Daily Art Fixx

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

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.

Christopher Conte: Sculpture

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Norway native Christopher Conte was raised and currently lives in New York. Conte has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and worked in prosthetics making artificial limbs for amputees for 16 years as a Certified Prosthetist. At the same time, he privately created biomechanical sculptures and 2008 became a full-time artist.

Conte’s sculptures combine original cast components with found and recycled parts using materials ranging from bronze to carbon fiber and often including materials from the aerospace industry and medical fields.

“While a strong connection with future technologies is present in all of Chris’ work, ancient techniques such as lost-wax bronze casting have become an integral part of the process as well. The process involved in creating just one sculpture can often take weeks or even months.”

Conte has exhibited across the United States and his work has appeared on The Discovery Channel, in Discover Magazine, Wired Magazine, MTV Networks and in Popular Science Magazine.

To see more, visit Microbotic.org.

Andrew Chase: Assemblage Art

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Andrew is a self-employed commercial photographer, furniture maker, welder as well as a highly talented assemblage artist. His breathtaking collection of mechanical animals was created using an assortment of recycled automobile and plumbing parts. Each fully articulated animal takes between 80 and 120 hours to complete. (from NDI Gallery)

Chase currently lives in Salt Lake City, UT with his wife, two kids and three cats.

To see more, visit AndrewChase.com.

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

Kris Kuksi: “Pneumatic” – Roq La Rue Gallery

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Kansas based artist Kris Kuksi is exhibiting his mixed media sculptures alongside Travis Louie’s The Creature Show at Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle. This new body of work entitled Pneumatic shows Kuksi’s astonishing “post industrial rococo” assemblages. As a special treat will also be exhibiting several hyper intricate drawings.

“Kuksi garners recognition and acclaim for the intricate sculptures that result from his unique and meticulous technique. A process that requires countless hours to assemble, collect, manipulate, cut, and re-shape thousands of individual parts, finally uniting them into an orchestral-like seamless cohesion that defines the historical rise and fall of civilization and envisions the possible future(s) of humanity.” (from Kuksi.com)

Pneumatic runs through May 7, 2011.

To see more of Kuksi’s work, visit Kuksi.com.

Dan Bentley: Assemblage Art

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Born in an army hospital in Shirley, Massachusetts, Dan Bentley learned to walk and talk in Mineral Wells, Texas, and has lived in Rochester, New York since about 1978.

Dan’s  “build it himself” style of education landed him at the Rochester Institute of Technology where he studied a mix of Engineering and Fine Arts, resulting in a 35 year career as a product designer.

“Since I was a child I have been fascinated by mechanical bits and pieces and how they go together to create things. My parents came to accept that I would disassemble my toys to see how they worked (and reassemble them). I outgrew my Tinker Toys early and spent lots of time building my own toys from “scratch,” putting various found and scrounged objects together to create the next go-cart or rocket. I grew up during the 1960’s when kids still had wood and metal shop classes in school; that’s where I learned the basics of how things are made and the tools used to manufacture them.  My sculptures are the manifestation of the appreciation i have for the products i collect, a labor of love. My mission is to feature the aesthetics of manufactured products in unique sculpture. I collect products that have outlived their original use and recycle them as elements of my art. I strive for my art to pay homage to all product designers by continued appreciation of their talents.”

To see more of Dan Bentley’s work, visit DBentley.com or check out his photostream on Flickr.

John Chamberlain: Sculpture

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john-chamberlain

Born on April 16, 1927 in Rochester, Indiana, John Chamberlain is an American sculptor best known for his works made from automobile parts.  Chamberlain grew up in Chicago and attended the Art Institute of Chicago from 1951 to 1952. From 1955-56, he studied at Black Mountain College in North Carolina.

“His early welded-iron sculpture was heavily influenced by Abstract Expressionism and by the sculpture of David Smith. By 1957, he began to include scrap metal from cars in his work, and from 1959 onward he concentrated on sculpture built entirely of crushed automobile parts welded together. Chamberlain’s first major solo show was held at the Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, in 1960.

Chamberlain’s work was widely acclaimed in the early 1960s. His sculpture was included in The Art of Assemblage at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1961, and the same year he participated in the Sao Paulo Bienal. From 1962, Chamberlain showed frequently at the Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, and in 1964 his work was exhibited at the Venice Biennale. While he continued to make sculpture from auto parts, Chamberlain also experimented with other mediums. From 1963 to 1965, he made geometric paintings with sprayed automobile paint. In 1966, the same year he received the first of two fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, he began a series of sculptures of rolled, folded, and tied urethane foam. These were followed in 1970 by sculptures of melted or crushed metal and heat-crumpled Plexiglas. Chamberlain’s work was presented in a retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 1971.”

In the 1970’s, Chamberlain returned to making large sculptures from automobile parts. A major retrospective was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 1986. In 1993, Chamberlain received both the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture from the International Sculpture Center, Washington, D.C.

Chamberlain has lived and worked in Sarasota, Florida, since 1980. For more information about John Chamberlain, visit the source links below.


