Minjae Lee is doing some really amazing things. It would be fair to simply call her work “Mixed Media Illustration”, but there is so much more going on. Each piece is a mixture of vibrant colors and layers upon layers of imagery and substance. The pieces that particularly speak to me all more than hint at something going on below the surface of the subject.
Devon Aoki
Circulation
Light of Mercy
Working out of New York; Schneider paints mostly figures with acrylics and oils. Several of his pieces incorporate photographs that have been over painted, without tipping too far into collage (which I love in the proper context). His shading and line quality is particularly striking to me; in addition to his use of negative space. There’s something slightly subversive going on as well particularly on one of his pieces.
Look at things I love long enough and you will begin to see a common thread run through them, So in addition to maps, you can add my nerdy love of space suits, and their helmets in particular. I first got turned onto Owens’ work by these three images. Ryhs Owens is an illustrator from South Wales, UK and has been working as a professional artist for over a decade. His work is inspired by pop-culture with a twist of surreal apocalypse thrown in for extra flavor.
The use of the animals for the faces of what we would expect to under the helmets really caught my eye, I also see a few winks at Kubrick, who is also one of my favorites.
I love this image intensely and could not for the life of me, find the artist’s name or any other of her work. Her original Tumblr no longer tumbles and Tineye.com just pointed me to old reddit archives with no real content, but the mighty google machine saved me.
“Self-Portrait”, oil on board, 20″x16″
There is something about Kelly’s work that speaks to me. There is a detachment, an objectification about it. Though I personally think the word is over-used; the juxtaposition of posh clothing with the gardening tools hints at violence and a suburban dream. That the subject is rendered without a head makes me imagine a story; where exactly is she going with that ax?
Kelly Reemsten
Kelly Reemsten
Kelly Reemsten
In the digital age we are surrounded by perfect images, we keep them in our pockets and everywhere around us. The proliferation of perfect images has lead digital some digital artists to either manually or programmatically “glitch” the image.
Brazilian-born and berlin based painter Harding Meyer is painting larger than life portraits, and glitching them, not with code, but with brush strokes.
I have an intense love of maps, I always have. There is something about them that triggers my imagination, makes me think about where I am going and where I have been; and the dark corners where the monsters are.
Edward Fairburn is a portrait artist from Southampton, UK. His essential surface is the printed map. From that surface, he integrates human portraiture into the topography of the location. I connect to his work on a personal level because I see the portraits and the locales blending together, just as a city informs a personality and a personality impacts a city. Our location and origin inform our identity in ways that most are only slightly aware of.
Vaughn Belak is an artist out of Orlando, Florida. Over the years, he has been a touring musician and is a working artist, painting whimsical but dark characters with a with a solid dash if pop-culture. Vaughn and I knew each other in our misspent youth and recently had an opportunity to reconnect thanks to the technological terror of social media.
I first Evan during a Maker Faire at the now-on-hiatus Bull City Cider. He’s a very gracious fellow with an epic beard. We talked for a little at about his process and how came to be inspired to make the work he does. His work is instinctive and concise, his drawings of animals have lite anthropomorphized expressions and poses. My favorites are naturally his animal portraits of the characters from The Royal Tenenbaums which, unfortunately, have little on-line presence.
Have a look at this excerpt from his Wild Yoga poster, imagine track suits, disinterested stares, and you will get the idea.
Durham Artist Parasol B, is opening the latest show this week. These gorgeous constructions are encoded bits of sound represented by color and shape and vibrant motion. There are two series on display, Rachmaninoff, inspired by Mozart’s The Marriage or Figaro , La Wonkitania inspired by a slightly more psychedelic musical piece Wonkatania from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
