April 26, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Click to enlarge photos; click captions to go to photo on flickr photostream

Scott Lynch – best friend and beau – (aka Scoboco) has snapped photos for years, mostly of his daughters and, well, of me, but it wasn’t until about a year ago that he took photography on with a vengeance. Today he’s got almost 5,000 photos in his flickr photostream (and there are probably another 5,000 that didn’t make the cut!) His primary subject? New York City. He’s covered Occupy Wall Street from the beginning, compiling an impressive collection of OWS photos with rarely a day missed. His love of street art is also evident in his NYC Graffiti and Street Art photography set. And then there are his photos of art exhibits. But, for me, where Scott truly stands out is in his ability to see and capture the humor (and/or poignancy) in everyday New York City street scenes. These are my absolute favorites. And, though not necessarily evident in the photos I’ve selected, much of the time his captions are as clever and humorous as the photos themselves. In some cases they even make the photo (see Awed by art at the MoMA above).

The photos here are definitely in my top 20 but, as you can imagine, with 5,000 to peruse, it’s hard to narrow down to a handful. So, take a look for yourselves at Scoboco’s photostream, and you might want to wish him a happy birthday while you’re at it.

April 25, 2012 by collabcubed - 4 Comments

cartonLAB: Cardboard Furniture and more

Just when you think they couldn’t possibly come up with more cardboard objects and designs, the fine folks at the Spanish studio cartonLAB (previously here), come out with a whole bunch of clever and innovative designs. All made from cardboard and flatpacked for easy shipping and transport. From their lovely lamps to their recent collaboration with Ecological Drive – a green company that recycles tires – where cartonLAB incorporated recycled tires as cushions for the company’s benches and displays.

But it doesn’t stop there. They’ve got uniquely designed chairs, bookcases, headboards and much more; all fun, sustainable, and stylish.

Check out the entire collection at their website, or download a pdf of their new catalogue on the upper left corner of their home page, to see the very reasonable prices. Can you tell I’m a fan?

April 24, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Roman Tyc: Semafory

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Czech artist Roman Tyc (née David Hons), member of the guerilla art group Ztohoven, replaced 48 traffic lights in Prague by amending the standard red and green figures to show them in situations such as drinking, urinating and being hanged, as well as more benign ones such as a man walking his dog. The act was embraced by the public as great fun (as well as awarded top prize at Austria’s Sidewalk Cinema Festival in Vienna that year) but, naturally, not so much by the authorities. Tyc had to pay for repairs in addition to a large fine. Tyc paid for the repairs but, refusing to pay the fine, was sentenced to 30 days in prison this past February. In protest, his supporters signed petitions and ‘decapitated’ – by blacking out the heads – traffic light figures throughout the Czech Republic. Despite their efforts, Roman Tyc served the 30 days and was released in March.

Here’s a video of the installation:

via gestalten

April 23, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Anthony McCall: 5 Minutes of Pure Sculpture

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New York based artist Anthony McCall has been creating unique light installations since the 1970s with a 20-year break in between. Currently, McCall has a solo exhibit in Berlin at the Hamburger Bahnhof, titled Five Minutes of Pure Sculpture – his largest to date – showing light installations created since 2003. His works are a combination of film, sculpture and drawing, though his more recent works are digital with complex forms created with the aid of computers. These light sculptures are ephemeral, yet seem tangible and physical. The projected beams of light — some vertical to the floor, others horizontal onto the walls — engulf the viewer in the slow-moving cones while animated lines, drawn in black and white, are projected into a haze-filled room, creating the sculptural forms.

The choice of space sounds and looks perfect, too; the spacious former railway station has been converted into a black box filled with haze and light. I vote for this coming back to NYC at the Park Avenue Armory!

Five Minutes of Pure Sculpture will be on view at the Hamburger Bahnhof through August 12, 2012.

Photos: Markus Schreiber (AP); David Levene (the Guardian); Hugo Glendinning; luyu2’s flickr; College des Bernardins’ flickr; Sean Gallup, Getty Images; AnatR’s flickr, and courtesy of the artist.

