Tag: Art 2021

It’s no secret that I’m a huge admirer of Sisi Biedermann and her art. The way she is constantly shifting her style and focus means that she offers one of the broadest and most engaging ranges of art to be found in Second Life, and her exhibitions invariably offer something new to appreciate and admire.

This is certainly the case with her exhibition at Raging Graphix Gallery, operated and curated by Liv (RagingBellls). Occupying the upper floor of the gallery, this is selection of art that comes in two parts: within the main are of the exhibition floor are thirteen pieces collected under the title Dusk & Dawn, with five further pieces located at the top of the stairwell leading into the exhibition space.

As the name suggests, Dusk & Dawn presents a mix of images between them representing early mornings and sunsets – although such a simple description does not do these pieces any justice at all. This is a gourmet selection of digital art pieces that mix city skylines and coastal scenes that have a richness of colour and depth that is extraordinary.

The skylines concerns are pretty much instantly recognisable, with those of New York offering unique takes on some familiar landmarks, whilst the Golden Gate is perfectly framed in a hazy, misty morning sky that many will be familiar with  from film, television and photographs but which is here given a new twist through the use of colour that gives a warmth of colour whilst suggestion of a cool morning.

Meanwhile, within the coastal scenes are views filled with the warmth of sunset that carry the imagination to exotic places with warm seas and long, cool cocktails waiting to be enjoyed before a sunset walk along the beach. There are also images that bring to mind early mornings and times when motor fishing boats might be passing on their way to make their catch, or when we might walk the banks of a river or along the shoreline of a lake as the Sun is just high enough to start burning away the morning mist.

With some of the images finished with a touch of vignette, the use of soft tones and layered to offer an etching-like sense of texture and physical depth, these are genuinely captivating pieces.

Etched finishes are also much in evidence in the five pieces at the top of the stairway. These are taken from Sisi’s collection of digital art capturing the world of garden nature. Each features a central colour – pink, white, green, red and black – all joined by the word Magic. Each is an exquisite collage of colour, beautifully finished and presented.

It is hard to see Sisi’s art and not become caught up within it, such is the beauty to be found within each and every piece she produces. Miss this exhibition at your peril!

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• Raging Graphix Gallery (Heatherwood, rated Moderate)

Currently underway at Campbell Coast art centre, is their autumn 2021 Art Walk exhibition, featuring an outdoor display of art by a number of artists, and the opportunity to tour the study galleries within the village.

The featured artists for the Art Walk are: Eylinea Seabird (eylinea), Ourane NuevaVida (ourane), Loony Carabosse – Moretto (louna.perl), Samanthe Mirror, Traci Ultsch and Zia Sophia (zia.branner). Between they, they present a contrasting selection of art. Zia, as the closest to the landing point, presents to of her abstract painting from the physical world that are captivating in their use of colour, tone, contrast and line. Alongside of her, Samanthe presents four avatar studies, nicely balanced between colour and monochrome pieces that offer narratives on an individual’s life, from enjoying the simple pleasure of a hot drink to moments of dance and delight or of quiet introspection.

Loony’s images, meanwhile make use of soft tones and carry a distinctly avian theme across two of them, whilst one presents a layered digital media piece. Beside these, Eylinea’s work is a stark contrast, giving us three simply marvellous digital pieces that are fabulously minimalist or abstracted, and gently animated in a manner that is genuinely captivating and calming.

Traci Ultsch is an artist who repeatedly pushes herself with her art; she has a fearlessness when it comes to experimentation and diving into different styles and genres. Her work has embraced avatar studies, landscapes, photography, whilst also offering personal statements on life and society. Here, bracketing the door to her studio gallery, she presents four stunningly abstract expressions of nature.

Ourane is an artist I’m not overly familiar with, but her paintings at Campbell Coast immediately captivated me. These are richly expressive pieces, their use of colour and line as unique as their subject matter.

As noted, the art walk also offers the opportunity to visit the boutique galleries of the other artists exhibiting at Campbell Coast as well, comprising Bijoux (BijouxBarr), Michiel Bechir, eta (etamae) and Jeanie (jeanienabottle), all of whom definitely worth viewing.

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• Campbell Coast (Emyniad, rated Moderate)

If it seems my recent art reviews have been somewhat focused on artists who bring their work from the physical world into Second Life, then there is a simple explanation: it’s because they are. Admittedly, some of it is simply down to the manner in which I receive invitations or find them within the various art group notices I frequently check; however, it is also because  – contrary to the statement I’ve heard made more than once – I think SL is actually a very good medium for artists to present their physical world art as much as it is for presenting in-world images.

Take Bif Mopp, for example, whose work is now being displayed at the AmandaT Tamatzui Gallery, owned and curated by AmandaT Tamatzui, who is herself an accomplished professional artist in the physical world who hails from New Zealand. Bif is a most extraordinary artist who dedicates a good portion of his talent and portfolio to aviation paintings, capturing aircraft, military and civil and of times past and times present. And he does so with amazing skill and imagery, perfectly capturing his subjects in all of their majesty and / or going about their business. Such accuracy, in fact that his work has been displayed not only in galleries, but also aviation museums – and even the office of a former US Air Force Chief of Staff.

