PREVIEW FRIEZE LONDON AND FRIEZE MASTERS 2015

The 13th edition of Frieze London and the fourth edition of Frieze Masters open in the city’s Regent Park on Wednesday, October 14, with previews for invited guests on Tuesday, October 13. Frieze London, the more contemporary-minded of the two fairs, brings together 164 galleries from across 27 countries, while Frieze Masters, which presents works from antiquity through the 20th century, will host 130 galleries.

Among the highlights from Frieze London are Samara Scott at London’s The Sunday Painter, Camille Henrot at Paris’s kamel mennour, and Tunga, who will be jointly presented by New York’s Luhring Augustine and Galleria Franco Noero of Turin, Italy. At Frieze Masters standouts include Boris Mikhailov at London’s Sprovieri and Sam Gilliam at David Kordansky Gallery of Los Angeles.

MORNING LINKS: DNA SIGNATURES EDITION

The Global Center for Innovation at SUNY Albany aims to use nanotechnology to allow artists to sign work using specks of their DNA. Eric Fischl is interested. [The New York Times]

Adrian Searle on Turner Prize–nominated artist Fiona Banner’s new show at Ikon Gallery, in Birmingham. [The Guardian]

Robin Pogrebin is the new art and auction reporter at the New York Times. [Artforum]

Loveless PhotoFiber won the grand prize at ArtPrize this year. [Artforum]

But now that ArtPrize is over and all the artists are going home, what happens to their art? [WZZM]

Andrew Sayers, the former director of the National Museum of Australia and the National Portrait Gallery, died on Sunday night at 58. [Canberra Times]

In Manhattan’s Upper East Side, European galleries Galerie Brimo de Laroussilhe, Galleria Alessandra Di Castro, and Galerie Kugel are collaborating on a show of “art senza tempo,” or art outside time, as one gallerist put it. [Wall Street Journal]

At Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn, a recycled-art store set up by students has been forced to close up shop because the school has a contract with the art-supplies chain Dick Blick. [Brooklyn Paper]

Tania Bruguera on going back to school, at Yale University: “It is the best medicine after everything that has happened, because it is an environment where everything is being processed intellectually, where the most complicated issues in the world are seen objectively.”

Native American Sand Painting

Native American Sand Painting

Native American Indians regard art as an element of life, not as a separate aesthetic ideal.  In indigenous societies, the arts are aspects of public life that bring dancing, poetry, and  the plastic and graphic arts together as a single function or ritual as the all-embracing  expression. Art is indispensable to ritual and ritual is the Native American Indian concept  of the whole life process. Native people see sand painting as indistinct from dancing, dancing  as indistinct from worship, and worship as indistinct from living.

Traditional Native healers or shamans draw on a vast body of symbolism passed down 
through the centuries. These images are stored in the memories of traditional healers and 
passed from generation to generation. Sand paintings are used to return the patient 
symbolically to the source of tribal energy. Indigenous philosophy does not separate healing 
from art or religion. Almost all of the healing disciplines originated from religious beliefs 
and the spiritual leader's practices.

Most art authorities concede that the Southwestern sand paintings produced by the Navajo 
are the intricate, complex and beautiful art-forms.

The Diné is the Navajo name for themselves and the term they use for sand painting is 
'iikááh, which means a "place where the gods come and go."

Sand paintings are paintings made by sprinkling dry sands colored with natural pigments onto 
a board or the ground for ceremonial purposes to heal the sick. It is believed that sand 
paintings allow the patient to absorb the powers depicted in the grains of sand.

The pigment colors used by the Navajo are gathered in the surrounding desert. It is mostly 
colored sandstone which is then ground to form a fine powder. The colors are mostly red, 
brown, and ochre-yellow because these are the colors found in sandstone within the tribal 
areas. They usually include crushed charcoal which is mixed with sand to produce the color 
black. They sometimes us yellow cornmeal, pollen from plants, and crushed flowers to the 
sand painting.

India’s Great Sand Artist

Sudarsan Pattnaik’s tryst with sand began when he was an 8-year-old, on visits to a beach in Puri, a holy city in the eastern Indian state of Orissa. For hours he would swirl his fingers in the sand and make sculptures.

Born into an impoverished family in Puri in 1977, he dropped out of school by the time he was eight, when the only income his family of six received was 200 rupees ($3.33) a month.

One of Mr. Pattnaik’s early sculptures of a standing lady.

 

Courtesy Sudarsan Pattnaik

“My father had abandoned us and the little money that came into the house was from my grandmother’s pension,” Mr. Pattnaik, now 36 years old, said in a recent interview with India Real Time.

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But he didn’t need much to pursue his interest in art.

“The beach was my canvas and my fingers, the brush. Water gave shape to my sculpture and the only color needed was that of sand,” he said.

Sudarsan Pattnaik gave final touches to a sculpture of goddess Durga in Siliguri, West Bengal, Oct. 1, 2011. 

 

Diptendu Dutta/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

As a boy, Mr. Pattnaik started making routine visits to the beach at dawn and dusk, before and after his shift as a domestic worker in his neighborhood. His sandcastles gradually grew into bigger and more complex artworks.

He received valuable encouragement and advice from passersby.

“I remember once being told by a tourist that the nose of a figure I sculpted was abnormally large. I went back to the beach for the next few days and made that figure over and over again till I got to hear that the nose was perfect,” said Mr. Pattnaik.

A sand sculpture of Lord Jagannath ahead of thechariot festival in Orissa in 2008. 

