HAMMOND, La. – A total of 66 members of the Southeastern Louisiana University Athletics family were among the over 1,100 graduates to have degrees conferred at the university’s Spring 2023 commencement exercises Saturday in the Pride Roofing University Center.
 
SLU beach volleyball student-athlete Eryn Wilks received the highest honor a Southeastern graduate can earn, as she was one of 13 graduates to claim the President’s Medal for Academic Excellence.
 
The track and field program led the department with 10 graduates Saturday, followed by the baseball and football programs with seven each. The women’s soccer (six), men’s golf (four), softball (four), men’s basketball (three), volleyball (three), women’s basketball (two), cheerleading (one) and Lionnette dance teams (one) all were represented among the student-athlete graduates.
 
Saturday’s graduates also included 18 members of the Southeastern Athletics support staff, including 11 athletic trainers.
 
Southeastern Athletics Spring 2023 Graduates
Christian Agnew | Men’s Basketball | General Studies
Mimi Allen | Lionnettes | Elementary Education Grades 1-5
Dalton Aspholm | Baseball | Management
Liam Daigle Aucoin | Student Athletic Trainer | Athletic Training
Brandon Barbee | Football | Business Administration
Jade Berthelot | Student Athletic Trainer | Athletic Training
Victoria Brackmann | Soccer | Business Administration
Will Brasher | Marketing and Promotions Student Assistant | Sport Management
Jeffrey Brignac | Track | Nursing
Abbie Brockhouse | Graduate Assistant Athletic Trainer | Health and Kinesiology*
Robert Buquoi | Football | Management
Nick Caldwell | Men’s Basketball | Business Administration
Sam Conners | Marketing and Promotions Student Assistant | Marketing
Anthony Cordero | Track | Engineering Technology
Champ Craven | Football | Criminal Justice
Roman Damasch | Track | Engineering Technology
Stephanie Daniels | Student Athletic Trainer | Athletic Training
Madison Donoghue | Graduate Assistant Athletic Trainer | Health and Kinesiology*
Daniel Dugas | Baseball | Engineering Techology
Dalton Fish | Soccer | Business Administration*
Trevor Fleming | Academics Graduate Assistant | Health and Kinesiology*
Ash’Leigh Gaines | Academics Graduate Assistant | Counseling*
Christian Garcia | Baseball | General Studies
Grayson Glorioso | Golf | General Studies
Megan Gordon | Soccer | Health and Kinesiology*
William Granville | Football | Engineering Techology
Nele Gudermann | Track | Psychology
Mia Himes | Cheerleading | General Studies
Alexius Horne | Women’s Basketball | Business Administration
Jaylen Huderson | Women’s Basketball | General Studies
Agerian Jackson | Track | General Studies
Indya Jackson | Track | Psychology
Scott Jacobs | Student Athletic Trainer | Athletic Training
Lucas Laborde | LAA Intern | Sport Management
KK Ladner | Softball | Psychology
Matthew Landry | Marketing and Promotions Student Assistant | Sport Management
Michael Landry | Golf | General Studies
Haleigh Laylee | Student Athletic Trainer | Athletic Training
Pierce Leavengood | Baseball | General Studies
Connor Manola | Baseball | Business Administration*
Randon McCallum | Student Athletic Trainer | Athletic Training
Jahmon McClendon | Football | General Studies
Cameron Mobley | Golf | Management
Hanna Moffatt | Soccer | Management
Lindsey Owens | Associate AD for External Ops/SWA | Strategic Communication*
Makayla Patterson | Student Athletic Trainer | Athletic Training
Madison Rayner | Softball | General Studies
Reid Reynolds | Baseball | General Studies
Lindsey Rizzo | Softball/Marketing and Promotions Student Assistant | Art
Callie Roddy | Student Athletic Trainer | Athletic Training
Omaira Romero | Student Athletic Trainer | Athletic Training
Meagan Scuderi | Volleyball | Kinesiology
Dom Serapiglia III | Football | Supply Chain Management
Donovan Storr | Track | Applied Sociology*
Sam Tarpley | Golf | English
Bernadette Tournoux | Track | Business Administration
Brigid Tournoux | Track | Business Administration
Grant Upton | Baseball | Accounting
Addison Vidrine | Volleyball | Communication
Terrell Webb | Track | Sport Management
Sophia Wendt | Soccer | Psychology
Eryn Wilks | Volleyball | Kinesiology
Avery Wilson | Men’s Basketball | Strategic Communication*
Tim Wilson Jr. | Football | Strategic Communication*
Hailie Yoder | Soccer | Political Science
Heather Zumo | Softball | General Studies
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Southeastern Athletics, follow @LionUpAthletics on Twitter, like /SLUathletics on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube channel.
 
