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      Tufts of Printed Fabric Form Colorful Mixed-Media Portraits by Marcellina Oseghale Akpojotor

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      Art

      #acrylic
      #mixed media
      #painting
      #portraits
      #textiles

      October 12, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Eyes on the Gold IV” (2018), 5 x 4 feet. All images courtesy of Rele Gallery, shared with permission
      Using scraps of vibrant Ankara fabric, Lagos-based artist Marcellina Oseghale Akpojotor fashions intimate portraits that consider the fragmented and varied inner lives of her subjects. The intricately composed depictions rely on a cacophony of patterns arranged in loose ripples and tufts, creating a patchwork of color and texture. Although the textiles are Dutch in origin—they’re colloquially known as “African print fabrics”—they have a strong cultural significance, and by piecing together the assorted motifs, Akpojotor establishes a shared visual memory.
      Set against uncluttered, domestic backdrops rendered in acrylic, the fiber-based figures are often disrupted with small spots of paint as a way to “speak to the influence our environment has in shaping us as individuals,” Akpojotor shares. “They represent the connections we have with our background and immediate society and how these often ignored elements form a part of our being.” Navigating the links between subjects and their surroundings is an ongoing concern for the artist, whose work delves into the effects of the current moment, in addition to the ways personal histories and the actions of previous generations have lasting impacts.
      Akpojotor is represented by Rele Gallery, where her work will be on view later this month, and she’s currently working on pieces that explore how education affects women’s empowerment, which you can follow on Instagram. (via Women’s Art)

      “Set to Flourish I” (2021), fabric and acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48 inches
      “Bright bright light II” (2020), mixed media, 2 x 2 feet
      “Papa’s Girl (Kesiena’s Diary)” (2021), fabric, paper, and acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48 inches
      Detail of “Bright bright light II” (2020), mixed media, 2 x 2 feet
      “Eyes on the Gold VI” (2018), 5 x 4 feet
      “Ovoke (Kesiena’s diary)” (2019-2020), fabric and acrylic on canvas, 5 x 4 feet

      “Dear Brother II” (2020), mixed media, 2 x 2 feet

      #acrylic
      #mixed media
      #painting
      #portraits
      #textiles

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      Evoking Mythology and Urban Culture, Beaded Masks Brim with Geometric Motifs and Embellishments

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      Art

      #beads
      #masks
      #mixed media
      #mythology
      #shells

      September 20, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Fefe Talavera, shared with permission
      From small shells and Amazonian beads, Brazilian-Mexican artist Fefe Talavera strings together elaborate masks that fuse ancient mythologies and contemporary urban culture. The mixed-media works are part of an ongoing series—Talavera shares more on her site and Instagram, along with vibrant silhouettes painted in acrylic and her large-scale murals—that embellish expressive faces with stripes, symmetries, and various geometric patterns. Sometimes spanning upwards of ten feet or featuring a long tuft of straw, the masks are an amalgam of color, motif, and material that blur cultural boundaries and the tenuous distinction between humanity and nature.
      The São Paulo-based artist tells Colossal that the series “developed when my government opened the doors to cattle ranchers, when forest fires began, putting an end to Indigenous tribes, exotic animals, and trees,” and initial iterations used açaí seeds, shells, and mirrors to explore birth and death through a mystical lens. “When we looked at our reflection in the work, we would be seeing ourselves with respect and love, and it is this look that we should have with the Amazonia,” she says.
      Currently, Talavera is working on a larger-scale piece using 20,000 beads, and she has a solo show planned for May 2022 at Paris’s Bandy Bandy Gallery.

      #beads
      #masks
      #mixed media
      #mythology
      #shells

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      Bees Embed Ava Roth’s Organic Mixed-Media Artworks in Waxy Honeycomb

