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    Imaginative Glass Specimens Are Suspended in Jars in Steffen Dam’s Cabinets of Curiosities

    
    Art
    #glass
    #jellyfish
    #sculpture
    #sea creaturesJanuary 13, 2022Grace EbertAll images courtesy of Heller GalleryHeld in tall, transparent jars are recreations of tiny jellyfish with wispy tentacles, plankton, and other delicate sea creatures by Danish artist Steffen Dam (previously). He sculpts the miniature organisms in glass and displays the exquisite creations in wooden boxes or medicine cases that evoke the 16th Century wunderkammers or cabinets of curiosities. Generally in the possession of aristocrats and monarchs, these encyclopedic collections predated museums and held objects that were valuable for scientific study and their ability to inspire wonder and awe. Although Dam’s sculptures reference the colors, textures, and shapes of real-life specimens, his imaginative works are inventive interpretations of evolution and biology.Find more of the artist’s recent works on his site and at Heller Gallery in New York, where he’s represented.“Wunderkammer” (2021), 
glass and illuminated wooden presentation box, 
35 3/8 x 27 1/2 x 7 inchesDetail of “Wunderkammer” (2021), 
glass and illuminated wooden presentation box, 
35 3/8 x 27 1/2 x 7 inches“Pangaean Zoology” (2018), 20 elements in glass, 72 inches“Marine Group” (2020), glass and illuminated presentation box, 13 3/4 x 39 x 7 7/8 inches“Specimen Block” (2017), 
glass, 
11 3/8 x 11 3/8 x 1 1/2 inches“New Medicine” (2017), 
glass and illuminated wooden presentation box
, 30 1/4 x 17 1/4 x 9 inches“Marine Specimen Collection” (2018), 
glass, 
tallest 8 3/4 inchesDetail of “Specimen Cabinet” (2017), glass and illuminated wooden presentation box, 
39 1/4 x 24 3/8 x 9 3/8 inchesDetail of “The Journey to M31” (2021)
    #glass
    #jellyfish
    #sculpture
    #sea creaturesDo 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! Share this story  More

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    Movement and Flow Infuse Pleated Paper Sculptures and Modular Designs by Richard Sweeney

    
    Art
    Craft
    #paper
    #sculptureJanuary 10, 2022Grace Ebert“Swan.” All images © Richard Sweeney, shared with permissionEvoking the spread wings of a bird in flight or a dancer’s graceful bends, the paper sculptures created by Richard Sweeney (previously) convey movement through an intricate display of folds and pleats. The monochromatic works, which the West Yorkshire, England-based artist manipulates into their final shapes with small cuts, wet creases, and dabs of adhesive, are abstract and asymmetrical in form, inspiring a range of associations. “People see different things—animal skulls and a spinal column being a few of my favorites mentioned so far,” he tells Colossal.Sweeney’s process has remained largely the same during the last few years, and he still crafts a variety of malleable, modular forms like the pliable helix shown below, although he now gravitates toward more organic shapes that appear to flow from one end to the other. “I like to go out walking in the countryside, so there is plenty to see there that influences me—birds in flight, streams, and rivers, cloud formations—so I’ll make sketches and take photographs and let that guide my sculptural work. I don’t usually work with a particular form in mind,” he says, noting that each sculpture often takes multiple weeks to complete.Pick up a copy of Sweeney’s Fluid Forms for a deeper look at his practice, and if you’re in London, stop by Deirdre Dyson before January 14 to see his pieces in person. You can also follow his latest works on Instagram.“Swan”“Flight Sequence”“Swan”“Cloud”Detail of “Flight Sequence”Detail of “Cloud”“Swan”
    #paper
    #sculptureDo 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! Share this story  More

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    A Serpentine Rattlesnake Wraps Around a Metaphorical Wood and Book Sculpture by Maskull Lasserre

    
    Art
    #books
    #sculpture
    #snakes
    #woodJanuary 7, 2022Grace EbertAll images © Maskull LasserreIn a towering, totem-style sculpture titled “The Garden,” Canadian artist Maskull Lasserre (previously) compresses a collection of 18th-century botanical texts between two parallel planks of Douglas Fir. Metal vices bore through the wooden beams, securing the first four volumes of William Withering’s An Arrangement of British Plants, although both the natural and manufactured components are eroded with Lasserre’s intricately carved snake that winds around the perimeter and appears to bind the individual components together. “The Garden” is one of the artist’s most recent works that metaphorically and physically considers the concept of tension, and you can see more in his portfolio.
    #books
    #sculpture
    #snakes
    #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! Share this story  More

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    Complex Networks of Metallic Branches Shape Animal Sculptures by Kang Dong Hyun

    
    Art
    #animals
    #metal
    #sculpture
    #steelJanuary 6, 2022Grace Ebert“Forest of Coexistence” (2019), stainless steel and urethane paint, 300 x 160 x 120 centimeters. All images © Kang Dong Hyun, shared with permissionWhat eventually becomes a stately stag or majestically posed lion in Kang Dong Hyun’s Forest of Coexistence starts with countless metallic branches that splay in every direction. The Korean artist (previously) welds spindly shoots and sprawling root-like shapes into facial features and bodies that are then finished with urethane paint. Creating a cohesive display of flora and fauna, each hollow, stainless steel sculpture considers the relationship between species and the idea that “all life on Earth may lead to an invisible string,” Kang says. For more of the artist’s intricately formed animals, visit Instagram.“Forest of Coexistence” (2020), stainless steel and urethane paint, 73 x 46 x 11 centimeters“Forest of Coexistence” (2021), stainless steel and urethane paint, 150 x 120 x 50 centimeters“Forest of Coexistence” (2021), stainless steel and urethane paint, 64 x 36 x 114 centimeters“Forest of Coexistence” (2021), stainless steel and urethane paint, 68 x 80 x 20 centimeters“Forest of Coexistence” (2018), stainless steel and urethane paint, 130 x 45 x 85 centimeters“Forest of Coexistence” (2020), stainless steel and urethane paint, 51 x 80 x 39 centimeters
    #animals
    #metal
    #sculpture
    #steelDo 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! Share this story  More

