Sculpture News
News: Evan Penny's Real Life Acid Trip
When viewing Toronto based artist Evan Penny's work, Ron Mueck immediately comes to mind. The clear similarities include a representation which is completely photo-realistic, a playfulness with scale, and the mutually shared background in Hollywood SFX.
News: If the World Were Made of Pixels...
Texas based artist Shawn Smith brings the digital world to reality with his woodcut pixelated sculptures. The combination of a traditional material (wood) with a contemporary concept results in surprisingly fresh work. Plus, the craftsmanship appears to be impeccable. Check out his artist statement below.
News: Careful, No Pooping in This Pizza Box
It's amazing what you can do with an ordinary material like cardboard... or a truckload of discarded pizza boxes.
News: Cardboard Mechanics
We love it when everyday material is used in a new and unexpected application. Cardboard is something most of us take completely for granted. We need it when we're moving, and that's about it. When Frank Gehry created the cardboard chair in 1972, he blew the minds of both the furniture and the design world. So strong. So durable. So fluid.
News: Olafur in the Sky with Diamonds
Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson totally inspires us here at Wonderhowto. His waterfall installations on the Hudson River. His incredible sun exhibit at the Tate in London. His concepts and execution are dazzling. Plus he has Taschen book that weighs a frickin ton. (Yes. The tonnage does translate to respect.)
News: The World's Slowest Porsche
Sounds like an odd bragging right, but hold your horses, artist Hannes Langeder's handmade Porsche is pretty damn interesting.
News: This $50K Sculpture is Made of What?
53-year-old artist Scottish artist David Mach uses tens of thousands of matchsticks to create sculptures of animals, as well as religious and political icons. He first creates a plastic or fiberglass mold, and then inserts the matchsticks, one at a time. His work sells anywhere from $30,000 to $52,000... unless he sets the piece on fire, of course.
News: Massive Cocoons Trap Humans Like Flies in a Web
INSANE what you can do with a truckload of packing tape. Viennese/Croatian design collective For Use/Numen uses the common junk drawer office supply to create massive, self-supportive cocoons that visitors can climb inside and explore.
News: What's Going on Here? Amorphous, Living, Breathing... Butts?
Love it. Spooky. Weird. Visually compelling. Entitled, "Klunk Garden", the piece was made by (well-known-in-the-art-world) Austrian artist collective, Gelitin. Looks like one of those cheesy little tabletop zen gardens. You know what I'm talkin' about:
News: Azuma Makoto's Serious Flower Power
I'm totally drooling over artist Azuma Makoto's insanely lush, decadent floral arrangement-sculptures. Drop. Dead. Beautiful.
News: Careful, Don't Fall Down the Rabbit Hole
When two houses were scheduled for demolition, artists Dan Havel and Dean Ruck of Art League Houston decided to take advantage of the situation and create the super trippy Tunnel House.
News: Fossilisation Machine Cuts 1,000 Year Process Down to 3 Months
Artist Austin Houldsworth of the UK has come up with a device that drastically speeds up the process of fossilisation. Entitled Two Million & 1AD, Houldsworth is capable of creating a fossil in a few months (which otherwise might require thousands of years). Houldsworth is currently experimenting with objects such as a pineapple and phesant, but ultimately hopes to fossilize a human. Houldsworth proposes:
News: Farm Your Manga
Hmm, what to do with all those old comic books lying around... How about a little Manga farming?
News: Anal-Retentive Miniscule Pencil Tip Carvings
Dalton Ghetti has been carving teeny, tiny pencil tip sculptures for 25 years. Mr. Ghetti, who owns about as many possessions as a monk, is aware how unusual his craft is. He started carving tree bark when he was a child and experimented with everything from soap to chalk before settling on graphite. It's second nature now, and for 90 percent of his work, all he needs is a sewing needle, a razor blade and a carpenter's or No. 2 pencil.
News: Artist Converts Hummer Into Horse-Drawn Stagecoach
As a protest to American consumerism, NYC artist Jeremy Dean converted a Hummer H2 into a horse-drawn carriage "to show just how screwed and unsustainable the auto industry has become." Dean believes the gas guzzling SUV is the epitome of everything that is wrong with American consumerism. Whatever your political opinion may be, Dean's conversion is pretty striking.
News: Princess Peach Poses as Mother of God
Princess Peach poses as the Madonna, cradling Mario (as Jesus), in artist Kordian Lewandowski's sculptural rendition of Michelangelo’s “La Pietà”.
News: Dominoes That Fall... and Get Right Back Up Again
Nothing better than toppling a domino chain and watching them fall. Worst part? Setting them all up again. Created by Los Angeles artist Karl Lautman, the Ouroborus Domino structure reconstructs itself after a single round of five times. Wonderfully clever and whimsical. Previously, Perform the Impossible Balancing Dominoes Trick.
News: Rotating Kitchen Makes One Huge Mess
Remember the room with a rotating view? Dutch artist Zeger Reyers brings us an equally interesting installation, created for the exhibition Eating the Universe at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany. The kitchen has been rotating since November 27th, 2009, and will continue to do so until February 28th, 2010.
