Chiharu Shiota's spatial installations underscore the guiding principle behind nature: connectivity between things. Peter Fischer (via We Find Wildness) characterizes Shiota's work of the Osaka-born, Berlin-based artist as occupying a space between two extremes, “On the one hand, in her installations she creates a world of her own, a world delineated as a spatial entity divorced......read more
Art Basel, which jumped off in Miami yesterday, runs through the end of this weekend, and we're not remotely pleased that we're not there. Luckily, Inhabitat came through with some superb images of one of the installations we're most curious about. The Exhale Pavilion, part of the Oceanfront Nights program at Miami Beach, is a massive outdoor installation made from miles of......read more
Shouts out to Jim Moriarty and Surfrider Foundation. In 2005, the coastal conservation group set a goal for 150 "coastal victories" by 2010. They defined a coastal victory as “a decision made in favor of the coastal and ocean environment that results in a positive conservation outcome, improves coastal access, or both.†On December 1, they nailed it. Kudos, Surfrider. (via......read more
A recent recipient of a BFA in Sculpture from Brigham Young University, Levi Jackson heads outdoors to build installations in natural settings, which he photographs then dismantles. An eco-conscious thread runs through his work. "ReIntroduction," a Jackson piece from earlier this year, offers a powerful comment on a failed oil well in the Utah countryside. The well, which was abandoned......read more
Jean Shin is doing her part to combat America's garbage problem, one mindmelting art installation at a time. The Brooklyn-based artist's widely divergent body of work shares a few common traits: it's all highly labor-intensive, it's all made from discarded materials (whether wine bottles, prescription pill bottles, cheap umbrellas, or lottery tickets), and it's all awesome. But Shin's......read more
Italian artist Moneyless, known for his 3D geometric installations constructed from yarn and string, was in San Francisco recently for the Linear Empires show at White Walls Gallery. Evidently he took some time to ramble around the Bay Area and craft some uncommissioned works in the great outdoors. The angular sculptures consist of straight clean lines arranged in spatially organized webs that......read more
German street artist EVOL created thhis underground urban "X" in a field outside of Hamburg as part of the MS Dockville cultural festival. It took us more than a few looks to wrap our heads around the fact that these are stencils. Pretty amazing. It took him eight days to get it together. Check out a photo series of his process here. The work is part of EVOL's......read more
For Michelle Peterson-Albandoz, dumpster diving is just part of her creative process. The Chicago artist trolls for discarded pieces of wood around her North Side neighborhood, then shapes them into abstract sculptures featuring patterns and textures inspired by nature. The large, striking works reflect Peterson-Albandoz's environmentalist ideas. "I'm involved with a lot of......read more
Brazilian artist Henrique Oliveira gives trashed pieces of wood new life with these sweeping installation works he calls "Tridimensionals". To create the works, Oliveira gathers weathered plywood from streets and construction sites in Sao Paulo, then separates the layers and reconstitutes them as massive mixed media pieces that combine sculpture, painting and architecture. The......read more
When nature and technology collide in the name of art, you can color us interested. Ohio artist Barry Underwood does a masterful job of juxtaposing the two. Taking inspiration from film, theatre, land art, and painting, Underwood creates LED light installations in natural settings, then takes long exposure photos of the scenes. The results are dramatic, to say the least. The works provide some......read more