If you are looking to spend an art-filled weekend in the ever-surprising Singapore, we’ve put together a list of five recommendations to keep you entertained. As the city-state is returning to its fast pace, many exciting art events are taking place across the island. Regardless of your interest in learning more about ancestral cultures, you wish to emerge yourself in a selfie-worth installation, or you just want to cool your body and mind with a minimalist exhibition, we got you covered. Don’t forget to leave your feedback if you see any of the exhibitions. 1. Annual Special Exhibition: Second Movement Richard Deacon, Housing 9, 2012, Marbling on folded STPI handmade paper, constructed with magnet button, 109.5 x 57.5 x 51 cm. © Richard Deacon / STPI. STPI’s 2022 Annual Special Exhibition Second Movement is a homage to the enduring creative spirit of its experimental projects with critically acclaimed artists. Curated by Khai Hori, the exhibition is featuring works by Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan, Heman Chong, Genevieve Chua, Richard Deacon, Heri Dono, Ryan Gander, Goh Beng Kwan, Han Sai Por, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Shirazeh Houshiary, Teppei Kaneuji, Kim Beom, Jason Lim, Zul Mahmod, Eko Nugroho, Manuel Ocampo, Anri Sala, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Hema Upadhyay, Ian Woo, Haegue Yang. For STPI’s 2022 Annual Special Exhibition STPI showcases 41 works by 21 artists from the past two decades of creative collaborations. To date, over 100 artists from around the world have participated in the Visiting Artists Programme, where they are invited to explore creating works in print and papermaking. Each collaboration with the workshop team serves as a testament to how these mediums can be endlessly reimagined through these artists’ hands, pushing the limits of what can be achieved with these techniques. Thus, Second Movement is an invitation to get to the heart of what an STPI collaboration truly means, where new techniques, technicalities, concepts, and philosophies constantly come into being. Where: STPI On display until 24 July 2022 2. Batik Kita: Dressing in Port Cities Batik Kita: Dressing in Port Cities explores the rich history and culture of batik and batik making, from its traditional roots to contemporary designs. Visitors are invited to step into the exquisite world of batik textiles that cut across cultures and ethnic backgrounds, and explore the dynamic possibilities of batik as fashion through the years. The exhibition also introduces innovations by batikers in the age-old craft, and showcases how batik charted the evolution of new identities from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Where: Asian Civilisations Museum On display until 2 October 2022 3. iLight Festival MOTHEREARTH ClimateChange Data Sculpture i Light Singapore is Asia’s leading sustainable light festival held in Marina Bay. First held in 2010, i Light Singapore showcases light art installations created by Singaporean and international artists. These artworks are designed with energy-saving lightings and/or environmentally-friendly materials to encourage festival goers and the general public to adopt sustainable habits in their everyday lives. The Festival also features a diverse range of fringe activities for visitors to enjoy, bringing vibrancy to public spaces in our city centre. Light enables us to see and understand the world around us. The segment of electromagnetic waves that is perceivable to our eyes is known as the visible light speidea in one’s mind. Local and international artists have responded to the theme with creative interpretations, such as reimagining the potential of repurposing everyday objects and waste into delightful light installations. These contemporary light art will be showcased at the Festival, with the aim to encourage conversations about our lifestyles and consumption behaviour to build a more sustainable future.ctrum. Light is a form of energy that travels as waves, and the wavelengths determine the multitude of colours that we can see. Colours affect us in many ways, and form a language that communicates and associates itself with thoughts and emotions. Themed Spark of Light, the 2022 edition will kick off with the colour that has the shortest wavelength - violet. Embodying the most powerful electromagnetic energy in the visible light spectrum, violet is a colour that signifies creativity by awakening our senses, akin to the spark of a an idea in one’s mind. Where: Various location at Marina Bay, check the event map. On display until 26 June 2022 4. BreatheWater by PARVATHI NAYAR Installation view of BreatheWater, Parvathi Nayar, 2022. In the epoch of the Anthropocene, Parvathi Nayar looks to the essential elements of life: air and water, to explore that which connects us all. In BreatheWater, she looks at the existence of diatoms, microscopic organisms with walls of porous glass that are found in water, especially the oceans. Diatoms contribute to the oxygen we breathe and function as a gauge of the purity of water. Nature’s minuscule oxygen-creators are magnified and rendered larger-than-life in this sculptural installation that creates an enveloping environment in which the invisible is made visible. The installation references the waters that encircle the island-city of Singapore, and at a meta level, examines the issues of global warming, climate change and pollution. By drawing our attention to the invisible, BreatheWater suggests that the world is more magnificent, mysterious and interconnected than we consciously acknowledge. The practice of Parvathi Nayar (b.1964, India) unfolds through complex and intricate drawings, video, installation, text, and photography. Her art talks about the environment, urban memory and sustainability, with water as a consistent theme. She often utilises science as a prism to excavate microscopic and macroscopic perspectives that explore her deep fascination with the philosophies of space. Nayar has participated in numerous exhibitions including Chennai Photo Biennale 3: Maps of Disquiet (2021/22), We Are Ocean by Artport_Making Waves – Marseille, Berlin, Venice, (2019-2021), DAMNed Art Show, Goethe-Institut Chennai, India (2018), Whorled Explorations, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India (2014) and Pulp Friction, Singapore Art Museum (2001). She is a founder-member of The Hashtag#Collective. Where: Esplanade, Theatres on the Bay On display until 24 July 2022 5. Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia “Yam awely” by Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Anmatyerre people. 1995, synthetic polymer paint on canvas. National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, © Emily Kame Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia surveys historical and contemporary works by over 150 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from across Australia—the largest exhibition of its kind to travel to Asia. Drawn from the collections of the National Gallery of Australia and The Wesfarmers Collection of Australian Art, the artworks show deep interconnections between past and present, as well as extraordinary artistic innovation. Ever Present is a celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, while also grappling with Australia’s complex histories. Art emerges as a tool of resistance, asserting deep connections to country, as well as using wit and satire to confront viewers and encourage conversations about critical issues in the world today. The works challenge stereotypes about First Nations people and what defines their art. This exhibition explores key aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life and culture, arranged thematically to highlight connections to land, community and ceremony, as well as experiences of colonisation and resistance. The exhibition also draws out links with Southeast Asia, connecting First People’s art from Australia to the broader history of this region. Where: National Gallery Singapore On display until 25 Sep 2022

