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The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Tag: digital art

Based in Santa Catarina, Brazil, collage artist Marcelo Monreal's work is going viral for his different take on inner beauty. His latest works cut open the portraits of celebrities in Photoshop, super models and other faces of pop culture that are otherwise stagnant, to reveal beautiful blooms underneath. Monreal's use of floral motifs stems (no pun intended) from his first job as an artist, developing embroidery for a label factory. His imagery is in a similar vein to that of the spliced vintage photographs of Matthieu Bourel, covered here, and Rocío Montoya's manipulated, experimental photos. While his subjects are uniquely contemporary, Monreal shares the same sense of bizarre humor that combines the morbid with abstracted glamour.
Korean-American multimedia artist Debbie Han tackles the standard of beauty in her photographs of Neoclassical women. Using photographic manipulation, she combines Greek sculpture with her own subjects to make this parallel. The resulting images bring to life familiar figures to any museum-goer, but bubbling with their own personalities and a special bond, like close girlfriends. Han's work not only makes us think twice about the perception of beauty, but also explores issues of race, culture and identity.
An expert in the software program Arnold, Lee Griggs manipulates photographs to take on sculptural forms that look convincingly 3D. His new series, "Deformations," takes a studio portrait of an anonymous man and warps it into geometric shapes. In each portrait, his skull stretches into a cube, an enormous sphere, or a cone. Rather grotesquely, Griggs captures the way the surface of the skin would stretch tautly over this unusual skeletal architecture, making the man's face contort into pained grimaces in the process. Check out some of Griggs' work below.
William Basso's current show at New York's Last Rites Gallery, "Mise-en-scene," takes its name from a French theater term that describes all the elements in a stage production or film — the actors, lighting, scenery, etc. Basso treats his mixed-media assemblages something like tiny film sets. He begins by sculpting his figures out of a hodgepodge of materials, such as clay, cardboard, string, paper, wire, tape, wood, hair, and odd bits of cloth. Then, he photographs these sculptures, alters them in PhotoShop, and uses the resulting digital prints to create textured collages. The final works live somewhere between sculpture and digital art. For "Mise-en-scene," his assemblages are displayed alongside the original sculptures and 3D objects from which they originated. The show is on view through May 16 at Last Rites.
Athens based artist Adam Martinakis has captured the curiosity of his fans for years with his fragmented digital figures. He describes his imagery as "a connection between the spirit and the material, the living and the absent... I compose scenes of the unborn, the dead and the alive, immersed in the metaphysics of perception." His inspiration is equally other-wordly; mysteries of the universe such as the event horizon. His subjects are shown in various stages of creation in scenes that evade time and space.
Somewhere between the state from wakefulness to sleep, called "the Hypnagogic state", is where Hong Kong based digital artist Sonya Fu finds her inspiration. Her portraits of dreamy young girls, whose eyes almost always appear closed, are the ghosts of her visions during sleep paralysis. Although digital, they are painted with a sensitive touch to surprising details in their face and hair, and given a soft, eerie atmosphere. Check out more of her artwork after the jump.
Multimedia artist Magnus Gjoen has a signature way of combining grim imagery with classically inspired techniques. We recently featured his series of war weapons made to look like delicate 16th century blue and white porcelain. Can something so horrific also be considered beautiful? This is a central theme of Gjoen's upcoming solo exhibition "Monster", opening March 20th at Hang Up gallery in London. He began working on the show after reading an FBI article about a real-life monster, a serial killer who fantasized about children. In newly abstract illustrations, Gjoen seeks to reveal the killer's beautifully disturbed psyche.
Mahmoud Jouini's digital artworks are filled with sweeping bird's eye views that look like something one might see while cruising in a helicopter over Jupiter. The Libyan artist and graphic designer created this series using 3D modeling software, though certain pieces look like extreme close-ups of bacteria under a microscope or perhaps otherworldly landscape photography. Jouini's uses acidic colors that swirl in oil slick-like patterns; forests of mysterious growths punctuate his fluorescent lagoons. Virtually uninhabited, his toxic planet looks simultaneously inhospitable and alluring.
If Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a sculptor, he would create something that resembles Jason Hopkins's chillingly fleshy-looking digital art. Hopkins's work looks believably 3D, so much so that he refers to it as "digital sculpture." He imagines a next phase of genetic engineering where human bodies become malleable and subject to the whims of scientists working towards the next phase of technological "progress." He renders geometric, manmade-looking structures and coats them with a skin-like texture that triggers a gut reaction of revulsion. But according to the artist, that's the point: "The digital sculptures are a fusion of geometric, architectural and biological abstract forms — a bleak evolutionary future where biotechnology has been used to make perfect posthuman beings."
New Delhi-based illustrator Archan Nair creates fluorescent digital art with a painterly effect. Nair composes kaleidoscopic images that resemble Rorschach ink blots. Wisps of color tumble like clouds of pigment in water, creating nebulous shapes that morph into one another. His work has a psychedelic quality evocative of the spiritually-focused visionary art movement, which borrows heavily from Hindu iconography in particular. While human subjects are at the center of Nair's work, he melts figurative elements into textured, abstract designs and otherworldly visuals.
UK graphic designer and artist Chris Labrooy riffs on custom car culture in his latest digital illustration series, "Tales of Auto Elasticity." A follow-up to last year's "Auto Aerobics," in which Labrooy placed his bendy, sculptural low riders in a city park, "Tales of Auto Elasticity" shows pick-up trucks with yogic flexibility bending to extreme degrees in a rural parking lot. Though Labrooy's work exists only on the computer screen, it evokes sculptures like Erwin Wurm's pudgy sports cars (featured in HF Vol. 22) and Ichwan Noor's Beetle sphere (covered here). Perhaps Labrooy should consider sculpture as his next step.
New York-based artist Yohei Horishita creates digital illustrations with a textured effect that evokes traditional painting. His work is ornate and figurative, juxtaposing human characters with imaginary settings that seem to belong to no particular time or place. Flowers and feathers consume his backgrounds, cultivating a fantasy space removed from our contemporary reality. While Horishita does extensive client work, his pieces have a distinct style that allows them to stand alone.
Miami-based artist Andrew Soria's color-saturated landscapes might appear completely fictitious, but he creates his digital artworks using his original photography and a heavy dose of PhotoShop. Soria stitches together and flattens the cityscapes he shoots, making them appear cartoonish by accentuating each building's unique shape and features. He often pays homage to the street art and decor of the local area. Some of his pieces feature murals by artists such as Chor Boogie and Shepard Fairey while others incorporate businesses' signage. Devoid of human inhabitants, Soria's cities appear otherworldly with their all-too-pristine contours and candy-colored skies.
German-born, Canada-based artist Andreas Lietzow's digital works take viewers to universes imperceptible to the human eye. The dramas of otherworldly characters unfold in each piece, evoking molecular processes or perhaps deep sea scenes. Despite being two-dimensional, Lietzow's works have a convincingly tactile quality. Their texture is tempting to touch. In some of his pieces, he creates optical illusions, rendering tentacles that look as if they are emerging out of the picture frame and into our world.
Though their work can be described as digital art, Ransom & Mitchell are very hands-on with their process. To create the fanciful worlds that they photograph, the San Francisco-based duo sews original costumes, makes props and builds sets. Experts in studio lighting, they imbue their works with a magical ambiance, only adding digitally-painted details to render that which can't be done in real life. For the upcoming group show "Rough & Ready Sideshow" at Bash Contemporary in San Francisco, Ransom & Mitchell will be exhibiting a new series of photo-illustrations that hearken back to circus freak shows. While there are obvious ethical issues with sideshows themselves, the artists's vintage-inspired new works are loaded with nostalgic humor, kitsch and illusions. Aunia Kahn, Stefanie Vega and Alexandra Manukyan will also be participating in the exhibition. The opening reception will be held on October 11 and the show will be on view through November 8.
