Art World News

Buffalo Fashion Week to empower the arts happening Feb. 10th

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Buffalo Fashion Week to empower the arts happening Feb. 10th
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BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Buffalo Fashion Week organizers are gearing up for the largest fashion gala in Western New York!

“Our goal is to not only raise awareness for fashion in the Buffalo market, but also raise money for scholarships,” said executive director Khalil Carr.

Creative director, Kimori Jamison, says the theme is Retrofuturism.

“Retrofuturism is a futuristic twist,” he said. “We decided on colors like silver, gray, black, and chrome.”

The gala setup is overseen by Estherlin Barrientos. She says it takes a dedicated team to make it all happen.

“This is very important to me because coming from an immigrant family and having a minority background, not a lot of people have an opportunity like this to pursue their dreams,” she said. “The team and I are trying to create opportunities for people that look like myself.”

Buffalo Fashion Week organizers say the gala is crucial to revitalizing the Queen City’s art market.

“It’s lacking in fashion. It’s lacking in music. It’s lacking in film,” said Carr. “I keep on saying my commitment to Buffalo is to empower the arts.”

The Buffalo Fashion Week Gala will take place February 10 at the Staler Buffalo. Click here to learn more about the Buffalo Fashion Week initiative.

Meet Kagen Sound, the Award-Winning Designer Behind the World’s Most Intricate Puzzle Boxes

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Meet Kagen Sound, the Award-Winning Designer Behind the World’s Most Intricate Puzzle Boxes

As a child, Kagen Sound crafted a cardboard puzzle box that, to open, required the user to move a piece hidden within the work. The Rubik’s Cube-esque project sparked a lifelong passion for the designer, who’s now known worldwide for his wildly intricate patterns and sequences.

In a new documentary, the Wired team visits Sound’s garage studio, where he walks viewers through his process and workspace. Melding his background in math with 20 years of woodworking experience, the designer uses simple joinery techniques to formulate springs, geometric slides, and elegant motifs made with interlaced materials. “A lot of times if I can determine a finish for a particular kind of wood, it will unlock a project in itself,” he says. Containing secret mechanisms and maneuvers, these mind-boggling works have brought Sound international recognition as one of the best puzzle box designers in the world.

Watch the short documentary above, and check out Sound’s Instagram and YouTube to see his projects in action. (via The Kids Should See This)

 

a gif of two hands shifting mechanisms in a wooden puzzle box

a video still showing drawn diagrams and notes pinned to a wall with some wooden mockups nearby

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 Meet Kagen Sound, the Award-Winning Designer Behind the World’s Most Intricate Puzzle Boxes appeared first on Colossal.

When the art market is tight, quality is key

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When the art market is tight, quality is key

After the sale, like a soldier stoically acknowledging defeat, Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti told assembled journalists: ‘It’s a good reflection of the market.’ Josh Baer, a New York-based art advisor and CEO of the Baer Faxt newsletter, also suggests that the sale be understood as part of a bigger picture. ‘People look at the Fineberg sale as a flop,’ he says. ‘I’d say given what he spent on art, maybe it wasn’t a flop. I’d like to have that $153m as my flop […] If Paul Allen had died this year [2023], we’d be having a different discussion.’ The sale of Allen’s collection in 2022 at Christie’s delivered a record-setting $1.6bn.

Focusing on prestigious single-owner sales is an important way to gauge the state of the market. In November, the sale at Sotheby’s New York of the estate of the collector and philanthropist Emily Fisher Landau told a different story, garnering $406.4m.

Unlike the Fineberg sale, all of the 31 lots offered from Fisher Landau’s collection were fully guaranteed, either by Sotheby’s or anonymous third parties. Auctioneer Oliver Barker received the symbolic white gloves immediately after the last lot sold – but of course, that it would be a ‘white-glove’ sale (auction parlance denoting that all lots have sold) was a foregone conclusion.

Pablo Picasso was the star of the evening. Femme à la Montre (1932) – depicting his lover Marie-Thérèse Walter, prominently sporting a wristwatch – brought in $139.4m with fees against an unpublished estimate in the region of $120m, making it the most expensive work of art sold at auction in 2023.

Despite the big tally, many of the lots presumably sold to the third-party guarantors since bidding was mostly quiet, apart from a few notable exceptions – an exquisite Agnes Martin abstraction, Grey Stone II (1961), shot to a record $18.7m against an estimate of $6m–$8m. ‘Guarantees are very important,’ Hoeveler says, ‘not just in incentivising sellers but instilling confidence in the marketplace in general. I feel that 2023 can be characterised as a risk-averse market as an overall frame of mind.’

If art-market rumours are true that Sotheby’s guaranteed the Fisher Landau trove at $450m, beating their arch-rival Christie’s for the chance to win the market-share prize, one wonders if the house managed to break even on their bet.

