Aurelia Butler

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    Bold Bands of Paint Bisect Playful Sculptures of Carved Wood by Willy Verginer

    
    Art

    #acrylic
    #games
    #kids
    #sculpture
    #wood

    March 24, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    Detail of “I pensieri non fanno rumore” (2019), different types of wood, acrylic color, 150 x 100 x 107 centimeters. All images © Willy Verginer, shared with permission
    Clusters of wooden spheres bubble up the fingertips and bodies of the children in Willy Verginer’s poetic sculptures. The Italian artist (previously) contrasts realistic carvings of adolescent figures with elements of whimsy and imagination. Alongside the forms that evoke childhood games are thick stripes of monochromatic paint, which wrap around the sculptures and bisect them in unusual places.
    Whether a pastel, neutral tone, or black, the color is symbolic and used to convey subtle messages. Verginer’s works often stem from what he sees as the absurdity of ecological issues or larger societal problems, like the U.S. banking collapse. “My largest effort and research focus on not tying myself to the naturalistic representation of figures, but on giving something more through a dreamlike study, or better an absurd one, and not an imaginary one,” he says. “This world and the whole connected system were so absurd that they made me reproduce an equally absurd situation.”

    Detail of “Chimica del pensiero” (2019), lindenwood, acrylic color, 168 x 46 x 45 centimeters
    Many of the sculptures shown here are part of Verginer’s most recent series, Rayuela, which is the Spanish term for hopscotch and the title of Julio Cortázar’s counter-novel that can be read from front to back or vice versa. Written in a stream-of-consciousness style, the book produces varying endings and meanings depending on the reader’s sequence. Cortázar’s adventurous format combined with the imaginative nature of the game informed Vreginer’s approach to the series, which the artist explains:
    (In rayuela), kids outline an ideal map on the ground, which starts from the earth and reaches the sky, through intermediate stages marked with numbered squares, on which they jump according to where a pebble is thrown. I can see a metaphor of life in this game; our existence is full of these jumps and obstacles. Each of us aims to reach a sort of sky.
    In June, Toronto’s Gallery LeRoyer will have an exhibition of Verginer’s precisely carved works, and the artist has another slated for September at the Zemack Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv. Until then, find more of his sculptures on Instagram.

    “Pensieri nascosti” (2020), lindenwood, acrylic color, 172 x 39 x 33 centimeters
    “Chimica del pensiero” (2019), lindenwood, acrylic color, 168 x 46 x 45 centimeters
    “I pensieri non fanno rumore” (2019), different types of wood, acrylic color, 150 x 100 x 107 centimeters
    “Scisserlé,” lindenwood, acrylic color, 200 x 59 x 46 centimeters
    “Palvaz” (2019), lindenwood, acrylic color, 95 x 70 x 47 centimeters
    “Rayuela” (2020), tiglio, acrylic color, 123 x 110 x 90 centimeters

    #acrylic
    #games
    #kids
    #sculpture
    #wood

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  • 200 Shares149 Views

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    The Wound: JR’s New Anamorphic Artwork Appears to Carve Out the Facade of Florence’s Palazzo Strozzi

    
    Art

    #anamorphosis
    #black and white
    #installation
    #public art
    #street art
    #trompe l’oeil

    March 23, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “La Ferita” (2021), 28 x 33 meters, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence. Image courtesy of Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, shared with permission
    French artist JR unveiled an imposing artwork at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence last week that mimics a massive gash in the institution’s Renaissance-era facade. Spanning 28 x 33 meters, “La Ferita,” or “The Wound,” is an anamorphic collage that appears to reveal the iconic artworks housed inside the building, in addition to a stately courtyard colonnade, exhibition hall, and library. Exposing different parts of the interior as the viewer shifts position, the artwork is in response to the lack of accessibility at cultural institutions since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Completed alongside a team of 11 in two months, the site-specific piece was constructed 30 centimeters in front of the 15th Century ashlar facade with a metal structure and 80 panels of Dibond aluminum. It features JR’s signature photographic style—similar projects were installed at Williamsburg’s Domino Park, the Louvre, and the U.S./Mexico border—and includes a mix of real and imagined elements, including black-and-white renderings of Botticelli’s “Primavera” and “Birth of Venus” and Giambologna’s “The Rape of the Sabine Women,” in addition to prominent spaces like the Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento.
    “The Wound” is layered further with references to art history, from its use of the trompe l’oeil technique that grew in popularity in the 1500s to its evocation of ruinism, an 18th Century style that portrayed ancient architecture “as testimonials to a glorious past in a dramatic reflection on the fate of mankind,” a release says, noting that Palazzo Strozzi will not be preserving the piece beyond its initial construction.
    Follow JR’s monumental works on Instagram, and shop lithographs and books chronicling his projects on his site.

