studio7 Loves Typography

Welcome to studio7! Please add your email to our 
guest list. O...another exhibit celebrating typography.

Another fun look at typography, with fun colors and even more daring word play (than the serene Love of Art exhibit). It takes the form of sculpture, standing screens and a framed lithograph. WARNING: This exhibit contains foul language...

                               

Details: red/silver 'F*ck' sculptures were Christmas ornaments from Urban Outfitter; small silver 'Love' sculpture was a place card holder from party supply chain; letter O (yellow) and exclamation point (orange) are from Barnes & Nobles; screens are cut from Bumble & Bumble hair product packaging; chair is ReacJapn; frame painted with by me was an eBay purchase; Desk from The Container Store; Laptop from Rement and pedestal is a napkin ring from West Elm.

"B" Love !

'Love' of Art, A Gallery Exhibit

Love, love, love.

I created an exhibit to celebrate the beauty and artistry of typography.  As you can see the word featured in this exhibit is...LOVE. The sculptures I used here are inspired by the work of Robert Indiana who first designed a Christmas card in 1964 for the Museum of Modern Art. 

The now iconic image was placed on a US post stamp in 1973.

He later created a sculpture made from steel and since 1970 it has remained on exhibit at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Many recreations and parodies of the sculpture have been erected internationally.

The original 'Love' sculpture

Welcome to studio7! The gallery curator 
keeps client lists and inventory on a laptop.

'B' Love

Love Faith

Details: gold/white 'Love' sculptures were Christmas ornaments from Urban Outfitter; small silver 'Love' sculpture was a place card holder from party supply chain; chair is ReacJapn; Desk from The Container Store; Laptop from Rement and pedestal is a napkin ring from West Elm.

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It's Keith Haring's Birthday

Google's take on Keith Haring

Today's Google doodle was a tribute to Keith Haring on what would have been his 54th birthday.  I was a college student at Howard University when I first became familiar with the work of this artist.  A street vendor on Georgia Avenue had one of his posters boldly displayed along with several other items touting the conscious messages of the time: Free South Africa, No Gold, +ve Black♀all for his own bootlegged financial gain.  Ah, the beauty of capitalism. Forgive me for digressing, but you get the idea.  

Free South Africa, 1985 poster from offset lithograph, 48" sq.

I purchased the oversize poster and managed to get it safely to my dorm room without any damage.  It maintained a place of prominence on my wall until sadly, it no longer worked with my color scheme the vicissitudes of youth.  I really like Haring's aesthetic.  His use of bright bold colors and simple forms that are somehow figural and abstract at once really appeal to me.  Here's the final contrast, his figures have a child-like, coloring-book quality about them because they are heavily outlined but sometimes the content is more adult than child-like. Hey, that's art!

Untitled, 1981 acrylic on canvas, 120" sq.

Keith Haring died in 1990 at the age of 31 from an AIDS-related illness. There is still time to support someone participating in the AIDS WALK New York on May 20th. The executive director of the Keith Haring Foundation speaks eloquently about the artist, his work, AIDS and the foundation so click on over to Google's blog on it's doodles and read Julia Gruen's words for yourself.  Let's all give a hat tip to Keith Haring and the legacy of his art!

How Would You Remix the Arne Jacobsen MiiBox?

In honor of the annual winter festival known as Wondercool Copenhagen, the folks at Minimii challenged five Danish artists to create a custom design of an Arne Jacobsen MiiBox.  They have been on display in the Dansk Design Center (DDC) for the past month and will remain for the duration of the festival.  For those of you design enthusiast who are not familiar with this product, the MiiBox features a facade of the Arne Jacobsen house with dual purposes.  It is a 1:16 scale dollhouse but it can also be used as a wall mounted storage unit. Fellow blogger, Miniature Obsession would say the MiiBox is prime to be added to the lust list. I concur!

Above: MiiBoxes on display at DDC. Below:
the dollhouse in its original state.

The creativity displayed in this design challenge was diverse. There was a minimal, monochromatic approach submitted by Anne Black.  In sharp contrast, there was the over-the-top, downtown-chic graffiti style submitted by Lars H.U.G.  Some artistic treatments were holistic and many design features required involvement from exhibit visitors from adding drawings on the surface to pushing buttons to alter the space.

