Friday, July 29, 2011

Bright Writing





The work of Brigitte Kowanz is Beyond Words (the title of this work). Her oeuvre is about light and then when she combines that with language (and even Morse Code) you have something very special. I can't possibly describe for you the magic that she created with light sculptures and mirrors in her MOMOK Show. You'll find beautiful images at Contemporary Art Daily and visit her Website (click Works and then Installations).

And here's a little bit of TEXT to help you understand what she's doing

Image is from Contemporary Art Daily.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Contemporary Urban Calligraphy





Combine calligraphic styling with graffiti attitude and you get Graffigraphy.

This piece, a collaboration by Futura and Crash that was in the Graffiti New York 80's Show in Paris,  has some wonderful flourishes that remind you of oriental paintings of yore. Limiting the palette to red, black and blue gives it some muscle.

Just so you know, Futura had one of his works sell for $56,250 at Auction in December.

Image is from Global14

Friday, July 22, 2011

All About The Dots





Ralf Brog is a multi-talented artist and I'm glad that he put the time and effort into making the Fuzzy Logic Series of paintings. This image is from the Petra Rinck Galerie, where you'll find more fascinating works. I couldn't find anything about him in English . . .


Sunday, July 17, 2011

Matting and Framing






We interrupt our regularly scheduled train of thought to reconsider how overwhelmingly important framing techniques can be in the presentation of a work of art.

In his "Collage Series", David Lieske uses b&w photos originally used as advertising images as matting for the color photos of his younger self: and I believe the frames are wrapped in African fabrics. You can read about them here. You really must see all six in the series to fully appreciate what he's done here.

Image is from Aimee Walleston.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Asemic Chinese Calligraphy





Wenda Gu (b 1955) is a fascinating Chinese Contemporary Artist who challenges the notions of writing and language by inventing fake calligraphic script. The image is from a Post at Art Radar Asia, (a great site that I follow in my Google Reader) that will pretty much bring you up to speed.

When you visit his Website, you must check out the forest of stone stelas. Simply amazing.


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Saturday, July 09, 2011

Dot Head

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Take one line-drawing/self portrait, add dots in varying patterns and you have an interesting series by Alejandro Thornton. Another variation is the replacement of dots with words. Letters, words and dots are reoccurring themes, but try as I might, there seems to be no available English text about his work. But that shouldn't stop you from visiting his Website and seeing his body of work.

All three images are from his site and from the Thornton Reigns (2004-2009) Series, which you might want to compare to the Thornton Reigns (2002) Series.

Picture of the artist Here.
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Sunday, July 03, 2011

The Gist Of Things

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Impressionism was a wonderful invention and tool that set us free to concentrate on painting our emotions rather than faithfully depicting facts. Choices about composition and color certainly revealed some of the artist's personality, but as we've moved forward through all the "isms' and movements in the art world, painting has become so much more about the artists themselves.

I made the right decision by visiting Philip Maltman's Website yesterday to see what he's been doing this year. As I viewed the new paintings it occurred to me that these represent the gist of things; these are ideas of landscapes. They are invoked feelings. His new paintings are lush and spatial and the detail images do very well on their own.
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