Life is stories.
- We are defined and motivated by our stories.
- Whether a piece of art, a map, a movie, a sporting event, a ballet, a book, an article, an excursion, we see the world through stories.
- At Pixeum, we help people, especially collectors, students and artists, tell stories with their artifacts and artwork.
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Paula Pietranera Artwork
https://paulapietranera.com/ ARTIST STATEMENTThink the fold. Be the fold. Forget the fold.My work is rooted in two traditional Japanese art techniques.Renzuru, which is roughly translated as “consecutive cranes”, is an advanced origami technique that uses a single sheet of paper to fold a series of multiple cranes, all connected to each other through their wings, beak or tails.And Sumié, the art of ink painting. Through the fluidity and spontaneity of the brush strokes and the precision and detail care of the paper folds, my art invites you to get closer, to connect, and explore. Paper cranes and sumi ink come together in a subtle way that can only be discovered within the stillness of intimate, mindful attention.Many connected cranes come alive out of a single sheet of paper, where each one is unique and at the same time part of the whole. The simplicity, skilled execution, and the deep connection with the creative act of the present moment is what gives life to my expression as an artist, on a journey beyond mere decoration or aesthetic appreciation.“Paula Pietranera has reinvented Renzuru into a highly sophisticated contemporary art form that goes beyond folk art in both style and content.”Dr. Mark LevyProfessor Emeritus of Art History, California State UniversityBIO - PAULA PIETRANERABorn in 1979 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Paula Pietranera graduated as an architect and later specialized in historical building conservation and restoration. During her studies, she felt a deep spiritual connection to Asian arts which led her to study sumi-e, origami and calligraphy in Argentina, Japan, and the United States. While living in Japan in 2015, she discovered the renzuru origami technique for which she trained with the master Mizuho Tomita in Kyoto. During the last few years she has been exploring ways in which this traditional paper folding technique can be an expressive medium of fine artwork. Her creations have been exhibited in Argentina, Japan and in the USAkeyword: featuredartists
OPEN EXHIBITMiriam Sweeney Artwork
“Drawing inspiration from city aerial views, my work explores the urban landscape that sit somewhere between order and chaos, structure and collapse, expression and control. Seen from above, its pieces emerge like a puzzle, each with its own personality. I paint playful, textured curvilinear shapes to capture the city streets, its landmarks, the droning sounds of traffic, the chitter chatter of its cast of characters. I hope to evoke the feeling one gets when flying into a new place for the first time, when we try to take everything in, or reflect on the lasting impressions of authentic connections, special places and their unique stories.”Photoshoot at Baker Street on June 23rd, 2024.Transcript of Recordingkeyword: featuredartists
OPEN EXHIBITArtists We Love Gallery Show - August 16 & 17
Tom Paper and his daughter Sarah Paper, on behalf of Pixeum, are pleased to be hosting Artists We Love Gallery Show on August 16 & 17.We have known each of the featured artists for a number of years and have recently digitized and created an exhibit for each of the artist’s work. Links to each of the exhibits are shown below.On the 16th, from 5 to 7pm, and on the 17th, from 11am to 1pm, each of the artists will be displaying and offering their art for sale.If you are interested in attending, please email Sarah Paper at sarah@pixeum.org to receive the address in Pacific Heights for this show.Hope to see you there!Sarah & TomAlp Ozberker artwork exhibit on PixeumLily Shanahan artwork exhibit on PixeumMiriam Sweeney artwork exhibit on PixeumMegan Bigelow artwork exhibit on Pixeumkeyword: featuredartists
OPEN EXHIBITIslamo-Christian Cartographic Frontiers: Views from Medieval Islamic Maps of the Mediterranean
Professor Karen Pinto has spent three decades at the forefront of the study of Islamic cartographic history. Her first book, Medieval Islamic Maps: An Exploration, came out in 2016, and she is currently working on a second, focusing on Islamic maps of the Mediterranean. Today, she is an Associate Scholar in the Religious Studies Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder."When I was a graduate student at Columbia in 1991, my professor, the late but incredibly great Olivia Remie Constable (1961-2014), suggested that I write a seminar paper on the medieval Muslim geographers. That sent me to the dark recessed of the Islamic history and geography collection on the 11th floor of the Butler Library. There I, literally, tripped over Konrad Miller’s late 1920’s extensive 6 volume: Mappae Arabicae: Arabische Welt und Länderkarten des 9–13. Jahrunderts. (6 vols. Stuttgart, 1926–1931) black and white reprints of hundreds of medieval Islamic maps hidden in Oriental manuscripts hitherto little known in the western history of cartography world.Miller’s dusty, crumbling black-and-white reprints of medieval Islamic maps of the Mediterranean, formed the basis of my first major work on the subject: “Ṣūrat Baḥr al-Rūm: The Mediterranean in the Medieval Muslim Cartographical Imagination,” my MA Essay at Columbia U that went on to win SSRC’s 1992 Ibn Khaldun Prize. That experience led, in turn, to a life-long obsession and hunt for maps scattered in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscript libraries worldwide that resulted in her first book on Islamic maps of the world in “Medieval Islamic Maps: An Introduction” (Chicago, 2016) and a collection of some three thousand images of maps, many not reprinted.
OPEN EXHIBIT