CLEAR BAG POLICY
Southeastern Athletics has instituted a clear bag policy for all ticketed events, effective with the start of football season. For more information on the clear bag policy, visit www.LionSports.net/clear.
 
 

SARANAC LAKE — A dozen artists, including six from the North Country, will have the chance to live and create free public art in this community, with their work funded by $150,000 from Pendragon Theatre, BluSeed Studios and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The artists — in visual and performing arts — will be selected in June, and applications for the program open this coming week.

Pendragon Theatre and BluSeed Studios were recently awarded a $75,000 matching grant from the NEA’s Our Town program and collectively came up with another $75,000.

The money will go to pay artists a commission; house them; and pay for transportation, supplies, administrative costs and marketing.

“A lot of residencies provide one of those things,” Pendragon Managing Director Michael Aguirre said. “This is amazing. It’s all-encompassing.”

Also, the organizations are not taking any “box office cut” — the art produced in Saranac Lake will be viewed by the public for free in Saranac Lake, with the goal of contributing to the community and speaking to issues and life here.

This is not just a cool experience for the artists but also a benefit to the town, BluSeed Executive Director Marissa Hernandez said.

“Art, art and more art!” Hernandez wrote in an email. “All of the projects that come out of our artists’ applications will bring free community involvement in some way.”

She said this could include artist talks, classes, experiences, performances and installations.

There’s always been overlap between artists at BluSeed and Pendragon. Some performing artists also do visual art, and some BluSeed artists create sets for Pendragon’s plays.

“Some of the most meaningful work I’ve been a part of has happened when unique collaborations occur outside of one traditional entity,” Pendragon Artistic Producer Sarah Norris said in a statement.

Hernandez said BluSeed had artists in residence programs before her time there, but there’s never been a collaboration between BluSeed and Pendragon at this scale before.

“Mike and I met to discuss ideas about how our two organizations could work together in our community. He came to the table with this idea for us to create a program for the NEA Our Town grant,” Hernandez wrote.

The application process for artists based full-time in the North Country will launch on Wednesday and close on May 31, with artists being selected no later than June 30.

Pendragon and BluSeed assume that a one-month residency will be the average length of time per artist.

Pendragon has a housing building on Helen Hill with five two-bedroom apartments for artists to stay. The length of engagement for each artist will vary depending on their project and specialty.

Each artist will receive a commission fee, which can range between $100 and $5,000, but Aguirre hopes most are between $1,000 and $3,000.

Each organization will have a panel to select the artists — six visual and six performing artists.

“A balance of gender, inclusion of BIPOC and accessibility of artists will be crucial in the selection of the inaugural 12 artists,” according to a joint press release from the organizations.

Aguirre hopes this will be a recurring residency, as part of the grant is seed money for future years.

“I am looking forward to being a piece of this journey. To work with artists to create something special for our communities,” Hernandez wrote.

Kings’ Shops joined the second annual Waikoloa Lei Day Festival on April 30 in celebration of the art and history of lei-making in Hawai‘i.

Festivities took place all day throughout the resort area, including Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa, and Queens’ Marketplace, in addition to Kings’ Shops. Visitors enjoyed free lei-making workshops all day, a farmers market, food booths, giveaways, and a full schedule of hula performances and live music.

A highlight of the day was the first-ever Kings’ Cup Cocktail Competition, sponsored by
Kuleana Rum Works, a Hawai‘i Island grower, distiller and blender. Bartenders Stephen
Lopez and Daniel Wadsworth from Lava Lava Beach Club clinched the title and set the bar
high for next year. Contestants from 14 different bars and restaurants mixed, muddled,
swizzled, shook and stirred creative concoctions for an enthusiastic crowd.

