Floating high above the sky Patricia Piccinini’s Skywhale hot air balloon is a thing of wonder. Commissioned by The Centenary Of Canberra the massive flying sculpture that is a cross between a turtle, breasts and prehistoric fish will be making the rounds in Australia during 2013.

Here’s what creative director of the COC had to say about this project:

“Observing Canberra’s continuing love of the spectacle of hot air balloons , each autumn gracing the airspace over the national capital, I wanted to offer this highly visible ‘canvas’ to an Australian artist as a Centenary of Canberra commission. Patricia Piccinini is one of Australia’s most successful ‘sculptors’, her work seen in major collections in Australia, and a survey show broke all attendance records for the Tasmanian Museum and Gallery: she has had recent exhibitions in Nashville, Istanbul and London. Her highly imaginative work invites us every time to think about the human condition, and it was this relationship with the very concept of ‘life on Earth’ that made me think of her. Many special shape balloons have started to replicate characters or animals, but they are mostly caricatures and in the realm of kitsch, rather than art.

To my delight, Patricia was immediately responsive to the idea of her work in a new form, and insisted that it would not be a novelty, but a continuation of her ouevre and its years of investigation into the way life has evolved. This is exactly what the new work is, and we are so proud to have been able to find the resources to help this great artist make it happen. That Patricia was educated in Canberra, also makes this a celebration of the fine talent that the national capital has, and continues to produce.” (via)

Watch three fantastic videos with the artist in her studio as well as footage of the Skywhale in flight after the jump!

Wyatt Kahn’s wall sculptures are built from a series of stretcher panels and raw canvas beautifully pieced together to make one collaged structure. The crevices and peeking back wall help create compositional depth, captivating the eye, revealing clean and simple, yet geometrically intricate work, which is devoted to the complex juxtaposition of space more so than color.

Of Kahn’s art, Sam Cornish writes, “Broadly the type of illusion Kahn employs is one that comes after the reduction of minimalist painting. The flat, object quality of each part is in one sense simply accepted. There is no hint of the surface being broken, of a window open to an atmospheric or light filled space beyond (however shallow).”

Submergence, Oslo from squidsoup on Vimeo.

Submergence is the newest project from the artist collective known as Squidsoup.  Chains of multicolored LED lights – 8,064 lights to be exact – are carefully hung for the installation.  A colorful and immersive environment, Submergence is intended to be experienced from within the installation. The piece performs complex programmed patterns and is responsive to movement.  In fact the piece runs through a four parts to create a twenty minute movement-responsive piece.  Check out these four parts in the video after the jump.

When Brussels, Belgium based street artist Oli-B isn’t busy creating his fluid abstractions on the walls of europe he is working in the studio on a variety of personal and commercial collaborations. Starting as a traditional graffiti artist that dealt with the manipulation of typography, Oli-B has gradually transitioned from lettering to characters and finally to the present where the characters have evolved into amorphous shapes and colors that only hint at the presence of a figure with the occasional eye or mouth. (via)

Artist and designer Fabrice Le Nezet‘s series Measure precariously positions concrete blocks.  Using metal tubing, Le Nezet supports the concrete in way that makes the industrial materials seem nearly organic.  The brightly colored pipes cling to the concrete like webs.  His intention with the work was to make the materials and its weight easily felt.  He says:

“I worked here on a physical representation of the idea of measure. The objective was to ‘materialize’ tension in a sense, to make the notions of weight, distance and angle palpable…This work lies in the context of my search for purification around raw materials such as concrete and metal. This is why I played with simple shapes which catch light and transcend the volume structure.”

Jon Kessler’s installations respond to our current information-saturated culture where the search for the self often occurs within the realm of digital media. His most recent exhibition, “The Web“, immerses viewers in our technology obsessed world. Cameras and surveillance equipment abound, constantly capturing and clicking photos and videos of participants. The installation itself is a conceptual clusterfuck that suggests our importance of ritualistic clicking over what’s actually being captured with the clicks. His other work similarly addresses themes of capture, surveillance, fame, and mass media by using related techniques. These installations confuse us and ask us to consider the nature of reality and the authority we grant to technology and mass media with regard to our own identities.

