frrresh visual arts magazine • issue 10
Ho ho ho!
The new year is here and so is your beloved Frrresh! We have 10 amazing featured artists from all around the globe and a special surprise artist! As you might know we had a contest for the cover of our 10th issue and received amazing artwork from our beloved artists and readers. Our jury chose the artwork sent to us by Andi Soto and loved it so much we decided to invite Andi to be our special guest artist for this issue! We like to think of it as a special present to you in this festive season :) Peace and love to you all <3
Featured artists: Kate MccGwire MA (RCA) LINNCH Brecht Vanderbroucke Kristijan Smok KHUAN + KTRON Garima Dhawan Cornelia Konrads Robert Kraiza Nomi Chi Nina Mašina Special guest artist: Andi Soto winner of our 10th issue cover contest + best cover submisions from our talented and hardworking contestants chosen by our jury
Kate MccGwire MA (RCA)
A graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, Kate MccGwire’s working process is a continuous cycle of collection and construction that manifests in the objects she creates. We take pleasure in the painstaking process of their development, apparent in the layers of carefully aligned feathers and in each swirl of oil slick plumage. This creative process is central to MccGwire’s work, allowing the organic materials to suggest their own form and following their patterns to evoke movement and musculature in the sculptures themselves. Taking natural materials and re-imagining their forms, MccGwire’s works take on an anthropomorphic quality; a brooding, predatory physicality that at once attracts and repels the viewer. MccGwire’s avian structures appear rooted in the aesthetic of natural history, taking on its associations of intellectual dominance, decadence and display. The pieces adopt the qualities of their material – appropriating the abject signification of bird feathers to create hybrids. Lifeless wings seem poised to take flight yet remain tethered, their momentum restrained, giving the sculptures a seething, serpentine quality.
The culture of display is also key to the works, exploiting the perverse attraction to possess the abject and unfamiliar creature, and to frame it within a culture driven by aesthetic hierarchy. As MccGwire describes her pieces, they represent something ‘both sensual and deviant in equal measure. This seductive yet unsettling collection of hybrid forms and expansive sculpture causes us to look more closely and to examine our relationship to such quotidian materials. Though they appear disturbing and unfamiliar at first glance, there is something strangely recognizable about their form – their creases and crevices seem somehow bodily, allowing us to identify some small part of ourselves in the sculptures. This unexpected familiarity is at the heart of the work, allowing us to recognize the parasitic, wounded and traumatic dimensions of works such as Stigma and Host in which feathers cling to surfaces or appear to tear lesions in the surface of the lead. MccGwire’s work recontextualises natural materials, creating an impossible menagerie of writhing forms that expose both the beauty and darkness of nature, and reflect our own fears and vulnerability in their swelling shadows.
www.katemccgwire.com
Brecht Vandenbroucke Brecht Vandenbroucke (born 1986 in Veurne, now living in Antwerp) studied Illustration at StLucas Hogeschool in Ghent (Be). He is interested in every kind of media but drawing is always where it all starts : he paints, write stories, makes sculptures, illustrations, short movies and comics. In his work he tries to embrace modern life in all itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s facets, with a preference for themes as technology, identity, freedom, art, childhood and death. Brecht analyses and comments by using surrealism and absurdist humor. He made illustrations for the New York Times, Les inrockuptibles, numerous Belgian magazines and designed t-shirts for Diesel, Lacoste... He also has participated in many international group shows and had solo shows in France, Holland, London, Switserland and Bruxelles. In 2009 he won the 2nd price of the Fumetto competition (Lucerne) and has since continued making comics. In 2013, he made his book debut with â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;White Cubeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, a comic that takes place in the world of the aesthetics, criticism and the arts.
brechtvandenbroucke.blogspot.com
flickr.com/brecht_vandenbroucke
Kristijan Smok
Hi. My name is I was born in Zagreb in 1984, where I still live and work as a sculpture conservator/restorer. I’ve graduated in Conservation and Restoration of Arts (sculptures) from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb (ALU). As a skateboarder nearing my thirties, I don’t skate as much as I used to. Mainly because of old injuries that have started to take their toll, and the fact that I don’t have so much spare time. I’ve been doing skateboard photography for 10 years, give or take. For the last few years I’ve been getting back into punk music, and with that came photographing the gigs. For me, skateboarding and punk/hardcore punk photography are alike. Much like in the skate photography, I’ve been trying to capture the moment of the biggest “explosion” in a concert photo. In skateboarding that’s the peak of the trick, and in punk that’s a circle pit at the gig. I try to throw myself in the pit to capture that exact moment, which is the same technique I originally apply to a skateboard photo. I get as close as I can get. Lately I’ve been traveling throughout Croatia work related, and that really fits me. I take pictures of villages, cities, fields and people in smaller communities. That really filtrates out the city action. I keep finding new pleasures in that. Pleasures like peace and quiet. I hope you enjoy my photographs. Bye!
