Category: Art in Second Life

Art in Second Life can cover many genres, disciplines and forms – some of which can be controversial (perhaps most notably at the time this article was being written, the use of AI tools). The platform also has the ability to bring art – both from the platform itself and from the physical world – to an audience who might not otherwise come to see or appreciate. In this regard, Second Life can be an educational force for art and the history of art.

In this latter regard, I recently visited a fascinating exhibition concerning Renaissance artist with whom I was not overly familiar. Created by Camie Rembrandt, herself a creator and visual storyteller, The Art and Life of Sofonisba Anguissola takes the visitor on a visual and informative dive into the life and art of a highly influential Italian artist, Sofonisba Anguissola. Located within the estate of the Confederation of Democratic Simulators (CDS), the installation also touches upon the work of both some of her contemporaries (including two of her sisters), and the influence she exerted over those who followed her.

For those – like me – previously unaware of Sofonisba, she was born around 1532 in one of the more modest Lombardy noble families, and received an education which included fine arts to become one of the first women painters to be accepted for formal apprenticeships and training as a student of art. As a young woman, her talent was recognised by Michelangelo when she moved to Rome, and in around 1559, she moved to Madrid to become a lady-in-waiting and personal tutor in art to  Elizabeth of Valois, the Spanish Queen, and later an official court painter to the king, Philip II. This, coupled with her rising fame and financial independence (courtesy of two supportive husbands, the first the result of an arranged marriage on the part of Philip II, the second the result of love), allowed her to become a skilled and highly regarded artist, famous for her portraiture, willing to encourage and train younger artists.

Passing away at the astonishing age of 93, Sofonisba’s oeuvre had a lasting influence on subsequent generations of artists, influencing the likes of Rubens and Caravaggio, whilst inspiring a cadre of contemporary female artists to reach beyond the constraints placed on their education (such as not being able to study anatomy or nudity), and reach similar heights of ability and fame in painting, including Lavinia Fontana.

For her installation, Camie presents prints of some of Sofonisba’s most highly regarded works across five rooms:

• Ground floor to the right of the landing point: family paintings by young Sofonisba, and regarded as her most attractive pieces, painted at a time when she had yet to have the formal strictures of courtly painting impressed upon her.
• A selection of her self-portraits painted throughout her life – as Cami notes, between Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt van Rijn, Sofonisba Anguissola produced the most numerous self-portraits of any artist in that period, laving us a rich legacy of work marking her passing years.
• A selection of paintings from her 20-year career as a royal painter for the court of Philip II.

Upstairs, and split between two rooms are paintings by other artists:

• The first room (furnished in a style befitting Anguissola’s time) contains works by Sofonisba’s sisters Lucia (2) and Europa (1) and by contemporary Lavinia Fontana (who studied with Anguissola before going on become perhaps the first female career artist in Western Europe, relying on commissions for her income.
• The second room presents portraits of Sofonisba which contain their own mysteries. The first is that of The Sienna Portrait, featuring Bernadino Campi, one of her teachers, painting Sofonisba. The second is a piece by Antoon van Dyck, depicting Sofonisba shortly before her death. However, I’ll allow Cami to reveal the mysteries to you when you visit the exhibition.

What is particularly engaging with this exhibition is the care with which it has been developed. All of the images presented are public domain, and Cami guides visitor through the exhibition via 5 HUDs (one for each room and obtained from the INFO signs in each room, or via vendors in the upstairs lounge area if any of the signs prove recalcitrant). Also in the lounge area, visitors can find a catalogue for the exhibition Cami has put together and which offers even more insight to Sofonisba’s life and art and the pieces included in this exhibition, together with a video version of the catalogue.

A magnificent endeavour, rich in art and history, the The Art and Life of Sofonisba Anguissola should be visited by anyone with an interest in art and its history.

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• The Art and Life of Sofonisba Anguissola (Colonia Nova, rated Moderate)

Tree Stories is the title of an exhibition of paintings by Mareea Farrasco she is hosting within one of the gallery spaces within her IMAGOLAND art gallery space. On display are 16 images featuring trees or which include elements of wood, each one very much a single-frame story and / or commentary on life and its history, folding into itself explorations of ideas and notions in a manner that ins intentionally provocative.

