Three Questions, an exhibition by Joan Mayflower at her own new gallery space called Joanee’s Gallery, cleverly involves portraits and words in a revealing exhibition.
Set within a floating garden sitting against a backdrop of stars, Three Questions presents a series of eight avatar portraits – presumably of Joan’s friends – but that’s not all, as Joan explains.
The exhibit consists of portraits of Second Life avatars that I have done, accompanied by a set of three questions asked of each portrait subject. The questions/answers note cards are accessible by clicking on each portrait.
– Joan Mayflower, describing Three Questions
This makes Three Questions an intriguing exhibition, bringing together as it does two elements within each picture. On the one hand, Joan’s portraits of the avatars, each one of which has been carefully framed, cropped and presented, offer us insight into the subject of each portrait as an avatar. The answers to the questions, meanwhile – two of which are asked of all eight subjects, while the third varies from subject to subject – offer us insight into the personalities behind the avatars.
Thus, Three Questions engages and informs. Through the images and the answers to the questions, our visual appreciation of the portraits as an expression of the artist’s vision of the avatars she has captured, we’re also given that personal connection with the subjects themselves with a depth that cannot be achieved simply through images.
A small but engaging exhibition that offers good food for thought and engaging images, Three Questions officially opens at 12:00 noon SLT on August 5th, 2019.
Update, August 5th: Following the soft opening, Melusina and San are making changes to the exhibit and it appears the 3D elements of the image fames have been moved toe the rear of the image panels, so people see the “2D view” first, before walking around to see the faceted views.
Open at Ribong Gallery, curated by Santoshima, through August is Lonely Gazes, an exhibition of 24 images by Melusina Parkin, focusing on locations within Second Life.
Melusina is an artist whose work presents a fine blend of detail, space and minimalism, all carefully combined and crafted to present images that are elegant in their unique focus and rich in narrative and feeling. This is once again evident with this collection. However, within Lonely Gazes presents the 24 images in the most unique manner.
Each is framed as a photo-sculpture with two distinct sides. On the one (which tends to be facing the walls of the gallery, so may need a degree of camming unless you wall behind the displays) is a straightforward presentation of each of the image set against a black background.
On the other side of the frame is a further version of the image, overlaid with a truncated, transparent pyramid with either a smaller version of the image, or a “window” looking “in” to the image. The result of this is that the observer can select different angles from which to view the image: the smaller image sits proud of the larger, giving the impression it is being projected onto the background
Those with the “window” element, meanwhile offer a frame through which the observer’s focused can be drawn into a specific part of the image, which can shift as we cam around, as if examining the piece through a lens. In addition, the side faces of pyramid presents individual facets of the larger image.
I never cease to be drawn to Melusina’s work and the way her images allow us to become storytellers. They always present the idea that they are a part of a much broader canvas, one that extends well beyond their borders. Thus, they invite our imaginations to create stories around them. With the way in which the images in Lonely Gazes, this is magnified tremendously – in much the same way the faux 3D presentation of the pieces suggests we are viewing a magnified image of a picture on a lens hovering over that piece, or that we looking through a lens allowing us to focus into a specific part of the landscape and its story.
Visual, engaging and imaginative, Lonely Gazes is another extraordinary exhibition from Melusina, and there is a formal opening featuring DJ Kara Mellow at 14:00 SLT on Thursday, August 8th.
I recently received an invitation to visit Mon Joli Cadeau (“my lovely gift”), a quarter-region operated by Avalon Bouvier and Yoh Boa that offers mix of art, dance venue and commercial units in a distinctly French architectural style.
An urban environment, split by an east-west running canal, the street names within Mon Joli Cadeau suggest Paris, but the intended location is not as important as the overall look of the setting. The landing point sits to one side of the canal within a formal garden area surrounded on two sides by town houses with boutique-style units on their ground floors, and on the seaward side a large glass pavilion ballroom.
The boutiques offer a mix of commercial units and gallery spaces, and at the time of my visit, the gallery units featured the work of Carelyna, PatrickofIreland, MarcJersey and Erika Xaron. Meanwhile, across the canal and on the smaller part of the parcel offers further town house style gallery units.
At the time of my visit, these featured the work of Leonorah Beverly, Cybele Moon, Jolie Parfort, Kaleb Avedon (making his public début with a series of outstanding avatar studies) , Kayly Iali, CliveDillingham, Mirabelle Sweetwater and Isle Biedermann.
