For the sculptor that is deCaires Taylor creates statuary and installations undersea; for he is post interested in sustaining his skills as a visual artist, while also "..providing the building blocks for sustaining a rapidly depleting coral reef environment. The subject matter can be whimsical [Alice from the Looking Glass astride a chess board] but often mundane - the office worker frozen in his office chair, rows of laborers standing forlorn]. Over time, the familiar will disappear as it becomes engulfed in new coral formations.
Jason de Caires Taylor’s art is an example of generative human intervention in the ecosystem, showing what can be accomplished by individual imagination and collective effort. Taylor’s strategy of conserving reefs, opposes the “land as commodity” mentality of Capitalism. His creation of underwater sculpture parks attracts tourists away from natural reefs, allowing them to recover, and taps into tourism revenue...[from his own website] "...a sculptor who creates underwater living installations, offering viewers mysterious, ephemeral encounters and fleeting glimmers of another world where art develops from the effects of nature on the efforts of man. His site-specific, permanent works are designed to act as artificial reefs, attracting corals, increasing marine biomass and aggregating fish species, while crucially diverting tourists away from fragile natural reefs and thus providing space for natural rejuvenation."
Others may disagree, but I see his current work's direction as akin to some visionary artists as one might find in little-known publications such as "Alchemistas / Beyond the Veil".
Based on what I've seen of his work - and recent work as uploaded on line - I it find exciting to sense how prolific he seems to be in his work pace. Yet not until I saw a mere handful of illustrations, and a calligraphy pieced at Freelanced.com, have I begun to appreciate the varied nature of the the Artist Brown sharing with us his visual delights. I look forward to seeing more of his work.
But why should I do all the talking? On Freelanced, one gets a glimpse at his sense of humor, and the skill at describing his inspirations with levity "Crazy about my Dogs....psyched about UFOs and Extraterrestrials, metaphysics, paradigm shifts and most every other mystery the Universe contains"While at Blue Canvas ~ a posting site for artists ~ Sam Brown makes amply clear dedication and seriousness of his work, and that he can describe for himself his mission, as it were, for sharing that work...
"My early work consisted primarily of fantasy and science fiction themes which I still enjoy today. Over time, subjects such as philosophy, metaphysics, mysticism and surrealism began to influence the content of my paintings and led to my experience of, and my magnetism toward, the archetype of the spiral. A pattern seen throughout the Universe, the spiral has been utilized by many cultures over time and has several meanings associated with it. One being that of a spiritual journey... a spiral path which we all share. ".
You can find more of his work at his own website, Cerulean Sam at the artists' display site Blue Canvas as well as see samples of his magazine illustration and calligraphy (such as the cover art shown to the right in this column) at Frelanced.com - Sam Brown
Adrián Villar Rojas: Getting information about Villar Rojas was a challenge. Enigmatic, perhaps, yet not one easily forgotten - He represented Argentina in the 2011 Venice Biennial; he installed a monumental work in the Jardin Tuileries next to the Musée de Louvre in Paris, was among the first sculptor on exhibit at the The new Serpentine Sackler Gallery, {Kensington Gardens, London England] in September 2013 and major prestige galleries pay attention to his efforts.
Villar Rojas has become renowned for his large-scale sculptural works, predominantly made in clay and brick. Beached whales in the middle of a forest, dinosaurs in a death battle with one another; elephants straining under the weight of massive concrete architectural molding.
At the Serpentine Sacker gallery, in Autumn 2013, he began "...working with a team of collaborating builders, sculptors and engineers, ...tests the limits of clay to create an apparently fossilised world of ruins and ancient monuments that plays with the concept of time, history, modernity and the future. Overarching connections between his projects create a larger narrative, with themes and forms reappearing and reconfiguring themselves over time.
His earlier works "As with My Dead Family, saw him create a 28-metre [92 foot] -long sculpture of a whale stranded in a forest for the Biennial at the End of The World, each installation can seem as if is the last chapter of an unknown mythical saga.
At first glance, Rojas, who was born in the Argentinian city of Rosario in 1980, would not appear to fit the prototype of the aggressive artist: his influences lie in grunge music and comics, while his heroes both in art and reality tend to be broken figures, as he explains on his website [in Spanish].
More obliquely, a scan of Villar Rojas' Flickr pages Nerd Ciego- provide a peek at what he sees and the life surrounding the works he produces.
[from io9] "The artwork of Argentinian sculptor Adrián Villar Rojas evokes such themes as fantastic adventure in the otherwise normal material realm, the passage of time, and the last days of humanity. Perhaps his most striking series of sculptures depict giant dead sea leviathans beached far from any bodies of water."
RESOURCE SOURCES ~ [1] IMAGE: Wikipedia page on Jason deCaires Taylor ~ INFO: Daily Beast: Underwater Sculptures Are a Sight to Sea, April 2014 ; [2] IMAGE + INFO: Sam Brown work from 2004 ~ found at Blue Canvas; : ;[3] Adrián Villar Rojas IMAGE Sick Chirpsies article Making Sea Monsters Out Of Stone INFO: Serpentine Galleries - Today We Reboot the Planet; io9 Building Dead Sea Monsters in the Forest
