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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
For more than a decade, Jan Vormann has used LEGOs to craft “dispatchwork” for centuries-old structures, public spaces across the globe, and other eroded areas. Within these pieces, which take hours and hours to create, he hides passageways and windows that ignite the imagination. The multi-colored blocks can sometimes have a glitch-like effect, when activating otherwise everyday spaces. These projects have appeared in Korea, various parts of the U.S., his native Berlin, and beyond.
Oscar Oiwa brings his immersie mural work to USC Pacific Asia Museum with the new installation "Dreams of a Sleeping World." The artist describes this new work as a "360° dreamscape," created over two weeks and handrawn with 120 Sharpie markers. Oiwa was last featured on cctvta.com here.
Brian Tolle's startling sculptures are said to be a dialogue between "history and context." His ability to manipulate what appear to be the most stubborn of structures is more than just a clever use of materials such as styrofoam and urethane (as is th case in the top piece, "Eureka.") Tolle forces us to consider our own relationship with the materials around us.
Tom Biddulph and Barbara Ryan
CrocodilePOWER is a Moscow-based duo who craft dystopic yet vibrant installations, sculptures, and paintings. Consisting of artists Peter Goloshchapov and Oksana Simatova, the pair works in materials like fiberglass, porcelain, wood, moss, iron, and more. See some of their recent, startling visions below.
In Max Hooper Schneider's lush sculptures and installations, his experiences in marine biology and landscape architecture prove to be ever-present influences. His Hammer Projects exhibition at Hammer Museum in Los Angeles is immersive and packed with too many details for one viewing, packed with found objects amassed over several years. The exhibition runs through Feb. 2 at the museum.
In Barry McGee’s current show at Perrotin’s Hong Kong gallery, titled “The Other Side,” the artist creates a new immersive environment that blends his love of retro patterns, lettering, advertisements, and comic strip characters. The show runs through Nov. 9 at the space. McGee was featured in Hi-Fructose Vols. 16 and 25.
Artist/architect Mohamad Hafez uses found objects and scraps to craft politically and socially charged Middle Eastern streetscapes. His "UNPACKED: Refugee Baggage" series adds an audio component, with the sculptures of homes and other structures existing inside open suitcases. The narratives offered are of real people from Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Congo, and elsewhere.
"Gross Domestic Product" is Banksy's new homewares brand, created after a greeting cards company tried to take his name and he was legally advised to prevent it by selling "his own range of branded merchandise." This past week, the artist opened a showroom in Croydon (with doors that don't actually open), and his site for the store says it's opening for sales soon. GDP’s tagline: "Where art irritates life."
Emmanuelle Moureaux, known for her massive installations using numerals and letters as building blocks, recently crafted a new major work for the 100th anniversary of the Calpis brand. "Universe of Words" at 3331 Arts Chiyoda is the latest in the "100 Colors" series from the artist. Moureaux was last featured on our site here. Photos of this installation are by Daisuke Shima.
In a major installation at Tolarno Galleries in Melbourne, Christopher Langton built his own immersive system of celestial bodies, robots, and organisms resembling viruses and fungi. “The hyperreal manifestation of Langton’s own recent experiences beset by life-threatening disease and infection, ‘Colony’ beckons us to consider that we are all multi-cellular symbiotic organisms, negotiating a precarious shared ecology,” the gallery says.
Hiromi Tango textile work functions as both static, otherworldly growths in galleries across the globe and elements activated through performance art. Yet, much of the artist’s work is also about connecting directly with the artist, via performances that activate her writhing forms. Recent work has also taken her vision outside of traditional spaces.
South Korean artist Lee Bul creates sculptures and installations that move between dystopian techno-monsters and objects pulled from ruinous cityscapes. Emerging out of the late 1980s, Bul has examined urbanization, mythology, and societal “progress” in major exhibitions and shows. Earlier this year, she nabbed the annual, prestigious Ho-Am Prize.
Benedetto Bufalino's public installations subvert our notions of an object’s function, whether it’s converting an entire city bus into a pool or a telephone booth into an aquarium. Many of his recent projects have occupied spaces in his native France. Another recent work: The artist changed a red Fiat into a street food car. Find more of his creations below.
