More Than 100 Photographers Team Up for Vital Impacts Print Sale Supporting Elephant Conservation

Tim Flach, “Flamingo Reflections.” All images courtesy of Vital Impacts, shared with permission

Since launching a few years ago, Vital Impacts (previously) has raised more than $2 million for conservation and humanitarian efforts. The nonprofit hosts annual print sales to raise funds for various causes, bringing together hundreds of photographers from around the globe who document the beauty and unexpected moments of the natural world. This year’s initiative encompasses images of both the minuscule and the vast, from a close-up of the tiny, bulbous tentacles of a blue button jellyfish to a stunning composite of a star being born.

Proceeds from the sale will go toward Retei Elephant Sanctuary, Africa’s first Indigenous-owned and-run group seeking to return 13 orphaned elephants to the wild. Shop the collection on Vital Impacts.

 

Michael Nichols, Jou Jou and Dr. Jane Goodall, Brazzaville Zoo, Republic of Congo (1990)

Mitch Dobrowner, “Lightning Strikes”

Ami Vitale, “Mary and Lodokejek”

Jody MacDonald, “Rajan Morning Walk”

James Webb Telescope, “Birth of Sun-like Stars”

Jim Naughten, “Muledeer”

Javier Aznar, “Two Owls”

David Liittschwager, “Blue Button”

Michelle Valberg, “Mid-Air Flurry”

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Kendall Ross Gets Personal with Her Colorful Sweaters Embedded with Stories

“I would never wear this in public” (2022), hand-knit with wool the artist hand-dyed for Factory Obscura in Oklahoma City. All images © Kendall Ross, shared with permission

Creating pieces that are part artwork and part fashion, Oklahoma City-based artist Kendall Ross of I’d Knit That imbues her knitwear with plenty of personality. “My I’d Knit That project got started because I thought the name was funny, and I was convinced I needed to claim the Instagram handle before someone else did back in 2019,” she tells Colossal. “Originally, it was a very casual way for me to share photos of what I was making and to organize knitting meet-ups with my friends from college. Still, I started taking it very seriously, and it ended up being a very important way for me to share my art and connect with other artists.”

Ross emphasizes bright hues in her pieces, using stitching methods like intarsia or Fair Isle colorwork—also known as stranded colorwork—to illustrate playful graphics and incorporate original texts. In a statement on her site, she writes that she is “drawn to telling unapologetically intimate, complicated stories of feminine, overlooked moments…putting private emotions on display for people to wear on their chest in their public lives.”

All of Ross’ vests and cardigans are hand-knit from either acrylic or wool yarn, the latter of which the artist hand-dyes herself whenever she is able. “I have done a lot of hand-dyeing in the past, and I really love the process of it,” she says, sharing that space is limited in her home studio, so she isn’t able to add color to all of her materials. This winter, she’s looking forward to a residency at Penland School of Craft in January, where she’ll focus on the hand-dyeing process.

Ross is currently working toward shows in 2024 in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and the Pacific Northwest, and she also teaches at the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, where this winter, she is offering a class on how to knit sweaters for dogs. “I think they only agreed to let me do it because I talk about my basset hound Frankie so much, but I’m very excited about it!”

Find more in the artist’s shop, and follow updates on Instagram. (via Kottke)

 

“Girl Talk” (2021), hand-knit acrylic

Left: “Stress Knit” (2022), hand-knit wool. Right: “Bad Driver” (2022), hand-knit with wool the artist hand-dyed

“Product Placement” (2023), hand-knit wool

“Fake Vest” (2023), hand-knit wool

Left: “Storyteller 2” (2023), hand-knit with wool for La Colombe Coffee. Right: “Company” (2022), hand-knit with wool the artist hand-dyed

“Everyone will forget about this” (2023), hand-knit with wool the artist hand-dyed

“Boring” (2023), hand-knit wool

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Wander Through a Geometric Field of More Than 400 Pyramids in Jim Denevan’s ‘Self Similar’

Photos by Lance Gerber, courtesy of Manar Abu Dhabi, shared with permission

For artist Jim Denevan, a paramount element of his creative practice centers on building experiences within landscapes through art and temporary events. Known for his large-scale land works that shape expanses of sand into precise geometries (previously), he allows time, weather, and changing tides to gradually reform the compositions back into natural terrain. Opening today in the capital of the U.A.E., Denevan’s expansive “Self Similar” is part of Manar Abu Dhabi, a new initiative celebrating public art and illuminating the city’s landmarks and vistas with light.

