"The quest to undercut fashion’s standards of perfection, and to find beauty in the disdained, overlooked or overripe, runs throughout Mr. Penn’s career. In an otherwise pristine still life of food, he included a house fly, and in a 1959 close-up, he placed a beetle in a model’s ear." So long, Irving Penn.
posted by flapjax at midnite on Oct 7, 2009 - 20 comments

Oak twig carved from dissolved recording of the heartbeat of an unborn child and the last heartbeats of a loved one, bone dust from every bone in the body, ring finger bones coated in bullet lead from various American wars, glass eyes for wounded soldiers coated with trinitite produced during the first atomic explosion, WWI cavalry boots made from a melted record of Skeeter Davis' "The End Of The World".

San Antonio-based artist (he prefers "marterialist poet") Dario Robleto crafts exquisite objects using a physical lexicon that includes bone dust, analog audio recordings, war objects and remnants of extinction. By recontextualizing these items he hopes to reverse "historical amnesia" and to reengage the past by "seeking out and sympathizing with another era's hopes and losses through its people's stories and materials." Highly influenced by music, he considers his work sampling. As he says: "you don't have to make up anything; the world is magical on its own."
posted by nathancaswell on Sep 25, 2009 - 32 comments

Suheir Hammad, a Palestinian-American poet and activist now based in New York, writes about being a Muslim immigrant and also a woman challenging conventions. Spotted by Russell Simmons for Def Poetry Jam, she has performed pieces about love in the time of war, exoticising beauty, and a touching ode to her father, among many others. Suheir has just produced and released her first feature film Salt of This Sea, up for the Cannes Films Festival and possibly an Oscar, and recently performed in Ramallah for the 2009 Palestinian Festival of Literature.
posted by divabat on Jul 7, 2009 - 5 comments

Artist Momoyo Torimitsu: sculptor, performer, illustrator, installation artist. Not interested in being cute. (Discovered via The Rumpus.)
posted by serazin on May 6, 2009 - 10 comments

Zhang Peng’s elaborate photographs have been called both "beautiful" and "disgusting". You can see some of them here and here.
posted by chiraena on Mar 22, 2009 - 39 comments

Wayne Martin Belger is an artist who creates pinhole cameras out of some unusual materials... like human skulls, for example.
posted by blaneyphoto on Jan 7, 2009 - 23 comments

CW Roelle makes drawings with wire. Watch him at work. A little more information. Do it yourself!
posted by moonmilk on Dec 8, 2008 - 2 comments

The artist without eyes
posted by konolia on Aug 30, 2008 - 12 comments

The king of comics - Jack Kirby
posted by vronsky on Aug 10, 2008 - 31 comments

There There Square: The desire to own and name land and the pleasures of seeing from a distance color this personal survey of the history of mapmaking in the New World. There There Square takes a close look at the gestures of travelers, mapmakers, and saboteurs that determine how we read - and live within - the lines that define the United States. Jacqueline Goss is a videomaker and new media artist whose work explores muted personal and historical narratives and negotiates the slides and snags one encounters while moving between written and spoken communication. She currently teaches in the Film and Electronic Arts Department at Bard College. Winner of the 2007 Alpert Award for Film/Video from the Herb Alpert Foundation
posted by Fizz on Aug 1, 2008 - 4 comments

"I've switched from building my own installations to painting ones I've found". NewArt Tv interviews artist Cindy Tower at one of her many makeshift studios in the industrial ruins of East St. Louis, where she's covertly creating paintings as part of her Workplace Series. "We need to find a way to sell more paintings so I can hire you full time", she tells her bodyguard, Edgar. Until then, most days she makes do with a dummy. [more inside]
posted by stagewhisper on Jun 19, 2008 - 9 comments

Overlooked or ignored for far too long by the medical establishment, twisty balloon dog anatomy and gummi bear anatomy are just two of the crucial areas that Moist Production's Jason Freeny is working to bring wider attention to. He's also to be commended for his tireless efforts in raising awareness of Disney character suicide and death by unexplainable circumstance. And there's free downloadable desktops, kids! [1 or 2 of the pages at Moist maybe NSFW] [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite on May 29, 2008 - 7 comments

British artist Lucian Freud's painting of a rather... portly slumbering nude just set an art world record. Someone laid down a nice, fat 33.6 million dollars for it: the most money ever paid for any work by a living artist. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite on May 14, 2008 - 45 comments

Robert Rauschenberg (previously), painter, sculptor, perfomance artist, printmaker, photographer, theater designer, technologist, dead at 82. [more inside]
posted by krautland on May 13, 2008 - 59 comments

Papa Palmérino Sorgente, the Pope of Montréal [more inside]
posted by XMLicious on Feb 28, 2008 - 8 comments

Human artist or ape artist? Six paintings, six chances to show your expertise or just guess correctly. (Previously) Hint inside. [more inside]
posted by maudlin on Feb 9, 2008 - 71 comments

Domesticated by photographer Amy Stein explores the tension between settled and wild spaces.

