Interactive Digital Artists Rafael Rozendaal and Mr. Doob

Within the past ten years of the art world, a surge of digital media artists have made their stamp in the fine art world through the merging of film, photography, scultpure and much more. However, 2 artists, Mr. Doob and Rafael Rozendaal, have also created their work from their past experiences with computer programming and design. The result is a culmination of fun, interactive platforms that allows the viewer to participate with, while not diminishing the fine art aspect of their work.

Born 1980, Dutch-Brazilian, lives and works everywhere.

"Rafaël Rozendaal is a visual artist who uses the internet as his canvas. His artistic practice consists of websites, installations, drawings, writings and lectures. Spread out over a vast network of domain names, he attracts a large online audience of over 15 million visits per year.
His work researches the screen as a pictorial space, reverse engineering reality into condensed bits, in a space somewhere between animated cartoons and paintings. His installations involve moving light and reflections, taking online works and transforming them into spatial experiences.

He also created BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer), an open source DIY curatorial format that is spreading across the world rapidly.

Selected exhibitions: Venice Biennial, Valencia Biennial, Moca Taipei, Casa Franca Brasil Rio, TSCA Gallery Tokyo (solo), Spencer Brownstone Gallery NYC (solo), NIMk Amsterdam (solo), Stedelijk Museum project space (solo).

Selected press: Flash Art, Dazed & Confused, Interview Magazine, Wired Magazine, Purple Magazine, McSweeney’s, O Globo, Vice Magazine."

www.newrafael.com

Though not as big as a splash in the traditional gallery setting as Rafael, Mr. Doob's experience as a Google programmer has led him to create amazing interactive WebGL sites.

www.mrdoob.com

The Quilts of Gee's Bend

Anyone who grew up in Alabama with a knack for the Fine Arts knows about the Quilts of Gee's Bend. Or at least I hope so, for the sake of Southern ego and historical reference. "Gee's Bend", aka Boykin, is a small, rural community in south Alabama founded by freed slaves after the Civil War, and from generations of harsh poverty within the community sprung forth a cultural phenomenon in the art world. Now, you dont have to be a scholar in cultural identity to know that the poor have always composed the backbone of American culture in the U.S. (and by far the deep south), and that as poor Southerners, or just poor in general, you have to make due with whatever you have. Nothing goes to waste. This culmination of harsh living and limited resources ends up in extremely well crafted shapes and patterns of quilts created by the locals of Gee's Bend. To me, these works of art are parallel to the Harlem Renaissance, the influence of the Cubism and Expressionist movement, and much more. Their work has been shown internationally, and is in the collection of the MOMA. All of this, from a poor ass town in south Alabama.

for more info on the "Quilts of Gee's Bend", check out their website at www.quiltsofgeesbend.com

A big thank you

to all who came out to UCF MFA's first open studio in cunjunction with CITYARTS and ORLANDO SLICE. We had a great turnout and are already looking forward to future events!

whittling away

Meet Maskull Lasserre, a Canadian born artist whos flare for intricate detail and subject matter combined with specific placement and use of crafts has caught the attention of art buffs globally. His merging of the macabre with wood, found objects, and various non traditional mixed media is almost like a backwoods homage to HR Giger's work. Born in 1978, Maskull attended Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, where he received his BFA in 2001, and then on to Concordia where he got his MFA in 2009. Between the time span of his degrees, he was already receiving major city commissions in Canada, guest lecturing, and piling up group shows. His first major solo exhibition was in 2008 at the Karsh Masson Gallery in Ottawa, Ontario. He is currently represented by the GALLERY PIERRE-FRANCOIS OUELLETTE ART CONTEMPORAIN, in Montreal, Quebec.

examples of his work:

"Lexicon" 

2008

Carved newspapers, mechanical press

"Allegory"

Steel, wool, textile materials, industrial sewing machine

2011

"Self Doubt"

2010

Carved plywood plinth, belljar

"Self Doubt" (detail).

for more information and examples of his work, please visit his website: www.maskulllasserre.com

If only I could eat foam...

Meet Tamara Kostianovsky. She is a Jerusalem born artist who grew up in Buenos Aires, and currently works out of NYC (no wayyyy). Much like Heather Hart, Tamara's work is extremely tedious and material and fabric based that mimics objects or enhances the ordinary, such as her favorite subject, the meat industry (a very large industry in Argentina).

As Tamara explains," My intention is to confront the viewers with the real and grotesque nature of violence, offering a context for reflecting about the vulnerability of our physical existences, brutality, poverty, consumption, and the voracious needs of the body."

Tamara received her BFA from the National School of Fine Arts “Prilidiano Pueyrredon” in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 98' and her MFA in 2003 from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She is represented by the SLAG gallery in NYC and recently had a show entitled, "Stains".

"Abacus", 2008

"Mast", 2008. Clothing and wood originally from the artist.

"the Persistence of Agony", 2008. Wood, vinyl, foam and metal installation.

epic....