Tuesday, November 7, 2023

In Meticulous Paper Portraits, Yulia Brodskaya Coaxes Visions of a Compassionate Future

A quilled paper portrait of a woman wearing a furry parka with geometric shapes and colors on her face.

“Northern Lines.” All images © Yulia Brodskaya, shared with permission

For millennia, cultures across the globe have venerated mother goddesses who embody maternal roles and symbolize fertility and cosmological creation. For the Inuit, Nerrivik is known as the sea mother and provider, and another deity associated with the sky, Pinga, watches over the hunt. In the Odinani tradition of the Igbo people in southeast Nigeria, Ala presides over the underworld and observes morality, fertility, and creativity. And in Greek mythology, Gaia is poetically portrayed as the personification of the Earth and the ancestor of all living beings.

For artist Yulia Brodskaya, the unequivocal power of Mother Earth encompasses a vibrant series of quilled paper portraits (previously) that celebrate cultural diversity and women around the world. She says:

I create from the place of honoring history and the past—drawing lots of inspiration from various cultures existing on the planet, but at the same time, making a conscious choice to bring forward a new vision of the future: a future when we, as a collective, have healed our past, released the pain, and integrated all the lessons that brought us all here to this moment in time: unified humanity—people of Gaia.

In her new pieces, Brodskaya continues to explore resilience and hope through dreamlike portraiture. She meticulously cuts, creases, and curls thin pieces of paper to build up a relief one strip at a time, adding mystical elements like swirls and geometric shapes. In “Envisage,” a human profile merges with that of a horse, while in “Mother Energy,” leaping dolphins reflect the strength, connection, and joy of motherhood.

Brodskaya portrays a future she desires, one of brightness, openness, and compassion. She says that “this is a personal exploration of how this new reality would feel like. How would it feel to interact with a human being from this version of the future?”

Find more on the artist’s website, and follow on Instagram and TikTok, where she often shares insights into her process.Yulia

 

A quilled paper portrait of a Black woman holding her baby in a spiraling composition with a background of dolphins.

“Mother Energy”

Detail of quilled paper.

Detail of “Mother Energy”

A profile portrait of an Africa figure wearing beaded accessories, standing in front of a horse.

“Envisage”

Detail of quilled paper.

Detail of “Envisage”

A quilled paper portrait of an Indigenous American woman with geometric symbols and feathers.

“Light as a Feather”

Detail of quilled paper layers.

Detail of “Light as a Feather”

Detail of a portrait focused on the eyes, showing quilled paper pieces.

Detail of “Light as a Feather”

A quilled paper portrait of a woman looking straight at the viewer with mystical geometry merged with her skin and hair.

“Starseed”

Detail of paper quilling on a portrait.

Detail of “Starseed”

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 In Meticulous Paper Portraits, Yulia Brodskaya Coaxes Visions of a Compassionate Future appeared first on Colossal.



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Olga Prinku Grafts Blooms and Branches Into Expansive Embroideries

A large embroidery hoop with a piece made of thread and real flowers.

All images © Olga Prinku, shared with permission

Using a vibrant array of real flowers and foliage, North Yorkshire-based artist Olga Prinku (previously) designs intricate embroideries that explode with natural colors and textures. The artist embraces experimentation at a large scale, challenging the traditionally more intimate surfaces of embroidery.

In addition to blooms and leaves, Prinku has recently focused on branches in a new series called Graft. Using primarily silver birch, she describes the works as “a reference to the horticultural process of transferring twigs from one setting to another but also a nod to the slang meaning of ‘hard work’—it takes a lot of time and patience!”

Prinku’s embroideries are currently on view in a group exhibition at Contemporary Applied Arts in London through November 18, and a piece selected for the SCAF Emerging Artist Award is on view until January at Lawrence Batley Theatre Gallery. She is currently working toward a major exhibition for Hidcote in the Cotswolds next year. Find more on her website, and follow her on Instagram for updates.

