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Monday, January 8, 2024

Ryan Villamael’s Cascading Floral Sculptures Reconsider Maps and Identity

An installation of paper florals, descending from a ceiling.

“Locus Amoenus.” All images courtesy of Silverlens, Manila/New York, shared with permission

Gathered in bunches and trailing like vines, Ryan Villamael’s paper-cut sculptures cascade through niches of interiors, history, and identity. Utilizing maps to create overgrowths of leaves, the artist addresses complex relationships between cartography and culture.

Based in Los Baños, Laguna, in the Philippines, Villamael focuses his practice on tangled narratives within himself and the country. Because his father had to leave home as an overseas worker, the young artist grew up without his presence. This physical disconnect was challenging and catalyzed Villamael’s fascination with cartography. He explains, “Looking at maps was my way of connecting with him, of tracing the paths he might have traveled.”

Old maps fashioned into leaf shapes hang in bunches along a stairway

“Locus Amoenus” at Ateneo Art Gallery, Manila

This fixation has carefully cultivated itself ever since, as the artist sees the geographic representations as a way to uncover familial paths and collective memory. However, at odds with this sentiment of reclaiming personal history, Villamael also alludes to the presence of authoritative geopolitical ambitions that perpetuate partial truths. He tells Colossal:

So much of my work, I realize in hindsight, is about a kind of mourning. To be Filipino, I feel, is to be constantly in mourning—for the heritage that was taken from our nation by colonialism, for the memories we discard so systematically as a way of survival, for the historic structures in Manila that are constantly demolished… That does something to a nation’s psyche, and it’s something I feel deeply.

Such longing for ancestral truth beyond the stain of colonialism is evident in the artist’s work, as meticulous cutting, folding, overlapping, and puncturing alters the printed surfaces. Originally working with paper out of financial necessity, the humble material eventually became Villamael’s avenue for the tactile transformation and reclamation of cartographic records.

From the expansive nature of the material to the concept of stitching together ideas of home, the nuances of breadth and space guide his work. Quelled inside glass cloches and proliferating across gallery ceilings, floral motifs and sinuous vines carry a consuming desire for the recapitulation of history.

Villamael has two shows opening this month: a solo exhibit at Silverlens Gallery in Manila and an installation at the Esplanade in Singapore. Follow his Instagram to keep up with his work.

Old maps fashioned into leaf shapes hang in bunches

Detail of “Locus Amoenus”

Detail of “Locus Amoenus”

“Locus Amoenus” at Ateneo Art Gallery, Manila

Leaves and plants made from paper, encased within a glass box.

Left: “Pulô series X.” Right: “Pulô series IX”

Leaves and plants made from paper, encased within a glass bell jar.

“Pulô series III”

Left: From “Kadō Series.” Right: detail of “Kadō Series 2”

“Kadō, Series 1”

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 Ryan Villamael’s Cascading Floral Sculptures Reconsider Maps and Identity appeared first on Colossal.

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New York City Ballet Art Series Presents David Michalek

A ballet dancer in blue jeans, an orange t-shirt, and white sneakers leaps into the air.

“SlowDancing/NYCB,” David Michalek’s installation for New York City Ballet’s 2024 Art Series, features hyper-slow-moving images of current NYCB dancers performing iconic moments from the company’s repertory. Images courtesy of David Michalek

David Michalek is an American visual artist and director whose work is closely tied to an interest in the contemporary person, which he explores through live performance, filmmaking, photography, drawing, installation, relational aesthetics, and public projects. He often concentrates on carefully staged marginal moments that develop density with minimal action. Examining notions of durational and rhythmic time, his works aim to engage and generate intimate yet open-ended narratives.

Michalek’s installation for New York City Ballet’s 2024 Art Series, “SlowDancing/NYCB,” is a deep dive into the distinctive archive and style of a single ballet company that has become one of the most important artistic engines, and creative mainstays, of New York’s cultural fabric. Operating in a realm between action and image, animation and immobility, theater and painting, the installation features hyper-slow-moving images of 20 of NYCB’s current dancers performing iconic moments from the company’s unparalleled repertory in celebration of its 75th Anniversary Season.

Michalek’s work will be on view at three special New York City Ballet Art Series performances on February 3, 8, and 23. Tickets are $40.