Diana Al-Hadid’s ghostly sculptures, which take influence from historical architecture, mythology, and beyond, are currently inhabiting both a gallery at Frist Art Museum and outdoor gardens at Cheekwood in concurrent exhibitions in Nashville. “Subliminations” collects varying types of work from the artist, with both figurative sculpture and wall reliefs. Above and below interior photos are by John Schweikert.
At the Takeo Onsen hot springs in Japan, teamLab's immersive, massive installation has returned to the historic Mifuneyama Rakuen Park, now adding a daytime component to "A Forest Where Gods Live.” The teamLab exhibition differs from similar immersive efforts such as Meow Wolf and Onedome in that it uses an expansive outdoor space while paying homage to its history—as well as interactive elements.(teamLab was last featured here.)
In his first exhibition in Hungary, Dmitry Kawarga's "post-human" sculptures and installations reflect on humanity's vulnerability. His "Anthropocentrism Toxicosis” series, in particular, is on display at the Ferenczy Museum, with works built with polymers and occasionally, usage of 3D-printing processes. The exhibition runs through Sept. 15.
Leeroy New's otherworldly wearable art comes from found objects and discarded plastics, with the multidisciplinary artist’s vision making vibrancy out of the overlooked. New's practice encompasses both wearable and installation art, as his major public works have turned heads in his native Philippines and beyond.
With "Dimensionality," Jen Stark's vibrant sculptures, paintings, and installations take over Joshua Liner Gallery with her illusionary talents. The show, which began this week and runs through July 19, features both analogue and digital elements to activate the New York City space. Stark was last featured on cctvta.com here.
Shoplifter recently brought her hair-based art to Venice Biennale, creating an immersive cave installation out of the cascading layers of hues and unsettling textures. The Icelandic artist, whose real name is Hrafnhildur Arnardottir, has long used both real and fake hair to create her massive works.
Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan tackle displacement, community development, and memory in their cities and structures made of cardboard. Their work ranges from these sculptures and installations to drawing, paintings, and works on paper. Their current, major installation at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, "Pillars: Project Another Country," “explores fundamental ideas about what creates community, what constitutes family, and how homes are fabricated around human needs and relationships.”
Using his “Emotigun,” Tadas Maksimovas offers a look at how our need for constant affirmation would appear in the physical realm. This "motor-powered, remote-controlled machine slingshot" was created by Maksimovas, designed by Martijn Koomen, and had its first prototyped version crafted by YouTube star Jorg Sprave. In the video below, Maksimovas offers himself as a target.
James Moore’s futuristic installations blend elements of sci-fi, light experimentation, and post-apocalyptic visions. He uses massive cybernetic characters and gridwork to toy with perspectives in the room his work inhabits. And in recent work, blends 3D sculpture with those illusionary tactics.
At Coachella, the action contained within an 80-foot-tall wooden rocket towering over the festival became a star of this year’s visual artist line-up. Duo Dedo Vabo created "H.i.P.O.," in which performers dressed as hippos clanged and banged away at projects in a 12-hour, uninterrupted performance. This installation took a year to conceive and complete, with "202 designers, costumers, set decorators, stage managers, riggers, and performers" involved. (Press images captured by Marshall Vanderhoof.)
Lindsey Mendick’s autobiographical ceramic works and installations bring cerebral and surreal touches to the everyday. Upon inspection of these staged scenes in her gallery shows, viewers find both elegance and the unsettling in the details of Mendick’s stirring work.
In Federico Solmi’s “video paintings,” the artist’s electrifying style comes to life, as he scans his paintings into a game engine. During Armory Show's 2019 edition, these particular works garnered much attention from passers-by who gravitated toward his political works. The artist's practice also includes acrylic painting, gold and silver leaf, and other materials.
SeungMo Park cuts and manipulates layers of wire mesh into absorbing scenes. In recent bodies of work, the artist creates illusionary installations and sculptures that viewers can pass through. Elsewhere, the artist does fiberglass lifecasting with aluminum wire wrapping.