The Verbier 3-D Foundation has launched our special Capsule Collection with Puzzles With Purpose.
ARTXPUZZLES selected our curator Alexa Jeanne Kusber and the Verbier 3-D Foundation to develop a special collection within their Puzzles With Purpose project to support international contemporary artists during the global pandemic with a percentage of proceeds supporting select Artist Choice Charities.
The Curator's Choice is a global initiative by special invitation only for international curators from around the world to create new and innovative artist jigsaw puzzles with their selected artists.
The Verbier 3-D Foundation Capsule Collection will feature residency artists Natalie Ball (Chiloquin,Oregon), Olaf Breuning (Switzerland/Upstate NYC), Andrea Hasler (London/Switzerland), Tessa Perutz (New York/Brussels) and Fragmentin (Lausanne,Switzerland).
Available in Collector Editions of 10 (2 Artist Proofs) and presented in custom-engraved presentation boxes, the investment-worthy puzzles make edition collecting a fresh experience at accessible prices.
"My initial thoughts, when considering this collection, was that humanity needs the transformational power of creativity now more than ever. Initiatives such as Puzzles with Purpose can contribute in fueling the ability to open our minds to new art forms, rethink the concept of community and playfully bring us closer to the authentic spirit of creation.
Puzzle solving not only connects us to the creative process of artists by asking us to tap into our everyday abilities of perception, understanding and memory, but it also allows us to put together the pieces into a whole: to fix, mend and reconsider what we have built.
As we continue to navigate this pandemic-fueled culture shock, (personally, environmentally, politically, and professionally) with certainties faded into the past, the act of puzzling becomes a playful way to assist us on our modern journeys.
With this in mind, I have selected five artists from the Verbier 3-D Foundation residency program, whom I believe navigate their own personal landscapes, producing artworks which provide a commentary on their experiences of the pandemic and life in general. The works selected, and experienced as puzzles, engage us to consider issues related to collectivity, community, cultural understanding of history and politics, form, space and our common past, present and future.
Natalie Ball’s work offers us new narratives through the framework of auto-ethnography paired with activism. Covering heavy topics that relate to her identity, from the erasure of Indigenous communities, anti-Blackness, blood quantum rules, missing and murdered Indigenous women to Land Back, Ball does not want to educate, rather she is just sharing her truth. Olaf Breuning’s multi-layered oeuvre asks us to constantly question contemporary reality and to use humor as an everyday survival tool. Andrea Hasler’s wax and mixed media sculptures portray the tension between attraction and repulsion focusing on the relationship with our bodies, personal space and consumerism. Tessa Perutz’s paintings function as psychological landscapes in an effort to serve as a getaway from the grim reality. Colorful motifs of bodies of water, forest canopies, botanicals and the sun and moon play freely in her works, opening up spaces to consider personal and universal themes of connection and separation. Fragmentin’s digital work demystifies complex systems and reveals the tension between emergent technologies and society. Their online generative artworks evoke the complex processes which consume both our minds and the energy resources of our world. " - Curator Alexa Jeanne Kusber
We would like to thank the creative force Alaina Simone, who introduced us to this admirable project.
Proceeds from Natalie Ball’s Limited Collector Edition Jigsaw Puzzle will go to the Klamath community in Oregon who faces environmental racism daily.
For more information:
artxpuzzles.com