To learn more and purchase tickets, visit nycballet.com/artseries.

Two ballet dancers dressed in period clothing pose dramatically.

A single ballet dancer in a pink leotard strikes a pose.

Two ballet dancers, dressed in simple purple leotards. One is holding the other upside down.

A ballet dancer in a filmy, transparent dress bows down dramatically on one knee with her arms sticking out behind her, head lowered.

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 New York City Ballet Art Series Presents David Michalek appeared first on Colossal.

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Friday, January 5, 2024

Curious Mutations and Scenarios Occupy Martin Jarrie’s Stylized Acrylic Illustrations

drawings of hybrid chracters including elephants with blue fish scales and pipe-like trunks, wolves with red crocodile heads for tails, and fish with legs

“Bestioles.” All images © Martin Jarrie, shared with permission

Elephants with blue scales and pipe-like trunks, a woman sporting an enormous bouffant filled with birds, and a farmer grasping a tree with roots evocative of veins or intestines are just a few of the otherworldly characters that populate Martin Jarrie’s illustrations.

The French artist is drawn to mutations and curious scenarios, skewing bodily proportions or melding two creatures into strange hybrids. “What interests me most is giving birth to imaginary beings, animals or humans, under my pencil or my brush,” he shares. “I was very marked in my adolescence and youth by the discovery of surrealism, from Giorgio de Chirico to Magritte via Marcel Duchamp.”

Whether working on a commission or a personal project, Jarrie begins with a minimal sketch before choosing a substrate—paper, canvas, or sometimes wooden produce crates—for his acrylic works. “I never paint on a white background, but it is always already smeared with paint (remnants of palette, bottoms of tubes, etc…),” he notes, which is also evident in the streaks and blotches lining the perimeters of his works.

a man with a large white cowboy hat, red checkered shirt, and tall gray pants grasps a tree with a green canopy and tangling roots. flowers and plants surround him

“Horticulteur”

But sometimes an initial drawing doesn’t translate to a larger illustration. Jarrie has amassed a collection of sketchbooks from the past three decades, which he references when he needs inspiration. He explains:

There are a lot of failures, unfinished drawings… When I get stuck, I consult them and sometimes find solutions in drawings that I found unsatisfactory but which suddenly open up new avenues for me. And then always in case of blockage… I leaf through the books in my library, art books, exhibition catalogs, books on nature, animals, sky charts, old sea charts, etc…

The resulting works are filled with unexpected oddities and textured details, which the artist describes as direct translations of an idea or thought into “a sensation…The pleasure of drawing is to let yourself be surprised,” he says. “Something escapes.”

Jarrie’s most recent commissions include a seasonal label design for Staple Gin, along with a book project for Vista Alegre. Find much more of his work on Instagram.

a portrait of a woman with a large bouffant filled with birds

“Tête +oiseaux”

a drawing of a human hand in navy with thin white lines covering it

“Main”

a silhouette of a face in blue with dark hair on a red backdrop. small gears, bolts, and other tools dot the body

“Les 2 géants”

a woman with curly black hair, a red shirt, and a yellow and black striped skirt is surrounded by dozens of dogs

“Femme aux chiens”

a man with a long red beak nose, blue shirt, and red and black checkered pants sits on an oversized red wood chair while a white bird with long red beak perches in his palm

“Nid”

“Fenouil”

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 Curious Mutations and Scenarios Occupy Martin Jarrie’s Stylized Acrylic Illustrations appeared first on Colossal.

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Pokémon and Japanese Craft Traditions Unite in a Fantastic Exhibition of 70+ Works

a closeup image of a cat-like sculpture with an open mouth and hazel eyes. the body is covered in gold metal pieces

Taiichiro Yoshida, “Jolteon.” All images courtesy of Japan House Los Angeles, shared with permission

Two of Japan’s major cultural contributions converge in POKÉMON X KOGEI | Playful Encounters of Pokémon and Japanese Craft. On view at Japan House Los Angeles, the exhibition showcases more than 70 sculptures and installations that recreate the fantastical animated characters from Squirtle to Pikachu in ceramic, metal, fiber, and more.