Stranded is another collection of work dealing with the expectations of public and private space.

More self-explanatory: Women and Guns and Halloween in Harlem. She also has a fine blog.
posted by klangklangston on Feb 6, 2008 - 31 comments

Darko Maver: In 1999, An artist is killed in his prison cell in Podgorica.

Early works. Writings. Culminating exhibit. His arrest. His death. [more inside]
posted by klangklangston on Jan 17, 2008 - 13 comments

Letman : Job Wouters is a Dutch designer known for his two-color flyers, which emphasize manic color and hand-lettering. His sketchbooks (White, Gray, and Black) are full of fun letter design.
posted by klangklangston on Jan 16, 2008 - 7 comments

James Jean shows how he creates the painted cover for Fables. His blog is full of gorgeous figure studies and sketches that show influences from Lucian Freud and pop/manga design. His eponymous site also includes a broad cross-section of his works: Dive, Tigerlily, and his great recess series.
posted by klangklangston on Jan 14, 2008 - 14 comments

Pomme Chan makes rococo nouveau illustrations, with a felt-tip/vector art feel. Roughly 60 images to explore through navigation on the left.
posted by klangklangston on Jan 8, 2008 - 23 comments

artjob.ru is a Russian site worth exploring with some pretty awesome, eclectic galleries (some nsfw). Naoto Hattori, 134 paintings of surrealistic Mona Lisas transformed and more l Child Soldiers Dream Simply of Being Children ads for Amnesty International/photographs by Michael Lewis l Christian Lohfink's playfully mischievous and dark humor photographs l Elliott Erwitt's superb black and white photographs, many iconic l [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Dec 23, 2007 - 17 comments

Wayne White's paintings [more inside]
posted by 1f2frfbf on Dec 20, 2007 - 19 comments

New York artist Rodney Allen Greenblat's new show starts tomorrow at BCB Art in Hudson, NY. His paintings and sculpture evokes Picasso and Calder while maintaining a whimsical charm.

But he's still best known for creating the floppy two dimensional characters and whimsical backgrounds of PaRappa the Rapper. Step on the gas, now turn to the left!
posted by rouftop on Nov 30, 2007 - 13 comments

Sandrine Pelletier. Coming from a background in illustrative line art, Pelletier also works extensively with thread. Many of her pieces explore a tension between traditionally feminine materials and aggressive, masculine subjects.
posted by klangklangston on Nov 19, 2007 - 8 comments

The Cardboard art of Chris Gilmour.
posted by Orb on Oct 24, 2007 - 12 comments

In the world of fantasy art, he is an icon. Some argue Arnold would never have become governor without him. Though his arrogance is second only to his skill, Frank Frazetta suffered for his art: for eight years an undiagnosed problem left him unable to create at all, while a series of strokes in his later years led to the artist having to learn to paint all over again, this time with his left hand. Since I was a girl, only this artist ever came close to inspiring me half so much as Frazetta did.
posted by misha on Aug 15, 2007 - 33 comments

When he's not writing for The Adventures of Chico and Guapo or MadTV, Colin Quashie is creating his own brand of political art (with some help from elementary school kids on that last one). He has even put together a free coloring book to help you sort out the civil rights movement. What does it all mean? He'll tell you.
posted by 1f2frfbf on Jul 3, 2007 - 2 comments

Rudy Autio, the Matisse of the ceramics world, has passed away at age 70. Born in 1926 to a Finnish family in ethnically diverse and bustling Butte, Montana, Rudy went on to study ceramics with Frances Senska at MSU. There he met future ceramics titan, Peter Voulkos, and became founding residents of the Archie Bray Foundation. Because of their revolutionary work, the 2 of them helped bring recognition to a field that had previously only been considered craft. Autio's giant torso-shaped vessels are often decorated with post-impressionistic horses and dancing women, but he also ventured into printmaking, tapestry design and murals. According to Ken Little, "If the ceramics world had a Mount Rushmore, it would be Peter Voulkos, Rudy, Paul Soldner and Don Reitz."
posted by ikahime on Jun 22, 2007 - 8 comments

"First of all, it's a map; second, it's a piece of art." Look closely at the corner of a North American ski resort trail map and you will probably see James Niehues' name tucked away in the trees. Examples of his work include Alta, Snow Basin, Winter Park, Killington and Vail.
posted by mmascolino on Apr 28, 2007 - 17 comments

Beijing artist Li Wei switched from oil painting to performance art in 1999; in 2000 he used mirrors to create a ... detached collection. Then he began falling into things.
posted by Terminal Verbosity on Jan 29, 2007 - 17 comments

Albert Reyes is an artist who saw a chicken in spilled water. He told the New York Times Magazine, "I could do that." The result? Spit art.
posted by landedjentry on Dec 17, 2006 - 21 comments