    #anamorphosis
    #black and white
    #installation
    #public art
    #street art
    #trompe l’oeil

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  • 125 Shares199 Views

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    Plants, Hair, and Shadows Obscure Women in Introspective Gouache Paintings

    
    Art

    #gouache
    #hair
    #painting

    March 23, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    All images © Mai Ta, shared with permission
    Saigon-based artist Mai Ta veils the subjects of her nuanced paintings with leaves, long locks of hair, splayed hands, and dim lighting. Utilizing muted tones and saturation, she works primarily in gouache to render lone women in domestic settings, creating introspective scenes that question what’s visible.  “Obscurity in my work represents my own inability to be confident about who I am,” the artist tells Colossal. “It’s easier to hide behind my hair (shadows, plants, anything) than to honestly express how I really feel.”
    Many of the pieces stem from Ta’s background, although she strives to connect her experiences and the viewers’. I Set the Moon on Fire Because She Wouldn’t Wake Up, a series comprised of many of the paintings shown here, was transformative in helping her realize that “exploring my own personal narrative and emotions can be both therapeutic and visually exciting,” she says. “I made work about how my friends’ and (my) rooftop moon-watching sessions moved me. I made work about my own heartbreak. I made work about missing and loving Vietnam.”
    Explore a larger collection of Ta’s paintings that examine the relationship between interior emotions and outward expressions on her site and Instagram. (via Juxtapoz)

    #gouache
    #hair
    #painting

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  • 150 Shares169 Views

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    Smooth Curves and Negative Space Complete Elegant Wooden Sculptures by Ariele Alasko

    
    Art

    #sculpture
    #wood

    March 23, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    All images © Ariele Alasko, shared with permission
    From hunks of beechwood or maple, artist Ariele Alasko carves sculptural works that take the shape of smooth curves, ruffles, and squiggled lines. The elegant pieces play with contrast and negative space and are assembled into abstract compositions, whether as a smaller wall object or expansive mobile-style suspension. In a note to Colossal, Alasko shares that she strives to sustainably source all of her materials, whether from local lumber yards or her own property in Washington State. The artist holds a BFA in sculpture from Pratt Institute, and you can follow her carvings on Instagram.

    #sculpture
    #wood

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  • 163 Shares129 Views

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    Faces and Fingers Glazed in Celadon Emerge from Surreal Vessels by Canopic Studio

    
    Art

    #anatomy
    #body
    #ceramics
    #clay
    #identity
    #surreal

    March 22, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    All images © Canopic Studio, shared with permission
    Disembodied faces and fingers encircle the surreal vessels created by Canopic Studio, a Los Angeles-based practice helmed by Claire and Curran Wedner. Known for their ceramics that display human anatomy in a repetitious pattern, the husband and wife recently diverged from the black-and-white works previously mentioned on Colossal to create a series entirely in celadon, a jade color with a rich history.
    The translucent glaze originated in China and was prominent throughout the country for centuries before being replaced by blue-and-white porcelain. It’s traditionally made with a bit of iron oxide—too little creates a blue color, while too much produces a darker olive or black—and then fired in a reducing kiln at a high temperature.
    Curran says he first experimented with the glaze in 2004 as part of a ceramics class and returned to it now after researching cone 10 gas firing and reduction, or the process of decreasing oxygen in the kiln. The resulting pieces shift in color with the light, a trait that dovetails with the studio’s interest in mutable identities and idiosyncrasies that shows up in the shape of their works.
    Pieces are created using the same mold to produce similar, but not identical, body parts. When attached in rows on the mug or bowl, the single face or finger becomes one of many, each defined by its slight difference. “I’m interested in identity and how it shifts when we go from being alone to being a part of a crowd,” Curran says. He explains:
    I like prodding that space in between, where identity feels almost pliable or molten, then hardens, then shifts again, and so on. When the face I’m using is pulled from a single mold, it has a surreal quality—so identical it’s almost eerie, and all the tiny flaws and differences come forward when they otherwise wouldn’t.
    Right now, Canopic Studio is in the process of creating a line of face medallions finished with 22 karat gold. The duo list new pieces bi-monthly on Etsy, and you can keep an eye out for shop updates and see works-in-progress on Instagram.

    #anatomy
    #body
    #ceramics
    #clay
    #identity
    #surreal

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  • 213 Shares99 Views

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    A Monumental Bas-Relief Sculpture by Nick Cave Connects Senegalese and U.S. Cultures in a Web of Beadwork

    
    Art

    #bas-relief
    #beads
    #installation
    #sculpture
    #sequins
    #site-specific
    #video

