Art in Second Life 2022 (94) Forgotten Things by Melusina Parkin

27 Nov 2022 Leave a comment

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

I got an invitation of Melusina Parkin to see her newest exhibtion “Forgotten Things” at Kondor Art Square.

I am a fan of Melusina Parkin’s art and have seen quite some of her exhibitions. Melu’s style is minimalistic. She takes her pictures in Second Life. The minimalism forces the spectator to focus on details, that might stay unseen when too much distracts the view.

The exhibition “Forgotten Things” is shown at Kondor Art Square.
The Kondor Art Square is an open court surronded by neoclassical buildings. Melu’s pictures are shown at large boards at three sides of this court. I have seen a few exhibitions of Melusina in which she tried out new forms or techniques. “Forgotten Things” is an exhibition coined by Melu’s passion for minimalism. And this time she focused on single objects, that were “forgotten” by their owners. In some of the pictures Melusina blurred the background and just focused the forgotten object.

Impressions of “Forgotten Things” by Melusina Parkin at Kondor Art Square (1)

What are these things? I saw several glasses, wallets, books, newpapers, still glowing cigarettes, a package, luggage, or empty mugs and bowls. While the glasses were forgotten (most probably), the empty mug was just not forgotten, but intentionally left to clean up later or to be cleaned up by someone else. Quite surprising is missing earphone of a phone booth, you just see the cable. Someone has forgotten the earphone in the picture?

Close to the landing point in the center of Kondor Art Square you you find a table where you can purchase a photobook about “Forgotten Things”. Those who are regular visitors to Melusina Parkin’s exhibitions know these books already. Melusina makes one of every exhibition. The book about “Forgotten Things” is sold at the exhibition, all others are sold under her brand “Melubooks” in a seperate book store: Melubooks shop.

Impressions of “Forgotten Things” by Melusina Parkin at Kondor Art Square (2)

Melusina Parkin is in Second Life since September 2008. She has been a fashion manager, a journalist, a furniture creator, a builder, a decorator and a photographer. Her work as a photographer has been showcased in more than 50 exhibitions – from which I saw just a few. Melusina has a flickr account which counts more than 13,000 (!) photographs. Extensive collections of her photos can be seen also on her blog Virtual Exhibits and on some slideshows on Youtube (links also under this post).
There’s also an online book with her Second Life exhibits 2011-2019 here.
Melusina Parkin has an own gallery at Time Portal, “Melu’s Photo Gallery” and an own store for Art Deco furniture called “Melu Deco“. Melusina also owns a second place (Melu Space) with another gallery (Minimum Gallery), a bookstore and another “Melu Deco” inworld store.

Impressions of “Forgotten Things” by Melusina Parkin at Kondor Art Square (3)

The Kondor Art Square is owned and curated by Hermes Kondor.
Hermes Kondor (aka Luis Vasconcelos) is from Lisbon, Portugal. He’s a former teacher of photography and photojournalism and looks back on 40 years of photography experience. Hermes likes to see and shoot and he loves street photography. Hermes is in Second Life since 2007.
Thank you Hermes for enabling the exhibition “Forgotten Things” by Melusina Parkin. And thank you Melusina for another great exhibition focusing on the little forgottent things, be them left intentionally or accidentially. I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to Kondor Art Square and to Forgotten Things by Melusina Parkin
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Waka/235/129/1905
Melusina Photo Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/248/101/1940
Landmark to Minimum Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/130/107/621
Landmark to Melu Space (Minimum Gallery, Melubooks, Melu Deco)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/173/25/22
Landmark to Melusina Parkin’s store for Art Deco furniture “Melu Deco”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/243/99/1930
Melusina Parker’s flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melusina_parkin/
Melusina Parkin’s Virtual Exhibit blog
http://meluphoto.blogspot.it/p/home.html
Melusina Parkin’s youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVzglBiqhrOLXnAp3Qt3Zjw
On line book Second Life exhibits 2011-2019
https://www.calameo.com/books/005997622f28dd58ca75d

Art in Second Life 2022 (55) introspective by Milena Carbone @ Kondor Art Square

18 Jun 2022 Leave a comment

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

Wednesday, June 15th, a new exhibition named “introspective” by Milena Carbone has been opened at Kondor Art Square.
Milena wrote a blogpost about  “introspective” on her own website here.