‘The family did quite well,’ says Philip Hoffman, founder and chief executive of Fine Art Group, an art advisory and investment firm. ‘[They] got their $450m. What the economics were for Sotheby’s is another matter.’ As Hoffman sees it, ‘2023 was a pretty tough year and I think that the auction houses navigated very carefully and cleverly through the market. [They] clearly gave signals of a reasonably solid market because they advertised 90-per-cent-plus sold lots and some strong results.’

El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile) (1983), Jean-Michel Basquiat. Courtesy Christie’s New York

Other qualified success stories of the year include the 30-lot sale of the Netherlands- based Triton Collection Foundation at Phillips New York in November; with every lot guaranteed, the auction brought in $84.7m. It was led by Fernand Léger’s jubilant piece of cubism, Le 14 juillet (c. 1912–13), which made $17.6m against an estimate of $15–$20m, and by Pablo Picasso’s Femme en corset lisant un livre (c. 1914–18), which sold for $14.8m against an estimate of $15–$20m. (The art historian Pierre Daix characterised the painting as an example of ‘amorous Cubism’).

Beyond that trio of single-owner sales, there is still an evident hunger for standout works, defined by rarity and beauty. Gustav Klimt’s final painting, Dame mit Fächer (‘Lady with a Fan’; 1918) fetched £85.3m at Sotheby’s London last June against an unpublished estimate in excess of £65m, making it the most expensive work of art to sell at auction in Europe. It sold to an anonymous Chinese telephone bidder, raising hopes that the critically important Asian market was back in full swing after a temporary lull. In May – two days before the Fineberg sale became the canary in the coal mine – Christie’s New York sold Jean-Michel Basquiat’s mural-sized figurative canvas, El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile) (1983), for $67.1m against an unpublished estimate. It was one of 34 Basquiats sold at auction in 2023, bringing in a total of $202.2m – a figure second only to the $466.5m raised by the 214 Picassos that sold last year (figures courtesy of ArtTactic).

Work by the younger generation of contemporary artists has long been more likely to set off bidding fireworks, and last year was no different. The 31-year-old painter Jadé Fadojutimi’s large-scale, colour-charged abstraction Quirk my mannerism (2021) set a new record for the artist of $1.93m at Phillips New York in November, against an estimate of $600–$800,000. Among the Old Masters, the top result was for Rubens’ wonderfully gory Salome Presented with the Head of Saint John the Baptist (c. 1609), which sold for $26.9m against an estimate of $25–$35m at Sotheby’s New York last January. It previously sold at the same house in 1998 for $5.5m.

‘When an opportunity presents itself,’ Hoeveler notes, ‘even in a market where people are cautious and risk averse, they will step up to purchase these kinds of once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity works. That’s always been the case and I think that always will be the case.’

Salome Presented with the Head of Saint John the Baptist (c. 1609), Peter Paul Rubens. Courtesy Sotheby’s New York

From the February 2024 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here.

For collectors, Chinese silk never goes out of style

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For collectors, Chinese silk never goes out of style

From the February 2024 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here.

The production of silk in China, from the cocoons of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori, dates back to the Neolithic period. According to myth, the first king, Fu Xi, taught the Chinese to cultivate mulberry bushes and raise silk moths, while Xi-ling Shih, chief wife of the Yellow Emperor Huangdi, discovered how to reel silk after a cocoon fell into her cup of hot tea. The earliest known silk textile fragments have been dated to the fourth millennium BC. By the time the Han emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BC) sent embassies to win allies in Central Asia and the Middle East, initiating the transcontinental silk trade, the technologies of silk-weaving, tapestry and embroidery were highly evolved. Silk textiles and the rules around their production, design and use were integral to the empire’s religious, social and political life, part of an elaborate web of laws inspired by the Confucian principle of li, or the virtue of propriety, which governed imperial, court and clerical life.

From the rise of the Tang Dynasty in the seventh century AD, silk, alongside porcelain, tea and lacquerware, was a strictly controlled trade good, as valuable as gold. Patterned silks also became a vehicle for cultural exchange – textiles document the transmission of motifs across the Persian and Chinese Empires. One significant development was the spread, from the 11th to the 14th century, of kesi or tapestry weaving, a Uyghur specialism, combining silk and gold in ways that increasingly emulated painting. Complex layered gold brocades from the Jin territories, Tibetan Buddhist textiles commissioned by the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) and the figured silk velvets of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) demonstrate the lasting cultural value of silk, in robes, decorative hangings, furnishings and accessories. During the Manchu Qing dynasty (1644–1911), when the European passion for chinoiserie peaked, Chinese silks were sought all over Europe. At the same time, costume in the Imperial Court became important to the Manchu ruling class’s assertion of authority. Imperial silks were distinct from those worn by the Han Chinese majority, with different cuts, colours and motifs assigned for every activity of every member of court, from highest to lowest. Bright yellow and the dragon motif were reserved for the emperor, his empress, his mother and the first-rank imperial consort.

