martin creed

Martin Creed is a British artist who currently splits his time between London and Alicudi, Italy.  I am in love with his work and found it thanks to a terrific blog called My Adventure is Your Advantage (MAiYA).  It certainly is in this case!  Below, is a selection of my favourite pieces from Martin- ultimate favourites are #2 and #3. Happy Thursday.  Next week I will fill you in on my second trip to Amsterdam.  There has been a lot of exploring going on this past week. Excited to share.

All images via Martin Creed’s website.

artist: hong hao

When I left China the end of 2007, I could not help but notice the growing contemporary art scene.  Beijing’s 798 and Shanghai’s Moganshan Lu offer a glimpse into China’s art scene as both districts are made up of studios and galleries with dedicated art space for artists.

Hong Hao is a Beijing born artist who graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and has made a name for himself in the China contemporary art scene. He is a conceptual photographer known for his series called “My Things,”(below) where he used everyday objects that he (obsessively?) collected to depict life through art.  The objects are shown in life-size gathered through the artists life.  His work provides a glimpse into consumer culture in China into his laser scanned pictures.  I think his pieces are fantastic and love the repetition of pattern and the colour that each object brings to the shot.  For more info on contemporary art in China, Art Scene Beijing is a decent site to start with as well as ArtZine China.

 

via grayluckett.com

via chngyaohong.com

via fabrik magazine

via lost at e minor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

artist: jacob hashimoto

Jacob Hashimoto is another artist whose work I am in love.  Born in Colorado, Jacob works with paper to create the most magnificent wall hangings and sculptures. The detail and texture in his work is impressive and is what draws me to his pieces.  For a list of his exhibitions, please click here.

 

via design boom

via design boom

via the Saatchi Gallery

via gigantico

via artnet.com

 

 

 

 

 

artist: oli goldsimth

I find I am getting to the stage in my life where I am starting to pay more attention to art.  As kids, art appreciation is something part of growing up either via arts & crafts lessons, school trips to the art gallery or art history classes in school.  During university art appreciation, for me, when dormant.  I was no longer drawing and painting, I could count on one hand how many times I set foot in an art gallery and the last class I formally took on about art in school was my third year aesthetics class for my philosophy major.

Now that I own four walls and a roof, my interest in art has been rekindled and I make more of an effort when out and about in Toronto or traveling abroad to visit galleries and shops with art.  I scribble down names of artists so I can research and blog about their work and have started to build my repertoire of what I would like to fill my walls with when I have the budget.  One of my new favourite artists is Toronto based Oli Goldsmith.  His art is chaotic, bust, colourful, graphic, involves the repetition of patterns and is sometimes referred to the genre of pop-surrealism.  I saw his work in a great furniture store, Michael Thomas, in Port Hope.  If you would like to read more about the artist, I found two good bios here and here.

via flickr

via flickr

via flickr

 

via flickr

via torontoist.com