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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
In October 2015, Hi-Fructose Vol. 29 featured artist Olek visited the Virginia MOCA for a special workshop with community members and to plan a large-scale public artwork on site that will raise awareness about the waters near Virginia Beach. Over the weekend, the New York-based artist's project was unveiled at the opening of Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose - a larger than life future New York Times article covering the facade of the museum entrance. Olek's mural, crocheted in a photo-realistic style, imagines our Earth Day headline news in 2020.
International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8th every year. In different regions, the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation, and love towards women for their economic, political, and social achievements. To mark the occasion, artist Olek joined forces with humanitarian NGO Maitri in a public art performance in New Delhi, India.
Hi-Fructose readers need no introduction to the plethora of artists and galleries that were featured in this year's installment of SCOPE Miami Beach. Known as the biggest worldwide professional show of modern art, 2015 marked the fair's 15th anniversary. Despite heavy rains and winds that led to water seeping into the fair's signature white tent, attendance was higher than ever- roughly 49,000 attended compared to last year's 45,000 attendees. Take a look at more of our highlights from SCOPE Miami Beach after the jump!
When Rumney Guggenheim debuted his namesake New York gallery back in October, covered here, he followed in his great-grandmother's footsteps and chose a core group of young talents. Those artists included an internationally celebrated group of women: Olek (HF Vol. 29), Swoon (HF Vol. 36), Olivia Steele, AIKO, and Boxhead, whose personalities are as vivacious as their artwork. Rumney Guggenheim has brought them to Miami Art Week where they are exhibiting at the gallery's SCOPE Miami Beach booth and in a special exhibition curated by Art Bastion gallery, which celebrated its opening with a lecture and private reception last night.
Students at Salem Visual and Performing Arts Academy in Virginia got a new teacher early this morning. Polish-born street artist Olek (featured in HF Vol. 29) known for her candy-colored crocheted installations, shared her talents with 30 lucky students in a special workshop hosted by Virginia MOCA. "It's nice to be back in high school!", Olek shared in an instagram post. "It was so worth to wake up at 7:15am to meet these amazing young individuals." The workshop was held in anticipation of the artist's free public workshop series as part of the "Turn the Page: Ten Years of Hi-Fructose" exhibition coming to the museum next spring.
Tonight, New York will welcome a new gallery into the art world with a name that should be familiar to most: Rumney Guggenheim is the great-grandson of the art collector Peggy Guggenheim, and the son of art dealer Sandro Rumney and Ralph Rumney, co-founder of the avante-garde organization, The Situationist International. The gallery's first show, "Some Place Like Home" follows in the footsteps of his family members in its choice of young artists known for their use of experimental materials: Olivia Steele, Boxhead, Swoon, Moral Turgeman, Olek, in collaboration with Integrated Vision's Michelle P. Dodson. Notably, all of them are women. Give the concept of "Home", their works express interpretations of domestic bliss and one's private space.
"Podrán cortar todas las flores pero nunca detendrán la primavera." (They can cut all the flowers, but never stop the spring.) - Pablo Neruda Olek sends this message of support to the gay community all over the world, especially in South America, with her latest piece. The Polish-born street artist (featured in HF Vol. 29) has just covered Santiago's Obelisk Balmaceda monument with rainbow-colored crochet work. See more after the jump!
While some artists view yarn bombing as purely decorative, Olek (HF Vol. 29) often swathes objects in crochet to draw attention to important socio-political issues. Known for the outspoken messages in her large-scale, colorful work, she was recently invited to create a piece in New Delhi, India for the St+art Delhi street art festival. For her canvas, Olek chose one of the local homeless shelters called “Raine Basera,” which provide people with temporary lodging overnight. With the help of legions of volunteers and donations from Indian fashion labels, Olek beautified the shelter with bright yellow, purple, and red crocheted fabrics that evoke India's famously vibrant textiles. Though it's visually alluring, the piece ultimately imparts a sobering message about the reality of poverty in New Delhi — and many major cities around the world.
French artist Frederique Morrel (Vol 28) breathes new life into old taxidermy. She calls it the animals' revenge, under appreciated as a stuffed head on a wall and reborn as something to be admired. Simultaneously, the dying art of embroidery is made new and contemporary. To Morrel, her sculptures symbolize a reimagining of oppulence, bringing to mind artists Olek and Karley Feaver. Morrel's concept may sound simple: repurposing vintage tapestry that she collects from second-hand shops and covering animals with it, but it's not.
Always searching for new applications for her crochet practice (see our coverage of her crocheted train and crocheted boat as well as our extensive feature in Hi-Fructose Vol. 29), Olek recently traveled to the Caribbean for an underwater installation in Isla Mujeres, Mexico.
Street art has been criticized for being a boy's club, so for the few internationally-prominent female street artists out there, it has been vital to foster a sense of camaraderie across national borders. This May, StolenSpace Gallery in London brings together two prolific artists, Olek and Miss Van, for two side-by-side solo shows that are in direct dialogue with one another. The two artists are long-time friends and admirers of one another's work, and though they have been included in many group shows and street art projects together (during Miami Art Basel last December, they created neighboring artworks in the public art nexus Wynwood Walls), this is their first joint gallery project.