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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Chilean artist Marcos Sánchez is the director behind The Breeders' music video for "Walking With A Killer.” Found footage is given new context and intrigue as animated by Sánchez, which follows the horror-themed aspect of the song’s lyrics. The artist's short films and music videos have previously appeared in festivals across the globe.
Swoon first garnered recognition for her pasted portraits in public spaces, but a new show represents an evolution for the artist, currently showing at Deitch's New York venue. "Cicada" collects new films, installations, and drawings from the artist, who was featured in Hi-Fructose Vol. 36. The sweeping show runs through Feb. 1, 2020. (Installation photos in this story by Genevieve Hanson.)
Chris Reccardi, fine artist, designer, animation director, character designer, and musician, has passed away at the age of 54 yesterday. Among many other properties and series, he was highly regarded for his work on The Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack, Tiny Toon Adventures, and The Ren & Stimpy Show. For the later, he famously composed the anthemic "Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy.”
Animator Tyson Ibele’s development of “tyFlow, a particle simulation tool for 3dsmax” has resulted in some absorbing creations. From writhing worm monsters and unraveling pixelated characters to a wave of colliding cyclists, Ibele’s tests move between humorous and disconcerting.
What makes Kouhei Nakama’s animations tantalizing is how each builds or deconstructs the face with alien processes. They’re comprised of swarming creatures or layers of liquid skin melting off a smiling face. In an era when every digital design student is showing off their realistic renders, Nakama’s artistry offers the unexpected in his engrossing portraits.
Colin Raff’s “Perturbatorium” is a collection of unsettling animations and collage work. Recalling the work of Max Ernst or Terry Gilliam, the work has a particular movement because of his “step-frame animation” method. The animations are rooted in Raff's photo-collage work, which he has described as having "distinct 20th c. antecedents (Heartfield, Ernst, Höch, etc.)."
Whether as still portraits or in motion, the mutants and forms created by Erik Ferguson are disconcerting in their realistic textures. The artist moves between high-profile and personal project, working on the likes of Guardians of the Galaxy and live performances for Rihanna. With assignments like album artwork for The Horrors, the artist's own sensibilities come through even more.
In the documentary short "Hollywood Dreams," the work of Victor Castillo comes to life, with his paintings animated and the artist experimenting with motion in a new way. Crafted by Loica filmmakers, the short also blends 3D animated characters with live backdrops. The result hints at what Castillo calls his “‘strange hybrid world,’ where his unconventional past brings him to distinctive artistic conclusions.” Castillo was featured in the exhibition Turn the Page: The First 10 Years of Hi-Fructose and the Hi-Fructose Collected 4 Box Set.
Cartoonist and illustrator Dave Cooper has made a career of multiple passions. Whether it’s his animated shows for kids on Nickelodeon or his fine art practice, he’s garnered praise for his distinctive style and irreverent humor. (He was last mentioned on HiFructose.com here.) In an interview with Hi-Fructose, he talks about his studio space and returning to the canvas.
"Joe Vaux" is a name known in both the gallery scene and animation. His work in painting and on shows like Family Guy make for a busy schedule for the artist. In a Q&A with Hi-Fructose, he talks about maintaining that balance and his upcoming show at Copro Gallery, which kick off on March 18.
Swedish animator Robert Ek crafts absorbing loops, his 3D creations packed with psychedelic, hypnotic situations. The work follows a tradition that calls back to the Mind's Eye art films of the early 1990s, which circulated as VHS tapes and employed then-progressive digital renders. Like those films, Ek’s videos are best heard with their handpicked soundtracks, sometimes custom-made by the artist. The artist mainly shows his pieces through Instagram.
While some artists celebrate the inherent beauty of the human form, the illustrations of Taylor Williams focus on its strangeness. The Charlotte-based artist draws and animates characters and scenes that are packed with biting humor. The artist offers us some insight on why she depicts humanity in this way:
German-born artist Antoni Tudisco crafts 3D and video works that are packed with surreal scenes and bombastic activity. His personal work has a stranger, humorous edge, as he offers snippets on his Instagram page. In a statement, he offers some insight on an early interest in art:
Buenos Aires-born, Tokyo-based Nahuel Salcedo is a motion graphics designer known for his vibrant creations that absorb whether he’s animating the everyday or the abstract. His studio, Onesal, moves between commercial and creative projects, whether it’s Discovery Channel, Intel, or a music video for acts like Kaela.
Nathan Jurevicius, a Canadian/Australian artist and director, has turned his graphic novel “Junction” into an animated film. The artist works with 3D production studio OKTA to adapt the book, which was originally released by Koyama Press. Jurevicius is previously known for the brand Scarygirl, his fictional world that has spawned graphic novels, a video game, and other animations.
Eggs bounce off of a stack of plates; a glass dissolves around a solid chunk of milk. Mainframe North, the Manchester-based arm of the motion design and VFX group Mainframe, recently put together a compilation of objects defying their natural properties and physics.
Esteban Diacono, a motion graphics designer based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, creates surreal animations that blend both realistic subjects and humorous exercises in staging and physics. On Diacono’s Instagram page, he often posts “sketches” and experiments, rendered as absorbing and insightful moments of his process.
More and More, a London-based design studio, strives to create 3D imagery and video that has both a “distinctive and unexpected tone of voice.” Launched just last year by Carl Burgess and Tom Darracott, the studio breathes life and realistic motion into inflatable characters, delicate fur, and other uncommon material. The group even mesmerizes with a golden ribbon, piling onto itself.
When it comes to creating a compelling work of art, in the case of Kobi Vogman, no structure, location, or material is considered off limits. Based in Jerusalem, Vogman is a muralist, illustrator and animation director who works in harmonious collaboration with his environments to create narratives which explore the relationships we have with our histories, cultures, and ever-changing landscapes.
