Polly Merredew is taking part in a new exhibition at Quad in Derby (QUAD, Market Place, Cathedral Quarter, DerbyDE1 3AS). The exhibition is part of a series of 3-D inspired events taking place at Quad. The exhibition runs through to Sunday 23rd February 2014. Entrance is free. The organisers found Polly’s work through this site so I’m kind of pleased about that.
Untitled 120cm x 120cm Acrylic on Canvas Polly Merredew
“X-Y-Z is an exhibition that explores 3D through the work of international artists utilising age-old techniques such as lenticulars, autostereograms, stereograms, holography and anaglyph 3D. Here these classic and nostalgia-inducing methods which offer us the illusion of depth and three-dimensionality are embraced and championed.
Using these techniques the artists play with the notion of perception and sensation, giving us an opportunity to view the world in a unique and playful way. Each artist tackles different concepts within their work, from Thomas Hämén’s series Metadata (stereogram) inspired by the computer generated Magic Eye® autostereograms from the 1990s, to Chloe Humenko’s stunning filmic anaglyphic 3D photographs, evoking memories of classic 3D cinema.
The resulting exhibition takes us on a nostalgic journey through the recent history of 3D technology and how it is being applied creatively to contemporary art practice.”
Scott from Muddlegeist software has recently released an iPhone / iPad app that generates an ever changing series of Op Art inspired patterns.
“A few weeks ago I was a bit ill, and spent some time laying around and playing with some iOS code I was writing for an audio app that I have in progress. I stumbled on an animation technique I hadn’t used before, and was hooked on playing with some of the visual aspects of it which reminded me of the classics of Op Art. This led me to become sidetracked on a new project which became Op Evol.”
I’ve had a play around with the app and it’s quite good fun – you can change the animation type between a series of presets and then change settings (such as animation speed) within each animation.
The app is available now in the iTunes store here:
“Inspired by Op Art of the 1960s, OpEvol takes the geometric play of colors and contrasts and animates them into a moving field of ever-changing psychedelic eye candy. It’s for staring at. It’s for sending to Air Display. It’s for playing with, and then staring at it some more.”
Be careful who you let in your house, particularly if you have original works by Victor Vasarely.
A Florida woman was ordered held on a $10,000 bond after she stole works from a legally blind man – Gilbert Jackson – that she supposedly cared for, including an original Vasarely work valued at approx. $30,000 – $35,000. Maureen Stuteville, 46, appeared in court remotely via video before Florida Judge John Hurley. She faces a charge of exploitation of a disabled elderly adult.
Maureen Stuteville has been accused of stealing numerous high value art works from the blind man she ‘cared’ for
In early December (2013), Jackson realised that his original Victor Vasarely work was missing from the house. Stuteville told him the painting was somewhere in Boca and later said it was at an art gallery. Days later Jackson asked to get his painting back, and Stuteville told him he would have to give her $3,000 and an automobile before she would return the painting, according to the report.
After Jackson’s friends discovered an invoice to an antique gallery in Dania Beach, Stuteville admitted to a friend that she had sold the Vasarely work, together with other expensive paintings and sculptures that Jackson owned. The gallery owner acknowledged that he had bought the works but had no idea they were stolen. He said Stuteville was a regular visitor and had told him that she was selling the works to pay for the car of her adoptive father with cancer.
Stuteville claims Jackson asked her to sell the works. Jackson claims otherwise. I have a feeling I know who to believe on this one.
Tobias Rehberger is a German artist, famous for his large scale installations, notably “Slinky springs to to fame” – a giant ‘slinky’ bridge corssing the Rhein-Herne Canal in the Imperial Garden, Oberhausen.
Slinky Springs To Fame
A few years ago he was commissioned to create a piece for the Berlin National Library. The result was “Uhrenobjekt” (“Watch Object”) a giant black and white checkered painting that bore a marked similarity to Bridget Riley‘s “Movement in Squares“. Riley was not pleased.
