Oooh! This is “Packed”, a cardboard wonderland by American artist Nicki Crock… and look, I think a few of the neighbors are home! Here is Nicki’s description of this beautiful pile of suburbia:

“‘Packed’ is a topsy-turvy investigation into the architecture, accumulation, and curious atmosphere of suburbia. An expansive landscape of tumbled track housing made from utilitarian cardboard, piqued by pockets of fantasy. Conveying the duality of a curious, beautiful, engineered neighborhood.

In order to complete my investigation of this cardboard community, I turned my own talented community of artists to help me create several of the fantasy interiors. Packed includes artistic contributions from Alexis Zabor, Mark Eberhardt, Nick Stull, Liz Morrison, Miriam Chon, Laurie Ihlenfield and Alex Conrad.

Three of Nicki’s projects – “Packed”, “Paper Interventions”, and her stunning “Dream House” installation {which I’ve written about before} are debuting this Saturday, October 5th, at the Springfield Museum of Art in Springfield, Ohio. Go!

Sigh. This is the dreamy mixed media sculpture of Swiss artist Juliette Sallin. Her work – the colors, those textures, the delicate elegance of it all – are absolutely poetic on their own, but then you add her artist statement:

“I am a visual artist who has always been fascinated by the way we perceive and remember the landscape through our senses. I translate this interest into sculptures made of paper, but also of silk, brass and other materials. I select them for their ability to transcribe the beauty of the elements with their shapes and colors of course, but also for their tactile qualities, and sometimes even how they sound when you touch them.

Enlightened by my own experiences of Nature, by the non-dualistic oriental philosophies (Shivaism, Taoism), the phenomenological philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, and the environmental writings of David Abram, I perceive our inner plenitude as a communion with Nature and the elements. This feeling could be reached when we open ourselves to our sensations, and let our perceptions wrap us.

During the process, I borrow various crafts’ techniques, such as embroidery, silk dyeing, paper decoupage and metal forming. By assimilating these gestures in my artistic practice, I get closer to a form of humbleness and sincerity, where patience and mastery of the mind help me to get closer to my subject and to recreate, in a subjective way, the sensations I experienced in a brief moment of fullness.

My work can be considered as part of the Slow Art movement, and offers a reflection about Time; a very fleeting one, perceived while being in communion with Nature, and another one, longer and precise, during the creation of the artwork.”

Aaaaaaand exhale. Happy Friday.

{via Create Magazine}

………

Gasp! She’s done it again … and again and again. These two flower-filled installations are the most recent work of  UK based artist Rebecca Louise Law. “Banquet” is installed at La Roche Jagu (France) until October 6, 2019. Here is the description of that piece:

“This installation makes reference to medieval banquets and the physical sensation of participating in a feast. Playing with the fantasy of the banquet through flowers, the artwork looks at the extreme sensual experience of sitting in a banqueting hall consumed by nature. Rebecca has been inspired by the original architecture and intention for the space designed by Catherine de Troguindy in the 15th century. The feminine touches to this Chateau combined with its beautiful gardens has inspired an artwork that will take the viewer back to the past whilst projecting them into a contemporary, fantastical and sensational space. Using a collection of flora, home grown on french soil in Normandy, Rebecca collected materials as close to the medieval flora as possible. This installation holds over 15,000 flora combined with copper wire.”

The second installation above is her most recent, and just opened over the weekend at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park (Michigan), and will be on view until March 1, 2020. It is titled, “The Womb“:

“The Womb explores the intimate relationship between humankind and nature. At the heart of the exhibition is an installation offering the viewer a solitary, sublime experience of being enveloped in nature. Accompanying mixed media artworks examine the Womb as a natural cocoon … Rebecca Louise Law has created an immersive installation working with dozens of volunteers and a team of horticulture staff.  As visitors walk through nearly a million dried flowers, they are invited to make a connection with nature.”

Stunning. As always. ps. Rebecca is featured in my book, A BIG IMPORTANT ART BOOK – Now With Women, because of course she is! 

“Let’s Play War!” … big crocheted army men with a message. LOVE! This is the work of Los Angeles based artist Nathan Vincent. I wrote about Nathan’s manly doily series in 2013, and I’m happy to report that his already fantastic work has evolved into this! Here’s a little more about this project:

Commissioned by the Bellevue Arts Museum in 2015, “Let’s Play War!” is a dynamic installation-based exhibition springing from the “Boy Toy” series.  The installation includes sixteen individual child sized sculptures that change position each day and “play”- echoing the activities of our youth and referencing the ways in which we teach children to associate violence and aggression with play and fun. 

Brilliant.