Included are works by several artists featured on Colossal, including a menagerie of intricately layered creatures by Taiichiro Yoshida and Keiko Masumoto’s whimsical vessels in which heads and tails emerge from pots and plates. Similar to the natural materials used in Japanese craft like earth, water, and fire, the characters within the popular franchise are categorized by element, drawing another connection between the two.

POKÉMON X KOGEI is organized by the National Crafts Museum in Kanazawa and is on view in Los Angeles through January 7.

a ceramic jar with a deer-like character emerging from the sides

Keiko Masumoto, “Vulpix Shigaraki Jar”

three images of small ceramic creatures covered in ornate patterns

Kasumi Ueba, from left, “Grookey with Arabesque Pattern,” “Scorbunny with Flame Pattern,” and “Sobble with Water Pattern”

a small cat like sculpture covered in yellow and beige metal layers

Taiichiro Yoshida, “Eevee”

a closeup image of red metal flames cloaking the face of a cat-like animal with a bright blue eye

Taiichiro Yoshida, detail of “Flareon”

two cat like animal sculptures covered in small metal layers in gold and red

Taiichiro Yoshida, “Flareon” and “Jolteon”

a ceramic sculpture of a blue turtle-squirrel hybrid

Sadamasa Imai, “Squirtle”

a ceramic plate in blue and white with bird characters emerging from the sides

Keiko Masumoto, “Piplup Underglazed Plate”

an installation with a tunnel through dangling yellow tendrils

Reiko Sudo, “Pikachu’s Adventures in a Forest”

yellow tendrils made of pikachu-shaped pieces of fabric

Reiko Sudo, detail of “Pikachu’s Adventures in a Forest”

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 Pokémon and Japanese Craft Traditions Unite in a Fantastic Exhibition of 70+ Works appeared first on Colossal.

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Erin Milez Meditates on the Joyful Monotony of Parenthood

a family in hats and puffy coats bends down to look at a dried dandelion on the edge of the sidewalk with road cones behind them to the right

“Caution in the Wind” (2023), oil, acrylic, and flashe on canvas, 55 x 40 inches. All images courtesy of Monya Rowe Gallery, shared with permission

If we looked closely at the minutia of our lives, would we take comfort in repetition? Artist Erin Milez has built her practice around monotony and domestic habits, and in her most recent solo show, she asks us to find sanctity and humor in the mundane.

Nodding to the relatable cycles of daily life, Round and Around We Go peers over shoulders and out of wardrobes to view the intimate, joyful, and sometimes exhausting experiences of parents and children. In “Caution in the Wind,” a family dressed in wool hats and puffy coats leans down, each with the same curved back, to pick dried dandelions. “The Conductor” similarly zeros in on a quiet scene depicting a mother slicing fruit and slathering peanut butter on bread, illuminated by the glow of a perfectly organized refrigerator.

Milez describes these autobiographical paintings as mandalas, an organized configuration of signs and symbols that, like a routine task, has the power to put one in a trance. Each work begins with a sketch and a small reference piece rendered in watercolor, pastel, and a mix of other mediums. The artist then works on a larger scale, meticulously filling the canvas with domestic details like a speckled bathroom countertop or the texture of a woven rug. “I wanted every inch of these pieces to receive equal attention and care, like how a mandala would, because I needed to give a moment to and reason for everything happening in my house,” she says.

Round and Around We Go is on view through January 6 at Monya Rowe Gallery in New York. Peek into Milez’s process on Instagram.

a dense painting of a woman with a long braid down her back. she's facing a countertop, cutting fruit, and spreading peanut butter on bread. a pantry of items is behind her

“The Conductor” (2023), oil, acrylic, and flashe on canvas, 55 x 40 inches

four people each grab at clothes on hangers on a curved wooden dowel. all are are rendered in a gradient from yellow to purple

“Conveyor Belt” (2023), oil, acrylic, and flashe on canvas, 30 x 24 inches

a mother holds a baby and tries to get her to eat while a father sits to the right similarly cradling the two. food and dishware covers the table in front of them

“Phasing” (2023), oil, acrylic, and flashe on canvas, 55 x 40 inches

hands from a mother and father encircle the perimeter of the painting with a young girl in a puffy coat and pink hat at the center. one hand holds a dunkin donuts cup

“We Run On” (2023), oil and acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches

a mother in a green bra and underwear and braid holds up her child by the feet in the bathroom

