This is definitely too gray, too melancholy, too self-abandoning. Looking from left to right, into the end, curving himself from somewhere where the beginning hasn't even started - straight into the blue, self-effacing space. And look at his look. A sight that has more shadow than seeing.
I like it.
Minggu, 29 April 2007
Looking through canvas. Małgorzata Ata Warias
Sabtu, 28 April 2007
Linda Hiller
I am a self-represented artist working out of my studio in my home. Although I’m self taught I have taken workshops and studied with many nationally known artists so I guess you could call it more like selective education. My medium of choice is pastel with oil being a close second. I teach pastel classes at a local junior college and participate in several artist organizations in the surrounding area.
Linda's Blog
Linda's Blog
Technorati Tags art, blog, artist, paintings
Sticks
Contemporary art could be described as the look-out for presence. There are very pragmatic ways in which presence can be experienced. If anything can be art when given the right focus, we need to look for ways of better focusing. So when we get it, we get it. Thus, it is a constant game between what we know and what we think we might have known, had it been a slightly different setting. Darren Harvey-Regan is a beautiful example of finding what is already there, of creating what had already been there and just giving it that delicate push which makes us grow our of here and into the work.
And if you think you know exactly what it is, it might just mean you need to look more carefully, and take the time to see the landscape he has found.
Jumat, 27 April 2007
Cowscapes by Rachael Sudlow
You can spare yourself the trouble of reading the artist's statement. These landscapes speak for themselves. See the online gallery here. I labeled this post as 'funny', though I don't consider it just a joke. It has real beauty (come on, stop chuckling...). Somehow, though, I didn't label it as land art.
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Kamis, 26 April 2007
Simply enjoying design
The two lowest steps of this staircase are used as shoe drawers. Found here.
This is what this chest sounds like. Unfortunately the people that make them seem to think children are the only ones who would enjoy this type of furniture. Found here. This rings a bell - I remember discovering an amazing installation, a table where one would hear sounds through the vibrations going through your body. Does anyone have a clue?
There is a pleasure in the usable object that is simply magical. This glovy feeling - it fits like a glove, and it feels like a glove, and it can be the most exquisite thing. Some sort of harmony, I guess. As if design gave us the world as we had imagined it ought to be, though only now does it live up to expectations. Artsy art rarely seems to head that way. (If we insist on distinguishing the two).
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Selasa, 24 April 2007
Rent a Wife
What the hell is going on?
Wives for rent? For an unlimited time? Chose your preferred category?
Of course, Rent-a-Wife is a joke. But is it an artistic joke? A provocation joke? A silly joke? A horribly sexist joke? Or is it?
If it is an ironic look at the way women are seen by today's society (not only male), than why does it seem strange?
Because there is a catch. (Duhh...) And it is not about feminism. It is about renting DVDs. As what we have here is an ad for DVD rental.
How far is this from Vanessa Beecroft installing her objectified women in a shoe-shelf, to sell shoes?
Could I be accused of the same hypocrisy, exposing something by exposing it?
Oh, and if you think it's getting pretty much impossible to look at gender issues in a witty way without being accused of this or that, the desert is for you:
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Thickening light: Emilia Bergmark - Jiménez
There is a melancholy light in Emilia Bergmark-Jiménez's work that makes one want to stay there. 
By «there», I don't mean the place that is being photographed, but rather, the space of the photography itself. The picture seems not so much to portray something, but rather, to use it for its own means, as if the image had a goal of its own, quite separate from the object matter, or even the photographer herself.
What is left of the person? What form can a person have if light goes through her and plays with her seeming irrelevance? Maybe, the person becomes distant. Translucent.
Yet there is something about that form that appeals precisely because it is being put so close to forgetting.
This may well be what remains of memory, when what is left to oblivion, is rescued by thickening the nearly empty space, the traces gaining contours that are not what was left behind, but are some ambiguous form we vaguely recognize as ours, as belonging to us, as representing this left-over area that is neither the object we knew, or the eye of the beholder. It is this lovely, strange in-between.
(via)
Kamis, 19 April 2007
Selasa, 17 April 2007
Rene Plein Air
Born in The Netherlands (1964) I am a self-educated painter. Although I studied house-painting, commercial painting and advertising my main interest has always been in fine art.
I began my career as an artist after completing military service, firstly by painting abstract work of the surrounding landscapes where I live. These were begun with sketches in Indian ink on paper and later translated into large paintings (35" x 50") in my studio. During this period my work was shown in a number of galleries, town halls, libraries and other venues in The Netherlands and Germany. Further initiatives resulted in exhibition opportunities with other artists in my own neighbourhood.
In 2004 I discovered the delights of real 'plein-air' painting and became addicted at once! This has become my main area of interest for the time being.
Rene's Blog
I began my career as an artist after completing military service, firstly by painting abstract work of the surrounding landscapes where I live. These were begun with sketches in Indian ink on paper and later translated into large paintings (35" x 50") in my studio. During this period my work was shown in a number of galleries, town halls, libraries and other venues in The Netherlands and Germany. Further initiatives resulted in exhibition opportunities with other artists in my own neighbourhood.
In 2004 I discovered the delights of real 'plein-air' painting and became addicted at once! This has become my main area of interest for the time being.
Rene's Blog
Technorati Tags art, blog, artist, paintings
Senin, 16 April 2007
Kamis, 12 April 2007
How to Join Art Blogs 4 U
The purpose of this blog is to provide a centralised List of artists who write about their art on their blogs. The layout of the site may change from time to time but the List itself will remain on the main page so will always be easily seen by visitors. I will be posting to the blog at regular intervals in order to maintain its 'visibility' and raise its profile, and artists who add their names are invited to send me a short description of their blog or their art work (e.g. their Art Bio) to include in these posts. These short 'bios will also be linked into the main list. Artists are also invited to send me the URL of an artwork that they would like published as one of Art Blogs 4 U's 'featured paintings'.
