Art in Second Life 2023 (5) The Farigoule collection @ Nitroglobus The Annex

21 Jan 2023 1 Comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dido Haas drew my attention to a new exhibition in the annex of her Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: “The Farigoule collection”. The exhibition was opened on January 16th.

Together with the invitation I got a notecard with Dido’s description of “The Farigoule collection”:
“A while ago when meeting with Jules Farigoule in his loft, which is really a superb tastefully made place, I asked him if he was willing to exhibit his awesome art collection at Nitroglobus. At first he hesitated and told me he was neither an artist nor was this a ‘collection’, just images which he likes to have around him; a very subjective and personal selection. However, in the end he said YES. I am so happy he did.
The Farigoule collection a set of images, gathered from meetings, friendships and by chance, from the serendipity of Jules’s long second life (Jules Farigoule joined SL end of 2008). Jules explains in the notes which are hung on the walls of the gallery along side the art works shown, why or how these works touch him,, what he sees in them, the personality of their creator, or the situation that led him to acquire them.
Moreover, Jules constructed parts of his loft here in the gallery to give the visitors of the exhibition a more intense look and feel of his home and collection.“

The exhibition consists of 9 large pictures hung along the walls of the annex of the Nitroglobus Roof Gallery.  It is Dido Haas’ concept that the floor seems to mirror the pictures at the walls, an effect that intrigues me every time I visit the Nitroglobus Roof Gallery.
In the back of the exhibition are 2 rooms, which represent parts of Jules Farigoule’s loft in Second Life, as described by Dido in her notecard.

Impressions of “The Farigoule collection” @ Nitroglobus Roof Gallery / The annex (1)

You find texts about the artists and Jules’ thoughts about them, their art or his connection to them right next to the pictures. Some of the artists were not new to me, of others I never heard. And at least one artist has never had any exhibition in Second Life. The featured artists are: Baizzy Savira, Dido Haas, Caly Applewhyte, Tutsy Navarathna, Alix Figaro, Wicked Eiren, Blip Mumfuzz, Joss Floss (jossinta) and miu miu miu (miumiumiusecond).

Impressions of “The Farigoule collection” @ Nitroglobus Roof Gallery / The annex (2)

The two rooms are decorated with 3D angels created by Phenix Rexen. If you look at the exhibition poster, you may recognize that it shows part of Jules’ loft with a view trough the window. One wall in this loft is dedicated to the featured artists. It shows pictures used in their Second Life profiles (at least as far as I could find out)-

What made me smile was, that I personally have kind of my own collection of art. I got presents from some artists after publishing about their work and I also bought a few pieces. Like Jules I didn’t want to have the art just in my inventory, I wanted to see them, every day. Hence I created my own little “art park” at my homeplace. And that I like to take pictures in SL shouldn’t be any secret anymore. Anyway, I am for sure not the only one who has an art collection in Second Life. But also for sure “The Farigoule collection” is very well and professionally presented at the annex of the Nitroglobus Roof Gallery!

Impressions of “The Farigoule collection” @ Nitroglobus Roof Gallery / The annex (3)

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery is owned and curated by Dido Haas. Thank you, Dido for providing the space for the art and for enabling the exhibition “The Farigoule collection”. Thank you Jules Farigoule for the allowing a glimpse into your Second Life and into your personal collection of art pieces and memories. The memories we make in Second Life are not virtual, we take them with us into our real lifes.

“The Farigoule collection” ist the January exhibition at the Annex of Nitroglobus Roof Gallery. It shall be available for a visit at least throughout January 2023.

Landmark to The Annex of Nitroglobus and to “The Farigoule collection”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sunshine%20Homestead/166/41/1001 
Landmark to Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (main gallery)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sunshine%20Homestead/38/22/1001
Dido Haas’ blog
https://exploringslwithdido.blogspot.com

Art in Second Life 2022 (2) Onceagain Art Gallery

05 Jan 2022 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Following Rig Torok’s blog I came across “Onceagain Art Gallery” and visited it on January 2nd. Onceagain Art Gallery is owned by onceagain (Manoji Yachvili). In the landmark profile you find a short description:
“Hello! This is a small art gallery dedicated to women where exhibitions of various kinds will be exhibited on a regular basis.
If you want to be part of it, send a note to Manoji Yachvili with your references and a link where I can see your work.“

onceagain (Manoji Yachvili) is in Second Life for more than 14 years. She “likes photography, art, landscapes, animals, visiting strange places, most of these things she also does in RL”. You find more of her also on her flickr account.

