Anatomical Details Emerge From Found Coral and Shells in Gregory Halili’s Intricate Sculptures

Photos by Silverlens Gallery and Gregory Halili. All images © the artist, shared with permission

From a vast array of coral, shells, agates, and more, Gregory Halili (previously) shapes anatomical features and cosmic phenomena in intricate detail. The artist uses iridescent mother-of-pearl to accentuate round skulls or teardrops leaking from eyes, working with the inherent natural shapes and textures of materials he finds around his studio, located about an hour south of Manila.

Several years ago, Halili began carving lifelike miniature skulls into shells he found on beaches around the Philippines. He also uses oil paint to render minuscule details of individual eyes, painted on the reverse of transparent glass or crystal. Since then, his practice has evolved to include larger pieces that incorporate an array of smaller works and natural materials. He says:

I started to create these massive works filled with miniature paintings and objects. I’m a painter, but I learned to create sculptures, to weld, use cutting and power tools, and drill into stones and metals…My method and thinking process is still painterly, creating the works as layers, constructing and deconstructing them, and figuring out the forms and gestures as I create.

Halili’s Coments, a recent series of assemblages, expands on the ritual of searching for and recontextualizing found objects, ranging from metal to minerals to antiques. Each sculpture contains more than a hundred items found along beaches, at flea markets, and in antique stores. “These works are about renewal, return, and reincarnation,” he says, emphasizing how disused or abandoned objects find new life in his work.

Halili’s work is currently on view at the National Museum of the Philippines in Placuna placenta: Capis Shells and Windows to Indigenous Artistry. You can find more on Instagram.

 

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In Bursting Bonsai Sculptures, Patrick Bergsma Taps Into Nature and the Deep-Rooted History of Porcelain

“Royal White Pine” (2023). All images © Patrick Bergsma, shared with permission

Resisting the confines of porcelain vases, Dutch artist Patrick Bergsma’s vibrant bonsai sculptures illustrate the strength and resiliency of nature. Flowering branches, gnarled roots, and lush mosses rupture from shards of found pottery, capturing moments of transformation and growth.

Raised in a family of antique dealers, Bergsma was surrounded by art and historical objects, and as he developed his own practice, he was drawn to the collectibles that filled his parents’ shop and home. In his ongoing Expanding China Series,the artist references the rich, global history of porcelain.

“What we call typically Dutch, like Delft blue, was originally an attempt to imitate the very popular porcelain imported from China and Japan,” Bergsma says. “In this series, I often use these 17th-century ‘imitations’ combined with the natural elements like bonsai and ikebana.” The compositions also nod to the Japanese practice of kintsugi, replacing the metallic, mended pottery seams with dense mosses and clinging roots.

Bergsma initially used real bonsai trees that were either diseased or dead, incorporating them into broken vessels. Conscious of the possibility of reviving the diseased specimens, he began recreating lifelike versions using coconut fiber, polymers, kaolin, and quartz. A growing collection of bonsai trees in his studio garden provides a reference for choosing the right colors and materials for convincing replications.

Explore more on Bergsma’s website, and follow Instagram for updates.

 

“Abandoned Vase”

“Cracking Tulip Vase” (2020)

Left: “Falling Branch” (2022). Right: “Intertwined” (2020)

“Apple Blossom” (2021)

“Arita” (2022)

“Imari Blossom” (2023)

“Makkum Blues” (2023)

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A Major Exhibition Materializes Surrealist Artist Remedios Varo’s Alchemical Visions

“Creación de las aves (Creation of the Birds)” (1957), Museo de Arte Moderno, INBAL/Secretaría de Cultura. Photo by Rodrigo Chapa. All images © 2023 Remedios Varo, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VEGAP, Madrid, courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, shared with permission

Alchemy and the depths of the occult manifest within Remedios Varo’s practice. The Spanish surrealist (1908-1963), whose works are on view at the Art Institute of Chicago, was a researcher at heart with a vast, insatiable curiosity for discovering the unseen and underrecognized. Interested in scientific disciplines like astronomy and ecology along with psychology, tarot, and feminism, Varo was intent on expanding the limits of human perception. “I deliberately set out to make a mystical work, in the sense of revealing a mystery, or better, of expressing it through ways that do not always correspond to the logical order, but to an intuitive, divinatory, and irrational order,” she’s quoted as saying.

