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Ethan Murrow’s Graphite Drawings Merge Surrealism and the Sublime

Drawing and performance art are rarely seen as complementary media, but Ethan Murrow's large-scale graphite drawings begin as performance collaborations with his wife, Vita Weinstein Murrow. The two began working together in 2004 and the source imagery they gather for their videos often inspires Murrow's detail-oriented works on paper. His drawings come with the heavy feeling of the aftermath of disaster.

Drawing and performance art are rarely seen as complementary media, but Ethan Murrow’s large-scale graphite drawings begin as performance collaborations with his wife, Vita Weinstein Murrow. The two began working together in 2004 and the source imagery they gather for their videos often inspires Murrow’s detail-oriented works on paper. His drawings come with the heavy feeling of the aftermath of disaster.

Riffing on Romantic era landscape painting, the pieces show expansive vistas and moody, overcast skies. In one piece, characters carry away a painting with the foreboding image of an explosive car crash. But there is humor, too. In other pieces, a chimpanzee is the sole navigator of a boat out to sea; anachronistic cowboys stand stunned at the site of an outdoor rodeo-turned-art show. Rather than scaring us into the thought that disaster may strike at any moment, Murrow’s drawings observe the chaos and unpredictability that is life.

Topics

art, drawing, Ethan Murrow

Alex Louisa, drawing, PanPastels, soft pastel, still life

August 13, 2015

Australian artist Alex Louisa draws upon life and death in nature with fervor in her soft pastel artworks. Primarily using PanPastels on textured paper, she is able to exhibit her unique fascination for her subject's peculiarities. Among her still life and landscape drawings, birds and their features are the most common subjects in her work. Their softness is contrasted against that of callous skulls and bones, each rendered with an eye for small complexities such as veins and divots.

Riccardo Mannelli’s Erotic Drawings Show the Beauty of Intimacy

drawing, erotica, Riccardo Minnelli

January 20, 2015

The way we express ourselves intimately with our partners in real life seldom resembles the glamorous heaving and sighing of movie sex scenes. Italian artist Riccardo Mannelli eschews these cinematic cliches when he conveys personal moments between couples. In his ongoing series of works on paper, Mannelli's approach to erotica feels natural and unpretentious. The bodies he focuses on are not idealized by any means: He honestly depicts his subjects' aging physiques, tattoos, and body hair. By embracing these so-called imperfections, Mannelli celebrates their beauty.

Alejandro Pasquale’s Nostalgic Drawings Recall Old Photographs

Alejandro Pasquale, drawing

May 8, 2015

Alejandro Pasquale uses charcoal and graphite to create images with photographic accuracy. From top to bottom, each picture is flush with elaborate detail. Pasquale brings to life seemingly banal background elements, like blades of grass and tree branches, which he makes look luscious and vivid.

Fu Chunqiang’s Bizarre Monochromatic Drawings

drawing, fu chunqiang, illustration

June 30, 2014

Chinese artist Fu Chunqiang creates detailed illustrations with seemingly endless line work. Viewing his work up close, one begins to wonder how many times he cross-hatched his tiny marks to create the winding, looping forms we see. In many of the pieces, the shapes seem to be hooked into one another like the curves of infinity symbols. A widely opened mouth with shark-like rows of teeth encloses a war among insects and reptiles; a fan of peacock feathers conceals pairs of tiny human characters that seem to be caught, as if in a spider's web. Fu's work ranges in style, from flat, cartoony aliens to clouds that evoke traditional Chinese painting and realistically-rendered animals. But he approaches each style with the same frenetic energy that makes his work pulse.

Ethan Murrow’s Graphite Drawings Merge Surrealism and the Sublime

Alex Louisa’s Pastel Works Examine Small Details in Nature

Riccardo Mannelli’s Erotic Drawings Show the Beauty of Intimacy

Alejandro Pasquale’s Nostalgic Drawings Recall Old Photographs

Fu Chunqiang’s Bizarre Monochromatic Drawings

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