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!

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.

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!

Edition 33: Get Out | Sofi | Janus Fall

ELSEWHERE ON THE ARTY GRID

Frank Atisso has made puppets of us all via his weekly Art Korner HUD. As soon as it is delivered, we strap it on and move as he directs. We worry it might make us lazy, but there's no denying he puts in good work to make it easy for us SL art enthusiasts to keep up. Thanks, Frank.

This week, one of the exhibitions we lazily put off visiting until Frank's HUD arrived was Get Out at the Kondor Art Square.

It is an RL photography show – something we'd normally never write about here. The concept is to encourage people who used to shoot street photography before the pandemic, to get back out there. 

SL photography has been our only outlet during the pandemic. Some braver friends in RL published a book of pandemic-era photos, but we have – deplorably – stayed home in a government-mandated funk.

Long lenses, social-distancing and more walking than usual would have made street photography perfectly possible. The eerie emptiness of London's streets might even have been a good theme (though for us it's always the people who make cities interesting). We just didn't do it. Perhaps we didn't want to remember our city in the state to which the pandemic (or our government's response) had reduced it.

In truth, Loviathar Hellman and Moolfryt Klang didn't do it either. Their images – exhibited here under the name Insane Focus – are from their archives. They say of their show;

GET OUT has no more pretension but exhibiting a sample of our 14 years of photography under the "street" category, and maybe spark the wish in visitors to grab a camera and get out.

If that was its objective, it's a success. It stirred a feeling we feared lost; the urge to show the world through a lens. The photographs on show are interesting enough. None moved us very much in and of themselves. The ones of London don't do our city justice. They did remind us though – as Insane Focus intended – of a lost joy. They made us want to "get out" and do better.

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NEW ACQUISITIONS

One of our favourite artists in SL is Sofi (bachi.cheng). Her art works are distinctively quirky. Dave bought a new one called Le vent est tombé, which is now installed on the Lower Deck of the Airship Limoncello near to the others in our collection. 

Portraiture is our thing. There is nothing more intriguing than a human face. One of the best portraitists active in Second Life is Janus Fall and this week we added another of her works to our collection. 

She has an exhibition in progress at her Red Dot Gallery called Words of which she says;

I began to notice that a single word would come to mind as I worked. I would like to attribute cognition to this phenomenon but that would be a conceit. It seemed to be a reaction to something rather than a response.

Each portrait in the exhibition features the single word it brought to her mind. The one we bought is called Mask, of which Janus says;

In this world the mask is never removed, and all wear them. In fact, the awareness of the façade has long faded, and so no human connection can ever be profound or meaningful. Like a snake unable to shed a skin people go through life dragging the unseen weight of dead possibilities behind them.

That's harsh, but collecting has taught us that artists tend to be extremists. Perhaps over-statement is intrinsically more interesting than understatement? Or perhaps untroubled souls aren't as driven to self-expression? For ourselves, if we believed that no human connection can ever be profound or meaningful, we are not sure we'd want to go on living. 

Fortunately you don't have to share Janus's dark sentiment to delight in the beauty of her work. If such beliefs are what moves her to create, her suffering is at least not in vain.

You can see for yourself on the 12th Floor of the LG Tower where Mask now hangs. It doesn't drive us to existential despair. Quite the contrary. We hope that goes for you too.

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Until next week, Limoncello Friends, stay arty!

Edition 28: Art Unbound in progress | Bellisserian Art Galleries | Time Lord visitors?

Photo © Elly Boccara on Flickr

The opening party last Saturday for Lido — a pop-up gallery co-produced by Infinite Productions and the Limoncello Art Gallery — went swimmingly. This is the second pop-up in the ART UNBOUND series; this time in a fishing shack on a beautiful sandy beach.

The event was well-attended, people loved the exhibition, DJs Poppy and Vivienne did a superb job and we all had fun in each other’s company.

