Lina Iris Viktor uses only 24-karat gold and a color palette of black, white and royal blue for her geometric paintings. Her work is beautiful, complex, and overwhelmingly luxurious. Visit her gallery here.
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Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
Lina Iris Viktor uses only 24-karat gold and a color palette of black, white and royal blue for her geometric paintings. Her work is beautiful, complex, and overwhelmingly luxurious. Visit her gallery here.
PULSE PLAY curators Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Jampol. Photo by Ventiko.
It can be tough for any artist get their work to a fair, but at PULSE Miami Beach, one initiative is trying to change that. PLAY is the contemporary art fair’s dedicated platform for video and new media work, and for the first time, the 2016 edition will open submissions to the public, allowing artists to bypass the traditional necessity of gallery representation—and the hassle, networking, and expense that can entail—and directly submit their work to the cutting-edge platform.
Works included in PULSE PLAY are curated by new minds each year, and this year, PULSE director Helen Toomer selected Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Jampol. The duo are known for their 2012 founding of Gateway Project Spaces, a Newark, NJ arts hub with 50,000 square feet of studio spaces, 7,000 square feet of exhibition spaces, and a multidisciplinary residency program. The space morphed out of the non-profit Project for Empty Space, which is now included in the Newark complex. As a curatorial team, Wahi and Jampol tell The Creators Project, they aim to “poke and prod” the audience, showcasing socially-engaged work by artists whose narratives might otherwise slip under the radar.
“We aren’t concerned with whether an artist is the ‘biggest name’ in a gallery’s roster, or if he/she/they has a big social media following. Our big motivator is conceptually strong, aesthetically solid, and technically sound video and new media work,” they explain.
The Creators Project has the full story. This is a great opportunity, artists, jump on it if you can.
An ex-military photographer, Aaron Ansarov retired from the Navy in 2007, transforming his skills to create commercial work for magazines and focus on his own practice. Fascinated with marine life since his days growing up in Central Florida, his series “Zooids,” focuses on detailed images of Portuguese Man o’ War. Ansarov photographs the creatures on a homemade light table while alive, then immediately releases them back into the wild where they were found.
Once shot and the Man o’ War are returned, each image receives minimal manipulation, as Ansarov makes only slight adjustments to the photograph’s exposure, contrast, and vibrancy to highlight the vivid details of each venomous siphonophore. The completed works are otherworldly, appearing like alien illustrations rather than portraits, with deep blues, purples, and pinks unfurling in every direction.
As if that wasn’t impressive enought, Ansarov does some amazing work with humans, too, which you can see after the jump, because naked people. NSFW.
The cover of Midnighter & Apollo No. 1, which will go on sale in October. Credit CD Comics
Gay Pride Month ends today, but DC Comics is giving fans something to look forward to this fall. In October the company will publish Midnighter & Apollo, the first part of a six-issue mini-series that reunites the two heroes, who are gay and have an on-again off-again relationship.
“They have a firmer idea of who they are, and they’ve become stronger and more confident together,” said Steve Orlando, who will write the comic, which will have interior art by Fernando Blanco and covers by the artist known as ACO.
The characters, who made their debut in 1998, were gay analogues of Batman (Midnighter) and Superman (Apollo). They dated, eventually married, adopted a child and, thanks to comics, had their history rebooted. Midnighter most recently headlined his own series, which ended in March. The comic, written by Mr. Orlando, was lauded for its portrayal, which balanced the hero’s volatile global adventures — and a friendly flirtation with Dick Grayson, the former Robin — with a domestic life that included using dating apps and being sexually active.
I’ve never been much of a DC fan, but when they do something like this, I’m happy to get onboard. Way to go, DC! Full story here.
Cristiam Ramos paints with toothpaste. And candy. And nail polish. Even oil paint! I am stunned though, by his paintings on butterflies.
There’s a whole lot of wonder at his site, have a look around.
First up, a stunning Fallen Angel sculpture, from Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, who always produce phenomenal work, even when it does enter disturbing territory.
I love this piece, the one disturbing aspect for me are the chicken wings. In my head, chicken wings belong on a chicken, not a person, angel or no. The rest of it is so beautifully done, and the angel being netted for public consumption is terribly poignant. I put this down as another win for Sun Yuan and Peng Yu. Visit their gallery.
For Angel, however, they left the controversy for the piece itself, and worked with mainly fiberglass, silica gel, and stainless steel to create the startlingly realistic body.
Via The Creators Project.
Moving on to the irritation: Christo. I’m not sure what it is exactly, that leaves me cold and highly irritated with most everything Christo has ever done, but his latest is no exception. It’s been making art headlines all over, all with the same stupid fucking theme: Walking on Water, Oooh! Aaargh. No. It’s walking on fucking piers, not walking on water. It’s a big, expensive, temporary bridge. Perhaps this is the core of what bugs me about Christo’s stuff – it’s all a cheat.
