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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Our partner Infinite Productions has secured a location for the next ART UNBOUND pop-up gallery. It’s a windswept beach locationin 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!
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.
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.
NEW ACQUISITIONS
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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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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?
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 EyeJackfor 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!
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
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?
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!
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!
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.
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.
We should have visited Nym Nogah's exhibition at The Galleries sooner, but luckily made it just as it was being taken down. We bought her piece called Dreamer – now on display on the 6th Floor at the LG Tower. She kindly agreed to resize it for us as the small domestic version we bought looked a little out of place. We think you will agree it looks magnificent at scale. On the 5th Floor, we've added The Mer Woman, by VanessaJane66. Also on the 5th Floor of the LG Tower is another mermaid statue; Siren, by Eric Bloodrose and on the 8th Floor is yet another one, Mermaid 01, by LetsFire.
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We've opened the 10th Floor of the LG Tower for the first time and dedicated it entirely to statues. One is of Poseidon and the entrance to the floor is flanked by guardian mermaids so yes, if you think there's something fishy about this week's purchases, you are detecting Finella's influence!
So far, all but one of the statues on the new floor are by the same sculptor; Diiar Vader Shippe. She trades on Marketplace as D'STOPIAN. Her store has a category called Art; in which she doesn't include these statues. She lists them instead under Home & Garden but they're every bit as attractive as many by creators with more pretensions.
Perhaps because of her humility ("...but it's art!" is an excuse for many infelicities) she executes them deftly to have low Land Impact. A floor of such sculptures in the pre-mesh era would not have been possible. Even now, many SL artists – confident perhaps that the importance of their work justifies the cost – scorn vulgar prim economy. As a humble seller of decor items, Diiar doesn't allow herself that luxury. Of itself, we don't think a regard for economy of execution makes an object less worthy to be art, any more than ruthlessly editing one's writing to use onlyles mots justes, would make it less worthy to be literature!
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The pieces featured are Sad Ladies versions 1,2 & 3 (sold separately but which we have grouped so as to console each other), Regal Mermaid (placed in mirrored versions to guard the entrance to the new sculpture floor), Angel and Poseidon. We hope you enjoy them. Do bear in mind that if (like us) you keep your draw-distance low so as to zip around SL laglessly, they may leap out as you approach them because of their LOD. Try not to be startled!
The final new addition is the only sculpture on the 10th Floor of the LG Gallery that isn't by Diiar. It's Dual Color (Feb21), by Phenix Rexen. We have one of Phenix's amazing statues on the Airship Limoncello already but we couldn't resist this one because one of the models was good friend of the gallery, Vaneeesa Blaylock. She's beautiful. It's beautiful. And watch this space for upcoming news of a special exhibition involving Vaneeesa.
ELSEWHERE ON THE ARTY GRID
New art enterprise Infinite Productionsproposed a joint venture to us, which we were delighted to accept. We will jointly organise and stage a series of pop up events in unlikely, edgy (dare we say un-arty?) locations; taking the fine arts to places angels fear to tread. Above are some slides explaining the concept. The same slides are on screens in-world in the lobby of the LG Tower and at the Limoncello News office.
The series is called ART UNBOUND. You may have noticed signs around the gallery where items have been removed to feature in the first event. It's called MIRAGES ON THE MOTHER ROAD and will run from April 3-24 at a desert location in the Mother Road regions. It features new art as well as those items on loan from our permanent collection.
The opening party will be a four hour music marathon from 6-10 pm SLT on April 3rd and you will get an invitation via the same channel you received your link to this week's magazine. We hope you'll join us to get this new venture off to great start. Mother Road is a desert region with a rough vibe so – while you'll be welcome whatever you wear – you might like to think biker! We look forward to seeing you all.
GALLERY PHOTOGRAPHS BY PINK CLARITY
Pink Clarity took some super photographs around the gallery and kindly gave us permission to share them here. Pink has a long attachment to Second Life, mostly on the creative side, and her photography is part of that. She says;
My work is just a small effort to show the real beauty of SL, to represent the talented people who created the properties and sims I enjoyed and express my deep appreciation to them. I used to do my work for personal amusement but now have taken a step further by joining several exhibitions.