Hermes Kondor, owner and curator of the Kondor Art Center, offered Milena a retrospective of her work. Milena wrote: “I suddenly felt very old… but it’s only been three years. Only he can answer the question of why he wanted to do this; and in this context, I can only question myself. That is why I have called this retrospective “Introspective”. A journey in SL. A journey in my inner world.“

The exhibition consists of 19 pictures from 15 of Milena’s previous exhibitions during 2020 to 2022, just two pictures have never been exhibited in Second Life before.

The pictures are arranged around a large court, the Kondor Art Square. Those who are familiar with Milena’s art, know that her texts and pictures belong together like the two sides of a coin. For each of the pictures Milena wrote a text, which you find on a black board next to the pictures. The texts were created spontaneously: “I have written down what I heard from the depths of my heart. Today is Sunday – if I had written these texts yesterday or tomorrow, they would have been different. Nothing is really important.“

Impressions of “introspective” by Milena Carbone @ Kondor Art Square (1)

I the center of the court are a few boards. One board presents an introduction into “introspective”. Three other boards deal with questions about our virtual existence in Second Life as well as with our existence in RL.
Why do we create a second or even more characters of ourselves in Second Life? Why does an artist do that – even though staying anonymous?
Then there is the love and passion we experience in Second Life: “There is never too much love, there is always too much hate: in wheat fields, in deserts and in kindergardens. When will we stop fighting against love?”
And then there is our ignorance. we don’t see all the little wonders around us, we don’t appreciate them – and we destroy the planet even tough we are aware that there’s no second.

No matter if your read Milena’s text before you go to look at each picture or if you read them afterwards – they belong to this “introspective”.
On the backside of the boards are abstracts of a few of Milena’s previous exhibitions.

The texts for each of the exhibited pictures are also quite impressive and give the pictures a new spin, at least they did that for me. And of course these are only Milena’s thoughts, you might have others.
“introspective” is an impressive broad view on Milena’s Carbone’s art in Second Life. It inspires the visitor to change the perspective, to rethink who we are and what we do.

Impressions of “introspective” by Milena Carbone @ Kondor Art Square (2)

Milena Carbone (mylena1992) is a French artist and is in Second Life since mid 2019. She discovered its artistic potential and since then has devoted all her free time to creation, associating, as in real life, images and texts: “Milena Carbone is a fiction in which, as in any artistic work, biographical and imaginary elements are mixed.” Her creative process is iterative: some of her images inspire her stories and these stories modify the development of the image, which itself transforms the story.
Milena has an own gallery, the Carbone Studio and she has a bookstore @ Noir’Wen City.
Milena has an own website, you can also find her on flickr here and you can read her texts here.

Hermes Kondor (aka Luis Vasconcelos) is from Lisbon, Portugal. He’s a former teacher of photography and photojournalism and looks back on 40 years of photography experience. Hermes likes to see and shoot and he loves street photography. Hermes is in Second Life since 2007. He is the owner and curator of the Kondor Art Center, Thank you Hermes for enabling the exhibition “introspective” by Milena Carbone.

Thank you Milena for another great exhibition.

Landmark to “introspective” by Milena Carbone
Kondor Art Square
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Waka/235/129/1905
Milena’s own blogpost about “introspective”
https://sites.google.com/view/thecarbonegallery/exhibitions/introspective?authuser=0
Landmark to The Carbone Studio
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Woiler/179/188/3316
Landmark to The Carbone Bookstore @ Noir’Wen City
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Noir%20Wen/243/203/32
Milena’s website
https://sites.google.com/view/thecarbonegallery/news
Milena’s post about “Masks” on her website
https://sites.google.com/view/thecarbonegallery/exhibitions/masks
Milena Carbone’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/milenacarbone/
Milena Carbone’s writing
https://medium.com/@539568
Landmark to the Kondor Art Center
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Waka/204/132/2419

Art in Second Life 2022 (52) Hustle Art Gallery – June 2022

10 Jun 2022 Leave a comment

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

Tuesday, June 7th, I got a group message from Aneli Abeyante who invited to visit a new joined exhibition at Hustle Art Gallery.
The gallery is new to me. It is owned by BS4M. Actually the Hustle Art Gallery looks more like a club on the first glance. And the landmark profile also just refers to it as a club:
“LIVE DJs from all over the world
House Music, Tech House, Progressive, Melodic House & Techno, Techno, Trance, EDM, Freestyle, DnB, Electrohouse, Funky and more style“

But right when I landed I saw Aneli’s pictures at the walls .. and looking up I could see that there are two more floors and they are used to showcase art. Currently the Hustle Art Gallery features Aneli Abeyante on the ground floor, ZackHerrMann and Hermes Kondor on the floor above and Patrick Moya’s art on the top floor.