 

A delicate embroidery piece made with real yellow flowers on a transparent screen.

An embroidery artwork made with real flowers on a transparent surface.

Detail of embroidery made with real flowers.

An embroidery artwork made with real flowers on a transparent surface.

An embroidery artwork made with real flowers on a transparent surface, with a wooden frame.

An embroidery artwork made with real flowers on a transparent surface.

An embroidery artwork made with real flowers on a transparent surface, hinting at the shape of an eye.

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 Olga Prinku Grafts Blooms and Branches Into Expansive Embroideries appeared first on Colossal.



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Monday, November 6, 2023

The Drifters Project Harnesses Community to Clean the Oceans and Visualize Global Plastic Pollution

a pile of colorful nets on the land. the artist sorts them

“Pam In Net” (2008), Southpoint, Hawai’i, Hawai’i Wildlife Fund collaboration. Photo by Megan Lamson. All images © Pam Longobardi, shared with permission

In 2006, Pam Longobardi traveled to Ka Lae, the southernmost tip of Hawaii’s Big Island, for a residency. Cradled by a rugged coastline and high cliffs towering over the Pacific Ocean, the point marks a confluence of currents where marine life and debris gather on shore, making it a popular fishing spot and unintentional waste collection site. “There I saw an immense multitude of colors and forms of plastic that was being vomited out of the ocean, piled so deep it was beyond my arm’s reach to the bottom,” Longobardi tells Colossal. “The shock was so profound that it completely reoriented my art practice and my life.”

While determined to address the issue, Longobardi quickly understood she couldn’t work by herself. “As an artist, still going on my research missions to Hawai’i as frequently as I could but still often alone, it began to be overwhelming, exhausting, depressing to the point of self-doubt,” she says. Instead, she wanted to create something collaborative and community-based, linking activists, environmentalists, and artists with people living in the region and directly witnessing the impacts. These experiences spurred a now two-decade endeavor known as the Drifters Project, a practice of creating installations and sculptures that help visualize the catastrophic amount of plastic ruining the world’s ecosystems.

 

a swirling wall sculpture of found ocean plastic

“Ocean Archaeology of Our Time” (2023), global ocean plastics from Maldives, Hawaii, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Alaska, California, and Georgia coasts, mounted on painted marine plywood, 9 x 5 feet

Most works begin with Longobardi and a team cleaning specific areas and preventing plastic from embarking “on the wild journey that ends at sea and negatively impacts many, many life forms along the way.” Once the area is scoured and cleared, the artist arranges the findings by color or material into works that convey the immensity and breadth of over-consumption and the inadequacy of our waste systems.

Recent installations include “Endless (zombie Brancusi),” a series of nine totem-like sculptures made of nets and styrofoam, and an algae-shaped work titled “Ocean Archaeology of Our Time.” Although created in the Maldives, an island nation at the forefront of sea level rise and currently grappling with the effects of luxury tourism, the latter piece exhibits more than 1,000 components gathered both locally and in locations like Costa Rica, Indonesia, and Alaska. “It’s important in my works that I remix, as the ocean does, plastics from all over because it is not one place’s issue,” Longobardi says. “It’s (an) all-places problem.” This global vision grounds the Drifters Project, which calls attention to the way cigarette butts, bottle caps, and packaging from one part of the world can wash up on shores thousands of miles away.

 

One of Longobardi’s largest endeavors is “Plastic Free Island,” an ongoing initiative to keep waste from the beaches of Kefalonia, Greece. Launched in 2011, the project initially paired an international team of students with hundreds of the island’s citizens. Together, they harvested refuse from the shores and created a 44-foot installation and performance. “Plastic Free Island” can provide a sustainable template for reimagining island communities directly facing the impacts of the climate crisis, she says, noting, “Last summer when I went back, we found that all the cafes had switched to paper straws. It was a most rewarding moment to see the results of direct art/science/activism take shape.”

