We love: Kat Attack Photography

We love: Nick Lafontaine

 

We love: Audrey Kawasaki

 

Nothing like kicking the year off with some more Audrey!

The themes in Audrey Kawasaki's work are contradictions within themselves. Her work is both innocent and erotic. Each subject is attractive yet disturbing. Audrey's precise technical style is at once influenced by both manga comics and Art Nouveau. Her sharp graphic imagery is combined with the natural grain of the wood panels she paints on, bringing an unexpected warmth to enigmatic subject matter.

The figures she paints are seductive and contain an air of melancholy. They exist in their own sensually esoteric realm, yet at the same time present a sense of accessibility that draws the observer to them. These mysterious young women captivate with the direct stare of their bedroom eyes.

2 years Pratt Institute, Brooklyn - Fine Arts Painting

Audrey updates her online journal frequently with new work, pieces in progress, information about shows and more. Click here to visit Aud's Journal.

Some of Aud's other links: other blog, twitter, facebook, ffffound, tumblr, tumblr likes            

We love: ShakeyLens

 

We love:Hanna Viktorsson

Respect to: Amy Sarkisian

 

Amy Sarkisian (born 1969 in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.) is a contemporary artist^[1] living and working in Los Angeles, California. She received a BFA from Kent State University in 1994 and a MFA from UCLA in 1997.
Sarkisian is primarily a sculptor^[2] but works in a variety of media that includes painting, drawing and collage. She is known for her jeweled skulls.^[3][4] In a 2011 interview, she named Brancusi, Eva Hesse and Louise Bourgeois as among her influences.^[5]
Sarkisian is represented by Galerie Carlos Cardenas in Paris and Kathryn Brennan Gallery in Los Angeles. She is also a member of Artists Pension Trust Los Angeles.
Sarkisian has exhibited internationally in galleries and museums

(source Wiki)

 

Respect to : Damien Hirst

 

“I just thought, ‘What can you pit against death?”
‘For the Love of God’, a platinum skull set with diamonds, is one of Hirst’s most important and widely recognised works. Its raw materials define it as an artwork of unprecedented scale. The 32 platinum plates making up ‘For the Love of God’ are set with 8,601 VVS to flawless pavé-set diamonds, weighing a massive 1,106.18 carats. The teeth inserted into the jaw are real and belong to the original skull.
The skull from which ‘For the Love of God’ was cast, was purchased from a London taxidermist and subsequently subjected to intensive bioarchaeological analysis and radiocarbon dating. This research revealed it dated from around 1720 - 1810, and was likely to be that of a 35-year-old man of European/Mediterranean ancestry. The title originates from exclamations Hirst’s mother would make on hearing plans for new works when he was starting out as an artist. As he explains: “She used to say, ‘For the love of God, what are you going to do next!’” 
‘For the Love of God’ acts as a reminder that our existence on earth is transient. Hirst combined the imagery of classic memento mori with inspiration drawn from Aztec skulls and the Mexican love of decoration and attitude towards death. He explains of death: “You don’t like it, so you disguise it or you decorate it to make it look like something bearable – to such an extent that it becomes something else.”



The incorporation of the large central stone was inspired by memories of the comic ‘2000 AD’, which Hirst used to read as a child. He relates how the comic, “used to have a character in it called Tharg the Mighty who had a circle on his forehead. He was like a kind of powerful, God-like figure who controlled the universe,” Hirst explains. “It kind of just looked like it needed something. A third eye; a connection to Jesus and his dad.”
Alongside their dazzling brilliance and “Eucharistic” beauty, Hirst’s fascination with diamonds results partly from the mutterings and uncertainty surrounding their inherent worth. In the face of the industry’s ability to establish their irreplaceable value, it becomes necessary to question whether they are “just a bit of glass, with accumulated metaphorical significance? Or [whether they] are genuine objects of supreme beauty connected with life.”The cutthroat nature of the diamond industry, and the capitalist society which supports it, is central to the work’s concept. Hirst explains that the stones “bring out the best and the worst in people […] people kill for diamonds, they kill each other”.
In 2010, Hirst created a second, baby diamond skull called ‘For Heaven’s Sake’ using pink diamonds.

 

A short film of ‘For the Love of God’ is viewable here.