A life-size sculpture of Ozzy Osbourne made entirely from cake has been…
Life-size sculpture of Ozzy Osbourne made from cake unveiled in Birmingham
F5: Mischa Couvrette’s Pandemic Project, Love of the Ocean + More
“I started hollis+morris in a quiet two-car garage, with just myself tinkering away. Since then, we’ve grown to a team of 25 in a 10,000-square-foot manufacturing and showroom facility,” said founder, Mischa Couvrette, who has always had a knack for building things. But before the brand, he grew his appreciation for design while spending time with a group of budding architects, as he worked towards his bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences at Dalhousie University.
Whole-heartedly grabbing hold of this passion, Mischa began crafting furniture on the East Coast before making his way to Toronto. (The interim time period involved a yearlong sailing trip to Guatemala on a boat he overhauled with a friend!) His design style stays true to honest materials, a reflection of the hollis+morris brand and Mischa’s own ambitions.
hollis+morris was founded in Canada – where its designs are inspired, materials are sourced, and pieces are manufactured. Solid wood furniture and lighting with distinct designs and a dedication to function integrate the strengths of each material, resulting in thoughtfully designed pieces. Versatile and made to last, the brand’s furnishings work well in residential, commercial, and hospitality spaces.
We’re happy to have Mischa Couvrette joining us today for Friday Five!
Photo: Mischa Couvrette
1. My Motorcycle
I bought a vintage 1986 BMW R80 one month before the pandemic. The donor bike was in a sad state, and rebuilding it became my Covid labor of love. It was a beautiful pastime through those challenging months of not being able to live life normally. As an extrovert who loves interacting with others, the pandemic was a serious adjustment, but designing and working on the motorcycle was a wonderful way to pass the time. I still see myself as a free-wheeling human, wandering around the globe. My business, family, and general adult responsibilities have grounded me more than I would like to admit to myself sometimes, but this bike signifies freedom and the flexibility of the open road, even if I don’t get to use it as much as I’d like. It remains a small reminder that my youthful endeavors are still present.
Photo courtesy Dalhousie University
2. The Atlantic Ocean
As far back as I can remember, I’ve been captivated by the ocean. As a kid, I was obsessed with everything water – surfing, sailing, swimming, you name it. Anytime there was a big storm, I would drive a friend’s car out to Cranberry Cove, put on Radiohead, and watch 40 ft. waves crash into weathered rocks. I went to university in Nova Scotia because of a photo I saw while applying to universities – I could see the ocean in the backdrop of the school, and I knew this was the place.
My obsession ultimately led to me buying a sailing boat, the Arteche, with friends and sailing from Nova Scotia to Guatemala. We set sail in late October and experienced the full spectrum of the North Atlantic – from gales to calm seas. It was the most exciting and terrifying experience of my life. My first ever night sail was crossing the Gulf of Maine in late October. The crossing took five nights, and I’d never been so happy to touch ground in Cape Cod. While terrifying at sea, I remain in awe and humbled by the power and beauty of these storms.
Photo: Mischa Couvrette
3. A Quiet, After-Hours Shop
The [hollis+morris] shop is typically a frenzy of excitement, which I love! But one of my favorite things is staying late, or coming in early or on a weekend, and having the space to myself. With so much going on during the day, it’s difficult to find the calm and clarity I look for while designing. I am still the sole designer, by choice. It is the reason I started the business, and a title I hold onto dearly while I navigate its growth. Coming in after everyone has gone and seeing the results of a day’s work is a very rewarding and grounding experience, and also the best time to tinker with prototypes, reflect on why I started hollis+morris, and get back to basics. An empty shop is the best place for me to come up with new ideas that can be worked through on my morning run.
Photo: David Riaño Cortés
4. The Amazon
During university at Dalhousie, I studied Marine Biology and Environmental Science – which I know is not the typical route to starting a design and manufacturing company. Between my second and third years, I had grown tired of writing sad papers about the deforestation of the Amazon jungle and decided to take the year off and experience it for myself. I spent 100 days in the Ecuadorian Amazon, compiling biodiversity lists and working on conservation efforts. It was a scary place, the most remote place I’d ever been, it was hours flying to the nearest town. The jungle is a different kind of place – my experience was exhilarating, but not for the faint of heart. That journey heavily impacted my decision to source local and renewable, and to stay away from exotic woods for hollis+morris. I cherish my experiences there and hope to return some day.
