Category Archives: Stuff We Like

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Devon Boathouse: Elliott + Associates

Oklahoma City Riverfront, boathouse, Elliott + Associates, contemporary architectureOklahoma City Riverfront, boathouse, Elliott + Associates, contemporary architectureOklahoma City Riverfront, boathouse, Elliott + Associates, contemporary architectureOklahoma City Riverfront, boathouse, Elliott + Associates, contemporary architectureClick to enlarge

I must confess that I don’t know anything about Oklahoma City, but it seems there is a very nice riverfront district that has been undergoing redevelopment over the past several years with three boathouses and a high-performance center in the Regatta District alone. All architecturally interesting, the newest of these boathouses is the Devon Boathouse completed in 2011. Home to the Oklahoma City University Rowing and Canoe/Kayak teams as well as the headquarters for the OKC National High Performance Center, the Devon Boathouse, designed by Rand Elliott of Elliott + Associates Architects, makes for a striking image against the downtown skyline. Its sharp corner creates the impression of a “prow” breaking against the river’s edge.

Expansive windows make for soaring spaces, created by glass and polycarbonate walls, which are flooded with natural light and views. Blue LED lights light up the boathouse at night, adding another dimension to the already dramatic building.

In its 33,000 sq. feet, the boathouse includes reception, event spaces, catering facilities, high performance fitness center, propulsion rowing tank, endless pool, high altitude training room, weight room and locker rooms as well as boat storage and repair area.

Photos courtesy of the Elliott + Associates, Michael Stano, Ryan Fogle, Timberlake Construction, Allied Arts, and Boathouse District

via Michael Stano’s flickr

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Roof Top Lights

ceiling light, projected photo, illuminated photo of church dome, skylight, disco ballceiling light, projected photo, illuminated photo of church dome, skylight, disco ballceiling light, projected photo, illuminated photo of church dome, skylight, disco ballThis is such a clever idea, especially ideal for the many dark New York City apartments out there. Roof Top Lights, by Lightboys, are large-format illuminated photographs mounted on an ultra-thin housing that contains LEDs. Suddenly, you not only have an overhead light, but a skylight or church dome or treetops, even a disco ball, right over your head, as well! To quote their website “These are images which not only open up rooms, but also hearts and minds…”

Lightboys also make Lightwalls and Polaboys (backlit large-scale photos with the look of a Polaroid).

Very cool, if a bit pricey.

via bb

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Wim Botha: Sculpture Made from Carved Texts

Contemporary South African Sculpture made from carved biblesContemporary South African Sculpture made from carved biblesContemporary South African Sculpture made from carved bibles, prison recordsCape Town-based artist Wim Botha is originally from the suburban outer reaches of Pretoria. His work is rooted in the officious pretensions of his nation’s capital using government texts, dictionaries, and bibles to create sculptures based on popular iconography such as trophy mounts and religious icons. In most of these works, the carved text of the piece becomes the physical substance of the work, while the collective text informs the representation of the work as well as providing its social context.

The fourth and fifth photos down from the top are shots of Botha’s recent work, Fuse. which is currently part of a group show at Stevenson Gallery in Cape Town through January 14th, 2012. This piece is made of charred fire-resistant pine while all the other sculptures in this post are made of carved texts.

Photos courtesy Stevenson Gallery, Galerie Jette Rudolph, and mitue’s flickr.

via @turnergalleries

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Footbag

Rubber boot shoulder bag by Marco Scuderi, fun design, messenger bagRubber boot shoulder bag by Marco Scuderi, fun design, messenger bag, bike bagHere’s a fun idea that has both of my daughters written all over it. Footbag, designed by Italian designer Marco Scuderi, repurposes pairs of old rubber boots into elegant and sturdy shoulder bags. I would imagine this could really take off after the current rain boot craze subsides a bit in a year or two. So many possibilities with all the fun rain boots that are on the market these days.

via coroflot

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The Insinuated Furniture Project

The insinuated furniture project, Ludens, Urban Prosthetics, Mexico City, street artThe insinuated furniture project, Ivan Hernandez-Quintela, Urban Prosthetics, street artLudens,Ivan Hernandez-Quintela, Urban Prosthetics, street art, Mexico cityThe insinuated furniture project, Ivan Hernandez-Quintela, Urban Prosthetics, street artThis concept made me smile. The Insinuated Furniture Project is the creation of Mexican artist/architect Ivan Hernandez-Quintela who started a design collective called Ludens. Hernandez-Quintela considers his designs spatial gags and enjoys invading Mexico City with his ‘Urban Prosthetics’. All his projects are about how people share space and how the objects that surround us affect the way we share it. He believes that each of us has the power to impact a city, one gesture at a time and that could have a contagious effect creating larger impacts from these small gestures. On his Insinuated Furniture Project, Hernandez-Quintela has this to say:

When one live in a city where urban furniture is not a priority, one finds that its inhabitants get creative and improvise by using different constructive surfaces as furniture. Insinuated furniture project is an attempt to call attention to these potential surfaces by drawing silhouettes of recognizable furniture over them.

