resin, foam, and fiberglass, 40 x 30 x 24 inches
    “Mr. Coffee” (2019), sand blasting sand, resin, urethane foam, steel, hardware, and wood, 68 x 48 x 24 inches
    Detail of “Garden Gipsoteca: Hercules” (2019), marble, resin, pigment, urethane foam, steel, abd wood, 84 x 36 x 24 inches
    “Hyperlexia: Moka” (2020), aluminum, resin, foam, and fiberglass, 41 x 40 x 14 inches
    “Hyperlexia: Solicitude” (2021), foam, pigment, and wood, 48 x 36 x 36 inches

    #art history
    #sculpture

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  • 188 Shares179 Views

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    Dense Fields of Flowers Spring from People and Everyday Objects in Animated Works by Grif

    
    Animation
    Art

    #flowers
    #gifs
    #mutiples

    June 24, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    Fields of vibrant flowers spring from a Brooklyn brownstone, basketball court, and Vermeer’s “Girl with Pearl Earring” in Equinox Collection by Grif. The Manhattan-based artist is working on an ongoing series of animations that transform objects and spaces into wild gardens in full bloom. The looping clips are designed to “illustrate how nature’s energy will continue to evolve, reclaim, and transfer even without us,” Grif says. “The concept of transferring energy is one that is constantly in motion. Energy is constantly being transformed all around us. It’s the first rule of thermodynamics.”
    Whether enveloping a Berlin doorstep or producing a trail of flowers in a skateboarder’s wake, each piece is a mini-narrative that’s rooted in a place, time, or experience the artist wanted to revisit. “I chose scenes from my memory and slightly changed the surroundings to embed a sense of nostalgia for the audience, a sort of golden light that elicits this feeling of optimism. We often look back quite fondly on memories, they’re rose-tinted or sugar-coated or whichever metaphor you like,” Grif says.
    Some of the works shown here were featured last month for Callao City Arts in Madrid, and others will be on view as part of an exhibition led by Collab in Moscow. You can follow the ongoing collection on Behance and Instagram.

    #flowers
    #gifs
    #mutiples

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    Infinite Architectural Metropolises Balance Order and Chaos in Benjamin Sack’s Drawings

    
    Art

    #architecture
    #drawing
    #labyrinth
    #mazes
    #surreal

    June 23, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “Boxed In.” All images © Benjamin Sack, shared with permission
    In Benjamin Sack’s imagined environments, it’s not uncommon to find angular mazes resembling dystopian structures, buildings packed so closely together it’s difficult to distinguish one from the next, and labyrinthine walkways that spiral like fractals. Working in pen and ink, the artist (previously) draws intricate black-and-white metropolises that waver between organization and chaos: He plays with geometry, angles, and dimension to render perplexing maps teeming with both traditional architecture and surreal additions, like treble clefs, astral shapes, and dizzying line- and dot-work.
    While many of Sack’s works meld the past, present, and future into a single display, his recent feet-wide maze titled “Roots of Being (Per Aspera ad Astra)” is directly drawn from this last year.  “This piece was a massive, Daedalian undertaking that was started at the outset of the initial lockdowns back in March 2020 and finished upon my receiving the first dose of the vaccine in April,” the artist tells Colossal. “A large labyrinth emblematic of the epoch we persevered.”
    Watch the timelapse video below and head to Instagram for a glimpse into Sack’s process, and pick up a print in his shop.

    “Tokyo, Japan”
    “Roots of Being (Per Aspera ad Astra)”
    Detail of “Roots of Being (Per Aspera ad Astra)”
    “Manhattanesque”
    Detail of “Leitmotif”
    “Endurance”
    “Acoustaglyph”
    “A Sensitive Chaos”
    “Leitmotif”
    

    #architecture
    #drawing
    #labyrinth
    #mazes
    #surreal

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  • 175 Shares109 Views

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    Whimsical Illustrations and Motifs Dyed with a Traditional Wax-Resist Method Cover Caroline Södergren’s Eggshells

