There’s a certain obsessiveness to Michael Velliquette’s cut paper artworks. For the most part we all fumbled our way through paper craft as children so its great to see how far the medium can be expressed by someone willing to apply a sense of rigour to their art. The three dimensionality and intense bursts of colour seperate Michael’s pieces from the rest. On a more two dimensional level check out the work of Japanese artist Risa Fukui who exudes a certain fragility in her work.
Loving the painterly work of Vanessa Maltese which exudes the rawness of a paint spill on cardboard mixed with the sharpness of a cut crystal.
These amazingly detailed wood carvings are by Italian artist Gerhard Demetz. Where Ricky Swallow painstakingly replicates reality Demetz’s work seems to act as a departure from this state. His figures seem slightly macabre and twisted, rendered in poses that seem to disregard the innocence of youth in exchange for something more sinister.
Spring Slippers by Willy Verginer contemporises the craft of wood carving through his highly developed ability and sublime introduction of colour and texture. The pieces he creates are typically figurative but twisted through the application of sectional colour treatments to the body.
I’m by no means a photographer so I imagine it must be incredibly difficult to produce imagery of this calibre. Iain Crawford is the photographer behind some of the most dynamic fashion photography around at the moment as the image above clearly shows. The fluidity of the materials he uses frame his subject and amplify the colour of the makeup, turning what could be a static portrait into something more arresting.
The Skull Chair by Vladi Rapaport is both visually and technically superb. Drawing parallels to other classic moulded plywood chairs such as the Eames LCW, the Skull chair extends itself in terms of difficulty and craft. By achieving the literal appearance of a skull but with the functional requirements of a chair, Rapaport articulates this piece with great skill and precision.
The photographic works of artist Levi Van Veluw blur the boundary between subject and object “Levi van Veluw´s photo series are self-portraits, drawn and photographed by himself: a one-man-process. His works constitute elemental transfers; modifying the face as object; combining it with other stylistic elements to create a third visual object of great visual impact. The work you see therefore is not a portrait, but an information-rich image of colour, form, texture, and content. The image contains the history of a short creative process, with the artist shifting between the entities of subject and object.”
Phat Knits shows that remarkable things can happen when you manipulate the scale of an everyday object. Conceived by Bauke Knottnerus the pieces bridge the gap between Art and Furniture, suggesting infinite possibilities for the medium. Imagine going a little bit further and ”Knitting” a jumper for your living room perhaps…
Continuing on with the thought of making something remarkable from everyday objects we have White Billion Chairs by Tina Roeder. Rather than creating something new from an established craft technique like our previous post, Roeder manipulates a ubiquitous white outdoor chair. Through the process of drilling approximately 10,000 holes in each piece she manages to elevate the status of this simple object to that of a limited piece of art.
This playful piece is by one of my favorite designers, Jamie Hayon. Rocking Hotdog is part of an exhibition currently showing at Spring Projects in London and furthers the iconic design style that Hayon has become renowned for.