Photographer Sohei Nishino creates unique maps to document memories more than geography.  An avid traveler, Sohei snaps countless photographs on his trips around the world.  By hand, he recreates the city from his many images as one large collage.  Not intended to be accurate representation, the ‘map’ is a record of the city as he experienced it.  He’s recorded trips to cities such as London, Paris, Jerusalem, Istanbul, Osaka, Berlin, and more.  To get an idea of the way the concept works check out the first two images – a ‘map’ of New York and details from the collage.

Reveling in the small, quiet corners of everyday life, Bay Area photographer Amanda Boe explores themes of isolation, curiosity and mise-en-scene in her strange, stunning work. When looking through images from her series Here and There, it’s easy to let your mind wander into each frame, gently prompted to think about time, place, and what it feels like to be “passing through.” The crisp simplicity of her work is charged with her natural sensibilities as a curious, highly-engaged observer—collecting visual treats as she moves through the world. Boe investigates the places in-between the larger moments of life, and reports back with work that is meditative, personal and poetic.

Chinn Wang creates an eye-catching brand of pop art.  Primarily working in screenprinting, she’s executed these piece directly on wood.  The work retains a charming flatness associated with screen printing while adding depth by printing on wood.  Her mix of new and old imagery and contrasting colors makes her art hard to pull away from.  Her Heraldry series is an excellent example.  Just as medieval heraldry made use of complex symbolism, Wang crests likewise make use of modern imagery.

New York artist James Clar lived in the globalized city of Dubai from 2007-2012 where he was immersed in the arts and culture scene. Fueled by an interest in visual media communication, this experience and the larger themes of globalism, nationalism, and pop culture are apparent in his work. Clar’s light-based installations address the boundaries of technology and the way that it creates and limits new communications within our culture. Some of his work uses light more directly than others, but they all respond to the relationship of light with its surroundings. Clar’s line or geometric-based designs reflect the connections and networks that abound in our culture. His manipulation of this technology expresses the softness of light and the hardness of the forms that contain it.

If you take a peek at Danielle Nelson Mourning’s blog, you will find wonderfully candid observations about places, things, or people she’s encountered and how they influence her creative perspective. For instance, there is a post about Marchus who has Stargardt, a rare eye condition. Mourning writes about his desire to experience more smells in artwork, specifically, “leaves in a forest which change constantly depending on light.” Then, there is Tod Papageorge’s brave encounter with Garry Winogrand which leads to a lifelong art-filled friendship. Mourning talks about this pair with honest admiration.

Each quick note or meditation brings us back to Mourning’s own body of work– drawing us deeper into the magnetism which aids in cultivating her own quietly powerful narratives. It’s an appreciation for the human condition and all its ephemeral passions. Although Mourning started out in the commercial world, it’s clear her heart transcends that superficial artifice.

Cillie Barnes performing at the Troubadour in W. Hollywood, CA on May 7, 2013. Photo by Raymond Lew.

LA based singer Cillie Barnes (aka Vanessa Long) released a video for her very catchy song, “Brainwash” late last month and I’ve been having a hard time getting it out of my head. You’ll definitely be seeing and hearing a lot more from her once her debut record comes out on Loma Vista/Republic Records later this year.

I caught her last week supporting British singer Tom Odell at the Troubadour and was instantly taken by her refreshing voice and relaxed stage presence. Backed by a guitarist and keyboardist she had no problem engaging the sold out crowd and even got us to sing-a-long for her final song.

She’ll be performing again on May 28th at a Red Bull Sound Select concert with DIIV at the Echo in Los Angeles so try and check her out if you’re in the area. Watch the video for “Brainwash” and follow her on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new shows and of course her debut release, “Happy Valley”.

From re-blogging work by other artists to generating your own solo digital exhibition, the ability to collect and show art has never been so fast, affordable, and publicly personable, thanks to Tumblr. According to Brad Troemel, viewing art on this platform can help us “gain a greater art-informed appreciation for worthy cultural relics long deemed non-art.”