    
    Art
    Craft
    Illustration

    #animals
    #eggs
    #insects
    #wax

    June 22, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    All images © Caroline Södergren, shared with permission
    Formally trained in glassblowing, Stockholm-based artist Caroline Södergren transfers her experience working with a delicate, fragile material to an ornately illustrated collection of eggshells. She adapts the traditional Ukrainian craft called pysanky, a wax-resist method that involves drawing a design on a clean, empty chicken, turkey, goose, or ostrich egg with hot beeswax. The shell is then dipped in multiple baths of dye and the seal washed away with oil to reveal the colorful, layered design—you can watch the entire process in the video below.
    The technique often is combined with folk art, although Södergren illustrates her own botanical motifs, beetles, and mythical creatures that stray from traditional designs. “You have to think before you start a pattern as the different color layers must come in the right order,” she says. “If you make a mistake with the wax, it is not possible to change, and a written line is where it is. A constant challenge that makes it so fun to work with!”
    Konsthantverkets Vänner, an organization dedicated to supporting Swedish arts and crafts, just awarded Södergren a scholarship for her batik designs. Browse available eggs in her shop, and find a larger collection on Instagram. (via Lustik)

    

    #animals
    #eggs
    #insects
    #wax

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  • 200 Shares139 Views

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    Future Returns: A Plasma-Cut Forest Reclaims an Oil Tanker in a New Sculpture by Dan Rawlings

    
    Art

    #cars
    #churches
    #oil
    #sculpture
    #trees

    June 21, 2021
    Christopher Jobson

    “Future Returns” by Dan Rawlins. All photos by Mark Bickerdike, shared with permission.
    In perhaps the not so distant future, sculptor Dan Rawlings (previously) imagines a world where machinery from the unsustainable energy industry is now a relic of the past, slowly overtaken by nature in a state of decomposition. In his latest sculpture titled Future Returns, the artist uses his trademark plasma cutting style to etch a sizeable canopy of foliage that emerges from the steel shell of a reclaimed oil tanker. The work is currently housed inside a 19th-century church in Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire, England. From a statement about the project:

    Future Returns invites us to examine our own part in commercialization and the resulting changes to our natural environment. Rawlings believes it is easy to demonize industry but we must acknowledge that it has allowed life as we know it to bloom. It is our ability to design, create and produce that has put towns like Scunthorpe on the global map. He also believes oil companies have much to answer for, from the state of our environment to mistrust of science.

    Future Returns will be on view through September 25, 2021 and you can book free viewing times on the Visual Arts Centre website. (via Creative Boom)

    #cars
    #churches
    #oil
    #sculpture
    #trees

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    Minimal Lines and Colorful Geometric Shapes Compose Luciano Cian’s Portraits

    
    Art
    Illustration

    #digital
    #portraits
    #posters and prints

    June 21, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    All images © Luciano Cian, shared with permission
    Rio de Janeiro-based artist Luciano Cian (previously) has an affinity for the bold blocks of color that compose his minimal portraits. Although he recently expanded his practice to include acrylic paintings and collage, Cian works primarily digitally, rendering anonymous figures with thin lines and vibrant, geometric shapes like in his MAGNA series. “It has this name because it is big, both in dimensions and in purpose,” he tells Colossal. “I always work with images that allude to ethnicity. This series, like the others, talks about the miscegenation of races and peoples, with diversity as the central focus.”
    Cian teamed up with the nonprofit Prints Against Poverty to sell a collection of 15 works, and you can purchase more of his available pieces on Saatchi Art and Artsper. Find an extensive archive of his portraits on Behance and Instagram.

    #digital
    #portraits
    #posters and prints

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  • 163 Shares129 Views

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    A Mythical Stencil Mural by MonkeyBird Is a Monumental Homage to Burgos Cathedral

    
    Art

    #murals
    #public art
    #stencils
    #street art

    June 21, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    All images © MonkeyBird, shared with permission
    A guardian angel in the form of a grey heron watches over an allegorical mural at Burgos Cathedral in Spain. Painted by Louis Boidron and Edouard Egea, who work as MonkeyBird (previously), “Mymesis, beings and places” is an homage to the artworks and design of the church, which UNESCO designated a World Heritage site back in 1984 in part because it captures the evolution of gothic architecture: construction on the building began in 1221 and wasn’t complete until 1567, meaning it showcases the entire history of the style.
    Translating many of the religious symbols and motifs found inside, the duo combines the cathedral’s profound history with its signature stenciled aesthetic and recurring monkey and bird creatures. The resulting mural is a dense display of ornate structural elements, airborne birds called papamoscas cerrojillo that typically nest in the building, and a gilded clock from the 18th Century. “Our intention was to offer an effect of complex depth and monumentalism, combining some of the most spectacular references of the temple, such as the main altarpiece, with its many details, the Golden Staircase, or the circular oculus in the center of Santa María façade,” MonkeyBird says.
    Head to Instagram to see more of “Mymesis, begins and places” and to follow the duo’s projects and occasional print releases.

    #murals
    #public art
    #stencils
    #street art

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