A new LG Tower

Great news. We were up against our Land Impact (LI) limits in our private homestead region of Nyunanga. Every piece of art we acquired brought us closer to declaring that this project, founded in 2007, was over. We've bitten the financial bullet, however, and upgraded to a full region!

Our gallery was founded on the airship that gives us our name - the AS "Limoncello". We outgrew her long ago however and while she's still in use, hosting three 120 metre-long decks worth of art most of our collection has long been on display at the LG Tower. At twenty storeys high, it provided more space than the old airship or our Bellisseria gallery in Dave's Linden Home. Now it has been rebuilt and is thirty storeys high! That's a lot of space to keep growing our collection of art in SL. 

The tower always looked out of place all alone on a remote private island. So we've taken advantage of all the prims recently delivered in a Linden Lab truck and rebuilt it at the heart of a whole new city district: the Borough of Manda Vale. When you visit, not only will you find the LG Tower in a more realistic location, you'll also have the whole borough to explore.

SL artist AmandaT Tamatzui (the avatar of RL artist from New Zealand, Amanda Tomasoa) has also opened her own permanent gallery in Manda Vale. The Borough Council has dedicated a whole building on the corner of Boo Rojyo Street and Bridge Street to Art Galleries.of Second Life – doors through which (via an experience teleport) you can just walk into many of SL's best galleries.

Finally, the island itself will be returned to a state of nature. It's being landscaped in the style of one of our favourite places in the whole world - the Isle of Skye in Scotland. As if our art collection was not enough reason to visit, you'll now have the opportunity to catch a bus to Nyuskye and explore its natural beauty. Bring your camera! 

The SL art scene is why we've stayed in SL so long. It's fun, it's vibrant and it's populated by some wonderful characters. We're muggles - we have no artistic magic at all - but we love art and artists and we're happy to be their patrons, supporters and – in some cases – friends.

Come visit us soon. You can pick up a free Mini Cooper in the car park behind the LG Tower to explore by road (just click on the bright yellow one and your own will rez next to it) or there are free bicycle rezzers everywhere!

"Aspects of Fenella"

Aspects of Fenella – A special exhibition at the Limoncello Arts Theatre from March 22nd to April 30th 2025

by Dave Junibalya

I own and curate the Limoncello Art Gallery but am no artist. I collect art in RL and love it. I came to SL out of curiosity and – entirely by luck – found it was full of art. I found “my people” here and – while there are other aspects to my SL – that’s why I stayed.

What all of us in SL have in common is that we’ve retained our childhood playfulness. Every child is an artist. At some point most decide to stop. Artists are just the people who don’t. So it makes sense there are so many of them here. Some are playing at being artists. Some really are and use SL as another outlet for creativity. I have always said I am a mere muggle. Here’s my SL story. I like to be around artists. I opened a gallery. I started a collection.

When AI came along, I played with it as I would any new technology. To my amazement “I” (or rather I and some clever people in Silicon Valley) could produce beautiful images that I would hang on the walls of my home. AI didn’t make me better - it just made my pictures better. They improve as I learn to use it, so I have some influence, but how can this “art” (or whatever it is) possibly be mine?

The images in the exhibition came from post-processing a single SL snapshot and then telling an AI app called “Wonder” to produce images resembling the face depicted “as closely as possible.” The snapshot is a profile picture of my co-curator of 17 years, Fenella Allen. Depending on the other words used (e.g. girl next door, elegant, against background of London hotel bar) and the style applied (e.g. oil painting, watercolour) a whole floor of images appeared.

I don’t think it’s art. I am not sure what it is. However I like looking at it and I hope you do too.

Now we need to talk about what it is, what it’s for and what it means for the people I love best in this world – the artists who try to bring meaning, beauty and yes, even truth, to our lives. There is no higher calling and it will not be replaced by algorithms gone wild. The Protestant Reformation gave us the Dutch Masters, as artists could no longer look to the Church for all their commissions. Photography gave us abstract art, as artists could no longer charge people to make family portraits and needed to portray something the camera couldn’t reach. AI will change art too. I have faith in artists and hope to live to see how they respond.

Exhbitor & Model at the Exhibition

In the meantime, I hope none of my artist friends are upset by my joining the community of SL’ers “playing at art”. I promise I will never claim to be an artist. I’m just an art fan thinking out loud.

The exhibition runs from March 22nd to April 30th and is at the Limoncello Arts Theatre on the 21st Floor of the LG Tower in Nyunanga. Here's your taxi.