After the Qing dynasty collapsed in 1911, Chinese robes turned up at auction in London and Paris; others were hoarded in Western private collections. But it was in the late 1980s and ’90s that the contemporary market in the West took off. According to the London-based dealer Jacqueline Simcox – at the forefront of the market since the ’80s – famine in Tibet led to the export through Nepal of many textiles that had been saved from destruction by the Chinese in the 1950s, hidden in monasteries: ‘We saw 11th-, 12th-century pieces in the condition they were when first made.’ A small group of dealers used radiocarbon testing to establish a chronology and the evolution of techniques, colours and styles: ‘We taught ourselves as we went along.’ US museums were big buyers, as were individuals from the UK, Europe and Hong Kong. Since 2011, Chinese buyers, from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and elsewhere, have come to the fore. Today the market is much smaller but still competitive. Simcox says: ‘I used to see whole lengths of yellow-ground silk from the 16th century in perfect condition, with drag-ons sewn into them. Now to see a piece a foot long with no mark on it is a luxury.’ Above all, Chinese buyers want ‘an imperial robe with the 12 imperial symbols’ – these were codified in the 18th century by the Qianlong Emperor. Condition is paramount, Simcox says, but ‘You have got to know your costumes. All parts of the robe must match and be of the same date.’ Otherwise, it can be ‘totally without value’. Simcox has available a late Qianlong/early Jiaqing kesi yellow-ground imperial 12-symbol dragon robe (jifu), the symbols arranged in three tiers, the robe never made up.

Yellow-ground imperial 12-symbol dragon robe (jifu) made for the emperor (1790–1800). Courtesy Jacqueline Simcox Ltd, London

Robes for specific roles – such as the blue imperial 12-symbol robe, reserved for ritual sacrifices, that fetched £474,650 at Bonhams London in 2018 – are greatly valued and, Simcox says, ‘rare as hen’s teeth’. While top prices at auction have lagged behind those for ceramics and jade, when a good piece comes up, fierce bidding ensues. Simcox cites an exceptional yellow kesi 12-symbol dragon robe made for the Jiaqing Emperor (r. 1796–1820), from the collection of General Joseph W. Stilwell, which sold for $756,500 (estimate $80,000–$120,000) at Christie’s New York in March 2018. Vicki Paloympis, head of Chinese art at Christie’s New York, says: ‘The yellow colour was as vibrant as you could possibly imagine, which is very rare in textiles from this period.’ According to Gordon Lo, head of sales in the Chinese department at Sotheby’s London, a new generation of young Chinese expats is showing interest in these classic works – the British Museum’s recent exhibition ‘China’s Hidden Century’, which focused on 19th-century art and artefacts, drew groups of young Chinese visitors wearing traditional costume. They seek out 19th-century examples when 18th-century pieces are too costly; yellow and red are the most favoured colours.

Bruce Maclaren, global head of Chinese painting and calligraphy at Bonhams, says that ‘The type of weave is key to value. Kesi or slit tapestry weave textiles are traditionally valued higher than embroideries, satin or damask weave textiles, in part because the time and effort to manufacture kesi was much greater.’

He cites a kesi mandala fragment with imperial portraits from the second quarter of the 14th century (Yuan dynasty) which sold for $51,200 in New York in September. Simcox notes that while Europeans have always collected fragments, interest has spread to the United States and, more recently, Chinese dealers. Despite the fragility of such pieces, Maclaren says that ‘collectors still covet all forms of silk textiles’ – and flags up the sale of a 19th-century six-panel hanging at Bonhams New York in March (estimate $25,000–$40,000).

Linda Wrigglesworth, author of Imperial Wardrobe (1990), a seminal book on the subject, notes that rank badges ‘are sought after and have held their value and increased over the years’. In September 2022, Christie’s New York sold a pair of embroidered gold-ground rank badges from the respected David Hugus collection, made in the Kangxi period (1662–1722) and showing the qilin, a mythical creature. Estimated at $30,000–$50,000, they made $144,900, a much higher than usual price. Paloympis says: ‘The provenance, condition, quality and rarity made the demand very high.’ Military badges are rare and these were made for a first-rank military official; what’s more, they were woven in places with peacock feathers that were almost entirely intact. When all criteria are met at a high level, interest is keen.

From the February 2024 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here.

February 2024 Opportunities: Open Calls, Residencies, and Grants for Artists

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February 2024 Opportunities: Open Calls, Residencies, and Grants for Artists

Illustration by Marija Tiurina

Every month, Colossal shares a selection of opportunities for artists and designers, including open calls, grants, fellowships, and residencies. If you’d like to list an opportunity here, please get in touch at hello@colossal.art. You can also join our monthly Opportunities Newsletter.