RtistiQ

17 Jun 2022

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A pioneering artist, Jangarh Singh Shyam redefined the Pardhan-Gond school of art. His signature style which was later named after him saw the evolution of Gond art from a ritualistic pictorial art made on the walls and floors to a more sophisticated menagerie of dots and dashes. This re-interpretation of the Gond art came to be famously known as Jangarh Kalam. Belonging to the Pardhan Gond community from the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the artist was considered a cultural prodigy in his native village Patnagarh being an excellent flutist and painter. In 1981, the artist was invited by the legendary J. Swaminathan to work as an artist at Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal. It was at Bharat Bhavan, one of the country's most prestigious museums of tribal and contemporary Indian art, Jangarh Singh Shyam grew as an artist as his creative practice underwent sweeping changes. Mentored by Swaminathan, Shyam’s inheritance in traditional music and storytelling blossomed into a distinctive style of image-making, imparting his paintings a rare life force and energy. As his popularity grew, Shyam found himself amidst the changing contemporary Indian art scene that was becoming more global in its outlook and more inclusive in its representation. It was for the first time we saw that the historically marginalized gained momentum and ground in the narrative space of the country. The artist gained major recognition when he participated in the Magiciens de la terre exhibition held at Centre Pompidou, Paris in 1989, and in Jyotindra Jain’s Other Masters exhibition at the Crafts Museum, New Delhi in 1998. The artist was also commissioned to paint the interiors of Vidhan Bhavan, the Legislative Assembly of Madhya Pradesh, and the dome of Bharat Bhavan. Posthumously, his painting Landscape with Spider (1988) was sold for a record price of $31,250 at Sotheby's New York auction in 2010, marking a first for an adivasi (vernacular) artist. Gleaning from the vast repertoire of tales, ballads, folklore, and fantasies of the Pardhan-Gond community, Shyam fabricated them into his visual narrative, thus bringing the ancient myths and stories to life. As he sought inspiration from the past and the present, the rural and the urban, the real and the imagined, a new visual vocabulary emerged that gave concrete shapes and forms to his community’s myths, legends, fables, tattoos, and music, which were, till then, hidden from the ‘mainstream’ society. It marked a paradigmatic shift in contemporary Indian art when the artist started using canvases, acrylic, oil and pen instead of the traditional charcoal, coloured soil, plant sap, leaves, cow dung, limestone powder, etc. This effective adaptation of the new media, tools and newer themes resulted in unforeseen results and inspired a generation of Gond artists to learn from Jangarh Singh Shyam. Jangarh Kalam, or Jangarh Singh Shyam’s personal rendition of the Pardhan Gond art instilled a creative energy that surged with the emergence of individuality and personal style in a traditionally collective society where artmaking was a group endeavour. In Jangarh Kalam, the images are transcribed from oral narratives that take shape as birds, flying snakes, or growing trees, floating to the rhythm of the music in diverse innovative variations. From enchanted woodlands to aero planes, indigenous deities, childhood stories, and animals, Shyam used colourful dots and peripheral contours of radiating lines to create these unique shapes and patterns reverberating with movement, fluidity, and power. In a tragic turn of events, the visionary artist took his own life at the age of 39 while he was on an international art residency at the Mithila Museum, Japan. While the artist died young, he inspired a legion of young men and women from his community who followed him and were mentored by him in the style he created incidentally. Today, many well-known Gond artists including Shyam’s wife and children and those who apprenticed under him continue to work in the Jangarh Kalam tradition keeping it alive and vibrant. Jangarh Singh Shyam, Paysage avec Araignée (Landscape with Spider), 1988 Image courtesy: Sotheby’s Jangarh Singh Shyam, The Seprpent Shesha Holding The Earth on his Hood, ca. late 1980s Collection and image courtesy: Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), Bangalore Jangarh Singh Shyam, Ped, Chidiya Aur Hawaijahaz (Trees, Birds, and an Airplane), 1996 Collection and image courtesy: Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), Bangalore Jangarh Singh Shyam, Phulwari Devi, early 1990s Collection and image courtesy: Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), Bangalore Jangarh Singh Shyam, Untitled, 1989 Collection: FONDATION CARTIER PARIS