News: Fan Propelled Paper Airplane (Fake or Real?)
This video has generated half a million views and quite the comment stream on YouTube. A paper airplane is placed between two fans, and suspends in the air for some time. The comments predominately charge that the action is "fake" (has a wired been suspended?).
News: How'd He Do That?
Amazing work by artist Walee for BEAUX ARTS Magazine. Photoshop tricks? Photograph manipulation? Papercraft sculpting?
News: Thousands of Bouncy Balls Extended in Space
Massive bouncy ball installation by Australian artist Nike Savvas. Entitled "Full of Love and Full of Wonder", each bouncy ball "represents the very atoms that are the fundamental structural units of all things".
News: Tree-in-a-Jar
Taking the idea of the classic terrarium a couple steps further. Artist Naoko Ito's urban nature project.
News: Nick Cave's Fantastical Soundsuits
Nick Cave is the Willy Wonka genius behind the extraordinarily imaginative "soundsuits" pictured below.
News: I'll Have the Shoeburger, Please
Looks good enough to eat. Artist Olle Hemmendorff was asked to interpret the Nike Air Max 90 for an exhibit.
News: Party in Paris (Under the Biggest Disco Ball in the World)
Conceptual artist Michel de Broin has created the biggest disco ball the world has ever seen, which he suspended over Paris for one night.
News: Beautifully Carved Pencils and Baseball Bats
Amazing sculptures by Peter Schuyff. Don't know about you, but they've inspired me to check out some wood carving tutorials.
News: Soft and Squishy Sculptures
Los Angeles based artist Mashanda Scott creates soft and squishy sculptures of everyday objects.
News: Pyromaniac Mosquito Catcher
More pyro-art fun. Artist Johannes Vogl's flamethrower mosquito catcher.
News: Incredible Human-Sized Nests Installed Across the Globe
Wow, forget treehouse-lust, I want my own Patrick Dougherty human-sized twig-nest. According to Dougherty's site, he has built over 200 sculptures all over the world to date, beginning in 1982. Dougherty uses primitive building techniques to create his tree sapling structures.
News: Obsessively Crafted Sculptures Made of Salt
Japanese artist Motoi Yamamoto's medium of choice is none other than your simple household table salt, fragile and completely ephemeral. Yamamoto creates beautiful installations with the medium, salt being a strong symbol in Japanese death culture (as well as several other cultures around the world: Hinduism, Catholicism, Egyptian and Aztec mythology).
News: Beautiful Sound Sculptures Made With Worms and Motors
Artist Zimoun creates amazing sound sculptures using motors, magnets, compressed air, hoses, woodworms and other materials. Some of the sculptures recreate everyday sounds (rain and sprinklers), others have an unidentifiable, industrial sound to them.
News: Artist Makes Rubik's Cube Using Bronze (and Pee)
Artist Marshall Astor has made a fully functional Rubik's Cube out of bronze. What? No differentiated, colored sides? How do you play? Apparently there's reasoning behind it. Astor gets deep:
News: Smoke Bombs Make Beautiful Art
What is it about the infamous colored smoke bomb that is so deeply satisfying, so beautiful? Well, first there's an explosion (always fun), which then yields beautiful billowing clouds of saturated color. Check out artist Olaf Breuning's Smoke Bombs, 2008.
News: Undulating LED Wave Sculpture
Beautiful LED sculpture made for the 2008 100% Design exhibition in Earls Court. Curious how it was made? Process images below the video. Previously, 24,000 LED Light-Up-My-Dress.
News: SPLAT! Art Made from Everyday Household Items
Tom Friedman. One of my very favorite contemporary artists. Friedman injects the wonder into the humdrum. He creates magic from the unsuspected with his incredible sculptures assembled from simple, everyday materials. His materials have included: toilet paper, drinking straws, construction paper, masking tape, toothpicks, bubblegum, spaghetti, toothpaste, soap powder, sugar cubes.
News: Building-Sized Überorgan Emits Heavenly Music and Farts
Tim Hawkinson is an artist who truly inspires. The Los Angeles based artist creates complex, whimsical sculptures with simple mechanics and basic materials. One of his most notable pieces is the art-world-renowned "Uberorgan", a giant football field sized, fully-automated bagpipe, cleverly constructed with plastic sheeting and pieces of electrical hardware.
News: Sculpt Melted Cassette Tape Puddles Into Skulls
Cool cassette tape art by Atlanta based artist Brian Dettmer. From Design Boom:
News: Magical Beach Marauding Machines
Dutch artist Theo Jansen creates incredible kinetic, wind powered sculptures, resembling the skeletons of ambiguous beasts.
News: Paper-made Girls
Korean artist Osang Gwon creates more than just alluring paper-made girls. Gwon has moved past traditional papercraft, taking volumes of photographs of his subjects and constructing sculptural forms from the carefully arranged 2D images. Gwon shows in galleries, and has done commissioned projects for both Fendi and Nike.
News: Room With a Rotating View
British artist Richard Wilson's "Turning The Place Over" holds affinities to Gordon Matta-Clark's site specific "building cuts" from the seventies. Wilson created a rotating cut facade, which reveals the building's interior with each turn.