Ashley Eliza Williams' latest painting series is called "Sentient," and for good reason. Williams paints biomorphic shapes that resemble both rocks and flesh. Overgrown with colorful moss, these mysterious shapes float in mid air or stand solemnly amid desolate landscapes. Their alien flora seems to blossom uncontrollably, evoking bacteria and plant life alike. Its ability to grow in otherwise desolate spaces gestures towards the tenacity of living things.
Ashley Eliza Williams’ latest painting series is called “Sentient,” and for good reason. Williams paints biomorphic shapes that resemble both rocks and flesh. Overgrown with colorful moss, these mysterious shapes float in mid air or stand solemnly amid desolate landscapes. Their alien flora seems to blossom uncontrollably, evoking bacteria and plant life alike. Its ability to grow in otherwise desolate spaces gestures towards the tenacity of living things.
Gregory Thielker creates paintings which combine realism and aspects of abstraction by obscuring the views of his surroundings. After studying Art History at Williams College in Massachusetts and getting his MFA in Painting at Washington University in St. Louis, he embarked on cross-country road trips and working outdoors. This is when he began his series "Under the unminding sky", which captures his trip's sights through the perspective of a rainy car windshield. Intrigued by the way rain accented and veiled the scenery in front of him, it became the model for his paintings, transforming the driver's environments in a realistic way.
Steven Russell Black’s horror-filled paintings and drawings have a cinematic quality. Black refers to himself as a "painter with an obsessive compulsion to champion the odd, fringe, or otherwise unappreciated." In his drawings, these scenes and characters carry an even more ghostly quality.
The oil paintings of Vasilis Avramidis blend architecture with writhing, organic forms that appear both figurative and alien. In the new show “Host” at Hiro Gallery in Tokyo, several new works from the artist are collected. The show runs June 10 through June 29. Avramidis was last featured on HiFructose.com here.
Raised in Los Angeles in a family of immigrants, Julio Reyes says that one of his biggest inspirations is the human ability to overcome adversity. His family's journey to the US and their tumultuous quest for citizenship has always been a guiding light in his work. "I have always been moved by the human capacity to love, dream, and persevere, with great courage and sincerity, in spite of what can often be, a vast and unsympathetic Nature," wrote Reyes in an email to Hi-Fructose. Because of the struggles he has personally faced, Reyes says he has cultivated a keen sense of empathy that he seeks to convey in his oil paintings, which often feature solitary figures in moments of contemplation.
