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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Luca Ledda’s surreal works deal with both our conception of the world and our consumption of its resources. The Turin artist offers these scenes in murals and gallery work across the globe. Recent projects include pieces in Belgium, Mexico, Bosnia, and beyond.
Matthew Grabelsky's oil paintings are at the center of a show currently running at Dorothy Circus Gallery in London. The artist is known for infusing everyday subway scenes with his realistically rendered animal-human hybrids, with “Passengers” collecting five new works and four studies. The show runs through Jan. 5 at the space.
Omar Rayyan’s mythological paintings call upon a centuries-old sensibility while showcasing the artist’s penchant for the monstrous. His new show at Haven Gallery, titled "Fins, Feathers, & Fangs," collects new works from Rayyan, who was last featured on our site here. The show runs through Jan. 12.
Joao Ruas brings his striking, ghostly paintings to Thinkspace Projects with the new show “Knots.” The show, running through Jan. 4 at the space, collects both new mixed-media and acylic paintings, as well as drawings from the artist. The artist was featured on our site here and was last seen in print with Hi-Fructose Vol. 23.
Evan Lovejoy's paintings are inspired by both the artist's love of the natural world and his anguish due to its destruction. Our complicated relationship with animals is shown through the artist's varying ways of depicting them. Within the same work, a beast moves between a sense of realism, cartoonish rendering, and a more pop-surrealist sensibility.
Chicago-based artist Joey D. has garnered a reputation for his pop-surrealist murals and animations. His work recalls, in some cases, '90s-era animation and the iconography of the Chicago area.
KeFe
A new retrospective surveys the work of Martin Wittfooth, whose paintings explore our ties to the natural world. The show is hosted at Muroff-Kotler Visual Arts Gallery at SUNY Ulster College, with works dating back to 2012. Among the recent work are a collection of circular works titled "Statis," with massive mammals floating against blood-red backdrops. The retrospective runs through Oct. 18 at the gallery. The artist created the cover for Hi-Fructose Volume 35 and was featured in Hi-Fructose’s touring “Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose” exhibition.
Jolene Lai returns to Thinkspace Projects with a new collection of eerie paintings. The aptly named "The Beautiful Haunting," starting on Sept. 14, brings her sensibility, seemingly informed by pop mediums and children’s stories to the gallery walls. The painter has a rare ability to evoke the same sense of mystery and danger in settings absent of human occupants. Lai was last featured on our website here.
In Filipino artist Ronson Culibrina’s haunting yet vibrant paintings, the artist examines globalization, social issues, and more through both crowded and sparse scenes. The artist is also taking a look at art history inside his home country of the Philippines, as well injecting cross-cultural and Biblical iconography.
Chris Berens
In Heather Benjamin's recent work, her "lone cowgirl" character moves through a spectrum of emotions, attitudes, and phases that reflect the complexity of womanhood. She offered several of these new drawings in a show at Tokyo’s gallery commune under the banner "Burden of Blossom."
Justin Lovato
In a new show at Gallery 30 South in Pasadena, Hi-Fructose co-founder Attaboy shows sculptural and painted works on wood, which are often interactive. "Undergrowth," tackling themes of "death, decomposition and rebirth," features more than 60 works from the artist. These creations are part of a series that began in late 2017. The show runs May 2-26, with an opening reception planned for Sunday, May 5, from 3 p.m.-6 p.m.
Casey Weldon's paintings, ever examining digital media, pop culture, and other contemporary themes, pack a new show at Thinkspace Projects. “Latent Content” offers a new body of work that the gallery says is "thematically darker than previous output." The show begins on April 27 at the Culver City space. Weldon was last featured on HiFructose.com here.
In Peter Palfi's "Looney Tombs" series, the mythologies of Ancient Egyptian gods and 20th-century animation synthesize with artifacts faithful to both histories. The Hungarian artist uses bronze, wood, resin, actual mummified animals, and other materials to craft these sculptures—along with his own complete Book of the Dead. For some, it may recall Damien Hirst's "Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable," though Palfi's work, in concept, wholly embraces the absurd.
In painter-cartoonist Guy Colwell’s new show at La Luz de Jesus Gallery, there’s a particular focus on complex relationships between humans and animals. “The Wayward Ape,” running April 5-28, tracks how our evolution has gone beyond nature’s intentions. The resulting explorations look at both violence and ignorance. Colwell was last featured on HiFructose.com here.
Wesley T. Wright’s stoneware sculptures put surreal touches on the natural world. His new show at La Luz de Jesus Gallery, titled “Ark of Man,” highlights the artist’s interest in folklore. The show runs April 5-28 at the Los Angeles venue. (Wright was last mentioned on HiFructose.com here.)
Aaron Marshall
In Leonard Greco’s theatrical “Fairyland,” the artist uses a variety of mediums to offer a world both fantastical and deeply personal in nature. In a show currently running at MOAH:Cedar, viewers can explore “Fairyland” for themselves.
Tasha Kusama explores the projected self vs. reality in her striking oil paintings. Toying with dualities, the artist explores the soft and hard edges of coming of age in the current cultural landscape. The painter says these recent works are partly inspired by being a parent:
Travis Louie
In recent work, there’s an ever-evolving horror and beauty in the paintings of Allison Sommers. Pieces created for shows at galleries across the U.S. range in size and subjects. Below, see how she’s recently depicted an unraveling canine, the human body, and other bits and organs worthy of close observation.
Dave Lebow’s pulp-inspired paintings return in a new show at La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles. Running through Jan. 27, "Pulp Power Passion" collects female characters getting their revenge, fantastical creatures, and other retro narratives. Lebow was last featured on HiFructose.com here.
Bob Dob's punk rock roots still shine through the artist's paintings, including these recent pieces. Works like “Golden Punk God Made of Clay,” with a statue inspired by Pennywise guitarist Fletcher Dragge and the band’s ongoing influence. Elsewhere in the painting, the work shows "various mischief and local South Bay culture and folklore," the artist says. Dob is featured in the Hi-Fructose Collected 3 Box Set.
The work of illustrator Alex Heywood puts an otherworldly spin on the everyday. His creatures, even without a stated backstory, are entertaining and often humorous, with much of the quirkiness found in the details. The Scotland-based artist is a graduate of the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design at University of Dundee.
In Gary McMillan’s “Galapagos” series, the painter guides us into alien ecosystems, inviting viewers along as explorers to make any observations they can from the creatures and activity there. The work is rooted in the artist’s interest in both science and art. And McMillan says he is “interested in how one makes sense of new things through remembered experience of the familiar.”
The arresting paintings of Daniel Bilodeau blend realism with abstraction and sculptural techniques. A new show at Thinkspace Projects in Culver City, titled “State of the Art,” offers new works by the Canadian-American artist. The show runs through Jan. 26 at the gallery. Bilodeau was last featured on HiFructose.com here.