B. Wurtz’s simple sculptures rely on discarded household objects to serve as both the medium and the message. Wurtz‘s most recent pieces are made from plastic lids, net produce bags, carrier bags and other packaging and consist of very simple structures. Previous installations have included painted aluminum pans, buttons and shoelaces. These pieces are not without humour or meaning, and yet by their very nature so easily engender controversy and confusion. Indignation abounds and, after all, who can blame the (poor) viewer?
Trick? Or treat?

Artist: B. Wurtz
+ featureinc.com

Eve S. Mosher’s sculptures are often literally made of mud and sticks, which also happens to be the name of her website. But Mosher also works with a variety of materials such as felted wool, beads, wires and Sculpey, to name but a few. As a result, Mosher’s work can range from heavy and earthy, like Entice, to the more frivolous like Dissemination and Figment. Her installations are likewise very enticing. Drought consists of hundred of paper balls while Recognition features teepee like structures that use media that run the gamut from pine needles to plaster to fiber optics. It sounds simplistic but the fact remains the same: Mosher is a talented artist with a varied repertoire.

Artist: Eve S. Mosher
+ mudandsticks.com

A follow-up to his first compilation of street fashion from the Harajuku district of Tokyo, Fruits, Shoichi Aoki brings us Fresh Fruits this time round, another album jam-packed full of wildly colourful photos. Highly creative young people parade around in clothing that shouts their personalities and grabs the spotlight. These outfits are part costume, part uniform, a carefully thought out mishmash of high fashion, kitsch and handicraft that set trends that travel the globe. Fresh Fruits is an ode to the theatricality of real life, should one decide to set the stage.

Turtleback, 272 pages, Phaidon 2005, $19.77 at Amazon.

+ Fresh Fruits at Amazon

Wouter Huis’ latest project involves recording video footage during the day and then projecting it onto the same spots at night. Interesting take on the time/space continuum, and aptly called Copy / Past / Time Shift.

This is too good. The Art-O-Meter measures how much time a viewer spends in front of any particular piece. Via We Make Money Not Art

And for mechanical sculpture, there’s the Iron Lung made by Nigel Peterson of Foolish Boys in Nelson, New Zealand, which was created over a two-week period as part of a public art installation. Also of note is Army, a non-threatening textile installation.

Born in Colombia and based in Florida, Tata Navia actually has a background in dentistry. Her current Toronto exhibition, Personae, focuses on chairs, alone or in groups, that take on the role of the characters in Navia’s narratives. The artist plays constantly with various arrangements and the musical chairs that result are delightful pieces set on stages of various colours. Navia spotlights the chairs and their shadows as they dance, float, congregate, exclude, lead, follow, meet, mount, balance, scatter, sulk and so much more…

Artist: Tata Navia
+ odonwagnergallery.com

The beauty of digital manipulation is that there are so many directions from which to choose. Carol Cooper creates ‘paintographs’, painted photographs that make use of image editing and paint emulating software. Cooper’s digital paintings and fractal compositions are colourful pieces of work that look like they afforded the artist much enjoyment in their creation. Saltwater Taffy is a softly spun abstract while Poofs look more like pop art sea sponges, and Blue Conversation with Charming Air is a more traditional-looking digital abstract.

Artist: Carol Cooper
+ compasswebworks.com

Jean-Marc Bustamante is a French artist who dislikes being classified as either a photographer or a sculptor, Instead, Bustamante has been involved with a variety of media and his recent eye catching works have consisted of galvanized steel and silk-screened ink on plexiglass. There is a mélange of reflection, transparency and opaqueness with the light playing off the surface of the plexiglass, the matte finish of the steel and the coloured inks that seem impenetrable.

Artist: Jean Marc Bustamante
+ ropac.net

Liu Ye’s work may look like illustrations for children’s books (his father was an author of children’s books), but upon closer inspection it becomes clear that these paintings have an edge. Ye, who grew up in Beijing, mixes childhood memories created during the Cultural Revolution with the realities of a new market economy. His paintings incorporate his version of Dick Bruna’s Miffy, various references to art history and literature, as well as an evident sexuality and loss of innocence.

Artist: Liu Ye
+ speronewestwater.com

Two words, blue girls, sum up the recent paintings by Adela Leibowitz. But that is far too simple a description of something deeper and darker. “Don’t go down to the woods alone” comes a familiar refrain because the big surprise will be in the form of seemingly innocent little girls who may or may not be looking for pets. Leibowitz’s works are monochromatic blue, setting a twilight stage for little girls who have something up their pretty sleeves. Having names of poisonous plants and flowers as titles doesn’t lend any reassurance either. Dark, but oh, so in control.

Artist: Adela Leibowitz
+ adelaleibowitz.com

Café Fetish by Jiri Sliva is a collection of Sliva’s best coffee-themed prints. Sliva, a Czech graphic artist and cartoonist, has often featured coffee culture, as well as the wine life, in his works, which are simple yet witty graphic depictions of turns of phrase. Sliva presents his take on cafés around the world.

Paperback, 176 pages. Marlowe & Company, 2001, $16.00 at Amazon.

+ Café Fetish at Amazon

The latest issue of Shifter pdf-zine can be downloaded free at the Shifter website. Issue #9 consists of over 100 pages of art and writings that deal with the relationships between ruin and monument.

And some delightful sketches by Oscar Oramas, a hummingbird among the roses and what seems to be a hive of activity…