If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives): modern art

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Ceramic Sculptures That REALLY Look Inflated by artist Brett Kern.

I discovered Brett Kern's fabulous ceramic sculptures while reading about them on io9. The sculptures look remarkably like inflatable vinyl toys, but are made of glazed ceramic, complete with blow-up tab glazed in gold or silver and featuring the artist's stamp. I couldn't help myself and did something I rarely do. I bought one immediately - a large yellow T-Rex.

above: Brett's work on display

above: Brett working on one of his "baby" sized dinosaur sculptures

Some snarky critics might find his work derivative of Jeff Koons' inflatables (actual vinyl inflated toys placed on mirrors), Hybrids and blown-up looking metal Rabbit (made of stainless steel with chromium color coatings). But Brett's are of a different subject matter, different medium, different process and of course, a different end result.

above: Jeff Koons' various 'inflatable' sculptures are made of different materials and using a different process

That said, you've now got to see his work.

Triceratops ceramic, glaze, 12.5" x 28" x 13":

Brontosaurus ceramic, glaze, 4" x 13" x 23":

Stegasaurus ceramic, glaze, 4" x 13" x 23":

Tyrannosaurus Rex ceramic, glaze, 15.5" x 13" x 8":

The sculptures shown above range in price from $500 - $800.

Also available are "baby" sized sculptures for approximately $100. These ceramic smaller versions measure approximately (6" x 5" x 8") depending on the dinosaur.

Baby Dinosaur sculptures:

He also collaborated with artist Justin Rothshank on a cool series of his ceramic dinos embellished with decals.

Of these, only the one shown below is still available for purchase at the price of $1,250. - at least it was at the time I am writing this post:

Also available is a fabulous Astronaut that looks like a blow-up toy ($1,500):

Brett, who hails from Pennsylvania and now lives and works in Elkins, West Virginia, started out as a graphic design major but after one year of college he discovered his love of clay and switched his focus to ceramics.

Upon graduating in 2010, Brett was awarded a long term Artist-In-Residence position at the Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, MT. After a year there Brett returned to West Virginia to begin his teaching career at Davis & Elkins College and to continue his own work.

His self-professed infatuation with pop culture of the late eighties and the nineties influences the subject matter and purpose of his work. 'My predilection for producing collectible objects comes from my training as a potter and my persistent preoccupation with collecting toys, pop memorabilia, and nostalgic items from my youth." says the artist.

The resulting products are a collection of what look uncannily like inflatable dinosaurs whoopie cushions and toys, but are made of cast clay ceramic and glazed in various colors. (Brett has also crafted other ceramics that don't look as though they are inflated).

above: Brett creates other ceramic works, such as the items shown above

Brett's work is available to purchase here at his etsy store

While maintaining his teaching career, Brett continues to show nationally and regionally. Taylor Books in Charleston, WV and The White Room in Thomas, WV both display his art. Brett received Best in Show in the HxWxD juried sculpture show at the Rosewood Arts Center in Kettering, OH and has work in the 5th annual Beyond the Brickyard show at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT.

Brett Kern Art

A Grisly Grizzly and Other Bare Bears by Deborah Simon

Artist Deborah Simon's series of Flayed Bear Sculptures combine taxidermy, science and embroidery. Her three unusual bear sculptures have faux fur partially pulled back to reveal the anatomy underneath.

Artist Jedediah (Jed) Morfit is a professor of sculpture at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.

Artist Mark Khaisman, originally from the Ukraine and now based in Philadelphia, uses packing - or packaging - tape in a very different manner than you do. Applying layers of 2" wide translucent and clear packing tape to backlit panels, he uses the play of shadow, depth, shape and color to create images of objects, portraits, patterns or motifs and the re-creation of movie and film noir stills. The results are reminiscent of digitized or pixelated photos, only with a depth and tactile quality that is unique to his work.

above: Tape Noir_72, 2012, Packaging tape on acrylic panel with translucent resin light box, 20.5 x 27 x 6 inches (52 x 68.5 x 15.2 cm)

The artwork with the lights off, compared to when it is illuminated from behind, is quite a transformation:

Here are some more wonderful examples of his work from various categories over the past few years.