RtistiQ

10 Jun 2022

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After many months of anticipation, Instagram’s CEO Adam Mosseri revealed a new Instagram update that will integrate sharing of NFTs into its platform. Users, collectors and creators will be able to view, share and engage with the NFTs on their feed, stories, and in messages. This will be a great way to display the digital assets they own on their profiles and view the tokens of their favoured artists, politicians or other friends they follow. Clicking on the tag will display the name of the creator and owner. The company is starting small with selected key athletes, models, and other influencers in order to test waters before building further on it. They want to learn from the community in the process and make Web3 technology accessible to a broader audience. An eventual full rollout will be available as Instagram expands this feature across the rest of their property including Facebook and their popular virtual reality Oculus programs. Adam Mosseri made a video explaining the entire NFT integration saying “I want to acknowledge upfront that NFTs and blockchain technologies and Web3 more broadly are all about distributing trust, distributing power.” Mosseri also emphasised that support for NFTs on Instagram could help introduce the technology to a much broader range of people. In January this year, Twitter introduced NFTs on the platform as hexagon-shaped profile pictures. An icon in the corner of Instagram posts of NFTs also appears as a hexagon. The complete video be viewed here: https://twitter.com/mosseri/status/1523655590672695296 Artists will be able to connect their digital wallets to their profiles and instantly keep their followers involved with any work that has been done as well as sell to their fans. The company is acquiring and aggregating public data from open blockchains such as Ethereum and Polygon, which helps to highlight who owns what. The Solana and Flow blockchains will be integrated next. Creators can link digital wallets such as MetaMask, Rainbow, and Trust Wallet, and will soon be able to connect their Coinbase Wallet, Dapper, and Phantom. Instagram’s integration of non-fungible tokens could lead to mainstream adoption of NFTs and support creators’ ability to make a living.

