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      A Vibrant, Geometric Rug Cascades Down a Staircase in a New Mural by Jessie and Katey

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      Art

      #geometric
      #murals
      #public art
      #rugs
      #stairs
      #textiles

      August 20, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Jessie and Katey, shared with permission. By Shauna Caldwell
      To create the brightly colored textile that cloaks a three-level staircase on the Appalachian State University campus, artists Jessie Unterhalter and Katey Truhn (previously) imagined the concrete steps as a massive loom. They drew grids on the outdoor structure to map out where each individual strip would start, end, and intersect with the larger geometric forms. “There was a lot of math involved, getting the angles and perspective right was a challenge but eventually everything locked into place,” the Baltimore-based duo, who are known as Jessie and Katey, shares with Colossal.
      Evoking the quilts and other textiles that are traditional to Appalachia, the large-scale artwork is composed of vivid gradients layered into a complex web of stripes and woven patches. Neutral-toned tassels line the angled edge at the bottom of the staircase, giving the flat mural the appearance of a rug.
      This public artwork is just one Jessie and Katey have undertaken in recent months. Many of their projects that were postponed due to COVID-19 are reconvening, bringing the pair to Las Vegas, Washington D.C., and a few spots in North Carolina. Although the actual painting process is solitary, Jessie and Katey say they’ve enjoyed seeing how people are experiencing outdoor art since the onset of the pandemic. “It’s really rewarding watching the work get embraced by the public. People get really creative with it, and murals end up becoming a part of the community,” they say.
      To see where the duo is headed next, follow them on Instagram, and check out the prints available in their shop.

      By Michael Olson
      By Shauna Caldwell
      By Shauna Caldwell
      By Shauna Caldwell

      #geometric
      #murals
      #public art
      #rugs
      #stairs
      #textiles

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      Rooted in Chicago’s Culture, Technicolor Paintings by Artist Max Sansing Explore Revelation

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      Art

      #Chicago
      #painting

      August 19, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      “Join Me” (2020), oil, spray paint, and enamel on panel, 20 × 20 inches. All images © Max Sansing, shared with permission
      Through a series of brightly hued paintings titled Lost & Found, Max Sansing examines the human desire for happiness and peace through a distinct sense of place. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, the artist is known for vibrant murals, which you can explore on Instagram, and smaller-scale artworks (shown here) that are rooted in the culture that’s unique to the city.
      Each of Sansing’s paintings focus on a single subject who is overlayed with a thick brushstroke or whispy feather. The artist tells Colossal that the central characters are in the midst of a revelation, having just experienced or realized a needed adjustment. “I think at some point in most Chicagoans’ lives, you come to a point where you need a change. Either Chicago does that for you, or you do it for yourself. Finding that and unlocking those new pathways is a huge part of life,” Sansing says.
      Many of the works that are part of Lost & Found hearken back to the artist’s upbringing. “Rapture,” in particular, features Anita Baker in the background, a gesture toward the R&B singer’s tunes that would reverberate throughout the neighborhood Sansing grew up in during the 1980s. In the same piece, though, a bullet propels toward a young boy’s head. “The threat of gang violence in the early 90s was kind (of) like a wake-up call out of adolescence,” the artist says, and a reality for many Black boys and men in the United States.
      Sansing isn’t without hope, though. The artist writes, “I think we all want that moment in life to finally have clarity, peace, happiness, and in the end, that’s what a lot of civil unrest is about. Folks just wanna live and be. And some want that for others who can’t have it due to hate and systemic roadblocks.” As a whole, Lost & Found embodies the revelations necessary to bring justice and allow communities to thrive. “To quote the show title,” Sansing says, “these things are lost for some, and we have to find it.” (via Supersonic Art)

      “Keygen”(2020), oil, spray paint, and enamel on panel, 30 × 30 inches
      “Rapture (Same Ole Love)” (2020), oil, acrylic, spray paint, and enamel on canvas, 36 × 38 inches
      “Feather Weight” (2020), oil, acrylic, spray paint, and enamel on panel, 33 × 24 inches
      “Soldier On”(2020), oil, acrylic, spray paint, and enamel on panel, 12 × 12 inches
      “Recovered” (2020), oil, acrylic, spray paint, and enamel on panel, 30 × 30 inches

      #Chicago
      #painting

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      In ‘Human,’ Artist Beth Cavener Chronicles Nearly Two Decades of Evocative Sculptural Creatures