April 20, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

One Chair a Week

This is the kind of course my daughter Daniela would really enjoy. Associate Professor and architect Nicolai de Gier, along with Deane Simpson and Jesper Pagh taught a chair design course at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Architecture School. Noting that usually students spend much of course time on sketching and making small-scale models of their chairs, not allowing time to confront the limitations and challenges of the actual building at a 1 to 1 scale, de Gier decided to have his students design and build one chair – one to one – once a week. Each week a new material was assigned so that students would have new experiences and challenges. The emphasis was on quality of concept more than final finish of the chair. The result? You be the judge. The students made 78 chairs in 6 different workshops. I’d say impressive, with some very unique designs, for sure.

You can see the rest of the chairs here, and you can see an unrelated but also interesting project, 100 Chairs in 100 Days, using discarded chairs in London, (via@mrfidalgo) here.

via DDC

April 20, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

GAUD12: Pratt Institute Exhibit

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For their Graduate Architecture & Urban Design Student Exhibition, the students at Pratt Institute, under the tutelage of their professors Michael Szivos and Carrie McKnelly of SOFTlab (previously here), created this series of suspended tubular tunnels made up of over 2,400 lasercut cardboard triangles interconnected with 6,000 thin plywood clips, taking over the Robert H. Siegel Gallery. The walls of the gallery are papered with five years worth of student work which can be seen through the portals created by the cardboard installation, which are also used to display models by the students.

You can see the installation in progress in the time lapse video below.

via designboom

April 19, 2012 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

Vitamins Design: Out of the Box for Samsung

This is so clever. London based design and invention studio, Vitamins, works “in the spaces between science, technology, business and wonder.” They came up with this Out of the Box manual for Samsung after working with users of all ages across Europe and analyzing the difficulties that some people have in learning to use their new cell phone, especially older people. Instead of creating a special phone, they came up with a different approach: a user-friendly way to learn how to use the handset. Instead of the usual complicated manuals they offer a set of books that can live on a bookshelf and actually contain the phone. Each page reveals the elements in their correct order, from sim card, to battery, to the case, and the second volume allows the phone to slide into a slot with arrows pointing to exact locations that the user should press.

The video above demonstrates the Out of the Box experience which has won an Interaction Award 2012 for Best Concept and was exhibited in the MoMA’s Talk to Me exhibit last fall.

Thanks to Daniela and Natan!

April 18, 2012 by collabcubed - 3 Comments

Simone Decker: Chewing in Venice 1 + 2

These photos are a lot of fun. Luxembourger artist Simone Decker created them in 1999, but I just happened upon them for the first time now. Decker is interested in perspective shifts and often explores the way public space is arranged. Much of her work appropriates said space as in her photographic series shown above: Chewing in Venice 1 + 2. Using photographic trompe l’oeil devices, Decker includes the streets and squares of Venice as the backdrop for her oversized gum sculptures; a proposal for sculptural work, or at least that’s the way I understand it.

From an article translated on her website:
All of these works consist of photographs, mostly series of photographs, that propose sculptures or architectural elements for the public domain. They are documentations of real outside installations of these objects. But it is only the perspective of the camera that lends the works a visual presence and a dimension that puts them in the relationship to the urban or architectural environment desired by the artist. In Chewing in Venice, for example, the chewing-gum objects only become sculptures that fill squares and lanes by virtue of the fact that they are photographed right in front of the lens.

Those big bubbles remind me a bit of the RedBall Project. I think the realization of these sculptures would be a huge hit.

via chiquero

April 18, 2012 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

David Shillinglaw: Street and Studio Art

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London based artist David Shillinglaw’s (aka Dodie Boy) work is new to me, at least by name, but by the number of street art blogs that came up when googling, I have a feeling I may be in the minority. Either way, I really love it. Shillinglaw’s work moves between street and studio, usually working on multiple projects at once…no time for boredom! His bold, colorful, type-infused illustrations convey the ups and downs of life, often including humorous idioms and metaphors.

From the artist:
“I enjoy the way people use language to define a feeling or physical condition. We support what we think, feel, say, and mean, with often ridiculous idioms and metaphors; placing frogs in throats and fires in belly’s, in order to paint a picture of something invisible and abstract. I feed on these very human expressions. I find day-to-day, conversational poetry casts a warm light on an otherwise very calculated, systematic, clinical and scientific world. My work is about people. Human nature. Both the civilized and monstrous, the stupid and articulate.”

