Tag: Art 2020

The Oller Belair Art Gallery (follow the path across the covered bridge from the landing point), created and operated by Pencarrow Oller offers a venue for physical world artists to present their work within Second Life. In this, it presents an exhibition space that encompasses art by Pencarrow herself with artist in residence Layachi Ihnen, together with invited artist exhibitions and a monthly competition for physical world artists, the Unicorn Awards competition. For April, the invited artist is Uleria Caramel, whose exhibition Circular opened on April 3rd, 2020.

An abstract expressionist, Uleria works in a number of mediums: oils, glass painting, aquarelles, ceramics and photography. Her art combines colour and contrast, inspired by her own feelings and emotional reactions to the things and the worlds she observes; something that can give her art a particular depth of emotional resonance from observers.

This is particularly true for Circular, her exhibition within the Belair hall of the gallery. This series of works has, as their foundation, the on-going global crisis that is affecting us all, as Uleria noted to me when discussing the exhibition.

I was thinking, what would be this exhibitions theme, and the main thing in my mind has been this corona crisis on this Earth. So my vision started to grow from words like lifeless, rock, space, and round shapes like an Earth shape, the corona virus shape and round shapes in general. But I don’t want to the virus theme into the foreground; if someone sees it, that’s OK; if they see something else, that’s OK as well.

This idea of a theme for the exhibition that is not in and of itself a driving force behind the images presented within it is clearly reflected in the selection process Uleria used for Circular. While the ideas of circles, spheres and round shapes and form that might contain elements suggestive of things like a virus is prevalent in all of the images she offers here, none of the pieces have been created specifically because of the foundational theme for Circular; rather, they are all pre-existing pieces drawn from Uleria’s rich portfolio if past works.

This give Circular a layering of interpretation and emotional depth that is genuinely captivating; some of the pieces through colour, impression and shape offer very clear reflections of virus-oriented themes, from the idea of a viral invasion. Take Cell One, The Origins, and Drifting, for example, with the latter in particular perhaps bringing to mind oxygenated haemoglobin, so vital to aerobic respiration, offering an indelible link to the respiratory nature of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the resulting Covid-19 disease.

Other pieces are more subtle in their connection to the thematic play of the exhibition, allowing us to view them entirely independently of that theme – although the threads of connection are there. Take the corner collection of mandala-like Kaleido images, together with Liquid Moon, for example.

These stand as pieces that engage the mind without any overt thoughts of illness or the like, yet within them are still thematic echoes: the Kaleido pieces offer both subtle suggestions of viral entities and of the interconnectedness we all share as a part of life that can enable their spread, while Liquid Moon can perhaps bring forth celestial thoughts on the cosmos around us and also suggestive of a single cell – the building block of life. Thus, these – and the other pieces presented here – mean that Circular can be viewed both as a social commentary for the times or purely as a retrospective of Uleria’s remarkable art.

As noted, the gallery also features exhibitions by Pencarrow, who at the time of my visit was offering a display of abstract, flowing pieces inspired by haikus. Through their use of colour, these are expressive pieces, even without the words of the haiku which inspired them (these should be offered by touching an individual piece, although this was still to be set-up at the time of my visit), with the more slender pieces each suggestive of traditional Japanese scroll paintings, thus adding to the depth of the theme.

Deserving of a more expressive space in which to be shown, Pancarrow’s pieces occupy the Oller hall / stairway leading up to the upper floor of the gallery, where Layachi Ihnen’s always absorbing studies and portraiture can be found. These are presided over by the impressive multi-panel The Infinites, a study that wraps itself around three walls of the exhibition area to form an unfolding story.

Provided for physical world artists displaying their work in Second Life, the Unicorn Awards is operated through the gallery, offering a prize pot of L$10K with art displayed in the Unicorn Studio hall. Each awards competition is themed, and details  can be obtained by setting foot in the Unicorn Studio or by contacting the gallery’s manager, Airam79 Carami, in-world.

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• Oller Belair Art Gallery (Pencarrow Estate, rated Moderate)

I’m reporting this a little late, given that both exhibitions only have a few more days to run, but currently on display in the featured artists sections of Sisi Biedermann’s Gallery are Melusina Parkin and Zia Sophia (Zia Branner), who will be at the gallery until the end of the month, so there really is only a couple of days left in which to see them!

Melusina Parkin really needs no introduction to readers of this blog; I’m an admitted admirer of her work, which I’ve featured in these pages on numerous occasions. Within her space at Sisi’s, she offers Journeys, another utterly engaging take on Second Life, the places it offers and their innate beauty.

Melu’s eye for angle, depth, composition and detail always presents chances to see Second Life in a new way and / or light. Rather than focusing on the whole to tell a story, she discovers the part that perhaps utters only a single line: the curve and rise of a paved footpath as it winds between cresting undulations of flowers before it vanishes over a low rise; the silhouette of a lighthouse caught between the branches of a thicket as the Sun dips between the coastal hills beyond; a tree dipping branches into the sea as if testing the temperature of the water…

All these, and the rest of the images in Journeys form whisperings that are just enough for the imagination to create an entire world around them. At the same time, there is a rich impression of openness and space present within each piece that truly gives us room to breathe, to feel a sense freedom – something that in the current climate of having to stay at home and away from the rest of the world, can be refreshing and uplifting.

Zia Branner is an artist in the physical world who uses paints with acrylics and use a variety of structure material – paste, gel, sand, glue, bandages and paper – together with oil crayons and acrylic ink, to accentuate elements with her pieces. Canvas is her preferred medium, although she also uses wood and paper, and while she has had formal art teaching, she is also autodidact, learning techniques and approaches whilst experimenting with art.

