Polish artist Leszek Kostuj paints fanciful worlds populated by otherworldly creatures. There is something playful, childlike, and naive about his work, with its simplified forms and friendly-looking characters. Throughout Kostuj's multi-dimentional compositions, his characters' eyes grab viewers' attention. He paints them in profile, evoking Ancient Egyptian wall paintings. The round, marble-like pupils draw us into his strange, storybook-like universe.
Polish artist Leszek Kostuj paints fanciful worlds populated by otherworldly creatures. There is something playful, childlike, and naive about his work, with its simplified forms and friendly-looking characters. Throughout Kostuj’s multi-dimentional compositions, his characters’ eyes grab viewers’ attention. He paints them in profile, evoking Ancient Egyptian wall paintings. The round, marble-like pupils draw us into his strange, storybook-like universe.
Swiss artist Urs Fischer, based in New York, adapts the human face into topographical forms in his paintings. Works like "Landscape," above, are crafted from aluminum panel, reinforced polyurethane foam, epoxy, acrylic ink, primer, paint, and silkscreen, and gesso. These paintings reorganize visages into landscapes, with the artist's own face used in differing ways. The recent show “Mind Moves,” erected at Gagosian Gallery in San Francisco, was accompanied by a quote from the artist: “At its core, art is all about order. When you're an artist, you basically arrange, rearrange, or alter; you play off order.”
"Necrosurrealist" David Van Gough offers a new body of work that pulls from literary and Biblical narratives in "Paradiso's Fall." Kicking off today at Dark Art Emporium, several new paintings comprise this series. Each painting is dense in both its creatures and references to the cultural touchstones that influence the artist.
Slimen El Kamel’s transcendent paintings are informed by both memory and folklore. The Tunisia artist uses acrylics, embroidery, and other media to craft these multilayered works, each inviting the viewer to unpack his crowded visions. His painting have been said to question “social constraints and the absurdity of violence.”
Jamian Juliano-Villani, known for stirring acrylic paintings packed with dark humor and sprawling references, offers new works in a show at Massimo De Carlo London titled "Let's Kill Nicole." She offers both new paintings and sculptures in the display, which runs through Sept. 21. Juliano-Villani's work is known for pulling in a variety of familiar imagery from fashion, illustration, and other industries, with conversations emerging over what constitutes referencing versus appropriation. “Everything is a reference,” she’s insisted.