Teams of two competed in a Speed round and a Presentation round, featuring cocktails made
with Kuleana Rum. Judges and spectators had the opportunity to sample the specialty cocktails and vote on their favorite. Lopez and Wadsworth created their cocktail with
Kuleana’s Hōkūlei Agricole, a 92-proof, aged sipping rum.

“I was not a judge, but I loved that they used Hōkūlei Agricole,” said Kuleana Rum’s Regional
Sales Manager, Art Deakins. He said that consistency was a big part of the competition. “The
idea was not just to put on a big show; see who could outdo who, and never make that drink
again. Our hope was that that they would create rum cocktail they were proud of and actually
make and serve it at their bar.”

The idea for Kings’ Cup started coming together in late March. “Kings’ Shops reached out,”
said Deakins. “And I just had to say yes.” He had attended and competed in the World Mai Tai
Contest at Royal Kona Resort, and he and his partners had been talking about trying
something similar with their Kuleana rums.

“We’re thrilled with the success of the Kings’ Cup,” said Cheryl Beckley, Marketing and Local
Leasing Manager for the shopping center. “It was a great part of the Waikoloa Lei Day
Festival, and a fun way to toast the occasion. Our thanks to the many visitors, residents,
competitors, entertainers, lei makers and others who joined us. We hope to see everyone
next year.”

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) – Case Jones, Marketing Director for Shreveport Regional Arts Council, stopped by KSLA to talk about Critical Mass Eleven.

It’s an annual art critic competition that showcases the best talents in northwest Louisiana. The all-day art event will be held on May 13, from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. It will be located on Texas Street in Shreveport.

Click here for the Facebook event.

Copyright 2023 KSLA. All rights reserved.

For fans of classic and international cinema, The Main Cinema in Minneapolis is hosting a bonanza this weekend in the form of a festival called Il Cinema Ritrovato On Tour.

The festival is dedicated to the history of cinema and features a wide range of films, including classics, retrospectives and newly restored movies. It will feature 11 films. 

New leader at Great Northern Festival

Minneapolis and St. Paul’s sprawling Great Northern Festival has announced a new executive director beginning Monday. Jovan C. Speller Rebollar will oversee various administrative and development tasks including finance and marketing.

Speller Rebollar was most recently a program director at the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council in St. Paul. At the Great Northern, she will work alongside Chief Programming Officer Kate Nordstrum, who continues to lead festival curation and programming.

Fur hats and jazz cats

Singer Lea Kalisch, who offers a modern spin on Yiddish songs, will perform Monday at Hook and Ladder in Minneapolis. Kalisch is known for performing in a shtreimel, an enormous fur hat worn by men in Hasidic Jewish communities.

“It’s become part of my brand. I don’t wear it randomly,” Kalisch told MPR News. “I wear it in pieces where I actually play a rabbi because I’m also an actor, so much of what I do is not just music, but my performances are very theatrical.”

Kalisch was born in Switzerland, raised in New York and recently relocated to Minnesota. 

She will be joined by Jewbalaya, a band that fuses European Jewish music with traditional New Orleans jazz.

A harmonious quest for racial justice

The Minnesota Orchestra will premiere “brea(d)th” May 18-20, a program commissioned to “honor the ongoing struggle for racial justice in Minnesota and beyond.” The piece is by Grammy-nominated composer Carlos Simon and librettist Marc Bamuthi Joseph and will be conducted by Jonathan Taylor Rush, featuring 150 choral singers.

The program will also include works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Wynton Marsalis. The May 19 performance will be broadcast live and streamed live on the Minnesota Orchestra website.

The rhythm of Minneapolis: Cowles Center’s upcoming dance season

The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts in Minneapolis has announced its 2022-23 season.

Ten productions will feature a number of Minneapolis dance organizations. In February, The Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre will perform “The Conference of the Birds,” inspired by a 12th-century Persian poem. Crash Dance Productions, a contemporary dance company, will perform in March.

The Cowles Center season will also include ARENA DANCES, BRKFST Dance Company, the James Sewell Ballet and Ragamala Dance Company.

Citywide open house

This weekend, more than 100 Minneapolis buildings will open their doors to visitors.

