November 22, 2019
Andy Smith

Drew Friedman Shares Presidential Portraits in Exhibition

Following the release of his Fantagraphics book with portraits of all 44 U.S. presidents, illustrator Drew Friedman brings his satirical, “warts-and-all” style to Ohio State University’s Friends of the Libraries Gallery at Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. In addition to his book illustrations, the exhibition also features his other presidential-themed works over the years, like the magazine cover above.

“[He] has employed his intensely realistic, warts-and-all style of caricature to satirize celebrity and authority for four decades,” the gallery says. “In his latest book from Fantagraphics Books, All the Presidents, Friedman points his pen at the exclusive club of the United States presidents. … Building on a centuries-old tradition of cartoonists satirizing those in power, Friedman’s influences include Edward Sorel, Robert Grossman, Mort Drucker, David Levine, and more.”

See more on Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum’s site and the artist’s page.

Topics

Drew Friedman, illustration, Portraiture

Justin Bower, MOAH, Portraiture

December 23, 2015

The explosive abstract portraiture of Los Angeles based artist Justin Bower is currently featured in a new exhibition at MOAH (Lancaster Museum of Art and History), "Thresholds". Previously featured here on our blog and in Hi-Fructose Vol. 31, his digital-looking, hand-painted portraits constantly question how much we will allow technology to permeate and destruct our daily lives? Like a glitchy mirror image of ourselves, glued to our computers and mobile devices, the giant, anonymous faces that he paints are continuously broken up by neon colored markings and shapes. His "Thresholds" series is an extension of a series of portraits that first began with his piece titled "Spaceboy" in 2009, here ending with several new paintings created throughout 2015.

Elegant Title Cards and Scratchy Napkin Drawings by Andy Ristaino

Adventure Time, Andy Ristaino, illustration

April 24, 2017

Andy Ristaino is an Emmy-winning artist known for being the lead character designer, writer, and background artist on the TV show Adventure Time. Ristaino’s hand always seem to be at work, whether it’s the show’s elegant, detail-packed title cards on the crowded drawings he scratches onto napkins and placemats. Both highlight the artist’s talent for making every corner of the page work for him.

Eric Lacombe Portrays Mourning Figures in “The Weight of Silence”

Eric Lacombe, painting, Portraiture

March 11, 2016

Interpretations of Lyon based Eric Lacombe's mixed media works and paintings have been varied and extreme: monstrous, melancholy, horrific, and even beautiful. Describing his art as "caricatures of the soul", the self-taught artist's images exaggerate and distort his characters' faces into haunting portrayals. Their faces look almost like masks, some painted without mouths or eyes, or given bird-like beaks, and yet their transfiguration is the most revealing thing about them. Each is a sort of reflection of the artist's own feelings, who likens his subjects' appearance to a deconstruction of their torment.

Carmel Seymour’s Imaginative Watercolors Play with Negative Space

Carmel Seymour, illustration, painting, Watercolor

August 29, 2014

There seems to be a history running through Carmel Seymour’s water colors, but it’s hard to pin down. Somewhere in the hazy but sublime gap between art and illustration, the paintings suspend an alternate reality in the canvas’ mid-air, depicting some hyperreal folklore in a wash of negative space. Seymour’s conceit seems simple enough: she places contemporary figures, such as girls in jeans and sneakers, in some private oasis, perhaps the figures’ dream landscape or perhaps some alien planet. But the landscapes where her figures exist are not so much 'scapes as objects; entities without a before or after. Her water colors are deployed in highly restrained and linear strokes to focus on details, and then exploded to disrupt the hyperrealism and maximize the medium’s atmospheric emphasis. The paintings have no clear beginning or end, but beg the question: what’s the story here?

Drew Friedman Shares Presidential Portraits in Exhibition

Justin Bower Debuts an Explosive New Portrait Series in “Thresholds”

Elegant Title Cards and Scratchy Napkin Drawings by Andy Ristaino

Eric Lacombe Portrays Mourning Figures in “The Weight of Silence”

Carmel Seymour’s Imaginative Watercolors Play with Negative Space

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List

Follow us on our social networks

Shop

Subscribe

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List