BEAUTY: Cermaics--Döppel Studio

Döppel Studio, the design duo of Lionel Dinis Salazar and Jonathan Omar are showing their "Néophore" project at the Paris art space ToolsGalerie until January 11, 2025.

ToolsGalerie says Döppel Studio "is interested in the shapes of antique jars and amphorae and their reinterpretation as luminous containers through the use of terracotta and a specific enamel. The light source becomes the essence of the reflection: like a material to be transported, it guides the shape of the container, inspires new uses and new objects. This work of contrast between light (here Neon) and terracotta leads Doppel Studio to collaborate with Aliénor Martineau of Alma Mater, a ceramist specializing in the manufacture of enamel based on natural minerals, to design a custom enamel that is sensitive to light. Between amphora, lamp and container, the exhibition invites you to discover a collection of atypical pieces that highlights through the object, as much the use and measurement systems of the first civilizations, as the cult of Prometheus (fire) and obviously, light, crossing or overflowing, as a material in its own right."

https://doppelstudio.fr/
http://www.toolsgalerie.com/

The Future Perfect House, Los Angeles

David Alhadeff, founder of design gallery The Future Perfect, and his husband Jason Duzansky, have moved into a new home in the heart of Hollywood. The gallery has shown its work by an impressive roster of artists in residential settings in New York, san Francisco, and Los Angeles. And now, Alhadeff and Duzansky's home is the latest venue for The Future Perfect.

The gallery site says:

"The Future Perfect’s Goldwyn House, located at the base of the Hollywood Hills, presents visitors with a residential concept gallery. The home was built in 1916 by architect Arthur S. Heineman and most notably occupied by the famed movie producer, Samuel Goldwyn. The experiential and exclusive environment of old Hollywood residence and gallery in one creates a unique space to view culturally important works in a novel way.
Collectors, design professionals and casual admirers are all welcome to explore a rigorously curated collection of hard-to-find, limited edition and one-of-a-kind contemporary art and design shown throughout this expansive home and its accompanying gardens.

Consistent with The Future Perfect’s history of boundary-breaking and participatory interior curation, the Goldwyn House is, first and foremost, an experiential space. We look forward to welcoming you."

I love the artisanal eclectic mix of objects juxtaposed with the more traditional elements of the house like the plaster molding. This blend creates a wonderful design tension that catches the eye. And no element is too splashy or attention-seeking. In fact, the entire house is rather understated and subtle on first viewing, but look closely at the objects and how they arranged, the wallpaper backgrounds, the rugs, and the carefully curated palette.

https://www.thefutureperfect.com/locations/los-angeles/

Artists For Ukraine at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

The Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York and Los Angeles presents "Artists For Ukraine" from March 11 to April 8, 2022. The Gallery reps some very high profile artists who have donated works for sale on-line, with all proceeds going to organizations and charities that are helping Ukrainians refugees.

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery —its staff and artists — are shocked and appalled by the catastrophic human rights tragedy taking place in Ukraine. Our hearts go out to the innocent civilians, families, and especially children, caught in the crossfire of violent conflict. Unfortunately, empathy is not enough when confronting such challenging moments in history.

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery stands with Ukraine. With this announcement, we are launching a sale of important works by gallery artists with 100% of proceeds donated to relief organizations helping to alleviate the suffering of those seeking refuge from the conflict in Ukraine.

While we understand the limits of our influence and power in the context of this global conflict, we also believe that momentum starts with individual and local community activity. As a gallery, we have specific tools at our disposal. We have a platform. We have a certain power in communicating ideas. Even more, we are part of a community of artists, collectors and patrons who can help to raise funds so desperately needed right now.

Our gallery artists have been extremely supportive and generous in offering important work for this cause. We urge those who receive this message, and are in a position to collect, to consider one of these works for acquisition. Collectors will do so with the knowledge that the full purchase will be donated and all funds raised will be split evenly between the three organizations listed below.

For others interested in offering direct support for organizations involved in humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, we have included additional links at the bottom of the page.

Thank you in advance for your attention and support.

The image below is by Sabine Hornig. Intricate details from the cityscapes depicted in her commission for LaGuardia Airport are featured in individual photographs, digitally composed images that integrate succinct quotes from former mayor Fiorello La Guardia. Having famously described New York City’s unique image as “the entire world in microcosm,” La Guardia becomes a figure in Hornig’s work who embodies how leadership shapes our shared environment.

Please consider buying some art or donating to the organizations who are working to help victims of this shameful war.

https://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/viewing-room/58-artists-for-ukraine/

Sabine Hornig's work can be seen here:
https://sabine-hornig.de/de#image-5

"Obsidian" by Jónsi

Breathtaking new album by Jónsi called "Obsidian." It is majestic, visceral, ethereal, grinding, transcendent. Of course.

https://jonsi.com/

 
This release coincides with an exhibit of Jónsi's art work, also titled "Obsidian" and on view only through December 17, 2021 at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York City.

