Archive for the ‘Contemporary Art’ Category

The Art of Neon

Posted on: October 30th, 2018 by Art Leaders No Comments

Is Neon Art a trend?

Name: Art Leaders Gallery
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Has anyone else noticed this obsession with neon lately? Not only with interior design, but with fine art as well! The fluorescent neon lighting trend has come a long way since its affiliation with smoke filled bars and strip clubs. It has been creeping back into the artworld for the last several years and the evidence is everywhere.

Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers discovered neon by accident in 1898 while experimenting on liquid air. Georges Claude began creating neon lighting in 1902, as he had surplus neon leftover as a byproduct of his air liquefaction company. Neon lighting consists of brightly glowing, electrified glass tubes or bulbs that contain rarefied neon or other gases. Neon lights are a type of cold cathode gas-discharge light. A neon tube is a sealed glass tube with a metal electrode at each end, filled with one of a number of gases at low pressure

Not all neon lights are neon, in fact only one color of ‘neon’ is actually neon! The color of the light depends on the gas within the tube. Neon lights were named for neon, a noble gas which gives off a popular orange light, but other gases and chemicals are used to produce other colors, such as hydrogen (red), helium (yellow), carbon dioxide (white), and mercury (blue). Various combinations have been created over the years, creating some of our favorites (the pinks and purples!) that we have come to love today.

Museum of Neon Art

Did you know there is a museum of neon art? MONA is an institution that exists to encourage learning and curiosity through the preservation, collection, and interpretation of neon art! They have hosted several notable Exhibitions in the last several years. She Bends: Women in Neon was a group art show featuring women benders from around the world and was curated by Meryl Pataky.

Though neon, and neon in art is not new it has been popping up all over lately! Not only do we personally follow several artists who have moved into neon as a medium in the last several years – notable exhibitions and art contests have been booming with the stuff!

Neon at ArtPrize

The winner of the $200,000 Grand ARTPRIZE in Grand Rapids, MI went to “brown, carmine, and blue.” by Le’Andra LeSeur. LeSeur’s “brown, carmine, and blue” utilizes visual media (including several neon elements), installation and performance to make sense of the way current ideologies frame marginalized identities. “Le’Andra so compellingly utilizes all of her resources to take us into her world and her worldview. Her work was so deeply immersive. It’s about gender, it’s about race, it’s about America at its core,” said Davis Anderson, an ArtPrize 10 juror and the Edna S. Tuttleman Director of the Museum at PAFA.

Alex Da Corte’s Rubber Pencil Devil was featured at The 2018 Carnegie International, that opened on October 13^th. The Philadelphia-based artist displays a skeletonof a house covered in neon with flower plantings, jack-o’-lanterns, cupids, etc. Inside, 57 magnetic music videos play (Over the course of three hours), each with pop-culture references. Da Corte stars as most of the characters in the videos. A giant Heinz bottle is jumps around, The Wicked Witch of the West is sings LeAnne Rimes accompanied by Oscar the Grouch, Bugs Bunny is sits on a cartoon crescent moon, singing Frank Ocean.

ArtNews

Then, as ambient music plays, Da Corte walks slowly through the door of a familiar-looking set. He’s dressed as Mister Rogers (who shot his children’s TV show nearby), wearing one of his brightly colored sweaters, smiling warmly to the camera and sitting down to change his shoes. Pretty soon he’s out the door, returning a moment later in a different sweater, switching his shoes once more and departing.

He does it again and again, arriving each time in a new sweater and with the same joyful hello to the audience. It’s by turns hilarious and sad, and more than a little dark, but as he keeps going, something else happens: it begins to have the feel of an epic. It’s moving—heroic, even. He strives to get the job done as well as he can. Like us all, he’s putting on his best face, trying to get through the day.

-Andrew Russeth |ArtNews

We seriously can’t get enough of this work! Fingers crossed we can make some magic happen and go experience it for ourselves. Not only is it stunningly beautiful, but it resonates this strange, intriguing Americana nostalgia. In fact, only one week after opening, the work has already been widely praised. Popular art hub Artsy recently published “The Carnegie International Puts Joy before Politics”. Everyone is eating up the light-heartedness of this neon structure. Whether it be the candy-colored films, or pop culture references such as Mr. Rogers, something about it makes you smile!