Objects

Birkin Girl 2, 2013:

above: Packaging tape on acrylic panel with translucent resin light box, 27 x 40 x 6 inches (68.5 x 101.6 x 15.2 cm)

Faberge Egg 2, 2013:

above: Packaging tape on acrylic panel with translucent resin light box, 20.5 x 27 x 6 inches (52 x 68.5 x 15.2 cm), Private Collection

Antique Serapi Rug 1 and Antique Serapi Rug 3 (two different pieces), 2012:

above: Packaging tape on backlit polyester film , 100 X 58 inches (254.00 X 147.32 cm) and Packaging tape on backlit polyester film , 96 X 48 inches (244.00 X 122.00 cm)

image at the top:
Birkin Girl 5, 2013, Packaging tape on acrylic panel with translucent resin light box
27 x 40 x 6 inches (68.5 x 101.6 x 15.2 cm), shown with lights off and on

Motifs

Motif 2013.1, 2013:

above: Packaging tape on acrylic panel with steel light box, 48.5 x 36.5 x 6 inches (123.2 x 92.7 x 15.2 cm)

Motif 2013.3, 2013:

above: Packaging tape on acrylic panel with steel light box, 48.5 x 36.5 x 6 inches (123.2 x 92.7 x 15.2 cm)

Film Stills

James and Ursula #1, 2013

above: Packaging tape on acrylic panel with translucent resin light box, 40.5 x 27 x 6 inches (103 x 68.5 x 15.2 cm)

James and Ursula #3, 2013:

above: Packaging tape on acrylic panel with translucent resin light box, 40.5 x 27 x 6 inches (103 x 68.5 x 15.2 cm)

Tape Noir Glimpse 47, 2012:

above: Packaging tape on acrylic panel with steel light box, 48.5 x 36.5 x 6 inches (123.2 x 92.7 x 15.2 cm)

Killer's Kiss (007), 2010:

above: Packaging tape on acrylic panel with translucent resin light box, 20.5 x 27 x 6 inches (52 x 68.5 x 15.2 cm), Private collection, USA

Portraits

Barbara, 2012:

above: Packaging tape on backlit acrylic panel, 26.5 X 20 inches (67.31 X 50.80 cm), NBC Collection

Alfred, 2012:

above: Packaging tape on backlit acrylic panel, 26.5 X 20 inches (67.31 X 50.80 cm), NBC Collection

Images of his work on display:

The Artist:

above: Mark and his wife Elena stand in front of His Antique Serapi Rugs made of packaging tape at Miami in 2012 (image courtesy of Facebook)

Mark explains his work as follows:

ON TAPE:
My works are pictorial illusions formed by light and shadow. Tape allows for images that communicate what I'm interested to do in a very direct way. My medium consists of three elements: translucent packing tape, clear acrylic or film panels, and light. By superimposing layers of translucent tape, I play on degrees of opacity that produces transparencies highlighted by the color, shading, and embossment (sic). There are some qualities of tape that make it unique for me as an art material: its banality, humbleness and its “throwaway” nature; its default settings of color and width; its unforgiving translucency; the cold and impersonal attitude that tape surface suggests.

ON PROCESS:
I apply a stripe of translucent tape on a clear backlit panel, and if I don't like it, I peel it off. If I peel off less frequently than apply, a chance is that an image emerges. The whole process is reminiscent to the red room photo development in the pre-digital era, in a way, as my hands do the job, and my mind is witnessing the appearance of the image, then the only concern becomes to not under - or overdevelop it. Though I try not to lose control completely, I am not aware of every move I am taking, so by the time the piece is done, I don't exactly know how it has happened, so I feel compelled to start a next image to make sure that I can do it again.

ON LAYERS:
Layering tape, and even peeling it off, gives me a strange satisfaction. The only explanation for it I can offer comes from the Eastern cultural perception of the self as an onion, according to which if you peel off the outer layers of the onion you find more layers underneath. It makes you want to peel off more, and more, and more to find the pit, but when you finally peel it off to the very last layer you are left with nothing. I do it in reverse, but the feeling that it is only the different direction of the same process feels liberating.

