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      Takeout Containers and Worn Sketchbooks by Artist Yoonmi Nam Explore the Permanence of Everyday Disposables

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      Art
      Food

      #ceramics
      #lithographs
      #notebooks
      #sculpture
      #vases

      July 27, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Sketchbook (small #10)” (2019), porcelain, cobalt slip inlay, and glaze, .75 x 8.5 x 6.25 inches. All images courtesy of Paradigm Gallery, shared with permission
      A kitchen table, countertop, or cluttered desk are all likely spots to encounter a piece by South Korean artist Yoonmi Nam. Encompassing ceramic sculptures and sparse lithographs, Nam’s body of work evokes “an ever-present, yet always changing still life,” one that displays the ubiquitous objects of her everyday in more permanent forms. A deep well to hold a bouquet carves out a stack of porcelain take-out containers, minimal prints depict a leafy branch resting in a fast-food cup, and splayed sketchbooks are covered with graph paper-style inlays that appear punctured, leaving frayed ends and stray lines.
      Nam’s subject matter, whether a disposable container or notebook with a cracked cover, always has a limited lifespan, a recurring theme that tethers each of the works to questions about ephemerality and value. The artist elaborates in a statement:
      I am drawn to man-made spaces and objects that we surround ourselves with, especially when they subtly suggest a contradicting sense of time that seems both temporary and lasting. In the arranged flower imagery, the flowers, once cut from their roots, have only a short remaining time to live. They will quickly wither and die, but before they do, they are elegantly and elaborately arranged, as if time will stand still for them. The containers that hold them are disposable objects, such as a yogurt cup, a Styrofoam take-out box, and an instant noodle bowl. These throwaway objects and cut flowers engage in a dialogue that speaks about impermanence and persistence.
      Nam has a few ceramic pieces and lithographs available from Paradigm Gallery in Philadelphia, and some of her new delivery box-inspired sculptures are on view as part of 2021 Kansas City Flatfile + Digitalfile, which runs through October 14 at the Kansas City Art Institute. You also can explore a larger selection of her works on Instagram.

      “Cairn Vase (large #2) ” (2019), porcelain and white glaze, 10.5 x 4.5 x 4.75 inches
      Left: “Cairn Vase (small #1)” (2019), porcelain and clear glaze, 6.75 x 4.5 x 4.75 inches. Right: “Cairn Vase (large #2) ” (2019), porcelain and white glaze, 10.5 x 4.5 x 4.75 inches
      “Cairn Vase (small #1)” (2019), porcelain and clear glaze, 6.75 x 4.5 x 4.75 inches
      Detail of “Sketchbook (small #9)” (2019), porcelain, cobalt slip inlay, and glaze, .75 x 8.5 x 6.25 inches
      “Sketchbook (small #4)” (2019), porcelain, underglaze inlay, and glaze, .75 x 8.5 x 6.25
      Left: “Winstead’s” (2018), lithograph, 33 x 18 inches. Right: “M” (2018), lithograph, 33 x 18 inches
      Detail of “Sketchbook (small #3)” (2019), porcelain, underglaze inlay, and glaze, .75 x 8.5 x 6.25 inches
      “Sketchbook (small #3)” (2019), porcelain, underglaze inlay, and glaze, .75 x 8.5 x 6.25 inches

      #ceramics
      #lithographs
      #notebooks
      #sculpture
      #vases

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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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      An Eclectic Group Exhibition Brings Together Contemporary Interpretations of the Archetypal Vessel

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      Art

      #ceramics
      #painting
      #paper
      #sculpture
      #yarn

      July 15, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      CHIAOZZA, “Bouquet Sculpture No. 2” (2021), acrylic paint on paper pulp, 36 x 23 x 9 inches. All images courtesy of Hashimoto Contemporary, shared with permission
      A group exhibition at Hashimoto Contemporary in San Francisco offers a new perspective on the enduring legacy of the vessel as both standalone object and motif. Spanning ceramic vases, oil-based works on canvas, and sculptures made of paper pulp, the show explores the myriad ways the ubiquitous container has appeared throughout art history and how two dozen artists working today interpret the classic form. Included are the minimal, ritualistic paintings by Laura Berger (previously), Stephanie Shih’s sleek Molotov cocktail inscribed with a strikingly hopeful message, and Katie Kimmel’s zany dogs. We’ve gathered some of our favorite works below, and stop by the gallery before Vessel closes on July 31 to see them in person.