Your editor Finella presided, tailed and scaled, from a clamshell throne — waving her fins to the music while greeting and chatting to guests. Cate Infinity of our event partners Infinite Productions and the Infinite Art Gallery danced happily in her bikini, while fielding questions about the art works and directing people through the portal to the delightful sculpture beach.

It was so obvious that were having fun that Bellisserians who just happened by to collect the special edition stamp for their passport stayed to party!

Slendie in the house

Speaking of Bellisseria, despite the fact the party wasn’t there, the Bellisseria Slenderman made a surprise appearance — presumably because  the Limoncello Art Gallery is a Bellisserian institution. We’d say that was kind of him but he has an evil reputation to sustain — kindness is not really Slendie’s thing! 

There are more pictures to be seen in the ART UNBOUND Flickr Group. 

Frank Atisso wrote a great review for his Art Korner blog, which captured the essence of what we are trying to achieve in taking art out of its “temples” onto the SL road. Frank made an appearance at the party so we had the chance to thank him in person 

The exhibition now continues until August 7th. If you haven't seen it yet, please head over there and bring your friends.

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ELSEWHERE ON THE ARTY GRID

Rather than go to one of the blockbuster SL art galleries this week, we set out on a project dear to our hearts. Linden Homes in Bellisseria are designed to be just that - homes. They are domestic in scale and mostly rather suburban (although the new Fantasy Theme will bring a new dimension). Yet the ethos of Second Life®  – always a world made by its residents – leads some to dedicate their homes to other purposes.

If you check out the new Bellisseria Parade of Homes Review blog, you'll find show homes occupied as intended in all of the available styles. However you'll also find Resident-owned Places of Interest. These are buildings open to the public – not to show off the owner's classy taste in interior design or landscaping – but as public resources. 

The Bellisserian Citizens Group HQ and the offices of the Bellisserian Bureau of Bureaucracy are good examples, but the Limoncello's Main Gallery in Sirinial on the Squishy Pickle sandbanks is not the only art gallery on the Linden Continent. We decided to tour all of them and provide you with SLURLs so you can support these public-spirited Bellisserians in their artistic endeavours. We've collected the information on a directory page for Bellisserian Art Galleries to serve as a permanent resource.

There will be work involved in maintaining and updating this resource. We hope that you will help us by visiting the featured galleries and letting us know about any errors or omissions in the listings. It is perfectly possible that there are more galleries out there in Bellisseria. If they are open to the public, please let us know!

These resident gallerists are philanthropists and we'd like to support what they do. The directory page is now in the sidebar and we are happy for other SL art galleries, websites and blogs to link to it as they please. 

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TIME LORDS OF SL

We are fans of the longest-running sci-fi show in the world, Doctor Who. It first appeared on TV screens in 1963. Its eponymous hero is "the Doctor" – a renegade Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, who roams all time and space in a stolen time ship called the Tardis. This ship (the name stands for Time And Relative Dimensions in Space) is one of the cleverest constructs in all science fiction. It has a chameleon circuit so it can for example disguise itself as a pillar on landing in Ancient Rome. Even more impressively it is "dimensionally transcendent", which means it's bigger on the inside than the outside.

In SL Tardis owners rez an "interior" somewhere on their land (or temporarily in a sandbox) and then land the "exteriors" in various forms wherever they have the rights. Exterior rezzers can be set to public use so every SL Tardis can land there.

Why mention this here? Though one of our favourite episodes involved the Doctor meeting Vincent van Gogh, the art connection is not obvious. Every location of our gallery welcomes visits by Tardis. We think SL's Time Lords would appreciate being able to visit other art galleries by Tardis too. If you own a gallery and would like to make this possible, just contact Dave or Fen. Lend them a tag to rez on your land, tell them what name you would like to appear in Tardis navigation systems and they will place the necessary rezzer! Don't just get visitors from more places, get them from more times!

