Category: Art in Second Life

Kultivate 5th Anniversary art show in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Kultivate 5th Anniversary Weekend – Vita Theas and Kapaan

Friday June 12th, 2020, marks the opening of the Kultivate’s Magazine 5th anniversary art show in Second Life, with the event running through until Sunday June 14th, inclusive, which art, music and entertainment for all who visit.

Kultivate Magazine is a publication about the cultural aspects of Second Life, its goal is to support art, culture, photography, music, and fashion. The brand includes the magazine, The Windlight Art Gallery, The Edge Gallery of Black & White Imagery, The Kultivate Loft Gallery, Signature Gallery, AIR Gallery and the Select Gallery. It addition, Kultivate Magazine is the media partner and primary sponsor of Team Diabetes of Second Life, an official and authorised fund-raising team for The American Diabetes Association.

Kultivate 5th Anniversary Weekend – 3D artists Ilyra Chardin, Cica Ghost and Venessa Jane

For the anniversary weekend, Kultivate presents a 2D and 3D art exhibition with some 31 artists participating, including: aht1981, Akiko.Tripsa, AlexAvion, Angel Heartsong, Anibrm Jung, Anouk Lefavre, archgothica, DrusillaGwind Resident, Elle Thorkveld, Francis Bagration, Hana Hoobinoo, ilyra chardin, Inara Pey, Jamee Sandalwood, Johannes Huntsman, Kapaan, Karma Weymann, KismaKSR Resident, Myra Wildmist, Reycharles Resident, Rissy Feiri, Sabine Mortenwold, Sheba Blitz, SkinTrader Greyskin, softandred, Syphera Inaka, talligurl resident, Tempest Rosca-Huntsman, Vanessajane66, Veruca Tammas, Vita theas, & wintergeist.

Obviously, with so many artists participating, the range of art on display is broad, with avatar studies, landscapes, colour images, monochrome, physical world paintings, mixed media, and more. All of the art is displayed in the open air, with the region’s default windlight providing a strong neutral background light to fully appreciate the pieces on display.

Kultivate 5th Anniversary Weekend – Jamee Sandalwood and John Huntsman

Entertainment for the weekend comprises (all times SLT):

  • Friday June 12th:
    • 16:00-17:00: live performer Nina Setner + 10 slide show frames giveaway, 1 Templar Poses poseback giveaway, & L$1,000 Trompe L’Oeil Gift Card giveaway.
    • 17:00-18:00: live performer Melenda Baptiste  + 10 slide show frames giveaway, 1 Templar Poses posepack giveaway, & L$1,000 Trompe L’Oeil Gift Card giveaway.
  • Saturday, June 13th:
    • 16:00-17:00: live performer Samuel James + 10 lucky winners of L$250 each & Templar Poses posepack giveaway.
    • 17:00-18:00: live performer Aislen Sings +10 lucky winners of L$250 each & Templar Poses posepack giveaway.
  • Sunday, June 14th:
    • 13:00-14:00: live performer Max Kleene + 1 Lumipro giveaway.

So be sure to hop along and join the celebrations and enjoy the art!

Kultivate 5th Anniversary Weekend – Reycharles

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Bellisseria’s Limoncello Art Gallery in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Limoncello Art Gallery

As I’ve noted a few times in these pages, Bellisseria, the Linden Home continent, provides space not only for people to live and form communities, but also to express themselves and the creativity present in-world and through people’s talents. One of the key ways this is done is though residents in the continent given their homes over for the display of art – their own, the pieces they’ve purchased and / or the works of others they invite to exhibit.

One of the Bellisseria galleries I’ve only recently become aware of  – and my thanks to curator Fenella Allen for IMing me – is that of Limoncello Art Gallery.

While perhaps new to Bellisseria (given the continent itself is just over a year old!), this is a gallery with a long history. Originally founded by LastDitch Writer, the gallery existed in a 120-metre long airship hovering over the Mainland region of Nanga, and was home to his personal collection of art, both 2D and 3D.

Limoncello Art Gallery

The space available at Bellisseria is obviously a lot smaller that a 120 metre airship, but Lord Junibalya, who now looks after the collection, has provided a skybox for the art that forms a 2-storey gallery with a fair amount of room for pieces to be displayed – and there is a lot to see!

There is a lean towards art from the physical world – paintings, drawings, portraits, abstracts – but Second Life avatar studies are also well represented, while the upper level floor space lends itself to 3D pieces by Toysoldier Thor and Mistero Hifeng. Other artists represented in the collection whose names are likely to be recognised include Gitu Aura, Dido Haas, Carelyna, JMB Balogh, In Inaka, Audie Whimsy, Wyald Wooley and Asmita Duranjaya, to name a handful.

