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      A Visit to Wangechi Mutu’s Nairobi Studio Explores Her Profound Ties to Nature and the Feminine

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      Art
      Documentary

      #collage
      #colonialism
      #identity
      #nature
      #sculpture
      #video

      July 23, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      [embedded content]
      Kenyan-American artist Wangechi Mutu made history in 2019 when her four bronze sculptures became the first ever to occupy the niches of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s facade. Stretching nearly seven feet, the seated quartet evokes images of heavily adorned African queens and intervenes in the otherwise homogenous canons of art history held within the institution’s walls.
      The monumental figures are one facet of Mutu’s nuanced body of work that broadly challenges colonialist, racist, and sexist ideologies. Now on view at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor is the latest iteration of the artist’s subversive projects: I Am Speaking, Are You Listening?  disperses imposing hybrid creatures in bronze and towering sculptures made of soil, branches, charcoal, cowrie shells, and other organic materials throughout the neoclassical galleries. The figurative works draw a direct connection between the Black female body and ecological devastation as they reject the long-held ideals elevated in the space.

      No matter the medium, these associations reflect Mutu’s deep respect for and fascination with the ties between nature, the feminine, and African history and culture, a guiding framework that the team at Art21 explores in a recently released documentary. Wangechi Mutu: Between the Earth and the Sky visits the artist’s studio in her hometown of Nairobi and dives into the evolution of her artwork from the smaller collaged paintings that centered her early practice as a university student in New York to her current multi-media projects that have grown in both scope and scale.
      Whether a watercolor painting with photographic scraps or one of her mirror-faced figures encircled with fringe, Mutu’s works are founded in an insistence on the value of all life and the ways the earth’s history functions as a source of knowledge, which she explains:
      I truly believe that there’s something about taking these bits and pieces of trees, and animals and completely anonymous but extremely identifiable items and placing them somewhere that draws their energy, wherever they were coming from, whatever they did, whatever molten lava they came out of a million years ago, that is now in my work and that little piece of energy is magnified.
      Dive further into Mutu’s practice by watching the full documentary above, and see a decades-long archive of her paintings, sculptures, collages, and other works on Artsy and Instagram.

      #collage
      #colonialism
      #identity
      #nature
      #sculpture
      #video

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      Layers of Cut Paper Foliage Fragment Christine Kim’s Collaged Portraits

      by

      
      Art
      Craft
      Illustration

      #collage
      #graphite
      #mixed media
      #paper
      #portraits

      July 8, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Christine Kim, shared with permission
      Obscured faces peek through tangles of leaves and stems in the ethereal portraits of Toronto-based artist Christine Kim. Her mixed-media collages layer textured graphite gradients and mesh-like cuttings into splintered depictions of her subjects. “‘Fragmentary’ is one word that I return to again and again because I think portraiture is an act of catching glimmers of a person,” she tells Colossal. “I like the idea of not being able to see everything. Having multiple layers partially conceals but the patterns of foliage, (which) also act like a kind of shelter.”
      For each work, Kim first illustrates a single figure—the subjects shown here are models Yuka Mannami and Hoyeon Jung—and then digitally draws a corresponding botanical pattern. Those motifs are cut with the help of a Silhouette Cameo machine before they’re built up sheet by sheet. Graceful and at times surreal, the resulting portraits portray fractions of faces and hands that are duplicated or filtered through colorful webs.
      You can dive into Kim’s process in this studio visit, and find a larger collection of her tiered illustrations on Instagram. (via Supersonic Art)

      #collage
      #graphite
      #mixed media
      #paper
      #portraits

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      An Eclectic Group Show Features Sound Sculptures, Collages, and Toy Assemblages for the Annual BBA Artist Prize

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      Art

      #collage
      #fiber art
      #light
      #painting
      #sculpture
      #sound

      June 18, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      By June Lee. All images courtesy of BBA Artist Prize, shared with permission
      A broad, varied collection of work from 20 emerging artists converges in a group exhibition for the sixth-annual BBA Artist Prize. Living in ten countries and working across mediums, this year’s finalists include Steve Parker’s touch-activated horn sculptures, Fiona White’s vivid collaged paintings, and June Lee’s figurative assemblages of toys and everyday objects. The winner of 2021’s award will be announced on June 25, with all works on view at Kühlhaus Berlin through June 30. Get a preview on the BBA site, and check out artist Ming Lu’s blue-and-white porcelain sculptures, which won the 2020 competition.

