Artist Tenka Gammelgaard
Sorry for being such a bad blogger this week. I've been working on other stuff. Like getting my house ready for a photoshoot and interview with Korean writer/stylist Juhee C, who is making a book on Scandinavian style.
Today I'd like to show you the studio of Danish artist Tenka Gammelgaard. It's all black and white and stripes, and I love it! I've seen her home and studio before, but I was reminded today by this post on the Mackapär blog.
Photos by Ranvita La Cour and Rishi from Happyliving and Tenka Gammelgaard
Story Hotel + Wonderwall = Story Collection
I've written about both Story Hotel and Wonderwall before (please use the new search bar to the right to find those posts), but I haven't written about their cooperation called Story Collection, which is a series of five different prints, used in the Story Hotel and also available for purchase at Wonderwall. The artists behind the prints are all big names in Sweden, and the art is truly beautiful.
Artist: Cecilia Carlstedt
Artist: Julia Hetta
Artist: Jenny Mörtsell
New prints by Sanna Annukka
One of the first artists I wrote about on this blog, back when it started in 2005, was Sanna Annukka. Now, almost four years later, I definitely think it's time to show some of her art again. Sanna just launched three new prints and a set of wooden birds in her familiar style but this time in a more subdued color palette. I think that is pretty funny, because I used to show a lot of bold colors here before, and now that I've changed my taste, so has she, and in the same direction!
You can buy the limited edition prints and her new birds in her shop, right here.
Art prints from Itchyshop
I got an email from an artist called Emmy Lincoln, saying she likes my blog, and a link to her webshop; Itchyshop. I had some time to waste (very rare these days) so I clicked through, and found this super sweet art print called Skogen (=The forest). Isn't it cute? It brought a smile to my face in the middle of the night, and that's got to be worth something!
Rugh Family Workshop posters
Have you heard about the Rugh Family Workshop poster project?
It was started by Jaime & Jeffrey Rugh for their children. Collaborating as artists with family, old friends and new friends, the workshop started making posters to promote awareness, support and compassion for individuals and families living with Autism Spectrum Disorders. The limited edition posters vary widely in range, focus and design as does the spectrum itself, and are available for international shipping. A donation will be made from each sale to GRASP, an educational and advocacy organization serving individuals on the autism spectrum.
I am getting this purple one for our home. It suits us perfectly, as everyone in the family, including the pets, are weird in their own different ways...
Jaime Rugh also has a beautifully designed online store for craft supplies, don't miss it!
It was started by Jaime & Jeffrey Rugh for their children. Collaborating as artists with family, old friends and new friends, the workshop started making posters to promote awareness, support and compassion for individuals and families living with Autism Spectrum Disorders. The limited edition posters vary widely in range, focus and design as does the spectrum itself, and are available for international shipping. A donation will be made from each sale to GRASP, an educational and advocacy organization serving individuals on the autism spectrum.
I am getting this purple one for our home. It suits us perfectly, as everyone in the family, including the pets, are weird in their own different ways...
Jaime Rugh also has a beautifully designed online store for craft supplies, don't miss it!
via Cookie Magazine
Staring at the Sun
This limited edition set of prints by Maria Alexandra Vettese (better known in the blog world as MAV from Port2Port Press) and Christopher David Ryan caught my eye today. I want one! Buy it at A little more like this.
Football Drawings by Lee Walton
I'm not a football fan of any kind, but I could totally see these drawings of football games on my walls! They don't look "footbally" at all, just really cool and graphic.
1002 Spoons, an exhibition by Jurgen Lehl
Remember last year when everyone all over blogland were totally crazy about spoons? They were all over the place, on flickr and on every design and photo blog i clicked to! Now there is this exhibition in Japan, by German artist Jurgen Lehl, and maybe this will set the craze off again... Just look at all those lovely spoons!
Find Jurgen's blog here, homepage here and webshop here.
New and old, elaborately carved and simple, big and small, carved from wood, coconut, horn, shell and bamboo, made of iron, brass and gourd, hammered from silver, copper, bronze and stainless steel, salt spoons, tea spoons, ceremonial spoons, tea ceremony spoons, serving spoons, ladles, and jewelry made of spoons. Many were designed and made especially for this show, while others were found in Vietnam, China, Japan, Indonesia, Timor, the Philippines, Korea, India, Africa and Europe. The Exhibition will be shown at the Jurgen Lehl Babaguri store in Tokyo and will travel throughout Japan.
Find Jurgen's blog here, homepage here and webshop here.
