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Marco Grassi’s Portraits Put Hyperrealism Slightly Off Balance

Italian artist Marco Grassi applies his hyperrealist painting chops to portraits that are slightly unconventional. While he paints mostly young, beautiful female subjects in traditional studio settings, his work becomes remarkable for the surreal accoutrements with which he adorns his characters. In one piece, a model's back becomes porous with a carved, baroque design — her body hollow like a doll's. In other paintings, he experiments with colorful body paint, tattoos, fabrics, and even a translucent, shield-like piece of futuristic jewelry. Throughout his portrait series, Grassi uses his skills with oils to create convincing illusions that make it easy for viewers to suspend disbelief.

Italian artist Marco Grassi applies his hyperrealist painting chops to portraits that are slightly unconventional. While he paints mostly young, beautiful female subjects in traditional studio settings, his work becomes remarkable for the surreal accoutrements with which he adorns his characters. In one piece, a model’s back becomes porous with a carved, baroque design — her body hollow like a doll’s. In other paintings, he experiments with colorful body paint, tattoos, fabrics, and even a translucent, shield-like piece of futuristic jewelry. Throughout his portrait series, Grassi uses his skills with oils to create convincing illusions that make it easy for viewers to suspend disbelief.

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Topics

hyperrealism, Marco Grassi, painting, Portraiture

After the End of Time, FB69 Gallery, Jana Brike, painting

August 29, 2014

Jana Brike is an intriguing communicator. For her upcoming solo exhibition “After the End of Time”, opening September 6 at FB69 Gallery in Munster, Germany, the artist produced a fascinating array of works created while staying in a cabin on a manor-house park by the Baltic Sea. These new paintings, she tells us in the following exclusive feature, are akin to a group of personal icons that relate more to a deep satori state of insight into one’s true nature.

Aaron Johnson’s Grotesquely Humorous Paintings and Sock Art

Aaron Johnson, painting, Sock Paintings

January 6, 2015

Manic characters grin wildly in Aaron Johnson's over-the-top, explosive paintings. The Brooklyn-based artist's work overflows with gross-out humor and in-your-face sexuality, which he renders in a color palette of hyperactive, neon acrylics. While paintings on fabric comprise the majority of his work, Johnson has an ongoing series of sculptural sock paintings (made from used, donated socks from his social media followers, mind you) that evoke both assemblages and D.I.Y. puppetry. Darkly funny, Johnson's gag-filled work nods to the over-saturation of violent and sexual imagery in our media culture with its blatant absurdity.

Attractive and Awkward Portraits by Peter Stichbury

Big Eyes, Haute couture, Modern Beauty, Peter Stichbury, Portraiture

May 5, 2015

New Zealand based artist Peter Stichbury combines attractive good looks with ugliness in 1950s style portraits. His Big-Eyed young subjects represent non-conventional beauty, something we can find in today's supermodels and misfits alike. Stichbury regards these young people as a collective group in society, which he renders in a style that flattens their facial features to a non specific point. In their abstract, clone-like similarities, they become anonymous and linked to one another. They are intentionally deprived of human emotion, owing to their awkwardness. At the same time, his aesthetic can be regarded as strangely realistic.

The 3D-Inspired Paintings of Cesar Piette

Cesar Piette, Mixed Media, painting

April 26, 2019

Cesar Piette’s analogue paintings carry the texture and sheen of digitally created Pixar characters. The artist uses a blend of paint techniques, between traditional layering and airbrush approaches. Before that, the artist has first designed these characters via sketching, digital modeling and adjustment, and then goes to work on the final painting.

Marco Grassi’s Portraits Put Hyperrealism Slightly Off Balance

Behind the Scenes of “After the End of Time”: Exclusive Interview with Jana Brike

Aaron Johnson’s Grotesquely Humorous Paintings and Sock Art

Attractive and Awkward Portraits by Peter Stichbury

The 3D-Inspired Paintings of Cesar Piette

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