Category: Art in Second Life

Having opened its door in mid-May, Jamison Arts is a boutique style gallery operated by Harlow Jamison (HarlowJamison), a long-term Second life resident enjoying a new lease of life within the platform.

Located in a  cosy building of a style popular with SL gallery owners simply because it naturally lends itself to being used as exhibition space, Jamison Arts offer two floors for displaying art, which might be used for joint or ensemble exhibitions or (potentially) for a focused exhibition of a single artist’s work

For the May / June exhibition – which I’m getting to a little late, so my apologies to Harlow and the artists – the former is the case, with Harlow devoting the ground level of the gallery to a New Artist Showcase featuring the work of SL photographer SabrinaCooke, with the upper level split between the original art of Jaelle Faerye and original digital art by Aruba DeCuir.

The exhibition marks the first Sabrina has made in Second life – although she is active on Flickr and has displayed her work in the physical world. Centred on avatar studies and portraits, the pieces she presents at Jamison are an engaging selection of work that both captures the beauty and vitality of the Second Life avatar, and which off a masterclass in chiaroscuro for those who may wish to witness more after my last article on the subject.

One the upper floor, the space is split between Jaelle and Aruba, with Jaelle presenting a series entitled Animals, a series of paintings on that very subject, with a particular focus on horses. The majority appear to be watercolours, and while I’d perhaps prefer to see them in a larger style if only to discern more of the detail within them, they are all pieces that are beautifully presented.

Aruba’s art is broad ranging, with “traditional” pieces vying for attention with more abstracted pieces and collages. Here she present a small selection of paintings that lean towards the latter, with several pieces offering text to get the grey matter working.

Offering three very different artistic styles that come together into a single engaging exhibition, Jamison Arts offers a richness of talent well worth seeing before the current exhibition draws to a close.

SLurl Details

• Jamison Arts (Malacosoma, rated: Moderate)

I made my first 2021 trip to the GenovArt Galleries, curated by Juna (Junanuj) this week to take in the latest exhibition to open at the centre’s B&W hall. It  will certainly no be my last.

Featuring the work of Calypso Applewhyte, Sandi Benelli, Sisi Biedermann and Christower Dae, the exhibition opened on Monday May 31st, and is very much a must-see collection of art by SL artists and photographers I highly respect or am just coming to appreciate.

Sisi Biedermann is someone who needs no introduction to those who regularly read these pages. I have been, and remain, in awe of her artistry, which is broad-ranging in style and technique, encompassing everything from photography to oil or watercolour on canvas, etchings, tiled mosaics, and digital mixed media, whilst encompassing just about every kind of subject.

The pieces offered at GenovArt are very much from Sisi’s digital etching / collage portfolio, and they take visitors on the most captivating journeys into nature and spring, featuring as they do the rich diversity of bloom and flower and the vibrancy of life they represent.

Across the hall, Caly Applewhyte presents an exhibition of two parts, each entitled Geisha, and repectively sub-titled In the Soul and Next Gen.

Caly is, without a doubt one of the most gifted and evocative avatar portrait artists in Second Life – and this portfolio of her art is utterly astounding.  Offered as oils-on-canvas, with brooding deep tones and background, these are pieces that are deeply alive and vibrant in the degree of life and vitality running through them and bringing to the fore a narrative of the Geisha as the mother, warrior, daughter, lover, artist – the very soul of her civilisation.

Sandi Bellini sees her art as a means of achieve freedom and peace from the scurrying demands of life, and anyone who has seen her Second Life landscape images cannot fail to have felt that same sense of calmness and escape wash over them. Often using muted tones or backgrounds against which deeper colours are set, Sandi has a way of bringing the places she has imaged not just to life, but as locations in which you can place yourself such that you can feel the breeze, hear the splash of water, touch the softness of the grass or the roughness of the wood found within them.

I’m not aware of having encountered  the avatar photography of Christower Dae (ChrisTower Dae) previously, but on the strength of the pieces offered on the upper level of the hall at GenovArt alongside Sandi’ space, I want to see more.

Set on white backdrops and within a white space that brings them vividly before the eye, these are portraits of avatars that are incredibly life-like; the deftness of touch in post-processing is quite extraordinary – so much so that it is almost invisible, and the eye becomes convinced that it is not looking upon images of digital characters, but into the faces of living, breathing people.

Bringing together four truly unique talents into a single space, this ensemble exhibition at the GenovArt B&W Gallery is a must see – and be sure to walk across the Glass Gallery hall, where four more artists may be appreciated – and to which I’ll be returning for another article anon.

SLurl Details

• GenovArt B&W Gallery (Nabru City, rated; Adult)

Chiaroscuro is an Italian term that literally translates as “clear-dark”, although within the world of art, it is more usually referred to as “light-dark”, and references the use of strong contrasts between darker and lighter colours or shades in images, be they paintings, drawings, sketches, photographs – even video and film in the modern era – and which is intended to give a sense of volume and three-dimensional depth to an image through the use of lighter contrasts within the subject of the composition, and the broader contrast between the subject and the background.

