aurèce vettier

chrysalis I (Meursault)

2024

aurèce vettier, an art project founded in 2009 by Paul Mouginot (b. 1990), derives its alias from an algorithm to highlight its unique artistic identity with a collaborative, hybrid ...

Hugh Findletar is perhaps best known for his bustlike vases, which he calls "flowerheadz." They are created in glassblowing workshop on Murano, an Italian island near Venice. The "z,...

The artist says of her work... Arrested Symphony is an exhibition incorporating sculptures, reliefs, drawings and hanging works that explore the theme of injustice that is at the roots of the predatory gem and mineral excavation industry. While at a residency in Knoxville, Tennessee, I discovered that Oakridge was only 30 miles away. Oakridge played a key role in the development of the Atom Bomb and the Manhattan Project. I began an exploration and comparison of Uranium and Emeralds. These minerals look very much alike, beautiful but dangerous on their effect on civil conflict. Colombia my birthplace, has the finest Emeralds in the world. The mining of Emeralds was an important element in the continued colonization of the region. Emeralds have helped to fund the more than 60-year conflict which has taken over 450,000 lives and displaced about 5.7 million people. Uranium has brought destruction to a level which altered the future of warfare. The developments made during the Manhattan Project led to the death of about 700,000 people and its effects are still felt around the world. I use Colombia as an example, however this situation is repeating itself in many parts of the world. Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo are all involved in brutal civil conflicts fueled by Blood Diamonds. This project will make visual the human cost extracted with these minerals, once exposed to the light of day they can never be unearthed. My practice is an ongoing object-based exploration through which I create artworks which are organic and improvisational constructions that are infused with hope and renewal. The hand-crafted artworks are poetically and intricately crafted, creating an intimate repository for the individual and collective memory and implement the human body as a symbol and expression of nature, vulnerability and power. The work encourages viewers to reconsider social and historical narratives especially when dealing with the aftermath of Colonialism and raises critical questions about the politics of erasure and exclusion. ESPERANZA CORTÉS is a Colombian born contemporary multidisciplinary artist based in New York City. Cortés has exhibited in the United States in solo and group exhibitions in venues including Smack Mellon Gallery, Neuberger Museum of Art, Bronx Museum of Art, Queens Museum, El Museo Del Barrio, MoMA PS1, Socrates Sculpture Park and White-box Gallery in New York City. Nationally Cortes exhibitions include Cleveland Art Museum, OH, CSU Galleries at Cleveland University, OH, Helen Day Art Center, VT and The Lorenzo Homar...

"Protected Spirits" is a sculpture carved from Opal stone signed Picket, who is part of the Shona tribe in Zimbabwe. It depicts two abstracted figures, presumably spirits, seeming to float upwards. 38 1/2" x 13 1/2" x 7 1/4" Picket Mazhindu Bumhira was born 1968 in the Seke communal lands about 5 km. from Harare, Zimbabwe. Picket had a passion for art from childhood and during his school days he loved drawing and painting. He was very inspired by sculpture of the late John Takawira, one of Zimbabwe's first generation of Shona sculptors, whom he met when Picket went to Chapungu. They then agreed to work together. Later he started to sculpt on his own. Some of his works made the headlines in the newspapers, including "Spirit of Love," which was exhibited in Victoria Falls during Arts Gala. He exhibited in the UK and in Germany. He was among the sculptors who went to China for an exhibition at the Poverty Reduction Summit. Picket likes working on springstone and opal and especially enjoys making abstracts. Shona artists and crafts people have been working in different media for generations. These include paintings, pottery, basket ware, wood carvings, and sculpture done in metal as well as the stone carvings. While there is not a long standing tradition of sculpture in what is now Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia), stone carvings dating from the 15th century were seen in Great Zimbabwe, an excavated temple near Bulawayo. Most of the artifacts from this location have been moved to museums in Cape Town, South Africa or London. It is generally agreed that Zimbabwean stone sculpture...