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      Art

      #animals
      #books
      #sculpture

      August 19, 2020
      Claire Voon

      All images © Beth Cavener, shared with permission
      In the hands of Montana-based sculptor Beth Cavener (previously), clay transforms into mesmerizing, life-size animal figures charged with raw emotion and vitality. ​Human​, her recently released and award-winning monograph, gathers and celebrates nearly two decades of these extraordinary creations, featuring 160 color plates of work from six series. The curious menagerie includes hares, foxes, goats, and other common mammals, with graceful and luminous bodies depicted in situations that are often tinged with a sense of violent tension. They are figures of pathos: Some creatures recoil, as though in fear; others seem paralyzed by some unseen force. Many are suspended, tethered, or slumped over, having seemingly surrendered to their perpetual state of entrapment. Still, others are beasts exuding tenderness, their body language and eyes inviting viewers to draw close.
      Cavener is a prolific artist, and as ​Human​ reveals, she has experimented with diverse materials including crystallized sugar, black sand, and smoke. Some of her most compelling pieces engage evocative devices like steel chains and glass vitrines, with several incorporating distinctive objects like a 24 karat gold ring and a wasps’ nest. The resulting animals could be displaced from dark fables. They are haunting, unlucky characters whose precise body language and inescapable gazes express unfiltered views of human nature.
      Writing the foreword for ​Human​, critic Garth Clark identifies Cavener’s sources of inspiration: People she personally has encountered during her lifetime—including her own self—“whose psychodramas, emotional catastrophes, and sexual peculiarities play out in her work.” Roiling with unspoken affect, these animals serve as unflinching mirrors capable of appealing at one glance and suddenly unsettling at another. As Cavener has said about her own visions: “Entangled in their own internal and external struggles, the figures express frustration for the human tendency towards cruelty and a lack of understanding. Something conscious and knowing is captured in their gestures and expressions. An invitation and a rebuke.”
      Explore this beguiling bestiary by picking up a copy of ​Human​ from the artist’s ​website​ or Bookshop.

      #animals
      #books
      #sculpture

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      Copper Animal Sculptures by Artist Wang Ruilin Are Embedded with Nature’s Sublime Elements

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      Art

      #animals
      #copper
      #nature
      #sculpture

      August 18, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      “66°​​​​​​​ N” (2020), copper and paint. . All images © Wang Ruilin
      Artist Wang Ruilin (previously) visualizes nature’s interconnectivity by literally imprinting a rocky terrain or ice cap onto the bodies of wild animals. His recent copper-and-paint sculptures include a panda with a black back stripe and limbs that are covered in a mountainous ridge and a white blanket of clouds. Similarly, the waters of the Arctic Circle wrap around a polar bear’s lower back and hind legs, contrasting its otherwise smooth fur. Often positioned in states of repose, the creatures are evoking Earth’s most sublime features through surreal placements. See more of the Ruilin’s recent sculptures below, and head to Behance and Instagram for glimpses into his process.

      “Above Cloud” (2020), copper and paint
      “Above Cloud” (2020), copper and paint
      “66°​​​​​​​ N” (2020), copper and paint
      “66°​​​​​​​ N” (2020), copper and paint
      “DREAMS Rhino (No. 04)” (2015), copper and paint
      “DREAMS Rhino (No. 04)” (2015), copper and paint
      “HIDE.SEEK – DOUZHANSHENGFO” (2015), copper and paint
      “HIDE.SEEK – DOUZHANSHENGFO” (2015), copper and paint

      #animals
      #copper
      #nature
      #sculpture

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      Utilizing Modern 3D Printing, Artistic Duo Rael San Fratello Constructs Coiled Earthen Architecture

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      Art
      Design

      #3d printing
      #architecture
      #sustainability
      #technology

      August 18, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Rael San Fratello, shared with permission
      Modern architectural building methods and Indigenous materials converge in the latest endeavor by Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello, titled “Casa Covida.” The earthen structure is part of a MUD Frontiers/Zoquetes Fronterizos that centers on Pueblo de Los Ángeles and the ways technological advances can work in unison with historic mud-based designs. “Casa Covida” contains a bathing pool, sleeping areas, and fireplace seats for two.
      To create the three-room home, the duo employs a custom, portable robot that they transport to various sites, allowing them to dig soil and other materials and immediately shape it into the necessary structures. Utilizing clay and mud, the building process is informed by the practices of Ancestral Pueblo peoples and Indo-Hispano cultures of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. When wet, the natural materials are layered in zigzag-like coils. The undulating, textured facades generally are made with a few rows to provide insulation from the nighttime cold.
      MUD Frontiers was a recent recipient of a 2020 Art + Technology grant from LACMA. It strives to consider “traditional clay craft at the scale of architecture and pottery. The end goal of this endeavor is to demonstrate that low-cost and low-labor construction that is accessible, economical, and safe is possible,” a statement says.
      Based in La Florida, Colorado, and Oakland, respectively, Rael and San Fratello are known for subversive projects at the intersection of art and architecture, like the neon pink teetertotters slotted through the U.S.-Mexico border wall. Follow their latest sustainable works on Instagram. (via Hyperallergic)

      

      #3d printing
      #architecture
      #sustainability
      #technology

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      Chromatic Black Crows by Artist Kerry James Marshall Consider the Precarity of Race in America