Take Tim Bierbaum and John Miller. Their online “Baguette-Me-Nots” Tumblr blog series  consistently pairs a vast array of comedians with baguettes in contemporary settings. While some might simply call this series a lowbrow photo fad parallel to “planking” or “breading cats,” others might compare it to something like Dada meets “cyber” street art– brilliantly funny, evoking nonsensical play, and showcased in an egalitarian manner: on a digital wall outside of the gallery system. After all, the word Dada might have been born from Tristan Tzara and Marcel Janco’s constant usage of “da, da” meaning “yes, yes” in Romanian– a word comedians and improvisers know and love fondly. 

Initially inspired by an accidental discovery of Marilyn Monroe’s image embedded within the frames of Shinobi—a classic SEGA console game from 1987 Japan—Atlanta-based artist Ashley Anderson‘s multi-media exploration of the icon’s 8-bit image skims across the realm of painting, drawing, collage and animated gifs. The glitchy, pixelled-out nature of the images is indicative of Anderson’s 8-bit aesthetic, but this new body of work somehow begins to morph, to twist, and to move into something more obscure. Loaded with fragments of late 1980′s digital culture, some pieces only offer the faintest recollection of the image, requiring a bit more visual extraction to pull out the digitally reduced visage of Warhol’s Marilyn. As a whole, the investigation is an intriguing peek into the nature of digital reproduction and image appropriation.

Something feels oddly luxurious about John Breed’s strange mixed media sculptures and installations. His work largely depicts a capitalistic culture of excess and its relationship with death, the most provocative of which includes the implementation of skeletons, animal and human. In “Goodbye Paradise“, Breed portrays a silver-plated Edenic scene of human and animal skeletons, speaking to the nature of renewal that is perpetually haunted by our eventual decay. His work breathes new life into these skeletons and other found objects by coating them resin,silver, or gold, giving them an effect of purity and newness. Threaded throughout his work is the idea of monetary value and how the value of something fluctuates within a newer, shinier context. Perhaps the work that best encompasses our excessive capitalistic culture is “In God We Trust,” an installation comprised of silver-plated pig skeletons labeled with the names Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and citi bank. Breed lives and works in The Netherlands.

Beth Galton‘s series Cut Food is a side of food photography rarely seen – the inside.  Galton is a prolific photographer specializing in food.  While she works primarily in advertising and commercial photography, Cut Food is one of several conceptual projects from Galton.  The series captures common foods, though some not so commonly sliced in half.  Canned soups and a cup of coffee seem to rest perfectly in half of a container.  In order to catch some of these Galton replaced the liquids in the foods with a gelatin.

Proliferations of mixtape-themed things exist in the art & design world, having hit a high point in the mid-2000′s—where images of “vintage” cassette tapes covered everything from pillow cases to USB drives. What got lost somewhere in there was the sentiment that was originally attached to the archaic plastic medium, the sense of pride that comes from crafting (and usually gifting) someone with a perfect, personal selection of songs. Portland-based illustrator Kate Bingaman-Burt has embarked on a long-running series of mixtape drawings, where she picks up long-since discarded cassettes and makes a quick, humorous sketch…and she’s taken submissions for the project for a while now. As a series, the fresh, expressive drawings reveal an intriguing cross-section of personalities, musical tastes and long-lost good intentions.

This week we’re bringing you another talented artist as part of our partnership with premiere website building platform Made With Color. Each week we bring you some of the most exciting artists and designers working today who are using Made With Color to create clean and sleek websites. Made With Color sites aren’t just easy on the eyes but feature powerful yet simple backend which allows anyone to create a professional site with just a few clicks.This week we are excited to share the layered paintings of Los Angeles based painter Britton Tolliver.

Where does abstraction and geometry meet? In what field do they cease to be independent systems and gel into one hybrid – something new altogether? Britton Tolliver’s idiosyncratic paintings are deeply rooted in this intersection. Neither solely abstract nor geometric, his paintings really entertain another idea, which is difficult to pin down. It is in the amalgamation of these different ideas and processes that Tolliver’s paintings find their own identity, somewhere in the middle of both.

