Evaluating the emotional impact of art

Many research projects in the humanities and social sciences result in creative and artistic outputs, but whilst a sprawling and contested industry has emerged to monitor and evaluate written research outputs, the impact of visual art is less well understood. Drawing on a study using Q Methodology to evaluate an art exhibition, Lesley Brook discusses … Continued

Kennedy Yanko’s Poetic Fusion of Metal and “Paint Skin”

Brooklyn-based artist Kennedy Yanko uses salvaged metal and blanket-like “paint skins” to create incredible artworks that challenge the definition of painting and perfectly balance a range of oppositions. Her current exhibition Humming on Life presents 10 new artworks on view at Jeffery Deitch in New York through April 22^nd.

Metal feels weightless, refuse becomes beautiful, and paint breaks free from canvas. The “paint skins” in Yanko’s work are literally just paint – first created flat and then draped over, between, and within the crushed metal. The fabric-like folds and crushed-metal dents echo each other while both feel organically matched – as if the two elements have somehow grown together.

These new 2023 works add a new layer to her process. On previous works, the color of the paint skins was inspired by an existing color on the found metal: perhaps a lime green from oxidized copper or a burgundy from a small patch of rust. But in these new works, Kennedy has introduced the act of painting onto the metal itself with more colors before pieces are fire-cut and additionally crushed. This process introduces more complex color interactions while maintaining a contrast of time and texture between the elements.

Besides the towering scale (some are over 7 feet wide or 8 feet tall), the play with gravity may be the most surprising element when viewing these in real life. Somehow the large metal chunks feel as if they’re levitating, even the sculptures on the floor feel like they’re about to lift off. Meanwhile the paint skins are fully engaged with gravity, finding their shape through their own weight and scaffolding of the metal. It all contributes a sense of wonder and curiosity.

Kennedy Yanko’s work is a beautiful dance of oppositions: a pairing of past and present, flexible and ridged, color and material, gravity and levitation.

If you want to hear Kennedy’s story in her own words and get a peak at her whole process in her studio, I highly recommend this 7-minute video segment from CBS Mornings. Then run to this current exhibition to be immersed in the magnetism of these works.

What: Kennedy Yanko: Humming on Life
Where: Jeffery Deitch, 18 Wooster Street, NYC
When: March 4 – April 22, 2023

Installation photographs by Genevieve Hanson. Courtesy of the artist and Jeffrey Deitch, New York.
Single artwork photographs by Martin Parsekian.
Detail photographs by author, David Behringer.

Marusela Granell + Manu Bañó Create Beauty With Raw Materials

La verdad de la materia is an exhibition presented in Mexico City during this year’s ZONA MACO, and will be public until March 15th. Marusela Granell and Manu Bañó’s works are linked by the simple yet powerful actions of cutting, folding, gluing, and ripping. The two artists share a deep desire to create beauty through manipulation of raw materials.

While Manu employs industrial materials in a mechanical process to produce sculptural and functional objects without drawing on references, Marusela deconstructs painting by highlighting the elements that make it up. She uses worn-out tubes of oil paint and pieces of paper as both artwork and models.

Manu Bañó’s latest collection delves into the unique qualities and limitations of copper. Crafted in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán, Mexico, a town renowned for its centuries-old goldsmithing heritage, the collection showcases the expertise of local artisans, who specialize in crafting small objects such as pots and vessels.

Comprising three distinct pieces – a chair, coffee table, and wall lamp – the collection is the result of a labor-intensive process involving the manual hammering of a thin copper sheet. This technique imbues the metal with both strength and a three-dimensional quality that distinguishes each piece.

Photos by Alejandro Ramírez Orozco.

Tekla Evelina Severin Drops Color-Blocking “Colour Vibes” at FORMEX

Working with the theme of “Colour Vibes,” color and design phenom Tekla Evelina Severin transformed a 250-square-meter (almost 2,700 square feet) empty space for the FORMEX interior fair last month. The project involved exhibition design, curation, and styling a series of rooms, which resemble either a beautifully staged set for a magazine photo shoot or a perfectly executed interior of a home. Taking inspiration from a labyrinth, hide-and-seek games, and a Rubik’s cube, Dimensions of Colour consists of multiple spaces placed in a zigzag formation, allowing for changes in perspective from every view. No matter the angle, new framed vignettes appear, as do ever-changing color palettes, making the space feel like it’s bouncing back and forth between realism and surrealism.

Immersed in Severin’s color-blocked world are a curated roster of 200 products sourced from 400 exhibitors, resulting in a broad mix of objects that feel like they belong.