HOW TO JOIN - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY
This list is open to anyone practising 2-dimensional fine art (i.e. drawings, paintings, wall hangings) who writes a blog about their work, but please no blogs about digital art or photography.
All you have to do is leave a comment to this post which includes your name exactly as you want it to appear in the list, e.g. Sarah Doe, or Sarah Doe's Art, or The Complete Doodler, etc.
This list is open to anyone practising 2-dimensional fine art (i.e. drawings, paintings, wall hangings) who writes a blog about their work, but please no blogs about digital art or photography.
All you have to do is leave a comment to this post which includes your name exactly as you want it to appear in the list, e.g. Sarah Doe, or Sarah Doe's Art, or The Complete Doodler, etc.
Also please type out the URL to the blog you want listed (sorry, no websites will be accepted).
Please state which category you wish your art blog link to appear in (in addition to the main list) from the following - please choose ONE category only from:
Watercolour, Oils, Pastel/Other Dry Media, Acrylic, Mixed Media, Landscape, Abstract
Links will be added to the main list on a regular basis.
IMPORTANT .........
You must place a reciprocal link on your own blog to be listed ...... the continuing success of the site depends on every member displaying the link. If you cannot do this then your details will not be listed/will be removed.
Blogs will be added at the Blog Owner's discretion, no correspondence will be entered into.
Blogs will only be added once they have been in existence (and have had new posts added regularly) for at least 3 months. This is standard practice for Lists ... although many require 6 months or longer.
Blogs which cease to post on a regular basis will be removed from the list.
The Blog Owner reserves the right to remove the link to any blog that is not mainly about 2-dimensional art or which contains lewd, libelous or otherwise offensive material.
Technorati Tags art, weblog, blog, artist, paintings, drawings, pastel, oil, acrylic, watercolour, links, list
Jumat, 06 April 2007
What you see
If the previous post made you think of how powerful not-so-free association can be, then you might like Logo.Hallucination. Its author, Christophe Bruno, used a pattern-recognition software to analyze images on the net and discover similarities with known brand logos.
And our dear Courbet can apparently be associated to Corus: 
Now, here is the crazy part: after discovering the image, Bruno sends an e-mail to its owner:
Madam, Sir,
We inform you that our automated monitoring spiderbot has detected a potential infringement of Intellectual Property Law in the digital image located at the address […]. Indeed this image includes a total or partial representation of the logotype of the brand XXX. Since you are responsible for the diffusion of this image on the Internet, we would like to remind you that such unauthorized use of copyrighted work could be liable for statutory damages. Moreover, it may have violated other US federal laws, including (among others) the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and the Consumer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Accordingly, we hereby suggest that you should contact immediately, and possibly through our agency, the company XXX so that we negotiate with them a friendly contract which would allow a regularization of this situation, according to the following possibilities:
Case 1: You might be financially rewarded by company XXX insofar as this situation constitutes advertising and promotion for the brand XXX. In this case you must explicitly indicate the reference to the company XXX by adding its logo to the aforesaid image and insert a link towards the site of this company.
Case 2: You wish to continue the exploitation and diffusion of your image without mentioning the company and in this case you will have to settle reproduction rights with this company insofar as the latter authorizes you to further exploit and diffuse your image.
If you fail to comply with these requests, the company XXX will have no choice but to proceed in a manner appropriate to protect its valuable intellectual property rights.
Sincerely yours
Logo.Hallucination
Scary? Funny? Ironic? Insofar as this is an artistic project, it sounds hilarious (especially if we were to try and find the author of the Origin of the World)(pun intended). But if internet cafés started off as an artistic project, why can't a ruthless fight over image rights start off as a funny piece of software?
(via)
Kamis, 05 April 2007
Selasa, 03 April 2007
The virginal origin of the world
Needless to say, this work by Tanja Ostojic is a reference to Courbet's Origin of the World:
Produced by the 25Peaces collective, it was supposed to be a promotion of Europe, and from what I understand, to participate in the campaign in favor of the European Constitution (in 2005, if I am not mistaken). As the image was posted on huge billboards, it was considered too radical and was taken off. And the Constitution lost the referendum.
But what is the actual message? Is it 'the origin of a new world'? It seems more like the beginning of something that can never be born. Instead of the origin, instead of the troubling, but real, thing, we get... panties with stars. Thank you very much. Where exactly is this Europe supposed to originate? Oh, and the retouched skin, the pure atmosphere of soap commercials and soft porn... It reminds me of Jeff Koons. And I'm not sure that's where I would like to see my Europe. Then again, I'm not sure Orlan's earlier variation on the Origin of the World motive would be convincing in a political debate:
Any other alternatives?
Tanja Ostojic's work was accused of misogyny. After writing the above words, I found a fascinating interview with the artist, who clearly states that the objective of the work was not to promote the EU ideals, etc., but it was created beforehand, namely as a comment on the EU's politics of (non)intergration. Now it makes sense. Ostojic actually seems quite upset about the context the work was shown in and the idiotic way it was treated by the Austrian media. Her site also made me discover another, impressive work by Ostojic: Looking For a Husband with an EU Passport (2003):
Wow. This hurts. I would call this a hard core artistic attitude. In that it doesn't have any problems with exploring what is too intimate to be shared. Nudity is a common, though not at all necessary element. It is really about exposure. Maybe, about making us feel uncomfortable. Do I like it? Is there any way one can like it?
(partly via)
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