French DJ and producer Breakbot (feat Irfane) recently released the video for the single, “Baby I’m Yours”. It was directed and handmade by Irina Dakeva and is a crazy hypercolor 2 1/2 minutes of a toe-tapping booty-shaking tune set against 2,000 watercolor paintings. Forget special effects and the employment of the latest CGI software, Dakeva went straight [...]
What are you supposed to do when you come across somebody so original doing something so unique that are no real terms ready to apply to it? You blog about it of course. Yeah, maybe not the best idea to try and write about something that leaves you speechless, but we wanted to share, so [...]
We wish it were possible to loop Vimeo videos, cause if you could, we would definitely employ the feature on these little ditties by Shishi Yamazaki. In this particular one entitled YA-NE-SEN a Go Go, Yamazaki can be seen dancing through Tokyo in her own lovely illustrations which she creates out of a mixture of watercolors, crayons, and [...]
Anushka Blommers and Niels Schumm are a Dutch fashion photographic duo working under the team name, Blommers and Schumm. Both born in 1969, they have been active for fifteen years and their photographs have appeared in a variety of publications (Interview, The New York Times, Visionaire, several editions of Vogue, AnOther, Self Service, The Gentlewoman and [...]
Momomi is a photographer from Seoul, South Korea. Using only film photography she takes “pictures of everything and nothing” per her own description. Per our description, she takes dream-like photos that make us feel just a little warmer inside. Our favorite series from Momomi is her series entitled Girls, which, well, showcase photos of girls, about [...]
Pottery is the oldest known human handicraft, dating back 10,000 years to the Neolithic period. In these prehistoric times, lifestyles in the Middle East and Africa were transitioning from nomadic hunters and gatherers to farmers who put down roots and planted crops. This was long before hoses or irrigation systems were available and yet farmers [...]
Black was one of the first colors used by artists in neolithic cave paintings. It became the color of mourning during the Roman Empire, and over the centuries was frequently associated with death, evil, witches and magic. If black is in fact the lack of color, New York artist Banks Violette uses it to symbolize [...]
For her photography series, She Can Leap Tall Buildings, artist Heidi Lender posed wearing a black wig (along with the occasional prop) in front of varied black graphic backgrounds, representing all the different roles women take on. Her series is inspired by her own mother and all the hats she wore in Lender’s life. We found her work to be apropos, [...]
We fell for Mel Kadel’s drawings the instant we saw them. Born in Pennsylvania in 1973, she has been living and working in Los Angeles for the last 12 years, composing chimerical pen and ink drawings on antiqued paper. Her mostly female characters are drawn fastidiously and often included warm patterns that layer or twist on top [...]
Clouds are about to spread over California. This is dirty meets pretty. Black on High is a Brooklyn takeover of Hollywood featuring the dark and gritty work of Alexander Heir, Jess Poplawski, Dilek Baykara, Tamara Santibanez and Othelo Gervacio, who will be showcasing a new body of work based off his childhood obsession with magic. This clan [...]
We’ve heard it our whole lives, “Don’t play with your food!”, but good thing Malaysian artist/architect Hong Yi (who also often goes by the nickname Red) decided not to listen. Yi spent the month of March creating a recent project, with one photo a day and her parameters being simple: the image had to be comprised entirely [...]
Ty Williams‘ paintings and mixed media creations always make me smile. His use of bright colors and playful oceanic themes remind me of fun-in-the-sun times with my pals and his style inspires me to make more stuff myself. The avid surfer seems to travel quite a bit and it’s fun to check out his blog to [...]
Located on a unique projection of land in Region Nordjulland on the northernmost tip of the Vendsyssel-Thy, a part of the Jutland peninsula in northern Denmark, lies the quaint town of Skagen. Skagen, also referred to as “The Scaw”, is picturesque and noted for its iconic Scandinavian architecture, yellow houses with red tile roofs settled perfectly [...]
Since I first began studying art in Richmond, one person who’s work has continued to inspire me over the years is Eric Yevak and his paintings. Yevak, who now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York had several gallery shows in Richmond when I lived there and even sold a line of t-shirts at Need [...]
Back in September, London’s Ivory & Black released a beautiful little video showcasing and promoting an upcoming show with artist and designer Geoff McFetridge. It’s a great video. If you’re not already familiar with Geoff’s work, its a great introduction to how he visualizes things and then puts them into production. The show, entitled “Around Us & [...]
From February 15th through October of this year, marking the 150th anniversary of the Underground, the London Transport Museum will showcase 150 of the most significant posters designed for the tube. Since the introduction of posters and graphic art in the transit system in 1908, transit-goers have had the benefit of and underground world filled [...]