That the Drifters Project can foster community and spark real-world change is also evident in Longobardi’s 2022 book Ocean Gleaning, which documents her works and collaborations over the years along with contributions from about 75 people with similar interests. This crowd-sourced section records evidence of plastics gathered around the world with commentary on the findings. The book also documents waste materials animals often mistake for food, further implicating humanity in causing environmental harm. As Sarah Rose Sharp writes in a review, “The forensic examination of plastics in Longobardi’s work has particular resonance in the context of popular interest in true crime. Stories of horrific murders can always find a voracious audience, but an environmental threat which could ultimately be history’s greatest serial killer is somehow less sensational or interesting.”

 

A drop shaped installation of black plastic objects on a wall

“The Crime of Willful Neglect”

Ultimately, though, Longobardi is hopeful. She describes visiting a waterway and beginning to clean even when she hadn’t planned to. “Typically, if there are other people about, someone will ask me what I am doing and then begin to help me,” she shares. “These kinds of spontaneous actions with strangers are the basis of Drifters Project: that anyone, anywhere, can train their eyes to (search for plastic), and you will see it everywhere.”

With an estimated 1.15 to 2.41 million tons of plastic leaching into the oceans every year, tackling pollution needs to be a truly collaborative and global effort, and initiatives like the Drifters Project are one way to make such a staggering problem accessible to people wanting to get involved. Part of Longobardi’s goal is to direct our attention to the magnitude of the problem, instigate movements to refuse single-use and disposable items, and use art to tangibly mitigate some of the consequences already in effect. She explains:

I believe the ocean to be the consciousness of the planet. It is where all life on Earth began. By paying attention to the greater interconnected network outside of our immediate lives, we witness the effects of our actions on all other life forms in this world…It’s really powerful, and the best part of my project, to broadcast the emergence of a collective transformation in understanding our presence on Earth.

Ocean Gleaning is available from Fall Line Press, and you can find more about the Drifters Project on its site and Instagram.

 

a tangled, suspended sculpture of colorful nets and ropes

“Anxiety of Appetites” (2020), recovered and assembled ocean-made driftnet balls, floats, feathers, barnacles, and bryozoa,
122 x 60 x 60 inches

an installation of black and blue colorful objects on a wall

“Swerve” (2019), over 500 ocean plastic objects from Alaska, Greece, California, Hawaii, the Gulf of Mexico, and Costa Rica, steel specimen pins, 96 x 54 x 8 inches

An installation of tall sculptures on a wall

“Endless (zombie Brancusi)” (2020), vagrant polystyrene, sea turtle bites, wood, steel, magnets, seven elements ranging from 3 to 6 feet

A detail shot of plastic objects arranged by color

Detail “Archeology of Desire” (2021), over 1,000 pieces of ocean plastic from Indonesia, Hawaii, California, and Costa Rica, 144 x 96 x 9 inches

plastic objects arranged by color in a large oval

“Archeology of Desire” (2021), over 1,000 pieces of ocean plastic from Indonesia, Hawaii, California, and Costa Rica, 144 x 96 x 9 inches

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 The Drifters Project Harnesses Community to Clean the Oceans and Visualize Global Plastic Pollution appeared first on Colossal.



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Open Call: Empower Your Practice With the NOT REAL ART Grant for Artists

Painting of two figures in a garden handing over a tomato.

2022 NOT REAL ART Grant winner Joan Cox, “In the Garden of Autumn”

Let your art shine: Calling all creative minds working in the realm of visual art! The NOT REAL ART 2024 Grant Program is now accepting submissions. If you’re ready, so are we. Submit your work today for a chance to win an unrestricted cash award of $2,000, and more in PR and marketing support. There is no application fee.

Founded in 2019, the NOT REAL ART Grant for Artists is a biannual award designed to empower the practice of six contemporary artists, each of whom receives $2,000 and more in media exposure. To date, 36 lucky artists have won this grant!

