Rendered in vivid shades of blue, pink, and orange, Yellena James’s unearthly organisms populate environments brimming with life. The Portland-based artist (previously) uses a mix of acrylic paints, gouaches, and inks to create precisely patterned compositions that take an otherworldly approach to creatures found on land and sea. Buoyant forms evocative of coral, kelp, and flowers overlap and collide on the canvas, adding density and texture to the majestic ecosystems.

The paintings shown here are on view now at Chefas Projects for James’ solo show Weightless, a title that alludes to both the lightness of the organisms and to the artist’s ability to reach a flow state. She explains:

In my work, I always strive to create a sense of levity on the canvas. I focus on environments that exist within alien atmospheres and forms that thrive within a diverse range of external forces… There is a moment that arises while making each piece when I can see the final steps clearly and the artwork begins to reveal itself. In those moments, every hint of pressure dissipates. It lifts. All of it. And I am weightless.

If you’re in Portland, you can see Weightless through November 18. Otherwise, keep up with James on Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Otherworldly Lifeforms Weightlessly Float Through Yellena James’ Vibrant Ecosystems appeared first on Colossal.

Calling all event organizers: We’re excited to introduce Lookout Santa Cruz Tickets. A FREE way for event organizers to reduce ticket costs for attendees and automatically connect events to Lookout’s platforms to increase your reach and sell more tickets!

Learn more here and get in touch today: bolo@lookoutlocal.com

Artist Ugo Rondinone (previously) captures the explosive energy of lightning as part of his latest exhibition bright shining light. On view through November 9 at Gladstone Gallery, a trio of bronze sculptures stand more than 20 feet tall, piercing the otherwise gray gallery. Painted in dayglo yellow, the bold hue evokes a radiant incandescence of striking bolts as they branch down from the ceiling.

When the viewer moves around and through the pieces, their distinct shapes and directions change. As the exhibition photos reveal, the branch-like works appear almost animated, shifting in choreographed movement depending on the viewer’s perspective. Their titles—”sublime light,” “glorious light,” and “blissful light”—more directly invoke Rondinone’s interest in the divine and transcendence and add to the strange, dreamlike qualities of the works.

The artist’s smaller, wall-based “alluring cloud” is also included in bright shining light. Made of sand, gravel, and concrete, the nebulous piece hangs in a corner of the gallery and freezes another brief moment in time. “alluring cloud” more explicitly links Earth and sky through its materials and subject matter, and this duality matches others within the exhibition, including between artificial and natural and electric and non. Rondinone “captures the excitement, fear, and impending change brought on by environmental happenings, seemingly out of our control,” a statement says.

Find more from the artist on his site and Instagram. (via Design Milk)

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Ugo Rondinone’s 20-Foot Bolts of Lightning Pierce Through a Tempestuous Gallery appeared first on Colossal.

Pizza Bag

Who needs the whole pizza when a single slice can look this nice? Nikolas Bentel (previously) thinks it’s time to level up the way you take home your pie—or hot dog, soda, or pasta, for that matter. A series of fashion accessories and homewares reimagine recognizable items like electrical cables or picnic blanket carriers into objects so hyper-practical that they nearly break the rules of functionality altogether.

Akin to Nicole McLaughlin’s clever apparel or art collective MSCHF’s cartoonish accessories, Bentel’s pieces are designed to accomplish exactly one job. Sling a single bottle of cola in a pair of buckled straps, and off you go.

See more of the artist’s work on his website, where he sells pieces in his shop, and get updates on Instagram and TikTok. You might also enjoy this leather bag by Tsuchiya Kaban designed to hold precisely one watermelon.

Extra Time Timer

The Bloom Candle

Untitled Folder Wallet

Folder Wallets

The Pasta Bag 3

Electric Cord Bag

The Vincent Vase

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Ultra-Practical Purses and Homewares by Nikolas Bentel Have Exactly One Ridiculous Job appeared first on Colossal.

Award-winning artist and designer Timothy Goodman has joined forces with S’well, the industry pioneer of stylish and sustainable living solutions, to release an exclusive collection of S’well Original Bottles and Tumblers featuring his iconic handwritten quotes. Known for his unique lettering designs and thought-provoking messages, Goodman’s art and texts have populated walls, packaging, clothes, products, and magazine covers for brands such as Apple, Nike, Google, Samsung, MoMA, Netflix, YSL, Time, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. 

Timothy Goodman x S’well includes four of the company’s best-selling hydration products, each featuring a quote from the artist about love and compassion. He shares his enthusiasm for the collaboration, saying, “I am thrilled to partner with S’well on this limited-edition collection. One of my goals is to make art accessible for everyone, so it’s my hope that these products will not only bring people joy but also serve as a reminder of the importance of artistic expression in our everyday lives in a sustainable way.” 