New and old, elaborately carved and simple, big and small, carved from wood, coconut, horn, shell and bamboo, made of iron, brass and gourd, hammered from silver, copper, bronze and stainless steel, salt spoons, tea spoons, ceremonial spoons, tea ceremony spoons, serving spoons, ladles, and jewelry made of spoons. Many were designed and made especially for this show, while others were found in Vietnam, China, Japan, Indonesia, Timor, the Philippines, Korea, India, Africa and Europe. The Exhibition will be shown at the Jurgen Lehl Babaguri store in Tokyo and will travel throughout Japan.
Dan-ah Kim, new artist on L'Affiche Moderne
I just got an email from L'Affiche Moderne, a great webshop for modern art posters, introducing one of their new artists; Dan-ah Kim.
Dan-ah Kim was born in Seoul, Korea, moved to Mexico, then spent time on both coasts of the USA before coming to New York and graduating from the prestigious Pratt Institute. It’s no wonder then that she has been so influenced by these various cultures and voyages and that her work has been so impregnated with an intense sense of wanderlust, escape and freedom. An important element of the work of this mixed media artist has been a love for layers with separated materials, using ink, paint, paper, and thread. The artist aims to make each painting a frame for a story, with heroines in familiar or unnatural worlds.
This poster, entitled When the world sleeps, immediately gave me some very strong emotions, and I love how it captures so much of what Autumn means to me. I can really feel the chill of the strong wind, and the smell of rain clouds and decaying leaves as I look at this. It also reminds me of the many long drives in the countryside I used to take with my ex boyfriend. Does it affect you as strongly as it did me? If so, I'd love to hear what kind of feelings it evokes in you!
Ceramic artist Meta Braconier
While browsing Konsthantverkscentrums (Center for Arts & Crafts) web I found Meta Braconier, an artist who mixes unique ceramics with photographic prints. She mostly works with articles for every day use, but I fell for these more artistic pieces with their lovely colors and patterns. Nostalgic but not too cute.
Ceramist Josefin Fina Holmqvist
Swedish ceramist Josefin Fina Holmqvist is exhibiting at Kaolin gallery in Stockholm until May 25th. Don't miss her ceramic art inspired by electricity lines and their entangled appearance!
Holmqvist graduated from HDK/department of ceramic art - University of Gothenburg in 2001 and have since worked in Studio Feldspar in Västra Frölunda. She exhibits her work in both Sweden and abroad, have spent time in China, Hungary and Denmark, and at the moment she is finishing a public commission for a chinese garden within an area called Götheborg in Gothenburg.
"In my work, time tends to be the factor which often feels most important. Regardless of whether relating to sculptural objects or functional goods, time is often present as a common denominator. Time: as in the visually observable in an object, as in a flow or a rhythm in decor or sometimes as the basis of inspiration."
This is some of her older work:
Artist Annika Bäckström
Today I am loving these illustrations by Annika Bäckström! I have always liked drawings of anatomical hearts and the messages on these feel like a nice alternative to all the usual over romantic stuff I see out there.
Artist Diem Chau
A Vietnam native, Diem Chau and her family came to America as refugees in 1986. Chau is a BFA graduate from Cornish College of the Arts and has received an Artist Trust GAP Grant and a PONCHO Artist-in-Residence Award. Her work has been exhibited in New York, Miami, Seattle and Los Angeles.
Chau combines common mediums and common means to create delicate vignettes of fleeting memory, gesture and form, resulting in works that combine egalitarian sensibility and minimalist restraint. Her work touches on the value of Storytelling, Myths and its ability to connect us to each other through cultural and humanistic similarities. Chau's current work drifts into new territory by exploring the periphery of the narrative, moments forgotten and faded, or too brief to retain.
This is her most recent work, embroidery on porcelain plates and cups. Amazing, isn't it?
And check out Chau's website to have a closer look at the tiny furniture she makes from toothpicks and paper.
Chau combines common mediums and common means to create delicate vignettes of fleeting memory, gesture and form, resulting in works that combine egalitarian sensibility and minimalist restraint. Her work touches on the value of Storytelling, Myths and its ability to connect us to each other through cultural and humanistic similarities. Chau's current work drifts into new territory by exploring the periphery of the narrative, moments forgotten and faded, or too brief to retain.
This is her most recent work, embroidery on porcelain plates and cups. Amazing, isn't it?
And check out Chau's website to have a closer look at the tiny furniture she makes from toothpicks and paper.
Heather Smith Jones on Etsy!
One of my favourite artists, Heather Smith Jones, just opened up her Etsy shop! It's stocked full of her original paintings and drawings, meaning there is only one of each, so hurry over to snitch one before they are all gone! If you want to see more of her work, just click on over to her blog or website.