NOT REAL ART Grant recipients get more than money. Each winner gets to share their story and promote their work with exclusive, in-depth featured interviews on the NOT REAL ART podcast and blog. What’s more, win or lose, every applicant automatically qualifies to be included in future blog stories, newsletters, and our artist marketing database.

It’s free to enter, and the deadline is January 1, 2024. 

Submit your application today at notrealart.com.

 

An abstract artwork of trees and a metallic structure condensing into the form of an ammonite shell.

2022 NOT REAL ART Grant winner Y. Hope Osborn, “Refuge”

A sculptural installation artwork composed of large, mainly bright pink and purple straw-like forms that cover that line the walls and floors and also create a smaller room-like structure in the center.

2021 NOT REAL ART Grant winner Natalia Villanueva Linares, “Refuge”

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 Open Call: Empower Your Practice With the NOT REAL ART Grant for Artists appeared first on Colossal.



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In ‘Heirloom Machine,’ Kate Van Vliet Catalogues Daily Routines One Eggshell at a Time

A sculpture of repaired eggshells on a small stand.

“Chimaera: Green #12.” All images © Kate Van Vliet, shared with permission

Kate Van Vliet’s Fault Lines series began with a neighborly gesture. “While sequestered at home during the pandemic with twin infants, our neighbors started giving us fresh eggs from their backyard flock,” she says. “The colors of the eggs were so beautiful, and as the shells accumulated on our kitchen counter each day, I knew I wanted to use them in my artwork.”

As Van Vliet began to reassemble the eggs, each shell catalogued a passing day. “When I became a mother, I found myself in this ritualistic madness, each day repeating the day before and hoping for a different result,” she says. “As the leftovers of those actions accumulated on my kitchen counter, I saw that my life had become an open edition of the same but different days.”

In a solo exhibition at Paradigm Gallery + Studio, Van Vliet examines her roles as mother and artist, exploring the idea of becoming an “heirloom machine,” a concept which lends itself to the title of the show. Creating small objects infused with both routine and memories, she examines the relationship between the meticulous repair of everyday objects and the historically invisible labor of women.

Van Vliet meticulously applied archival tissues and adhesives combined with mica to strengthen each piece. “Lots of research was involved in the physical repairing of the eggs,” she says, continuing:

They aren’t ceramics, but I wanted to celebrate imperfections by adapting the kintsugi method to repair the eggshells. I also researched ways that Ukrainian Pysanki eggs are conserved by museums. I combined what I learned with my sensibilities as a printmaker to make a repeatable method of repair that would be stable over time and work with the hairline fractures that occur in the eggs.

If you’re in Philadelphia, you can stop by Heirloom Machine through November 26. Van Vliet also co-founded the community printshop BYO Print, which is relocating to the Paradigm Arts Building building this winter. Visit the artist’s website and Instagram to see more of her work.

 

A sculpture of numerous repaired eggshells assembled into a tube-like structure.

“Peck”

Speckled eggs in a plastic dispenser.

“Candy Everybody Wants”

Brown eggshells repaired into a small sculpture.

“Donut (Chocolate)”

Four repaired duck eggs, displayed on stands.

“Egg Canoes: Duck #12-15”

A round sculpture made of repaired egg shells, displayed on a small stand.

“Donut (Mint)”

Repaired eggshells, connected in a cluster.

“Roly-poly”

A blob-like shape of repaired egg shells.

“The Blob”

A coil-like form made from numerous repaired eggshells attached to one another.

“The Kiss (Pretzel)”

Brown egg shells attached into a cluster.

“The Tickler”

A sculpture made of numerous eggshells, combined to form a tripod structure.

“Tripod”

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 In ‘Heirloom Machine,’ Kate Van Vliet Catalogues Daily Routines One Eggshell at a Time appeared first on Colossal.



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Victoria Rose Richards Surveys Land From Above in Atmospheric Embroidered Landscapes

an aerial view of a green landscape embroidered inside of an embroidery hoop.

