Archive for August, 2009
Friday, August 28th, 2009
 Amazing Designer's Unusial Perspective It’s often said that there are no unique ideas out there – only unique means of executing those ideas. Swiss artist Felice Varini, however, has been executing his incredibly unique ides in a unique way since 1978. His singular style of geometric painting calls into question our ideas about complex art pieces and the interaction between art and viewer.
 A Vision of Unisial Artist Upon seeing Varini’s work for the first time, most people react by claiming it’s fake. Indeed, when looking at a photograph of a Varini painting from the vantage point, the painted object does appear to float in mid-air, like it’s been overlaid in Photoshop. But once you see the same painting from outside of the vantage point, it’s clear that the piece was created in real life without the use of computer trickery. He paints shapes and geometric patterns in three-dimensional spaces, so that when the viewer sees the piece from a specific vantage point it makes sense, but when viewed from outside of the vantage point the shape appears skewed and distorted.
 arT of infinity Though the technique looks incredibly complicated, Varini insists that “anyone can do it.” He says that his type of painting requires no special talent; rather, it requires thinking and choosing the right spaces. The spaces he tends to choose are wide-open interior spaces, such as museums and hallways, or exterior locations like rooftops or even entire villages. His goal, he says, is to explore aspects of the space that have heretofore been ignored.
 arT of Life  arTist school!
Although you can only see the complete, sensical painting from one specific vantage point, Varini insists that the most important aspect of his paintings is what lies outside of the vantage point. The myriad configurations viewable from every other possible aspect are what keep him inspired to continue creating these complex paintings. While the vantage point offers a predictable view, looking at the piece from any other spot creates an entirely new and unpredictable experience.
 The Unknown of Science  Science understood, World Not
Thinking and creating much different than most other artists, Varini has indicated that he never considers the viewer when creating his paintings. He doesn’t consider how the pieces may someday be seen because he doesn’t know how or from where the viewer will see them. He simply creates a piece of art and sets it free to have an independent existence. According to Varini, the viewer can see the piece, be part of the piece, or even walk through it without noticing it or being able to identify it.
 Vision: Reality or Sense? In the artist’s words, from an interview with Poetic Mind:
“Everyone knows how a circle or a square looks like. My concern is what happens outside the vantage point of view. Where is the painting then? Where is the painter? The painter is obviously out of the work, and so the painting is alone and totally abstract, made of many shapes. The painting exists as a whole, with its complete shape as well as the fragments; it is not born to create specific shapes that need to satisfy the viewer. The paintings are not defined by the understanding of the viewer or what the viewer sees, but rather exist in their own right, and have their own relation to the three-dimensional space in which they were created. I work with the reality itself, with nature.
 Future, present in past. Although he creates his paintings on-site and usually on a large scale, Felice Varini does not consider himself an installation artist. He calls himself a painter, because regardless of where or how his art is realized, it is – at its core – a series of complex and beautiful paintings.
Source: weburbanist.com
None of the captions, alternative texts, or otherwise related to the according image attributes in any way represent arThou, inc. and, if any, these are solely thoughts and visions of the person who posted them. arThou, inc. is a corporation that encourages people to express themselves in whichever [legal] way possible.The thoughts and expressions expressed on this page, including, but not limited to, pictures are solely that of the individual who posted them or commented or, as mentioned foreabove, about them. arThou, inc. does not necessarily have the same views. arThou, inc. does not have liability for what the members of the corporation or individuals who affiliate themselves with it say or do. arThou is about arT, arTists, love, connections, being free.
arThou, inc. is a hipppporation. Love has to Be Back  Take it or Love it!
The comments were made by luefher; see what he saw.
Tags: arT, arT project, arT scene, arThou, paintings
Posted in arT | No Comments »
Friday, August 28th, 2009
 Vajramrita Vajramrita is a rare and unusual form and not commonly represented as a central figure in art. The deity mostly appears as part of an iconographic compendium such as the Vajravali of Abhayakaragupta, Bari Gyatsa, Sadhana-samucchaya, or in the group of Ten Wrathful Ones. There are four forms of the complex deity that have the name ‘amrita’ in common and they are all grouped together in the Vajravali literature. Each is described with a retinue of deities and a complex mandala. Several other forms of the deity, usually in a more simplified form, appear in other traditions. There are two deities similar in appearance that can cause confusion in identification: Humkara and Avalokita Samvara. (See the Vajramrita Outline Page).
