Malin Lager: ‘Oil paintings’ with silk thread

Inspired by lichen-covered rocks, wet cobblestone streets and the expressive faces of her family and friends, Swedish textile artist Malin Lager creates highly detailed ‘paintings’ with her favourite 1984 Pfaff sewing machine. Her pictures, crafted of meticulously stitched layers of fabric and thread, are so lifelike they are often mistaken for oil paintings.

Malin begins with lustrous, coloured strands of fine silk which she builds up in a many-hued cascade of tiny darning threads over a patched fabric background, similar to the traditional method of underpainting in painted art. The free motion foot on her sewing machine is expertly guided to create colour and composition in an image with shading and highlights that give it its photographic-like expression.

Working from her own photographs, the process is slow but enables her to feel her way to creating the texture that makes her works of art so astonishing.

Descending from four generations of artists, she was always supported in her creative expression, though the use of her sewing machine for textile art was a surprise discovery.

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Exhibition celebrates Andrea del Verrocchio and his most famous pupil, Leonardo

The first comprehensive retrospective devoted to Andrea del Verrocchio (1435 – 1488) opened in Florence this Spring at the Palazzo Strozzi, with an accompanying presentation at the Museo Nazionale del Bargello. Verrocchio, Master of Leonardo brings together masterpieces by Verrocchio from collections around the world, contextualised by works from his forefathers and peers, as well as by the pupils he worked intensively with, including Leonardo da Vinci, Pietro Perugino, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Sandro Botticelli. The exhibition demonstrates Verrocchio’s remarkable creativity as a solo artist, illustrating his workshop as a crucial place of collaboration, exchange and co-working, where the language and the style of Renaissance art in Florence was forged. Formally a private home, the 16th Century Palazzo Strozzi provides historic context to the show, which spans artistic output in Florence from 1460 to 1490 – the glorious age

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Exhibition at the Dayton Art Institute presents 100 extraordinary paintings

The Dayton Art Institute begins its centennial season of special exhibitions with For America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design, on view from February 23 through June 2. The DAI is the debut venue for this new touring exhibition, organized by the American Federation of Arts (AFA) and the National Academy of Design (NAD). For America is the first exhibition to highlight the fundamental characteristic of the National Academy’s collection: the joint presentation of an artist’s portrait with her or his representative work. The exhibition’s 100 extraordinary paintings present not only a visual document of the Academy’s membership, but also a unique history of American painting from 1809 to the present. “For America offers a nuanced story of American art,” said Pauline Willis, Director and CEO of the American Federation of Arts. “The exhibition’s national tour will bring these importa

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Exhibition explores the life history, remarkable abilities, and ancient relatives of T. rex

Everyone knows Tyrannosaurus rex. But did you know that T. rex hatchlings were fluffy and gangly, more like turkeys than the massive killing machines they grew up to be? Or that T. rex evolved from a large group of dinosaurs that were, for the most part, small, and fast? Or how about that the mega-predator had the rare ability to pulverize and digest bones? T. rex: The Ultimate Predator, the first major exhibition of the American Museum of Natural History’s 150th anniversary celebration, will introduce you to the entire tyrannosaur family and reveal the amazing story of the most iconic dinosaur in the world through life-sized models—including the most scientifically accurate representation of T. rex to date—fossils and casts, engaging interactives, and the Museum’s first multiplayer virtual reality experience. Founded in 1869, the Museum has a long and celebrated history of international exploration and research in

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