Photo: Mischa Couvrette
5. My Kids
My babies! I have a two and a five year old. My daughter is a force and reminds me so much of myself. Nothing can stand in her way. My son is a gentle soul with a wonderful sense of humor. I’m currently teaching my daughter how to ride a bike, while my son scoots along beside. Parenting is fun, challenging, emotional, calming, and downright difficult. But my kids are my biggest adventure to date. It’s crazy how much the cliché is true – they grow up so quickly, and I am constantly surprised at how fast things change. Without getting too emotional (and I can be), these little babies are my whole world now, and I love every minute of it, especially the really hard stuff.
Work by Mischa Couvrette + hollis+morris:
CONSpendants
Ellipse Chandelier + Chandelier 7 Floor Light
CONSsconces
CONSsconces Horizon Mirror
Review | Simone Leigh is exactly where she wants to be: Everywhere
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden hosts sculptor Simone Leigh’s first museum survey.
‘We can feel instability’: Italian dealers weigh up the market at Artissima in Turin
Following last month’s Frieze London and Paris+ par Art Basel, another key European fair is testing the market in tumultuous times. Artissima in Turin, Italy’s leading contemporary art fair, yesterday opened its landmark 30th edition (until 5 November), with 181 galleries participating, 79 of which are Italian.
Geopolitical events—namely the unfolding tragedy of the Israel-Hamas war and the ongoing war in Ukraine—are a concern on the fair floor. “All is going well for us and it will be a good year but we can feel instability in the art field. The next six months will be difficult,” says a spokesperson for Thomas Brambilla gallery in Bergamo. The gallery has participated in the past ten editions of the fair, and by the end of the fair’s VIP preview (2 november), it had sold works by Maggi Hambling and a sculpture by Bryan Hunt, along with a John Giorno painting to a private collector based in Italy priced at €35,000. Brazilian and German collectors were also in attendance, according to the gallery spokesperson.
The tumultuous backdrop is affecting the market in a number of ways. “The cooling of sales at auction is also positive as it means the [buying] field is cleared and it brings the positive aspect of reducing the amount of buyers who only collect [as speculators],” says Vincenzo della Corte of Vin Vin gallery, which runs spaces in Naples and Vienna. The gallery is selling works by the Nigerian-born London based artist Jamiu Agboke priced between €5,000 and €30,000 (a large-scale work was sold to a “very important international collection” for €20,000).
Other dealers are sensing jitters. Fabrizio Padovani added: “Something is already visible in terms of collectors. Frieze London and Paris Internationale were not as fizzy as last year. It is an uncertain general economic moment especially in terms of [rising] interest rates.” The European Central Bank’s key interest rate is 4% (the rate was paused in October after ten consecutive hikes).
Paola Biasutti of Biasutti & Biasutti gallery of Turin says that she has seen mainly Italian collectors. “People feel this situation but it’s too early to judge the economic consequences; many collectors don’t seem worried about it,” she said. The gallery, which has devoted its stand to Arte Povera artists, sold Alighiero Boetti’s Manifesto (1967) to an Italian collector. A pair of works by Gianni Piacentino are priced at €22,000 and €30,000.
The London-based dealer Thomas Dane has a unique perspective on the Italian market, having opened a gallery in Naples in 2018. ‘Taking part in an Italian fair makes much more sense for us now we have a gallery in Italy and Artissima is the best of the Italian fairs,” he says. He had sold a number of works by the London-based artist Jake Grewal by the end of day one.
Sales were indeed fairly brisk with a photograph by Helena Almeida at Galeria Francisco Fino (Experiência do lugar II, 2004), among the highest priced works. It was bought for €100,000 by a private European collection. Lower price point sales were numerous: Mazzoleni gallery sold two collages by Marinella Senatore (Opera!, 2023) priced between €15,000 and €18,000. The gallery also sold Senatore’s We Rise by Lifting Others (2023), made of LED bulbs, for around €60,000.
Galleries from 33 countries are taking part in this year’s Artissima with 39 showing for the first time, including Cristina Guerra (Lisbon) and Raster (Warsaw). So is the fair now a major player on the international scene or rather a key regional event? 60% of participating galleries are not Italian, says the director Luigi Fassi, stressing the international flavour of the event.
“It’s a trend that has continued for years. The fair is very attractive to a generation of galleries from international markets…. But it is an Italian fair and we’re proud of that—the entire Italian scene shows up from museum directors to collectors and journalists. You can say the fair serves as a bridge between the Italian scene and the international scene,” he added.
Fassi pointed out that the organisation of Artissima is overseen by Artissima srl, a company affiliated with Fondazione Torino Musei. “We do not belong to an international or commercial group. Our Artissima brand is fully owned by the Città di Torino, Regione Piemonte and Città Metropolitana di Torino. This is also why we can keep [stand] prices reasonable.”
