Emil Alzamora’s Distorted Human Figures Appear to Melt, Morph, and Defy Gravity

Artist Emil Alzamora explores the human body through his figurative sculptures that distort, inflate, elongate, and deconstruct physical forms in order to reveal emotional situations and narratives. Alzamora works with a variety of materials including bronze, gypsum, concrete, and other ceramic materials to create pieces with smooth, almost non-descript surfaces to instead draw attention to shape and scale. Born in Peru, he began sculpting in the fall of 1998 in New York at the Polich Tallix fine art foundry, and has since exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, most recently at Expo Chicago and the International Sculpture Symposium In Icheon in South Korea. You can see more of his work on Facebook and on Instagram.

Watch Emil At Work

Culled from Colossal

Bird Enthusiast Creates LEGO Birds

Tom Poulsom, a gardener and tree surgeon from Bristol, turned his passion for birding into these amazing LEGO brick bird replicas.

“I have always been a fan of LEGO, and a big admirer of the natural world, rekindling my love for LEGO two years ago and building what most boys would build, cars, trucks and spaceships, etc. However, being a gardener and a lover of nature I wanted to build something related to my job. One day during a break from digging in a customers garden a Robin Red Breast landed on my fork handle. This was the eureka moment behind what is now the LEGO Bird Project,” Poulsom said.

More info: Flickr | LEGO Ideas (h/t: gizmodo, twobirdersandbinoculars)

The First Set To Be Released

Woody Woodpecker

Leeto and Latifah the LoveBirds

 

Victor The Violet-Eared Hummingbird

Stormy the Snowy Owl

 

View More LegoBird Here

Culled from the boredpanda

Ra Paulette Spent 10 Years Carving A Giant Cave – Alone With His Dog

For the last 10 years, American artist Ra Paulette has been walking alone into New Mexico’s desert to work. He spends his time carving a sandstone cave that he found, turning it into a wonderful subterranean space full of light.

Without no one but his dog for company, Paulette created different designs and styles for every cavern, giving each one very specific qualities and textures.

The purpose of this gigantic artwork is to create an environment that would inspire “spiritual renewal and personal well being.” It will also serve as a venue for artistic events once it’s finished.

Documentary trailer about Ra Paulette’s work:

Culled from Boredpanda

Read Original Article Here

Sino-French Art Park Recycles the Eiffel Bridge

Fifty artists have gathered to create an “art park” in Shunde, Southern China, which celebrates 50 years of diplomatic relations between China and France.

Inaugurated earlier this week, the 200,000 square-meter Sino-French Art Park is dotted with sculptures made from what looks like scrap metal. It’s scrap metal with a special cachet, though: it was dismantled from the Eiffel Bridge in Bayonne, Southwestern France, shipped to China, and used by the participating artists to make installations. The bridge was designed by the  French civil engineer Gustave Eiffel in 1864, before he went on to create the Eiffel Tower.

“When the ruins of the Eiffel Bridge, which represent the Industrial Revolution, were transported to and rebuilt in Shunde, a modern global manufacturing and processing center, it was like a bridge was built connecting past and present,” Lu Mingjun, one of the curators for the opening exhibition, told the Global Times.  

Fan Zhe, the art director of the park project, initiated the recycling of the Eiffel Bridge, hoping the metal could gain new life in the artists’ hands. Fan’s theme for the exhibition is “AA Utopia” — “AA” means to “go Dutch” in Chinese slang and refers to the idea that all parties are participating equally in the “Utopia” of the art park.

Big-name artists like Wang Guangyi, Sui Jianguo, and Xu Bing have participated in the project. French artist Catherine Val and Chinese artist Li Ming each built a sculpture of Charles de Gaulle and Chairman Mao respectively. The statues have been placed so it looks like the two figures are in conversation.

