Sonia King "Depthfinder" 2011 24 x 18 inches Museo d'Arte della Citta di Ravenna (MAR)

The recent news that the Museo d’Arte della Citta di Ravenna (MAR)  has added works by three American artists to its permanent collection of contemporary mosaics was a milestone for the art form.  Sonia King, Samantha Holmes and Kate Jessup will be the first Americans to be shown along side some of Italy’s most revered artists – masters like Signorini, Pope, De Luca, Nittolo, and Palladino. This acknowledgment of the maturation of the American mosaic community is no small thing.

We asked King, the first artist to be acquired by MAR, to look back on her progression as a mosaicist and select works that she thinks of as personal milestones – works that were key turning points or launch pads for what came next in her artistic progression.  She obliged us with the six works and personal thoughts below that cover a period of time from 1999 to 2011. One could think of it as a “master class” in the exploration of the core components of mosaic.

King, who has both an MBA and an BFA, has what we would call an “ambidextrous mind” – both her right brain and left brain appear to be engaged at all times. This has been very much to the benefit of contemporary mosaic in the US. During those same personally productive twelve years, King found time to be one of the founding board members of the Society of American Mosaic Artists (SAMA) and served as president during the group’s infancy. She also authored of one of the best how-to/survey texts on contemporary mosaics:  Mosaic Techniques and Traditions  and was instrumental in creating a mosaic program at Dallas’ Creative Center for the Arts.  Most important, King became one of the most sought-after instructors internationally where she has carried the consistant and insistant message that the business of art is as important as the creation of it.

 We are happy to bring you Sonia King’s Milestones. As always, clicking on the images will bring a much larger view. Enjoy –  Nancie

"Depthfinder" Detail Photo: Photo Sonia King

The process of creating a mosaic is what’s important to me: the active selection of one tessera over another, the decisions that evolve from every choice and the discoveries made.  Each mosaic becomes an exploration with unlimited possibilities, a journey without a destination.  The constant interplay between intellectual engagement and the physical challenge of shaping and placing each tessera continues to hold my interest.  In the studio, it’s just my ability (or inability) to master the materials and create a work that captures something elusive.

 Riverscape  1999

"Riverscape" 12 x 16.5 inches Photo: Sonia King

Riverscape is one of my earlier mosaics mixing multiple materials in an ungrouted, direct technique.  I was excited by the differences in height and reflectivity between the smalti, marble and glass tile and saw new ways of working that I hadn’t imagined. 

"Riverscape" Detail Photo: Sonia King

After adding pebbles and river rocks into the mix, the possibilities exploded with ways of getting closer to what was in my head.  As this new manner of working evolved, I learned to think about what I was creating in an unrestrained, less preconceived way and began to develop my creative process, ‘intuitive mosaic’. It just has to feel right.    

The Spaces Between    2001

"The Spaces Between" 18 x 15 inches Photo: Sonia King

I continued experimenting with mixing materials, learning more about what can happen when one particular tessera is placed next to another.  At the same time, I began to see the potential in the spaces (interstices) between the tesserae.  I wanted to find out what would happen when I worked with nothing more than this ‘negative’ space.  The Spaces Between was created from a stepping-stone pulled from my backyard and broken apart with hammer and hardie. 

"The Spaces Between" Detail Photo: Sonia King

Eliminating the allure of the various materials allowed me to focus on the interstices and the shadows, discovering that as much can happen in the ‘spaces between’ as happens with the actual tesserae.  Now I often work on a mosaic from two points of view, balancing consideration of the positive spaces (the tesserae) with a focus on the negative spaces.  It’s like listening to the silence between musical notes. 

Adrift    2005

"Adrift" 25 x 19 inches Photo: Expert Imaging

Adrift is an early work in my Nebula series.  I started playing with repetition and distance, finding new relationships between differing materials, increasing complexity and pushing the interactions between reflectivity, spacing and scale.  I became fascinated with the contradiction of micro versus macro and the question of point of view. 

"Adrift" Detail Photo: Expert Imaging

Is this a slide under a microscope or a view from outer space?  Creating “Adrift” gave me a deeper understanding about the possibilities of pushing the medium of mosaic, both intellectually and technically.  

Meltdown   2006

"Meltdown" 24 x 18 inches Photo: Expert Imaging

I started Meltdown with eight or so larger elements: collapsed chalcedony geodes from Brazil, slate from Cornwall, England and broken pieces of raku pottery that my mother made.  I spent several days arranging and re-arranging, learning to trust my instincts and at some point, it started making sense to me.  Despite the frustration, ‘head time’ is an important part of my creative process, just like cutting and placing the tesserae.

"Meltdown" Detail Photo: Sonia King

At some point, I can ‘see’ what the tesserae do to one another, finding new relationships between the pieces.  As more materials are added, I discover new things about their interactions and fill with anticipation, curiosity and impatience to see what will happen with each additional tessera.

Permafrost    2009

"Permafrost" 2009 24 x 18 inches Photo: Expert Imaging

I wanted to push a complex mix of materials into the third dimension, draping light and shadow, matte and shiny, smooth and irregular tesserae over an undulating substrate.  The difficulty of keeping the illusion of a background smoothly rolling across complex curves increased with the choice of “opus palladianum” (or crazy paving) for the laying style.  

"Permafrost" Detail Photo: Sonia King

As one side of a tessera shifts up, the other end tips down.  Which means that one or more of the previously laid pieces has to be readjusted.  And that happens in multiple directions at the same time over the complex curves of the rolling substrate.  It was difficult and time consuming, but the deceptively calm and tranquil result was worth it.    

Coded Message: Invisible Ink    2011

"Coded Message: Invisible Ink" 35.5 x 25.5 inches Photo: Expert Imaging

In the language of mosaic in its classical form, tesserae are deeply embedded in visible mortar…set in stone, so to speak.  But the mosaic elements in Coded Message: Invisible Ink are free to interact at the most basic level: tesserae and substrate.  Pieces are fixed without any visible evidence of the adhesive. 

"Coded Message: Invisible Ink" Detail Photo: Sonia King

It seems possible that the tesserae could reposition when one’s back is turned, changing the code and thus the message at any moment.  The challenge and difficulty of creating this way has opened up a fresh direction for my work.  Technically, the mosaic explores a new way of interacting with the tesserae while conceptually; Coded Message: Invisible Ink  explores cryptic communications, misunderstandings, static, unspoken thoughts and subtexts.  

RESOURCES

• Sonia King’s Website here
• Three Americans Become Part of Prestigious Italian Museum’s Contemporary Mosaic Collection 
• Why Mosaic?  Sonia King

Sonia King "Depthfinder" 2011 24 x 18 in. Photo courtesy of the artist.

When the contemporary mosaic collection of the Art Museum of the City of Ravenna (MAR) reopens after a major redesign in October, three works from American artists will be exhibited alongside a pantheon of Italian masters.

MAR Curator Linda Kniffitz tells MAN that Sonia King (Dallas, TX), Samantha Holmes (New York City/Ravenna) and Kate Jessup (Seattle, WA) will each have a work in the newly redesigned loggia of this former 16th century monastery. The redesign/reorganization project was funded through Open Museum, a European Project and will be completed in time for opening of the city’s international mosaic festival, RavennaMosaico 2013

With its impressive collection of contemporary mosaic art and important research through the Center for Mosaic Documentation, the MAR is arguably the world’s most important contemporary mosaic museum.  We are very excited to see this strong embrace of American mosaicists within its walls.

Sonia King ~ Depthfinder

Sonia King’s Depthfinder (above) was the first of the three works to be acquired by the MAR. In October of 2011, Curator Linda Kniffitz wrote:

Sonia King’s work, “Depthfinder”, will be added to the Museo d’Arte della Città di Ravenna and included in the new collection of contemporary mosaics. The Museum is pleased to exhibit this new work that allows a comparison between the characteristics of mosaic art from the school of Ravenna with the creation of an established American artist.

King is one of the US’ best-known mosaic artists and has studios in Dallas and San Francisco. Her work is characterized by a seemingly unlimited palette of natural and man-made materials that are meticulously cut and arranged in ways that call to mind geologies and cosmologies. Of Depthfinder, the artist writes:

I create mosaic in response to the diversity and complexity of our world, attempting to create serenity and calmness from tension and chaos.  Elemental materials form new relationships with the addition of every tessera, creating landscapes both familiar and unreal.  Does “Depthfinder” explore new worlds in deep space or an ocean abyss where floating organisms populate the dark sea floor catching bits of reflected light?  I hope viewers look at the world around them with different eyes after seeing my work.

Samantha Holmes ~ Unspoken 10.22.10 – 07.07.10

Samantha Holmes "Unspoken 10.22.10 - 07.07.10" 2011 55 x 55 x5 cm Photo NTMP

Samantha Holmes‘ Unspoken 10.22.10 – 07.07.10 was acquired by the MAR in November of 2011 after it won the Banca Popolare di Ravenna Award for the Use of Unconventional Technique & Materials in the Young Artists and Mosaic (GAEM) competition of that year. The work consists of an empty smalti sample board filled with folded sheets of paper fastened with knotted wire. It is highly representative of Holmes’ work which is always intelligent, emotionally charged and extraordinarily beautiful. Of Unspoken, the artist writes:

“Unspoken”, deals with the challenges of self-expression across linguistic and cultural barriers, but also personal ones. Faced with the inability to articulate my thoughts aloud when I first moved to Ravenna, I began writing them down in moments of frustrated expression. “Unspoken” acts as a bookcase of these unvoiced ideas, thoughts left unsaid during this period of verbal isolation. Written on receipts, train tickets, scraps of paper found in a given moment of reflection, each “tessera” represents a sealed account of an instant in time – folded, sealed with wire, stored away. What is contained within ranges from the mundane to the profoundly intimate, a written record of a private self in a period of transition.