 

Courtesy Sudarsan Pattnaik

Nearly three decades later, Mr. Pattnaik is still experimenting with sand. His work includes huge sculptures of temples and the Hindu goddess Durga and Lord Jagannath, some of which have enteredthe Limca Book of Records.

He also keeps track of important global events and translates them into sculptures.

“I have to keep abreast with the news and pick up what is important and trending,” said Mr. Pattnaik, whose most recent sculptures have been dedicated to the ailing former South African leader Nelson Mandela.

Mr. Pattnaik has taken part in nearly 50 international sand art contests and festivals, in countries such as Australia, Germany, Italy, China, Russia, Canada and the U.S.

Event organizers pay Mr. Pattnaik for displaying his work. He says his two-year sponsored deal with Nalco, an aluminum company, ended last month.

The “Don’t Smoke, Save Life” sculpture created by Mr. Pattnaik during the World Championship for Sand Sculpting held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, June 2013. 

 

Courtesy Sudarsan Pattnaik

In addition to the beach at Puri, Mr. Pattnaik says the unexplored Talasari Beach between the eastern states of West Bengal and Orissa is his favorite sculpting spot.

“The sand is impeccable on that beach. It is the perfect balance between coarse and fine. The only thing a sand artist will miss there is an audience,” he said, adding that sand sculpting is a physically demanding exercise.

Mr. Pattnaik hopes to expand his institute in Puri, where he has taught sand art since 1994.

Take a look at some of Mr. Pattnaik’s most memorable sculptures:

“Help the Tsunami Victims, 2004”: Mr. Pattnaik created a sculpture in Puri appealing for help for victims of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami. “It was significant because the same water that helped perfect my sculptures had turned violent and taken so many lives,” he said.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

“Sleeping Beauty, 2007”: Mr. Pattnaik made this sculpture when he represented India at the first Istanbul International Sand Sculpture Festival in 2007. “After I completed the sculpture, I stood there staring at it, amazed that I had created this beauty,” he said.

Courtesy Sudarsan Pattnaik

“Global Warming, 2008”: Created at the 2008 USF (United Sand Festivals) World Championship in Berlin, Germany, this sculpture won Mr. Pattnaik the title of world champion. “To my mind, it was the most interactive piece of art not just because the theme was universal, but because my interpretation of it was a result of my interaction with the locals there,” he said.

Part of the sculpture was a figure of Berlin Zoo’s famous polar bear, Knut, who became a symbol of the endangered animal. The sculpture showed Knut sitting on a blazing globe with a message saying, “Save My Family.”

Courtesy Sudarsan Pattnaik

“Change Has Happened, 2009”: Mr. Pattnaik says he was awestruck by Barack Obama’s campaign to become U.S. president. “I became a complete fan of his conviction in bringing about change,” said Mr. Pattnaik, who dedicated a sculpture to Mr. Obama on the day he was elected. He also created sculptures of Mr. Obama ahead of the president’s visit to India in 2010 and when he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.

“I really hope I get to meet him one day,” Mr. Pattnaik added.

Sandsational

Sandsational

Sandsational is a group of professional sculptors with backgrounds in areas like fine art, design engineering and performance art. Sandsational often creates sand sculptures for promotional purposes and has worked with brands like McDonalds and Harley Davidson. 

Amazin Walter

Amazin Walter

Since his beginnings casually playing in the sand in South Padre Island, Texas in the early 80s, the man who calls himself Amazin Walter has come far. He has created hundreds of sandcastles in 6 countries and 13 states. His work has been featured on Oprah and in a Best Buy commercial. Renaissance man Amazin Walter is also a photographer, jeweler, clown, magician and musician.

Michel Lepire

Michel Lepire

Quebec sculptor Michel Lepire has been working in sand since 1996, and is the organizer of one of the most prestigious sand sculpting competitions in the world, Les Internationaux de sculpture sur sable de Qubec, held every August in Quebec City.

Ilana Yahav

Ilana Yahav

Ilana Yahav‘s sand art differs dramatically from that of most artists who work in this medium. She uses nothing but her fingers to “draw” in sand, creating performance art by weaving together the movements of her hands, the sand falling, lights and music. As Ilana works, a story unfolds with every-changing visuals.

Helena Bangert

Helena Bangert

Latvian artist Helena Bangert‘s sand sculptures fall a bit outside the norm – they’re more avant garde than your typical castles, though they still occasionally feature subjects like Pinhead from the “Hellraiser” movies. Helena studied at the Rietveld Art Academy in Amsterdam and first thought of using sand as a medium when she was invited to create a sculpture for an exhibition at a retirement home for elderly seamen located in a small Dutch coastal village.

Team Sandtastic

Team Sandtastic

Mark Mason leads Team Sandtastic, a group of talented sculptors who work with nothing but sand and water to create towering detailed works of art. Team Sandtastic has an international list of clients including American Express, Walt Disney, Jeep, and Delta.

Jim Denevan

Jim Denevan

Rather than sculpting, Jim Denevan‘s work with sand is freehand drawing – a process that involves a low tide, a long stick and a lot of walking. Each work takes him an average of 7 hours, and he often walks as much as 30 miles. No measuring aids whatsoever are used, and from above Denevan’s drawings look almost like crop circles. Soon after he’ through, the tide comes in and washes away all of his work.

Dan Belcher

Dan Belcher

The detail in Dan Belcher‘s sand sculptures is so astonishing it hardly seems possible that it could be made of sand. The stature and solidity of his work has all the qualities of works of art carved from stone, yet all that is used is sand and water. Dan is the 2007 Solo World Champion of sand sculpting, and has created works throughout North America, Australia, Japan, Italy, and the Middle East.