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    Precise Replicas Cast Wildlife and Plants as Delightfully Tiny Sculptures

    
    Art
    Craft

    #animals
    #birds
    #clay
    #miniature
    #sculptures

    July 14, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    All images © Fanni Sandor, shared with permission
    Fanni Sandor (previously) melds her background in biology with a decades-long enthusiasm for miniatures by creating an adorable menagerie of minuscule wildlife. Based in Hungary, she sculpts 1:12 scale models of leaping squirrels and multicolor tree frogs from clay and soft fibers and more recently has ventured into larger ecosystems populated by speckled mushrooms, ferns, and the tiniest tulips. Sandor’s biologically accurate models are sold out on Etsy right now, but keep an eye on shop updates by following her on Instagram.

    #animals
    #birds
    #clay
    #miniature
    #sculptures

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    Found Silverware and Scrap Metal Are Welded into Lively Sculptural Creatures by Matt Wilson

    
    Art

    #animals
    #birds
    #found objects
    #metal
    #sculpture

    July 2, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    All images © Matt Wilson
    Wide spoons become muscular hind legs, pointed handles fan out into wings, and fork prongs curl around a branch like talons in Matt Wilson’s wildlife assemblages. Using found flatware and other metal objects, the Charleston-based artist (previously) welds sculptural renditions of birds, insects, and other small animals that appear lifelike and primed for movementt. He mounts the metallic sculptures on pieces of driftwood or smooth plaques—many of which are handcrafted by his friend Jacob Kent—that contrast the shining metal with the natural, grainy material.
    Wilson has spent the last few years broadening his practice and working on multiple birds simultaneously, allowing for more cohesive, well-rounded flocks. His next collection launches at 9 a.m. EST on July 9 in his shop, and his works sell quickly so keep an eye on Instagram for early looks at the 100 creatures set for release.

    #animals
    #birds
    #found objects
    #metal
    #sculpture

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    Traditional Chinese Characters and Motifs Cover Ming Lu’s Porcelain Busts and Ducks

    
    Art

    #birds
    #busts
    #porcelain
    #sculpture

    June 18, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “Dialogue, Reaching the Station We’ll Never Reach” (2019), blue and white porcelain, 26 x 18 x 18 centimeters. All images © Ming Lu, shared with permission
    Artist Ming Lu melds multiple facets associated with Chinese culture in her delicate blue-and-white porcelain works. She utilizes traditional craft techniques to sculpt ubiquitous cultural symbols often found throughout the streets of Chinatown, encompassing both the Berlin-based artist’s broad cultural connections to her native country and more personal interactions.
    In the three busts that comprise “Dialogue,” for example, Ming Lu transcribes conversations with her partner in calligraphic script. Titled “Reason,” “Trick,” and “Reaching a Station We’ll Never Reach,” the self-portraits embody a contemporary change in situation and perspective through a classic medium. Similarly, a trio of butchered ducks evokes the popular dish in form and are coated in a traditional floral motif, a cracked glaze, and characters depicting an old-fashioned spelling of “I love you.” Each of the birds strikes a balance between history and more contemporary culture, which Ming Lu describes:
    It’s a funny experience when I first went to Chinatown and I saw these roast ducks hanging on the restaurant windows. We don’t do this in China, at least not in the cities I’ve been to. It’s a funny experience for me. And when you go to a museum, in the “China” (the country) section, you see many porcelains. It also represents China in a way as in history, especially in Ming and Qing dynasties, (porcelain) was one of the largest export commodities, so I put them together.
    Ming Lu works across mediums, and you can see more of her sculptures, paintings, and embroideries on her site. Some of the pieces shown here on view through July 3 as part of her solo show Tigress, Tigress at BBA Gallery in Berlin and in a group exhibition running June 24 to 30 at Kühlhaus Berlin.

