Art at the Rose Gallery in Second Life

The Rose Gallery, located at Kaya Angel’s stunning Angel Manor has re-opened its doors with an ensemble exhibition, focused on art and photography by Shadow (MyShadowSelf) and Melodiyaa (aka Aphrodite Pandemos), a display of Fabergé eggs, and which includes a selection of images from curator Shakti Sugafield (Shakti Adored).  The art is displayed over two floors of the Manor, which has a total of seven rooms forming the Rose Gallery.

Melodiyaa is both a writer and a photographer. She has written for a number magazines in the Netherlands, and had always regarded photography as a hobby. However, when writing one article, she found she was without an assigned photographer – so she took along her camera and submitted her own photos with the article. As a result, she found herself in demand as both a writer and a photographer.

For the exhibition at the Rose, located in Gallery 1, on the ground floor, six photographs Melodiyaa took whilst in Venice are presented to visitors. It’s a superb selection, mixing familiar sites: a view across the canals with St Mark’s Campanile in the background, gondolas moored along the canals, with more unusual – dare I say intimate studies – the décor on a gondola, the shuttered window of a house, the broken adobe of a wall, exposing the brickwork beneath.

In galleries 3 and 4, also on the ground floor and across the lobby area from Gallery 1, Shadow offers a broad selection of her digital art. She notes that she has little formal training in art, her degree being in philosophy, and that she views her art as meditative; a counter-balance to her mental activity, which often ranges to thoughts of the nature of existence and consciousness, from both scientific and spiritual perspectives.

The art on display spans landscapes, mandala-like pieces, chakras, fantasy-like works and more. some appear to have been grouped thematically. They also show a rich mix of materials and approaches: acrylic, pastel and pencil, mixed media, pastels and coloured pencils; all of which offer the visitor an intriguing insight of the artist and her work.

The upper gallery spaces host a historic display of events from Angel Manor’s past and the selected art from Shakti’s personal collection. These bracket the main exhibition hall, in which is the display of some of the most delicate Fabergé eggs I’ve seen in Second Life, with marvellous models by Pandora (Heloise Ghostaltar), Claire-Sophie de Rocoulle (tjay007), Pamela Galli, and Alia Baroque. Camming in on these is highly recommended, as they are exquisite (see the GIF below). They share the hall with a display of miniature bunnies by Eeky Cioc, Leo Maven and Apple Falls, and are preceded by a short history of the painted eggs.

An interesting ensemble exhibition, with a rich mix of art, my one critique is that it might perhaps be easy to miss the displays of work by Shadow and Melodiyaa, simply because the landing point and signage tends to direct arrivals to the upper floors, and with the ground floor galleries set back on either side, they might easily be missed.

An official opening for the gallery is set for 12:00 noon on Sunday, April 1st, featuring the music of Oblee.

SLurl Details

• The Rose Gallery (Angel Manor, rated: Moderate)