 

Black Women Photographers Grant FundFeatured
In partnership with Nikon, the Black Women Photographers grant fund will award 11 monetary grants totaling $50,000 to Black women working in the industry. The grants are marked to aid the completion of visual projects and to ease the burden of business expenses.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. ET on February 17, 2024.

The Susannah Kelly Art AwardFeatured
The newly launched Susannah Kelly Art Award offers three $2,000 grants for artists working in drawing, painting, and sculpting. Recipients will also receive a solo exhibition at Antler and Talon galleries in Portland. The grant fund was created to honor the memory and legacy of artist Susannah Kelly, who co-founded the galleries.
Deadline: March 22, 2024.

 

Open Calls

Filter Photo Call for Exhibition Proposals (International)
Filter Photo welcomes photography proposals of all types, whether traditional or experimental or from an emerging curator or a veteran artist. Accepted proposals will receive a four- to six-week exhibition at Filter Space in 2024 or 2025, at least one exhibition reception, the opportunity to host an event in conjunction with the exhibition, exhibition marketing, and a stipend based on W.A.G.E. standards.
Deadline: February 2, 2024.

Noguchi Museum 2024 Open Call for Artist Banners (New York City)
The Noguchi Museum invites working artists ages 18+ who reside in New York City and self-identify as Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) to submit designs for the museum’s outdoor banners, responding to the theme of “love and labor.” The winning artist will receive a $3,500 honorarium. Their work will be installed from May 2024 through May 2025. Two runners-up will each receive a $2,500 honorarium. All three artists will have the opportunity to develop and lead a public program at the museum.
Deadline: February 4, 2024.

Locust Projects Digital Commissions Open Call (International)
Locust Projects invites artists to apply for the opportunity to propose ambitious multi-layered digital projects that respond to the hybridity and flexibility of Locust Projects’ physical space in Miami and various presenting platforms from onsite, galleries, interior or exterior surfaces, on screens, or online. Locust Projects provides selected artists with curatorial guidance, a production budget, an artist W.A.G.E. fee, documentation, and a live/work residency opportunity.
Deadline: February 5, 2024.

The 25 Spiral Independent Creators Festival (International)
Launched in 2000, SICF is an open-call art festival in Tokyo that aspires to discover, foster, and support emerging artists and designers. The organization is now accepting creators’ applications for the 25 Spiral Independent Creators Festival (SICF25), which runs May 2 to 7. Participants could win a grand prize of a solo show and up to ¥500,000.
Deadline: February 14, 2024.

Sony Future Filmmaker Awards (International)
The Sony Future Filmmaker Awards elevates voices that bring a fresh perspective to storytelling. The shortlisted filmmakers are flown to Los Angeles for an exclusive four-day event to gain unparalleled insight into all aspects of the filmmaking process to advance their careers.
Deadline: February 15, 2024.

FREE THE BOOKS: A Print Exhibition (International)
This March, Evanston Public Library will host an exhibition of prints about banned books in collaboration with Hive Center for Book Arts and Starshaped Press. Entry fees range from $5 to $35.
Deadline: February 16, 2024.

Bio Art & Design Award 2024 (International)
Geared toward emerging designers and artists, this €25,000 award promotes bio art and design. It will commission up to three winners to produce new work in collaboration with Dutch scientists, working in sustainability, food, health, biotechnology, horticulture, and agriculture.
Deadline: 23:59 CET on February 21, 2024. 

Art21 Educators Program (International)
Art21 Educators is an intensive, year-long professional development initiative and learning community. The program is designed to support K–12 educators in any subject area who are interested in bringing contemporary art, artists, and themes into the classroom.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. ET on March 31, 2024.

Passepartout Photo Prize (International)
Open to any style, process, or subject matter, this annual prize offers 1,000 Euros, an exhibition in Rome, and a publication. The entry fee starts at 25 Euros for three images.
Deadline: April 4, 2024.

 

Grants

Artadia Awards (U.S.)
Artadia Awards annually grants three artists $15,000 in unrestricted funds in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, and the San Francisco Bay Area. There is also a roving partnership with 21c Museum Hotels, where one award is presented in a different city each year where 21c Museum Hotels are located.
Los Angeles deadline: February 1, 2024. Chicago deadline: March 1, 2024. Additional deadlines rolling throughout 2024.

BBA Artist Prize 2024  (International)
Artists working in all themes, mediums, and experience levels are invited to apply for cash prizes of €1,000, €700, or €500, plus the chance for a solo exhibition in 2025 at BBA Gallery in Berlin. There is a €29 fee if submitted before December 12, then €39.
Deadline: February 19, 2024.

New Voices Filmmaker Grant (International)
An ongoing initiative in partnership with Netflix to support emerging LGBTQ+ directors with $25,000 in funding to create new work, the New Voices Filmmaker Grant also provides mentorship, networking, and professional development opportunities. Four emerging directors will receive the unrestricted grant.
Deadline: February 22, 2024.

