C215 is a street artist who has been practicing for twenty years, but about seven years ago began stenciling. Most of his works are portrait pieces broken up into large chunks of color. He travels all over the world and attempts to put up portraits that capture the essence of the people wherever he happens to be. He tends to draw marginalized people in beautiful detail to shed light on them. The image below of the man playing the miniature organ is from one of his gallery shows. He puts one on and usually puts stencils on pieces of used cardboard or wood. He has been referred to as the French Banksy, but I think that is just because Banksy is the only street artist people know. Their styles seem very different. 

David A. Smith is an English sculpture artist who has been greeted by the art world with open arms. He has a masters in fine arts and has clearly spent time developing a clean and interesting style. He combines just a few components but is able to create these confusing situations that just leave you wondering why? His work is simply beautiful. He works with animal forms and lighting, but also has this strange obsession with human teeth, where he puts them into weapons and pieces of wood. The barfing animal series is my favorite as a group because it is just such an interesting idea.

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This last one of the otter is my favorite of all of his works, because, it incorporates his interesting use of light, but it also reminds me of Yves Klein’s blue bodies which can be found here 

E. Ross Bradley has no artist statement on his website, so I don’t have much background on his development as an artist or where he is from, but I think his work speaks well enough for itself. The gestural study of a man (below) is my favorite. I always think it is interesting to see how simplistic an image can get while still conveying all of the information a fully detailed study would give. The polaroid transfer are also really amazing because they are manipulated in a way that they almost become paintings within the frame. Bradley does a lot of figure study and cutting up of the body which I always think is beautiful to look at. I love how everybody can look at people and see completely different things. 

Male Gesture II. Oil stick on paper. 18” x 27”

Couple I. Polaroid image transfer. 8” x 10”

Doctors and Derriers I. Conte on toned paper. 19” x 26”

Cathy is originally from the Northwest and does drawings, sculptures, and paintings. There are only a few sculptures on her website, and these are more of an experiment than a professional direction. Her drawings are where her real talents lie. I thought these would be a great pair of images to show this week because we are working on figure drawing and it’s nice to see how other artists (especially professionals) are approaching similar subjects. She has great movement in her skin and has definitely seen some sort of anatomy training as she really knows how bones are pushing skin surfaces and has an amazing grasp on lighting. Overall, I love her figure studies. 

Profile. Charcoal on Paper. 100 x 70cm.

Mature Woman. Pencil. 60 x 50cm.

I have never seen an artist who so instantly blew me away. Michael Murphy makes two dimensional experiences out of three dimensional objects and manipulates media in a way that really demands attention. Working with popsicle sticks or bamboo and paint, he creates portraits and caricatures, or recreates common images to deconstruct them in a way to make them seem all the more complex. Michael Murphy is AMAZING!

“Deer.” 2012. Popsicle sticks. 21” x 22” x 40”

“Corey.” 2011. Hand-cut bulletproof glass and braided fiber. 

Side view.

Moses Collins. 2009. Bamboo and steel wire. 13’ x 7’.

Carsten is a photographer who focuses on the human form and nature. I really enjoy her series called Dyptichs in which she juxtaposes nude photos with natural shapes or textures to show the overlap between different avenues of physiology. Her butterfly series Psyche even more obviously overlaps humans and nature as she places people within the body of different species of butterfly. 

I can see her work being used for large scale advertising. The images are beautiful, yet amazingly simple.

Aron uses the human form in both classical and boundary pushing poses and situations. Like some of the other artists I have posted in the past, he uses the human figure as its own art form and rather than create a whole imaginary world, focuses on manipulating natural materials into human figures. My favorite pieces are the busts using wood that are then burned to make coal busts. The harshly carved wooden figures are also amazing because they have such dramatic lighting without being very smoothly formed up close.

I thought this would be a good choice as we move into figure drawing as well because Aron shows there are more ways to portray the body then we first imagine.

This is Arthur Sarnoff. He was a part of the Society of American Illustrators (imagine a 1950s ad or a hand drawn pinup girl). Born in New York in the early 20th century, he worked in advertising and fine art throughout his life. This style of illustration has always been of interest to me because the artists are so amazing at cartooning realistic human figures without making them look overly realistic or caricatured, yet are still able to exaggerate emotions and facial expressions. My grandpa left me every National Geographic (yes, every single one) since the magazine began, and as I was looking through, I found some of Arthur’s work and decided to search around and found out he was the original painter of the dogs playing poker. 

I couldn’t find too much about the pieces, but the pieces are done in marker, crayon, pen, and pencil. 

Here are some more.

I was first drawn to Ken Price’s sculptures which is a bit out of the ordinary for me, but there is something about their simplicity and intertwining forms that makes them interesting while still being nonrepresentational. His use of color also makes his forms seem less static. I decided to place one of his paintings below as well to show his range of styles, but I chose this one because it shows how his sculptures carry over into his painting style. He also has a section of erotic art on his website which seemed a bit out of place, but many of the images are pretty hilarious (here). I think his drawings and paintings are a bit elementary, or at least very simple and blocky, but I think his sculptures are beautifully formed and well thought out.