The Hustle Art Gallery in June 2022 – featuring Aneli Abeyante, ZackHerrMann, Hermes Kondor and Patrick Moya

My visit started on the ground floor. Knowing Aneli Abeyante’s art I did recognize it immediately. I think that I have seen some of the blue pictures already. At Hustle Art Gallery, Aneli shows her permanently changing colourful geometric art. The pictures are made of several layers and by moving the layers you get the impression of permanent change.

The Hustle Art Gallery in June 2022 – featuring Aneli Abeyante

Aneli is in Second Life since 2009. She creates objects in 2D and 3D, colourful, steadily moving, and with particular light effects. Aneli writes about herself: “I love geometry and mathematics. So after much practice, I managed to clear structures and shapes. In reality I practice painting, I do not have precise style but I always seek harmonization.”
You can see more of Aneli’s art on her flickr account. Besides her own artwork, Aneli’s passion is curating La Maison d’Aneli. Through her gallery she brings together all forms of creativity in RL and SL and the featured artists come from around the globe. Aneli’s intention is to “put her gallery in the service of artists, so that the world can be better, exchanges and meetings probably contribute even though it seems to be particles.”

On the floor above the dance area shows the work of ZackHerrMann on one side and the work of Hermes Kondor on the other side.
ZackHerrMann is a French psychedelik artist from the French Riviera. He’s in Second Life since 2012. He writes about his work on a board at the exhibition:
“French artist, kind of an alien from the unidentified dimension! He draws wither by hand or by digital toos or both. He has been a nightlife creature, a cyber punk LGBT glam cosmic one. He likes to create sounds and bizarre music that he uses for many projects. He is the creature of a fictive heroin called Linda Cluster. He works a lot usings the Second Lide Metavers, he loves concets, he is THE concept!”
ZackHerrMann’s art is quite unique. It is mostly held in golden or yellow, everything looks full and rich and there’s often a story to follow. At Hustle Art Gallery though, he showcases some of his also permanently changing pictures, at bit like Aneli’s art, yet other colours and other forms.
ZackHerrMann has a little museum in Second Life – Zack Herr Mann Universum. You can also see more of his art at his flickr page.

The Hustle Art Gallery in June 2022 – featuring ZackHerrMann

Hermes Kondor (aka Luis Vasconcelos) is from Lisbon, Portugal. He’s a former teacher of photography and photojournalism and looks back on 40 years of photography experience. Hermes likes to see and shoot and he loves street photography.
Recently he began working on experimental macro photography, in studio, creating very small still life compositions. In this kind of Photography I like to explore the Beauty of seeing closer, finding new perspectives, and different ways to see small objects. A few examples of these pictures can be seen at the Hustle Art Gallery.

The Hustle Art Gallery in June 2022 – featuring Hermes Kondor

Hermes is in Second Life since 2007. He is the owner and curator of the Kondor Art Center, where you can not only see his work but also that from other artists.

Finally on the top floor of the Hustle Art Gallery you find an exhibition of Patrick Moya with the subject “Dolly Party”
I saw already some of Patrick Moya (moya janus)’s art. I came across him in 2017 when I visited his Moya Land (read Simploring 2017 (56) Moya).

The “Dolly Party” takes places once a year in Southern France. The name came up as couples of same sex and look (clones like the cloned sheep Dolly) entered the party for free. People with a broad variety of kink travel to this party that became a LGBT event. Patrick Moya created a pink sheep that became the icon of the LGBT community. “On the occasion of each party, Partick Moya performs the flyer, sometimes large canvases carried out on site live and in some cases animated films projected on the walls. We find the little sheep in his adventures with a recognizable graphi charter among all.“

The Hustle Art Gallery in June 2022 – featuring Patrick Moya (moja janus)

Patrick Moya (born 1955 in Troyes, France), is a French artist. He is a part of the artistic movement “Ecole de Nice”. Moya has been at the forefront since the 1970s of straddling the latest forms of media and technology to benefit art rather than rendering it extinct.
(excerpt from wikipedia).
He is an early pioneer of video art and is active with his art in Second Life since 2007 in addition to his work in the physical world. The barriers between the two worlds do blur in his artistic work. Moya Patrick (moya janus) has also a website http://moyapatrick.com/ with tons of information about his work and about Moya in Second Life. Unfortunately it is in French only.