      Laura Berger, “Vessel 1” (2021), oil on canvas, 42 x 32 inches
      Left: Munisa, (2021), clay, wire, and glaze, 18 x 11 x 6 inches. Right: Stephanie Shih, “Molotov Cocktail (A Better World Is Possible)” (2021), 10 x 4.5 x 2.5 inches
      Leif Zikade, “Emergence” (2021), acrylic yarn, 24.5 x 16.5 inches
      Hilda Palafox, “Cosecha” (2021), high temperature ceramics, 12 x 12 x 12 inches
      Left: Katie Kimmel, “Nosferatu vase” (2021), ceramic, 13 x 7 x 3.4 inches. Right: Katie Kimmel, “” (2021), ceramic, 11 x 6 x 3.4 inches
      Lorien Stern, “Ready for the Afterparty” (2021), ceramic, 14 x 14.25 x 8.5 inches

      #ceramics
      #painting
      #paper
      #sculpture
      #yarn

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      Translucent Textiles Cast Organisms and Mundane Objects as Dreamy Sculptures and Wearables

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      Art
      Design

      #coral
      #fabric
      #fashion
      #nature
      #sculpture

      July 9, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Mariko Kusumoto, shared with permission
      From polyester, nylon, and cotton, Japanese artist and designer Mariko Kusumoto fabricates sculptural forms that resemble the creatures and everyday objects she finds most fascinating. She uses a proprietary heat-setting technique to mold the ubiquitous materials into undulating ripples, honeycomb poufs, and even tiny schools of fish that are presented in elegant and fanciful contexts. Whether a pastel coral reef or a fantastical bracelet filled with mushrooms, rosettes, and minuscule bicycles, Kusumoto’s body of work, which includes standalone objects and wearables, uses the ethereal qualities of the translucent fibers to make even the banalest forms appear like they’re part of a dream.
      You can find a larger archive of the artist’s pieces, which ranges from textiles to metal and resin, on her site and Instagram.

      #coral
      #fabric
      #fashion
      #nature
      #sculpture

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      Interlocking Lines of Text Spring from Stephen Doyle’s Poetic Book Sculptures

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      Art

      #books
      #language
      #paper
      #sculpture

      July 6, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Stephen Doyle, shared with permission
      Stephen Doyle describes his interconnected book sculptures as “miniature monuments, testaments to the power of language and metaphors of imagination.” Featuring angled scaffolding and interlocking constructions that appear to grow directly from the bound pages, the sprawling sculptural forms that comprise his Hypertexts series are unruly and enchanting reimaginings of how information is communicated.
      The New York City-based artist lobs off parts of sentences, tethers phrases together with an unrelated word, and generally obscures the author’s intended meaning, producing arbitrary and striking connections within the text. Although the paper sculptures are tangible manifestations of language, Doyle tells Colossal that he originally envisioned the spliced works as satirical commentaries on digital diagramming. “I first started when ‘hypertext’ was a novel term of the internet: blue underlined text was a portal, linked to another document in the ether. Linking one text to another seemed rather DADA in intent, abstract, random, and capricious,” he says, explaining further:
      I conjured sculptures in which the lines of text shook off the shackles of the page, leapt up, out of the book, and started conferring with their neighboring lines of text, creating an aerial network of language, turning text into synapse, circulation… I soon realized that these three-dimensional diagrams seemed to have a poetic power of their own, recontextualizing language and ideas into sculptural forms, inspired by the books themselves.
      A graphic designer by day, Doyle has spent the last few years expanding his Hypertexts series, which has been featured in The New Yorker, Wired, The Atlantic, The New Republic, and other publications. If you’re in New York City, you also might have seen the triptych he created for the subway a few years back. You can follow his works on Instagram. (via swissmiss)