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NEW ACQUISITIONS

Fenella had the pleasure of meting Cica Ghost this week, having been introduced by a mutual friend. We had resisted the temptation to buy her amazing horse sculptures currently on exhibition because they were so primmy. However Cica explained the ones on display at her region are enormous. At normal size they are only 4LI each. So we are delighted to say that now  "Cica's Horse 8" and "Cica's Horse 10" are on display in the grounds of the LG Tower.

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Until next week, Limoncello Friends, stay arty!

Edition 25: Art Unbound, Artist in Focus — Thus Yootz

ART UNBOUND INBOUND

Our partner Infinite Productions has secured a location for the next ART UNBOUND pop-up gallery. It’s a windswept beach location in the Tranquility Dreams region. We’re now putting together a roster of artists to supply new content to exhibit alongside works on loan from the Limoncello Gallery’s permanent collections. 

The show will be called LIDO and will run from 17th July to 7th August. The opening party will be on 17th July at 7pm SLT. Save the date! 

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ARTIST IN FOCUS
We are happy to have some beautiful works by Thus Yootz in our collection. They can be found on the 9th Floor and the 11th Floor of the LG Tower. Thus is from Athens in Greece and has an MA in Art after a total study of ten years of drawing, painting, etching, sculpture and photography. She has taken part in many group art exhibitions in Greece. Her SL photography can be seen here and here.

She's also a wedding planner in SL, and a region designer, landscaper and terraformer. Finally she has a business selling her own trees and plants! Fenella caught up with this busy SL polymath to interview her about her art in Second Life®. 

Q. What first brought you into SL and how long was it before you began to create art here?
A. A friend I was looking after was joining SL and introduced me.  I knew nothing about it. Six months later, when a friend taught me the very basics of SL building, back in 2009, I made my first attempt at a painted sculpture that I still cherish.

Q. What’s the balance between RL and SL tools in the making of your work?
A. The SL capture must inspire me — the magic of other creators' dreams — captured by my perspective and then, each capture guides me, often in combination with RL artworks.

Q. Who are your artistic influences, in RL and in SL?
A. I adore a zillion artists in RL from ancient Greece, tribal art, to the Renaissance and to date.  They have all influenced me a lot. I have spent long hours since I was a kid admiring and contemplating their amazing artistic creations. My studies at the Athens School of Fine Arts also shaped my way of looking and how seriously I take art,

Q. In your view, what’s the best thing about art in Second Life and what’s the worst?
A. Lack of originality, not only in art but in every aspect, is the worst. Once a recipe works, everyone repeats it.  Even in creating sims, which I also consider an art.  Sure, we take from others, but we must create our own individual  vision, express our personality.  It bores me. It is hard to find original and creative places to make pictures, even !  Same with imagery. The best is that art connects us, it expresses us, it gives us the opportunity to be creative, which is a huge gift!

Q. Finally, what inspires your art?
A. The beauty I see.

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NEW ACQUISITIONS

click to enlarge

This week we acquired three new paintings by Fenella's friend and colleague at the BBB, Ghost (theghostofghost). All now hang on the 5th Floor of the LG Tower and are called Self Portrait - Biography, Art : The Beginning and Art: New York.

Dave discovered a new artist (to us) called Amanda Tomasoa (AmandaT Tamatzui in Second Life®). He bought two of her works called Woman with red scarf and Freedom From Within. Both now hang on the Lower Deck of the Airship Limoncello.

As does a new work by one of our old favourites, Yoko Ayukawa, called Mermaid of the Sun. We can never resist a good mermaid and this one lured us right onto the art budget rocks.

click to enlarge

We bought a beautiful portrait called Girl With Flowers In Her Head 1, by Angel Heartsong. That is also to be found on the Lower Deck of the Airship. As is The Dance, by Al (alurcha.niekerk) and Blue Sandals, by Phrynne.

It has been the biggest – and most expensive – week for new acquisitions in a while. We hope you enjoy the new items in our collection as much as we do. Let us know what you think in the comments or by IM to Fenella (Fenella.Allen) or Dave (Lord.Junibalya) in-world.

