Daily Art Fixx

visual arts blog, painting, drawing, sculpture, illustration and more!

ART-O-MAT: Pocket Art

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buck cellar101

Many art lovers simply don’t have the budget to purchase original works of art.  Enter the Art-O-Mat – re-purposed cigarette vending machines that have been converted to sell pocket size original works of art.

North Carolina artist Clark Whittington created the first Art-O-Mat in 1997 which he showed along side his paintings at a solo show at a local cafe. The machine sold his black & white photographs for $1.00 each. The art show was scheduled to close, however, the owner of the Penny Universitie Gallery, Cynthia Giles, loved the Art-O-Mat and asked that it stay.  It remains in its original location to this day. Following the show, the involvement of other artists was necessary for the project to continue. Giles introduced Whittington to other local artists and the group “Artists in Cellophane” was formed.

“Artists in Cellophane (A.I.C.), the sponsoring organization of Art-O-Mat is based on the concept of taking art and “repackaging” it to make it part of our daily lives. The mission of A.I.C. is to encourage art consumption by combining the worlds of art and commerce in an innovative form. A.I.C believes that art should be progressive, yet personal and approachable.”

The Art-O-Mat dispenses original art-works and may include paintings, photographs, sculpture, collage, illustration, handmade jewellery, textile arts, and more. There are 82 machines in at least 28 American States, one in Quebec, Canada, and one in Vienna, Austria. There are around 400 contributing artists from 10 different countries currently involved in the Art-o-mat project.

For more information, to get involved, or to find an Art-O-Mat near you, visit Art-O-Mat.org.

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Aurora Robson: Recycled Art

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Aurora Robson was born in Toronto, Canada in 1972 but grew up in Hawaii and has lived in New York for 20 years. She has a BA in Visual Art & Art History from Columbia University and is a certified structural welder. Robson currently lives and works in Brooklyn with her husband, cinematographer Marshall Coles and daughter Ona.

Robson uses everyday waste such as discarded plastic bottles and junk mail to create intricate sculptures, installations, and collages. Over the years, Robson has intercepted tens of thousands of bottles, saving them from their ultimate destination at the landfill or costly recycling plants. The fate of her junk mail follows a similar path and have now become part of her stunning ink collages.

“Deeply concerned about the natural environment, Robson sees herself as an eco-activist who uses her art to address urgent issues poetically, not polemically. She is best known for assembling cast-off plastic bottles, which she colorfully paints, into wildly inventive hanging sculptures the smaller ones sometimes containing LED lights and large works that fill entire rooms.” (Art in America Magazine Oct. 2009)

In addition to her work as an artist, Robson is Director/Co-founder of Lumenhouse, a photo studio, artist in residence program, exhibition space and community/cultural event space located in Brooklyn. She is also the founding Director of Project Vortex, an international organization of artists, architects and designers working with plastic debris – working with Project Kaisei to reduce the amount of plastic debris littering our oceans and shorelines.

Robson’s work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows across the United States, and has been featured in magazines such as Art in America, Juxtapoz, Artworld Digest, and the cover of Arts Houston to name a few. Most recently, she was awarded the 2010. The Arthur Levine Foundation Grant.

To see more of Aurora Robson’s work,  visit AuroraRobson.com.

See stuffed toys made with recycled sweaters.

 

Edouard Martinet: Assemblage Art

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More great pieces from French sculptor Edouard Martinet.  Martinet transforms everyday objects found in flea-markets and car boot sales into works of art. Working with a variety of refuse materials such as rusted kitchen pans, typewriter keys, car lights and other scrap metals, Martinet sculpts several types of animals and insects and are made without the use of solder. He fits each component into place as if putting together a puzzle of random pieces and parts. Each piece is carefully assembled after having drafted several detailed sketches.

To see more of Martinet’s work, visit EdouardMartinet.net or Sladmore Gallery.

Sayaka Ganz: Reclaimed Creations

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Boris-II-Sayaka-GanzSome recent work from  Sayaka Ganz (featured).  Ganz was born in Yokohama, Japan and grew up living in Japan, Brazil, and Hong Kong. Currently she teaches design and drawing courses at Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW).  Using reclaimed scrap metal and plastic household objects as her materials, Sayaka’s recent sculptures depict animals in motion.

“Scrap metal pieces themselves are ultimately what trigger my imagination to create these animal sculptures. Every piece has its own history and memory, bent, torn and rusted from being used outdoors for a long time. They are lifelike and organic in that sense. Looking at them inspires me and almost instinctively I see, for example, a dog’s head, a bird’s leg, or a deer’s back. Then in response I go and find other pieces that could fit to create the whole animal.”

To see more, visit SayakaGanz.com.

Scott Marr: Painting/Pyrography

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Bull-Ship-ScotMarr-2012The latest work from Australian artist Scott Marr.  Marr’s new collection continues his unique technique of drawing using pyrography and painting with natural pigments, predominantly from the bush.