Though they're created digitally, Can Pekdemir's portraits mimic the high-contrast values of daguerreotypes. Pekdemir conjures up strange, furry creatures using 3D modeling software, giving them hefty forms and believable textures. The results look as if these characters walked into the artist's studio and posed for the camera. Presented as framed, archival prints, his pieces could pass for photographs. Pekdemir seems to be testing the boundaries between two and three dimensions, virtual and physical. We often take photography to be a truth-telling medium, but Pekdemir exploits this assumption to engage his viewers with these fictional personalities. Take a look at some of his recent work below.
All that should look solid melts right off in the compositions of Alessandro Ripane. Many of his characters have a mass of dripping liquid with plants protruding in all directions in lieu of real faces. Other figures sprout plants from their limbs while their gleaming white bones peek through. Yet these morbid compositions manage to keep a whimsical twist; in some, giant pink ice cream cones drip heavily. Genoa-born Ripane remembers collecting comic books and volumes on wild animals, a habit that definitely informs his strange imagery. Each vignette gives the sensation that the viewer is walking in on the strange characters. A couple cuddling becomes a strange mass of plants, melting parts and mangled flesh. But not all is lost: Ripane makes sure to let one of the figures keep his socks and shoes on. Part Surrealism, part satire and all visceral, Ripane's works leave few parts intact but offer plenty of visual gems.
Eric Petersen is a methodical, calculated artist. He opts to work digitally to remove any personalized evidence of the human touch. He chooses the colors of his works like a scientist dropping carefully-measured chemicals into a vile: The intended effect of these contrasting, bright shades, says Petersen, is one of unsettlement. He sets up compositions that are at once harmonious and jarring. Geometric shapes appear to slice through his planes with razor sharp precision of placement. Yet their rhythmic arrangements give his work a sense of harmony, even while the electric blue, neon yellow and sunset orange hues simultaneously vie for viewers' attention.
Mark Gmehling's 3D-rendered creations are instantly recognizable for their playful textures: rubbery legs that weave and stretch; gummy bodies that bounce off the floor; goo that drips and metal that glimmers. The artist (see our extensive interview in our current issue, Hi-Fructose Vol. 32) began as an analog illustrator and even cites graffiti as an early influence. These days, his digital illustrations lay the groundwork for prints, murals and sculptures. Gmehling has an exhibition titled "Plastic" opening tonight at RWE in his hometown of Dortmund, Germany filled with satirical, off-kilter pieces.
French illustrator and designer Nicolas Obery works with deep contrasts and haunting imagery for his monochromatic digital art series, "Fantasmagorik." The finely textured, elaborate pieces are sometimes pure imagination and sometimes incorporate photography, but Obery leaves nothing untouched by his digital brush. Even the photographic parts of his work are manipulated and stylized in such a way that they bear great similarity to the expressionistic possibilities of painting. Influenced by the H.R. Geiger, Obery weaves the elements of his work together with a sinewy, tissue-like texture that evokes the biomorphic qualities of the late Swiss artist's work.
Finnish artist Tapio Mömmö takes utilitarianism to the next level with his digital illustrations, where bodies are fused with the handy tools that enable our survival in the wild. While humans can't spend too much time in open water, for instance, Mömmö presents a solution in the form of a person, dressed in a practical parka, whose head has been replaced by a fishing boat. Another headless person in snow gear, under Mömmö's digital knife, has a sled annexed to their torso. Far from elegant cyborgs, these characters offer a comical answer to the fantasy of having superhuman capabilities.
“Sasayaki No Tsudoi" Translation: Gathering Whispers. On Saturday night, Giant Robot celebrated Edwin Ushiro's new ‘tra-digital’ works on plexiglass (previewed here), a luminous combination of traditional and digital. When we last saw him, it was back in 2010 for his show with Yoskay Yamamoto at Roq La Rue, Ushiro’s first trial with this technique. His unique manner of working was recently documented in Thrash Lab x Giant Robot’s artist documentary series, which played at the opening. It offered a rare insight into his private process of sketching, digitally painting, and reapplying the work onto plexiglass for final, hand painted touches.