    “Blues Is My Business” (2019), blue and white porcelain, 30 x 16 x 9 centimeters
    Detail of “Dialogue, Reason” (2019), blue and white porcelain, 26 x 18 x 18 centimeters. Photo by Christian Schneider
    “Dialogue, Reason” (2019), blue and white porcelain, 26 x 18 x 18 centimeters. Photo by Christian Schneider
    “Blues Is My Business” (2019), blue and white porcelain, 30 x 16 x 9 centimeters
    “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” (2019), blue and white porcelain, 30 x 16 x 9 centimeters
    “Wonderful World” (2019), ge porcelain, 30 x 16 x 9 centimeters

    #birds
    #busts
    #porcelain
    #sculpture

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    Abstract Clusters of Feathers Ruffle Across Vibrant New Murals by Adele Renault

    
    Art

    #birds
    #feathers
    #murals
    #painting
    #public art
    #street art

    June 4, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    Artscape, Sweden. All images © Adele Renault, shared with permission
    Belgian artist Adele Renault (previously) has an unparalleled ability to turn an urban nuisance into an extraordinarily beautiful creature. Her oversized pigeons grace walls in cities around the world, creating public artworks that celebrate her favored subjects in the exact locations they’re often overlooked and disregarded.
    A few years ago, Renault began what she calls “wandering in the macro world,” a venture that shifted her focus to the individual feathers she’s always found most alluring. “The texture is more dazzling and intriguing than showing the whole thing,” she says. “The feathers have become my own language in a way. I now create them without photo reference, more like a meditative practice that creates textures and softness as a result.” Her murals have since strayed from portraying full birds to focusing instead on clusters of plumes and the individual barbs that sprout in layers and tufts.
    Although Renault is dedicated to realistic forms, her more recent artworks play with color, injecting bright rainbow hues where she previously focused on naturally occurring blues and purples. The vibrant feathers radiate with an oily, iridescent sheen and appear to ruffle on the wall, a trompe-l’œil effect she achieves by meticulously coating either oil or spray paint to create depth and shadow.
    A few of Renault’s smaller works on canvas are on view at Moberg Gallery in Des Moines through the end of June, and she’s currently preparing for a solo show in Belgium that’ll feature her Plantasia series, which similarly extracts minuscule details from leaves. You can find out more about her practice in Gutter Paradise, which was published late last year, and follow her on Instagram to stay up-to-date with her latest projects.

    New Brighton, UK (2021)
    Northwest Walls, Werchter (2019). Photo by Dan Verbruggen-Ausilio
    “Gutter Paradise 11” (2019)
    Right: Silverlake (2019). Photo by Asato Iida
    Urban Art Fair Paris. Photo by Alex Geoffrey
    London, Maryland. Photo by Marian Medic

    La Brea, Los Angeles (2021)

    #birds
    #feathers
    #murals
    #painting
    #public art
    #street art

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    More Than 750 Creatures Inhabit an Extraordinarily Eclectic Menagerie as Part of ‘The Glass Ark’

    
    Art

    #animals
    #birds
    #glass
    #sculpture

    June 4, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    All images courtesy of Le Stanze Del Vetro
    Land and sea creatures alike overrun a new exhibition at Le Stanze Del Vetro in Venice. Titled The Glass Ark, the eclectic bestiary—among the more than 750 animals on view are elephants, hippos, cats, giraffes, polar bears, parrots, and poodles adorned with bows—is the expansive collection of art historian and former Louvre president Pierre Rosenberg.
    For thirty years, Rosenberg gathered the lustrous sculptures during regular trips to Venice, a region with a long history of innovative techniques and a hub for glassblowing since the 13th Century. Charming and playfully expressive, the Murano glass pieces diverge from similar collections produced in other media. “They never display fierce poses, which are typical of more traditional animalier sculptures,” a statement says, “and above all, they are never conceived as a toy.” 
    In addition to Rosenberg’s collection, The Glass Ark also features pieces from artists working today, including Cristiano Bianchin, Marcantonio Brandolini d’Adda, Franck Ehrler, Massimo Nordio, Isabelle Poilprez, Maria Grazia Rosin, and Giorgio Vigna. It runs both in-person and virtually through August 1. (via designboom)

    #animals
    #birds
    #glass
    #sculpture

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    Sentrock Captures the Sights of Chicago’s Pilsen Neighborhood in a New Series About Mental Health