It’s called Doors Open Minneapolis, and it offers behind-the-scenes looks at a variety of venues, including theaters, sacred spaces, private clubs and sports complexes. Caretakers will be available to answer questions and share stories.

The event is free. Registration and a list of venues can be found at the Doors Open Minneapolis website.

Ceramic sea creatures swarm gallery

Artist and ocean advocate Courtney Mattison wants to bring the beauty of the sea above the surface. Her new show features more than 700 handcrafted ceramic sea creatures. Some are bleach white, showing the effects of a threatened environment.

“I think if people understand that it’s coral and that there’s a change happening, that might spark a sense of curiosity to make viewers want to learn more about what’s happening to coral reefs and how threatened they are from climate change,” she told MPR News.

The show runs through Sept. 3 at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona.

Other Briefs

• Interact Gallery in St. Paul, an organization for artists with disabilities, will debut “Glaze Haze,” an exhibition that features sculptures, planters and masks by 26 artists. The exhibition opens on May 13 with a reception and zine release. The Interact Gallery is open by appointment.

• Minneapolis’s HUGE Improv Theater will be moving from Lyndale and Lake Street to a larger space at 2728 Lyndale Avenue. The new venue will provide more space for the theater and include a larger stage. The Twin Cities Improv Festival in late June will be the last event in the old space.

• St. Paul’s Landmark Center has opened “Drawn To Saint Paul,” a collection of over 40 illustrations by J. Kevin Byrne, emeritus professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Byrne spent 25 years sketching St. Paul. The exhibition will run through May 28.

  

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Absolute Bleeding Edge

The MPR News arts team offers suggestions for the best in avant-garde, experimental and off-the-beaten-path arts and culture.

Publication: Twin Cities Writer and Artist Services Directory 

Located in the Twin Cities and need stilt-walking lessons? Group art therapy? An editor for your erotica? A bespoke gif? There’s a directory for that.

Minneapolis artist India Johnson recently published the Twin Cities Writer and Artist Services Directory through her Late Night Copies Press (just a few photocopiers in her living room, she says).

The $3 directory zine is designed to demystify how regular folks can hire artists and creatives for services and projects. 

The directory, which features 50 artists, writers and creatives, is what Johnson calls a “proof of concept.” She says artists should reach out to join and she’d eventually like to turn it into a website.

“There is an artist who will write you a song for a party or special occasion, including a retirement party, birthday, anniversary, memorial service, church service, Solstice party, Halloween party, Canada Day or Arbor Day,” Johnson told MPR News, laughing.

More practical services listed include “Get to Know your Sewing Machine” and “Dyke Does Handy Work.”

The directory is also a sort of mini-manifesto, opening with a list of “foundational assumptions” including:

• A career in the arts involves work that is creatively and/or professionally important, but unpaid/underpaid.

• Access to basic income for artists is one way to increase equity in the art world.

• Hiring artists is directly more affordable for individuals than relying on an intermediary (org, nonprofit, art fair, etc.)

• When artists organize, we improve the conditions of creative labor.           

Johnson explains that too often, artists have to pay to get their work seen.

“The arts are a really inequitable industry to work in, and a lot of that is because rather than paying artists, we expect artists to pay to compete in opportunities to have their work in art exhibitions, in galleries and museums; We expect artists to pay tabling fees — there’s just like an endless amount of fees and applications that kind of come with trying to bring your art to an audience,” Johnson said.

The directory is one way to try and “just imagine how could the art world function differently so that it could be a more equitable place and that you could earn a living there rather than having to already have financial resources and security in order to participate.”

Late Night Copies Press will host a launch party from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday at La Doña Cervecería in Minneapolis. Johnson says there will be artist popup shops and demonstrations, including one artist who is bringing a sink and showing how to unclog it.

Find the directory online and at these locations:

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced a plan to upgrade the Apollo Media Center in East Buffalo to support job training, youth programming and media production. New equipment will allow the Apollo to expand media education to City residents who own a business and provide a safe creative outlet for young people to explore music and art, while also teaching skills in video production and coding to help familiarize them with media careers. A sample of the production work being done at the Apollo can be seen here. 

