Artist Okuda San Miguel Sets a 82-Foot Sculpture Aflame for the Falles Festival in Valencia

A Preview of the Second Annual Nuart Aberdeen Street Art Festival

Mural by Fintan Magee (2017), all images taken by Ian Cox, courtesy of Nuart Aberdeen

Fintan Magee (2017)

The second annual Nuart Aberdeen kicks off next month, celebrating the work of international street artists with workshops, guided tours, and film screenings throughout the course of the four-day festival. The public art platform aims to activate its local art scene while also encouraging visiting artists to collaborate with its twin city of Stavanger, which has hosted the original Nuart Festival for the last 17 years.

In 2017 the Scotland-based festival presented site-specific murals and interventions by Fintan Magee, Martin Whatson, Add Fuel, Jaune, and more. This year’s installations and temporary exhibitions will center around the theme “A Revolution of the Ordinary,” and include work by international artists Bordalo II, Bortusk Leer, Carrie Reichardt, Dr. D, Elki, Ernest Zacharevic, Glöbel Bros., Hyuro, Milu Correch, Nimi & RH74, Phlegm, and Snik.

The opening of Inky Protest, a collaborative exhibition between Nuart and Peacock Visual Arts, kicks off the festival on Thursday, April 12. The exhibition will feature work by artists such as Brad Downey, Mike Giant and Ralph Steadman, Futura, Martha Cooper and Jamie Reid. You can view a preview of the upcoming festival in the video below. (StreetArtNews)

Martin Whatson (2017)

Isaac Cordal (2017)

Add Fuel (2017)

Julien de Casabianca (2017)

Herakut (2017)

Jaune (2017)

Robert Montgomery (2017)

Stitched Sculptural Installations of Everyday Objects and Gestures by Amanda McCavour

Toronto-based textile artist Amanda McCavour uses thread and a sewing machine to construct sculptural installations that dance between two and three dimensions. McCavour stitches on a special fabric that dissolves in water to create the surfaces of thread. Through renderings of objects like sofas, kitchen tables, and backpacks, as well as arms and hands engaged in work, she explores connections to home and the fibers of the body. In an artist statement McCavor states she is interested “in thread’s assumed vulnerability, its ability to unravel, and its strength when it is sewn together.”

McCavour holds an MFA from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, and she exhibits widely. Currently, her Floating Garden installation is on display at the Cornell Art Museum in Florida as part of their Flora exhibition, which opens today, March 30th, and is on view through September 9, 2018. Flora also includes Tiffanie Turner (previously), and Miya Ando (previously). You can see more of McCavour’s work on her Facebook page and via Instagram.

The Diverse Daily Life of a Ping Pong Table in Germany Photographed by Tomiyasu Hayahisa

In 2011 Tomiyasu Hayahisa started photographing a ping pong table located in a public athletic field across from his dorm in Leipzig, Germany for a series titled TTP. Tomiyasu had first noted the location after observing a white tailed fox perched near the legs of the table, and after waiting several days for the animal to return, he began to photograph the other life forms that congregated or paused near the outdoor game. Rather than spotting the fox, he captured families, partiers, and lonesome daydreamers using the area as a bench or bed.

“At the time I had been living in a student doom in Leipzig and it was possible to photograph from window the table tennis table, how people from different countries use it in their way,” Tomiyasu told Colossal. “And it could be the message of this work that the place could be everywhere.”

If you enjoyed this series, you might also enjoy Yevgeniy Kotenko‘s On the Bench, a project which observed the daily life of a park bench in Ukraine for over a decade. TTP has been shortlisted for the 2018 MACK First Book Award. You can see more of Tomiyasu‘s work on his website. (via This Isn’t Happiness)

Lifelike Sculpted Figures and Immersive Monochrome Environments by Hans Op de Beeck

The Collector’s House, sculptural installation, 2016. Coated wood, coated polyester, pigmented plaster, PU, metal, glass, 20 × 12.5 × 4 m

German artist Hans Op de Beeck creates life-size figural sculptures and immersive environments from materials such as coated wood, polyester, and pigmented plaster. These chosen materials turn his constructed figures and installations into a uniform shade of matte gray, which makes the viewer feel as if the world around them has been zapped of color.

In his 2016 work The Collector’s House, Op de Beeck produced a 2,600-square-foot monochrome space in which visitors served as the only element of color. The museum-like installation contained several life-size sculpted figures in addition to a library, grand piano, furniture, scattered still lifes, and a lily pool positioned squarely at the work’s center. This work, like many in his practice aimed to stimulate the viewer’s senses and to “create a form of visual fiction that delivers a moment of wonder, silence and introspection,” he explained in an artist statement.

Op de Beeck currently works in both Brussels and Gooik, Belgium. Over the last decade, Op de Beeck has mounted institution-based solo exhibitions at museums across the US and Europe, including the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (2010), MOCA Cleveland (2014), and Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (2017). You can view more of his lifelike figures and installations on his website.

The Collector’s House, sculptural installation, 2016. Coated wood, coated polyester, pigmented plaster, PU, metal, glass, 20 × 12.5 × 4 m

The Collector’s House, sculptural installation, 2016. Coated wood, coated polyester, pigmented plaster, PU, metal, glass, 20 × 12.5 × 4 m

Tatiana (Soap Bubble), sculpture, 2017. Polyester, wood, polyamide

Sleeping Girl, sculpture, 2017. Mixed Media

Brian, sculpture, 2018. Polyester, glass, coating

Tatiana (Butterfly), sculpture, 2017. Polyester, wood, polyamide

The Garden Room, sculptural installation, 2017

Artopia: A 3D Painting App That Lets You Create Artworks for Others to Discover in Augmented Reality

Kuwaiti game developer Omar Khalil is in the process of building an augmented reality and location-based app called Artopia, which allows users to create and save 3D paintings out in the world. Others can then encounter the paintings, which are timestamped and show the username of the creator. Khalil began working on the project as a computer science student at American University of Kuwait. As Artopia nears completion, Khalil is looking for beta testers. If you’d like to give feedback, you can sign up on Artopia’s website.

Poseable Miniature Birds Designed by Katie Doka

Copenhagen-based miniature artist Katie Doka fabricates exquisitely detailed miniature birds that perch atop the ends of pencils and paintbrushes. The feathery specimens are built primarily from polymer clays, glass, jewelry wire and lambs wool or cotton with accents of acrylic paint. Although the pieces are designed primarily for use in dollhouses, their adjustable frames and appendages ensure each bird can adapt to any environment. You can see more on Instagram and in her Etsy shop. (via So Super Awesome)