After lying dormant for nearly eight hundred years, the recent eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland serves as the inspiration for the exhibition. Unable to travel to his homeland and experience the rare phenomenon, Jónsi instead conjures the majestic life force within the gallery space through two new sound installations and a series of sculptural works, each presenting a sensorial proposition.

Interdisciplinary artist and musician Jónsi grounds his visual practice in material and metaphysical experimentations with sound, often through the engineering of immersive installations that reconfigure the act of listening by means of sight, smell, taste, and touch. Known for synthesizing compositions that are at once ethereal and electrifying, Jónsi employs a tonal palette ranging from ambient sounds, mechanically generated frequencies, samples from nature, as well as his own voice in boundlessly innovative sonic arrangements. Using a perfume organ to develop new and invigorating scents, Jónsi infuses his works with earthy, atmospheric fragrances that are subtle and frequently overlooked. In concert, these seemingly invisible forces redouble on their emotive strengths, leaving the viewer anchored through corporeal engagement while simultaneously transported via their cognitive imaginary.

On the ground floor, visitors enter a darkened room, dimly lit to reveal a central plinth encircled by over two hundred speakers. Inspired by performances of Icelandic choir groups, Jónsi writes his own choral hymn in four parts. Primal in nature and devoid of identifiable lyrics, his piercing voice strikes an array of emotional chords, echoing and reverberating throughout the multi-channel installation. Soundscapes of gritty rocks and searing lava are coupled with smoky, tar-like aromas of fossilized amber, the only essential oil in existence that is mined (as opposed to harvested). Enveloped within this perceptual framework, the audience finds themselves negotiating through an uncanny, bordering on spiritual experience inside the cavernous belly of a volcano.

In the upstairs galleries, sculptural works composed of resin and obsidian glass engage in dialogue at opposite ends of one room. Crackling sounds intermingle with the smell of burnt birch trees, signaling destructive volcanic forces that ultimately have generative ends. Crafted from hand-carved obsidian blades and a cross-sectioned tree, these sculptures embody healing energies that stimulate growth and regeneration.

Another sound installation ensues from a convex armature that is affixed with flower-shaped metallic discs. Equipped with LEDs, the structure pulsates with light in short bursts, blinking slowly at first before swelling into rapid-fire successions, eventually forcing the viewer to close their eyes. A nod to Brion Gysin’s 1960s Dream Machine, Jónsi’s flashing lights similarly produce trance-like, hallucinatory effects. Here, the artist infuses the space with the scent of ozone known to engage photoreceptors inside the brain, further activating the mind’s third eye.

In an environment where the visual has traditionally taken precedence, Jónsi’s propositions of alternative forms of seeing meditate on the body’s relationship with its immediate surroundings. While it is tempting to focus solely on the formal qualities of acoustic hardware, surface properties, or architectural scale, these elements merely access the true works at hand, namely an alchemical mix of imagery, sensations, and emotions borne within the mind-body of his viewers.

Jónsi initially gained international recognition as the lead vocalist for the Icelandic experimental rock band Sigur Rós, whose unique sounds have been equated with the sublime. Jónsi’s unequivocal vocal and instrumental approach have expanded the boundaries of musical genres, rendering him one of the leading musical artists of our time.

Launching in conjunction with the exhibition is Obsidian, Jónsi’s third solo musical album that likewise centers on the Icelandic natural wonder. Recorded and produced in tandem with the works on view, the parallel formats inform one another and interweave through their embodiment of volcanic energies. Over the course of ten tracks, each with evocative titles referencing sights, textures, and aromas of the ashen terrain, Jónsi takes his listeners through narrative arcs between erupting flares. Through an instinctual sensibility for layering vocals over orchestral passages, Jónsi masterfully collapses the boundaries between the senses. Velvety, musky notes of amber translate through deep, sustained progressions of the double bass. Similarly, sharp, tapered edges of obsidian glass register through piercing and frenetic digital bursts. And finally, in the manner of falling ashes, sounds of rushing winds and water cascade steadily over listeners, signaling a return to serenity, stillness, and recovery.

OBSIDIAN, 2020
Obsidian, burned Brazilian walnut, resin, scent, steel
36 x 36 x38 inches

https://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/exhibitions/614-jonsi-obsidian-tanya-bonakdar-gallery-new-york/

BEAUTY: Installation--Es Devlin

Extraordinary artist and stage designer Es Devlin (she and her team designed the incredible stage for U2's Experience + Innocence tours) recently exhibited Memory Palace, a large scale, mind boggling gallery installation at the Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery in London.