Tank you BS4M for providing the space for the arts at Hustle Art Gallery, thank you all who contributed to enable this exhibition and thank you to all artists who are featured. I enjoyed my visit!

Landmark to Hustle Art Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/HUSTLE/195/66/29
Landmark to La Maison d’Aneli
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Holland/23/71/22
Aneli Abeyante’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/190057098@N06/
ZackHerrMann’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/people/7706
Zack Herr Mann Universum
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Pop/136/214/243
Kondor Art Center
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Waka/204/132/2419
Hermes Kondor’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kondor-photo-studio/
Landmark to Moya Land
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Moya/126/131/22
Patrick Moya (moya janus)’s website
http://moyapatrick.com/

Art in Second Life 2022 (37) Metaphysics by Bamboo Barnes

17 Apr 2022 4 Comments

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

I got an invitation to see Bamboo Barnes newest exhibtion “Metaphysics” at The Kondor Art Center Main Gallery.

The Kondor Art Center Main Gallery is a large 2-story mansion with a lot of space and natural light from the glass roof. Bamboo’s pictures are on both floors along the walls. I didn’t count the pictures but there must be around 35 pictures. As I expected it, they all are colourful.
Bamboo Barnes provided a short text for the exhibition:

Though I’ve never drowned.
There is a sense of drowning.
In a crowded train.
You are the only one on the train.
In the life of the person next to me.
His parents, whom I will probably never cross paths with, his family, whom I have never met, his childhood memories, joys and sorrows.
His family’s very separate friends, jobs, partners, and the loneliness and past they carry with them.
I am alone in the midst of it all, like a spreading ant’s nest.
I drown in it, the dark and bright air constricting me, and I gradually become a black spot.
Unable to open my eyes, I continue to watch the black dots disappear.

The text also reflects the title that Bamboo chose for her exhibtion: “Metaphysics”.
“Metaphysics” is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of consciousness and the relationship between mind and matter, between substance and attribute, and between potentiality and actuality. Metaphysics studies questions related to what it is for something to exist and what types of existence there are. Metaphysics seeks to answer, in an abstract and fully general manner, the questions: What is there? What is it like? (source Wikipedia)

Impressions of “Metaphysics” by Bamboo Barnes (1) – upper row: Blanket – Bird on the weir – Venetian Gravity 47

As mentioned above Bamboo’s pictures are always colourful. Bamboo loves strong and expressive colours. Most of her pictures consist of several layers and looking at them you begin to try to recognize the different layers, thus you’re drawn deeper into the picture. Very often there’s a female or a female face in one of the layers. Bamboo also plays with moving layers, like in the “Hollow” series right above the entrance. When you hoover with your mouse over the pictures you could buy her art, and you can see the title of the pictures, something that causes me to look a second and a third time at the pictures to potentially grab  Bamboo’s toughts.

Impressions of “Metaphysics” by Bamboo Barnes (2) – upper row: Hollow – February 24th, 2022 – No Gravity

Bamboo is in Second Life for over 15 years already, painting software & photoshop are her best friends. Bamboo had many exhibtions and appearances in the Second Life art scene and in 2018 she had her first exhibition in real life: “I create what I see but maybe you won’t, they are about people’s reality and  mind.” Bamboo’s art is a mixture of abstract forms, of people and photographs. Most pictures are colourful and it is in the eye of the beholder what we see in her pictures. I myself saw her work the first time at La Maison d’Aneli during the Holiday season 2019/2020 (read here). I also saw her exhibition “Marginal Mannerism” at DixMixGallery in April 2021 (read here), the exhibition “Meant to be” at Itakos Art Gallery last year (read here), I saw “Conjure” at FOCUS Magazine F.A.I.R Gallery in August 2021 (read here), “Mindstorm” at IMAGO Land (read here) and “Drawer” at Hannington Arts Foundation (read here). Last December I saw her exhibition “The path” at Art care gallery (read here). “Drawer” and “The path” are both still open for visitors.
And I also had a look at her flickr page.

The Kondor Art Center Main Gallery Gallery is owned and curated by Hermes Kondor. Thank you Hermes for providing the space for the art and for enabling “Metaphysics” by Bamboo Barnes. I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to The Kondor Art Center Main Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Waka/212/136/2419
Bamboo Barnes’ flickr page
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bamboobarnes/

Art in Second Life 2021 (120) “Urban and Industrial Images” by Blip Mumfuzz

17 Dec 2021 Leave a comment

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

Blip Mumfuzz invited me to see her newest exhibition at The Kondor Art Center and I went over to see it on the spot as I had some time left Friday, December 10th. I was excited, a great exhibition.

