There was a resurgence of interest in UFOs and extraterrestrials in the 1970s after Swiss author Erich Von Daniken wrote “Chariots of The Gods.” Travis Louie (HF Vol. 32 cover artist) grew up in that environment, and once thought of aliens as the ultimate immigrants. For his new body of work, “Watch the Skies”, which debuts tonight at KP Projects/MKG in Los Angeles, Louie incorporates aliens into his cast of creature portraits. His monochromatic acrylic paintings have been likened to bizarre snapshots of monsters, to the effect of old-timey photographs from the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Though Louie has a longtime fascination with atomic-age science fiction, his aliens represent more than just a fantasy. “My work is a continuing conversation that started as a veiled commentary about the immigrant experience. Originally the paintings were portraits of mythical beings and curious characters who come from unusual circumstances,” he says. These include characters like “Clara”, who worries about wearing her antenna on straight, and “The Mysterious Harry Waxman”, a spidery visitor from another world who decided to live out his life on Earth. “No one knows for certain why [aliens] come here, and theorists have come up with all sorts of ideas that range from evil intentions to beneficial ones. I like to think they just come here to look around.”
This weekend, 
Guillermo del Toro is known as one of the most imaginative filmmakers working today. As the director of some of this generation's most inventive horror and monster genre films, from Hellboy (2004), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Pacific Rim (2013), and Crimson Peak (2015), it should come as no surprise that del Toro loves monsters- and he has a creepy art collection to match. His treasured collection has been a work in progress since he was a child in Guadalajara, Mexico, and given its significant impact on del Toro's work and process, is now being brought to the public, courtesy of LACMA.
Throughout art history, artists have been giving us their interpretation of the world as only they can see it. "Parallel Universe" which opened at 
Our next print issue of Hi-Fructose New Contemporary Art Magazine (which arrives in July) features a beautiful cover and feature and a beautifully-printed special 16-page insert by Travis Louie, we chase clouds with the murals and art of Sainer and the ETAM CRU, discover the animal portraits of Susan Siegel, Andy Gilmore's hallucinatory graphics, Eric Wert's intense still-lives, Shawn Huckins's modern painted text messaging meets old masters mash-ups, painter Casey Weldon's bright and bold surreal works, Mark Gmehling's 3D distortions, and a major feature on the art of Sam Wolfe Connelly! Plus we journey into hell in with a new stereoscopic book review and take a look at Dima Drjuchin's Lil Goof and more!