Limoncello Art Gallery

Given thes pieces are from a private collection, none are directly offered for sale. However it might be possible to purchase a copy of some pieces by contacting the artist directly (but please keep in mind that not all of the artists represented in the gallery may still be active in-world).

An impressive collection offering a lot to appreciate, the compact size of the parcel notwithstanding, Limoncello Art Gallery is well worth the visit for any patron of the arts in Second Life. My thanks again to Fenella for contacting me about it.

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Tranquil Droplets at Nitroglobus in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus: Bamboo Barnes – Traquil Droplets

Opening on Monday, June 8th, 2020 at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated by Dido Haas, is Tranquil Droplets, an exhibition of art by Bamboo Barnes.

There can be few involved in the art world within Second Life who can be unfamiliar with Bamboo’s work; it is by turns vibrant, evocative, provocative, emotive and so often rich in narrative. A physical world artist hailing from Japan, Bamboo works with digital tools to produce her pieces, her finished works strongly assertive in terms of its presentation, ability to dominate the space it occupies and in the way it demands the attention of the eye and mind.

Nitroglobus: Bamboo Barnes – Tranquil Droplets

There’s hopeless life still seeking for hopes like abandoned walking shadows of people on the street, my artworks are expression of confusion of life, darkness of light and strangeness of love. I create what I see but maybe you won’t, they are about people’s reality and mind.

– Bamboo Barnes, discussing her work

Much of her works is produced entirely outside of Second Life, which presents itself – along with Flickr – as a means for Bamboo to reach her audience. Which is not to say the pieces offered in Tranquil Droplets originated beyond our digital realm; rather the reverse, in fact, as the focus here is very much on avatar faces.

Not that the pieces offered are in any way a “traditional” avatar portrait / study; far from it. Each is presented in Bamboo’s rich, evocative style such that her use of colour, digital highlighting and layering all serve to add depth to the portraits offered. This gives each piece a life of its own, an expressive richness that presents us with a sense of story.

Nitroglobus: Bamboo Barnes – Traquil Droplets

For Bamboo, emotions are a core element of her art, be they those that are invoked by the piece she is working on; those she felt at the time she started working, and / or those evoked by the music she is listening to, as well as those she sees within her subject.

All of this is strongly evident within the 17 pieces offered within Traquil Droplets, each one of which offers unique reflections of both her subjects and of various artistic techniques – abstract, modernist, hints of dadaism / collages, and impressionism, all without ever merely mimicking these styles.

Nitroglobus: Bamboo Barnes – Tranquil Droplets

As Bamboo says, these pieces are like water whose dripping echoes in the silence; once heard, it cannot easily be forgotten, except here, it is that each of these images that continue to live with the imagination long after they’ve been seen, because of their richness of colour, presentation and emotion. In other words, this is a captivating exhibition.

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Raging Graphix Gallery: Etamae and I

Posted on by Inara Pey
Raging Graphix Gallery

Opening on Saturday, June 6th, 2020 at Raging Bellls’ Raging Graphix Gallery is an exhibition that I’m both delighted and honoured to be sharing with the extraordinary talent of Etamae, and which is entitled A Celebration of the Arts, but which might also have be called The Brits Are Coming!, as Etamae – Eta to her friends – also hails from the UK 🙂 .

In truth, Eta is an extraordinary digital artist. her work, whether landscape or avatar  is both unique and distinctive in its presentation. Using digital technique and Second Life capabilities such as Advanced Lighting, Eta never fails to produce utterly captivating pieces that never fail to hold the eye.

Raging Graphix Gallery: Etamae

My photography and art is exclusive to SL, taken from the things she has seen and loved which have inspired her to transform them into something else – not more, nor better – simply different. As an avid SL traveller, I truly enjoy the inventiveness our double click world inspires.

Mesh creators like Mistero Hfeng, Bryn Oh, Toysoldier Thor, CioTToLiNa Xue, Theda Tammas, Tralala Loordes, Cherry Manga, Meilo Minotaur, Maru Kado, Safar Fiertze, Tansee and Harry Cover to name just a few provide me with subject matter and inspiration, and I hope you enjoy my work as much as I enjoyed creating it.

– Etamae

Raging Graphix Gallery: Etamae (r) and Yours Truly (l)

For my part, I remain genuinely flattered that people find my work worthy of a focused exhibition. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I don’t regard my images as art, but rather as illustrations for this blog; I don’t pretend to understand anything more than some of the basics of photography, and my post-processing skill – although they have grown somewhat over the years – remain limited when it comes to present any of them as “art”.

The Exhibition space is on the upper floor of the gallery, giving visitors the opportunity to appreciate Raging’s own art on the ground floor, adding a further attraction to any visit.

Raging Graphix Gallery: Yours Truly

The official opening for A Celebration of the Arts is 11:00 SLT on Saturday June 6th, and Eta and I hope you’ll join us. If not, I certainly hope you’ll visit the exhibition during the month it is open; my thanks to Raging for the invitation and opportunity to present at her gallery.

