Australian artist Ricky Swallow is able to achieve his work in both 2D and dimensionally via sculpture. That’s a rare ability and Swallow is highly capable at both. I lean more toward his sculptural work but his loose brush strokes still lend a sense of sculptural form to his subjects. Regardless of preference his talent is inarguable.
Ashkan Honarvar who is based out of Utrecht, Netherlands has some disturbing yet remarkable photo-retouching-art in his Behance portfolio that is almost impossible to take your eyes off of.
This particular series that looks as though the subjects faces have been mutilated but on closer inspection reveals the retouched devastation is actually comprised of candy is disturbing and fantastic. Spectacular work.
Jenkins is a mixed media artist and illustrator living in the U.K. He is responsible for some very compelling imagery that communicates a very raw and tactile quality. It’s hard not to like and I would imagine his work would look great hanging on a wall. You can also check his more regularly updated Flickr pages.
Painter Robert Hardgrave continues to evolve his work into something really extraordinary and beautiful and some of his recent works available at the Joshua Liner Gallery are stunning studies in color and form. I was really taken by some of his latest works.
Nuremberg-based Artist ‘Gerhard Mayer draws with ink on paper and on walls. His lines are controlled, precise, and technicaly exact.’ The precision required to execute his pen and ink works is impressive and his collage work requires an equal amount of attention. Impressive and beautiful imagery is the result of his labor.
I was recently asked by Computer Arts to collaborate with NIARK 1 on a project for a recently released issue. I have been crunched for time lately with everything going on and wasn’t able to do it. I knew all about the French illustrator/artist/designer but I guess I didn’t realize until seeing a recent addition to his Behance-folio how talented of a painter he is. It’s a unique thing to be able to generate your imagery fluidly across digital and analog mediums and he is fully capable of doing it in style.
Artist and illustrator Rachel Ann Lindsay has been busy lately and recently updated her website with some new work including her wonderful continuous line drawings. I used to do these in college. You basically take a pen/pencil, put it to the paper, begin drawing and do not lift the pen from the page until you are finished. The end result is a drawing comprised of a single line starting at one point and ending at another. They are very ‘stream of consciousness-like’ and mastering them isn’t an easy feat.
The RRR Project which stands for ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ invites participants to take a look around their environment and see what they can save, pick up and turn over to look at in a different way. The end result has been a mishmash of art, design, photography, illustration from some very talented people. The first effort was published as a free downloadable e-zine that was released to celebrate Earth Day but RRR has recently gone into print with an absolutely gorgeous little book that is inspiring already just peering through jpegs. I first stumbled on the project last night while browsing FPO (For Print Only) and was really impressed. I am ordering a copy today and will be excited to receive it. The project helps support the Surfrider Foundation. You can see some of the art from the book in RRR’s Flickr pages and purchase a copy from their website. Fantastic work.
Artist Nick Ervinck has posted some recent imagery from the Fantastic Illusions exhibit at the MOCA in Shanghai, China. Nick has been busy this year and his work is getting even more amazing. He has a real talent to realize some highly unusual sculpture at a grand scale and I would imagine seeing it in person is an experience.
Sebastian Foster is an Austin-based contemporary art gallery that features some excellent work from several artists (including the talented Betsy Walton who is responsible for the image above). You can purchase original works of art from the website as well. It’s a rare and unique opportunity to get your hands on some original work for your collection at home.
Painter Lamar Peterson lives and works in Brooklyn. He has some very unusual work that you can currently view at the Richard Heller Gallery website. Surreal, and slightly disturbing.
I am personally starting to tire a little of the hipster collage trend but I had to reconsider that notion yet again after being notified about the work of artist Patrick Tvillum. He has some pieces in his portfolio that definitely rekindled my interest.
Artist Bruce Wilhelm is responsible for some genuinely trippy stallion-inspired collage style paintings. After the initial shock of the strangeness, you can take in the technical skill required to achieve the imagery.
Kitsune Noir has teamed up with Society 6 to bring you the Kitsune Noir Poster Club. The first collection of poster artists include Frank Chimero, Mark Weaver, Jez Burrows, Cody Hoyt and Garrett Vander Leun. The artists were asked to create a poster about their favorite book. The end result is some really attractive Giclée prints on bright white, matte, smooth surface, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper. The posters were printed using Epson K3 archival inks and then custom trimmed with 2″ border. Kitsune Noir author Bobby Solomon is a genuinely nice person and it always comes through in his tone and posts to his blog. He’s a great person to support and he sincerely cares about bringing his readers news and links to emerging art and culture. Society 6 is also out to shed light on upandcoming artists and illustrators and are doing their best to start putting out more projects like this that help promote their work. Kudos to both.
If you are looking for some affordable art to give as a gift over the Holidays, you can find all kind of art goodies at Poketo. They have really grown from their original ‘wallet’ days to include, apparel, prints, stationary, homeware, accessories and more. I recently received an email from them and decided to check out their storefront and spend a little time there and was really impressed by the wealth of what they now have to offer. It’s always a pleasure to discover another site or vendor that is trying to make art affordable for everyone.
The print above was created by the ‘Little Friends of Printmaking’ and is just one of several offered in the Poketo print store.
Dan Bergeron has been creating subversive, photo-based street works for almost a decade. His work addresses social and political themes and sometimes only attempts to re-contextualize the physical space it utilizes.
His ‘Face of the City’ project is one of the projects you could file under ‘re-contextualization’ but the images are striking and even more so considering the occupied space.
Painter Kris Lewis studied Illustration at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, but now resides in Los Angeles. He freezes the vivid emotions conveyed by the subjects within his paintings and uses a muted color palette in order to maximize the viewers focus. The end result is striking imagery.
Miss Bugs is actually a team of two comprised of one girl and one boy. There mishmash work combines imagery from popular culture with references to street culture and graffiti. They approach their imagery graphically, using collage, stencil, silk-screen and anything else they can get their hands on. The two artists are originally from Bristol and Wales but moved to London in 2001 where they have slowly emerged as heavy hitters in the street art and graffiti scene.
I was quite taken by their work, but it is sure to stir controversy amongst artists and creatives as it again uses preexisting imagery and art similar to the approach taken by artists like Shepard Fairey. I do think some of the work from Miss Bugs is much more original though and more akin to a streetwise version of Andy Warhol. You can read an anonymous (they keep with the Banksy theory) interview with the artists at Juxtapoz as well.
