From Moscow to Osaka, Timur Fork’s “plasticine realism” has been turning heads. In recent years, the Russian painter, who got his start in the street art world, has developed a unique specialty in works that capture the textures and colors indicative of the kid-friendly modeling clay known as plasticine.Read the full article by clicking above!
Upon first glance, Kent Williams’ subjects are all part of the same narratives, yet upon closer inspection perhaps that’s not the case at all. Read Ken Harman's full article on Kent Williams by clicking above.
While words like “bust” or “monument” come to mind to describe Kaju Hiro’s sculptures, the artist simply refers
to them as “portraits.” Read the full article on the artist by clicking above.
rom the elbowing to the knee-shoving, there’s no denying that the full-contact, female-dominated sport of roller derby is a
badass one. And so are the women who play it. Their ability to take a hard hit and get back up again is the epitome of girl
power—and has inspired Finnish artist Riikka Hyvönen to make their unapologetically bruised butts the stars of her artworks.. Read Caro's full article on the artist by clicking above!
There's a lot of humor in The London Police's work, from the armies of smiling Lads that propagate the scenes to other characters, like a dog astronaut or mermaids. Yet, there's a sense of absolute perfectionism in every piece. Read Liz Ohanesian's full article by click above.
The world of multi-disciplinary artist Floria Sigismondi is a surrealist dystopia. The Italian born, Canadian raised photographer and filmmaker has created a dark paradise born of a potent blend of decadent decay, dark theatrics, high fashion, seedy environments, and a subverting look at what constitutes the nature of beauty. Read the full interview by Kirsten Anderson with Floria Sigismondi by clicking above.
"I think I was born to be a composer," says Kuksi by phone from Lawrence, Kansas, "maybe, secondarily, an artist." Kuksi is certainly an artist, but his great talent is taking careful consideration of every small part—some so tiny that they could easily fall into a crack—as he constructs much larger arrangements. Read the full article by Liz Ohanesian, by clicking above.
Rammellzee was a polymath. Shortly following his start in graffiti in the early ‘70s, tagging trains in his hometown, Far Rockaway in Queens, he began developing a theory about life and liberation through controlling letterforms, transforming words and thought into a new kind of warfare against those that use information to control... Read the full article on the artist by clicking above! (photo by Joshua White, courtesy of the Estate of Rammellzee and Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles)
Los Angeles)
Building a wunderkammer is a surrealist exercise, in a way,” Paris-based Amandine Urruty explains of the cabinet of curiosities motif that appears in her work. “I tend to gather objects I like, ‘90's toys, luxury vases, miniature chairs and a bunch of skulls. The cabinet of curiosity is a decor, and each case of it is a decor inside the decor, where small characters play small sketches.” Read Liz ohanesian's full article on the artist by clicking above.
“My figures express the loneliness of people living today. People make exaggerated gestures and stiff, expressionless faces when
responding to something that is in opposition of their feelings, regardless of their will. People sometimes want to be invisible or hide
themselves, or look at others with their true feelings. I intend to remind viewers of the loneliness of people in this modern society, where there is little of true communication.” Read more about the artist by clicking above.
Human relationships with nature inform Martin Wittfooth's work. His oil paintings feature animals in the starring roles. Humans are absent from the scenes he depicts, but the remnants of their world frequently are not. In “The Aviary,” a cheetah is perched on a cherry tree and joined by a few, scattered birds. They overlook a crumbling, brick wall, catching a glimpse of the city that rises from below. Read the full article from our archives by Liz Ohanesian by clicking above.
“I was never interested in art. I never got into it,” says Daniel Martin Diaz on a recent phone call with Hi-Fructose. “I never looked at art books. I really, honestly, didn't even know basic things like surrealism like Dali or Escher existed until I was probably, I think, 18 or 19.” That was around the time when Diaz, the Tucson-based artist known for his precisely detailed illustrations merging seemingly disparate subjects like science and mysticism, stumbled into the art section of a library and came across 1920s surrealism. “I just knew when I saw that it just resonated with me so strongly that I just became obsessed by it.” Read the full article by Liz Ohanesian by clicking above.
he paintings of Andrew Hem linger just left of reality. With his instantly recognizable style, Hem blends figurative painting and atmospheric landscapes, echoes of graffiti art and a deep understanding of color harmony. Rendering scenes both urban and rural, modern yet outside of time, he creates works that are a mix of realism and surrealism, personal truths and collective dreams. Read all about the artist by clicking above.
From a distance, the storefront appears as a nondescript convenience mart, tucked underneath the Standard, High Line hotel in New York City's Meatpacking District. Yet close inspection reveals something else entirely: hundreds of felt sculptures, all emulating the products often sold in corner stores across the city. This is the work of Lucy Sparrow, self-described “feltist” and installation artist... Read the entire article by Andy Smith by clicking above.
Adam Parker Smith takes famed—perhaps infamous—sculptures from Greco-Roman antiquity and squishes them. It’s in their squashing that new meanings, and new questions, rise to the surface.