Posted in arT Forms | No Comments »
Friday, August 28th, 2009
Art Taipei 2009, the longest-standing art fair in Asia with roots that go back to 1992, will kick off at Taipei World Trade Center today with a total of six themed areas and 78 galleries from all over the world, providing art lovers, investors, and artists the opportunity to feast their eyes on a variety of art forms.
“As the biggest annual art expo in Taiwan, Art Taipei is destined to become better and better each year,” said Betty Huang, minister of the Cabinet-level Council for Cultural Affairs yesterday at the opening press conference of the event in Taipei. Huang added that the annual event has not only caught the attention of domestic and international art circles, but also has a remarkable transaction record. Last year, a total of NT$750 million in transactions was reported during the five-day fair.
Huang added that, just like last year, the fair will showcase the works of eight talented local young artists in an area entitled “Made in Taiwan — Young Artist Discovery,” with an aim to increasing the visibility of young Taiwanese artists on the world art scene.
Besides the area for local new blood, Art Taipei has five more themed exhibitions: “Art Galleries”; “2009 Art Project — Art & Environment”; “Art, Now — Southeast Asia”; “Ela-Asia” and “Art Media.”.
The 78 galleries from countries all over the world offer various works including oil painting, sculpture, video installations and photographs.
Affordable art
Another feature of 2009 Art Taipei is a special event called “Affordable Art.” The works range from US$200 to US$2000 in price, providing plenty of opportunities for new collectors.
Meanwhile, Asia Art Economy Forum in Taipei will be held during the fair, offering a great chance to share and exchange experiences in the Asian art market with people with real global expertise.
The convener of the art fair, York Hsiao, said the event organizer will donate all ticket income to Typhoon Morakot relief. The five-day Art Taipei 2009 will run until Sept. 1 in Areas A and D of the Taipei World Trade Center.
Written By: Joseph Yeh
Tags: arT, arT event, arT fair, arT gallery, arT projects, arT Taipei, arThou
Posted in arT Events | No Comments »
Friday, August 21st, 2009
How is it that the lens cannot be compared to an eye? Why is it that you see one thing with your eyes but your lens cannot replicate it just as you see it? – Well not in all details, anyhow. Maybe I just don’t know too much about photography, maybe it’s because it’s I don’t have SLR and have a hybrid (Canon G9), or maybe it’s because I’m still discovering the parenthesized-mentioned thing’s features. I did take some good pictures with it, both in snap-and-shoot and manual modes, but I never got to have an experience that I had when I was looking at the pictures I took of what of I was looking at. Is it that we have no technology to replicate a human experience to that kind of extent? – I am sure we now do. But as I was looking at the sunrise today, how do you transpose that into a picture?
Ah, I am a romantic anyways. Mixed with science.
Posted in ℓūfħer's Thoughts | No Comments »
Friday, August 21st, 2009
 arT of Science Our most famous fluids tend to be transparent — air and water, for example. This makes it hard for us to imagine how fluids are moving as members of the general public, but also poses an interesting problem for budding engineers. They need to know how to make fluids do what they want them to do. So, Jean Herzberg in the Mechanical Engineering teaches a flow visualization course here at CU. She does it in a fairly novel way, as a hands-on art and science course.
Image to right is from http://www.colorado.edu/MCEN/flowvis/
There’s a lot here. Some of the things she covers are photographic techniques, flow visualization techniques, some of the physics and phenomenology of fluids such as fluid rotation. She spends a lot of time on cloud physics. “I’ll never be able to ignore the sky again,” says one participant. But interestingly she also spends some time on the history of photography, which has evolved from a science to an art.