As an aviation enthusiast myself, I was immediately captivated by the paintings presented within this exhibition, not only because of their technical accuracy – I challenge anyone with a love of aviation through the 20th century not to be able to recognise any of the aircraft here, even when viewed at a distance, such is the skill with which Bif have portrayed them – but because each image carries within it an entire story of an aircraft, and / or its era and or / or pilot.

Take, for example, 27 August 1941 (which I’ll state up-front is my favourite among favourites within this selection). At first glance, it is very obviously a Supermarine Spitfire Mark IID, possibly from the Battler of Britain. However, the markings reveal it to be aircraft P7308 of No. 71 (Eagle) squadron, one of three squadrons so-called as they were formed with volunteer pilots from the United States.

In particular, this aircraft was flown by Pilot Officer William R. Dunn, a man so determined to fly with the RAF, he lied his way into the Canadian Army (claiming he was from Moosejaw, Saskatchewan!), then once in the UK sought a transfer to the RAF, making a “pen slip” on his application form, so that it was believed he had 560 flying hours under his belt (500 being required to be accepted for pilot training), rather than his actual 160. In particular, on August 27th, 1941, Dunn’s squadron was escorting RAF light bombers over France when they engaged with enemy fighters. Dunn took two out before his own aircraft  – and Dunn himself – took hits, forcing him to return across the channel and a trip to hospital. He eventually re-joined the war as a member of the US Army Air Force – and already recognised at the first American fighter Ace of WWII (and in conclusion, I’ll note that Dunn went on to a distinguished USAAF/USAF career and became an artist himself).

It’s a story that brings the image even more to life, as do the stories bound within other paintings here – such as the long tradition of Dallas Doll, (Buzz Job), the P51D Mustang flown by the 352nd Fighter Squadron, US 8th Air Force and which still flies today, a favourite of several aviation artists. Then there is Bunker Hill, with its Corsair fighter (as piloted by ace Lt. Dean Caswell), showing just how small and lonely the deck of an aircraft carrier can be on an ocean as big as the Pacific – and the relief felt on finding it in the fading light of day, a sentiment also shared by Almost Home. Elsewhere, US Mail evocatively captures the pioneering days of the US air mail service as exemplified by the men who flew the rugged Pitcairn Mailwing, specifically designed to ply US government airmail routes of the 1920s and 1930s, while a high-flying DC3 hails the aircraft that really kick-started mass passenger transport after the end of WWII.

Rounded-out by a trio of beautiful landscape / seacape, this is genuinely a superb exhibition, and SL aviators from across the grid (as well a lovers of art) really should come and see.

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• AmandaT Tamatzui Gallery (Woolybear, rated Moderate)

Currently available within the Annexe of the Limoncello gallery – for a while longer, at least, given it opened at the start of November – is an intriguing exhibition of images by Guille (Antoronta) entitled Unseen Beauty.

Guille appears to be a relatively recent arrival in Second Life – as inferred by his Profile. An educator by profession and hailing from Spain, he appears to be bound to the natural beauty of Nature, noting in his Profile that it is the ultimate expression of art whilst his Flickr stream takes us on a journey into the microscopic – as is the case with Unseen Beauty.

Through both the exhibition and his Flickr stream, Guille takes us on a rarely-seen journey, one to a world that exists not beyond our own, but within it. no, not a world – an entire universe where the strangest and in many respects the more wonderous forms of life exist.

It is possible that this is the first time that a sample of these characteristics has been exhibited in SL, as in RL this type of exhibition is extraordinarily scarce, as well as the knowledge of these wonderful and fascinating living beings to whom it is dedicated. All the images have been taken under the microscope, on living organisms that, after being observed, have been returned to the place from which they were collected. Almost all of them are very little known, and some of the smallest, contain the keys to know how we are and how we have evolved.

– Guille, describing Unseen Beauty

Thus  we are presented with a series of living images of the most incredible creatures, from cyanobacteria (aka Cyanophyta or “blue-green algae”), a kind of  prokaryote and one of the first organisms known to have produced oxygen, thus helping to start life on Earth as we know it today. Then there are diatoms such as the family of Coscinodiscaceae, noted for their radial symmetry and circular shapes when viewed from the front.

Each image is accompanied by an information giver providing a description of the featured algae, bacteria or amoebic form, each beautifully – in places poetically – written by Guille. Witness:

In each drop, the world of Cosmarium becomes rainbow, letting the sun melt on its cover, while absorbing the juice of life between its rays, tiny pearls that live are arcoris, true water jewels. They gravitate in the water like planets that in each drop for them is infinite.

Perhaps because it has the skin of an elephant, Cosmarium pachydermum, it endures the icy winter nights with the starry sky and the scorching summer sun on the highest peaks, as long as a drop of water is its ocean between Sphagnum, and in it, which is its universe, can show its soul scalloped with green jewel, perhaps from the times when the ice was the mantle of these mountains.

– Guille, describing Cosmarium pachydermun

Beautiful images of life unimagined – but without which we would not be here to admire it – captured in an instant and written into the memory through colour and words, Unseen Beauty is a bewitching exhibition, not to be missed, and an excellent gateway to the additional exhibitions on the remaining levels of the Annexe.

SLurl Details

• Limoncello Art Gallery Annexe: Unseen Beauty (Nanga, rated General)