Cecily Brown Cecily Brown English-born Cecily Brown’s paintings are characterized by a strong notion of sex, movement, energy and aggression. Her work reveals itself as a kind of hallucination of a series of passionate encounters where lust, tension, penetration and orgasm converge through violent brushwork, multiple viewpoints, and explosions of color. Read the rest of this entry » Loading ... Articles: This Is Not a Photograph Last September, a photo of a girl with a blank expression and a popped collar appeared online without any context. A few people assumed it was a viral ad, but most were drawn to it for reasons they couldn't quite place. Some combination of the girl's wide-eyed, deer-in-the-headlights stare, the Polo logo on her shirt, her slightly open mouth, the pinkish tone, and muted palette of the photograph suggested it was a "found" picture, or maybe a long-forgotten entry into Andy Warhol's Polaroid series. As it happened, the photo turned out to be the cover art for Vampire Weekend's second album. Vampire Weekend claimed a provocative, and effective strategy with their photo. A lot of indie artists lately have felt something similar, it seems. Clockwise: Dum Dum Girls' I Will Be; Fang Island; Wavves' Wavvves; Wolf Parade's Expo 86 These are just recent examples. Here's a thought experiment: How would Jandek be received if he'd started his career in 2010? Jandek's Blue Corpse and Graven Image
: Irina Werning Mythical Dragon Sculpture Made of Shattered CDs If you like the work of animal sculptor Sean Avery, you'll get a kick out of this similarly constructed sculpture of a dragon by Redditor Amon-a-boat. According to the artist, who has described herself as a "17 year old girl with a 4.0 GPA that decided to make an art project out of some old blank CDs," the enchanting figure is comprised of 136 CDs and took 80 hours to complete. The impressive piece is assembled in its entirety atop a handcrafted wire mesh frame with the skilled maneuvering of a thin bandsaw blade to administer careful, clean cuts to the easily cracked CDs and the handy use of a hot glue gun to meticulously paste each broken CD shard into place. Since sharing a few pictures of the sculpture on Reddit, the artist has received several requests to purchase the folkloric figurine. Check out some other shots of the remarkable sculpture, below, including one with a golf ball and quarter to see its comparative size and scale. via [Reddit]
New Spectacular Self-Portraits by 18-Year-Old Alex Stoddard One of My Modern Met's all-time favorite teen photographers is the wildly creative Georgia native Alex Stoddard. In the past year, the 18-year-old has accomplished a great deal at his young age, including graduating from high school and the completion of his highly praised 365 project. We were hooked early on and the conclusion of his year-long endeavor did not disappoint. Stoddard took a short hiatus from sharing his work amidst his busy schedule in recent months, following his graduation and moving across the country to live with fellow teen photographer Brian Oldham in California. Alex Stoddard website and Flickr
Top 7 Digital Artists to Follow on Behance « My Life Scoop The world breeds artists everyday and the digital age we live in awards us the opportunity to showcase, share, and discover their artistic endeavors, daily. Additionally, new technologies mean new ways to produce art. With so many artists emerging with new, digital works, where does one go to find it? Behance is a fantastic site that welcomes artists to create an account and share their portfolio of work with the masses. The site has accumulated a large network of artists that is continually growing. 1. Florian Nicolle, aka neo, is a young graphic designer and illustrator based out of Caen, France with a captivating technique that involves several mediums of art. 2. Probably best known for his collection of masterfully captured underwater ink images in the series titled a due Colori, Italian photographer and digital artist Alberto Seveso incorporates the same billowing aesthetic to represent some of his deconstructed digital portraits. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. [Top photo credit: Archan Nair]
More Gorgeous Ink and Tea Illustrations by Carne Griffiths Since we last checked in with UK-based artist Carne Griffiths he's been busy creating even more beautiful portraits in his signature style, that is, using just tea and ink. This Thursday, July 12, he's opening an exhibition called When the Walls Come Down which features the work of 35 artists as part of this year's Leytonstone Arts Trail. Inside a huge warehouse in East London, each artist will get a large wall space to display their works so the whole event will feel like a collection of solo studio shows. Writes Griffiths, "When the Walls Come Down is an exhibition designed to draw attention to the studios which myself and about 30 other artists, craftsmen and small businesses use as a base to create their work. Recent talks of redeveloping the building as housing has been cause to take stock of what an important creative hub the building is in an area which is crying out for more creative spaces. Carne Griffiths' website, store and Etsy page
Artistic Human Chalk Explosions In this series, Ukrainian photographer Anton Surkov creates a collection of perfectly timed black and white photographs. In the images, Surkov captures each unique jump, as clouds of white powder explode in the air around the remarkably fit, strong young models. The photographs exude a sense of energy, and the models demonstrate all kinds of emotion in their dramatic gestures and intense facial expressions. Surkov has mastered extreme lighting patterns that reveal the details of each powerful body as it is consumed by bursts of chalky dust. Anton Surkov's website via [Slow Show]
Humongous Maze Will Be Made of 250,000 Books As part of the London 2012 Festival, a gargantuan maze will be created using 250,000 books! Starting July 26 through July 30, this installation, called aMAZEme, will be spearheaded by Brazilian artists Marcos Saboya and Gualter Pupo but constructed by the public. (See call for volunteers on Craigslist.) The walls are expected to be 13 feet high and the labyrinth will ultimately be over 5,000 square feet. Once complete, the public will be able to walk through this hypnotic maze of books. The artists hope visitors will be able to discover new textures, images and emotions while being immersed inside the world of books. The final installation will be on view at Southbank Centre London from July 31 to August 26. aMAZEme website