This chimes with the general theme of Relations of Care which comes from a 2022 text by the academic Renzo Taddei. “This is a human scale art fair. It’s not about blue chips, it’s about seeking values and discoveries,” he added.
And what is Fassi’s view on current events globally? “What I see is a sense of relief [at Artissima]—spending a few days in a human environment, spending quality time together and seeing excellent shows in town. Maybe there is some hope that things might get better if we can talk to each other [sharing] our ideas.”
Stewart Indian School exhibit to open at the Lilley Museum of Art | University of Nevada, Reno
In honor of Native American Heritage Month, the University of Nevada, Reno’s John and Geraldine Lilley Museum of Art in the School of the Arts is presenting a traveling art exhibit called “We Remember Your Sacrifices; You are Not Forgotten: The Story and Art of the Stewart Indian School” from Nov. 9-30, 2023, with programming taking place throughout the week from Nov. 13-17, 2023.
The opening reception will take place on Thursday, Nov. 9, from 6 – 7:30 p.m., with remarks and light refreshments at the Lilley Museum on campus.
The exhibit tells the story of the Stewart Indian School, a federal government boarding school located south of Carson City, where Native American children of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, Western Shoshone, Northern Paiute and Southern Paiute were removed from their families and land to learn English and job skills. Eventually, Native children from over 200 tribal nations attended the school between 1890 and 1980.
Many Stewart School students studied art and expressed their creativity learning stone masonry found in the beautiful buildings on campus. The students were taught by Hopi stonemasons from Arizona, and their artistry is demonstrated in the buildings still existing on the 110-acre campus. In addition to stone masonry, students painted murals in some of the buildings and left behind much of their artwork in the form of paintings, wood carvings, baskets and beaded work.
The vision of the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center & Museum is to honor the children at Stewart, tell their stories through museum exhibits and first-person accounts on touch screens and help the living alumni, their families and tribal communities to heal. This exhibit invites visitors to come to Carson City and learn from stories shared by Stewart alumni of how the school evolved from the early boarding school days with the cruel assimilation policy into a high school that Native students wanted to attend.
The artwork continues today in the contemporary work by Great Basin Native Artists Collective, curated by Melissa Melero-Moose (Fallon Paiute/Modoc) and displayed at the museum’s Great Basin Native Artist Gallery.
In addition to the exhibition, there will be a film screening of a documentary called “Home of the Braves,” a film by JoAnne Peden, followed by a roundtable conversation with the Stewart Indian School on Friday, Nov. 17, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Assistant Director of The Multicultural Center Markie Wilder was instrumental in making this exhibit at The Lilley possible.
“This exhibit provides a platform for raising awareness about the historical injustices that Indigenous communities endured through the boarding school system,” Wilder said. “It’s an opportunity to engage the entire campus community in a meaningful conversation about the impact of these policies on Indigenous people. By sharing the stories, art and experiences of those affected, it humanizes this history and fosters empathy and understanding among students, faculty and visitors.”
The exhibition and programming at the University are made possible through a partnership with the Great Basin Native Artists Collective, the Nevada Indian Commission, the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center & Museum, The Multicultural Center and the Office of Indigenous Relations at the University of Nevada, Reno.
The Lilley is located at 1664 N Virginia Street, Reno, and is open Tuesday through Saturday, from noon to 4 p.m. The Stewart Indian School Cultural Center & Museum (SISCCM) is located at 1 Jacobsen Way, Carson City, Nevada, and is open Monday-Friday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and closed on state and federal holidays.
For more information about SISCC&M, email Bobbi Rahder, museum director, or call 775-687-7606, or see the Stewart Indian School website.
For more information about the Great Basin Native Artists Collective, visit Great Basin Native Artists.
Mastering the art of crafting a compelling marketing report
Mastering the art of crafting a compelling marketing report – AZ Big Media
Photography focus
“October Surprise,” a photography exhibition by the Redwood Camera Club, is on display through Nov. 10 at the Redwood Art Association Gallery, located upstairs at 605 F St. in Eureka. An Arts Alive! reception is set for Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m.
“Each year we rent all the upstairs galleries to give our members a place to show their very best work, without the restrictions of any particular theme,” said Sharon Falk-Carlsen, president of the 33-year-old club.
“I like the freedom to bring my best work in any format or any process,” said club member Stephen Kamelgarn.
“The smaller galleries give art lovers a more intimate experience in being surrounded by the art and getting the full impact of the photos,” said another member, Stilson Snow.
