Looks Fishy: Andrey Savin Greets Marine Denizens in His Vibrant Underwater Portraits

All images © Andrey Savin, shared with permission

Skirting the sandy sea floor or floating amidst anemone fronds, the subjects of Andrey Savin’s portraits can’t help but act a little fishy. The photographer meets most of the marine species in the waters around where he lives in the Philippines, fascinated by their enigmatic habits and unique interactions. “The most interesting moments for me are when I observe relationships between living creatures of the same species or interspecies relationships,” he tells Colossal. A finalist for the 2022 Close-Up Photographer of the Year contest, he highlights each individual’s distinctive traits, from snaggleteeth to speckled scales, and their remarkable aquatic home.

Savin is currently working on a project investigating how to take high-quality video with smartphones underwater, along with a continuing focus on capturing animal behavior. You can find more on his website, Instagram, and Behance.

 

 

 

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Spikes, Interlocked Rings, and Bold Bulges Sprout from Megan Bogonovich’s Otherworldly Ceramic Botanicals

All images © Megan Bogonich, courtesy of Kishka Gallery & Library, shared with permission

“There is a tree on my road that has been cut very strangely to accommodate a power line, and I think about that tree a lot,” says Megan Bogonovich, who envisions the otherworldly potential of human touch on the environment through playful, botanical sculptures.

Based in Norwich, Vermont, Bogonovich recognizes nature’s immense capability for adaptation and strength in seemingly inhospitable spaces. “The whole dandelion growing out of a pavement crack thing,” she says. Her works embody transformation and abundant growth, and unusual colors, shapes, and textures arise in surreal combinations. With bulbous bases, spiked protrusions, and interlocked petals, the works imagine “the batty possibilities of what could be growing in the universe or what might be the first thing to sprout up after an environmental disaster.”

Rooted in play and the “ceaseless goofiness” of reproduction, the sculptures evolve throughout a lengthy process. Bogonovich begins by hand-building small geometric and organic forms like cones, tubes, ovoids, and textured patches made with drilled holes, cuts, and everyday objects like buttons, which she then casts in plaster to make a mold. “If I cast 30 molds one day, by the next day I have a set of slip-cast tinkertoy-type parts that I can alter and bend or duplicate. It’s a lot of labored build-up to get to a point where I can work spontaneously and impulsively with a material that would otherwise want planning,” she says. 

 

These malleable forms are then fired and readied for glazing, a slow, meticulous process that involves several layers and bouts in the kiln at varying temperatures. “The sculptures are matte white when they first come out of the kiln. I let a lot of pieces build up before I start glazing,” Bogonovich says. “I get used to being surrounded by ghost flowers, so when the tide changes to color it feels like a big shift in the studio.” Like nature, glazing is unpredictable, and the pastel pinks, bold oranges, and mottled hues add a whimsical, playful element to the works. “I live in the woods in Vermont, and at this time of year, there is so much green. It’s nice to imagine bright yellow tree trunks or hot pink maple leaves,” she says. 

Bogonovich works with Kishka Gallery & Library, where she recently held a solo show, and has sculptures on view through May 20 at SPRING/BREAK Art Show in New York. Find more of her pieces on her site and Instagram.

 

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Ruslan Khasanov Brings Cosmic Phenomena Down to Earth in His Mesmerizing Short Film ‘Space Iris’

All images © Ruslan Khasanov, shared with permission

For more than ten years, Ruslan Khasanov (previously) has been enthralled by the ecstatic effects of light, color, and movement, which he expresses in an ongoing series of photographs and videos. Composed of a mixture of liquids like water, oil, and paint, he captures hundreds of high-resolution images that are then edited into a short film titled “Space Iris,” which is accompanied by an original composition by Fabio Fonda. “The iris, with its intricate patterns and colors, shares a striking resemblance to the vibrant and colorful cosmic nebula,” Khasanov says. “Just as the eye is a window to the soul, the nebula serves as a window to the vast universe beyond.”