Insinuated Furniture is a task for people and/or designers to go around the city with masking tape and draw silhouettes on these surfaces. Not to necessarily add objects to the city, but to recognize how existing objects are used, or misused. To help visualize the potential of the city.

via tarp

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Nicole Dextras: Ice Typography

Ice Typography, letters, Typography installations, Environmental Art, Vancouver, collabcubedIce Typography, letters, Typography installations, Environmental Art, Vancouver, collabcubedIce Typography, letters, Typography installations, Environmental Art, Vancouver, collabcubedIce Typography, letters, Typography installations, Environmental Art, Vancouver, collabcubedClick to enlarge

I’m not a fan of the cold or ice or even snow, but if I were to come across one of Nicole Dextras’ Ice Typography installations, I think I could bear the frigid temps a little more.

Nicole Dextras is an environmental artist from Vancouver who works in a multitude of media including sculpture, interactive public art and photography. Her Ice Typography series consists of three-dimensional words fabricated in ice ranging in size from 8-foot high letters to 18-inch high. Apart from the striking aspect of these frozen letters standing tall in the outdoors, whether in a rural or urban landscape, is their shifting and transient quality.

From the artist’s statement:
The visual poetry in this series aims to subvert the authority of the English language and the commerce of signage by representing words as vulnerable and shifting. Ice Typography absorbs light, melts and eventually leaves no trace; these words have more in common with dreams and oral stories than linear language. Words cast in ice interrupt our literal narratives, allowing a more integrated reading of the land we inhabit, as opposed to the past and current commodification of land as limitless resource. This fundamental split in perception lies at the crux of our environmental crisis. I therefore choose to create within an ephemeral vernacular to accentuate the collective physical and psychological experience of flux and change.

There are many more of these installations on Nicole Dextras’ site here, and you can see time lapse videos of her Signs of Change series as they melt here.

via artsy forager

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Zadok Ben David: Blackfield

contemporary art installation, Israeli artist, Botanical sculptures, metal flower cutoutscontemporary art installation, Israeli artist, Botanical sculptures, metal flower cutoutscontemporary art installation, Israeli artist, Botanical sculptures, metal flower cutoutsIsraeli artist Zadok Ben David, who lives and works in London, created this interesting installation titled Blackfield. Made up of more than 12,000 small steel cut plant sculptures that spring out from a blanket of sand covering the gallery floor, there is a surprise element as one walks around the installation; what initially appears to be all black reveals itself as color on the other side.

Each plant sculpture takes its form from Victorian botanical illustrations which Ben David finds in old text books. The detail on these is quite amazing. The miniature boxed version of the installation, in the next to last row of photos above, shows the two-sided quality of the plants in the mirrored wall.

Here’s a video taken while circumambulating the installation. The effect is even better than I imagined.


Photos courtesy of the artist; artnet; and lemOn’s flickr.

via lemOn’s flickr

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Spa House: Metropolis Design

Guest house and entertainment center, spa, pool, contemporary architecture, Cape TownGuest house and entertainment center, spa, pool, contemporary architecture, Cape TownGuest house and entertainment center, cool underwater room, contemporary architectureClick to enlarge

The Spa House designed by Metropolis Design in Cape Town, South Africa, is set on the mountainside on the urban edge of Hout Bay overlooking the bay and harbour, and integrated with the beautiful landscape that surrounds it.

The house functions as the guest house and entertainment facility of a larger house – separated by a hill but connected by footpaths – incorporating swimming pools, spa, and guest accommodations. Let the record show that I, for one, would not mind being a guest. I especially like the room with the underwater views, though I’m sure I would spend much more time on the sunny deck.

The house is quite dramatic, with its separate sculptural forms dynamically combined into one superstructure made of steel construction and clad in afromosia shiplap boards on timber studwork.

via world skyscaper

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Farsad Labbauf: Manifestation of Unity

oil and pencil paintings, portraits, Persian Calligraphy, dissolution, figurative worksoil and pencil paintings, portraits, Persian Calligraphy, dissolution, figurative worksoil and pencil paintings, portraits, Persian Calligraphy, dissolution, figurative worksBorn in Tehran, Iran, artist Farsad Labbauf moved to the United States with his family at the age of thirteen. Presently he lives and works in New York.