“Topsy Buttsy” (2023), oil, acrylic, and flashe on canvas, 40 x 30 inches

a young child is in a blue outfit in a crib wile a mother and father are at the top of the painting, the mother is in white and reading a book while the father is hunched over like a caterperllar

“A Very Hungry Caterpillar” (2023), oil, acrylic, and flashe on canvas, 55 x 40 inches

a baby sits on its mothers belly, who is lying on the floor with her hands covering her head. toys cover the floor

“All the Hope and Fire (Prometheus)” (2023), oil and acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches

a painting in shades of blur depicting several sets of hands folding and washing clothes

“Laundry Monster” (2023), oil, acrylic and acrylic ink on canvas, 30 x 24 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 Erin Milez Meditates on the Joyful Monotony of Parenthood appeared first on Colossal.

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Thursday, January 4, 2024

Marija Tiurina’s Vibrant and Relatable Murals Foreground Community and Care

A mural on the facade of a community center showing a flower being tended to.

Marija Tiurina likens the experience of working on murals to “the feeling of conquering a giant and befriending something way beyond your own size.” The Netherlands-based illustrator (previously) has worked on myriad projects ranging from watercolors to puzzles to stereograms, and for the past several years, large-scale wall pieces have grown into a significant facet of her practice, which centers around the maxim that art should be available to everyone.

Continuing themes present in her smaller works, Tiurina addresses self care, mental health, and other relatable topics. “The mural I did in Carballo, Spain, drew attention to a refugee crisis and an evergreen issue of having a home or a community,” she tells Colossal. In St. Malo, France, a tall, vertical painting of a flower getting some TLC brightened the facade of a local community center. “I wanted my piece to be full of warmth and cosiness, as well as carry a surreal and whimsical vibe, as caring for yourself and others is a really magical act, and it can help the world heal,” she says.

Tiurina approaches each project with an open mind, trusting her intuition to guide the final composition. “Every wall has character and unique features, and one can never be fully ready for the challenge, as each mural is a venture outside the comfort zone,” she says. “Only by diving into the unknown can the artist adapt to the new setting and the conditions that vary with each location and tune to each wall differently. There’s never such a thing as the same two mural painting experiences, which makes it really appealing to me.”

Tiurina recently joined Palette Stars, a collective of European street and mural artists, and she looks forward to pursuing projects alongside new collaborators. Find more on the artist’s website and Behance, and follow her on Instagram for updates.

The artist, Marija Tiurina, stands at the base of a tall mural depicting a flower with a smiling face in a pot, with gardeners attending to it.

Two walls inside a dilapidated space featuring surreal creatures on a pink background.

Part of a three-wall mural for IBUG Fest 2023 in Leipzig, Germany

An overview of a neighborhood in Carballo, Spain, where Marija Tiurina painted a mural portraying people carrying a house roof.

“Forward Together” (2022) for Rexenera Festival in Carballo, Spain

A mural on the side of a building portraying numerous figures carrying a house roof.

“Forward Together” (2022) for Rexenera Festival in Carballo, Spain

A wide shot of a mural depicting 16 panels, each with a different scene. In the foreground sits a cart with painting supplies.

“The Journey of a Light,” Svencioneliai, Lithuania

A gif of panels from a mural depicting various stages of completion.

Details of “The Journey of a Light” in progress

A tall mural on the end of a residential building depicting an abstract architectural shape and figures crowded inside of it.

Collaboration with Nikola Mihajlovic in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2023

A painted panel of a figure in the forest who appears to be popping out of the mossing ground.

The artist’s first “mobile mural” in Lithuania in 2023

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 Marija Tiurina’s Vibrant and Relatable Murals Foreground Community and Care appeared first on Colossal.

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Reflecting Time Passing, Chris Oh Reinterprets Works of the Northern Renaissance on Ephemeral Substrates

a detail image of a painting on gnarled wood of people harvesting produce

Detail of “Forage” (2023), acrylic on antique burl slab, 65.09 x 81.28 x 6.03 centimeters.

Shortly after the Renaissance swept through Italy in the 14th century, the Northern Renaissance began to take hold north of the Alps. In countries like Germany, France, Poland, and England, artists turned their attention toward humanism like their counterparts in Rome and Florence, although piety and the everyday trials of poor people dominated the north, while the wealthy and ruling classes featured more prominently in Italy.

