Category: Press Releases

LONDON, ENGLAND / ACCESSWIRE / April 3, 2024 / HOFA Gallery and Fellowship AI platform daily.xyz announce the launch of ‘New Beginnings’, a pioneering London exhibition that documents the evolution of AI artistry, and weaves together the realities of AI, art and the human experience. In partnership with AI art curation and research experts, Crysalis, the exhibition runs from 11 – 30 April 2024. The ground-breaking showcase will present 14 globally renowned AI artists, including Niceaunties, Sougwen Chung, Emily Xie, Agoria and Elman Mansimov who explore the profound implications of AI on art and human interaction. Other artists include Kevin Abosch, Ivona Tau, Gordon Cheung, Roope Rainisto, Crosslucid, Jennifer & Kevin McCoy, Legio X, Sheldrick and Noper.

Elio D’Anna, Co-founder of HOFA Gallery, explains, "With the emergence of new AI models and techniques, a profound technological evolution occurred in 2023. ‘New Beginnings’ captures the first major works conceived and produced in the post-transition period, juxtaposing them with early era AI creations of immense significance. It effectively narrates the evolution of AI-generated artistry while simultaneously redefining contemporary perceptions of art in the digital age."

‘New Beginnings’ showcases a diverse spectrum of mediums and methodologies to reflect on AI’s journey and its dual role as both inspiration and instrument in the artistic process. The art creators selected for this showcase are at the vanguard of integrating AI technologies with creative expression through their innovative practices.

Show highlights include:

• Niceaunties, a Singapore-based architect and AI artist, who draws inspirations from the rich tapestry of her culture and explores themes of aging, personal freedom and everyday life through generative AI and digital art.
• Multi award-winning Sougwen 愫君 Chung, a Chinese-Canadian artist, who is widely regarded as a pioneer in human-machine collaboration. Recognised as one of TIME100’s esteemed AI innovators, their MEMORY (Drawing Operations Unit: Generation 2) piece has the distinction of being the first AI model acquired by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
• New York based artist Emily Xie harnesses algorithms to create life like textures and forms, navigating delicate balances between chance and control, and the abstract and representational. Her work has been showcased internationally, including at the Singapore ArtScience Museum and the Armory Show.
• Agoria, the visionary artist celebrated for his avant-garde BioGenArt, has captivated the art world with his groundbreaking exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay. As a DJ and a master of digital artistry, he is poised to unveil ‘I Feel Good’, a cinematic exploration that weaves together the complex tapestry of AI and humanity, all viewed through the discerning eye of an anthropologist.
• Artist Elman Mansimov is a Senior Applied Scientist, who is known for pioneering research in AI. His 2015 alignDRAW project, the first text-to-image model that marked a new era of human-machine collaboration, has been compared to the revolutionary impact of the first fixed photographs in the 1820s.

HOFA, founded in 2012, specialises in curating and showcasing contemporary artworks that blend traditional techniques with digital innovation. The gallery’s dedication to merging these elements is symbolic of its broader mission to catalyse a renaissance in art acquisition, connecting the tangible with the digital to enchant a discerning global audience. Similarly, Fellowship aims to bridge the past and present, shaping the future of art by leveraging blockchain technology to introduce art to a new generation of collectors.

Sunny Cheung, who oversees Design & Architecture curation at M+, Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture, says in his curatorial statement about ‘New Beginnings’, "The recent advancements in AI and generative art processes often feel like magic. Through this exhibition, we explore this magic in AI’s evolution and its impact on creative practices. The artists selected have embraced digital tools to create works that reflect new, faster and collaborative production methods. With vast data flows and virtualisation, artists can draw from lived experiences to create new meanings."

He adds "Like all great relationships, we don’t necessarily know where the relationship with AI and art is heading, but we are excited by the new possibilities that come with New Beginnings."