Tree are an integral part of our daily lives in various ways – whether through their tangible physical presence in our surroundings, remarkable in their singularity or as part of forests, orchards and more. They have served humanity from the very beginning through their wooden materiality, fulfilling our needs, and they continue to inspire through their spiritual significance as cultural, social, historical, mythical and artistic symbols. The Tree Stories exhibition offers a partial and subjective perspective on some of the forms and meanings of this nearly omnipresent object and concept.

– Mareea Farrasco

Simply and directly painted in a marvellously minimalist style, each piece is rich in dualities of context; a visual agent provocateur, so to speak, to stir our grey matter. Each image offers a simple surface message – which might be a reflection on the simple role of the tree as a symbol of life and growth or beauty and comfort, or something similar – together with a deeper, potentially provocative commentary on our complex and often violent relationship with religion and spirituality.

To take just one example: Temptation. The tree and apple speak to the ability of trees to provide sustenance for us through the provision of fruits, whilst almost bringing to might the myth of the tree of knowledge of  good and evil (or more literally, “of everything”), and all that followed it within the tale of Genesis; thus, the tree can be seen as having been with us – in terms of the Biblical history of mankind – from the very beginning.

Engaging, complex, rich in symbolism, Tree Stories opened on January 27th, 2025, and will remain open for at least a month.

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• Tree Stories (IMAGOLand and Art Gallery, rated Moderate)

Currently open at the HeArt and Soul Gallery operated by Tom Willis and Lizzy Swordthain through the rest of January 2025 and into February, is Captive Lights, an exhibition by Selen Minotaur mixing (predominantly) 2D pieces with 3D sculptures. It is presented as being inspired by the works of James Turrell, and stands as both a unique homage to his work as well as reflecting Selen’s own sensibilities in the use of colour, geometry, and light to offer visual journeys and narratives.

The exhibition is the first at HeArt and Soul following the gallery’s update to utilise PBR materials. I’m not sure if Blinn-Phong (“legacy”) materials are provided as fallback. As such, I would recommend the use of a PBR-capable viewer when visiting (and note that some of the art elements within the exhibition are also PBR), together with the use of the Shared Environment.

Born in 1946, James Turrell is often referred to as “the master of light” for his work in combining natural light with artificial colour to create dynamic environments in which the sense of light and perception of colour shifts both naturally and as the visitor moves through them. In this, he is regarded as one of the principal torch-bearers of the Light and Space art movement, an initially loose affiliation of artists working with light, volume and scale (and which touches upon genres such as minimalism, optical art and geometric abstraction), which started in the 1960s and perhaps became more formalised in the 1970s.

Turrell’s own approach to his art is born of a mix of influences: his parents were both Quakers, with his mother defining their faith in terms of a simple decree: that each of us can experience an inner light of understanding of the the world (and by extension, the cosmos) around us. His father was an aeronautical engineer and pilot, from whom Turrell gained a love of flying (qualifying as a pilot himself at the age of 16) and a fascination with celestial phenomena. These influences led him to a degree in perceptual psychology prior to switching to art, and working on his earliest installations utilising light and volume.

Today, Turrell is perhaps most famous for his Skyspace installations, which have been established in more than 75 locations world-wide, and most particularly for his Roden Crater installation. The latter is a 45-year project Turrell, with the support of various art institutions and universities, has been developing within the 4.8 km wide cinder cone of an extinct volcano near flagstaff, Arizona, and regarded as the pinnacle of his research into  human visual and psychological perception.

With Captive Lights, Selen presents a series of 2D pieces which reflect many of the core elements found within Turrell’s art and the wider Light and Space movement. There are pieces mindful of his Sky Space installations and the Alpha Tunnel at Roden Crater (Palace Corridor, for example). Similarly, Magic Cubes might be taken as a modern take on Turrell’s 1966 work, Afrum-Proto, whilst pieces such as The Wall Eye might bring to mind elements found within Turrell’s Passages of Light retrospective.