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      Art
      History

      #birds
      #painting

      August 17, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      “Black and part Black Birds in America: (Crow, Goldfinch)” (2020), acrylic on PVC panel, 27 7/8 x 24 3/4 inches. All images © Kerry James Marshall, courtesy of David Zwirner
      Two new paintings by Kerry James Marshall feature a central crow that looms over a botanical backdrop. One or two birdhouses, which have entrances that are too small for the blackbirds to fit through, are perched on the leafy branches along with more petite species. Part of an ongoing series, the acrylic paintings are based on John James Audubon’s Birds of America, an archetypal text cataloging 435 life-size watercolors of avian creatures.
      Marshall’s artworks provide a multivalent, counterhistory to conceptions of race in the United States. While Audubon is recognized widely for his contribution to ecology and natural history in America, his own background is conflicting. The ornithologist was born as Jean Rabin in Haiti to unmarried parents: his father was a white plantation owner, while his mother’s identity is not as well-documented. However, many people believe she was a Creole chambermaid who may have had a mixed racial heritage. When Audubon migrated to the United States in the 19th century, he changed his name and masked his potentially biracial background.
      Throughout his life, the famous birdwatcher and artist both supported and actively participated in chattel slavery, enslaving and selling people throughout the early 1800s. Audubon, who passed as white, also sought out relationships with presidents James Harrison and Andrew Jackson to promote his studies. In 1976, though, the artist’s work was included by curator David C. Driskell in his exhibition Two Centuries of Black American Art, which positioned Audubon within the Black arts canon.

      “Black and part Black Birds in America: (Grackle, Cardinal & Rose-breasted Grosbeak)” (2020), acrylic on PVC panel, 35 1/2 x 31 1/2 inches
      Today, Marshall utilizes ornithologist’s studies as a way to consider the narratives around race in his series, Black and part Black Birds in America, which on view virtually through August 30 at David Zwirner. The Chicago-based artist paints large crows in chromatic black, which is composed entirely of dark reds, blues, or greens. Another smaller bird, like a goldfinch or cardinal, has the deep shade on its face or wings, evoking the one-drop rule, or the claim that one Black ancestor was enough to grant a relative that same identity.
      Because Marshall forgoes actual black pigment when painting, he evidences that racial categories are simply a social construction rather than a biological fact. Similarly, the ambiguous titles of the series compare the classification of birds to that of people, utilizing the color to reference both the creatures’ feathers and human categorization of race. “None of us works in isolation. Nothing we do is disconnected from the social, political, economic, and cultural histories that trail behind us. The value of what we produce is determined by comparison with and in contrast to what our fellow citizens find engaging,” Marshall says.

      #birds
      #painting

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      A Disorienting Short Film by Lydia Cambron Recreates ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ in Quarantine

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      Art

      #COVID-19
      #humor
      #movies
      #science fiction
      #short film
      #video

      August 16, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      [embedded content]

      Eerie, hypnotic, and faithfully depicting the dismal reality that is 2020, a new short film by Lydia Cambron envisions her recent quarantine experience under the frame of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. In 2020: An Isolation Odyssey, the New York City-based designer recreates the 1968 version’s iconic ending as a way to “(poke) fun at the navel-gazing saga of life alone and indoors,” she writes in a statement.
      Positioned vertically, the characters’ movements are synchronized perfectly, but while the original film’s Keir Dullea wades through the ornate home in an astronaut suit, Cambron sports a face mask and latex gloves. The reenactment is situated in the designer’s one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment, and while it maintains the domestic qualities of the original, it also features contemporary updates, like a MacBook sitting on the table rather than a lavish meal. She even parallels the minutes-long credits precisely.
      Cambron notes that the contemporary version considers a similarly disorienting life. “Multitasking while #wfh, conjuring guilt or longing with unused exercise equipment, your entire being reduced to a measure of time—these scenes all illustrate the absurd comedy of trying to maintain control during this unprecedented and unpredictable time,” she explains.
      Follow Cambron’s parodic explorations—which include an annual exhibition titled JONALDDUDD— on Instagram and Vimeo. (via Daring Fireball)

      #COVID-19
      #humor
      #movies
      #science fiction
      #short film
      #video

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      Delft-Style Weaponry by Artist Helena Hauss Contrasts Fragility with Strength and Destruction

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      Art

      #ceramics
      #porcelain
      #sculpture
      #weapons

      August 15, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Helena Hauss, shared with permission
      Paris-based artist Helena Hauss juxtaposes the domestic feminity synonymous with delft-style porcelain and the brute force of barbed weaponry. Her sculptural series, titled Hell Hath no Fury, is composed of an axe, grenade, spiked bat, and morning star, each of which is ornamented with floral motifs.
      Hauss shares with Colossal that she hopes to disrupt notions that women are the “weaker sex” and opts instead for a message of empowerment. “Too often portrayed as fragile and delicate, this project is an expression of the contrasting subtleties that come with femininity, as well as an attempt at vindication from a feeling of constant vulnerability that’s been forced upon us,” she says. “Contrary to what you might think, we’re not made of glass, porcelain, or crystal. We’re not gonna break, we’re wearing full metal jackets, and we’re ready to fight back.”
      To view more of the Hauss’s subversive sculptural works, head to Instagram and Behance.

      #ceramics
      #porcelain
      #sculpture
      #weapons

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