For her exhibition at Sisi’s, Zia offers an impressive portfolio of her art, from sweeping landscapes that encompass coastal scenes and rolling dunes to charcoal-like sketches of flowers and more abstracted pieces that use colour and line to capture the attention and hold the eye.

There is a vitality about each of these pieces, be it as a result of the sweep, turn, and mix of colour in some or the tactile sense of texturing visible in others, that truly brings them to life, perfectly echoing Zia’s view that “making art is rebellion against the finality of mankind”.

As always, the floors of the gallery above the featured artists spaces are home to Sisi’s own remarkable and utterly captivating work. Having started painting in acrylics in the early 2000s, Sisi has developed her technique to encompass a range of styles and approaches, from painting to mix media and digital collages to Second Life photography, whilst encompassing a wide range of genres – fantasy, wildlife, portrait, landscape and so on. It is not hyperbole when I say her work is genuinely second-to-none for its sheer beauty and richness of expression.

Located just outside of the gallery is a broad glass-like spiral stairway leading up to the Artists United Gallery, were pieces by the likes of Rage Darkstone, TerraMerhyem, Nils Urqhart, Layachi Ihnen, Milly Sharple and more are offered in a richly eclectic and engaging exhibition that adds further depth to a visit to the gallery.

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• Sisi Biedermann Gallery and Garden (Cailsteal Maol, rated Moderate)

After something of a hiatus, Carelyna re-opened her ArtCare Gallery in mid-March to offer an expanded environment for displaying art in Second Life, complete with a featured ensemble exhibition of art that runs through until April 12th, 2020.

The featured exhibition is located on the upper floor of the gallery space, reached by a teleport disk towards the middle of the lower floor. The latter is home to the gallery’s foyer area and landing point, together with a series of exhibition spaces Carelyna has entitled the ArtCare Legacy Collection, celebrating past exhibitions hosted at the gallery.

This lower level presents a marvellously rich variety of art from within and without Second Life. Within the halls can be found 2D and 3D pieces by the likes of Suzie Anderton, Bamboo Barnes, Zia, Branner, CybeleMoon, Lam Erin, Pol Jarvinen, Kimeu Korg, Silas Merlin, Moya Patrick, Agleo Runningbear, and more.

It’s a richly diverse collection featuring landscapes captured from within Second Life, avatar studies, digital mixed-media, pastels and paintings from the physical world, all laid out through the halls in a manner that naturally draws the visit through them, with each artist presented by just enough of their works that the visitor isn’t overwhelmed by the art of display.

On the upper level of the gallery, the featured artists exhibition comprises collections by Devanahousha, Jessamine2108, MTH63, Strimon, Mareea Farasco, Mentat Immelmann, Viktor Savior and Thus Yootz. Here, each artist has an individual hall in which to display their art, allowing them to offer a much broader selection than found for the artists on the lower level.

Like those of the lower lower floor, these displays offer a rich mix of art: digital, Second Life landscapes, image and avatar studies, and physical world paintings and landscapes, the styles of each artist offering a further layer to the distinctiveness of the art to be found within each hall. All deserve equal appreciation, but I confess that I found myself particularly drawn to Thus Yootz’s corner with its impressive selection of 2D pieces that are marvellously processed and finished and displayed with a trio of sculpture trees that are also intensely individual.

As noted, the featured artists’ exhibition will run through until April 12th, and both it and the Legacy Collection make for eye-catching visits.

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• ArtCare Gallery (Prychek, rated: Moderate)

We set a theme and we go our own ways. We take pictures at any sim in the whole of Second Life for about 2 or 3 weeks, and then at the agreed date, we combine our picture at the Café Gallery.

 – Lynx Luga and Kit Boyd describing their personal photo challenges

Photo challenges are not new to Second Life, but Kit and Lynx, owners and curators of the Monocle Man gallery spaces and hang-out, use them to good effect to capture images in a thematic manner whilst allowing them to jointly see Second Life in a way that might otherwise be missed or taken for granted.

For their latest joint challenge, now on display at the ground-level Monocle Man Café they offer The Neon Challenge: images of Second Life featuring or focused on the use of neon across the grid.

Neon is very much a part of Second Life; who hasn’t been to a cyberpunk / Bladerunner / sci-fi themed location, and not encountered neon signs, logos, and lighting? Similarly cityscapes oft have neon signage for stores and locations. As such, its not surprising that some of the images in this selection are from such locations – but they are not, as one might perhaps think, in the majority.

Both Lynx and Kit have cast their nets wide, such that while the sci-fi / Bladerunner, etc., elements are present, they mostly offer unique views and subtle hints (Videophone, Cyberpunk Circles). What’s more they are displayed alongside pieces where neon, whilst present, is not seen as the immediate focus. Instead it sits as a part of the complete picture, forming part of the narrative, rather than being the narrative (Neon Doggy, Trailer Park, Busted, Sexy Legs and Neon Girl).

Even what might be regarded as the seedier side of neon’s use in adult theme locations and advertising (Sexy Girls, Sexy Neon and Dancing Girls) is framed to offer a story behind the light. Take Dancing Girls in particular; within it lies the the suggestion of a hidden life of wanting being the colour-backed dance of the silhouettes, one that for me brought to mind the lyrics from Elton John’s In Neon.

An engaging exhibition that I believe will be open through the next month.

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• Monocle Man Gallery  (Flying Fortress, rated Adult)