When I arrived, I thought I’d be in an industrial area, in a town… I looked around – no, it is an exhibtion, you see that on the second view *winks*. When you look around you see the showcased pictures in the surrounding background, on the sides of containers, at harbour walls, and facades. It takes a while until you recognize them as single unique pictures.

Impressions of “Urban and Industrial Images” by Blip Mumfuzz @ The Kondor Art Center (1)

I grabbed a notecard close to the landing. In the notecard Blip wrote about the exhibition:
“When Hermes approached me and asked if I’d do a themed exhibition focusing on my urban/industrial images I was initially skeptical. I’ve always resisted the idea because I make images of several different types: portraits and self-portraits, nature images, slice-of-life, urban/industrial and others, and a themed would preclude many other newer images that I’d like to show. Hermes eventually prevailed and the result is this current exhibition that includes many images from my archives along side new images.”

Impressions of “Urban and Industrial Images” by Blip Mumfuzz @ The Kondor Art Center (2)

“The amazing set/environment was built by uber-talented Naru Darkwatch. Given the theme, I felt that showing the work in an “environment”, rather than a traditional box gallery might enhance the viewer’s experience of the pieces. Given the spectacular result I’d say this exhibition would be a completely different experience without her contribution.”

Blip is very right in this point. The exhibition got a very special touch by setting it into the right enviroment. Naru Darkwatch did a great job. I had come across Blip Mumfuzz in March 2020 the first time, when she exhibited at La Maison d’Aneli (read here). Blip Mumfuzz is a SL verteran, being inworld since 2007. Blip has the talent to take very extraordinairy pictures in Second Life. Her art is to select the right cut-out of a picture, she looks for the abstract in the common, she “helps people to “see” the world with their mind and not just with their eyes.” Some of her pictures convince by the many details you can find, others are intriguing by minimalism.
You can see more of Blip’s art at her flickr page or at her Mumfuzz Gallery.

Impressions of “Urban and Industrial Images” by Blip Mumfuzz @ The Kondor Art Center (3)

The structure of the industrial area is really well done. You can even enter a small gallery space with 3 pictures – can you find it? I wanted to find out how the environment was created and zoomed out. By then I realized that the background is not just background but is also put together with pictures by Blip Mumfuzz.

Impressions of “Urban and Industrial Images” by Blip Mumfuzz @ The Kondor Art Center (4)

I enjoyed my visit a lot. Thank you Blip Mumfuzz for your art, thank you Naru Darkwatch for the great setting, thank you Hermes Kondor for providing the space for the art. The exhibition shall be open for visitors until begin of January 2022.

Landmark to “Urban and Industrial Images” by Blip Mumfuzz @ The Kondor Art Center
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Waka/216/162/1424
Blip Mumfuzz flickr
http://bit.ly/23XK2aE
Mumfuzz Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Port%20Babbage/8/57/106

Art in Second Life 2021 (75) Sinners and Saints

16 Aug 2021 Leave a comment

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

Following Inara Pey’s blog I came across the exhibtion “Sinners and Saints” (read her article here). Thank you Inara for blogging about it

“Sinners and Saints” extends over the two sims “Sinful Retreat” and “Angels Rest Arts Collective”. The provided landmark leads you into the center, right close to the sim border, that is indicated on the floor.
And just like the exhibition extends almost seamlessly over the two sims, the landmark descriptions of the two sims fit together:

Sinful Retreat is a land where worlds and times collide. A virtual playground where artists are welcomed with open arms to show their works. Home of the Janus Galleries and Janus Java.
Where art and music collide in an immersive environment for the senses. Curated by Chuck Clip, Angels Rest is the sister sim and mirror to Sinful Retreat with a focus on the performing arts and large 3D art installations.

Chuck Clip is a graphic designer, prim sculptor, co-owner of Sinful Retreat & Angels Rest, and co-curator of the Janus Galleries. He and his RL wife and SL partner, Jewell, seek to help breathe new life into the SL art community.

Sinners and Saints – an overview. The sim boarder is in the center. Angels Rest to the left, Sinful Retreat to the right. In the center is the event area.

