November 23, 2011 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Some Guy: Works on Paper

San Francisco artist Brian Singer, who goes by Some Guy, explores the printed word using books and their pages with whiteout or ink in his Works on Paper.

From the artist’s statement:
I’m exploring the printed word as a visual representation of information, attempting to uncover new meaning in what is slowly becoming an outdated form. Crossing out the entirety of a written text while exposing only selected words changes the perception of the original message. Revealing word frequency adds another layer and opens new paths to understanding.

Reminiscent of Jenny Holzer’s Redaction Paintings, Some Guy is actually doing the opposite by focusing, in some cases, on words that might be offensive or censored in well known texts. I like everything about these, from the concept to the texture (as well as the typographic aspect), if a bit obsessive in nature.

From top to bottom:
Knowledge 172, Wrath 198 and detail; 9 Unicorns and detail; 212 Slaves and detail; The Catcher in the Rye and detail; Love, Evil see video below.

Also interesting are Some Guy’s mixed-media pieces, made from flyers stapled to telephone poles that have been weathered and rusted and reassembled into collages including his Bullseye Triptych commissioned by Target.

You can watch the short version video of Love, Evil — the full video is 30 minutes long — the King James Version of the Bible with all words crossed out except ‘Love’ and ‘Evil’.

Some of Some Guy’s Works on Paper can be seen as part of the Transmit exhibit at den contemporary in Los Angeles through December 23, 2011.

November 23, 2011 by collabcubed - 4 Comments

Traffic Cone Art & Design

Click to enlarge

In the past month I’ve come across a few works made of traffic cones, so I decided to explore more and see what else is out there. Here are some of my favorites; from installations and sculptures to traffic cone inspired graphic design.

From top to bottom and left to right:
Estudio Teddy Cruz’s installation Cultural Traffic at Fondazione Maxxi (top 2 pics); Dennis Oppenheim’s sculpture Safety Cones; Rescue Bubble by Tomer Diamant at the Royal Botanical Gardens; Crocodile by Allee Willis; 2005 Burning Man installation; Hedgehog, a temporary performance pavilion to raise money for young homeless made of 300 traffic cones on a steel frame by EFGH (x3 photos); Bottom 6 images are part of the World Summit and Congress of Architecture at the Design Expo in Taipei by Paprika, brochure included.

November 22, 2011 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Architects of Air: Luminaria

Click to enlarge

The British company Architects of Air is based in Nottingham UK in a 4000 sq ft former textile workshop. There, since 1992, they spend 6 months out of the year creating luminariums and the other 6 months touring to several countries exhibiting them. “What is a luminarium?” you may be asking yourself right about now. Luminaria are monumental inflatable structures that contain a maze of winding tunnels and soaring domes displaying the beauty of light and color. There are six different designs each made up of about 20 elements zipped together on site to occupy a 1000 sq. meter area. The most recent design is Miracoco which was launched this past summer, 2011, but there were 4 other models that toured this summer as well.

They all look spectacular to me. Architects of Air have mounted these structures at 500 exhibits in 37 countries. Though I see on their timeline that they’ve had installations in New York in the 1990s, being that I missed those I vote for a summer 2012 NYC installation. Or maybe as part of next year’s Bring to Light Festival.

You can see many more photos on their site and on flickr.

November 21, 2011 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Nuria Mora: 3D Paper Sculpture Street Art

Click to enlarge

Spanish street artist Nuria Mora (previous post) who we know more for her colorful large-scale abstract murals, also creates 3D street art. In the past several months Mora has been taking over public ad spaces (lit marquee-style ad boxes; do those have a name?) and inserting her origami paper sculptures that can be seen from both sides – as well as highlighted by light at night – on main thoroughfares in Madrid. I like everything about these: the idea of replacing ads with art; the origami pieces themselves; the way she blocks out the glass to create a window specific to her piece; and the happy quality of it all.

Though a different anti-ad street art approach, there is some connection to Graffiti Research Lab’s 2007 video screen intervention in NYC. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend you check it out here.

But getting back to Nuria Mora, visit her site for much more of her lovely work.

Photos: Javier Montero; Miriam Moreno, Nuria Mora; and Escrito en la Pared.

via escrito en la pared

November 21, 2011 by collabcubed - 0 comments

We Make Carpets: Paperboat Carpet

Click to enlarge

The Dutch, three-person art collective We Make Carpets (previous post) recently made a paperboat carpet for a party hosted by Die Like Disco at Area 51 skate park in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Constructed of A5 size paper folded into little boats, the carpet seems to have had blue and red lights projected onto it, adding another dimension to the already impressive “carpet”.