Above: "En fugl på taget er bedre end..." by Anne Black 
Below: The decorative treatment on STILLEBEN
 by Reckweg and Nordentoft transforms the house into 
a sculpture with no movable parts.

Markers and pens are attached to "Burn Down the House".

FUR-OVER by Kopenhagen Fur features vibrantly colored fur used as window treatments, poufs, wall and floor coverings.  The design is airy and open and it begs exhibit visitors to reach out and touch the fur!

FUR-OVER by Kopenhagen Fur. This house also includes
fur grass and fur plants.  The blue entry is my favorite room
in this house.

"Inside Out" by Sofus Walbom og Kastanje Andersen is adorned with circuit boards.  A command center of controls on the outside allows exhibit visitors to enjoy the lighting and musical sound effects wired into the house.  The bathroom features a striking light wall that I've only previously seen on ceilings of miniature houses.  It's certainly a feature to consider recreating. Altogether, these design features give this house a very futuristic and sci-fi film aesthetic.

"Inside Out" by Sofus Walbom of Kastanje Andersen

"Burn Down the House" by Lars H.U.G. is tagged decorated with graffiti and line drawings.  Each room is filled with items creating miniature exhibits unto themselves.  I wonder if the artist was influenced by the late Jean-Michel Basquiat or the Talking Heads (a band that released a song by the same name).  Ahhh the 80's...

"Burn Down the House" by Lars H.U.G.

At 400 Euros, purchasing the Arne Jacobsen MiiBox would break my miniature budget (pun indented), so enjoying this exhibit online gave me the chance to get my fix. There are more pictures featured at the profile for Arne Jacobsen Dollhouse on FACEBOOK (if you 'like' the page). I hope you've enjoyed this tour.  Leave a comment to let me know or share just how you'd give your own MiiBox the artist treatment. 

Note:  All images courtesy of the Arne Jacobsen Dollhouse profile on FACEBOOK.

What's the Story behind this Face?

I truly appreciate art and photography but it was not until recently perhaps, that I realized how much the discipline of portraiture influences my aesthetic eye.  In February alone, I had several opportunities to consume appreciate portraiture.

Fascade of the San Francisco Museum of African Diaspora 

First was the visit to the San Francisco Museum of African Diaspora.  This award-winning structure features an incredible portrait comprised of numerous photographic portraits.  The work can be admired as a whole from the outside of the museum as I captured in the picture.  The Chester Higgins, Jr original portrait of the young African girl is captivating. The mosaic mural created from this photograph is even more powerful because it suggest the concept---we are all a small part of one common whole.  If you are in San Francisco make the time to check out this permanent exhibit. You can also appreciate it online.


A quick walk around the corner (that same day) to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art gave us the opportunity to check out the provocative, if not sometimes disturbing photographs of Francesca Woodman.  The exhibit is no longer at SFMoMA but the PBS Independent Lens series recently aired a documentary on the artist and her family.

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders exchanges a word with former
photographic subject, Governor Deval Patrick.
The Governor's portrait is just behind Greenfield-Sanders (ugh!)

Finally, this past weekend I scored the jackpot when my beau suggested we visit the National Portrait Gallery.  I not only got to hear Governor Deval Patrick at a reading (and signing) of his book, A Reason to Believe Lessons from an Improbable Life, but I also got to meet Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, the photographer of The Black List.  An exhibit which happens to include a portrait of Governor Patrick.  While I had seen The Black List documentary and found it enjoyable, I must say that the exhibit of the original photographic portraits was quite powerful.  The large scale and the variety of poses from subject to subject impressed upon me just how expressive portraiture can be. As a viewer, I felt invited into the subject's personal space. This exhibit will remain in DC until the end of April, so there's time for you to see it yourself.


A good portrait is more than just an individual posing for the camera.  It can convey the interesting aspects of a face. The right expression may make you consider, "what was going on just before the shutter opened?"  And, of course, the eyes can really draw you in and force you to ask that question, "What's the story behind this face?"