DIGITAL ART

The incredible digital art of Erik Johansson

Erik Johansson is one of those guys who have raw talent. He excels on digital photography and produces outstanding results. And you know what? He has not have any formal training in photography or studio art — or even classroom instruction in Adobe Photoshop

Erik Johansson is keen on surreal landscapes and often depicts characters trapped in their surroundings in some temporal break down.

We have included below the Cut & Fold (2012) piece as well as a very interesting video that will show you how Erik Johansson got to the end result.

Here is what the digital artist says about the work: “Inspired by the cut-along border of a magazine coupon, I wondered what a landscape would look like if it were peeled back along a road’s dotted line like a coupon.”

Cut & Fold by Erik Johansson

Cut & Fold – Behind The Scenes from Erik Johansson on Vimeo.

Here are other works from Erik Johansson

Downside of the Upside (2009)
Downside of the Upside (2009)
Go Your Own Road (2008)
Go Your Own Road (2008):
CONTEMPORARY ART

Confronted with Castration: Edward Kienholz’s "Five Car Stud"

Edward Kienholz’s Five Car Stud depicts a horrific scene of racial violence during the civil rights era. Actually, the term horrific does nothing to illustrate the nauseating effects of this life-size interactive work currently on display at the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art.

The piece is set up in a darkened room with a sandy dirt floor.  Five cars form a circle, illuminating the focal point of the work with their headlights.  Life-sized, white male figures stand next to their cars menacingly wielding batons and other weapons.  One man holds a shotgun at his side.  Clown-like masks and sagging skin cover their faces. The eyes are hollow and insipid, yet smirk at inflicting pain upon another human.

The sense of entitlement emanates not only from their facial expressions, but also from the positions of the bodies and the looming presence of each of these men.  Garbed in jeans with the ruddy faces of moonshine alcoholics, they abuse and castrate another man, lassoing his foot like cattle, simply due to the color of his skin.

The victim lies in the center of the scene flanked by two men gripping his arms.  Instead of casting an entire figure, Kienholz installs a rectangular trough in place of his torso.  He filled the trough with water and six wooden alphabet blocks, two of the same letter, floating around, and leaving the viewer to piece together their meaning.

Kienholz spent three years working on this project between 1969 and 1972 during the height of civil rights era when activists had reached some victories for desegregation.  However, through his depiction viewers realize that prejudice and unfounded bias continue to infiltrate society.

Kienholz is best known for using found objects to create jarring sculptures that comment on social issues within the United States.  He created this work shortly before he relocated to Germany where it first appeared publicly.  A private collector acquired the work and for 40 years it remained in storage.  Los Angeles County Museum of Art is the first to display the work in the United States.

I do not exaggerate the gravity of this work. Guards stand at the doorway advising parents against allowing their children to witness it.

The pictures cannot convey the deeply unsettling feeling evoked by the piece. Perhaps it is the blatant intolerance, the flagrant violence, or simply the knowledge that things have not changed enough.  Whatever the reason, whatever the effects, Kienholz has created a penetrating work that shocks viewers with its content but awes with the undeniable skill and ingenuity it took to mastermind.

FEATURE

3D sand art

3D art using sand.

Not much to say apart from why not having a go at it this summer when you are on your favourite beach instead of lying around?

And burying your best mate in the sand is also fun but not that creative.

Simply awesome don’t you think?

Sand art | Art-Pie

Sand art | Art-Pie

Sand art | Art-Pie

Sand art | Art-Pie

Sand art | Art-Pie

Sand art | Art-Pie

Sand art | Art-Pie

PREVIEW

Brett Amory at Lazarides Rathbone London

Lazarides is pleased to present Internal Dialogue, a new series of works by American contemporary artist and BP Portrait Award 2016 exhibiting artist Brett Amory.

Corresponding with his critically acclaimed ‘Waiting’ series, the works in Internal Dialogue are concerned with everyday life, places, and people, yet this new body of work explores the time in which we live and how we make sense of the information that surrounds us.

Internal Dialogue explores the disjointed snapshots that make up our everyday life, and how our unconscious mind assembles these abstract, nonlinear events to attempt to fuse together a logical, linear explanation of our surroundings.

