Aurel Schmidt is a Canadian-born 23 year old artist based out of New York. Her work recently caught my eye because of the extreme detail in her paintings combined with her bizarre method of creating surreal landscapes and figures out of tiny illustrations of flies, insects, hair, rope, twine, bones, cigarette butts and other detritus. She uses pencil, paint and ink to create her strange compositions. It’s fascinating work that is hard to take your eyes off of. She has an interview at Fecal Face where you can learn more about her background and methods. If you want to see her work in a little more detail you can do that at Tiny Vices.
A Blue Chicken is an online art storefront that sells high quality giclee prints from some interesting artists. There are some really interesting prints up for sale at fairly large sizes. Be warned however my fair Americans, you will be paying in Euros, so get ready to take a hit to the wallet. If you are an art lover, however I guess you could consider that a noble sacrifice.
Kessels Kramer AKA | KK Outlet is an advertising/creative agency hybrid devoted to delivering original creative solutions to aid in the development of brands, products and content. The ‘outlet’ represents the different aspects of work they deliver from advertising, to product design, to graphic design and publishing. They believe that creative ideas can come from any and every discipling where advertising is an important component but that strong ideas for brands can thread through many mediums for maximum effectiveness to leave a lasting impression.
They also showcase artist, designers and photographers in their own gallery where they sell products and books as well. They are based in Amsterdam where they employ nearly 40 people who work for a broad local and worldwide client base.
There is some powerful work in their portfolio created for the likes of Diesel, Absolut and MTV Japan.
The Diesel wall project is once again open for submissions. Diesel Wall is an international art contest pushing what Diesel likes to call ‘art democracy’ that aims to bring intriguing, inspiring, insightful, inciting and contemporary ideas to giant urban canvases in city centers around the globe. Diesel encourages submitters to ‘say something that means something’. The jury members for this year include Bigas Luna, Peter Saville, Terry Jones, and Wilbert Das, Diesel’s Creative Director. From May to July ‘08, depending on each city’s Diesel Wall timeline, winners will be announced both through the web site and local events to then proceed with the setting-up of the winning installations on each Wall. Artworks – conceived for a specific Wall or for all four Walls – can use painting, photography, video, performance, light, sound, text, experimental concepts including 3D, performance and show elements are also welcome.
“Women Are Heroes” is the project of MSF and JR, two artivists traveling the globe to reveal the importance of the role of women in their communities. They have made way to some of the most distraught places in Africa. Sierra Leone, Liberia, Southern Sudan and Kenya are on that list. From what I can tell JR has been taking some really amazing photos of these women’s facial expressions and wheat pasting them up all around their communities to share their stories and uplift the local people. As of March 8th, an exhibition showcasing eight of these women were put up in giant scale all over Brussels. It’s a pretty amazing project if you ask me. Helping create awareness through the arts has always been a great way to spread information and change minds. Now if a whole lot more humans can look at things like this with more serious scrutiny, the world just might take a turn for the better.
Comments Off on MOMA: Design and the Elastic MindArt
For the unfamiliar The Museum of Modern Art’s unique exhibition titled, Design and the Elastic Mind explores the reciprocal relationship between science and design in the contemporary world by bringing together design objects that marry the most advanced scientific research with attentive consideration of human limitations, habits, and aspirations. The exhibition highlights designers’ ability to grasp momentous changes in technology, science, and history – changes that demand or reflect major adjustments in human behavior – and translate them into objects that people can actually understand and use.
In short it is an utterly fascinating exhibition with a fresh premise. The exhibition is now available in full at MOMA’s website and keeping in theme with the exhibition itself, the website offers up some interesting usability features. If you are low on inspiration, plan on spending a little time there because it will definitely recharge your batteries in full.
There are all kinds of very inexpensive and very nicely done pieces of art for sale at The Shiny Squirrel. You can also find clothing, collages and even paintings in their store, all available at very reasonable prices and purchasable online. It is an interesting trend to see stores like this cropping up. I love it and hope to see more of it. It’s nice to see art that is accessible to the masses.
Comments Off on McBess Equals AwesomenessIllustration
Wow, McBess is the illustration work of a very young man living in London who speaks French very well and Spanish not so good. That is about all I can figure out from his website. Oh yeah, that and his work is totally fucking awesome. I can say that too because I am trying to be the HBO of design blogs here, so the word fuck is not off limits and it definitely applies in this situation.
