Tag Archive | Neon

Pink Thing The Day: Vintage Pink Plasma Sphere!

Jan4

Pink Plasma Sphere
Photos By Gail

If you happen to live near, or be visiting, the city of Glendale, California — as I was over the Christmas Holidaze — and you also love Neon signs and other types of neon-based artworks, be sure to stop by the Museum of Neon Art. MONA is small museum, just one big room basically, with a rotating collection of vintage neon signs and other neon artworks, as well as temporary exhibits, and its admission price is $10 well-spent for this non-profit venue that also hosts Neon Art Making classes! Towards the rear of the museum gallery is small niche that’s easy to miss if you don’t explore thoroughly (it was pointed out to me by a docent) where you can see vintage plasma tubes and spheres, including the one seen in this post, on which the ubiquitous commercial Plasma Balls that we all owned in the 1980s (I still have mine) were based. Neato.

MONA (Museum of Neon Art) is Located at 216 S. Brand Blvd. (Corner of Caruso) in Glendale, CA 91204

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Somos 11 Millones / We Are 11 Million On The High Line

Aug14

We Are 11 Million
Photo By Gail

Andrea Bowers is a Los Angeles-based artist working in video, drawing, and installation that combines art and activism in order to draw attention to the struggle for social justice. For the High Line, Bowers presents a continuation of her ongoing work supporting the DREAMers, individuals who came to the United States at an early age without documentation, who have assimilated to U.S. culture, and who have been educated in the U.S. School system.

Here’s what the sign looks like at night.

We Are 11 Million

The message is written in Spanish on one side and in English on the other.

Somos 11 Millones

Bowers invited the immigration activist group Movimiento Cosecha to write a slogan in support of DREAMers, realized as a neon sign reading “Somos 11 Millones / We Are 11 Million,” which is the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States.

Part of the Agora Project, Installed on The High Line (Under the Standard Hotel) Through March of 2019.

Modern Art Monday Presents: Bruce Nauman, Human Nature / Life Death

Nov27

Human Nature / Life Death
All Photos By Gail

Bruce Nauman’s neon sculpture, Human Nature / Life Death (1983) is a circle of words corresponding to the defining contradictions of human existence — life and death, love and hate, pleasure and pain — are trisected by the words “Animal,” “Human” and “Nature.”

Human Nature / Life Death

Human Nature

Animal Nature

In the aggregate, the words form a colorful, illuminated peace symbol. Human Nature / Life Death is anything but serene or amicable, however, and not only because of its content. As the words flash and darken erratically, Nauman’s neon devolves into a jumble of disjointed signs that break the continuity of the composition and jerk the eye across the wall.

Human Nature / Life Death

Photographed in The Met Breuer in Manhattan.

Video Clip of The Week: Djustin, “Dancing”

Apr2


Hey Bitches, everyone’s Favorite Thing, The Video Clip of The Week, makes a hard comeback for Spring with an awesome tune to get you movin’ and groovin’ on a Sunday morning — and if you don’t quite feel like moving just yet, you have something cool to look at — with Djustin’s neon-infused video for their uber hot synth-pop dance track, appropriately entitled “Dancing”! Because, Dancing!

Djustin is an unstoppable power duo comprised of Sweden’s Johan Angergård and his American partner, Rose Suau, and together they create something truly primal. “Dancing” wastes no time at all getting right to the heart of the club experience, putting the transcendent power of dance floor right in your head. Lyric videos have never looked as spectacular as this visual bombardment  of Hot Pink and Bright Turquoise Neon signage delivering the message directly to your cerebral cortex against a backdrop of mirror-ball rays and tiny reflective shards of glittery stuff, all buoyed by Suau’s seductive vocal hooks reminiscent of  Shannon’s 1983 smash hit, “Let The Music Play.” Resistance is futile.

“Dancing” can be found on Djustin’s upcoming full-length album Voyagers, which will be released on May 5th, 2017. Like them on the FaceBook at This Link! Enjoy!

Djustin Band
Photo By Bengt Rahm

Eye On Design: Neon Desk Light (Blue) By Jochen Holz

Feb22

Neon Desk Lamp
All Photos By Gail

A couple of weeks ago, we made a run by Chamber on West 23rd Street to check out their newest collection of functional, limited edition artworks and home goods. As usual, more than a few items piqued our interest. We especially like this lamp by London-based blown glass artist and designer, Jochen Holz.

