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Marked with Pattern and Texture, Hula’s Murals Appear to Emerge from the Sea
Art
#murals
#public art
#sea
#waterDecember 28, 2021Grace EbertAll images © Sean Yoro, shared with permissionTo paint his murals, Sean Yoro, aka Hula, yields to the shifting tides of the ocean. The Los Angeles-based artist (previously) paddles out to underpasses and concrete barriers only accessible by water where he balances on a surfboard with a minimal number of supplies—all paints, brushes, and other materials have to fit within the 10-foot space. There he renders portraits of women half-submerged in the sea and singular hands that appear to burst from the surface. “I had to learn not only a faster and more efficient way to paint while on a surfboard but also blending layers together needed to be able to adapt to the tides and other variables that might restrict certain areas of the wall,” he shares.The visibility of Yoro’s large-scale works shifts depending on the water level, allowing the celestial patterns that mark his subjects’ faces or splotches of paint on their backs to peek through. “I loved incorporating more surreal elements to my painted figures—always trying to balance the water and concrete aesthetics,” he says.In addition to his seaside murals, Yoro also paints smaller works on canvas and sells limited-edition prints in his shop. You can follow his latest projects on Instagram.
#murals
#public art
#sea
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Reality and Imagined Meditative States Converge in Tomás Sánchez’s Tranquil Landscapes
Art#acrylic
#graphite
#landscapes
#nature
#painting
#trees
#waterNovember 16, 2021
Grace Ebert“Light: Outside, Inside” (2021), acrylic on linen, 100 x 80 centimeters. All images © Tomás Sánchez, shared with permission
Through serene, idyllic landscapes, Tomás Sánchez visualizes his long-harbored fascination with meditation. The practice, the Cuban painter says, is “where I find many of the answers to questions that transcend from the personal to the universal. Meditation is not always a fleeting time. Meditation is not a punctual exercise; it is a constant practice.”
Rather than conceptualize the exercise as a temporary state, Sánchez views mediation as a lens to interpret the world, a recurring theme that has foregrounded much of his work during the last few decades. His acrylic paintings and hazy graphite drawings, which take months if not years to complete, highlight the immensity and awe-inspiring qualities of a forest thick with vegetation or a nearby waterfall and offer perspective through a lone, nondescript figure often found amongst the trees. Distinct and heavily detailed, the realistic landscapes aren’t based on a specific place but rather are imagined spaces available only through a ruminative state.
If you’re in New York, stop by Marlborough Gallery to see Sánchez’s solo show, which is on view from November 18 to January 22. Titled Inner Landscape, the exhibition encompasses multiple pieces never shown before, including the pristine scenes shown here. Until then, explore more of his works on Instagram.“Inner Lagoon…Thought-Cloud” (2016), acrylic on canvas, 200 x 199.3 centimeters
“La batalla” (2015), acrylic on linen, 200 x 250 centimeters
“El río va” (2020), acrylic on linen, 121.3 x 99.1 centimeters
“Aislado” (2015), acrylic on canvas, 199.7 x 249.9 centimeters
“Diagonales” (2018), conté crayon on paper, 30.5 x 40.6 centimeters#acrylic
#graphite
#landscapes
#nature
#painting
#trees
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Metaphorical Paintings by Calida Garcia Rawles Obscure Black Subjects with Gleaming Ripples of Water
Art#acrylic
#painting
#swimming
#waterOctober 6, 2021
Grace Ebert“On The Other Side of Everything” (2021), acrylic on canvas, 72 x 60 inches. All images © Calida Garcia Rawles, shared with permission
Artist Calida Garcia Rawles continues her explorations into the myriad possibilities of water with paintings distorted by bubbles, pockets of air, and ripples reflecting the light above. She suspends Black figures in otherwise imperceptible moments, like the pause that immediately follows a fully-clothed plunge into a pool, conveying a vulnerable and fleeting interaction between her subjects and their surroundings. With submerged profiles or mirrored features, many are unidentifiable. “You really can’t see a face. They become almost forms and a part of their environment,” she tells Colossal. “I think there’s a spiritual element to water… They’re formless, and we’re a part of something bigger than ourselves.”
