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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
What happens when you give 40 street artists hundreds of cans of spray paint and let them loose in Taipei? As the Pow! Wow! team took over the Taiwanese capital, the cityscape was covered with murals by artists visiting from around the world alongside those based there.
Taiwan may not be the first place to come to mind when you think about street art, but Hawaiian arts organization Pow! Wow! recently made Taipei its second home. For the last week, about 40 international and Taiwanese artists scaled buildings and crossed below highways to bring their fresh paint styles to Taipei. Just a few months ago, the Pow! Wow! team was in Hawaii revamping the walls of Honolulu for the fourth edition of street art festival Pow! Wow! Hawaii. Now, they’ve hopped 5,000 miles across the Pacific for the first ever Pow! Wow! Taiwan.
Case Maclaim is the moniker of German artist Andres Von Chrzanowski, a muralist known as a co-founder of the Maclaim Group, a troupe known for using spray paint to combine photorealism and surrealism on public walls. In particular, the artist is known as one to “embrace the power of movement through the universality of hands.”
Miami’s Douglas Hoekzema, also known as Hoxxoh, creates murals that do more than absorb the gaze of the viewer. Nearby objects appear as though they can be pulled into the artist’s latest, hyperdimensional works. Hoekzema has long been fascinated with the concept and rendering of time in his art. He was last featured on HiFructose.com here (and check out his Instagram here).
Jessica Stoller's porcelain sculptures both examine art-historical notions of the material and how the female body has been depicted. Her current show at PPOW Gallery in New York City, titled “Spread,” offers new pieces from the artist. The show runs through Feb. 15 at the space.
John Horton; photo: @streetartnomad The festival Wide Open Walls returned in Sacramento this month, and with it, came 40 local, national, and international artists who crafted murals across the city. This year's artists included Askew One, Bryan Valenzuela, Jake Castro, Lora Zombie, Maren Conrad, Nosego, Molly-Devlin, Trav, Stephanie Taylor, and others. See some examples of works from this year above and below.
"Cutting-edge artist Alex Pardee and producer Jason Hall of HDFILMS Inc. are teaming up on a 3D animation project based upon Pardee’s character of the same name. Initially introduced as a character icon for the popular rock band The Used, Chadam has become an Internet phenomenon.
With “A Volta,” Allouche Gallery looks at the evolution of the legendary b-boy and street artist Doze Green through paintings and drawings. In the show, viewers find an artist who influenced a generation and a transformative moment in his practice upon moving to Brazil. Green was most recently featured in Hi-Fructose's print magazine with Volume 35.
On April 15, 2008, Paul 'Moose' Curtis, an English reverse graffiti artist entered San Francisco's Broadway tunnel to create an environmentally friendly work of art over the course of one very late night. This project was filmed by documentary filmmaker, Doug Pray (Surfwise, Big Rig, Infamy). Curtis' technique uses natural methods and natural cleaners (in this case Green Works plant-based, earth friendly cleaners) to create a large scale "clean" mural.
Tof Vanmarque continues to evolve the shifting perspectives and details of his elaborate acrylic paintings. One of the hallmarks of Vanmarque’s style is blending lush hues with makeshift bodies and eroding structures, each scene its own strange narrative. The artist was last featured on our website here.
The "live sculptures" of Roman Ermakov combine fashion, fine art, and installation work, each offering an energy and vibrancy powered by the humans bearing his works. These creations from the Moscow-based artist enliven both the runaway and public spaces. His recent work, as shown, takes influence from the costume parties of Germany's Bauhaus school in the 1920s, where these artists' radical ideas in architecture and sculpture were also channeled.
Jim Shaw's paintings are striking fusions of pop culture, political histories, and found, scenic backdrops. The artist's varied approach has evolved over decades, with his recent work working with acrylics layered on muslin. Some of the works implement "theatrical scenic backdrops" purchased by Shaw, combining canvases from the 1940s and 1950s and his own style.
Andrea Kowch's stirring acrylic paintings combine both earnest reflections on the Western experience and surrealism. Her latest works, primarily focused on female subjects, place that discontent against rustic backdrops. Mixing in elements of nature, she’s able to make unexpected connections.
The brutal paintings of Cleon Peterson (covered here) have a visceral effect on the viewer, plunging them deeply into a world of chaos, ruin and violence. On August 29th, Peterson brings his iconic style to Detroit's Library Street Collective for his latest exhibition, "Poison." "The show is about revenge, which is a current of poison running through our culture and other cultures around the world." Peterson shares. "It's often a motivation for war and a justification for punishment. It is a social impulse that is destructive and easy to be complicit in." Peterson is deliberate in his unflinching presentation of the darker side of human nature. In this world, muscle-headed brutes cross swords and knives, locked in a cycle of aggression.Check out videos featuring several of the artists featured in Hi-Fructise vol.14: Van Arno, Lola, Gregory Euclide, and Hi-Fructose favorites Travis Louie (HF vol.5), Nathan Spoor (HF featured writer and artist), Audrey Kawasaki (HF vol.6), Camille Rose Garcia (HF vol.8), and many more.
On January 24th, Gen Art members celebrated the 2010 Grammys at the private Opening Exhibition and Party of artist portraits of Grammy-nominated artists, curated by artist Kris Lewis, with support from will.i.am.
As a follow up to last year's successful "Worlds on Fire" artist exhibition, this year will.i.am, Dipdive, and the Grammy Foundation will present "Who Killed the Music?" art collection that will help kick-off Grammy Week at The Target Terrace on January 24th-27th . The gallery will host 15 pieces from the hottest contemporary surrealist artists, which will present a new and powerful perspective on the state of music today.
A portion of the proceeds for all works sold will be donated to the Grammy Foundation and i.am Scholarship Foundation.