Gasp! “SHE COULD HAVE BEEN A COWBOY” … now I want to be a cowboy! This is the most recent series by photographer Anja Niemi. Beautiful, bizarre, and like stills from a movie that I desperately want to see. I can’t find her artist’s statement about this work, so I’ll just have to let my imagination run like wild horses. ps. What makes this blush ‘n gold / American wild west narrative even more fantastic? Anja is from Oslo, Norway.

ps. This series is currently showing in Los Angeles at Galerie XII until June 22, 2019.

Do you love art? Do you love art books? Well, then have I got the perfect paintings for you! This is the gorgeous, large-scale work of American painter Robert Russell. If you happen to be in Los Angeles between now and June 1, go see his current show, titled “Book Paintings”, at Anat Egbi Gallery in Los Angeles. Happy Monday.

I don’t have an “art you can eat” category on the site, but clearly I need one! This is the stunning work of North London based artist/baker, Alison Dunlop, aka A.R.D Bakery… a “fashion designer turned baker”. How, why, what? Here  you go:

“Originally graduating from the Sculpture degree at Glasgow School of Art, I then moved into fashion accessories, studying at London College of Fashion Cordwainers then completing an MA in fashion accessories at the prestigious Royal College of Art. I spent 10 years working in the industry, designing bags, shoes and jewellery for many high end brands. 

I come from a family of home bakers, famed at the local fetes and bake sales, but hadn’t considered it as a career until maternity leave sparked in interest in experimenting how to put together classic baking with a design led high end fashion aesthetic. Further experimentation in chocolate work led incorporating bold, graphic patterns, strong colours and a fun playful look.”

And yes, I included that final photo as cold hard proof… well, moist delicious proof. Happy Friday.

{via art journalist, Anna V M Marks} 

WHAT. A 2D cafe that you wander around in!? I want to go to there. It’s a perfect black and white wonder where you can drink coffee, eat fancy treats and, clearly, Instagram your little heart out! This is YND 223-14 Cafe (previously YND 239-20 Cafe before they moved a few doors down) in Seoul Korea. I love everything about this fabulous place, so obviously I messaged them immediately to find out who did the artwork… the founder/owner Eun-Jin Lee responded with, “me”. Wow.

Will I ever get tired of writing about French artist Clémentine de Chabaneix? Non. Odd creatures, girls in masks, and that apple… oh, that apple. Actually, it’s one of her most recent pieces, and is titled ‘Apple-mouth
Tribute to Claude’ (Ceramic, Bronze, copper). I did a little digging, and the Claude this is dedicated to is Claude Lalanne, a French sculptor who just passed away in April of this year. Here is a little bit about her, and an insight into Clémentine’s tribute:

“Claude Lalanne was a French sculptor and designer most widely known for her work in the collaborative duo ‘Les Lalanne’ with her husband, François-Xavier Lalanne. Claude Lalanne’s personal work often manifested itself in the form of decorative flora and fauna, drawing from Surrealism and Art Nouveau in her furniture pieces. The artist also created jewelry which were often molded from twisted flowers, leaves, and branches made in copper and gilt bronze.” 

Women artists celebrating women artists… love, love, love. You can see ‘Apple-mouth, Tribute to Claude’ from now until July 15th at Domaine du Muy, a contemporary sculpture park in the south of France.

Ooooh, aaaaahhhh… the shapes, the palettes, the brushstrokes! This is the nature-inspired work of Vancouver based artist Amy Stewart… and I had to throw that last image in so you could see the scale. So lovely. Speaking of lovely, here are a few words from Amy’s site about her work:

“[Amy’s] pieces are often inspired by the feelings that come both from the natural world and from engaging fully in her community and with her loved ones. “I paint how I feel and who I am,” Stewart explains. And that sense of humanity—the private experiences of suffering and celebration—are evoked by her canvases’ unique explorations of colour, which range from exuberant bursts of brightness to contemplative reflections on darkness.”

“I paint how I feel and who I am.” Love.

This is the bold, vibrant, flower-filled work of Mexican born, Oakland based artist Jet Martinez. His work “reinterprets the Mexican folk art of Amate paintings” … onto canvases and gigantic walls all over the world! I accidentally found one of his pieces that last time I was in San Francisco, and you guessed it, they’re even more stunning in person. Happy Monday.

ps. Follow him on Instagram… so much goodness on his feed.

Okay, I’m trying to concentrate on the entirety of this fabulous sculpture show, but oh my word that giant mobile filled with sparkly childhood adventure is KILLING ME… it’s like a disco ball and ‘Stand By Me’ had a baby!!!  “Dinner’s Ready”, the latest show by American artist Just Emerson, is currently installed Skye Gallery, Aspen. And – because still photos don’t do my new obsession justice – here’s the install of “Fortune Teller’s Dream”:

 

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A post shared by Skye Gallery Aspen (@skyegalleryaspen) on Apr 11, 2019 at 10:22am PDT

Gah! Gorgeous! This show will be up until June 5, 2019.

“… a fascination with the construction of imaginary worlds that mirror a distorted reality”. Indeed! This is the quiet and surreal work of Canadian photographer Mark Bartkiw. All of these mixed-up photographs are part of his ongoing series, titled “Uncommonplace”. Here are Mark’s words about this project:

“I put together photos taken from different parts of our world to create this alternate reality, one that is similar to our world but with enough difference to create uncertainty. I see these Images as a lucid dream that reflect our own distortions and interpretations of what we see. We make assumptions or judgement based on first glance. This remanufacturing of landscape and architecture results in objects and buildings that float in a slightly skewed space. Reassembling reality based on the experience of multiple places and locations creates new spaces that verge on recognizable, but defy definition. This process of reinterpreting the world is something that I do to feel more at home in the world. But the new world we create puts us on the wrong side of the mirror, looking back at the reflection of our ever-shifting psyches.”

Beautiful and bizarre. Speaking of which, I really want to go to that first beach scene.

You didn’t see that coming, did you!? Collaged pop-up books are already fabulous, but then, hold on, what’s that, is it … a gigantic pop-up book installation!?!? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! This is the work of Colette Fu. She is one of the artists in the “pa•per” show {that opens at Paradigm Gallery, Philadelphia on April 26th} that I wrote about yesterday. She’s based in Philadelphia, but has done extensive traveling through Asia… I love this story from Colette’s site:

“For 6 months, I traveled between Shanghai and select minority areas in Inner Mongolia, Northwest Xinjiang Province, Hunan, Guangxi, Guizhou and Zhejiang Provinces. Traveling through the mountainous Yi landscape, one old Yi man told me, “Although an eagle flies far into the distance, its wings will fold back. For the Yi, the ultimate goal of life is to find the path of your ancestors.” Another Yi man advised me, “Don’t follow the black road, which is madness, dampness, illness and the ghost road. You should follow the white road, which leads you back to your ancestors.” Constructing pop-ups allows me to combine intuitive design and technical acuity with my love of traveling as I try to understand the world around me. With pop-up books I want to eliminate the boundaries between people, book, installation, photography, craft, sculpture….”

Beautiful. Also beautiful, a peek at her work in progress:

So, so fantastic! Her exhibition, titled “We Are Tiger Dragon People”, is currently showing at the Taubman Museum of Art {Virginia} until September 8, 2019.