    March 22, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    All images © Nick Cave, by Michael JN Bowles, shared with permission
    Innumerable pony beads, pipe cleaners, sequins, and objects gathered from two continents overlay a web of rainbow mesh that’s suspended in the U.S. Embassy atrium in Dakar. Installed in 2012, the expansive work by Chicago-based artist Nick Cave (previously) is composed of amorphous swells and circular patches of multicolor netting that stretch 20 x 25 feet. Physically connecting pieces of both U.S. and Senegalese culture, the webbed, bas-relief sculpture symbolically stands as “a unifier that brings people together,” Cave says in an interview.
    Virginia Shore and Robert Soppelsa curated the project for Art in Embassies, a program led by the U.S. Department of State that fosters cross-cultural exchange through visual arts and spans more than 200 venues in 189 countries. “When you think about Art in Embassies and cultural diplomacy, what is interesting for me, as an artist, is, how can I facilitate that within the work that is developed? Yes, I will create the piece for the embassy, but I was also interested in ways to integrate the artists that live and work here,” he says.
    Cave developed the structural portion of the work in his Chicago studio, and after meeting Sengalese artists, scholars, and students, he utilized pieces from three locals—Seni M’Baye, Loman Pawlitschek, and Daouda N’Diaye—once on site. The resulting installation, which weighs nearly 500 pounds, took Cave and ten assistants more than three months to complete.
    Watch the interview below for more on the process behind the monumental project, and follow Cave’s work on Instagram.

    [embedded content]

    #bas-relief
    #beads
    #installation
    #sculpture
    #sequins
    #site-specific
    #video

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    New Perspective-Bending Collages by Lola Dupré Distort and Reconfigure Pets and Portraits

    
    Art
    Photography

    #animals
    #architecture
    #collage
    #humor
    #surreal

    March 19, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “Cleo” (2020), 8.2 x 11.6 inches. All images © Lola Dupré, shared with permission
    Glasgow-based artist Lola Dupré (previously) continues her practice of slicing and rearranging photographs and art historical works into cleverly surreal collages. Her newest manipulations include a blockheaded Léon Bonnat, an entire row of irresistible puppy eyes, and a twisted rendition of George Stubbs’s “The Kongouro from New Holland.” Dupré’s cat, Charlie, still finds himself as fodder for the unusual works—see two pieces centered on him below—and the artist is currently in the process of creating her 33rd portrait of the orange-and-white feline. Find more of the Dupré’s compositions in the latest issue of Standart Magazine, shop originals and prints on her site, and see the distorted works in person at Portland’s Brassworks Gallery later this year. You also can follow along with the contorted creations on Instagram and Behance.

    “Kayack” (2020), 11.6 x 8.2 inches
    “Roo after Stubbs” (2021), 8.2 x 11.6 inches
    Left: “After Leon Bonnat” (2021), 8.2 x 11.6 inches. Right: “The Community” (2020), 8.2 x 11.6 inches
    “Charlie 32” (2021), 8.2 x 11.6 inches
    “Hardy” (2020), 16.5 x 11.5 inches
    Left: “Cat after Nathaniel Currier” (2021), 8.2 x 11.6 inches. Right: “Rand” (2021), 11.5 x 16.5 inches
    “Charlie 31” (2021), 11.6 x 8.2 inches

    #animals
    #architecture
    #collage
    #humor
    #surreal

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    Sublime Renderings of Women and Girls Explore Notions of Beauty in Portraits by Rosso Emerald Crimson

    
    Art

    #oil painting
    #painting
    #portraits

    March 19, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “You Better Be Good” (2021), oil on panel, 36 x 36 centimeters. All images © Rosso Emerald Crimson, shared with permission
    In her exquisite portraiture, London-based artist Rosso Emerald Crimson renders female subjects who emerge through a haze of pastels and muted tones. She infuses the dreamy oil paintings with responses to current affairs and questions about the future, which often serve as a catalyst for her projects. “I don’t ‘think’ specifically about political or ethical issues when I paint although my creative flow is undoubtedly fuelled by the impressions and emotions many global events leave subconsciously,” she tells Colossal. Issues of racial justice and the unrealistic portrayal of beauty have both played a role in her recent works, including the compelling portrait of a young Black girl titled “What Are We Waiting For.”
    Generally, the subjects are people Rosso has a relationship with or someone who’s caught her eye, although she’s expanded her purview to models she’s never met as a way to adapt to pandemic restrictions. The artist often depicts the women and girls staring forward with unsmiling expressions. “I am enchanted by the diversity of human beings which is what truly makes us beautiful,” she says.
    If you’re in London, you can see Rosso’s paintings that are part of an exhibition celebrating Women’s History Month at Zebra One Gallery until March 31. She’ll also have pieces on view at Southbank Centre this summer and a solo show at Chrom Art Gallery in November. Prints and originals are available in her shop, and you can see works-in-progress on Instagram.

    “Enchantress” (2020), oil on canvas, 25 x 18 centimeters
    “Oyin” (2020), oil on aluminum, 24 x 18 centimeters
    “Tenderly Layla” (2020), oil on aluminum, 20 x 15 centimeters
    Left: “Flora” (2020), oil on aluminum, 65 x 50 centimeters. Right: “Girl with ginger hair” (2021), oil on canvas panel, 26 x 20 centimeters
    “What Are We Waiting For” (2020), oil on panel, 30 x 27 centimeters
    “Girl in polka dress” (2020), oil and silver leaf on panel, 122 x 85 centimeters

    #oil painting
    #painting
    #portraits

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