NASA's 'Earth As Art' Offers Eye-Catching Images

Garden City, Kansas. Image via NASA 'Earth As Art.'Guaranteed to change your perspective on some of the world’s most beautiful places: NASA recently released hardcover, (free!) ebook, and (free!) iPad app versions of a new book titled Earth as Art, which features 75 images on 158 pages taken from space by NASA and U.S. Gealogical Survey satellites. The out-of-this world photographers—namely, the Landsat 5 and 7, Terra, Aqua, and Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellites—are capable of measuring light outside of the visible range. That means images that pop in ways your naked eye could not have conceived. The iPad version of Earth as Art allows users to zoom into the images and access additional information on selected features and the satellites used. 

Images are taken of locations all over the world, but without the typical natural wonders (no Grand Canyon, for instance) and without urban settings. The focus is mostly on natural environments, both terrestrial and aquatic, with a few cultivated land forms also presented. Locations in the United States include Desolation Canyon, Garden City (pictured above), Meandering Mississippi, Mississippi River Delta, Painted Desert, Sand Hills, and the Susitina Glacier. Land art almost seems mundane by comparison.

Bibliophiles Rejoice! Massive June Sale at Phaidon Press

Architecture and art publisher Phaidon is holding a June sale that those with a voracious appetite for books celebrating the visual world don’t want to miss. Hundreds of Phaidon’s best selling titles are available at half price now through June 20—ranging from biopics on luminaries such as Renzo Piano and Ukiyo-e to surveys of photography, land art, and modernist homes. 

Ellsworth Kelly Exhibits at LACMA and Matthew Marks

Ellsworth Kelly, Colors on a Grid, 1976Showing at LACMA from January 22 through April 22, Ellsworth Kelly: Prints and Paintings is the first retrospective examination of Kelly’s exceedingly prolific print practice since 1988. The exhibition includes over 100 prints, the majority from the collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation, and five paintings. The exhibition is organized thematically to explore Kelly’s mastery of key formal motifs: grids, contrast and curves.

The new Matthew Marks Gallery in West Hollywood also recently opened Ellsworth Kelly: Los Angeles, which includes six new two-panel paintings, all of which are being exhibited for the first time. Also on view are a group of 1952-54 collages, including Study for Black and White Panels, and the 1966 painting Black Over White. The facade of the newly constructed building also features an installation of a large Kelly sculpture, creating a striking example of minimalism in a city known more for colored glass. The new Matthew Marks Gallery was designed by Culver City-based architecture firm ZELLNERPLUS.

Art: Architecture, Design and Artistic Impulse, SF Launch with AIA/SF - FORM May/June 2011 - Deadline 3/25

Click here for the SOURCE Marketplace 1-sheet
Click to download PDF

FORM VIDEO INTERVIEW: Thom Mayne - Artist

For more on inspiration, RSVP to the April 7 issue event panel with Perkins+Will and Friends of the Los Angeles River. A panel discussion will explore how infrastructure impacts the human experience, the environment and the economy. Examples and presenters: FoLAR's Piggyback Yard Conceptual Master Plan created with the PBy Collaborative Design Group (Chee Salette Architecture Office, Mia Lehrer + Associates, Michael Maltzan Architecture, and Perkins+Will); Michael Bohn, AIA, Principal, studioneleven at Perkowitz + Ruth Architects, discussing streetscaping and road diets; Cliff Garten on the integration of architecture, landscape and engineering; and Deborah Weintraub, AIA, Chief Architect, Department of Public Works, Bureau of Engineering on architecture and urban infrastructure.

Moderator will be Jack Skelley, architecture/design/urbanism journalist and FORM contributor.

Please share with colleagues and friends from this post.
The piece is also located on YouTube

A production of FORM Video Services