Dane Nicklas is a tattoo artist currently working out of Valentine’s Tattoo in Seattle, a feminist-powered and inclusive space known for its collective of wonderfully offbeat and experimental artists (we featured the work of Valentine’s founder, Shannon Perry, last year). Dane’s work fits this niche perfectly, mixing classical art symbols with pastel colors and psychedelic […]
Category: Color
Neal Grundy’s “Transient Sculptures” Appear for a Second Then are Gone
Photographer Neal Grundy captures a fleeting existence in his series titled “Transient Sculptures.” Comprising flowing fabrics among outdoor landscapes, the colorful forms appear like ghosts moving within the frame. “The image captures a fabric form in ‘mid-flight’,” Grundy writes. “The sculpture exists for a split second in time; once photographed, it is otherwise lost forever, […]
Neo-Traditional Tattoos of “Pastel Gore” by Brando Chiesa
Italian tattooist Brando Chiesa calls his work “pastel gore,” and the description is so apt. His bold neo-traditional style is seeping with cotton candy pinks, mint greens, and lilac. Despite this subdued palette, the content of his work is grotesque. His imagery is often inspired by Japanese pop culture—including animated films by Hayao Miyazaki and Pokemon—and given […]
Intervention and Letting Go: Experimental Paintings by Sylvie Adams
Sylvie Adams is a visual artist living in Montreal, which she describes in an exclusive statement provided to us, as a place that “makes you want to create, to experiment, and to push boundaries.” Experimentation and duality are at the core of Sylvie Adams’ bright-yet-moody abstract paintings, exploring the foggy dichotomies of “light versus dark, […]
Excavated Essence in Impasto: Antony Micallef Interview
The impasto artworks of Antony Micallef defy the long traditions of figural paintings; instead of recreating subjectivity, he distorts and builds upon it to unearth the living, chaotic nature of the medium itself. Micallef’s works have emerged from a long history of postwar, abstract paintings; taught by John Virtue, an English painter whose depictions of […]
Soft and Uncertain Portraits by Kristina Varaksina
Kristina Varaksina is a Russian-born, New York–based artist known for soft-hued portraits conveying the quiet-yet-complex inner worlds of her subjects. We featured her work in the past—specifically, ethereal photographs of a red-haired model—but recently, Varaksina has shared “Anonymous,” a series referencing 20th-century surrealism. As the title suggests, these images are about identity and “the unease […]
Magical Frogs and Kitties: Tattoos by Joanna Swirska
Joanna Świrska, aka Dżo Lama, focuses her colorful tattoo portfolio on nature with a psychedelic twist. The detailed portraits of birds, mushrooms, and moths come alive with splashes of neon hues. Her style, which is a mixture of realism and abstraction, began to develop over three years ago. While in art school, Świrska first designed tattoos […]
Dreamy Personifications of Ceremony and Myth: Art by Katrina Taule
Katrina Taule (working under the handle artbytau) is an illustrator based in Quezon City, Philippines. Seeking to show how a single word can invoke a world of meaning (such as “devour,” “guardian,” and “infuse”) two of her current projects—“Enchantment” and “The Tea Project”—portray colourful personifications of mythological deities and ceremonial acts. The subject matter centers […]
Sci-Fi and Fantasy Merge in Jakub Rebelka’s Colorful Worlds
Jakub Rebelka is a freelance illustrator and concept artist from Poland creating surreal worlds using traditional and digital mediums. Each image is like a comic book frame that has been expanded into an entire story. Rebelka finds inspiration in a variety of artists, including the French comic artist Moebius and the celebrated fantasy artist Peter […]
A Korean Twist on Iconic Fine Art: Pitta KKM Tattoos
Art masterpieces get revamped by Korean tattooer, Pitta KKM. From Picasso to Michelangelo to Magritte, from the waves of Hokusai to the temples of Chūta, KKM pulls inspiration from all over, updating their work through the lens of his heritage. “In Korea, there are traditional colors called ‘오방색’ (five direction colors),” he explains. “Blue, white, […]