Misc – Page 11 – mathewingram.com/work

Polar bears on an island off Russia’s eastern coast have taken over an abandoned research station and made themselves at home. Drone footage captured by photographer Vadim Makhorov shows the large bears getting comfortable in the remains of a Soviet-era weather station on Kolyuchin Island. The tiny island is about seven miles from the coast of the Chukotka Peninsula, which faces Alaska and was abandoned in the 1990s, after the Soviet Union fell. Makhorov was using a drone to film the landscape of the island when he saw the bears, he said in a Facebook post. Photos show the bears inside homes, looking out windows and resting on porches. Makharov said that there were about 20 bears in the area, and one tried to catch the drone as it approached. (via Reuters)

A tiny art gallery in an old stairwell displays equally tiny works of art

In 2016, while artist McKay Lenker Bayer was still an undergraduate, her professor assigned the class the task of exhibiting their work. Unsure about presenting her work to the public, she downsized, quite literally, showing miniature paintings with teensy-tiny labels. In 2018, Lenker Bayer established Tiny Art Show, a community art project in Provo, Utah, to show original work by numerous artists. Until this year, the project was largely nomadic, but Tiny Art Show now has its own dedicated space. Installed at 1:6 scale, the storefront-style gallery sits inside what was originally a stairwell, accessible from street level. Its blue facade is reminiscent of retail spaces in New York City or London, and inside, it’s what Lenker Bayer describes as “a fully functional, commercial art gallery… that just happens to be tiny.” Original work is for sale, opening events draw gatherings of people who enjoy tiny snacks, and you can even grab a tiny newspaper from the vending machine near the door. (via Colossal)

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