Sources: Guggenheim, Flickr (Greg Martin), Flickr (Hitogram), Flickr (WallyG), Artnet

Jud Turner: Sculpture

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Spring Sprang-Jud-Turner-2009

Born in Eugene, Oregon in 1969, Jud Turner has always drawn, painted, and sculpted – “trying to make some sort of tangible record of his experiences and impressions of the world.” He studied drawing and painting, earning a BFA from the University of Oregon. In the early 1990’s, sculptural works became his main artistic output, focusing on direct welded steel work and found object assemblages.

“Quantum physics tells us that apparently solid objects are comprised of vast empty spaces, populated by tiny particles whose individual relationships create the whole. And that a single particle can exist in two separate places during one moment in time.”

“Turner explores such dichotomies in his sculpture. Using welded steel and found objects, he creates artwork which embraces opposites – the tension between humans and nature, the perils of balancing biology and technology,  or the combination of ancient fossils with modern machinery. He also engages contradictions by the materials he chooses – human forms which appear solid and realistic, but which were made with a delicate surface of thin wire, allowing the viewer to see through the figure; or by mixing the sense of scale in a piece, using large items alongside tiny pieces.”

Turner currently lives and works in Eugene, with his wife, Melissa, and their three cats. To see more of his work, visit JudTurner.com.

Earth Day 2010:
5 Eco-Artists Making a Difference

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Own World © Jerico Santander

It’s Earth Day everyone – a day established to inspire awareness and appreciation for the earth and our environment. Founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in in 1970, Earth day is now celebrated on April 22nd in almost every country around the globe.

In celebration of Earth Day 2010, I present five artists whose work raises awareness about our relationship with the earth and/or use materials and resources in an eco-friendly way to create their art.

First, what is environmental art? According to GreenMuseum.org, eco-art is “in a general sense, it is art that helps improve our relationship with the natural world. Some environmental art:

  • Informs and interprets nature and its processes, or educates us about environmental problems.
  • Is concerned with environmental forces and materials, creating artworks affected or powered by wind, water, lightning, even  earthquakes.
  • Re-envisions our relationship to nature, proposing new ways for us to co-exist with our environment.
  • Reclaims and remediates damaged environments, restoring ecosystems in artistic and often aesthetic ways.

And now the artists:

1. Sara Hall: Glass Artist – Hall’s recent work  in architectural glass focuses on the integration of art and solar technology.  Energy that is gathered through the solar cells is used to illuminate both the artwork and its surroundings at night.  Hall says, “By forging an image with a source of renewable energy, we create a powerful story about how we can live in this world:  It gives us a chance to dream about who we can be.”  See more at SaraHallStudio.com.

2. Chris Jordan: Photography/Digital Art – Jordan’s photographs and digital photo compilations depict images of western culture’s consumerism revealing the startling statistics of our daily consumption. He transforms the data about everyday items such as paper cups, cell phones, plastic bottles, and other mass produced goods, and makes large-format, long-zoom artwork.  “Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences. I fear that in this process we are doing irreparable harm to our planet and to our individual spirits.” See more at Chris Jordan.com. An inspiring TED talk is featured on Daily Art Fixx here.

3. John Dahlsen: Environmental Assemblage Art – Australian artist Dahlsen creates works of art  from the vast quantities of plastic and litter washed up along the Victorian coastline. Dahlsen says, “Making this art has been a way of sharing my messages for the need to care for our environment with a broad audience. I feel that even if just a fraction of the viewing audience were to experience a shift in their awareness and consciousness about the environment and art, through being exposed to this artwork then it would be worth it.” See more at JohnDahlsen.com.

4. Laurie Chetwood: Architecture – Chetwood’s “Urban Oasis” opened on 19th June 2006 as a temporary structure on Clerkenwell Green and is a demonstration of sustainability and renewable energy working. The 12 metre high kinetic structure mimics the design of a growing flower: its photovoltaic “petals” open and close in response to the sun and the moon utilizing daylight to generate power. This is supplemented by a hydrogen fuel cell and wind turbine to make it self-sufficient. It even uses rainwater it has collected for irrigation and cooling. At the base, the Oasis has five “pods” inside which people are secluded from the noisy and polluted city surroundings, enjoying cleaner cooled air and relaxing sounds.  See more at Chetwoods.com.  See the Oasis in action here on YouTube.

5. Aurora Robson: Sculpture – New York based artist Robson uses everyday waste such as discarded plastic bottles and junk mail to create intricate sculptures, installations, and collages. In the past year, Robson has intercepted about 30,000 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. Robson’s environmentally conscious works grew out of her love and appreciation for nature and from the nightmares she had as a child. Her goal is to “take something inherently negative and transform it into something positive.” Her art is “ultimately about recognizing and embracing new possibilities while encouraging others to do the same.” See more at AuroraRobson.com.

For more information about eco-art, visit GreenMuseum.org. For more about Earth Day, visit Earth Day Network.

Related Books:
Green Guide for Artists: Nontoxic Recipes, Green Art Ideas, & Resources for the Eco-Conscious Artist
Eco Craft: Recycle Recraft Restyle
Good Earth Art: Environmental Art for Kids (Bright Ideas for Learning)