Kate Jessup ~ Aspen Stump

Kate Jessup "Aspen Stump" (2010) 17x24x7 in. Photo Jaime Rossignol

The most recent work to join MAR’s Contemporary Mosaic collection is Aspen Stump by Kate Jessup.  Stump was first shown during RavennaMosaico 2011 as part of the International Association for Mosaic (AIMC) Exhibition Musivo. There, it was singled out by arts writer Roderick Conway Morris in his review of the mosaic festival published in the New York Times.  MAN readers may be familiar with Jessup’s work which we recently highlighted in our review of Mosaic Arts International 2013.  Here is how Jessup describes her inspiration for Aspen Stump.

This piece is both a response to and a celebration of my home in the Pacific Northwest which has historically been highly dependent upon the logging industry. The aspen is native to the region and stumps like this are common in areas where trees have been harvested – they are the epilogue of mankind’s insatiable hunger for resources. Long after a tree has been processed into any number of useful or banal items, its stump will have acquired a new life of its own.  From its surprising beginning until its organic return to the earth, a stump maintains its own grouchy, truncated beauty.

Is there an American mosaic aesthetic?

A few years ago we participated in a class being taught by an instructor from the famed Mosaic School of Friuli, Spilimbergo. At one point she said to us, “You’re all so free! How I envy you.” And, indeed, without the constraints of centuries-old European traditions and expectations, American mosaicists swarmed into the medium with innovation and chutzpah. The other side of the coin, of course, was that American mosaicists worked without the solid, art-based foundation that the rigorous European training provided. The work was often uneven, derivative or just plain clunky.

This has all changed dramatically in the last five years with the confluence of access to classes taught by international masters, the growing body of mosaic work available on the internet and the maturation of individual artists who have carefully and conscientiously explored the possibilities of the medium.

What we see in King, Holmes and Jessup is a level of artistic sophistication and emotional resonance that puts them on the world’s stage. We are happy to see that MAR thinks so, too.

We look forward to seeing these works within the sure-to-be splendid redesign of MAR’s Contemporary Mosaic collection this October while we are in Ravenna for RavennaMosaico 2013.  For more information on the festival – including deadlines for exhibits, go to http://www.ravennamosaico.it/

Enjoy – Nancie

• Sonia King website
• Samantha Holmes website
• Kate Jessup website

Sonya Louro Do Rego "Fall" 2011 150 x 50 x 25 cm Shells and marble on wood and polystyrene Photo: MAN

One of our favorite pieces in the Young Artists and Mosaic (GAEM) exhibit in Ravenna in 2011 was “Fall” by South African born artist Sonya Louro Do Rego.  We were happy to learn more about her in this interview by Luca Maggio, art historian, curator and blogger who is always at the very heart of what is happening in Ravenna’s contemporary mosaic scene.  We’re looking forward to hooking up with Maggio while we’re in Ravenna this coming October to see what delights this year’s GAEM will provide.  NOTE to Artists under 40:  The deadline for submissions for this year’s GAEM is May 26th.  Enjoy – Nancie

"Roots" 2011

Luca Maggio:  Sonya Louro Do Rego (Johannesburg, South Africa, 1977): What was your course of study? How did you discover the language of mosaic?

Sonya Louro Do Rego:   Well, I grew up in South Africa and from a very early age I knew I wanted to be an artist, so all my life I’ve dedicated my studies to art – in every possible form. In high school, I had the most amazing and inspiring art teacher, Mr Gibb, who not only instilled in me a passion for painting and expressive use of colour, but also introduced us to the versatile technique of collage and use of the ‘found object’, which was very much a part of contemporary South African art in the 90′s. After finishing high school with solid training in drawing, painting and ceramics, I then went on to study Fine Arts at Rhodes University where I majored in Painting. It was here where my quest to create 3-D paintings was born. Although I had come across mosaic in the form of lovely decorative objects, it was many years later, while living in Italy, that the word ‘mosaic’ took on a whole new meaning – I had heard about this beautiful mosaic school in Spilimbergo and the minute I set foot inside I knew that I had found the medium I’d been looking for!

"Order" 2009 55 x 55 cm Thorns and marble

"Fall" 2011 150 x 50 x 25 cm Shells and marble on wood and polystyrene

LM:  Drawing, painting, sculpture and mosaic: in which of these possibilities is your home?I find your work Fall (presented at the Prize GAEM 2011, Ravenna, Italy) very interesting both for its asymmetrical balance and the use of natural materials (shells and marble) that were used to obtain a final, 3-dimensional result that reminds me of a kind of fossilized dorsal spine or of a canyon, but perhaps it couldn’t be like this… Can you explain your way of interpreting the mosaic?

SLDR:  I’ve always been interested in exploring the boundaries between the various art forms. Despite my classical (and rather rigid) training in drawing and painting, I guess I’ve always leant towards sculpture as a means of expression, or more specifically, the use of sculpture as a means to break up the flatness of the image surface. So, in mosaic I’ve found a technique that, not only allows me to achieve this, but is ideal in pursuing another constant theme of mine: seriality. It’s in the repetitiveness of the ‘tessera’ that I aim to create rhythmic compositions. In Fall I’ve tried to capture the sense of something moving, something alive, yet ancient – like something that’s been lying dormant for ages and is now slowly stirring awake. Your interpretation is quite insightful – the title Fall refers to both a ‘waterfall’ and ‘the fall of mankind’. The composition is designed as a landscape in aerial view. And, yes, it’s a canyon, with a waterfall and a river running through. But it’s obviously not meant to be a figurative representation, but only serves as the foundation or the ‘canvas’ to then be mosaicked.

"Fall" detail Photo: MAN

The materials were specifically chosen and applied to create a flowing and cyclical composition, to be read like a story (or history, if you prefer), with a beginning, a middle, a cathartic ending and a rebirth. I couldn’t have found better materials to help express this: marble is eternal and is symbolic of man’s evolution; and the shells naturally evoke images of ancient remains and bones. I loved the idea of creating a composition that is vaguely reminiscent of an archaeological site.

"Undone 1" Dyptich 2009 40 x 85 cm Shells, slaked lime

"Undone 2" 2009 40 x 85 cm. Slaked lime, nails, marble, clay

LM:  What is the mosaic situation in your country and what are your plans for the future?

SLDR:  Actually, I now live in Italy permanently with my partner and my 1-year-old daughter. Here, in Friuli, I think I’m not alone in the struggle to have mosaic recognized as an art form. As my colleagues and I have had training at the Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli, we are generally seen as artisans, despite the school’s constant endeavors to promote and teach mosaic, not only as a trade, but also as a means of artistic expression. Mosaic is still predominantly used as a decorative technique in design and architecture or as a suitable method to make copies of preexisting images or artworks. Slowly this perception is changing as mosaicists are realizing the diversity that this medium provides and more and more ‘alternative’ mosaics are emerging. But at the moment, I still feel torn between working on commissions and dedicating my time to creating my personal pieces. As for my future projects, I’ve just recently started working after a long maternity leave. Being filled with the joy of motherhood, you can expect my new works to be far more colorful and uplifting. I’m also experimenting with a new medium, or rather, a very old craft: needlework!

"Time" 2008 65 x 65 cm Marble, stone, shells

RESOURCES

• Sonya Louro Do Rego’s website sonyadorego.blogspot.com 
• Luca Maggio’s blog  http://lucamaggio.wordpress.com/
• Maggio interview with Egyptian artist Mohamed Banawy on MAN here
• Maggio story on Ravenna’s Felice Nittolo on MAN here
• Photos courtesy of the artist unless otherwise noted

Last October, during the British Association of Modern Mosaic’s annual Forum at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the question arose briefly during the organization’s General Meeting. The conversation, which focused on the Tate Modern’s continued refusal to show mosaic, was continued in the article below which appeared in the organization’s newsletter “Grout.” We thank BAMM for the opportunity to present these thoughtful “head-to-head” arguments from Paul Bentley, BAMM’s Chairman 1999-2005 and the current Chairman, Gary Drostle.

What do you think it will take advance contemporary mosaic? We look forward to your thoughtful and constructive Comments.

Dugald MacInnes "Orogeny" 100x100 cm Scottish slate

Paul Bentley:  ”Modern Mosaic = Modern Art” 

No one could doubt the success of the new venue for BAMM’s Annual General Meeting and Forum; the Victoria & Albert Museum is an impressive, world-famous building, and the Sackler lecture room featured the latest equipment and comfortable raked seating. Doubtless this explained why attendance in 2012 at least doubled that of previous years.

However, there was an elephant in the room and I took the liberty of pointing this out during our General Meeting.

Sir Nicolas Serota, the Director of Tate Modern, has always banned modern mosaics while allowing virtually anything else – bricks, beans, medicine cabinets, etc. A recent letter from his assistant confirmed the policy: “Sir Nicholas has asked me to reply on his behalf to confirm that we do not usually display contemporary mosaic at Tate. You are correct that we consider it a medium better suited to exhibitions at the V&A, which is the national museum of art and design.”

It seems they are aware that in 1970 the Tate did once lower its guard and let a modern mosaic slip in. It was Palpable Object by Paul Neagu.

Paul Neagu "Palpable Object Mosaic" 1970 Photo via Tate.org.

And, of course, in 1923 Boris Anrep was allowed to install his floor mosaic Proverbs of Hell in Gallery 2 of what is now Tate Britain.

Boris Anrep "Proverbs of Hell" 1924 Photo via Waymarking.com

But the fact is today contemporary mosaic is not allowed in Tate Modern and will not be as long as Serota is running the place.

I maintain that by having its Meeting and Forum at the V&A Museum BAMM has given the impression that it agrees with Serota; that modern mosaic is best suited to the national museum of art and design.

It’s all very well mosaicists say, “We don’t need Tate Modern; all that matters is that we create the best mosaics we can, that we are true to our own artistic goals.”  However one of BAMM’s stated aims is “to raise public awareness of modern mosaic art”. Tate Modern is Britain’s principal gallery of modern art; it has some 5 million visitors a year who end their visits thinking that they have seen a representative selection of modern art – even though there isn’t a square inch of modern mosaic in the building.  I find that outrageous.

