Amazing Sand Sculptures by Ray Villafane

While Ray Villafane is best known for his expertise in the art of food carving, he is also recognized for his magnificent, remarkably realistic sand sculptures. Using just sand and water, the artist sculpts incredibly detailed figures that tower above him as he works. Funny-faced people, nativity scenes, and hellish creatures from Dante’s Inferno appear so life like that it’s hard to believe they were formed from humble grains of sand. 

Villafane only began sand sculpting in 2008 after accepting a challenge in Jesolo, Italy.

Despite not having any experience working with the medium, he wowed viewers with his exceptional craft, and since then has received invitations from all over the world to take on new sand sculpting projects.

Visit www.villafanestudios.com for more!

INTERSECTIONS | ANILA QUAYYUM AGHA

Winner of both the public and juried vote of Artprize 2014, Pakistani artist Anila Quayyum Agha exercises the architecture of the Grand Rapids Art Museum in Michigan by infilling it with a dynamic interplay of shadow and light. Intersections comprises a 6.5 foot laser-cut wooden cube pierced with carefully crafted patterns and illuminated from the inside, which casts expansive, lace-like geometries onto the surrounding walls, ceiling and floor.

Single light bulb, 6.5′ Square cube / Cast shadows – 32′x34′

via Feel Design

"The Octopus Table" by Isaac Krauss

The Octopus Table is a beautiful (predominantly) bronze sculpture designed and sculpted by artist Isaac Krauss. He collaborated with Alex Friend who contributed wax and welding work to the piece.

Danaid (1885), Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Danaid (1885), Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

'Rain', Fiberglass Sculpture by Nazar Bilyk.

Born in Lviv in 1979, Ukrainian artist Nazar Bilyk created this stunning 6-foot tall sculpture called 'Rain' using fiberglass and metal with a huge raindrop stands suspended on the figure’s face as he looks up toward the sky.

"Musical Instruments" - Free Standing Bronze Sculptures by Armand Pierre Fernandez

Faced with this one sculpture collection, it seems I'm looking at paintings in the style of cubism which is quite brilliant, but in fact what I see is a series of sculptural works of a French-born American artist Armand Pierre Fernandez (1928-2005). In the series "Musical Instruments", he presented a wide variety of musical instrument sculptures shaped, mostly guitar, with the material used is bronze. In my view, he seemed to realize his imagination about the components that make up an object, in this case music instruments, which basically had been created with the physical form which is beautiful and artistic. Certainly not easy to sort out the beauty of the shape of the instrument to be restated as a distinct form which still has a beautiful appearance, but Armand did it. It's like looking at a split 3D puzzle with clear lines, moving in all directions, but still beautiful to behold.

I've visited his website, and found a lot of his amazing work, not all are in the style of "cubism" as I look at the three works below. Some of my other favorites from this series are Stelle Violin, Mother and Child, plus his Accord Final from the series of Arman's Orchestra.

ARMAN BIOGRAPHY (1928 – 2005)

“I specialize very much in… everything,” the French-born American artist Arman told an interviewer in 1968. “I have never been — how do you say it? A dilettante.” Regarded as one of the most prolific and inventive creators of the late 20th century, Arman’s vast artistic output ranges from drawings and prints to monumental public sculpture to his famous “accumulations” of found objects. His work—strongly influenced by Dada, and in turn a strong influence on Pop Art—is in the collections of such institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

SEE MORE OF HIS WORK AND BIOGRAPHY via www.arman.com

Written by,

@prayudiutama

The 29th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in China

What is the best thing we can do in the winter? With piles of snow like everywhere, maybe this one festival will attract your attention, even with the low temperature that might make your hands numb. The Harbin Ice Festival, one event that is always awaited by many people, whether from China or any other country in the world.

Harbin Ice Festival provides the visitors each year a whole new world of ice and snow. The 29th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival was started on January 5, 2013 and last for over one month. The best collections of ice artworks were exhibited in the following five main places: Ice and Snow World, Ice Lantern Garden Party, Sun Island Scenic Area, Yabuli International Ski Resort, Zhaolin Park. This year we were lucky enough to get some photos sent by one of our members James Patrick, an artist based in Sydney, directly from the festival.

Figurative Nail Sculptures by Marcus Levine

Nails are commonly used as a tool to lock a material such as wood in a building. In shape, the nail is interesting for me to be explored as an artistic medium. But I always think to use it in small amounts, because of its solidity and may be difficult to be processed. But this one British Sculptor, Marcus Levine uses nails as the media, hundreds or even thousands of nails rather, to create works of applied art, in the form of figurative sculpture that enact a physical Pointillism. Each composed of thousands of nails hammered into wood panels. All works are completed freehand without any sketches or tracing onto the boards.

It's certainly not an easy process to create figurative work without sketches or tracing, especially if you see the size of the works made mostly on a large scale. I do not doubt the value and beauty of this work, but at a glance if you look at the work from a distance, I think this work may be seen less bold, perhaps because of the size of the nails used are not too large, Applying this work really should be adjusted to the surrounding area, layout, lighting, color dominance around, and so forth, so this work would appear to be 'outstanding'.

Interview and video coverage by BBC's look north program includes footage of Levine at work in his studio 

(via www.designboom.com)

Levine tours his exhibition at London's 'Air Gallery', depicting additional nail works

(via www.designboom.com)

Chewing Gum Sculptures by Maurizio Savini

I have to say this first: I am not a fan of chewing gum! Even surprisingly I tend to keep my distance from it. But this Italian artist Maurizio Savini has spent the last ten years creating amazing sculptures out of thousands of pieces of bright pink chewing gum.

Chewing gum may not be the most common media of the art world, but to 39-year-old Maurizio Savini it’s the most versatile material available. It’s easy to manipulate when warm, and can be cut with a knife, just like clay. Regardless of what many may think, chewing gum sculpting is an established art form, recognized all over the world, and Savini’s artworks are eagerly awaited by critics and connoisseurs, alike.

To The Telegraph, the artist based in Rome, said: "The reason I like to use chewing gum is because it seemed to me an amazingly versatile material compared to those used by the traditional arts such as painting. Despite its history of it belonging to popular culture, chewing gum does not have a statute of its own within institutional art. I believe that in my work on this material is redeemed and acquires a capacity and it has an expressive dignity of its own.”

Disgusting as it may seem to some people, Maurizio Savini uses thousands of chewed up pieces of bubble gum for each of his sculptures. He molds them into the desired shapes and when the whole thing is done, he fixes the sculpture with formaldehyde and antibiotics. The amazingly detailed chewing gum sculptures of Maurizio Savini have sold from up to $60,000 each. Whether you like it or not, this is  the extraordinary level of talent and creativity of an artist. Here are some of his sculptures:

Source: 

http://www.odditycentral.com

http://www.telegraph.co.uk