Founded in 2010 to help rid the world of single-use plastic bottles, S’well has established itself as a leading force in the industry. Recognized as the first company to develop reusable fashion hydration accessories, S’well products combine beautiful design and premium performance with sustainability. By partnering with Goodman, S’well aims to highlight the artist’s unique style and voice while emphasizing its commitment to pairing artistic design with sustainable solutions.

The Timothy Goodman x S’well collaboration is now available exclusively at swell.com.

For more information, please visit swell.com or follow @swellbottle on social media.

Timothy Goodman x S’well Tumbler with Straw

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article S’well Pairs Art With Sustainability for a Limited-Edition Timothy Goodman Collection appeared first on Colossal.

A nervous art market is waiting on the forthcoming auction season in New York, which begins at Christie’s on November 7, to determine the health — or otherwise — of the industry in a tricky year. Decent gallery sales were reported from the recent Frieze and Paris+ par Art Basel fairs, but the anecdotal evidence is that buying in general was more muted this year, particularly above the $100,000 level. The London auctions this month also fell short, while numbers from evening sales in New York in May were down 18 per cent on last year, according to ArtTactic.

“The London-Paris double header of fairs and auctions was quite wearing, and everyone had an eye on the New York auction highlights, which were prominently displayed,” says Hugo Nathan, founding partner of art advisory business Beaumont Nathan. “The art market relies on May and November. Right now there are buyers, despite all the trouble in the world, but they are not swallowing prices as they were.”

Mega-offerings in New York next month include the $400mn-plus Emily Fisher Laudau collection at Sotheby’s — with a 1932 Picasso painting of Marie-Thérèse Walter estimated at $120mn — and, at Christie’s, a large Monet water lily painting from c1917-19 estimated at $65mn, plus Arshile Gorky’s “Charred Beloved I” (1946), offered by the media magnate David Geffen for $20mn.

Phillips hosts its first auction dedicated to ceramics made by Lucie Rie and her colleague and friend Hans Coper in London on November 1. The 106 items — including a couple of pieces on which Rie and Coper collaborated — come from two collections. The majority are from Coper’s late wife, the photographer Jane Coper, whose estate includes several items bequeathed by Rie, with the remainder from the dedicated collector and ceramics expert Cyril Frankel, a film and TV director who died in 2017. Combined, the works have an estimate of £3mn-£4.2mn.

“It was through Frankel really that Rie and Coper were understood to be less potters and more part of the British modern art movement,” says Sofia Sayn-Wittgenstein, head of the design department at Phillips in London. “They created a whole new language for ceramicists.”

Rie and Coper, both Jewish and from Austria and Germany, respectively, found refuge from the Nazis in London in the 1930s. They began working together in 1946, when the younger Coper joined Rie’s workshop, initially founded to make glazed ceramic buttons for fashion houses. The skilful Rie trained Coper and the pair, who remained friends all their lives, gradually established their own styles — Rie’s more Romanesque and materials-based, Coper’s more Cycladic and focused on form — in a shared studio. Today, Coper’s works command the higher prices: his auction record stands at the equivalent of $878,000; hers at $340,200. This is partly, Sayn-Wittgenstein says, “because Lucie was a bit more laissez-faire about imperfections. Hans would destroy work that he didn’t think was right.”

Among the items on offer next week is Rie’s pink, turquoise and beige spiralling clay “Vase with flaring lip” (1979, est £30,000-£50,000), used in a 1987 set of postage stamps to mark the centenary of the birth of the ceramicist Bernard Leach. Also on offer is a porcelain bowl by Rie with the inscription “For Hans Coper Christmas 1949. From his boss Lucie Rie. All debts are cancelled” (£30,000-£40,000). Among Coper’s work is a large stoneware dish with a carved abstract bird design (c1955, est £80,000-£120,000). Estimates range from £1,000 to £240,000.

This weekend marks the opening of the second edition of Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK), a fair of 64 exhibitors in which Japanese galleries share booths with overseas counterparts (October 28-30, ICC Kyoto). This year’s pairings include Tokyo’s Misako & Rosen with New York’s 47 Canal; Standing Pine (Nagoya) with Chi-Wen Gallery (Taipei); and SCAI The Bathhouse (Tokyo) with Axel Vervoordt (Antwerp).

As last year, fair organisers confirm that they have been granted bonded status, enabling overseas visitors to save on advance customs taxes. “It is exciting to see the Japanese government has a long-term vision to improve the value of art socially, academically and economically,” says the fair’s programme director, Yukako Yamashita. Her highlights include a solo showing of Olafur Eliasson, inspired by Zen gardens (neugerriemschneider), part of a separate section dedicated to art with connections to Kyoto.