RtistiQ

24 May 2022

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With the rising popularity of NFTs and blockchain technology, it has become extremely important for NFT owners to protect their digital assets from theft or hackers. Below are a few tips you can follow to protect your NFT collection: Never disclose the private key or seed phrase of your wallets When you buy an NFT it resides in your wallet. Wallets like Metamask have a seed phrase and each account in it has a private key. Both of them should be kept secret and should not be shared with anyone. Sharing these will give the control of your wallet to the other and they can easily transfer your digital assets/NFTs to their wallets. Keep your digital assets/NFTs in multiple wallets In case you hold a large number of NFTs, another way to protect them is to keep them in different wallets. You can use a wallet to purchase the NFTs from different marketplaces and after that you can transfer them to another wallet which you haven't connected with any marketplace. By spreading your NFTs across different wallets, you can minimise the chance of losing all your NFTs as there is less chance of all your wallets getting hacked together. But this comes at a cost, you will have to bear the transaction charges for the wallet to wallet transfers. Use hardware wallets Hardware wallets are another excellent option to protect your Digital Assets. Although it comes at a cost but is one of the safest options to secure your assets. Ledger and Trezor are two most popular options for hardware wallets. These wallets keep the private key offline and thus provide an extra layer of security. Beware of Scammers With NFT marketplaces becoming more popular with the rise in crypto trading, there is also an increase in the number of scammers on these platforms. The most common way of scamming is through Discord DMs saying you have won an NFT from a popular NFT project. Before clicking on any such links you should double check with the NFT Project’s site or with any other community members. It's better not to trust any links which you receive in Twitter, Discord etc from people you don't actually know. Increase your knowledge about NFTs and Marketplaces Whenever you buy an NFT, spend some time to gain knowledge about that NFT project and its future roadmap. You should increase your knowledge about the NFT marketplaces so that you don't fall into the trap of scammers. For example, Opensea shows a blue checkmark next to verified projects. Likewise each platform will have its own way to show authentic NFTs. Self educating is the best way to identify scammers and to be safe from them. Follow the guidelines above to ensure you are able to robustly safeguard your NFTs. Your digital assets are as important and valuable as your physical ones and need an equal level of protection.

RtistiQ

24 May 2022

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In the one-century life span of abstract art, female abstract painters are not hard to find, to name just a few: Sonia Delaunay (a multidisciplinary artist who achieved success during her lifetime only due to her commercial work, whereas her husband Robert Delaunay was regarded as a serious artist), Lee Krasner (whose contribution to art history has been for a long time overshadowed by her marriage to the abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock), Elaine de Kooning (an accomplished artist, member of the Eighth Street Club in New York City she was mostly known as Mrs. William de Kooning, she dedicated most of her life to supporting her husband’s career), Barbara Hepworth (less recognized than her contemporary and fellow British artist Henry Moore), Françoise Gilot (the French-American artist who never managed to escape the “Picasso’s lover” title) and the list can go on. These talented artists have been less visible, not to say “invisible”, to an art establishment blinded by gender bias. Despite a recent shift in mentality and contemporary culture, female artists are still seen as “less” than their male counterparts. Female abstract painters and women artists, in general, deserve more awareness. Christel Haag is a commercially successful German abstract artist. Her work is very process-orientated. She plays with various contrasting effects on canvas by using an entire arsenal of mark-making in her process. The evolution of her paintings does not follow a predetermined concept. Rather, her works gradually evolve through an intuitive and dynamic process. Despite the gestural process, a coherent painting emerges. Haag finds her inspiration in nature. She translates into marvellous color combinations the beauty and harmony that surrender her. Lot 34 Are we Flying In her own words: "In 2002 I made the decision to give up my career in Public Relations at a university, follow my heart and retrain as an artist. Once I made the decision to open the door to my creative urges, I felt that I had to go back to the beginning to discover who I really am as an artist. It was as if I granted myself the right to be free again, free without boundaries or pre-existing ideas of who I should be as an artist. Over the years my experiences led to my colorful, abstract, dynamic, and gestural style of painting. I always try to go to my creative limits while experimenting and giving my artworks my individual expression. Nature inspires me. The marvellous impressions I take home from my travels. Also, I express in my paintings the mood and feeling of a particular moment in time. It is first and foremost the joy of painting, of colors, of the creative process itself, and of the energy of being that drives my artistic creation." 5 vivid paintings from Haag’s portfolio have been minted as unique NFT digital editions and are sold at auction in our coming event SHE IS UNSTOPPABLE. Browse her art and choose your favourite. Don’t forget to register for the auction. Bidding starts May 14th.

