Adam Hosmer’s delightfully strange photographs are created by mixing the medium of drawing and photography but with a digital slant. Hosmer starts each image by taking a photograph and then drawing on top of it on the computer. Hundreds of digital lines create hairy deconstructed figures that are coming together, falling apart, and constantly morphing. The results are a strange hybrid of the grotesque and humorous, the digital and analog and formal and experimental.
Swiss born graffiti artist TIKA’s website states that he is based in Zürich, Berlin and Rio de Janeiro, raised in Cairo, Bruxelles, and Cologne, with longer stays in Cape Town, Vienna, New York and Mexico D.F. . With a full passport like that It’s no surprise that his work employs a wide mix of cultural and international references. Like an globalized set of hieroglyphics TIKA’s graphic imagery opens a discourse of today’s global society and the nearly forgotten traditions and sagas of the past right on your cities streets and walls.
Cornelia Konrads’ outdoor installations would appear normal on the moon where gravity is not a concern but on Earth they trick the eye and make viewers take a second look. Installing site specific works internationally, Konrads’ works appear to be in a constant flux, moving up, down, side to side and everywhere in between as if they areconstructing and deconstructing themselves over and over again. (via colossal)
In the fall of 2009 artist Michael Anthony Simon left Chicago behind, and moved to the countryside of Korea. He wanted to experience a new place and culture that would hopefully inform a fresh body of work that could exist beyond the constraints of the western art world. In the spring of 2011, contemporary artist, Ai Weiwei was arrested on falsified charges of tax evasion by a notoriously conservative Chinese government. The claims were suspect to say the least, and many silent protests were organized throughout the world by major museums and institutions calling for his release. These silent protests became a louder gesture than anything anyone could have audibly said. This act of defiant solidarity became a source of motivation for Simon in the year to come. Realizing that by attempting to silence something you make it’s presence that much more apparent he commenced on a series entitled “The Silence Paintings”. Analyzing the design and significance of the word ‘silence’ in different languages lead him to the creation of an intuitive process that would allow for compositions to develop naturally, but with purpose and intention.
Stephen Mallon’s Next Stop Atlantic is a stunning series of photographs, which capture the retirement of hundreds of New York City Subway cars to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.
In a bold move, the NYC Transit authority joined the artificial reef building program off the East Coast of the US in 2000 and sent stripped and decontaminated subway cars off on barges to be dropped into the Ocean in order to build refuge for many species of fish and crustaceans which would colonize the structures.
Mallon traces the progress of the train cars on their way towards their last voyage, majestic waves approach the viewer in these large scale photographs as they too are transported out to sea to behold the lifting and transfer of these massive machines. One photograph hauntingly depicts elements of nature creeping into their barren hulls, drifts of snow lines the walkways, a glimpse of sunshine streams through their removed doors as they wait in stacks to be carted off to sink to the dark depths of the ocean floor.
Mallon’s photographs elicit both the sadness and the beauty of cascading water overtaking these iconic figures of New York transit as they sink beneath the surface of the water; surges and sprays are caught in time. Stephen Mallon dedicated the last three years to following this endeavor, chronicling the last phase of NYC Transit’s involvement in this program. The photographs that are presented in this exhibition capture the grandiosity of this effort; the weight of these 18-ton train cars can be felt as they are ferried off and plunged into the water.
Korean artist Kim Joon fabricates images of fragments of hollow porcelain that resemble nude bodies. Through a painstaking digital process, Kim coats the anthropomorphic forms in bold patterns from ceramic brands such as Villeroy & Boch, Herend, and Royal Copenhagen. What results are deceptively convincing surfaces complete with reflection and shadows.
According to Kim tattoos are not only physical inscriptions on the body but also signifiers of mental impressions left on the consciousness. Alluding to society’s weakness for material objects, Kim’s tattoo imagery reflects our obsessions and deep-seated attachments. The artist’s exploration of tattoos stems from his experiences tattooing his peers while in the Korean military. In his earliest works, Kim grappled with the notion of tattoos as socially taboo in Korean society. He created sculptures that mimicked tattooed portions of flesh. Using water-based markers, he embellished latex-coated sponges, creating anonymous parts divorced from the human form. In recent years, Kim’s work has neatly overturned the negative connotations surrounding tattoos in Korea. In his hands, not only do tattoos reflect social habits and desires but they’re also a vehicle for transforming the body into a highly aestheticized object.
Italian street artist Paopao views the world in a different way than you and me. When we see an electric box he see’s Sponge Bob. When we see circular cement blocks in the streets he see’s an eight ball, and when we see a plain old bush he see’s an ostrich. See these and more street alterations after the jump.
Untitled no. 3, 2012
8 x 10 inches, Cut paper, *Includes black wood frame, $100
Untitled (Eyes),2012
8 x 10 inches, Medium: Ink on paper $125
Welcome to this weeks offering of Click To Collect, Beautiful/Decay’s campaign to help art lovers start their collection of original artists works at affordable prices. Our featured artist this week is the talented Bay Area artist Ryan De La Hoz whose cut paper collages mix razor sharp scissor skills with tightly drawn graphics and patterns. This is our first collaboration with Ryan and with original works (some even framed!) starting at only $100 you can’t go wrong! Find out more about Ryan’s work, his exhibition history, and about Click To Collect after the jump!
is a printed book series and daily art blog with a focus on experimental, grotesque, and groundbreaking art.
Amy gee: I love the softness of this art
bill: cool images, nice interview!
Kris Bazen: These are INSANE!!! Made me...
Jake: Hi there please let me know how you... Bill: Thanks Amy! Here’s a youtube...
Barbara Richardson: This work is AMAZING!
ivan arsiandi: awesome…..
Agripina Futrell: Great information :) Amy gee: This art makes me really HAPPY... Amy gee: This is really good it must of...
