CasaSugar

Artist of the Day: Sophie Blackall

CasaSugar — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:00:22 -0700

Whether she's drawing two spritely little girls for a children's book or a more sober illustration for a national magazine, artist Sophie Blackall's signature style always shines through. What exactly is this style? When it comes to describing her illustrations, Sophie cites influences ranging from Chinese packaging design to train journeys and pipe fish. I'd say that Sophie's illustrations are reminiscent of a gentler, prettier version of Edward Gorey's work, and are whimsical, graceful, and full of expertly crafted main characters.

Sophie claims that as a child growing up in Sydney, Australia, she was a terrible artist, and writes that "In spite of my lack of talent, however, I kept at it because it was fun. (Sometimes it wasn't fun; I remember having a dreadful tantrum when I couldn't draw a deer that didn't look like a plasticine dog, made by a person without hands.)"

Well, Sophie certainly has proven that tenacity pays off. Her illustrations for books such as Ruby's Wish and the Ivy + Bean series are absolutely lovely. One of my favorite projects of Sophie's, though is her illustrations of Craigslist "Missed Connections" ads.

To see those illustrations, read more.

Like what you see? Read more about Sophie here.

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Artist of the Day: Daniela Cunha Lay

CasaSugar — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:00:05 -0700

It's not unusual to find a 26-year-old who cites Andy Warhol as an inspiration or who thinks she can emulate Jackson Pollock. But, it's a rare thing to meet a young woman whose mixed media, Warhol-inspired pop art speaks of revolution in Spain, war crimes in Iraq, and human perishability, whose Pollock-inspired paintings give you chills. I recently caught up with the young São Paulo-born, Brazil-and-California-raised artist Daniela Cunha Lay at the opening of her exhibit at one of my favorite design stores in San Francisco, Flipp. With little background on her work, I asked what medium she used. "Mixed media, of course," she said, speaking a mile a minute, "Nothing that I do is simple." After a tour around the exhibit, it was apparent that she couldn't have related herself or her work more succinctly.

To create "Divine," a mixed media collage of sorts, she took a 1928 photograph of her quite glamorous grandmother on the day of her wedding, and photocopied it on several different machines to achieve varying tonalities. Then, she "cop[ied] the copy of the copy, so as to crumble down the image, driving it as far away from its original print as possible," further establishing the obvious passage of time, and tore some to suggest that, "we and everything around us is inevitably perishable."

Lay's work speaks for itself, so hear more and check out some images of her work when you read more.

Standing on a 2-meter ladder, she painted "Rust," a splatter painting of a deformed, human-like figure amidst a crimson background, by throwing acrylic paint across a stretched canvas on the floor. I simultaneously felt violently haunted and calm viewing this piece, proving that her efforts to evoke "solitude, stillness, and inner piece in the midst of a violently chaotic world," succeeded.

Be sure to explore Daniela Cunha Lay's website to see more of her portfolio of paintings, photographs, conceptual videos, and graphic art, as well as several artist statements. And, if you live in the Bay Area, stop by the reception for her exhibit at the Diego Riviera Gallery tonight from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

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Artist of the Day: Elizabeth Peyton

CasaSugar — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 04:30:52 -0800

Elizabeth Peyton is a contemporary American artist who paints stylized and romanticized portraits of her close friends, celebs, and European monarchy.After graduating from New York's School of Visual Arts in the mid-'80s, she had her first solo show at the Althea Viafora Gallery in SoHo in 1987, and rose to popularity in the mid-'90s. Among her subjects, which are often inspired by photographs, are Liam Gallagher, Julian Casablancas, Jarvis Cocker, Chloë Sevigny, Princes William and Harry, Abraham Lincoln, Marc Jacobs (above), Keith Richards, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Eminem, and members of the Kennedy family. And, on Wednesday, just one day after Barack Obama was elected president, Peyton's portrait of Michelle and Sasha Obama at the Democratic National Convention was unveiled at her Live Forever exhibit at New York's New Museum. The exhibit, which opened last month, runs through Jan. 11. To hear more and see more images of her work, read more.

While conceptual, her paintings are also very real. And though her subjects are often the untouchable, her paintings are also quite personal and intimate, showing celebrities in a light we rarely see them. What's also striking is her use of color; be it a single swatch of kelly green on a pair of loafers or a palette full of vibrant color, Peyton's work is a visual force to be reckoned with.

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Artist of the Day: Miguel Ornia-Blanco

CasaSugar — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 06:15:04 -0700

Inspired by his travels through London, Manchester, and Buenos Aires, artist Miguel Ornia-Blanco paints urban landscapes full of movement, energy, and life. Contrary to the stark, gray skyscrapers, blacktop roads, and dingy sidewalks you might see in some of those metropolitan areas, Ornia-Blanco finds a vibrant color palette in the cityscape. He sees emotions, life, laughter, pain, and solitude in places where, on a whole, people seem to pass by each other unknowingly. His brushstrokes are free-flowing and his colors blend with no straight lines or distinct outlines, further evoking the reality that nothing is constant in these hectic terrains. Although his paintings seem to illustrate that the world is colliding in these places, Ornia-Blanco brings beauty to the chaos, and that's not an easy thing to do. Check out the gallery below and his website to see some more work by this London-based artist.

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Artist of the Day: Melissa Moss

CasaSugar — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 05:30:38 -0700

Los Angeles-based painter Melissa Moss makes artwork that seems fit for a children's fairy tale. From her graceful, curtseying trees to her odd little nubbin creatures resting beneath the splayed gills of gigantic mushrooms, these paintings beg for a fanciful storyline. And her use of color? Visually arresting, to say the least. As Melissa writes in her artist's statement,"I use color as my primary artistic element. I’ve studied the meanings and associations of colors and their subtle shades and tones and use this knowledge to convey the mood of each painting."

