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Oculi, constructed from two reconfigured 40-year-old metal grain bins, is created by Aleksandr Mergold and his design practice, Austin+Mergold (A+M) in collaboration with artist Maria Park and structural engineers Chris Earls and Scott Hughes. The grain bins, which once stored string corn on a farm in Delphos, OH, now frame unobstructed view of the sky while tracking the path of the sun with the range of shadow patterns. The interior walls are painted with the colors of the daytime sky, inviting viewers to wander below the structure to find a moment when the paint and the sky colors become one.

Although many artists seem to languish or burn out at mid-career, Michelle Benoit is thriving. She has found a way to survive by working constantly, experimenting consistently and along the way she has gotten some very good advice, support and mentorship. Benoit is truly an inspiration to artists at any stage of their careers.

In the case of the paintings by Rainer Gross known as “Twins,” we are dealing with diptychs, i.e., two-part works which, when the two same-sized canvases are placed horizontally next to each other, yield an overall picture. At first glance, we encounter intense color and an enormous presence of the heavy application of layers of paint organized in flat planes. The spotty distribution of various colors conveys an impression of an organic proliferation of, say, colorful lichen, or of the weathering processes of the earth or other surfaces. Now and again, this assessment also applies to Gross’ paintings based on irregular strips of paint. 

Despite these first associations, the works do not depict anything. Color and its appearances are what determine the works, and hence, they are unequivocally classifiable as non-representational color painting.  But are we dealing with painting in the classical sense at all? No, and yes!

The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) announced today that eighty artists and collectives from more than thirty countries will be participating in the Ninth Asia Pacific Triennial, which will be held from November 24 to April 28, 2019.

See the full list of artists here.

Freddy Chandra: In Open Spaces 

7 July – 17 August 2018

Walter Maciel Gallery is pleased to present In Open Spaces by Freddy Chandra. The exhibition marks Chandra’s fourth solo show with the gallery and will include his signature light reactive works made out of painted transparent acrylic bars...

German Television Channel, WDR Fernsehen, interviewed gallery artist, Rainer Gross in-studio and during the installation of his early summer 2018 exhibition: TWINS. 

In 2017, Margaret Thatcher Projects had the great opportunity to work with NYU Langone's art program in which they commissioned a painting by Columbian American artist, Omar Chacon. Chacon’s largest work to date, Amazonica Operatica (50 x 180 inches, 127 x 457 cm) is placed in NYU Langone's newly built Science Building, among other extraordinary work. 

A distinguished jury has selected the winning design in the seventh-annual City of Dreams Pavilion Competition: Oculi by Austin+Mergold in collaboration with Maria Park (Cornell) and consulting engineers Chris Earls (Cornell) and Scott Hughes (Silman). Pending approvals and fundraising, this temporary art structure will be assembled on Governors Island and open to the public for the summer 2018 season.

The annual competition is hosted by FIGMENT, the Emerging New York Architects Committee (ENYA) of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter (AIANY), and the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY). The City of Dreams Pavilion, so named for its focus on the future of a world that faces strains on both economic and natural resources, aims to promote sustainability-oriented thinking amidst the architecture and design communities, requiring designers to consider the environmental impact of their designs from materials sourcing to disposal (or ideally reuse) of waste at the end of the season.

Oculi
The winning proposal will reuse old metal grain bins (silos), vestiges of the American agro-industrial age, hearkening back to how the medieval inhabitants of Rome reoccupied the remains of the Ancient Empire—with a bizarre combination of pragmatism and poetry. The grain bin is our contemporary spolia; as such these structures can be both useful and fanciful.

For more information click here

Rainer Gross's Twins painting, Double Mickey, 2013, 183 x 366 cm was included in the Beijing Biennale 2017 in the China Art Museum in Beijing.

Congratulations to Maria Park and Branden Hookway for their collaborative exhibition on view through November 17, 2017.

Training Setting investigates social and control protocols using a diagrammatic language of flight cockpits and table settings. To train within a technologized environment is to mediate both formal and informal instruction — where a formal understanding of information and procedure coexists with a tacit knowledge of embodied action. In this sense, training is inherently an orientation toward both the actual and the virtual, as performance draws upon informal knowledge according to formalized protocols. The exhibition explores this hybrid state of training through a series of paintings, sculptures, and drawings.

Click here to learn more.