Elaine M. Goodwin "Touching Paradise" 2010 66x120 cm. Gold smalti. Photo K. Bailey

What’s to be done? I believe that we should publicize Serota’s continued refusal to exhibit contemporary mosaic. This could be done by using the media to our advantage; arranging for a television programme about the issue, using Twitter and Facebook to spread news of the Tate’s continuing stance. We might arrange for an exhibition of British mosaicists that would be so exceptional it would demand media coverage, and ask for Serota’s comments – perhaps even invite celebrity artists like Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst to contribute mosaics of their own.

Jane Muir "For and Against" Photo via JaneMuir.com

I don’t think BAMM would be doing its duty if we just gave up and accepted that one of the world’s greatest galleries of modern art will never show works created using one of the world’s greatest artistic media.

Paul Bentley
BAMM Chairman 1999 – 2005

Robert Field "Mazeolithic Skeleton" 2001 61x61 cm Unglazed ceramic.

Gary Drostle:  ”Playing The System”

“Why are there no mosaics in Tate Modern?”

I have heard this question and the related question of “is mosaic art or craft?” consistently since I first joined BAMM many years ago.  I can understand people’s frustration at this seemingly impenetrable wall facing mosaic art.  However, I believe that these two questions are fundamentally flawed and derive from a misunderstanding of the contemporary art world as it is currently structured in the West.

The Tate Modern is at the top of a highly stratified art market and to understand why there are currently no mosaics in the collection we need to understand how that market works.  Note that I say “currently” because I believe it is quite possible that one day there may be mosaic in the Tate.  In fact, I think that this breakthrough is more possible now than ever before.

The contemporary art market has a structure.  It begins with small, independent galleries and moves up through levels of more established galleries – each level attracting a wealthier client base until we reach the likes of Saatchi and Waddington Custot. Each of these layers is supported by, and to a great extent determined by, contemporary art critics and curators.

Emma Biggs "Tide" 2008 40x40 cm Ceramic found in the Thames

The primary influence on this system is the market for art – it really is all about what sells.  Today, what sells is largely determined by the curators and critics who act as consultants to a clientele of pension funds, corporate collections and newly wealthy speculators.  Unlike the clients of the past – individuals who built highly personal collections based on their own tastes and appreciation of art – the majority of today’s clients are looking to make acquisitions that will gain value in time – thus their reliance upon the curators and critics.

The important factor to remember here again is that the Tate Modern is just the tip of this art market “iceberg”; its collection has been honed by the progression of works through the gallery/critic filter.

Art movements in the past have been about media or manifestos or specific ways of interpreting the world.  Today, in this curator- determined market, it is all about The Artist.  The market sells The Artist and his/her vision, thought, and exploration of concepts.  Here we come up against the first barrier to mosaics in the Tate.  Those influential curators and critics who drive the art market system will never choose a Medium – they will choose Artists.

Tony Cragg "Menschenmenge" (Crowd) 1986 64 ft. Found plastic objects. Photo via BrooklynMuseum.org

When I mentioned earlier that I believe there is a greater opportunity to see a mosaic in the Tate now than ever before, I was referring, in part, to a current “hot trend” in the art market. Many highly collected artists like Tony Cragg, El Anatsui and Chuck Close are creating work by massing or sticking multiple objects to surfaces or creating their own visual tesserae using traditional materials. While one may question whether these works are mosaics or not, mosaic artists should learn from the success of these artists that the concept must take priority over the medium.

Chuck Close "Emma" 2002 43x35 in. Woodcut.

If we are to see a mosaic in the Tate, individual mosaic artists must engage with the art market – starting with the galleries at the very bottom of the system – presenting themselves primarily as Artists – and emphasizing their ideas and their exploration of those ideas, not the medium they work in. Mosaic artists should create a good, solid body of work that demonstrates their artistic process – one that might even include work in other media required to explore their ideas and visions.  Mosaic artists have a lot to learn from those artists who are already in the Tate and others whose work connects with mosaic in some way who are making their way forward in the gallery system.

Cleo Mussi "Monoculture Perfection 4" 2009 Ceramic. From the installation "Pharma's Market"

So, do not ask me why there are no mosaics in the Tate Modern for the question is the wrong one. There shouldn’t be mosaics in the Tate if the medium alone is the criterion for their presence.  Ask me instead why Dugald MacInnes or Cleo Mussi  aren’t in the Tate for these are artists who have compelling, interesting things to say and they do so eloquently.

Gary Drostle
BAMM Chairman

RESOURCES

• Paul Bentley’s “Mosaic Matters” website: http://www.mosaicmatters.co.uk 
• Gary Drostle’s website: http://www.drostle.com
• British Association for Modern Mosaic: http://www.bamm.org.uk/
• Dugald MacInnes: http://www.dugaldmacinnes.com/
• Elaine M. Goodwin:  http://www.elainemgoodwin.co.uk/
• Jane Muir: http://www.janemuir.com/
• Robert Field:  http://www.robert-field.co.uk/
• Emma Biggs: http://www.emmabiggsmosaic.net/ 
• Chuck Close: http://chuckclose.coe.uh.edu/index.html
• Tony Cragg:  http://www.tony-cragg.com/
• Cleo Mussi:  http://www.mussimosaics.co.uk/

Chicarra/Cicada "Cicada chilensis" & Sahumerio (Incense) "Twedia confertiflora" Design: Nicolás Chacón. Drawing: Paulo Meyer. Pillar Director: Gonzalo San Martín. Execution principal figures: Gonzalo San Martín & Hector Velozo

It has been over six months since we lasted visited what is quickly becoming the mosaic Mecca of South America, Puente Alto Chile, in “A Natural History Museum in Mosaic Rises in Chile: Isidora Paz López.”

Isidora Paz López

Since then, under the continued direction of Ms. López, a team of up to 60 artists has applied a total of over 3,100 square meters of mosaic to the concrete jungle of a light rail system that bifurcates the town even as it links it to the capital city of Santiago.

Sótero de Rio Station

What was once three drab metro stations and 84 eye-numbing track support columns is now a shimmering, vibrant, visually stunning celebration of the area’s flora, fauna and history. And, thanks to the city’s unparalleled commitment to mosaic, it is continuing to grow in exciting new ways.  More on that later.

In this article, we’ll update you on what is happening in Puente Alto and pay homage to the incredible team that Ms. López continually praises for their artistic and personal contributions to the project. 

The 2013 Puente Alto Mosaic Team

But first a brief history (which is by no means a substitute for the original article here). In 2011, Ms. López, an artist trained in ceramic and new to mosaic, took on a project to mosaic the external walls of Puente Alto’s sports stadium. The results were so well received that the city’s mayor, Manuel José Ossandón approached López with a new challenge – the metro stations and pillars – and a deadline – completion by the end of Ossandón’s tenure – a little over one year.

Daunted but inspired, López dreamed a very big dream – to use this space to “wake up” the people of Puente Alto to their precious natural and historical heritages. The pillars would become an outdoor natural museum. The station walls would tell compelling stories of Puente Alto’s history.  

While the deadline was missed (by just a few weeks) López’ goal of inspiring a community has been met – so much so that new challenges have been given her. But we’ll get to that a little later. Let’s get on with that update.

The Pillars

Arguably the most captivating portion of the metro mosaics project, each of the pillars is a work of art in and of itself. López and her team developed a visual language and structured palette that links the 84 pillars together.  Each starts with a photograph which is then translated into a drawing applied directly to the pillar.

Gonzalo San Martín & Nicolas Chacón

Guiña "Leopardus guigna" and Palqui "Cestrum parqui" Design: Paulo Meyer. Drawing: Paulo Meyer. Pillar Director: Gonzalo San Martín. Execution principal figures: Gonzalo San Martín & Nicolás Chacón

The smallest cat in the Americas, the guiña has been classified as “Vulnerable” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature because of its rapidly vanishing numbers.  Here we see the project’s commitment to educating the town’s residents about what López refers to as “the treasure” of the region.

Lopez: "We like to start with the eyes."

Tricahue/Burrowing Parrot "Cyanoliseus patagonus" Design: Javiera Melo. Drawing: Paulo Meyer. Pillar Director: Javiera melo. Execution principal figures: Sabrina Morgado & Soledad Fuentealba

A thick black line of grout around the principal figures gives a visual “pop” that pulls them forward to the viewer.

Vizcacha "Lagidium viscacia" & Pachy "Pachyaena atriplicifolia" Design: Paulo Meyer. Drawing: Paulo Meyer. Pillar Director: Javiera Melo. Execution principle figures: Javiera Melo & Maurix Gutierrez

As you can see from the captions, a creative hierarchy has been developed that closely mirrors the way the ancient Romans worked.  The labor is divided between artists responsible for design, the more skilled artisans who complete the principal figures and finally the mighty background artists whose work can often make or break a mosaic.

Pichi/Armadillo "Zaedyus pichiy" & Mariposita de la Cordillera/Butterfly Flower "Schizanthus coccineus" Design: Isidora Paz López. Drawing: Paulo Meyer: Pillar Director: Javiera Melo. Execution of principal figures: Javiera Melo & Soledad Fuentealba

The work is so fine and so exacting, that it is difficult to believe that everything is done on site – rain, shine or snow – using simple nippers and often standing on platforms.

Mariposa del Chagual "Castnia psittacus" & Chagual "Puya berteroniana" Design: Isidora Paz López. Drawing: Paulo Meyer. Pillar Director: Valeria Merino. Execution principal figures: Cesar Ariel Cadiz & Mario Sobarzo

Gonzalo San Martín & Catalina Larraín

Mariposa/Butterfly "Pseodolucia chilensis" & Orquidea/Orchid "Orchidaceae chloraeinae" Design: Isidora Paz López. Drawing: Paulo Meyer. Pillar Director: Gonzalo San Martín. Execution principal figures: Gonzalo San Martín & Catalina Larraín

There are so many beautiful pillars, we found it difficult to pick which ones to show in the limited space here. Before we move along to the splendid stations, here are two more that we found particularly charming . . .

