Ai Weiwei: Law of the Journey

"At his upcoming exhibition at Prague’s National Gallery, Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei continues his investigation into the European refugee crisis. A refugee himself, Ai’s latest body of work has preoccupied him since the onset of the mass migration of people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa for Europe in 2015."

"The exhibition, titled “Law of the Journey,” takes place against the backdrop of an Austrian proposal to cut European Union subsidies to member states refusing to participate in the EU’s refugee relocation program. According to Sputnik News, the Czech Republic has been reluctant to accept refugees from Italy and Greece in recent weeks."

March 17, 2017–July 1, 2018

Quayola: Fragments

bitforms gallery nyc is very pleased to continue its fifteen-year anniversary season with Fragments, Quayola’s second solo show with the gallery.

Born in Rome, Quayola’s practice is deeply affected by the grandeur and decay of ancient sculptures and Renaissance masterpieces that he encountered at an early age. Architectural façades, objects, and artworks that were once new chip, fade, crack, and break over the centuries. While the perception and reception of distressed frescoes or fractured sculptures is fluid, the work itself remains, containing a multitude of temporal narratives. Quayola translates this experience into his sculptures and works on paper and aluminium, which he presents in the exhibition as “simulated archaeological artefacts.”

Laocoön Fragments is a series of sculptures based on the Hellenistic sculpture Laocoön and His Sons. A paramount example of the Pergamene Baroque style, the work was endlessly copied—beginning in Roman times and through the nineteenth century—both as an artistic training device and due to its sheer popularity. Quayola inserts himself into this tradition with a digitally-driven approach. The artist’s software imagines and renders alternative breakages, fragmenting the work into two distinctive styles: representationally accurate sections and geometric abstractions coalesce into new forms. Made with a unique blend of pulverized iron powder mixed with resin, the sculptures are then chemically treated to cause an accelerated patina effect. The geometric sections are polished and waxed to achieve a smooth, newer appearance, while the representational segments appear oxidized and textured. Thus, the visual contrast between the “past” and “present” becomes more pronounced.

Art of Grant Haffner

Inspired by quiet rural roads and grand, open landscapes, artist Grant Haffner creates vibrant neon depictions of sprawling vistas bursting with bright color. 

Zhuang Hong Yi Art

Zhuang Hong Yi can best be described as a Chinese, contemporary artist who has impressed audiences in different countries by his unique style in his many pieces of modern art. His works represent beauty, sophistication and a high level of perfection with a clear presence of Chinese influence represented in his use of colours, themes, shapes and materials that touch the heart.

Hong Yi’s concern with environmental issues is reflected in his repetitive use of floral patterns, highlighting the increasing urbanisation of his home country, the ferocious plundering of natural resources and the depopulation of the rural environment.

24 March - 14 April, The Unit London Gallery

Following the success of his first London exhibition in 2015, RAW  at the Unit London - Zhuang Hong Yi returns to the gallery with RAW II offering another chance to witness this artist’s captivating and iridescent works. 

Untitled The Harvest, 2015

Untitled Sun Blaze, 2015

Untitled Emerald Sunset, 2015

Untitled Sapphire Bloom, 2015

Tidal, 2016

Studio Drift at Armory Show

A magician never reveals her tricks, so maybe that’s why the Dutch design team Studio Drift (Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta) declined to explain how, exactly, they are making a huge concrete block levitate at next week’s Armory Show in New York

Representatives from Pace Gallery pose with Studio Drift's Ralph Nauta and Lonneke Gordijn, Armory Show director Benjamin Genocchio, and Platform curator Eric Shiner. Photo by the Beckett Mufson, VICE

Titled Drifter, the 5 x 2.5 x 2.5-meter rectangular prism created by Dutch artists Studio Drift was presented by Pace Gallery

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Banksy Opens the “Walled Off Hotel” in Bethlehem

Nestled against the infamous cement barrier that currently separates Israel and Palestine in Bethlehem rests the latest ambitious art installation from the elusive street artist Banksy. Titled the “Walled Off Hotel,” and promising the “worst view in the world,” the experiential art show is a fully functional hotel that will be open for reservations as soon as next week.