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (1) – Main building and exhibition “Kaleidoscope”

Her Onceagain Art Gallery consists of several parts. The main building, where you land, features Onceagain’s own art and some pieces of her art collection. Right at the entrance you find a teleporter board that leads you to other buildings featuring “Private Collection” (Onceagain’s art collection), “Personal Exhibit” (another larger exhibtion of Onceagain) and “Artist of the month”. The latter did teleport me to an empty skybox, hence I assume there’s just no artist featured at this particular time of the year. On the ground level you can also see 3D sculptures and art objects embedded in a nice garden.

My visit started at the main building. On the ground floor is an exhibtion titled “Kaleidoscope”. Onceagain wrote about it:
“Thinking of the joy I felt as a child when I laid my eyes on the kaleidoscope and with a simple gesture of rotation thanks to those fragemnts of coloured glass I created a new world, precise, clean, an endless array of colourful emotions and grace.
In out life time each one of us must take their pieces and put them back together again to be able to look at his own inner world.
In the life time of this society fragments of an uncertain reality, often confused, rich but fragile, where past, present and future seem to overlap in mposed velocity, the persuit of bauty in a game of fragmetns of light allows me to expand the senses, give peace to the mind, feed my eyes to the vision of tomorrow.
This is the thought that has noursihed my creativity for this project: the need to catch a glimpse of a possible hope for the revival of beauty in this world, the desire to look with brght eyes of adult reality and with enlightened eyes of a child its possible future.“

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (2) – Exhibition “Kaleidoscope” – collected art on the 2nd floor

The pictures all consist of 2 pictures, on the left side a RL picture of something messed up, broken, trist and on the right side the picture of a kaleidoscope structure, where the structure repeats elements of the picture on the right. It conjured a smile on my face when I saw the similarities and I can understand what Onceagain wants to express. Well done!

Upstairs are some pieces of Onceagain’s art collection, in particular some objects of Mistero Hifeng. And there’s one room featuring Onceagain’s horse pictures. But these are not just horse pictures, Onceagain processed them and compared them with pictures of renowned RL artists. She wrote about them:
“We all have images archived, even at an unconscious level, models which we refer to because any work aof art is an act of communication involving a user, someone who enters into conversation with what is being shown.
Thus on reseeing a photo of my mare, I naturally associated it with a picture I began composing this project. Whenever an image reminding me of an artist came my way, I would set it aside, lke a jigsaw piece intent on arranging the end result, a part of which is here on display; thus, creating a personal dialogue with the works present in one’s memory by means of photographs.“

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (3) – Exhibition “horse pictures” on the 2nd floor

Again the direct comparison is intriguing!

I took the teleport board and visited the “Private Collection” which is in a separate building. You could also walk through the garden to get there and see the outdoor art objects on your way. I visited just shortly, the list of artists she collected is quite long and I know and worte about some of them: Bryn Oh, Caly Applewhyte, DixMix Source, Eupalinos Ugajin, Lika Cameo and many others.

Finally there’s another exhibtion of Onceagain in a gallery up in the skies named “NOMORE”, reached with the teleport to “Personal Exhibit”. It is really a quite personal exhibition and covers a theme, i was not aware of at all. Onceagain wrote:
“NOMORE interlaces the story of the serious illness of the palm trees, caused by the red weevil, among the inexitent and sick relationship with my father and the joyful synergy experienced by me with this kind of trees during the childhood spent in the “Boulevard Palm” in Nervi, a distrct of Genova, the which I’m particular fond of.
NOMORE was born slowly, it evolves as thought mature, white the experence is lived. With the passage of time, I’ve collectd refrelctions, informations, old photographs, creating my iconic graphic elements, assembled in this project with a contemporary and complete overview“

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (4) Onceagain’s exhibition “NOMORE”

Onceagain Art Gallery provides a unique art experience in Second Life. It combines art objects created in and for Second Life in the garden area and the art collection with exhibition space featuring onceagain (Manoji Yachvili)’s own art. Onceagain succeeds to explain and describe her thoughts when she sees a RL photograph and what pictures this photograph brings up in her mind. The direct comparison is intriguing. Thank you for your art, Onceagain!

Onceagain Art Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Peaceful%20Mountains/210/82/24
Rig Torok’s blogpost about “Onceagain Art Gallery”
http://rigtorok.blogspot.com/2022/01/peaceful-mountains-2022.html
onceagain (Manoji Yachvili)’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/69389809@N03/

Art in Second Life 2021 (93) DixMix Gallery Anniversary Exhibtion

02 Oct 2021 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I got an invitation to attend the opening of the anniversary exhibtion at DixMix Gallery on September 18th. I visited the exhibtion the day after the opening.