Skunk/Chingue "Conepatus chinga" & Clavel del campo "Muticia subulata" Design: Paulo Meyer. Drawing. Paulo Meyer. Pillar Director: Gonzalo San Martín. Execution principal figures: Cesar Ariel Cadiz & Nicolás Chacon

Sapo Quatro Ojos/Four-eyed Toad "Pleurodema taul" & Berro Amarillo/Monkeyflower "Mimulus luteus" Design: Paulo Meyer. Drawing: Paulo Meyer. Pillar director: Valeria Merino: Execution principal figures: Isabel Cristina Gonzales & Bernarda Quezada

The Three Stations

It all started with the Elisa Correa Station, the first metro stop in Puente Alto.  Here, López chose to capture the grandeur of the Andes mountains. One side of the station is devoted to sunrise on the snowcapped peaks, the other to sunset.

Elisa correa Station "Sunrise" 130 square meters. Design: Isidora Paz López. Drawing: Collective. Made by: Paulo Meyer, Valeria Merino & Carolina Gonzalez, Hector Velozo, Gonzalo San Martín, Javiera Melo, Alejandra Guzmán, Isidora Paz López

Elisa Correa Station "Sunset" 130 square meters. Design: Carolina Gonzalez. Drawing: Collective. Made by: Paulo Meyer, Valeria Merino, Carolina Gonzalez, Hector Velozo, Gonzalo San Martín, Javiera Melo, Alejandra Guzmán and Isidora Paz López

The design for the Sótero de Rio Station was inspired by metro riders who use this station to access the public hospital nearby. López:

There is a lot of traffic in this station – people going to and from the hospital –  and most of the time they are very sad. We decided to take a deeper look into the mountains and their waters, trying to create a space of peace and healing.  Recently, an ancient bridge – hundreds of years old – was discovered. We included it as a symbol of the passage from life to death – the light at the end of the tunnel.

The third station, Protectora de la Infancia speaks to the town’s agricultural heritage and is also an homage to the House of Orphans, Protectora de la Infancia which for over 100 years has provided for the welfare and education of children in need. Originally run by a group of nuns, the organization continues to thrive today as a non-profit.

Landscape of the valley of "Cajón del Maipo" 120 square meters. Design: Sebastián Garretón. Drawing: Claudio Gacitúa.

Fox made by Paloma Cale

The Team at work.

240 square meters of mosaic were applied to the station.  It was completed in six weeks by a team of 27 people.

The Trinchera Wall

The final portion of the metro mosaics is a long cement wall that follows the point where the metro goes underground.  Appropriately, the Trinchera design pays respect to the Puente Alto’s historical railroad. It also celebrates the “new” Puente Alto with a giant replica of the city’s shield.

One section of Trinchera wall. 80 meters long. Design: Sebastian Garretón & Isidora López. Drawing: Claudio Gacitúa

Shield of the Municipality of Puente Alto

Detail of Shield. Work by Francisco Gonzalez

A City on Fire for Mosaic

Trinchera is still a work in progress but, when complete, will bring the total mosaic surfacing in Puente Alto to over 4,000 square meters – all of it sponsored by and paid for by the Municipality of Puente Alto.

The response from the community has been tremendous. López reports that every day while the crew has been working, residents have stopped by to check on on their progress and comment on how beautiful the mosaics are. Some have even been inspired to gather shards at the end of the day for their own mosaics. A town once discounted as a “poor relation” to Santiago now has a point of pride in “acres” of beautiful art.

Inspired by the project, a woman collects tile shards for her own mosaic pursuits.

Everything about this project has been audacious – from its inception as the first art to be incorporated in a metro station in Chile to its size (it is easily the largest mosaic installation in South America) – from the astonishing development of a group of relative newcomers to mosaic into an art-making machine to its giant, beautiful, beating graphic heart in representing the “treasures” of Puente Alto.

What’s Next

Isidora Paz López , new mayor German Codina, and the City of Puente Alto have more plans for mosaic. In January of 2014, the City will host an international mosaic project.

While details are still being worked out, we can tell you this:

The Municipality of Puente Alto, Chile is commissioning 60 mosaic artists from around the world to come together in January 2014 to transform the city’s town square. The 1st International Mosaic Project is part of Puente Alto’s plan to become the center of contemporary mosaic public art in South America. Selected artists will be paid a stipend ($1,000 US) and will be hosted by the people of Puente Alto. The Project will be directed by Isidora Paz Lopez. 

That is ALL we know at this point; the application process and communications lines are still being developed.  Please watch MAN’s Facebook Page and Twitter feed for updates when we have them. We are definitely counting our frequent flyer miles.

Gracias to Isidora Paz López, her wonderful crew and the City of Puente Alto, Chile for expanding our vision of what public art can and SHOULD be – artful, uplifting, educational and eternal.

Enjoy – Nancie

RESOURCES

• Previous post on MAN ”A Natural History Museum Grows in Chile: Isidora Paz López“
• More photos of the project can be found on López’ Facebook Page www.facebook.com/isidorapaz

In May 2012, when the renowned Wilshire Grand Hotel in Los Angeles was slated to close its doors for good, the owners ran a huge liquidation sale—the entire contents of the hotel went up for grabs. The hotel changed hands over the years, originally the Statler—then Statler-Hilton, then Omni, and finally the Wilshire Grand— remained one of the “see and be-seen” hotspots of the midcentury atomic age.

The Statler of the 1950s. via ParadiseLeased.com

The Statler 1950s. Can you see Eisenhower? via ParadiseLeased.com

During the clearance sale, a puzzling discovery was made: a fifteen-foot mosaic mural commissioned by The Los Angeles Petroleum Club was found behind some old wood paneling. The Club had at one time maintained a posh member’s suite at the hotel. This is where the intrigue and mosaic sleuthing begins.

Petroleum Club of Los Angeles historic glass mosaic mural found behind paneled wall, 2011. All photos of mural courtesy Gregory Johnson

In 1892, Edward Doheny and Charles Canfield drilled the first oil well in Los Angeles. Today, rigs can still be seen bobbing up and down in the parking lots of big box stores. State officials count 3,071 active oil and gas wells in Los Angeles County, 842 of them offshore. The City of Long Beach still boasts its own “oil fraternity” club, which was established in 1954.(1)

Oil wells rear their imposing structures over a herd of cows on one of the state's dairy farms in suburban Los Angeles 1940 Photo: Library of Congress

Los Angeles was a major petroleum producer — a great deal of money was made and the titans of industry spent their new-found fortune on custom interior design to fluff their corporate nests with luxury. In the process, they commissioned artwork and murals that would commemorate their endeavors for posterity. A survey of midcentury California art reveals a wellspring of paintings, sculptures and mosaic murals depicting the predominance of oil in the Southlands. In 1950, when the Statler Hotel opened to great fanfare as LA’s swankest hotel, it became the perfect destination for the Los Angeles Petroleum Club to maintain a presence.

Amongst modern architects of the 1950s and 60s, mosaic muralism was beginning to peak as a preferred artistic medium to envision a bright, industrious future. Abstraction and minimalism lent itself to a broad audience, without having to depict the human form specifically; it spoke through the appeal of color and form. Italian glass and stone have for centuries been employed to convey richness, power, and stability in the architectural setting and these materials appeared once again in service to the cause. The post-war lifting of international trade restrictions made these materials more accessible and affordable to the American architect. (2) “Contemporary architecture,” Eugene Clute wrote in the May 1950 Progressive Architecture, “can gain much through the use of mosaic in a modern way to relieve the plainness of surfaces with enrichment at focal points, increasing the effectiveness of the buildings.” (3)

Fast forward to December 2012. The Statler-Hilton/Wilshire Grand announces its closure and the liquidation sale. Enter into our mosaic mystery Gregory Johnson, a Los Angeles-based interior designer and modern art collector. Curious to see what modernist treasures might be found in the hotel’s inventory, he hits the liquidation sale.

Jack Pot

The sale continued for many weeks. On one visit, Johnson found a mysterious mural buried behind layers of old wood paneling. The imagery showed what appeared to be the Port of Los Angeles, and scenes of oil refineries, oil derricks and ships. The handmade mosaic done in a classic modernist abstract style appeared to be squarely a product of the 1950s. The glass tiles were covered with layers of cigarette smoke and years of yellowed funk. No identifying marks or signature were visible. The old Petroleum Club had been converted into the hotel’s storage area at least since the 1980s and the staff knew nothing about it. Mr. Johnson was keen to purchase the mural and wanted to find out who made it and its possible value. Enter Miss Marble: Mosaic Detective. Johnson contacted me during the discussions with the Hotel, and the mosaic investigation began.

Cityscape, refineries and the Port of LA feature prominently in the left side of the mural.

On-site inspection found that the mural was not embedded into the wall but attached to a plywood backing. This was bolted and mounted onto the wall studs which allowed it be removed safely without damaging the substrate and surface of the mural. A flurry of emails ensued with professional mosaic installers and contractors to discuss and advise on the best system for timely removal as the hotel was scheduled for eminent closure and demolition.

One of the panels removed reveal wall studs and electrical wiring behind. The textural surface of the mural is shown clearly here.

The piece measured 6′ 10″ tall x 15′ wide, mounted in four sections. A small crew worked to find around 30 spots where a magnet showed some sign of attraction to the mosaic to identify where bolts had been used to attach the panels to the studs. These points were marked with blue masking tape. Once those areas were identified it became obvious where pieces of glass tile had been placed over the bolt, and could be popped off to reveal the bolt head hidden underneath.

Blue tape shows where the magnet attracted to the bolts used to mount the mural to the wall.

In the midst of our investigation, a second mosaic mystery at the Wilshire Grand began. A colleague who volunteers for architectural preservation group sent me a 1952 LA Times article about the opening of the Statler hotel. The caption in the story describes the “colorful mosaic walls in a section of the lobby”.

