British artist Donna Wilson was recently featured in Knit 2 Together, an exhibition of knitted artwork mounted by the Crafts Council in London. Wilson’s installation is Pick Knit, a group of close to thirty delightful stuffed creatures knitted out of lambswool. The exhibition, which will be touring England and Ireland over the next year, seeks to promote a more innovative side to the humble knit one, purl two. Wilson, who has done design work for Agent Provocateur and Tord Boontje, is a gifted artist who injects a charming sense of humour into her creations. Cannibdoll is described as being "happy and selfish" and "dislikes eating vegetables".

Artist: Donna Wilson
+ donnawilson.com

Angelo Filomeno concentrates his efforts at embroidery on shantung silk, often incorporating garnets and Swarovski crystals into his scenes. Hyena, which makes use of Filomeno’s signature symbols derived from stylized forms of flora and fauna (peacock feathers, artichokes, lizards), is an allegorical tableau showing the peacock’s pride resulting in a fall. Filomeno’s silks are part of a neo-baroque esthetic, art that is not afraid to shy away from austere minimalism to embrace an exuberance for texture and colour.

Artist: Angelo Filomeno
+ marianneboeskygallery.com

Caroline Wirth’s series of baby head sculptures is called Discipline. These sculptures, cast in materials such as concrete, lead paint, lead-contaminated dirt and broken glass, represent the environmental dangers posed to our children. In creating these sculptures, Wirth sought to inject some discipline into her life as an artist and mother, as well as capture her own son while bringing attention to the daily dangers of pollution that surround all children. Wirth laments the need to discipline children away from potential dangers: drinking tap water, playing in dirt that may be contaminated or skipping on sidewalks constantly strewn with broken bottles.

Artist: Carolyn Wirth
+ kingstongallery.com

Carolyn Wirth’s sculpture of Emily Dickinson sits upon reproductions of Dickinson’s poems, a mixture of clay, wood, paper, wax and found objects. Wirth blended her own photo with the only confirmed one of the poet and used the resulting composite facial features for the face of her sculpture. The clay sculpture is covered with wax which was embedded with bits of flowers and leaves that had been collected from the grounds of Dickinson’s house.

Artist: Carolyn Wirth
+ carolynwirth.com

Susan Hall’s oil paintings of back-lit figures behind shrouds of lace are quiet yet compelling appeals to reflection. Hall uses the layer of lace to “bring order to the composition” and it is true that this element helps the viewer focus on the introspection of the subject. The works shown here are all tinted blue, lending a softness and stillness to the pieces. Other tints mask different moods or feelings: mossy olive green gives off a timelessness, brick red a strength and the more golden shades glow with a steady power. All of the figures in this series are women, a point that makes sense given the lacey coverings, but leads one to ponder what sort of parallel composition could be made with male figures.

Artist: Susan Hall
+ aliyagallery.com
+ melaneecoopergallery.com

There are so many thought-provoking quirks surrounding Canadian artist Thrush Holmes that it is all too easy to overlook his art. This would be a mistake. His paintings are layers of nostalgia that bear further investigation. Thrush Holmes also goes by the names Truman Couture (to bring out the French minimalist) and Herman Weiss (for his German expressionist side), while allowing these alter-egos to join him in his empire of creation. Especially noteworthy are the titles of his (their) works and the clown ruffle motif that recurs from canvas to canvas.

Artist: Thrush Holmes
+ thrushholmes.com

Wayne Thiebaud’s signature food paintings of the 1960’s began with his oil on canvas study of French Fries which he followed up with a variety of desserts. Thiebaud’s fast food fixation has placed him among the pre-Pop art pioneers, but this is based purely on subject matter as his painterly style marks him as more of a realist. There is no exaggeration or outlandishness to his simple style, and indeed, Thiebaud’s take on pop culture evokes a nostalgia for the days gone by of a pre-Atkins kitchen.

Artist: Wayne Thiebaud
+ allanstonegallery.com

A poor girl from the Loire Valley, Coco Chanel created a twentieth century fashion empire out of a whole lot of smarts and an innate sense of style that is being celebrated by an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in NY. Sixty-three outfits from eight decades of the House of Chanel are grouped thematically rather than chronologically (Karl Lagerfeld, the ‘new’ Coco is very anti-retrospective), making for an installation elegant in its simplicity. The illustrations in the accompanying catalogue are the work of Lagerfeld who hand-tinted the double photo transfers. Now on until August 7th.

Artist: Coco Chanel + Karl Lagerfeld
+ metmuseum.org
+ chanel.com

The translucency and smoothness of mylar provides a tactile and eye-pleasing base for the colourful works of Miami painter Annie Wharton. Wharton’s recent works are blobs and squiggles of acrylic and urethane rendered on backgrounds of mylar and patent vinyl. These swirls of colour are at times shiny or high gloss, others metallic or matte. A variety of mysterious titles teases, but gives nothing away. Wharton provides a series of ice cream spill Rorschach tests, but ultimately the viewer is left to depend on instinct to accept or reject the combinations of texture and hue.

Artist: Annie Wharton
+ anniewharton.com

Atsuko Tanaka’s signature piece, the Electric Dress, was to influence her paintings and drawings for the next half-century. Since the splash that iconic work made on the art scene, Tanaka has sketched and painted brightly coloured circles connected by drippy lines that loop around the works much the way that the electrical cords were woven through the bulbs of the Electric Dress. Twenty-four-years-old when Tanaka first wore the Electric Dress for a performance, the young artist had no idea that her initial participation in the Gutai movement and subsequent body of work would have an influential role in the emergence of other contemporary past-crushing Japanese players in the world of modern art.

Artist: Atsuko Tanaka
+ artnet.com
+ belkin-gallery.ubc.ca

In 1956 Atsuko Tanaka, a Japanese avant-garde artist who helped pioneer the Gutai movement, came forward with her best-known work, the Electric Dress. Composed entirely of light bulbs of all shapes, sizes and colours, and a plethora of connected electrical cords, the Electric Dress resembles a post-modern Christmas tree when not worn (as was often the case). Tanaka, by updating the kimono, sought to highlight the leap from traditional Japanese society to one representing the bright lights of the modern world. The aim of the Gutai group was to break with the past and blur the boundaries between art and life in post-war Japan, seeking a new beginning in order to put the horrors behind. Tanaka, in her twinkling dress was surely symbolic of this fresh and shiny start.

Artist: Atsuko Tanaka
+ newyorkmetro.com