Prix Viviane Esders (Europe)
The Viviane Esders Endowment Fund welcomes applications for the third edition of the Prix Viviane Esders, recognizing European photographers over 60 years old who have developed photographic careers over several decades. One established photographer receives €50,000, and two finalists receive €5,000 each.
Deadline: April 29, 2024.

The Adolf and Esther Gottlieb Emergency Grant (International)
The Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Emergency Grant program provides one-time interim financial assistance to qualified painters, printmakers, and sculptors whose needs are the result of an unforeseen catastrophic incident and who lack the resources to meet that situation. Awardees typically receive $5,000, up to $15,000.
Deadline: Rolling.

Adobe Creative Residency Community Fund (Ukraine)
Adobe’s Creative Residency Community Fund commissions visual artists to create company projects on a rolling basis. Awardees will receive between $500 and $5,000.
Deadline: Rolling.

Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (International)
The foundation welcomes applications from actively exhibiting visual artists who are painters, sculptors, and artists who work on paper, including printmakers. Grants are intended for one year and range up to $50,000. The individual circumstances of the artist determine the size of the grant, and professional exhibition history will be considered.
Deadline: Rolling.

 

Residencies, Fellowships, & More

Fine Arts Work Center 2024-2025 Visual Arts Fellowship (International)
Ten artists will be awarded seven-month residencies from October 1 to April 30. Fellows are provided housing, a studio, a $1,250 monthly stipend, and a $1,000 exit stipend. There is a $65 application fee.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. ET on February 1, 2024.

Contemporary Craft Artists-in-Residence (U.S.)
Non-Pittsburgh residents working in metal-smithing, jewelry, fibers, weaving, wood, encaustics, paper and book arts, ceramics, and woodworking are eligible for residencies at Contemporary Craft. Artists receive a $1,200 monthly stipend, housing, and studio space.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. ET on February 1, 2024.

Arts/Industry at John Michael Kohler Arts Center (International)
Open to all disciplines, this program selects twelve artists each year for three-month pottery and foundry residencies. No experience with clay or cast metal is required, just an interest in pursuing a new body of work and being open to new ideas. Residents receive a $160 weekly stipend, studio space, housing, transportation, industrial materials, equipment, and more.
Deadline: February 1, 2024.

Mattress Factory Artist-in-Residence (International)
Open to artists working in any medium, this residency offers an honorarium, a production and materials budget, transportation to and from the space in Pittsburgh, accommodation, a per diem during on-site installation, and fabrication and support.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. ET on February 8, 2024.

MacDowell Fellowship (International)
MacDowell awards about 300 fellowships each year, and the sole criterion is artistic excellence. There are no residency fees, and need-based stipends and travel reimbursement grants are available. MacDowell encourages applications from artists of all backgrounds and all countries working in architecture, film/video arts, interdisciplinary arts, literature, music composition, theatre, and visual arts.
Deadline: February 10, 2024.

Forge Project Fellowship (U.S.)
Six  Indigenous artists, scholars, organizers, cultural workers, researchers, or educators will each receive $25,000 and more.
Deadline: February 15, 2024.

Martin House Creative Residency Program (International)
The Creative Residency Program at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House offers artists and researchers a $5,000 stipend, housing, and $1,000 in travel expenses to create a new work related to the architect’s legacy.
Deadline: February 16, 2024.

2026 McKinney International Art and Design Residency (International)
The Eskenazi School of Art Architecture + Design at Indiana University Bloomington invites applications for a four– to six-week McKinney International Art and Design Residency. An established artist or designer living outside the U.S. will be awarded studio space, lodging, and $8,000.
Deadline: February 16, 2024.

NXTHVN Fellowship (International)
Each year, NXTHVN welcomes up to seven artists and two curators to participate in its paid 10-month intensive fellowship program. Fellows receive studio or office space, a stipend, and subsidized housing. The mentorship-driven curriculum includes professional development sessions led by visiting artists, curators, scholars, and practitioners. Curatorial fellows will each receive a $45,000 stipend, and studio fellows will each receive a $35,000 stipend.
Deadline: February 26, 2024.

Tulsa Artist Fellowship (U.S.)
Tulsa Artist Fellowship will award ten artists from any discipline a $150,000 stipend paid over three years, a $36,000 housing stipend for three years, a fully subsidized studio space, and more.
Deadline: February 28, 2024.

Apolan Residency at Fondation Fiminco for Taiwanese Artists (International)
This program welcomes applications from Taiwanese artists for a four-month residency from mid-September to mid-January 2025. Artists receive accommodation, workspace, administrative and professional support, and 305,000 NTD, which covers round-trip transportation, living costs, production fees, insurance, visa application fees, and more.
Deadline: February 29, 2024.

Kala Art Institute 2024-2025 Fellowship (International)
Artists producing innovative work in printmaking, photography, digital media, social practice, media installation, and book arts are encouraged to apply. In 2024, Kala will award six artists a $3,000 stipend, unlimited access to Kala’s facilities for one to nine months, one Kala class, and a culminating show in the Kala Gallery. The entry fee is $20.
Deadline: March 15, 2024.