The 20th Floor of Art opens at the LG Tower

Our Founder, LastDitch Writer, began our collection of SL art in 2007. Initially he exhibited it on a single deck of the enormous Airship "Limoncello", which was once the largest moving vehicle in Second Life®. That is why we're known as "The Limoncello Art Gallery." The airship is still in use to exhibit art. It has been rebuilt in mesh to save Land Impact and all three of its decks have been stripped of their passenger cabins to form gallery space. Despite that, our collection has long since outgrown it. Apart from AS Limoncello's three decks (and the upper deck of our owner Dave's houseboat in Bellisseria) the collection has for some years mostly been housed in the LG Tower.

The collection has grown more slowly since Dave became editor of The Gazette. His work there takes up much of his time in SL (which is why the Limoncello News has fallen into disuse) but his art collection has still grown steadily. A milestone has now been reached, in that the 20th (and final) gallery floor of the LG Tower has been brought into use. At current rates of growth, this should keep the gallery going for at least another year or so. After that, who knows? Dave may have to sacrifice his beloved space station in geostationary orbit above the tower in order to make more space for art.

The first (and for now the only)  art work exhibited on the 20th Floor is "A Discovery", by Astella Warrigal - a new artist to the gallery whom Dave met recently at the opening of the new incarnation of Artsville. Astella enjoys creating art in a variety of mediums: watercolor, acrylic, pencil, pen and ink, oil, digital, and photography.

The works added on the 18th and 19th floors have not really been written about here as they've been acquired. If you haven't stopped by for a while there's a lot of new art to see! Come visit!

Our Bellisseria Gallery is moving - but not very far!

In addition to our main location at Nyunanga, where we now have our original SL gallery – the Airship Limoncello – moored to the roof of the 20-storey LG Tower, we have long had a location in Bellisseria. The Bellisseria Limoncello Gallery was housed discreetly in a sky-box above our owner Dave's houseboat, moored in the Sirinial Region.

Dave has decided to upgrade to one of the new houseboat designs offered by the Lindens, which has an airy upper-floor with sea views. An artist friend suggested that this space would be perfect for an art gallery, particularly as it has its own separate entrance. We've decided to act on her splendid suggestion.

So the Limoncello Gallery in Sirinial is in the process of being re-housed on the upper deck of Dave's new houseboat, giving it visibility from the ground and adding a further point of interest to the charming sandbanks neighbourhood of Squishy Pickle. No modifications were needed at all to the new boat and the signage is discreetly executed in weathered paint for a seaside look that fits into the locality. It's all been carefully designed to comply with the Bellisseria Covenant. 

The lower deck of the boat is Dave's private home, but you, gentle reader, are very welcome to look around if you wish.

The old skyb0x remains in use – though it's smaller now. A door connects the two – just open it and walk through. You'll have to accept an experience the first time, but then it works seamlessly. From the skybox annexe, you can walk through another door that will take you into the lobby of the LG Tower, where there's yet another door leading to the Airship Limoncello. So it's possible to enjoy our entire private collection of SL art – collected since 2007 and still growing – from wherever you begin to explore it.

Our wonderful directory board grid wide teleport system also allows you to move directly to any of our locations, including our "representative offices" in Elven Falls and the Confederation of Democratic Simulators (CDS) as well as the loan collections in the LG Tower kindly made available by Mesdames Balogh, Biedermann and Dragonash.

We hope you will visit to take a look at the new space and we plan to have an opening party there soon. Please make sure you sign up to our mailing list in-world to make sure you receive your invitation.

!The Online Film Festival (OFF) | 7-14 October

!The Online Film Festival "OFF" 2023 will take place at Celadon from 7-14 October this year. The theme is Off the Beaten Track. It is not a contest but a celebration of creativity, art and music on the verge of a tech jump. The opening party will be at the festival venue at 12 noon SLT on October 7th with music provided by wonderful DJ Poppy Morris. 

The festival is organised by good friend of the Limoncello Art Gallery, Fau Ferdinand - whose work features in our collections and who is herself a film maker.

wewelcome from Fau Ferdinand on Vimeo.

When asked about her motivation for organising the festival she told us;

I am a new media artist who has for the past two years have been working intensively in the field of video art. Naturally friends and family started saying I should display my videos, so I started looking at film festivals. I noticed they were usually funded by the participants' entry  fees. I thought I could try a different model. OFF is a festival by makers for makers. 

A wide range of works will be shown and a full list of participants is in the promo video above. Head over to Celadon and enjoy!

New acquisitions etc.

Art Unbound was a great success. The parties on the space station tested the limits of our Homestead Region! Thank you to all the artists involved and to all our visitors. 

