Wolfgang Laib ar Work



Wolfgang Laib was born on 25 March 1950 in Metzingen, Germany. Laib studied medicine in the 1970s in Tübingen. From early on he had been interested in art, foreign cultures, Zen Buddhism and Taoism as well as in the mystics of the European middle ages.
Wolfgang Laib employs natural materials, such as beeswax, rice and large quantities of intense, yellow pollen that he collects by hand near where he lives in a small village in southern Germany.  He has spent time in the Far East and in New York.




Wolfgang Laib
Rice House, 1990
marble and rice
7 3/8 x 25 3/8 x 4 7/8 inches



Wolfgang Laib
Ziggurat, 1999
Beeswax, wood



Wolfgang Laib
Ricehouse, 1988/89
White marble, rice, pollen from hazelnut



Wolfgang Laib
The Five Mountains Not to Climb On (Die fünf unbesteigbaren Berge), 1984.
Hazelnut pollen, height: approximately 2 3/4 inches.



Wolfgang Laib
Milkstone, 2001
Marble and milk
2 3/8 x 23 7/16 x 28 3/4 inches

Milkstone sculpture is a block of marble into which very shallow depressions are sanded and then filled with milk.

September 08, 2009

Untitled
Ink on paper, 33 x 60 inches
2002


These works of ink and watercolor on Chinese paper are influenced by Terri Zupanc’s continued interest in Japanese and Chinese painting and Zen Buddhism. Zupanc’s forms record a moment in time. Terri: “my interest in simplifying form has continued into an interest in simplifying process, with many of the pieces being done in one breath.”



Terri Zupanc
Untitled, 2002
Watercolor on paper
30 x 30 inches



Terri Zupanc
Untitled, 2002
Ink on paper, 55 x 70 inches



Terri Zupanc
Untitled, 2002
Ink on paper, 30 x 30 inches



Terri Zupanc
Untitled(Creek) 1997
etching, Edition of 35
24 x 22 inches




Terri Zupanc
Untitled(Brown Creek) 1997
etching, Edition of 35
24 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches

September 07, 2009

Hummingbird




Humming bird, detail



Crimson necked bullfinch

September 06, 2009

Brunonia Serica
Ferdinand Bauer
1760-1826
from Floral Illustrations of New Holland

Chicory (Cichorium intybus)
15th or 16th century
Gouache on vellum

From Vienna Dioscorides



From Vienna Dioscorides



Botanical Illustration from Codex Anicia Juliana, AD 512

From Vienna Dioscorides



Banksia coccinea (Scarlet Banksia)
Ferdinand Bauer
Illustrationes Florae Novae Hollandiae
Early 19th century



Adele Morosini Rossetti (for Botanic Garden)
Rosa Abraham Darby
Watercolor , color pencil, tempera on paper




California flowering plant





California snow flower

Peruvian flowering cactus

September 05, 2009

September 04, 2009

I ♥  Mineo Mizuno sculptures. Mineo Mizuno was born in Japan and currently resides in Los angeles, CA.  Water-drop/pebble like large ceramic forms are covered in small holes in which mosses are planted.

July 18, 2009

Cloud sculpture by Jennifer Forsberg.

ALEXANDRA PAPERNO
“Lepus”, from the “Star Maps” series
2003
Mixed media on canvas
150 x 120 cm

I really like these paintings by Alexandra Paperno. Alexandra was born in Moscow, studied art in New York at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and currently resides in Moskow.  In Constellation Series Alexandra paints night sky, star maps and stars. Vladimir Levashov writes about her work : her paintings are set on the “borderline between abstraction and figurativeness, between the image of an object and the interpretation of its attributes. However, it is not always exactly the maps. Sometimes it is a globe, sometimes – just a single star. The star, however, may as well turn out to be the “Grey sun”. Not a point, but a tondo (a professional term), a circle, expressively painted over with the most low-key, the most complicated colour. It so happens that the sun is not exactly the sun, and the stars are more like points, celestial nebula – coloristic surfaces, but altogether – it represents sheer painting. Nevertheless, it is not “merely painting”, not a superficial formalism, but a huge mass of deeply emotional substance. It is the very thing, which the night sky represents for each of us: fairytale, mysterious and inaccessibly sublime. And the best art for it is nothing else but a map”

July 07, 2009

The Waterpod is a floating art project, community and living space on a barge. The structure is built from recycled wood, billboard sign material, metal and powered by a hybrid solar/wind system that also runs all on-board equipment.  The barge also incorporates a garden with vegetables (lettuce, sunflowers, corn, eggplant and e.t.c ) grown with purified water from the vertical agriculture. Four artists live on the barge and are very friendly to talk to you about their project.  There is also a chicken coop made from recycled shipping crate previously used to ship artworks. 