Each space features black and white checkered floors with layers of rich, saturated wall colors. Topped off with furnishings – some that match and some that contrast – that give each room a purpose, whether it’s a living room, kitchen, bedroom, kid’s space, atrium, or living room.

Despite the use of so many colors, none of them feel out of place, as each works with the color beside it, across the room, or in the next space.

Photos by Fredrik Bengtsson and Tekla Evelina Severin.

DREAMHOUSES: Abstract Fantasy Homes Prompt Short Stories

With controversial AI creations around so many corners, it’s refreshing to see an analogue project like DREAMHOUSES come along. Thought up by Fort Makers and stemming from the idea of vivid pandemic-induced dreams, the project is an online exhibition of abstract fantasy homes. Six artists and designers created their own “dream house” before being paired up with writers, who then used the creations as a prompt for an accompanying text work. The catch was that participants could only use materials that were available in their actual homes. The result is a digital neighborhood that explores the idea of what a home is to the creators.

“The past few years have forced us to radically reconsider our relationships with our homes, coming to realize that it is where our imagination comes together with reality: we create spaces in our own image while making sure they also serve our quotidian needs,” says Fort Makers Co-Founder Nana Spears. “With this project, we wanted to see what would happen if the artist is free to eschew the practical part of this equation and create a space of pure fantasy,” adds Co-Founder Noah Spencer.

CHIAOZZA x Janelle Zara, “Parallel House”

“Parallel House,” created by the duo at CHIAOZZA, features a horseshoe-style layout of two houses. With an all-white exterior and interior full of brightly-colored objects, the design takes advantage of indoor/outdoor living spaces. Entirely modeled of construction paper, this modern piece of architecture is ready for the California desert.

Janelle Zara wrote “Imagining Life Inside CHIAOZZA’s Dreamhouse, Which I’m Sure Exists in LA” in response. “In my dream house, time is an illusion, a social construct; here adherence to time is 100 percent a choice. There are no clocks, no scheduled zoom meetings, only the movement of light and shadow as the sun traces its path along the sky. Throughout the year, from day to day, this movement is never fixed; the day stretches and contracts according to the seasons.” Read it in full here.

Harry Nuriev x Drew Zeiba, “Off The Road”

Harry Nuriev’s immersive work likes to blur the line between actual and virtual realities, so it makes sense that “Off The Road” would follow suit. The 3D rendering uses his signature cobalt blue to highlight a canopy bed set in a green meadow. Once the sky dims, an otherworldly light of its own turns on.

In “Sense Index Zero,” Drew Zeiba dives into what we feel like when alone in the comfort of our homes and the color blue. “One can feel blue; blue is not something one wants to feel. In Maggie Nelson’s obsessive catalogue of the color, Bluets, she writes, “Loneliness is solitude with a problem.” Soot lands on my tongue as a reminder that there are things I cannot control, that home is not the shape of a globe, that there is no edge. The world escapes. I am beneath a sky of my own making as words crystalize carbon gray against my teeth. I shed description: I become primary.” Read it in full here.

Laurie Simmons x Natasha Stagg, “Sparkle House”

Artist Laurie Simmons, explorer of nostalgia, gender, and consumerism, created “Sparkle House.” A sparsely furnished Victorian mansion of sorts, its personality comes from the patterned textiles used throughout its rooms – including the sparkling rugs that come to life when hit with light.

Undeniably a great setting, Natasha Stagg wrote “Nowhere to sit” in accompaniment. The short story tells of a group of roommates, their various personalities, and the dynamics that exist in such situations. “The couch was so unlike the image when it arrived. All of the roommates looked at it, delivered and out of the box, the first new piece of furniture they had bought as a group. It was supposed to be what brought the room together, a luxurious blue velvet thing. They should have known, they all thought, that cheap velvet would look it, giving away more than what their second-hand or inherited furniture did.” Read it in full here.

Noah Spencer x Philippa Snow, “Sunshine Daydream”

“Sunshine Daydream” was brought to life by Fort Makers Co-Founder, wood sculptor, and painter Noah Spencer. The tiny mixed-media hut features a single unfurnished room that can move across the accompanying desert landscape with you – almost like a pet.

Critic and essayist Philippa Snow wrote “Ithaca” in extension.
“Ithaca, whose name was actually Jane, had dropped out of her Creative Writing MFA to start a new life in the desert, where she’d planned to write a novel, drop some acid, and behave exactly like the kind of white girl who called things her ‘spirit animal.'” Read it in full here.