    
    Art
    Illustration

    #birds
    #Chicago
    #health

    June 3, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    All images © Sentrock, shared with permission
    In honor of Mental Health Month this May, Chicago artist Joseph Perez, who works as Sentrock, created an illustrated series celebrating the people and scenes around his studio in the city’s Pilsen neighborhood. “I started doing it just for myself, to take an hour or two and share my thoughts or reflections for that day or the day prior,” he tells Colossal.
    Lively, expressive, and deeply empathetic, the resulting illustrations draw on Sentrock’s background as a graffiti artist and his connection to those around him. They tell a story about the neighborhood that’s historically been rich with Latinx culture and portray the sights and experiences shared by the community through a distinctly personal lens. The artist explains:
    I started allowing myself to reflect on the past, present, the current situations I found myself in. I allowed myself to reflect on my everyday life, whether boring, exciting, or just my imagination of the moment. I started to capture the people outside my studio, whether friends or strangers. My purpose for this was to initiate a connection with the people around me, the community.
    Sentrock began with reference photos of friends, family, and community members before reinterpreting them in bright, vivid renditions of his signature bird character. Usually depicted as a beaked mask, the recurring image is Sentrock’s analogy “to humanity: a person who is able to find or escape to their freedom by placing them in a different reality.” In the new works, the character travels from person to person, sometimes worn by kids skateboarding down 18th Street and others by the artist himself, like in the moving portrait of him and his mother.
    Head to Instagram to see the full series and original images, and if you’re in Chicago, keep an eye out for the designs, which Sentrock plans to wheat paste around the city.

    Portrait of the artist with his mother

    Self-portrait

    #birds
    #Chicago
    #health

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    Flora and Fauna Intertwine in Delicate Mixed-Media Artworks by Teagan White

    
    Art

    #animals
    #birds
    #colored pencil
    #gouache
    #mixed media
    #nature
    #painting

    April 19, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “Oasis,” watercolor and gouache on paper, 20 inches x 20 inches. All images courtesy of Nucleus Portland, shared with permission
    Sinuous branches half-submerged in water, fish swimming through the treetops, and plant life spearing small birds compose the intricate entanglements rendered by Teagan White. Through gouache, watercolor, and colored pencil, the artist merges plant and animal life in delicate scenes that focus on the interconnectedness and beauty of the natural world.
    Having just moved to the Pacific Northwest, much of White’s work draws on their years spent biking throughout the Midwest and viscerally experiencing life and death on the region’s roadways. The artist describes their recent series, Things As They Are & As They Could Be, which includes many of the mixed-media pieces shown here, as “meditations on peril and possibility; what has been lost and what remains; dystopian presents and improbable futures.” It’s on view now through May 3 at Nucleus Portland.
    Find glimpses into White’s process and see works-in-progress on Instagram, and pick up prints, stickers, and other goods in their shop.(via Supersonic Art)

    “Citadel,” watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil on paper, 20 x 20 inches
    “Yield,” watercolor and gouache on paper, 11 x 14 inches
    “Waver,” watercolor and gouache on paper, 8 x 10 inches
    “Wander,” watercolor and gouache on paper, 8 x 10 inches
    “Territory,” watercolor and gouache on paper, 18 x 24 inches

    #animals
    #birds
    #colored pencil
    #gouache
    #mixed media
    #nature
    #painting

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    A Flurry of Feathers and Leaves Surround Spirited Birds in Fio Silva’s Vivid Murals

    
    Art

    #birds
    #flowers
    #mural
    #public art
    #street art

    March 5, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    Castelar, Buenos Aires. All images @ Fio Silva, shared with permission
    Fio Silva tucks clusters of oversized birds and botanicals into otherwise stark urban spaces, creating striking murals awash in puffs of feathers, petals, and leaves. The Buenos Aires-based artist focuses largely on movement, a thread that runs through both the vivid renderings of winged subjects as they appear to take flight or perch for just a moment. “It was that lack of stillness through work and searching for walls to paint that I found meaning in my time,” Silva tells Colossal.
    When working in color, the artist starts with blues, yellows, and reds before expanding the palette based on the “moods and to intensify, in some way, what I want to convey, if it is something rather clear, bright, or something… more subdued or desolate,” Silva says. “When I paint, I try to convey a certain force, that by seeing it or sharing it I can move someone, in whatever way.”
    Silva plans to complete a few murals in Argentina during the next few months and will travel to Europe during the summer, with an exhibition of smaller paintings slated for October in Paris. Keep up with the artist’s monumental public works on Instagram.

    Olivos, Buenos Aires
    General Roca, Rio Negro
    Olivos, Buenos Aires
    Left: Berlin, Germany. Right: Belsh, Albania
    General Roca, Rio Negro
    Patos, Albania
    Patos, Albania

    #birds
    #flowers
    #mural
    #public art
    #street art

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