By the time Scott Marr sits down at the easel, his works of art are already well underway. A large part of Scott’s artistic practice is comprised of the identification, collection and preparation of an astounding range of natural pigments. His bush pigments are unpredictable by nature, ensuring that each work of art is imbued with a genuine uniqueness. The variable palette reflects the dynamic and seasonal character of the natural world, where no two days or places are the same. Scott says, “Over the past few years, I’ve been experimenting with the extraction and application of natural pigments. I now feel my experimentation has become my applied practice. This confidence together with the discovery of new colours has opened up new dimensions for my art”.

To see more of Marr’s work, visit ScottMarr.blogspot.com or Katoomba Fine Art.

Andrea Petrachi: Cyber Sculptures

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Born in Lecce, Italy in 1975, Andrea Petrachi a.k.a. Himatic creates cyber sculptures from things most of people simply throw away. His work is based on the assembly of everyday items,  discarded electronics, gadgets and toys. Himatic sees his work as a symbol of our out-of-control desire to buy things.

Petrachi will be exhibiting at the EU Robot Festival from November 30, 2011 – December 5, 2011 at the Science Museum, London.

To see more, check out AdreaPetrachi.com.

All images © Andrea Petrachi © photo: Giuseppe Fogarizzu

Yong Ho Ji: Recycled Tire Sculpture

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Born in 1978, Korean sculptor Yong Ho Ji has a BFA in sculpture from Hongik University in Seoul, and and MFA in fine art form New York University.

“Meticulously layering cut strips of tire as the flesh for his “mutants,” Yong Ho Ji models his creatures after endangered animals, mythological beings, and humanoids akin to his favorite superheroes. Underlying his unique brand of science fiction monster making is a startlingly specific, poetically lucid, ethical critique of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), based on his skepticism towards those “who seek to challenge nature by creating an entirely new form of life through modifying genes of animals, plants, and human beings.” Scientifically speaking, Ji’s mutants are emblematic of Darwin’s evolutionary theory, which states that mutations may evolve species better adapted to their environments. Some of his mutants inherit handsome traits (long necks or muscular hind quarters), while others inherit the abhorrent traits (multiple heads) typical of Lovecraftian sci-fi imagery.” (Trinie Dalton)

To see more, visit YongHoJi.com.

Shea Hembrey: How I Became 100 Artists – Ted Talks

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(Worth the 16:48 watch time)

How do you stage an international art show with work from 100 different artists? If you’re Shea Hembrey, you invent all of the artists and artwork yourself and hold your own biennial called “Seek” From large-scale outdoor installations to tiny paintings drawn with a single-haired brush, watch this funny, mind-bending talk to see the explosion of creativity and diversity of skills a single artist is capable of.

Shea Hembrey was born in 1974. He grew up on a dirt road in rural Hickory Grove, Arkansas in a family of farmers, factory workers, hunters, trappers, musicians, and cockfighters. He makes art by concentrating on a singular, defined conceptual project where the ideas direct what methods and media he uses. Research is key to all of his creative endeavors while he remains a prolific maker of things.

Though always focused on developing skills on his own, he has a varied formal art education. His nine years of studying art at university include a year spent studying Maori art in New Zealand and an MFA from Cornell University. His studio is currently based in a sleepy town on the Delaware River in New Jersey.

To see more, visit SheaHembry.com and TED.com.

Matt Small: Recognition – Merry Karnowsky Gallery

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UK artist Matt Small is exhibiting for the first time in the US at Merry Karnowsky Gallery in Los Angeles.  Recognition is a collection of paintings, drawings, and mixed media, depicting vibrant portraiture of what the artist views as “the marginalized and voiceless in society, those who are socially excluded.” Small portrays those on the fringes of society, drawing attention to those who may be overlooked, challenging prejudices and bringing forward a shared sense of humanity. Merry Karnowsky relates, “not only is he bringing dignity and recognition to individuals who might otherwise go unnoticed in society, but he also makes a societal commentary as an individual by choosing to paint on recycled materials that are often discarded and disregarded in the same manner.”

“His work reflects a remarkable control of fluidity, employing impressionistic techniques with brilliant rainbows of color applied in thick impasto, while maintaining a profound naturalistic clarity. His portraits are on found pieces of wood, metal, and concrete, often combining these materials to construct his own surfaces on which to paint. His current work is largely influenced by his 2010 visit to the Robert Shitima School in Kabwe Village, Zambia, where he worked with SWOON to create art workshops for orphaned children and raise money for the school.”

Recognition runs through May 14, 2011. For more info,  visit Merry Karnowsky Gallery.  For Matt Small’s previous work, visit Matt-Small.com.


Found on: Arrested Motion, Images by Carlos Gonzales