RtistiQ

01 May 2022

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NFTs have become extremely popular in a short period of time. Crypto enthusiasts and collectors are looking for opportunities to hold the rare immutable NFT assets. But many crypto newcomers don’t quite know what to do with NFTs after they buy them and it is sitting in their crypto wallet. This article aims to explain the popular uses of Art NFTs that you might have bought on our platform RtistiQ. There are many different types of NFTs and what you can do with an NFT is largely determined by the type of asset you have purchased. Essentially a non-fungible token, or NFT is a form of digital asset that is unique and uses blockchain to record its ownership status. NFTs can only have one official owner at a time, and if you have purchased an artwork on RtistiQ, you are the lucky one to own it. This token is now secured by the blockchain - no one can modify the record of ownership or copy & paste a new NFT into existence. So does it come with copyright transfer too? No, an NFT is not to be confused with copyright – an NFT gives you a proof of ownership. There is no copyright transfer, unless explicitly mentioned. You get ownership of the artwork, with the licensing terms encoded as metadata. Some creators will let you use your copy only for personal use, while others might permit commercial uses. The ownership of the unique token has been transferred to your wallet via your public address, proving that your copy of the digital file is the original one. Your private key is the proof-of-ownership, and the content creator’s public key serves as a certificate of authenticity for that particular digital asset. So what to do with the NFTs now that you have bought them? Depends how you want to be involved, but you have the following three main options. Hold your ‘Collectible’ and add it to your collection Art NFTs are great ‘collectibles’. Just like paintings that you display in your home are unique pieces of art without any copies, an art NFT is a digital form that is unique. You can enrich your visual experience with it and it can gain value over time. This makes them potentially a great investment. The more rare NFTs you have in your collection, the more exclusive it becomes. 2. Display the NFT in a digital or physical gallery, or in the Metaverse NFTs provide intrinsic and social status value which can be showcased in NFT displays and video frames. NFT display apps on iPhones and tablets. Inside the metaverses – Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, etc. On the wall - printed and framed (if the contract permits). An NFT Display is a unique and snazzy way to display your asset with a certificate of ownership alongside it. An NFT display is connected to your wallet, to prove ownership of your NFT. It offers high quality visual and audio output, and comes with aesthetic frames and swivel mounts, and state-of-the-art features like gesture and voice controls Netgear’s Meural Canvas II, Canvia – Digital Art Canvas, BlockFrame NFT – Digital NFT Display Frame, Samsung – The Frame, Lago – The Frame and Blackdove Digital Canvas are a few of the trending options. 3. List your NFT for sale in a secondary marketplace and resell You could resell your NFT to try and turn a profit when the time is right. You have full right to list your NFT for sale on an NFT marketplace such as OpenSea, Rarible, Nifty Gateway, Larva Lab, Axie Infinity, SuperRare and more. Once you complete your listing on the marketplace, your NFT will be available for purchase on it. You can promote the sale to potential patrons via your website or social media channels. Do note that there are associated gas fees that might be incurred in case of making changes or removing your listing. Some creators may demand a royalty every time someone resells the piece. In that case royalties are built into the NFTs. In the near future, RtistiQ expects the infrastructure that supports NFTs to catch up even more and there will be further use cases for the emerging technology. Facebook renamed themselves to Meta last year, Microsoft joined the metaverse hosting immersive meetings with avatars…and many other companies are joining the boom. With the NFT ecosystem growing, it looks like NFTs are here to stay, dominate and slay.

