Photos By Gail
On the Friday of Labor Day weekend, we finally made it out to Coney Island for our annual evening of fun and adventure on the boardwalk, culminating in their spectacular summer fireworks display! It’s always a good time, but this year we mixed it up a little with a visit to the Freak Bar, and that is where we spotted this taxidermy Hammerhead Shark!
Continue reading Hammerhead Shark Attack
Photo By Gail
Still Life With Cake (1818), a typical still life by Raphaelle Peale (1774 – 1825), the son of Charles Willson Peale, may have been the picture exhibited in 1819 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts as Still Life—Wine, Cakes, Grapes, &c. A similar picture dating from the same year is in the Detroit Institute of Arts. Peale’s tightly-grouped still lifes are often permeated with a delicate melancholy akin to that which characterized the life of the artist; he was an alcoholic who suffered the effects of arsenic and mercury poisoning caused by his work as a taxidermist in his father’s museum. His spare, essential style may have been influenced by the Spanish still lifes he studied in Mexico and by the works of Juan Sanchez Cotan, exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1818.
Photographed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
Story and All Photos By Gail Worley
New York-based Chilean designer Sebastian Errazuriz is known for thinking way outside the box. Always on the look-out for interesting materials, he aims to strike a balance of artistic and practical qualities of design, and his sense of humor often ends up in the mix. In this case, Errazuriz obtained the bodies of taxidermy chickens (which died of natural causes) to create these fun and unique Chicken Lamps. Who says upcycling has to be dull?
Continue reading Eye On Design: Chicken Lamps By Sebastian Errazuriz
Mufasa By Joseph Grazi: Taxidermy Bats, Dried Butterflies and Stone Sculpture on Wood Mounted in Plexiglass (All Photos By Gail)
Writing this rad blog has been an excellent way to discover and start to follow the careers of many cool and talented local artists, one of whom is Joseph Grazi, who creates fresh artworks by mixing taxidermy with classic statuary, juxtaposed with pristine colored pencil and graphite renderings, and giving the result a slight twist in perspective. Joseph Gross Gallery is currently hosting Cecil: A Love Story, Grazi’s latest body of work, which is a multimedia exhibition that examines the public’s erratic moral compass in the wake of highly publicized tragedies. Continue reading Joseph Gross Gallery Presents Cecil: A Love Story By Joseph Grazi
All Photos and Videos By Gail
A Paracosm is a detailed imaginary world created inside one’s mind. Such a fantasy world may involve humans, animals and things that exist in reality, or it may also contain entities that are entirely imaginary, alien and otherworldly. Commonly having its own geography, history and languages, the experience of such a parascosm is often developed during childhood and continues over a long period of time: months or even years.
Paracosms are also made reference to as types of childhood creativity and problem-solving. Some believe that paracosm play indicates high intelligence. In his installation entitled Midnight Paracosm, Tennessee-based artist Matthew Dutton is creating his own world of creative play. And if you are already familiar with Dutton’s delightfully disturbing found object sculptures, you will understand that this tableau represents exactly what is going on in his mind most of the time.
Taxidermy Deer with Santa Mask and Wig/Beard
My Absolute Favorite: Hula Baby in a Birdcage with Blonde Fall
More Fucked Up Shit, After The Jump!
Continue reading Matthew Dutton’s Midnight Paracosm at Stephen Romano Gallery