Circulus No. 3

Thinkspace Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located in Los Angeles, California, known for its focus on urban, pop surrealism, and street art. Founded in 2005, the gallery has gained a reputation for showcasing cutting-edge, emerging artists who blend traditional and modern artistic styles. Thinkspace is celebrated for promoting contemporary artists whose works explore themes of fantasy, the surreal, and the experimental, making it a pivotal space in the art toy and street art communities. Mixed media tends to refer to a work of visual art that combines various traditionally distinct visual art media. For example, a work on canvas that combines paint, ink, and collage could properly be called a "mixed media" work. When creating a painted or photographed work using mixed media it is important to choose the layers carefully and allow enough drying time between the layers to ensure the final work will have integrity. If many different media are used it is equally important to choose a sturdy foundation upon which the different layers are imposed. Many interesting effects can be achieved by using mixed media. Often, found objects are used in conjunction with traditional artist media, such as paints and graphite, to express a meaning in the everyday life. In this manner, many different elements of art become more flexible than with traditional artist media. Concurrently on view in the Thinkspace project room is Elegant Universe, featuring new work by Dutch artist Handiedan. Handiedan creates elaborate three dimensional collage pieces from a cut and paste method of re-assemblage. Starting with the iconic imagery of the vintage pin-up girl, popularized in the 30’s, the artist creates complex images from a combination of pattern, figurative imagery, and symbol. Her materials are culled from a vast array of printed cultural currency. Appropriating everything from postage stamps, and legal tender, to origami paper patterns, and historical sheet music motifs, the artist’s work is a combination of re-design and aggregation. Her multi-layered compositions transform found two dimensional imagery, literally re-imagining it in relief. Handiedan’s facility and skill in graphic design, illustration, and photography, is immediately visible in her complex works. Graphically sophisticated, their actual assemblage involves a highly detailed sculptural component. The artist incorporates wood and other materials to raise the surfaces and increase their dimensionality. At times the works feel like complex visual puzzles, with pattern and figurative elements interchangeably intermixed. The degree of complexity and depth is impressive. A pastiche of historical styles, the artist borrows from the Baroque to the Neo-Classical, and from the Victorian to the post-war The art of Dutch artist Handiedan (1981, Netherlands) involves a complex cut and paste mixture of computer montage and highly detailed sculptural hand cut collages, complimented by conscientiously collected antique ornamental frames. Build out of multiple classic pin-up body parts, the female form stands out over a backdrop of baroque and Victorian Neo-Classicism designs. All culled from international currencies and stamps, antique sheet music ornaments, playing cards, cigar bands, Asian papers with personal items and drawings. Intricate and meticulously crafted, the collages represent the gradual accumulation of both the layers in her work and her work process self. Handiedan first builds up her digital design out of the gathered collage material and drawings. Then she rebuilds the design into a meticulously crafted multi layered hand cut collage with precisely added items. A complex visual puzzle and labyrinth of collage and paper layers, interchangeably intermixed, that stands out in relief. Handiedan works in series. This suffices as an eclectic personal exploration or review of her main design's journey and process. With each piece on either paper, antique wood or rusty metal, or a different size, containing different collage elements and details result in a different story, emotion and time dimension within each piece. When