Inara Pey wrote about the background of the exhibtion “Sinners and Saints“:
“First announced in February 2021 (see Inara Pey’s blog: Sinners and saints, a new arts challenge in Second Life), the exhibition is in many respects the spiritual offspring of the great Art Challenges sponsored and hosted by the University of Western Australia and their partners (both in-world and out-world), and organised by FreeWee Ling and Jayjay Zifanwe on behalf of UWA.“

Sinners and Saints: Merranda Ginssberg “Imprisoned” and “Divine Intervention”

And furtheron Inara quoted the Sinful Retreat team in her blog:
“In the wake of the UWA gratitude art show back in November which Chuck Clip curated alongside Maripose Upshaw, we here at Sinful Retreat and Angels Rest decided to carry UWA’s torch onward into the future in the form of occasional themed art shows. Sinenrs and Saints art show is our first show which serves the dual purpose of carrying the aforementioned torch and celebrating the culmination of our first year in Second Life.
Sinful Retreat and Angels Rest are mirrors for each other, highlighting the dichotomy of light and dark in the art and humanity as a whole. We thought it appropriate that our first show should reflect that … with submissions form 50 artists and poets from across the grid, and over 20 hours of performances by musicians and DJ’s, plus poetry and Science Fiction readings, this show is sure to encapsulate all of us and serve to start some interesting conversations.”
(Sinful Retreat team)

Sinners and Saints: Exhibit 2021 by Dusty Canning

You can find the program of events on the Sinful Retreat website. On the website is also the list of participants.

There’s really a lot of art to see and enjoy, to immerse into and to experience how and with which stylistic means the artists expressed the contrast between Sinners and Saints, Light and Dark, Good and Evil.
The dark part is at Sinful Retreat, the light part at Angels Rest.

The 3D objects are in the center of the exhibition and the pictures are showcased at the walls. Most artists have 2 exhibtis, one on the Sinner side and one on the Angels side. Also many of the 3D art objects are created twice and contrasting.

Sinners and Saints: London Junkers “Diva” and “Muse”

As mentioned before the list of artists is long and compromises a lot of artists that I covered already in this blog as well as some of who I have never heard of before. Morlita Quan’s picture couple is exactly on the sim boarder hence it is easy to see the contrast. Other artists contrasting pictures are farer away but you can recognize each artists signature and the exhibits are also marked.

Sinners and Saints: Morlita Quan “Lights and Shadows” (upper left), ArtemisGreece “Dancing with the devil” (lower left), Hermes Kondor “Blue Memories” and “The Dark Side” (center), Meilo Minotaur “Metamorphosis Part 3” (right)

The exhibtion “Sinners and Saints” opened July 10th and will be open until September. You can get the current program of events on the Sinful Retreat Website. There you can also find a video clip (14 minutes) of the opening event.
To get notified of upcoing events and exhibition you can join the remote subscription in the center of the exhibition.

Thank you Chuck Clip for curating and organizing this great exhibtion. I spent one hour there and must return as I haven’t seen all yet. A big thank you also to all the participating artists who took the challenge.

Landmark to “Sinners and Saints” at Sinful Retreat & Janus Galleries
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sinful%20Retreat/138/239/3501
Sinful Retreat Website
https://www.sinfulretreat.com/
List of participanting artists
https://www.sinfulretreat.com/artists
Video of the opening event
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94IhN9a0lwM&t=3s
Inara Pey’s blogpost “Sinners and Saints in Second Life”
https://modemworld.me/2021/07/10/sinners-and-saints-in-second-life/

Art in Second Life (61) Anima – A Retrospective on Photography by Akim Alonzo

09 Jul 2021 Leave a comment

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

I was invited to attend the opening of the exhibtion “Anima – A Retrospective on Photography” by Akim Alsonzo at Kondor Art Center on June 25th. I visited the day after….

The exhibition is shown at the main building of the Kondor Art Center. As the name implies, it features a broad variety of Akim’s artwork. The gallery building has 2 floors and offers quite a lot of space for displaying. In the center at the staircase is a picture frame where the pictures showcased in this exhibition are displayed as a slideshow with smooth fading transisitons.

Anima – A Retrospective on Photography” by Akim Alonzo at Kondor Art Center

I came across Akim Alonzo in 2019 the first time, when his art was featured at La Maison d’Aneli (read here). And I had seen some of the pictures shown at “Anima – A Retrospective on Photography” already there. These pictures are loosely based on the cult movie “The Matrix”. A metaphor for a world of people trapped in a simulated, virtual reality that has many aspects in common with the Secondlife world. And most of them have surrealistic elements.