Read Michelle Robertson's full article by clicking the above image.
he glass figurines in Lola Gil’s latest work are essentially still lifes. She owns each one, treasures each one. Holds and manipulates them to understand their qualities, their quirks. She depicts everything about them except her own fingerprints on their surface Read all about Lola Gil by clicking above.
ear the dawn of the twenty-first century, Brian Dettmer was primarily a painter. But one day he embarked on a series of works where he applied the torn pages of newspapers and books to his canvases. “I liked the idea that the information actually existed there on the canvas, even though it wasn’t really readable,” he recalls on a recent phone call. “It became more of a visual archive.” Those collaged canvases led to sculptures made from stacks of books, which he would carve in ways where the alterations were not obvious until the viewer came close to the piece. While making one such sculpture, Dettmer noticed a landscape inside a book, carved around it and peeled back more pages. As he did that, a new figure emerged. “That was my eureka moment when I realized that this was an exciting process,” says Dettmer. “At the time, and even more so now, it seemed to make sense.” Twenty years later, Dettmer is best known for his elaborate book sculptures that have appeared in galleries, museums and universities across the United States. Read Liz Ohanesian's full article on the artist by clicking above.
The realities that Hattie Stewart manifests have a carnival quality—gleaming, trashy fun with a slightly sinister undertone like golden midway tokens that rust and then jingle in your hand like they are laughing at you for believing the gold was real anyway. “Nothing brings me more joy,” Stewart says, “than taking a clean blank page and filling every inch of it with colors and imagined worlds.” Read Clayton Schuster's full article on the artist by clicking above.
Anna Weyant’s work appears to have more in common with film than painting. Liz Ohanesian delves into the rising art star's latest work. Click above to read it, k?
Talk with Jean-Pierre Roy for long enough and you begin to get the sense that, with the right amount of imaginative discernment, the boundaries between what many perceive to be high and low art are frequently not boundaries at all, but rather intricate, furtive passageways. Read the full article with the artist by clicking above...
The only softness to be found in the sculptures of Tamara Kostianovsky is the material. Using upcycled fabric mostly found from items in her own home—old T-shirts, worn-out sweaters, kitchen rags—Kostianovsky creates colorful sculptures that deal in death. Read the full article by Emilie Murphy by clicking above.
With their color palettes like rare, tropical birds, Erik Jones’ paintings present beauty as it might exist in a vacuum. Or at least that’s the illusion. Read the entire article by Nastia Voynovskaya by clicking above...
“I'm not even sure I have an imagination anymore,” Toor says. “Or maybe my process of imagining became fully visual: I need to draw and see things in order to imagine new things. Things happen on the canvas and not in my head so much. It's really important for me to stay surprised. I don't see much point in making anything that I can predict..." Read the full article on Ori Tor by clicking above.
Kate MccGwire creates spellbinding, darkly sensual
sculptures by layering feathers over serpentine
structures. Read Kirsten Anderson's full article on the artist by clicking above, with photos courtesy of Tessa Angus
If you’re not ready for it, the work of Cleon Peterson can
feel like a slap in the face. Brutality and violence are revealed
on every canvas—whether it’s a 150-foot long wall
under an overpass or a 36-inch painting hung in perfectly
lit gallery. Power, strength, and cruelty are the only currency
in this dystopian world. The weak are strung up, bled out, decapitated, maimed, humiliated, raped, and ruined. Viscera pours from bodies and pools in the gutter. There is no hope... Read the full article by Silke Tudor by clicking above.
There's a lot in Sandberg's tool box. He has worked with acrylic and oil, etching and photoengraving. Frequently, he plays with characters that blur the line between human and monster. Their bodies are shaped like ours. Their clothes are like ours, but their covered in hair. Sometimes, they take on the appearance of werewolves with animal-like fur. Other times, the hair spirals off their faces and bodies like think pieces of clumps of brightly colored yarn or long, rolled strands of Play-Doh. Read Liz Ohanesian's full article on the artist by clicking above.
Lee calls his process "organized chaos." He describes a typical day in the studio: "Just idly staring at a blank canvas for hours, me jumping up and down because I got one stroke that I love or me yelling at my canvas because I can't seem to get this one stroke that I want." Lee's portraits often obscure portions of the face with abstractions. He uses big brush strokes and bold colors to hide and reveal pieces of his subjects. That wasn't intentional, he says. Read our full article on the artist by clicking above.
Though represented in a signature mounted or freestanding taxidermy style, Fosik’s work is less about the animal in the form and more about the culture it represents. Inside these colorful, twisted, anthropomorphic creatures is a hint of humanity, a tug at the heartstrings of our own realities. Click Above to read Natasha Van Duser's full article on the artist.
Whether floating on open water to an international art fair , or within the bounds of a white cube gallery , the artist known as Swoon has creating immersive, intuitive and thought-provoking work since 1999 in the public space. Read Silk Tudor's full article on the artist by clicking above.
Paolo Del Toro has been quickly gaining recognition for his large, felt sculptures of faces that come alive with exaggerated features caught in active poses.Click above to read all about his unique approach to creating large-scale felted sculptures.