kristijansmok.blogspot.com/
KHUAN+ The mud eating monks of KHUAN+KTRON live, work and play in KHUAN monastery. Hidden deep in the Haspengouwer hills, far from the hustle and bustle of the postnucular world, where goretex-clad tourists and other strange creatures freely roam the countryside and where words are less important - and a whole lot less reliable- than the phases of the moon, the reclusive KHUAN brothers use a homebuilt computer, a couple of gallons of ink, a handful of brushes, a wooden guitar and a good olâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; teapot in a rather amusing but ultimately vain attempt to distill a clear meaning from the one hundred thousand earthly phenomena.
+KTRON — a modern graphic studio manufacturing brightly coloured and often rather eccentric pictures of the floating world, and typographics, leaflets, brochures, pamflets and books. — a warm shelter for wandering monks and pilgrims, martial arts instructors, retired mathematicians, heavy metal roadies, sparetime pathologists, daisypickers, vegan cooks, flute-playing shepherds, ascetics and other zealots, off-season theme park enthusiasts and maggot-infested zombies, united by their mutual passions and/or by the whims of fate. — also known as KHUAN Cavemen Co., Kwan Tung, The Long-Haired Johns of Yore and Yonder, The Tribe of Goons, The Daruma Crew and The Kargasok Clan.
khuan-ktron.com
Garima Dhawan
I am a textile designer and printmaker from India, living and working in New York. I love the handmade and I love technology and learning everyday from two completely different cultures - India & America. My determination is to integrate my experiences to create artworks that are bold, beautiful, expressive, expansive, fresh, filled with space, light, color and happiness. I always start with drawing, painting, collage and printmaking so it has the gorgeous imperfections of working with traditional techniques and then work with them digitally. My undergraduate degree is in fashion design, masters in textile design and am now studying printmaking. These are my first steps in creating a visual language that integrates my love for form and color to create beautiful prints and products.
fb.com/garimadhawanstudio society6.com/garimadhawan artfullywalls.com/artists/27/garima-dhawan is.gd/Qm4UjU spoonflower.com/profiles/garimadhawan
LINNCH
vanja vikalo, 26 years old illustrator from herceg novi, montenegro, currently living and working in belgrade, serbia. co founder of d-bend studio and sinestezija festival, both projects developed with mirko lazarevic. just had a second solo show, this time in zagreb, in boonika gallery. ok, off to work...
www.linnch.it
www.fb.com/linnch
knotty stilts 6.5 x 1.4 x 0.8 m . wood, metal, foam rubber, plaster, paint Site: California State University Bakersfield, wall of the Fine Arts Department Bakersfield CAL (USA) 2011
Cornelia Konrads I was born in Wuppertal/Germany, I studied Philosophy and I am a freelance artist since 1998. My interest is primarily focused on site-specific installations for public and private spaces - indoors and outdoors, temporary and permanent. A reflection of the site and it’s particularities is always my starting point. Each work is developed in a close dialogue with the architecture, topography, vegetation and history of the surrounding area. Main subjects are reflections about the relation between nature and culture, transformation and temporality, and the human perception. I like to create irritating situations by adding an element to the scenery, which refuses to fit into the expected order. Showing up and merged into its site, it is not sure if this element was always there; if it will stay, change or disappear in the next second. Something doesn’t behave as it should - within the twinkling of an eye the inner monologue gets interrupted. This rupture bears a certain chance: to arrive here and now; in a world where strange things - including the viewer - have a transient and unique meeting. For this moment of irritation I like to challenge, what is supposed to be “reliable”: the laws of gravity, the solidity of walls or the ground under our feet... Closely related to this intention is my interest in ambivalence - as it appears in the play with contrasts: reality and simulation, calm and motion, dissolution and density. Are the elements falling or rising? Dancing or fighting? Is this a downfall or a victory? Both alternatives are conceivable at the same time. The shown situation often suggests an interim state in an ongoing movement or unstoppable process.It can be seen like a movie, which suddenly freezes into a still image. This image is pointing backwards and forwards both temporally and spatially, containing the past as well as the future and the whole of the film in its core.