Melissa's work can be seen in galleries in Los Angeles, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Chicago, among other cities. If, like me, you find Melissa's work enchanting and would like to get a print for yourself, you can pick one up at 2Modern, Indie Fixx, or Little Paper Airplanes.

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Casa Verde: Waste Management, One Man's Trash

CasaSugar — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:00:22 -0700

Justin Gignac, a graduate of New York's School of Visual Arts, picks up trash off of the streets of New York City. But, you won't find him in a sanitation department uniform. He actually fills bags with subway passes, Broadway tickets, coffee cups, phone book pages, and other NYC junk and carefully arranges them in plastic cubes, which are then signed, numbered, and dated in slick Helvetica typeface and sells them for 50 smackers — "making them perfect for anyone who wants their own piece of the NYC landscape," he says. Gignac has sold over 1,000 of his trash cubes, each unique, leak-free, and smell-free. The initiative to repurpose trash spawned from a conversation with a colleague who said package design wasn't important; "I figured the only way to prove them wrong would be to try to package something that absolutely nobody in their right mind would ever want to buy," he rebutted. A fresh way to look at recycling . . . or exporting: his cubes can now be found in 41 states and 91 countries.
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Artist of the Day: Olafur Eliasson

CasaSugar — Thu, 22 May 2008 04:30:49 -0700

In January, it was announced that Olafur Eliasson, an internationally acclaimed Danish-Icelandic artist, will bring a series of freestanding waterfalls to Manhattan's East River from late June through mid-October this year. The scaffolding for the 90- to 120-foot waterfalls is now being built, and the City expects tourism revenues to increase by $55 million while the project is underway. The large-scale public art has been designed to protect water quality and aquatic life by using intake pools suspended in the river to filter the water, and ConEd, the local gas and electric company, will provide electricity generated from renewable resources.
I was blown away by Eliasson's recent exhibition at the SFMOMA here in San Francisco, which featured a kaleidoscopic tunnel built on the museum's steel truss bridge and a multisensory 360 degree color room — although it kind of cracked me up thinking of Aleksandr Petrovsky's "large scale light installations." I also know that "the Weather Project," Eliasson's installation of a massive sun in London's Tate Modern, was a wild success. So I don't doubt that his waterfalls in NYC will follow suit; sounds like some waterfalls you should go chasing. If all of Manhattan's cultural events weren't already enough, this will certainly add value to the homes of all those celebrity NYC dwellers this Summer. I only wish I could have a bit of Eliasson's artwork to enjoy on a small scale in my private pad.
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Artist of the Day: David Wiseman

CasaSugar — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:30:48 -0700

David Wiseman works in a variety of mediums including wood, porcelain, crystal, and bronze, and is inspired by the subtleties in nature, like the texture of bark or the pattern of moss growing on a rock. His designs, which can be found on a tabletop, wrapped around a fireplace, or dangling from the ceiling, highlight these organic details, and bring a romantic, Sleeping Beauty-esque woodland quality indoors. His bronze branches, which sprout porcelain blossoms, are kindred spirits of midcentury bronze wall sculptures, but have a timeless sophistication that supersedes them. His deer head-shaped hat hangers bear the childlike playfulness of Rudolph, white still maintaining a distinct maturity. To continue your introduction and see some of his work, read more.

It's no wonder New York magazine said he'd be "Famous by 2010" — the work of the 2003 RISD grad suggests he's a man wise beyond his years. At the young age of 26, his work has already been acquired by notable collections, has appeared in numerous publications, and most recently, been selected for the Design Triennial at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

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Casa Verde: KS Rives Transforms Trash Into Art

CasaSugar — Tue, 13 May 2008 06:15:12 -0700

I'm all about making something out of nothing, and artist KS Rives takes that philosophy one step further by making something beautiful out of nothing anyone wants: trash.

Whether through the use of old maps of Paris, discarded rubber bands and public transit tickets, or even cigarette butts, KS Rives takes something that no one wants and transforms it into a highly desirable work of art.

To see some of her art, including her hand-painted wallpaper, just read more.

In her artist statement, she says,

For years my work has been about using refuse to reflect on the decisions that people make, and deciphering what that means about them as people. Studying waste from different parts of the world allows me to discover not only things about other cultures, but about my own by comparing and contrasting the two. Using the technique of collage, I am able to connect intimately with my work and study the individual pieces in detail. This therefore allows me to form a personal relationship of sorts with each culture, combining art making with my passion for sociological thinking.

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Artist(?!?) of the Day: Pete Doherty

CasaSugar — Mon, 05 May 2008 04:38:04 -0700

According to Daily Mail, Babyshambles rocker, incarceree, and Kate Moss's former flame, Pete Doherty debuted an exhibition of his bloody paintings at the Chappe Gallery in the Montmartre district Paris last week, despite the fact that he's currently serving time behind bars.

The gruesome exhibit features 30 paintings by l'artiste, including "one blood and pencil image of the supermodel, entitled 'Miss Moss reclines', shows her topless lying on a sofa," one self-portrait scribbled with "with the baffling initials S.K., V.I.C., a Star of David and a swastika," and in another, the known drug offender "signed his name in blood from one of his
needles," giving a whole new meaning to the term "needlework." While I do think people should have the right to decide what constitutes art, and it's always interesting to see boundaries tested, I must admit that I find this quite macabre. It'll be interesting to hear how the turnout goes; the exhibit runs until May 11. Do you think he is a genuine artist or do you think he should stick with singing? Once he rides out his jail sentence, that is . . .

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