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In ‘A Collective Glow,’ Gigi Chen’s Surreal Acrylic Paintings Channel Togetherness and Safety

June 18, 2024 (updated June 18, 2024) Published by artistvenu

Featured image: “Midnight” (2024), acrylic on wood, 20 x 24 inches image © Gigi Chen

Bluebirds are often associated with happiness, love, hope, and positivity, making them an apt subject for New York-based artist Gigi Chen (previously), whose surreal paintings of wildlife merge the animal kingdom with symbols of home, comfort, and connection.

In her forthcoming solo exhibition A Collective Glow at Beinart Gallery in Melbourne, Chen continues to explore emotional ties between animals and the environment. In “A Sparrow’s Song,” a bird’s body radiates with neon pink hearts, while in “A Collective Glow,” half a dozen house sparrows stitch up a gleaming cavity in a pigeon’s breast.

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The Unclassifiable Brilliance of Joanne Greenbaum

June 12, 2024 (updated June 12, 2024) Published by artistvenu

Featured image: mage © Joanne Greenbaum, “Untitled” (2024), oil, acrylic, flashe, and marker on canvas, 78 x 75 inches

Joanne Greenbaum began making ceramic sculpture in 2004, after enrolling in a ceramics class at Greenwich House in New York City. By working in the medium before other artists of her generation (she was born in 1953), she signaled her commitment to the handmade. Over the past two decades she has created two impressive bodies of work side by side, ceramic sculptures and abstract paintings, which she began exhibiting in New York in the mid-1990s.

Greenbaum started her painting and ceramic practices with basic forms (line and slabs and coils, respectively), and she has been building upon them ever since. Throughout this time, she has never become formulaic. She has produced several paintings on prepared canvases, used a wide range of colors, employed permanent materials, such as marker, and created clay sculptures, all in a single sitting. And yet none of her works feel like they were made rapidly.

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Maia Ruth Lee’s Art of Movement and Memory

June 7, 2024 (updated June 7, 2024) Published by artistvenu

Featured image: Maia Ruth Lee, “B.B.Earth” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 109.25 x 184.25 inches (all photos Sigourney Schultz/Hyperallergic)

LOS ANGELES — The evolving nature of language in relation to memory is at the heart of Maia Ruth Lee’s art and life. Growing up, the artist experienced home across three transitory locales with her itinerant parents. At the age of five, she and her family moved from South Korea to Kathmandu, Nepal, where her parents, both linguists, developed a Sherpa alphabet and subsequently translated a Korean-Sherpa Bible. Mirroring her parents’ experience of creating a written language based on oral traditions, Lee crafts a visual language to communicate her diasporic experience with tension and tenderness.

hold shimmer wind at François Ghebaly gallery offers a comprehensive look at the ongoing series at the center of Lee’s practice, including large-scale canvas paintings, the Bondage Baggage sculpture series, and the first complete presentation of a three-part video series.

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Lina Bo Bardi (1914-1992) and Her Legendary Glass Easels

June 7, 2024 (updated June 7, 2024) Published by artistvenu

Featured image: the glass easels on view at the Venice Art Biennale | image © designboom

Lina Bo Bardi (1914-1992), born Achillina Bo, was an Italian-Brazilian modernist architect who devoted her career to promoting the social and cultural potential of architecture and design. Her most iconic works include the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP) and the SESC Pompéia, both housed in the same city. But Lina Bo Bardi’s genius reaches beyond the scope of architecture. After moving to Brazil in 1964, she turned her curiosity toward furniture, jewelry, curation, and set design, inspiring her to create the legendary glass easels for exhibition displays. Now on view at the 2024 Venice Art Biennale, this historical archetype — made of glass panels and concrete blocks — was originally conceived for MASP’s picture gallery and first introduced in 1968 at the inauguration of the museum’s headquarters on Paulista Avenue.

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Striking New Prints from Tugboat Printshop Reflect on the Mysteries of Nature and Mythology

June 7, 2024 (updated June 7, 2024) Published by artistvenu

Featured image: “Ladder Tree” in progress

For Valerie Lueth of Tugboat Printshop, the final piece is only one stage of the painstaking yet satisfying process of making woodblock prints. The works emerge from meticulous planning and carving of numerous blocks, which the Pittsburgh-based artist layers on top of one another to achieve a variety of colors, patterns, and striking contrasts.

One recent print “Reflecting Narcissus,” depicts five daffodils reflected in a pool of water. The composition references the Greek mythological character, Narcissus, whose beauty and youth were admired by everyone who looked upon him, even though he didn’t love anyone. That is, until he saw his own reflection in a pool and fell deeply for his image, pining away until he died and was transformed into a flower named for him.

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Anthony McCall A Journey through Solid Light

June 7, 2024 (updated June 7, 2024) Published by artistvenu

Light, both a fundamental aspect of the universe and a source of wonder, is a phenomenon that shapes our perception of the world. Scientifically, it can be defined as radiation within a defined electromagnetic spectrum, visible to the human eye. However, its significance extends far beyond mere visibility. Light illuminates our surroundings, allowing us to see colours, shapes and textures, influencing our mood and wellbeing. Whether it’s the warm glow of sunlight on your face or the radiance of a neon sign, our senses are stimulated, and we are reminded of its profound impact on our lives.