Let’s face it, growing up the kids that were into math were never viewed as cool – it was a subject for someone with a pocket protecter and a lot of free time on their social calendar. Now that we’re grown up, some of us may still buy into that stereotype, but in steps Nikki Graziano. [...]
A Word of Art was founded in 2009 by street artist, Ricky Lee Gordon, aka “Freddy Sam”. Since its inception, A Word of Art has grown from a gallery and exhibition space to running art-based community outreach projects and an international artist exchange program that brings visual and street artists from all over the world [...]
Everywhere you look these days there’s a news story or article about flu season and how yet another state has declared it “widespread”. With the CDC officially labeling it an epidemic, it seems flu season has only just begun and it’s already gonna be a doozy. Wash those hands and cover those coughs, but if [...]
Wilson A. Bentley, better known as “Snowflake Bentley”, was born in 1865 in Jericho, Vermont. Though he spent his life’s work as a farmer, he developed a love and intense interest in the coldest of precipitations, an interest that would spur this farmer to create his own technique for microphotography. As a self-taught photographer, Bentley [...]
Vivian Maier was a self-taught street photographer in the 1950s. Her work went undiscovered until 2007, when it was unintentionally purchased at an auction in Chicago, a town where she resided most of her life. Her discovered work includes over 100,000 mostly medium format negatives, thousands of prints, and countless undeveloped rolls of film containing [...]
Artist JR Schmidt has just done something many of us have probably thought about, but never actually moved off the couch for. By taking a timeless toy icon, in this case LEGO’s, he has created a three-dimensional graphic interpretation of NYC. Let’s make it clear, he didn’t build this out of actual LEGO’s, instead created [...]
British illustrator Chris Keegan digitally manipulates pictures taken by NASA observatories for his Celestial Artworks series, creating images out of stars, galactic gases, and all that other stuff that makes up outer space. Some are pretty, some are down right creepy, but all are so very very awesome. Kind of like looking at the clouds during a summer picnic, Kenner’s images [...]
Our dear friends over at The Blaaahg are throwing a little silent auction at Brooklyn Fireproof this coming Sunday to benefit victims of Sandy. It’s pretty simple: 100% of the proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City. At the auction, necessities and other donations will be [...]
Tim Walker is a photographer currently based out of London, England. After briefly working in New York CIty as an assistant to famed photographer, Richard Avedon, Walker moved back to his native England in 1994. At the age of 25, he shot his first fashion editorial for Vogue and has been entrancing its readers (ie. us) [...]
We’ve always loved the artwork of Barry McGee and are excited about his current retrospective at the Berkeley Art Museum - though the chances are slim that we’ll make it to the Bay Area in time to see it. Luckily, The New York Times caught up with Barry a couple of weeks ago to talk about style and art, and [...]
Here’s how Leanie van der Vyver puts it: “Humans are playing God by physically and metaphorically perfecting themselves. Beauty is currently at an all time climax, allowing this project to explore what lies beyond perfection. Scary Beautiful challenges current beauty ideals by inflicting an unexpected new beauty standard.”
French artist Laurent Chéhère’s surreal photography series, Flying Houses, elevates architecture to a new level…literally. Many a comparison could be made to the Disney movie, Up, but according to Chéhère, his series is meant to speak to his love of traveling and a universal lack of permanence in the world. Employing traditional photography and digital manipulation, Chéhère seemingly elevated typical Parisian houses [...]
“CLOG slows things down. Each issue explores, from multiple viewpoints and through a variety of means, a single subject particularly relevant to architecture now. Succinctly, on paper, away from the distractions and imperatives of the screen.” We are excited to carry CLOG for just those reasons. We love the fact that it presents opinions and [...]
Gainesville, Florida isn’t that big of a town. However, recently a strong sense of culture and music has been steadily growing. Two years ago, local artists Evan Galbicka, Joey Fillastre and Felici Asteinza turned the former New Hope Faith Temple into a a collaborative art environment now known as the Church of Holy Colors. The space [...]
Our friend Sway Benns of Dossier Journal sat down with Marilyn Minter at the opening of a show at Freeman’s. They discussed the sexualization of her work as a female artist, her political leanings, and how she feels about the process of becoming successful. The NYC artist created her career in the late 80′s with a series [...]
In 1962 in Carlstadt, New Jersey, an employee of the Pantone Printing Company by the name of Lawrence Herbert, used his chemistry knowledge to organize the company’s stock of pigments and production inks. He soon purchased the company’s technological assets from his employers, organized them even more, and renamed them as Pantone. In 2012, French [...]
If you’ve ever been to Richmond, Virginia, you quickly realize that Virginia Commonwealth University is the heart and soul of downtown. Its size and population allow life, creativity, and energy to circulate into the city. Even though the university is home to a nationally renowned art school, there still lacks a common space to express this. Besides the VMFA, located [...]
