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Tiny Faces Animate Minimal Mugs and Planters by Ceramicist Rami Kim
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
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Massive Human Faces Loom Over Japanese Cities in Uncanny Balloon Works by Mé
Art#faces
#hot air balloons
#installationJuly 27, 2021
Grace Ebert“Masayume” (2019-2021), Tokyo Tokyo Festival Special 13. Photo by Kaneda Kozo. All images courtesy of Mé, shared with permission
An unlikely sight was spotted hovering over Tokyo earlier this month in a disorienting installation by the Japanese collective 目 (Mé). Titled “Masayume” or “dream come true,” the eerie artwork featured a giant human face printed on a hot air balloon, which launched above the city on July 16 as part of the Tokyo Tokyo Festival, an event organized to coincide with the start of the Olympics.
Bizarre and unexpected for most passersby, the single-day piece was derived from a dream Mé artist Kojin Haruka had as a teen. “‘Masayume’ will be carried out suddenly and without prior notice nor a clear reason, just like an image a 14-year-old Japanese girl saw in a dream, momentarily disabling the ordinary,” a statement reads. “The face will be gazing back at us from the sky in the midst of this pandemic. It is as though we are a part of the spectacle.”
“Masayume” is a follow-up to a 2013-2014 project titled “Day with a Man’s Face Floating in the Sky” (shown below) that floated a similar black-and-white balloon over Utsunomiya City, Tochigi. Each of the anonymous figures depicts a real person, and about 1,400 people applied to have their faces loom over Tokyo this round.
Mé’s work is on view at the Towada Art Center in a three-part group exhibition that runs through May 29, 2022. Check out the collective’s Instagram for more of its large-scale projects, including a massive wave sculpture rippling through a museum. (via Spoon & Tamago)“Masayume” (2019-2021), Tokyo Tokyo Festival Special 13. Photo by Tsushima Takahiro
“Day with a Man’s Face Floating in the Sky” (2013-2014), Utsunomiya City, Tochigi. Photo by Takao Sasanuma
“Masayume” (2019-2021), Tokyo Tokyo Festival Special 13. Photo by Kaneda Kozo
“Masayume” (2019-2021), Tokyo Tokyo Festival Special 13. Photo by Igarashi Tomoyuki#faces
#hot air balloons
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Meditative Faces Emerge from the Staggered Wooden Sticks Forming Artist Gil Bruvel’s Sculptures
Art#faces
#gradients
#meditation
#sculptures
#woodSeptember 17, 2020
Grace Ebert“Breathe” (2020). All images © Gil Bruvel, shared with permission
Gil Bruvel (previously) has spent 40 years practicing vipassanā meditation, an introspective practice that invites judgment-free observation of the mind. The Australia-born artist infuses the philosophies of this decades-long ritual into his variegated sculptures as he forms a series of faces in deep thought. With eyes and mouths closed, the figures project serenity and calmness, serving as “a reminder of what it looks like to be centered and at peace,” Bruvel says of The Mask Series.
Different in shape and size, the sticks are burned, painted with subtle gradients, and then held in place with wood glue, causing the figures to appear pixelated and as a disparate grouping of squares and rectangles when viewed up close. From a distance, however, “that fragmentation reveals a coherent whole: a face arises from apparent chaos,” Bruvel shares with Colossal. Through their collated forms, the assemblages offer a visual metaphor for the complexity and contradiction that’s inherent to human beings.
Bruvel also draws attention to the backs of the sculptures, which stray from the figurative depictions of the front to focus on the abstract workings of the mind. “The assemblage of pixel-like stick-ends conveys the hidden realm of emotion, sensation, and thought—our internal universe. The gradients of color represent the flows of feeling and consciousness that pass through our minds like ripples on a lake, leaving the lake unchanged,” he says.
Explore more of Bruvel’s meditative artworks and see some works-in-progress on Instagram and Artsy.“Floating” (2019), burnt wooden sticks and acrylic paint, 24 × 21 inches
“Mask #28” (2020), wood and paint, 16 × 16 × 9 inches
“The Fountain” (2019), wood and paint, 27 × 19 × 23 inches
“The Fountain” (2019), wood and paint, 27 × 19 × 23 inches
“Moonlight” (2019), wood and paint, 22 × 22 × 21 inches
“Moonlight” (2019), wood and paint, 22 × 22 × 21 inches
“Mask #22” (2020), wood and paint, 16 × 16 × 9 inches
“Mask #26” (2020), wood and paint, 16 × 16 × 9 inches
“Breathe” (2020)#faces
#gradients
#meditation
#sculptures
#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!
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Rosy, Voluptuous Lips and Moody Faces Enliven Ceramic Vessels by Artist Tatiana Cardona
All images © Tatiana Cardona, shared with permission Tatiana Cardona’s ceramic planters, mugs, and vases might pucker up for a kiss but their lips will never tell. The Miami-based artist, who runs the shop Female Alchemy, creates playful vessels featuring pursed lips lined in reds and pinks and minimal faces with moody expressions. “The […] More
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Watercolor Paper Transforms into Suggestive Facial Sculptures by Artist Polly Verity
All images © Polly Verity, shared with permission Polly Verity’s most recent paper sculptures test viewers’ sense of pareidolia. The dexterous artist employs single sheets of watercolor paper for her minimalist projects that morph into solitary faces and kissing figures through a series of bends and twists. Verity tells Colossal that she’s been crafting […] More