“This investment will help to support the Apollo Media Center’s media education programming as it continues to inspire young people and members of the Buffalo business community with a passion for video editing, graphics, and studio production,” said Governor Hochul. “The Apollo has anchored the East Buffalo neighborhood for years – as a business development and education center, as a stepping stone to higher learning, and in the wake of last year’s tragic shooting, as a hub for vital information and community resources. This project reaffirms the State’s commitment to uplifting the people of East Buffalo and will ensure that the Apollo continues to play a role in this community in the years to come.” 

Currently, the Apollo Media Center offers classes in television technology, editing, photoshop, and digital design, but on a limited basis. Upgrades to Apollo’s equipment will allow the Center to expand programming and further support business development, job training, youth programming and creative expression in East Buffalo. Additionally, residents will be able to use the upgraded studios to create educational content for the city’s public access channel. 

Empire State Development President, CEO & Commissioner Hope Knight said, “The equipment being provided to the Apollo Media Center will help students and residents learn the production skills and multi-media knowledge that is important to find jobs and grow businesses in today’s economy. Students will have the opportunity to use cameras, editing booths and production studios to create impactful projects that shine a light on East Buffalo and all of its potential. We look forward to seeing the work of the students and the impact it will have on the community.”

City of Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown stated, “As we continue to do everything we can to get and grow jobs in Buffalo, I thank Governor Kathy Hochul for making this tremendous investment in the Apollo Media Center that will provide equity for those in our community who want to be part of Buffalo’s digital communication and media workforce.  The enhancement of this next generation, state-of-the-art media center will help to ensure that we grow our own talent at home at this one-of-a-kind facility in the Jefferson Avenue Corridor and make these exciting careers accessible to residents in their own communities.

State Senator Tim Kennedy said, “The Apollo Media Center has served as an important community resource for decades, and the attack on May 14th only underscored how critical this city space is for disseminating programming, information, and education. This investment in equipment upgrades will help foster a new generation of journalists, business owners, job seekers, and more, and will fuel continued opportunity on Buffalo’s East Side.”

Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes said, “This investment of $962,000 worth of new equipment for the Apollo Media Center is an investment in our youth, our community, and our future economy. Offering space for small businesses to advertise, increasing awareness via public service announcements and allowing young adults to refine and share their creative talents provides an opportunity for sustainable career path training in media, marketing, the performing arts, the film industry and much more.  Thank you to Mayor Brown and the City of Buffalo, Hope Knight and Empire State Development, and Governor Hochul for making this possible”

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said, “The Apollo Media Center is a community hub and has served as a light in dark times to bring people together. This investment in the Center will help more students and individuals to find ways to express their creativity, give life and voice to their dreams and aspirations, and acquire marketable skills that will help them advance and grow in business and in life.”

For more information about the classes and programs at the Apollo Media Center, go to www.ApolloMediaCenter.com. 

Cardinale Green, the Director of the Apollo Media Center said, “This grant recognizes the impact the Apollo Media Center continues to have on our community, while also helping us address the challenges we face in the digital age. I thank Governor Kathy Hochul for this critical investment which will enable us to purchase the modern media equipment needed to provide quality training to students and those in the community who are interested in media careers.”

Through the East Side Corridor Economic Development Fund, New York State is offering the City of Buffalo incentives valued at $962,000 to support upgrades to the Apollo. The State has dedicated $65 million to a placemaking strategy to revitalize the City’s East Side through investments in stabilizing neighborhoods and ensuring opportunities for homeownership; strengthening commercial corridors by promoting mixed use, walkable districts; improving regionally significant historical and natural assets; expanding opportunities for workforce connections; and supporting and growing entrepreneurship. 

The Apollo Media Center first opened on April 2, 1941.  For many years, the 900-seat theater provided countless hours of entertainment and was a hub of activity on the Jefferson Avenue commercial strip. However, the theater stopped showing movies when a fire caused extensive damage in 1966. In 2001, the Apollo was converted into a state-of-the-art telecommunications facility. The 18,000-square-foot facility contains two TV studios, four private editing suites, a conference room, a classroom, and other amenities. Much of the older theater was maintained, with the old marquee replaced by the electronic message board. The lobby is decorated with a unique “tile quilt” project displaying the artistic talents of many local residents.  