DixMix Source features three exhibitions for the anniversary:

“Zwartwit” by Catherine Nikolaidis (opened until October 22nd) in room Amalfia, “Summer Vibes” by Lori Bailey (ishtara1) (opened until October 15th) in room Abby and “Cabaret” by Caly Applewhyte (Calypso Applewhyte) (opened until October 29th) in room Amona.

I started my visit with “Zwartwit” by Catherine Nikolaidis. Zwartwit is Dutch and translates to Black and White. Catherine’s pictures have a vintage touch. The exhibtion consists of 13 black&white photographs, photographs obviously taken in Second Life and processed with light and shadow effects into erotic art. All photographs show women in lingerie, sometimes only parts of a full body, sometimes focused on the face, never fully naked and always leaving enough room for the fantasies and stories of the spectator.

I saw Catherine Nikolaidis’ artful photographs already in May at DixMix Gallery when I visited her exhibition “Quelqu’un” (read here).
Catherine Nikolaidis was born in Greece and lives in the Netherlands. She joined Second Life in 2007 and photography is one of her passions. She writes about herself: “I believe strongly in sharing. I believe in communicating. I believe in creation and inspiration. I love black & white. I feel strongly for music.”
Catherine is a photographer, blogger & brand manager for several stores. She runs her own website and shares her work also on her flickr page.

The exhibition “Summer Vibes” by Lori Bailey (ishtara1) in room Abby is a real contrast. Lori’s pictures are very colourful and show beautiful landscapes and views, taken in Second Life. I had the impression that I have visited some of these places myself – yet I didn’t make such great pictures!

Lori Bailey (ishtara1) is in Second Life since 2013. She loves to explore new places and to take pictures of all the beauty Secondlife has to offer. She mostly makes pictures of landscapes, that’s her passion. It is the first time that I came across Lori Bailey and her artful pictures.
You can see more of Lori’s work at on her flickr page.

“Cabaret” by Caly Applewhyte (Calypso Applewhyte) is shown in room Amona. I have covered Caly’s artwork already a few times in this blog. “Cabaret” consists of 12 black and white pictures, originally taken in Second Life. Taking them must have been quite an effort. They all look to be from the 1920ies, show erotic studies of the female body in a typical “Cabaret” environment and dressed in lingerie of the time.

Caly (Calypso Applewhyte) is a SL Photographer from France, who joined SL in 2010. Her focus is the avatar itself as a means of expression to transport emotions. She processes her pictures with Photoshop. You can recognise her style, she has found her personal characteristic artistic style. Her pictures do tell stories, like good art has to do.
According to her profile Caly also blogs and has written articles for several magazines. And she also make portrait pictures of course. You can see her work also on her flickr account.

Happy anniversary, DixMix gallery! Thank you Dixmix for providing and curating the DixMix Gallery, thank you Megan for building it and for contributing to it. Many thanks of course also to the contributing artists Catherine Nikolaidis, Lori Bailey (ishtara1) and Caly Applewhyte (Calypso Applewhyte). I want to thank also Violet Boa, who does the PR work for DixMix Gallery and who is always helpful for me to gather information.
Once again I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to Dixmix Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Madori%20Bay/46/213/22
Caly Applewhyte’s flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/calypsoapplewhyte/
Catherine Nikolaidis flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cathnikol/
Catherine Nikolaidis own website
https://www.catherinenikolaidis.nl/
Lori Bailey flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/loribailey/

Art in Second Life 2020 (64) Space Oddity by Caly Applewhyte

09 Oct 2020 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , ,

I got an invitation to attend the openin of “Space Oddity by Caly Applewhyte” on Friday night, October 9th at Itakos Art Gallery. As we have our own party at the same time, I couldn’t attend. But I went there shortly before and peeked in.

I grabbed a notecard that is a very good description of this exhibition by Caly Applewhyte:
Caly Applewhyte (Calypso Applewhyte) is a talented artist at creating images that start from portrait as a genre, but expand to narrate something more like a scenic setting. Subjects always somehow artificial, or perhaps protected, by metal prostheses and partial masks, which speak to us of a sort of fragility, a need to cover or mix the virtual appearance of an avatar in a dream dimension, a journey suspended in time and in space. So when we talked about this exhibition, looking for inspiration, we discovered the common passion for far and deep space, and for David Bowie’s music. The reference came immediate and simultaneous to both: Space Oddity. The solitary adventure of a human being floating in deep space speaks to us of alienation and feeling alone, of the search for safety in the difficult situations of life.
With this inspiration, Caly’s photos tell us a story of a character suspended and floating in her own dream universe, but who also has a deep gaze to look at us.
“Planet Earth is blue, and there’s nothing I can do”.
Enjoy Caly Applewhyte’s Emotional Space Trip.

