Category: Reviews

I recently made my first trip to the Back Alley Gallery, operated and curated by ZED (Zee Malus), racoon extraordinaire and Racoon Emperor of No Dumpire in which the gallery is located 🙂 . I was there to view a most extraordinary art exhibition by an artist I’m ashamed to say I had not previously come across in Second Life (at least not that I’m consciously aware of doing). That artist is Tripp Foxtail, and the Exhibition is the appropriately entitled The Very Human Art of Tripp Foxtail.

And when I say the art is extraordinary – I mean precisely that; it is simply and completely captivating in both content and production.

Within Second Life, Tripp is a multi-talented individual who likes to give of his time to others. He is a Second Life mentor, a builder (and inventor – you may have heard of his sobriquet, The Mysterious Mechanic), store owner, designer of public spaces such as Traveller Station, where one might set out on many travels across Second Life, and Diver’s Station, where people can travel to and between a number undersea public spaces (just dive into the water and hit the portals!). However, in the physical world, Tripp is first and foremost and exceptionally talented illustrator-artist.

I’m a fine art illustrator, working on paper, canvas and digitally, employing a wide array of physical mediums including ink, acrylic paint, airbrush, pastel, photography and watercolour. I love experimenting with all kinds of processes like glass engraving, print making, and digital 3D Fractals.

I believe that human creativity is a sacred practice through which we may reach the numinous domain of the transcendent; therefore, AI is never used in the production of my art.

– Tripp Foxtail, describing his art

Within The Very Human Art, Tripp presents a fabulous walk through his artistry, including the likes of pen-and-ink illustrations, digital painting, fractal work, graphite drawings, pieces captured from within Second Life, and a presentation of how he has used his art in support of physical-world non-profits to help  raise awareness of multiple causes.

The latter alone makes this exhibition a must see for anyone remotely interested in the power of art to communicate, featuring as it does samples of his Endangered Species Bookmark Collection created as a fundraiser for the World Wildlife Fund. It also offers further insight into Tripp’s nature and desire to help, support and encourage; in addition, it further adds to this being a very personal exhibition, something which can be seen through the additional graffiti-like commentary placed by Tripp on the walls of the gallery which explain some of his work and influences, and which carry quotes from other artists which might be side to reflect Tripp’s view of his art.

But what makes this exhibition so extraordinary is in the manner of presentation of the pieces; something which Tripp calls “optique”. In the very simplest of terms, it is the subtle layers of a piece. These might come is just a pair of images (one forming the “picture” and the second appearing to have been lighted “etched” on the “glass of the picture); other might be more more deeply layers, with individual layers perhaps differing in their contrast / transparency.

At first glance, this might cause the eye to respond with a feeling that the art isn’t quite in focus. However, when the camera is moved across an image, this layer brings an immediate sense of depth and life to it, to the point where it seems tactile in nature as well as presenting a unique sense of life and motion. In this, if you have a joystick or SpaceNav or similar you use with SL, I strongly recommend you use it to swing your camera across the pieces; for those no so fortunate, use of Alt-Cam to focus in a piece and then using the camera control to slide or swing the camera across it can offer a similar result.

With a dip into Tripp’s fractal art – including nots on how he produces it – The Very Human Art is an exceptional exhibition which should be seen in order to be properly and fully appreciated. In this, I would recommend dropping in sooner rather than later, just in case. Whilst the invitation I received was posted to an in-world art group on September 20th, 2024, according to a notice at the entrance to the gallery the exhibition opened on August 31st, 2024. As exhibitions at the gallery appear to run for a month as a time, this could mean The Very Human Art is nearing the end of its time at the gallery; ergo, best to hop along now rather than miss it!

SLurl Details

• Back Alley Gallery (Forest Hills, rated Adult)

Over a decade ago, I wrote about a stunning exhibition of fractal art entitled Cathedral Dreamer (see: Fractal dreams in Second Life). At the time, it was my first introduction to the artist’s work – although by no means his first installation within Second Life -, and the start of a wellspring of admiration I’ve had for his work ever since.

Long before AI became the “in thing” for artistic expression, the artist in question was working with software tools to produce the most amazing fractal pieces, genuine cathedrals, palaces – even cities – of the imagination modelled in 2D, together with magnificent vehicles and spacecraft. Nor did his creativity stop there; combining images with narrative and setting, his work came to weave together broad canvases of art, story and the imagination to take us both on journeys through space and time whilst giving us pause for thought.

Installations such as Heritage: Vestiges (January 2016, reviewed here), and its sequel, Heritage: Wrecks (May 2016, reviewed here), sought to allegorically and artistically ask us about how the past may have informed us in bequeathing structures and memories to us, and how we might in turn inform our descendants in  far future age in what we bequeath in terms of structures and edifices. He has also used his art to encourage us to explore aspects of philosophy (The Anthropic Principle, April 2017, reviewed here) and also moved into 3D builds and installations such as Skyscrapers (April 2020, reviewed here) and the fabulous Sapiens (January 2018, reviewed here), an exploring the nature of humanity and human society, and of consciousness and thought.

That artist is Gem Preiz, and the above is just to touch on his work in the years since my first encounter with Cathedral Dreamer. I mention it all intentionally, not because Gem really needs any introduction, but because he has opened a new installation within Second Life, which will remain in place for (I believe) around six months. It is a piece which – whilst far from being Gem’s last in SL, I’m sure – in many respects brings things somewhat “full circle”, returning o the theme through which I first encountered his work, as he noted to me when inviting me along to view the new installation:

Hello Inara. 10 years ago, you wrote a blog post about someone dreaming of cathedrals 🙂 . I finally managed to build one in 3D! It’s now visible “for real”, built in my way  [with] prims and minimal textures … I hope you will have time to visit.