Impressions of “Anima – A Retrospective on Photography” by Akim Alonzo (1)

Akim Alonzo’s other passion are portraits. Most of them are in black and white or monochrome. Akim succeeds to capture the expression of a face, the soul, at least something that makes the spectator build a story to the portrait. He selects the background very thought fully, so that it doesn’t distract from the portrait but combines and eneases building a story.

Akim Alonzo is a traveller and photographer and has a passion for art. He’s the owner, artistic director, and curator of his “Itakos Project and Art Gallery“. And he has an own website.

Impressions of “Anima – A Retrospective on Photography” by Akim Alonzo (2)

The Kondor gallery is owned and curated by Hermes Kondor. Thank you Hermes for enabling this exhibtion. I enjoyed my visit a lot.

“Anima – A Retrospective on Photography” by Akim Alonzo
at Kondor Art Center
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Waka/212/136/2419
Landmark to The Itakos Project and Art Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ATL/177/192/1011
The Itakos Project and Art Gallery website
http://itakos.it/

Art in Second Life 2021 (33) RL Photo Festival 2021

09 Apr 2021 Leave a comment

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

After my visit to “The beauty of moving water” by Nils Urqhart at Kondor gallery (read here) Nils Urqhart invited me to see the RL Photo Festival, which opened it’s doors on March 31st.

It’s the 3rd RL Photo Festival after 2019 with 12 participants and 2020 with 15 participants. The 2021 festival shows the artful pictures and photographs of 18 different artists. Nis Urqhart organized the festival, that takes place in a high-rise building, Helvellyn Gallery, that was provided by Chia (Volchia Ferduccio).

Melinda Yearsley, Sisi Biedermann, CybeleMoon, Nichelle Valois and Bonach Iretons at the RL Photo Festival 2021

On the ground floor, where you land is the dancefloor for the opening party. At one wall you can see a film of the opening party, a board with the participating artists and you can scroll through a book, which presents all 18 artists with a short biography and description of their themes. In the book you also find many links to flickr pages and to galleries of the participating artists. The book is sold for just 50 L$.

Monique Beebe, Orpheus Paxlapis,Fenella Allen and Isabel Soderstrom at the RL Photo Festival 2021

The participants are: Hermes Kondor, CybeleMoon, Viktor Savior, Melinda Yearsley, Fenella Allen, Orpheus Paxlapis, Duna Gant, MonaByte, Arpeggio, Sisi Biedermann, Slatan Dryke, Bonach Ireton, ArtWolf Eternal, Isabel Soderstrom, 4pril, Monique Beebe, Linda Doune and Nichelle Valois.
I saw the work of some of Hermes Kondor, CybeleMoon (Hana Hoobinoo) and Slatan Dryke already in other exhibition. The names of some others sound familiar to me, they had stands at the Chritmas market next to the Art Gallery Rill’Arts (read here). Some others show their work the very first time at the RL Photo Festival.

Arpeggio, Linda Doune, Duna Gant and MonaByte at the RL Photo Festival 2021

The RL Photo Festival provides an overview over many different themes of RL photography: Nature, makro pictures of blossoms and plants, portraits, cities, everyday life scenes, erotic art, black & white photos, animals, gardens, celestial bodies and many more. By the way, the themes are the same for SL photographers. Some photographs are augmented with graphic, others are processed.

4pril, ArtWolf Eternal, Hermes Kondor, Viktor Savior and Slatan Dryke at the RL Photo Festival 2021

To see all the different styles and themes is very enjoyable and you could spend easily many hours at the RL Photo Festival. I didn’t count the photographs but there might be around 200 – hence quite a some to see.
Thank you Nils for the organisation, thank you Chia for providing the space and many thanks to all others who were involved to make this festival come alive. Thanks of course to all participating artists for their work.
The RL Photo Festival will close its doors on April 25th.

Landmark to Helvellyn Gallery and the RL Photo Festival 2021
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Helvellyn/71/233/31

Art in Second Life 2021 (29) “The beauty of moving water” by Nils Urqhart at Kondor gallery

27 Mar 2021 Leave a comment

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

After my blogpost about “Real Life” by Hermes Kondor at Art Gallery Rill’Arts (read here) had been published I had a conversation with Nils Urquart. Nils and Hermes are friends, both share the passion for Real Life photography and both have their own galleries. And while Hermes Kondor’s photographs are shown at Nils’ gallery – Nils’ photographs are shown in Hermes’ gallery.
This led me to visit “The beauty of moving water” by Nils Urqhart at Kondor gallery.

