Category: Art

Hailing from her studio in rural North Herefordshire on the border of England and Wales, Philips’s art has gained international attention for its pared-back aesthetic and unique ability to trick the eye. Informed by an interest in architecture and minimalism, her sculptural work employs planar form and geometric abstraction as a visual language to explore compositional relationships. “I am interested in the way in which a model or plan can simplify our perception, and can evoke in us a sense of potential and possibility,” the artist explains. Carefully adjusting different elements with the aim to find harmony in opposition, her sculptures investigate the interplay between independence and interdependence, fragment and whole, and open versus closed. Intriguing and dynamic, they highlight themes of reinvention and change. “My aim is not to create an image, but rather to isolate a moment within a process of continued transformation,” she says.

In her highly praised exhibition ‘Transition’, various interactive musical instruments—a quadrangular enclosure of 16 vocal microphones, several wall-based canvas works with wires, knobs, and cable sockets, and large rectangular felt sheets—compose an ensemble of intimate compositions and relationships, both spatially and socially. As viewers and performers move through the gallery’s acoustic landscape and activate the artworks, they breach the border between their own body and the art object, expanding the latter to a different field of action, one that is in a constant state of transition.Tsabar’s art is an attempt to destabilize systems of power and hierarchy

In all her works, Tsabar uses sound to expose the various social and economic power relationships at play in art venues, the music industry, and other cultural spheres. Her art is an escape from the masculine world and an attempt to destabilize the systems of power and hierarchy dominating the creative world. In ‘Melodies of Certain Damage’, she explores the climatic, macho moment when the guitar is broken at the end of a music performance, repurposing this act of male bravado into a new sound and new beginning. Reinserting the shattered pieces of the guitar into a new working order and a new kind of instrument, Tsbar invites viewers to interact with the sculpture and recast the original object into new territory where the performers insert themselves into.

Elegant and filled with personality, ALIUM’s sculptures are intended as a celebration of modern Scandinavian design. “Our identity originates from our roots in Copenhagen and our Scandinavian heritage, with a focus on natural materials and shapes, a simple aesthetic and most importantly, craftsmanship”, explains a statement from the gallery. Meaning ‘unlike others’ in Latin, ALIUM reflects this fundamental ethos by delving into the narratives of the showcased objects. Crafted with care and with traditional local materials, in a neutral color palette of off-whites and greys, the different sculptures retain a striking uniformity and common design language, defined by the many individual visions of their passionate creators.

“In ‘Nocturne’, a word evocative of the night, Plensa navigates the symbolic dichotomy between lightness and darkness,” reads a statement from the gallery. His pieces range from substantial sculptures crafted from black basalt and bronze, to light, ethereal figures in stainless steel and Murano glass. ‘Minna’, one of the larger pieces in the exhibition, is a nine-foot-tall portrait depicting a young woman with her eyes closed, resting. Nearby, five bronze portraits arranged closely together exist as if in silent dialog with one another, with each bronze head presenting a uniquely textured surface. The pieces were cast from the same molds the artist used to form his steel mesh figures. Through portraiture, Plensa’s sculptures convey the transitory nature of human emotions, paused in a single moment in time. As Plensa explains, “Every time I do a portrait, soon after, in a way, the person no longer exists.”

The contemporary artist has visualized an immersive art installation using dried grass strands, grouped together and suspended like a large cloud floating above the viewer. Covering the entire ceiling of the exhibition room, the project transforms this easily accessible and delicate material into a work of art that spurs contemplation. Warm light illuminates the soft tones and textures of the strands, adding a gentle brightness and a sense of calm to the otherwise darkened and austere space. An arresting artwork to behold and reflect upon from different angles, the installation is an ode to ghosting. “‘French Exit’ is a term that describes the act of leaving a social gathering or bad date without saying goodbye,” shares the artist in a statement. “I am filling pages of our collective memory book, because we might be leaving without a proper goodbye.”

Always mindful of the natural shape and texture of the stone, the artist transforms ordinary pieces of quartz and granite into pliable and soft forms with fabric-like textures, through unique carving techniques. Appearing as if made of clay, the final results give the illusion that the minerals have been gently eroded and gradually altered by nature’s elements. Unusual and unconventional in form, the stone objects look as though they have wrinkles and creases; some include additional ornamental elements that stitch, fasten, and elongate the stones in a multitude of ways. A selection of Castro López’s exploration of form and texture is found below.

The artwork begins with a path leading along the mountain’s glacial-carved ridge. Gates are spaced at intervals that correspond in scale to the durations of the Earth’s ice ages, thereby marking “a deep-time timeline of our planet, of ice, and of the environment,” explains a statement from the studio. At the end of the path is a pavilion made from multiple steel and glass rings that contain a circular deck looking out over the edge of Mount Grawand. Visitors can use the pavilion to align their gaze with the surrounding rings, which track the apparent path of the sun in the sky on any given day. “The artwork acts as a magnifier for the very particular experience of time and space that this location affords – vast and boundless on the one hand, local and specific on the other,” explains a statement from Eliasson. “It is an optical device that invites us to engage, from our embodied position, with planetary and glacial perspectives.”

Gaku Azuma is a multimedia artist who has a long relationship with the Japanese art world. He was born to a father who was an ōgi-e (扇絵) artist, which meant that he used traditional paper fans as a canvas for his paintings.

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Following his creative familial background, he’s been involved in creating his own paintings from a young age. Over the years, he’s continued to produce paintings and has held exhibitions for them while balancing his job as an art director.

In recent years, however, his paintings have flown from a blank paper to find a new canvas in the human body. Around 2012, Azuma started experimenting with body paintings. He stated that he was “fascinated” by the experience of painting on skin and has been obsessed with it since then.