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Until next week, Limoncello Friends, stay arty!

Edition 22: Infinite Art, Xia Chieng, Anja, Kisma, Virtual Community Radio and new acquisitions

We are happy to announce that one of "our" artists, our friend and our partner in the ART UNBOUND project – Cate Infinity – has opened her very own gallery in the Soho Contemporary Arts Center in Virtual Soho.

It's called the Infinite Art Gallery and features Cate's own work and that of Esta Republic, Poppy Morris and Manx Wharton. We congratulate Cate, Esta, Poppy and Manx and wish them every success.

We hope you'll visit to take a look and also check out the excellent website.

In other exciting news, one of our favourite artists (we have several of her works in our collection) has offered to put on a special exhibition.  We just love Xia Chieng's extraordinary portraits. The faces looking out at you are beautiful, enigmatic and gaze-arresting. You're drawn into their imagined thoughts until you're in a kind of conversation with them – or perhaps with the artist herself.

Xia thanked Dave for buying our latest piece from her gallery and, saying how much he loves her work, he joked he has to avoid visiting too often for fear it would dominate our collections. The idea for this exhibition was her response. It is planned to run from 1st October to 30th November, 2021.

Our Autumn programme is beginning to emerge. We are also discussing new shows with two other artists featured in our collections, so expect more announcements soon. If this seems a long way in the future, that's because we are taking a Summer break from new special exhibitions. We will resume in September with an exhibition of all-new works the artist has been working on for months. More details to follow! In the meantime, the Molly Bloom retrospective continues at the Main Gallery in Sirinial and Eylinea Seabird's amazing installation is still to be enjoyed in Nanga (SLURLs in the sidebar). 

Our exhibition Abstracts by Kisma Reidling ended on May 31st. We are grateful to Kisma, who is an artist much in demand, for exhibiting with us. Her work is always thought-provoking, so watch out for her other exhibitions. Currently, she has a show called Solera at the Hidden Door Gallery, for example. It's well worth a visit!

Virtual Community Radio produces a bi-weekly short feature called Where've You Been?  that highlights fun places to visit on the SL grid. The episode that begins airing today – June 9th – features our beloved historic home, the Airship Limoncello. It will play just after noon and again at 4pm SLT and again in the same two slots on June 12th, 16th, and 19th – a total of 8 broadcasts. After that it will move to the station's MixCloud page for Play on Demand.

At the time of writing, we haven't heard it ourselves but we're always happy when someone enjoys our gallery. We look forward to hearing what hosts Elrik Merlin (of Designing Worlds) and Caledonia Skytower (of the Seanchai Library) have to say about their visit.

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ELSEWHERE ON THE ARTY GRID
Fenella attended last Saturday's excellent, well-attended opening party for our good friend Anja's (Neobookie's) exhibition at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery. The show is called Anja's Surrealism and does exactly what it says on the tin – with creativity, skill and wit.

Anja is a relative newcomer to SL art. She worked for a while under the guidance of her mentor, Traci Ultsch. There's no question she has found her own distinctive artistic "voice" and makes great work. Inara Pey reviews the show here. 

Inside Anja's mind is a fascinating, imaginative place and she's adept at sharing it through her art. She has been working on this show for a long time. Fenella has had secret previews of the work in progress and has been bursting with pride at her friend's achievements and struggling not to blurt out the secret. She is delighted finally to be able to say; "I love Anja and I love her art. It's a great show. Go! Go now!!"

La Maison d'Aneli, is always a good place to visit but this month we'd say it's even more so than usual. Fenella stumbled in on vroum Short's exhibit there while it was still under construction and it was already impressive. We can't wait to see the finished version. It doesn't open officially until 23rd June, but should be available for previews by 18th June.

