ArtPrize 2016 Visit 2

I made a second trip to check out ArtPrize in downtown Grand Rapids recently. Between this and my first trip, I've seen most of the pieces in that area, probably around 2/3 of the entire competition. There are more scattered around the rest of the city, and a good number of live events as well. I doubt I'll go out to attend those, but I see a bit of them on the news or the ArtPrize website.

 

These metal dragon sculptures were a good way from downtown, up in Heritage Hill near the apartment I had when I first moved to Grand Rapids. Too bad, since a lot of folks might not make it out that far and miss seeing them. The one on the bottom actually breathed fire, with a little fuel tank built into its belly. (Under the careful watch of the artist, of course - that's him in the lower right.)

Nice autumn road-through-the-woods landscape photograph.

This Last Supper wall hanging was huge, covering most of an entire wall in the sanctuary of a church also in Heritage Hill. It was made entirely with colored pencils according to the info sign.

Outside that same church was this piece named "His Love Remains" with what I thought was a unique take on the crucifixion of Christ. It has many of the associated items - crown of thorns, spear, etc - on an empty cross.

Wall hanging of eagles in flight.

These ceramic sculptures are vaguely cactus-like, though apparently not meant to represent actual plants. Pretty, though.

Cute painting, reminded me of anime style visuals.

These two are part of a larger group of images, featuring old barns and train locomotives.

When you looked at this circular DNA helix sculpture closely, it's very spiky - all those strands are made out of screws. The artist's wife has cystic fibrosis and this was his way to express the combination of life and pain from such genetic diseases.

Interesting piece on the interaction of nature and civilization - that's an endangered species of tiger, with various man-made structures built into its body.

A display of wooden carvings of a whole range of cycles, from tricycles to those old-time big-wheeled bicycles.

The picture doesn't do this justice since a lot of the appeal is the movement. All those little sparkly pieces that make up the bodies of the animals are hanging from strings and are free to shift a bit as the air moves.

I think this was the single most popular piece that I saw, with people lined up to get a chance to walk around the circular display of carved wooden service dogs. Each represented a different era in the military, from the world wars through Vietnam into the modern war on terrorism. The wooden canine sculptures each have an injury representative of what they and their human companions suffered during their service.

Stained-glass piece showing a tropical scene. Nice placement on the display, right at the Amway Grand Hotel's front windows so that the headlights of cars pulling around the hotel entrance shone through.

This is only a small number of the hundreds of bronze butterflies in this display, which took up an entire large room.

This display of masks is a collective effort by people recovering from brain injury. Each patient made their own mask and wrote a small description of themselves underneath.

Nice pattern piece, part of a sequence that started fairly simply and increased in complexity.

One of three very complex drawings (sadly my pictures of the other two were poor) with an interesting techno-fantasy theme.

Two of four paintings representing the seasons. Each of the trees is made up of animals as well as branches - you can see a deer at the bottom of the trunk on the left, and a shark at the base on the right.

A very long, beautiful landscape painting, moving through all four seasons as you follow it along the wall.

A large painting of swirling smoke, with images of people formed within. That's a foam cigarette in the corner representing the source.

There's no consistent pattern in this worked-iron piece, but I enjoyed looking at the various complex components.

Wooden sculpture of salmon swimming upstream.

Still-life sculpture of a hawk descending on smaller birds.

Nice landscape piece, although it's hard to tell in this image since it's a bit too dark.

These wooden planks are nicely worked with twisting patterns. Each of the colors is a different type of wood, not stains or other finishing.

There were quite a few of these little bucket sculptures, with all sorts of strange things in each. I particularly liked the geese in the middle.

This isn't a camera zoom on my part - the photograph is a tight close-up of an eagle's eye.

Another nice landscape. I thought it was a painting at first, but it's a photograph that captures the scene perfectly.

A pattern piece made up of tiny dots.

These are part of a series of images representing change in the manufacturing economy and culture. There were several pieces along this theme, not a surprise here in the Rust Belt.

An incredible-machine-style piece with a bunch of balls moving through a complex series of ramps and loops. It's placed such that you can see it from ground level as shown here, or walk up to the second floor and see it from above.