1952 LA Times article shows a prominent abstract lobby mosaic in the Statler Hotel

Apparently, this mosaic mural had been covered over with paneling during a 1970s remodeling. The construction crew working on site made preparations to uncover what treasure might lie behind. They also made smaller cuts on the lobby entrance columns that revealed that the they had also been clad in a monochrome mosaic.

The liquidation company staged a dramatic live, “Geraldo Rivera Reveal” with an on-camera demolition of the wall to reveal a possible mosaic. See “Looking for Buried Treasure” for the outcome.

 America’s Mosaic Movement

Whenever a mosaic is found in Los Angeles, the foremost question arises: “Is this mosaic by Millard Sheets?” Millard Sheets was a prolific artist, teacher, and design director. His oeuvre is becoming increasingly well known in modernist circles. The Sheets Studio established the brand identity of Howard Ahmanson’s Home Savings and Loan Banks through the use of masterful artworks in mosaic, tapestry, stained glass and sculpture. (4)  His paintings and sketches are now highly valued if available through galleries. (5)

1960, Millard Sheets’ mosaic mural for Home Savings, 8010 Beach St. Buena Park in Los Angeles near Knott’s Berry Farm.

What is less known, is that besides Sheets, there were many active artist-mosaicists actively engaged in the architectural process during the 1950s and 60s in the United States. These artists were experimenting with mosaic techniques, propelled by the success and exposure of the WPA muralist movement and international expos. By the time Millard Sheets began his mosaic workshop in Claremont, California in 1960, dozens of architectural firms were already using large-scale mosaic murals for banks, insurance companies, airports, federal buildings, and libraries across the country. One prominent example was architect Welton Becket engaging Joseph L. Young to create a large-scale cantilevered glass mural for the Los Angeles Police Facilities Building, in 1955. (6) This mural depicts the oil industry of Los Angeles, along with many other notable L.A. landmarks.

1955 Vintage photo of Joseph Young’s mosaic mural for the Police Facilities Building, (later known as Parker Center) includes a nod to the oil industry.

Besides Sheets, there were other notable California-based mosaicists working in an emerging abstracted modernist style during the mid-1950s: Ray Rice, Jean Varda, Richard Haines, and Ben Mayer. Nonetheless, their work did not match the style found in the Statler Petroleum mural. Our detective work continued.

Don’t Mess with Texas

Digging deeper into the nationwide Petroleum Club phenomenon, I was able to identify an artistic collaboration between Texas Modernists Paul Hatgil and Michael Frary (d. 2005). In 1955, on behalf of Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson, the architecture firm of Brooks & Barr commissioned Hatgil and Frary to do an 8 ft. x 10 ft. entrance mural titled “Panorama” for the KTBC TV building, in Austin, TX. It is here we begin to see strong similarities in style with the Los Angeles Petroleum Club piece. We note the same abstracted linear depiction of a cityscape – the montage-like architecture and the river and bridges.

1956, Mosaic mural by Frary and Hatgil titled “Panorama” for the KTBC TV building in Austin, TX.

Frary’s bio (7) indicates a keen interest in engineering. Add this to his paintings of industrial landscapes, with supporting documentation from Hatgil’s comprehensive vita (8) (who was a noted ceramicist, mosaicist, and sculptor), we can begin to deduce that they were working together in this time period and had connections to the Petroleum Club network through the University of Texas and the architectural firm.

Michael Frary, Oil derricks, oil on canvas

Mosaic derrick detail.

Michael Frary, apartment houses, 1964

Similarities to the Frary painting found in color and shapes in the Skyline of petroleum mural

Detail of skyline rooftops in petroleum mural

The Petroleum Club of Texas had commissioned a painted mural for their penthouse club in Houston in 1950. The atomic-style mural was designed and executed by “the father of Texas Modernists”, Seymour Fogel. (9)  Fogel was a trained muralist, having worked as an assistant to Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera in the late 1930s. Fogel was a sought-after muralist working on projects from 1939 World’s Fair to the Federal Building Mural, in Fort Worth, Texas in 1964. He brought Hatgil and Frary on to his faculty at the UT. Petroleum Clubs based in other cities seeking artist connections for their penthouse interior design, would have certainly located talent through Fogel. Frary and Hatgil’s style and interests in the industrial landscape seemed perfect for our Los Angeles mystery mosaic. I thought I had nailed it.

Petroleum Club Mural Study I, Seymour Fogel. Watercolor study for the Houston Petroleum Club’s cocktail lounge located in the penthouse of the Rice Hotel. Actual mural was destroyed circa 2005. Watercolor study on illustration board, 12” x 15”, Collection of Jared A. Fogel.

“People of Influence” Petroleum Club of Houston Member Reading Room featured in Newsweek magazine, circa 1950s. Photo courtesy of Houston Public Library.

Needle in a Haystack

Back in Los Angeles, Mr. Johnson was busy cleaning up his new acquisition. Lo and behold, underneath decades of Mad Man cigarette smoke, he found a faint grey tiled signature, belonging to one John Smith. Really? It might as well have been “John Doe”. The hunt for a needle in the haystack began.

The faint grey on aqua signature of “John Smith” was not visible until the mural was cleaned of its layers of yellowed cigarette smoke.

After learning the name of the artist, I began to hunt for mosaics by “John Smith”. To my surprise, I located a 1956 mosaic for a cruise ship cafeteria, attributed to a John Smith. Hallelujah! Mr. Johnson continued to research as well. We have identified that John Smith was an active California artist, contributing to the burgeoning craft movement mainly through his works in tapestry. Johnson found references to his inclusion in the Pasadena Art Museum catalogs California Design/eight 1964 and California Design/nine 1965. (10) It seems he was not well known outside of California. Could the cruise ship mosaic be designed and executed by the same John Smith?

1954, could these seven abstract fruit panels be the same John Smith? Mosaic insets for a cruise ship dining room.

Inspecting the Petroleum mural closely, we can say that John Smith was not technically skilled as a trained mosaicist. My research suggests that artists working in mosaic during this era claimed to be “self-taught” and characterized mosaic as “not that hard” to do. In the case of the Petroleum mural, a water-soluble adhesive oozes out between the gaps covering the tops of the tesserae (pieces). Johnson reported that it turned white on contact with water. I consulted with Michael Van Enter, a Texas art conservator who has worked on hundreds of midcentury mosaics, and he suggests that the adhesive is most likely Elmer’s glue or some kind of hide or hoof glue. It was not uncommon for midcentury mosaic to be mounted on unprepared plywood with white glue, a practice that is eschewed today. From a tile-setting standpoint, the work exhibits a hurried “hand”, identified by awkward and misshapen cuts, with uneven and scattered placement of the tesserae/tiles.

The glass tiles sit in pools of yellowed glue that oozes over the surface. The mural is not grouted, common for smalti and vitreous glass.

A mixture of smalti and vitreous tiles display a haphazard nipping style with random placement and tiny chips used to fill awkward gaps.

On the other hand, the artful composition of the design, and the material surface shows a clear and knowledgeable use of color and texture. The flicker effect of color juxtaposition, the multi-level texture surface, excite the eye, along with the division of space the composition provides for a lively and attractive surface play. A trained textile artist like Mr. Smith would have the transferable skills to serve well in designing a mosaic: color blending and knowing how elements are seen from a distance are skills that provide a natural crossover between the two media. Smith could have figured out how to nip the tiles from a how-to mosaic book, which were widely available and popular at the time. He might have asked a colleague who was actively making mosaics for a couple of tips. Judging by the slapdash setting style, it appears he set the mural himself, without contracting a professional mosaicist to execute the design.

The Los Angeles Petroleum Club Mural provides us another valuable window into the atmosphere and use of modern mosaic in the American architectural landscape. Its physical evidence expands on the emerging level of expertise amongst American artists, experimenting with a new medium. It’s content delivers a glimpse into Los Angeles’s recent past, economics and built environment. The discovery of the Statler Hotel’s Petroleum Club mural, along with the loss of the lobby work, continues to emphasize the cultural relevance, significance and importance of preserving our American mosaic legacy. We can’t always depend on cultural institutions to swoop in and preserve our visual history.  We are fortunate when an individual like Gregory Johnson takes personal initiative.  Sometimes, there’s treasure where you least expect it.

Thank you to Gregory Johnson, Kevin Vogle, Katie R. Edwards, Russell Tether, Qathryn Brehm, Timothy Ronk, and Greg Andrews.

