identity

dot to dot

Multi-Stage Dot-to-Dot Drawing Gradually Reveals Phases of Michael Jackson’s LifeOctober 1, 2011

Thomas Pavitte who previously made the world’s most complex dot-to-dot drawing featuring Mona Lisa is further exploring the potential of the dot-connecting medium with series of puzzles entitled theTransformation Series. In his first release a two-phase drawing gradually reveals overlaid portraits of Michael Jackson’s changing face, from childhood to adulthood. He’s also designed a typographic/portrait treatment ofPresident Obama. Pavitte now has an online store where you can buy limited edition prints of these transformation puzzles, as well as a high-resolution scan of the completed Mona Lisa puzzle

wire sculptures

Wire Sculptures by Gavin WorthSeptember 23, 2011

Artist Gavin Worth has followed a road less traveled (or perhaps, more traveled). He was born in Zimbabwe in 1981, grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico and then lived for nearly a decade in San Francisco where he found work as an actor and musician before leaving for Cairo, Egypt to teach at the American International School. He never attended art school, and in his spare time has nurtured a lifelong obsession with drawing, painting, and sculpture. Via his website:

By bending black wire into something of freestanding line drawings, I create sculptures that engage the viewer by involving them in their subtle changes. When the light in the room shifts, so does the mood of the piece. A breeze might softly move an arm. My wire sculptures tell stories of simple human moments: a woman adjusting her hair, a face gazing from behind tightly wrapped arms, a mother gently cradling her baby. The honest, unguarded moments are the ones that I find to be the most beautiful.

These are essentially line drawings done with wire and are amazingly perfect. (via my modern met)

yayoi kusama

Take a Vertigo-Inducing Walk into the Infinite Inside Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms at David Zwirner in New YorkNovember 22, 2013

Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away / Courtesy David Zwirner and Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc.

Infinity Mirrored Room, detail – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away / Courtesy David Zwirner and Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc.

Love is Calling, 2013. Wood, metal, glass mirrors, tile, acrylic panel, rubber, blowers, lighting element, speakers, and sound. / Courtesy David Zwirner and Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc.

Yayoi Kusama in her 2013 solo exhibition I Who Have Arrived in Heaven at David Zwirner, New York. Courtesy David Zwirner and Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc. Photo: Will Ragozzino.

Courtesy Rebecca Dale Photography

Courtesy Steven Meidenbauer

In an impressive display of new work, artist Yayoi Kusama (previously) recently opened a solo show, I Who Have Arrived In Heaven, at David Zwirner Gallery in New York. Now in her mid-80s, the prolific artist is showing twenty-seven new large-scale paintings, and not one but two of the artist’s famous Infinity Rooms (pictured above). The immersive mirrored environments can be entered by gallery visitors for a vertigo-inducing walk through an infinitely reflected field of stars and organic forms. The collected artwork and installation spaces span all three of David Zwirner’s galleries in Chelsea at 519, 525 and 533 West 19th Street and will be on view through December 21, 2013. Imagery courtesy David Zwirner Gallery, Steven Meidenbauer, andRebecca Dale Photography. (via designboom)

mapping

Dutch Paintings Recreated Using Thousands of Photographic and Scientific SpecimensJanuary 9, 2014

Dutch specimen MT1639, 2013. 28″w x 34″ h x 3.5″ d. Photographic prints, insect pins, pinning foam, gelatin capsules, glass vials, painted canvas, cast resin, pill organizer, plastic specimen bags, cotton thread, costume jewelry, sequins.

Dutch specimen MT1639, detail.

Dutch specimen MT1639, detail.

Dutch female specimen: J, 2013. 28″w x 34″ h x 3.5″ d. Photographic prints, insect pins, pinning foam, gelatin capsules, glass vials, test tubes, paint samples, cast resin, magnifying boxes, plastic specimen bags, cotton thread.

Dutch female specimen: J, detail.

Case no. 1627, female-Dutch, 2013. 29″w x 13″ h x 3″ d. Photographic prints, insect pins, pinning foam, gelatin capsules, glass vials, optometrist lens, paint samples, modeling clay, dried botanical matter, fabric, magnifying box, plastic specimen bags, cotton thread.

Case no. 1627, detail.

Case no. 1627, detail.

With hundreds of tiny photographic fragments, gelatin capsules, magnifiers, plastic bags and insect pins, New York artist Michael Mapes (previously) creates collages that are equal parts portraiture and scientific specimen. For his latest works Mapes used photographs of paintings by Dutch masters Rembrandt, Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy and others as inspiration for large scale specimen boxes. The deconstructed photos along with myriad other materials have effectively been transformed into a collage of a painting of a person. Of the work Mapes shares:

The samples are part of my most recent series of work examining Dutch Master Portraiture. In this work, I deconstruct the original subject, in both a figurative and literal sense by dissecting photos of a painting and considering ways in which the parts might serve to inspire new parts within the reconstruction to suggest unique and complex meanings. I’ve done these works with the use of a visual metaphor suggesting a pseudoscientific method specifically working with materials and processes signifying entomological, biological and forensic science.

Three of these works will be on view as part of an exhibition titled ‘Face to Face’ at the Yellowstone Art Museum in Montana starting March 20, 214. (via Juxtapoz, Designboom)

face-o-mat

Artist Tobias Gutmann Travels 25,000 Miles With the ‘Face-o-mat,’ A Portable Analog Portrait BoothNovember 21, 2013

Since late last year Swiss artist Tobias Gutmann has been traveling the world with his portable analog portrait booth dubbed the Face-o-mat. Customers take a seat in front of a small window, much like a photobooth, and then adjust some levers to determine how their portrait will look: color or black and white, natural or facelift, classical or avant-garde. Then, for a small fee, Gutmann works his illustration magic and creates a strange abstract portrait in less than three minutes.

In the last few months the Face-o-mat traveled some 25,000 miles (40,514km) with stops in Stockholm, Milan, Dar es Salaam, Tokyo and London. Gutmann often repaints the facade of the machine to match the local language, and recently rebuilt the entire machine using MDF (Medium-density fibreboard) to make it more durable. You can follow further Face-o-mat adventures on Facebook and you can see some of the over 700 poraits Gutmann has illustrated over on Tumblr. (via Think Faest!)