RtistiQ

28 Apr 2022

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The NFT industry is greatly expanding as new NFT artists and creators release new collections with new use cases and utilities. This is only the beginning of web 3 going mainstream. But the bad news is that there is a skewed gender gap between the number of men and women in the sector. Male creators represented 77% of NFT art sales, while only 5% went to women creators in 21 months to November 2021. A caveat is that 16% were chalked up to creators of an “unknown” gender – well at least there is hope that a somewhat higher number for women may be active in reality. But it still represents a stark gender disparity. To increase diversity and inclusivity in the world of NFT and web 3 is key to creating opportunities for women around the world to be creators of this new era of the web. Male artists have dominated for generations and only a selected number of female artists have got the visibility they deserved. Art history has been dominated by male artists like Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Picasso, and many more. With few exceptions, such as Artemisia Gentileschi or Angelica Kauffman, there are almost no known female artists before the 19th century. We know very little about how art movements like Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, Rococo, or Neo-Classicism would have looked if depicted by female artists. In the last century, with a change in our society, women slowly gained their well-deserved spot in the art world. This change made it possible for talented women artists like Georgia O’Keeffe, Yayoi Kusama, and Frida Kahlo to be celebrated in major museums and their contribution to art history be acknowledged. Despite the constant progress, female access to leadership is still limited and women are still facing more challenges on their way to success than their male counterparts. In response to these concerning facts, RtistiQ is glad to announce a little step towards a mission to change this disparity and onboard the next generation of women creators and create equal opportunities. We want women to enrich the NFT movement. We will thus be putting the spotlight on 14 amazing women artists in our upcoming auction “Closing the Gender Gap”. The female artists whose works will be featured have been changing many walls of the physical world. We don’t want these artists to be overlooked by NFT art space and wish to give them the recognition they truly deserve. Every art lover or collector should know about them. The rise of the Metaverse means this very rich VR world needs whimsical creations - from art styles of abstract, figurative, feminist, pop art, new expressionism, naive art, spiritual and graffiti - which will all be a part of this collection. There will be 5 unique physical art-based NFTs on auction from each of the 14 artists. Thus, a total of 70 digital assets will be available to bid on the auction page that goes live on 12 May. These rare NFTs will open up possibilities of investment and trade inside the Metaverse. An excellent opportunity to grab iconic collectables and to celebrate a community that represents inclusivity and equal opportunities for all, especially diverse and dynamic women who have enriched several types of art styles inspiring their audiences. Let’s set the tone for a bumper 2022 for the world of NFTs where all talent is welcomed, valued and nurtured. NFT and crypto enthusiasts have diverging demands and for those demands to be met there need to be diverging artists who challenge stereotypes and redefine aesthetics. That is what these 14 artists bring to the key assets and pillars of Metaverse asset flow and ownership.

