Call him what you like, deviant, lunatic, genius, exploitative; I have loved JPW since I first saw prints  from, and his book  “Gods of Earth and Heaven“. I know it is more than a little macabre for someone who used to get freaked out by anatomy books as a child, but he has been one of the most influential artists for me. I was instantly fascinated by his use of tortured figures, classical themes and compositions; Hieronymus Bosch with a camera. When I did more research, which in the days prior to the internet meant scouring art libraries for articles, I found a story that fascinated me. I was engaged, not because of the grotesque details but because it planted a seed in me to create a second self for the creation of art. 

Woman once a bird – Joel-Peter Witkin

Las Meninas by tomatelá! – Joel-Peter Witkin

Within Mask – Joel-Peter Witkin

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As he puts it; Nick is a “British artist working with contributed technological artefacts and materials”, it sums up the media but there is so much more.

I first found Gentry’s work when I was staying at the Hotel Zetta in The City. deFor the nerdiest of reason, the floppy disks are what attracted me to it. Once I got past the stunned amazement I had with is work I really looked deeper into it to see, what it was that really attracted me to it. At first, it was the materials, then it was the modelesque figures rendered with a technique that makes me go … “How’d they do that?” Finally looking at his most recent pieces, I see that all of those elements in addition to the deconstructed and reconstructed imagery are what appeals to me most.

Stardust — Nick Gentry

Tracks — Nick Gentry

 

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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

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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.

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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.

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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″

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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

 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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