“Everything is beautiful, even the ugly,” observes Sail, an artist operating under the curious handle, “Useless Arm.” His paintings are as moody as they are playful, depicting solitary figures bedecked in flowers and masks and pierced by arrows. Various cultural and literary references can be seen throughout—most notably, Asian aesthetics—but Sail’s characters are born of […]
Category: Black & White
Old Architecture and Charming Darkness by El Nigro
El Nigro is the pseudonym of a tattoo artist currently working out of the Family Addiction Tattoo Shop in Naples, Italy. Specializing in blackwork, El Nigro gives rise to a moody gothic world; old architecture, dark-eyed women, and birds are central to his repertoire, bringing to mind the literary imaginations of Edgar Allan Poe and […]
Fusions of Body and Myth: Art by Stephanie Inagaki
Stephanie Inagaki is a Southern California–based fine artist and metalsmith. Her charcoal drawings are dark, poetic fusions of self and myth, drawing especially from Japanese folklore. The female subjects—which are often representations of herself—merge with crows and supernatural monsters, their bodies transmuting into uncanny hybrids inscribed with ageless mythologies. A particular emphasis is placed on […]
Strange Things Are Happening: Drawings by James Lipnickas
James Lipnickas is an artist living in the woods of New England who draws the “strange and unusual.” He finds inspiration in his wandering mind, envisioning absurd events that could occur in ordinary situations. His black-and-white images are set in rural environments, where cabins and lone wanderers are beset by tentacled, multi-dimensional beasts that seem […]
Light Through Shadow: Photography by Krist Mort
Austria-based Krist Mort is a photographer creating ethereal, black-and-white images of figures in forests and overgrown rooms. Using analog cameras and darkroom printing, her process is hands-on and deeply intuitive, producing a quality of grittiness and grain that reflect the weathered nature of being alive and pressed through time (“Heathen Harvest” wrote a fascinating piece […]
Gakkin x Nissaco: Blackwork Tattoos
Both tattooists Gakkin and Nissaco are on our top picks of 2017. They’ve produced incredible works on skin, all in black ink, fusing both traditional and contemporary Japanese styles in their art. Their work is bold, beautiful and meticulous. Both artists are perfectionists, and seeing their line-and-dot-work up close at the London Convention really confirmed […]
Returning to the Jungle: The Artwork of Dawid Planeta
To Krakow-based artist Dawid Planeta, the jungle is a metaphor for “the mysterious world of [our] emotions”; as children, we explore the jungle with joy and curiosity, but as we age, we detach; the landscapes become alien and filled with fear. Last year, when Planeta became depressed, he turned to art. He began “Mini People,” […]
The Fantastically Fragile Natural World of Zoe Keller
Inspired by the natural world, illustrator Zoe Keller creates compelling combinations of plants and animals in an intricate detail. Her fascination began as a young child, and she conveys that same love in her work. With it comes a twinge of sadness for the state of our world, which happened well before the Trump became […]
Tattooing the Spirit of Wanderlust with Balazs Bercsenyi
“I need to keep life interesting, always experiencing something new.” Hungarian artist Balazs Bercsenyi, of New York’s iconic Bang Bang Tattoo, has an insatiable appetite for exploration. “I’m a Sagittarius, so there’s a lot of fire in me,” he says with a warm smile, sipping on a cappuccino. “You could say there’s a spirit of wanderlust and […]
Illustrative Tattoos Design with Subtlety by Sollefe
Some tattoos are meant as statement pieces for the body, while others take a subtler approach. Tattoo artist and illustrator Sollefe takes her passion for drawing and translates it into small body art that the wearer can enjoy solo. (Or, reveal it to whomever they chose.) Done in black ink, the images mimic the quality […]