In a new body of work on view at Capsule Shanghai, artist Chris Oh draws on this tradition through a series of paintings that consider how stories, knowledge, and information are shared through generations. Titled Passage, the exhibition features a range of found-object sculptures and wall-based works appropriated from primarily Northern Renaissance-era artists like Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hieronymus Bosch, and Jan van Eyck, to name a few.

Oh often paints the likeness of the paintings from the period on natural substrates like gnarled slices of burl wood and pearlescent oyster shells, nesting the familiar scenes and portraits within organic surfaces. “I want to use materials that grew over time,” he says.

a painting on a woodcut depicting farm laborers resting underneath a tree

“Reap” (2023), acrylic on antique burl slab, 48.26 x 62.23 x 4.45 centimeters

The artist begins each piece by referencing the etymology and symbolism within the original works, which he then pairs with an unconventional material. “Reap,” for example, recreates Bruegel’s “The Harvesters” (1565), with grooves of gnarled wood indenting the scene of autumn crops and backbreaking labor. One of the few works within Passage derived from the Italian Renaissance, “Gorgon” positions Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait of Florentine aristocrat Ginevra de’ Benci on a thin piece of dried sea fan, the pocked surface evoking the juniper bush in the background of the masterpiece.

Through these recreations, Oh puzzles together scenes and objects from differing periods to help the viewer draw associations between the two. The idea, Fiona He writes in an essay about the exhibition, is to convey “that all the sentient beings exist(ing) on Earth can relate to notions of the celestial realm and the underworld, finding the lasting beauty that exists in between.”

Passage is on view through January 13. Find more of Oh’s work on Instagram. (via Art Viewer)

a portrait of a woman painted onto a porous dried sea fan sticking out of a wooden vase

“Gorgon” (2023), acrylic on sea fan with wood base, 48.9 x 25.4 x 7.62 centimeters

a painting of hunters with their dogs looking at a town on a snowy day, all rendered on a cut wooden slab

“Burl” (2021), acrylic on antique wooden burl slab, 53.34 x 76.2 x 5.08 centimeters

a woodcut with a painting of people picking berries

“Forage” (2023), acrylic on antique burl slab, 65.09 x 81.28 x 6.03 centimeters

a cross cut piece of wood with a painting of a herd of cows and a person on a horse in a bucolic setting

“Herd” (2023), acrylic on antique burl slab, 44.13 x 62.87 x 5.08 centimeters

top left: a painting of a gray hand with fingers dangling down on a blue backdrop in a spiked, wooden frame. top right: a painted face in a pearlescent shell. bottom left: a portrait of a woman with curly red hair and jewels on her head and necklace in a shell. bottom right: a painting of a hand dangling down on a green backdrop in a wooden frame

Top left: “Faint” (2023), acrylic on wood panel with antique frame, 21.27 x 13.65 x 3.18 centimeters. Top right: “Shimmer” (2023), acrylic on seashell, acrylic on seashell, 19.67 x 13.02 x 6.35 centimeters. Bottom left: “Radiate” (2023), acrylic on seashell, 22.9 x 20.32 x 2.54 centimeters. Bottom right: “Shed” (2023), acrylic on wood panel with antique frame, 22.86 x 20 x 2.86 centimeters

a detail image of people ice skating in a painting on a woodcut

Detail of “Burl” (2021), acrylic on antique wooden burl slab, 53.34 x 76.2 x 5.08 centimeters

a sculpture on a white pedestal in front of a window. the sculpture is of a gilded nest elevated with floral metal pieces and a butterfly with a woman's face emerges from the top

Installation view of “Hatch” (2023), acrylic on cicada with brass rod, robin’s egg, faux eggs, faux nest, antique metal holder, 34.92 x 20.32 x 20.32 centimeters

an installation view of a bust painted a deep shade on a wood pedestal on a larger white pedestal in a room with green, yellow, and red marbled walls

Installation view of “Chlorophyll” (2023), acrylic on antique statue, 34.61 x 16.83 x 19.05 centimeters

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 Reflecting Time Passing, Chris Oh Reinterprets Works of the Northern Renaissance on Ephemeral Substrates appeared first on Colossal.

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