Lillian Sizemore, April 2013

• To see more of Lillian Sizemore’s mosaic mysteries on MAN click here: http://www.mosaicartnow.com/artists/lillian-sizemore/
• Lillian Sizemore’s Website here:  http://www.lilliansizemore.com

Selected subsequent media coverage:

• Ikono   http://ikono.org/2013/04/the-mystery-oil-mural-at-a-grand-hotel-in-los-angeles/
• Interview on Radio Station 89.3 KPCC   http://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2013/04/12/31330/photos-amazing-mosaic-mural-discovered-inside-down/ 
• Boing Boing  http://boingboing.net/2013/04/16/the-secret-history-of-a-hidden.html
•  Modernica  http://blog.modernica.net/inspire-me-monday-mid-century-murals-in-los-angeles/
•  Television Station KCET   http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/landofsunshine/writing-on-the-wall/monthly-mural-wrap-a-dozen-tags-for-march-2013.html
• Curbed LA   http://la.curbed.com/archives/2013/03/1950s_la_petroleum_club_mural_unearthed_at_wilshire_grand.php
• History, Los Angeles http://historylosangeles.blogspot.com/2013/03/lost-mosaic-lost-mosaicicst.html

FOOTNOTES AND RESOURCES

1. Long Beach Petroleum Club http://www.lbpetroleumclub.com/aboutus.php
2. See more on the topic of mosaic imports in Lillian Sizemore’s article about the midcentury Picasso mosaics
3. Art Goes to Pieces, by Dave Weinstein. CAModern, Eichler Network, http://www.eichlernetwork.com/article/art-goes-pieces?page=0,1
4. Adam Arenson’s blog is a repository for his research on the Home Savings brand adamarenson.com/homesavingsbankart/
5. Millard Sheets official website is maintained by his son, Tony Sheets. millardsheetsart.com.
6. See theworldofmosaic.com – Lillian Sizemore’s recent project, a 1956 film restoration includes footage on the making of the Police Facilities Bldg. mural.
7. Michael Frary: http://www.feldergallery.com/Artist/Frary/frary.html
8. Paul Peter Hatgil: http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~hatgil/history.html
9. In 1946, Fogel accepted a teaching position at the University of Texas at Austin and became one of the founding artists of the Texas Modernist Movement. At this time he began to devote himself solely to abstract, non-representational art and executed what many consider to be the very first abstract mural in the State of Texas at the American National Bank in Austin in 1953.
10. Stewart, V. (1955, Oct 09). MOSAICS: A western renaissance. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File), pp. L17.¬† 

Via Society of American Mosaic Artists (SAMA)

How wonderful.  A venue for the Society of American Mosaic Artist’s (SAMA) annual member show, Mosaic Arts International, that is a perfect fit.  Tacoma’s Museum of Glass (MOG) has all the right stuff to showcase contemporary mosaic splendidly.  The internationally-known museum has the architecture and lighting to make mosaic literally and figuratively shine. More important, MOG has a natural kinship with mosaic through the medium of glass.

Via SAMA

That’s what MOG’s Executive Director and Curator Susan Warner told us in a brief interview at the exhibit last month; “We were happy to partner with SAMA in bringing attention to contemporary mosaic” said Warner.  ”There is a natural connection for MOG because glass has been used in mosaics for millenia.”

So, here we have a big, beautiful, world-class setting for MAI 2013, an exhibit composed of 47 works by artists from 7 countries.  The “survey of contemporary mosaics by members of (SAMA)”, as Exhibitions Committee Chair Karen Ami describes it in the catalogue, began its 3+ month run January 28th and closes May 5th.

A visitor and Jim Bachor's "Fresh Meat Series"

This year, MAI’s Jurors included  Seattle-based professional arts administrator and curator Jordan Howland, award-winning Australian mosaic artist Pamela Irving and classically trained Italian mosaic artist and teacher Matteo Randi. The results of their labors is an exhibit that provides a very wide view of contemporary mosaic and how artists are employing the medium today. In MAI 2013, visitors will find some lovely classical mosaic work, luscious abstracts, in-your-face-graphic pieces, intriguing sculpture and some interesting experimentation with materials and techniques.

Via SAMA

MAI 2013 could be an eye-and-mind opener for MOG visitors.  Let’s hope the exhibit gets the attendance it deserves.

Now, let’s have a look at some of the highlights of the exhibit whose makers have been kind enough to supply us with photos and their Artists Statements.

Side note:  If we have one bone to pick with MAI, it is the lack of Artist Statements in both the exhibit and the catalogue. Reading an Artist Statement is almost like having the artist whispering in your ear – giving you “inside” information and taking you directly into what he/she was striving to achieve. This is especially important if you only have only one example from an artist’s ouevre from which to learn about them. We missed the Statements and believe that newcomers to mosaic would have benefited from their insights as well.

Invited Artist ~ Toyoharui Kii (Japan)

Toyoharu Kii "Spring" 27 x 45 cm Marble

We applaud SAMA’s addition of an invited artist to MAI. Toyoharu Kii is a master and the three works shown provide the public with an excellent introduction into how just powerful mosaic can be as an expressive medium. Mr. Kii’s work is collected internationally and renowned architects commission him regularly for large-scale mosaics to compliment their designs.

"Round and Fertile Spring" 70 x 70 cm Marble

The hallmark of Kii’s work is his intricate patterning and weaving with tesserae that draw the viewer in for hours of contemplative study.

I make mosaics as a skin of architecture. A skin woven in marbles and smalti on the surface of the architectural space. So the texture has primary importance in my mosaic. The shadow and the density of tesserae carries my messages. – Toyoharu Kii 

"Round and Fertile Spring" Detail

Mr. Kii will be the keynote speaker for SAMA’s conference in April.  We are very much looking forward to meeting him.

MAI 2013 Winners

Best in Show:  Gary Drostle (UK)   Entwined Histories  

Gary Drostle "Entwined Histories" 2012 10 x 3 x 3 ft. Best In Show Mosaic Arts International 2013

London-based artist Gary Drostle has done it again – created a site-specific artwork that reflects the very soul of the place in which it resides.  Situated on the former grounds of a rope maker that served the maritime industry of London’s east end, this 10′ tall sculpture was commissioned by the Poplar HARCA Bow Arts Trust to celebrate the community’s roots.  Waves of immigrants established their first communities in Poplar with many of the men working on the docks and the women in local textile factories.  Drostle took this history and gave it a literal translation that is stunning in both its appropriateness and heart.

“Each strand of the rope represents a different community through the textiles of the homelands.  All of these weave together to form the new community that is Poplar and Bow in east London, each strengthened by the other and facing out to the world with a golden core.” – Gary Drostle

Patterns seen here: Irish, Begali, Ashkenazi Jewish, William Morris Damask (Islamic inspired), African

Innovation in Mosaic:  Erin Pankratz-Smith (Canada)  Penance 

Erin Pancratz-Smith "Penance" 2012 24.5 x 17.5 x .5 in.

This is another place in the exhibit where more information for the viewer would have been extremely helpful.  What, specifically, did the Exhibitions Committee, which determines this particular prizes, find “innovative” in this work?  Knowing that would have made the exploration of it a great deal more satisfying.  That being said, this piece looks very little like what the general public would expect from the word “mosaic” – that is for certain.  And yet, it has all of the components that make a mosaic a mosaic – individual tesserae that contribute to a new whole, andamento (rhythm), texture, modularity, refraction, interstices.

UPDATE March 14:  At our request, SAMA provided the following regarding the Innovation Award:

The Innovation Award is in recognition of the work that encourages experimentation and challenges the definition of mosaic art. The award is selected by SAMA’s Exhibitions Committee, chaired by Karen Ami, from the final selection of work determined by the jury. The 2013 committee was comprised of Ms. Ami, Terri Pulley, and administrator of the MAI Jury process, SAMA’s Executive Director, Dawnmarie Zimmerman. The selection of “Penance” by Pankratz-Smith was in recognition of the work’s success at blurring the roles of tesserae, substrate and adhesive in mosaic art. Traditionally, substrate and adhesive play supporting roles to the tesserae’s primary role in communication of movement, form, shadows and light. Pankratz-Smith levels the playing field giving the surfaces under the tesserae equal significance in her depiction of living life in limbo.

Looking at Pennance we went straight back to our childhood and the black crayon “scratch” drawings that absorbed us for hours.  Each one of those was a bit like an archaeological excavation and this piece hit us the same way – the longer we looked at it, the more places it took us to until finally were looking at technicolor graffiti along a river’s edge.  Here is what the artist had to say about her work:

“Penance” is about that state we put ourselves in when we are not living our lives, living in limbo, waiting for something, hoping, stuck. The scratches in the background are tally marks and the stones our days. – Erin Pankratz-Smith

"Penance" Detail

Juror’s Choice Jordan Howland – Lynne Chinn (US) Arabesque

Each Juror was asked to select a favorite from the exhibit to receive an award and this is the one place where valuable information was readily available to the viewer.  The complete Juror’s Statement from the catalogue was posted next to each mosaic.

Lynne Chinn "Arabesque" 2012 12 x 29 x 14 in

Lynne Chinn’s “Arabesque”, which received my Juror’s Choice Award, challenges the physical boundaries of the medium while demonstrating an accord of form, color, and light.  It is organic, elegant and, to me, emotionally resonant. – Jordan Howland, Public Arts Manager, 4Culture, Seattle, WA

We concur with Ms. Howland’s assessment of Arabesque.  In fact, she said it all.

From the Artist’s Statement:

The sinuous form of this sculpture achieves the feelings of lightness, buoyancy, and fluidity that intrigue me and inspire me. I designed the interior depths to sparkle like caviar at the bottom and then reach up in waves to captivate and dazzle the observer. The exterior coating, laid horizontally, simulates material deposited as sediment in water which over time has been consolidated by pressure; the result is a feeling of age and stability that gives balance to the sense of fluidity.  – Lynne Chinn

Arabesque drew viewers like a magnet.  We overheard one little girl ask her mother if she could “get into the box” with it.  For us, it was the strongest entry in MAI 2013.  It is a thing of beauty, a quality not readily rewarded in the art aesthetic of the moment.

Juror’s Choice Pamela Irving – Jim Bachor (US) Fresh Meat Series

Jim Bachor "Fresh Meat Series" 2012

We are huge fans of Mr. Bachor’s and have featured his work before on MAN.  In the “Meat Series” we love Bachor’s juxtaposition of a classical mosaic motif with a contemporary conundrum. So did Juror Pamela Irving, herself an award-winning mosaic artist from Australia.

Jim Bachor "Italian Sausage" 2012 11x14 in. Smalti

“For me, Jim Bachor’s ’Fresh Meat Series’ is the most successful in this exhibition. Reminiscent of Herakleitos’ Unswept Floor mosaic, 2nd BCE, this work is located in a contemporary context and time. It tells a 21st Century story yet harks back to our ancient mosaic traditions. It tick’s all the boxes for me. The Work is smart – it takes an idea and turns it into contemporary mosaic art. Intelligent works like this will take mosaics into the art history books of the future.” – Pamela Irving

"Unswept Floor" 2nd Century CE

Jim Bachor "Chuck Pot Roast" 2012 11x14 in. Smalti

Jim Bachor "Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts" 2012 11x14 in. Smalti.

Juror’s Choice Matteo Randi – Brooks Tower (US) Via

Brooks Tower "Via" 23x17 in.