Exhibition Details:

‘New Beginnings’ Exhibition: Free and open to the public daily

Dates: 11 – 30 April 2024

Press Preview: 10am – 1pm, 10 April 2024, RSVP required

falon@thehouseoffineart.com

Venue: HOFA Gallery, 11 Bruton Street, Mayfair, London, W1J 6PY, UK

More Information:

TheHouseofFineArt.com

Daily.xyz

HOFA.io

Press Contact:

Emma-Louise O’Neill

Comms & Branding Collaborations Director

emmalouise@thehouseoffineart.com

+44 7515 136909

Contact Information

Emma-Louise O’Neill
Comms & Brand Collaborations Director
emmalouise@thehouseoffineart.com
+447515136909

Related Video

https://vimeo.com/930211460

SOURCE: HOFA Gallery

View the original press release on newswire.com.

The Acquisition Broadens the Reach of 4me® and Expands Its Capabilities by Integrating Real-Time Technology Service Status Updates for IT Teams, Service Providers and Customers

SANTA BARBARA, CA / ACCESSWIRE / April 2, 2024 / 4me^®, the SaaS-based Service Management software platform for the modern enterprise, has completed the acquisition of StatusCast. StatusCast is a cloud-based provider of incident management products. The acquisition strengthens 4me’s position in the ITSM market and represents another advancement in its efforts to assist companies in transforming their businesses with the most advanced and complete service management platform in the industry.

"Our mission is to make IT teams more productive while we directly help our partners and customers deliver great customer experiences. Our transformation of traditional service management is built on an advanced technology platform," said Kevin McGibben, CEO of 4me. "Integrating StatusCast’s leading capabilities for incident management and status updates with 4me’s core IT Service Management capabilities strengthens the IT operational power of our platform."

"We are incredibly excited to join the fantastic team at 4me," said Eric Warth, VP of Operations at StatusCast. "4me’s cutting-edge ITSM solution, with its emphasis on a comprehensive, service-centric, multi-tenant architecture, perfectly complements our mission to unify and automate status and incident communications. This acquisition is in line with our vision of transparently communicating with stakeholders relevant information efficiently so that teams can focus more on the incident than managing communications."

Companies like 8×8 use StatusCast’s features to ensure seamless productivity and enhanced communication with their customers. These features include public and private status pages, configurable notifications, and subscriptions for the public, partners or customers. They can provide information about service availability, current incidents or scheduled downtime.

4me will now be able to deliver the following benefits with the addition of StatusCast:

• Real-time service status notifications. Status page updates and notifications will enable IT organizations to provide public status pages, internal and customer status pages reflecting availability and status, including degradation and downtimes of critical services, technologies, and applications.
• Visuals of the status of the IT service catalog, which will integrate with 4me incident management, automatically allowing for faster mean time to resolution (MTTR) in outages and service degradations.
• MSPs, Network Operations Centers, support and service desk teams can use StatusCast incident management to add a layer of automation and end-to-end capability for incident management and service level agreement (SLAs) management for their clients.

To learn more, visit https://www.4me.com/it-service-management.

About 4me

4me is transforming service management for the modern enterprise. 4me’s AI-forward, service-oriented, multi-tenant SaaS platform seamlessly connects teams to optimize IT service management. 4me’s ability to automate cross-functional workflows makes frictionless service delivery possible, significantly improving business outcomes. The 4me platform’s ease of use and deployment makes it the most advanced ITSM platform available today. Hundreds of organizations around the world look to 4me to elevate their Enterprise Service Management. To learn more, visit www.4me.com.

About StatusCast

Founded in 2013, StatusCast’s mission is to help IT departments and SaaS companies keep their employees and customers better informed when applications or IT infrastructure goes down. StatusCast is a communication platform for the enhanced and timely distribution of critical information related to outages and maintenance, enabling organizations to be as effective as possible when problems occur. StatusCast’s solutions are used by many of the world’s leading Fortune 500 companies and SaaS brands.

Contact Information

Carlyn Manly
Marketing
carlyn.manly@4me.com

SOURCE: 4me

View the original press release on newswire.com.