      By Ewa Cwikla
      By Fiona White
      By Ernst Miesgang
      By Steve Parker
      Left: Nina Ekman. By Right: By Juliette Losq
      By Sandra Blatterer

      #collage
      #fiber art
      #light
      #painting
      #sculpture
      #sound

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    • 150 Shares189 Views

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      Digital Renderings Collage 3D Objects into Futuristic Self-Portraits by Artist Omar Aqil

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      Art

      #collage
      #digital
      #sculpture
      #self-portrait
      #technology

      May 13, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Omar Aqil, shared with permission
      Lahore, Pakistan-based artist Omar Aqil (previously) digitally assembles technology, 3D objects, and textured masses into figurative collages for his series Self-Portraits 2050. The futuristic characters all sport a pair of glasses but are otherwise distinct, sometimes conveyed through sleek geometric shapes stacked into facial features and others sprouting whimsical florals and various organic elements. Experimentation and play are at the heart of this new series—which Aqil refers to as “profile pictures”—and his practice overall, resulting in an eclectic collection of self-portraits rooted in the current digital era.
      Find more of the artist’s sculptural renderings, which include a variety of abstracted figures and colorful assemblages, on Behance and Instagram.

      #collage
      #digital
      #sculpture
      #self-portrait
      #technology

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    • 150 Shares199 Views

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      Digital Portraits Reinvent Classical Paintings by Enveloping Subjects in Garments and Masks

      by

      
      Art

      #collage
      #digital
      #portraits

      March 24, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Hidden Perronneau” (2020), photocollage. All images © Volker Hermes, shared with permission
      Nearly a decade before masks became a ubiquitous part of our lives, artist Volker Hermes was fashioning lavish face coverings made of flowers, lace, and ornate baubles. In his ongoing series, Hidden Portraits, Hermes digs into the art historical archive and selects classical paintings that he then reinterprets. Elaborate accessories derived from elements in the original works become tools for obscuring the subjects’ faces, which subsequently draws attention to their garments, gestures, and surroundings.
      Since he began the prescient series, Hermes has based his practice in painting even though he realizes each portrait digitally. Time has given him ample opportunities to delve into the original painters’ backgrounds, periods, and the symbolism of various fashions, an experience bolstered by his costuming work for opera productions.
      Now fluent in historical significance, Hermes continues to parse questions of representation in the works and their current-day implications. “Each era has its own symbols,” he says. “I always like to mention the Chanel costume as a metaphor for today’s upper-class affiliation. There are of course more current, more specific ones, but this garment has something of a general visualization of an established elite.”
      Other emblems—like the big, black hats made from beaver fur that many men don in works from the Dutch Golden Age to signify their rank—are more difficult to recognize today. Hermes says:
      Whoever had such a hat, had himself painted with it. But today we don’t know that anymore. We simply see men with black hats, which no longer trigger anything in us. We look the sitters in the face as our natural approach. If I now exaggerate such a hat in my interventions, blocking the access via the face, the focus changes, the viewer is forced, so to speak, to look at the painting under new aspects, taking into account the meanings that determined the painting at that time.
      From his studio in Düsseldorf, Hermes is preparing new pieces for a group show centered around a theme of clerical representation and pilgrimage, which you can keep up with on Instagram.