Bordered by the Arabian Sea on Abu Dhabi’s Fahid Island, visitors can reach the installation via a bridge that aligns with its geometry. “As I draw and shape these forms, an invitation is made; it emerges. An ‘entering into’ takes place,” he says of the creative process, mirroring the experience of wandering through the composition. The piece’s 19 rings and 448 pyramids span nearly a square kilometer, and at the work’s highest point, it reaches 27 meters tall.

Denevan, who is also a chef, founded Outstanding in the Field in 1999, inviting people to meet and dine at temporary tables in stunning locations before packing up and leaving the location just as it was. “In the tables he sets and the land artworks he creates, there is an element of organic impermanence at play,” says a statement on his site. The size and scale of his installations range from small compositions on beaches to city-size interventions that stretch miles, each in response to a specific site.

Manar Abu Dhabi continues through January 30, 2024, and you can explore more on Denevan’s website. You might also enjoy this music video from earlier this year, directed by Owen Brown of CNTRL5 and featuring the band ARIZONA, which centers around a 90,000-square-foot installation by Denevan in a dry riverbed in the American Southwest.

Manar Abu Dhabi continues through January 30, 2024, and you can explore more on the artist’s website.

 

 

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In a Documentary Short, Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley Wield ‘Paint & Pitchfork’ in the Studio

In 2018, when their portraits of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were unveiled at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald were thrust into the spotlight. The portraits were formally installed in the White House in 2022, when filmmaker Christine Turner’s documentary short, “Paint & Pitchfork,” also debuted on The New Yorker.

Turner was approached by LACMA to profile the renowned American artists, giving them “the same reverence, dignity, and respect” that they afford their own sitters. In the short film, Sherald and Wiley discuss their first interactions with art and what compelled them to paint people.

Both artists have dedicated their practices to reframing Western European portraiture traditions that have historically excluded representations of Black people. For Sherald, this is a matter of portraying Black figures during pastimes and everyday scenes, expressing comfort, leisure, and joy (previously).

 

All images © The New Yorker

In the film, Sherald says, “A question that I’ve been asked often is, will you ever paint anybody other than Black people? And my answer is, no, I won’t. Because the image of whiteness has been perpetuated beautifully throughout history, so you don’t really need my help. Like I’m here to paint my own ideal and to represent that in the world. And if I can’t do that, then something is deeply wrong.”

For Wiley, painting involves examining the symbolism of power and prestige of Grand Manner portraiture (previously), positioning Black figures on horseback, wielding staffs, and standing in front of ornate decor. “Portraiture is about the resistance of death. But painting is also about the style of living that you want to live,” he says. In a later segment, he shares that his approach to painting is two things at the same time: “There’s the desire for acceptability. And then there’s the desire for revolution. I’m carrying both paint and pitchfork.”

Learn more about Christine Turner’s work on her website. And if you haven’t yet, check out our interview with Amy Sherald from earlier this year.

 

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Remarkably Realistic Marine Invertebrates Made of Glass Surface at the Mystic Seaport Museum

All photos by Joe Michael, courtesy of the Mystic Seaport Museum, shared with permission

From the mid-1800s to the 1930s, father-and-son artist duo Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka crafted thousands of glass models of flora and fauna (previously) in exquisite, scientific detail. Sea creatures were an area of particular fascination, as delicate spines, tentacles, and frills rendered in lifelike color extend from the bodies of squid and sea anemones. And at the Mystic Seaport Museum, a major exhibition of more than 40 of the remarkable specimens come to life in Spineless: A Glass Menagerie of Blaschka Marine Invertebrates.

Spineless dives into the history of the Blaschkas’ extraordinary contributions to scientific education, starting with the elder artist’s fascination with ocean life. Leopold was inspired to recreate specimens he saw in the wild and successfully completed a commission for a nearby natural history museum in the 1850s. He realized there was a demand for lifelike versions of creatures that scientists found challenging to preserve and document, and the glass variety required no special jars or chemical treatments to keep them looking as good as new.