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      Art
      Science

      #bees
      #encaustic
      #honey
      #mixed media

      September 2, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Honeybee Collaboration: Tulip Tree Leaf and French Knots,” natural honeycomb, paper, encaustic medium, leaf, thread in Canadian Maple frame, 17.5 x 17.5 inches. All images © Ava Roth, shared with permission
      In collaboration with master beekeeper Mylee Nordin and swarms of the honey-producing insects, artist Ava Roth develops elaborate encaustic works that literally visualize the interaction between humans and the environment. The Toronto-based artist stitches small collages with leaves, twigs, rose quartz, porcupine quills, and other organic matter before handing control over to her six-legged counterparts, who faithfully build hexagonal cells around the original piece. Once complete, the waxy inter-species works are brimming with texture and color variances that highlight the inherent beauty and unpredictability of nature.
      Whereas previous iterations of Roth’s embroideries used stock hoops at the center, she now enlists the help of woodworker Bernoel Quintos, who custom-makes inner and outer frames in the same dimensions that are typical in Langstroth hives. “Each piece requires some kind of border that separates my work from the bees’ work,” she says. “This (change) has allowed me to experiment with different sizes and shapes and has helped to make every aspect of my work hand (or bee) crafted.”

      Detail of “Honeybee Collaboration: Honeycomb and Twigs,” natural honeycomb, paper, encaustic medium, twigs, thread, gold seed beads in Canadian Pine frame, 17.5 x 17.5 inches
      Roth tells Colossal that although it’s possible to manipulate the hive conditions to produce a 3D honeycomb or work with artificial elements, she creates self-imposed limits to use only organic materials and engender environments that mimic those bees would gravitate toward naturally. She explains:
      I recognize that Langstroth hives are not a natural habitat for bees, but neither are most of the spaces that humans find themselves occupying right now. Ultimately, this project is about exploring the ways in which humans collide with the natural environment today and finding ways to make making something beautiful from this specific time and place. This means working in cities, in manufactured hives, in the midst of enormous environmental and political despair.
      Roth will be pulling multiple pieces from her hives in the next few weeks, and you can follow that progress on Instagram. She also has a few works on paper currently available at Wallspace Gallery in Ottawa.

      “Honeybee Collaboration: Honeycomb and Twigs,” natural honeycomb, paper, encaustic medium, twigs, thread, gold seed beads in Canadian Pine frame, 17.5 x 17.5 inches
      “Honeybee Collaboration: Rose Quartz and Porcupine Quills,” natural honeycomb, paper, encaustic medium, rose quartz, porcupine quills, thread in Canadian Maple frame, 17.5 x 17.5 inches
      “Honeybee Collaboration: Porcupine Quills and Thread,” natural honeycomb, paper, encaustic medium, porcupine quills, thread in Canadian Maple frame, 17.5 x 17.5 inches
      “Honeybee Collaboration: Twigs and French Knots,” natural honeycomb, paper, encaustic medium, twigs, gold leaf, thread in Canadian Maple frame, 17.5 x 17.5 inches
      “Porcupine quills, Green and Gold,” encaustic, Japanese tissue, porcupine quills, seed beads and thread in an embroidery hoop, embedded in honeycomb, 17.5 x 17.5 inches

      #bees
      #encaustic
      #honey
      #mixed media

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      Graceful Swimmers Breach the Water’s Surface in Sonia Alins’s Poetic Mixed-Media Illustrations

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      Art
      Illustration

      #acrylic
      #ink
      #mixed media
      #swimming
      #water
      #watercolor

      August 12, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Placer,” hand-embellished print. All images © Sonia Alins, shared with permission
      In Sonia Alins’s dreamy works, figures gently break through the surface of the sea, creating a minimal ripple around their bodies as they dip in and out of the water. The Spanish artist and illustrator (previously) is known for her expressive swimmers, whose enlarged limbs splay in graceful positions as they float and move through the ocean. Translucent sheets of vellum produce the cloudy effects of water, obscuring fish and coral and adding a three-dimensional element to the largely ink, acrylic, and watercolor drawings.
      Although Alins primarily centers women in ambiguous states of emotion, men and children have been emerging in her mixed-media illustrations, further reflecting on the artist’s own experience with motherhood and the incomparable force of aquatic environments. “I feel the water as powerful entity, a supernatural force capable of source anguish, pain, desperation in the same way that it is a source of happiness, joy, inner peace, and love. Water helps me to express my feelings ​in a louder way, and it’s why I love it,” she tells Colossal.
      Alins works on a variety of commissions in addition to her personal practice, and her ethereal project for Moleskine titled “The Beautiful Red Reefs” recently won her an Award of Excellence from Communication Arts’s annual competition. Browse originals and hand-embellished prints in limited quantities in her shop, and you can keep up with her illustrations, in addition to news about upcoming shows like the one at Taipei’s Contemporary by U gallery in October, on Behance and Instagram.

