Category: Art in Second Life

The third exhibition at the Kondor Art Museum, a part of Hermes Kondor’s Kondor Art Centre, features a total of six artists exhibiting theough the gallery’s halls. They comprise: Mareea Farrasco, Sina Souza, Ilyra Chardin, Zia Branner and Thus Yootz, with Hermes himself rounding out the six. Some of these artists art among my personal favourites for their depth of expression and presentation, so this has been an exhibition I’ve been wanting to drop into since it opened on October 17th, 2024.

As with the first exhibition at the the Museum in April 2024, Ilyra Chandin’s 3D pieces occupying the foyer of the gallery building, as well as at the entrance and on the roof.

To the left of the entrance, the first hall in the museum houses a selection of pieces by Thus Yootz, someone who is, in my opinion, one of the most expressive and at times artistically experimental artists in Second Life. Here she presents 10 pieces that very much demonstrate these facts, with landscape pieces in monochrome and colour mixing with gorgeous and expressive line and wireframe styles.

Following Thus, and occupying the rear hall of the museum’s lower level, together with the hall to which it leads, is a two-stage exhibition by Sina Souza, another highly expressive artist I admire. The first part of this selection is a series focused on the colour red, some of which carry something of a social commentary. Beyond this is the right-side hall, containing seven colour / monochrome pieces, all equally evocative.

Upstairs, the two halls feature a selection of Mareea Farrasco’s always-engaging Second Life landscapes and avatar studies, and across the landing, Zia Branner’s abstract paintings. Again, both of these artists have a unique approach to their work, and I never fail to be drawn into their images and art.

Rounding-out the exhibition, again in the front hall to the right of the entrance, is more of Hermes’ own quite superb photography from the physically world as he takes us on a further visit to Lisbon’s Reservatorio da Patriarcal, also known as the Water Museum. Captured in a black and white, these are quite studding photos in terms of their focus, angle and contrasts of shadow and light which bring the walls and walkways of the museum to life in an almost tactile way; one can literally sense the smooth hardness of the metal railings and steps and the soft roughness of the stone.

In all, an engaging series of art displays from six equally engaging artists

SLurl Details

• Kondor Art Museum, Kondor Art Centre (Royal Tea, rated Adult)

Alex Riverstone sent me an invite to visit his Sugarfish Village, which opened its doors on October 8th, 2024, with a celebration of art running through until the end of the month entitled the Sugarfish Village Art Walk, run in collaboration of Michiel Bechir.

The Village sits within a tropical location at ground level below Alex’s Sugarfish Photography gallery, a place I first visited in July of 2024 (see: A Sugarfish Gallery in Second Life), and offers a number of attractions and points of interest and fun. First among these are the studio spaces, available for artists to use for up to 3 months at a time, rent-free – for more on this see below.

For the Art Walk event, invited artists have been able to set-out their art along the sands and flagstones of the beach, with each artist allocated space for four pieces each. Those participating are: ArtemisDemeter, KharisAdrasteia, TaniaAltAlbatros, YsabellaRose, Alex Riverstone, Ceakay Ballyhoo, Franny Fairywren, Georgie Iceghost, Karsten Iceghost, Lalie Sorbet, Maggie Runo, Noa Cloud, Prins Evergarden, Raven Arcana, Shosha Stransky, Therese Carfagno, Thomaz Blackburn, and Zia Branner. Given this list, the art is diverse, covering Second Life landscapes, avatar studies, and physical world art uploaded to Second Life.

The studio spaces, meanwhile, take the form of shipping containers converted for land-based use. Each is raised on legs and has a deck fronting it, allowing artists to use both the interior and exterior space (such as for seating in the case of the deck). A very generous 100 LI per unit is provided  – although Alex informs me this may vary, depending on what else is set-up with the Village. Other details of note on the use the studios includes:

• Units are offered on a quarterly basis, with quarters commencing on the first day of January, April, July and October each year. Available units can be requested at any time during the given quarter.
• Artists are allowed to sell their art and decorate the interiors of their studio, if they wish. A request to staff can be made to have interior colours in the containers changed as well.

• All images must conform with the Second Life Terms of Service. Images depicting ageplay, sex, pornography, racism, hatred or of a political nature will not be allowed.
• Nudity is allowed, within the bounds stated above.
• The emphasis is on art and photography created in the physical world or Second Life; images created using AI or similar tools is not allowed. The focus of the Village is the talent of and techniques used by photographers.

A full notecard on displaying at the Village is available on request.

As well as the studios and the open-air exhibitions space along the sands, the Village boasts the O-Shen Diner  sitting to one end of the studio containers. Set back a short way from the beach and reach via steps is the cosy little Tick Tock Café with seating indoors and out and a dance area just below it, between it and the beach (and presumably for opening events or just a little dance hang-out.

There’s also something of a clubhouse where people can hang out, complete with table games and fishing, and which has an over-the-water deck behind it offering another place to hang out. For those feeling energetic there also are rock walls behind the clubhouse, while a swan boat rezzer is available alongside the deck for those wanting to go a-paddling on the waters of the bay.

In all, Sugarfish Village makes for  an engaging place to both visit and appreciate art, and to display your own art if you are an artist / photographer. Highly recommended.

SLurl Details

• Sugarfish Village (Forgotten Tales, rated adult)

For those not familiar with his work, Nils is a professional photographer-artist hailing from France in the physical world, whose work is focused on landscapes, particularly those found within France’s numerous (and quite breath-taking) mountain ranges. In this, he covers everything from the magnificent and dramatic heights of the French Alps to the much lower (in terms to summit height, but no less impressive in scope and landscape) Jura and Vosges, the latter with their distinctive ballon summits, and Bugey.

Since 2007, Nils has brought many of these landscapes and scenes into Second Life, offering nigh-on 180 (at the time of writing!) exhibitions which serve as travelogues of his walks and hikes through the mountains and countryside of France. Within Autumn Lights, he presents a fall walk through the Vosges and (primarily, I think) the French Alps, capturing the golden richness of the foliage, the majesty of the snow-capped peaks beyond and the rugged beauty of the land and the homes people create within the valleys and among the hills.

These are images that bring home the full depth of Nils’ compositional skill. Within them we find greens, golds, browns and yellows set against skies so blue they stray towards cobalt and touched here and there with ribbons of cloud; or the yellow tides of trees flowing up the slopes of stonewashed hill to meet their zenith, the rocky slopes rolling back to where their rounded tops are backed by snowbound peaks at even greater heights; or the checkerboard of small fields sets within the golden march of firs, their boundaries marked by embankments and dry stone, the grass within them pale and sunwashed…

Each image offered through Autumn Lights has a story to tell; a story of the stately grace of these mountains, the formation of which started 300 million years ago and sharing something of an ancestry with the Himalayas, together (on a smaller scale) the people who populate them, which itself reminds us that humans inhabited these region as far back as the palaeolithic period.

But more than this, these images tell the story of a man in love with the country and landscapes in which he lives and travels; they form – as I’ve noted-  a travelogue of his times within these mountains and their foothills, walking, hiking, exploring. As such they can be appreciated for the beauty they convey quite naturally and fully, whilst also inviting us into Nils’ life and allowing us to witness them through his eyes and thus share in his love for the places he records on camera.

A genuinely beautiful selection of images.

SLurl Details

• Kondor Art Club (Royal Tea, rated Adult)