July 03, 2009

Osias Beert the Elder
Still-Life with Cherries and Strawberries in China Bowls
1608 Oil on panel
19 5/8” x 25 3/4”

One of my favorite Flemish vanitas paintings is “Still Life with wild Strawberries” by Osias Beert the Younger. Vanitas is a type of still life painting popular in Northern Europe in Flanders and the Netherlands in the 16th - 17th centuries. The word “vanitas” is Latin, meaning “emptiness” and loosely translated corresponds to the meaninglessness of earthly life and the transient nature of vanity. Paintings executed in the vanitas style are meant as a reminder of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure and the certainty of death.




Osias Beert the Younger
Still Life with Wild Raspberries
Oil on Panel
11.2” x 15.6”

STILL LIFES WITH FLOWERS

Pieter Brueghel the Younger
Still Life with Flowers
1601-1678





Jan the Elder Brueghel
1607 Oil on wood
98 x 73 cm





Brueghel Jan the Elder
Still Life with flowers in a Glass

May 26, 2009

May 03, 2009

This is a Folk Architecture Monument by Tomas Dzadon, Chezh Republic. Tomas writes: “The mistake is made. The socialist urban projects destroyed the marvellous countryside. I grew up in such an utopic project. I was lucky to be able to watch the Tatra mountains from my window. Finally that blocks were not so bad. The proportion changed. From family houses to 13-floor blocks. From houses built by their owners to flats built by the regime”. 

Projekt Mobilivre - Bookmobile Project is primarily based in Montreal and Philadelphia. It is a trailer converted into a small mobile gallery and library that showcases handmade books and zines from all over the world.  Traveling through Canada and US, this bookmobile visits community centers, schools, colleges, libraries, festivals and artist-run centers.  I happened to run into Mobilivre-Bookmobile while I was studying at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and was stunned by the idea of a traveling gallery/library. 






Bookmobile is a vehicle designed as a traveling library.  Slumgullion,  is a collaboration project that strives to create community, empower young voices, and promote literacy and the humanities through the book arts and zines. It is based in Missoula, Montana.  Slumgullion’s bookmobile exhibits handmade books, art zines and is just like a regular bookmobile only it is bike powered!

May 02, 2009

I love Charley Harper’s print, The Desert. 

March 15, 2009

Robert Bordo is a painter and teacher at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He is originally from Montreal, Canada but currently he resides in upstate New York.  Why do I like Robert Bordo’s paintings?  I do not really know.  Probably because they feel very free and traditional at the same time. 

March 09, 2009

Benjamin Hemmendinger
Clouds
2009
Lithograph

Ben Hemmendinger graduated from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He is really good at painting clouds and his mom, Gail Kort, is a professional cloud painter.  I believe Benjamin painted only clouds for a year or two while studying at Cooper (although I could be wrong).
Now Benjamin resides in upstate New York.
(This posting is created by me, Anastasia Ugorskaya, watercolor/drawing artist and Cooper Union graduate)

March 05, 2009

Apparently, the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art now has The Institute for Sustainable Design. It was created in 2008, with support from philanthropist Jack Rudin, as a resource for education, research and public understanding of the principles and methods of sustainability in all design disciplines. “:Central to the mission of the Institute is the development of innovative pedagogies in architecture, art and engineering that will be models for the transformation of learning and practice for a sustainable future” The inagural lecture of Institute for Sustainable Design NEARLY TRAPPED:  DESIGN IN THE AGE OF CLIMATE CONSEQUENCES was held at Cooper a few days ago by Paul Sears, distinguished professor of environmental studies and politics. 

Also, now Cooper Union has a new logo and soon will have a new building with green features.  The building is designed for sustainability, energy efficiency and air quality:

1. Innovative heating and cooling technology
2. An outer layer of semi-transparent mesh screen will create coolness in the summer and warmth in the winter.
3. Carbon dioxide detectors throughout the building will automatically dim power and ventilation when rooms are unoccupied.
4.  A co-generation system will produce some power for both the new building and the Foundation building, reducing the need to tap into the outside electrical grid.
5. The deck surface of the green roof will be covered by a layer of low-maintenance plantings.
6. The low-flow plumbing devices and the green roof will save more than 600,000 gallons of water annually.

March 03, 2009

Today is a snow storm in Brooklyn.  Speaking about snow storms, artist Amy Bennett constructs paintings where houses, villages, roads and trees look small, like tiny toy models.  In a lot of her artwork, snow is taking over.  Amy writes that her art is a lot about isolation and quietness and by transitioning her models into winter, seemed to fortify these senses. 

March 02, 2009

I made this watercolor/drawing of naked winter trees when I visited Pennsylvania. Watercolor, color pencil and graphite on paper.

February 19, 2009

I am happy to show some of my watercolors at the Eponymy gallery and store.  It is owned by Andrea Miller and located in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York. The store is a mix of vintage and designer clothes, antique mirrors as well as tightly curated modern photography from emerging artists of Humble Arts Foundation.

