Lente Scura, Italian for “dark lens,” has a working name reflecting both the atmosphere and meaning within his art. As he explains in an interview with Urban-Muse, his lens—his point of view—is expressed in a manner that is “surreal and mystical with dark emotional tones.” By combining photo-manipulation with digital painting, he submerges the subjects […]
Category: Portraits
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 […]
Armour: Empowering Hairstyle Imagery by Luke Nugent and Lisa Farrall
Featured here are works of incredible hair art, photographed by Luke Nugent, a London-based photographer who specializes in portraiture, fashion, and hair & beauty. The stylist is Lisa Farrall, an award-winning hair session stylist and the beauty editor of Noctis Magazine. Titled “Armour,” this series about “embracing women and empowering women.” Combining abstract hairstyles with […]
Exploring Concealed Beauty: Mariamne Photography
The imagery of Spain-based Mariamne Photography is tender, ethereal, and melancholic. Much of her work is self-portraiture, which she describes as “an introspective journey through my own self, trying to express the fragility and complexity of human souls.” By incorporating subjects such as Kintsugi (the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery) and the “red thread […]
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 […]
Wildlife, Flora, and Portraits: Paper Art by Kanako Abe
Artist Kanako Abe creates cut paper art that’s so fine that it’s hard to tell you’re looking at thinly-sliced lines. The exquisite details have a lyricism to them; they look as though they’ve been drawn with a pen. Even the subject matter has a mystical quality, and Abe’s Instagram captions accompany them like little bits […]
Time and Mutation: Photo Weaving by Jason Chen
Jason Chen is a Philadelphia-based artist (and the co-founder of Paradigm Gallery + Studio) who experiments with the “movement, process, and mutation” of time—a.k.a., the “Fourth Dimension”—in an innovative process called photo weaving. Using multiple photos of the same subject, each taken within seconds of each other, Chen merges them piece-by-piece. From a distance, the […]
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 […]
Gazing Into the Abyss: Multi-Layered Collages by Alex Eckman-Lawn
Based in Philadelphia, Alex Eckman-Lawn is an artist who allegedly “lives in the gutter and sleeps in the sewer.” And when he’s not burning his name into the ground and trying to take down the sun, he’s creating fascinating 3D collages. Like dissected books, each collage is an excavated visual narrative, exposing the story and […]
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 […]