“The smaller galleries upstairs are often overlooked during themed shows in the main gallery,” said club member Jon Exley, “so having a cohesive show that uses all of them leads viewers through the whole labyrinth and get a really rich experience.”
Redwood Camera Club participants for this show are Thomas Bethune, Pam Cone, Jon Exley, Sharon Falk-Carlsen, Stephen Kamelgarn, Jeff McCalley, Diana Minton, Alison Pritchard and Stilson Snow
The Redwood Art Association Gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Celebrate Native American Heritage Month in D.C.
Review | In the galleries: Celebrating the depth and breadth of area artists
With work by 50 contributors, “(Not) Strictly Painting” is an impressive survey of recent output by local artists who are (mostly) painters. For regular visitors to the area’s visual-art venues, though, the McLean Project for the Arts exhibition may prompt sensations of déjà vu.
Painter-turned-sculptor Barbara Januszkiewicz’s tinted-plexiglass assemblage, which gives pure-color painting a 3D presence, resembles her piece in “Artina 2023: Queering Nature,” on view through Nov. 12 at Sandy Spring Museum. Sookkyung Park’s construction of hot-colored origami pieces, arranged in a circle to evoke the sun, is identical or very similar to her painted-paper sculptures shown at two Maryland galleries this year. Maremi Andreozzi’s two paintings of historical women in elaborate costumes, but with their faces in silhouette, are from a series recently featured at Adah Rose Gallery. And Cory Oberndorfer’s painting of frozen confections outlined by rough-edged blocks of color is essentially a smaller version of his mural outside Culture House.
All are worth seeing, or seeing again. But there aren’t a lot of surprises in this selection, whose guest juror is Tim Brown, director of IA&A at Hillyer.
The show includes a few entries that really aren’t paintings at all, including one of Kanika Sircar’s elegant ceramic flasks and an animated video from Ann Stoddard that responds to oppressive policing of Black youths. More typical, though, are painting-sculpture hybrids such as Judith Pratt’s red-and-black cut-paper piece, which droops on the wall like a soft rib cage, or Gayle Friedman’s color-field canvas, divided between planes of orange or yellow, atop of which are looped lengths of band-saw blade painted in the contrasting hue.
A few works that are essentially flat nonetheless conjure a three-dimensional experience. Joanne Kent elegantly arrays tufts of paint in shades of green, and Sondra Arkin positions white circles and black lines on pale blue to plunge the viewer underwater. More traditional are Freya Grand’s pair of realist nature scenes, which focus tightly on small areas of sea or earth. Her “Gully” demonstrates plain old painting’s ability to draw the eye into expertly simulated depths.
(Not) Strictly Painting Through Nov. 11 at McLean Project for the Arts, 1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean. mpaart.org. 703-790-1953.
Willy Fish Yowaiski
Executed over many years and with various techniques, Willy Fish Yowaiski’s abstractions are diverse in means but similar in effect. They’re mostly allover pictures with no central focus and a sense of potentially infinite expanses. His show at the Hyattstown Mill Arts Project was scheduled for 2020 before the pandemic intervened, which partly explains its title: “WillyVision2020 (So … Where Were We?).”
Most of the pieces are paintings, but the Maryland artist also offers collages and two sets of cubist-influenced drawings. The artworks’ tangled patterns suggest overgrown gardens, fractured mosaics or maps of rural areas — although perhaps the capillary-like strands of “Currents: Wing and Water” appear to resemble meandering two-lane roads primarily because the painting hangs next to a collage that incorporates fragments of actual maps.
End of carousel
The artist works mostly with acrylics but sometimes adds enamel or spray paint, and he seems open to whatever circumstance might shape his style. One of his more striking pictures, “Splendid Shadows,” is the indirect result of a broken arm: Unable to wield a brush, the artist used his fingers to render brightly colored, flowerlike gestures, which he later framed with areas of black. The result somewhat resembles a stained-glass window, which is apt. Yowaiski’s pictures don’t depict religious scenes, but they are luminous and constructed from intricately nested parts.
Willy Fish Yowaiski: WillyVision2020 (So … Where Were We?) Through Nov. 19 at Hyattstown Mill Arts Project, 14920 Hyattstown Mill Rd., Hyattstown. hyattstownmill.org. 301-830-1142.
Yumiko Hirokawa
The paintings in Yumiko Hirokawa’s show at the Watergate Gallery, “Letter to the World,” are in two modes: realist and expressionist. While quite different, both express the artist’s plea for peace.
