Tense Installations by Jose Davila
Allure, allure marble, straps and eyebolts
Jose Davila is an artist based in New York whose work harkens back to the height of minimalism. He often uses raw materials, like marble slabs, only slightly altered by having neon-coloured straps wrapped around them – or square pieces of glass stacked in front of one another to create a gradient as the opacity increases
The simplicity of Jose’s works allows for calm contemplation of his…
Cardboard Sculptures That Seem Built To Take Off
These incredible sculptures of flying machines are made entirely of cardboard by artist Daniel Agdag. I'm amazed at the choice of materials for these works since cardboard is something that I think of as fragile and certainly not resistant to the effects of time. All I know is that the artist must be a master of glue and carboard to build some of the fine structural elements. I'm in love with these. They remind me of whimsical flying…
Lifelike Paper Birds by Diana Beltran Herrera
Here are some incredible sculptural works by Diana Beltran Herrera. Everytime I look at these images I can't believe that they are so life-like even though they are made with paper. Especially the treatment of the paper used on the belly of the bird that looks like soft down. I can almost imagine the warmth of holding a bird in my hand and it's tiny, speedy heart beat! A note on the photos of these pieces - I can't imagine that it's…
Bizarre Landscapes: Painting and Sculpture by Jonathan Hertzel
Looking at Jonathan Hertzel’s work is like seeing an image transformed into different mediums. A sculptor and a painter, Jonathan’s bronze sculptures seem like fragments of his chaotic paintings, pulled off the canvas and made three-dimensional.
The sense of movement in Jonathan’s paintings is incredible. Despite their strictly abstract nature, I find myself viewing them more as landscapes, if quite bizarre landscapes.…
Artist Peddy Mergui Blends Eggs with Versace
Fancy schmancy eggs anyone? Artist Peddy Mergui blends eggs with Versace and he didn't stop there. He explores a range of sculptures that deal with superimposing different 'big' brands and food products. The packaging choices are so tactile - I can't help but imagine undoing the egg box and unwrapping each egg within. The packaging makes me imagine a parallel world where shopping is extra EXTRA fancy. What would the rest of this…
Studio Sunday: Ai Weiwei
Today on Studio Sunday we’ll take a look at the home studio space of Ai Weiwei. Ai Weiwei has long been known for his politically charged and controversial artworks, many of them in protest against the policies of the Chinese government.
The artist’s home and studio in Beijing is an expansive compound, almost like a guarded fortress. Inside, the décor is simplistic, with the textures of hardwood, brick and concrete, high…
Studio Sunday: Douglas Coupland
Our artist for this Studio Sunday is Douglas Coupland, an artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Despite the bright, clean colours present in many of his artworks, Coupland’s studio space is fairly simple, less a fancy artist’s loft than a humble basement studio. It is, however, spacious, and well equipped for working in a wide variety of materials, from paint, to sculpture to Lego, as seen above. The visual excitement in…
Studio Sunday: Thomas Houseago
This Studio Sunday, we take a peek inside the Los Angeles studio of Thomas Houseago, a sculptor who works in materials like plaster, iron and bronze. His sculptures tend to be figurative, and draw from classical sculpting tropes, but are more like the sculptural equivalent of gesture drawings than they are realistic.
Houseago owns an entire studio building in Los Angeles, which itself takes up an entire city block. The building is…
Sculpture Utilizing Found Objects: Susan Parrish
Mr. Twinings, Always on Time for Work, found objects
Susan Parrish is our featured artist for the day! Trained as a potter, Susan created functional pieces of ceramic work for many years before deciding use her skills for pure art. She now creates eclectic works of sculpture utilizing found objects and a diverse range of materials.
The Politicians: Crockpot, mixed media
Her charming series of abstracted busts use the form and shape of…
Studio Sundays: Sculptor Aaron Curry
Aaron Curry is a sculptor from Texas who uses plywood, metal, spray paint and other materials to create large, anthropomorphic forms that seem to change depending on the angle they are seen from. His studio space, located in a large warehouse in Los Angeles, California, must be big enough to accommodate many of these forms along the walls, as well as work tables stuffed full of paint and other supplies.
A recent motif in Curry’s…
Studio Sundays: Sculptor Rebecca Warren
Today on Studio Sunday we’ll take a look at contemporary sculptor Rebecca Warren. While Warren’s sculptures might appear at first glance to be abstractions, many of them reflect the way that the figure, especially the female form, is portrayed in popular art and media.
Rebecca Warren's studio environment in London (seen in the above photo) is very important to the outcome of her work. Notably, she works primarily in unfired…
Ron Mueck: Hyper-Realist Sculptor
Huge humans are the frequent subject of sculptor Ron Mueck's art practice. These figures dominate space and at the same time convey the familiar poses and postures of vulnerability, loneliness and fatigue. The figures seem to express with such rawness - conveying their thoughts so clearly through their gestures and facial expressions. I think that the scale magnifies the vulnerability of the figures in a thoroughly disarming way.…