Partnership expands reach with Evonik’s high-performance polyamides, including sustainable solutions.

ROMEOVILLE, IL / ACCESSWIRE / April 2, 2024 / Formerra today announced its new strategic partnership with Evonik, the global leader in PA12 and high-performance polyamides. This alliance enables Formerra to distribute Evonik’s polyamides and sustainable materials in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Additionally, these materials are accessible in Mexico courtesy of Formerra’s recent acquisition of Suministro de Especialidades.

Specifically, Formerra will distribute the following materials:

• VESTAMID^® L POLYAMIDE 12
• VESTAMID^® E POLYAMIDE 12 ELASTOMER
• VESTAMID^® D POLYAMIDE 612
• TROGAMID^® CX (transparent and microcrystalline polyamides)
• Sustainable grades:
  • VESTAMID^® eCO (PA12)
  • VESTAMID^® RFP (PA12)
  • VESTAMID^® Terra (PA610 and PA1010)

Doug Zupan, Vice President of Operations at Formerra, expressed enthusiasm about the addition of this new supplier. "Joining forces with Evonik empowers us to supply top-tier materials for critical applications in automotive, aerospace, and industrial sectors. Evonik’s reputation in high-performance polyamide production and their commitment to sustainable solutions resonate with our vision of offering customers the best cutting-edge material options."

Craig Schmidter, Americas Director of Granules and Compounds at Evonik, added, "With Formerra’s vast network and deep technical support for performance-driven applications, they are the ideal choice for our polyamide products distribution. In short, Formerra is a great match because they offer the technical material selection and engineering support that customers and applications need to incorporate our high-performance materials."

Evonik products enable Formerra to enter new markets such as aerospace and oil & gas; Evonik will play a key role in helping Formerra to accomplish this growth. In addition, Formerra will be able to support current and future customers with logistics, warehousing, technical service, and speed to market.

The Formerra-Evonik collaboration will focus on providing substantial benefits to fuel customer innovation in multiple markets.

Formerra will exhibit next month at NPE2024: The Plastics Show in booth S39025 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

About Formerra

Formerra is a preeminent distributor of engineered materials, connecting the world’s leading polymer producers with thousands of OEMs and brand owners across healthcare, consumer, industrial, and mobility markets. Powered by technical and commercial expertise, it brings a distinctive combination of portfolio depth, supply chain strength, industry knowledge, service, leading e-commerce capabilities, and ingenuity. The experienced Formerra team helps customers across multiple industries to design, select, process, and develop products in new and better ways – driving improved performance, productivity, reliability, and sustainability. To learn more, visit www.formerra.com.

About Evonik

Evonik is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. The company is active in more than 100 countries around the world and generated sales of €15.3 billion in 2023. Evonik goes far beyond chemistry to create innovative, profitable, and sustainable solutions for customers. More than 33,000 employees work together for a common purpose: We want to improve life today and tomorrow.

Contact Information:

Jackie Morris
Marketing Communications Manager, Formerra
jackie.morris@formerra.com
+1 630-972-3144

SOURCE: Formerra

View the original press release on newswire.com.

WEST PALM BEACH, FL / ACCESSWIRE / April 2, 2024 / USPA Global has announced that U.S. Polo Assn., the official brand of the United States Polo Association (USPA), has delivered a record $2.4 billion in global retail sales in 2023.

The global sports brand’s record growth is the result of expanding its existing sizeable footprint across all regions around the world. U.S. Polo Assn. has seen a balanced growth strategy with significantly increased market share in more mature markets, such as North America and Western Europe, while delivering exponential growth in emerging markets such as Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and India. In fact, the brand is targeting to become a billion-dollar business in India alone, as U.S. Polo Assn. is an international power brand and the top-selling casual menswear brand in the country.

