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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Shih Yung-Chun paints surreal re-imaginings of everyday scenes, where adults occupy themselves with strange activities like bored kids creating their own games during summer vacation. Puppets, dolls, animals, and figurines are recurring motifs in Shih's world, which seems believable yet slightly off balance. The Taipei-based artist inserts autobiographical snippets in many of the paintings: Some of his scenes are set in his own house and he and his white French bulldog make occasional appearances. Shih has referred to his works as "soap operas," hinting at their highly fictionalized nature. Take a look at some of his work below.
Bendt Eyckermans offers paintings in mid-narrative, often based on an actual event or memory in his life. Yet, as our mind often does, the result of recreating those situations is both distorting and delicate. Recent paintings by the artist were showcased in a show at Carlos/Ishikawa in London.
Jean-Pierre Roy’s new body work evolves his stirring, rich paintings, which blend geometric abstraction and figurative scenes. Recent works will be shown at the VOLTA NY fair, running in New York City from March 7-11. Roy was the cover artist for Hi-Fructose Vol. 37. In a statement, the show says that Roy “will continue to place figures in an optically loaded environment, allowing for the entropic confusion of historical painting tropes, non-spaciotemporal geometry, and figurative drama to play out against an arid, dystopian landscape.”
Raised in Los Angeles in a family of immigrants, Julio Reyes says that one of his biggest inspirations is the human ability to overcome adversity. His family's journey to the US and their tumultuous quest for citizenship has always been a guiding light in his work. "I have always been moved by the human capacity to love, dream, and persevere, with great courage and sincerity, in spite of what can often be, a vast and unsympathetic Nature," wrote Reyes in an email to Hi-Fructose. Because of the struggles he has personally faced, Reyes says he has cultivated a keen sense of empathy that he seeks to convey in his oil paintings, which often feature solitary figures in moments of contemplation.