Not impressed. Via The Creators Project (and every other art site).
Steve Spazuk paints with fire. Very exciting! As soon as I get some sturdier paper, I’ll definitely be playing!
Images courtesy of the artist.
An ecstatic mix of purples, greens, reds, and yellows flow in and out of one another in FLUID, a new series from Maggie West. Colored lights illuminate her subjects, globs of bodily fluid produced by modern-day renaissance man Christopher Zeischegg, with whom West recently entered a relationship. Better known by his former porn name, Danny Wylde, Zeischegg’s also an accomplished author and one-half of the metalcore duo Chiildren. Mixed in with the images of his blood, spit, and semen are snapshots of West’s own bodily fluids, recreating a chemistry on glass plates that’s usually only limited to the bedroom. Now, the full series appears exclusively on The Creators Project.
“These body fluids are an essential part of both our biological makeup and the procreation process. They simultaneously have the power to transmit deadly diseases and create new life,” West tells The Creators Project. Her repertoire is a devoted study of sexuality in all its facets, from the female and male forms to a book that captures intimate kisses between couples. Unlike other examples of bodily fluid-turned-art, like Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ, Milo Moiré’s vaginal egg excretions, and Sarah Levy’s menstrual Donald Trump portrait, West’s photography doesn’t feel transgressive. “Through this series, I wanted to find an abstract way to examine the beauty of each substance,” she says.
See more of Maggie West’s work on her website, and learn more about Christopher Zeischegg here.
The full story and images at The Creators Project.
Laurence Sessou, in Women with Tattoos. All photographs: Eleni Stefanou
Eleni Stefanou’s photographs of women with tattoos disrupt our ideas of gender and beauty – and challenge ideas about the types of bodies that may be displayed.
Full article here.
Shinji Nakaba carves pearls into wondrous skulls and heads, among other things, like this gorgeous serpent ring:
From Kengi. That’s a nice Victory Day gift. Thank you.
© Kengi. All rights reserved.
Txaamsem, Best of Show, by David R. Boxley (Photo: Brian Wallace, Courtesy of Sealaska Heritage Institute)
Eight artists have taken top prizes at Sealaska Heritage Institute’s eighth biennial Juried Art Show and Competition, and five young artists also placed in SHI’s new Youth Juried Art Exhibit.
Tsimshian artist David R. Boxley won the top two awards: Best of Show and Best of Formline for his piece Txaamsem.
“I have worked for a very long time to understand formline,” Boxley told the crowd at the ceremony. “I believe it is the most beautiful thing in the world.”
Tlingit artist Alison Bremner won second place for Best of Formline for her print Cat Lady:
Cat Lady, by Alison Bremner, won second place for Best of Formline (Photo: Brian Wallace, Courtesy Sealaska Heritage Institute)
Indians charge Custer’s cavalry. (Courtesy National Anthropological Archives/Smithsonian Institution)
140 years ago, on June 25th, 1876, the Battle at the Greasy Grass was fought. Lakota, Dakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho were camped at the Greasy Grass along side the Little Bighorn River. What was one of the few victories of Indians against the colonial military is historically described as a tragedy, the horrific slaughter of a noble man and great military leader. Poor Custer. Certainly, at the time, the battle at the Greasy Grass was depicted as a tragedy to be avenged, those animals (Indians) needing to be put down, and we were. It wasn’t long after Greasy Grass that much more effective arms were granted to the military, repeating rifles rather than single shot, etc. Crazy Horse was killed in captivity by soldiers. That was followed by the Massacre of Wounded Knee. The U.S. has held a grudge over the Greasy Grass for all these years. Everywhere, there are monuments littered of those who slaughtered countless Indians, including Custer, but there are no monuments to the valiant fighters of the Greasy Grass, of those who saved and protected so many lives, as there were six to eight thousand Indians gathered at the Greasy Grass.
Ruth Hopkins has an article at Last Real Indians, Fighting with Spirit, How Greasy Grass Was Won.
ICTMN has an article, The Battle of the Greasy Grass 140 Years Later: The Complete Story in 18 Drawings.
The Lakota Times (subscription only) notes that “The Battle of Greasy Grass/The Battle of Little Bighorn”will begin at 2 p.m. on June 25th. Admission for Learning Forums is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, $9 for students, & half off for members (includes museum admission). The Journey Museum is located in Rapid City at 222 New York St, 2 blocks east of the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center right across from the Club for Boys.
A 2010 article from Smithsonian Magazine highlights the Battle at the Greasy Grass from the point of view of the victors, a rare case when the victors are Indians.
Happy Victory Day.