Many of the poetic renderings depict figures in billowing gowns or collared shirts in white for the color’s association with virtue and purity, a symbolic choice that’s connected to the artist’s interest in broader questions of race and its implications. “A lot of times innocence is not associated with the Black body. I thought it was a place to start,” she shares.“Requiem For My Navigator” (2021), acrylic on canvas, 96 x 72 inches
Each painting is based on photographs the artist takes herself—read more about her lengthy research process previously on Colossal—and captures water’s incredible power and meditative qualities. For Rawles, the fluid spaces are metaphorical and tied broadly to Water-Memory Theory, or the idea that the vital liquid is able to preserve all of its interactions. “(I’m) remembering what water does, that it holds history in a way,” she says. “Water has everything that’s been through it, and that’s fascinating to me.”
Her practice is circular, and she’s likely to return to a thought or broader theme after setting it aside. The ethereal, abstract paintings that comprise the new series On the Other Side of Everything, for example, are extensions of those in A Dream For My Lillith, six paintings featuring clothed figures who are obscured by lustrous ripples of water rendered in acrylic. “It’s not a departure,” Rawles says of her new work. “It’s just showing more range of what I can do.”
On the Other Side of Everything is on view at Lehmann Maupin in New York through October 23, and the artist is currently working on her first mural at SoFi Stadium in Los Angleles. You can follow her progress on that large-scale work and see more of her process on Instagram.“Dark Matter” (2021), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 inches
“The Lightness Of Darkness” (2021), acrylic on canvas, 60 x 72 inches
Left: “High Tide, Heavy Armor” (2021), acrylic on canvas, 72 x 60 inches. Right: “In His Image” (2021), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 60 inches
“A Promise” (2020), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 72 inches#acrylic
#painting
#swimming
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Graceful Swimmers Breach the Water’s Surface in Sonia Alins’s Poetic Mixed-Media Illustrations
Art
Illustration#acrylic
#ink
#mixed media
#swimming
#water
#watercolorAugust 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
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Olafur Eliasson’s Newest Exhibition Floods Fondation Beyeler with a Bright Green Pond Filled with Plants
Art#installation
#nature
#plants
#waterApril 22, 2021
Grace Ebert“Life” (2021), installation view at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel. Photo by Mark Niedermann, courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles, © 2021 Olafur Eliasson
A flood of murky water overwhelms the stark white galleries of Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland. The new exhibition, simply titled “Life,” is the work of acclaimed Danish-Iceland artist Olafur Eliasson (previously), who set the Swiss institution awash in floating ferns, dwarf water lilies, shell flowers, red root floaters, and water caltrops.
To install the sprawling project, Eliasson removed the windows on one side of the museum’s facade, which allows visitors and nearby wildlife to enter the space at any time of day or night. The open-air environment subjects the manufactured reservoir indoors to the naturally occurring elements outside the building, like the weather, daylight, humidity, and smells and sounds of nearby public gardens. At night, a combination of UV lights and a fluorescent dye called uranine radiate brilliant colors throughout the water.
A prismatic livestream—Eliasson outfitted some of the cameras with apparatuses that mimic the sensory experiences of animals and insects—captures how the immersive space changes with each moment, especially as the surface reflects shadows and passersby. These interactions between human and non-human species foreground the project, which was inspired by anthropologist Natasha Myers who’s advocated for the advent of the “planthroposcene.” An alternative to the anthropocene, Myers’ concept is “rooted in the knowledge that plants are what made this planet liveable,” a statement says, clarifying that although the gallery is overrun with water, Eliasson’s goal is to evidence the interconnectivity inherent in nature.
