Whether its an image of a pizza with a phalic sausage sticking out of it or a large mural of ornate pattern made out of plastic flowers and cheap snack food the art work of Adam Parker Smith has a tongue in cheek comic conceptual approach that will make you think, laugh, and say “why didn’t I think of that” all at once. I especially love his tapestries made out of hundreds of friendship bracelets. See these and more after the jump.
Alice Anderson’s giant installations created out thousands of feet of red colored doll hair are a thing of wonder. Selected for its relationship to her own bright red hair, Anderson selected the material to refer to her childhood where she invented rituals based around her hair to calm her anxieties when left home alone. Draped over buildings, walls, and every imaginable surface, Anderson’s work is just as much about reinterpreting an everyday material as it is about coming to terms with the ghosts of her youth. (via)
Jeahyo Lee’s work falls somewhere between functional furniture and sculpture. His massive wooden benches and chairs weight between 400-1000 pounds and its smooth curves can compete with the latest sports cars. When not using wood Lee turns to steel creating densely patterned orbs out of stainless steel nails which reference coral reefs and the textures that we find deep underwater. Lee’s work is not only is masterfully crafted but brings out the inner nature of the materials that he uses.
John Baldessari is literally a living legend. Not only has he exhibited internationally more than most living artists but he has blazed the trail for millions of young artists who consider him a mentor, colleague, peer, and friend. I was fortunate enough to work with John for a few years while getting my MFA at UCLA and I have to say that he was one of the most giving professors that I’ve ever had. He always had time for his students and had explosive energy that was infectious. Commissioned by the Los Angeles County Museum Of Art and narrated by Tom Waits this six minute documentary is a playful tribute to the man the call The Godfather Of Conceptual Art. Watch the full video after the jump.
Designer Revital Cohen’s The Immortal installation consists of five hacked life support machines so that they each keep one another alive. Each machine is circulating liquids and air in attempt to mimic a biological structure.
The Immortal investigates human dependence on electronics, the desire to make machines replicate organisms and our perception of anatomy as reflected by biomedical engineering. Watch a full video of this piece in action after the jump. (via)
In his installation, reverse of volume RG at the Rice Gallery in Houston Texas, Yasuaki Onishi uses the simplest materials — plastic sheeting and black hot glue — to create a monumental, mountainous form that appears to float in space. The process that he calls casting the invisible involves draping the plastic sheeting over stacked cardboard boxes, which are then removed to leave only their impressions. This process of reversing sculpture is Onishi’s meditation on the nature of the negative space, or void, left behind.
Onishi wanted to create an installation that would change as visitors approached and viewed it from outside of the glass wall to inside the gallery space. Seen through the glass, the undulating, exterior surface and dense layers of vertical black strands are primarily visible. At first glance, standing in the center of the gallerys foyer, it appears to be a suspended, glowing mass whose exact depth is difficult to perceive. Upon entering the gallery and walking along the left or the right side, the installation transforms into an airy opening that can be entered. Almost like stepping into an inner sanctum or cave-like chamber, the semi-translucent plastic sheeting and wispy strands of hot glue envelop the viewer in a fragile, tent-like enclosure speckled with inky black marks. Visitors can walk in and out of the contemplative space, observing how the simplest qualities of light, shape, and line change. (via)
Matthew Woodward’s large scale drawings are truly examples of “beautiful decay” with violently drawn, torn, erased, and collaged decorative motifs that one would find on old industrial buildings of yesteryear. These floral and elaborate patterns and flourishes are taken through an intense process of aging where Woodward attacks the surface like an artistic jackhammer mining the paper for undiscovered imagery. The result is a brutal and rich surface that is continuously falling apart, being built up, and of course beautifully decaying.
Francesca Pastine’s Artforum Excavations Is a beautiful series of works where the artist cuts away at various issues of art forum literally excavating the art away and rearranging the pages and layers of the iconic art publication. Lets hope she tears apart a copy of Beautiful/Decay one of these days!
“I began using ARTFORUM magazines as a medium for my work in 2008. I noticed that they were familiar fixtures in my friends’ homes. Apparently, because of their glossy nature, nobody wanted to throw them away. I was intrigued by their square format, particularly when the bloated art market was reflected in their one-inch thickness and I began asking my friends for their unwanted magazines. Starting with the covers, I cut, bend, manipulate, pull, and dig my way through them, revealing a visceral topography of art trends. The finished worked becomes an unsolicited collaboration with the magazine and the cover artist. Maintaining a strong connection to the physicality of drawing, my X-acto blade mimics a pencil, subtracting rather than adding. I eschew glue or other manipulations that change the inherent character of the magazines. In this way, they retain their association to what they are, carriers of information that have been handled, earmarked and scuffed over time. Through physically intervening with these familiar icons of the art establishment, I suffuse the inanimate with emotional power, creating a palpable complexity of form and information.”
is a printed book series and daily art blog with a focus on experimental, grotesque, and groundbreaking art.
hat methi: these pictures are very... hat methi: these pictures are very...
pepa prieto: Thank you very much ! Amir+...
easton: Genius. I do not throw that term...
Ben: Awesome and devastating….
mark: they remind me of R. Crumb drawings
Amy gee: I love the softness of this art
Sadie F: perfection.
bill: cool images, nice interview!
Kris Bazen: These are INSANE!!! Made me...
