When we saw San Francisco based artist Peter Combe’s art at Scope Miami Beach earlier this month, we did a double take. From far away, his portraits of young men, which include icons like Mahatma Gandhi, are unassuming, looking more like photographs that have been blown up to a larger-than-life size scale. But upon close inspection, we realized that these tonal portraits were created using every day household paint swatches, carefully pinned into place, row after row, until a mesmerizing sense of realism is achieved. Combe’s three-dimensional works play with light, color and movement in a Pointillism-esque style, where small, circular jewel-toned swatches are placed together in precise arrangements that look like scales. As you walk around a piece, it suddenly transforms and the light and colors appear to magically change depending on your vantage point. There is a sort of fleeting moment that occurs as a result, similar to the images themselves, many of which are sourced from social media. “While working on these pieces, my favorite time of the day is the gloaming- it is at that time that the colors seem to come alive subtly yet rather dramatically at the same time- it becomes a still point for me as an artist. It is these characteristics that propel me forward,” Combe says.
Massachusetts based sculptor Tom Friedman’s work is instantly recognizable for its surprising use of materials like styrofoam, foil, paper, clay, wire, plastic, hair, and fuzz. "I don’t think about the construction of meaning. I think about the creating a catalyst for thinking. Meaning is too concrete. I want the viewer to think in different ways. I want to propose an ongoing process of investigation with no conclusions," says Friedman. The artist's great emphasis on materials makes him an analog artist in a digital world, and people looking at his work often remark on it's "zen-like" quality.
Barcelona, Spain based artist 
Philadelphia based artist