We have entered into a contract to rebuild the Airship Limoncello in mesh. We will take the opportunity to redecorate the old girl but, while we may replace some old textures with modern ones, we promise she will clearly remain our beloved historic home. What's more, we have bought exclusive rights to the new build so (unlike the LG Tower, which anyone can buy and use) the AS Limoncello II will be unique to us.
Fenella, who is a connoisseur of mesh clothes, had the idea of approaching an SL couturier. Her thinking was that our airship is no more complicated (if rather bigger) than a mesh shoe! The couturier referred her to one of her mesh expert friends and within the hour the contract was signed. If you see men at work aboard taking measurements, now you know what's going on!
We are not sure yet how many prims this will save , but are confident it will allow us to fill the LG Tower's 15 floors with art, and perhaps add a few more levels too. To go to its maximum height of 30 storeys would take all the savings and more, but another five floors might well be possible, which is a lot of gallery space. We will keep you up-to-date with the build as it progresses.
Dave's RL wife is delighted that her budgetary rules on our SL tier have led to creative thinking about prim economy. As any poet will tell you, it's the constraints that make the art!
FENELLA'S BELLISSERIAN QUEST
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The BBB inaugural Linden Location Stamp Rally took place last Friday. It was a tour to collect the six new Bellisseria Passport stamps available for the first time at public locations in Bellisseria. The route was the one Fenella was involved in testing for the Bellisserian Bureau of Bureaucracy (BBB), and which she wrote about in special Limoncello News supplements One, Two and Three.
It was all just fun but we hope it brought us new readers who will stick with us for the art! The picture to the left is of the special sample passport issued for the purposes of the tour, with all six stamps collected.
The event was a great success and the BBB will issue more passports as a result. We enjoy collecting the stamps ourselves and hope more visitors will come to collect the three stamps we issue at the gallery – and now a fourth at the Limoncello News office on Campbell Coast. We hope they enjoy the art while they're getting their passports stamped and come back soon, often and with all their friends!
As a Bellisserian institution, the BBB is – like our gallery – strictly non-commercial. Role-playing bureaucracy to make the SL experience more real is something its staff do for fun. Not only can you get a passport, they'll issue you with a Bellisserian driving licence and licence plates for your car!
Finally, here's a picture of a page from Fenella's passport bearing the new Limoncello News stamp. As soon as you have collected the new stamps around Bellisseria be sure to come and pick one up. You're hearing about it three days before the weekly notecard goes out from the BBB announcing new locations, so hurry and be among the first to get it!
She was born and lives in Europe and describes her work like this;
I paint - in SL with a computer. I 'torture' digital photographs or scans, alter old prints and assemble it all as collages.I also do 'digital etchings' - by which I mean I try to make them look and feel like etchings.
I use sculpts and mesh in 3D works.I apply letters and numbers to my works - mostly they don't refer to anything special. I pick up inspiration from many sources, I read a lot and I enjoy poetry - some say they sense spirituality in my works but I am not religious as such
Aruba's personality shines through all her works. We enjoy those in our collection and visit her gallery regularly to see what she's been up to. Stop by and take a look yourself. You won't be disappointed. Especially if you're lucky enough to bump into Aruba herself and have a stimulating conversation. She is a passionate lady of trenchant views so have your wits about you!
We have known for some time we can't realise our goals without rehousing the collection to save prims. Dave is keeping a promise to his RL wife about his SL tier, so we can't buy more land! Unless a benefactor will buy land in Nanga and deed it to our group, prim-saving is the key to our future. Each prim we save from gallery infrastructure makes room for another artwork. We are in talks with a mesh expert who may save us prims by rebuilding the Airship Limoncello but that will take time and can’t be guaranteed. In the meantime we are running out of space and must act
We've added five floors to the LG Tower. It now has fourteen levels of gallery space plus one floor for events. While we treasure the Airship Limoncello, our home since 2007, we are not sentimental about her smaller sister ship – the Amaretto.
Its land impact is greater than the five new storeys of the tower. When a friend recently said that our crowded exhibits do the art no favours, her comment sealed its fate. Decommissioning our most cramped gallery space has aesthetic as well as economic benefits!
Take a last look at the Amaretto, because she is heading for the scrapyard (aka Dave's inventory) this week. She's already empty but we will keep her aloft for a few days to give Bellisseria Passport holders a last chance to collect her stamp – soon to become a rarity!
