Rachael Pease’s lush drawings, crafted in India ink on frosted mylar, create mystical settings from trees and plantlife observed in reality. The artist grew up in rural Indiana among similar backdrops. And her drawings are rooted in photographic collages created from her journeys.
Annita Maslov brings her pen and ink drawings to Beinart Gallery in the upcoming show “Arcana,” depicting scenes from mysterious worlds steeped in the supernatural. Maslov is an illustrator and tattoo artist inspired by mythology and the occult. Her work is known for its distinct dotwork.
Even when taken out of narrative context, the illustrations of Nicolás Arispe captivate viewers. The Buenos Aires artist has crafted comics, books, album covers, magazine illustrations, animation storyboard, and much more. He’s known, in particular, for his anthropomorphic characters and fantastical settings, all tackling decidedly human and emotional stories.
The personal work of illustrator Simon Prades implements both ink and watercolors, using text and negative space to create engrossing drawings. Even with the artist’s sparser works, the tangible elements of each piece are packed with detail. By the day, the artist works as an illustrator for publications like The New York Times, Esquire, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Wired, and others.
Ben Tolman, an artist based in Washington, D.C., crafts intricate urban scenes that are absorbing at every inch. His new show, titled “Weltschmerz: Recent Drawings by Ben Tolman,” brings a new series of works to Gallery Neptune and Brown in DC. The word means “world pain” in German, and like his ink and gouache images prior, his work reflects both precision and insanity. Or as the gallery says, “in the tradition of Hieronymus Bosch and M.C. Escher, Tolman delves in to the fantastic imagery of impossible chaos.” Tolman was last featured on HiFructose.com here. The show runs through Feb. 25.
Justin Lovato, a California native, is a self-taught artist who blends abstract shapes and patterns for scenes that traverse worlds. While his paintings tend toward wild, overlaid landscapes, his works on paper often feature interdimensional beings entangled in the artist’s backdrops. Lovato was last featured on HiFructose.com here, in a piece that focuses on his acrylic paintings on canvas.