Los Angeles-based painter Audrey Kawasaki‘s haunting imagery of both sexualized women and lucid imagery of death and lust leaves something categorically in it’s own. Her consistent style of wood-based paintings with oil and graphite gives her art the distinct feeling of the embodiment of nature and humanity. Captivating the audience with fixated eyes and the collaborative efforts of an art nouveau and japanese manga, Audrey’s art has found a place in the souls of thousands. “I paint them [that way] because they are distant, elusive and unattainable, and slip right through your hands,“ explains Kawasaki. Caught between timeless and modern, her artwork is something to be heard about for a long, long time.

 

For an updated look into the artistic talents of Audrey Kawasaki, check out her blog here.

The man, the myth, the painter…. Ricky Allman. From stoic serene landscapes plunge forth beams of bright light geometry, metallic structures and such futuristic shapes I can’t even fully wrap my mind around what’s he’s got going on. This is what our planet would look like if “2001 A Space Odyssey” merged with a dance club and then the master disc jockey was Mr. Allman himself. I absolutely would not object at all — in fact this art makes me curious about what sort of beats Ricky Allman would mix…If you recognize his art, you might have seen his interview in Juxtapoz Magazine, if not you should head right on over and check it out.

*PS also you could take a cool painting/drawing class from him at University of MO-Kansas City, if you feel so inclined.

Smudgy, dirty, gritty imagery from young illustrator, Benjamin Phillips. He’s been in such projects as “Artinavan Pop-Up Shop” – a literal van, filled with art on exhibition. (Brilliant.) Also, besides his amazingly detailed other-worldly print works, you can see more of his humorous, honest, and sometimes quite sinister poetry on his website as well.

Keeping it real, Portland-based photographer, Anna Verlet.

I found this lady recently and she rekindled my love for nostalgic nature imagery, and with spring coming up, she inspires me to save up for polaroid film (not on the cheap side), and drive out to the penninsula (or down 101 as far as I can go) stopping to make memories along the way. Cheers to 2011 adventures.

Chattanooga-based design & illustration collective Young Monster makes some of the most non-stoic band posters I’ve seen recently.  Their work looks like something mingling amongst visual imagery of Picasso, grindhouse film, Basquiat, gritty punk show fliers and my grandparents’ basement full of old National Geographics. This kind of creation is pretty hard to do well and these guys pull it off as if it’s their 6th sense (not the film.)

Street Kids, Refugees, Beggars and the homeless; often these everyday people in society are passed by and forgotten to be both a large part and a large problem in our world’s culture. Christian Guémy, a street artist hailing from the city of Paris brings into light these issues by drawing attention to people often overlook. Christian’s use of color, shading, layers and fractured pieces develop a sense of emotion not easily captured into most modern street art and stenciling.

Apricot -By up and coming videographer Ben Briand is easily one of the most visually captivating pieces of film meshed into a less than 11 minute time span. Briand exceedingly bring to life the lives of this chance encounter between a mysterious man and a beautiful woman in a small coffee shop, and you find yourself enveloped into their personal lives.

Voted Best Narrative Film and Community Choice Award on Vimeo, and with close to 300,000 views, this video is quickly booming; and it’s no wonder why. Check out Apricot here from coeus creative.

for more info, visit benbriand.com where you can check out more of his latest videos and images.

-brh

We’ve all seen and taken the photos that look like we’re holding someone on our hand or leaning up against the tower. However, some artists, such as these, take forced perspective photography to the next level.

Hyperrealism is a newer genre of painting breaking into the scene. The goal is to make the paintings look at real as possible. Roberto Bernardi is quite the master of this technique. Check out his work and other amazing artists like him here.

Justin Colt is a recent Graphic Design graduation from Penn State. His website features an impressive portfolio to look through, but my favorite was his East/West project. Using 35 and 120MM cameras, Justin photographed a cross country trip and put it together into a horizontal scrolling album. I particularly enjoyed the photos from his stop at Sasquatch!