Based in Manchester, England, freelance artist, illustrator and designer, Rob Bailey has created this beautifully illustrated series of thirty landscape drawings – Wish You Were There. They were originally based on the blank address lines on the reverse of a postcard. These minimal illustrations, measuring 30cm x 50cm, successfully present a reduction of visual elements without compromising the space and shape of the landscapes. I think individually these wouldn’t produce the desired impact, but as a collection, would make for wonderful wall art.

I love the vibrant, colorful, photographs in the Sky series by Eric Cahan. The photos, often without any reference to the earth, show a surreal limitless space and were taken at bodies of water in California, Florida, and New York. To me, the sun is the ultimate source of light, so it only seemed natural to pursue that source – Cahan explains. Using four different cameras ranging from 6 x 7 film to digital he explores the magical light during a sunrise or a sunset. The magic light reminds me of early flights and makes me want to plan new trips to discover places I have never been before.

This unusual ad is a part of Absolut’s ongoing campaign on the subject of purity. Every year a different artist is asked to express his or her vision in a form of an advertising piece for the Absolut vodka brand. Last year it was a fun gaudy-looking project by Paul Graves, the year before that – a stunning work by Dan Tobin Smith. This year’s contribution to the theme came from German artist Simon Schubert. Schubert approached the idea of purity quite literally and did what he does best – a sheet of folded paper (artist’s remarkable folded works brought him international fame for a reason). The concept of purity is beautifully expressed through a poetry of wrinkled paper, brought to life by shadows and light… The ad is currently on display inside the busstop on Avenue de l’Opera in Paris. The campaign was conducted by Being advertising agency.

Born in Florence, Italy in 1961, abstract painter Luca Brandi has produced a wonderful collection dating from 2001-2011. Inspired from a very early age whilst working in various churches in the city of Florence, Brandi studied under Paolo Galletti, who taught the theories on the separation of geometric form through painting and colour. After studying the works of Richard Serra, Brice Marden and Frank Stella, Brandi discovered a passion for minimalist art. He then began working on new works based on the layering of metallic colours that are still the basis of his work today. Brandi explains: I eliminate as much as I can to express the beauty of the human spirit. Due to this, I often use metallic colours, in an attempt to bring the spectator to meditate through colour, materials, reflection, and silence. → Watch a video of his works on display

Japanese artist Kumi Yamashita (1968) is known for creating realistic imagery from invisible sources. Her shadow art has earned Yamashita international recognition with works appearing in such venues as Seattle Art Museum, Boise Art Museum, Yerba Buena Centre, San Francisco, the Esplanade in Singapore, Hillside Gallery in Tokyo and the Kent Gallery in New York. The pieces are comprised of ordinary everyday things and a single light source, which brings these objects to life. Alphabets and building blocks, scattered across the wall, become realistic human figures, coloured resin plates give shape to facial silhouettes, and credit card imprints create portraits. Yamashita’s precision is staggering. It is amazing to see how these sophisticated, coherent and very detailed images have been originated. These works are exhaustively complex in execution and yet manage to remain simple and minimal to the eye. Kumi Yamashita will be having solo exhibitions at the Sato Museum, Tokyo and the Dillon Gallery, New York in 2012.

Composition Light is a project recently completed by Canadian born designer Miya Kondo. The collection is comprised of a series of light sculptures that vary in size and colour. Used in combination, the objects can create different effects. Depending on the position of the elements and their relation to each other, the quality of light is modified and the ambiance of the space altered. Miya Kondo explains: Light acts as an interpreter for how we experience space – our emotional experience of space, time and place. We can be captivated by the influence of light on the shape of objects, on the atmosphere around us and the feeling of our surroundings. The installation of the Composition Light project recently took place during the Dutch Design Week 2011.

