Art and Artists Everywhere

The leisure days of summer provide a good time to check out some other art sites that you may have missed:

Spamgraffiti is an online installation site created by Houston, Texas artist David Chien. Each of the projects is created from spam emails and is updated continually. You'll find it at http://residency.glasstire.com/spamgraffiti/ Chien's own innovative work, including Popunation and Killer Robot Dog Factory, are at http://nakedgremlin.com

The Gif show was curated by Rhizome editor Marisa Olson to explore the potential expressiveness of gifs (graphic interface format files). She has invited about a dozen artists to use gifs creatively in animation, videos, prints, and ready-mades. The intriguing results can be found at http://www.rhizome.org/events/gifshow And while you're there be sure to pay a visit to Rhizome http://www.rhizome.org for developments in the world of art and technology.

The Corning Museum of Glass has uploaded a glass Sculpture Gallery with contemporary glass pieces from their own collection. Not only are the sculptures fascinating, but the Gallery has included detailed descriptions of the techniques used to create them. http://www.cmog.org/index.asp?pageId=802 Did you know that the ancient Phoenicians were the first to discover that sand would melt when exposed to extremely high temperatures? By the twelfth century there was a glass center northeast of Venice, some say at Aqeileia. Eventually all of the glassmakers were moved to Murano, possibly to keep their methods secret, and eventually it became a sign of treason for a glassmaker to leave Venice. For more on the history of Murano glass-making, visit http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/murano_the_glass_island.htm

Manfred Mohr, a New York-based computer artist, has been working with algorithms and cube forms which he calls "real-time algorithmic animations". A pioneering digital artist, he presents some of these at http://www.emohr.com/ww4_out.html. See especially space.color.motion.

Susan Kaprov has created some fascinating public art works using photomontages on aluminum in giant sizes (like a forty-foot wall). In so doing she has overturned size limitations and received some prestigious commissions for this colorful body of work. http://www.kaprov.com

I have a couple of problems with this next site. For one thing the navigation is clumsy, although once you get started it flows pretty well. Additionally I am loath to celebrate corporate collectors rather than the artists themselves. Having said that, I suggest you take a look at the Museum of Modern Art's "Contemporary Voices: Works from the UBS Art Collection", a group of roughly forty pieces from the past forty-five years. The art, not incidentally, is promised to MOMA as a future gift. It's worth a visit: http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2005/contemporaryvoices/flash.html

c.Corinne Whitaker 2006