Justine Lai has painted herself having sex with each U.S. President, ending for now with Ulysses S. Grant. I don’t know how many more she plans on doing (pun intended) but I personally hope she keeps going because this is the coolest link I have discovered in a while. The Abraham Lincoln painting is an instant classic although spooning with Ben Franklin does look nice.
I am really digging the artwork of Matt Duffin. He works with encaustic wax on panel, which is something a little unusual that I am not totally familiar with. It definitely yields striking results.
A little more about Duffin:
“Matt Duffin was born in 1968 and grew up in Houston, Texas. He studied architecture, but never practiced as an architect. Instead, he chose to explore the more human themes of solitude and irony through art. His medium has evolved from charcoal to encaustic wax, but he continues to dwell in the realm of dark recesses and stark contrasts. He has lived in Spain, Costa Rica, and Taos, New Mexico and currently resides in northern California with his wife and two small children.”
The very talented Mario Hugo has updated his site with some new work. I am really a huge fan of his work. All of it is just beautiful, and every time I visit his website I kick myself in the ass to get up and create something. I just can’t say enough good things about what he produces. It is a true meld of design and art. Out of the 2,670 posts I have done, including this one, his work still stands out as one of my absolute favorites. His work literally inspired me to push away from the computer again, finally, and pick up the pencil to start drawing again.
The Disposable Film Fest has uploaded the entire library of their 2009 Shorts Program to Vimeo. 26 videos total that you can personally vote for in the running for the Audience Choice Award by LIKEing your favorite. Each voter will be entered to win a PLEO and the winning filmmaker will receive a Nokia N95. It’s a really cool little idea and exciting to see the net being used for something like this. What a brilliant way to put the filmakers in front of a global audience.
Uncovered via Yewknee which has become a daily check for me lately as a really great personal overview of interesting and happening culture written from a really likeable perspective.
Knotan has an insanely amazing portfolio of photography. It’s sensual, sexy and beautiful from top to bottom. No pun intended.
There are some mind-bending crazy code-driven visuals in the Flickr-folio of Mi Ha.
Eden Veaudry Flickr-folio is a strange little misfit treasure trove of creative wonder. It would be wonderful to see the world through her eyes if only for a moment.
There is a new (maybe not super new because it has been a while since I popped in) issue of Newwork Magazine online for your viewing inspiration. I am increasingly impressed by the level of quality. There is always some fantastic stuff in there.
I stumbled upon the collaborative paintings of painters Daryoush Asgar and Elisabeth Gabriel today and was really kind of just blown away by the radical use of color, composition and staging of subjects. Each painting is like a violent but beautiful play.
Here is a little background on two incredibly talented artists:
“Asgar / Gabriel’s works depict what they call “the historization of the moment” with references to baroque and 19th century paintings. They see their protagonists as portraits of a generation following the imperative “you can be anything you want”, a generation of ideological homelessness unabashedly pursuing a new myth moving between ecstasy and nightmare.
Painting itself is the last step in their long creative process. Asgar / Gabriel begin with a photographic sketch. Each sketch consists of hundreds of compiled photographs borrowed from mass media, their private photo album and then recomposed and modified on the computer. Like a contemporary Frankenstein, each of the subjects and compositions are reconstituted time capsules and commentaries on modernity’s obsession with notions of the “ideal” calling awareness to the global patronage of this obsessively unattainable modality set forth and so pervasive in popular culture.
Daryoush Asgar was born in Tehran 1975. In 1985, during the Iran-Iraq war, his family immigrated to Austria. 1996-2000 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. He exhibited in Austria, Germany, Italy and Canada and won the Austrian Strabag Art Award in 2002.
Elisabeth Gabriel was born in Vienna 1975. 1988-90 she studied piano at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts. 1994-2000 she studied philosophy and literature at the University of Vienna. She did her thesis on the Aesthetic Theory of Theodora W. Adorno. After graduation she worked at the theatre in Vienna, Berlin and Bern (Switzerland).
Asgar / Gabriel work and live in a studio in the heart of Vienna. They began their relationship musically in the 1990s playing in a garage rock-band. In 2002, they moved to Berlin where they started their painting collaborations and stayed for 3 years. Their first collaborative painting Entering Barbarians was exhibited in Vienna, 2005.”
Holy crapola does Dave Stewart have some absolutely amazing images in his photographic caché. There is some heavy download time involved with viewing his online portfolio, but he is a master behind the camera. Every image is a narrative and thoughtfully cast scene snipped from a complex story.
In case you missed it this week, the street art powerhouse Faile updated with a new site and some really stellar new work.
Our very own occasional blog poster, Jeffrey Bowman teamed up with his friend and fellow illustrator Andy J. Miller to do a little spontaneous window art for the Converse office in Glasgow. They both seem like a couple of really great and fun art loving guys. It’s strange how people drop in on this blog and via email now and then to write posts or just keep in touch but we never really get the chance to meet one another in person. It’s nice to see Jeff walking and talking and doing what he loves. I hope to get to shake his hand in person someday.
Great work and congratulations Jeff and Andy. Keep it up. The world needs more art.
Strangely composed and highly sensual imagery captured by the lense of Julian Hibbard.
Amazing paintings from both an imagination and a technical standpoint pouring from the brush of the exceptionally talented artist Glenn Brown.
Adrian Johnson updates his portfolio with more of his likable and exceptional illustration work. So simple and so good.
Really strange but compelling sculptures from the highly imaginative artist Andrew Barton. I would love to have one of these at home. Very fine art indeed.
Weird but wonderful pen drawings from the radically named Crispy Copper.
Bizarre but fascinating photo-manipulation from the ingenious mind of Nicole Tran Ba Vang elevating both a simple idea and imagery to the level of art.
