The Illuminate Association and Grace Cathedral have created an immersive installation in one of the most important religious monuments in San Francisco. Grace Light is a striking work that accentuates the mystical atmosphere of the religious structure, served by a beam of “divine” light that measures over 30 meters.

“The light arouses wonder, travel your body to go straight to the heart. We are honored and honored to be able to work with Grace Cathedral to present a public work of art in this sacred space”.

Created by artist and designer Berkley George Zisiadis, with music composed by composer Gabriel Gold, the installation allowed visitors to experience a unique aesthetic adventure based on a path that develops in a linear way, without ever losing its intensity.

Take a look at our gallery below.

Last October, the fifth edition of The Unexpected returned to Fort Smith, with engaging works of art and music.
Conceived and produced by Justkids – a creative house founded by art curator Charlotte Dutoit – it is dedicated to bringing contemporary art to Northwest Arkansas through immersive public art experiences that generate cultural exchanges between creatives and stimulate community development.

For this reason, Camille Walala – one of the most successful contemporary artists and designers at the time – was invited for the first time for the development of the new project and joined the initiative. What she did was transform a disused 1950s gas station into an exciting work of art renamed as Walala Pump & Go gas station.

The realization of the work has been influenced by many factors including the artist’s travels, the creative vein of Gruppo Memphis – an Italian collective of design and architecture founded by Ettore Sottsass -, the masters of Optical Art – an abstract art movement born in the 60s and which took hold in the following decade – and by the women of the Ndebele tribes, a South African community. All these influences have given rise to a concept that follows the tribal pop style but at the same time proposes colorful geometric patterns that give dynamism to the existing elements of the context.

The architectural support of the 1950s was perfect for the artist to turn it into an engaging social space in a single week, with the extraordinary community effort and collaboration of local artist Nate Meyers and a group of skilled volunteers.
The artist’s bold and playful style incredibly enhances the built space and architecture, creating welcoming social environments.
In addition to Camille Walala, artists such as Okuda San Miguel, Hilda Palafox, Robert Montgomery, and Alexandre Bavard took part in the project.

Text by Anna Cardaci

Simone Rotella is an Italian graphic designer and illustrator who lives his life between London and Turin.
What made him knew was the publication of his works in newspapers such as Corriere della Sera and on more complex projects such as the book “For the Gods of Girsu”, written by an archaeologist for the British Museum in London.

Thanks to his outstanding creativity, he has won numerous illustration awards such as the WIA-World Illustration Awards 2019 and the 3×3 Awards 2018, in which he received an honorable mention.
His inspiration and approach allow him to represent different themes and convey them in different formats: from archaeological books to children’s illustrations and stories. Some of his works are also inspired by street art – his first love, born during his childhood – and artists like Blu, Alessandro Gottardo “Shout”, Dran and Niels Shoe.

His illustrations are characterized by a dreamlike look that transforms reality into a credible but alienating possibility and that forces us to find a personal key to interpreting the enigma. It almost seems to approach a philosophical strand that is the basis of all his complex work.
In fact, each of his works is very conceptual and has a strong reference to vintage through the combination of different elements such as the silhouette, textures and graphic filters.
The aim of his art is to attract the attention of the observer and stimulate a retrospective and inner thought given by the dialogue between images and visual sensations.
His style is well recognizable because he manages to reconcile spontaneity, on the one hand using, a freehand stroke and on the other hand the control, awareness and all the possibilities that digital offers.
All his works are made according to certain chromatic palettes that make them almost like real paintings.

Simone finds inspiration by the comics of which he is a great fan, particularly those of Hugo Pratt, Crepax and Sergio Toppi, and by art, preferring the French painter Henri Matisse, one of the most famous artists of the twentieth century and the greatest exponent of the artistic movement of the Fauves. He admires the meticulous use of colors and their combinations.
In addition to his previous collaborations, the Turin illustrator will open his first exhibition entitled “hashtag” where he will exhibit all his most ambitious works.

Testo di Anna Cardaci

It was exactly on 9 November 1989 that the Berlin Wall was pulled down. Its fall was significant both for Germany and for the whole world. From its inception, it symbolised the separation of a nation and the differences between people, ideologies and politics.
But let’s take a step back almost sixty years: The Wall was considered the concrete symbol of the imaginary borderline between the pro-western European areas. It surrounded West Berlin and divided the city in two for 28 years, from August 13, 1961 until November 9, 1989, when the East German government was forced to declare the reopening of the borders with the Federal Republic.

The foundations of the wall were erected almost overnight. Around midnight on 13 August, army officers rolled miles of barbed wire through the city to the outlying countryside. This event became known as the “Barbed wire Sunday”. Although the complex process of physical and ideological reunification of the country took about a year in total, November 9 is considered a reference day. To celebrate this anniversary, Los Angeles-based artist Patrick Shearn – renowned for his large kinetic installations that he calls “Skynets” – was commissioned to create a commemorative work for this date.
The commissioned work continues the dynamic series of ultra-light floating art installations, mounted in such a way as to appear as floating in mid-air.
The name of the installation is Visions in Motion and was exhibited to the public from 4 to 10 November and The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin was chosen as the host location as it had previously been used as a dividing line.

The kinetic work covers an area of about two thousand square meters and thirty thousand partially reflecting ribbons that give movement thus decorating the city. The colours of the ribbons are yellow, light blue/blue and purple. The choice of the use of these shades was not a coincidence but studied as they recall and convey the idea of hope and the possibility of change, improvement, progress but also the memory of the Cold War.
Developing historical awareness is the first objective of this installation to ensure that nothing is forgotten and to prevent what happened in the past from being repeated in the future.

Text by Anna Cardaci