Fondation Beyeler is housing Eliasson’s “Life” through July. Find more of the artist’s monumental projects on his studio’s site and Instagram. (via Artnet)“Life” (2021), installation view at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel. Photo by Mark Niedermann, courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles, © 2021 Olafur Eliasson
“Life” (2021), installation view at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel. Photo by Pati Grabowicz, courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles, © 2021 Olafur Eliasson
“Life” (2021), installation view at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel. Photo by Pati Grabowicz, courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles, © 2021 Olafur Eliasson
“Life” (2021), installation view at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel. Photo by Mark Niedermann, courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles, © 2021 Olafur Eliasson
“Life” (2021), installation view at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel. Photo by Pati Grabowicz, courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles, © 2021 Olafur Eliasson
“Life” (2021), installation view at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel. Photo by Pati Grabowicz, courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles, © 2021 Olafur Eliasson#installation
#nature
#plants
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Lustrous Seas of Layered Glass Are Sliced into Cross-Sections in Ben Young’s Sculptures
Art#glass
#ocean
#sculpture
#waterApril 21, 2021
Grace Ebert“Solitary Catch Awaits,” laminated clear float glass with cast concrete, bronze, and stainless steel frame, 300 x 300 x 180 millimeters. All images © Ben Young
Calm bodies of hand-cut glass pool atop jagged concrete in Ben Young’s aquatic sculptures. The New Zealand-based artist (previously) is known for his marine landscapes that position miniature figures in vast expanses of the translucent material, creating a contemplative environment that juxtaposes a minuscule representation of humanity alongside the immensity of the oceans and other bodies of water. Each piece similarly contrasts the organic topography with the perfect right angles that provide the cubic shape and revealing cross-sections.
A few of Young’s sculptures are currently available at Black Door and Red Sea galleries, and you can find prints in his shop. Explore a larger collection of his works on Behance and Instagram.“Sea of Separation,” laminated float glass, cast concrete, bronze, and stainless steel stand, 600 x 350 x 170 millimeters
“Sea of Separation,” laminated float glass, cast concrete, bronze, and stainless steel stand, 600 x 350 x 170 millimeters
“Still Water”
“Diverge”
“Diverge”
“Daydream”
Detail of “Daydream”
“Weathering the Storm”
“The Divide,” laminated float glass and cast concrete, 930 x 375 x 165 millimeters#glass
#ocean
#sculpture
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Two Imposing Cubes Covered in Yellow Plastic by Artist Serge Attukwei Clottey Respond to Global Water Insecurity
Art#climate change
#colonialism
#installation
#plastic
#waterMarch 16, 2021
Grace Ebert“The Wishing Well” (2021) in Coachella Valley. All images © Serge Attukwei Clottey, courtesy of Desert X, by Lance Gerber, shared with permission
A mottled patchwork of plastic cloaks two cubes that tower over the desert landscape of Coachella Valley. Titled “The Wishing Well,” the bright pair are the work of Ghanaian artist Serge Attukwei Clottey, who created the nine-foot pieces from scraps of Kufuor gallons, or jerrycans, in response to shared struggles with water insecurity that ripple across the world. Resembling a yellow brick road, a paved walkway connects the two woven structures that stand in contrast to the surrounding environment, which faces continual struggles with access to the natural resource.
Clottey’s use of the material is tied to a larger critique of colonialism’s enduring legacy and the ways it continues to affect populations around the world, particularly in relation to the climate crisis. Originally, European colonialists brought Kufuor gallons to Ghana to transport cooking oil. Today, the plastic vessels are ubiquitous and used to haul potable water. “As repurposed relics of the colonial project, they serve as a constant reminder of the legacies of empire and of global movements for environmental justice,” says a statement about the work that’s part of Desert X, a biennial bringing site-specific installations to Southern California.
“The Wishing Well” is one facet of Clottey’s larger Afrogallonism project, which he describes as “an artistic concept to explore the relationship between the prevalence of the yellow oil gallons in regards to consumption and necessity in the life of the modern African.” The Accra-based artist works in a variety of mediums spanning installation, sculpture, and performance that deal with the broader influence of colonialism in Africa. You can see a larger collection of his pieces on Artsy and Instagram.#climate change
#colonialism
#installation
#plastic
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