This is the only course in existence on flow visualization! (and it shows up first in Google searches for “flow visualization”.) She gets some envy from colleagues when she presents her results at conferences, whose courses tend to be highly mathematical. It’s unusual to mix art and science in quite this way, in which art students are expected to document and experiment, whereas the engineering students are expected to create expressive images with impact. The idea that engineers could learn something by creating something themselves is unheard of, and this enrages her. And in the end, the engineers create images that are just as compelling and indistinguishable from those of the artists.
In the experiments that students develop at home, they use everyday household fluids, which are environmentally benign. Usually toxic materials are used in laboratory courses, which is really unnecessary. She finds that she can’t explain the unusual physics of some of their observations. It’s also challenging because the exact properties of many of the materials used, such as food coloring and WD40. Combustion and fluorescence, she says, are always popular (natch). For example, one group wanted to make green flame, so poured flaming methanol in boric acid. Another made a negative image of smoke changing from laminar to turbulent flow as it exited the mouth. The images she showed us were from her 2009 class which will be on the web shortly, but in the meantime you can see many amazing student images in their galleries. The artistry of these images is astounding — the play of light and color, the use of humans as backdrops but using fluid flow as the main focus of the image. The science of the images is also compelling. One group of students discharged a fire extinguisher underwater, and saw three phases of matter (solid, liquid, gas) within that image. A Tesla coil arcing through the air shows interesting patterns, showing discontinuities in the breakdown of air.
Students also take many images of clouds as part of their assignments, which are also on the gallery page. Anyone who lives in Boulder knows that it’s an amazing spot for clouds — with the Rockies nearby and some interesting atmospheric conditions we get some curious clouds that I’ve never seen anywhere before.
What is the impact of this course on her students? She finds, anecdotally, that students experience life-altering changes after the course, and her surveys show that students’ beliefs and attitudes change to be more enthusiastic about fluid flow and they notice fluid flow in everyday life. (Why doesn’t she see this kind of change in her traditional engineering courses?) She sees changes in students perceptions of the discipline and the physics. Students feel better about the material — they see fluids as beautiful, interesting, useful, and fun. Traditional fluid mechanics course students have negative responses on most of these — they see fluids as not beautiful, useful, and it’s not something they feel able to do. This reminds me of my time at the Exploratorium, where I was first exposed to the incredible aesthetics of science, and the intersection between art and science. I began to notice all sorts of little, beautiful things — the cracks in the sidewalk, light on a puddle, swirls of milk in my coffee. I still do. Life-altering experiences? You betcha.
This is another kind of way of knowing fluid mechanics. These students could probably point to the sky and explain things about fluid mechanics that those who learned to do the calculations can’t. Note, however, that the engineering students in this flow visualization course have already taken the calculational fluid mechanics course. I wonder, how would students in the traditional fluid mechanics course see that course differently if they took this visualization course first?
Source: expertvoices.nsdl.org
Tags: arT, arT study, arThou, Jean Herzberg, MCEN, science arT, visualization arT
Posted in arT | No Comments »
Friday, August 21st, 2009
 Busy Baratelli arT Local (and sometimes New York-based) actor/producer/blogger Mark Baratelli has his hands in many sinister soups this summer, with added installments of the Mobile Art Show and an improv comedy show at Sleuths.
Mark Baratelli runs The DailyCity.com, a local blog dedicated spreading the word about cool places and events around Orlando. And if there aren’t enough local events, he creates them, like the Taco Truck Taste Test and The Mobile Art Show. (I sense a moving theme happening here.)
For the first Moble Art Show, Baratelli filled a U-Haul with cool paintings, robots, dinosaur heads and jewelry made by local artists and parked at various destinations around town. People could locate the truck via Twitter, making it part art show, part scavenger hunt. Click here to check out photos from the event.
The next Moble Art Show will stay parked at CityArts Factory on August 20 starting at 6 p.m. for Third Thursdays. Unfortunately, none of the art on display will be available for purchase due to legal reasons. But you can scope out the stuff you like and pick it up when the Mobile Art Show returns on August 23, this time at Etoile Boutique in the Milk District for the Dirty South Bike BBQ III.