5 words by Anita Dube
Anita Dube is trained as an art historian and critic. Her work is determinedly individualized yet provocatively informed by its cultural context. She has developed an aesthetic language that is partial to sculptural fragment as a cultural bearer of personal and social histories. Usually employing a variety of found objects, Dube explores a divergent range of subjects that address a profound concern for loss and regeneration - both autobiographical and societal.
The photos below are from Anitas 5 words exhibition that just ended at The Mattress Factory Art Museum in Pittsburgh.
"I wanted to work with one letter and kept writing strings of words. I could have ended up with the letter, "c" or "t" or anything but eventually I picked "w", I thought I could deal with the issues I was interested in through these words at this time."
"Everything is white because I didn?t want colors to interfere with the conceptual process."
"I wanted to make something compelling. I could have portrayed waste as a messy, repelling thing but I wanted the experience to be subtle where it unfolds and takes more time to understand. I think that attention spans are too short these days and artists need to have strategies to compete or combat this."
"I am also interested in how a word can become architecture, exploring that idea."
"Where I come from in India, we save everything, everything is re-used. The logic of capitalism is to have more, to have excess and therefore also to create more waste."
The photos below are from Anitas 5 words exhibition that just ended at The Mattress Factory Art Museum in Pittsburgh.
"I wanted to work with one letter and kept writing strings of words. I could have ended up with the letter, "c" or "t" or anything but eventually I picked "w", I thought I could deal with the issues I was interested in through these words at this time."
Illustrator Kavel Rafferty
I first got introduced to Kavel Rafferty's work at the BoBo Gallery, and immediately fell for it's feminine but still kind of edgy charm. Last week I got an email from Kavel, and had a look at her website, and found so much more nice stuff I felt I had to show you! If you want to see more, please visit Kavel here.
Kavel has worked for lots of great companies including Elle Deco, Ted Baker, Bust Magazine and Penguin Books, and is a regular contributor to Swedish high-end fashion magazine Bon. If you feel like owning a piece of her art it is available as paintings or postcards at Designtorget, The BoBo Gallery and Designista.
Kavel has worked for lots of great companies including Elle Deco, Ted Baker, Bust Magazine and Penguin Books, and is a regular contributor to Swedish high-end fashion magazine Bon. If you feel like owning a piece of her art it is available as paintings or postcards at Designtorget, The BoBo Gallery and Designista.
Textiles and ceramics exhibition at Kaolin
Keramikgruppen Kaolin is a genuine group of ceramists founded in 1978. Since the beginning they are located in Hornsgatan 50, near Mariatorget in Stockholm, where they together run both a shop and a gallery. Today, the group has fifteen potters working with unique handicraft, including utility goods as well as unique objects and sculpture in their own workshops all over the country. In their beautiful gallery they show one-man exhibitions by the members and also invite exciting exhibitors from both Sweden and abroad.
The name KAOLIN emanates from a place in China, a mountain called Gaoling, where the important kaolin clay was found, a pure fine-grained white clay forming part of both clay and glaze.
The first show this year is a coexhibit by designer and textile artist Ulrika Mårtensson and ceramist Eva Hedberg. The show is an experiment of what can happen when you put together two very skilled visual artist working in different materials, and what their work can give to each other in a mutual space. While Ulrika has been working with common white fabric, and Eva with stoneware, both of their works have a sense of play between light, shadows and darkness in common.
The exhibition will only show until the end of the month, so hurry if you want to see it!
The name KAOLIN emanates from a place in China, a mountain called Gaoling, where the important kaolin clay was found, a pure fine-grained white clay forming part of both clay and glaze.
The first show this year is a coexhibit by designer and textile artist Ulrika Mårtensson and ceramist Eva Hedberg. The show is an experiment of what can happen when you put together two very skilled visual artist working in different materials, and what their work can give to each other in a mutual space. While Ulrika has been working with common white fabric, and Eva with stoneware, both of their works have a sense of play between light, shadows and darkness in common.
The exhibition will only show until the end of the month, so hurry if you want to see it!
Etienne Meneau, artist
Etienne Meneau is the artist behind the fabulous glass wine decanters that has been flying around the bloggosphere over the last few months. Now he has made a new amazing piece of art, The Elastic Houses sculptures. I love how he expresses his thoughts about them in her email;
"The elastic houses are made for those who like instability and precarious, who like
Aiko Machida, artist
Fantastic leather artwork by artist Aiko Machida. This is what she has to say about her work:
- I make bags for wearing. not so much for carrying things in. They are as aesthetically perfect as I can make them. Clothes have to fit, but accessories don't. I see my accessories as clothes that don't have to fit, which will suit all sorts of people for all sorts of reasons.