About Empire State Development

Empire State Development (ESD) is New York’s chief economic development agency (www.esd.ny.gov). The mission of ESD is to promote a vigorous and growing economy, encourage the creation of new job and economic opportunities, increase revenues to the State and its municipalities, and achieve stable and diversified local economies. Through the use of loans, grants, tax credits and other forms of financial assistance, ESD strives to enhance private business investment and growth to spur job creation and support prosperous communities across New York State. ESD is also the primary administrative agency overseeing the Regional Economic Development Councils and the marketing of “I LOVE NEW YORK,” the State’s iconic tourism brand. For more information on Regional Councils and Empire State Development, visit www.regionalcouncils.ny.govand www.esd.ny.gov. 

As a movement and concept, ecological art, or eco art, stretches back decades. And EcoArt has been a part of George Mason University’s School of Art since 2010, thanks to Mark Cooley, associate professor and director of new media.    

“The whole concept of eco art is understanding the interconnectedness of our social world and our natural world,” said Cooley. “The environmental problems that we face are the product of our culture.”   

The Green Studio, founded and directed by Cooley, is an outdoor eco art studio, located on the grounds of Mason’s Art and Design Building, which gives students a space to create environmental artworks.   

“That’s been a big thing is to have a studio that is outside that anybody can take advantage of,” said Cooley. “There are demos and classes that take place there out there, [although] now I’m teaching the class online.”   

AVT 385 EcoArt is one of Mason’s Green Leaf courses, designed to incorporate sustainability and its practices across the curriculum. The course offer contains five areas that touch on different environmental issues for students to create their own projects around: Activism, Overconsumption, Growing and Foraging, and Environmental Remediation.  

The 20 students enrolled in the course this semester come from a variety of majors. While the course is taught online, all EcoArt students have access to campus resources like the Green Studio.  

Cooley provides his students with examples of different interdisciplinary artists to show them ways to create nontraditional art.   

“There are so many creative pursuits. Of course, there are the traditional ‘fine arts’ painting, sculpture and so on, but there’s also a whole lot more, photography, video, landscape design, cooking, foraging, farming,” said Cooley, whose own interdisciplinary creative work ranges from gallery installations, permaculture design, documentary and experimental film, and music composition.  

Cooley added, “That’s why in the class I’ll shy away from the word ‘art’ at times and try to embrace a more general sense of creativity and responsibility across disciplines.” 

Senior Robin Jay Macielinski, an art and visual technology major concentrating on new media, said he was inspired by an artist they studied in class who used natural dyes and pigments for his EcoArt project. “I went out into the environment and located plants that we had identified through the ‘foraging’ unit, and I turned them into dyes to use as watercolor for my own environmentally friendly watercolor dyes made from organic material.”   

“Professor Cooley is very enthusiastic about what we learn and it’s his favorite thing when students come to him with stuff that he either didn’t know or enlightens him more on what he already knew,” said Macielinski. “He’s always open to students sharing new ideas of how to apply art to what we’ve learned about environmentalism in the course.” 

Part-time Mason student Andrew Windheim is also enrolled in the class. After retiring from a 28-year career in finance, Windheim said he decided to follow his heart and focus on artistic and creative endeavors, and EcoArt fit the bill.   

“Professor Cooley demonstrated for us how gardening is a creative undertaking and a step toward mitigating environmental degradation,” said Windheim, who integrated several of the course projects with his own garden development.    

This involved a two-phase approach to remediate an overgrown part of his backyard and to establish a sustainable, ecological “Resurrected Garden.”    

“We identified the different vegetables and herbs we wanted to grow, like rosemary, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and pole beans. I then graphically depicted the space, analyzed the prevailing environmental conditions, and determined which crops would be good companions,” said Windheim.       

In this way, he was able to reclaim the space and get more in touch with the ecological aspects of the planning and create a viable garden in the process.     

Other student projects included a marketing-based presentation on water and soil quality and remediation surrounding the Flint Water Crisis.   

“Art is about the relationship of the self to the outside world,” said Cooley. “I wanted to get creative thinkers involved with environmental issues to work toward recognizing some of the problems and perhaps offering some creative solutions for the future.”  

Catalan artist Javier de Riba (previously) once again collapses the boundaries between public and private, this time by adding a cozy intervention to a frigid environment. “Canal Roya” imprints a swath of fresh snow with the artist’s signature ornate motifs to mimic a rug-like covering on the frozen landscape.

