thisiscolossal

Monday, January 8, 2024

Vibrant Digital Illustrations by Muhammed Sajid Evoke Memories of the Artist’s Hometown

A colorful digital illustration of a woman in ornate Indian dress, surrounded by decorations like elephants, ducks, and architectural elements.

All images © Muhammed Sajid, shared with permission

“The two things I love the most are observing people and playing with colours,” says Bangalore, India-based artist Muhammed Sajid, whose vivid digital illustrations highlight personalities, garments, and visual culture inspired by his home state of Kerala. Ornate fabrics and objects surround figures who gaze directly at the viewer or interact with flora and fauna, and symbolic references to vernacular architecture and art fill each vibrant composition.

Sajid was inspired to start making portraits while he was in college, and over time, he honed his interest in portraying people and their surroundings. Initially, he worked in watercolor and poster paints, but found it difficult to achieve the saturated hues he was drawn to. “In the digital era, things are entirely different, and I started using different types of colours,” he says, exploring the full spectrum and building bold contrasts.

In his Folks from Kerala series, Sajid draws from memories and renders subjects who are reminiscent of people he would see around his childhood town. “Some of the pieces that I had done in that series show people who are familiar folks and faces from the village,” he says. “I felt that no one gave much attention to how simple and beautiful their lives were.” He continues to build on these initial explorations, combining elements of pop culture, fashion, and landscape.

Later this year, Sajid will show a couple of new pieces with Galerie Kurokama in Paris, which focuses on contemporary Asian art. Find more of the artsit’s work on Behance and Instagram.

A colorful digital illustration of a woman in ornate Indian dress, surrounded by various vessels, food, and other objects.

A colorful digital illustration of a woman in in a floral dress, wearing red earrings, and standing in front of a blue sky with bold clouds.

A colorful digital illustration of a woman's head in profile in an abstract stack of items including a TV, a hand holding playing cards, a bowl of oranges, flowers, and more.

A colorful digital illustration of a woman in black-and-white with a moth in front of her mouth and a red scarf.

A colorful digital illustration of a woman in ornate Indian dress, surrounded by bright green landscape and pink flowers.

A colorful digital illustration of a woman in ornate Indian dress, surrounded by flowers and bright landscape, with a rooster on her head.

A colorful digital illustration of a woman in profile, holding a lotus flower and surrounded by an ornate frame of more flowers.

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 Vibrant Digital Illustrations by Muhammed Sajid Evoke Memories of the Artist’s Hometown appeared first on Colossal.

from Colossal https://ift.tt/D1T64jH
via IFTTT

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.

from Colossal https://ift.tt/1XAz8Vm
via IFTTT

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.

from Colossal https://ift.tt/v3nIaDw
via IFTTT

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.

from Colossal https://ift.tt/VrCQfjD
via IFTTT

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.

from Colossal https://ift.tt/HMFmjR1
via IFTTT

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.

from Colossal https://ift.tt/YFdNIlK
via IFTTT