Meet the visual artists of BangOn!NYC's Elements Festival

BangOn!NYC has made their name in the city for their immersive, multi-sensory events that showcase their top-of-the-line tastemaker abilities. For years, the event runners have committed to keeping their stunning visual productions a vital part of their brand.

This weekend marks BangOn’s third Elements Music and Arts Festival, Brooklyn’s favorite outdoor day event developed around nature’s key elements. 2016’s production will bring on a slew of thrilling components, including a Desert Hearts curated secret "fifth element", Mixmag's Water Stage and an additional roster of talented and unique visual artists.

With art being such a vital characteristic of BangOn’s riveting, creative style, Mixmag took a deeper look into four noteworthy artists who will be showcasing their work at Elements this Saturday.

Incendia is not a formal art collective or team, but rather a concept developed around the love for fire. Inspired by the beauty of a simple flame, founder Cory Glenn spent years creating out-of-the-box pieces before joining a regional burning community and discovering his true calling. Through the years, Glenn has continued to progress in his arts, creating mega-large scale installations showcasing the active flame. Through performance manipulation, presentations of combustion and complex inversion effects, Incendia is fully committed to forming unusual and sensational pieces made to inspire the appreciation of fire.

“I’ve experienced first hand how wondrous and enrapturing the raw forces of nature can be through the lens of human experience," Glenn said. "The crux is in maintaining and harnessing the fine line of danger and chaos.”

Appropriately, Incendia will be building Element’s Fire Stage this weekend, an installation that gives Cory and his team full freedom to express the core of their ideals. The particular piece is a semi-dystopian arrangement, utilizing constructs of burned-out cars, rusted metal and flickering firelight to create an alluring, primal atmosphere.

Olga Klimova is the woman behind WizArt Visions and has been on an expansive journey of self-discovery, which she conveys through her art pieces as intricate, visual representations of the human psyche.

“People are so obsessed with the outside world, they often forget the inner layers of your mind,” Olga said of her artistic realization after years of testing different styles.

Originally a fashion and graphic design student at FIT, Klimova found her mission after taking up meditation to treat a serious case of insomnia. After bouts of self-searching trials, she finally found her artistic calling through lucid dreaming. “All my experiences in other forms of design seemed frustrating at the time, but they were all leading up to this," Klimova said. "Everything was part of a path, and now these lessons help me with the current work.”

In each piece, Olga commits to supporting her deep belief in the magic of the human mind and importance of meditation. One of her favorite mediums is Mische, is an extraordinary technique derived from the natural formation of pearls and seashells. The repeated application of white paint, oil and color glaze create a glowing, translucent piece that reflects the levels of energy in the subconscious mind. The layered structures can take years to create, pushing artists to practice patience and forms of meditation.

For Elements Festival, Olga will be presenting a complex shade structure for Incendia’s Fire Stage inspired by mandalas and showcasing an indoor gallery of mesmerizing UV pieces.

Eric Coolidge of Eagle Rock Studios started out as a glass blower before discovering his passion for metalwork and sculpture. His speciality is stunning structures that bring an interactive component, inviting fans to climb and play across bars, walls and totems. His inspiration comes from world travels, seeking beauty in places like Beijing and Bangkok, drawing from intricate floral patterns and temple sculptures.

For this weekend’s Elements Festival, Coolidge returns with The Atlantis Stage, part of Mixmag’s Water Stage, a traveling installation designed after Sir Edward James’ Gardens in Mexico. The 30 foot tall piece is a surrealist arrangement embellished with weathered stone, stained glass, twisting vines and a functioning fountain. Poseidon’s trident spears span outward from the DJ booth creating a divine-like presentation with ample room for fans and dancers to share the stage. The Atlantis Stage has been making its rounds across the east coast, hosting Mija, Gramatik and Mikey Lion at Mysteryland 2016. This Saturday the installation will welcome Le Youth, Claptone, Klingande and more.

Evan Collier of Arch Production & Design NYC Inc. boasts a rich upbringing in the creative world. His father, both a painter and sculptor, sparked Collier's early imagination with family projects and home renovations. After moving to New York following his first Burning Man experience in 2005, Collier worked for over a decade in fine art, design and building music studios. Launching Arch NYC in 2011, his milestone production came in 2014 when a Disney subtractor asked him design the fabrication for China’s Disneyland Shanghai.

Evan's catalogue also includes the creation of massive interactive pieces for Swatch USA in Times Square, the DJ booth design for Axwell’s Cosmic Opera at Hammerstein Ballroom and BangOn’s jaw-dropping Cosmic Pyramid at the ‘Time & Space’ New Year’s Eve 2016 event.

Inspiration behind Evan and his team’s pieces pull from Burning Man motifs and intriguing forms of nature. His infatuation with both future and ancient civilizations make for a unique artistic result, specializing specifically in rigging applications, metalwork and geo-designed dome building.

It’s been five years since Arch NYC was first introduced to BangOn. This time around, Collier will be debuting The Banyan Bar and bringing back the spectacular Cosmic Pyramid from the promoter's Time & Space New Years Eve event.

The Banyan Bar is a jungle-inspired installation created from primarily recycled materials, setting a stark comparison to Elements Fest’s more industrial presentations. The Cosmic Pyramid is a parallel installation, a massive pointed structure adorned with a vibrant multicoloured network of flicking lights and circuit boards.

Get tickets to BangOn!NYC ELEMENTS Festival here.

Sydney is Mixmag's US Digital Content Editor. Follow her on Twitter here