Rehberger’s “Uhrenobjekt” – photo by Jörg F. Müller
Bridget Riley’s “Movement in Squares”
Bridget Riley quickly launched a plagiarism lawsuit against Rehberger demanding the removal of the painting from the Library. The German courts didn’t grant the removal request but as a result of the suit, the painting has been covered up for over a year.
The case has now been resolved and the painting is back on display with a new title: “Uhrenobjekt nach Movement in Squares von Bridget Riley” (“Watch Object after Movement in Squares by Bridget Riley”).
It’s an interesting case. Clearly the works are very similar but there are also differences – the grid is not the same for example, nor the location of the ‘fold’. Is it really possible for Riley to claim copyright over a black and white grid in that way? I have a lot of sympathy for Riley here but it’s a difficult case. It’s also not the first time Riley has gone to court to protect her work – in the 1960s she famously sued a fashion house for creating a range of clothing that used one of her pieces as the pattern. She lost that case. On balance it appears that she has probably lost this one too although the name change is at least some kind of consolation.
Charline Lancel is a Brussels based visual artist producing digital Op Art pieces that are currently printed on Aluminium panels using the ChromaLuxe sublimation technique. Under sublimation, the image is not printed on the surface of the panel but instead after intense heating actually becomes part of the image. The use of aluminium suits Charline’s work perfectly as her compositions often have a fluid molten metallic kind of feel to them.
Did you study art? If so, where?
I graduated from the IATA (Technical Arts and Crafts Institute of Namur, in Belgium) school in the Transition Art section. I also hold a degree as a primary school teacher – something that has influenced me to make my artistic work playful and colorful. By and large, I am self-taught, learning new digital technologies (Photoshop, etc.) as they come up.
Why do you like Op Art?
I am intrigued and fascinated by optical illusions. I always loved maths and geometry ; I am very interested in Fibonacci’s numbers and the golden ratio. I particularly love spheres which to me evoke the planets, and give me the feeling that I am connected with the cosmos.
Which Op Artists have particularly inspired you?
I am often told that my visual universe resembles the works of Vasarely, but I must stress the fact that I was not aware of his work when I created my first abstract visuals in 2007. I did, however, write my senior thesis about geometry and the works of Piet Mondrian. I like Mondrian’s approach which strives toward minimalism of abstraction. His researches and his study of vertical and horizontal lines have inspired a part of my own work.
How do you make your art? (computer -> what software? traditional painting -> what materials, how do you plan a piece etc)
I take pictures from everyday life with a simple Cyber-shot Sony camera p200. This makes my basic image matrical and not vectorial. I then process and transform these pictures through Photoshop, working on a MacBook Pro.
What’s the process for making one of your artworks?
I make juxtapositions ; I apply vertical and horizontal symmetry to my images ; I use all the possible resources offered by Photoshop.
Any other art you like and other artists that inspire or have inspired you.
I love the set designs from 2001: A Space Odyssey, the universe of Vadim’s Barbarella as well as the universes of Verner Panton, Eams, Pierre Cardin, Courrèges, and the works of Anish Kapoor, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Curtis Jere, Henk van Putten, Alexander Calder, Isamu Noguchi, Pierre Rulens, Matthew Divito, Zanis Waldheim, SimonCPage, natacha Caland, Jérôme Jasinski…
What do you like outside of art ?
I love walks in nature, as well as the atmosphere, fashion and music of the late 60s and 70s.
How would you like to progress your artwork in the future ?
I would like to find financial means to create lenticular imprints, in order to give movement to my images.
I would also like to meet other artists who do matrical digital op art. Most abstract and geometric visuals which come under the general banner of ‘Digital Op Art’ are vectorial images.
I am currently seeking a gallery space specialized in ‘Digital Op Art’ which would agree to host my work and exhibit my pictures imprinted on Chromaluxe (and, possibly, on lenticular supports).
You can see much more of Charline’s original and interesting work on her website.