Chilean artist Alvaro Tapia finds something sinister even in his most innocent subjects. His portrait illustrations feature friends, famous people, artists and others he admires. What lurks beneath the surface in these subjects — something grotesque and often evil — is what most attracts the artist. The end result, however, is far from ugly. Bursting with color and life, his portraits are high-impact. Tapia arranges contrasting colors, vector lines and geometric shapes so that they vibrate off one another. His subjects not only seem alive but ready to jump off the page right at the viewer’s throat.
Los Angeles based artist Edwin Ushiro (featured here) was raised in Maui and we get to relive his tropical childhood in his upcoming solo show “Gathering Whispers”. Opening July 12th at Giant Robot’s GR2 gallery, Ushiro’s new show is a ‘gathering’ of memories that feel familiar even if you didn’t grow up in Hawaii. His dreamy images capture tiny scenes taking place in overwhelming landscapes. Sometimes, they are split in half and a little wavy, as if we’re peering through a fractured mirror. Get a preview courtesy of the artist after the jump.
Self-taught photographer Jon Jacobsen creates portraits that feel like the stuff of beautiful nightmares. In fact, he operates on the idea that reality and fantasy might not be so far from each other as we think. His portraits and self-portraits reflect the fragility of human nature and many works echo the symbolic language and dark beauty of memento mori pieces. The colorful, swirling lines that emanate from his subjects seem to hint at another person or personality. What could look like a placid, somewhat Classical portrait becomes disturbing and distorted. It's hard to tell whether the subjects are rotting away or actually transforming into their true shape.
Japanese artist 非 (meaning “Hi”) first caught our attention in 2012 with his mysterious tumblr of digital illustrations that look like oils. Hi’s portraits of young men, often depicted with a pained expression, are a unique blend of creepiness and happy colors. For writing purposes, we can only guess “his” gender, because Hi keeps his real name, sex and age a secret. Hi intentionally doesn’t sell his works nor does he exhibit in a gallery. What we do know is that Hi is a young artist representing the internet generation, millennials using it for creative tools, inspiration, and reaching audiences on a socially global level. Take a look at Hi's new work after the jump.
Caleb Weintraub confronts his audience with an alternative, morally-stripped and intense digital fantasy world where children hold guns on each other around misplaced, irresponsible adult figures. "I make paintings of a disintegrating world where humanity has gone awry," Weintraub said of his work in a previous interview. In a sense, he works in parallels to the present state of children's overstimulation and desensitization in a controlled atmosphere. The bright colors and video game-like renderings complicate the readings of his work, however. The viewer may find himself questioning the relationship between his techniques and conceptual leanings. Weintraub is choosing to create, at first glance, friendly cartoon narratives with dark content below the surface.
When Yeats wrote that "love comes in at the eye,” he could have been thinking of the work of Vienna-based Atelier Olschinsky. It doesn't matter who the client is. It doesn't matter what the medium is. You walk away from this creative studio's work with a clear understanding of why we call the visual arts visual. You also realize how art has its own language. A language made up of nothing more than the arrangement of color, line, shape, space, and texture. We marvel at how Shakespeare worked with nothing more than 26 letters. In a similar vein, Atelier Olschinsky creates startling compositions with nothing more than muted color, dynamic, abutted shapes, and clashing lines. With great dexterity they blur the gap between art and design.
As an artist, Natalie Shau wears multiple hats, so to speak, and this shows in her process. Aside from her personal projects, she has worked in fashion photography and designed artwork for theater productions, the music industry and advertising. Her personal work is similarly interdisciplinary: She makes props and set designs, stages photo shoots and then puts her photos under the (digital) knife, transforming her models from realistic women to warped, surreal vixens. Shau's latest body of work will debut at Last Rites Gallery in New York City on May 31. Her first solo show with the gallery, "Forgotten Heroines" brings mythological influences into Shau's vignettes of solitary, tragic protagonists. There is as much Shakespeare in these pieces as there is Marilyn Manson. "Forgotten Heroines" will be on view May 31 through July 5, but before the show opens you can get a first look after the jump.

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