RtistiQ

20 Apr 2022

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Below, we’ve assembled a list of the top 10 most influential female artists alive today. These women have left an incredible mark on the art world, and while their importance to the current scene is important, their impact will no doubt be felt for generations to come. Cindy Sherman Courtesy of Cindy Sherman Cindy Sherman made a name for herself through intricate self-portrait photography. Taking advantage of her skills as a costume maker and make-up artist, Sherman’s early work began exploring identity by using the artist’s body as the canvas. Her work frequently explores the place of women in the media and cultural landscape. Untitled Film Stills (1977-80) saw Sherman dressing as B-movie characters. In Centerfolds (1981), she upended the expectations of the male gaze, presenting complicated female characters where one might expect titillating, sexualized images. Her latest work speaks directly to the tools we use to communicate with each other. She now takes self-portraits using her phone, manipulating the images using multiple “face tuning” apps. The results are provocative and often disturbing. Tracey Emin Courtesy of Tracey Ermin Tracey Emin is no stranger to controversy. Her work is striking and confrontational, as well as deeply autobiographical. Her work reaches across an enormous array of mediums, from drawing, painting, and sculpture to neon text, film, photography, and sewn appliqué. Some of her installations made major waves in the art world. She premiered Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995 (1997) at the Royal Academy of London. The work is a tent that visitors can enter into, and on the walls are appliquéd the names of, you guessed it, everyone the artist had slept with. It serves as a kind of haunted space, especially in the greater context of Ermin’s work that challenges the role that sex plays in the perception of women. She has gone on to be a professor at the Royal Academy of Arts and a prolific, widely influential artist of our time. Yayoi Kusama Courtesy of Wikimedia Yayoi Kusama is an artist working in sculpture and installation, as well as many other mediums. She became a fixture of the 1960’s counterculture, organizing happenings where participants were nude and covered in painted polka dots. Beginning in 1963, Kusama began creating her Infinity Rooms, a series of installations in which the walls of the rooms were covered in mirrors with colorful balls of light hanging at different lengths from the ceiling. The effect is the perception that the room of lights goes on forever. Her public installation work continues to appear across the world, including Brazil, Japan, Singapore, and beyond. Marina Abramović Courtesy of Wikimedia Marina Abramović is likely the most important and influential performance artist of our time. Her newsworthy works have captured the attention of the artworld for decades, and she isn’t done yet. The Artist is Present (2010) saw Abramović sitting at a table at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. Visitors were invited to sit across the table from Abramović. This went on to become the largest performance art exhibit in MoMA’s history. On top of her amazing career as an artist, she is also a philanthropist and a supporter of young artists through her Marina Abramović Institute. Judy Chicago Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum Judy Chicago is a major name in the worlds of both art and feminism, with her career striking a path that unites them. Many of her unique techniques are borrowed from boat building, auto body repair, and similar disciplines — what the artist calls the “macho arts.” The Dinner Party (1979) is likely Chicago’s most important work to date. It shows a dinner table set in a triangle, with 39 places set for female heroes, both real and mythical. The dinner plates are all hand-painted homages to the woman who is seated there. The sprawling ambition and bold statement continue to fascinate and inspire people today. Shirin Neshat Courtesy of Wikimedia Shirin Neshat is an Iranian-born New York artist primarily working in photography, film, and video. Her work often focuses on the dichotomies, both socially constructed and eternal, that make up our world: Isamic and Western culture, male and female, public and private. Her film Women Without Men (2009) received the Silver Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. The film, based on the novel by Shahrnush Parsipur, depicts events during the British and American backed coup in Iran that overthrew their democratic government and installed the Shah as monarch in 1953. Vija Celmins Courtesy of SFMoMA Vija Celmins works in paintings and drawings, creating photorealistic pieces. She is celebrated today as one of the leaders in realism, though she pushes her work into almost abstract places by focusing on visual rhythm and the exclusive use of gray tones. Her early breakthrough saw her making exquisite replications of photojournalism, making masterful use of grayscale in her painting. These works highlighted how much of our world view at the time was dictated by black-and-white photographs and disseminated through the media. She has gone on to focus on sweeping visions of natural spaces and events. Much of her current work shows us starry skies, ocean waves, and other large and small scale views of the natural world. Bharti Kher Courtesy of Wikimedia Bharti Kher is an artist working sculpture, installation, and painting. Her work often speaks to realities of inhabiting a body as well as issues around culture. Perhaps her most popular work is The Skin Speaks a Language Not Its Own (2006). The piece depicts a full-size female elephant collapsed on the ground, covered in the traditional bindi — a mark made on the forehead among followers of Hinduism representing the third eye. By bringing together these two images of India, Kher creates a vivid embodiment of the country. Marlene Dumas Courtesy of Wikimedia Marlene Dumas is an artist working in the Netherlands who is known as one of the first three living women to sell an artwork above the $1 million mark. The notoriety is well deserved. Her work is always in ceaseless exploration of human moods and social conditions. Her paintings often eschew direct representation and instead make suggestions of emotional states. Her work often distorts faces and specifics, driving down into the heart of her subject. She continues to be a major name in the art world today. Dumas’s prolific career continues to challenge viewers and evoke what it means to be alive. Julie Mehretu Courtesy of Forbes Julie Mehretu works in painting, drawing, and printmaking, often focusing on the socio-economic realities of our time. Her meticulous work is precise but ultimately deeply felt, mapping out the psychology of people in the urban environment. Her pieces often take on an enormous scale, often two stories tall. Mehretu describes her mark-making process as one that charts the movements and interactions of people in their own societal context. While her compositions can be overwhelming and grand, when viewers take the time to look at it in detail, they often find surprising narratives emerge.

RtistiQ

19 Apr 2022

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Anna Laifalight - Digital artist since 2009. Based in Kyiv, Ukraine. RtistiQ: What is your current situation Anna? Anna: From the very beginning of the war on February 24, my family decided to stay in Kyiv. But, on the 21st day of the war, I moved with my daughter to a quieter area in western Ukraine to my parents since there were explosions in our district and a large nine-story residential building was damaged not far from the house where we live in Kyiv. My husband and many other families with children still remain in their homes in Kyiv, and constantly testify about the explosions. RtistiQ: Explain more about your art. Anna: I mainly create digital art in Adobe Illustrator. That’s why it is easy for me to take everything necessary for it with me to another place: my laptop, my wacom tablet and an external hard drive. I have been working as a digital artist since 2009. My first collaboration as an artist was with stock agencies such as Shutterstock, Creative market, Adobe stock. Lately I saw that my artworks were used around the Globe in different projects, including many commercial ones. Some of them you can be seen here: https://www.laifalight.com/custom-design . I started to get freelance orders for art from different countries from time to time. In 2020 I launched my own site https://laifalight.com where I decided to represent only exclusive artworks. Although I have never arranged personal exhibitions, I found my art printed on canvases, book covers, murals, paper glasses, and textiles worldwide. "The series of beautiful streets with fashion people '' has become my "visit card" and has been created by me in my own way since 2010. RtistiQ: What do you think of NFTs? Anna: The use of the technology (NFT / Blockchain) provides a great opportunity for fairness to the authors, as this will help to avoid theft of digital works. Thank you for supporting artists from Ukraine in such a difficult time of the war. Our country and people are in great need of support.

