Art in Second Life 2023 (9) Reflections by Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau) & Onceagain Art Gallery

06 Feb 2023 Leave a comment

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

I got an invitation to visit Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau)’s latest exhibition named “Reflections” at Onceagain Art Gallery. A good reason to visit Onceagain Art Gallery (once) again, as it is more than one year since I my last visit there (read Art in Second Life 2022 (2) Onceagain Art Gallery).

The landmark leads you to a small gazebo within a park. From there you walk through the park, cross the gate, turn left twice and walk a path upwards to reach the exhibition “Reflections” which is shown in kind of a cloistered court.

Impressions of “Reflections” by reflections by Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau) (1) – from the landing point to the exhibition

Onceagain (Manoji Yachvili) wrote about “Reflections”:
“I’m really pleased to host in my gallery a delicate artist, who I discovered last year by chance when I won one of her works at an auction.
In life you don’t always need to look for deep meanings, sometimes beauty is enough to reconcile you with the world and Maddy with her works is what she manages to do.”

The exhibition consists of 11 pictures all showing woman, mainly portraits, in their beauty. Most of the pictures are monochrom (not all) and the women are all dressed beautiful and they wear flowers, ornaments, jewelery and other accessories underlining their beauty and attracting the spectator to look for details and to get pulled into the picture.

Impressions of “Reflections” by reflections by Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau) (2)

Maddy wrote: ““Reflections” is a journey of portraits that experiments with new ideas using A.I. technologies. The exhibit showcases photos created with Midjourney and Second Life Avatars, combined with the use of A.I. to create a melancholic and dark atmosphere that captures the essence of the subjects portrayed. The soft colors and blurs emphasize the intense emotions and intimacy of the portraits, inviting the viewer to immerse themselves in the images.”

Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau) is in Second Life since 2009. She’s passionate about photography in RL and SL. She writes: “I’m not an artist but a researcher of images to be developed… a dreamer with open eyes of this world “out of time”. In SL always open to new possibilities of experimentation trying to convey the magic that I see.”
I’ve seen Maddy’s art the first time back in 2017 at Enchanted Art where her exhibition “Maddy 2017” was showcased (read here). Further on I saw Maddy’s work at La Maison d’Aneli in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022 and at GenovArt Glass Gallery in May 2021 (read here). You can see more of her art at her flickr page.

Once at the gallery I took the teleporter, where I landed for my visit to “Reflections” and visited the Onceagain Art Gallery.

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (1) – Two buildings / Two sculptures (Cherry Manga and Bryn Oh)

The place has changed quite a lot, the concept is still the same. In a large park are several buildings. The park and the buildings are full of Onceagain (Manoji Yachvili)’s art collection. In the park you find 3D art as well as inside of the buildings at windows or larger spaces. The buildings are galleries and feature the art of many artists.

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (2)

I know and wrote about most of them, though I admit that there’re some, who I didn’t come across yet. The following list of artists is certainly not exhaustive, but it testifies to the size of the art collection and the many styles:
Moki Yuitza, Mihailsk Syros (mihailsk), June Langer, Kika Yongho, Eviana (eviana.robbiani), Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau), Milena Carbone (mylena1992), Filthy Fluno, Marina Münter (vivresavie), Melusina Parkin, CioTToLiNa Xue, Zia Branner, Maloe Vansant, ZYNTHEA, Mareea Farrasco, Celestial Demon (celestialdemon), Gully Rivers (gullyrivers), Karma Daxeline (Karma Weymann), Cad (cadwallader), Lika Cameo (LikaCameo), Scylla Rhiadra, Mara Telling, Frank Atisso, Cherry Manga, Harbor Galaxy, miu miu miu (miumiumiusecond), Therese Carfagno, Bryn Oh ….

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (3)

onceagain (Manoji Yachvili) ist in Second Life since 2007. Manoji is Italian and lives and works in Tuscany, Italy. 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.

