…can’t. breathe. so. jealous… man oh man, I love these pieces by American artist Jack Pierson. It has long been a dream of mine to take a road trip down to the sign graveyard in Vegas and load up on, well, pretty much everything you see here… hm, although it looks like Jack may have already taken most of the good stuff!

To say that I’m a huge fan of reality TV would be a slight understatement, but when I came across a reality show about art, I have to say… I was pretty skeptical. How were they going to do this? Great art can’t happen in twelve hours… can it?! Well, regardless of my initial doubts, one episode, and a big bowl of ice cream later, I was hooked! In the first few seconds of Work of Art, I was thrilled to see that Peregrine Honig was one of the 14 participating artists. I wrote about her last November, so obviously she was my early pick as the winner! Well, she came close. She was second, but as far as I’m concerned she should have won. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy for 23-year-old Abdi Farah who won the title, a whole bunch of cash, and a solo show at the Brooklyn Museum {on now until Oct 17th}, but I really, really, really loved Peregrine’s final show {…a sweet, yet dark carnival theme, complete with cotton candy spun by Peregrine herself!} There is an innocence, a beauty, and a sadness to every single piece. The image that gives me a physical reaction every time I see it is the photograph above, titled The Twin Fawns. Under glass in Peregrine’s studio, these taxidermied baby deer are still huddled together. They were found in this position in their mother’s womb, who died just before they were born. See? Such innocence, beauty, and for me, overwhelming sadness. What an amazing collection of work. Congratulations Peregrine!

{She is currently selling prints of ‘The Twin Fawns’ which you can purchase here, and if you’d like to see her latest work in person, she’s having a solo show with Dwight Hackett Projects, opening October 9th in Santa Fe.}

Inhale…… aaaand, exhale. Ahhh. These gorgeous installations, by Denmark-based Japanese artist Yuko Takada Keller, make me want to stop for a moment and take a deep cleansing breath. They also make me wish that I knew how to create such beautiful, airy installations using small, triangular, hand-colored pieces of tracing paper. Hmm, perhaps I should take another deep breath.

{via Squid Blog}

Obviously, I’m going to have to get myself to Venice… for several reasons. However, today’s reason is because of these two beautiful, side-by-side installations that were part of the Venice Biennial in 2009. {A few weeks back, I wrote about a piece called ‘Falling Garden‘ that was part of the Venice Biennial 2003… see, I have to go!}

American artist Spencer Finch created Moon Dust, by hanging hundreds incandescent bulbs from the ceiling of this old stone building, and Moonlight, the title of the stained glass window, by placing coloured filters over the existing windows. Sigh. I cannot even begin to imagine how magical this must have been in person. Ok, that’s it… hey Venice, I’ll see you in 2011!

{via Apartment Therapy}

RxArt is an amazing New York based non-profit organization who have taken it upon themselves to brighten the often drab and depressing spaces in hospitals, with beautiful and inspiring contemporary art. I wrote about them for the first time last February when I featured the work of Mary Temple, and today, I’m writing about their latest project. One of my favourite artists, Jeff Koons, worked with them on this CT Scanner project at Advocate Hope Children’s Hospital. Instead of sterile white {and that awful washed out green that hospitals always seem to be} this room is filled with bright colours, monkey heads, and of course, a huge dog balloon! I think anything that could make a child, and their worried parents, feel a little less scared in a situation like this is absolutely inspirational. Keep up the wonderful work RxArt!

{The other little tidbit about this story that I love, is that Jeff Koons waved any kind of fee for his involvement in this project… now that’s some very nice art karma if you ask me!}

Copyright Jeff Koons
Photos: Michael Tropea, Chicago

Oh my word.

This breathtaking installation was created for the 50th Biennial of Venice in 2003, and found it’s home in San Staë church on the Canale Grande. It’s entitled Falling Garden, and is the work of collaborating Swiss artists, Gerda Steiner and Jörg Lenzlinger. I honestly don’t know if I’m more jealous of them and their obvious artistic genius, or those very lucky people lying underneath this fantastically beautiful falling garden… I think it might be a tie.

{via yellowtrace}

American artist Gregory Euclide took the term ‘mixed media’, and seriously ran with it! Here is a quick list of the mediums and objects used to create these insanely amazing, and incredibly beautiful, examples of mixed media… that I really wish I had thought of:

Acrylic paint, eurocast, grass, juniper, lichen, paint can, pine needles, moss, sedum, sponge, cedar, found foam… {pause to inhale, aaannnd continue}… leaves, pencil, photo transfer, polyurethane foam, cigarettes, milkweed, paper, plastic, styrofoam, stone, and wood.

Phew.

{Gregory’s work can be seen in person at the David B. Smith Gallery in Denver… but no touching please!}

That’s it… as soon as I finish writing this, I’m taking all of my books and lamps out into the backyard where they clearly belong! Sigh. These beautiful {and let’s face it, quite magical} installations are assembled and then photographed by Norwegian artist Rune Guneriussen. Since 2005, he’s been creating these engaging narratives using man-made objects {like tables, chairs, telephones, globes, and of course, lamps & books} placed into the natural landscape of Norway. Ok, I better go open the back door… my lamps need a bit of fresh air.

How’s the water today? ~ Oh, a little bit ‘concrete floorish’ but other than that, quite lovely thanks.

I found this stunning work through a blog called I Heart Wood. Yes, that’s right, these unbelievable sculptures, by Italian artist Willy Verginer, are carved out of wood! His undeniable talent as a craftsman would be enough to make just about anyone jealous, but then you throw in these clever compositions/use of gallery space, not to mention his bold application of colour, and I don’t think you could find any artist who wouldn’t say ‘Damn, I wish I thought of that’… or maybe more likely, ‘Damn, I wish I could do that.’ {… that’s what I’m thinking right at this very moment!}

It’s been over a year since I wrote about Adam Wallacavage, and I’m still oh so jealous. Some of his chandeliers are going to be included in a show that opens on June 26th in Italy, so I figured that was enough of an excuse to write about him again. He has so much stunning work to choose from, but after hours of debate, I decided on these as my top picks… and of course, I had to include the shot of Adam deep sea diving in his living room. Honestly, if I had all of these amazingly strange and beautiful octopus chandeliers in my house, I’d buy a wetsuit and harpoon too… let’s face it, it’s a good look.