Labbauf’s paintings are influenced by traditional Persian arts such as calligraphy and tapestry, a link to his cultural heritage. They have a distinctive style, made up of segmented sections of color, that in some cases have a maplike quality.

From the artist’s statement:
To describe and depict something that was, is or will be carries the heavy and imposing predicament of time. And so in describing the world, I have found it necessary to create images that exist halfway between completion and dissolution.
Another main and motivating factor in creating and developing the use of lines in my paintings was the unveiling of a desire for manifestation of unity. Following an urge against segmentation of the painting surface into isolated geographies of color and content, I set out to create a method of pictorial depiction which conveys this idea of unity regardless of content.

You can see more of Farsad Labbauf’s work on his site and here.

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David Mach: Matchheads

sculptures made of matches, sculptures that are lit and burned, heads made up of matchessculptures made of matches, sculptures that are lit and burned, heads made up of matchessculptures made of matches, sculptures that are lit and burned, heads made up of matchesClick to enlarge

Yes, I just finished posting about David Mach’s coat hanger sculptures, but this artist has so many incredible works that it merits two consecutive posts, and still there is so much more to see! In his Matchheads, Mach uses thousands of live matches to create heads of famous people, not-so-famous people, busts in the style of Roman sculptures, Asian and African style masks, Picassoesque and Warholian influenced heads as well as many animal heads. Some are monochromatic and others use multiple colors. And if these aren’t  impressive enough in their non-lit form, David Mach also lights them on fire resulting in a charred blackish-gray hue.

Photos from the artists’s site, piglicker’s flickr, Opera Gallery, and Galerie Jerome de Noirmont.

There is so much of David Mach’s work worth checking out. You can see his postcard collages here, his amazing brick train sculpture here, and even more installations here. Oh, and there’s a dominatrix made of dominoes here!

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Sculptural Poems by Ragnhildur Johanns

Book art, text, collage, contemporary sculpture, Iceland, Reykyavik, Weird Girls projectBook art, text, collage, contemporary sculpture, Iceland, Reykyavik, Weird Girls projectBook art, text, collage, contemporary sculpture, Iceland, Reykyavik, Weird Girls projectIt’s interesting to note the rise of book- and text-related art taking place during the unfortunate decline of book printing and publishing. As one who has designed many a book, I am very aware of this phenomenon. For the most part, these works seem to be paying homage to books, literature, text, typography, and bookbinding. A repurposing of the objects while highlighting their beauty.

Icelandic artist Ragnhildur Jóhanns is one of these artist. Based in Reykyavik, this young visual and performance artist works books and poetry into most of her work. From text collages to sculptural pieces and performance works that include readings, Jóhanns takes the already beautiful books and makes interesting and beautiful artworks by painstakingly cutting strips of text and extending them past the book pages, or conversely, creating gaps and indents in the pages with the cutouts. The names of two of these series of works are Sculptural Poems and Visual Poetry.

AND if these artworks aren’t quirky enough for you, she’s also one of the Weird Girls from The Weird Girls Project!

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AIIM P&D Building: SKM-S2F Architects

Timber design, Australia, Innovation Campus, SKM-S2F Architects, University WollongongTimber design, Australia, Innovation Campus, SKM-S2F Architects, University WollongongTimber design, Australia, Innovation Campus, SKM-S2F Architects, University WollongongClick to enlarge

The beautiful timber design of the University of Wollongong Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM) Processing and Devices (P&D) Building (now you understand the need for initials) is the work of SKM-S2F Architects with construction by Baulderstone. Located in North Wollongong, Australia (between Sydney and Canberra), the AIIM building links two state-of-the-art research buildings and houses the University’s Electron Microscopy Center. In addition to being aesthetically pleasing the timber design is also functional in that the electron microscopes that it houses are very sensitive to their operating environment. In order to avoid electromagnetic interference, the structural elements had to be non-ferrous, being the reason that a timber structure was chosen for the design. And what a great design it is!

Pacific Teak wood was used on the top half of the building while Spotted Gum was used on the bottom. The intention is for the building to weather and grey by Summer 2012.