Several celebrated artists have made significant contributions to the field of light art, continuously reshaping our understanding of space and form through their innovative use of illumination. Amongst them is the heavyweight James Turrell (b. 1943), who stands as a pioneering figure for immersive installations that manipulate light to create transcendental moments. His mastery lies in the ability to harness both natural and artificial light to transform architectural environments into ethereal realms, blurring the boundaries between art and insight. Similarly, Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967) fascinates audiences by incorporating light, water and nature to evoke profound sensory experiences. His work encourages reflection and introspection, challenging you to reconsider your relationship with the environment.

Jenny Holzer (b. 1950), meanwhile, is known primarily for text-based installations, utilising light as a medium to convey powerful messages provoking social commentary. Through LEDs, she transforms public spaces into sites of contemplation and conversation, inviting viewers to engage critically with issues of power, politics and identity. Meanwhile, Diana Thater (b. 1962) probes the intersection of light and technology through immersive video installations. She creates dynamic worlds that challenge the understanding of space and time by manipulating light and colour.

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Incredible Wire Sculptures Merge the Magic of Fairies and Dandelions

June 7, 2024 (updated June 7, 2024) Published by artistvenu

Robin Wight’s foray into wire sculpture began with a simple project to repair his fence. Now, operating at Fantasy Wire, Wight and his small team, which includes his daughter Amy, work together to bring his wire fairies to life. Particularly captivating are their sculptures of fairies and dandelions, which merge the symbolism of these two distinct elements.

The magic and whimsy of the fairies blend with the hope and resilience of dandelions to form something spectacular. The large outdoor sculptures are particularly evocative when placed in open-air environments. Their meaning and appearance transform throughout the day as the fairies dance under the stars or relax in a sunset. Some of the sculptures even move, creating a kinetic experience.

Wight enjoys the way that the blowing dandelion dander gives the sculptures a sense of freedom and movement. His fans seem to agree. One sculpture from the series Dancing with Dandelions is his most requested from people looking to purchase his artwork. In it, a fairy pulls back on the stem of a dandelion as its dander begins to pull away. The fairy spins around, creating a continual motion that is captivating.

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In His Manhattan Apartment, Edward Holland Reaches for Constellations

June 7, 2024 (updated June 7, 2024) Published by artistvenu

Featured Image: Edward Holland, The Ram (Version 19) (2023). Courtesy of Hollis Taggart.

Edward Holland is a Libra which, depending on whom you talk to, may or may not be significant. The New York-based painter is best known for his zodiac painting series, which he has been working on consistently, and in accordance with the Western astrological seasons, for a decade.

In each of his canvases, he outlines the astronomical geometry of the designated constellation at a certain point in the sky, which he then uses to chart out the other formal elements of the painting. These can range from scraps of paper he found on the street, notes, poems, maps, doodles by his kids, ticket stubs, or whatever else he stumbles across. His only rule is that the material has to find its way to him organically—he won’t go out and buy anything specific. The artist, who claims he has always been a collagist, said that he even has some scraps that he has been hanging on to since elementary school, just waiting to be used when the time is right.

He then builds on this collaged foundation with paint and graphite, typically incorporating colors associated with that zodiac sign. The result is a precise but ultimately abstract record of time itself, densely layered with meaning that is both personal and universal all at once—just like a zodiac chart.

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The Adroit Formalism of Suzanne McClelland

June 7, 2024 (updated June 7, 2024) Published by artistvenu

Featured image: Suzanne McClelland, “2dividedby2 pleinair” (2024), water-based paint and charcoal on canvas, 72 x 60 inches

Suzanne McClelland has been fixated on the gaps between language, perception, and understanding for decades now, beginning in the 1990s. Highland Seer, the artist’s second exhibition at Marianne Boesky Gallery, extends her explorations of this theme. These 13 paintings, all from this year, are urgent yet subtle rejoinders to look closely.

Highland Seer takes its title from the pseudonymous Scottish writer of 1920’s Reading Tea Leaves, A Highland Seer. This short volume of verse explains how to find meaning in leaves, shapes, and premonitions, offering readers a means to interpret the present and predict the future. McClelland likewise suggests close looking and listening to read between sign and rhetoric in this exhibition. Each painting offers small clues to puzzle out larger patterns, such as looping, gestural abstraction that obliquely figures numbers, or distorted but familiar symbols, like the cartoon character the Road Runner, seen specifically in works such as “PREY – (heads or tails)” and “PREY – (tails or heads).”

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Kaleidoscopic Paintings by Sarah Helen More Pulse with Vibrant Energy

June 7, 2024 (updated June 7, 2024) Published by artistvenu

Featured image © Sarah Helen More: “Hide and Seek”

Textile design and the visual language of quilting shine through in Sarah Helen More’s paintings. Her kaleidoscopic works pair various geometric and botanical motifs in patchworks of flat graphic color. Emitting a joyful, meditative energy, the vivid compositions directly tie to the artist’s childhood memories and experiences.

Growing up in Portland, Oregon, and Houston, More was exposed to her mother’s quilting practice and her father’s vast geology collection, and she fuses the two in her works, as organic imagery melds with stripes and bold blocks of color. Now inspired by her daily walks around her home in Seattle, the artist often begins with a photograph or sketch before translating the patterns to the canvas.

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