Culled from artnet

View Original Here

Interview with Yinka Shonibare

Yinka Shonibare was born in London and lived in Nigeria with his family until the age of 16, when he moved back to London for school. At age 18, he fell ill with a debilitating disease that rendered one half of his body paralyzed. With the assistance of artists, Shonibare creates paintings, sculpture, photography, and installations that explore the “artificial construct” of the Western art canon. His signature is his use of what appears to be African textiles that, with closer investigation, have cross-cultural roots—the main exporters of this type of textile are based in the UK and the Netherlands. In another cross of cultures, Shonibare uses the textiles to reenact classic scenes in art history, for instance Fragonard’s The Swing or Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.His poignant work has been widely recognized and exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale, documenta XI, and the Brooklyn Museum. In 2004, he was on the shortlist for the Turner Prize for his “Double Dutch” exhibition at Stephen Friedman Gallery and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rottendam. He lives and works in London.

When did you know you wanted to be an artist?  
When I was at school. I enjoyed art lessons and knew I wanted to carry it on as a career

What inspires you?
I am often inspired by artists and musicians who think outside the box and who are not ‘mainstream’ in their approach. I like the work of Yayoi Kusama. I like Fela Kuru, and I like the musician Tricky because he’s creative and interesting to watch.

If you could own any work of modern or contemporary art, what would it be?  
It would be a James Turrell light installation because I’m going through a spiritual period, and I want something I find calm and spiritual, such as his light pieces.

What are you working on at the moment?
I have two exhibitions in New York in the spring that I am working on, and a large exhibition later next year that will tour Asia. I am always thinking toward the next exhibition

When not making art, what do you like to do?  
To run a supper club, read books, and go to the cinema. I also like going to the opera, watching live music, and going to the ballet.

 

Culled From artnet

View Original Here

12-Inch Nails Turned Into Stunning Sculptures

John Bisbee has spent nearly 30 years welding and forging 12-inch nails into amazing works of sculptural work. This might sound like a misplaced act of dedication until you see just how beautiful and impressive his sculptures are.

Bisbee writes that he is guided by the mantra “only nails, always different.” This comes across loud and clear in his work, since he has put this seemingly simple and limiting component to hundreds of different creative uses, many of which expand to consume an entire wall or room.

The story goes that his fascination with nails began when he was scavenging for metal parts to use in his sculptures. He upturned a bucket of rusted nails, noticing that they retained the shape of the bucket they were in. This fascinated him, and he spent the next 3 decades exploring his newly discovered medium!

To hear more about his work in his own words, check out Bisbee’s interview with BoredPanda below!

More info: johnbisbee.com

“For me, working with so many modular units is like creating unique legos, and then assembling them into unknown wholes,” John Bisbee told Bored Panda. “It’s extremely fun, and my daily rhythm”

“The message is whatever the viewer finds. Yes, it’s primarily aesthetics, but it’s also a representation of the infinite potential of a single element”

“I have thought about other verbs in buckets,” Bisbee said, referring to the bucket that started it all. “I use metal buckets everyday in the shop, so they’re always on my mind. Someday, soon maybe, I will execute one of these”

Bisbee says that, every day, his work “gets deeper and more exciting. I hope that my work will continue to progress and that this is just the tip of the iceberg”

 

Culled from BoredPanda, Read Original Article Here

Woodnwonder: Sculptural, Sustainable Handcrafted Designs

Bente Hovendal, the designer behind a new danish furniture design called Woodnwonder. The designs are sustainable and made of FSC and PEFC certified wood and all materials are eco-friendly.

The sculptural furniture is made in Denmark with a vision to (re)connect people with nature. It’s also handcrafted with materials of high quality.  Have a look at her website to see more of her works.

More info: woodnwonder.com

Round plank table with zink inlay

Floating sheves

Long Table

Plank table with non-galvanized legs

Culled from BoredPanda

5 Lessons For Artists (And Fans) From Amanda Palmer

After giving a popular TED Talk about her record-breaking Kickstarter campaign, Amanda Palmer decided to pen a book about her experiences with asking her fans for support.

