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      Teeming with Leaves and Grasses, Oil Paintings Cloaked in Lush Foliage Evoke the Forest Floor

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      Art
      #oil painting
      #painting
      #plantsJanuary 14, 2022Grace EbertAll images © JA Paunkovic, shared with permissionThick foliage in shades of green sprout from every inch of JA Paunkovic’s canvases. The Serbian husband-and-wife duo of Jelena and Aleksandar render luxuriant scenes brimming with realistic plant life. Patches of verdant grasses, shrubs, and flowering specimens sprawl across the oil-based works, which mimic the lush patches of vegetation that the pair encounters while hiking.  “Visiting (a) new environment becomes material that will later serve us in the studio as a sketch for a new painting,” Jelena shares. “We have found a way to bring nature to a home or gallery and hang it on the wall to serve as a reminder that we need to think more about how our modern lifestyle affects the environment.”In addition to working on a few commissions, the artists currently are building a new studio, and you can follow their progress on Instagram. Find limited-edition prints and originals in their shop.
      #oil painting
      #painting
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      Aiming to Make Art More Accessible and Diverse, Apostrophe Puzzles Releases Artist-Designed Jigsaws

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      Art
      Design
      #puzzlesJanuary 13, 2022Grace EbertLiz Flores. All images © Apostrophe Puzzles, shared with permissionApostrophe Puzzles is at the nexus of art and accessibility. Founder Mandi Masden launched the Brooklyn-based company in 2019 with the goal of making the works usually confined to galleries, museums, and the collections of wealthy patrons more affordable to average consumers. “I am really aiming to utilize puzzles to bridge the gap of accessibility to fine art and to make art collecting something everyone can participate in,” she explains.The company, which borrows its name from the punctuation indicating either possession or omission, collaborates exclusively with contemporary artists of color to design 1,000-piece jigsaws featuring their works. In the last two years, it’s released two collections, with the most recent including Liz Flores’s colorful, abstract bodies, the powerfully posed women at the center of Tim Okamura’s portraits (previously), and Ronald Jackson’s masked figures.Many of the jigsaws, which are printed on 100% recycled boards with non-toxic ink, have sold out their initial runs, a testament to Apostrophe’s mission. “We believe in the importance and necessity of diverse representation in both the puzzle and art world and hope that our collections help change the face of art consumerism,” the company said. Each purchase directly supports the creators— “We are currently at 12% for all artists and hope to continue to increase that number as we grow,” Masden shares—and a portion also is donated to the company’s nonprofit partner, ProjectArt, a tuition-free program offering art classes and residencies in partnership with public libraries.Apostrophe plans to release four new puzzles annually, and you can purchase available designs and start collecting them all by heading to its shop.Tim OkamuraRonald JacksonTim OkamuraLiz FloresMarianne Angeli RodriguezVinita Karim
      #puzzlesDo 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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      Imaginative Glass Specimens Are Suspended in Jars in Steffen Dam’s Cabinets of Curiosities

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      Art
      #glass
      #jellyfish
      #sculpture
      #sea creaturesJanuary 13, 2022Grace EbertAll images courtesy of Heller GalleryHeld in tall, transparent jars are recreations of tiny jellyfish with wispy tentacles, plankton, and other delicate sea creatures by Danish artist Steffen Dam (previously). He sculpts the miniature organisms in glass and displays the exquisite creations in wooden boxes or medicine cases that evoke the 16th Century wunderkammers or cabinets of curiosities. Generally in the possession of aristocrats and monarchs, these encyclopedic collections predated museums and held objects that were valuable for scientific study and their ability to inspire wonder and awe. Although Dam’s sculptures reference the colors, textures, and shapes of real-life specimens, his imaginative works are inventive interpretations of evolution and biology.Find more of the artist’s recent works on his site and at Heller Gallery in New York, where he’s represented.“Wunderkammer” (2021), 
glass and illuminated wooden presentation box, 
35 3/8 x 27 1/2 x 7 inchesDetail of “Wunderkammer” (2021), 
glass and illuminated wooden presentation box, 
35 3/8 x 27 1/2 x 7 inches“Pangaean Zoology” (2018), 20 elements in glass, 72 inches“Marine Group” (2020), glass and illuminated presentation box, 13 3/4 x 39 x 7 7/8 inches“Specimen Block” (2017), 
glass, 
11 3/8 x 11 3/8 x 1 1/2 inches“New Medicine” (2017), 
glass and illuminated wooden presentation box
, 30 1/4 x 17 1/4 x 9 inches“Marine Specimen Collection” (2018), 
glass, 
tallest 8 3/4 inchesDetail of “Specimen Cabinet” (2017), glass and illuminated wooden presentation box, 
39 1/4 x 24 3/8 x 9 3/8 inchesDetail of “The Journey to M31” (2021)
      #glass
      #jellyfish
      #sculpture
      #sea creaturesDo 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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      Ceramic Figurines by Claire Partington Put a Contemporary Twist on Historical Symbols