“If you stay at the Walled Off you could find yourself literally sleeping inside a work of art. So far Banksy, Sami Musa and Dominique Petrin have customised guest rooms, more will follow. As Diane Arbus once said ‘to live with an artwork is something different, to glimpse it from the corner of your eye.’

The hotel boasts floor to ceiling views of graffiti-strewn concrete from almost every room. And for the exhibitionists amongst you – many are within range of the army watchtower. All scenic rooms are ensuite and equipped with wifi, fridge, radio, personal safe and air conditioning.

Outfitted with surplus items from an Israeli military barracks, this room offers a bed from $30 a night. No frills, includes locker, personal safe, shared bathroom, complimentary earplugs.”

— Hotel Info

Is there a swimming pool on the roof?

No. Our proximity to the wall means nobody is permitted to go on the roof without prior permission from the Israeli military. You should exercise common sense when staying with us. Aggressive drunkenness or loud public nudity is not encouraged. Under no circumstances should you shine laser pens at the army watchtowers.

Porcelain Beauty by Juliette Clovis

"French artist Juliette Clovis works primarily with female busts, mutating the forms to adopt animal or floral-based characteristics. Using both the 2D application of paint, and 3D addition of ceramics, she covers the females that she sculpts in horns, quills, and blooms. In some works the natural elements look as if they merge with the bust, while others appear overtaken, such as in the piece Memento mori (2016). In this piece Clovis’ white figure is almost entirely covered in flowers, with minimal elements of her face barely peaking out from its blanket of ceramic blossoms."

Clovis will have a solo exhibition of her work at Gallery Mondapart in Paris titled “Baroque Curiosities” opening March 23 and running through May 4, 2017. 

Architectural Sketches by Adelina Gareeva

As a two-years drop-out from Architectural department I was totally amazed by the recent discovery of freehand sketches drawn by Adelina Gareeva, a modern student from Kazan (KSUAE). Looking at her drawings makes my head dizzying from the amount of perfect one-dot or 2-dots perspective clusters done with simple pencil. In addition to being an artist, Adelina juggles her time as a model. 

Paintings of Johanna Stickland

Currently illustrating Milan women's wear collections for SHOWstudio Johanna Stickland working mainly with watercolours doing abstract paintings of female beauty.

Besides art she also does photography

Pixelated Sculpture by Hsu Tung Han

Chinese contemporary artist Hsu Tung Han creates wooden carved sculptures with a sense of pixel glitch deconstruction.

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Rainy New York City by Karen Woods

"Artist Karen Woods painted hyperreal images of New York city though the window of a rainy car and all of them had us doing a double-take. The paintings are incredibly detailed and provide an interesting perspective on what it’s like to travel through the streets of the big apple. There’s no cliche cityscape for Woods. She provides us with a new way to look at the city streets, which are beautiful no matter the weather. The light distortion created by the drops of water remove the viewer from the city location and entice us to find out more. "

Maria Menshikova illustrations

Residing in Amsterdam, Maria is a young Russia-born illustrator working for advertising and illustrative projects (ex. Russian Post cards). Her personal way of creating artworks takes from the mix of art nouveau and gothic prints. Some of her latest artwork remind me personally the works of French illustrator Vania Zouravliov 

Cloud Paintings by Ian Fisher

I bet you caught yourself in the middle of a flight on a cruising height staring unconsciously on the cloud valleys laying under the wing. With Ian Fisher art one can do it every day by following his portfolio online

Hacked Roomba Robot Paints like Pollock

Has no doubts we are close to robot revolution but meanwhile can enjoy things they do while manipulated by people. Japanese artist HYde JII has modified a robotic vacuum cleaner to paint on canvas. He modified the 15-year-old iRobot Roomba last year, which now goes under the name Head-kun (Mr. Head). 