Tokyo based collective known as teamLab describe themselves as "ultra-technologists", artists who seek to merge art, technology and design in their work, designed to allow viewers to have a more personal and unique connection with art. With Japanese designer Toshiyuki Inoko at the helm, the collective's installations are nothing short of magical- featured here on our blog, they are a spontaneous experience where artworks come to "life" as animation when approached by visitors. The secret to the magic behind their work is motion sensors that pick up the viewer’s movements, prompting paintings of the natural world to become a blooming and wilting garden of delights. Pace Art + Technology in Silicon Valley, California, seeking to create an environment that encourages educational play, invited teamLab to join their Future Park series- the result of which is "Living Digital Space and Future Parks" opening on February 6th.
To the world, Salvador Dalí was an eccentric Surrealist and animation pioneer Walt Disney was a notorious dreamer. But to each other, they were fierce friends and collaborators. Although the unlikely pair grew up worlds apart, they found one another through their art, and their work together has endured long after their lifetime. The history of this remarkable friendship between two icons is explored in a new exhibition titled "Disney and Dalí: Architects of the Imagination" at The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.
The world is like one giant movie screen for São Paulo-based artist duo Ceci Soloaga and Ygor Marotta, aka "VJ Suave". The two have fused interactive technology with street art, using custom-fitted tricycles called "Suaveciclos" that carry speakers and projector equipment. VJ Suave describe their work as "digital graffiti", created mainly with an application called Tagtool which allows them to edit and play their whimsical animations in real-time.
In Tabaimo's worlds, nothing is as ordinary as it appears. Light bulbs morph into moons, walls dissolve, and trees turn into snakes. These eldritch environments capture the viewer who stands at the center, and transports him into an unknown underbelly of the everyday. The artist achieves a totaling effect by manipulating architectural elements and allowing hand-drawn animations that reference both Japanese manga and traditional Edo-period prints, to organically bleed out of the two-dimensional plane and into the exhibition space. The result is a pseudo-theater where the viewer is the main actor among anthropomorphic objects and a cast of characters, whose interplay raises social, political, and gendered topics of contemporary import.
British artist Mat Collishaw creates compelling, often morbid multi-layered pieces in a variety of media. In recent years, he has perhaps garnered the most attention from his monumental zoetropes that bring dark fantasies to life. His most recent, "All Things Fall", is based on on the 17th century painting "Massacre of the Innocents" by Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Reubens. It is an impeccable, 3D-printed piece of work that took six months to complete in collaboration with fellow animator Sebastian Burdon. See more after the jump!
Japan based artist Ryota Nishioka airbrushes elaborate cityscapes of imaginary buildings. His process matches those of animation background artists, tasked with creating a believable backdrop for subjects based in a fantasy world. Similarly, Nishioka renders his paintings with layer upon layer of acrylic paint and pencil work on paper. Each layer takes only a matter of minutes to complete, making the final piece even more extraordinary. In almost hyperrealistic form, he draws his favorite subject, "moving things", like clouds, ripples of water and scattered leaves from inorganic trees.
Nancy Liang creates diorama-like collages out of hand-drawn elements on kraft paper. Her nearly monochromatic work features nocturnal scenes of small towns that seem to become enchanted at the stroke of midnight. Liang reworks her pieces digitally to create GIFs with subtle, animated elements. While some artists' GIFs entrance viewers with their bold, flashing colors, Liang animates strategic details, like glittering stars or wispy smoke coming from a flame. Based in Sydney, Australia, Liang makes GIFs in her spare time and posts them on her Tumblr. By day, she is an award-winning commercial illustrator.
Orcas and wolves traverse the digital land and sea in TJ Fuller's holographic-looking GIFs. Fuller is an artist who wears many hats: In addition to his personal work, he creates iPad apps for cats (seriously, games for your cat!) and is an animation director for Maker Studios. His personal work has a lo-fi aesthetic, like a DIY VHS recording where colors appeared pixelated. With his CMYK color palette, his pieces have a digital glow to them that contrasts with their nature-inspired subject matter.
Nicolas Fong creates GIFS and short animated films filled with peculiar characters and imaginative scenarios. In his work, psychedelic shapes morph into one another as dreamlike narratives unravel. In a recent video Fong created for the band BRNS' song "Many Changes," an abstract, underwater creature evolves into many different lifeforms. The video highlights the cyclical nature of life and the beauty of the natural world. In another video for Forever Pavot's song "Green Nap," smoke filling an 1800s-style opium den floats to the ceiling, revealing kaleidoscopic visuals and trippy patterns. Take a look at some of Fong's work below and follow his Vimeo channel to see more of his films.
While GIFs have yet to find an established place in the art world, they're fascinating because they have the potential to go beyond the frozen image in two dimensions. Texas artist Hayden Zezula, aka Zolloc, works as a designer and animator by day, but has an expansive portfolio of animated GIFs that will cause chills to creep down your spine. His latest series, titled "Oswra," features a cast of mutated babies with pale gray skin. Their multiplying limbs move in geometric arrangements that are both hypnotizing and frightening. Take a look below.
Somewhere on the scale of lovable to repulsive lie Sam Lyon's "Jelly Gummies," a series of experimental digital illustrations and GIFs the tickle the senses. These 3D-looking creatures make you want to reach out and poke your computer screen to feel their squishy texture, only to quickly recoil at their intestine-like sliminess. The jolly blobs flop and wiggle in Lyon's repetitive, animated GIFs. But the illustrator and designer puts them to another surprising use: clothing and textile designs. Many of the Jelly Gummies are featured in repeating patterns that he plans to make into fabrics, adding another dimension to his otherwise multi-sensory work.