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      Art
      #animals
      #anthropomorphic
      #ceramics
      #figurines
      #porcelainJanuary 11, 2022Grace EbertAll images © Claire Partington, shared with permissionCiting traditional portraiture and figurative ceramics, London-based artist Claire Partington (previously) sculpts grand characters with a dose of contemporary wit: Lavishly outfitted women lose their heads to anthropomorphized octopuses, a flip flop-wearing fairy dozes alongside empty beer bottles, and sneakers and a cellphone lie next to “Sleeping Beauty.” Infused with mythological symbols and references to folklore, the delicate figurines meld history and culture across time periods and prompt questions about interpretation and narrative.Many of the pieces shown here are included in Partington’s solo exhibition En Plein Air, which is on view from  February 2 to March 19 at Winston Wächter Fine Art in Seattle and coincides with the release of Historical Fiction, a monograph spanning ten years of her career. Until then, explore more of her subversive figures on her site and Instagram.
      #animals
      #anthropomorphic
      #ceramics
      #figurines
      #porcelainDo 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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      Movement and Flow Infuse Pleated Paper Sculptures and Modular Designs by Richard Sweeney

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      Art
      Craft
      #paper
      #sculptureJanuary 10, 2022Grace Ebert“Swan.” All images © Richard Sweeney, shared with permissionEvoking the spread wings of a bird in flight or a dancer’s graceful bends, the paper sculptures created by Richard Sweeney (previously) convey movement through an intricate display of folds and pleats. The monochromatic works, which the West Yorkshire, England-based artist manipulates into their final shapes with small cuts, wet creases, and dabs of adhesive, are abstract and asymmetrical in form, inspiring a range of associations. “People see different things—animal skulls and a spinal column being a few of my favorites mentioned so far,” he tells Colossal.Sweeney’s process has remained largely the same during the last few years, and he still crafts a variety of malleable, modular forms like the pliable helix shown below, although he now gravitates toward more organic shapes that appear to flow from one end to the other. “I like to go out walking in the countryside, so there is plenty to see there that influences me—birds in flight, streams, and rivers, cloud formations—so I’ll make sketches and take photographs and let that guide my sculptural work. I don’t usually work with a particular form in mind,” he says, noting that each sculpture often takes multiple weeks to complete.Pick up a copy of Sweeney’s Fluid Forms for a deeper look at his practice, and if you’re in London, stop by Deirdre Dyson before January 14 to see his pieces in person. You can also follow his latest works on Instagram.“Swan”“Flight Sequence”“Swan”“Cloud”Detail of “Flight Sequence”Detail of “Cloud”“Swan”
      #paper
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      A Serpentine Rattlesnake Wraps Around a Metaphorical Wood and Book Sculpture by Maskull Lasserre

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      Art
      #books
      #sculpture
      #snakes
      #woodJanuary 7, 2022Grace EbertAll images © Maskull LasserreIn a towering, totem-style sculpture titled “The Garden,” Canadian artist Maskull Lasserre (previously) compresses a collection of 18th-century botanical texts between two parallel planks of Douglas Fir. Metal vices bore through the wooden beams, securing the first four volumes of William Withering’s An Arrangement of British Plants, although both the natural and manufactured components are eroded with Lasserre’s intricately carved snake that winds around the perimeter and appears to bind the individual components together. “The Garden” is one of the artist’s most recent works that metaphorically and physically considers the concept of tension, and you can see more in his portfolio.
      #books
      #sculpture
      #snakes
      #woodDo 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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      Tiny Faces Animate Minimal Mugs and Planters by Ceramicist Rami Kim

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      Art
      #ceramics
      #faces
      #tableware
      #vesselsJanuary 7, 2022Grace EbertAll images © Rami KimEnjoy the company of Rami Kim’s minimally sculpted personalities emerging from her footed planters, mugs, and other ceramic pieces. The artist and animator (previously), who gravitates toward bright monochromatic finishes and simple patterns, creates a wide array of vessels featuring perfectly round eyes, tiny mouths, and noses that add a dose of whimsy and play to her functional objects.See more of Kim’s works, check for stockists near you, and shop available pieces on her site, and keep an eye on her Instagram for announcements about sales and opportunities to visit her Los Angeles studio. You also might enjoy Fan Yanting’s moody characters.
      #ceramics
      #faces
      #tableware
      #vesselsDo 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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      Complex Networks of Metallic Branches Shape Animal Sculptures by Kang Dong Hyun

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      Art
      #animals
      #metal
      #sculpture
      #steelJanuary 6, 2022Grace Ebert“Forest of Coexistence” (2019), stainless steel and urethane paint, 300 x 160 x 120 centimeters. All images © Kang Dong Hyun, shared with permissionWhat eventually becomes a stately stag or majestically posed lion in Kang Dong Hyun’s Forest of Coexistence starts with countless metallic branches that splay in every direction. The Korean artist (previously) welds spindly shoots and sprawling root-like shapes into facial features and bodies that are then finished with urethane paint. Creating a cohesive display of flora and fauna, each hollow, stainless steel sculpture considers the relationship between species and the idea that “all life on Earth may lead to an invisible string,” Kang says. For more of the artist’s intricately formed animals, visit Instagram.“Forest of Coexistence” (2020), stainless steel and urethane paint, 73 x 46 x 11 centimeters“Forest of Coexistence” (2021), stainless steel and urethane paint, 150 x 120 x 50 centimeters“Forest of Coexistence” (2021), stainless steel and urethane paint, 64 x 36 x 114 centimeters“Forest of Coexistence” (2021), stainless steel and urethane paint, 68 x 80 x 20 centimeters“Forest of Coexistence” (2018), stainless steel and urethane paint, 130 x 45 x 85 centimeters“Forest of Coexistence” (2020), stainless steel and urethane paint, 51 x 80 x 39 centimeters
      #animals
      #metal
      #sculpture
      #steelDo 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