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.

While working on “The Silence Paintings” Simon started to analyze the idea of nature, and realized what an active roll it played in every artist’s practice.  The materials an artist uses have to come from somewhere, and he began to dissect that relationship.  Rather than buying or building a stretcher made from cut down trees Simon chose to eliminate the middleman.  By selectively choosing to paint specific elements in nature he was able to draw attention to the singularity of the individual objects that, taken as a whole, create the world that surrounds us.  Unlike the use of manufactured lumber – this process does not kill the trees that he employs to construct his work.  The foliage is painted, the picture is taken, the leaves fall off, and the plant starts to rebuild itself.  Simon is part Native American, and the idea of how he interacts with the world is something that continually reasserts itself in his practice.

What initially began as a “high-lighting” of different natural elements quickly developed into a series with far broader implications.  Simon came across a huge spider web in the forest one day while choosing the location for his next piece, and began experimenting with that as the next logical progression in a rapidly evolving body of work.  What he couldn’t have counted on at the time was where this accidental discovery would take him.  Fast-forward six months, and Simon’s studio has become a factory of sorts.  Many skilled workers meticulously build elaborate concentric structures between plastic rods secured atop various geometric plinths.  The presence of these assistants would not be so surprising, if they were human.  Through many months of trial and error, Simon has developed a method that allows him to harness the inherent artistry of what many consider to be one of nature’s most horrifying creatures.  First, he locates and captures a particularly industrious breed of spider in the surrounding areas, and then (with a bit of guidance) allows them to do what spiders do best – build webs.  Once completed, he returns the spiders to where he found them, and begins coating the webs in countless layers of misted lacquer.  The process is unlike any I’ve ever seen, and the result is beautiful.  Sculptures, as much about formalism as they are about industrialized labor.

The work is part of a broader dialogue, one that exists outside of conventional eastern or western boundaries, and  it is this universal approach to art making that sets the work of Michael Anthony Simon apart from many of his contemporaries.  With a few major institutional shows under his belt in Korea, an upcoming trip to the States, and the official release of a new website slated for the Summer of 2012 – I can guarantee you that we will be seeing much more of this artist’s work in the years to come.

We can like status updates on facebook… we can favorite tweets on twitter… we can give videos a “thumbs-up” on youtube… but why can’t we cry? As the first part of an intensive study into the role of crying in a networked culture, the I cried button is an experiment conducted by Dee Kim & Bistin Chen. Using Google Chrome, you can install the button as a plug-in in youtube and press it when you cry while or after watching something from youtube. The button functions similar to the ‘like’ button, because it quantifies and saves your input, but instead of rating the material with a set of shiny stars, your emotions are gauged by tear drops… 

We’ve all confronted the awkwardness of the “like button” before. Take for example the following scenario: a friend posts about a loved one’s passing on facebook. Do you “like” the update to show your sympathy? Or does the act of “liking” the unfortunate news make you seem heartless? In a more practical sense, Kim’s work addresses this dilemma by giving us a tool to confront unpleasant emotions in the social media sphere, but from a more philosophical standpoint, the work speaks to society’s new needs for honest means of communicating our feelings. In the end, we can’t possibly “like” everything.

The “PROJECT GOODCRY” website will also show you how many people cried at the video you’re watching. Visit this website and see what makes other people cry the most, and compare it with yours.

Chad Kouri always dreamed of being a designer, and he took the first major step towards making that dream a reality with a freelance gig at the age of sixteen.  Ten years later, he has become what some refer to as a cultural engineer.  A founding member of the Chicago-based art and design incubator, The Post Family, previous Art Director of Proximity Magazine and recognition as one of Chicago’s Newcity Breakout Artists of 2010 are only a few of his numerous accomplishments.  Kouri has been involved with more than thirty different projects over the last two years, and shows no signs of slowing down.  For many, there is still a huge chasm between the worlds of design and fine arts, but this distinction is of no interest to Chad Kouri.  Un-phased, he continues to breakdown the walls attempting to separate the two industries.  A recent collaboration with artists Stephen Eichhorn and Cody Hudson at the Patty and Rusty Rueff Gallery marks his first foray into exhibiting at an institutional level, but with an upcoming solo show at the Rochester Museum of Fine Art slated for the winter of 2012 it will obviously not be his last.  Kouri describes his practice as having, “equal interests in conceptual art, consumer culture, typography, design, jazz and the gray areas between these fields, my body of work is more a collection of various ongoing projects, thoughts and experiments tied together by a strong sense of composition, concise documentation and an overall vibe of optimism than a seamless display of a style or genre.”  I am excited to watch this process evolve, and I wish him good luck for the future – but somehow I don’t think he’ll need it.

Artist Matt Nichols takes craftsmanship to a new level by pairing bold symbols with an acute sensibility for surface material.  While stunning as photos, the work is best experienced in person.  Physically interacting with these sculptures definitely forced me to reevaluate the relationship I had to the familiar iconography he often uses as a point of entry for the viewer.  Nichols comes from a serious design back ground, being largely responsible for much of the visual branding associated with the clothing company Neff.  While most would remain comfortable in that roll – he needed to push things further by shifting his focus towards a more physical realm.  With the closing of an exhibition at Hungryman Gallery just behind him, new work is already on the way.  Having recently returned to the Los Angeles area you can expect to see his name popping up in galleries across the SoCal area in the very near future.

Martin Hugo’s sketchbooks détourné the commercial imagery he encountered while designing corporate fashion in the “Empire State.” These books read as Hugo’s coping mechanism for trafficking in cultures he actively disdains.  Using styles from esoteric hardcore music and quotidian visual culture, Hugo degrades and problematizes “high-brow” mainstays like the fashion industry, the contemporary art world, and our global plutocracy. But these minimal collages would be a bore if they were just well-designed, on-the-nose crits of capitalism’s look and effect; whether it’s through his deft rebranding of The Whitney (it rhymes), or by imploring us to “Support Our Predator Drones,” it’s Hugo’s gallows humor that makes them shine. He is able to look into the abyss of American culture and find the ha-has we need to get through the (last) day(s).

Two collections of Hugo’s artwork are available: Drug Topics Zine AKA Whole Hog Zine and 6 Months of Shit, which he co-authored with Shawn Khemsurov. Another publication, Marlito’s Way Zine, will come out this June. Until then, check out more of his artwork after the jump.

Ladies & Gentlemen Studio is a two person team with a love for vintage items. Looking at their serving utensils from their Superior Servers collection, their sensibilities are immediately apparent- use classic silhouettes in a new modern way. Their other projects share this clever and endearing quality.

Tyler MFA student Erica Prince’s work shows an exploration of alchemy, scientific thought, and creation of intricate worlds. In a recent interview she did with Masters of the Visual Universe, she describes her work as “focused around the idea of the Utopian society”. Her newer work bridges between installation and drawings, where some of the spaces she creates in 2D also have a 3D counterpart. Her work is strong and well researched both visually and philosophically. Each one brings you deeper and deeper into her own visual Utopia.

A successful piece of furniture is timeless. It simultaneously looks brand new and like it’s existed forever. Atelier Pfister’s pieces have that quality. After the jump you can see more of our favorite pieces.

Their mirror disappears into its surroundings while retaining an intrinsic beauty. All of their pieces have a wink and nod air to them that makes them pleasure to look at.