The Swiss artist Zimoun is currently exhibiting his latest installation at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida (USA), which runs until January 08 2012. Zimoun, previously featured on Minimalissimo, builds architecturally-minded platforms of sound using simple and functional components, which result in unique and quite beautiful soundscapes. The Sculpting Sound installation, curated by Matthew McLendon is an example of structural simplicity in an industrial-like setting, which reveals an intricate relationship between the artificial and the organic. Zimoun’s creations often use multiples of the same prepared mechanical elements to examine the creation and degeneration of patterns. If I was in the vicinity, this would be a must-see. Fantastic. → Watch the Sculpting Sound video

These minimalist wall sculptures by Cecilia Vissers are made from steel and aluminium and inspired by the Scottish and Irish landscapes. The pieces are characterized by simple compositions, powerful lines and laconic shapes. The surfaces retain the natural texture of the material, creating inspiring visual effects. I want my sculptures to be entirely simple, to be viewed quickly, the focus is on the smooth and flat surface, my abstractions are grounded in the landscapes of Scotland and Ireland, the remoteness and silence. Cecilia Vissers’ work will be displayed as part of a group show at Acquire Space in London from November 13-27, 2011 and in a solo exhibition at Masters & Pelavin Gallery in New York, February 23 to April 5, 2012.

Luca Sironi is a Milan based photographer and filmmaker who recently completed his conceptual photography project titled Rest Days. The project comprises 24 colour photographs depicting a series of closed shop shutters. Sironi explains: The shutters hide what’s inside, becoming apparently identical to each other, and in their repetition, looking more and more like a minimalist series of ordered anonymous headstones. The photos, taken in the towns of Bussero, Caponago, Carugate, Cernusco soul Naviglio, Gorgonzola and Pessano con Bornago, represent the change over the last 25 years in people’s social habits on Sundays (our typical rest day) in the areas these shops reside. In recent years the result is as if shops have changed their function, becoming symbols of the inhibition that consumerism exercises on spontaneous social aggregation, rather than useful daily facilities. I love the impact these photos make as a collective.

German creative studio Deutsche & Japaner, based in Mannheim, specialise in a variety of disciplines, such as graphic design, product design, interior design, illustration and scenography as well as conceptual creation and strategic brand escort. Earlier this year, the studio designed a limited edition book titled X / I / I. The beautifully minimal designed book (particularly the cloth cover) is the first in the series from TENWORDSANDONESHOT, presenting the featured artists from the blog in a printed publication. The blog and the book share the same rules in the sense that there are only ten words written by the artists to outline their personality and just one studio image to offer an impression. Each entry has been designed in a completely different style using various sizes and typeface for both imagery and comments, resulting in a simple yet visually interesting book.

These sculptural objects by New York based designer Ron Gilad, together called Spaces, Etc., are minimal three-dimensional outlines of various familiar shapes. Gilad is known for his experiments with architectural forms, which were triggered by an infamous New York moment. In 2008 his entire building was evicted due to a fire code violation. Living without a permanent place for three months, the designer started exploring the idea of spaces and homes, trying to define what a home really is. The process of translating ideas into three dimensional functional objects is something that has always intrigued me. I am not inventing anything new. I’m basing my thinking, research, and creative process on what I see, know, and what already exists. Almost naively I ask the question, why is it like this? The visual tension between the lines is so strong, the objects show the signs of optical illusions, stretching the frontier between transparent and tangible, functional and abstract.

Berlin-based artist Olafur Eliasson, a Minimalissimo favourite, conceptualised Your House. The book, designed in 2006 by Michael Heimann and Claudia Baulesch, is a limited-edition artist’s book with a laser-cut negative impression of Eliasson’s house in Copenhagen. Each of the 454 pages are individually cut and corresponds to 2.2 cm of the actual house. Commissioned by the Library Council of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Your House is a remarkable arrangement of cutouts and imagery presented in a minimalist yet technical format. Readers gradually build a physical and mental narrative, whilst also examining the perceptual and spatial experience of domestic architecture of the house. Although I haven’t had the pleasure of reading one of the 225 printed copies (perhaps one day), I love of the combination of sculpture and architecture and the illusion of being inside the house.