Leopold found his audience in universities and museums around the world, establishing a mail-order business to ship the fragile pieces to institutions where they were used for teaching or put on display. Eventually joined by his son, the two “relied on their relationships with scientists, along with observations of live specimens held in aquariums, wet specimens, books, and scientific journals,” the Mystic Seaport Museum says in a statement.

The Blaschkas are also known for their fifty-year endeavor to make 4,300 models that represent 780 plant species, comprising the Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, which you can visit at Harvard Museum. Spineless continues in Mystic, Connecticut, through September 2024. Plan your visit and discover more on the museum’s website.

 

 

 

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RISD Pre-Collegiate Programs Are Now Enrolling for Summer 2024

Artwork by RISD Pre-College student James A.

Rhode Island School of Design has opened registration for its residential summer Pre-College program and year-round online intensive Advanced Program Online.

At Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Pre-College, rising high school juniors and seniors can experience life as a RISD undergrad and work alongside hundreds of other creative, highly motivated students who will inspire them to push their limits and produce their best work. Students will follow a college-level curriculum inspired by the RISD first-year experience with day-long studio classes, visits to the Nature Lab and RISD Museum, critiques, and projects that will forever shape how they approach art and design. Outside of the studio, students can participate in trips and events throughout Providence and beyond. Summer 2024 runs from June 29 through August 3.

To apply for the RISD Pre-College residential summer immersive, visit precollege.risd.edu/program-overview.

RISD’s Advanced Program Online is a year-round online intensive designed for high school students interested in pursuing art and design in college who want to learn best practices in developing their work. This series of college-level courses for students in grades 10 to 12 calls on creative young people to access a more ‘flexible mindset’—applying art and design methods to chart new territories of creation and problem-solving. The Spring 2024 term runs from March 2 to May 12, and the Summer 2024 term runs from June 22 through August 18.

To register for RISD’s Advanced Program Online year-round intensive, visit precollege.risd.edu/advanced-program.

Whether on-campus or online, students will participate in courses led by reputable teaching artists, learn to manage time and self-motivate, and develop concepts, sketches, and finished pieces that can be included in or inform their college applications. Both programs are designed to not only help students build portfolios but also develop as artists and individuals.

Learn more and compare programs at precollege.risd.edu/compare-programs.

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 RISD Pre-Collegiate Programs Are Now Enrolling for Summer 2024 appeared first on Colossal.

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Botanical Patterns Spill from Shinji Ohmaki’s Existential Vessel

“Gravity and Grace” (2023), installation view at National Art Center. Photo by Keizo Kioku. All images courtesy of National Art Center

In “Gravity and Grace,” Japanese artist Shinji Ohmaki poses a broad, if not daunting, question: what does it mean to exist? The installation, which features an imposing vessel carved with flora and fauna, radiates from the center and casts shadows in varied sizes and opacities around the gallery. Bulbous near the base with a slimmer neck that reaches toward the ceiling, the work’s shape evokes the tower of a nuclear power plant and spills light in every direction.

This iteration of “Gravity and Grace,” which is part of a series ongoing since 2016, is included in Ohmaki’s exhibition Interface of Being on view now at Tokyo’s National Art Center. The solo show features works made in response to the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami that killed nearly 20,000 people and caused the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant to melt down and release radioactive water.

Reaching up to a whopping 840,000 lumens, “Gravity and Grace” harnesses the interplay of light and shadow to critique modern society’s dependence on energy, literally mapping illuminated patterns onto the viewers who pass by. The contrast also draws attention to nature’s cycles and the artist’s enduring interest in time and space, particularly the reminder that we all inhabit this planet for a relatively brief moment.

If you’re in Tokyo, you can see Interface of Being, which also includes a gossamer sculpture that undulates across the gallery like billowing fabric, through December 25. Otherwise, find more from Ohmaki on his site and Instagram.

 

Detail of “Gravity and Grace” (2023). Image courtesy of A4 Art Museum

“Gravity and Grace” (2023), installation view at National Art Center. Photo by Keizo Kioku

Detail of “Gravity and Grace” (2023)

“Liminal Air Space—Time Vacuum Fluctuations,” installation view National Art Center. Photo by Keizo Kioku

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