Art Literacy

Herds of Life-Sized Elephants Roam Through London’s Parks for a Global Conservation Project

Adiantku 3 months ago

All images © CoExistence, shared with permission

Sixty migrating elephants pass between Piccadilly and Buckingham Palace in London’s Green Park in one of nine herds roaming throughout the city. The lumbering creatures are part of an ongoing collaboration between two nonprofits, CoExistence and Elephant Family, that explores how humans can better live alongside animals and the larger ecosystem through imaginative public art projects.

As its name suggests, CoExistence’s aim is to identify mutually beneficial modes of living considering that within the last century, the balance between world population and wilderness has shifted considerably: in 1937, 66 percent of global environments were intact with 2.3 billion people on Earth. Today, those numbers have undergone a dramatic change, with a world population of 7.8 billion and only 35 percent of wilderness remaining.

The organization’s most recent effort brings the gargantuan animals to urban spaces throughout London that are typically closed off to … Read the rest

Spend $10 with a Small Business This Weekend and Get a $10 Credit to Use on Prime Day!

Adiantku 3 months ago

Shop small and be rewarded! Spend $10 this weekend at a small business on Amazon, and get a $10 credit toward your Prime Day purchases. 

Itching for Amazon Prime Day? Here’s a tip: You can save $10 during the event next week (12 a.m. PDT on June 21 to 11:59 p.m. PDT on June 22) by starting your shopping early. Through midnight on Sunday, June 20, Amazon is offering a $10 credit to use on Prime Day to members who spend $10 on products from select small businesses selling in Amazon’s store (exclusions apply).

To get access to the deals, however, you have to be an Amazon Prime subscriber.

Every year, Amazon’s Prime Day offers thousands of deals on the site’s products, from electronics to books and art supplies. This year, the 48-hour event will begin at 12 a.m. PDT on Monday, June 21 and conclude at 11:59 p.m. PDT … Read the rest

Traditional Chinese Characters and Motifs Cover Ming Lu’s Porcelain Busts and Ducks

Adiantku 3 months ago

“Dialogue, Reaching the Station We’ll Never Reach” (2019), blue and white porcelain, 26 x 18 x 18 centimeters. All images © Ming Lu, shared with permission

Artist Ming Lu melds multiple facets associated with Chinese culture in her delicate blue-and-white porcelain works. She utilizes traditional craft techniques to sculpt ubiquitous cultural symbols often found throughout the streets of Chinatown, encompassing both the Berlin-based artist’s broad cultural connections to her native country and more personal interactions.

In the three busts that comprise “Dialogue,” for example, Ming Lu transcribes conversations with her partner in calligraphic script. Titled “Reason,” “Trick,” and “Reaching a Station We’ll Never Reach,” the self-portraits embody a contemporary change in situation and perspective through a classic medium. Similarly, a trio of butchered ducks evokes the popular dish in form and are coated in a traditional floral motif, a cracked glaze, and characters depicting an old-fashioned spelling of “I love … Read the rest

Researchers Test How Prehistoric Cave Artists Lit Their Studios

Adiantku 3 months ago

The cave art of our distant ancestors has always been the object of fascination, but the details of how this work was made are often vague. A study on ancient lighting techniques, first repoted by CNN, is bringing us a step closer to understanding how ancient artists worked.

Spanish archaeologists Ángeles Medina-Alcaide, Diego Garate, Iñaki Intxaurbe, José L. Sanchidrián, Olivia Rivero, Catherine Ferrier, Dolores Mesa, Jaime Pereña, and Iñaki Líbano performed experiments to figure out how Paleolithic artists lit the dark caves that were their studios and canvases.

To get a better understanding of the three main light sources used to work in the caves, based upon the evidence found in Paleolithic sites in Southwest Europe, scientists recreated torches, fireplaces, and portable grease lamps. The experiments led to a better understand ing of the peculiarities of each source, including which type of residue each different technique produced. This information should … Read the rest

Herds of Life-Sized Elephants Roam Through London’s Parks for a Global Conservation Project

Adiantku 3 months ago

All images © CoExistence, shared with permission

Sixty migrating elephants pass between Piccadilly and Buckingham Palace in London’s Green Park in one of nine herds roaming throughout the city. The lumbering creatures are part of an ongoing collaboration between two nonprofits, CoExistence and Elephant Family, that explores how humans can better live alongside animals and the larger ecosystem through imaginative public art projects.

As its name suggests, CoExistence’s aim is to identify mutually beneficial modes of living considering that within the last century, the balance between world population and wilderness has shifted considerably: in 1937, 66 percent of global environments were intact with 2.3 billion people on Earth. Today, those numbers have undergone a dramatic change, with a world population of 7.8 billion and only 35 percent of wilderness remaining.

