V O G U E | Diaspora: Dolls

Showing posts with label Dolls. Show all posts

Valley of Dolls, the Mysterious World of Dolls: The Popovy Sisters

And the theme on the Mysterious World of Dolls continues with the twin sisters Ekaterina and Elena Popovy. Born in Perm, Russia, and graduates from Ural State Academy of Architecture and Arts (Yekaterinburg), the Popovy sisters started making dolls in 2004.

Their portrait dolls are inspired by personalities and every doll is handmade from start to finish. By combining their passion for fashion design and doll art, Ekaterina and Elena created small conceptual collections of 10 to 15 dolls a year.

Huge amount of work is behind each collection. First an idea/emotion is born and we develop a concept of a project. Then we start preparative work: we learn the history, search for the images, develop the texture, choose the technique and draw sketches. Figure's gesture, stylization, artistic delivery and costume design, all of this goes along with one theme to express the idea to maximum extend.

Called the "new wave of Russian art-doll designers," the Popovy sisters received numerous awards, such as Best Doll Master at the International Doll Salon in Moscow, the Haute Couture prize of Doll Magazine for Hathor of Cult project and many more.

Mod collection

Courtesy The Popovy Sisters / Strychnin Gallery, Berlin

Upcoming exhibition " Valley of Dolls "

Group Show@ Strychnin Gallery, Berlin
September 9 - October 2, 2011
This post is also featured on the Huffington Post

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Valley of Dolls, the Mysterious World of Dolls: Virginie Ropars

Over the next few days, I will introduce you to some fabulous doll-designers. I came across their artwork recently and was astonished by their talent, respectively unique. Exquisite and precious materials, extremely elaborate handicraft as well as outstanding design concepts result in extraordinaire works that are cherished and sough after all over the world.

Born in Brittany (France) in 1976, Virginie Ropars spent her childhood surrounded by nature, legends and superstitions. Her figures are reminiscent of queer women with unbroken mind, a vision of a human nature bent on reaching a bright absolute and at the same time capriciously settled in a dark ground.

Virginie Ropars's work is shown throughout Europe at doll shows or exhibitions and also in United States and Russia.

Acanthophis

Datura

Beautiful Grim

Sheperd Monsters

Courtesy Virginie Ropars / Strychnin Gallery, Berlin

Upcoming Exhibition "Valley of Dolls"

Group show @ Strychnin Gallery / Berlin

Opening September 9th

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The Art of Saul Zanolari: Taking Away The Emperor's Clothes

Dark, disturbing, and intriguing are the adjectives that define the work of Saul Zanolari. When viewing his series of dolls, you could easily say "The Emperor is naked." Discover the world of Swiss born artist Saul Zanolari, a world where fake identities are stripped away and the subjects are left raw and naked. Among his characters are European royalty, rock stars, elite socialites, and old and new celebrities.

For many people in the public eye, plastic surgery is the Emperor's new clothes. It is used to add a new veneer of skin to a PR personality. We are always unsure how many layers of plastic public figures use to create their PC persona.

In his artwork, Zanolari sucks out the botox, unpicks the stitches and removes the fake public face from his subjects. He shows us the vulnerable person behind the mask. His collection of images contains a surreal 2D wax museum, made of a mixture of fantasy and reality, thoughts, concepts and images. The digitally remastered psyche is embalmed forever in its frozen world. Zanolari creates a new artistic amalgam - not photography, not digital imagery, not painting, but a complex fusion of all three.

Saul Zanolari first exhibited in 2005 in a gallery in Milan. His works are now featured in permanent collections in New York, London, Paris, Milan, Basel, Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo.
The artist lives in Morbio Inferiore, by Lake Como, and shares his time between Shanghai and Switzerland.

Courtesy Saul Zanolari

" A Portrait Apart," is currently on view at Porter/Contemporary, New York

June 9 - September 10, 2011
This post is also featured on the Huffington Post

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Mariana Monteagudo: " Fake Idols "

The Venezuelan artist Mariana Monteagudo best known for her Munecas, doll sculptures, is beginning a new body of work. Little heroes, action figures, cartoon characters such as Betty Boop and Barbie dolls are the sources of inspiration for her new series titled " Fake Idols."

Monteagudo's work reveals an element of irony, not only in her unprejudiced use of iconography, but also in the way the artist takes features from toys, figures designed to show tenderness, with their big heads and moving expressions.

" This is the beginning of a new stage in my work. I'm starting to investigate new materials such as hard latex and other synthetic derivates, in a search that will certainly enrich my work and provide new languages or means of expression to my 10 years + career. The work has been slowly unfolding a different spirit, more industrial, more hybrid, taking references from the memory of our generation. A look from the distance to the icons of our society, trying not to take them for granted, but showing a different side, sometimes dark and frightening."
~~Mariana Monteagudo

The artist lives and works in Miami.

Fake Idols

Courtesy Mariana Monteagudo

Fake Idols will be on exhibit at Almeida Dale Gallery, Sao Paulo
July 2011

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Holiday Gifts: " Frimousses de Createurs " for Unicef

Collector's Dolls to benefit a good cause.

For the 8th consecutive year, an A-list of personalities, from fashion designers, prestigious jewelers to contemporary artists and movie celebrities have put their imagination and talent to create Frimousses de Createurs. Currently on view at the Petit Palais in Paris from November 30 to December 5, these unique dolls will then be auctioned off at Drouot Montaigne on Dec. 7. All proceeds will go to to support Unicef's initiative to help children in Darfur.
This year, 90 prominent personalities team up with Unicef to designed an exquisite doll, each of them inspired by a theme....

Miu Miu