The street art of Brad Downey is a special breed of subversive. Downey approaches the city with the open mind of a child but interacts with it in all seriousness. His work emphasizes city features and spaces that are often quickly passed by. Downey then interacts with these spaces in an artistic manner – a manner which strangely feels as natural as their utilitarian purposes. I find myself wanting to try many of these simple pieces out in my own neighborhood.
New York-based travel photographer Sivan Askayo explores intimacy through a universal behavior: hanging clothes out to dry. Askayo’s series Intimacy Under the Wires depicts clotheslines from around the world—snapshots likely more personal than intended. According to Askayo, the project began in Tel Aviv, and continued through Madrid, Barcelona, London, Florence, Venice and Buenos Aires, and we have to take her word for it: aside from small hints in t-shirt logos, random signage and perhaps an architectural clue, locations are largely a mystery.
Eric Franklin‘s sculpture’s glow with a certain life. Though the series focuses on skulls and skeletons, it isn’t exactly dead. These skulls are carefully made of flameworked glass, or glass melted and shaped with a torch. The hollow skulls are then filled with ionized neon, krypton, and mercury gases. The ionized gases cause the skulls to glow from within complimenting their eery shape. [via]
New York based painter and sculptor Joe Fig has been featured on our site many times before but I was surprised to find that we had never posted his gorgeous miniature diorama’s of artist studios. Joe Fig has meticulously sculpted everyones studios from contemporary artists such as Ryan Mcginness to everyones favorite Ab/Exer Jackson Pollock. Let’s all thank Mr.Fig for taking it upon himself to document and preserve the rarely seen artists workspace for all of us to snoop around and enjoy. (via)
The installations of Damian Ortega reflect a curiosity that is at once childlike and serious. His dismantled, dissected, carefully arranged pieces often hang from the ceiling prepared for inspection. Ortega’s installations encourage viewers to think about relationships between the parts and its whole, between individuals items and the group. It’s easy to see how these ideas can expand to wider topics. In a way, Ortega not only takes apart a Volkswagen physically, but also socially. He deconstructs ideas in a playfully literal way.
The style of Copenhagen-based animation director and illustrator Helena Frank plays with hyper-realism and proportions—very serious big heads balancing on little bodies. Though she encourages people to view her “best work” at her website, her awesome tumblr gives us a piece a day, “no exception.” (via)
Hassan Rahim lives and works in Los Angeles. He has just concluded a solo exhibition at HVW8 in L.A. entitled The Air Above This Ground. Rahim has a knack for transforming childhood memories into conceptual work that pays tribute to the past while relaying thoughts on the present and future. His photography, collage and mixed media pieces are heavily rooted in 90′s NBA nostalgia. Themes of fame, struggle, life and death are all explored with re-appropriated and combined imagery. From the press release: “…Conversant with pre-existing works–Rahim’s “The Big Three” owes as much to Wallace Berman’s “Untitled” (hand holding a cassette) as it does to Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman, and Scottie Pippen—his pieces build a bridge from art-historical zones to realms of culture that are usually entirely claimed by advertising. There is a reclamation of imagery happening, the sports Hero comes back home to art. One is reminded of classical sculptures of discuss throwers, or of the fact that Nike was originally the Greek Goddess of Victory.”
Designer David Schwen presents some interesting ‘Pantone’ pairings here. Rather than pairing complimentary colors, Schwen combines inseparable snacks. Designers constantly coordinate toward aesthetic perfection. These ‘swatches’ coordinate a much more common but no less perfect pairing. That said, our pursuits may be mundane, but still, we have a bit of designer in each of us.
