Jesse Fillingham lives and works in Pasadena, CA. His cosmic paintings are usually framed within a geometric void. Drippy figures hover in and out of dark realms and grids. From a recent press release his work is described as “…exploring themes of myth, introspection, creation, and wizardry. A series of drawings depicts an alternate creation myth composed of trees of strife, knowledge and life, as well as ephemeral libidinous spirits – robed men ponder and wander through graphic landscapes.”
Oscillate is the MFA thesis project of digital artist Daniel Sierra. The animation begins with a simple rolling sine wave. However, things quickly get complex. The waves fling dust, begin to smoke, and seem to catch fire. The waves multiply and mutate. Oscillate is an impressive animation by any standard, especially considering it is a school project (albeit an MFA thesis project). Also, you’ll notice the credits are especially short. While such animations typically have a staff of several, Sierra animated and composed the music entirely on his own. [via]
San Francisco based artist Ryan De La Hoz has expanded upon his ink and paper cut practice to include laser cut sculptures made with hand manipulated found imagery, textile works, and pieces made from custom fabricated puzzles that have been meticulously disassembled and rearranged to form dynamic compositions. This new media is presented along with his signature hand cut paper and ink works for the first time in his new solo exhibition What New Mystery Is This at RVCA SF. The exhibition presents a fractured alternate history where statues warp and pulsate alongside dizzying Op-Art. The exhibition is on view daily 11 – 7 through May 25th at RVCA | VASF 1485 Haight St San Francisco, CA 94117. Photos: Sami Naffziger.
A curious emptiness permeates the work of painter Chris Ballantyne. Pulling inspiration from the flat, graphic façades of industrial buildings and cookie-cutter suburban streets, Ballantyne merges elements of the banal with the absurd. Upon closer inspection, the vibrant, delicately rendered landscapes reveal strangeness that showcases the artist’s wry, observation-based humor. A giant cavern appears between bright, friendly row houses, surfers ride breakers down a peaceful mountain stream and a tiny footbridge spans a huge geological tear through a grassy plateau—shifting the viewer’s expectation of what “should” appear in the context of each frame.
His subdued, sophisticated color sense marries well with the stark, simplified structures Ballantyne creates. He intentionally omits visual information in the hopes that viewers will instead focus on the subtlety of each scene, their attention swallowed by the strange beauty of each place. The empty, isolated nature of the subject matter also quietly points to our own relationship to space, built structures and contemporary landscape.
Louise O’Rourke’s photographs document not just the idea of rejected beds as a form of waste, but more so, the repetition of intimate objects made sadly public with age, which moves her work into a particularly lonesome study of humanity’s careless romance with things.
From Toy Story to the Velveteen Rabbit, children’s literature seems to capitalize on a similar theme that O’Rourke tugs at here: because our beloved objects don’t age gracefully– or even at all– they get thrown away and easily replaced. We don’t even need to see the newer model to know that it is there. It is always there: lingering. Waiting. The job of an object is to selfishly service us until we are done with it. These are the rules. In this sense, objects can never win. Caught in limbo, O’Rourke’s wayfarer beds transition onto the street, heart exposed, welcoming vagrants or rodents. A sad Dickens’ death. It is not a story of waste, but love. Wherever the new bed is, the old bed is not, and will never be again.
However, there is a sign of hope. O’Rourke also notes the value of reinventing old finds such as discarded photographs, of which she peels at the emulsion, saving the scraps, to create a new context and authorship of the image, one that is more ephemeral or abstract.
She states, “By removing the emulsion, I further remove the photograph from the event and even claim the moments that stand out to me. By physically altering the found image with no negative to reprint from, I create my own narrative from those previously captured stories.”
Beautiful/Decay is returning to the art t-shirt game by collaborating with Blood is the New Black on a new line of limited edition tees featuring our favorite artists.
Beautiful/Decay hand picked each of the artists in this t-shirt series, they are available on the B/D shop for a limited time. Once they are gone, they are gone forever! See the complete lineup after the jump.
Before his untimely death, even before he was taken under the wing of Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat was something of legend. He’s since become an enduring art icon. His street art sensibility, youthful energy, and handling of themes of racism, class, psychology, and popular culture keep his art relevant from year to year. However, Basquiat’s popularity is enjoying a special renewal over the course of 2013. The hugely popular Basquiat retrospective at Manhattan’s Gagosian Gallery will be followed by another at Gagosian’s Hong Kong gallery later this month. Additionally this month, Basquiat’s painting Dustheads is expected to fetch up to $35 million dollars in auction at Christie’s. In conjunction with the auction, Christie’s has released a three-part video series on Jean-Michel Basquiat. The first video features Basquiat’s early partner in graffiti, Al Diaz. The second in the series speaks with fellow contemporary artist Toxic on Basquiat’s transformation into an art-star. The third installment (featured after the jump speaks with Macklemore, one of many contemporary rappers to express inspiration from the late artist. [via]
Robert Therrien recontextualizes everyday images and objects by exaggerating them. His larger-than-life sculptures of tables, chairs, and dishware offer viewers an alternative perspective of these usually mundane and overlooked domestic elements. Therrien’s work simultaneously validates and absurdifies these simple objects by calling attention to their existence. In addition to enlarging items, Therrien also warps them or physically places them in a thoughtful context, commenting on the boundaries of the functionality, design, and purpose of these simple objects and images. Accompanying the inorganic images are organic ones, such as a 51 inch tall beard and a 47 inch long stork beak with bundle. Therrien has lived in Los Angeles since 1971.