We hope this trend sticks around for years to come! It is candy to our eyes and – we are oohing and aahing over this art trend.

Photos by: Sleekmag.com, Artprize.org, & artnews.com

Published October 30, 2018

Dr. Seuss: His Mystery Midnight Paintings

Posted on: October 23rd, 2018 by Art Leaders No Comments

The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss

We all know and love famous children’s book author Dr.Seuss! If you grew up reading the books, you know the whimsical style that we have come to love. What you might not know is that Theodor Seuss Geisel was also a fine artist! Ted illustrated children’s books by day and spent his nights creating what he called his “midnight paintings”. His limited edition artworks are available for sale at select galleries -and wow are they amazing.

Ted never sold his works during his lifetime. He felt that it would distract from his career as a children’s book author. He also had an interesting time considering himself a fine artist at times. After his death in 1991, his home shared with wife Audrey, contained hundreds of drawings, paintings, and taxidermy sculptures.

Following Geisel’s death, Audrey donated many of his drawings to the University of California, San Diego. In 1996 art dealer Robert Chase approached her with the idea to release limited edition reproductions Seuss’s work. “The Art of Dr. Seuss Collection” officially launched in 1998 following a preview of the collection in 1997. In that preview, a small number of editions released annually for collectors.

“I remember telling Ted that there would come a day when many of his paintings would be seen and he would thus share with his fans another facet of himself—his private self.”

-Audrey Geisel

The Meaning Behind the Work

Many of the paintings include political commentary, sexual innuendos, and just generally not the G-rated wholesomeness we have come to expect from the Seuss name. This really is the draw for a lot of collectors – after all, Ted was a man living in this world (as well as his Seussian world) with opinions to be shared! He actually got his start with cartoon drawings in newspapers, focusing primarily on political satire. His earlier advertising illustrations in the 1920’s & 30’s eventually led him to a stint as a political cartoonist in 1941 during World War II. He even joined the army in 1943 as a scriptwriter for a filmmaking unit that documented the war.

While Ted hid his midnight paintings from the world, he also had some fun with them! He hung one of his paintings in his home, “Green Cat With Lights” and signed it with pseudonym, Stroogo Von M; pretending that he had discovered a new artist. Ted would talk about it at dinner parties to gauge what other people truly thought about his work. According to his wife Audrey “On at least one occasion, a guest replied, ‘Oh yes, I’ve heard of Stroogo Von M.’”

Dr. Seuss’s Unorthodox Taxidermy and More

The collection from Chase art group currently available for sale includes illustrations, midnight paintings, and what he called his “unorthodox taxidermy.” These sculptures are mounted creature heads that Geisel created with papier-mâché. The original beaks, horns, antlers, etc. were from real deceased animals from the Springfield Zoo in Massachusetts where his father worked. The reproductions of course are cast and include no real animal elements.

Ted’s children’s books and literary rhymes made him a sensation, but his uniquely styled animals and figures have cemented themselves as distinctly Seussian. Rest assured that his Secret Art maintains that same whimsical charm. And when you think about it, his work was always immensely conceptual. Sneetches and Yertle the Turtle explain discrimination and fascism, while The Lorax advocates to preserve the environment. Hoping that generations to come will continue to enjoy the genius that was Theodor Seuss Geisel.

Images by: http://www.drseussart.com/

Published October 23rd, 2018

Shredding It with Banksy: Continuing the Conversation

Posted on: October 18th, 2018 by Art Leaders No Comments

Banksy’s Latest Trick

I am sure by now we have all heard of the latest Banksy prank pulled earlier this month. If not, here is a brief synopsis to catch you up with the art world this October! One of his trademark paintings appeared to self-destruct at Sotheby’s in London after selling for $1.4 million at auction!