Here’s a nice interview with Shillinglaw, and you can see more of his work on his website and blog.

via dirtcheapmag

April 17, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Nick Georgiou: Book & Newspaper Sculptures

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Reflecting on the shift away from print to digital in our current society, New York artist Nick Georgiou (presently residing in Arizona) creates sculptures, both two- and three-dimensional, by meticulously hand-stitching books and newsprint that he finds on the streets, and then integrates into the urban environment.

From Georgiou’s blog:
My art is inspired by the death of the printed word. Books and newspapers are becoming artifacts of the 21st century. As a society we’re shifting away from print consumption and heading straight towards full digital lives. My sculptures are products of their environment —both literally and figuratively. As often as I can, I use local newspapers to add authenticity, and the form the sculpture takes is a reflection of the personal connection I feel to that particular city. From a day-to-day standpoint, I’m heavily influenced by my surroundings. These days, I draw inspiration from America’s South West, and in particular Tucson, AZ–where I’ve lived and worked for almost four years. Going from NY to the desert is a pretty dramatic shift. Your concept of space expands when it’s not obstructed by buildings. You pay closer attention to nature because you’re always in it—and you do what you can to preserve it.

You can see much more of Nick’s work on his blog.

via citizens artist collective

April 17, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Mathilde Roussel: Lifes of Grass

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French artist Mathilde Roussel created these suspended anthropomorphic sculptures titled Lifes of Grass using soil and wheat grass seeds that, just like a chia pet, slowly transform with the growth of grass.

From the artist’s website:
I strive to show that food, it’s origin, it’s transport, has an impact on us beyond it’s taste. The power inside it affects every organ of our body. Observing nature and being aware of what and how we eat makes us more sensitive to food cycles in the world – of abundance, of famine – and allows us to be physically, intellectually and spiritually connected to a global reality.

Roussel has exhibited these works in numerous gallery spaces since 2010, especially in Brooklyn and Manhattan, but most recently at Anatomia Botanica exhibition at the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, Nashville.

via feel desain via notcot

April 17, 2012 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Eric Mistretta: Mixed Media

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Mixed media New York artist and student Eric Mistretta seems to be making a splash. First, his quirky yet touching pieces that range from type on paper to type on balloons, taped doors to painted pantyhose and paintings/collages made with melted candles and smoke (just to name a few) appeared in the Virgins Show at the recently opened Family Business Gallery in Chelsea, a space opened through the collaborative forces of Maurizio Cattelan and New Museum director Massimiliano Gioni, and now he’ll be showing his work at the Affordable Art Fair starting Wednesday. These colorful, offbeat pieces that seem to use found materials, made me smile.

Born in Queens, NY, Mistretta is an MFA student at the School of Visual Arts, “makes a great bolognese” and keeps a food blog in a addition to his art blog.

via artlog

April 16, 2012 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Alison Knowles: Make a Salad on the High Line

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If you find yourself in NYC this coming Sunday, you may want to head on over to the High Line to see Fluxus artist Alison Knowles restage her 1962 Make a Salad performance piece in honor of Earth Day. Knowles will be chopping lettuce and other ingredients, in collaboration with Jessica Higgins, to the beat of live music by Joshua Selman. Originally premiered at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 1962, the artist has repeated the event over the years at such venues as the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Wexner Museum in 2004 and most recently at the Tate Modern in 2008. The vegetables may vary from event to event, but the music is typically Mozart.

Having taken part in (and thoroughly enjoyed) the High Line’s last communal food event —the Social Soup Experiment—this past fall, I imagine this will be a lot of fun.

This Sunday’s event (April 22, 2012) will take place on the High Line at West 16th Street in the Chelsea Market Passage. Salad prep will begin at 10am through 12 noon at which point Knowles and her team will toss the salad for spectators. 12:15 to 1pm the salad will be served up to audience members. Oh, and it’s free!

Photos courtesy the artist and the High Line.

UPDATE: See follow-up post here.

