Whether he’s shooting for personal projects or for clients Jean-Yves Lemoigne’s photographs look as if Jean pressed pause during a pivotal scene in the worlds most epic movie so he could take a picture of the scene that was unraveling before him.
Author Archives: Amir
Christophe Avella-Bagur’s Mass Produced Perfections
On an ethereal ground of white light Christophe Avella-Bagur shows us archetypal representations of male and female bodies that answer our expectations of mass-produced perfection. Avella-Bagur disrupts this ideal with a second layer of portraits painted in visceral flesh-tones that never quite register with the face’s outline. The two portraits are collapsed together to create disturbingly distorted juxtapositions painted in the grotesque manner of El Greco or Goya.
Avella-Bagur first began the Floating Souls series in 2005, working in a medium-sized format. These paintings contained archetypal figures with their eyes closed, in which a “floating soul” was depicted attempting to register with its host. Now the idealized bodies have their eyes open, creating tension and visual complexity between the two faces.
MATTHEW COX’s X-Ray Pop Culture Collages
X-ray and embroidery by Philadelphia based Mathew Cox.
“By joining the cold, blue, medically technical plastic of the x-ray with the colorful, decorative and tactile embroidery thread each is removed from its original intention and creates a new entity. Handling these media also gives me an opportunity to comment on the ever-increasing presence of photography in contemporary art- by introducing labor over the quick, slickness of film.
In Heartthrobs, Avatars and Playboys, 2011 – 2012, I am transporting this technique to a new place using iconic heartthrobs from Pop culture such as Snow White and David Bowie and avatars from Eastern religion and Greek mythology such as Krishna and Minotaur. The possible visual imagery is rich, vast and exciting. This new move has also given me an opportunity to physically move out of the rectangle of the x-ray by extending the embroidery upward and outside of the frame.”
Kristian Kozul’s Fetishized Metaphoric Stories
Moving artistically into photography as a natural extension of his sculptural practice, Kristian Kozul meticulously builds and then photographs, physical dioramas of extraordinary detail designed to tell metaphoric stories and reconstruct histories. As with his earlier sculptures, where concept meets articulation a kind of fetishized totem results. Each piece is based on a certain historical figure that Kozul leverages in pursuit of his cause. Like Captain Ahab and Moby Dick, or famously Don Quixote and his windmills, the fixations and obsessions of Kozul’s protagonist’s speak to universal themes of mania, obsession, and denial.
Erica Svec Finds Beauty In Human Debris
Erica Svec’s paintings draw inspiration directly from her environment. Influenced by the detritus found in her Brooklyn neighborhood, Svec finds hidden beauty in the sidewalk trash, litter, graffiti, and spilled paint and tar that she encounters in her everyday life. Intrigued by the residual human energy retained by discarded items, Svec collects things cast off by others and reassembles them into small still lifes which she uses as the basis for larger painted compositions. The humanness of these objects is articulated both literally and metaphorically in her paintings as figurative shapes are expressed or implied by elaborate collections of items.
While Svec’s vivid, evocative paintings betray diverse influences such as the late work of Georges Braque and Audrey Flack, the result is a visual language that is uniquely hers. Drawing on abandoned objects and indexical marks of human occupation, the resulting works depict vibrant and invitingly dream-like alien environments.
David DiMichele’s Monumental Art Installation Dioramas
Los Angeles based artist David DiMichele creates the fantastic. His environments follow contemporary trend to construct the monumental, to surround the viewer with visual stimulus. His work however is assembled, not in the cavernous halls and galleries of museums and art centers, but on a table in his studio.
DiMichele builds his environments as finely detailed dioramas and then he photographs them. His “pseudodocumentary” photographs comment on the way we see and experience the monumental art that it pays homage to. Not often can the public experience the physical sense of an enormous installation. Most commonly, we see the work through a reproduction or website. Working in this manner, DiMichele can take the “installation shot” much further. Controlling light, angle and composition. And heighten the experience.
E1000′s Geometric Abstraction Graffiti
When you think of graffiti geometric abstraction isn’t the style that comes to mind but E1000 has managed to mix graffiti and the long and rich history of geometric abstraction on city streets. Filled with rich warm hues that gradate from dark to light E1000 is bringing minimalism and geometry into the most unexpected places.
Viktor Hertz’s Honest Logos
When Uppsala, Sweden based graphic designer Viktor Hertz sees a logo he doesn’t just see the brand name but sees what the company represents. That’s why he decided to reinterpret some of the biggest brand names in the world with new and improved names that reveal what the brand stands for. Many are funny and some are down right genius! The Porsche and Youtube logos are my favorites. I saw a custom painted aqua green Porsche just yesterday and thought the exact same thing!
