Mosaika Completes Huge Sarah Morris Mosaic in Queens

It took the amazing Montreal-based Mosaika's dedicated crew 30 days just to install this glorious mosaic designed by internationally renowned artist Sarah Morris. At 1450 sq. ft. there is little doubt that the work will serve as an inspiration point for all the students who attend the Gateway School in Queens, NY.

Here is a small pic of Morris' original painting.


And here is a section of the prepared wall before the start of installation.

That same stretch of wall with the completed mosaic.

Lest any of you gentle readers think this is a simple, straight-forward tile installation -- take a look at this detail shot. It contains perhaps the smallest triangular piece of fired tile I have ever seen. Not buying it? I'm talking about the green one, not the blue one.

All of this tile was hand-glazed at Mosaika in Toronto using custom glazes that were approved by Ms. Morris. Check out the oh-so-subtle variation in the two greens here.

Here is Mosaika's uber-talented Creative and Technical Director Saskia Siebrand with the "Grand Design" on her lap.

These little pieces of clear plastic are what the crew called "precious shims." Without uniform grout lines, the project would quickly have gone caddywampus.

It takes a lot of shims . . .

some seriously delicate nipping . . .

who knows how many bags of mortar and grout . . .

a ridiculous amount of organization . . .

a giant dollop of patience . . .

good people to work with . . .

and, of course . . . .

daily doses of pizza . . . . . to make a mosaic like this happen.



Our thanks to Matt Rose for letting us know about this wonderful collaboration between Sarah Morris and Mosaika and giving us permission to use these photos.

There are literally hundreds more photos chronicling the installation here: http://mosaikagateway.blogspot.com/

To learn more about Mosaika, click here: http://www.mosaika.com/index.html

To see more of Mosaika's work in progress, check out their blog: http://mosaika.com/blog/ where you'll see the beginnings of Mosaika's next project, a collaboration with artist Ronald Llanos for a series of panels destined for Los Angeles' new subway system. The Llanos work is just the first phase of a 4-station commission.

Enjoy -- Nancie