So weird… so fantastic! This is the beautifully bizarre work of Calgary-based duo daveandjenn, aka David John Foy and Jennifer Saleik. Their newest show, titled “Whenever it Hurts” opens Saturday January 19, 3-6 pm at General Hardware Contemporary in Toronto. Also, if I ever saw that final piece while frolicking on the beach… yeah, I would need to change my swimsuit.

Everything. Everything about the installation work of Argentina born, New York based Liliana Porter thrills me. I saw her work {the last piece shown above, titled ‘Man With Axe’} at the Venice Biennale, and yes, my heart skipped a beat. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen my personal work but, to me, these works felt like my 2D collages come to life … x 5000! Here are Liliana’s words about her installations:

“In the last years, parallel to photography and video, I have been making works on canvas, prints, drawings, collages, and small installations. Many of these pieces depict a cast of characters that are inanimate objects, toys and figurines that I find in flea markets, antique stores, and other odd places. The objects have a double existence. On the one hand they are mere appearance, insubstantial ornaments, but, at the same time, have a gaze that can be animated by the viewer, who, through it, can project the inclination to endow things with an interiority and identity. These “theatrical vignettes” are constructed as visual comments that speak of the human condition. I am interested in the simultaneity of humor and distress, banality and the possibility of meaning.”

Sigh. Love.

Whoa. This is the thread/fabric based work of American artist Jen Pack… geometric and soft at the same time. Actually, Jen says it better than that:

“I have always been profoundly responsive to color and the sensations color can provoke. My work has been described as an artistic oxymoron: both loud and quiet, solid and transparent, hand-made and precise, delicate and aggressive, exuberant and restrained, formal and emotional. It is a reflection of me, an artist of blended culture who is both loud and quiet, urban and rural, delicate and aggressive, masculine and feminine, adventurous and routine.”

See? Beautiful.

Embroidery that makes me not hate snakes… now that is something special! This is the colorful, hilarious and wonderfully weird work of Canadian {France based} artist Patricia Larocque. Are you wondering, “What? Why? Where?”… I’ll let Patricia explain:

“The designs stem from my over active imagination that braids in imagery from horror films and the stranger-then-fiction stories of reality TV.”

Ahhhh yes, that makes sense. That description also explains why her Instagram feed makes me happy and scared all at the same time.

If these cheerful little fellas don’t scream, HAPPY MONDAY, well, I don’t know what does. These ceramic hounds are the work of Mojave Desert based artist Katie Kimmel. Her current show, titled “Dog Park”, just opened this past weekend at Hashimoto Contemporary in San Francisco. Here’s what it’s all about:

“Inspired by her visits to the park with her dogs, ‘Dog Park’ is filled with the energy and joy of meeting new  friends. Dogs of all shapes and sizes serve as starting points for Kimmel’s cheerfully glazed ceramic works from fluffy white poodles to purple spotted dalmatians and neon mutts. Each of the artist’s ceramic vases and sculptures has a gleeful personality and it is not hard for the viewer to imagine them frolicking with each other, creating a sense of community within the installation. Lovingly hand formed and painted, the artist’s hand and witty sensibility is evident in each piece.”

I’d love to frolic around in this installation! Dog Park will be at Hashimoto until January 26th, 2019.

Today, January 6th, would be my dad’s 74th birthday. He died suddenly and unexpectedly just over a month ago, and I wish so much that he was here to celebrate his birthday. Instead, I will make art in his honor … and I’d like to invite you to do the same! When I wrote my book, ‘Collage’, a few years ago, I asked my dad if I could use this hilarious picture of him {mustache} and his brother, my Uncle Bill {cowboy}, as the starting image for a challenge I’d be giving all thirty artists in the book. As usual, he said yes! So, today, on his 74th birthday, I’d like to give you the same project I gave all of those amazing collage artists from around the world:

Create a new collage from photograph, circa 1958. Use some, or all, of this image of a little cowboy and his accordion-playing brother. Print it out several times, or use this as the base on which to work. The exciting thing about collage – while the starting image is the same for each of you, every single result will be completely different. 

Right click on the photo to save it to your desktop, and then do what you will! Hashtag your final pieces with #DanCummingCollage and I’ll share them on Instagram over the next month or so. Have fun!  ps. Here are a few examples from the book. The first one below is mine … because I can never resist a good art challenge:

Happy Birthday, Dad ♥ xo

Feather-covered, rainbow-hued, life-sized polar bears… oh my word, yes! This is the work of Italian artist Paola Pivi, from a 2013 show at Perrotin, New York. The solo exhibition was titled, “OK, YOU ARE BETTER THAN ME, SO WHAT?”, and yes, I love everything about it.

ps. This is some of Paola’s newest work, seen in Miami December 2018 {fabulous gifs via Designboom}

Feathers and bicycle wheels! LOVE. Happy Friday.

Gasp! Porcelain over stoneware, found ceramic tchotchkes, glaze, gold luster… he had me at tchotchkes. This is the gorgeous ceramic work of Texas born, Arizona based artist Anthony Sonnenberg. Here are a few of his words about what he does:

… I use time‐intensive construction methods to create totems and environments that reference the cyclical nature of growth and decay, and suggest layers of time that move beyond the art historical and into the geological and emotional …

Sigh… ‘layers of time’. Beautiful.

“Smile, Honey” … the title of the final piece above, and a perfect lead-in for this post about New Mexico based artist Dorielle Caimi. That said, I’m going to let her take it from here:

“Her large-scale figurative work explores the unabashed expression of personal identity and personal truths that challenge our time-worn social constructs. Her work highlights the strength and ferocity of female beauty, through a careful and methodical deglamorization of her subjects. Ever-present throughout her work, are the fluorescent hues and shapes which speak to the advertorial, graphic nature of her narratives and represent the pressures faced by modern women.”

2019. Let’s do this, gals.

Welcome to 2019… Rococo teacup astronauts have been waiting for you! Gah… so good! These wonderfully weird paintings are the work of Brazilian artist Lúcio Carvalho. I don’t know what I love more, the dreamy nod to the past or the shiny nod to the future. Here are a few words about Lúcio’s work:

“Lúcio Carvalho works is inspired by scenography as well as Baroque, Rococo and Renaissance era. Emotion, memory and imaginary archives – fragment from the past, projection of the future – are building the work that needs to be protected because of its fragility, to stay preserve for the future to exist with a certain freedom.”

Love, love, love. ps. Some of his work is available through Gallery MX, Montreal .