Born María de los Remedios Alicia y Rodriga Varo y Uranga in Catalonia, the artist was a natural polymath, having taken a childhood interest in her father’s work as a hydraulic engineer while reading the sci-fi novels of French author Jules Verne. Her early experiences and desire to learn informed what became her artistic practice and ushered her entrance into Surrealism. After a few years of living and working in Paris, Varo, like many of her contemporaries, fled Europe before World War II and relocated to Mexico City, where she lived until she had a heart attack and died at age 54.

 

“Armonía (Harmony)” (1956)

In Science Fictions, more than 60 of Varo’s paintings, sketches, and sculptures are on view at a U.S. museum for the first time in 23 years. The enchanting works evidence the artist’s esoteric affinities and are rife with unexpected magic. “Creation of the Birds,” for example, centers on a hybrid, owl-like character who appears to paint winged creatures that are brought to life by a stellar beam. Similarly, “Useless Science, or The Alchemist,” depicts a cloaked figure turning a crank that powers a towering apparatus of gears and pulleys, producing a pale green liquid at the base.

While Varo’s subject matter is often rooted in experimentation and discovery, so was her physical making process. She tended to produce cartoons, or full-scale preparatory drawings, that she would transfer to a panel or canvas. These renderings offered structural support to her more capricious techniques like blotting, scraping, and decalcomania, which involves pressing a painted material against another surface so that both are temporarily joined by a layer of wet paint. This creates organic, biomorphic planes when pulled apart. The vast quantity of textures adds to the cosmic, enchanting qualities of Varo’s works, which she produced layer by layer, sometimes embedding natural materials like mother-of-pearl within the compositions.

 

“Simpatía (La rabia del gato) (Sympathia)” (1955)

Although lesser known in the U.S., the artist is well-established in Latin America. Varo is part of a trio of artists dubbed “the three witches,” along with Leonora Carrington and photographer Kati Horna, and was active in Surrealist circles in Mexico. “Varo has been revered as a cult figure since the 1950s, her allure stemming from the enigmatic nature of her work, both in terms of its subject matter and technique,” said curator and art historian Tere Arcq, who helped organize the exhibition with Art Institute curator Caitlin Haskell. Presented in partnership with Museo de Arte Moderno, Science Fictions is widely lauded for recognizing and expanding access to Varo’s contributions to art history, both of which are long overdue.

Given her enduring search for transcendence and transformation, would Varo have considered the artworks themselves an act of alchemy? “That’s a fascinating question,” Haskell says. “She was certainly reading about alchemy, as we know from her library, and she was not alone among the artists in her circle to be thinking about analogies between art making and alchemy. In a metaphorical sense, yes.”

Remedios Varo: Science Fictions is on view through November 27.

 

“Ciencia inútil, o El alquimista (Useless Science, or The Alchemist)” (1955), Museo de Arte Moderno, INBAL / Secretaría de Cultura.

Detail of “Creación de las aves (Creation of the Birds)” (1957)

“La huida (The Escape)” (1961), Museo de Arte Moderno, INBAL/Secretaría de Cultura. Photo by Rodrigo Chapa

Detail of “Armonía (Harmony)” (1956)

“Tauro (Taurus)” (1962), Museo de Arte Moderno, INBAL/Secretaría de Cultura. Photo by Rodrigo Chapa

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Enormous Animals and Human Hybrids Interact in Enigmatic Landscapes by Bill Mayer

“Black Goldfish at the Cliffs.” All images © Bill Mayer, shared with permission

Reimagining European art historical genres with a special affinity for the Romanticists, artist and illustrator Bill Mayer’s wry and moody paintings (previously) merge fantastical figures with vast landscapes. From a haughty crow with insect companions to a giant goldfish overseeing a lone figure on the coast, the artist’s enigmatic scenes highlight hybrid creatures and unexpected relationships.