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Raging Graphix Gallery (Heatherwood, rated Moderate)

 

 

 

Art at Love and Love in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Love and love Art Gallery

Love & Love Art Gallery is, for me, a new venue for art in Second Life. Curated by Lylaya Love (lylaya), and co-founded by her and her partner Bohemio Love (Bohemi0), the gallery occupies a pristine 3-storey building set with a 4096 sq metre parcel set out with a small, tidy garden space before it.

At the time of my visit, the ground floor space of the gallery was not in use – I’ve no idea if it will offer future exhibitions – with a teleport offering the way up to the upper two floors.

Love and Love Art Gallery: Cornelia Augusta

On the first of these, Cornelia Augusta (cornelia Longfall) presents Kaleidoscope of Souls, an exhibition of avatar studies across the floor’s two halls and set within an environment that is best appreciated with the viewer’s Advanced Lighting Model (ALM) enabled (Graphics → Preferences → check Advanced Lighting Model if required – note that you do not have to enable Shadows as well, so the rendering impact should hopefully be minimal).

The studies appear to be of Cornelia and her friends / those close to her, and are largely “traditional” in that they offer a head and shoulders view of the subject. They are refreshing in that they appear to have had little or no post-processing. On the one hand, this perhaps means these portraits are not so vibrantly life-like as avatar studies produced by others: skin toning may not appear to be flesh-like, features have not been re-touched or enhanced to add further “humanness” before the avatar’s natural look, etc.

Love and Love Art Gallery: Cornelia Augusta

However, on the other hand, they allow us to see the avatars as they are, something that imbues them with their own distinct life, rather than being seen as an image attempting to mimic life. Thus, it is possible to discern within them more of their own nature mixed with the nature of their creators, rather than seeing an interpretation of that mix of natures as perceived by the artist as a result of extensive re-editing.

On the upper floor is an exhibition of physical world paintings by Oblomov (Jos Bookmite) entitled Pesci (Fishes).

Love and Love Art Family: Oblomov

As the name implies, the paintings here are very much about fishes – although they are not all piscine in nature; there are also molluscs, sea-snails and mermaids waiting to be seen. Set within an environment suggestive of the sea floor, these are highly stylised sea creatures, some of which clearly have a life of their own waiting to be found in their expressive forms / faces suggestive of a range of emotions, with some of the fish looking very human in their expressions.

Colourful, happy, mischievous, and in places, slightly sinister, these paintings all have their own stories waiting to be discerned by visitors.

Love and Love Art Family: Oblomov

Two very different art displays within a single gallery space, joined by their own unique approaches to their subjects, Kaleidoscope of Souls and Pesci are equally enjoyable exhibitions. As they opened in mid-May, I’m not entirely sure how long they will both be around, so do make a point of visiting the gallery sooner rather than later, just in case.

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Sharing FionaFei’s dream in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Hannington Endowment for the Arts: FionaFei

FionaFei invited me to visit her new installation that opened on May 29th at the Hannington Endowment for the Arts (HEA). Entitled I Had a Dream, And You Were There, it is a reflection of thoughts and feelings that may come upon us unbidden, be it through dream or through finding an object or hearing a sound or seeing an image or event, that bring to mind someone now gone from our lives.

Set as a dream-like forest, the trees rendered in Fiona’s familiar ink wash black on white, that we’re invited to explore. Within it, the ground is white, as if mist is sliding through the trees, brushed ferns grouping around the base of trunks. Among these trees are park benches offering places to sit in contemplation.

On or near the benches are bright red objects: an alarm clock here, a scarf draped over a branch there, a hat hanging on the back of a bench, a flittering butterfly or two, and so on. All of them are precisely the kind of thing liable to trigger a sudden memory of someone once close to us. Touch them, and they will even offer a specific memory in local chat.

Hannington Endowment for the Arts: FionaFei

For those who have lost someone from their physical or virtual lives, I Had a Dream is liable to be an evocative visit. And by “lost”, I don’t necessarily mean the individual memory recalls has passed away; we lose people from our lives in a wide variety of ways: friendships form and end; closeness fades as physical distance grows; relationships naturally shift in desire, want and need, and so on. Even so, memories of their presence and former closeness can remain with us long after a parting of the ways have come and can – no matter how the parting came about – still come to the fore in the most unexpected ways.

It’s also important not to ascribe the installation to a specific loss on Fiona’s part. As she states in the introduction to the installation:

It is a creative manifestation of thinking about someone and wishing that they were here … The artwork is not about any specific person.

– FionaFei

Hannington Endowment for the Arts: FionaFei

Simply and artistically presented, I Had a Dream… is an installation that can unfold to reveal considerable emotional depth, echoing as it does, feelings that many, if not all of us, have felt in our adult lives.

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