      “Return to Harmony”
      “Mar en Calma,” hand-embellished print
      “Maternal Love,” hand-embellished print
      Left: “The Bather.” Right: “Inspired by the Moon”
      “Birth”
      Left: “The Boys of the Rocks”, commissioned by 180 Hilos. Right: “The Girls of the Rocks”, commissioned by 180 Hilos
      “Swimming in the Ocean”

      #acrylic
      #ink
      #mixed media
      #swimming
      #water
      #watercolor

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

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

      by

      
      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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      Delightful Nighttime Landscapes Nestle into Stacked Wooden Boxes in Allison May Kiphuth’s Dioramas

      by

      
      Art

      #animals
      #dioramas
      #found objects
      #miniature
      #mixed media
      #nature
      #sculpture
      #watercolor

      February 3, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Allison May Kiphuth, shared with permission
      Allison May Kiphuth (previously) shrinks the expansive landscapes found throughout the eastern United States into picturesque dioramas brimming with natural life. Through layered watercolor and ink renderings, the Maine-based artist creates a mix of quiet forest scenes and ocean habitats often under a dark, nighttime sky. She then stacks the outfitted wooden boxes, blending the marine and land-based pieces in varying positions that create new ecosystems with every combination.
      Although Kiphuth derives much of her subject matter from the area around her home, she shares that experiencing new scenes is essential to her practice. “I haven’t been outside of Maine in over a year, and while this landscape is usually so expansively beautiful to me, without the contrast of other landscapes for perspective, it’s been feeling incredibly small,” a feeling that’s amplified by her living and working from a tiny home that’s just 8 x 20 feet.
      The artist has a solo show slated for August at Antler Gallery in Portland, and limited edition prints of the piece above are available from Nahcotta. Get a glimpse into Kiphuth’s process and views of the scenery she references in her works on Instagram.

      “Bond,” watercolor, paper, and pins in antique box, 4 x 6 x 2 inches
      “Defense,” watercolor, paper, and pins in antique box, 4.625 x 7 x 3.75 inches
      Left: “Den” (2019), watercolor on layers of hand-cut paper, sealed with encaustic, 6 x 6.5 x .5 inches
      “Nightlight 2,” Watercolor, paper, thread, and pins in antique box, 6.25 x 4.875 x 3.25 inches
      “Observation” (2019), watercolor on layers of hand-cut paper, sealed with encaustic, 6 x 6 x .5 inches
      “Defense” in progress

      #animals
      #dioramas
      #found objects
      #miniature
      #mixed media
      #nature
      #sculpture
      #watercolor

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      Loose Fibers Billow Out of Warped Ceramic Sculptures by Artist Nicole McLaughlin

      by

      
      Art
      Craft

      #ceramics
      #fiber art
      #identity
      #mixed media
      #sculpture

      January 14, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Nicole McLaughlin, shared with permission
      “As a product of an American father and a Mexican mother, I am influenced by the conflicting expectations I have received as a woman within my two cultures,” says artist Nicole McLaughlin. From her studio in Marion, Massachusetts, McLaughlin combines historically domestic crafts—ceramics and fiber art—into striking sculptures that explore identity and heritage, particularly in relation to gendered expectations, traditions, and the changes that occur as generations pass.
      In her mixed-media works, the artist contrasts the soft, pliable fibers with the fragility of the plates painted with blue-and-white motifs. Dyed in subtle gradients and earth tones, the loose threads are woven through the sloping ceramic edges and knotted in the center. McLaughlin explains how it’s important that the utility of both elements is removed once combined:
      (The vessels) serve as vehicles for fiber.  As the fiber flows from, weaves into, or frames the ceramic, it distorts the functionality but becomes a meaningful component as plate and cloth merge. The vessels contain an expression of femininity and an essence of personal and cultural history.
      These dichotomies in the materials also reflect the artist’s experience eschewing “the feminine ideals of my Mexican identity,” she says. “I am a force, and I think I tend to push the boundaries of what might be within the female expectation in Mexican culture.”
      Currently, McLaughlin is serving as a teaching fellow at Tabor Academy. She sells some smaller ceramic pieces in her shop, and you can follow her work on Instagram, where she also shares glimpses into her process.

      #ceramics
      #fiber art
      #identity
      #mixed media
      #sculpture

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