Akim Alonzo
Itakos Project Curator

“Space Oddity” by Caly Applewhyte (1)

Calypso Applewhyte is a SL Photographer from France, who joined SL in 2010. Her focus is the avatar itself as a means of expression to transport emotions. She processes her pictures with Photoshop.

“Space Oddity” by Caly Applewhyte (2)

The Itakos Art Gallery is owned and curated by Akim Alonzo. Actually it is a place for arts with 7 exhibition rooms or pavillons: White, Black, Grey, Blue, Orange, Purple, Green Pavillion. There’s also a website where new exhibtions are announced.

Landmark to Itakos Art Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ATL/183/171/1009
The Itakos Project and Art Gallery website
http://itakos.it/

Art in Second Life 2020 (52) Itakos Art Gallery – 2020 Summer Collection

18 Aug 2020 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Since July 30th, the Itakos Art Gallery presents the “2020 Summer Collection” with a collective of talented artists selected from the Soul Portraits – Itakos Flickr group. In total there’re 33 photos with 15 different flavors and style. The exhibtion is in the Black Pavillion.
The featured artists are: Angelika Corral, ARnnO PLAneR, Aver Osk, Caly Applewhyte, ChimKami, David Silence, Joy De’Leon, Moonedembaum, Naiike Pani, Ooxooi, Paola Mills, Poupée Anna, Roberta Barineaux, Tralala Loordes, and Vallys Baxter.

Exhibition poster of Itakos Art Gallery – 2020 Summer Collection

Avatars in Second Life don’t grow old, something most of us do appreciate. Actually all stay between 20 and 30 years old, all have beautiful faces with no wrinkles and many have perfect bodies. What differs is the the haircut, some facial details be it the eyes, the eybrows, the length of the nose, the form of the mouth and chin and yes also the body. But still, most look beautiful and young.

Itakos Art Gallery – 2020 Summer Collection: Naike Pani, Angelika Corral, Paola Mills

That said, portraits taken in Second Life show beautiful people. And we like looking into and at beautiful faces. Hence many pictures (also my own) taken in Second Life are portraits or close-up’s. Akim founded a flickr group for portraits named “Soul Portraits – Itakos Art Gallery“, where people can contribute their best portrait pictures. In the meanwhile there’re almost 400 members in this group and over 7.700 (!) pictures had been uploaded.
There are certain rules:
– The focus is on expression and emotions transmitted by avatars and photographers.
– The group has a partnership with the Itakos Art Gallery in Second Life.
– The raw pictures have to be taken in Second Life
– The pictures may not be just a pure (raw) snapshot. As opposed to the photos must be elaborated and interpretated by the artist.
– The pictures are evaluated and accepted in the group at the discretion of group admin.

Itakos Art Gallery – 2020 Summer Collection: Tralala Loordes, Vallys Baxter

The “2020 Summer Collection” shows a very small selection of the 7.700 pictures of the group. All 33 pictures prove that people in Second Life are beautiful. But they also prove that you can make your face and avatar look very individual. The portraits also tell a story by the background, by the facial expression, the viewing angle, by the light choosen, the hair style, the view, the jewelery and by the way the protrait is presented. You can loose yourself while looking at them.

Itakos Art Gallery – 2020 Summer Collection: Caly Applewhyte, ChimKami, Moonedembaum, Ooxooi, Roberta Barineaux

Some of the artists did ring a bell as I wrote abouth them before, like Angelika Corral, Caly Applewhyte or Tralala Loordes. But most of the featured artists were new for me. I’m pretty sure that I will see more of them.

Itakos Art Gallery – 2020 Summer Collection: ARnnO PLAneR, Aver Osk, David Silence, Joy De’Leon, Poupée Anna

The Itakos Art Gallery is owned and curated by Akim Alonzo. Actually it is a place for arts with 7 exhibition rooms or pavillons: White, Black, Grey, Blue, Orange, Purple, Green Pavillion. There’s also a website where new exhibtions are announced.
Thank you Akim for the 2020 Summer Collection. I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to Itakos Art Gallery BLACK Pavilion
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ATL/183/171/1009
“Soul Portraits – Itakos Art Gallery” Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/groups/soulportraits/
The Itakos Project and Art Gallery website
http://itakos.it/