On August 19 and 26 at 10 p.m., you can see Mark do what he does best, improv, in Mark Baratelli Tries Two Hard at Sleuths Mystery Dinner Theatre. Mark Baratelli presents two of his award-winning improvised comedy shows: “How Do You Feel?,” a loosely-scripted interactive self-help session, and “Improv Cabaret,” an improvised cabaret act (featuring John DeHaas on piano). Tickets are $10, a full bar and light bites will be available.
This show is part of the “It’s No Mystery” series at Sleuths, which also includes Mama’s Comedy Club, An Evening of Estrogen and The Unusual Suspects. (I saw thes guys perform at Tanqueray’s and they are freaking HILARIOUS. Go see them.)
Source: Metronix Orlando
Tags: arT show, arThou, arTist. arTwork, CityArts Factory, comedy show, Mark Baratelli, new york arT, NY arTists, Orlando arT, painings, science arT, Sleuths
Posted in arTists | No Comments »
Friday, August 21st, 2009
Amazing artist Alex Grey is currently offering a limited edition signed print of one his creations, currently being used by Tool as a backdrop to their live shows. All proceeds go towards Alex’s Chapel of Sacred Mirrors project:
Our favorite band, Tool, is on a fourteen city tour and their backdrop for these shows is an unusual work of art by Alex Grey, entitled “Original Face.” Grey’s painting shows fountains of neon spirit illuminating the void, and life as a ripple in the stream of Eternal Light. Now this artwork can be yours by purchasing a limited edition canvas print, size 12 x 42 inches, stretched and ready for hanging. Hand signed and numbered in an edition of 250, one can be yours for $300, LIMITED TIME ONLY. Prices of prints increase as more are sold.
 Original Face - Print on Canvas Would surely look mighty fine in my hallway. If you love Alex’s work, but the price on this limited edition print is beyond you, take a look around the CoSM store because there’s plenty of other cool artwork available. (h/t to Blair at Toolband.com) Source: dailygrail.com
Tags: Alex Grey, arThou, arTist, arTwork, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, CoSM, Grey arT, New Your arT, NY arTist, Original Face, print arT, signed arT
Posted in arTists | No Comments »
Friday, August 21st, 2009
Hawke and Hunter is an unusual venue but currently the ideal choice for those desperately seeking midnight encounters with art. Turn a blind eye to the bling if you must. The new series of works by Bob and Roberta Smith lovingly transcribes a Guardian sports writer’s review of a Louise Bourgeois exhibition.
Steve Bierley’s first and intimate foray into an artist’s labyrinthine world has been playfully rendered. The work is like a series of nine large illuminated manuscripts, painted boldly from a kinky palate. There is an enjoyable circularity about the journey, from review, to painting, to review. It is not often that a critic is taken so literally. By reiterating the review the sentiment is amplified, but split up into panels the meaning is partially obscured. But, I know as well as you do that it is not always good to fly your flag directly from the mast. Here form has lifted a painterly finger to function.
Central to my experience of Bob and Roberta Smith is some unfettered innocence in both approach and delivery. The work in all its shambolic reverie smacks of the perpetual thrill of the chase, of the professional amateur. Unlike in sport, it is hard to tell who the winners and losers are in art. Bierley’s deft writing is shaded in angst and perturbance, yet this exhibition summons up optimism. If we could siphon this off we would be high on the fumes of hope, or accountability. Now that would be truly dangerous.
Source: theskinny.co.uk
Tags: arT exhibition, arT gallery, arThou, arTists, arTwork, Bob Smith, Bourgeois exhibition, drawings, Grey Gallery, Hawke and Hunter, painings, Roberta Smith
Posted in arT | No Comments »
Friday, August 21st, 2009
 Kevin Cyr's camper bike in Beijing Brooklyn-based Artist Kevin Cyr has designed this unique carry-your-own RV, according to Budget Travel. It began as a two-dimensional work of art — the bulk of Cyr’s works depict (or use as canvases) run-down buses, ice cream trucks and hoopties of all sorts — but this one actually came to life, so to speak, in 2008, when Cyr constructed a prototype version of a functional bike-drawn camper in Beijing, China. The artist hasn’t taken the bike beyond Beijing’s outskirts himself. Details and other specifications of the unique RV– including how to balance the unit — were not available. For a look at more of Cyr’s work visit the Alden Gallery in Provincetown, Mass.; a new show opens Aug. 21. Go to this link for more images of the one-person camper: www.inhabitat.com/2009/08/18/camper-bike-pedal-powered-rv-for-one/
Source: rvbusiness.com
Tags: Alden Gallery, arThou, arTist, Brooklyn arT, camper, camping, Kevin Cyr, New York arTist, NY arT, Provincetown arT
Posted in arTists | No Comments »
Friday, August 21st, 2009
Making his way into the ring, weighing in with his oil painting and mixed media work, is Dustin Zentz.
