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Art

The Aquatic and Terrestrial Life of Southern California Merges into Hybrid Creatures in Jon Ching’s Paintings

Los Angeles-based artist Jon Ching imagines the fantastic possibilities of melding Earth’s flora and fauna, rendering bizarre creatures with mushroom feathers and striped tulip fins. His latest oil paintings, which are on view this fall in Habitat at Beinart Gallery, extend this interest in hybridity by blending aquatic, aerial, and terrestrial organisms and their environments.

Marine ecosystems appear in many of the pieces, alongside cacti and succulents native to Ching’s home in southern California. In “King Tide,” for example, rising water approaches a cockatoo with plant-like plumage, and “Acclimate” depicts two green parrots perched on aloe growing below the surface. Each work envisions how different ecologies could converge and references nature’s resilience, the climate crisis, and the growing necessity of adapting to a changing world.

Ching’s solo show Habitat runs from September 11 to October 2 in Melbourne. Prints and stickers are available in his shop, and you can follow his latest works on Instagram.

 

Photography

Double-Exposure Photos by Christoffer Relander Superimpose Everyday Scenes onto Human Silhouettes

Spontaneity, honesty, and a desire for experimentation are at the heart of an ongoing project by  Christoffer Relander, whose dreamy compositions masterfully blend portraiture and nature. 365 Days of Double Exposure is Relander’s practice of documenting life around him, whether that be the mundane scenes inside his home or the landscapes and people he encounters. Like other daily projects in a similar vein, the goal is to create no matter the circumstances, and Relander carries a pocket-sized Ricoh GRIII with him to capture impromptu moments throughout the day.

The Finnish photographer (previously) recently released the first month’s collection on Behance—prints are available through his site—many of which layer silhouettes of children with foliage. Taken in black-and-white, the images delicately balance the human and natural elements, allowing facial details to peek through a garden of daisies or superimposing a deserted roadway into a profile so that it appears to lead into the figure.

Some of Relander’s compositions are included in a group exhibition through August 28 at the Museum of New Art in Pärnu, Estonia, and if you’re in New York City, you can see more of his work at Muriel Guepin.

 

Art

Human Ears and Animals Emerge from Dense Fields of Porcelain Foliage Sculpted by Melis Buyruk

Cradled within wooden boxes, leaves, blossoms, animals, and the occasional bit of human anatomy form the dense topographies of Melis Buyruk (previously). The Turkish artist blends various organic elements into sprawling, monochromatic works made of porcelain that are mesmerizing in intricacy with slightly unearthly undertones. In multiple recent works like the “Blooming Light” and “Golden Bloom,” for example, a single ear appears amidst the mosses and foliage, embedding the fragmented human body part within the largely floral ecosystem.

The works shown here are included in Buyruk’s solo show titled Habitat: Bloom, which is on view through September 2 at Leila Heller. Visit her Instagram for a peek into her studio and process.

 

Art

Gleaming Sculptures by Ann Carrington Examine the Underbelly of Historical Extravagance

In The Netherlands in the 17th Century, a Golden Age was in full swing. The economy of the Dutch Republic, as it was then known, was flourishing as Antwerp and other ports became important hubs for the commercial shipping trade, importing and exporting textiles, spices, and metals, and the cities’ populations swelled. Elaborately detailed oil paintings depicting food on the table or incredible flower arrangements were popular additions to wealthy merchants’ homes, yet a more ominous genre of still-life painting also emerged amid this period of immense growth.

Known as Vanitas, the paintings brim with symbolism intended to emphasize the futility of earthly pleasures and the pointlessness of seeking wealth, power, and glory. When British artist Ann Carrington visited the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, she described in Architectural Digest that “looking at those pictures of half-consumed food and fading flowers, I realized that one of the only things that could have survived to today was the silverware, and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to try to make something out of that?’” The works in her Bouquets series (previously) combine hundreds of kitchen utensils into extravagant floral sculptures.

The use of discarded and found objects is central to Carrington’s practice, especially when they can be layered and draped in multiples. Strands of pearls and ornate brooches adorn the form of a ship, which is weighed down by its cargo as much as it embodies it, and a pair of caribou antlers are fashioned from forks with handles made from dozens of antlers. “Mundane objects such as knives and forks, barbed wire, pins, and paintbrushes come with their own readymade histories and associations which can be unravelled and analysed if rearranged, distorted or realigned to give them new meaning as sculpture,” she says in a statement. Similar to the way Vanitas painting reminded viewers of the less romantic side of burgeoning wealth and expanding empires, Carrington’s material choices serve as a reminder that beneath the gleaming surface there is often a dark side.

You can find more information about the artist’s work on her website and Instagram.

 

Art Craft

Dried and Pressed Flowers Are Molded into Delicate Sculptural Vessels by Shannon Clegg

Immersed in the flora of Cape Town’s Table Mountain as a child, artist Shannon Clegg has always had an affinity for unembellished, humble materials, particularly those harvested naturally and shaped into innovative forms. This now lifelong inclination emerges in Bouquet, her series of biophilic sculptures comprised of dozens of flowers dried and pressed into intricately constructed mesh. Hollow and vase-like, the preserved works extend the vibrancy and supple forms of purple statice or burgundy kangaroo paw from approximately ten days to upwards of five years.

To create the botanical pieces, Clegg researched at The Herbarium at The Royal Botanic Garden at Kew. She describes “looking back through archival methods for storing flowers pressed by their botanists around the world and the types of equipment they use to collect and press flowers.”

The work led me to create a ‘self-assemble’ glass side-table with DIY flower pressing kit. The product allowed the user to go out to nature, collect and press flowers, and then arrange them for display within their home inside the glass table… The act of slowing down, observing plants, and then collecting them to bring back home to display—for me it’s the essence of biophilic experience through an object.

Following her explorations at Kew, Clegg developed a hand-mold process that she utilizes to shape and preserve cut plants. Each three-dimensional piece takes about six weeks to complete.

To see more of the Bouquet series, visit the artist’s site, and follow news about upcoming exhibitions and available sculptures on Instagram. (via Lustik)

 

Art

Systems Evoking Roots and Veins Sprawl Across Raija Jokinen’s Organic Flax Figures

Finnish artist Raija Jokinen (previously) echoes the natural shapes of botanics and anatomy in her elaborately formed figures. The sculptural works are comprised of sprawling webs that appear like both root and vein systems, with flowers and more dense, fleshy patches emerging from an arm or torso. Each piece fuses the physical and mental, Jokinen says, sharing that her “approach is focused on everyday feelings, situations, and thoughts we all have.”

The mesh works are created from flax—Jokinen employs a technique similar to that used for handmade paper—that she dyes and molds into branches, twigs, and other organic forms. She then adds floral and structural details through machine stitching, which also strengthens the otherwise fragile material. “With these methods, I am able to create free forms, like cut-outs, and transparent structures that allow strong shadows on the wall or occupy the space around it,” she says.

Many of Jokinen’s figures shown here are on view as part of a solo exhibition through October 9 at Château de Trévarez in Brittany, and she will also have pieces included in the International Mini Textile Exhibition in Bratislava this November. To see more of her works, check out her site and Instagram.