Note: Contains violent content. Melting flesh, living corpses, and mutating organs: there are few things as unsettling as wildly degenerating bodies. In the wake of twisted films that characterized the science fiction and horror of the late 1970s and 80s—Ridley Scott’s “Alien” and John Carpenter’s “The Thing,” for example—the journal “Screen” coined the term “body […]
Category: Mixed Media
Dreaming Dancers: Beautiful Illustrations by Lu Cong
Note: Contains nudity. Lu Cong is an influential American artist who immigrated to the United States when he was 11. In addition to dreamy, pastel-hued oil paintings that express the subject’s underlying emotions, he also creates beautiful minimalistic illustrations in ink, graphite, and watercolor. The figures climb and dance across the page, some with animals […]
Portraits of Fear by Magdalena Pacewicz
“I still feel fear, but I like to smile,” writes Magdalena Pacewicz, describing the ambivalent subjects of her ghostly overlay photography. Based in Wroclaw, Poland, Pacewicz mixes digital technology with traditional media to create black-and-white portraits, melting together facial features with ghoulish eyes and lipless mouths. Seeking to dive deep into the human psyche, Pacewicz […]
10 Amazing Fine-Art Shibari Rope Bondage Photographs
Beginning in thirteenth-century Japan, rope tying (hojojutsu) was used as means of restraining, transporting, and punishing criminals. It evolved into an erotic activity and art form called “kinbaku” during the Edo Period, infusing the centuries-old discipline method with BDSM (the infamous photographer Nobuyoshi Araki is known for his extensive documentation of this style of rope […]
Priestess of the Dystopia: The Artwork of Ashley Joncas
Ashley Joncas is a Seattle-based artist and the founder of the multidisciplinary studio énigme. Combining minimalist aesthetics with “deep atmospheric qualities of an ominous color spectrum,” Joncas’ portfolio is a window into a bleak yet beautiful world. Rain-swept horizons and wandering cloaked figures ignite the imagination, producing a somber yet wistful mood. Joncas is an […]
Jenny Brown’s Beautiful Collages of Flower-Covered Sea Creatures
“Aquamarine, sea cheek, infinite tangles…existing in the space between the deepest part of the ocean and the gateway into velvet sky,” writes Jenny Brown; her collages look like we have discovered a new ocean where flower gardens have merged with sea life. Marigolds and poppies next to giant clams and jellyfish, and drips of paint […]
The Selfie Apocalypse: Marvelous Mutants by Mothmeister
The artistic duo known as Mothmeister brings taxidermy to life in nightmarishly endearing photoshoots. Combining perished and preserved animals with models dressed up in masks and begrimed clothing, they create Frankenstein-esque humanoids who behold the camera with a shameless sense of pride. The barren, apocalyptic backgrounds provide the perfect settings for the artists to parody […]
Identity in the Raw: Paintings by John Reuss
The Denmark-based artist John Reuss paints abstractions of the face and body that explore alienation and the chaos of subjectivity. He works intuitively, merging consciousness with unconsciousness, building layers of paint, getting lost, reclaiming the image, and adding the finishing details with highlights and shading. The rawness of his process reveals the myth of inner […]
Mallozzi Examines the Intricacies of Personal Relationships in Series “Familiars”
In Jean-Paul Mallozzi’s “Familiars,” his latest series of paintings and drawings, he broadens his fascination with the human condition and the inherent, nuanced complexities of personal relationships, specifically intimate male relationships, which are often hyper-sexualized, stigmatized and pigeon-holed for queer/lgbt eyes only in the visual art world. These images challenge society’s rigid and conflicting constructs […]
New Living Sculptures by Marie-Lou Desmeules
Using thick layers of paint and plastic, Marie-Lou Desmeules performs “surgery” on her models, turning them into living, ephemeral (and oftentimes grotesque) canvases. With an eye for truth and a touch of satire, she explores identity, beauty, and the public image. Featured here are some of her newest works, which include creative icons such as […]