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    Playfully Absurd, Idiosyncratic Characters Grace the Salvaged Book Sculptures by Mike Stilkey

    
    Art
    #animals
    #books
    #painting
    #sculptureJanuary 6, 2022Grace EbertAll images © Mike Stilkey, shared with permissionDapper penguins, nonchalant musicians, and self-destructive politicians are a few of the distinct figures adorning Mike Stilkey’s sculptures. The Los Angeles-based artist (previously) rummages through heaps of discarded books, plucking out complementary titles that become the basis for his towering works. Using ink, colored pencil, paint, and lacquer, he renders minimal portraits of figures with exaggerated limbs or instruments and gestures that show a flair for the absurd.Vacillating from the playful and whimsical to the cheeky and ironic, Stilkey’s idiosyncratic, sometimes anthropomorphized characters translate an essential interpretation of the volumes’ messages or subject matter through a contemporary lens. He explains:Sometimes it’s a wry, tongue-in-cheek, satirical kind of thing, and sometimes it’s an extension or interpretation of it. It depends on the book and my mood. There’s been a lot of fodder over the past couple of years with all of the political conversations and things you hear or read on the news or social media. But I’ve always been able to do this with books. It’s one of the reasons I started using books as a canvas or vehicle for painting—the richness of layering literary and visual narratives over each other to convey something more complex.As well as the repurposed sculptures shown here, Stilkey also creates installations with thousands of books and large characters, although these on-site projects have been put on hold since the onset of the pandemic. Prints and postcards are available in the artist’s shop, and you can follow his works on Instagram.
    #animals
    #books
    #painting
    #sculptureDo 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! Share this story  More

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    Outlandish Cat High-Jinks Become Adorable Miniatures Sculpted by Meetissai

    
    Art
    #cats
    #epoxy
    #humor
    #miniature
    #sculptureDecember 30, 2021Grace EbertAll images © MeetissaiFluffy catpuccinos, stealthy shorthairs squeezed into bizarre positions, and gymnastics-prone tabbies: Inspired by the real life antics of feline companions, Meetissai crafts tiny sculptures that preserve the ridiculous, most charming moments of cat life—these include fluffy characters flattened like rugs and cartoon-like distortions—as adorable miniatures. The artist often references popular memes and glitched photos, skewed perspectives, and serendipitous timing to craft the fantastically posed animals, and you can find an entire menagerie of epoxy creatures on Twitter and Instagram.
    #cats
    #epoxy
    #humor
    #miniature
    #sculptureDo 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! Share this story  More

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    A Spectacular Staircase by Alex Chinneck Uncoils as It Scales a 25-Meter Building in Brighton

    
    Art
    #architecture
    #public art
    #sculpture
    #stairs
    #steelDecember 23, 2021Grace EbertAll images © Alex Chinneck, by Marc Wilmont, shared with permissionPart functional walkway and part dramatic sculpture, an outdoor staircase by Alex Chinneck unfurls into individual metallic ribbons as it climbs a brick building in Brighton. The latest work by the British artist, titled “A Spring in Your Step,” is made of galvanized steel and features a base with slatted rungs that gradually unwind into a trio of strips splaying outward over Circus Square.Chinneck is known for his surreal architectural interventions—these include melting facades, a condemned building that unzips, and twisting red post boxes—that upend ubiquitous designs in favor of bizarre counterparts. He shares about the new piece: “’A Spring in Your Step’ took three years to complete, weighs four tonnes, is 25 meters tall, and follows a non-repeating, expanding, and contracting helical form, making it my most complex sculpture to date.”Head to the artist’s Instagram to see the three-year process behind the spectacular sculpture and to explore a larger collection of his works.
    #architecture
    #public art
    #sculpture
    #stairs
    #steelDo 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! Share this story  More

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    Comprised of Thin Panes of Glass, Illusory Sculptures Layer Fantastic Paintings into 3D-Forms

    
    Art
    #glass
    #painting
    #sculpture
    #videoDecember 20, 2021Grace EbertAll images by Norbert Heyl, © Wilfried Grootens, shared with permissionGerman artist Wilfried Grootens (previously) suspends vibrant, textured paintings evocative of minuscule organisms, bacteria, and other microscopic creatures within sleek sculptures made of glass. He renders lines and geometric shapes on dozens of thin panes that, when pressed together into a larger composite, produce the appearance of three-dimensional forms encased within the transparent material. The resulting works are striking illusions that morph into different, otherworldly creatures depending on the viewers’ perspective, sometimes vanishing entirely depending on the angle. “It is these paintings within their special layered space that create a world unto itself, quite apart from the reality outside it,” the artist tells Colossal.Grootens’s impeccably precise sculptures will be on view with Habatat Galleries in January and April. Until then, see more of his works on his site.
    #glass
    #painting
    #sculpture
    #videoDo 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! Share this story  More