November 18, 2011 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Nils Viga Hausken: Art of the Cross Stitch

Click on images for detail.

Norwegian artist Nils Viga Hausken works in a variety of mediums, but in the past ten years much of his work has consisted of cross stitch on linen. This embroidery work deals with aspects of time and Nordic tradition. Some pieces play off of Nordic china patterns, while others are strictly type, in what seem to be political and humorous statements, but I can’t be sure since they’re in Norwegian or Danish. And then there are the Legos! The universal language of Lego. The digitized-looking pieces are embroidered to pixelated perfection, and, well, they’re just kind of fun.

The QR code series have curious names that make me wonder if they are actually scannable.

From top left to right and top to bottom: What are you looking at; Faith; Hope; and Love.

Viga Hausken also has an 18-piece cross stitch work titled No Time, showing the transformation of a butterfly into a QR code.

November 17, 2011 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

Kees Goudzwaard: Amazing Tape Paintings

Click to enlarge

I saw a couple of Kees Goudzwaard’s paintings a few years ago and absolutely loved them. The Dutch artist who lives and works in Belgium, creates oil paintings that look like taped pieces of paper, but in fact are smooth surfaced paintings of taped pieces of paper. Not only is the trickery of it all fun, but the paintings themselves are beautiful. The seemingly overlapping layers are so skillfully reproduced – with subtle differences in color recreating the translucency of the layers – that you can’t help but stare in disbelief. The result: a lovely (and surprising) combination of abstract and realistic painting with a textural quality conveyed on a smooth canvas. Here’s a bit on his process:

Kees Goudzwaard commences by creating a collage of cut-out square and rectangular pieces of coloured paper, acetate and transparent foil, which he composes in more or less regular grids by fixing them with paper masking-tape. This process is slow and complex, and develops gradually as it implies numerous decisions and a lot of looking and waiting until the artist finds he has achieved the desired composition and atmosphere. At this point Kees Goudzwaard decides he can paint his original collage, meticulously reproducing it on canvas at a scale of 1:1, thus transforming the creative act of painting into a time-consuming work of transposition.

In case you didn’t notice, I’m a fan.

You can see many more of Kees Goudzwaard’s paintings on his website.

November 17, 2011 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Luzinterruptus: Walking in the Rain

The anonymous Spanish art collective Luzinterruptus like to use light as a raw material and the dark as their canvas to carry out urban interventions in public spaces and draw attention to problems in the city that often go unnoticed by people as well as the authorities.

Their most recent intervention, Walking in the Rain, took place on October 26th, the first day of rain after a completely dry summer in Madrid. In celebration of the rain and, thus, cleaner more breathable air, Luzinterruptus placed 50 illuminated rainboots in Parque del Oeste for a 10-hour period as encouragement to others to put on their own boots and walk happily through the rain.

You may also want to take a look at their two other recent interventions: Under Nuclear Threat and Public Art that you Fancy Touching.

November 16, 2011 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

Sam3: More Street Art from Spain

Click to enlarge

Known for his massive scale silhouettes on city walls, Spanish street artist Sam3 has works in cities from Madrid to Lisbon, Cologne to Buenos Aires and even San Francisco, to name a few. I especially love the inverted silhouettes — I can’t believe there isn’t more of that in other street artists’ work. Also, the way he integrates the building façade in many of these (see third photo from top) is so clever and effective.

You can see more of Sam3’s work on his site, blog, and this flickr pool.

November 15, 2011 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Honda Factory in Thailand

These photos of the hundreds of submerged vehicles at the flooded Honda Factory in Ayutthaya Province in Thailand are incredible. I didn’t know what it was until I read the caption. Apparently clean-up is underway as the flood waters begin to recede.

Photos Damir Sagolj/Reuters

via design you trust

November 15, 2011 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Marjan Teeuwen: Crammed Spaces

Click to enlarge

An anxious feeling infiltrates my chest a bit when looking at Dutch artist Marjan Teeuwen’s photographs, and yet I find it hard not to be pulled in. These crammed spaces that evoke a sense of claustrophobia and obsession are so jam-packed with objects that in some cases ceilings, floors and walls are hardly recognizable. Some of the photos have the objects set up by function, others by texture and color, but all have them packed in creating an oppressive and confined feeling. The photo series have titles like Archives and Destroyed House, that is if the free translator I used translated correctly.

Kind of crazy, but kind of cool, also.