April 16, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Steven Holl Architects: Queens Library

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Daniela went to hear New York based architect Steven Holl speak in Providence the other day and sent me a link to his Queens Library in Long Island City, here in NYC, due to be completed in 2013. What a lovely addition to the currently not-very-interesting Queens waterfront. Plus, designed so that a “Manhattan view” stair rises up from the open arrival space, visitors are greeted both with a view of books and the Manhattan skyline over the East River. Not bad.

The 21,000 sq. foot library will be broken up into three separate areas: children, teen, and adult. The plan integrates energy-efficient design and a great amount of public space, including a public reading garden with a bosque of ginko trees, and a rooftop reading garden with amazing panoramic views.

The concrete structure is painted white inside while the exterior insulation and foamed 100% recycled aluminum rainskin give it a bit of sparkle. At night, the building will have a glowing presence on the Queens waterfront, joining the iconic Pepsi sign.

April 12, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Rivane Neuenschwander: Continent Cloud

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Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander is known for her poetic-styled installations. Currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, is her previously exhibited piece titled Continent-Cloud. Composed of a polypropylene lining that supports small styrofoam balls which occupy the entire gallery ceiling, the balls are moved around by hidden fans creating changing forms in constant movement. The way these forms rearrange themselves is evocative of clouds moving across the sky, while at the same time some of the solid masses are also reminiscent of land formations on the globe, hence its title.

Neuenschwander’s installation will be up at MCA as part of their Marking Time exhibit until June 3, 2012.

Photos: Reuters: Daniel Munoz; MCA; and Stephen Friedman Gallery

April 11, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Javier Siquier: Graffiti Removal

Spanish graphic designer, illustrator and street artist Javier Siquier seems intrigued by reversal. Recently, he created a series of work on the streets titled Graffiti Removal where he whites out graffiti, leaving blocks of (mostly) white paint, as if redacting the words from the streets.

In the works above, which I really like, he neatly whites out the surrounding area exposing just enough graffiti, making it neat and graphic. Almost like a patterned appliqué. Love it! Conversely, in his exhibit presently up at the SC Gallery in Bilbao, Siquier frames photos of his Graffiti Removal works and paints the gallery walls to overlap the frames. A nice effect.

via vandal hostel via escrito en la pared

April 6, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Timotheus Tomicek: Video Portraits

One of my favorite exhibits at Volta last month was Viennese artist Timotheus Tomicek’s video portraits or moving photographs. In many cases these seemingly-still images are reminiscent of Renaissance paintings yet all have a subtle indication of modernity. Also, upon closer look, many of these are actually videos, where only the slightest of movement can be detected: a slight breeze, movement of water in a glass, or the shaking of a hand over a precariously balanced stack of dominoes. Though different in style, these works remind me of the wonderful VOOM Portraits by Robert Wilson exhibited five or so years ago, in concept.

You can see two of the moving photographs in action below, and more of Tomicek’s work, both still and moving, here and here. And more of his video portraits here.

April 6, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Reece Jones: Control Test

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These charcoal drawings by London-based artist Reece Jones are truly stunning. Having been recently exposed to the challenges of drawing with charcoal via Daniela, I have a newfound appreciation for the medium and these are exemplary examples of it at its best.

Presently, Jones has an exhibit at All Visual Arts in London titled Control Test. These natural landscapes all include a large rectangle of light a la James Turrell or Doug Wheeler. The contrast of the natural forms and the geometric unnatural lightform is very striking, from shape to the glowing white amidst the generally dark and heavy charcoal.

From the text on the gallery’s website by Richard Dyer:
…The rectangle of light hovers in the centre of the pictures, like a ghost of the blank paper before a single mark is made. Optically the intervention of the luminous shape operates as a doorway through the space of the sublime landscape. Doorways, gateways, archways, are transitional spaces, liminal thresholds between one order of existence and another, here abstracted to a featureless geometric shape; the space to which the threshold opens up is free to be populated by the speculative imagination of the viewer. It is at once an opening into a void and a solid object or barrier; it dominates the landscape, an almost sentient presence, like an inversion of the black rectangular ‘sentinel’ in 2001: A Space Odyssey…

You can see more of Reece Jones’ work here and here, or visit the London exhibit up through April 21, 2012. The bottom four works are actually watercolor and polymer varnish, not charcoal, but lovely as well.

via all visual arts