Photos: John Gollings

via woodform architectural

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Jim Hake: Sculptural Portraits

Portrait made of cups, cool art, contemporary sculpturePortrait made of cups, cool art, contemporary sculpturePortrait up of tiny photos, cool art, contemporary sculpture, collabcubedPortrait made of small photos, cool art, contemporary sculpture, collabcubedPortrait made of cups, light bulbs, balls, cool art, contemporary sculptureArtist Jim Hake has bounced around from east coast to west coast in the States, as well as living in Turin where he became an Italian citizen, and more recently is living in Toronto.

Though considered a sculptor, many of Hake’s sculptures hang in the same way two dimensional art typically does. Included here are portraits made up of cups, photos, balls, light bulbs and, not a portrait but, a volcano made of building blocks. Cool stuff.

via Head Bones Gallery

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Will Nolan: Everything is Melting

Contemporary photography, popsicles, melting, australian contemporary artContemporary photography, popsicles, melting, australian contemporary artContemporary photography, popsicles, melting, australian contemporary artI find this series of photos, titled Everything is Melting, by Australian artist Will Nolan quite lovely. Nolan likes to explore the impermanent nature of found objects, in this case: melting ice blocks or popsicles.

From the exhibit catalogue:
“Everything is Melting, and its depiction of melting iceblocks, evokes the nostalgic memory of childhood but remains as a quiet reminder of the inescapable future of decay and death. The work explores the essence of transformation, harking back to the various incarnations of the evertold allegory of death and rebirth…”

via saatchionline

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E1000: Tagging the Grates of Madrid

street art in Madrid, e1000, tags on grates, gates, vents, collabcubedstreet art in Madrid, e1000, tags on grates, gates, vents, collabcubedstreet art in Madrid, e1000, tags on grates, gates, vents, collabcubedSpanish street artist E1000, (previously here), has taken to tagging the streets of Madrid in a cryptic manner, taking advantage of the horizontal and vertical lines of gates, grates, shutters, vents, and manhole covers to paint the five characters of his signature. Guillermo de la Madrid has found, photographed and documented a bunch of them on his blog Escrito en la Pared. Above are most of them.

It’s kind of like finding the “Ninas” in a Hirschfeld illustration. Okay, so not exactly…

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Mr. Dictator Head Series: Stephen Ives

Saddam Hussain, Mr. Potato Head, Dictators, Sculpture, Australian Contmporary ArtStalin, Mr. Potato Head, Dictators, Sculpture, Australian Contmporary ArtKim Jong, Mr. Potato Head, Dictators, Sculpture, Australian Contemporary ArtAmin, Lenin, Hitler, Mr. Potato Head, Dictators, Sculpture, Australian Contemporary ArtThis post was created, coincidentally, before learning of Kim Jong Il’s death, earlier today. It seems particularly fitting, then, (if maybe a bit distasteful) to post it now.

Stephen Ives is an English-born, Australian artist who works in 2D as well as 3D. His work is about contrast and balance and the juxtaposition of the two. His ideas derive from a mix of experiential, mental, historical and cultural concepts constructed from toys, scrap, junk and bought materials which are collected, cut, morphed and distorted to create a whole. His Mr. Dictator Head Series needs no explanation unless, of course, one is not familiar with the Mr. Potato Head toy.

From top to bottom, left to right:
Saddam Hussein; Stalin; Kim Jong Il; Idi Amin; Lenin; the skull base; Margaret Thatcher; Adolf Hitler.

via Saatchi

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Sebastian Martorana: Marble Sculpture

contemporary marble sculpture, towels, NYU Steinhardt. 80WSEcontemporary marble sculpture, towels, NYU Steinhardt. 80WSEcontemporary marble sculpture, Martorana, Baltimore artist, LEGO, pillow, shirtClick to enlarge

If you follow this blog you may be thinking “MORE realistic stone sculpture??” And the answer is “Yes.” What can I say, I get a kick out of it and am impressed by the skill. I was walking by Washington Square Park today and happened to spot these marble towels through the window of 80WSE a New York University gallery. They made me smile. The draping is so well done and having placed them on towel racks made them all the more trompe l’oeil-ish. I went in, got the artist’s name and googled him out.

Sebastian Martorana is a stone carver and illustrator based in Baltimore, Maryland. His work was recently featured in the 40 Under 40 40th Anniversary exhibit of Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian.

From top to bottom, left to right:
Yours, Mine, Ours; Shed; Impressions; Homeland Security Blanket; (couldn’t find name of Lego figure or bag); Frustration 81/2 x 11. Photos courtesy the artist and Contemporary Wing.

Sebastian Martorana’s work is part of a group show currently at 80WSE through December 22, 2011.

If you like these sculptures you might also enjoy Chris Mitton and Vlad Berte.