The latest Art Basel & UBS report found that Japan’s galleries witnessed healthy increases in sales last year, up 28 per cent, above the aggregate from Asia (26 per cent). Market activity in Japan continues after ACK with Art Week Tokyo, a citywide collaborative effort that groups 39 galleries and 11 institutions, supported by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs and in collaboration with Art Basel. Both events coincide with the Tokyo Biennale (until November 5) and the Saitama Triennale (until December 10).

Art-fair season is truly in full swing and the pre-pandemic issue of too many fairs on the circuit is hard to avoid. This weekend is the 30th in-person edition of New York’s IFPDA print fair (26-29 October), while next week marks the 30th edition of Turin’s Artissima fair for contemporary art (November 3-5). Other fairs around the world include Art X Lagos (November 2-5) and the ADAA’s 35th The Art Show in New York (November 2-5).

Jenny Gibbs, executive director of the IFPDA fair, concedes that “there are definitely too many fairs in the fall” and has moved its dates for next year, when the IFPDA will run February 15-18. Having a niche offering helps in a crowded field, she says: “We are a must-attend event for prints and editions curators and collectors around the world.”

The 90-plus exhibitors this year bring works that range from Old Masters, such as Dürer and Rembrandt at David Tunick, Inc (booth prices up to $1mn), to the brand-new — Hauser & Wirth brings a 60-layer screen print by Mark Bradford, “Rona” (2023, edition of 25, $185,000). 

And finally . . . Christie’s star auctioneer and global president, Jussi Pylkkänen, has announced he is leaving the business after 38 years to turn his skills to independent art advisory. The Finnish-born specialist, who turned 60 this year, will conduct his last auction in London on December 7. 

Pylkkänen’s rostrum highlights include selling Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” (c1500) for $450.3mn in 2017, still by far the most expensive work ever at auction. Art-market regulars will also long remember some of Pylkkänen’s persuasive patter, such as “Are we all done?”; “You’ve come a long way”; and “It’s a beautiful thing.” The salerooms won’t be the same without him.

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Dark on Park is one of multiple art options in downtown Warren on Saturday.

Gracefully stacked atop humble wooden shapes, thin strips of vinyl create kaleidoscopic planes in the sculptures of Derrick Velasquez. The Denver-based artist draws on the principles of color theory to create wall-based works with innumerable layers evocative of sediment or brushstrokes. All finished with staggered edges that curl upwards, the pieces are part of Velasquez’s Untitled series, which utilizes the same curved shape and varies in palette and size. “Slowly building these sculptures becomes akin to layers upon layers of the experiences and connections we make inviting a perceptual encounter and a tactile experience,” he says.

The works shown here are part of Velasquez’s solo show Close To The Memory Of on view from November 7 to December 22 at Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia. Find more of his sculptures on his site and Instagram.

“Untitled 389” (2023), vinyl and cherry, 54 x 30 x 1.5 inches

“Untitled 386” (2023), vinyl and maple, 46 x 40 x 1 inches

“Untitled 388” (2023), vinyl and maple, 46 x 35 x 1 inches

“Untitled 393” (2023), vinyl and cherry, 24 x 29 x 1 inches

“Untitled 366” (2023), vinyl and maple, 25 x 29 x 1 inches

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With 230,922 square feet, industrial property The Art Factory in Paterson is up for sale.

Cushman & Wakefield announced Oct. 25 it was tapped to lead marketing efforts for the site located at 70 Spruce St. Managing Director Andrew Schwartz, Senior Associate André Balthazard, Director Jordan Sobel, Dan Associate Bottiglieri and Executive Managing Director Charles Parmelli are leading the assignment on behalf of ownership, Great Falls Industrial Park Inc.

“We are excited to present this historically significant property situated within Paterson’s iconic landscape for sale,” said Schwartz. “This property can be converted for multiple uses including apartment lofts, self-storage facilities or any other uses permitted within the Historic District Zone, providing a unique opportunity for a new owner to contribute to the ongoing legacy of this cherished location.”

The property functions as a rental hall, hosting weddings, corporate meetings and events as well as other special occasions in the historic, industrial setting. And – if the space looks familiar – you might recognize the locale from the background of AMC’s spin-off “The Walking Dead: Dead City.”

Located just off of Interstate 80, The Art Factory offers frontage along Spruce Street and backs up to the Great Falls National Historic Park.

Situated on 5 acres, the 21-building industrial complex dates to the mid 1840s when it was originally constructed for the American Hemp Co. to spin hemp into rope, according to the Library of Congress. The company was reorganized in 1851 into the Dolphin Manufacturing Co. and was the largest jute factory in the U.S. by 1881. The business shuttered in the late 1950s.

According to its website, The Art Factory still features original timbers, brickwork, metal details, cobblestones and the large factory windows. In 2018, ownership secured a $12.5 million loan for capital improvements and to pay off debt, it was announced at the time.

Because the events operations are separate from the real estate, the business will be unaffected by the sale in the short-term, Cushman & Wakefield said.

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