He attached tubes and plastic bottles filled with paint to the Roomba and programmed it so it could shuffle about and drizzle paint as it went along. So far it's produced two abstract pieces, Spring Worm Hole (2014) and the rather fetching Spring Starburst (2015). 

Spring Starburst (2015). Photos by ATOM

Spring Wormhole (2014). Photos by ATOM

Drawings by Daan Noppen

Daan Noppen is an international artist mainly working in drawing and photography. He is best known for his realistic larger than life drawings of portraits and bodies. When looking closer at the works one finds mathematic equations in between the pencil strokes that relate to our reality.
His drawings project past, present and future in the now as one image, a parallel reality that we normally cannot see with the naked eye.

Girls&Sweets by Michelle Tanguay

Detroit canvas, murals artist and co-founder of Pop-Up Gallery Michelle Tanguay creates life-sized portraits of female using candies and lollipops as a visual weapon of independence.

“Themes change, depending on mood and environment but women are always the leading role. Historically women are often depicted as an accessory, but the lively women that I paint would never allow that to happen.”

— Michelle Tanguay

Expressions by Future Deluxe x Philip Haynes

For their latest collaboration Future Deluxe and photographer Philip Haynes worked with variety of selected artists using digital art, illustration, collage and even hand stitched portraits to create a series of unique portrait images.

Artists: Rik Oostenbroek, Caleigh Illerbrun, Jose Romussi, Lola Dupre, Gabor Ekes

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Art of Peter Zimmermann

Peter Zimmerman makes epoxy paintings that explore the visual effects of surface and material through glossy pour-like shapes of rich colours. His amorphous forms prompt endless interpretation, the depth and density of his materials creating visceral effects of shifting light and colour, heightened by layered airbrushing. For source materials, Zimmerman repurposes book covers and old paintings, and uses Photoshop filters to manipulate found images from the Internet into unidentifiable abstractions.

Freiburg School

Freiburg School

Freiburg School

14 ways to say I Love You with Digital Art

Designcollector premieres a fresh issue from digital art platform and net auction Sedition. Started 5 years ago the new platform quickly grown as a leading place to buy and sell digital pieces of famous and new-coming artists. This a unique place were you can eventually own Damien Hirst or Tracey Emin for less then a 100$, worth to mention you can trade it back by operating solely inside the platform environment.

Tracey Emin, You Touch My Soul

To celebrate the nightmare of all introverts and lonely hearts - the upcoming St Valentines, Sedition asked us to find 14 easy ways to say that 3 complicated words "I Love You" and of course with art. By giving a digital art you can surprise your mom, fellow, partner, lover, ex or even a dog with a new way you treat them. Of course there is no heavy burden to explain the meaning behind a contemporary piece you selected for this case. Love needs no explanation. Art neither. 

Enjoy our selection of 14 ways to say I Love You with Digital Art below. Click on the work and feel free to gift it away

Tracey Emin

Tim Noble & Sue Webster

Karoline Georges

Our Profile Kiss

Emma Coyle

Tease 10

Octavian Mielu

Deep Red

Iury Lech

Transmorph Realities

Mister Westrup

Art of Seduction

Natacha Merritt

Caviar

Richard Johnson

Still Life (All Art is Unstable)

Stanley Casselman

Evolution One Emma

Glenn Marshall

Star Girl

Aristarkh Chernyshev

The Three Graces

Ramiro Baldivieso

How Much Do You Want Me To Want You?

J-Dade

Quantum View, Woman Wearing a Party Dress, Lipstick & Sunglasses Signed

Keiko Fukazawa Sculptures

Keiko Fukazawa is a ceramic artist who is born and grew up in Japan. After spending 30 years in America, she dedicated her last three years in Jingdezhen, temple of porcelain since 1393.‘Made in China’ is a collection of playful works denouncing the effects of globalisation and consumerism in China.