The work, “Girl With Balloon,” a 2006 spray paint on canvas, was the last lot of Sotheby’s “Frieze Week” evening contemporary art sale. After competition between two telephone bidders, the auctioneer hammered it down for 1 million pounds. That’s more than three times the estimate and a new auction high for a work solely by the artist, according to Sotheby’s.

“Then we heard an alarm go off,” Morgan Long, the head of art investment at the London-based advisory firm Fine Art Group, who was sitting in the front row of the room, said in an interview on Saturday. “Everyone turned round, and the picture had slipped through its frame.”

The painting, mounted on a wall close to a row of Sotheby’s staff members, had been shredded, or at least partially shredded, by a remote-control mechanism on the back of the frame.

-NY Times

Banksy’s Winning Bidder

The mystery female millionaire winning bidder has recently announced that she will be keeping the artwork at the original purchase price. She released a statement Thursday regarding her over-the-phone bidding experience and the later realization that she has purchased a valuable moment in art history.

“When the hammer came down last week and the work was shredded, I was at first shocked, but gradually I began to realize that I would end up with my own piece of art history,” the buyer, who was identified only as a “European collector and a longstanding client,”

I mean if we were her, we would keep it too! After all, isn’t artwork value – along with really everything else in our consumerism society determined by its popularity? The piece, retitled “Love Is in the Bin”, is now more valuable than its hammer price just a week ago. In fact, all of Banksy’s work is rumored to have gone up in value the last week and a half. A smart play by Banksy, and a comment to all of us for caring about it – therefore continuing to increase its value.

Never the less, we art lovers are bound to talk about art! It is what we love. We galleries will continue to support our artists and their smart, potentially upsetting antics – monetarily motivated or otherwise! After all, if any of you know an artist, wouldn’t you agree that something would be lost without them? We thrive on and pull from their creative steam!

What the Press has to say

Many retailers, as well as political commentators have taken advantage of the press in the last week or so. I have below a few images for your enjoyment –

After all, there is so much conversation happening about this act of performance art – if you will. How would you feel if you were the bidder behind the hammer? Initially – anger, regret, confusion? Eventually – happy, mocked, taken-advantage-of, famous?

Regardless of the potentially cynical undertones of Banksy’s elusive commentary, any art news is good art news! We will soak up the attention and continue to appreciate artists conceptual efforts!

Published October 18th, 2018

Images by:

https://www.nytimes.com/

The Nature in Ephemeral Art

Posted on: June 26th, 2018 by Art Leaders No Comments

As mentioned in our last post, “The Floral Still Life: It’s Stems and Roots”, the traditional still life focused on a moral lesson –perhaps the most frequently used motif being life’s temporality. Flowers as they exist in nature are an art in and of themsleves; Claude Monet even said “My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece”. But these tragic beauties only last a season. They bud; they bloom; they die –such is life.

Here are some contemporary artists who capitalize on the short-lived nature of real live flowers to produce exquisite ephemeral art. Be sure to add any of your favorites I may have missed below!

Wolfgang Laib –”Pollen from Hazelnut” at the MoMA (2013):

This artist literally gathers pollen from trees and plants near his southern-German home, bottles it up, and takes it to museum’s all over the world to create dust-carpet installations on their floors. Part of me is impressed by his commitment, the other part wonders how the bees must feel…

Image Credit: The New York Times

Detroit Flower House – Lisa Waud and others:

Before a delapidated house in Detroit was demolished, florist – Lisa Waud – decided to give it one last hurrah by decking out the place in flowers. She partnered with local floral artists to make the various installations and the results were hauntingly beautiful. The “Detroit Flower House” exhibit opened for one weekend in October 2015.

Image Credit: boredpanda

Flower Carpet Festival –Brussels, Belgium:

The event occurs bi-annually on the Grand-Place of Brussels, featuring a different design theme each year. In fact, this year’s flower carpet will “bring Guanajuato to the centre of Europe”

Image Credit: flower carpet

Jean-Michel; Bihorel: Flower Figures (made out of dried hydrangea):

Image Credit: designboom

Carl Kleiner: Postures Series (minimalist floral arrangements):

Image Credit: The Cool Hunter

“Flower Puppy’ by Jeff Koons:

Published June 26th, 2018