Irene Yamamoto Arts Writers Fellowship for Emerging Writers of Color(U.S.)
The second annual Irene Yamamoto Arts Writers Fellowship will provide $5,000 unrestricted awards to two arts writers of color who cover theatre, dance, and/or performance art and have less than two years of publishing experience.
Deadline: March 18, 2024.

The Erin Donohue and Family Ceramics Artist Residency (International)
Hosted by the Artists Association of Nantucket, this ceramics residency will bring one artist to Nantucket to teach two five-week classes, one introductory course for the community and a more intermediate one for students and professionals. The program offers lodging, studio space, a $500 travel stipend, and a $2,000 stipend for living expenses and materials.
Deadline: April 5, 2024.

Diriyah Art Futures Emerging New Media Artists Program (International)
Diriyah Art Futures launches a concept-driven digital and technology-led creative production and training program for emerging artists working in new media and digital arts. This one-year scholarship supports emerging artists by providing access to cutting-edge professional equipment, a production budget, and a range of multidisciplinary learning opportunities, including personal mentorship by prominent international digital artists.
Deadline: April 29, 2024.

Hunter Moon Homestead Artist Residency (International)
Artists and arts educators working across disciplines are invited to apply to this program in Palouse. Residents receive one- to three-week stays, with lodging and studio space included.
Deadline: Rolling.

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 February 2024 Opportunities: Open Calls, Residencies, and Grants for Artists appeared first on Colossal.

Clean Air Marketing Contest winners to be revealed at USU’s Community Art Day

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Clean Air Marketing Contest winners to be revealed at USU’s Community Art Day

Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest finalist poster from Ridgeline High School’s Addie Davis.

LOGAN – Winners of the 2024 Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest will be announced at Utah State University’s Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art Saturday, February 10 at their Community Art Day. The contest, which has received participation from over 1,000 talented teenagers across Utah and southern Idaho, provides a fresh perspective on tackling the issue of clean air.

Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest finalist poster from Granger High School’s Johnny Lopez Perez.

Initiated in 2015 by USU professors Roslynn Brain McCann and Edwin Stafford, this year’s competition showcases the creativity and ingenuity of 57 finalists who have crafted powerful clean air public service announcements (PSAs). These young minds blend art, science, and cutting-edge marketing strategies to inspire Utah residents to take action in preserving clean air quality. Their PSAs are not just informative; they’re captivating, often featuring a blend of humor, edge, and elements from today’s pop culture.

The winning PSAs will not only earn recognition but will also serve as a catalyst for a statewide educational campaign, spanning across social media platforms.

This competition serves a crucial role in elevating awareness about air quality issues, especially during the winter inversion season when pollution levels spike. For many young participants, this contest is their first formal introduction to the local air pollution problem and its consequences. As they become advocates within their communities, engaging in conversations with family and friends, their impact extends beyond the competition.

“Our research shows that the contest is having an impact beyond the teens in educating Utahns about how to help keep the air healthy,” McCann said in a release.

Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest finalist poster from Logan High School’s Sophia Simiskey.

Contestants often report adopting cleaner air practices such as reducing idling, participating in carpooling, and trip chaining. Equally important, they inspire their parents and wider social networks to embrace these practices.

Edwin Stafford praised the creative genius displayed by this year’s entries.

“The entries seem to get better and more ingenious every year,” Stafford said in a release. “Creative competitions are important vehicles for educating youth as they encourage the fun of learning, spark a competitive spirit, and provide self-discovery that you just can’t replicate in the classroom.”

The 2024 contest has received substantial support from local businesses, organizations, and individuals, contributing over $6,000 in cash, gift cards, and merchandise as prizes for the winners.

The announcement event, commencing at 10:30 a.m., is open to the public and includes complimentary refreshments. Attendees will also have the opportunity to take part in a one-of-a-kind art activity guided by the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art‘s education staff, creating kinetic sculptures powered by clean air after the award ceremony.

As the contest gears up for its 10th anniversary in 2025, it continues to provide a dynamic platform for young innovators to address the urgent need for cleaner air and inspire positive change within their communities.

Participating high schools in 2024 include Logan, Ridgeline, Fast Forward, Green Canyon, Carbon, Whitehorse (Montezuma Creek), Westside, Preston, Grand County (Moab) and Granger (West Valley City).

Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest Winners to Be Announced at Community Art Day

By in Art World News

Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest Winners to Be Announced at Community Art Day

Winners of the 2024 Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest will be announced at Utah State University’s Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art Community Art Day on Saturday, Feb. 10. Clean air public service announcements created by this year’s 57 finalists will be displayed at the museum as part of the event.

The Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest was created in 2015 by USU professors Roslynn Brain McCann of USU Extension Sustainability and Edwin Stafford of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business.

