Alfredo Jaar

The Cloud.
2000.
Three thousand helium filled ballons.

The Silence of Nduwayezu.
1997.
Light table, slides, slide magnifier, light box with black/white transparency.

A Logo for America.
1987.
Spectacolor lightboard.

May 1, 2011.
2011.
2 LCD monitors, 2 framed prints. Official press photograph from the White House by Pete Souza of President Obama and his staff following the progress of the Bin Laden compound raid.

Lament of the Images.
2002.
Two light rectangular light tables.
One on the floor; the other is suspended from the ceiling which arises and descends.

Alfredo Jaar is a performance artist that uses various political and world issues- genocide, US-Mexico border patrol- as the basis of his work. In Jaar's most recent piece, May 1, 2011, his audience gets to re-live the moments that President Barack Obama and his staff experienced when Osama Bin Laden was finally captured. Seeing photographs of his work doesn't really do the experience just; even watching a video for something like the concept of The Cloud seems to be unjust in the realm of his piece. The Cloud was a "ephemeral monument" that represented the live of citizens of Mexico crossing the borders to America in hopes of a better life. The white balloons released represented the lives of the people who've attempted the dangerous feat years prior to the work. I chose Jaar because as I was completing the reading his piece Geography=War reminded me of a childhood toy and I wanted to know more about his approach to art and other world issues.

Craig Kalpakjian

Are You Feeling Better Now?~2006 inkjet print,
36" x 48"

Shoegazer~2002,
Computer generated animation on DVD, DVD player, plasma screen monitor (on floor),
dimensions variable

Refuse~	2004, inkjet print mounted on Plexiglas, 25.5" x 34"

Live Through This~	2004, inkjet print mounted on Plexiglas, 37.5" x 50"

Shard~

2007, inkjet print, 32" x 43"

Craig Kalpakjian uses places that are not "tangible", but exist ONLY as virtual space for his images/artwork(Robertson & McDaniel, 2010). Most of his artwork uses reflections or emphasizes texture. He tries to copy actual world environments, but eventually ends up with computer generated images. "Using digital rendering and modeling techniques to "document" spaces that look and seem familiar, Craig constructs them by himself within his own mind."

Lita Albequerque

Beekeeper 2005

Celestial Source Fountain, Los Angeles Grand Hope Park, 1993

Spine of the Earth 1980

Stellar Suspension 2008

Stellar Axis: Antarctica, Installation View, 2006

Lita Albuquerque was born in Santa Monica, California but then moved overseas and was raised in Tunisia and France. She received her BFA at UCLA. A lot of her pieces are large scale interactions that force the viewer to explore themes like the cosmos and connectivity by placing the viewer in outlandish environments and inserting familiar objects. This connection with the environment opens up a world of possibilities. Some of her pieces like Beekeeper eliminate the pure nature of the subject and replace it with a surreal and white-noise like appearance. Lita has been a faculty member of the Art Center College of Design near Pasadena, CA for the past twenty years.

Fred Tomaselli

Big Raven, 2008, Acrylic, photocollage, and resin on wood panel.

Car Bomb, 2008, Photocollage, acrylic, resin on wood panel

Field Guides, 2003, photocollage, gouache, acrylic, resin on wood.

Airborne Event, 2003, mixed media, acrylic paint, resin on wood.

Untitled (Expulsion), 2000, Leaves, pills, mushrooms, photo collage, acrylic, and resin on wood panel.


Fred Tomaselli is an American artist, best known for doing highly detailed paintings and collages on wooden panels. Works that I posted above and many of his other art works are very eye catching and gives you that hallucinating feeling. Just like the artist said, it really does seduce and transport the viewer in to space of the artwork while it simultaneously revealing the mechanics of that seduction.

Kerry James Marshall

Untitled 2009,

Acrylic on pvc

Vignette #6 2005

Acrylic on plexiglass

Untitled 2009

Ink on paper

Nude (spotlight) 2009

Acrylic on pvc

Untitled, 2009

Acrylic on paper

Kerry James Marshall is an american artist who is best known for his large scale paintings, sculptures and other objects that focus on African American life and history. Black power and civil rights movements had a great impact on his work. His work is also influenced by his experiences as a young man. Most of his art was made to confront racial stereotypes in our society.

Andy Goldsworthy

Materials- sticks














Materials- Ice

Materials- Ice













Materials- Glass and Cow dung

The Andy Goldsworthy Project: Materials- Stone

Andy Goldsworthy is a british artist who utilizes entiraly natural materials to make similarly organic constructions. He is briefly mentioned in "Themes of Contemporary Art" as a "Earth art or Land Art" artist (Robertson, 159). His work is well known as natural, site specific art. Many of the works I found of Goldsworthy's did not have titles, so I included their materials to help gain an understanding of his work.

“I enjoy the freedom of just using my hands and “found” tools–a sharp stone, the quill of a feather, thorns. I take the opportunities each day offers: if it is snowing, I work with snow, at leaf-fall it will be with leaves; a blown-over tree becomes a source of twigs and branches. I stop at a place or pick up a material because I feel that there is something to be discovered. Here is where I can learn.”