You might also enjoy his earlier projects “Eye” and “heterochromia iridum,” which you can find among many other pieces, on Behance and Vimeo.

 

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Brendon Burton Captures Moments of Nostalgia and Wonder in North America’s Most Isolated Places

All images © Brendon Burton, shared with permission

Growing up in an isolated community, photographer Brendon Burton developed an eye for the way decaying buildings nestle into the landscape or punctuate vast expanses. Now based primarily in Portland, Oregon, he travels around the U.S. in search of rural places that are culturally worlds apart from major urban centers, seemingly existing on their own timelines. Like his series Thin Places, his recent body of work titled Interstices—to which some of these images belong—emphasizes the notion of liminality, advancing time, and spaces for passing through.

Utilizing drones to achieve dramatic aerial views in addition to intimate perspectives shot from ground level, Burton highlights the relationships between the built environment and wilderness, ancestry and life cycles, and presence and local traditions. “I recently visited the Deep South for the first time and documented Courir de Mardi Gras in a rural Cajun community in Louisiana,” he says. “It was truly an insane event, and the people I met were so kind and welcoming. I definitely will be visiting the South again soon.”

Burton is currently working on a second photo book focusing on the effects of the climate crisis and cultural isolation in rural communities throughout North America. As for future trips, he is headed to Saskatchewan and Manitoba this summer, then rural Appalachia in the autumn. Prints are available on his website, and you can find more on Instagram.

 

 

 

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Through Otherworldly Graphite-and-Ink, Juliet Schrekinger Advocates for Protecting Endangered Species

“The Timekeepers.” All images © Juliet Schrekinger, shared with permission

Photography has an impulse for preservation, of cloistering the fleeting and saving it for future recollection. Artist Juliet Schrekinger references this act of protection in her ink-and-graphite works that evoke the grainy qualities of black-and-white film through a distinctly surreal vision.

Throughout her childhood, Schrekinger witnessed her mother taking countless photos of family events and happenings that were then displayed. “I continually saw the greatest moments I shared with my loved ones framed in our home, colorless time capsules that I would turn to for years to come,” the artist says. “I began to feel a deep desire to recreate these sorts of time capsules in my work but wanted to incorporate scenes that did not occur in this world.”

Mimicking the lighting and tonal contrasts of her mother’s images, Schrekinger’s renderings fuse the anatomically accurate with the otherworldly. While many of her scenes are unearthly—a pangolin wraps its long, scaly tail around the torso of a fox, sea birds perch upon a squid’s sinuous arms, and a band of hares appears to float through the sky—the animals are depicted in exacting detail, and the likeness of their fur, feathers, and tentacles is the result of extensive research. “I have traveled up and down both the east and west coast of the U.S., taking my own reference photos of birds, aquatic life, ocean environments, trees, and so much more that all ends up being used as a starting point in my work,” she tells Colossal, noting that when it’s impossible to use her own images, she collates five to ten photos to create a specific form.

 

“Peter The Pangolin And Fable The Sierra Nevada Red Fox”

Most of the animals featured in Schrekinger’s work are endangered or vulnerable, and she’s concerned with environmental destruction, loss of habitat, and the threat many species face as the world warms and the climate changes. Pangolins, for example, are thought to be the most-trafficked non-human mammal, while the North Atlantic Right Whale is one of the most endangered species, with fewer than 350 left worldwide. “Above all else, I feel the most important aspect of what I do is raising awareness for endangered and vulnerable species,” she says. “I feel it is my duty to use my art to promote a consciousness in our society of the serious problems facing those who have no voice.” In recent years, she’s collaborated with numerous conservation organizations like the Pangeaseed and Surfrider foundations, to create works advocating for greater protection.