PSAs designed by teens combine art, science and savvy marketing to encourage Utahns to help keep their air healthy through carpooling, using alternative transportation, limiting idling and trip chaining (completing multiple errands simultaneously to reduce driving).

The messaging and artwork are often provocative, funny, edgy and tied to teen pop culture. The winning PSAs will be displayed for educational outreach across the state and on social media.

The contest is intended to raise Utahns’ awareness of air quality issues by helping youth who are learning to drive understand the implications their new driving privilege can have on air pollution. It also helps them engage in ways to preserve air quality, especially during Utah’s polluted winter inversion season.

Stafford and McCann’s research finds that for many participants, the contest is the only formal education they receive about local air pollution. As they talk about air pollution with their families and friends, they become air quality influencers in their local networks.

McCann said that contestants report becoming more committed to clean-air actions such as refraining from idling and engaging in carpooling and trip chaining, and that parents also report being influenced by their teens to engage in clean-air activities.

In turn, the parents also encourage others in their networks to be mindful about preventing air pollution.

“Our research shows that the contest is having an impact beyond the teens in educating Utahns about how to help keep the air healthy,” she said.

Over 1,000 teens from Utah and southern Idaho participated in the 2024 contest. Participating high schools include Logan, Ridgeline, Fast Forward, Green Canyon, Carbon, Whitehorse (Montezuma Creek), Westside, Preston, Grand County (Moab) and Granger (West Valley City).

“The entries seem to get better and more ingenious every year,” Stafford said. “Creative competitions are important vehicles for educating youth as they encourage the fun of learning, spark a competitive spirit, and provide self-discovery that you just can’t replicate in the classroom.”

Many students have entered the competition multiple times. Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of the contest.

Over $6,000 in cash, gift cards, and merchandise will be awarded, all donated by local businesses, organizations, and individuals.

The free event begins at 10:30 a.m. and includes refreshments. With the help of the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art’s education staff, those participating in the art activity can create a kinetic sculpture powered by clean air after the awards.

Visit artmuseum.usu.edu for updates on museum events.

5 Takeaways From the Sotheby’s Art Fraud Trial

By in Art World News

5 Takeaways From the Sotheby’s Art Fraud Trial
image

The inner workings of the art market were explored during the trial, which ended with Sotheby’s cleared of any role in what a Russian oligarch said was a scheme to defraud him.

Over the course of three weeks, the art world watched as a Russian oligarch pursued a lawsuit in an American court in which he accused Sotheby’s of abetting a fraud.

The oligarch, Dmitry Rybolovlev, testified in federal court in New York that a Swiss art dealer had cheated him by pretending to be his agent when instead he was buying artworks and flipping them to Rybolovlev’s company at hefty markups. Sotheby’s, he said, was in on it.

But after only a few hours of deliberation on Tuesday, the jury found differently, voting unanimously that Sotheby’s had not played a role in any fraud. The dealer, Yves Bouvier, who was not a defendant in the case, said he felt vindicated too.

Bouvier has long insisted that he did nothing wrong and that he was always clearly acting as a dealer, free to charge Rybolovlev whatever price the Russian would pay.

“The New York court proceedings,” Bouvier said in a statement, “were a surreal charade in which people argued over an alleged fraud that had never happened.”

Here are five takeaways from the trial.

Rybolovlev, who made his fortune in potash fertilizer in Russia, described how his interest in art began almost accidentally, “through electricity and lightbulbs.”

Mark Powell’s Pen Drawings Accentuate the Memories Etched into Faces and Ephemera

By in Art World News

Mark Powell’s Pen Drawings Accentuate the Memories Etched into Faces and Ephemera

All images © Mark Powell, shared with permission

In Mark Powell’s tender portraits, crinkled eyes and foreheads creased with age mirror highways and scrawled cursive notes. The artist (previously) pairs meticulously detailed drawings of older subjects with stamped envelopes, vintage book pages, and maps weathered from use, superimposing faces onto the worn, often collaged, substrates. Producing immense depth and shadow with the humble ballpoint pen, Powell likens the stories and experiences hidden in a face to those held within a letter or note from days gone by.

If you’re in Paris, you can see the artist’s solo exhibition Roads That Make Us through February 3 at Loo & Lou Gallery. Shop prints and originals on his site, and find news about upcoming shows, including at Mad24 in Madrid, on Instagram.

 

a monochromatic pen portrait of a man with a hat on a colorful map of ireland

a monochromatic pen portrait of a man rubbing his face on vintage envelopes

a monochromatic pen portrait of a man on vintage envelopes

a monochromatic pen portrait of nina simone on a map

left: a monochromatic pen portrait of basquiat on a map of new york: right: a portrait of a man on a london news sheet

a monochromatic pen drawing of four sets of legs on a map

a monochromatic pen portrait of a man on found drawings and notes

a monochromatic pen portrait of a woman on a vogue pattern envelope

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 Mark Powell’s Pen Drawings Accentuate the Memories Etched into Faces and Ephemera appeared first on Colossal.