The brand’s footprint is a fast-growing presence across 190 countries, with over 1,100 U.S. Polo Assn. retail stores and thousands of wholesale locations spanning department stores, sporting goods channels, and independent retailers, as well as e-commerce. U.S. Polo Assn. continues to climb the retail ranks as one of the largest global licensed sports brands in the world, ranking in the top five alongside the NFL, MLB, and NBA, according to License Global.

U.S. Polo Assn.’s strong execution has relied on a global focus regarding the brand’s worldwide store expansion. The brand has grown its global fleet to more than 1,100 U.S. Polo Assn. stores, targeting over 1,500 in the next several years. For 2023, new stores and existing strategic stores around the world have been enhanced with a more elevated brand and sports concept, providing consumers with an authentic experience when engaging with the brand.

U.S. Polo Assn. also built on its successful digital strategies to generate record growth in e-commerce with some 50 brand sites in 20 languages in 2023. U.S. Polo Assn. continues to grow its digital presence and global momentum on social media, with some 8 million followers worldwide.

“Our global team and strategic partners around the world delivered another record financial performance in 2023 while also achieving many major milestones across our product lines and global expansion efforts,” noted J. Michael Prince, President & CEO of USPA Global. “We continue to execute our aggressive product, store, digital, and international growth strategies to further expand our global footprint in key cities and markets worldwide, while also increasing the overall interest in the sport of polo.”

Prince added, “Despite the many challenges over the past several years facing global retail, U.S. Polo Assn. was able to exceed our goal of $2 billion three years early and has set a target to hit $3 billion and 1,500 U.S. Polo Assn. stores in the near future.”

True to the heritage of the brand, U.S. Polo Assn. maintains a strong connection to the sport of polo. By signing a recent landmark multi-year global deal with ESPN, the thrilling sport now has exposure to a massive global audience, extending to many parts of the world with reach to millions of households and multiple digital channels. The sport’s iconic U.S. Open Polo Championship®, which is broadcast by ESPN, now sits alongside the elite company of The Masters and Kentucky Derby as one of the country’s most prestigious spring sporting events.

In addition, the USPA now owns the USPA National Polo Center (NPC), the sport’s premier destination in North America. The 2024 American High-Goal Polo Season has brought record crowds and sellout Sundays, with the best polo in the world from January-April. Nestled in beautiful Palm Beach County, Florida, this outstanding venue spans 160 acres, encompassing multiple grass polo fields, fine dining, tennis courts, stadium seating, a swimming pool, and the NPC Retail Shop. Exciting updates to the world-class facility are slated for 2025.

“We continue to seek avenues and partnerships to expand into new global markets, as well as new and innovative areas of business. The combination of these factors, alongside our authentic connection to the sport of polo and outstanding global brand marketing, is the key to our global success,” Prince adds. “I am optimistic about the U.S. Polo Assn. global business maintaining its leadership position among its industry peers while gaining market share and our ability to reach over $3 billion in worldwide sales and 1,500 U.S. Polo Assn. retail stores in the coming years.”

“Today, I am proud to say that our U.S. Polo Assn. global ecosystem is comprehensive of both the brand and the sport, with our $2.4 billion global sport-inspired brand, a global sports content platform with ESPN, and ownership of NPC, one of the sport’s most beautiful and prestigious venues,” concludes Prince.

About U.S. Polo Assn. and USPA Global

U.S. Polo Assn. is the official brand of the United States Polo Association (USPA), the governing body for the sport of polo in the United States and one of the country’s oldest sports governing bodies, founded in 1890. With a multi-billion-dollar global footprint and worldwide distribution through more than 1,100 U.S. Polo Assn. retail stores as well as thousands of additional points of distribution, U.S. Polo Assn. offers apparel, accessories, and footwear for men, women, and children in more than 190 countries worldwide. A recent, multi-year deal with ESPN to broadcast several of the premier polo championships in the world, sponsored by U.S. Polo Assn., has made the thrilling sport accessible to millions of sports fans globally for the very first time.