Neon Desk Lamp

The Neon Desk Light is a unique, freestanding light sculpture made of free formed borosilicate glass tubing. Each is one of its kind and part of a small edition. Says Holz about this creation, “I am using much bigger tubing diameters and wall thicknesses to create shapes which couldn’t be achieved with conventional neon making.  The forms play with the light emitted by the different rare gases, the undulating tube subtly manipulates the light, softening and intensifying it in turns. There are no coatings or filaments, just the pure light radiating from within the tube. The lights have an estimated lifetime of about 30 to 40 thousand hours.”

This fun modern lamp also comes in Red. Contact the store at info@chambernyc.com for pricing.

Photographed at the Chamber Boutique on 23rd Street, West of the High Line / 10th Avenue.
Neon Desk Lamp

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Iván Navarro’s Mute Parade at Paul Kasmin Gallery

Nov10

Impenetrable Room
Impenetrable Room By Iván Navarro All Photos By Gail

Paul Kasmin Gallery’s Tenth Avenue space is currently hosting Mute Parade, an exhibit of light installations by  Chilean-born artist Iván Navarro, for his second solo show with the gallery. Mute Parade transforms multiple gallery rooms into a synesthetic environment continuing Navarro’s ongoing use of light, sound, and language to engage with issues of power, migration, and propaganda.

First Gallery Installation View

Upon entering the gallery, the viewer is faced with a series of new works by the artist including Tuning (2015), a pyramid of six towering drums.

Tuning

Navarro combines the drums with mirrors and the words High, Tone, Tune, Bass, Mute, and Deaf to create a visual representation idea of sound (or noise) while at the same time removing and negating the original function of the instruments. This is a way of “playing a song” without making any sound.

MEBE

None of What You Hear

Center Room Installation View

In the center of the adjacent room, there are two freestanding 6-foot diameter drums that incorporate neon, LED lights, mirrors, and electricity. Circular texts written in light repeat the words KickBack and KnockKnockKnock – giving the appearance of an endless loop. Throughout the exhibition, the new works employ silence and stillness to create an uncanny perception of sound and movement and to explore the relationship between seeing and hearing.

Impenetrable Room

In the last room gallery, the viewer enters a labyrinth of four 6 x 6 foot structures that together make up the Impenetrable Room (2016). This new body of work co-opts the materials and format of portable “road cases,” which are customarily used to transport and protect musical instruments. Refitting the cases with mirrors and neon light, Navarro transforms these static objects into deep spaces that appear to recede towards infinity.

Impenetrable Room

In this installation, undulating lines of green neon diagrammatically echo the propagation of sound waves through a medium. Silent and monolithic, these self-contained rooms resonate with unspoken narrative power.

Read You Loud Unclear

Black and white paper squares are scattered across the floors of both galleries. The words Read You and Loud Unclear, printed on opposite sides of the cards, call attention to the disjunction between the visual and auditory aspects of communication. Informed by the aesthetics and rhythms of military parades, the exhibition contemplates the juxtaposed feelings of celebration and intimidation that martial music is intended to create.

Tuning Alternate View

Iván Navarro’s Mute Parade will be on Exhibit Through December 23rd, 2016 at Paul Kasmin Gallery, located at 293 Tenth Avenue (Corner of 27th Street) in the Chelsea Gallery District.

Impenetrable Room

Eye On Design: Fluorescent Cactus Garden By Nobel Truong

Jun22

Fluorescent Cactus Garden
All Photos By Gail

Laser cut from fluorescent green and fluorescent red acrylic, the Cactus Garden acts a both a day and night lighting fixture. The sculptures offer a subtle glow when in light thanks to the fluorescent material from which they are cut.

Fluorescent Cactus Garden

An LED wired base can also be fitted to each cactus, illumining the sculptures in UV blacklight. All cactus styles are cut to nest the lamp base, making the design entirely interchangeable.

Fluorescent Cactus Garden Detail 2

This installation was designed and fabricated by Nobel Truong in Los Angeles and photographed at the Architectural Digest Design Show in NYC.

Fluorescent Cactus Garden Detail 3