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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Musician and visual artist Jon Langford offers pop-infused woodcuts in his new show at La Luz de Jesus Gallery: "Make Americana Great Again," kicking off on Sept. 6 at the space. Otherwise known as a founder of punk act The Mekons and a member of alt-country act The Waco Brothers (among other bands), the artist’s work shows that one form is not divorced from another. Langford was at one time the artist-in-residence at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville.
Bizarre, vibrant creatures and vehicles inhabit the worlds of Will Sweeney. The artist’s recent work calls upon the style of comics great Jack Kirby and retro science-fiction. The illustrator has crafted gallery work, comics, clothing, videos, illustrations for musicians, and more.
The bold, dynamic oil paintings of French artist Cedrix Crespel use atypical perspective, a graphical approach, and abstractions. The subjects and backdrops recall the femme fatale of comic books and street art. In a statement, the artist offers insight into the ever-present female form in his works.
Ron English's oil paintings have long entertained, bewildered, and challenged viewers in each's absorbing strangeness. In a new show at Corey Helford Gallery, titled "TOYBOX: America in the Visuals," the artist offers his latest body of work. The pop art legend’s show starts Dec. 2 and runs through Dec. 30. The new collection deploys “the artist's long established visual vocabulary into multi-layered narratives of ambition and imagination.” English was last mentioned on cctvta.com here.
We’ve noticed that graphic designer/artist Kii Arens likes fruit. Whether it's fruit made to look like other food or something entirely inedible like a briefcase, Arens both highlights the inherent beauty of the food group and bends it to his will. Above and below, you can see the several ways the artist works fruit into his work, whether it’s promotional posters or personal prints.
Stephen Friedman gallery in London is currently showing their fourth solo exhibition with acclaimed Japanese artist, Yoshitomo Nara, covered here. Following his recent solo exhibitions at Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan, Asia Society Museum, New York, Asia Society Hong Kong Center and Reykjavik Art Museum, Iceland, "New Works" is the simple title of the current exhibition by one of the most important living contemporary Japanese artists.
"I never imagined some of my pictures would be in Moscow," says 82 year old artist Peter Saul. The San Francisco based painter's early use of pop-culture cartoon references in the late 1950s and early 1960s has earned him the title of a Pop Art founding father, and to date, he has realized over 800 paintings throughout his career. A colorful selection of them made their debut on Friday at Gary Tatintsian Gallery in Moscow, Russia in Saul's new exhibit, "You better call Saul!"
It is in Keiichi Tanaami's personality to take even the darkest of his life's experiences and turn them into positive expressions. The Psychedelic Japanese artist's sensational paintings of crazy characters engaged in the chaos of war has made him a leading art figure not just in Japan, but all over the world. We recently featured Tanaami's intensely visual work in Hi-Fructose Vol. 38, where he shared with us the origins of his art, and the deep effect that his wartime experiences has had on his psyche. In this rare interview, Tanaami tells us more about his dark past and the myriad of international influences on his work to date.
French artist Renaud Delorme's portraits lie somewhere between Pop Art, computer graphics and recycling. His mosaic-like images are made using an array of unconventional materials and found objects that he collects; everything from fabric, bottle caps, shampoo bottles, computer chips, film reels, and even tennis balls are all clustered together to recreate the intricacies of his subjects' likeness. In the tradition of Pop artists like Andy Warhol, Delorme's favorite subjects are classic and modern day celebrities from Marylin Monroe to supermodel Kate Moss, though it's not their fame that concerns him the most.
First covered on our blog, Dex Fernandez injects a dizzying and chaotic energy into his eclectic collage portraits. He will debut them in New York tomorrow at Owen James Gallery in a colorful installation that also includes animation. Many of the pieces in the show were created over the past few months, during an artist residency in the United States by the Asian Arts Council. To enhance the digital photographs that Fernandez has used as his canvas, he incorporates details such as neon-colored embroidery and paints. These create a frenzied, but seamless pattern strung throughout each piece, which continues onto the gallery wall with cut-paper shapes.
Yoshimitsu Umekawa's photographs look like pictures of a pop-colored apocalypse. The forms in his images appear vibrant and swirling at first, but then evoke an underlying darkness. In the studio, Umekawa's process is similar to another photographer, Kim Keever, creating images inside of a fish tank and then coloring them digitally. His 'clouds' come in a variety of colors and iterations, and he has photographed 100 of them so far. He calls them "Incarnations"- visible parts of his experience as a young person living in Tokyo, with a nod to Japan's past which is no stranger to catastrophe.