At the same time, the pieces in the collection are very much born of Selen’s own signature embodiment of abstraction, light, colour, and minimalism, and her ability to tug at the threads of our imagination and comprehension and offer hints of potential narrative or greater perception.

The images in this exhibition are intended to be minimalist, with light as the main heroine, even if characters sometimes appear. The light is framed or staged to capture an energy or a specific moment. The chosen title, deliberately loaded with mystery and symbolism, invites the viewer to connect their perceptions to their imagination, to their emotions, to build their own stories or representations.

– Selen Minotaur on Captive Light

A thoroughly engaging exhibition to tickle the mind – and, for those unfamiliar with either Turrell’s work and / or the Light and Space art movement, an open invitation to explore both.

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• HeArt and Soul Gallery (Durdane, rated Moderate)

Dirty Windows is the title Carelyna has given to her latest exhibition of work, which opened at her ArtCare gallery on January 20th, 2025.

Located on an open-sided platform, the exhibition comprises eleven monochrome / sepia-tinged studies depicting scenes looking through windows that have seen better days (as one might suspect from the title).

However, To take thing purely at face value in this way would be to miss the point; this is a tour de force of art as metaphor; each image presents a scene in which the presentation of the piece is as important as the image it presents: the grainy, almost scratched appearance suggesting a mix of age and dream-like or quality.

What “Dirty Windows” could mean: a diffuse border between reality and illusion, between lie and truth; a way to create appearances that can protect us against hard-to-bear truths; the human being caught in the drama of life, when one has to repeat to oneself that dirt feels real, but it’s not true; the dirt on the glass is fleeting, it is not our nature, and only a stain to overcome.

– Carelyna, describing Dirty Windows

In other words, these are pieces intended for direct, personal interpretation; one formed out of experience, memories – good and bad -, imagination and outlook. They encourage both introspection and reflections on the the cyclical nature of experience and growth – and the ever-present opportunities for the latter to bring us new opportunities and new horizons. They filter through the grime and necessities of the everyday like sunlight through an aging, dirty window; a reminder that it is in our nature to overcome, to thrive beyond the now, and whatever might currently weigh us down with doubt and / or regret.

Offered with a degree of interactivity, Dirty Windows does not require exposition her; it should be seen first-hand and allowed to speak to each of us. Recommended.

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• Dirty Windows, ArtCare Gallery (Emotion, Moderate)

It’s been a while since I have had the pleasure to review an art exhibition by Melusina Parkin. There are several reasons for this, both as a result of the physical world keeping Melu occupied and constraints on my own time. Hence why, when she passed me a personal invitation to see her latest collection, I was keen to find time and hop over.

Dreamscapes is a collection of 64 landscape images captured by Melu from around Second Life and displayed within her Minimal Gallery. Presented in Melu’s sharply-focused, minimalist style, all offer in a mix of soft tones and monochrome. Spread across the gallery’s two levels, it is a captivating display of images.

Mixing both old and new pieces, all with minimal (or no) post-processing, instead reliant on the image capabilities within the viewer itself, Dreamscapes takes the visitor on a tour of Second Life by revealing not the whole, but merely a part; a tree, a ruined lighthouse, a cabin on the sand, a broken fence, the corner of a motel or industrial building and its parking lot, and so on. In doing so, each opens the first page of a story – or perhaps the foreword to a dream.

What that story might be is personal to each of us; each picture given us just enough to set the imagination rolling. It’s a technique used by Melusina to great effect in her work, and here it serves a double purpose: it both prompts us to create narratives around what we see, and it demonstrates that Second Life itself is a place of the imagination; of dreams made real, the places we as creators would like to live within or visit. That it is, if I might borrow from Edgar Allan Poe as Melu borrows from Shakespeare, “a dream within a dream”.

In keeping with Melu’s more recent activities in respect to her exhibitions, Dreamscapes is also offered as a catalogue of prints presented under her Melubooks brand and costing L$100. I personally love this approach to additional presenting art in Second Life; we all only have so much space in-world in which to place images and presenting collections in this way offers a unique way be ways we can share them over and again at leisure.

As always, I thoroughly recommend Dreamscapes and Melusina’s art for your enjoyment.

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• Minimal Gallery (Lunula, rated Moderate)