Blending two- and three-dimensional forms, Mark Whalen creates cerebral and absurd arrangements of the human body. Whether stacking vibrant heads or using sculpted hands to sculpt the very shapes of canvases, there’s a metatextual component in tackling the act of creating art itself.
“The generalized, gender-fluid figures who appears in the pictorial scenes and whose body parts are featured in the sculptures is not Whalen himself — or it’s not only him,” Over the Influence has said of his work. “The figure is an avatar for the broad spectrum of human experience. The seductive richness of the saturated palette and alluring surface treatments evokes a range of emotional responses to that life; and the ordinary found objects and minerals that surround, support, and oppress the persons in the compositions represent the profound absurdity of basically everything.”
Find more of Whalen’s work on his site.
Design collective 
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.