And so it is that I jumped over to visit Everlast, a single installation of impressive size (28,913 Land Capacity and occupying a Full region leveraging the Lab’s Full region Land Capacity bonus) in which Gem has truly become the Cathedral Dreamer.

It’s a build that encompasses many signatures of his work, past and present: the use of prims over mesh; the minimalist use of colour which a focus on gold (which has been the colour of choice found within several of his more recent installations and exhibitions), the use of geometry and geometric forms which echo the geometry from which fractal grow, thus providing a subliminal link to his 2D fractal art (none of which is displayed here, an unusual move for Gem, but understandable given the overall LI of the installation) – and of course, his love for architectural design.

As a region-wide build, Everlast does require a fairly long draw distance to take it all in from the outside, but this can be stepped down own inside the main structure, if required. Those running on non-PBR viewers should also ensure that the Advanced Lighting Model (ALM – Preferences → Graphics) is enabled in their viewer for the best viewing experience, and if you’re able to do so, Shadows should be enabled – although these are not strictly required in terms of general viewing.

The build itself really comprises four elements – the surround, with its little pyramid structures; the  covered cloister-like walks surrounding the main build, the garden between these “cloisters” and the main structure, and the soaring beauty of the cathedral-like main structure in the centre. The geometry expressed throughout all of these elements draws everything together and becomes marvellously obvious when the entire installation is seen from above. It is also something visible within the cathedral itself through inlaid floor patterns, the lines of columns and – most particularly –  the floor designs themselves.

Ultra-modern in appearance, the cathedral nevertheless harkens back to the great Norman cathedrals in multiple subtle ways whilst also looking to the future. Its minimalist styling – plan white walls with gold coloured elements given both an impression of newest and, conversely, great age, marking the installation a beautifully timeless. In this, the outlying pyramids also add a sense of age, recalling as they do past civilisations. There is also a sense the building is incomplete: seating is scarce, the walls unadorned, etc. But again, as Gem notes in his introduction to the installation, this is intentional:

Some things don’t ever last long, others are everlasting. Some deserve to be forgotten, others deserve a shrine.

“Everlast” is a build which was meant to never be finished. Winter froze it in its whiteness and shades of gold.

Of of this makes for a place not only of artistic expression which has been beautifully conceived and executed, but also of personal contemplation and reflection. It’s is an installation not only to be seen, but experienced. As such, I recommend Everlast for your appreciation. Do go visit.

SLurl Details

• Everlast by Gem Preiz (SLEA3, rated Moderate)

Open through until late October 2024 at the sky gallery space at NovaOwl Social Corner and Gallery, is an exhibition of photographic art by Looker Lumet. Entitled Sea Views, it in part features – unsurprisingly, given the title – images of coastal settings, seascapes and bays; however, to assume such images are the sole focus of the exhibition would be a mistake; rather, Sea Views offers a glimpse of Looker’s broader photographic and artistic talents, making it a thoroughly engaging portfolio of works in which to immerse oneself.

I’ve covered exhibitions featuring Looker’s work in the past, but these have tended to be shared exhibitions, rather than solo offerings; and while I’ve always admired what I’ve seen in his work, Sea Views is the first time I’ve actually been able to visit an exhibition that offers such a complete and engaging selection of his work.

Looker Lumet is a Belgian photographer who found the pleasure in sl of taking pictures, back in 2007, which was an extension of his hobby in real life. It is also from 2007 that he has learned to work with Photoshop, and is still evolving by learning the skills of post processing every day. Thanks to the evolution in second life, where the avatars were better looking, the landscapes were more detailed, the pictures became more and more realistic. Throughout the years in second life, Looker Lumet has been first an artist of the Avatrait Gallery, before he was giving the opportunity to manage the gallery for three years. His works has been displayed in several galleries since then.

Looker Lumet biography

The lower level of the gallery space focus on Looker’s landscape and seascape photography. In all 10 pieces are presented, and whether the locations within them are instantly recognisable or not as popular public locations past and present within Second Life doesn’t matter; each is striking in its own way, thanks to a combination of Looker’s ability to compose and / or frame a shot and / or for his skills in post-processing.

Eight of the ten clearly feature  coastal and sea views, be they sandy shores, coastal fens (Autumn Trace, if I’m not mistaken), or sailing vessels at anchor in a bay or with sails unfettered and in full career as they head to sea; and each is alive with a sense of Nature’s beauty and expanse. The remaining two pictures do not feature the sea directly, but both strongly suggest it, with Cloud Edge being captured from such an angle that even though the region itself presents a location high up upon a mountain range, the way clouds roll up against the peak directly before the camera within the image, strongly give the impression of sea-spray foaming up over rocks as waves roll against an island’s flanks following the ebb and flow of the tide.

The upper level of the gallery space offers a selection of eight pieces representing another aspect of Looker’s work: that of a portraiture artist. Seven of the pieces are rendered at black-and-white pieces, with one a self-portrait carrying with it subtle hints of chiaroscuro (in which it is joined by the two pieces immediately to its left as you look at it), whilst all capture their subjects both uniquely in terms of pose and angle, and expressively. The remaining image, offered in colour, stands as a broader portrait of a couple, offering a superbly framed and composed single-frame story ready to be told to the eyes and ears of anyone viewing it.

Recommended.

SLurl Details

• NovaOwl Sky Gallery (Novatron, rated General)