Massive Drawings of Joel Daniel Phillips Featured at Fort Wayne Museum

The lifesized, realistic portraits crafted by Joel Daniel Phillips currently inhabit the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in the new exhibition "Charcoal Testament." With pencil and charcoal, the artist’s subjects have moved between the impoverished and the reality and the aftermath of nuclear testing near the Western coast.

The lifesized, realistic portraits crafted by Joel Daniel Phillips currently inhabit the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in the new exhibition “Charcoal Testament.” With pencil and charcoal, the artist’s subjects have moved between the impoverished and the reality and the aftermath of nuclear testing near the Western coast.

On his reasons for focusing his efforts in drawing: “My process is inherently about labor, and against the modern backdrop of instant, image-driven gratification, I have found the physical process involved in the painstaking, craft-driven and anachronistic rendering of a subject or a moment to be ever more important,” the artist says. “The rigorous, meditative labor of observation through draughtsmanship is a means to an end. This end being, for me, a deeper and richer understanding of the world around me and the complexity of its histories.”

The exhibition runs through May 12 at the museum. At the opening of the exhibition, the artist’s new video work was featured in a performance piece, with accompanying music from composer Rafaël Leloup. See that below, as well as more works from the show.

Topics

Charcoal, drawing, Joel Daniel Phillips

drawing, fu chunqiang, illustration

June 30, 2014

Chinese artist Fu Chunqiang creates detailed illustrations with seemingly endless line work. Viewing his work up close, one begins to wonder how many times he cross-hatched his tiny marks to create the winding, looping forms we see. In many of the pieces, the shapes seem to be hooked into one another like the curves of infinity symbols. A widely opened mouth with shark-like rows of teeth encloses a war among insects and reptiles; a fan of peacock feathers conceals pairs of tiny human characters that seem to be caught, as if in a spider's web. Fu's work ranges in style, from flat, cartoony aliens to clouds that evoke traditional Chinese painting and realistically-rendered animals. But he approaches each style with the same frenetic energy that makes his work pulse.

Ashley Oubré Embraces “Abnormalities” in Hyperreal Drawings

Ashley Oubré, Ashley Oubre. Hyperrealism, drawing, Photorealism

January 28, 2015

Washington, DC. based artist Ashley Oubré creates compelling photoreal images with just carbon pencil, graphite and india ink. Her drawings capture private moments of shame and humiliation from insecurities that many of us face. As someone who once fought depression, she's set out to embrace what society considers abnormal; obesity, stretch marks, age spots, and twisted spines. These are the characteristics that connect her subjects.

Stuart Holland Presents New, Stirring Works in ‘Elsew(here’

drawing, Stuart Holland, Watercolor

May 31, 2019

Stuart Holland's stirring charcoal drawings and watercolor works packed Arch Enemy Arts this month in a show titled "Elsew(here)." The Idaho artist crafts quiet, cerebral scenes, each its own introspective and metaphysical exploration. The show ends on June 1.

Stefan Zsaitsits’s Manic Drawings of Children’s Tales Gone Awry

drawing, graphite, Stefan Zsaitsits

July 18, 2014

Austrian-born Stefan Zsaitsits creates intricately-detailed and deranged works with a sense of humor. Take for instance “Puppet,” an uncommon portrait of fairytale icon Pinocchio — half of his sweet face is scratched off with harsh dark lines. His wooden arm seems worn and his one bulging eye shows a mix of fear and sadness. Other anonymous figures seem to come from sort of equally distorted children’s tale. If you line up Zsaitsits’s quirky characters in a row — a little boy with a still-feathered chicken in mouth, a Magritte-like figure with no face except glasses and a floating ear — they look like clues to a larger narrative where it seems things went comically wrong. The artist’s paintings look more somber and eerie in contrast with many severed body parts and depressing scenes. No matter the medium, the artist creates intriguing scenes that entice the viewer even while threatening to turn them away with unsettling details.

Massive Drawings of Joel Daniel Phillips Featured at Fort Wayne Museum

Fu Chunqiang’s Bizarre Monochromatic Drawings

Ashley Oubré Embraces “Abnormalities” in Hyperreal Drawings

Stuart Holland Presents New, Stirring Works in ‘Elsew(here’

Stefan Zsaitsits’s Manic Drawings of Children’s Tales Gone Awry

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List

Follow us on our social networks

Shop

Subscribe

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List