      #books
      #language
      #paper
      #sculpture

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

      by

      
      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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      Glitches Distort Household Objects and Art Historical Figures in Sculptures by Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford

      by

      
      Art

      #art history
      #sculpture

      June 25, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Garden Gipsoteca: Hercules” (2019), marble, resin, pigment, urethane foam, steel, abd wood, 84 x 36 x 24 inches. All images © Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, shared with permission
      Artist Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford reenvisions classical sculptures as chaotic, glitched assemblages that piece together fragmented bits of the original work. His interpretation of “Hercules” is teeming with textured pockets of the figure’s beard and facial features that become increasingly smaller and indiscernible toward the base, while “Venus” is reimagined in a similarly disjointed fashion with fractured body parts forming an upward curve.
      Although many of his works evoke ancient art history, Hulsebos-Spofford’s pieces are rooted in modernist aesthetics and understandings of functionality, which manifest more apparently in his oversized Moka pot and Mr. Coffee sculptures. Each piece alters the traditional forms with an implied digital malfunction, which a statement about the works explains:
      Inspired by the history of the 1927 architectural competition in Geneva, which asked architects to submit plans for the creation of the Palace of Nations, Hulsebos-Spofford points to the unsettled quandaries and contradictions between classical design and modernist functionalism. Repeating classical sculptural figures remind us of copy-and-paste multiple errors that reference the history of the gipsoteca galleries…Behind all of these references, we are presented with a global constellation of history and technological decay.
      If you’re in Chicago, you can see the works shown here as part of League of Nations, which is on view between June 2 and August 29 at the Chicago Cultural Center. Find more of Hulsebos-Spofford’s sculptures on his site and Instagram, where he also shares glimpses into his process.

      “Hyperlexia: Venus” (2021), marble, resin, foam, and fiberglass, 40 x 30 x 24 inches
      “Mr. Coffee” (2019), sand blasting sand, resin, urethane foam, steel, hardware, and wood, 68 x 48 x 24 inches
      Detail of “Garden Gipsoteca: Hercules” (2019), marble, resin, pigment, urethane foam, steel, abd wood, 84 x 36 x 24 inches
      “Hyperlexia: Moka” (2020), aluminum, resin, foam, and fiberglass, 41 x 40 x 14 inches
      “Hyperlexia: Solicitude” (2021), foam, pigment, and wood, 48 x 36 x 36 inches

      #art history
      #sculpture

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      Future Returns: A Plasma-Cut Forest Reclaims an Oil Tanker in a New Sculpture by Dan Rawlings

      by

      
      Art

      #cars
      #churches
      #oil
      #sculpture
      #trees

      June 21, 2021
      Christopher Jobson

      “Future Returns” by Dan Rawlins. All photos by Mark Bickerdike, shared with permission.
      In perhaps the not so distant future, sculptor Dan Rawlings (previously) imagines a world where machinery from the unsustainable energy industry is now a relic of the past, slowly overtaken by nature in a state of decomposition. In his latest sculpture titled Future Returns, the artist uses his trademark plasma cutting style to etch a sizeable canopy of foliage that emerges from the steel shell of a reclaimed oil tanker. The work is currently housed inside a 19th-century church in Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire, England. From a statement about the project:

      Future Returns invites us to examine our own part in commercialization and the resulting changes to our natural environment. Rawlings believes it is easy to demonize industry but we must acknowledge that it has allowed life as we know it to bloom. It is our ability to design, create and produce that has put towns like Scunthorpe on the global map. He also believes oil companies have much to answer for, from the state of our environment to mistrust of science.

      Future Returns will be on view through September 25, 2021 and you can book free viewing times on the Visual Arts Centre website. (via Creative Boom)

      #cars
      #churches
      #oil
      #sculpture
      #trees

      Do 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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