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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Musician-visual artist Tetsunori Tawaraya’s sci-fi-infused drawings have garnered fans across disciplines over the years, as he has sold prints and comic books at shows he’s played with acts like Tokyo’s 2up and San Diego punk act Dmonstrations. Among his comics are the collections “Dimensional Flats” and “Grayworld,” both published by Hollow Press. The artist's collaborations include work with Volcom the band Transkam.
Scotland-based artist Ade Adesina creates massive linocut prints that he says reflect on both his African roots and European culture, “producing work that makes people reflect on the past, present and the future.” His practice linocuts, woodcuts, sculpture, and other disciplines. Known for enormous cityscapes and landscapes, recent work also features his own sensibility applied to still-life objects.
In Jesse Shaw’s “American Epic” series of hand-pulled linocut prints, the artist offers his interpretation of the American story, traversing consumerism, ritualism, technology, and other aspects in massive graphical works. So far, he’s completed more than half of the planned 50 prints in the series.
Kathleen Neeley’s linocut prints are infused with varying cultures across time, yet feel wholly contemporary in reflection. The artist looks at our relationship to the Earth, femininity, and other personal subjects while maintaining the elements and motifs of myths.
Raj Bunnag's massive linocut prints teem with monsters, overwhelming details, and contemporary reflections. The Durham, N.C.-based artist, in particular, has explored drug culture in these scenes, using mythical and mystical creatures at war to reflect on our relationship to drug culture from all angles, including over-criminalization.
In a set of encaustics and prints, artist Ethan Lauesen explores the perceptions of gender and LGBTQIA+ identity in regions like Interior Alaska. The work both documents and serves as a personal expression of those themes, also enveloping race and sexuality in this sprawling visual statement. Lauesen often shares looks into the process behind these works on their Instagram account.
Simon Lice's wood-cut relief collages are stirring looks inside the human body. In a recent show at Outre Gallery, titled “Headaches Coughing Fits,” the artist offered a set of these works, combining talents in drawing, printmaking, and curation of hues. The Melbourne-based artist, a jeweler by trade, is also influenced by tattoo culture.
Roman Klonek’s woodcut prints return in a new show at Galerie vorn und oben in Eupen, Belgium. "Cut²" collects several new works from artist, influenced by vintage posters and pop culture. The show arrives next month at the gallery. Klonek was last mentioned on HiFuctose.com here.
Trevor Knapp’s linocut prints use texture and value to create absorbing scenes. The process, in which artists cut pieces away from a sheet of linoleum and use the design to create ink prints, takes on a ghostly quality at the hands of Knapp. Shadows and mystery tend to play major roles in series like “Memories of a Metropolis.”
Luke O’Sullivan, a printmaker and sculptor based in Philadelphia, combines media and perspectives to detail fictional environments. In "Rise and Shine,” a new show at Paradigm Gallery, O’Sullivan offers a collection of new work that he says are about exploration and adventure. “I make sculptures that illustrate invented and undiscovered worlds,” the artist tells us.
Eric Nyquist's enthralling drawings and paintings are vivid explorations of both natural and manmade forms. The artist, often playing with color and shape, crafts illustrations that often must be dissected and studied. The result are pieces that tow the line of being both humorous and dangerous.
Jose Naranja, a self-described “notebookmaker,” creates works of art out of the typical writing pad. He sells these notes in the form of “The Orange Manuscript,” an elaborate, multilingual exploration of the writer/artist’s mind and observations. The artist considers the work “a love letter to notebooks, a flight of fancy and also a part of me.”
In works that "explore our notions of contentment and security," artist Dietrich Wegner creates surreal images that bring clouds closer to the earth and explores identity through logos embedded onto children. These are works full of contradiction, both humorous and sobering, whimsical and harrowing. The ideas are conveyed in both sculptural works and prints, offering several points of entry into the mind of the artist.
Fantastic architectural settings, statuesque-like human figures staged in dramatic poses and a prevailing mood of impending catastrophe; it should come as no surprise that printmaker Victoria Goro-Rapoport began her career in the theater. The recipient of an MFA in set design, Goro-Rapoport was once professionally employed creating backdrops for theatrical dramas. Eventually the artist decided to devote herself fully to her two-dimensional artwork in order to give her imagination completely free reign. In her intricate engravings and etchings, this theatrical background translates into an often dark and moody ambience. Lone figures are silhouetted against tempestuous and overwhelming skies or are caught in the midst of impossible feats, calling to mind Biblical figures, as well as both the heroes and victims of Greek mythology. As with the stage, where the illusions of a play have the power to transport us, so do Goro-Rapoport’s prints create an imaginary universe where the possibilities are seemingly infinite and the actors larger-than-life.