Elven Falls Gallery, operated and curated by Ant (AntoineMambazo) and Aires Hax, is a relatively recent venture to arrive on the Second Life art scene, offering four galleries spaces for art exhibitions, and a growing sculpture garden for 3D work. The majority of the gallery spaces each offer two floors in which artists may display their work, with all four halls currently being occupied by a quartet of artists who offer displays that are fully engaging, whether taken individually or collectively.
Sisi Biedermann is an artist I’ve often covered in these pages; so much so that it is probably well known to regular readers that I find her once of the most engaging, evocative and remarkable artists in Second Life; her work apparently knows no boundaries, and she is ever-willing to engaging in genres and and experiment with styles, approaches finishes, whilst her subjects involve everything from the natural world through in-world settings to the fantastical and even touches on the abstract and the near-surreal. Thus, her exhibitions are often a voyage of discovery even for those who are familiar with her work.
At Elven Falls, Sisi offers what I’m going to call a triptych (and admittedly using the terms a little loosely in this case) exhibition, in that it comes in three parts – two of which are very definitely connected. These are on the lower floor of the hall, where Sisi takes us on a walk through two well-tended gardens. The English garden to the left that has the inevitable neatly mown lawns and rose bushes (as well as other floors), while to the right we pass through a Chinese garden with water features.
Given Sisi is a photographic artist and a painter, I’ve no idea if these images started as the former and were then processed in to the latter, or began as acrylic-based paintings; but the truth is, this doesn’t matter: all of the pieces are given a slightly surrealist bent that makes them captivating in their beauty. Meanwhile, on the upper floor of the gallery, Sisi exchanges the peace and beauty of the garden for another world entirely, that of Steampunk in all its mechanical and Victorian glory. A stunning collection of digital images finished as etchings, these images sit as a kind of middle panel in this “triptych”, straddling the two, offering a further demonstration of Sisi’s range of artistic expression.
JudiLynn India also needs no introduction here, also being an artist whose work never fails to attract my attention. A painter focusing on abstract work, she has been active in Second Life as an artist since 2010, and her work never fails to catch the eye with its form and richness of colour.
At Elven Falls, Judilynn splits her display into four parts. Three (two on the lower floor of her exhibition space and one on the upper), each present sets of 12 original pieces, Defined as sets in terms of colour, they are offered for sale on the basis that when sold, the purchaser takes the original from the gallery, leaving a blank space. The rest of the space offers a more “traditional” – displays of JudiLynn’s art in which the purchaser receives a copy, and the original remains on display. Whether original or copies, all of these pieces again demonstrate the richness of JudyiLynn’s abstract work.
Should one call Kraven Klees an artist or an illusionist, is a question that often comes to min when viewing his work.
Working in mixed media this incorporates digital manipulation and techniques that include fractal abstraction, digital impressionism and a touch (in places) of surrealism, he more that qualifies as the former. Yet in his finished work, there is something more; these are works that speak not so much of conscious focus in their creation as they do of abstracted automonism. Such is the unconscious foundation within his work, Kraven’s pieces also call for a pareidolic or apophenic response from the observer as the eye moves from perceiving each image as a whole to focusing on its parts and back again.
Here, Kraven presents a range of his art that can be fully appreciated on both levels – use the teleport disk outside of the main gallery building and between the halls holding the exhibitions by JudiLynn and Sisi in order to reach the upper levels of the gallery.
Faith Maxwell is an artist whose work is new to me, despite the fact she has exhibited widely in a Second Life. Working in both 2D and 3D formats, she produces the most engaging pieces as wall-mounted art and free standing sculpture that range from the abstract to contemporary in style, passing by way of Modern Art. These are piece that, whether animated or static, have a richness of life about them that is immediately apparent, drawing the to each in turn to appreciate its beauty and form.
Smaller than the exhibits by the other artists, occupying just a single level of gallery space, this is nevertheless as an engaging a display of work as the others, toe smaller number of pieces allowing the eye and mind to feel more settled in viewing them.
SLurl Details
- Elven Falls Gallery (Elven Falls, rated Adult)
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