The art of Seungyea Park (aka, Spunky Zoe) is a meeting with “monstrousness”—that is, the product of our fear as it festers among us. Fear is necessary to social systems because it distinguishes the self from a monstrous Other—the enemy, the freak. “Monsters are everywhere,” Park writes, because we compulsively create them. To help herself […]
Category: Painting
Dark Dream Characters in the Paintings of Bill Mayer
Bill Mayer is a well-known artist currently based in Decatur, Georgia, whose curious creatures have been widely featured on magazines, ads, stamps, posters, and more. Since an early age, Mayer has been attracted to things that are strange; this leaning towards oddity is evident in the selection of gouache paintings shown here, which include anthropomorphic […]
Visceral Enigmas in the Art Work of Allison Sommers
“Pink viscera, heroic dogs, war detritus, barnacled crabs, and embedded nothings” are among the many curious images, both literal and metaphoric, that the Brooklyn-based art worker Allison Sommers uses to describe her creations. Across her portfolio, animals and human appendages unfurl and splatter into gleeful-grotesque jumbles of rot and metamorphosis, defying the confines of prescribed […]
Mimesis in New Anatomical Paintings by Nunzio Paci
Nunzio Paci is Bologna-based painter and illustrator known for his philosophic re-imaginings of anatomical studies. Themes of death, rebirth, and the undefinable boundaries of the body and spirit have followed him throughout his work. Whereas his older paintings (featured here) explored life as it bloomed from human cadavers, his newer works shift the focus to […]
Transgressive Portraiture of Historical Icons by Mathieu Laca
Mathieu Laca is a Montreal-based artist creating “deliciously appalling” oil paintings that transgress the conventions of traditional portraiture. The majority of his recent work focuses on various historical figures throughout the realms of art, literature, philosophy, and science. Whether he’s painting the face of Vincent van Gogh, Franz Kafka, or Frida Kahlo, there are always […]
Shadowy Magical Realism in the Artwork of Sail (Useless Arm)
“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 […]
Queen of the Double Eyes: Paintings by Alex Garant
After suffering a heart attack in 2012, Toronto-based artist Alex Garant had a renewed perspective on life and decided to devote herself to art full-time. Now, she is known internationally as the “Queen of the Double Eyes,” and aptly so; she paints faces as seen through a daze, with double sets of eyes and lips […]
Presence & Void: Serenely Surreal Paintings by Victor Grasso
The paintings of Victor Grasso are both surreal and ordinary, erotic and innocent, eerie and filled with light. Based in Cape May, New Jersey, Grasso’s work is heavily influenced by the sea, one of his principal muses. One of the many things that makes Grasso so fascinating as a contemporary painter—in addition to the complex […]
Elegant, Colorful Chaos in Zeen Chin’s Digital Paintings
Zeen Chin is a self-taught artist living in Kuala Lumpur. Drawing upon a mysterious well of horror films, memories, and mysticism, his digital paintings are wildly elegant and unpredictable; scrolling from one image to the next, you can never predict (nor comprehend) what you will see next. Anime-like characters parade with cartoonish, folklore-inspired beasts, and […]
The Dreamlike, Story-Filled Paintings of Herakut
Herakut is the name of a German street artist duo comprised of Hera (Jasmin Siddiqui) and Akut (Falk Lehmann). Since 2004, they have joined their skills and shared visions in creating story-and-symbol-filled artworks all around the world, both on buildings as large-scale murals and on canvas, paper, and film in the studio. Duality is a […]