Amanda Palmer talked to BuzzFeed about her new book, The Art of Asking.

Via amazon.com

The musician (who formerly worked full-time as a living statue) talked to BuzzFeed about what she hopes artists and fans will take away from her experiences.

1. There is no “right” way to make money as an artist.
“I think the key is just a general kind of allowance for artists to use the tools they want, connect with the audience in their own style and unique way, and I think the world would be best served backing off a little bit with all of this extreme judgement — ‘U2 is doing it wrong’ and ‘Taylor Swift is doing it wrong’ — and instead just take the wider perspective that we’re all just doing things differently. Every artist has a different relationship with their fans, with their business, and the playing field is very wide. So I support Taylor Swift’s decision to take her music off Spotify if she wants to — it’s her prerogative as an artist — so if she wants to take her music off, good for her, as long as she doesn’t judge me for keeping my music on Spotify.”

Via Facebook: amandapalmer

2. You can absolutely make your own opportunities.
“I actually just did an interview in London about a research project that found that women are far more successful at crowdfunding than men are. I found that fascinating, especially in a world where industries can be very sexist and women find themselves locked out of opportunities because it’s a boy’s club. It’s great that they can sort of skip that hurdle and say, ‘Hey, crowd, I don’t need the system — I have you.’”

3. Remember that artists need fans as much as fans need artists.
“One of the best house parties was when I drove to Portland from Seattle, stuck in a traffic jam and right before I left, I got my first death threat. It was right around the time of the Boston marathon bombing and I had written an entry for a blog that a lot of people really hated, and on the website someone wrote that they were going to track me down and kill me. I wasn’t really scared of some wacko but it wasn’t a pleasant feeling, being stuck in traffic for seven hours with that. By the time I showed up to the house party an hour late, there were all these wonderful people in the backyard already drinking and bonding and loving each other and I just totally needed them more that night than they needed me.”

Via Facebook: amandapalmer

4. You also never know who might become a friend.
“There’s a chapter in the book about me and a massage therapist named Courtney. I was just in Courtney’s car, getting a ride to the airport and when you get to that chapter, you’ll understand how significant that is because she was a huge Amanda Palmer hater. It was right after the Boston bombing and life was really shitty and I was getting a lot of hate from a lot of sites for a lot of reasons. It was my birthday, and Neil [Gaiman, author and Amanda’s husband] and I were in Seattle to deliver a couple of house parties and Neil decided to treat us both to a massage for my birthday. He booked randomly online and an hour later, we walked into this girl’s office and when she saw me … she said, ‘When I saw your names, I thought it was my friends playing a practical joke on me. I need to talk to you. I am a person who’s been writing horrible, excruciatingly mean things to you on my blog and you might not want to get on my massage table.’ And I got on her massage table and she massaged me for an hour while I lay there and cried. It was just this moment of total dual forgiveness. And we’ve become friends.”

5. Never be afraid to ask.
“Ask where the benevolence is and don’t spend your time dwelling on anger and resentment toward the people who aren’t inclined to help you. The world owes you nothing and as a musician, you’re not entitled to anything but you can most certainly ask for what you need and see who is heeding your call.”

To learn more about the book, click here.
You can also follow Amanda Palmer on Twitter here.

BuzzFeed

Hip-Hop Artist Swizz Beatz To Curate Booths at SCOPE Miami Beach

Swoon, Thalassa (2014). Presented as part of The Dean Collection.
Photo: Courtesy SCOPE Miami Beach

Hip-hop artist Swizz Beatz (whose given name is Kasseem Dean) is the latest celebrity to sink his teeth into the Art Basel in Miami Beach scene. The musician and art collector will curate four booths and one large-scale installation at the satellite fair SCOPE Miami Beach. According toSCOPE’s website, the project is labeled The Dean Collection, and will present the work of five up-and-coming artists Swizz has collected and befriended throughout his art-hunting, studio-visiting world travels. So far, Swoon, Cleon Peterson, and Lyle Owerko are on the roster, but the other two names have yet to be announced.