Maria A. Guzmán Capron’s Entwined Figures Emerge from Boldly Patterned Patchworks

By in Art World News

Maria A. Guzmán Capron’s Entwined Figures Emerge from Boldly Patterned Patchworks

“No Soy Florero – Rosa” (2023),
fabric, thread, batting, stuffing, spray paint, and acrylic paint,
77 x 37 x variable inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles, shared with permission

In many ways, Maria A. Guzmán Capron’s practice is about embracing circularity. Using textiles gathered from discount stores, resale shops, and friends, Capron stitches stylized figures whose bodies emerge from entangled clusters of limbs or coquettishly pose against the gallery wall, inviting each viewer with a flirty smile.

Form and material dovetail, emphasizing the artist’s interest in change and regeneration. “The entwined body, by being connected to our inner selves and our communities, is one that loses definition and becomes extraordinary,” she says.

Born in Milan to parents of Peruvian and Colombian origins, Capron now lives and works in the Bay Area, a mélange of cultures reflected in her patchwork pieces. “Some patterns and colors I choose are an approximation of what I felt or I can remember of the fabric I saw in clothing or decor growing up in Italy or things I’ve seen at the markets when I visit my grandmother in Peru,” she says, adding that her local environment influences her, too. “In the studio, I mix it all together, and every time I see someone new emerging from my work.”

 

a wall work of two figures with short bobs. their backs are touching and they're holding hands, which are made with green fabric

“Me Veo en Ti” (2022), fabric, thread, batting, stuffing, spray paint, and acrylic paint,
56 x 60 1/2 inches

While every character is original, each has a material connection to previous sculptures. “In the studio, I play around with what is new, but I am often compelled to include older pieces from my collection. Artworks made several years apart might have a fabric that unites them,” she shares. “My making process is based on problem-solving, and it feels like there are an infinite number of ways I could work with textiles to approach an idea.”

Although varied in color and texture and veiled in paint, the pieces in Capron’s No Soy Florero series are similarly constructed, their upper bodies flush to the wall with skinny legs and thick, pudgy feet planted on the floor. The artist considers the ways our mannerisms, language, and bodily gestures shift based on the situation and company, and she gravitates toward a fluid sense of self. The twinned characters in “Me Veo en Ti” also are nearly identical with tiger-striped limbs and faces. Subtle differences in their hair, noses, and expressions could reference variances in one person or similarities between two.

To add another dimension, Capron considers her works “incomplete outside of the moments in which they are viewed and experienced by another person,” an unfinished state she describes as indicating “an essential openness to change.”

She currently has work in two shows, one through May 5 at Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles and another through August 3 at El Espacio 23 in Miami. Find more on Instagram.

 

a detail image of two sculptural legs made of yellow patterned textiles. one foot is propped flat against the white gallery wall while the other stretches out with purple toenails

Detail of “No Soy Florero – Rosa” (2023),
fabric, thread, batting, stuffing, spray paint, and acrylic paint,
77 x 37 x variable inches

a sculptural figure made of bright, patterned textiles. Her gloved hands are raised to her mouth in shock. Her upper body is flat to the gallery wall while her legs spring outward and down to puffy feet with painted toenails

“No Soy Florero – Mentira” (2023), fabric, thread, batting, stuffing, spray paint, and acrylic paint,
77 x 37 x variable inches

a detail of a sculptural figure made of bright, patterned textiles. Her gloved hands are raised to her mouth in shock.

Detail of “No Soy Florero – Mentira” (2023), fabric, thread, batting, stuffing, spray paint, and acrylic paint,
77 x 37 x variable inches

a wall work made of bold patterned textiles. there are several entwined bodies in a circle, with limbs jutting out from various points

“Tengo Ojos Solo Para Ti” (2023), fabric, thread, batting, stuffing, spray paint, and acrylic paint,
74 x 84 x 3 inches

a sculptural figure made of bright, patterned textiles. Her upper body is flat to the gallery wall while her legs spring outward and down to puffy feet with painted toenails

“No Soy Florero – Margarita” (2023), fabric, thread, batting, stuffing, spray paint, and acrylic paint,
77 x 37 x variable inches

a wall work of three figures made of bold patterned fabric crouch and pose for the viewer

“Desátame” (2023),
fabric, thread, batting, stuffing, spray paint, and acrylic paint,
76 x 95 x 3 inches

a figurative wall sculpture of a woman with yellow and plaid skin wearing a blue sweater that's draped off her shoulder. she has curly dark hair and green lips

“Donna” (2022), fabric, thread, batting, stuffing, spray paint, and latex paint, 70 ½ x 34 x 2 ½ inches

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 Maria A. Guzmán Capron’s Entwined Figures Emerge from Boldly Patterned Patchworks appeared first on Colossal.

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