Marcel Alcalá x Whitney Mallett, “Corner Studio Girlies”

Populated with non-binary figures, Marcel Alcalá’s “Corner Studio Girlies” uses glazed ceramic figures against a cardboard city painted red to share alternative expressions of queerness. It was photographed in the corner of Alcalá’s studio, which is also the piece’s namesake.

Whitney Mallet explored the hectic, playful yet dark, “Corner Studio Girlies” and wrote #Justiceforglitter. The piece revolves around Mariah Carey, 9/11, and the movie Glitter. “And while I’m not suggesting that sabotaging the vehicle intended to catapult Carey into cinema stardom played a role in Al Qaeda’s attack schedule, it has been documented that Osama Bin Laden’s preferred five-octave-range songstress was Whitney Houston.” Read it in full here.

Sam Harvey x Tash Nikol, “From Here I’ve Seen Even More”

Like something out of a fairytale, ceramicist Sam Harvey created a single tower. Covered in light blue shingles and waving a flag reading “having no idea as to what it all meant he chose to stay home,” your imagination just might run wild.

Poet, writer, and curator Rash Nikol interpreted the tower into words, perhaps as a link to another world, in “Waiting Room for Spirits.” “the wise ones speak of the spirit house / here and there / our ancestors speak of a place there / a holding room for spirits / outside of skin / not far from clouds.” Read it in full here.

To learn more about DREAMHOUSES, visit dreamhouses.fortmakers.com.

Lee Broom Exhibits Within the “British Capsule” at Maison&Objet

This year, British designer Lee Broom had the honor of being invited by Maison&Objet to share his work in an exhibition that featured iconic pieces, fresh developments, and collaborations from some of Britain’s top designers. For the “British Capsule” Broom included his new Divine Inspiration collection of lighting, as well a selection of complementary furniture and decor.

“We are thrilled to be selected to join the British capsule at Maison&Objet. In the spirit of Maison’s theme ‘Take Care’, we are showing an edited selection of pieces that bring a sense of the comfort of the home combined with an element of spirituality and mysticism,” Broom declared.

Inspired by the light and shadows created by lancet windows found in church arches, the highlight of the exhibit is Broom’s four meter tall Hail light. The elongated aluminum elements and reeded glass lightbulbs are asymmetrically placed, while its impressive size adds to the drama.

Alongside Hail were the Vesper Duo lights. Dramatic in their own right, Vesper’s prolific design leans on the simple geometry of Brutalist sculpture and modernist cathedral lighting. (The shared inspiration between Hail and Vesper doesn’t go unnoticed.) Using extruded aluminum, the lighting’s rectangular cube-like shapes are joined together by illuminated spheres.

Broom’s portion of the exhibit resembles a dining room setup, using light greys and brushed silvers to create a modern calm. His round Musico Table and Musico Chairs make a statement with their hand-bent, twisted stainless-steel tubes. Two Fulcrum Candlesticks, made in Nero Marquina Marble, reside on each side of the booth. And reflecting it all back on the viewer is the Split Mirror hanging on the back wall. With a precisely cut vertical slice that’s shifted upward, it reveals an unexpected oak-trimmed view of the black frame.

Musico Table and Chairs

To learn more, visit leebroom.com.

An Exhibition Combining Minimalism + Well-Known Asian Artists

The Pierre Lorinet Collection: From Western Minimalism to Asian Political  Abstraction is an exhibition featuring pieces collected over a period of a decade. Curated by Edward Mitterand, the exhibition is part of Singapore Art Week, a ten-day celebration that will see over 700 artists and curators from Singapore and around the world present over 130 programs.

In this exhibition, a number of significant contemporary works are brought together for the first time. They were chosen to show the voluntary connection that the Pierre Lorinet Collection has made over the past ten years between the founders of Minimalism and some of the most well-known Asian artists of the twenty-first century. These artists’ practices are largely influenced by Asian political or philosophical ideas as well as the history of modernism.

Pierre Lorinet challenged his relationship with art by deciding to find and experience emotions inside radicalism when he started his collection in 2012 with an emphasis on Minimalism, one of the most influential and rigorous movements in the history of contemporary art. A few years later, the collection was moved to Singapore, making it accessible to Asian-born artists who are or have been influenced by minimalism in diverse ways.

Ai Weiwei, Chen Zhen, Nam June Paik, and Haegue Yang are just a few examples of artists who all have a strong background in art history and care deeply about their contributions to both modern art and their home nations. Their inclusion in the collection foreshadowed the purchase of works by subsequent generations of Asian artists, like Korakrit Arunanondchai, a Thai-American artist.

Photos by Colin Wan.