Festival Bo:m 2010 catalogs by Korean minimalist design team Sulki & Min (Sulki Choi and Min Choi). The international festival celebrating ground-breaking artists is being in held in Seoul from March 23 to May 4, 2010. Participating artists include The Forsythe Company, Chris Kondek, and William Kentridge just to name a few. Tickets, however, have all sold out. We anticipate festival updates from those fortunate enough to attend.
This veteran collagist channels the bold energy of graffiti and his experience of growing up in New York City during the 1980’s to create a unique style of hand cut paper collages. Lamarche’s work incorporates an array of typography to create original artworks that blurs the line between graphic design and fine art. Each piece takes a painstakingly amount of time to create as Lamarche strictly uses reclaimed vintage paper that is often collected years before the final piece is created. The outcome is a dynamic pastiche that features abstracted letterforms, vibrant color, bold wit, and always fresh style. Greg Lamarche was born and raised in Queens and still resides in New York City.
Color, organic texture, and rounded gentle shapes is the theme of Sanna Annukka’s pop surrealist print-block style art. The artist hails from Brighton, East Sussex England and was born to an English Mother and Finnish father. Her work is inspired by Finnish folklore and early childhood memories in the countryside, translating into caricatured plants and woodland creatures. Her artistic ventures started with screen printing and branched into a foray of textile goods, including stints with Marimekko and designing a Keane’s album packaging for Under the Iron Sea.
If you’re searching for that special folk-inspired peace to bring the home together, take a look a Sanna’s shop, filled with adorable goods for your paper projects to table projects.
Emily Pothast, a local Seattle artist and University of Washington graduate, returns this month for another vibrant exhibition, Eternal Return, at the Grey Gallery & Lounge. Pothast earned her Bachelors of Fine Arts in 2003 and her MFA in 2005 with her thesis showcased in the UW’s Henry Art Gallery focusing on themes such as redemption and salvation in her more religiously focused work. Since her graduation and evolution in style, her current exhibition at the Grey Gallery consist of mixed media collages in stunning paper arrangements showcasing spiritual landscapes from mountains that roll towards cliffs and seashores. To order any pieces, please contact the gallery.
Seattlelites traversing the broad alleyways of downtown, inner city streets, and driving along the freeway overlooking westward suburban hillsides are no stranger to the screened animals that guard the landscape. The artist, No Touching Ground, has crafted a careful set of life-sized silk-screened animals realistic enough to raise an acute sense of awareness within the viewer. BoConcept Seattle had the pleasure to interview him today over coffee and the vibrations of mechanically filtered beans at our local Cafe Vita. He arrived in a wet raincoat and hoodie after battling treacherous Spring showers. After starting on his sixteen ounce black, he discussed the nature of his work, inspirations, and upcoming projects.
What types of animals do you like to feature in your work?
The animals I like to work with best are the ones found in the wild. It’s not often that you’ll see a bear at the dump in Seattle, but in Alaska the wild life is everywhere. I like to feature bears and wolves that are very common in Alaska. I’m also interested in doing something with animals that have gone extinct during the human era, like woolly mammoths. My dad found a woolly mammoth tooth on Whidbey Island when he was kid, and it’s that kind of surreal reaction I want my viewers to experience.
In some countries, they’re still finding the remains of woolly mammoths frozen in the arctic.
In Siberia, they’ve found deserted villages that used the bones of woolly mammoths - they’re just these huge skeletons that were constructed in the wild. Even though the villagers are gone, a trace of them remains.
How do you choose the locations to feature your artwork? Is there something that stands out to you?
There are just some locations in the city that have a unique vibe and tend to be very memorable, and I aim to create a memorable experience for people from seeing unusually placed animals. I work with life-size so that you can feel the animals. There are some locations that animals won’t approach because of the content of the artwork, like a dog will be apprehensive when approaching a screen printed coyote.
Does this mean images that look like prey would attract these animals?
It depends on how sharp their instincts are, but probably.
What projects have you worked on in the past?
I’ve done work with Free Sheep. They had a display in Belltown awhile back.
What mediums and materials do you usually use for your artwork?