The oh-so-so-young but gifted San Diegan, or San Diegon, no no San Diegan, Kristina Collantes has crafted some interesting work. Her patterns are particularly interesting and she has a poster or two I would be happy to hang on my wall. Those patterns however would really make a wall interesting.
I have posted his work before but Nicholas Di Genova has a new website online where he has really gathered and discovered a way to display his work with maximum effect. His art rides that weird divide between trendy and contemporary, but regardless there is no denying originality. It is the originality that seemingly yanks it across that divide pulling it all together into the contemporary where I think even the average person off the street could find something in it to appreciate. I have had a childlike love and fascination with animals all my life, as I think most of us do, and he has found a really interesting way to tap into that sentiment.
If you haven’t stopped by Denver’s own Andenken Gallery to check out the paintings of the petite-powerhouse Leslie Minnis, then make some time to do so. Her paintings are just phenomenal. It is nice to see something that transcends trendy right now as well. The art world kind of pisses me off right now because so much of it is turning into art for artists, but there is something in Leslie’s paintings that go beyond our bullshit scene that the everyman could relate to. That is what I think is missing from a lot of art right now. Everyone poses like you have to be ‘in-the-know’ to appreciate art right now, but art should be something you don’t need to know anything about and still appreciate. Art used to be the voice and expression of the masses as channeled through the artist, but lately it seems it is the voice and expression of trend seekers and the actual artists themselves. Of course art is always the expression of the individual artist, but that used to be a mirror for the culture at large. So by that judgment the current art scene seems pretty empty and self-serving, all style no substance. Of course I am talking about the art circles we move in, such as the ones promoted by magazines like Juxtapoz. Maybe that art isn’t supposed to be for the masses however. Lately it seems all any of this is about is ‘getting up’ and ‘getting over’. It’s no wonder you see the same people over and over again at shows because no one outside the clique has any reason to be interested.
Anyway, sorry for the rant. Do check out Leslie’s show. And if you don’t like my opinions, don’t read my blog.
Comments Off on Micah Lidberg Dino-Laser VisionArt
I must admit to getting a little weary of the ‘I am a super style-conscious-hipster and even though I draw no better than a 5th grader, I know how to do it in a cool way’ thing that seems to be everywhere you look these days. However, when you throw in lightening bolt toting, eye laser shooting dinosaurs battling angry cloud faces, I guess my interest is piqued. So, with that said, if you think you might feel the same way I do, then you may want to check out the trippy artwork of Micah Lidberg.
The very young, (born in 85) and highly talented Will Murai creates gorgeous illustrations from his very small locale Arujá in Brazil. His work has mass appeal beyond his restrictive borders however, which you can see in his roster of clients. He deserves the accolades and at his age, I am sure he is just getting started.
It has been a while since Rinzen launched their newest version of their site and by the looks of their work, which seems to be added to on an almost weekly basis, they are on fire. It is great to see them branching out from graphics into more contemporary art mediums as well. There is such a wealth of good work on their site for so many different tastes, it is hard to know where to begin when trying to describe them. If you are unfamiliar with them, get familiar because they have been around for a while and they just keep getting better as they age. Inspiring work abounds at their site.
Anthony Hurd use to be the artsy half of E.G.G. A creative partnership between him and another ex-employee of the one-time great little interactive agency, Exopolis. Since then he has really grown and branched out on his own developing his own unique eye-catching style. His artwork is all his own and he just keeps getting better. He is also an accomplished designer. Check out his work at his newly updated site and while you are at it, buy his designer series shirt from Tanktheory, if you still can because it might just be sold out already.
Comments Off on Yosuke Ueno: Sure I Suke You BuenoArt
Wow, Yosuke Ueno is painting up some acrylic styled post-modern cartoon inspired madness. He will be exhibiting at Gallery 1988 on February 5th through the 29th at 7020 Melrose Avenue in L.A. If you are in town you may want to stop by and check it out. I am sure his work will be even more interesting in person. He will be exhibiting with Luke Chueh and Mark Bodnar as well. For the unfamiliar, Luke has been hyped by Juxtapoz many a time.
João Paulo Alvares Ruas is a Brazilian Illustrator/Artist working for LOBO, in São Paulo, Brasil. His work is really amazing and it appears by some of his descriptions that he works pretty fast. Definitely a natural-born-talent. His work is needless-to-say, inspiringly imaginative.