In the meantime, there are several other artists exhibited. Aneli has run her gallery for 12 years. We Limoncellisti have been regular visitors since the beginning. She makes her spaces for SL's artists "only for passion – just for the pleasure of eyes" and for her own enjoyment of "the torture of little prims" to make her various builds. She told Fenella

I like all the artists, they do incredible work and they show a part of themselves

Unlike our gallery, which is a permanent collection with some loan exhibits and occasional special exhibitions, La Maison d'Aneli stages a constant series of ever-changing multiple art shows. That's much more work than we would ever like to handle! Aneli, who does it all herself, has our respect and admiration for the effort she puts in. Her work in curating so many exhibitions over the years means that she now knows many (if not most) of the serious artists active in SL and (though too modest ever to say so) is something of an SLebrity herself. We recommend you go take a look.

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NEW ACQUISITIONS

Fenella admires "10" by Paola Mills /click to enlarge

This week we acquired 10 by paola Mills, Box by Esta Republic and Bumble Deliveroo, the signature piece from Anja's (neobookie's) current exhibition (see above). All three now hang on the 5th Floor of the LG Tower. 

We also acquired Fire and Ice, by Viktor Savior, which is exhibited on the 11th Floor of the LG Tower and Athalia, by Xia Chieng, which is hung on the 12th Floor of the LG Tower. 

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Until next week, Limoncello Friends, stay arty!

Edition 17

AIRSHIP LIMONCELLO REBUILD

The renovation and refurbishment of the Airship Limoncello is complete! Fenella inspected the finished job on Tuesday and asked for a couple of minor adjustments, which our contractor, Leon, took care of. We took delivery yesterday.

It's looking good. Leon has managed to get the Land Impact down to 226, which is 21 better than his previous estimate and hundreds better than the original build. She's still a heavy object but is 124 metres long so there are limits to what can be achieved. Every prim saved is another artwork that can be exhibited, so we are delighted. We also love the redesigned control gondola and the new staircases.

We worked like crazy into the early hours of this morning to re-hang all the art. We need to update the catalogue to reflect the re-arrangements we have made – and some work is necessary to correct the build, so step carefully in places where the floors are incomplete – but essentially it's ready for visitors. 

We plan to have a re-launch party to match the original back in 2007 where the whole Limoncello story began! Watch this space for details. If you would like an invitation to the party, be sure to visit the gallery and subscribe to our mailing list. We hope to see you all there!

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ELSEWHERE ON THE ARTY GRID

We are late to this story but always like to give a shout-out to our fellow-gallerists in Bellisseria. We appreciate their sacrifice of the limited LI allowance at their Linden Homes to the cause of art.

There's an exhibition in progress right now involving two of our favourite SL ladies; Owl Dragonash and Inara Pey. It opened on April 18th and runs until May 15th at the super-cute Hoot Suite Gallery in Owl's traditional Winchester home in Ruthsburg. It features photographs by Inara – whose blog post about the relaunch of the Limoncello Gallery helped us enormously last year. The exhibition is called One if by land, Two if by water.

Inara says: 

I have been active in Second Life continuously since the end of 2006. My interests are widespread, covering many SL activities, although I am perhaps best known as a blogger, having been writing about Second Life for more than 10 years. My blog covers almost all aspects of Second Life. A key part of my blog comprises art and region reviews, for which I produce images for illustration. As such, I'm not a qualified photographer or artist in any meaningful use of the terms; I'm therefore genuinely flattered when people feel my art is suitable for exhibitions or purchase.

She's overly modest, in our opinion. We have bought and exhibited her work and there was no flattery in our decision. The only qualification that ultimately matters in the fine arts (delightful and useful though their study may be) is talent. Head over to the region honouring the original SL female avatar (whose name became a verb; back when to revert to basic form was to be "Ruthed") and enjoy the show.

May 8th is World Collage Day – an annual, international celebration of collage initiated by Kolaj Magazine in 2018. Artists and art venues are invited to hold events on that day to celebrate collage. Aruba DeCuir has decided to join in with the celebration in SL.

