Abraham McNally merges things. Things like powerlines and houses, industry and nature, drawings and photographs. The result is an exploration of what’s organic — organic in the sense of what’s natural and organic in the sense of what’s essential. McNally’s additional sculptural and site-specific work rounds an examination of the schism between “a romantic return to the rural” and “a return to the comforts and realities of American society.”
One solid consistency in Lado Pochkhua‘s work is the presence of people. Complexities lie in in the details of dress, color and landscape — objects that outlast the individuals they surround. In the vein of what outlasts what or whom, elements are selectively obscured creating, perhaps, one big memento mori. Pochkhua is a Georgian artist living and working in New York.
Lists are one of those things that just are, things few think to improve the experience of — ever-changing content with little change to the framework. With a simple layout and clean design, Tracks of the Year is a definite format upgrade. Billing itself as a “collection from those best-of lists, minus the reading,” it’s exactly what we want from a music best-of list: less words, more sounds. Each track was selected and illustrated by Montreal-based art director Michael Hagos.
Erick Swenson started creating lifelike sculptures in varying states of decay to prove that he could. Echoing set design, museum exhibits and model creation, Swenson conjures elaborate scenes with polyurethane resin and occasional elements of taxidermy.
Keri Oldham‘s collections of watercolors are studies in familiarity and restraint. Each mark is deliberate, yet still manages to accidentally wander, bleeding and pooling into the next, happening upon a recognizable form.
What would you do if you found out someone has the same name as you? And you find out via Google image search that maybe they kinda look like you, too? Oh, and this other person just happens to be a (sorta well known) musician? You can do what multi-disciplinary arist Daniel Bejar is doing: Re-stage photos of musician Daniel Bejar (of Destroyer fame) culled from Google’s image search engine and post them on your own site — thegooglegänger.com — along with some fan mail you may occasionally receive by accident.
Rune Guneriussen is a Norway-based artist who photographs orchestrated installations. Household objects are granted an anthropomorphic quality — they appear to be captured in a natural setting. Guneriussen believes “that art itself should be questioning and bewildering…” and would rather “indicate a path to understanding a story” rather than limit a viewer’s experience by being too prescriptive.
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