Thank you for showcasting so many artists in a great environment and for enabling Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau)’s exhibition “Reflections”.
And thank you Maddy for your art.
I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to Onceagain Art Gallery and to Reflections by Maddy
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Peaceful%20Mountains/51/173/3502
Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau)’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/magdyne/
Onceagain (Manoji Yachvili)’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/69389809@N03/

Art in Second Life 2021 (7) Bermuda Locket

24 Jan 2021 Leave a comment

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

I came across “Bermuda Locket” when I scrolled trough scoop.it SL Destinations . The entry led to a blogpost from Maddy Gynoid “Simtipp: Bermuda Locket“. Actually Bermuda Locket is the newest installation of Lex Machine (Archetype11 Nova).
Archetype11 Nova was formerly known as Schmexysbuddy Resident and created the Hotel California sims, which I visited in 2019 (read here and here). I saw Lex Machine’s installation “Isolation’s Passengers” last year (read here).

Bermuda Locket is a collaborative build of Lex Machine (Archetype11 Nova), Anastasia Falcor (Anastasia Nova), Mr. X Zenovka (Marcomr2 Zenovka) and Sheraton Falcor (Sheraton Voom). In the landmark description Lex writes: “As you enter into my curse, our dreams reverse and the demons burst…“

Bermuda Locket – overview and orientation map

Bermuda Locket consists of two islands. On one hand it is a lovely beach themed sim with two residentials houses, a beach hut, a boat house, two motor yachts and a sport boat and places to wind down and dream. On the other hand it is a collection of 3D-art, the visualisation of dreams, of temporary thoughts, be it nightmare or beauty or surreal.

Impressions of Bermuda Locket (1) – around the landing point

The presented art is quite dominating as most of the objects are very large. The landing is opposed to a broken lighthouse (which I came across already a few times in different sims) by the feet of a large laying female sculpture. You see two other oversized female sculptures kneeling and sitting nearby and strange fishes fly over your head. A surreal scenery. The fishes were created by aki69, most of the oversized sculptures at Bermuda Locket are from wassaabii.

When you look around you see many oversized sculptures. There are 2 beach houses, a traditional on one island and a modern beach house with boat house and beach hut on the other island. I first visited the traditional beach house. On my way to it I encountered an armada of “Wasp Angels” created by Bryn Oh. Close to the house is an intriguing sculpture created by CioTToLiNa Xue surrounded by flying shadowy females. At the beach are several cars sticked with their front into the sand. The cars are the work of Rena (guraa). And finally the ensemble of surreal art is completed by sculptures of Rebeca Bashly.

Impressions of Bermuda Locket (2) – around the traditional beach house: Bryn Oh’s Wasp Angels / CioTToLiNa Xue sculpture / wassaabii’s and Rebeca Bashly’s sculptures and Rena (guraa)’s cars

The tradiditional beach house is furnished quite with style and with love for the detail – and nothing reminds of the surreal world which is outside.

Impressions of Bermuda Locket (3) – in and outside of the tradional beach house / Rena (guraa)’s cars

The beach house on the second island is modern. Together with the boat house, the beach hut, and the 2 big motoryachts it radiates luxury. The furniture inside is similar to the furniture in the traditional house, again very stylish! I sat down outside on a swing and enjoyed the surreal scenery.

Impressions of Bermuda Locket (4) – in and outside of the modern beach house

In the corner of the second island you see a couple of horses (also created by wassaabii). On the beach lies anothter oversized female. Closeby I noticed a raft and sat down for a break.

Impressions of Bermuda Locket (5) – wassaabii’s sculptures, the raft, the beach hut and wassaabii’s horses

Bermuda Locket is an outstanding art sim. I rarely saw that many oversized sculptures and it is strange to see how they dominate the scenery. The mind (at least mine) isn’t able to differentiate between the lovely beach islands and the oversized surreal 3D art. Again Lex Machine created an outstanding composition of art and the featured homes of MZ Creations by Mr. X Zenovka (Marcomr2 Zenovka). And because of the dominance of art I categorized my visit under “Art” rather than under “Simploring”.

Thank you Lex Machine (Archetype11 Nova), Anastasia Falcor (Anastasia Nova), Mr. X Zenovka (Marcomr2 Zenovka) and Sheraton Falcor (Sheraton Voom). I enjoyed my art-simploring-tour.

