Art Monday Archives - Page 38 of 58

ARTmonday: Sassy Signs and Sculptures by Alejandro Diaz

I’ve seem a lot of quirky neon messages on Pinterest, blogs, and Tumblrs, as well as some in the new contemporary wing at the MFA, but hadn’t taken time to learn about the artists. Handily, RISD just emailed me about a new show at the RISD Museum opening next month showcasing a number of the more prominent pieces I’ve seen.

RISD Business: Sassy Signs and Sculptures by Alejandro Diaz features comical lit and cardboard signs for which Diaz is best known, such as “Make Tacos Not War” and “Unhappy at Last,” which grew from a 2003 series of public performances in front of New York landmarks like Tiffany’s on Fifth Avenue and the Plaza Hotel. His works are considered not just art, but entertainment, activism, public intervention, and free enterprise.

The exhibit opens Friday, November 16 at the RISD Museum in Providence. The public is invited to a free opening celebration with the Texas-born, NYC-based artist on Thursday, November 15, at 6 pm. The exhibit will be on view until June 9, 2013.

Alejandro Diaz, Happiness Is Expensive, 2008.
© Alejandro Diaz. Courtesy of Dorfman Projects, NY.
Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design, Providence.

Alejandro Diaz, Ongoing series of cardboard signs, 2003-present.
© Alejandro Diaz. Courtesy of the artist.
Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design, Providence.

Alejandro Diaz, Lost Our Lease, 2010.
© Alejandro Diaz. Courtesy Royale Projects, CA.
Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design, Providence.

AlejandroDiaz,MakeTacosNotWar.
©AlejandroDiaz.Courtesy David Shelton Gallery, Houston, TX.
Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design, Providence.

AlejandroDiaz,InTheFutureEveryoneWillBeFamousfor$15.00, 2007.
© Alejandro Diaz. Courtesy of the artist.
Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design, Providence.

Alejandro Diaz, More Dior / Less War, 2012.
© Alejandro Diaz. Courtesy of Dorfman Projects, NY.
Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design, Providence.

Alejandro Diaz, Portable Sign Series: Naked Artist Inside, 2009– present.
© Alejandro Diaz. Courtesy of the artist and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.
Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design, Providence.

And a few other works I found on the web…

Alejandro Diaz, Unknown Artists at Unheard of Prices, 2006
purple neon sign 24″ x 36″ [installation view]

Alejandro Diaz, No Shirt No Shoes, 2009
Neon, 17″ x 36″, Edition of 3

Alejandro Diaz, Jesus/Cheeses, 2009
[installation view at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield]
Courtesy of the artist and The Happy Lion, Los Angeles

Alejandro Diaz

ARTmonday: Flower Constructions by Anne Ten Donkelaar

Dutch artist Anne Ten Donkelaar‘s “flower Constructions” are magical, fantastical. These three-dimensional garden collages almost makes you believe in fairies, or at least imagine the place where fairies would dwell. Donkelaar creates these wonders using dried, pressed stems and blooms and cutouts of flower pictures raised from the background with tiny slivers of pins. She has a similar series, “Broken Butterflies,” that is as slightly more scientific. Each of these flower habitats though are truly a wonderland.

Flower construction #17

Flower construction #17 (detail)

Flower construction #2 (detail)

Flower construction #14 (detail)

Flower construction #16 (detail)

Flower construction #3

Flower construction #3 (detail)

Flower construction #7 (detail)

Flower construction #8 (detail)

Flower construction #13

Flower construction #12

Flower construction #12 (detail)

ELLE Inside Design 2011
Bench by Onno Donkers

ARTmonday: Zander Olsen’s Tree, Line

This eries of photographs by Zander Olsen, taken between 2004 and 2010 involves “site specific intervention of the landscape” in the forests of Surrey, Hampshire, and Wales. Olsen wraps trees with white material “to construct a visual relationship between tree, not-tree and the line of horizon according to the camera’s viewpoint.” I searched for more information about Olsen, and additional works, but while these images have been blogged about numerous times, nobody else seems to have interviewed him or turned up any further information or photos. Zander Olsen, are you out there? In any case, these seemed fitting as it’s fall here in Boston, and the leaves are turning color, swirling down, opening up views of new horizons.

Duncan Wood • 2004

Beeches • 2004

Jhutti • 2004

Two • 2005

Untitled (Corbi) • 2005

Untitled (Cader) • 2008

Cadair, Oak • 2010

Flat Line • 2005

ARTmonday: Sofia Sanches and Mauro Mongiello

I discovered the last one of these images on Pinterest (it’s on my Photography board), and followed the link to Trendland. It’s part of this larger fashion spread for Tar Magazine, shot by Sofia Sanches & Mauro Mongiello. Love the use of flowers.

Modeled by Valerija Kelava • Styled by Samuel François

ARTmonday: Ryan Pickart’s Portraits of Women

I saw a few of these oil portraits on Pinterest over the weekend, and though they were charming. I love how the women seem to be posed against wallpaper, or, if against a solid background, there’s a floral pattern on their clothing. The portraits, all oil on canvas, were done by Ryan Pickart, a painter from Lowell, Indiana.