If you're looking for some DIY Halloween decoration ideas, look no further. London based illustrator Kerry Hughes's latest series features intricately hand-tied balloons made into the shapes of human organs. "It’s very inspiring when a person can take an unexpected or everyday material and completely rethink it," Hughes says. The artist is mostly known for her colorful and playful work using paper and wood, but her series "Pneumatic Anatomy" in collaboration with friend and photographer Aaron Tilley takes it to a conceptual level.
Manila, Phillipines based artist Dex Fernandez creates works that range from street art murals, animation, painting and drawing to photography. Using a variety of media, his ongoing series of eclectic collage portraits combines almost all of his interests. Fernandez's inspirations are equally diverse. His series juxtaposes good and evil, beauty and ugliness by mixing pop art, religious iconography, and vintage images from posters and magazines that he finds in thrift shops.
For Canada's foremost 'pop artist' Gary Taxali (first featured in HF Vol. 4), the artist's first major retrospective exhibition in Ontario was a long time coming. Currently on view at Design on Riverside, "Here and Now: The Art of Gary Taxali" features hundreds of Taxali's personal and professional works over the years in a salon-style presentation of paintings, toys and objects, and assemblages of his most popular prints. The artist is recognized worldwide for his tinted illustrations of cartoon characters and vintage-inspired typography, which have appeared in the likes of New York Times, GQ, and Rolling Stone.
Ohio based artist Alfred Steiner has an admittedly bizarre predilection for anatomical and fragmented parts since his childhood. His watercolor paintings of pop culture icons, logos, and cartoon characters use unseemly pieces to build an image. His work could be described as modern day Pop-Mannerism, a combination of Pop Art and Mannerist art, and brings to mind that of Italian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo, who painted imaginative faces made of fruits and other objects. However, Steiner credits more surprising and eclectic inspirations, such as the fantastic imagery of Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch and fictional characters like Homer Simpson.
In 2010, street artist and character designer Jeremyville began posting a series of daily illustrations at his blog called "The Jeremyville Community Service Announcments." In his quirky and colorful style, those simple images and words resonated with people online and before long, the project went viral. Today, there are over 500 announcements in the series. In theme, it touches upon pop-culture topics and as Jeremyville describes, "everything about what it means to be human." For his current exhibition at Groove@CentralWorld in Bangkok, Jeremyville reimagined some of his most popular CSA's as giant sculptures. 
Recently named the most popular artist of 2014, Yayoi Kusama (HF Vol. 25) has currently taken over two expansive spaces at David Zwirner Gallery in New York. Her exhibition, "Give Me Love," which closes this week, includes a reenactment of her popular installation, "The Obliteration Room" (2002), new pumpkin sculptures, and paintings. They share the hallucinatory, obsessive, and energetic qualities we've seen throughout her career, something this exhibition aims to embody. More photos after the jump.
San Francisco based artist Ryan De La Hoz (previously covered here) recently opened his new solo show, “Impassible Terrain” at FFDG. Consisting of new mixed media works and illustration, De La Hoz’s new body of work seeks to highlight our collective experiences through antiquity and traditional iconography. Using historical references to execute this personal ideology, De La Hoz’s new show rests on impactful yet simple motifs to convey broad concepts.
Mural artist and painter Jet Martinez (covered here) is using his art to carry on an ancient form of visual inspiration while providing a contemporary spin on folk art motifs. For Martinez, each painting is an opportunity to preserve heritage as well as build our living community through creativity and public interactions. Originally from Tuxpan, Veracruz, Mexico, Martinez attended the San Francisco Art Institute to pursue painting and printmaking. In his current body of work, the artist focuses on a technique of painting floral works inspired by Michoacán lacquered plates – objects crafted by generations of Mexican artisans that has made up a primary industry in the area for generations.
On Saturday night, Tokyo based artist Yosuke Ueno celebrated his fourth solo exhibition at Thinkspace Gallery in Los Angeles with "Beautiful Noise." Over his career, Ueno has built a fantastic, vibrant universe inhabited by characters like "Hapiko" and "Efil" ("Life"), inspired by Japanese spirits. Here, they find themselves joined by those familiar to Western audiences such as Charlie Brown and Mickey Mouse, decorated with elements of contemporary culture including glittery, graffiti motifs, and Pop iconography. Take a look at our photos from opening night after the jump.