See more of Britton’s works after the jump or in person on may 22nd at LAND’s group show “Painting In Place” in Los Angeles and in a three person show at Samuel Freeman Gallery in June.

Anya Gallaccio‘s installation Red on Green may leave elicit a different reaction depending on when you catch the show.  Gallaccio plucked the heads of 10,000 roses and arranged them into large neat rectangle.  At first the installation may resemble a grand romantic gesture.  However, Gallaccio’s interest is piqued by what the installation becomes.  In a way Red on Green turns into a type of natural performance as the field of red shifts to brown.  She utilizes the loaded symbol of the rose as a starting point for investigating the natural processes of death and decay.

It would be too easy to suggest that Grace Mikell Ramsey‘s work only illustrates moments of science fiction or fantasy. This is not what draws us into her narratives. Instead, it’s her ability to capture subtle anticipation– insular moments of contemplation where reality gestures goodbye. Her characters stand on the precipice, holding their breath, surrendering to dreamy whims only young children or covens of three are capable of conjuring, unable to shake a certain heaviness of the pending trade and what is at stake.

Argentinian artist Gerardo Feldstein and his absurd sur/realist sculptures recontextualize the way we think about space and the body’s movement within that space. Some of his work features anthropomorphized figures, an exaggerated body part (arms, legs, heart), or he places his sculpted figures into a landscape or susceptible position. His figures encompass a narrative of power and humor, and the role that our perspective plays in relation to these concepts. Some of his mixed media sculptures emit a vulnerability that, though expressed through this absurd medium, feels relatable and almost empathetic.

The artwork of Cassandra Smith exists in the space between juxtapositions.  Taxidermied animals are often a bit creepy.  However, Smith’s stuffed forest friends are also playfully decorated – fish covered in rhinestones, and fur in bright paint.  The natural plays with the synthetic, old with the new, and utilitarian with the decorative.  She says of her work:

“My work  is about manipulations and transformation. It is about exploring the ways that I can enhance and change found objects to give them something they did not have in their former life.”  [via]

To suggest that David Adey builds art from recycled materials would be an understatement. He develops intricate patterns from previous design work. Each celebrity limb or fashion savvy lip is delicately cut out, then pinned and pieced together on a foam board, without any digitalized color manipulation; he does, however, use a Google search to locate the parts for his palette and develop an arrangement.

His process, Adey admits, is terribly methodical, time consuming, and detail oriented, however, this is exactly the point. He states, “For me as an artist, it’s a matter of developing or choosing your own constraints. Finding them and embracing them as a tool to make the work.” Echoing a similar sentiment put forth by the father of design himself, Charles Eames, Adey continues: “Without constraints, you don’t have anything. That’s the whole design process — working within constraints.”

The audiovisual installation titled Isotope v.2 was created Nonotak – an art duo made up of Noemi Schipfer and Takami Nakamoto.  Light projections are projected on and through a box approximately thirteen feet on each side.  Accompanied by sound the projection begins rather subdued.  Low drones match lights moving and changing slowly.  Soon, however, the light and sound seems to quicken its pace, become glitchy, even aggressive.  Watch the video after the jump to see the Isotope v.2 in action.  The installation is a reference and response to Fukushima and its now infamous power plant.  Following the tragic 2011 earthquake control over the Fukushima power plant quickly deteriorated.  Using this as a metaphor for the human relationship with nuclear energy, the installation creates a type of immaterial prison.  Walls of light surround the visitors becoming ever more imposing as the projection progresses.

For anyone with a fondness for west coast life, the gritty, glorious scenery that unfolds across Bay Area painter Laura Sutro‘s canvases is nothing short of sentimental. In simple, generous strokes, Sutro uses tastefully honest narrative to spell out one person’s journey on the freeways, down the sidewalks and through the bedrooms of a contemporary California. Her lush, layered color palettes echo a careful, critical study of light, while her snapshot sensibilities make each piece feel curious and fresh.

Sutro’s works are currently viewable at Adobe Books Backroom Gallery in San Francisco.