Art
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The large-scale oil paintings of Los Angeles-based artist Justin Bower present a series of unconventional portraits of the modern human head. The painter's work features a visual clashing of figurative art and abstraction. Bower offers just enough of each technique to blur the line not only between the two but to also create a dialogue about the modern man's immersive connectivity to technology and obsession with altering their physical image. Using just a basic, anonymous human face, Bower transforms the image of "self" into something more inorganic to reflect society's shift into an obsessive, tech-reliant culture. The artist produces these glitchy, digitized, dissected, and fragmented portraits to echo the symbolic identity of a person who has undergone a contemporary makeover.
Blurring the Lines Between Organic and Digital Faces
Stunning Portraits Mixed with Swirling Ink in Water
We are no stranger to the work of self-taught Italian artist Alberto Seveso. We just love his Stunning Ink Portraits, Beibeees and his LEGO Ink Riders , he is so incredibly skilled at documenting colorful liquids as they slowly mix with water. Now, he wows us again with this captivating portrait of music artist Ayaka.
London-based artist Justin Harris utilizes a mix of media (oil, acrylic, pencil, and pastel on canvas) to create four powerful pieces for his series titled The Writer . The illustrator uses faceless figurative forms to depict an assortment of raw emotion. Each fragmented subject is seen crossing over the blank, empty canvas onto a designated grid of color, though their figure remains black and white.
Depicting Raw Emotion Through Powerful Faceless Figures
Remarkable Hyperrealistic Sculptures by Rob Mueck
London-based Australian artist Ron Mueck produces unbelievably realistic sculptures with expressive facial features that complement their equally detailed human figures. The hyperrealist sculptor's work is world renowned for its extraordinarily lifelike quality coupled with his affinity for playing with scale. The artist alters the typical size ratio of his characters in relation to the rest of the world, allowing them to either fill an entire room with their hunched over bodies or comfortably slumber on a countertop. Whether Mueck's creations are giants or dwarfs, the artist allots time to each one to perfect the most minute details.
As it's the day before Christmas, we thought, what better way is there to wish you all a very Merry Christmas than with the help of some very creative people? So, just for you, we've put together this post of 20 different artworks or photos that each say "Happy Holidays!" or "Merry Christmas!" in their own unique way.
Merry Christmas From 20 Terrific Creatives
Portraits of Soldiers Before, During, and After War
Private Chris MacGregor, 24 Photographer Lalage Snow, who is currently based in Kabul, Afghanistan, embarked on an 8-month-long project titled We Are The Not Dead featuring portraits of British soldiers before, during, and after their deployment in Afghanistan. Similar to Claire Felicie's series of monochromatic triptychs , Snow captures the innocent expressions of these men transformed into gaunt, sullen faces in less than a year. The three-panel juxtaposition allows the viewer to observe the physical changes a stationed soldier in a war zone goes through.Anyone who has visited Florence will tell you that the highlight of the city is Michelangelo's immaculate sculpture David at Galleria dell'Accademia. The amount of detail and dedication Michelangelo put into the sculpture is truly breathtaking. Amazingly, artist Linda Huber used a pencil to repilcate David's side facial profile.
Meticulous Pencil Drawing of David's Face
Lora Zombie's Sweet New Grunge Art Comes to NY
Get ready! For one night only, on November 8th from 7p to 10pm, self-taught painter Lora Zombie will be debuting over 50 brand new pieces at Broome Street gallery in Soho, New York. The Russian grunge artist captured our hearts along with millions of others with her colorful and unique style. She's previously exhibited in numerous group exhibitions but this will be the very first time she puts on her own solo show in New York. To see the talented and quirky artist hard at work, make sure to check out this video .
Creative Illustrator Draws Himself into the Frame
UK-based digital artist Dan Lester combines photography and illustration into clever and intriguing images that really make you question what you're looking at. Is it a photograph or a drawing? In actuality, it's both. The digital illustrator manages to bewilder his audience by merging the roles of model and artist into one entity in an innovative fashion. Unlike a typical set of self-portraits, the 21-year-old's Drawn On series depicts the multifaceted artist as the ultimate creator, drawing himself into the frame. His skilled hand is an extension of his drawing and vice versa.Fascinating Underground Worlds by Steve Duncan
Nottingham, England Urban historian, explorer, and photographer Steve Duncan has been investigating the underground world of sewers, tunnels, and subways for years. Traveling beneath international cities including New York, Los Angeles, London, and Paris, he has great knowledge of many subterranean worlds.
Ghost Trains Roar Back to Life in Modern England
Though we've seen the present merged with the past in everything from Sergey Larenkov's WW II series to Shawn Clover's San Francisco earthquake blend , we're still incredibly intrigued when we get to see history presented in this incredibly creative way. We came upon Stuart McPherson's interesting series called M&GN Ghosts just yesterday and felt compelled to share it with you. M&GN stands for Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway, a railway that ran in the eastern county of Norfolk in the UK from 1893 to 1959. Interestingly, it was frequently referred to as the "Muddle and Go Nowhere" because it served a mostly rural region, but after its closure this phrase was commonly replaced with the phrase "Missed and Greatly Needed." With smoke billowing high into the air, these old trains seem to be roaring back to life, looking to take present day visitors on an unforgettable journey back into the past.Every day, artists are getting more and more creative with ideas for recycling, ranging anywhere from flattened-can mosaics to sculptures formed out of pages from old books . Japanese artist Makaon uses old cans to build fictional characters, superheroes, and robots that give fun new life to these used and empty containers. Using an origami-like process, the artist bends, twists, and flattens layers of aluminum to create the complex forms, featuring a range of characters from Super Mario, Luigi, Hello Kitty, and Pikachu, to Batman, Darth Vader, and Buzz Lightyear. It's not only interesting to explore the range of characters that Makaon conjures up, but it's also fun to identify which liquids had to be consumed in order to obtain all of the necessary materials.
Pop Culture Characters Built With Beer and Soda Cans
Astonishing Painted Bodies Form a Mangled Car
Adelaide-based artist Emma Hack uses her expertise skill at body painting for this jarring anti-speeding campaign for Motor Accident Commission, as conceived by advertising agency Clemenger BBDO Adelaide . The campaign depicts a mangled car that is actually made of carefully positioned human bodies. There are seventeen men and women within the anamorphic image of a car that has clearly been in an accident with up to five layers of paint coating their bodies. Hack, who is probably best known as the body painter for Gotye's " Somebody That I Used to Know " music video, took eighteen painstaking hours to complete the ambitious visual and says, "Technically, it's probably the most difficult job I have ever done. It's quite magical how it's turned out." It is not only an expertly executed optical illusion, but one with a hard-hitting message to add awareness to the Crash Puzzle campaign.Who better to show us the incredible art at Burning Man than Met friend and professional HDR photographer Trey Ratcliff? This was the third year he attended the week-long annual event held in the scorching hot Nevada desert, which he simply describes as "always different." "It's the only place in the world you can go where things are always different but always awesome," he says. Though you may already know Ratcliff's through his incredible photos , you may not be aware of his "bromance" with the former President of MySpace Tom Anderson.