In order to celebrate the real world 'World Collage Day' I have made an exhibition of 12 new and some older collages here in SL. The exhibition will open Friday the 7th of May at 11.30 (SL time). There will be an initial two hours opening event. On Saturday – World Collage Day – the opening the opening will continue. I will be at the Collage Gallery as much as possible in European morning and daytime and you are free to come and meet me. All are welcome and I hope to see as many of you as possible! The show will be open until early June.

We love Aruba's work, which features in our collections. Why not head over and take a look?

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NEW ACQUISITIONS
Our friend Traci Ultsch has a show at the Imago Gallery at present called Overdose. Fenella mixed up her CET with her GMT and managed to show up to the opening party just as it was ending, but loved the show. Traci's work is striking, challenging and always makes you think. We bought a piece called I Am God, I Put Those Lights In The Sky and it's exhibited on the 11th Floor of the LG Tower. 

We also bought strokes of fate, by Sina Souza from her back-to-SL exhibition Retrospective at the Nitroglobus Gallery which we featured last week in a special ELSWHERE ON THE ARTY GRID supplement. Again, it's on the 11th Floor of the LG Tower.

Rising star of the SL art world (and our good friend) Anja (Neobookie) introduced Fenella to the work of Janus Fall. Anja currently has an exhibition in the garden of Janus's Red Dot Gallery. So, right now, a visit there will get you both Anja's super artwork and Janus's amazing photographic portraiture. We bought two pieces of the latter for our collection and both now hang on the 11th Floor of the LG Tower. The first is There Sleeps Titania from a series called Heart and Light featuring;

...images of the female face presented in atmospheric light to create a mood, feeling or emotion. Occasionally inspired by art or literature as the titles of the pieces suggest, the viewer is invited to create their own stories

The second is a wonderful portrait of a strikingly-beautiful SL lady called Tamara and prosaically entitled Tamara Pic Red Hair. 

Finally, also on the 11th Floor is our first artwork using augmented reality. La belle et la bete, by tutsy Navarathna was bought from the artist's exhibition currently in progress at La Maison d'Aneli gallery. It comes with a QR code which, once you have dowloaded the app EyeJack for your phone or tablet, you can scan. Then, when you hold your phone up to the screen to look at the artwork through its camera, amazing things happen. Be sure to have the volume turned up on your phone!

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Until next week, Limoncello Friends, stay arty!

Limoncello News – Edition 12

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Next Saturday, April 3rd, is the opening party for the first ART UNBOUND pop up exhibition – Mirages on the Mother Road.

The party will run from 6pm to 10pm SLT. Our partner Infinite Productions has lined up a great programme of music so come along and dance the evening away in the desert surrounded by art.

There's no dress code, but biker chic or Breaking Bad might be the way to go! It's an art event in the Great American West, so feel free to use your imagination. 

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If you haven't received an invitation by the usual channels just IM Dave, Fen or Cate Infinity. The show runs from April 3rd to the 23rd but is open for previews now.

By the way, if you hold a Bellisserian passport, there's a stamp terminal at the pop up location. It will only be in place for three weeks so don't miss it! We will have a terminal at each ART UNBOUND pop up show, so you can collect a series of these limited edition stamps.

When each show is officially open, we'll also hand out (NO COPY/TRANSFER) postcards from it for you to collect and trade.

Time	Musician	New art by:
6:00 pm	Lady Zenaida	Cate Infinity, Gamma Infinity, Esta Republic
7:00 pm	DJ Yo Yo Burckhardt	Art on loan from LG collection by:
8:00 pm	Manx Wharton	Uleria Caramel, Harry Cover, Kraven Klees, Morlita Quan and Thus Yootz.
9:00 pm	Maximillion Kleene

 

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MOLLY BLOOM: AN SL RETROSPECTIVE

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We continue our series of retrospectives of work by artists no longer active in SL. From April 1st to June 30th we are exhibiting a selection of works by Molly Bloom (mollybloom100) in the Jishnu Room at the Main Galley in Sirinial. All the featured artworks are on loan from the collection of JMB Balogh. Thank you, Jo for sharing them with us. 