Last year, MSNBC rated Richmond, Virginia as the third most tattooed city in America. Besides cobblestones and cigarette butts, our streets average about 14.5 tattoo shops per 100,000 people. This city also has incredible weather, tons of friends, sturdy front porches, and a lively river that runs through the heart of it. These are just [...]
Randy Noborikawa is really good at killing two birds with one stone. He’s also really good with neon, graphic design, mixed media, and painting. And it just so happens that he had no formal art training until his early 20′s at The Academy of Arts in San Francisco. What we’re currently really fond of are [...]
The concept is relatively simple: Spots. Simple and varied in size and color, thousands upon thousands of spots span together to make one of the worlds largest paintings. And thanks to the Gagosian‘s arsenal of galleries, 331 of Damien Hirst’s “spot” paintings are on display right now across the globe – 11 galleries in 8 [...]
The act of book carving or book sculpture is nothing new. If you’ve browsed around the internet, the chances are you’ve seen people cutting away at books, folding pages, burning the tips, and creating incredible works of art. And then there is Guy Laramee who changes the entire game. “The erosion of cultures – and [...]
Bill Reid is a Canadian artist whose work spanned from sculptures, screen printing and images that were featured on the Canadian $20 banknote. Living and working on the Pacific coast, he developed a keen interest in Haida art while working as a radio announcer in Toronto. He also studied jewelry making, having first learnt about his [...]
Common House is a new project by Virginia native Will Gaynor and a few friends. Common House is an art collective (which will hopefully have a signed lease by the time you’re reading this) located in an old house off 49th and Airport Blvd in Austin, TX. The reclaimed house will hold studio spaces shared by [...]
Rajni Perera’s paintings are all about the delight and dread of peeling back cross-culture layers of meaning. Her work weaves in and out of gender questions and eastern/western cultures kind of a like a Russian doll peels through layers. At the same time her work is fun, very fun. Not just because of the bold [...]
Well, it’s officially summer. The heat is here, it’s the first of July, rent is due, the weekend has begun and it’s also First Fridays here in Richmond. If you get the chance to make it down to the art walk, stop by our friends at Steady Sounds and check out Kate Jennings (of Na [...]
Pen Pencil Stencil is a one-man-creative run by Mark Giglio (not to be confused with Gigolo) out of Oakland, California. Mark has dabbled in many different mediums from print and fabric all the way to wood. His work has been used by Apple Inc., Dwell Magazine, Herman Miller and more. Not bad for a solo [...]
Pierre Botardo moved to Brooklyn from Virginia Beach after living in Richmond. He’s been a long time friend of ours and has recently launched his portfolio site. He creates new worlds and shares his personal experiences by using found images in vintage magazines, photographs and occasionally, india ink.
Sophie Crumb is the daughter of R. Crumb, whom you might be familiar with. She’s really great at drawing denim, pop culture icons and skin – and really just about anything else. We’re particularly in love with her sketchbook which you should make time to check out.
Caterina was born in Porto San Giorgio, a small comune in the Province of Fermo, Italy, where she lives and works. Her education involves sculpture and photography at the Accademia delle Belle Arti di Macerata. She has since received her masters at Bilbao University. Her work and choice of mediums is amazing.
Based in Spain, artist Osman Granda first started designing web pages, then flash pages, then motion graphics, then into designing visuals for dance clubs, then on to working with Barcelona-based studio Pornographics where he did a little bit of everything. He then got tired of Barcelona and went back to his home town where he [...]
David Cook creates some amazing illustrations blending multiple styles and techniques for some pieces that we really cant describe more than that. The most interesting thing about David is that he’s self-taught and color blind. “His work is exquisite in elaborate detail and rich in a fusion of themes of mythology, heavy metal music and [...]
Brooklyn based tattoo artist Scott Campbell just ended his first ever sold out solo show at Mexico Cities Vice Gallery (yes, related to the Canadian magazine) ahead of time. From Interview Magazine: “An e-mail recently surfaced on Purple Diary’s Tumblr that was sent from New York-based artist Scott Campbell to Purple Magazine’s founder, Olivier Zahm. The e-mail [...]
Born in Tehran, Iran and now working out of New York, Sarah Rahbar has made a series of beautiful flags that speak volumes to the worldly, patriotic, bohemien American in all of us. Her work has been criticized and loved, check it out for yourself at her website. Click for the continuation.
Our good friend Sir William Gaynor is having his first solo show this Saturday at Domy Books in Austin, Texas. We see it as a benefit show to help him pay rent, but you should see it as a way to lace your fly pad with sweet art. According to Will, “…it’s gonna be a fucking party-arty-arty. [...]