      “Hidden Pesne” (2021), photocollage
      “Hidden Larkin” (2020), photocollage
      “Hidden Anonymous (Pourbus)” (2020), photocollage
      “Hidden Cranach III” (2019), photocollage
      “Hidden Liotard VI” (2021), photocollage
      “Hidden Pourbus V” (2019), photocollage

      #collage
      #digital
      #portraits

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    • 150 Shares169 Views

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

      by

      
      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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      Six Quirky Houseplants Made from Collaged Photos Spring from a Pop-Up Book by Daniel Gordon

      by

      
      Art
      Photography

      #books
      #collage
      #fruit
      #paper
      #plants
      #pop-ups
      #sculpture

      March 9, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      From Daniel Gordon: Houseplants (Aperture, 2020). All images © Daniel Gordon/Aperture, photographs and video by Black&Steil/Aperture
      Say goodbye to the days of buying succulents only to watch them wilt and shrivel. Just flip open a pop-up book by photographer Daniel Gordon, and find a collection of forever-perky shrubs and greenery sprouting from the pages.
      Published by Aperture, Houseplants features quirky still lifes of potted vegetation and fruit that Gordon developed using photographs found online, a process that’s central to his overall practice. The obviously constructed forms, which were created by self-described paper engineer Simon Arizpe, juxtapose the realistic nature of the plants with saturated colors and unusual depth, resulting in scenes that are distinctly informed by the internet and the melding of digital and analog techniques. “The seamlessness of the ether is boring to me, but the materialization of that ether, I think, can be very interesting,” Gordon says in a statement.
      To add the sculptural greens to your collection, pick up a copy of Houseplants from Aperture or Bookshop, and explore more of the Brooklyn-based photographer’s vibrant, collaged projects on his site and Instagram. (via Juxtapoz)

      #books
      #collage
      #fruit
      #paper
      #plants
      #pop-ups
      #sculpture

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    • 150 Shares139 Views

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      Lorna Simpson Photographs Rihanna in an Elegantly Collaged Collaboration for ESSENCE Magazine

      by

      
      Art
      Photography

      #celebrities
      #collage
      #found photographs
      #magazines

      January 25, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Of Earth & Sky (Blue Cumulus)” (2020), collage and ink on paper. All images © Lorna Simpson, courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth
      An extraordinarily glamorous collaboration graces the pages of ESSENCE’s January/February 2021 issue. The print publication paired acclaimed artist Lorna Simpson and pop icon and businesswoman Rihanna for a striking interpretation of modern beauty.
      Within the Of Earth & Sky series are 12 collages and the cover image, which features Rihanna, eyelids coated in bright blue, staring directly at the camera. A diamond collar drapes around her neck, and she’s adorned with a roughly textured crown of crystal derived from 19th-century lithographs.
      Many of the superimposed collages feature the Barbados-born singer framed in archival imagery, from star-studded galactic coiffes to bright bursts of watercolor. Others in the collection stray from hairstyle transformations and instead position her against vintage backdrops, including one shot of Rihanna donning an elaborately feathered headdress and lingerie in front of the city skyline.
      Brooklyn-based Simpson is known for her kaleidoscopic collages centered on Black women that pull imagery from back issues of Ebony and Jet, a treatment she applies to ESSENCE‘s first-ever commission. The layered works are paired with an essay by the artist’s daughter, actress and model Zora Simpson Casebere, about Rihanna’s lasting influence on her own career. For more of Simpson’s collages that intersect contemporary culture and retro imagery, head to her site. (via Artnet)

      “Of Earth & Sky (Nebula)” (2020), collage on paper
      “Of Earth & Sky (Cover)” (2020), collage on paper
      “Earth & Sky #24” (2016), collage on paper
      “Of Earth & Sky (Bivalve)” (2020), collage on paper
      “Of Earth & Sky (Moving Planets) “(2020), collage on paper
      “Of Earth & Sky (Bridge)” (2020), collage on paper

      #celebrities
      #collage
      #found photographs
      #magazines

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