Trippy magicians and warriors find themselves in an unnamed land with black skies in Martin Ontiveros’ current exhibition, “Strange and Unlovely” at Pony Club Gallery. Based in Portland, the artist and self-described metal-head (HF Collected Edition 3) has created a world of bizarre denizens throughout his painting career. Featuring new ink illustrations, mainly monochromatic, the show indulges in their fantastic strangeness. Some of them would fit right in to a surreal, post-apocalyptic action movie. In fact, one of the inspirations behind Ontiveros’ show is the film Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. His love for sci-fi, horror and comic books is also apparent. These include twisted re-imaginings of characters from his own life like his roommate’s dog, to a destroyer named “Electro-Satanico”, a tortured soul with good intentions. The character is the centerpiece of the exhibition, recreated as a wide-grinning, larger than life installation. In a sense, it also stands as an embodiment of the artist himself, who refuses to be destroyed by whatever life throws his way. Take a look at images from “Strange and Unlovely” below, courtesy of the artist.
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Toronto based photographer 
It’s easy to get lost in the arresting vision of 
Iranian painter Ali Esmaeillou reveals haunting parallel universes beneath the pleasant facades of everyday life. In each series of paintings, Esmaeillou explores the psyche of specific archetypes, such as warriors, or digs into the personalities of the characters that compose a particular story, like the great 10th century Persian epic, the Shahnameh.
Photographer