It is going to take me a while to get the images of the sculptural pieces in Patricia Piccinini’s latest exhibit at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery out of my mind. Fantastic yet incredibly disturbing at the same time. Especially with the use of small children. Bizarre and awesome.
Wow. Just flat out amazing drawings, illustrations and paintings and all manner of absolutely wild artwork from Keith Thompson. What an imagination and what a talent to bring that imagination to life in so many forms.
“Using digital technology, graphic designer Hans Weishäupl has carefully reconstructed portraits of 13 dictators over the past 100 years. However, the photo montages, which measure 1.8 m x 2.3 m do not contain a single piece of original picture material, but are made of countless tiny, specially shot portraits of the citizens of the country the dictator ruled over. Christian Lechelt and Hans Weishäupl photographed over 350 people between November 2007 and March 2008, in Hamburg, Munich, Vienna, Dresden, Frankfurt, Berlin, Amsterdam, Moscow, Belgrade, London, Barcelona, Paris and Milan.
The portrait of Hitler is made up of 37 people. His nose belongs to an estate agent from Berlin, his upper lip is from a locksmiths in Dresden, and so on. Each wrinkle, each mole, each eyebrow was reconstructed to resemble the original.”
Wow.
The first volume of what I can only assume will be the first of several Gig Posters Coloring book has been released and is available for an incredibly reasonable 10 bucks. Can’t beat that with a stick.
“NEL is a platform for experimentation formed by an evolving collective of Mexican designers. The collective, founded in 2004, serves as a channel to create and exhibit projects that focus on the conceptual and playful side of design. The organic nature of the collective allows for an ever changing pool of designers, which in turn generates a wide variety of projects that range from political statements to playful storytelling or aesthetic explorations.
The current members of NEL are Ricardo Casas (1979), Alejandro Castro (1983), Héctor Esrawe (1968), Emiliano Godoy (1974) and Cecilia León de la Barra (1975).”
Great conceptual work.
I really really like the collage and illustration work from Lisa Congdon. Excellent work. You can visit her home website or just skip straight ahead to her work on her Flickr page.
Las Hermanas are Lisa and Janelle Iglesias, the youngest of 4 daughters and second generation Americans. They used to share a studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn but they recently received an upcoming 6 month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris through the lower Manhattan cultural council for October 2008 through March 2009.
Really interesting work.
I am really really digging this piece created for the Illustrative 08 exhibition by Julien Vallee. Really really clever. The more of Vallee’s work that I see the more completely taken I am. He just keeps getting better and his work is so strikingly original.
You can learn a little more about Illustrative 08 here.
Ehren Salazar is a talented Vancouver based artist that I was recently informed of. He also runs a gallery called Little Mountain Studios also based in Vancouver. His video above won best video at Animatron in 2007.
“My paintings are large, complex designs that attempt to reflect my sense of the times we are living in, and both how richly interesting they are and how difficult it is for most of us to navigate their uncharted waters. There is a great push and pull, the lure and the repulsion, the fiction and the real, the known and the unknown. And we live in this swirl of delicate gestures, driving desires, fantasy, economic complexity and interdependence, isolation and hope. I am trying to render some notion of this rich fabric.”
Amazing paintings from Terry Rodgers. More here.
“Graduating with a Bachelor of design from Swinburne University, Meggs has worked as both a commercial designer and image maker as well as continually evolving his skills in painting, illustration and screen printing to explore his own unique style of character work from both walls to canvas. Meggs’ artwork reflects his background in graffiti art, skateboarding, illustration and design.
Initially recognised for his stencils and aerosol art throughout the CBD and surrounding suburbs, Meggs has evolved his skills in painting, illustration and screen printing to explore his own unique style of character work from both wall to canvas. His work can be found predominantly around the streets of Melbourne, however has also travelled as far as London, Tokyo, Barcelona and Paris.
Meggs’ artwork reflects his background in graffiti art, illustration and design. The exploration of conscience, self-awareness, frustration and vulnerability are underlying themes throughout his work which challenge social ideals of morality and responsibility. Using references to his own childhood nostalgia and personal frustrations, Meggs juxtaposes pop-culture imagery and abstraction to create a collage of characters and an expression of emotion and movement.”
You can see more here.
Ann P. Smith makes animatronic robots. Her robots are sold in stores and galleries throughout the US and have been published as illustrations in magazines and brochures. Her clients include Chevron lubricants division, Cricket Magazine, and Cicada Magazine. Ann’s illustrations have been selected to appear in the Communications Arts Illustration Annual #337, and the American Illustration 25 Annual. Recently, She has received both local and international recognition from Wired Magazine (US), PBS Boston, DPI Magazine in Taiwan, Architectural Digest (Germany), GQ Germany, and The Discovery Channel Canada.
Bag Painter artist statement:
“Years ago I saw a book of black and white crime photographs from the past. I found it amazing. The characters and crime scenes looked like surreal glimpses into the history of human interaction. Much more intriguing for me were the mug shots. Portraits of people who had just been caught. Despair, frustration, anger – so many expressions could be read on the faces. Each one of these images has a story. Often times I have no idea what the real story is, but it’s hard not to make one up. One of the reasons I paint them is to bring out another possible story, for people to look at and think about. The majority of the images I base my paintings on are from the 1890’s through 1950’s.
Originally I began using charcoal and white conte´ crayon on paper bag. The way the wrinkles, folds and texture added to the piece really appealed to me. In 1999 I painted my first 4 mug shots in acrylic on paper bag with a limited palette of 5 colors each. Paper bag has been my main substrate ever since. Brightly colored acrylics have a different effect on the brown bag than on a typical white backing.
I try to bring new life to these practically discarded portraits of criminal and human history. Using an everyday, disposable item as the surface gives new life to the bag as well. It is my hope to get people thinking about the past, their present, and how we all affect both.”
Wow, I have seen Adam Haynes work before and I am sure I have mentioned it but I stumbled across the ocean image this morning on FFFFound and I was just blown away all over again by his work. It is all just fantastic. The fact he paints that flatly and captures that much detail is really amazing. Great stuff. It’s worth a second browse if you are in need of a little dose of inspiration.
I have mentioned Oliver Hibert and his artwork either on this current version of the blog or a prior one but I was recently reminded of his work while flipping through some random art/design publication and felt like I should mention him once again. He has some really great new work on his site since I last checked in, including the sculpture above. If you are unacquainted, you should definitely pick up on what he is laying down.
Eve Duhamel was kind enough to write in about what sounds like could be a really interesting show featuring some really exciting designer/artists.
The show is titled, ‘Raking Leaves in the Wind’ and here are the details:
New exhibition opening October 29th at 7pm in Berlin at Create Berlin (Wallstrasse 16, 10179, Berlin). The show is a collaboration between Eve Duhamel and fellow artists and designer Julien Vallée and Brent Wadden. It will feature past and new work including drawings, paintings, installation and videos.
Thank you Eve and good luck at the show.
Cypher 13 (the guys behind Joyengine) have moved the remaining toys from their Soft and Furry exhibition into their storefront where you can now place your order. There are some pretty cool custom toys in there by some notable artists and designers.