www.cokonrads.de
walkaway 15 x 3 x 1.2 m . wood Site: Keurbooms Lagoon, between the ocean and a river mouth, quoting the various wooden walkways along the beach 2nd international Land Art Biennale, Plettenberg Bay (South Africa) 2013
la précarité du temps / precarious times 5 x 5 x 0.5 m . foamrubber, wiremesh, cement, plaster, pigments Site: facade of an ancient paper mill Ephémères - Art Contemporain Sud Dordogne, Couze (France) 2013
le bol / the bowl 6 x 2.5 x 2.5 m . iron, foamrubber, fabric, paint Site: small island in a pond Centre dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;art Contemporain du Luxembourg/Belge, Etalle (Belgium) 2012
tellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house 7 x 4.5 x 1.5 m . wood, rooftiles, modelling clay, pigments Site: Appletree on a golfcourse 5. Schweizerische Biennale der Skulptur, Bad Ragaz (Switzerland) 2012
settlement 3.4 x 8.0 x 5.0 m . stones, cement, steel, rendering Site: field between the new highway and an abandoned farmhouse Commissioned Public Art Work for the N8 Cashel to Mitchelstown Road, Cahir (Ireland) 2010
schleudersitz 4.0 x 14.0 x 3.0 m . tree trunk, rubber, bench, paint Site: former vineyard, view across the Danube river Flugobjekte - Internationale Kunstausstellung auf dem Weinberg Eining, Neustadt a.d. Donau (Germany) 2010
enclosure 0.8 x 3.5 x 0.4 m . road barrier, plaster, modelling clay, paint, pigments Site: Oaktree, next to a channel Out of Space, Nature reserve de Rottige Meente, Weststellingwerf (Netherlands) 2010
australia house 7.0 x 2.0 x 1.5 m . wood, paint, metal roofboard Site: leaning Kerri tree, references to the local building style Southern Forest Sculpture Walk, Northcliffe WA (Australia) 2008
passage 4.0 x 2.0 x 0.6 m . branches, iron, steelrope Site: clearing Skulpturenlandschaft Osnabr端ck (Germany) . 2007
http://www.isaac.alg-a.org/
tree memorial 5.0 x 0.9 m . iron, bark, wire, paint Site: tree stump on a hill I-Park, East Haddam CT (USA) 2007
the billabong memory 8.0 x 0.8 m . willowbranches, iron, steelrope, paint Site: dry creek (=â&#x20AC;&#x153;Billabongâ&#x20AC;&#x153;) Artworks on Farmland, Imbil (Australia) 2005
moment of decision 8.0 x 6.0 x 1.0 m . snow, steelrope, fishingline Site: playground in the forest Winter Biennale Lule책 (Sweden) 2004
the gate 3.5 x 5.0 x 0.8 m . stones, iron, cement Site: remains of two gate posts, former entrance of the forest SenArt en ForĂŞt, Fontainebleau (France) 2004
Robert Kraiza Robert Kraiza is an illustrator and fine artist who lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied Media Arts and Animation at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. Interested in many media, he often paints in monocrhrome watercolor, inspired by the Victorian era and whimsical dreams in both his art and personal aesthetic. He often depicts a hidden world of miniature children saddling wild animals like foxes, cats, bats, and owls. With a strong love for classic art and skilled draftsmanship he spends his time drawing, painting, and recently sculpting in the company of his lovely wife Theresa and their 5 friendly cats. His latest work has begun to take a turn for the spooky and supernatural.
www.robertkraiza.com http://instagram.com/rkraiza
Nomi Chi I am a picture-maker object-crafter and tattoo-doer living in Vancouver Canada.
nomi-chi.com instagram.com/nomi_chi
Nina Mašina
(Aleksandra Nina Knežević) her work is fresh and contemporary, and easily communicates an international visual language through playful typography and graphics. Her projects have been awarded worldwide and published in magazines specialized for design and art (Communication Arts, Luerzer’s Archive, Print, Dazed&Confused, Fontmagazine…). In 2010, her work is listed among the 200 world’s best illustrators (“Luerzer’s Archive: 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide 09-10”). From 2006-2010, she was the President of the Bosnian Association of Applied Artist and Designers (ULUPUBiH).
sarajevodingbats.blogspot.com masinanina.tumblr.com
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i r e s e s e n / e c i b tor x15 cm 20
De Balie, Amsterdam, work on windows with Sue Doeksen
Andi Soto
Chilean-Panamanian illustrator. Inspired by fine linearts, anatomy, peonies and wild animals.
www.andisoto.com
best cover submisions from our talented and hardworking contestants chosen by our jury
PaulÄ&#x2014; Gu
paulegu.weebly.com paulegu.tumblr.com
Artist: Jangovski fb.com/profesor.jangovski
Photos and text: courtesy of each author Editors: Rafael MilÄ?iÄ&#x2021; and pekmezmed Contact: mail@frrresh.org