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Artist of the Day
Artist of the Day: Sophie Blackall
Whether she's drawing two spritely little girls for a children's book or a more sober illustration for a national magazine, artist Sophie Blackall's signature style always shines through. What exactly is this style? When it comes to describing her illustrations, Sophie cites influences ranging from Chinese packaging design to train journeys and pipe fish.
Artist of the Day: Daniela Cunha Lay
It's not unusual to find a 26-year-old who cites Andy Warhol as an inspiration or who thinks she can emulate Jackson Pollock. But, it's a rare thing to meet a young woman whose mixed media, Warhol-inspired pop art speaks of revolution in Spain, war crimes in Iraq, and human perishability, whose Pollock-inspired paintings give you chills. I recently caught up with the young São Paulo-born, Brazil-and-California-raised artist Daniela Cunha Lay at the opening of her exhibit at one of my favorite design stores in San Francisco, Flipp.
Artist of the Day: Elizabeth Peyton
Elizabeth Peyton is a contemporary American artist who paints stylized and romanticized portraits of her close friends, celebs, and European monarchy.After graduating from New York's School of Visual Arts in the mid-'80s, she had her first solo show at the Althea Viafora Gallery in SoHo in 1987, and rose to popularity in the mid-'90s. Among her subjects, which are often inspired by photographs, are Liam Gallagher, Julian Casablancas, Jarvis Cocker, Chloë Sevigny, Princes William and Harry, Abraham Lincoln, Marc Jacobs (above), Keith Richards, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Eminem, and members of the Kennedy family. And, on Wednesday, just one day after Barack Obama was elected president, Peyton's portrait of Michelle and Sasha Obama at the Democratic National Convention was unveiled at her Live Forever exhibit at New York's New Museum.
Artist of the Day: Miguel Ornia-Blanco
Inspired by his travels through London, Manchester, and Buenos Aires, artist Miguel Ornia-Blanco paints urban landscapes full of movement, energy, and life. Contrary to the stark, gray skyscrapers, blacktop roads, and dingy sidewalks you might see in some of those metropolitan areas, Ornia-Blanco finds a vibrant color palette in the cityscape. He sees emotions, life, laughter, pain, and solitude in places where, on a whole, people seem to pass by each other unknowingly.
Artist of the Day: Melissa Moss
Los Angeles-based painter Melissa Moss makes artwork that seems fit for a children's fairy tale. From her graceful, curtseying trees to her odd little nubbin creatures resting beneath the splayed gills of gigantic mushrooms, these paintings beg for a fanciful storyline. And her use of color?
Casa Verde: Waste Management, One Man's Trash
Justin Gignac, a graduate of New York's School of Visual Arts, picks up trash off of the streets of New York City. But, you won't find him in a sanitation department uniform. He actually fills bags with subway passes, Broadway tickets, coffee cups, phone book pages, and other NYC junk and carefully arranges them in plastic cubes, which are then signed, numbered, and dated in slick Helvetica typeface and sells them for 50 smackers — "making them perfect for anyone who wants their own piece of the NYC landscape," he says.
Artist of the Day: Olafur Eliasson
In January, it was announced that Olafur Eliasson, an internationally acclaimed Danish-Icelandic artist, will bring a series of freestanding waterfalls to Manhattan's East River from late June through mid-October this year. The scaffolding for the 90- to 120-foot waterfalls is now being built, and the City expects tourism revenues to increase by $55 million while the project is underway. The large-scale public art has been designed to protect water quality and aquatic life by using intake pools suspended in the river to filter the water, and ConEd, the local gas and electric company, will provide electricity generated from renewable resources.
Artist of the Day: David Wiseman
David Wiseman works in a variety of mediums including wood, porcelain, crystal, and bronze, and is inspired by the subtleties in nature, like the texture of bark or the pattern of moss growing on a rock. His designs, which can be found on a tabletop, wrapped around a fireplace, or dangling from the ceiling, highlight these organic details, and bring a romantic, Sleeping Beauty-esque woodland quality indoors. His bronze branches, which sprout porcelain blossoms, are kindred spirits of midcentury bronze wall sculptures, but have a timeless sophistication that supersedes them.
Casa Verde: KS Rives Transforms Trash Into Art
I'm all about making something out of nothing, and artist KS Rives takes that philosophy one step further by making something beautiful out of nothing anyone wants: trash.
Whether through the use of old maps of Paris, discarded rubber bands and public transit tickets, or even cigarette butts, KS Rives takes something that no one wants and transforms it into a highly desirable work of art.
To see some of her art, including her hand-painted wallpaper, just read more
Artist(?!?) of the Day: Pete Doherty
According to Daily Mail, Babyshambles rocker, incarceree, and Kate Moss's former flame, Pete Doherty debuted an exhibition of his bloody paintings at the Chappe Gallery in the Montmartre district Paris last week, despite the fact that he's currently serving time behind bars.
The gruesome exhibit features 30 paintings by l'artiste, including "one blood and pencil image of the supermodel, entitled 'Miss Moss reclines', shows her topless lying on a sofa," one self-portrait scribbled with "with the baffling initials S.K., V.I.C., a Star of David and a swastika," and in another, the known drug offender "signed his name in blood from one of his needles," giving a whole new meaning to the term "needlework." While I do think people should have the right to decide what constitutes art, and it's always interesting to see boundaries tested, I must admit that I find this quite macabre.
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