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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
In his current show at Copro Gallery, Allen Williams offers haunting visions in the form of new paintings and drawings. "The Hidden Light," running through Jan. 11 at the space, features both lush scenes and sparse studies in the artist's mysterious style. Williams was last featured on our site here.
Inside her workshop, Sabrina Gruss re-animates found natural materials and animal remains into eerie sculptures. The artist has said she's inspired by her own family's history and a multi-faceted view of death in her works. In terms of inspiration within fine art, she cites outsider and fringe art, as well as Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon.
The aspects of William Mortensen’s photography that were controversial during his lifetime—clever manipulation of imagery and dark themes—are now considered to be marks of his greatness. In the show "Witches" at Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick, Stephen Romano Gallery offers both unseen work and iconic meditations on the occult from his output in the 1920s and ’30s. The exhibition runs August 3 through November 3 at the venue in Cleveland, Ohio.
Timothy Von Rueden's drawings range from fantastical creatures to dark surrealist visions, mostly rendered in graphite. The artist pulls from both real-life reflections and mythological inspirations, each presented in his hyperdetailed figurative style.
"Necrosurrealist" David Van Gough offers a new body of work that pulls from literary and Biblical narratives in "Paradiso's Fall." Kicking off today at Dark Art Emporium, several new paintings comprise this series. Each painting is dense in both its creatures and references to the cultural touchstones that influence the artist.
There’s both an absorbing and a grotesque quality to the paintings of Mow Skwoz. Whether in acrylics or watercolors, Skwoz blends realistic skin tones with geometric abstractions and frames. Her cerebral series of “Inner Peace” works, in particular, appear as writhing and distorted characters.
Samuel Araya
Scott Kirschner’s provoking paintings obscure as many as they reveal, blending fantasy and dark surrealism in each scene. His fine art practice is complemented from an illustration career, where he became one of the first major artists associated with the Magic: The Gathering card game. His recent shows, with galleries such as Arch Enemy Arts, offer an unchained look inside the artist’s mind.
Richard A. Kirk's drawings emerge out of nature, using its elements to craft strange creatures and scenes. He’s brought this sensibility in illustrations for the likes of Clive Barker, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Christopher Golden, and others. However, in his personal work, we find these monsters and ideas roaming free from specific narrative.
Whether rendered in graphite or oils, the shadowed subjects of Allen Williams thrill in both what's being shown and what’s being obscured. In a new show at Copro Gallery, titled "Covenant," a massive amount of work from Williams is displayed. This is the artist's first solo show with the gallery.
Philadelphia artist Nathan Reidt crafts scenes in which everyday objects and beings garner growths and mutations. His drawings, in particular, carry a particular eeriness in their starkness, the artist’s abilities with light adding depth to each creation.
Alexander Reisfar’s eerie paintings are packed with intricate creatures and dark surrealist undertones. Both brooding and elegant, works created by the Oregon-based artist have been features across the U.S. The artist is able to navigate political and wartime themes with the iconography depicted in his paintings.
The eerie works of William Basso blend painting, drawing, photography, collage, and sculpture. And even more varied are the influences of these strange scenes, from Eastern European art and the Renaissance to pulp comics and folklore. The artist's work is influenced by his experience in the film industry, crafting special-effect characters.
Tokyo-born painter Toru Kamei is known for painting what he calls “beautiful nightmares,” arresting oil scenes that balance nature and morbidity. He was last featured on HiFructose.com here, and since that piece, the artist has a breakthrough in the fashion world. The artist recently collaborated with Dior Homme on an exclusive collection, implementing his work into both accessories and ensembles. Belgian fashion designer Kris Van Assche reportedly came across the artist's work when researching floral motifs.
Mexican artist Emil Melmoth crafts bleak, yet absorbing sculptures that combine gothic and religious themes. Or as the artist puts it himself, he's "inspired on the macabre, death culture, freakshow, medical anatomica, catholicism, deformities.” The artist's works are currently part of the show "The Wanderer's Dissection" at Last Rites Gallery in New York, lasting through Sept. 9.
The oil paintings of Michael Hutter offer worlds that contain elements of fantasy, science, and something even further beyond reality. The German artist has been giving glimpses of these worlds for the past few decades, toying with familiar elements and narratives.
Italian artist Agostino Arrivabene uses antique painting techniques to create a foundation from which metamorphic figures emerge in moments of creation. The time-consuming labor of grinding pigments and layering paints is evident in the complex, heavily textural works. New worlds hide beneath and within cracks and crinkles as human-like figures manifest above ground and often out of water.
Artists Soey Milk and Joey Remmers were on hand to celebrate their side by side openings at CHG Circa on Saturday. Newly graduated from Pasadena Art Center, Soey Milk was in especially high spirits- her paintings are the culmination of an "unhurried journey" to becoming a fulltime artist. Her solo exhibition "Sinavro" (previewed here) embodies focus and uncertainty that any budding artist might experience. Milk's brush tells us her story, as rocky as her impressionistic strokes which meet points of detail. Her women appear strong and confident in their boldy colored robes, decorated with traditional Korean motifs. Underneath, hints of nudity add an element of carefreeness and mystery that tempt the viewer.