RtistiQ

08 Apr 2022

5 min to read

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As ARTnews had put it, ‘It’s about uniting to save lives’. Spare rooms, free doctors, addition of terminals by satellite broadband service providers to help keep the people of Ukraine online… support has been outpouring by people, companies, governments and other organisations like the IMF. The fascinating power of community and sheer generosity is breathtaking in crisis situations. And this time there is something else too. Since the conflict began, the relatively young non-fungible-token (NFT) community joined forces to harness the power of the new age through blockchain & crypto to raise aid. It was definitely off to a good start and continues in a positive vein. From the international community to the Ukrainian private and government bodies, many joined hands in several initiatives to help. In this article, we will highlight some of them: NFT ‘Museum of war’ Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's minister of digital transformation, has spearheaded the country’s push to raise funds in crypto assets and distributed ledger technology. Just this week, March 30, the Ukrainian government turned to the metaverse and launched an NFT ‘Meta History: Museum of war’ to help fund the fight. The country’s Ministry of Digital Transformation has minted 54 NFTs to raise awareness and support the Ukrainian military and civilians. The tokens will be taking the form of artists' illustrations linked to major events in the war. The mission statement was stated as “to preserve the memory of the real events of that time, to spread truthful information among the digital community in the world and to collect donations for the support of Ukraine.” This article by fortune provides further details: https://fortune.com/2022/03/29/ukraine-selling-nfts-war-bonds-meta-history-museum/ https://donate.thedigital.gov.ua/ On March 14, Ukraine launched the website above to allow people around the world to make crypto donations. By amassing the first donations at the beginning of the conflict, the organisation has raised more than $71 million. Vogue Ukraine & Vogue Singapore Can fashion and art, especially digital, be anything beyond frivolous? The good news is yes. Traditional infrastructures and institutions are under attack in a war situation and cryptocurrency can become even more useful as a medium. Vogue Ukraine and Vogue Singapore set up an initiative with six Ukrainian and Ukrainian-based artists and designers. The exclusive collection was put up on Opensea and included works from Anna October, Anton Belinskiy, DressX, Gunia Project, Ienki Ienki and Gudu. Each NFT was available in 50 editions at 0.5ETH. All proceeds were donated to ‘Save The Children Ukraine’. TIMEPieces TIMEPieces, the web3 community and NFT initiative from TIME put up a collection of unique artworks from the community’s artists inspired by the spirit of the Ukrainian people. Each artwork had a starting bid of 0.22ETH, with 100% of proceeds supporting humanitarian & relief efforts for Ukraine. Many generously donated their works to build a better future for the Ukrainian people. Swimmer Cindy Ong launched NFT collection Malaysian swimming champion and world masters champion Cindy Ong launched a NFT project on Opensea on March 20 to raise funds for the people of Ukraine. Charity NFT Art Auction for Ukrainian Artists by RtistiQ Last but not the least, the exclusive #NFTArtForAid NFT auction of works by Ukrainian artists will be available on our platform - RtistiQ from 7-10 April. 50+ artists and over 1000 NFTs. The NFT drop will feature works from Tatyana Binovska, Irina Loktionova, Nataliya Bagatskaya, Laifalight, Anastasiia Palashynska, among others. RtistiQ will not charge any commissions to the artists part of this auction. Additionally, by enabling the smart contract on RtistiQ, the artists are granted a 10% resale royalty. Minting will happen on Polygon and we hope that the funds raised will be a significant vehicle for a life changed for the better for the artists we have been working so closely with. The global NFT journey has only just begun. The consensus on the value of NFTs has remained controversial. Those who believed in it thought that the primary utility was an investment in the metaverse, or the proto-metaverse. However, the above use cases show there are more and the technology is likely to stick and accompany us all into the future. References:https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/ukraine-nft-artist-projects-1234621221/

RtistiQ

01 Apr 2022

5 min to read

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