On April 30th, Leontia Gallery in London will follow their previous group show "FLESH" (covered here) with "CONSUME". The show highlights accomplished urban artists whose works generally make a satirical message about consumerism- Schoony, Magnus Gjoen, Rococo Wonderland, Juan Barletta, Carne Griffiths, and Jean-Luc Almond. They simultaneously poke fun at society, while promoting change by confronting us with its lunacy and problems. Ironically, some of these artists have become celebrities among the celebrity-obsessed lifestyle they satirize.
Tomokazu Matsuyama's (Vol 24) third exhibition at Wendi Norris, which opens on March 12th, is a monument to some of art history's most iconic subjects. The title "Come with me" represents the spirit of Matsuyama's inspirations, powerful leaders spanning ancient Greek heroes, samurai, to Napoleon. Napoleon has been of particular interest to the artist of late, the subject of his "Sky is the Limit" installation at Harbour City Gallery, Hong Kong last year.
We are what we eat- are we also what we play with? Australian artist Freya Jobbins asks questions about modern consumerism with her strange portraits made of doll parts. Her surrealist imagination has come up with busts of pop culture icons like Batman, Bart Simpson, and self portaits made of discarded Barbie legs. Jobbins' abstract way of seeing others is highly influenced by Italian Mannerist painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo. He famously painted images of gods and Roman emperors made up of objects like vegetables, fruits, and flowers. While very amusing, there's an incredible amount of detail and thought that goes into Jobbins' pieces.
Japanese artist Yasuto Sasada, just 27 years old, has already made a name for himself in the modern art and fashion world, through his collaborations with Yohji Yamamoto. Sasada has his own visual language that combines cultural traditions with the future. His detailed pen drawings of creatures mix motifs from modern technology and religion. Their black and white tonality, achieved with a thin 0.3mm pen, is harshly contrasted against bright pink, blue, and green backgrounds. He's created a new form of painting that juxtaposes old and contemporary ideas, taking us into an entirely new dimension.
Japanese artist known as Mr., a member of Takashi Murakami's Kaikai Kiki collective, earned worldwide attention by directing the music video for Pharrell Williams' "It Girl". His vibrant, Pop Art-inspired paintings of Anime characters and graffiti elements have been likened to "the display in one's dirty bedroom." On November 22nd, Seattle Museum of Art's Asian Art Museum will present his first major museum retrospective in the United States. As a full retrospective of Mr.'s career, the exhibit will include his early paintings and drawings, and film work, to a new series of paintings created for the show.
Japanese pop artist Keiichi Tanaami (previously covered here) has a new exhibition on view at Tokyo's underground gallery, Nanzuka. "Cherry Blossoms Falling in the Evening Gloom" is named after his show's titular piece, an effort to take the darkest of his personal experiences and turn them into a positive image. The 3-meter painting leads into a transformation in the artist's motifs, known for his glowing, grotesque creatures, which are shown emitting light.
Closing today at Leontia Gallery in London, "FLESH" exhibits sensual, raw and dark new works by Magnus Gjoen, Flora Borsi, Maria Koshneneko, Mariska Karto. Their pieces examine the beautiful and fragile, haunting and disturbing aspects of the figure, reinterpreted in a variety of media. Each sheds new light on this classical idea, by embracing it with contemporary and pop styles mixed with the influences of fine art.
Japanese Pop artist Keiichi Tanaami has rarely seen artwork now on view at New York contemporary art gallery Sikkema Jenkins & Co. When we covered his 2013 solo exhibition at Mizuma Gallery, his art went through a turning point. His fascination with life after a near-death experience inspired him to look to the future, rather than the past. The artwork in this show is not new- but Tanaami's mixture of motifs from the past inspires modern questions that keeps his art relevant.
If you think of giant stainless-steel puppy balloons when you hear the name Jeff Koons, think again. On Friday, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York celebrated the most comprehensive collection of the Pop artist’s work to date. The exhibition, which will be traveling internationally into 2015, is the artist’s first retrospective spanning his highly influential career. Notably, it is also the museum’s last showing before moving to a new space to be announced next year. There are nearly 150 works total displayed chronologically, dating from late 1970s series “The Pre-New, The New, and Equilibrium” to new works like “Play-Doh”, 20 years in the making. Often described as “kitsch” for his outlandish taste, Koons’ retrospective may redefine what taste actually is. Read more after the jump!