Sculptor - Magdalena Abakanowicz

Agora

"Art needs somebody to listen to its message, somebody to desire it, somebody to drink it, to use it like wine - otherwise it makes no sense." -- Magdalena Abakanowicz

Seated Figures

"I feel overwhelmed by quantity where counting no longer makes sense. By unrepeatability within such quantity. A crowd of people or birds, insect or leaves, is a mysterious assemblage of variants of a certain prototype, a riddle of nature abhorrent to exact repetition or inability to produce it, just as a human hand can not repeat its own gesture." -- Magdalena Abakanowicz

Sculptor - Anish Kapoor

Cloud Gate

Anish Kappor is a contemporary sculptor that I found out about recently while browsing wikipedia. Check out his online gallery.

As if to Celebrate I Discovered ...

His work is almost always monochromatic and is often brightly colored. He has also done several large scale pieces such as "Cloud Gate" and "Taratantara".

Geometric Abstractionist - Nadir Afonso

Deux Styles

"Searching for the absolute, for an art language in which shapes possess a mathematical rigorousness, where nothing needs to be added nor removed. The feeling of total exactitude." -- Nadir Afonso

"I start with shapes, still arbitrary. I put ten shapes on the frame; I look at it and suddenly a sort of spark ignites. Then the form appears. Color is secondary, used to accentuate the intensity of the form." -- Nadir Afonso

Moscow

I don't feel smart enough to write any actual content...

Commercials - Sony Bravia

Sony Bravia made a stop-motion commercial in 2007 featuring 190 brightly colored plasticine rabbits. Produced by Fallon and Passion Pictures, this is probably the best advertisement I have ever seen and if you haven't watched it (or any of their other videos) you should.

While watching, keep in mind that they do not use any computer animations!

Hooray for short Friday posts!

Canadian Painter - Gloria Blatt

Going On Forever

Gloria Blatt is a contemporary artist whose work is characterized by bold brush strokes and vivid color choices (as you can see above and below). A native of Toronto, Canada she began studying art in her home town. After studying in Toronto she completed her art degree at the Ontario College of Art and Design. Now Ms Blatt is able to work as a full time artist, with her pieces spreading overseas.

What I really find fun to look at are her abstracts and cityscapes, especially "Going On Forever", "Night Vision", "First Snow", and "Look Both Ways".

Look Both Ways

This is one I would really love to own...

Ceramic Artist - Jeff Campana

As the title suggests, today's post features ceramic artist Jeff Campana.

Mr. Campana has been working with clay since he was around 14 years old (now 29) and received a master of Fine Arts degree in 2008. At of this writing he is a full time artist and lectures at the University of Louisville.

Mr. Campana has an active blog with entries that show us a little bit of his process.

Pretty much:

1. throw the piece on the wheel
2. slice into several sections
3. put back together
4. profit!

I am extremely fascinated by his work, it's literally hard for me to stop looking through his photo archive. It's easy to see the amount of labor that goes into each form.

If you are interested in buying any of his work, check out his store page.

Hello World (the first post)

I think that it would be good to explain what this blog is for.

It's to help me to think critically about different kinds of art and express my thoughts in a (hopefully) clear fashion.

Each post will feature a different artist and a small amount of related commentary. If I'm feeling lazy, maybe some quotes from (or about) the artist instead of commentary.

Please excuse any poor spelling/punctuation, I'll try to be careful.

Let's start with one of my favorite artists - Ruth Asawa.

Ruth Asawa is known for her amazing crocheted wire sculptures. They have a soft, organic quality that is extremely gratifying.

Earlier this year I was able to see several of her pieces at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. The playful and experimental shapes of her work make me wonder if Mrs. Asawa sketches any of her pieces before beginning or if she just "goes with the flow".

I think that this is enough for the first post, besides, it's 12:15 am, and I'm tired.