Month: May 2010
Copenhagen Graffiti (Walls)
Makiko Kudo
Bjarne Melgaard //
Yoshitomo Nara //
Calum Stirling /// HYPOBARIC EMPYR
Spring Fling, the Dumfries & Galloway artists’ open studios event, has commissioned Scottish artist Calum Stirling to create a new installation work. This will be open to the public for the duration of the May bank holiday weekend at Craigieburn, a Nepalese-themed garden outside Moffat, in Scotland.
Stirling is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Glasgow. For the commission, he has created a new installation titled Hypobaric Empyr, which combines elements of architecture, sound and alchemy and responds directly with the unusual, culturally and geographically diverse, landscape of the garden. Stirling is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Glasgow. For the commission, he has created a new installation titled Hypobaric Empyr, which combines elements of architecture, sound and alchemy and responds directly with the unusual, culturally and geographically diverse, landscape of the garden.
Throughout the five-acre garden Stirling will install a series of architectural scale sculptures that define the core of the installation. Part folly, theatrical set and mystical retreat, in combination their intention is to generate a complimentary fictional narrative and alternative navigation of the garden. The theme of the installation comes, in part, from the work of German architectural theorist Bruno Taut – in particular his inspirational book Alpine Architecture. Written in the immediate aftermath of WWI, in it he projects a utopian conversion of the world beginning with an architectural reworking of the Alps. Taut’s Modernist and Expressionist values were complimented not only by an interest in mountain culture but also by an interest in Buddhist philosophy. Stirling has taken this connection back to Dawa Sherpa, Craigieburn’s head gardener. Dawa’s passion for Nepali plants and his previous occupation as a sherpa guide and successful Everest summiteer is evident throughout the garden.
Calum Stirling studied sculpture at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee (1983-87). In recent works Stirling has focused on exploring illusion, perception and chance occurrence in relation to both static and mobile sculptural form and space. He often makes installations devised for specific locations, such as Rostra Plaza his large-scale expanded cinema installation devised for the Mitchell Library at Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2008 and the project Landstylus devised for Makrolab to translate the topography of the Scottish Highlands into sound. Recent shows and projects include The Dwelling at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) in Melbourne and a major public artwork for the New Victoria Hospital in Glasgow. Forthcoming projects include Mediations Biennale 2010 in Poznan Poland.
RICHARD COLMAN
LOS ANGELES – Opening May 22, New Image Art Gallery presents “Keep Out the Light,” a solo exhibition that features new paintings, sculpture and site-specific installations by Richard Colman. “Keep Out the Light” marks Colman’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles since 2007.
In this most recent body of work, Colman shows the struggles of the architect working “behind the scenes” of the elaborate; both beautiful and claustrophobic among landscapes and artifacts. Richard’s work demonstrates a unique language drawing on the intricacies of an Indian Miniature, to the antiquity of the more abstract and symbolic nature of Byzantine art. Colman’s patterns have the repetition and geometry associated with Islamic tiles and mosaics. Narratives depict day-glo orgies, fusing the sinister with the comical. A pantheon of internalized imagery and shared iconography comes into play in the shape of occult symbols, silhouettes, and rainbow sprays of color, piles of viscera, in a concoction of violence and ecstasy.
The subjects of his paintings-from headless bears to naked men-are presented in a theatrical way, like actors in a play, standing in formation. The work captures the feeling of being frozen on stage, anticipating what will come next and never quite finding out.
The title of the show, “Keep Out the Light,” references the density of Colman’s work, as well as his obsessive work habits, serving as a sort of escape for the artist. The works in this new exhibition exhibit the strength of obsessive patterning and imagery to drive away the delusions of everyday life.
Colman will be constructing a space within the gallery that will both highlight the work and invite viewers to step into the art and explore and experience the landscape of “Keep Out the Light”.
About Richard Colman
Colman was born in 1976 and grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Colman graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, in 2002. He has exhibited extensively throughout the world in solo and group exhibitions including Krets, Malmo Sweeden, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark, Merry Karnowsky Gallery, Los Angeles, Union Gallery, London, UK and ARKEN Museum Of Modern Art, Denmark. In 2006, Gingko Press released a book cataloging his work titled “I Was Just Leaving.” Colman currently lives and works in San Francisco, California. www.richardcolmanart.com
About New Image Art Gallery
Marsea Goldberg, founder and director of New Image Art, started the gallery in 1994 in her 10 by 10 design studio. Since then, the gallery has grown to attract a global cult following, grabbing the interest of art lovers and collectors worldwide. Renowned for her discriminating eye and solid curatorial skills, New Image Art Gallery continues to show the works of established and emerging artists coming out of the street, skate, fine art and surf scenes. Over the years, the gallery has launched or mobilized the careers of Shepard Fairey, Ed Templeton, Jo Jackson, Chris Johanson, Rich Jacobs, Rebecca Westcott, Neckface, Cleon Peterson, Megan Whitmarsh, Faile, Tauba Auerbach, Matt Leines, the Date Farmers, Judith Supine, and Bäst, just to name a few.
Copenhagen Graffiti (S-Trains) //