Vija Celmins
Untitled (Big Sea #2)
1969
graphite on acrylic ground on paper
33 1/2 x 44 in.

I love Vija Celmins drawings of the surface of the ocean.
“Vija Celmins immigrated to the United States with her family from Latvia when she was ten years old. She and her family settled in Indiana. Celmins received international attention early in her career for her renditions of natural scenes, often painted from photographs lacking a point of reference, horizon, or discernible depth of field.” “Celmins’s work demonstrates a remarkably close engagement with the natural world mediated by photography. Celmins has said her images dispel romantic notions of the sublime in nature.” - Wiki

February 18, 2009

Amy Ross’ drawings, watercolors and collages have a surreal effect.  The drawings are rendered in the style of scientific illustration . It is not easy to distinguish at the first glance where the leg of the mushroom starts and the leg of a human being begins. People’s heads are morphed with mushroom legs and birds are actually flower buds on magnolia trees - Amy plays with similarities and differences of nature’s shapes.



 
Amy Ross
Legshroom With Bird
2008
collage on paper
10 x 8 inches

Matthias Merkel Hess made these 28 terra cotta self-portrait flower pots for his 28th birthday. Each pot was planted with a nativis updated regularly e California trees chosen specifically for a friend or family member and then given away.  Matthias Merkel Hess is currently receiving MFA at the University of California . He also the founder of the Eco Art Blog (one of my favorite eco blogs) with a focus on visual arts and the environment.

February 17, 2009

I love this painting by Danna Ray of new growth on a tree that was cut down .  Danna writes: “I grew up in a log cabin in the woods of rural South Carolina. Surrounded by forest and lots of crayons, I enjoyed drawing tiny bugs, and tiny plants, and tiny kittens driving trucks.”

February 16, 2009

SEVEN DAYS SEVEN NIGHTS is a title of the show in Gagosian Gallery, NY and series of gelatin silver prints by Hiroshi Sugimoto.  Photographs in the show are of the sea and its horizon in locations all over the world. The photographs are taken different in time of the day and with different exposure time. All the photographs have remarkable sense of stillness and eternity. The ocean is still and seems as though it is floating in space and we are floating with it.  Hiroshi returns to the same subject repeatedly to reveal the “subtleties that he finds in the primordial sea, site of the origin and emergence of life as well as of eternal continuity”.
Hiroshi Sugimoto was born in Tokyo. In 1970 he moved to Los Angeles to study photography at the Art Center College of Design. Now he lives and works in New York City and Tokyo.

February 13, 2009

Vladimir Collection carried and perfected the tradition of the 18th century European trompe l’oeil, meaning “nature in artifice” tradition. Plates are reminiscent of giant cabbage leaves, sunflowers and lettuce leaves. Teapots, sugar bowls and vases are in the form of melons, pumpkins and lemons.  Besides tableware, Vladimir Collection produces metal and porcelain flowers in realistic style.  Each flower and leaves are naturalistically painted and each terracotta pot is designed and handmade.  All collections are handmade in New York and signed by Vladimir Kanevsky, an artist, designer and craftsman who has been perfecting the art of porcelain inspired by nature for almost two decades. 

Not only Vladimir Kanevsky is a great master of porcelain craft, he is also a very talented sculptor.  He is inspired by human body - naked, solitary and vulnerable.  Vladimir explores human condition, sensations and the search of self.  I also think that earth tones of the terracotta and the fact that a lot of his figures face the earth, his sculptures are a lot about connection with the world, beyond self and losing self. 

February 12, 2009

My friend Sergio is making New York City more beautiful by restoring and creating new architectural stone ornaments, reliefs, figures, gargoyles and public monuments. I like how they are not entirely symmetrical and organic.
Besides stone conservation Sergio is currently working on a documentary about atlantic rain forest. Sergio writes: “Some areas of the Atlantic Forest have been designated by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve because of their outstanding biological distinctiveness. Others, equally distinctive, beautiful and rich in species diversity and endemism, are still unprotected.
Until interrupted by human encroachment, continuous areas of forest extended for thousand of miles, linking the Great Araucaria Forest of Southern Brazil to the Amazon jungle. Many plants and animals have evolved travelling throughout the tropical and temperate zones of the New World. This flow is essential to maintaining the rich gene pool and species diversity of the area. The fragmentation of these forests places many species, including some existing only there, under critical threat of extinction”.
Webite for the film: ATLANTIC FOREST 911. 

February 09, 2009

These are so awesome! They are animal pelts knitted from 100% nonwool yarns by Becky Stern.

February 08, 2009

February 01, 2009

This ia a drawing of a tree by Amy Talluto. Amy draws and paints a lot of trees, forest and nature landscapes. 

January 26, 2009