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Portraits by Christian Gaillard

Architect’s Jewellery

by Diego Delgado-Elias

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Iconoclasts Celebrate Louis Vuitton's Monogram

RETURN TO THE SEA

Saltworks by Motoi Yamamoto

ARTMATEUR O CTO BER 20 1 4 I S S UE No 21 · $3.00 USD

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Portraits of Bullfighters by French Painter

Christian Gaillard

Regardless of one’s feelings about the traditional spectacle of bullfighting, one cannot but admire the extravagant costumes worn by toreros, which echo the flamboyant style of 19thcentury dandies and are meticulously embroidered using shiny golden and silver thread — thus earning them the name ‘suit of lights’ (or ‘traje de luces’ in Spanish). Ever since the 1980’s, French painter Christian Gaillard has been creating portraits of bullfighters - his subjects include the greatest living bullfighters (some of whom are his personal friends) - in a detailed, almost photorealistic style. Influenced by the style of Spanish master Diego Velázquez, Gaillard’s subjects are placed against a dark background with their backs turned to the viewer, thus making their dazzling costumes the centre of attention.

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The paintings also seek to capture the emotional state of the bullfighter, either before he enters the arena, or after facing the bull, covered in blood and being carried by the rest of his company.

Christian Gaillard’s impressive paintings are currently on display at the Connoisseur Art Gallery in Hong Kong, as part of the artist’s third solo exhibition in the city titled ‘De Luz’ (16-28 October, 2014).

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Photo Š Christian Gaillard.

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Photo Š Christian Gaillard.

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RETURN TO THE

SEA Saltworks by Motoi Yamamoto

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Motoi Yamamoto, Labyrinth Salt, 4x12m Making Mends Bellevue Arts Museum, USA 2012

A pioneering contemporary artist, Tokyo-born Motoi Yamamoto carves monumental two dimensional sculptures of entire oceans, shattered planets, typhoons, mountain ranges, fractured staircases and vast plains of brain-like coils using just the one medium: SALT.

A

lthough striking, his works are far from and vanish as time goes by; however, what I being merely aesthetic. Every one of

seek is to capture a frozen moment that cannot

the artist’s saltscapes is an experience

be attained through pictures or writings. What

in its own right, and one of a highly

I look for at the end of the act of drawing could

metaphysical nature for the artist as well as the

be a feeling of touching a precious memory

viewer. Yamamoto’s works have been shown

…'' For Motoi Yamamoto, his saltscapes act

across the world from Russia to the United

like a frequency that allows him to tune out of

States and his most recent salt Labyrinth will be

everything around him. Almost like a meditation

on show until 9th Novembe 2014 at the Parisian

that is actually part of a never-ending healing

gallery La (Deuxième) Galerie Particulière.

process following his sister’s death due to severe

Regarding his work, the artist has said that:

brain cancer at the tender age of 24, it seems that

''Drawing a labyrinth with salt is like following a

it is also the artist’s way of never letting go of this

trace of my memory. Memories seem to change

‘memory’ he speaks of. www.artmateur.com

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Hello, my name is

David Fullarton,

and I am a doodle addict.

They say that sometimes an image is just an image, that it takes a mind to make it more. Thank goodness for the mind of David Fullarton.

With an abundance of textures, words and scribbles, David tells stories. And you can count on his stories to always be outlandish, to always make you think, "How the hell did he come up with that?" That is precisely what I asked him to explain for his feature. In his work, he pokes fun at the mundane and the shortcomings of human character. For that, we love him.

These days, David is keeping busy prepairing for his upcoming art show at Hang Art in San Francisco. It's appropriately titled "Once Again I Fail To Live Up To My Advance Publicity" and opens on April 2nd. If I were you, I'd run over there. A little offbeat humor is good for your lungs.

For his feature, David sent us over 9 never before seen pieces (until now) as an advance peak into his art show. Enjoy this and the thoughts inside of his head, in his own words.

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Norman Rockwell allegedly once said: "If a picture's not going well, put a dog in it."

Obviously this is very bad advice, especially for those of us who aren't that good at drawing dogs.

But if he had said, "If a picture's not going well, write words over it." that would have been excellent advice, since words can definitely improve how a picture looks. www.artmateur.com

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