Pete Goldlust creates crayon art, but it's not quite what you might be thinking. He also does playful wall installations, odd prints and other whimsical yet monstrous things.
posted by jacquilynne on Dec 5, 2006 - 7 comments

Like the much mefi'd Peter Callesen, Laura Cooperman carves up plain white paper into extremely gorgeous intricate designs. Sadly, outside of her primary website not many examples of her work can be found online.
posted by jonson on Dec 4, 2006 - 6 comments

Interesting update on Maxon Crumb, fascinating guru brother of counterculture cartoonist Robert Crumb.
posted by crunchland on Oct 4, 2006 - 33 comments

Charles Krafft is a porcelain artist who creates detailed munitions made of fine china, painted servingware commemorating modern atrocities, and "Spone" art, bone china made using human bones as the base material.
posted by jonson on Oct 1, 2006 - 11 comments

Ink drawings by Ben Tolman: Huge, intricate, somewhat NSFW. There may be an issue with the side frame not scrolling in Firefox; if this is the case, click here, here, here, and here to see the galleries.
posted by Gator on Jul 8, 2006 - 16 comments

Andrey Kuznetsov makes delightful lubki (sing. lubok), a form of Russian folk art, out of some well-known modern movies. Some information (in English) about the medium and its origins with many examples can be seen here (warning: Java). Shamelessly ganked from AskMe. Thanks jonson!
posted by Gator on Jul 5, 2006 - 15 comments

Los Angeles artist Luke Chueh paints cute, anthropomorphic animals going through rough patches in life.
posted by jonson on May 20, 2006 - 26 comments

Laura Levine's works are themed around music, from her classic rock photos to her funky illustrations. Her children’s illustrated books about musical pioneers are delightful: Honky-Tonk Heroes & Hillbilly Angels is due out in May. Previously: Shake, Rattle & Roll and a collaboration with the B-52's, Wig! She also runs a curiosity shop in Phoenicia, NY. (via Internet Weekly)
posted by madamjujujive on Apr 11, 2006 - 2 comments

Illustrations by Reilly Stroope. (Flash interface.)
posted by Gator on Mar 26, 2006 - 11 comments

Not safe for work: Baby Art: the profoundly fucked-up artwork of one Trevor Brown, a fabulously unwell individual.
posted by Gator on Mar 2, 2006 - 54 comments

Nam June Paik passed away on Sunday. We'll read educated commentaries in the next few days, but what I most affectionately remember about him is how his work made me laugh happily during the 70s and 80s. A precursor of video art, he was the first to use plugged tv sets as building blocks in the most playful ways. His TV Buddha is arguably an unsurpassed classic (a motionless moving image, an outside observation of an inner meditation, even -why not?- a premonition of a blogger) (this last one is a joke: I told you Paik made me laugh). R.I.P.
posted by bru on Jan 30, 2006 - 34 comments

Two completely dissimilar yet nifty artists: The twisted ink drawings of Jon Kuta (big enough to make desktops; Flash interface), and the fabulously lifelike driftwood and bronze sculptures of Heather Jansch (she really likes horses. Warning: you'll have to side-scroll).
posted by Gator on Jan 15, 2006 - 11 comments

David Stone Martin (Coralized link) is not very well known, but you've most likely seen his work on featured on various jazz records. Be sure to view all three pages of some amazing album covers. (The original site is on Geocities, please be gentle)
posted by riffola on Dec 9, 2005 - 12 comments

Zdzislaw Beksinski (warning: music) produced some hauntingly beautiful, disturbing works of art: many, many paintings, as well as photographs, drawings, and digital creations. Sadly, he was killed earlier this year.
posted by Gator on Nov 13, 2005 - 11 comments

Bassist turned painter Mikey Welsh - of the post-grunge rock band Weezer - is a self taught painter who likes to spread the paint with abandon. He cites Robert Rauschenberg and Jackson Pollock as his inspirations and - while not in their league - one can see that influence. According to Outsider Art. info; "In front of [his] art, its hard to keep physically or mentally still."
posted by Rashomon on Feb 17, 2005 - 44 comments

It appears to be so simple, but as Fred Astaire once said "they'll never know how hard I work to let the strings show."
Kirsten Ulve started out as a Graphic Designer and later turned to Illustration. You've seen her work on things like Uno Cards, Nick at Night and TV Land. She is a master at caricatures and even has a freaky cool gallery to view as well.
posted by Hands of Manos on Nov 30, 2004 - 21 comments

What do Pixar artists do on their day off? Ronnie Delcarmen is a story artist, story supervisor, character designer and an illustrator who works for the Incredible Company. His sketchy art style and fluid lines renders a beauty of itself. He has a weblog that discusses his groovey comic book, Paper Biscuit as well as give updates to his life as an artist.
posted by Hands of Manos on Nov 27, 2004 - 12 comments

Ever find yourself at a museum and think "my son/daughter/niece/dog could do that"? Four year old painter Marla Olmstead really can. via
posted by Ufez Jones on Oct 15, 2004 - 22 comments