ON PIXELATION:
I think that my art may be dabbed as post-digital, because although it has been inspired by the pre-digital movie media and developed in the context of digital pixels, it bypasses virtual reality finding itself in the blizzard combination of light, disposable plastic, and calculated rhythms of imaginable music all holding together with the stuck familiarity of random cultural references.

As soon as I pick up a 2-inch tape and start blocking the light streaming through the Plexiglas screen in attempt to render the image, the abstract field of intersections occurs. It consists of lighter and darker polygons with different lengths and angles of sides, which I refer to as “pixels”. To be immersed in the field of their vibrations and never loose photographical realism of an image woven into the fabric of rhythmic scores and luring into deception that image is all there is, is just too much fun. My goal can be roughly put into three subtasks, which are managing the scale, figuring out the ratios, and controlling intensity of light.

Light has a well-known affect of dispersing in geometrical cones, so that the greater the distance from the light opening the larger it seems. I play with the size of openings, placing the lighter and smaller ones next to the wider and darker to create contrast.

ON SUBJECTS:
The tape is the message. A parody on Marshall McLuhan’s famous quote could explain the superficial motives, which make up the work. Subjects are categorized into different groups: fragmented stills from classic cinema, iconic objects from art history, portraits. The works are exploring the familiar as our shared visual history; made of a familiar material formed into a familiar image, asking the viewer to recognize and complete the work, stimulating both memory and interpretation in the process.

Mark Khaisman

In the USA, Mark is represented by Pentimenti Gallery
In CANADA, at Galerie LeRoyer
In KOREA, at Gallery YEH
In SPAIN at the Ampersand Foundation PF

images © and courtesy of Mark Khaisman and Pentimenti Gallery

Get A Load Of Artist Nina Mae Fowlers' Knockers.

Shoreditch-based artist Nina Mae Fowler's recent work includes these five black chalk drawings of Golden Era screen legends Joan Crawford, Marilyn Monroe, Jean Harlow, Marlene Deitrich and Lucia Carroll complete with cast brass "knockers".

Joan (Knockers I), 2013:

detail:

Black chalk and brass, (h) 136 x (w) 94 cm
$12,400 (available through Saatchi Online)

Marilyn (Knockers II), 2013:

detail:

Black chalk and brass, (h) 108 x (w) 142 cm

Jean (Knockers III), 2013:

detail:

Black chalk and brass, (h) 120 x (w) 158 cm
$14,5000 (available through Saatchi Online)

Marlene (Knockers IV), 2013:

detail:

Black chalk and brass, (h) 106 x (w) 138 cm

Lucia (Knockers V), 2013:

detail:

Black chalk + brass, (h) 95 x (w) 152 cm
$13,500 (available through Saatchi Online)

Gallery views:

above: Marilyn (Knockers II) framed in an acrylic box viewed from an angle

In the following promotional video for her show at the COB Gallery in London, you can see a time lapse video of her drawing of Lucia Carroll come to life:

Recently named Saatchi’s one to watch and Saatchi's Best of 2013, she has also been nominated for the BP Portrait Prize, as well as being shortlisted for both the Jerwood Drawing Prize and the Young Masters Prize in 2012. Both of Fowler’s previous installations have been archived in international collections. - See more here

Nina will have a solo exhibition with Galerie Dukan in January 2014. This show will mark the opening of Galerie Dukan's new space in Leipzig, Germany.

above: Portrait of Nina Fowler by Anthony Lycett for Harper's Bazaar UK

About the artist (courtesy of Saatchi Online)
Nina Fowler was born in London in 1981. She graduated with a first in sculpture from Brighton University in 2003. In 2008, she was nominated for the BP Portrait Prize with her painting of the Royal Ballet dancer, Carlos Acosta, and in 2010 her work was shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize. More recently she was shortlisted for The Young Masters Prize 2012. She has worked as archivist and assistant to John Dunbar (founder of Indica Gallery) alongside being part-time Art teacher at South Hampstead High School. Her work is admired and collected by British film, music and fashion luminaries such as John Maybury, Jude Law, Sharleen Spiteri and Caroline Issa. She is included in private and public collections in Europe and the USA and is represented in France by Galerie Dukan.

Nina Mae Fowler