The layout of the location naturally encourages exploration, while within the boutique units and as well as presenting their art, the artists have been given the freedom to turn create more “personal” spaces if they so choose, adding their own interior wall panels and other features, making each a unique mini-gallery. Also be aware that many of the units have an upper floor where an exhibit may continue – so keep an eye out for the teleport disks tucked into some of them.
The range of art offered in this exhibition – which I understand run through until the end of August – is rich and engaging, including as it does avatar studies, Second life landscapes, physical world paintings, digital media, colour images, monochrome and SL photographs as paintings. This mixture adds a further attraction to Mon Joli Cadeau, and I’d urge Avalon and Yoh to try to continue it going forward.
As well as promoting visual arts, the region will also feature music – both gala events to mark the opening of new exhibitions and live music events and DJ evenings within the glass pavilion ballroom. Live performances are currently scheduled for the following dates (all times SLT):
Friday, August 16th from 12:00 noon: Savannah Rain
Thursday, September 12th from 19:00: Wolfie Starfire.
Saturday, September 14th, from 13:00: Kaleb Avedon.
In addition, Avalon is working on a weekly DJ schedule, which will initially focus on set running Thursdays through Sundays, likely spanning the hours of 16:00 through 22:00 SLT. The schedule has yet to be finalised, so look for details when visiting Mon Joli Cadeau, or make a note to join the local group and stay informed.
With its delightful design that includes several little corners waiting to be discovered as well as the galleries and ballroom, Mon Joli Cadeau offers a lot to artists wishing to exhibit their work (setting items for sale permitted but not required), and interested parties should contact Avalon in-world. For those who enjoy viewing art and photography in SL it is a venue that should definitely been added to lists of places to visit.
Three years ago, in July 2016, I wrote about an exhibition that I found utterly engaging and one of the most captivating exhibitions of physical world art to be reproduced in Second Life – and it remains so today.
That exhibition, Peter Vos in Second Life, celebrates the work of Dutch illustrator, humorist, caricaturist and artist, Peter Vos (Septmber 1935-November 2010). A recent conversation brought the exhibition to mind, do I decided to make a return visit, in part because I wanted to once again immerse myself in the wonderful art of a phenomenally talented artist, and in part to again draw attention to the exhibition through these pages for those who may not yet have visited it – because it remains an absolute must-see.
Put together by Vos’ son, known in-world as Karkassus Jigsaw, Peter Vos in Second Life attempts to encapsulate the penmanship and art of a man whose output was simply enormous and utterly exceptional. This is actually no easy task given Vos encapsulated so much as an artist: the illustrator, the fantasist, the cartoonist, the visionary, the caricaturist, the pasticheur, the letter-writer who stamped his letters with postage stamps of his own making and the dedicated bird-watcher.
As I noted in writing about the exhibition and Vos in July 2016:
Central to his work is a wonderful mix of styles and approaches – and also a deep and loving intimacy with his subjects and audience. In his twenties, he produced Portrait of Papa for his ailing father, followed by a book of pastiches lovingly depicting his father in a series of guises. Later, when he had a young son of his own, he would demonstrate this love for his family again, writing loving letters and postcards to the young boy, relating marvellous journeys around and beyond the Earth, opening his son’s own imagination.
On the ground floor of this gallery-come-museum are interactive elements that help engage the visitor – projectors that reveal varied elements of Vos’ work, including a number of utterly charming self-portraits, together with commentary on his work.
Also to be found on this level are reproductions of the miniatures Vos started painting in 1966. And by miniatures, I mean entire paintings and portraits, both monochrome and colour just 33 mm (1.3 in) across; so small some of the detailing meant working with just a single hair on a brush. These are superbly reproduced “to scale”, and should be viewed by pressing ESC to ensure your camera is free, and then touching the frame of a particular painting to sit. Click Stand to resume touring the gallery.
Peter Vos in Second Life– viewing his miniatures utilises both an animation of your avatar and a scripted camera positioning using a “hidden” gallery under the main structure
Upstairs are further examples of Vos’ work, encompassing humour, satire, and social commentary. However, as with my first visit, I find the desk scattered with the paraphernalia of Vos’ work scattered around to be perhaps the most engaging. With the tobacco pouch, notebooks displaying his meticulous studies of birds, his brushes and pens, it is hard not to believe Vos has simply stepped away from his work for a minute or two, and if we wait quietly enough, he’ll return, and allow us to watch him as he continues sketching a sparrow.