MEMORY PALACE
ES DEVLIN, 2019

CNC CUT BAMBOO, MIRROR, EARTHBORN CLAYPAINT, 3D PRINTED SLA
17500 X 6500 X 3900MM

MEMORY PALACE IS A NEW SCULPTURE WHICH FILLS THE GALLERY SPACE WITH A VAST CHRONOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE MAPPING PIVOTAL SHIFTS IN HUMAN PERSPECTIVE OVER SEVENTY-FIVE MILLENNIA.

FROM THE CAVES IN SOUTHERN AFRICA WHERE HOMO SAPIENS FIRST LEFT THEIR MARK, TO THE STEPS OF THE SWEDISH PARLIAMENT WHERE GRETA THUNBERG BEGAN HER CLIMATE STRIKE, THE LOCATIONS AND MOMENTS REPRESENT A PERSONAL AND SUBJECTIVE CARTOGRAPHY AND HAVE BEEN CHOSEN BY ES TO INVOKE OUR COLLECTIVE MEMORIES/HISTORY, AND ALSO TO PROVOKE DIALOGUE AND DEBATE.

IT IS NAMED AFTER THE CLASSICAL MNEMONIC TECHNIQUE, ORIGINATING IN ANCIENT GREECE, WHICH CATALOGUES MEMORIES WITHIN FAMILIAR LOCATIONS. ES IDENTIFIES THE ROOMS IN WHICH SIGNIFICANT SHIFTS IN HUMAN THINKING TOOK PLACE AND PLOTS THEM WITHIN IDENTIFIABLE FRAGMENTS OF CITIES AND BUILDINGS TO CREATE A PERSONAL ATLAS OF THE EVOLUTION OF THOUGHT.

CONSTRUCTION: DIAGON
LEAD ASSOCIATE DESIGNER: RUBY WAI YUE LAW

PHOTO CREDIT: PETER MALLET

https://esdevlin.com/
https://www.pitzhanger.org.uk/

BEAUTY: Installation--Adela Andea

Light sculptor/artist Adela Andea's Artist Statement:

"I like to think about my art as incorporating as many layers of reality. My ideas for the spaces I plan to generate are structured as a dialogue about the interaction between people and new technologies, socio-political issues raised through the dynamic and rapid industrialization and globalization. This socio-political and economical constructed reality is part of a consensus reality about the current stage of the ecology of electronics.

In my vision there is not one unilateral truth or message about reality. The subjective encounter through personal individual experience with the artwork is one dimension that creates many other layers of reality. Confronting the discrepancy between ideas, understanding of the concept in the context of socio-cultural present preoccupation, and the actual experience, events, the reality can be manipulated by the way is presented, argued.

Through art, the transformation of information has been mitigating the two extremes, between the valuable resources of information and the end product responsibilities for recycling, giving a different meaning to the phrase “residual value.” In addition the fast scientific developments almost enable us to distinguish between present and future technologies; a question I always ask myself when encountering new information: it has been done and succeed it, is experimental or it is envisioned to happen in some laboratories?

I like to transform the indoor spaces into installations that involve full sensory experiences for the viewers. I use all the space is available to expand for the purposes of the installation. I consider all physical aspects of the building and the level of audience involvement. Where films and video games convey a futuristic approach generating virtual realities, my art is trying to deconstruct the clear delimitation line between reality and virtual reality.

The numerous transitions in my life made me think about the enormous capability of people to adapt to situations and even more, search for the new possibilities of personal development through inquisitive experiences. I strive for my art to vindicate the malign consequences of technology on the environment and inspire new exciting ways to infuse technology."

http://www.adelaandea.com

BEAUTY: Installation--Leon Tarasewicz

For the exhibit "Polish Painting of the 21st Century," artist Leon Tarasewicz painted the Grand Staircase at the Zachęta-National Gallery of Art in Warsaw. I love the technicolor aspect of this delightful installation... and I'm always a sucker for the spattering technique.

http://www.zacheta.art.pl/pl

Underwater Art Gallery

In 2010, commercial and fine art photographer Andreas Franke visited the artificial reef of the sunken ship The Vandenburg, off the coast of Key West. After many dives, he created a portfolio of work positing what everyday life would be like on this wrecked ship, under water. These fantastical images make up the collection "The Vandenburg: Life Below the Surface." And the first venue to show these works is The Vandenburg itself! Currently, divers can suit up for a descent to 93 feet below the water's surface to see Franke's work encased in plexiglass and held onto the hull of the ship by ultra-strong magnets. The show closes January of 2012 and then will be exhibited on dry land.

http://www.staudinger-franke.at/vandenberg/view/galery.php