A 2003 graduate of the Corcoran College of Art who returned to her native Japan last year, Hirokawa can apply paint with neoclassical precision. Her crisply detailed pictures of flowers, birds and clouds appear gentle and serene. But the birds are references to the proverbial canary in the coal mine, a harbinger of danger, and the clouds meld formations the artist saw over New Mexico with the ominous one her father glimpsed above Nagasaki in August 1945. The billowing “Sky of August” is dotted with gold-leaf daubs to represent lanterns lighted during Obon, the Japanese summer festival that honors the spirits of the departed.
Metallic leaf, usually silver, features more prominently in the expressionist works. These include ones in which white blossoms, leaves or olive branches are scattered or bent across shiny surfaces, as if nudged by wind. The looser, less literal pictures are closer to traditional Japanese paintings, but with silver foil taking the place of black ink. Evoking action but not conflict, they depict a world that is as idealized as the images are stylized.
Yumiko Hirokawa: Letter to the World Through Nov. 11 at Watergate Gallery, 2552 Virginia Ave. NW. watergategalleryframedesign.com. 202-338-4488.
Ram Brisueño
Although they’re set in a universe in flux, Ram Brisueño’s collage-paintings have an enduring sense of self. The works in “Young Mornings,” the Baltimore artist’s show at Zenith Gallery, are usually centered on a single heroic figure who appears to be either emerging from or receding into a teeming environment.
Blossoming plants envelop many of the people, some of whom may be transforming into other life forms. In “The Warm World,” a rare composition that includes two figures, one appears to be a centaur and the other has a blossom for a head, flowering atop an ornately body-painted Black frame. Also common are arrays of concentric dots, usually rendered in blotchy white or yellow, that surround a person like a halo, or a personal Milky Way.
Brisueño is self-taught, and his primitivist style can show more exuberance than finesse. Sometimes working from found photographic images, the artist seems to assemble his pictures intuitively. But that spontaneity suits his anything-goes scenarios, in which people can grow wings or stand in houses that sprout trees. Brisueño’s heavily layered tableaux approximate the unceasing fecundity of nature.
Ram Brisueño: Young Mornings Through Nov. 25 at Zenith Gallery, 1429 Iris St. NW. zenithgallery.com. 202-783-2963.
From art and dance to petroglyph tours, check out these events marking Native American Heritage Month across Colorado
Groups across Colorado are celebrating Native American Heritage Month starting this weekend and throughout November. Activities range from petroglyph site tours to cultural dances and Indigenous art on display.
About 74,000 people who identify as American Indian/Alaska Native live in Colorado, according to the 2020 Census Bureau and there are an estimated 370 million Native Americans in 70 countries around the world.
This weekend, the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder will host the Creative Nations Indigenous Arts Market and Festival. The event will feature music by Levi Platero and poetry and dance by other indigenous artists, as well as a display by Native artist Walt Pourier.
Courtesy photo.“A lot of our vendors are also going to be selling art that you can just look at,” said directing manager Nevra Murdoch. “You don’t have to buy, but if you want to come and look at their art, they always appreciate it.”
The event runs from Saturday, Nov. 4 to Sunday, Nov. 5 and is free except for a ticketed concert. The Dairy Arts Center is located at 2590 Walnut St. in Boulder. Find the schedule here.
For a more serious activity, there’s a lecture at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, looking at how data collected about Native Americans isn’t always reliable, looked at how sometimes people who aren’t actually indigenous, say that they are.
A lecture on Nov. 8, titled “Indigenous Educational Experiences and Survey Research,” delves into what happens when people misidentify themselves as Native — often for financial gain or to qualify for an opportunity designated for someone who actually is.
Courtesy photo.JD Lopez, 38, is from the Quechan nation, which borders Arizona, California and Mexico. He will be coming to present the talk from Tucson, where he’s a professor at the University of Arizona’s Center for the Study of Higher Education.
“So what I’ve done is just collected a lot of survey research from various topics from college affordability, persistent sense of belonging, those types of topics,” he said.
Over time in this discipline, Lopez has found that sometimes, when people refer to themselves as Native American and they actually aren’t, that skews the data.
“You find a lot of limitations when you look at federal or state data,” he said. “So most of my research has been trying to focus on mitigating some of those limitations and then finding ways to be able to just produce better and more accurate data for those communities, for our Indigenous communities.”
The lecture starts at noon on Wednesday, Nov. 8 at the Lory Student Center 288, Colorado State University Fort Collins. If you can’t make it in person you can register here to get the Zoom link.
Other activities include two-Indian Museum leading tours of the Shavano Valley Petroglyph site outside Montrose on multiple dates throughout the month.
And for those who’d prefer to stay home, both Denver Public Library and the Denver-based American Indian College Fund have put together lists of suggested books and films with Native American themes on their websites.