"Movement, change, light, growth and decay are the lifeblood of nature, the energies that I try to tap through my work. I need the shock of touch, the resistance of place, materials and weather, the earth as my source. Nature is in a state of change and that change is the key to understanding. I want my art to be sensitive and alert to changes in material, season and weather. Each work grows, stays, decays. Process and decay are implicit. Transience in my work reflects what I find in nature."

Two quotes by the artist, found in a blog by Red Star Café.

If you're interested in Andy Goldsworthy's work, I suggest you watch Rivers and Tides, documentary about the artist made by Thomas Riedelsheimer in 2001.

Roxy Paine

New Work PMU #2 , 2001

acylic on canvas on wood frame

The Tree, 2009

Paint Dipper, 1997

steel frame, dipping tank, acylic paint, computer, interface, relays, chair

Machinations, 2010

Distillation 2010

stainless steel, glass, paint, pigment

Distillation, 2010

stainless steel, glass, paint, pigment



Roxy Paine was born in New York in 1966 and can be found in Brooklyn and Treadwell today. He studied at the College of Santa Fe and Pratt Institute. He has been featured all around the world, and in many very well known art museums in the United States. This includes the Hirshorn in DC and MoMA in New York. Many of his works reflect earth-like scenes like large scale trees while juxtaposing it with machinery.

As soon as I found this artist in the chapter, I wanted to do a blog post about him. I actually have already seen one of his works on the rooftop of the Met in New York! It's called Maelstrom and it was featured a couple years ago. It is an amazing piece of work and I took a photo in front of it!

(I apologize it's all the way at the top, I am having trouble trying to move it down here!)

Liza Lou

Cell (2004-2006)

Glass beads, cast fiberglass, wood, eletrcial parts, 97 x 68 x 96 inches

Fire (2002)

Mixed media, glass beads, and Swarovski crystal,24 x 24 29 in. se.

Man (2002)

Mixed media and glass beads,76 x 71 x 45 in.

Back Yard (1996-1999)

Mixed media and beads, 528 sq ft.



Kitchen (1995)
Tiny glass beads

"Liza Lou was born in 1969 in New York City.Lou's work is at first mesmerizing and breathtakingly beautiful, millions of hand-placed glass beads covering surfaces such as appliances, security fences, and barbed wire. It is only when one begins to look more closely at the themes of Lou's work that one understands the seriousness of her subject matter, such as pleasure, pain, vulnerability, captivity, and injustice, both personal and political."

"Lou has exhibited in numerous museums and galleries around the world, including, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Minneapolis Institute of Arts Minneapolis; Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica; and Smithsonian Institution of American Art, Washington, D.C."

source: L & M Arts 2011

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Hiroshi Sugimoto - The Origins of Love, 2004
Cromagnon, 15.6 x 19.8 cm

Hiroshi Sugimoto - The Origins of Love, 2004
Gorilla, 15.6 x 19.8 cm

Hiroshi Sugimoto - The Origins of Love, 2004
Homo Ergaster, 15.6 x 19.8 cm

Hiroshi Sugimoto, The Origins of Love 2004
The Music Lesson; 15.6 x 19.8 cm

Hiroshi Sugimoto, Pope John-Paul II, 1999
Gelatin Silver Print 182.2 x 152.4 cm

Hiroshi Sugimoto
Einstein Tower-Erich Mendelsohn, 2000-2001
gelatin silver print
20 x 24 in./ 51 x 61 cm


Hiroshi Sugimoto is a Japanese photographer who was born February 23, 1948. He received his BFA in Fine Arts from the Art Center College of Art and Design. Sugimoto has built his name by using large format cameras along with long exposures to create his photographs. Much of his work involves museum exhibits and wax figures, though recently he utilized an artificial lightning generator to create images with electricity and film.

Patricia Piccinini

Nature’s Little Helpers - Bodyguard (for the Golden Helmeted Honeyeater), 2004
silicon, fibreglass, leather, plywood, hair
150 × 40 × 60cm
(Installation)

Undivided, 2004
silicone, human hair, flannelette,
mixed medium
101 × 74 × 127cm
(Installation)

The Offering, 2009
silicone, animal fur, lambskin
(Installation)

Foundling, 2008
silicone, human hair, polyester, nylon, wool, glass, plastic
37 × 66 × 41cm
Plinth dimensions: 50 x 80 x 80 cm
Edition of 3 + 1 A/P

The Long Awaited, 2008
silicon, fibreglass, human hair, plywood, leather, clothing
152 × 80 × 92cm
Edition of 3 + 1 A/P

Patricia Piccinini arrived in Australia in 1972 with her family. She initially studied economic history before enrolling at art school in Melbourne. Since 1991 her work has been exhibited around the world, including the Berlin Biennale 2001 and in Songs of the Earth in Kassell, in 2000.

Piccinini works in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, video, sound, installation and digital prints. She enjoys exploring what she calls ‘the often specious distinctions between the artificial and the natural’. The concepts that underpin modern science, such as genetic engineering and other forms of biotechnology, appear to fascinate her.

Piccinini enjoys the fictions and mutability of the ideas of perfection. The contrasts and relationships that exist between the natural, organic and constructed worlds suggest to her the potential of the marriage of human physiology and technological development.

Information on Patricia Piccinini was found on http://www.patriciapiccinini.net/essay.php/?id=2