The organization’s most recent effort brings the gargantuan animals to urban spaces throughout London that are typically closed off to … Read the rest

Electric Company Uncovers Thousands of Millennia-Old Objects in Southwest England

Adiantku 3 months ago

An electric company in England has uncovered a host of millennia-old objects dating to the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Roman, and Saxon periods at a site near the city of Dorchester. Spanning 6,000 years of history, the artifacts were excavated as part of a project that lasted almost two years.

The finds were announced last month by the London-based electric company National Grid, which partnered with Oxford Archaeology to conduct the project. Historic England, the Dorset AONB Partnership, and Dorset County archaeologists also provided input.

Artifacts recovered include over 6,000 shards of prehistoric pottery and more than 40,000 struck flints, as well as a greenstone axe head, a bone awl, and antler tine, all dating to the Neolithic and Bronze Ages.

The Neolithic period in Britain starts around 4,000 B.C.E. and continues to 2,500 B.C.E. During this time, the population transitioned from hunting and gathering to a more sedentary lifestyle characterized … Read the rest

Metallic Specimens by Dr. Allan Drummond Perfectly Replicate Prehistoric and Modern Insects in Bronze and Silver

Adiantku 3 months ago

“Thorn,” bronze and sterling silver, approximately 4 x 2 x 3 inches. All images © Allan Drummond, shared with permission

Dr. Allan Drummond works at the intersection of art, design, and science with his metallic replicas of wide-eyed spiders, ants, and other winged insects. He buoys his research in the departments of Medicine and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the University of Chicago into a creative practice that casts biologically realistic specimens with a focus on anatomical elements of prehistoric organisms most likely to be lost in the fossil record, including underbellies.

Each creature starts with a digital rendering created in Blender that’s 3D-printed in individual pieces—you can see examples of these initial models on Instagram. Drummond then casts the replica in bronze or silver with the help of jewelry designers in his current city of Chicago and later assembles and finishes the metallic components, which results in a meticulous … Read the rest

Artist Leslie Wayne on Sculpting Paint and Repairing What Is Broken

Adiantku 3 months ago

Artist Leslie Wayne molds and manipulates oil paint to create surfaces that blur the confines of painting and sculpture. Wayne found “an approach to [paint] that was very dimensional,” as she told Brooke Jaffe in a recent interview for “ARTnews Live,” our ongoing IGTV series featuring interviews with a range of creatives.

Wayne, the daughter of a concert pianist and a writer, began painting lessons at the age of 7 and lived in what she describes as a very open and “encouraging” household. Dissatisfied with the body of abstract geometric paintings featured in her first show—she says they felt formally rigorous but “hollow”—Wayne soon began integrating sculptural techniques into her paintings, which she says “helped me kind of build a vocabulary that was fresh and new to me.”

It was then that Wayne realized “paint could be used like you would use any other material to build a work … Read the rest

A 79-Foot Labyrinth Crocheted by Ernesto Neto Hangs from the Ceiling of a Houston Museum

Adiantku 3 months ago

“SunForceOceanLife” (2021), 30 x 79 x 55 feet. All images © Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, shared with permission

Brazillian artist Ernesto Neto (previously) is known for his enormous, fiber-based installations that plunge viewers into a multi-sensory landscape of organic elements: people are encouraged to walk through canals of stretched yarn and grasp the structural weavings, while spicy scents like turmeric and cumin are often diffused throughout the room.

Similarly immersive and imposing, Neto’s latest work at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is one of his largest to date. “SunForceOceanLife” is a hand-crocheted, walkable maze of yellow, orange, and green threads that stretch 79 feet across the gallery and spiral 12 feet in the air. The pliable installation centers around “fire, the vital energy that enables life on this planet,” the artist says, sharing that each polymer string utilized is burned at the end to further infuse the piece … Read the rest

Settlement Reached in Multimillion-Dollar Legal Battle Over Robert Indiana Estate

Adiantku 3 months ago

A three-year-long, multimillion-dollar legal battle between the estate of Robert Indiana and the Morgan Art Foundation, which represented Indiana during his lifetime and owns the copyright to much of his work, including his famed “LOVE” symbol, has culminated in a settlement. Various suits and countersuits that were pending in court were also dismissed. The news was first reported by the New York Times.

According to a filing in New York District Court last week, the remaining suits between the Morgan Art Foundation and the executor of his estate, James W. Brannan, have all been dismissed, along with ones against the artist’s longtime caretaker, Jamie Thomas. The settlement will allow for the estate and the Morgan Art Foundation to jointly represent the artist’s work and grow his market. The terms of the settlement were not revealed, though all the parties agreed to bear their own legal costs.

In the days … Read the rest