The art also continues outside of the gallery building and on the terraces leading up to the front doors. Here, as well as more reproductions of Vos’ art, there are links to a trailer for Vogelparadijs, a documentary film about Vos’ passion as both a bird watcher and an artist.
The beauty of this art and the manner in which it engages and immerses the observer cannot be overstated. AS I noted three years ago, it is absolutely not be missed or overlooked.
Currently open at The Eye art gallery, curated by Mona (MonaByte) is a most intriguing exhibition of digital photography and art by Kubbrick, entitled InPerfección.
Kubbrick describes himself as “a sailor of the virtual seas and an artist [who] captures images in the physical world and transforms them through software and pictorial techniques in a search for the beauty of shapes and colours.”
One the ground floor of the gallery space, for example is a series of studies -of water and bubbles. These include photos of all or parts of the human body in the water, some in clear focus, some blurred, with applied lighting and contrast that marvellous utilise colour and reflection to explore our own relationship with water.
This can be seen withinAl Calor de la Flama – “the colour of flame”, and through the dynamics of motion in water shown through Nadadora de Aguas Profundas – “deep water swimmer” and Escape en el Agua – escape in the water; mixed with these images are thoughts even on the nature of rain on a window with Paisaje (“landscape”). However, for me, Escape en el Agua is particularly captivating; within it there is a wonderful displacement of air through the water that’s given birth to clouds of bubbles, and these naturally lead on to the remaining images in this part of the gallery, which in turn offer fascinating abstractions on bubbles.
It is perhaps “abstraction” that most applies to Kubbrick’s style, and this is further demonstrated in the digital pieces to be found on the upper level of the gallery.
These offer a rich mix of art, colour and form, all beautifully dynamic, some apparently created purely through digital means, others utilising “everyday” objects – the roof of what appears to be a gallery or stadium, the humble engine block, gears and chains, all combined with with digital techniques – to produce finished images that have an incredible feeling of being purely fractal in form. These all stand as captivating images in their own right; however, they also draw the eyes inevitably to Enfrentamiento (“confrontation”), a piece that appears to capture in mirrored form a piece of wall art.
My one regret with InPerfección is that I did not drop in sooner. The exhibition opened on June 28th, 2019, and so may not have much longer to run. So, if you do want to witness it for yourself, I would recommend a visit sooner rather than later.
Update, October 1st: Ani’s Gallery has relocated. SLurls in this article have been updated to reflect the gallery’s new location.
Ani (Anibrm Jung) is an award-winning photographer in the physical world who has been active in Second Life since 2006. Based in the Netherlands, Ani has specialised in photographing nature, many of her images captured from her own garden, and all of them recorded using only natural light, with everything framed directly through the viewfinder, and with no subsequent cropping or image manipulation.
More recently, Ani had turned her attention to photography within Second life, where she has brought her eye for detail and composition fully to bear to create some of the most engaging studies of Second Life art, landscapes and avatars.
A selection of Ani’s art can be seen, appreciated and purchased through her new gallery, Ani’s Gallery and Home to Sibelius, and she recently invited me to pay a visit to view the gallery, which also includes an exhibition by another of my favourite artists, Cybele Moon.
The gallery – located in a skybox – offers several spaces for exhibitions, with Ani’s work occupying the lower floor, and the guest exhibition space on the upper level. The landing point sits within the lower level, in a hall that serves both as an exhibition space and as a reception foyer. This area has a focus on Ani’s physical world photography, which is as bewitching as ever, and includes several pieces captured from within Second Life, thus presenting an eye-catching mix.
The neighbouring hall focuses almost entirely on Ani’s Second Life photography which – as noted, includes the same richness of focus and attention to composition, angle, tone and detail that marks these pieces completely captivating – and don’t miss her cat photos, either! Upstairs, Cybele presents Travels Songs and Stories, another completing enthralling exhibition of her exceptional digital art which also can so marvellously combine the realms of the physical and the virtual – and which should never be missed.
Two remarkable artists together in a single gallery marks Ani’s Gallery a worthy destination for any lover of the arts and artistic expression in Second life.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 