Completed in early April, de Riba created the work near the proposed location of an 8-kilometer cable car connecting ski resorts in Astún and Formigal. The project, which drew criticism for its enormous price tag and disastrous environmental effects, would likely have displaced many of the animals, plants, and other organisms that inhabit that region in the Pyrenees. Thanks to pushback from activists, though, construction has since been halted.

Find more of de Riba’s ephemeral gathering spaces on Behance and 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 By Imprinting an Ornate Rug in Snow, Javier de Riba Draws Attention to Flora and Fauna Living in the Pyrenees appeared first on Colossal.

In Dreamers, Andrew McIntosh simultaneously conveys the plight and resilience of small businesses, rendering lone shops and inns among desolate landscapes. The Scottish artist (previously) often taps into nostalgia and the forgotten, and he’s known for using the highlands of his childhood as a backdrop for his mysterious scenes in oil paint.

This new body of work, which is on view this month at James Freeman Gallery, pits the inhospitable landscape against the needs of commerce with a heavy dose of irony. A travel agency towers above a small island requiring a trip by boat to reach, a tanning salon glows amid a foggy forest, and a lawnmower repair shop stands amid an overgrown field. Often outfitting the buildings with flaking paint, neon signs, and graffiti, McIntosh positions each as a relic of a former era, positing that like the Romantic notions of a wild, untamable nature becoming outmoded, so is “the postwar idealism” of capitalism and enterprise.

If you’re in London, stop by the gallery to see Dreamers from May 18 to June 10. Otherwise, find more on Instagram.

“Neptunes” (2023), oil on linen, 200 x 150 centimeters

“Newman Arms” (2023), oil on gesso panel, 40 x 30 centimeters

“Austin” (2023), oil on linen, 200 x 150 centimeters

“Paradise Travel” (2023), oil on linen, 150 x 130 centimeters

“Sunset Beach” (2023), oil on linen, 200 x 150 centimeters

“The Clock Inn” (2023), oil on gesso panel, 40 x 30 centimeters

“Zodiac” (2023), oil on linen, 200 x 150 centimeters

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 Dilapidated Mom-and-Pop Shops Stand Alone in the Scottish Highlands in New Paintings by Andrew McIntosh appeared first on Colossal.

Tinged with magic and metaphor, the energetic illustrations by Savannah-based Chinese artist Changyu Zou are emotionally candid and reflect her reactions to verse. “I think poetry uses the most beautiful words to express what’s most real in the poet’s heart. Although these words sometimes are very abstract and not easy to understand, they can give me unlimited imagination,” she says, sharing that she tends to pull a few terms or phrases from a poem and then use those as the basis for her drawings.

Zou strives for an interplay between the original text and her visual language, which often relies on a feverish mishmash of figures and symbols. The mixed-media illustrations—she works with both digital and analog materials, including gouache, acrylics, crayons, colored pencils, and sometimes collaged details—draw directly from the Misty Poets, a tradition that emerged in defiance of the restrictive Cultural Revolution of 20th-century China and is characterized by its obscure haziness. This mysterious and indeterminate quality arises in Zou’s works as birds, human hands, cars, houses, and other objects appear to whirl in chaotic motion.

In addition to the Misty Poets, the illustrator mentions Kahlil Gibran, Haizi, and Rabindranath Tagore as influences. One line of Tagore’s “Starry Bird” reads “light in my heart the evening star of rest and then let the night whisper to me of love” and inspired Zou’s series by the same name. ” Because Tagore’s poetry expresses the harmony of life and nature, I chose elements for these to represent humans, such as cars and houses, and also elements that symbolize nature, such as birds,” she shares. “They are together on a planetary ring, expressing a state of harmony and love.”

Zou is preparing for a solo exhibition this fall, so keep an eye on her Instagram for news about that show and other projects. (via Creative Boom)

“Starry Bird 1”

“Plan Adviser 1”

“The World Remade”

“Starry Bird 6”

“Starry Bird 4”

“Plan Adviser 2”

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 Frenzied Emotions Swirl Through Changyu Zou’s Poetry-Inspired Illustrations appeared first on Colossal.