Landmark to Bermuda Locket
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Solveig/93/135/21
Maddy Gynoid’s blogpost “Simtipp: Bermuda Locket”
https://echtvirtuell.blogspot.com/2021/01/simtipp-bermuda-locket.html

Art in Second Life 2020 (79) Of Bots and Blossoms by Ciottolina Xue

06 Dec 2020 Leave a comment

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

I got an invitation to visit “Of Bots and Blossoms” by Ciottolina Xue at “The 22 art space in Bellisseria“. The name Ciottolina rang a bell. I saw her objects in 2015 in the garden of Fallingwater, Inara Pey’s Second Life interpretation. Fallingwater or Kaufmann Residence is a house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in Pennsylvania. (read my post of 2015 here). But I didn’t come across her ever since – but now.

The exhibition “Of Bots and Blossoms” by Ciottolina Xue at “The 22 art space in Bellisseria” combines two different sets of virtual sculptures by the artist: a garden in which blossoms are associated with the ideas of birth, motherhood and nurturing; and a group of robots in scenes that may be, at the same time, somewhat funny and poetic.

My visit started in the garden. For this exhibtion Ricco Saenz and Randy Firebrand have changed the house that hosts the gallery and selected a one story building. This way Ciottolina’s sculptures in the garden are more visible and the view of the visitor isn’t too much distracted by the house itself. The scuplture “Of Blossoms” show blossoms and babies that are proctected by the blossom itself and by the love of their parents.

“Of Bots and Blossoms” by Ciottolina Xue at “The 22 art space in Bellisseria (1)

The bots that are shown in the exhibition poster can be found at the back entrance of “The 22 art space in Bellisseria“. They really look funny above the porch. They seem to have fun!

Inside of the house you find more bots, yet they are more serious. Two of them seem to be reading, but actually they look at paintings, one is playing with a balloon in the shape of a fish and one is painting the walls in the house. It is surprising that the bots and the sculptures in the garden are from one and the same artist. Cittolina obvioulsy tries out different styles. And although the two themes of the exhibtion “Of Bots and Blossoms” seem to be independant from each other they do fit well together.

“Of Bots and Blossoms” by Ciottolina Xue at “The 22 art space in Bellisseria (2)

Ciottolina Xue is an Italian artist and active in Second Life for over 12 years. Roses like those in this exhibtion are one of her favourite motives. You can purchase her art either in her inworld store [C8] CREAZIONI di CioTToLiNa here or at her marketplace store. And Ciottolina has also a flickr account.

The 22 Art space is a gallery in Bellisseria, the new continent with many Second Life prime members homes. The gallery is on one of these homes. It is owned and curated by Randy Firebrand and Ricco Saenz. The gallery’s name refers to the Modern Art Week in 1922 in Brazil, also known locally as “The 22 Week”.

“Of Bots and Blossoms” by Ciottolina Xue at “The 22 art space in Bellisseria (3)

Inara Pey, in who’s garden I came across Ciottolina Xue’s art wrote also a blogpost about “Of Bots and Blossoms” (read here). The exhibition will stay open until Feb 14th, 2021.
Many thanks to Randy Firebrand and Ricco Saenz for enabling this exhibition. I enjoyed my visit.

Addendum:
After publishing this post I had a conversation with Ciottolina Xue. She told me that the robots in the house are looking at the paintings of Mario Emanuele Degni, who had an own gallery in Second Life. He was a friend of Cittolina and sadly died of an heart attack last month. Hence the exhibtion is also in remembrance of him. And Ciottolina Xue’s recent and future work will include a piece of his art.

Landmark to The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Grenouille/60/35/35
Inara Pey’s blogpost “Ciottolina’s bots and blossoms in Second Life”
https://modemworld.me/2020/11/13/ciottolinas-bots-and-blossoms-in-second-life/
Ciottolina Xue’s inworld store [C8] CREAZIONI di CioTToLiNa
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lighthouse%20Oasis/36/160/2772
[C8] CREAZIONI di CioTToLiNa marketplace store
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/199291
Ciottolina Xue flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/169593978@N08/
Mario Emanuele Degni’s art
https://marioemanueledegni.com/author/degnimarioemanuele/