The installation will be provided by Swoon, who recently made waves in the New York art scene with her acclaimed 2014 show at the Brooklyn Museum. Entitled Thalassa, the work is inspired by the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill tragedy, but depicts the primordial Greek sea goddess Thalassa, who is said to have given birth to all tribes of fish in the sea and is a personification of the ocean itself. Given Swoon’s talent for intricate yet enveloping installations with an on-point environmental message, it’s sure to be a highlight of the fair.

According to Complex, Swizz’s collection is extensive and includes a mixture of young, street-influenced talents like KAWS, Jaybo, and Phil Frost, alongside canonical artists like Damien Hirst and Andy Warhol. He’s dropped a teaser or two about the project on his Instagramaccount, so we can’t wait to see what he posts while in Miami. Perhaps he’ll even bring wife Alicia Keyes along to double the celebrity intrigue surrounding The Dean Collection.

The North Korean Art Factory Cranking Out Soviet-Style Monuments

Mansudae Art Studio, African Renaissance Monument, Dakar, Senegal.
Photo: Sbreitinger.

The new standard in African public art? Mansudae Overseas Projects, the propaganda art factory run by the North Korean government. As reported by Slate, Mansudae’s ability to produce extremely large yet relatively affordable statues has attracted a number of unexpected clients, such asSenegal, which enlisted the company to create a 160-foot-tall bronze African Renaissance Monument in 2006. Based in Pyongyang, Mansudae Art Studio boasts an impressive 4,000 employees, a quarter of whom are artist-graduates of Pyongyang University and other national institutions. Mansudae’s colossal monuments show a distinct Soviet influence, such as their depictions of the vibrant and verdant North Korean countryside, or bright-eyed, smiling farm girls. The factory’s artists have the near-exclusive right to produce images of the country’s leader Kim Jong-un, as well as his father, Kim Jon-il, and grandfather, Kim Il-sun.

Mansudae Art Studio, statues of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, Pyongyang.
Photo: Bjorn Christian Torrissen.

Senegal is just one of 18 countries that have turned to Mansudae to manufacture monumental sculptures. Most clients are African or Asian, such as Namibia, which hired the North Korean studio to build itsHeroes Acre war monument, but at least one western country has gotten in on the action: Mansudae rebuilt the Fairy Tale Fountain in Frankfurt, Germany. According to a Vice article published last year, the studio has earned an estimated $160 million for the North Korean government over the last 10 years. The African Renaissance Monument, commissioned in 2006 by Senegal’s then-president Abdoulaye Wade, depicts a shirtless man, holding up a baby in one hand, leading a woman with one exposed breast with the other. It is meant to symbolize the end of colonialism and slavery in Senegal, and was installed on a hill overlooking Dakar in 2010 during celebrations of the country’s 50th anniversary of independence from France. The Senegalese, unable to pony up the $27 million price tag on the work, gave North Korea land in exchange for the statue.

Mansudae Art Studio, African Renaissance Monument, Dakar, Senegal.
Photo: Jeff Attaway.

The statue has become a source of controversy in Senegal, where people questioned the construction of such an expensive artwork during a nationwide economic crisis. The country’s predominantly Muslim population has also taken issue with how scantily-clad the figures are. Wade’s 12-year regime was allegedly characterized by widespread corruption and nepotism, and he claims that he is personally entitled to 35 percent of revenue generated by visitors to the statue, which remains surrounded by garbage and unfinished construction. If you take an elevator to the top, however, you are afforded sweeping views of Dakar. Despite the international popularity of North Korean statuary, the country does outsource some of its own propaganda monuments. North Koreans practically worship waxworks of Kim Jong-il, Kim Il-sung, and his wife, created by Chinese waxwork master Zhang Molei.