In the opposite corner, is a local favorite Robin Nash, renown for her painting and ceramics and one of last summer’s Mother Earth globes in Eagle.
Let the battle begin.
Under normal circumstances, the words “art battle” would appear to be an oxymoron. Not next weekend in Eagle.
The 2009 Art Battle will pit local artists against each other in a timed competition that will be decided by ballot. The event gets under way at 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28 at the Addison Building in Eagle Ranch Village. At 7 p.m. the artists will get to work creating a piece that must be completed by 10 p.m. At that point, the party go’ers will choose the winner and all the art work will be auctioned off.
While the artists work and the crowd watches, there will be an on-going party with music, food and drinks.
“I know we will have enough going on that people really can make an evening of it and be entertained,” said organizer Kim Bradley.
The Art Battle will be contested in the unfinished Addison Building space, giving the event a chic, industrial loft atmosphere. What can viewers expect? No one really knows.
“I have a few ideas and I might team up with somebody,” said Zentz. “I don’t know if I want to give anything away. I need to keep my secrets and surprise people.”
In addition to his artwork, Eagle resident Zentz is a woodworker/antique restorer with a studio in Red Cliff. Along with painters such as himself, Zentz expects the Art Battle will feature print makers, sculptors, woodworker, glass blowers, welders and maybe even a performance artist or a fashion designer.
This isn’t the first battle for Zentz. He noted that the battle idea was born at the Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Mich. Students launched the program called 280 Studios where they competed against one another in timed events. The events grew more popular and began spreading across the nation as the students graduated, moved away and introduced the 280 Studios concept to their new communities.
“The whole idea behind it is to experience the art as something more energetic than just having it hanging on the wall,” said Zentz.
Audience energy is a key point in the battle atmosphere. Zentz remembers one event when an audience member implored a competitor to stop, saying she would buy the piece right then.
At another competition, Zentz watched the misadventures of a concrete sculptor. The artist brought in a concrete mixer and fashioned his piece, racing against the clock.
“It was one heck of a show. Nobody knew if he would make it. And then, when he pulled the form, the piece crumbed before our eyes. That was definitely drama.”
Working in a crowd will be a new experience for many of the artists, Zentz said. “Having the crowd behind you is definitely a factor. It’s not like a typical art event where the audience is quietly observing. We want the participation for sure.”
While many locals are familiar with Robin Nash’s work, they probably have never had a chance to see her in action. Next Friday, she figures she will complete a painting or a ceramic sculpture or some combination of the two. Recently her work has explored a theme of transformations so maybe items such as insect larve or animal bone will find their way into her final product.
Nash isn’t really phased by the deadline aspect of the competition and she is intrigued by the idea of working in front of an audience. Recently she and fellow artist Amy Dose collaborated on a sidewalk chalk drawing during an Eagle Ranch Village Art Walk event. Nash had a great time fashioning that work in front of a crowd.
And, she noted, while the event is billed as a ‘battle,’ it will actually feature friendly competition.
“I know a couple of the other artists. We may talk some smack, but it will just be in fun and a way to push our creative boundaries,” said Nash.
There’s still space for a couple of competitors to sign up for the Art Battle. For more information visit www.eaglevalleyartists.com.
Source: eaglevalleyenterprise.com
Tags: arT and design, arT auction, arT Battle, arThou, arTists, ceramic arT, drawings, Dustin Zents, oil painings, sculptures
Posted in arTists | 1 Comment »
|