All images © Victoria Rose Richards, shared with permission

Aerial fields of vision emerge from Victoria Rose Richards’ embroidered landscapes. Setting scenes from up above, the artist (previously) uses thread to achieve a variety of patterns and textures, implementing satin stitches and french knots to form curiously shaped fields, patches of trees, and bodies of water. The majority of her pieces take at least 10-25 hours each, with every meticulous detail shining through at the end.

Richards is inherently connected to her natural surroundings. Raised and based in South West Devon, nostalgic vistas of farmlands, woodlands, and the countryside make up the subjects of her pieces, emanating feelings of homeliness and familiarity. The artist shares with Colossal that she loves depicting fields because of “the different formations and patterns they make, some being orderly and others higgledy-piggledy, some looking naturally formed and others forced.”

Richards’ work will be included in the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition starting November 17. This winter, the artist is also creating calendars with images of her work, so keep up with her Instagram and website for the latest updates.

 

an aerial view of a green landscape surrounded by bodies of water embroidered inside of an embroidery hoop.

an aerial view of a green landscape embroidered inside of an embroidery hoop.

an aerial view of a green landscape with clouds embroidered inside of an embroidery hoop.

an aerial view of a green landscape with a pond embroidered inside of an embroidery hoop.

an aerial view of a green landscape embroidered inside of an embroidery hoop.

a cornfield landscape during a thunderstorm, embroidered within an embroidery hoop.

an aerial view of a green landscape embroidered inside of an embroidery hoop.\ an aerial view of a colorful landscape embroidered inside of an embroidery hoop.

an aerial view of a green landscape embroidered inside of an embroidery hoop.

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 Victoria Rose Richards Surveys Land From Above in Atmospheric Embroidered Landscapes appeared first on Colossal.



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Friday, November 3, 2023

Play Meets Ink in Roy Scholten’s Ongoing LEGO Letterpress Bird Series

a block printed bird

Common linnet. All images © Roy Scholten, shared with permission

Roy Scholten is wrapping up a years-long printing project with dozens of playfully rendered fowl. 50 Birds is an ongoing series that uses LEGO in place of lead type to create curved beaks, long tails, and rounded bellies. With only three species—hawfinch, reed bunting, and kingfisher—remaining, The Netherlands-based artist and designer has nearly a full flock of the letterpress creatures, all nested inside 6 x 6-inch paper.

“It’s been interesting to see how the experience from earlier prints feeds back into the following ones,” he tells Colossal. “In a way, because I got better at it, the more difficult it has become. More subtle color schemes and patterns resulted in a more painterly approach to printing.”

Scholten began working with the unconventional material about a decade ago in collaboration with artist Martijn van der Blom, and the pair recently released a bi-lingual book, Print & Play, the Art of LEGO Letterpress, documenting their process and projects during the last ten years. Their practice of inking and printing with the plastic blocks is known in printmaking circles as the “Hilversum method,” named for their studios’ location in the city of Hilversum.  Included in the book’s pages are some early works from the 50 Birds collection, along with van der Blom’s architectural typography, stylized dinosaurs, landscapes, and more.

Keep an eye on Scholten’s Instagram for the final avian pieces, along with larger species like owls, falcons, and hawks, which are next on his docket. You can also purchase prints on his site.

 

a block printed bird with a pink belly

Crested tit

a block printed bird with brown and black feathers

Pied flycatcher

a gray and white bird in blue

Sanderling

a flying yellow and gray bird

Skylark

a brown and white bird climbing a brown block like a tree

Treecreeper

an open book with four images of LEGO dinosaur prints

A spread from ‘Print & Play, the Art of LEGO Letterpress’

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 Play Meets Ink in Roy Scholten’s Ongoing LEGO Letterpress Bird Series appeared first on Colossal.



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A Knotted Octopus Carved Directly into Two Pianos Entwines Maskull Lasserre’s New Musical Sculpture

“The Third Octave” (2023). All images © Maskull Lasserre, shared with permission Behind the hammers and pins of most upright pianos is a ...