Brett Amory Internal Dialogue Lazarides Rathbone | Art-Pie
Click to enlarge

This new series of works is also concerned with the human habit of viewing the world through screens. People in today’s society are attached to their devices; we view the world through our phones, our TVs, our computers, and complete the gaps of the surrounding world through our unconscious mind, as if what we see now is framed by what the world looks like on screen.

With each painting in Internal Dialogue, Amory allows the viewer to tap his or her unconscious mind to create their own meaning of what they are viewing. The viewer will be able to rely on their own memories, dreams, thoughts and universal archetypal symbols to create their own interpretation of the painting.

In the same week as his exhibition at Lazarides Rathbone, Brett Amory’s work for the prestigious BP Portrait Award will be unveiled at The National Portrait Gallery. His entry, selected out of 2,557 competing artists, will be one of 53 works shown at the iconic art institution from 23 June – 4 September 2016. Amory has also been shortlisted for the BP Travel Grant.

CONTEMPORARY ART, REVIEWS

Miss Van – Twinkles at Magda Danysz Gallery

One of the first stops on our European tour is Paris, France.

We spent the first day just walking the streets taking as many shots as we could of the amazing amount of street art. On the second day we made way to the Magda danysz Gallery to check out the latest show from Miss Van entitled ”Twinkles”.

The gallery is a huge space, set over two floors with a series of stretching white wall.We are familiar with Miss Van’s colourful street work featuring her trademark female figures. This show was a step in sightly different direction with the ground floor focusing on a series of works with a distinct Victorian feel, dark tones set in very heavy wooden frames.

The first floor has a carnival theme, still darker imagery yet a little more colour than the works you see on other floors. Some other reviews have pointed out that the difference in themes is due to the fact that the body of work is combination of paintings from earlier shows mixed with some later works.
This didn’t bother us, as this was the first show from Miss Van that were able to see, we enjoyed seeing the progression of themes over a few years work.

This show is very enjoyable, if not slightly dwarfed by the sheer size of the gallery, yet well worth checking out.

The show runs until the 30/4/2011

When: 19/3 till 30/4/11

Where: Magda Danysz gallery (Paris)

View all the pics on our Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chasingghosts/sets/72157626300739007/

BLOG, GIVEAWAYS, PREVIEW

Love is the drug print from RYCA to win

“Love Is The Drug” print from RYCA to win, yes it can be yours. We are offering to you lucky readers, the chance to win this awesome print which coincide with the artist, RYCA aka Ryan Callanan, upcoming show at Lawrence Alkin gallery

“I love creating work that people want to touch.”

Ryan Callanan

Following his sell out London show in 2014, two solo US shows and being named Artist of the Year 2015 during Brit Week in LA, Ryan Callanan returns to Lawrence Alkin Gallery with Ten Years Later.

Offering a retrospective interpretation of familiar pieces, Ten Years Later presents a brand new body of work representing a transition into a new era for the artist.

Reservoir Dogs Storm Troopers by RYCA | Art-Pie
One of RYCA’s iconic piece – “Reservoir Dogs Storm Troopers”

Callanan commented:

“While the show will reference the work I’ve been producing over the last few years, it will be dominated by the new pieces. Rather than looking back, the show is about looking forward and offers a glimpse into the future direction of my work, where I want to go bigger and madder.”

For the past decade, Ryan Callanan, aka RYCA, has worked tirelessly as an artist and printmaker, developing techniques learned during his career as a sign maker. His use of pop iconography and lyric-based works has garnered wide appeal, with many noted celebrities including Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim, Russell Brand, Gordan Ramsey and Jose Mourinho collecting his work.

Marking a move away from the print and canvas works Callanan made his name producing, the show consists mainly of 3D pieces.

Ten Years Later takes the 3D pieces Callanan has previously produced and inverts them to create abstract convex works. He comments:

“Everything I’ve produced before has been completely reversed. Instead of reliefs that dome away from the viewer, the new pieces come out at you. Ironically they draw people in more, as they are curious to know what the works feel like and what they’re made of. The pieces are housed in acrylic casing, so while the viewer wants to touch, they can’t and are left wondering.”

Zen Trooper by Ryca | Art-Pie
One of the artist’s 3D pieces – “Zen Trooper”

STREET ART ENCOUNTERS