More things like this (Chronicle Books)

This book by Dave Egger looks great. A must to buy, with all these great artists. Don’t know what its about though!!!

check out the Artists in this book:
Amy Jean Porter

All the species, all the time, of lamb 2008

 

Tucker Nichols www.tuckernichols.com
Royal Art Lodge

Postermaking, Royal Art Lodge

or better yet, check out the article in Marie Claire
http://www.google.it/imgres?imgurl=http://www.marieclaire.it/var/marieclaire/storage/images/magazine/fan-club/fammi-un-disegno/brent-cunningham/12714899-1-ita-IT/brent_cunningham_photogallery_thumb.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.marieclaire.it/magazine/fan-club/fammi-un-disegno&usg=__3PIyzdt6P9gzt1LTktDJ2BfasNY=&h=53&w=67&sz=7&hl=it&start=12&itbs=1&tbnid=N9C7tAnGxUpB6M:&tbnh=52&tbnw=66&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbrent%2Bcunningham%26hl%3Dit%26tbs%3Disch:1

Artist_Barnaby Barford_Porcelain with wings

www.barnabybarford.co.uk

For sure, fantasy doesn’t lack in Barnaby Barford’s work. The London artist famous for having stretched the canons of porcelain statues, has created ironic, subversive little sculptures, revolutionizing the classical subjects of a ceramic artist, reinterpreting them in a punk manner.
Check out the series Private Lives with the 1800′s family eating lunch at McDonald’s.

oh please can we keep it mummy?!’

‘shit! now I’m going to be really late!’
© barnaby barford, 2006
porcelain, miliput, enamel paint, painted wooden base

So much for traditional statues on your nice chest of drawers,

Darn I had a Big Mac and got eaten by a Pig who fought a Kung Fu monster who hit Mickey Mouse who was shot by the young shotgunner in a beautiful dress ready to be the Strongest Man in the World.

Got it!!!?? Get it!

Artist_Andrea Mastrovito

In and out of life

Andrea Mastrovito, a young artist from Bergamo, ironic, passionate about his work (of course!) and about the magic forests of butterflies…multicolour butterflies or black and white.

Colour is a firey lover. I move continually between its presence and its absence, like a poem by Dante.

Paintings that are mysterious, delicate paper collages, explosive site specific installations to get attention a historical places.

http://www.andreamastrovito.com/

Illustrator_Leanne Shapton

The taste for images, the talent to talk about things and a creative idea snob about love. Leanne Shapton is an illustrator, writer and designer. A Canadian who lives in the West Village of Manhattan, who has signed great book covers for Penguin, Simon& Schuster and John Murray.

(like this one…Italian cats….)

Today, Leanne is an independent art director and publisher and has a non-profit publishing house specialized in art  books (J&L Books) in NY.

Her first two books “Toronto”,

and  Was she pretty?” are a mix of graphics, writing and colourful pages.

With her latest book, Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris including Books, Street Fashion and Jewelryshe has decided to talk about things, like auction artifacts with 300 still lives that tell about a love story.

www.leanneshapton.com,

 http://www.marieclaire.it/magazine/amori-nuovi/sentimenti-all-asta/lotto-1314-gruppo-di-foto

Book: The Map as Art

In The Map as Art, (Princeton Architectural Press) Katharine Harmon collects 360 colorful, map-related artistic visions by well-known artists—such as Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel, Olafur Eliasson, Maira Kalman, William Kentridge, and Vik Muniz—and many more less-familiar artists for whom maps are the inspiration for creating art.

The book is a collection of visionary topographies and imaginary geographies charted by artists including Vik Muniz (there is a work of his at the Palazzo Forti, Verona) who re-creates the globe from pieces of junk amongst others.

I haven’t read it, but it looks like a book I would like to buy and keep. I’m going to look into this through Amazon.

check out a review on http://www.coolhunting.com/culture/the-map-as-art.php

and the national post

http://www.google.it/imgres?imgurl=http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/afterword/map.jpg&imgrefurl=http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/afterword/archive/2009/11/04/the-new-cartographers-katharine-harmon-discusses-her-new-book-the-map-as-art.aspx&usg=__j5oMAvBZIV0lZo-UQUX6pTRQMlk=&h=311&w=475&sz=45&hl=it&start=3&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=rbxJXjJQMOLnUM:&tbnh=84&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthe%2Bmap%2Bas%2Bart%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dit%26rlz%3D1T4SNYK_itIT347IT347%26tbs%3Disch:1

Art lesson n.2 – principles of design

balance          dominance              movement               repetition                    variety                   unity

are the princples of design used in organizing composition.

B A L A N C E

Something is balanced if they have the same visual weight.

symetrical or formal balance  _    the parts are visually equal and creates a feeling of structure and stateliness

                              assymetrical or informal balance _ the parts are visually unequal and creates a sense of activity and interest

radical balance _ real or immaginary central point. Balance is NB to achieving unity in a composition. It depends on the ideas and feelings the artists wants to communicate.