You can see more of Teeuwen’s work here and here.

via cokkie snoei

November 14, 2011 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Vlad Berte: Stone Sculpture

Romanian artist Vlad Berte creates stone sculptures of everyday objects. His aim is to highlight what we tend to overlook yet influences us on a daily basis. He puts these objects front and center — in stone, no less.

How fun would it be to have those socks or shirt placed next to a statue in the Greek and Roman sculpture court at the Met?

via artnet

November 11, 2011 by collabcubed - 3 Comments

Christian Partos: E.L.O.

This past summer when we visited Istanbul, we popped into a gallery on a stroll down Istiklal Street, mostly because we recognized Ivan Navarro’s piece from the window. The show was Matter-Light 2 at the Borusan Muzik Evi. But this introduction is just to set the stage for the delightful surprise that ensued. While looking around the spare gallery at the various interesting light sculptures in the exhibit, suddenly, almost comically, and completely unexpectedly, a light bulb dipped down quickly and swiftly from the ceiling. And then another; and another. The artist behind this amusing curiosity is Swedish artist Christian Partos. The piece, titled E.L.O. (I am assuming a clever reference to, and/or appropriation of the name, the Electric Light Orchestra) consists of a roomful of light bulbs essentially dancing in the gallery. This is a permanent installation at the Borusan Music House (that’s the translation).

Seeing the stills really doesn’t do it justice, so here are two videos.

You can see more of Christian Partos’ work here, including his installation for a subway station in Malmö, Sweden.

November 11, 2011 by collabcubed - 3 Comments

Mary Button Durell: Paper Sculpture

Click to enlarge

California artist Mary Button Durell creates paper sculptures using only tracing paper and wheat paste. They have been compared to cellular membranes and described as biomorphic abstractions; definitely organic in shape and feel. Though many of the works look as though built on a wire frame, that is not the case. The process involves extensive hand-building by the artist.

From the artist’s statement:
Individual cells or cones that comprise most of the pieces are first formed over molds of various shapes and sizes and then joined together using wheat paste cell by cell. Additional layers of paper and paste are then added for strength and reinforcement which creates the net-like structure around the individual cells.

In addition, the translucent quality of the paper adds another dimension to the pieces.

You can see more of Mary Button Durell’s beautiful work on her site.

November 9, 2011 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Leon Keer: Lego Army Chalk Street Art

Click to enlarge

This has been making the rounds on facebook but I just came upon a whole set of images from the artist. The amazing Lego Army 3-D chalk drawing is by Dutch artist Leon Keer and the artist collective Planet Street Painting created for the Sarasota 2011 Chalk Festival in Florida. The drawing, based on the famous terracotta sculpture army of Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang, measures 30 x 40 feet and is drawn in such a way to fool the eye with depth and perception.

Apparently, there is a link between an 8-foot-tall Lego man that washed up overnight on October 25th at Siesta Key beach and Leon Keer’s drawing. Clever publicity stunt or coincidence? Either way, a very impressive feat.

Photos: Leon Keer’s flickr and Herald Tribune

November 9, 2011 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Ion Zupcu: Works on Paper

I came across these beautiful photographs by Romanian artist Ion Zupcu, now living in Hopewell Junction, NY. This series titled Works on Paper was initially inspired by his daughter’s paper models for her architecture studies. Zupcu started photographing very small, folded and bent pieces of paper, most barely extending one inch across, using a Hasselblad camera. He enlarges the square-format prints to 15 inches squared, playing with the light and shadows, as well as exposure, creating a dramatic abstract effect. Lovely.

More of Ion Zupcu’s work can be seen on his site, and more of his Works on Paper series can be seen at Drooel and Gallery 339.

via Chonogram Magazine

November 8, 2011 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

Shida: Street Art in Australia

Shida is an Australian street artist whose work can be found in the back street alleys of Brisbane. His characters are developed from continuous and repetitive strokes, with a mechanical, sometimes robotic, feel to them and other times reptilian, but often with warmth in their expression, or at least I read it like that.

You can see more of Shida’s work in this flickr photostream and here.

November 7, 2011 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

Julia Kissina: Fairies

Russian-born, and now Berlin-based, artist Julia Kissina photographs, creates actions and documents them as a form of performance art, and makes installations. Her photographic series Fairies gives new meaning to the term ‘meathead’. These photographs feature young girls and women in the style of Renaissance portraits, with all the nobility and grace of the classic paintings but with a twist: replacing their elaborate hairstyles, or even simple ones, is raw meat. The result is a little disarming. A prevalent theme in Kissina’s art deals with the perception of beauty and the changes in that perception as we get closer to freely modifying appearance through genetic experimentation; beauty or monstrosity?