Chicago based artist Doug Fogelson creates mesmerizing photographic images of natural specimins, previously featured on our blog. His series titled “Broken Cabinet” is so named for the “cabinet of curiosities” that he collects, and then photographs through a process called photogramming. Photograms, for those who aren’t familiar, are pictures produced with photographic materials, such as light-sensitive paper, but without a camera. Fogelson recently expanded on the series to include a display of his collection on view at Linda Warren Projects in Chicago.
Tag Archives: Environmentalism
Los Angeles based artist Alexandra Manukyan (covered here) is instantly recognizable for her captivatingly dark and surrealistic oil paintings. Painted with a sense of the Renaissance, Manukyan’s artworks feature strong young women in highly dramatic costumes and environments. This Saturday, she will present a new series of paintings and drawings in her upcoming solo exhibition, “Oracle of Extinction”, with Copro Gallery in Los Angeles. With a newfound concern for the planet, her works touch upon our damaging treatment of our environment and, if uncorrected, its grim impact on our future.
Italian born, Ontario based artist Toni Hamel describes her work as “an illustrated commentary on human frailties”. Working with oil and latex on canvas as her preferred medium, Hamel’s subdued illustrations draw from her personal experience and observations of life in Canada. In her most recent series, “Land of Id”, she makes subtle commentary about how we treat and misuse our environment and the effects of our actions. The series portrays both good and bad interactions such as deforestation, narwhal hunting, and Arbour Day, a holiday in which individuals and groups are encouraged to plant and care for trees.
Ever wonder what happened to those plastic bags you recycled? Some of them may have ended up in Argentine artist Tomás Saraceno’s latest installation. “Becoming Aerosolar” is Saraceno’s debut exhibition in Austria, currently on view at the 21er Haus art museum in Vienna through August 30th. The exhibit highlights a series of sculptures and objects inspired by how we experience our environment – but it is Saraceno’s “flying museum” on display that takes this exploration to new heights.
Currently living and working in the idyllic town of Urtijëi, Italy, sculptor Willy Verginer shares a closeness with his environment in both technique and concept. His surreal wooden sculptures are carved from a single linden tree trunk with incredible precision and detail. Although their features are classical, Verginer paints bold stripes of color across his figures and poses them in awkward positions, making them completely contemporary. Previously covered here, he’s often paired his figures of women, men, and young children with other animals and objects that don’t fit together. His most recent pieces, which are on currently view at Galerie Van Campen & Rochtus in Belgium, pairs them with oil barrels.
When we last caught up with artist Caia Koopman, she was preparing for her 2012 exhibition “Behind Wind and Water” featuring her colorful, tattooed characters. Almost a year in the making, her new series of paintings, “Figments”, opens October 7th at Distinction Gallery. She will display a mixture of her usual motifs and themes, inspired by love, loss and connections. Animal rights and environmentalism are political topics of importance for Koopman which she lightens up with splashes of color. See more after the jump!