My another collection follows the logic of different materials for different functions, I radically changes what object should be like. Using two materials in a new way creates not only surprise but a new function and a new meaning.
I use leather instead of wood because it looks similar but it performs differently. I am interested in both the tactile and the visual, and the gap between these: can one be distinguished from the other? Deceiving both sight and touch creates an element of surprise, of subversion. Working somewhat in the trompe l'oeil tradition, but in three dimensions, I transform furniture (lamps, chairs, interior fittings) and instruments (a piano). I deceive your eyes, your expectations of materials, and your "common sense" - and in this way challenges preconceptions and cultural norms.
Deception produces confusion, agitation or the feeling that one is being played with, whereas "to see is to understand".
- I make bags for wearing. not so much for carrying things in. They are as aesthetically perfect as I can make them. Clothes have to fit, but accessories don't. I see my accessories as clothes that don't have to fit, which will suit all sorts of people for all sorts of reasons.
My another collection follows the logic of different materials for different functions, I radically changes what object should be like. Using two materials in a new way creates not only surprise but a new function and a new meaning.
I use leather instead of wood because it looks similar but it performs differently. I am interested in both the tactile and the visual, and the gap between these: can one be distinguished from the other? Deceiving both sight and touch creates an element of surprise, of subversion. Working somewhat in the trompe l'oeil tradition, but in three dimensions, I transform furniture (lamps, chairs, interior fittings) and instruments (a piano). I deceive your eyes, your expectations of materials, and your "common sense" - and in this way challenges preconceptions and cultural norms.
Deception produces confusion, agitation or the feeling that one is being played with, whereas "to see is to understand".
via Oh Joy!
Maria Westerberg paintings
This Saturday I'm going to the opening of Maria Westerberg's exhibition of oil paintings at Restaurant Vimmel. Extremely cute little animals having fun in the bathroom could never go wrong, don't you agree? I love the dirty pastel colours and the absurd motifs!
5 New Names
Yes, that is the title of the first exhibtion of the year at Konsthantverkarna (The Craftsmen) in Stockholm. The exhibit runs between 19.01 and 13.02 and shows arts and crafts from the five new members of 2008 who are: Esmé Alexander (glass), Inger Andersson (ceramics, concrete, glass), Petra Mandal (silver), Tina Olsson (textiles) and August Sörensson (ceramics).
Konsthantverkarna was formed in 1951 and is now the oldest, and biggest, co-operative of proffessional craftsmen in Sweden. Each member represents good quality and new ways of thinking, and almost all of them have undergone four to six years of training at the School of Arts, Crafts and Design or similar.
Konsthantverkarna was formed in 1951 and is now the oldest, and biggest, co-operative of proffessional craftsmen in Sweden. Each member represents good quality and new ways of thinking, and almost all of them have undergone four to six years of training at the School of Arts, Crafts and Design or similar.
Proppen, candlestick by August Sörensson
Cykloper i mörker, brooches in acrylic by Petra Mandal
Kalas, cake stands by Esmé Alexander
Karin Sehnert, ceramist
I found the work of Karin Sehnert at the craft2eu site, and thought it was really cool. Karin has to make time in order to produce her tiny exclusive collection of "good spirits" in her own small workshop. Her "day job" is in production design for industry, having first completed studying how to paint on china and a degree at the University of the Arts in Halle - Burg Giebichenstein.
In the top photo below you can see her Lucky Charms, with powerful words like Love, Courage and Energy written in German. These qualities are supposed to transcribe to the carrier of the charm. The middle pic is of her toothpick holders, and below is her porcelain thermos flasks for milk and water.
Craft2eu is an agency and gallery for European arts and crafts, and you can shop directly from their site.
In the top photo below you can see her Lucky Charms, with powerful words like Love, Courage and Energy written in German. These qualities are supposed to transcribe to the carrier of the charm. The middle pic is of her toothpick holders, and below is her porcelain thermos flasks for milk and water.
Craft2eu is an agency and gallery for European arts and crafts, and you can shop directly from their site.
Stephanie Levy
Stephanie Levy is an american artist who has been living in Munich, Germany for the last 11 years. Having studied art in both Tennessee and Berlin, she now works as a freelance artist and illustrator. She makes collages and paintings, mainly with interior setting motives, from materials like origami paper, old IKEA catalogs and gold leaf. What I like most about Stephanie's work is probably the bright colours, simple shapes and the contemporary but still homely feel of the interiors she depicts. If you are interested in getting some of this for your own walls, Stephanie will soon be opening her own web shop!