Arctic. 1998. Synthetic polymer paint on fired clay, 22 x 16 3/4 x 15 1/2” 

Red Neck. 2002. Synthetic polymer paint on fired clay, 9 1/2 x 10 x 11”

Levitating Sculptures. 2006. Acrylic and ink on paper. 11 x 8 1/2”

Seb Patane is an Italian artist currently working in London. He makes mixed media installations, collage, and image manipulations, and I am most attracted to his manipulation work. His style reminds me of reading 1984, because the way he takes a printed or drawn figure and then removes any sense of personality from them mimics the lack of humanity allowed in the dystopian society of the Party. There is also a process in the book of removing somebody from history if they turn on the government or die called “becoming an unperson” and these photos seem like they are a part of that process, of erasing from history to create a skewed future. Overall, most of Seb’s pieces seem geared towards censorship. His style is both interesting and clean, and he seems purposeful and knowledgeable about the message he wishes to convey.

Four Generations. 2004. Ballpoint pen on printed paper. 13 7/8 x 9 3/4”

Miss Winifred Fraser. 2004. Ballpoint pen on printed paper. 13 7/8 x 9 3/4” 

Deep in the Woods I Hear a Shepherd Sing. 2008. Ballpoint pen, enamel, and colored pencil on printed paper. 11 2/5 x 8 1/4”

Tana mainly works in oils and charcoal and tends to focus on the human form, which is why I am so drawn to her. I really enjoy figure drawing classes, and I think it is really interesting to see how people can interpret the body into so many different ways. I really like her use of negative space, especially in the cow drawing. With very little line, she is able to portray so much feeling and movement. It is much like a modern form of the Chauvet cave drawings. 

Seated Nude. Charcoal on paper. 18” x 15”

Eric’s Bull. Pastel on canvas. 15” x 15”

Tuareg Girl. Oil on Canvas. 12” x 12”

More works available here.

This weeks artist is amazing! He really appreciates and has a background art history, so his ceramic pieces are a way to pay homage to some of the most recognizable and talented artists throughout time. He tries (successfully in my opinion) to incorporate both their artistic styles and personalities into pieces made of clays and glasses. He also paints and draws, but I was really captured by his ceramic pieces just because I have worked with ceramics in the past and it is nice to see that somebody is pushing this medium in such a creative way that still shows they are technically proficient.

Cake Dali. Earthen ware, glass. 14”h x 13”w.

Picasso’s Robe. Ceramic, oil on flat metal. 29”h x 17”w.

I love the way that Noi paints directly onto his pieces and doesn’t just rely on glazing to create an interesting texture on the surface of the clay. More of his work can be found here.

This is the ultra-talented Jeremy Geddes. He used to work as a video game animator and illustrator for comic books, but began painting scenes with plain setting with an interesting element or figure ground relationship that usually makes no sense at all. The piece below called The Cafe is one of my favorites because it seems like a painting version of an M. C. Escher sketch with conflicting gravity planes or impossible lines. 

I would say the best way to describe Geddes’s works would be sensational or interesting. They require you to stand back and really take in the whole piece, to look for emotion in a faceless, reflective helmet, or to attempt to understand why a woman is floating up the wall of a cafe. Every print on his website is sold out, and it is no wonder why. He is talented beyond belief, innovative, and extremely creative without being pushy or hard to appreciate. Enjoy!

Saint Jeremiah Finally Receives Illumination. 2005. Oil on board.

The Cafe. 2008-2009. Oil on canvas.

Heat Death. 2009. Oil on board.

This weekend one of my best friends showed me an artist that I had heard of before but knew nothing about. I had seen a picture of his sculpture Tourists II, but I thought it was a hilarious photograph. I had no idea that his work was a sculpture. Like Ron Mueck from last week’s post, Duane Hanson is a hyperrealist sculptor and he creates interesting situations and almost painfully realistic portraits. I am continually drawn to this type of art because I have always really enjoyed realism paintings, but after taking a trip to Paris over winter break, really fell in love with sculpture, and especially sculptures of the human form. Hanson’s pieces are a sort of modern interpretation of the body, a stressed and unfit human distracted by their surroundings, not a part of them. Most of his sculptures are cast from real people in Hanson’s life.

Here are three of my favorites of his pieces, but seriously, go take a look, all of his pieces are amazing. 

Man on a Bench. 1997. Vinyl (polychromed in oil) and accessories. Life size.

Tourists II. 1988. Fiberglass, mixed media, and accessories. Life size. 

Young Shopper. 1973. Polyester and fiberglass (polychromed in oil), and accessories.

Some of his works can be found here, but search around, because he has a bunch more that aren’t listed on that page.

Mask II (2001-02) Self-portrait.

Wild Man (2005) 9 feet tall.

Two Women (2005) 33.5” tall.

These three pieces are by the amazingly talented Ron Mueck, a hyperrealist sculptor with an interesting way of portraying strangely mundane situations in sculpture giving them a chilling and yet somewhat comforting quality. He is clearly a rare talent as he can so readily represent skin tones and body proportions almost flawlessly. He creates strange contortions of bodies, deconstructs body parts, and enlarges pieces for real detailed inspection. Ron Mueck is one of my favorite artists because he doesn’t create a fake reality to display beauty, he shows how even ugliness can be beautiful. His talents in sculpting were cultivated while he worked on movie sets making prosthetics and props. After years of working on film, he began creating art pieces and has been doing so for about 15 years now

Some more pieces by Ron can be found here.