“The beauty of moving water” by Nils Urqhart at Kondor gallery – exhibition poster and impressions of the gallery

Nils Urqhart’s passion are photographs of nature. He captures the beauty, the colours and the atmosphere of nature. As the title gives away already the photographs at Kondor gallery are all about moving water, about waterfalls and creeks. The photographs are really stunning, the colours are very intense and you can almost smell the surrounding fresh air when you look at them. Moving water is always facinating, yet it is not easy to capture the movement in a still photograph. Nils succeeded in that, at some pictures I can see how the water moves.

“The beauty of moving water” by Nils Urqhart at Kondor gallery – Impressions (1)

Nils Urqhart (Paul Maurice in RL) is a French landscape photographer in RL. He takes his photos mainly in French Alps and other French mountains (Vosges, Jura, Bugey, Aubrac…). Nils has a lot of exhibitions in different SL galleries every year. He is in SL since December 2007 and since 2010, his photos have been on display year-round at Art gallery Rill’Arts. Nils (or Paul in RL) has an own website where you can also purchase his pictures to decorate you RL home.

The gallery space at Kondor gallery fits perfect to showcase the photographs selected for the exhibition “The beauty of moving water” by Nils Urqhart. The quiet dark background make the colours even more intense. Each photograph has enough room develop its impression. I personally think, it is a perfect space to display Nils Urquart’s photographs.

“The beauty of moving water” by Nils Urqhart at Kondor gallery – Impressions (2)

The Kondor gallery is – of course – owned and curated by Hermes Kondor. Thank you Hermes for enabling this beautiful exhibtion. I enjoyed my visit a lot.

Landmark “The beauty of moving water” by Nils Urqhart at Kondor gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Waka/225/100/1501
Nils Urqhart (Paul Maurice in RL)’s website
https://paul-maurice.pixels.com/

Art in Second Life 2021 (24) “Real Life” by Hermes Kondor at Art Gallery Rill’Arts

12 Mar 2021 Leave a comment

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

I visited Nils Urqhart’s gallery, the Art Gallery Rill’Arts, the first time end of last year and saw his exhibition “A Winter Tale” (read here). Now I got an invitation to see “Real Life“, an exhibition with RL pictures from Hermes Kondor. The exhibition is on the thrid floor of the gallery, the 1st and 2nd floor were still showcasting “A Winter Tale” when I visited on Saturday, February 20th.

“Real Life” by Hermes Kondor at the 3rd floor of Art Gallery Rill’Arts (1) – exhibition poster and overview

The exhibition “Real Life” by Hermes Kondor consists of 15 monochrome photographs.
Hermes Kondor wrote about himself and his pictures: “Always inspired by the great French photography masters like Henri Cartier Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Jaques Henry Lartigue, or Andre Kertesz, I use my camera to capture all the complex simplicity of daily Life, always with a deep respect, and gratitude to the ones that are the essence of my street photos.
As a former professional photojournalist, street and the reality that passes through my eyes, are the natural subjects of my photos, that I have the honor to share here with you.“

“Real Life” by Hermes Kondor at the 3rd floor of Art Gallery Rill’Arts (2)

Hermes photographs are quite opposed to what we see in the virtual world of Second Life, where most of us are young and beautiful. They show everyday life scenes. Some of them are extraordinairy like the view on the spiral staircase or the view on the many balconies of a cruiseship with people who obviously say farewell. First I thought it was the view on an apartment building.
Others capture scenes, people at the beach, in a museum, on the market or a man in his bookstall reading a newspaper.
Honestly I know none of the great French photography masters listed by Hermes, but I like his pictures. Looking at them I immediately began to think about the story behind them, just like photographs should do.

“Real Life” by Hermes Kondor at the 3rd floor of Art Gallery Rill’Arts (3)

Hermes Kondor is from Portugal. He’s a photographer and photojournalist. Hermes has 40 years of professional photography experience. He dealt with the hard reality of real life photography working for a daily newspapers, and as a photographer and photo-edtior in several magazines. He also worked as a teacher of photography and photojournalism.
Hermes is in Second Life for more than 13 years. His pictures can also been seen at his own gallery, the Kondor Photo Gallery, and at his flickr account. Hermes also owns the Kondor Art Center, a place for art, photography and music in Second Life.

Landmark to Art Gallery Rill’Arts (with the exhibition “Real Life”)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Helvellyn/58/206/31
Kondor Photo Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Waka/238/107/1501
Kondor Art Center
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Waka/204/132/241
Hermes Kondor’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kondor-photo-studio/

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