U.S. Polo Assn. has consistently been named one of the top global sports licensors alongside the NFL, NBA, and MLB, according to License Global. In addition, the sport-inspired brand is being recognized around the world with awards for global growth, expansion, licensing, and digital growth. Due to its tremendous success as a global brand, particularly in the last five years, U.S. Polo Assn. has been featured in Forbes, Fortune, Modern Retail, and GQ as well as on Yahoo Finance and Bloomberg, among many other noteworthy media sources around the world.

For more information, visit uspoloassnglobal.com and follow @uspoloassn.

USPA Global is a subsidiary of the USPA and manages the global, multi-billion-dollar U.S. Polo Assn. brand, providing the sport with a long-term source of revenue. Through its subsidiary, Global Polo Entertainment (GPE), USPA Global also manages Global Polo TV, which provides sport and lifestyle content. For more sports content, visit globalpolo.com.

Contact Information

Stacey Kovalsky
VP Global PR and Communications
skovalsky@uspagl.com
+001.561.790.8036

Kaela Drake
PR & Communications Specialist
kdrake@uspagl.com
+001.561.461.8596

SOURCE: USPA Global Licensing Inc.

HILLSBORO, OR / ACCESSWIRE / March 28, 2024 / It was an exciting day at the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks & Minerals, Hillsboro, Oregon, when artist Naomi Sarna’s 703-carat L’Heure Bleu tanzanite carving set a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title as the world’s largest cut tanzanite, on March 9.

A standing room only crowd witnessed the "weigh in" as Guinness World Records adjudicator, Michael Empric, verified and announced the results. Gemstone experts, Jessie English, J.S. English Appraisals and Madeline Saunders, Oregon Estate Jewelry, were the official witnesses for the weighing. Rice Museum board president Gail Spann and museum director, Kim Vagner were also on hand for this historic event.

"As the Director of the Rice Museum of Rocks & Minerals board, and long-time supporter of this wonderful ‘gem’ in Hillsboro, I couldn’t have been more delighted that we hosted Naomi Sarna on her adventure with Guinness World Records that was enjoyed by many attendees! We are lucky to have such talent grace our Museum’s doorstep," said Gail Copus Spann, president, board of directors, Rice Museum of Rocks and Minerals.

Several years ago, artist Naomi Sarna was invited to travel to the Tanzanite mines located in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. She was asked to create a carving for an international competition. The mines are on the ancestral land of the Maasai and it is the only place in the world where this blue-violet gemstone is found. While there Sarna was asked to do humanitarian work, so she taught Maasai women how to make wire-wrap jewelry from tanzanite. Touched by the community, the poverty and the eye disease she witnessed, Sarna decided that she when she sells her award-winning tanzanite L’Heure Bleu carving, she will donate the profits to the world-renowned Portland-based Casey Eye Institute to provide eyecare to the Maasai. Dr. Andreas Lauer, Chair of the Casey Eye Institute came as its representative and just as the weighing ceremony took place, doctors from the Institute were touching down in Tanzania for a cataract conference!

"The Casey Eye Institute is in Naomi’s debt. In the future, patients, their families and the Maasai community will feel her passion and love as they express it through their smiles and joy from improved vision," commented Dr. Andreas K. Lauer, director, Casey Eye Institute.

"The Guinness World Records brings international recognition and attention to my tanzanite carving L’Heure Bleu. This recognition gives great strength to my promise to help the Maasai with their vision difficulties. This is the cornerstone for our future hopes to provide eye care to the Maasai in Tanzania," stated artist Naomi Sarna.

While she was in Tanzania, Sarna was presented with several tanzanite crystals eventually selecting the piece that she hand-carved into the 703-carat L’Heure Bleu. It won a First-Place Spectrum Award for carving from the American Gem Trade Association. It sits on a Sterling Silver base inspired by the winds of Tanzania’s Great Rift Valley.

Contact Information

Naomi Sarna
info@naomisarna.com

Related Images

SOURCE: Naomi Sarna Designs

View the original press release on newswire.com.