“The Bird-Woman” is currently part of Beinart Gallery’s Small Works 2023 exhibition, which runs September 16 through October 8 in Melbourne, and Mayer’s work will also be a part of a group show in December with Principle Gallery. Explore more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

 

“Old Crow”

“Afternoon Tea”

“The Bird-Woman”

“The Black Swan”

“La Caracol”

“Mantis”

“Ringo, the Beatle”

“The Monkey’s Paw”

“When Insects Rule the World (Beetle)”

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 Enormous Animals and Human Hybrids Interact in Enigmatic Landscapes by Bill Mayer appeared first on Colossal.

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Fragile Moths, Butterflies, and Botanicals Commingle in Żaneta Antosik’s Moody Digital Illustrations

All images © Żaneta Antosik, shared with permission

From her studio in Rawa Mazowiecka, Poland, Żaneta Antosik turns her eye toward the delicacies of the natural world as she renders the soft, frail forms of plants and insects. The artist primarily works digitally, sometimes beginning with a simple sketch on paper but often drawing directly in Procreate. Rendered on black or beige backdrops to reference a night sky or daytime light, each piece pays particular attention to the minuscule details, whether the tufted body of a moth or the speckled sepals of a poppy flower.

Evoking entomological displays found in attics or buried in archival collections, the renderings are tinged with nostalgia and an antique feel, as if they’d just been relieved of a thick layer. “I like objects with soul, old cinema, the world of Van Gogh and Pieter Bruegel,” she tells Colossal. ” I feel best in contact with nature. I was inspired to create a series with moths and butterflies by the beauty of these mysterious, small, and fragile creatures, which are extremely graceful models.”

Antosik sells prints and cards on Etsy, and you can follow her latest botanical and entomological renderings on Behance and Instagram.

 

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Cosmic Delights and Distant Discoveries Unfold in ‘Astronomy Photographer of the Year 15’

Mehmet Ergün (Germany), “The Great Solar Flare,” highly commended in the “Our Sun” category. All images © the photographers, courtesy of Astronomy Photographer of the Year, shared with permission

In its 15th year, the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition (previously) welcomed more than 4,000 entries from photographers in 64 countries, who set their sights on the night skies. From solar flares to dancing auroras to distant galaxies, the winners of this year’s contest highlight the endless wonders of the cosmos and the astonishing technological advances that allow us to see lightyears away in unprecedented detail.

The overall winning image, “Andromeda, Unexpected,” was the result of a collaboration between astrophotographers Marcel Drechsler, Xavier Strottner, and Yann Sainty. The trio discovered an enormous plasma arc next to the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), spurring a transnational scientific collaboration to further investigate the phenomena.

We’ve shared a few favorites here, and you can see all shortlisted images in the contest’s online gallery. If you’re in London, you can visit the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich starting on September 16 to see more than 100 prints on display.

 

Andreas Ettl (Germany), “Circle of Light,” runner-up in the aurorae category

Marcel Drechsler (Germany), Xavier Strottner (France), and Yann Sainty (France), “Andromeda, Unexpected,” galaxies category winner and overall winner

Runwei Xu (China) and Binyu Wang (China), “The Running Chicken Nebula,” winner of the Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year award

Paul Montague (Australia), “Neighbours,” highly commended in the galaxies category

Katie McGuinness (U.K.), “Close Encounters of the Haslingden Kind,” highly commended in the “People and Space” category

Angel An (China), “Grand Cosmic Fireworks,” winner in the skyscapes category

Ethan Chappel (U.S.), “Mars-Set,” winner in the “Our Moon” category

Haohan Sun (China), “Moon at Nightfall,” highly commended in the Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year category

Peter Ward (Australia), “Dark Star,” runner-up in the “Our Sun” category

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 Cosmic Delights and Distant Discoveries Unfold in ‘Astronomy Photographer of the Year 15’ appeared first on Colossal.

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