An art show AND an art challenge all rolled into one? Yep! California based artist Clare Szydlowski Odom stepped up to that challenge by creating 50 artworks in 50 days. I’ve written about Clare’s 2D silkscreens before, but these lovely, beautifully composed houses bring a whole new dimension to her work {see what I did there?}. Not only is there actual folded dimension, but she’s also constantly on the look out for even more than that:

“For the past three years I have been photographing the shadows in my suburban neighborhood in Burlingame where my husband and I rent an in-law unit. This Spring, we adopted a baby boy and on our walks I have continued this practice. The forms of these shadows are visually intriguing, but more interesting to me is the simultaneous sense of presence and absence they project, appearing at once substantial and insubstantial. I am also drawn to the way they mark the passage of time shifting across lawns, sidewalks and on the sides of houses. These shadows have become ghosts of my desires to own a home, to be able to freeze the precious moments of my son’s babyhood and to make the passing of time feel more substantial, something I can hold on to. Collecting these shadows has become a practice in understanding these desires, but also appreciating where I am in the present moment.”

Collecting shadows… sigh… beautiful. Clare’s shadow-covered houses are currently floating on the wall at the Sanchez Art Center in Pacifica,CA as part of their annual 50/50 Show. The show, featuring 50 pieces by over 60 artists*, runs until September 22, 2019. *Art math… that’s over 3000 pieces!

Whimsical lamps and colorful geometric shapes floating just off the wall… I was happy with that, and then one of them started lighting up and playing music too!? Seriously, I would love to spend the day inside the mind of Oklahoma based artist, animator, and musician Andy Arkley… I bet it’s really fun in there. Happy Thursday.

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Cheryl Sorg de Mollerat Du Jeu (@cherylsorg) on Aug 24, 2019 at 2:00pm PDT

Tape artist. That’s how California based artist Cheryl Sorg describes herself… and, clearly, it’s accurate. I’ve written about Cheryl before {2016}, I quoted her daughter on the first page of my book, “Your Inner Critic Is A Big Jerk”, and I’ve been watching over the years as she’s taken her work out of her home studio, to street corners around the world, and onto gorgeous gallery walls. Enter “To Reach The Clouds”. Her latest show, at The Hill Street Country Club*, is filled with shiny tape rainbows, upside-down raindrops that dance on the wall {watch the video above}, and beautiful installations made with her latest favorite material… dichroic film. You can see all of this work in person, and you can even buy your own “Portal of Hope” to stick wherever a little hope, love, and color is needed. The show runs until September 24th, 2019. Go.

*Linksoul at 530 S. Coast Hwy., Oceanside, CA

When the materials list reads … lava stone beads, golden threads … yeah, I’m going to write about it. This installation, titled “Nebula”, is the most recent work of Toronto based artist Xiaojing Yan:

“Inspired by volcano eruptions and cosmos explosions, ‘Nebula’ takes viewers into a surrealist environment far beyond reality, across time, space and dimensions. Once volcanic eruptions swipe out original landscapes, fertile lands are created. Nebulae are formed by a collapse of astronomical clouds or planets that may in turn become a stellar nursery for the birth of new stars. Both nebulae and volcanoes share the similarity of accumulating millions of years of energy to reach its button for “reset”. Through the installation, Yan represents the moment where all past experiences collide to form a burst of infinite possibilities beyond ones original existence.”

Stunning.

{I found her gorgeous work via Lonsdale Gallery, Toronto}

Oh, so much fantasticness. I’m referring to the entire portfolio of Rotterdam based artist Joris Kuipers. After much debate {with myself} I ended up deciding to feature this installation, titled “Suspended relief 004”, that he displayed at Object Rotterdam in 2018. Breathtaking, no?

“Kuipers’ work consists room-filling installations, wall reliefs, sculptures and works on paper. Characteristic of his work is the layered structure of two-dimensional elements … Crystallization and fanning out, concentration and flow, presence and absence, are his current thinking and working framework.”

Exactly! “… installations, wall reliefs, sculptures and works on paper”. Please go look at his recent wall reliefs because they are GORGEOUS!

This is “RISORGERE” (meaning, to rise again). It was created by New Orleans based installation artist Luba Zygarewicz while she was at Chalk Hill Artist Residency in Healdsburg, California. Here are Luba’s words on this very moving installation:

“[RISORGERE] is comprised of hundreds of remnants from the Sonoma Fires of 2017, which I collected at a Fire Debris Site in Windsor, CA. These vestiges are organized and woven together into columns to create groupings symbolizing different “areas of a house or belongings”.   The perpendicular structures are strung together horizontally to create a cohesive structure that is suspended with some pieces just above the ground.

Undergirding the structure, much like an offering, lay hundreds of pieces of melted glass salvaged from the fires. The glass pieces are arranged from light to dark and stand as symbols of the frailty of life, while serving as reminders of strength and resilience.  

While sifting and digging at the salvage yard, I felt a strong sense that each piece I found represented a person’s life, and possibly their dream of a house, car, phone, baseball bat, etc. I also imagined how those affected by the fires had searched and dug for things they could recognize and reclaim. This process of gathering was a heart wrenching experience. Back at the studio, after cleaning each piece, I set out to arrange them in a way that created a narrative by finding common elements among a disparity of objects. The symmetrical lines from the vineyards in Sonoma County inspired the overall visual design.

I am deeply honored to be considered to have this work on display as an homage to the many individuals and families who have risen again, and have rebuilt their lives one piece at the time.”

Beautiful. And sad. And hopeful.