How marvelous!  Here is Juror Matteo Randi, a classically trained Italian mosaic artist and teacher going outside of his personal “mosaic box” to select a wonderful work by Brooks Tower as his Juror’s Choice.

In this work, even though I am looking at a mosaic without any tesserae I am receiving love and passion put together with a very fine technique and materials.  The image moves my feelings with spenserieratezza (lightheartedness, joyousness) – as if I am riding that bicycle in the mosaic myself. – Matteo Randi

Tower works in opus sectile which is sometimes characterized as a genre of mosaic and sometimes, especially in the Italian mosaic world, categorized as “inlay” work.  No matter.  Randi has the right of it.  This work absolutely overflows with spenserieratezza and we are grateful for the new addition to our vocabulary.  Via is highly representative of Tower’s ouevre which always combines mind-blowing technique with gut-wrenching emotion.  He is an original.  From the Artist’s Statement:

I like the choices forced on me by opus sectile – choices that echo throughout my thoughts – of where to abstract and where to faithfully depict, how to suggest with a simple line or two the most complex of visual experience, emotion and narrative. – Brooks Tower

Additional Works From MAI 2013

We have selected another eight works that we found noteworthy from the exhibit and include them here with excerpts from the accompanying Artist Statements.  We think they are examples of what Juror Pamela Irving spoke to in her Juror’s Statement.

If works of mosaic are to advance from the ‘craft’ realm to the ‘art’ realm, they must have something to say. Pretty colours and a mastery of technique should not be the guiding criteria for a mosaic practice. Ideas and imagination are important.  If you have something you wish to convey, then the artist will discover the techniques and materials in which to say it.

Have a nice stroll through the MOG gallery and don’t forget to click to enlarge.

Jo Braun (US) – Monument

Jo Braun "Monument" 2011 39x56 in. Vintage smalti, glass, mortar, pigment.

Inspired by volcanic geological stratigraphy, Monument explores the creative tension between horizontal color bands distributed over space, and vertical columnar structures deposited over time. It’s the enactment of a tedious narrative with an uncertain beginning and no definitive end. – Jo Braun

"Monument" Detail

Karen Dimit (US) – Miss Cucuteni 2011

Karen Dimit "Miss Cucuteni 2011" 2011 80x21x21 in. Smalti, travertine, fossils, minerals, pearls, silicon carbide, coal, millefiori, wire, rhinestone, ceramic, shells, wood, metal, mirror

“Miss Cucuteni 2011” is the latest sculpture from the “Subway Goddess Pageant”. A exhibit titled “The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley 5000 – 3500 BC”  introduced me to this fabulous figurine from Cucuteni, Draguseni (modern-day Romania/Moldavia). Keeping with the original figurine’s amazing markings, I created a tapestry of Mother Nature. However, on one side, the creation is lush and pristine, while the other half is marred with environmental destruction. The right to control, exploit and subjegate things labeled female carries into today’s politics and actions. – Karen Dimit

"Miss Cucuteni 2011" Detail

Sophie Drouin (Canada) – Roadside Slush

Sophie Drouin "Roadside Slush" 2012 18x22 in. Burnt copper, marble, selenite, granite, calcite.

This mosaic is the latest in a series celebrating winter as a vanishing species. This piece portrays wet urban snow, a substance despised for the seasonal inconvenience it imposes on us. Here, the textures of slush are abstracted, but rooted in reality.  For instance, the carbonized copper foils are a representation of the frost-tipped leaf litter that is often found in the roadside mash-up.  The beauty of slush is limited at best, even taken out of context like this, but I feel it is important to depict this common form of urban snow as global warming diminishes the number of truly cold days in our winters. – Sophie Drouin

"Roadside Slush" Detail

Kate Jessup (US) – Tense Twinships

Kate Jessup "Tense Twinships" 2012 36x52 in. Glass, wood, thinset, stone, found objects

In my port city, I am presented with constant evidence of how our human activities are simultaneously dictated by and relentlessly disruptive of the natural processes happening around us. It’s a constant clashing of forces. The primal yet ever­changing entanglement between man and nature, filled as it is with great love and wretched abuse, behaves to me very much like a twinship. In fact, it is perhaps the greatest twinship, mirroring the many others that compose our existence. Me to you, man to woman, twin to twin, and all the fundamental dichotomies we participate in – their defining effects on the individuals involved, and their inevitable dynamic evolutions, as well as the role of any pair as a third, unique and influential entity – are the concepts informing this work. – Kate Jessup

"Tense Twinships" Detail

Shug Jones (US) – Coming Into The Light

Shug Jones "Coming Into The Light" 2012 29 in. diameter Mexican and Italian smalti

Much of my life was spent working as a fine art painter employing oils, watercolors, and colored pencils to create representational works reflecting my view of the world. For the past decade, I have been intrigued with using glass to create my art. Stained glass and smalti entice me with their colors and textures. Blending colors without physically mixing them, cutting and laying the materials so that they lead your eye in the direction I want it to go, bringing you into the scene I was compelled to create. – Shug Jones

"Coming Into The Light" Detail

Sonia King (US) – Coded Message: Invisible Ink

Sonia King "Coded Message: Invisible Ink" 2011 35.5x25.5 in. Glass, ceramic, white gold, smalti,, quartz, silver, marble, rock crystal, seashell, pearls, aluminum, selenite, abalone, pebble, stainless steel, bone, coral, flourite, dinosaur bone, mirror.

Recently I’ve been thinking about coded messages, cryptic communications, misunderstandings, unspoken thoughts, static sounds, secrets, and undercurrents. I’m fascinated by the contrast between overt communications and possible subtexts. In our complex, information-packed world, it’s difficult to decipher the true meaning of so many conflicting messages. In ‘Coded Message: Invisible Ink’, the tesserae are fixed without visible adhesive on a hand-formed substrate, reminiscent of rumpled piece of parchment. This offers the possibility that the message could change at any moment or even be erased. Viewers can decode the work, finding their own meaning. – Sonia King

"Coded Message: Invisible Ink" Detail

Ilana Shafir (Israel) – Through The Waves

Ilana Shafir "Through The Waves" 2011 47x47 cm Handmade ceramic pieces, stones.

This mosaic is about movement. Something is moving fast through a stormy sea, creating high waves. It cuts through the currents and stirs them in its pass. I leave it to the viewer to guess what it could be. – Ilana Shafir

"Through The Waves" Detail

Betsy Youngquist (US) – Harry

Betsy Youngquist "Harry" 2011 8x7x4 in. Antique porcelain doll parts, glass beads, vintage glass stones, glass doll eyes, grout.

Children with their vast capacity for wonderment weave tales of gossamer, create magic kingdoms, and pass through invisible portals to lands of untold enchantment. Creating art is a means to return to the looking glass and reenter the garden where flowers whisper and birds can talk. As my beaded characters emerge they carry with them tales from the other side of the mirror. I am grateful for the joy and astonishment experienced through their journey. –  Betsy Youngquist

"Harry" Detail

Correction:  The Innovation in Mosaic Prize is conferred by the Exhibitions Committee, not the Jurors as was stated in the original post.

DETAILS

• Mosaic Arts International 2013 runs through May 5th at the Tacoma Museum of Glass
• The entire exhibit can be viewed on SAMA’s website here
• Video lecture on the exhibit and contemporary mosaic by Dr. Jo Braun here
• Information on SAMA’s conference in Tacoma April 10-13 here

ARTIST WEBSITES

• Jim Bachor
• Jo Braun
• Lynne Chinn
• Karen Dimit
• Gary Drostle
• Sophie Drouin
• Kate Jessup
• Shug Jones
• Sonia King
• Erin Pankratz-Smith
• Ilana Shafir
• Brooks Tower
• Betsy Youngquist

From the Dolce & Gabbana’s Facebook Page:

Tailored Mosaic: Domenico Dolce & Stefano Gabbana were inspired by the mosaic of Monreale for this collection.   As the art of mosaic-making is a slow and precise one, achieved by placing single piece next to the other, at the same time tailoring is made by single stitch after single stitch.

This brief video shows preparation for the show.

Mosaic is simply everywhere, everywhere, everywhere in the collection – prints, shoes, bags, jewelry – it is all just too Byzantine and extraordinary.

From the Dolce & Gabbana Website:

The city of Monreale started to become important around the XI century with the arrival of the Normans in Sicily.  The Cathedral of Monreale, consecrated to Santa Maria Nuova, was built between 1172 and 1185 under the commission of the Norman King William II of Altavilla, together with the archiepiscopal Palace and its beautiful cloister.

In the top half of the walls a series of golden mosaics were created between the end of 1100 and the middle of 1200. Two of these mosaics represent William II crowned by Christ and William II who offers the church to the Virgin. Local artists and experts from Byzantium and Venice were called in to realize those striking works of art.”

Dolce & Gabbana made use of the abilities of artisans of the highest level to create mosaics on shoes, dresses, jewels and bags. As the art of mosaic-making is a slow and precise one, achieved by placing single piece next to the other, at the same time tailoring is made by single stitch after single stitch.

Of course, it wouldn’t be haute couture without a few outre moments, would it?

Details and opulence are truly what this collection is all about.  Theodora herself would have adored these handbags and shoes.

Yes, there are a few kitschy “Roman Tourist” micro mosaic moments in here but – we’d wear these shoes in a nanosecond.

The extraordinary passion, artistry and craftsmanship that went into these garments is no more evident than in these detail photos.

The show’s finale was a tour-de-force in red.

Color, texture, rhythm, reflection, refraction, modularity – a love of the materials at one’s fingertips and the ability to create a never-seen-before whole out of disparate pieces – all of the things that make mosaic special abound in Dolce&Gabbana’s Winter 2014 collection.  These are objects to treasure for the ages – just like their inspiration.

