Small Craters: The Art of David Allen Peters
Untitled #4, acrylic paint on panel
David Allen Peters is an artist based in Los Angeles, California. In his practice, Peters is a painter, though his technique is one that often seems more akin to sculpture. The artist produces his paintings by layering paint onto a surface and then gouging out small craters to reveal the coloured layers below.
Untitled #9, acrylic paint on panel
I’m fascinated by the way that Peters’ process can be…
Modern Aesthetics: The Art of Nicholas Party
Pot with three birds, pastel on paper
Swiss-born artist Nicholas Party works in painting, sculpture, drawing, and other media, creating compositions that exude modern aesthetics while existing in a contemporary art historical framework.
Landscape, pastel on canvasThe artist’s graphic, colourful paintings are very attractive, and seem welcoming to the viewer. The artist seems to favour cool colours -- deep, electric blues and purples…
The Portrait Art Portfolio of Alim Smith
UntitledAlim Smith is an artist from Wilmington, Delaware. In his practice, Smith uses a uniquely surreal style of portraiture to explore black identity, past, present, and future. Smith has achieved recent notoriety for his portrait paintings of black subjects in popular internet memes.
Untitled
The artist uses lighting and colour masterfully in his works. In the series Planet Her, for example, Smith’s figures exist on black…
Sweeping Sci-Fi Scenes: The Art Portfolio of John Berkey
Boiling GlobeThe late John Berkey was a science fiction artist, noted for his sweeping sci-fi scenes and detailed imaginings of future space travel and exploration. Berkey’s artwork has appeared in many formats, from movie posters to books to postage stamps.
Underwater Ships on Blue
I really enjoy the style that Berkey used to produce his paintings. There’s an incredible balance in these works between gestural, painterly pigment…
The Art and Graphic Design Portfolio of John Zabawa
Lucille Furs -- Another Land LP, CD jacket design
John Zabawa is an artist and graphic designer who currently lives and works in Los Angeles. In his practice, the artist uses warm, bright colours and pared-down shapes and planes to create designs that balance fun and focus.
Background artwork for Bon Appetit magazine spread
Zabawa works with various clients to produce designs for CD jackets, posters, book covers, and more. There’s…
The Art Portfolio of Yuri Hill
The Hands Resist HimYuri Hill is an artist based in Kiev, Ukriane. The artist primarily works in digital painting, producing artworks that evoke an unsettling, dreamlike mood through layers of dark pigment and key details.
Hill’s creepy, illustrative images often seem to reference reference pagan mythology in addition to contemporary horror aesthetics. I’m quite impressed by the artist’s skill with building visual atmosphere --…
The Painting Portfolio of Dmitry Kochanovich
Ideal Planet, oil on canvasDmitry Kochanovich is an artist based in Krasnodar, Russia. In his practice, Kochanovich creates painting that borrow from both traditional and contemporary styles, often juxtaposing distinct aesthetics and narratives to create images imbued with an uneasy sense of anachronism.
Free Fall, oil on canvas
Technically, Kochanovich’s paintings seem to borrow heavily from classical, romantic painting styles --…
Geometric Form and Pattern: The Art of Giorgio Viva
Untitled, acrylic on canvasGiorgio Viva is an Italian artist currently based in the United States. Viva’s practice is varied, with the artist producing both visual art and music. Viva’s visual art portfolio showcases a fascination with geometric form and pattern.
Untitled, acrylic on canvas
I really enjoy Viva’s abstract paintings. The works are wildly colourful, and often utilize repeated forms like lines or other, more…
Impossible Objects: The Art of Zhestkov Studio
Maxim Zhestkov produces work with partners and collaborators under the umbrella of Zhestkov Studio. The studio’s artworks often utilize digital techniques to create futuristic impossible objects that defy the physical limitations of a gallery space.
Optics (still)
Much of Zhestkov’s recent work involves 4k animation, with animated objects often laid over images of gallery and museum spaces to help foster a more realistic, tangible…
The Collage Art Portfolio of Ugur Gallenkus
UntitledUgur Gallenkus is a turkish artist who uses collage art to juxtapose images of privileged Western cultures with images of war-torn nations in the middle east. The artist’s works are unflinching, often jarring, and dissect reality while still allowing the viewer space to form their own opinions.
Untitled
The artist’s technical skill with these collages lends to closer examination of the images -- the photographs that he…
Alien Landscapes: The Art Portfolio of Al Mefer
UntitledAl Mefer is a photographer who uses his talent at capturing images to distort and remix familiar settings and structures, producing images of alien landscapes and architecture, giving the viewer a never-before-seen view of both man-made and natural features.
Untitled
I really enjoy the science fiction aesthetic that runs through Mefer’s entire portfolio. With series titles like Alien Architecture and Deserts of the Future…
Surreal Iterations: Art by Emil Alzamora
Gullfoss, bronzeEmil Alzamora was born in Lima, Peru; lived in the United States and Spain growing up; and is now based in New York. The artist’s current practice is largely focused on the human figure, with Alzamora creating abstracted, surreal iterations of recognizable forms in two and three-dimensional media.
On the Royal Road 15, ceramic, gold overglaze
The artist’s approach to sculpture is fascinating. Some of the works…
The Art Portfolio of Dominique Cheng
Island II, sumi ink on paperDominique Cheng is an illustrator and installation artist with a background in architecture. The artist’s current portfolio features quiet, dense artworks made with minimal colour and small, fine marks that intersect and interact to create a larger whole.
Ark, ink on trace
I really enjoy the overall monochromatic, black-and-white aesthetic of Cheng’s portfolio. The focus on line art and white space…
The Photography Portfolio of Alex Stoddard
You Only Live TwiceAlex Stoddard is a photographer based in Los Angeles, California. The artist’s works often utilize elements of fantasy and the supernatural, combining human figures with natural landscapes and creating a sense of dreamlike immediacy.
Far From Air
Stoddard’s recent works are highly imaginative -- many of them seem almost like realized versions of illustrations for comics or story books. There’s a great sense…
Humanity, Technology, Nature, and Scienc: Art by Studio Drift
Drifter (installed in New York, 2017)
Studio Drift is an arts collective founded by Lonneke Gordjin and Ralph Nauta, two artists from the Netherlands. The duo’s works comment on the intersection between humanity, technology, nature, and science, and are often made in collaboration with professionals in scientific fields.
Franchise Freedom (pictured December 2017, Miami, Florida)
I enjoy the monolithic quality of the duo’s works.…