The works from our permanent collection can now be found on Floors 8 and 9. Sisi Biedermann has kindly moved the artworks from her private collection on loan to us to the 7th Floor of the LG Tower. We have updated the catalogue so just click one of the information boards to get the latest copy.
NEW ACQUISITIONS
On Floor 6 of the LG Tower, you will find several new works. The first is by Uleria Caramel – an artist whose work featured heavily in last week's edition – and is called "Indian Summer". Next you will find "Seaside Mansion" by Carey Chenault – a deceptively simple, charming landscape.
A glimpse of some new acquisitions
Then there is "BAROCK 08", by Caly Applewhyte. It's a really striking image from Caly's exhibition last year at DixMix Gallery. We also have two images by Alex Riverstone, called "Another Pretty Face" and "Buddha." Dave met Alex last week and discovered he was a tenant when Nanga (where our mainland annexe is) was a rental sim. We hope he will visit to see his works exhibited where his apartment used to be. Finally there is "Reflections on Old Metal" - by Thus Yootz – a piece Dave has owned for a while, but has had on display in his home. This adds to our growing collection of Thus's work. We think she's a great talent.
On the 7th Floor of the LG Tower, in addition to the works moved down from the Amaretto, you'll find "Windy Faraway 1", by Ambre Singh. In the grounds outside the LG Tower, you'll find "Silver Huntress", by Kannel Arai – a huge statue, which long stood in the park of Castle Nanga and now stands among its ruins.
GALLERIES OF SL NETWORK
Have you noticed the "Galleries of SL" kiosks on the wall at our main gallery in Bellisseria and on the top deck of the Airship "Limoncello" in Nanga? If you follow SL art you will probably have seen them all over the grid. Sasun Steinbeck created the system on 5th January 2006 and maintains the database they are based on "for the benefit of the wonderful galleries, artists and art lovers in Second Life." The boards and kiosks give out a HUD to take visitors from gallery to gallery. We regularly use it to find new galleries and tour all the old ones to see what's new. We always rate and re-rate the galleries we visit to help keep the system useful to the grid's art lovers. The list is also online and there's even a map to show you (when Linden Labs get the World Map working again) where all the galleries are.
It's a great system and a perfect example of the generosity that makes the SL art world so good. It's all given freely as a service to art. It does demonstrate the power of Sasun's commercial KioskNet system for SL businesses so we hope it at least generates some sales!
When you use it, please remember to rate the galleries you visit and leave a helpful or encouraging comment.
ELSEWHERE ON THE ARTY GRID
Now showing at DixMix Gallery
Dave and I are petrolheads (gearheads in US English) and specifically Ferraristi. We rarely get involved with anything automotive in Second Life though. It's a good simulator for sailing but not for driving so here we content ourselves with naming our fleet of SL sail boats "Speranza" – the name of Dave's RL car!
I was therefore surprised and delighted by one of the current exhibitions at the DixMix Gallery – "Roll Hoop" by Key Monk. It features his superb automotive images displayed alongside models of sports and racing cars. It made me long even more for an early end to lockdown so I can get out onto the RL roads again. I have really missed all the motorsport events I usually attend in RL that were cancelled during the pandemic.
"Roll Hoop" opened on February 20th and will run to March 27th. It's great - go take a look. Thanks to Violet Boa of DixMix Gallery for providing the image above.
Roll Hoop at the DixMix Gallery
LIMONCELLO ARTIST IN FOCUS
One of the first artists in our collection was Shadowtime Writer. Our founder, LastDitch Writer, met her on her first day in Second Life and they got into conversation for no better reason than their shared SL surname. Learning she was an artist (RL artist Rebecca Shadrich) he encouraged her to upload some of her works, slapped them on prims for her and exhibited them in the original gallery. In RL, Rebecca's work has featured in the Statesville Record & Landmark, Art On The Green, Signal Hill Gallery, and at numerous Native American events.
Shadowtime Writer's work at the main gallery in Bellisseria
Based in the foothills of North Carolina, she uses bold colors, sharp contrast, and a deep spiritual connection in her landscapes and symbolic art work. You can see several of her paintings in our Main Gallery in Bellisseria and you can buy her work in real life here.
SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS
You can reach any of the current special exhibitions from our Directory Boards around the galleries, or from the SLURLs in the sidebar to this site. We have four excellent shows, featuring Ronda Saunders, Eylinea Seabird, Cate Infinity and Kisma Reidling.