It’s a technique that is all around us in art (just look at almost any portraiture or painting by the European painters of the Renaissance, for example or modern photographic portraiture or even graphic novels), and its use extends into visual mediums such as the stage, and more latterly, advertising, television, and film (for example, Francis Ford Coppola uses the technique extensively within The Godfather trilogy – just take a look at this still of Al Pacino from the first film in the series). However, it also doesn’t have to purely the contrast between “dark” and “light”; Andy Warhol, for example, utilised the technique extensively through his use of really bold colours contrasted against lighter tones rich in brightness.

In music, Chiaroscuro again emphasises contrast, combining a brilliant sound referred to as squillo with a dark timbre called scuro to produce a sound that has considerable depth and warmth. It is perhaps most notable in its use within opera, although again, many compositions, from classical through to the modern era also use it.

I mention all of the above, because it is the richness and depth of contrast suggested by Chiaroscuro that Vita Theas embraces in her exhibition of the the same name that opened at Aneli Abeyante’s La Maison d’Aneli arts centre on Wednesday, May 26th.

Set within a space created by Vita that enhances the idea of contrasts  (dark brick wall and heavy wood roof timbers over which sits the inverted bowl of a glorious sunset itself beset with darkening clouds lit by the lowering Sun, the marvellous murals she also presents on the walls – look at the sense of movement contrasted with the relative calm of the ships beyond in the “waterfront” piece, for example), this is a collection that embraces the idea of Chiaroscuro in art, image, and life.

From monochrome images – perhaps the “simplest”(if such a word might be employed) expression of the use of contrast through to avatar studies that reflect the use of chiaroscuro both in modern photographic portraiture (Lost, If Only…, Hope), to pieces evocative of classical portraits of the likes of the Dutch Masters (And Then He Was Gone), this is a collection that also celebrates the broader use of the technique in  landscape photography (where again, we might not actually be aware the technique is present) pop art (the quite brilliant Warhol-esque Seduce), and more.

These are images that also illustrate the essential vitality of life that is evident through contrast. As Vita herself notes, the interactions of light and shadows, brightness and darkness, warm and cool colours and shading, all work together to give these pieces a visual and emotional depth, a reminder that chiaroscuro isn’t just a technique, it is a part of the fabric of life. Just take a look (again) at And Then He Was Gone and both Regret and the exhibition poster; all three present a powerful sense of emotion through the contrast of pose and background, or that between the overlaid focal image and backgrounds.

A truly powerful and evocative collection, Chiaroscuro offers an engaging selection of art that can be appreciated for its visual appeal and composition and for its ability to get the grey matter working.

SLurl Details

• Chiaroscuro, La Maison d’Aneli (Virtual Holland, rated Moderate)

May 16th 2021 saw Desideratum Gallery, operated by Péru (PERU Venom) and Algezares Magic, open its doors to its latest exhibition, featuring the work of one of my favourite artists (and a friend!) Melusina Parkin.

Melusina’s work is unique in its blending of detail, space and minimalism brought together in elegant, crafted pieces that offer a richness of narrative and emotion; pieces that offer insight into life through their framing and focus.

This is perfectly reflected in the perfectly-named Kinds of Minimal at Desideratum. Comprising 25 of Melu’s images, the exhibition presents visitors with a marvellously diverse collection of ideas and themes, all framed by Melu’s skill in using both open space and confined areas and / or angles to capture the attention.

These are pictures that sit as the covers of books, hinting at stories within their depths, together with comments on life and the living – although it is entirely up to us, the observers, to allow our imaginations to unwrap whatever each piece might have to say to us.

Take, for example, Minimal 8. Set within a room it offers a simple view of a hat and cloak, perhaps on a stand, with the hint of shadow beyond, perhaps cast by an open door, suggesting they have just been hung in place. but who might their owner be? And what is this room? A warm lounge to which they have returned after a walk outside? A place of work?  How might it be furnished? The questions are myriad, as are the stories they suggest – including whether or not the cloak and hat are indeed hanging on a stand, or whether there might yet be a figure still wearing them – and if so, who might it be?

Just along the wall is Minimal 6, a piece richly evocative for calling forth a variety of stories – and even songs (anyone for Springsteen’s 57 Channels And Nothing On?) and / or thoughts of everything from the desert mid-west of America, Roswell, trailer parks, and even nuclear testing.

Then upstairs is Minimal 20. Who might live on the top of the steps within the doorway  it features? And who is the figure on the top of post? A repairman who has scaled the footholds that climb it, or a local mischief-maker who has scaled the ladder we can also see in shadow form? Or is it a person at all, or just a trick of the light falling against a pole-topped transformer box or somesuch to cast a human-like shadow?

And that’s the secret to this exhibition: not only are the images exquisitely frame in their minimalist presentation, both in terms of image and in story, offering just enough for the imagination to take flight.

SLurl Details

• Kinds of Minimal, Desideratum Gallery (Isle of Bliss, rated Adult)