Los Angeles-based Liza Lou‘s artwork truly boggles my mind. THOSE ARE GLASS BEADS, all of them, every single one, and Lou threaded each bead with her own hands. The sheer size and quantity she’s created for each of these sculptural installations is a lot to take in, and the final works completely mesmerizing. Sometimes the beaded squares are layered on top of one another to create a further depth of color.
New York City-based artist Sarah Meyohas‘ Speculations series is a never-ending exploration of environments, one within another within another until infinity. She creates these amazing setups that pull the viewer in so deeply by using two mirrors that face one another. Florals, smoke, even playing cards are all turned into their own endless worlds.
Romanian-born, Texas-dwelling artist Adela Andea creates full-sensory experiences through her light installations. She considers all aspects of the space as well as the level of audience participation and expands each piece accordingly, attempting to destroy the line between reality and virtual reality in the process.
String artist Eric Rieger, aka Hot Tea, has woven typography and patterns into chain-link fences with yarn the world over as well as collaborated with big names like New York Fashion Week and Sesame Street. His installations range in scale with the largest (seen directly below) Hot Lunch using over 13,000 individual strands of yarn in 103 colors!
Francesca Pasquali transforms plastic industrial materials into objects and installations that emulate natural shapes and structures that she’s observed. Her art includes everything from drinking straws to balloons to neoprene, and dozens more interesting materials in between. Be sure and have a look at Pasquali’s entire portfolio to see the extent for yourself!
Over the past few years we’ve seen the resurgence of the Memphis Movement and last September Camille Walala brought her spin to WALALA x PLAY, her latest project at London’s NOW Gallery. The colorful, graphic labyrinth encourages visitors to unleash their inner child while leading them towards a puzzle where they’re asked to find the differences between similar images. Walala’s influences also include the Ndebele tribe and optical art master Vasarely, as well as the simple desire to put a smile on people’s faces.
Photos by Charles Emerson
Posted In create, installation
For Dan Stockholm‘s By Hand installation he created a series of negative plaster casts of his cupped hands into red clay bricks that reveal different amounts of his palms. The project is a follow up to a project from 2013 that followed his father’s death…
Fascinated by places and architecture with an innate historical significance and narrative tension, Dan Stockholm practises a ‘creative archaeology’. The act of touching has become a fundamental part of his working process where for example, in 2013 days after his father’s death he methodically touched his father’s entire house centimetre by centimetre and subsequently made and adapted plaster casts of his handprints for ongoing sculptures and installations.
A vibrant installation of ancient Armenian images, embroidered wooden scupltures, zoomorphic creatures, and soundscapes. A collection that uses embroidery to vandalize everyday objects with emotive, political, and thoughtful text. A pseudo kitchen where fridges, doors, food, and sinks become the canvases for hidden thoughts. Sarah Greaves elevates everything she touches to the next level of thought and emotion.
Vanessa German, sometimes. we. cannot. be. with. our. bodies., 2017
This past weekend I visited the Mattress Factory here in Pittsburgh for the first time in years. The non-traditional museum was founded in 1977 in an old mattress factory by artists to support artists, working in residence to create site-specific installations. Since then the museum has presented and commissioned new installation and performance works by more than 750 artists, and grown to take up three buildings in the city’s Mexican War Streets neighborhood. The museum supports established and emerging artists through a residency program that provides leadership, guidance, resources, and opportunities to create artwork that is unconventional, challenging and thought-provoking. The flexibility and inventiveness offered allows artists to respond to developments in technology, explore audience interaction, and challenge traditional artistic ideals and practices.
Dennis Maher, A Second Home, 2016
Dennis Maher, A Second Home, 2016
Dennis Maher, A Second Home, 2016
Dennis Maher, A Second Home, 2016
Dennis Maher, A Second Home, 2016
Vanessa German, sometimes. we. cannot. be. with. our. bodies., 2017
Vanessa German, sometimes. we. cannot. be. with. our. bodies., 2017
David Pohl, furniture music, 2017
David Pohl, furniture music, 2017
David Pohl, furniture music, 2017
William Anastasi, Untitled (Calisthenic Series), 1997
Vanessa Sica and Chris Kasabach, Unbrella, 2009
Allan Wexler, Bed Sitting Rooms for an Artist in Residence, 1988
David Ellis, Summer Quintet #17, 2017
Jene Highstein, Untitled, 1986
Bill Woodrow, Ship of Fools: Discovery of Time, 1986
Sarah Oppenheimer, 610-3356, 2008
Meg Webster, Solar Grow Room, 2017
Meg Webster, Solar Grow Room, 2017
Allan Wexler, Sculpting Gravity, 2017
Allan Wexler, Sculpting Gravity, 2017
Allan Wexler, Sculpting Gravity, 2017
Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Dots, 1996
Yayoi Kusama, Repetitive Vision, 1996
James Turrell, Catso, Red, 1994
Rolf Julius, Red, 1996
Posted In behind the scenes, create, installation, pittsburgh
Ian Brill, NYC native and Pittsburgh resident, creates installations that focus on the accumulation of form through process. Through the creation of interactive, performative, and multi-sensorial environments, he considers the boundaries of becoming and our relationship with technology. His installations, performances, and writing have been presented internationally, at conferences, festivals museums and galleries.
