New Hyperrealistic Painting by Omar Ortiz

Guadalajara-based painter Omar Ortiz (nsfw) recently completed this amazing new oil painting titled Salto de Fe (Leap of Faith). Ortiz is an accomplished hyperrealistic painter and commands fine control over light and skin tone in all of his paintings which he generally paints on large canvases. You can also find him on Facebook. (via ghost in the machine)

The Reading Nest: A New Installation by Mark Reigelman Using 10,000 Reclaimed Boards

The Reading Nest is a new site-specific installation by artist Mark Reigelman outside the Cleveland Public Library. Reigelman obtained 10,000 reclaimed boards from various Cleveland industrial and manufacturing sites and worked with a team of people over 10 days to construct the nest which was completed earlier this month. From his statement regarding the project:

For centuries objects in nature have been associated with knowledge and wisdom. Trees of enlightenment and scholarly owls have been particularly prominent in this history of mythological objects of knowledge. The Reading Nest is a visual intermediary between forest and fowl. It symbolizes growth, community and knowledge while continuing to embody mythical roots.

You can see many more hotos of the Reading Nest over on his website. (via colossal submissions)

Tomás Saraceno Launches You into the Sky with His Latest Suspended Installation “In Orbit” at K21 Staendehaus

Hyper Drive Yurikamome: Mirrored Hyperlapse of Tokyo’s Automated Transit System

This fun hyperlapse video was shot on Tokyo’s fully-automated Yurikamome transit system by a photographer/filmmaker who goes by darwinfish105. The visuals in the video were achieved using an array of mirror and vertical flip effects in Adobe Premiere. You might remember similar videos shot by Daihei Shibata and Craig Shamala from back in 2010, however this new video seems to have been shot predominantly from the front/back of the train giving the video a somewhat different feel. If you liked this you might also enjoy these transit photos by Céline Ramoni, also taken on board the Yurikamome. (viafaith is torment)

The WOOD.b Bike by BSG

The WOOD.b is a new urban bicycle designed by Strasbourg-based BSG in partial collaboration with Thibaut Malet, whose wooden expertise you might recognize previously from his limited edition Lego figures and rubber band light. The bikes are constructed from a fascinating hybrid of wood and steel, and will be available for purchase in September of this year. You can learn more on the BSG website or check ‘em out onFacebook. (via behance)

[Sponsor] Berndnaut Smilde: Making Clouds.

A few onlookers hold their collective breath as Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde pushes a remote control button to activate a smoke machine in the Green Room of the Veterans Building in downtown San Francisco. Billowing smoke forms a luscious, cotton candy-like mass in the middle of the Beaux-Arts chamber before it vaporizes into haze, casting a luminous complexion on the room.

“It’s not so much about the shape of the cloud but about placing it out of its natural context,” he says. “It brings duality, because you can’t really grasp how to interpret the situation you are viewing. People have always had strong metaphysical connections to clouds as they symbolize the ominous.”

People’s fascination with Smilde’s clouds have only increased since TIME magazine listed them as one of the “Top 10 inventions of 2012″.

Watch as Berndnaut Smilde makes clouds in this latest video from The Avant/Garde Diaries.

Putting Down Roots: New Paintings of Urban Growth and Turmoil by Amy Casey

Megalopolis

Megapolis, detail

Ribbon Walls

High-rise

Connectors Connecting

Cascade

Cascade, detail

Lean To

Hanging Forest

Artist Amy Casey (previously) just unveiled a new collection of work at Zg Gallery here in Chicago. Titled Putting Down Roots the paintings continue an ongoing fictional saga of characters living in Casey’s artwork who often face great adversity from killer plants, collapsing structures, and other desperate means to keep their cities afloat or intact. From the looks of it things have improved dramatically for these little painted inhabitants who appear to have weathered the storm and are now thriving within Casey’s bizarre, suspended worlds. From the artist:

After any pendulum swing of chaos grinds to a slow halt, there will come a time when you will have to decide if you are going to wallow in the rubble or take what remains and create a new empire. Building upon recent work, I have been in search of a solid ground. A bit less kinetic than past work, I have been trying to take what was left of the world in my paintings and create a stability of sorts, thinking about community ties and the security (or illusion of security) needed to nurture growth. Cities are fascinating creatures that I am just beginning to scratch the surface of.

In the video above from Cleveland Arts Prize she talks at length about her process and the continuing narrative that weaves through years of her art. Interestingly, every building or house in each of her paintings is based on actual source materials. Casey will take photographs of some 500 individual houses, office buildings, and water towers which she then uses as reference for every small small structure you see in her artwork.

Putting Down Roots will be up through July 6th, with a smaller selection of work on view through August. All images copyright Amy Casey, courtesy Zg Gallery.