Dolce & Gabbana’s website holds hundreds of images of the collection which you can expand to fill your screen.  And, it’s hard not to play “Where’s Justinian?” while watching this 10+ minute video (with decidedly odd background music) of the whole event.  Enjoy –  Nancie

This article on Portuguese artist Monica Machado first appeared in the 5th edition of Mosaique magazine published in January 2013 and is a translation from the original French. The author, Renée Malaval is the Publisher of the magazine and a mosaic artist herself.  MAN’s reprint of this article is part of our happy collaboration with Mosaique.  We are grateful for the opportunity to show the work of an exciting artist we discovered through the magazine’s pages.  

By Renée Malaval

The Gabrielle Laroche Gallery located in the core of the Rive Gauche (Left Bank) in Paris is prized for its specialization in furniture and sculpture dating from the Middle Ages through the 17th century.  The Gallery also exhibits contemporary sculptures and recently showcased multiple works from Monica Machado – a definite departure from antique furniture!

Monica Machado’s art is unique: she creates elaborate, animated sculptures (electric motors, fountains, sonic murmurs) which are carefully lit to create an enchanted world; she excels in the principle of accumulation, piling and amassing objects and ceramic pieces in an almost frenetic way. By experiencing each mosaic-sculpture, the observer can appreciate the fertile imagination of the artist, as well as her taste for word-plays and puns. The spectator is bombarded in turn by the erotic or the sensual, by the magical world of childhood, or by everyday ordinary life, and is generally led in an endless process of discovery.

"L'Armoir" (The Closet) Photo via Monica-Machado.com

Monica Machado won first place in the Beaux-Arts School of Paris juried show when she was twenty years old, with her piece l’Ar-moir (“the closet”) She was then a student of Riccardo Licata at the school and was constantly challenging herself with her creation; one of her aims was already to elevate objects of everyday life to the rank of high art. L’Ar-moir is actually an enchanted house where every opening, every corner reveals a scene from everyday life that is going by.

The work is capped by a white, silver and copper ceramic dome which is topped by a stopper, giving it the look of an oriental palace, complete with four surrounding Gothic-looking towers. The walls are decorated with ceramic elements, in a multi-colour mosaic with vegetal and oriental designs.

"Balai Pour Sept Danseuses" (Broom for Seven Dancers) 2001 200 x 130 x 708 cm Various brushes, elements of bicycle, furniture, resin, fiberglass, silicone adhesive, crockery, fragmented glass and dolls, lighting

At first glance, the Balai pour sept danseuses (‘‘broom for seven female dancers’’) could be highly appealing to any witch, with its apparently comfortable saddle, handlebars, and luggage rack. But a second look reveals that it is propelled with the help of pedals. The onlooker is invited to discover small details: the saddle hides a set of dentures, the handlebars dissimulate a doll’s face, and a nativity scene lurks in the tail.

"L'Arbe á Doudas" (Stuffed Animal Tree) 1996 Detail

L’Arbre à doudous (‘‘stuffed animal tree’’) is the only textile work created by Monica Machado. Each stuffed animal is an assemblage of elements from different creatures, and is already an original creation; collectively, the whole is a work of art. A multitude of worlds collide here, from Walt Disney to comic book superheroes, to the world of games.

"La Bicoque" (The Tumbledown House) 46 x 37 x 31 cm

La Bicoque (‘‘the tumbledown house’’) is without a doubt the most sophisticated work on display. ‘‘This house comes straight from an inexhaustible imagination and nowhere else. It is created from scattered pieces, and dreams are the only kind of adhesives used. This Bicoque enlightens and transports us: everything rejoices and is teeming with life’’, explains Gabrielle Laroche. The characters of this work spring from the fantasy world of childhood, and seem to have built the house by themselves. The result is breathtaking. With so much to take in even on the outside, one is not sure which door to use to gain access inside. With intense levels of light, even more treasures can be seen in the ‘‘Bicoque’’.

"L'Corde á Linge" (The Clothes Line) detail 2000 260 cm Rope, cloth, silicone, glass, dishwasher, lighting system

With La corde à linge (‘‘the clothes line’’), Monica Machado explores the limits of mosaic. The artist has taken each individual object from daily life and made it wholly her own, before taking advantage of the conceptual opportunity of a clothes line to hang rags, pillowcase, socks, and underwear, all laid out for our curious eyes. The artist has used glass to put more emphasis on transparency. A flower is substituted for the left breast, while a baby suckles the right. The pink lace panties are covered with glass mosaic and topped with a floral belt. Inside, two small figurines are taking off their clothes, under the benevolent gaze of St Theresa, giving an erotic undertone to an object already associated with sensuality in our minds.

"Mise en Céne" 1993 100 x 160 x 60 cm Wood furniture legs, arm chairs, drawer, fence, mortar, water pump, lighting, resin inclusion, entire and marcelee dishes, utensils

The work called Mise en cène (a phonetic pun, meaning both ‘‘last supper’’ and ‘‘stage design’’) is a table. It is a mosaic, all in soft and joyful colours, made from of elements that are stuck together. There is a stack of plates that seems to melt, forming a sort of waterfall. The plate at the center of the table transforms into a cabbage from which springs a fountain hidden in its center. This fountain sports a Venus, animals and plant matter. The tablecloth is imbued with a kind of craziness which compels it to spill everything resting on it in waves of undulating gestures that serve to enliven the whole piece. An entire side of this work unfolds, with the astonishing discovery of a pair of newlyweds appearing inside a jug, while, on the other side, we can see the fruits of their love: a baby in its bathtub. The surface of a cup bears a picture of The Last Supper.

"Le Feau Rouge" (The Red Light) 1993 42 x 22 x 30 cm

The light signals from Feu Rouge (‘‘Red Light’’) are strictly decorative, turning on and off at random, transforming the object into a dynamic work of art. There are worlds to discover in each colour. Red expresses the forbidden, the crossing of which amounts to a defiance of established limits; it also is the colour of warmth and sensuality. When the red light goes on, it illuminates a woman’s upside-down naked form, with a low relief of erotic scenes.

The green light, by contrast, signifies ‘‘go ahead’’ or ‘‘go green’’. When it comes on, we can see a country setting, with cows in green fields, a chicken run, a village, and a castle in the background.

"Provisions" (Groceries) 1997 150 x 60 x 50 cm

In Provisions (Groceries), everything spills over, falls out and piles up. The cart does have four wheels, but none are in working order, and one of them is even fitted with an absurdly low mudguard that blocks it and makes it totally impossible to move the cart at all. Obviously, this object is only meant to be exhibited. The artist has included an incredible number of details, so there is a lot to observe; symbols and innuendoes abound. There is a lot of play on the function or origin of different products. A double boiler looks like a scene from marine life, and a toilet bowl cleaner squeeze bottle bears an even greater resemblance to a duck than usual. On top of the cart is exploding with details; a carton of milk has become a barn, while a sardine can is a grand piano. Erotic scenes are hidden here and there: a carton of apple juice has all the makings of a cabaret or brothel. The work seeks to awaken the desire of the onlooker, who can satisfy his or her curiosity by looking into an opening in a package of a bar of soap, where a woman with a pig’s head demonstrates a few possible uses for the soap. Monica Machado has fun with imitated or invented slogans inscribed on the objects that fill the shopping cart, such as “Faites l’amour pas la vaisselle” (‘‘make love not (do) the dishes’’) or “Papier toilette inusable” (‘‘everlasting toilet paper’’).

The exhibit at the Garbrielle Laroche Gallery has closed, but you can learn more about Monica Machado by visiting her website – it is great fun. To learn more about Mosaique magazine, click on the link below to a previous MAN covering content and ordering information.

Enjoy – Nancie

• Monica Machado’s Website
• Mosaique Magazine

Not a month goes by that someone doesn’t contact MAN with a plea that we revive our printed magazine.  We sincerely wish we could but, alas, our resources just don’t stretch that far right now.  As good as the internet is, we understand that there is simply no substitute for the ability to sit down with a lovely cup-of-whatever-suits-your-fancy for a long, paper-fueled immersion into contemporary mosaic.

That’s why we are happy to recommend the French magazine Mosaique with its new and improved English translation edited by award-winning Canadian musician and mosaic artist Sophie Drouin.  In the 98 pages of this fifth edition of the publication, Publishers Renée Malaval and Gilles Antoine have done a bang-up job of covering the contemporary mosaic scene from Belgium to Egypt and from Russia to the US – from exhibitions and installations to schools and “studio secrets” – from arm-chair travelling to the newest books and publications. With Contributors like Daniele Torcellini, Rosetta Berardi, Luca Maggio, and Paolo Racagni and artistic direction by none other than Verdiano Marzi, the magazine is both brainy and beautiful.

The reader finds the latest work from Felice Nittolo, Mona Magdi Kenawy and Toyoharu Kii and discovers new (at least to us) artists like Matylda Tracewska (Poland) and Monica Machado (France).

Coverage of major exhibitions include the 9th International Mosaic Conference in Chartres last October and a reprint of the MAN article covering Terra Incognita in Williamsport, PA.

We especially liked the three articles under a section called “Mosaique Dans Les Parcs Et Jardins” (Mosaic in The Parks And The Gardens) with wonderful photos and writing about Antoni Gaudi’s Parc Güell in Barcelona, Nikki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden in Tuscany and The Garden of the Giants by Marco Pellizola in Cento.

Mosaique has always been a great publication, but up until now its Achilles heel has been the language barrier to the English speaking market.  Malaval and Antoine’s decision to bring on Sophie Drouin as the Editor of its English version was a good one.  While not all of the content has been translated (we’d say it’s about 80%) it is a total pleasure to read.

Mosaique and Mosaic Art NOW a lot in common.  We both seek to inspire our artists and seduce the rest of the world into a new appreciation for contemporary mosaic.  That’s why it is always such a professional delight to work with Malaval and Antoine.

Buy this magazine.  You won’t be sorry.

Enjoy –  Nancie

To purchase in the US:

• Mosaic Smalti
• Wits End Mosaic

In Europe:  Mosaique Magazine