Schrekinger, whose studio is in Amityville, New York, is involved in several group exhibitions in the coming months, including Existential on view through May 21 at Antler Gallery in Portland and upcoming shows with Modern Eden Gallery, Stranger Factory Gallery, and Nucleus Portland. She’s also preparing for a solo exhibition opening in October at Arch Enemy Arts. You can find originals and prints on her site, and follow her latest works on Instagram. (via Beautiful Bizarre)

 

“William And The Sea Birds”

Left: “Clara.” Right: “Hamlin”

“Oscar’s Lighthouse”

“Vasey The Vampire Squid And Her Haunted Boat House”

Left: “Horton.” Right: “Willy”

“Oscar And The Gulls”

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Through Lush Aerial Photos, Pham Huy Trung Documents the Rich Textures and Colors of Vietnam’s Agriculture

Blooming water hyacinth in Hoi An, Quang Nam province. All images © Pham Huy Trung, shared with permission

Photographer Pham Huy Trung (previously) continues to spotlight the agricultural rituals of his native Vietnam through aerial images captured in vivid detail. Interested in annual harvests of grass, water hyacinths, and other crops tended to around the country, Pham often documents farmers working in the Mekong Delta, a wet coastal region that fosters a robust aquaculture.

Some of his most recent photos center on those gathering lush vegetation in the fields, while others take viewers to the next step in the production cycle, glimpsing the vibrant buckets and neatly packed rows of fish at the markets. Each photo is rich with organic pattern and texture and celebrates the beauty of the landscape alongside the people who harvest its goods.

Find prints of Pham’s striking works in his shop, and explore a larger archive on Instagram.

 

Grass harvest, Mekong Delta

Markets, Mekong Delta

Grass harvest, Mekong Delta

Fish harvest, Mekong Delta

Lotus harvest, Mekong Delta

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Through Trompe L’oeil Bronze, Prune Nuorry Fuses Human Anatomy and Arboreal Roots

“Atys (3).” Photo by Annik Wetter. All images © Prune Nuorry, shared with permission

At the end of Jean-Baptiste Lully’s baroque opera Atys, the titular character is transformed into a tree. This metamorphosis, the result of a spell cast by an agitated goddess, secures Atys’ Earth-bound fate, melding human and plant life into a single body.

French artist Prune Nuorry draws on this mythological allegory in a series that visualizes the hybrid form. Standing several feet tall to be lifelike or larger, a trio of bronze figures emerges through intricate networks mimicking both veins and branches, “fractal shapes that we can find in different scales in nature,” the artist says. Each sculpture references the form’s roots in operatic performance, and Nuorry painted the smooth metal in a trompe l’oeil style so that the works appear as if made of rope, used frequently in stage rigging. This illusory material also alludes to the connection between the infinitely large and infinitely small, a concept often described in the framework of string theory.

Nuorry, who lives and works between New York and Paris, has long been interested in the body and the way it interacts with the environment. She recently completed a massive public work featuring a pregnant mother embedded in the land, and earlier projects include anatomical sculptures that similarly connect vein and branch. In her ongoing In Vitro series that began back in 2010, for example, Nuorry uses laboratory glass to create delicate, sprawling renditions of human lungs and bodies. As a whole, her practice “questions the notion of balance and the ethical issues attached to it: the body and healing process, the dangerous demographic imbalance due to (the) selection of babies’ sex in some countries, the ecosystem, and (the) interdependence between living species,” a statement says.

Last year, the artist collaborated on a performance of Atys, and you can see the massive rope installation she created for that production in the video below. Find more of her corporeal projects on Instagram.

 

“Atys” at Assemblee Nationale. Photo by Laurent Edeline

Detail of “Atys (1).” Photo by Annik Wetter

“Fractal Lungs” (2019), lab glass, 50 x 60 x 25 centimeters. Photo by Bertrand Huet Tutti

“Atys.” Photo by Annik Wetter

“River Woman” (2019), borosilicate glass, 195 x 75 x 20 centimeters. Photo by Bertrand Huet Tutti

Detail of “River Woman” (2019), borosilicate glass, 195 x 75 x 20 centimeters. Photo by Bertrand Huet Tutti

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Through Trompe L’oeil Bronze, Prune Nuorry Fuses Human Anatomy and Arboreal Roots appeared first on Colossal.

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