landscapes

Posts tagged
with landscapes

Photography

The Dramatic Frozen Countryside of Belarus Photographed by Alex Ugalnikov

Photographer Alex Ugalnikov ventures out into frozen early winter mornings to photograph fields and rivers covered in ice, snow, fuzzy layers of frost in his native Belarus. The clouds of white fog and trees covered in thick ice give the impression of infrared photography, but Ugalnikov tells us that what you see here is extremely close to reality with only minor color enhancements. Some of his best shots are wide panoramas of rivers near his home in Minsk. You can see more photography from the last few years on 35PHOTO and follow him on Instagram. (via Bored Panda)

Art Photography

Istanbul Inception: Warped Turkish Cityscapes by Aydin Büyüktas

Turkish photographer and digital artist Aydın Büyüktaş turns the streets of Istanbul upside down in these warped cityscapes that appear to curve infinitely upward and outward toward the skies. While it’s tempting to draw parallels with stunning visuals from the 2010 movie Inception, the artist says his true inspiration is taken from the 1884 satirical novella Flatland that depicts a two-dimensional world occupied by geometric figures. In this series, also titled Flatland, Büyüktaş photographed canals, bazaars, skate parks, and bridges with the aid of a drone and then digitally stitched them together as dramatically inverted spaces without a visible horizon. You can see more of his gravity-defying work on Instagram. All images courtesy the artist. (via Designboom)

Art

Dense Mixed-Media Sculptures Depict a Poignant Collision of Urban and Natural Worlds

In a fantastic collision of natural and human-made elements, Minneapolis-based artist Gregory Euclide explores aspects of nature, impermenance, and the human experience in unusual relief artworks that seem to grow and drip from vertical surfaces. Some sculptures are framed inside boxes, contained worlds of topographical chaos incorporating plastic, foam, paper, model elements, architectural and geometric elements, paint, ink, and a host of other mediums. Other artworks are mounted atop standard whiteboards found in classrooms, a nod to his role as a teacher where he’s been known to paint elaborate sumi ink landscapes during his lunch break—all of which are subsequently erased.

Several of the pieces seen here will be on view later this April as part of Euclide’s solo show at Hashimoto Contemporary. You can also explore much of his recent work on Behance.

Art Photography

Fictionalized Landscapes Created From Strangers’ Old Photographs by j.frede

Artist j.frede composes flea market photographs into custom-built frames, creating visual and narrative landscapes from the previously unassociated materials. The works spread across the wall, building on each other through similar landscapes or horizon lines. The project, titled Fiction Landscapes, builds on the artist’s interest in memory, tapping into others’ momentos of the past to create fictionalized scenes of ambiguous origin.

Although each image has once been a placeholder in time for the photographer, once it gets collected into a mixed-up bin at a flea market these associations are erased. “Arranging these into new landscapes that have never existed speaks to the stitching together of human behavior and how we relate to time and the past,” says Frede. “How many people have pulled over at that rest stop and taken nearly the same photo of the plain hillside? All locking their own associations into the view, a first road trip with a new love; last road trip to see grandma; one of many road trips alone.”

The Los Angeles-based artist strictly uses anonymous photographs from the past for his works, never incorporating photographs of his own or individuals he knows. The memories he personally imbues into each composition in the series are instead ones he creates while making each arrangement, placing his own marker within the newly composed environment.

Currently, j.frede has a piece from Fiction Landscapes in Three Day Weekend: Party in the Back at Blum & Poe on view through December 19, 2015.

 

Art History

Landscapes Painted on the Surfaces of Cut Logs by Alison Moritsugu

When European settlers arrived throughout the 18th and 19th centuries and rapidly expanded their territory across North America, the prevalent belief was that of Manifest Destiny. Specifically, that American settlers were destined to expand throughout the continent by any means necessary regardless of cost, environmental impact, or the devastating harm to Native American populations. The artwork of the period, primarily sweeping landscapes influenced by the European pastoral tradition, did well to capture the pristine beauty of the previously undocumented continent, but completely glossed over the reality of what was really happening.

In her log paintings, artist Alison Moritsugu faces that strange juxtaposition head-on by choosing a literal metaphor—the remains of downed trees—as a canvas for her bucolic oil paintings of the countryside where that very tree may have once originated. A fantastic collision of art history and environmental awareness. The rough edges of the cut branches and trunks appear like windows into the past, telling a story that the tree’s rings alone cannot. She shares via her artist statement:

Painters throughout art history from the Northern Song, Baroque, Rococo and Hudson River School tailored their depictions of nature to serve an artistic narrative. Today, photoshopped images of verdant forests and unspoiled beaches invite us to vacation and sightsee, providing a false sense of assurance that the wilderness will always exist. By exploring idealized views of nature, my work acknowledges our more complex and precarious relationship with the environment.

It should be noted that Moritsugu uses salvaged log segments from naturally fallen trees, or trees that would otherwise be turned into mulch. You can see a collection of new work starting November 12th at Littlejohn Contemporary in New York. (via My Modern Met)

Art

Neon Sunsets and Technicolor Landscapes Painted by Grant Haffner

Deeply influenced by a childhood spent growing up on Long Beach in Sag Harbor, N.Y., artist Grant Haffner tries to capture the color and feeling of sunsets burnt into his memories. Haffner works primarily with a mixture of acrylic, marker, pencil and paint pen on wood panels to create vibrant neon depictions of Long Island landscapes from the viewpoint of roadways punctuated with power lines. He shares about his paintings:

The East End of Long Island has been my home for most of my life. I spent many years exploring the trails through the woods, cruising the quiet country roads, and hanging out on the beaches. My childhood here, surrounded by nature and water, was an experience that I cherish. Now that I am older, I can see how the landscape is changing and am reminded that it will never be the same. Hopefully, my paintings will capture the memory of that landscape before it fades.

Haffner is represented by Damien A. Roman Fine Art where you can see more of his recent work.