It’s a huge structure, but it weighs only a small fraction of most things its size. That’s because the floating tube featured here is built out of 8,000 sheets of rice paper, 800 shafts of bamboo, and cotton. Chinese abstract artist Zhu Jinshi installed the 12-meter long hanging structure, called Boat, last month at Art13 London, a new international art fair where the highly experiential piece featured as the centerpiece for the show. [Read more...]
The work of Eyvind Earle is truly timeless, looking so current it could have been painted yesterday by a mature artist we’d flock to gallery openings for… but Earle passed away almost 13 years ago. His lifetime of work continues to inspire with its imaginative, dreamlike scenery; confetti-like array of colors across the canvas; and for the many influential film works he helped create. If these landscape paintings look familiar, we’ll tell you why. [Read more...]
Eduardo Rodriguez Calzado is definitely tapping into something. His visionary paintings capture the harmony of the universe with mosaic like geometric shapes and vibrant colors. His unique style of oil painting on canvas invites the viewer to enter a new dimension. Based in Torreon, Mexico, Calzado studied Graphic Design in ISCYTAC- La Salle and furthered his studies at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. He has worked in the arts throughout his career in all areas, especially theater where he acted, did scene design and costuming. [Read more...]
James Rieck has made a name for himself over the past years by drawing us in to explore his hyper-real portraits – images that at once seem like snapshots of real people and simultaneously make us questions our presumptions with their too perfect colors and tones. It’s like those moments after a convincing dream when you have to think: “did that really happen?” Now Rieck has released new works based on a recent uprooting from his long-time residence and studio in Baltimore, Maryland and his subsequent move to expansive and seemingly infinite Los Angeles, California. As he puts it, his new paintings are themed around “self-imposed dislocation.” [Read more...]
In 1939, we knew much less about our solar system, so much less that these illustrations by Frank R. Paul may have really made people wonder about what strange life may be living on other planets. His drawings were some of the first images seen by science fiction writers Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, and Forrest J Ackerman, making him one of the greatest influences on the early pieces in the genre. Using what little knowledge scientists had about the compositions of each planet, Frank R. Paul drew his predictions of what humans might find should they try to inhabit the other planets. [Read more...]
To assist Netherlands feminist foundation Mama Cash with promoting and protecting women’s rights around the world, world renowned Cuban-American terrestrial artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada created an enormous portrait of a woman’s face in Dutch soil. He explains: “Using fertile soil to create this piece becomes a metaphor for what can come forth if the vision of these women is respected and allowed to bring about change.” With the help of 80 volunteers, Zeeburgereiland in Amsterdam, which is larger than 2 football fields was transformed to become the fierce face of a female activist in less than a week. They used almost 5 miles of rope, 7 tons of straw, 5,300 cubic feet of soil, and 1,150 wooden poles to bring Gerada’s vision to life. [Read more...]
Dollar bills, y’all. Some people spend them as soon as they get them; some like to collect as many as they can; some smear dog poop on them and watch from their porch as an unsuspecting victim picks them up, but we prefer the people who cut them up for the sake of art. We’ve seen Scott Campbell transform stacks of money into 3d carvings, Chad Person turned them into military weapons, but these incredible collages by Mark Wagner take the cake. By carefully slicing up dollar bills and rearranging them into beautiful scenes of George Washington as an everyday man, he makes a powerful statement in a culture dominated by money and greed. [Read more...]
Landmarks are what makes a city recognizable, thus have become one of the most photographed structures out there. Seen in just about every person’s travel pics, postcards, and travel blogs they start to lose their excitement, but German artist Thomas Kellner has remixed landmarks in a unique photomontage style. He takes hundreds of pictures, scanning the entire structure one tiny portion at a time, then horizontally places the film strips of the individual pictures to reconstruct the landmark, thus creating an entirely new picture. The process is as complicated as it sounds, yet the final result makes it all worth the painstaking hours to get a new twist on something so familiar.
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Korean artist Seung Mo Park uses an unusual medium to create his fantastically detailed portraits: wire. The process is one of painstaking addition and subtraction, cutting wires away from his layered mats to reveal a figure or face. To create the works, Park superimposes pieces of square wire mesh or layers of individual wires, later cutting and bending them to release the image he sees hidden inside. It’s a process much like stippling in reverse, and translated to a highly unusual format. [Read more...]
Dog and cat owners already know this, but dressing your pet up in fashionable clothes is perhaps the best entertainment you’ll have. Yago Partal takes a cue from these pet owners and transfers it to something a little more exotic, the zoo. His recent series Zoo Portraits, sees creatures from giraffes to wolves getting spiffed up in trendy clothes; from suits to Hawaiian shirts. It’s one ridiculously fashionable menagerie. [Read more...]