DOMINANCE

Something that STANDS OUT from everything. There are many ways of achieving dominance:

1. sharp contrast between light and dark
2. making it large
3. giving it a strong colour
4. shape distorted
5. placed in an nb position – in the center for ex.

M O V E M E N T     A   N   D     R E P I T I T I O N

                                                                                             M O V E M E N T     A   N   D     R E P I T I T I O N

Movement is used to show activity. Repeated lines or shapes lead the ey from place to place in a rhymthic way. You can used repeated colours, paters of texture or light.

Giacomo Balla

 Variety 

One way is through contrasting colours where they are warm and cool,

Ennio Finzi

Contrasting shapes may be large and small, contrasting textures may be rough and smooth. ( NO IMAGES HERE YOU CAN IMAGINE WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE OK?)

_unity_

Visual unity is acchieved by a careful choice of the visual elements. You may use similar lines, shapes, colours and textures.

Paula Phelps Unity

contemporary art and architecture – alexander museum palace hotel

alexander museum palace hotel

Anyone can choose the  room they want by watching the monitor at the reception: choose your door of the artist and you get the room done by them. Meaning, after 4 years of work the art hotel opened in 2008, designed by 75 artists and another 25 who contributed to the general areas, for a total of 100 artists and sculptors distributed on 9 floors. Now that is what you call a contemporary art museum and you even get to sleep and eat in it!

a room at the Alexander Palace Hotel

 This is hotel is one of the wishes and “extras” that the Conte Alessandro-Ferruccio-Marcucci Pinoli di Valfesina, or for his friends, Nani, an original and interesting person who is also a lawyer, consol, ambassador, writer, poet, painter and sculptor, collector and cultural “tour de force”.

My goodness, not to many people like him around, I’d like to meet him! Better yet, stay in one of the 63  incredible rooms that this hotel has, a “Permanent performance art” hotel with year round art events. Each room is a work of art, realized in different materials: steel, plexiglass, wood, decoupage, and even the furniture, ceilings, floors, bathrooms: every detail is done by artists. The grand hall and the pool are worth just a look. Imagine sleeping in a room done by Sandro Chia, Giò Pomodoro, Arnaldo Pomodoro amongst others.

Someone said the room to take is room 308 by Maria Lepkowska, entitled “Non pretendo che sia tutta rosa“, if you want erotika!

Maria Lepkowska, room 308

 or the 412 by Erika Calesini, called “Armoniosi Pensieri”

.

I like them all, or better yet, you can stay in each room for one night and you get to see them all! Let’s have a contests – who can do all 63 rooms and still have the energy left to eat, drink and swim by the pool! I’m up for it!

www.alexandermuseum.it

Artists_Jillian Tamaki

 

 cat and bird

 I draw nature, real life, spiritual things and obviously, horror.

Jillian, 29 years old from Brooklyn, is a promising new designer of cartoons (her latest work is Skim)

Skim

Jillian is an illustratorfor the biggest magazines and newspapers like the (New York Times, The New York, Esquire, National Geographic, The Guardian) she is now working on a new book on mythological figures in a cartoon strip. The cult fav of hers is Alice in Wonderland by Ralph Steadman

www.jilliantamaki.com

The wapping project

wrapping project

 The Londoner Jules Wright, set designer for the theatre and cinema is an inventor of innovative spaces. The cult Wapping Project is the new deal, an industrial archeological site transformed into an intelligent artistic and performance space and restauant that is a cool and “in” place to go. All placed in an austere 1900′s building where steel, zinc and cement overrun the place.

Jules this year ran the installation at the Swarovski Crystal Palace Exhibition at the Salone del Mobile in Milan in April, an incubator for cutting edge design, demonstrated the merging of art,design, science and technology. Each of the 4 designer’s creative expression was captured in single room installations,captivating the imagination of each visitor. The final designs were a combination of sculptural pieces, art objects,or works which had a decidedly architectural quality. The exhibition brought on board the The Wapping Project in London and with a  background in theatre,  created a mise-en-scène that brought dramatic life to the different designers’ works.

I’m a director of public spaces. I treat design like a live performance”.

www.wappingproject.com,

www.swarovskicrystalpalace.com

 

 

Pierluigi Calignano – time scenographer

door structures

 The work of Pierluigi Calignano, artist from Puglia migrated to Milan, explores fantastic worlds that live between sculpture, installation and artisan craftsmanship. From the robots to impossibile machines, from the fairytale cities to the submarine decorated as architecture. Pierluigi develops visionary situations, with a sophisticated construction, utilizing everyday materials which he then completly deforms and reconstructs something new in its function and use. He has had numerous one man and collective shows between galleries, museums and residencies. He went to New York in 2007 for a prestigious artist-in-residence. I liked his work when I saw him at Colombo Art at ARt Verona. Someone to watch.