For the street level, I usually use watercolor, adhesives, paint. Installations: palette, scraps, paint. For drawings I use mostly charcoal, although I haven’t had the time to fully focus on drawings lately. I’d like to put out a few pieces of my drawings soon though.
Can you tell us a bit about your upcoming projects?
I’m planning to capture pigeons from five different locations in the city. I’ve been mapping their flight pattern and have found areas in the city that they flock to. I plan to create and attach message holders and attach limited edition silk screens. We see pigeons all the time in the Seattle, but when you see one with a message holder, that’s a pretty special experience.
That’s really cool. How many were you planning to capture?
About 100. I’ll have a pretty good selection from the areas I’ll be catching them from. I’d also need to build a cage to house them.
Can you tell us what your studio is like? The furniture, the design?
I’m living in a studio, so the space is consolidated as a work space and living quarter. I don’t really have a living room. The only furniture that I own is 2 stools, architecture drafting desk, and desk for my computer. I live a pretty transient lifestyle around the city, so I can’t afford to have too much baggage. I also feel like I can create more when I’m not comfortable, for example, I’ll never be really comfortable on a stool. If I get too comfortable, I might not create as much.
It sounds like one of your prime motivations is physical in nature.
You could say that.
Thank you for coming today! We really appreciate it.
Below is an exclusive preview of NTG’s collaborative installation-in-progress with fellow graffiti artist, NKO (pronounced nee-koh) and Dan Hawkins. Titled “Tomb,” NTG’s designs were inspired by Russian Orthodox tombstones that he explored while in Alaska, reminiscent of an age gone by. The installation also includes massive paintings by NKO. The process is being photographed by Dan Hawkins. The finished product will not officially be available to the general public, but the prospect of a book documenting the creative process of the installation is currently in the works. The artists are currently collecting donations to pay for both the installation and the publication of their work. If you are interested in contributing to their project, please contact them.
“No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution… revolution is but thought carried into action.” - Emma Goldman
From March 3rd to March 7th, 2010, pop-up gallery Manifest Equality will be showcasing works focused on bringing equality to all Americans, with emphasis on the LGBT movement in Los Angeles. Their aim is to increase awareness through art focused on peace, love, justice, respect, and civil rights on the grass roots level. Portraits of embracing couples, human figures harmoniously united, and provocative stylized statements, the gallery challenges the nature of what we perceive as difference in society. This will be the last day that they are showcasing, so if you are in the area, you can visit them at 1341 Vine Street,(between Hollywood & Fountain) Los Angeles, CA 90028-8141.
Here are some highlights of the contest winners:
“Nayyirah and Rasheeda” by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh “Line” by Kaeleen Wescoat-O’Neill “Here’s to Adam and Steve!”
Many artists are inspired by movement, but none more so than the amazing 80’s sculptor, Maria Blaisse. An iconic and revolutionary artist, Maria created intricate, spherical foam forms that sculptured the body creating unique shapes. Fashion, nature and art merge together in Maria’s world to form exaggerated proportions, bold shapes and directional images.
Inspired by studying dancers movements, her work was legendary and so were her collaborations with Issey Miyake. Dazed and Confused were also inspired by her work with stylist Karen Langley commissioning set designer Gary Card to re-create some of Maria’s key pieces to mix back into the shoot captured by Jason Kibbler. Gary was mindful of using Maria’s aesthetic without been too “literal” with his creations. The spike dress took Gary 20 hours to construct in order to pay a respectful homage to Maria’s work. - Kate Vandermeer
pun(c)tuation is proud to present the work of Hebru Brantley (MOLOTOV Kartel) in Lions Disguised as Lambs, a powerful exhibition of paintings that reposition historically derogatory images of African-Americans in the context of modern language and culture.
“Lions Disguised as Lambs” is a series that features pieces of images from 1940-50s Coon Toons, animated cartoons depicting that era’s stereotypical images of African-Americans. Inscriptions of contemporary language surround the images, allowing viewers to bridge the turbulent past with the current state in cultural relations. The exhibit will be on display until Friday, April 9.
“in the victorian era, a bare room was considered to be in poor taste, so every surface was filled with objects that reflected the owner’s interests and aspirations.”
“Line” by Kaeleen Wescoat-O’Neill 
“Here’s to Adam and Steve!”