Molly is an American RL artist, brought up as "a Navy Brat" and living in Japan with her family when she was very young. In RL she had "a fairly high-powered corporate career",  worked as a Holistic Health Educator and was also "an award-winning glass artist".  She was  active on the SL art scene for many years, with her own gallery at Angelic Isles. She had shows at The Rose Theatre and Gallery, the Paris Metro Gallery and elsewhere. The last of her projects promoted in SL was actually on OpenSim in 2016 and it may be that's where she has now gone. There are no more recent images than 2016 on  her Flickr Page.

In an interview with Jami Mills of Rez Magazine in December 2013, she said

Living in the US, we are still under a vast Puritan ethic and my art rebels against social conventions. The beauty of being an artist is that you can easily substantiate rebellion against current paradigms... Laughter, sex and deep thought are by far the healthiest activities we have as humans. Every time we participate, it allows for a richer life. Sex and laughter together is a double whammy of endorphin rush. 

In a 2015 interview, again with Jami Mills, she asked (on the subject of SL itself);

Why on earth would you come in here to be beige when you can be all the colors of fantasy?

That attitude is reflected in Molly's work, which is bold, sexy and witty. Her SL profile says "Maturity is highly overrated, especially in SL". She certainly seems to have had a lot of fun here, while enhancing others' lives with exuberant creativity. We regret that we don't have any of her artworks in our permanent collection but hope you enjoy this chance to look back at her SL career. 

MEMORIAL AT ANGEL'S REST

Chuck Clip's Janus Gallery is one of our favourites. Chuck has dedicated a newly-acquired piece by artist Sharni Azalee as a memorial in SL. He writes;

Whether you have lost someone recently or years ago, to cancer, heart attack, illness, hilariously ironic accident, or any other reason, and wish them to be memorialized, simply submit their name to me via a notecard placed in the drop box just outside the memorial. I will place a candle with that name in hover text above the candle. There is no fee, no requirement other than telling me what name you wish to be displayed. 

It's a typically kind, generous gesture by Chuck. Dave visited to enter the name of his late wife who died of cancer in 2011. Why not go there and apply for a memorial to someone you loved, taking in the art while you are there?

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ACQUISITIONS

On the 9th floor of the LG Tower you will find Ordinary Angels #3, by Awesome Fallen. We bought it from her superb exhibition of the same name, currently showing at the Dixmix Gallery. Fenella is pictured here chatting with art blogger Frank Atisso at the show. Even with his advice, it was hard to choose just one piece from such an engaging, thought-provoking show to represent both the show and Awesome in our collection.

You should hurry over there soonest to see all the works we regretted not purchasing before it closes! 

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ARTIST IN FOCUS

On the Top Deck of the AS Limoncello, Traci Ultsch features both as artist and model. Three of her art works are also to be found on the Fourth Floor of the LG Tower. She was recently interviewed by Frank Atisso over at Art Korner, the SL art blog he publishes with Praesto Ibsen. Ostensibly the interview is about her current exhibition at Nitroglobus Gallery, but it goes more deeply into her background and process that we usually have space for here so please take a look!

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PROGRESS ON THE NEW AIRSHIP

Our mesh expert has finished other tasks he was working on and has begun the Airship Limoncello rebuild. We'll keep you informed of progress.

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ELSEWHERE ON THE ARTY GRID

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The RL Photo Festival 2021 opens on March 30th at midnight SLT. The opening reception is on March 31st at 1 pm SLT. Fenella has entered five portraits this year so had access in advance. We can tell you that (modestly excluding Fenella's own humble efforts) there is some excellent work to be seen and enjoyed. The Festival is organised by Nils Urqhart of  at the Helvellyn Gallery and is well worth your time for a visit. By way of a teaser, if not a spoiler, here is Fen with her photos.

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Until next week, Limoncello Friends, stay arty!