The Special Exhibition by New Zealand Artist AmandaT Tamatzui (Amanda Tomasoa in RL) continues on the 20th Floor of the LG Tower until the end of the month. Don't miss it 

I was busy with my work as editor of The Gazette during SL20B. Now that enormous party is over, I have updated the gallery catalogue to reflect a few new acquisitions. As always, you can find the most recent edition of the catalogue in the information board at each location.

On the 19th Floor of the LG Tower, you'll find the following new works;

• "AI ART", by Fau Ferdinand 2022 (collaboration with Seraphim Placebo)
• "XXI Century 1", by Milena Carbone
• "Kingfisher', by Anja (neobookie)
• "Moon struck w. owl - digital collage", by Aruba DeCuir
• "A Fashion Essence of Gears and Findings', by TaccaExotic
• "Seductive Siren of the Rare Orb', by TaccaExotic
• "The never ending movie," by Fau Ferdinand 2023

I hope you enjoy them. Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Art Unbound: SPACE WALK

For some time now, the Limoncello Art Gallery has been the proud sponsor of Infinite Production's series of Pop up art galleries: Art Unbound. The idea behind the project is to take art out of its "palaces" – the conventional art galleries – and take it to the most unlikely places. We've had Art Unbound on the Mother Road, in a beach hut and in bombed-out buildings. Now we're taking it to Outer Space!

The pop up gallery is aboard the Limoncello Space Station, in orbit above the main location of the Limoncello Art Gallery in Nyunanga. Organiser and curator, Cate Infinity – the founder of Art Unbound said:

Art knows no bounds, and what better way to prove it than by showcasing it in the limitless expanse of space. A pop-up art show in a space station is not just a display of creativity, but a celebration of human ingenuity and the spirit of exploration.

The exhibition will feature works by Caly Applewhyte, Cherry Manga, Sina Souza, Fiona Parx Whiterose, Thus Yootz, Anja Neobookie, Kraven Klees, Treacle Darlandes, traci, Talloulah Warra and Bamboo Barnes (all on loan from our gallery) as well as new pieces by Gamma Infinity, Esta Republic, Fau Ferdinand, AmandaT Tamatzui and Cate Infinity herself. It will run from May 13th to June 3rd, 2023

The opening party will be on Saturday May 13th at 12 noon SLT. Space attire is optional as you never need venture out of the artificial gravity and life support of the space station (unless you want to). There'll be an after-party for our friends in the Officers' Mess of the space station. Dress code for that is lingerie. 

Music will be provided by DJs Suzen Juel and Frank Atisso. We hope to see you there!

An additional location for the Limoncello Art Gallery

Dave, the gallery owner, has become a citizen of the Confederation of Democratic Simulators in the Germanic region of Neufreistadt. His place on the Marktplatz (Market Square) near the Rathaus (town hall) is now the "Limoncello Kunstgalerie" – a representative office of our gallery, with teleports to all our locations, an information board and a mailing list subscriber kiosk. Feel free to stop by and take a look. 

The CDS is a group of private regions operated as a real democracy. As their website says; 

The CDS is a real, working democracy, not a roleplay estate. We have a Constitution, a Code of Laws and three branches of government.

It's a really interesting SL place comprising six regions that have loosely based Germanic, Tuscan, Alpine, and Mediterranean themes, representing different historical periods. It's well worth exploring. It also has its own public art gallery. 

A new special exhibition at the LG Tower

We are delighted to announce a new special exhibition at the Limoncello Gallery. New Zealand artist, Amanda Tomasoa (known in SL as AmandaT Tamatzui) is staging a retrospective on the 20th Floor of the LG Tower. Amanda's work is very popular in SL and can be seen at her own galleries in Camorro, Elven Falls and Avery Hills. Her work is noted for its joyful, colourful, exuberant nature.

This is the first special exhibition in the gallery's new private region of Nyunanga, which is named in tribute to our historic home since 2009 in the Nanga region of the Satori continent. We hope, if you haven't visited Nyunanga yet, this will provide you with a good reason to do so.

The exhibition will run from April 28th to July 31st, 2o23. The opening party will be on April 28th at 1pm SLT. Music will be provided by DJ Frank Atisso.

Edition 49: The first acquisitions of 2023

My friend Fau Ferdinand sent me a link to this blog post about a new exhibition called "Future Elite" by Seraphim Placebo at her Placebo Gallery. I have always loved Sci-Fi (as witness the Space Station above the LG Tower, accessible by rocket shuttle from the roof) and these are images from an imagined feudal, clannish and apparently matriarchal world of the future.

The striking images really appealed to me and I bought two of them "Future Elite" and "Future Elite 8" for my collection. They're to be found on Level 18 of the LG Tower at our new location. 

I hope you like them as much as I do. Please come check them out. Of course, while the exhibition at the Placebo Gallery lasts, you can see more of them there.