Nicola Dale (Paper/Book Sculpture)



http://www.nicoladale.com/

Kehinde Wiley (Painting)

Los Angeles native and New York-based visual artist Kehinde Wiley has firmly situated himself within art history's portrait painting tradition. As a contemporary descendent of a long line of portraitists--including Reynolds, Gainsborough, Titian, Ingres, and others--Wiley engages the signs and visual rhetoric of the heroic, powerful, majestic, and sublime in his representation of urban black and brown men found throughout the world.

By applying the visual vocabulary and conventions of glorification, wealth, prestige, and history to subject matter drawn from the urban fabric, Wiley makes his subjects and their stylistic references juxtaposed inversions of each other, forcing ambiguity and provocative perplexity to pervade his imagery.

Without shying away from the complicated socio-political histories relevant to the world, Wiley's figurative paintings and sculptures "quote historical sources and position young black men within the field of power." His heroic paintings evoke a modern style instilling a unique and contemporary manner, awakening complex issues that many would prefer remain mute.

Kehinde Wiley received his MFA from Yale University in 2001. Shortly after, he became an Artist-in-Residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Wiley’s work has been the subject of exhibitions worldwide and is in the permanent collections of numerous museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Studio Museum in Harlem; the Denver Art Museum; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the High Museum, Atlanta; the Columbus Museum of Art; the Phoenix Art Museum; the Milwaukee Art Museum; the Jewish Museum, New York; and the Brooklyn Museum, New York. Wiley will be the subject of a solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in 2015.

http://kehindewiley.com/

Photography by Slim Aarons

Slim Aarons (American, October 29, 1916–May 29, 2006) was a photographer well-known for his portraits of the rich and famous. Born George Allen Aarons, he spent his youth in New Hampshire and New York before joining the army during World War II, where his photography career began. Working throughout his career with magazines like Life, Holiday, and Town & Country gave Aarons the chance to document the jet-set lifestyle of Hollywood stars, American and European socialites, and other celebrated figures. His approach was simple; using no make-up artists or artificial lights, he let the natural opulence of his subjects and their surroundings illuminate his lens. Typical scenes from Aaron’s photography take place in the sun, and in front of a pool surrounded by bathing beauties.

Aarons’ access to this elite group of subjects speaks to the genuine friendship and confidence he nurtured with his subjects. The 1974 publication of A Wonderful Time: An Intimate Portrait of the Good life solidified Aaron’s place as a notable photojournalist and documentarian of the “good life” and was later followed by the publications of Slim Aarons: Once Upon a Time (2003), Slim Aarons: A Place in the Sun (2005), and Poolside with Slim Aarons (2007).

Architectural Paintings by Ben Grasso

Ben Grasso's works depict suspended architectural structures frozen somewhere between construction and deconstruction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'His paintings are feats of engineering. His is an architecture of the apocalypse, but one whose seams thread shapes we can as yet not fully determine. Excitement and surprise are as much part of this wildly imagined landscape as is a more measured, even nightmarish, uncertainty. Here the whacky, the sublime, and the catastrophic converge upon us unremittingly, but not without grace.'

http://bengrasso.com/

 

Illusionary Body Art by Emma Hack

Emma Hack began her career as a makeup artist, hairdresser and children’s face painter. But her talents have continued to grow and evolve over the last two decades into the mature and fascinating form she works in today. Her paintings are applied directly to models’ bodies and match up perfectly with their background, acting as a kind of camouflage. But the bodies are not entirely hidden in the patterns; rather, they become part of the pattern and allow the background to flow even more beautifully.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

The wallpapers featured are by the legendary designer Florence Broadhurst, licensed specifically for Hack’s use. The intricate designs can sometimes take up to 19 hours to apply. When finished, the model’s body is at once a continuation of the design and a completely unique work of art on its own. The designs accentuate, rather than hide, the fluid beauty and grace of the human form.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wallpaper paintings began with Emma doing the painting herself and a photographer making the images. However, as she has continued to grow as an artist, Emma has taken over the photography as well. She has experimented with adding creatures and other types of designs in to her paintings, adding a new element to the concept of her amazing body art.

Paintings (Edward Hopper)

Solitude in Context of American Life

He wrote in 1939, “So much of every art is an expression of the subconscious that it seems to me most of all the important qualities are put there unconsciously, and little of importance by the conscious intellect.”  

'I can barely conceive of a type of beauty in which there is no Melancholy.'

- Charles Baudelaire

 

Book Art (Isaac G. Salazar)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isaac G. Salazar is an American book artist located in Artesia, NM.

His inspiration comes from multiple things and places like browsing the used book section for titles that stand out to him. For example the recycle symbol was created on a book titled "A World with out Trees".

He likes to take a book that would otherwise end up in a landfill and turn it into art. He rarely uses new books, unless commissioned to. He likes to watch Planet Green, and is into alternative energy, recycling and repurposing which provides him a sense of satisfaction that his art can contribute to reducing waste.

He has recently ventured into logos and symbols and would like to pursue this area more.

http://www.isaacgsalazar.com/about.html