Denver based artist, Jason Thielke, has an incredibly unique and precise illustrative style. His works reflect urban landscapes and their inhabitants by creating beautiful line illustrations that are transferred to surfaces such as plywood and combined with mixed medias to create truly unique pieces of art.
Seattle native, Blaine Fontana, has been
working as an artist and designer since 2003, and in that time has managed to bring himself to the forefront of the community. Fontana’s work often portrays imaginative characters that are derived from Blaine’s passion for nature and are layered on top of intricate patterns to give his work a warm depth that is hard to deny. Recently Fontana has expanded his portfolio to include his new design studio, LV8, where he brings his stylings to everything from print design to branding.
Since the 1980′s, Robert Longo has been a heavy hitter all over the world art scene. Early in his career he directed music videos and played guitar in an early New York punk band, but really emerged on the art scene when his gallery series Men in the Cities was released. Nowadays Longo is producing some incredible, larger than life, photorealistic charcoal work that is easily mistaken for high quality black and white photography.
Young New York based artist Audrey Kawasaki creates beautifully delicate figure paintings that seem to contain contradicting ideas within themselves. Her works combine a bold graphic style with soft subtle colors that are often complimented by the natural wood grain which she paints on. To add even another dimension to her work, she sometimes laser cuts the wood around the painting to create a bold and unique profile for display.
Los Angeles native Robert Standish is a very talented photo realistic painter whose pieces demand their viewers to take a close look to determine whether or not they are in fact photographs. His latest works play on blurred lights overlaid with an array of different subjects, often with a contradicting corporate logo on the canvas in attempt to prompt reflection and introspection by the viewer of what advertising is today.
The colorful landscapes created by Minnesota artist Gregory Euclide redefine what it means to work with mixed media. By combining acrylic, foam, plants, wood, plastics and various other materials, Gregory is able to create sculptural landscapes that are able to project great depth.
Herakut is a duo formed in 2004 comprised of street artists Hera and Akut, both from Germany. The two have extremely contrasting styles that converge to form truly unique pieces whether it be on canvases or walls all over the world. Akut’s high resolution, photo realistic work with a paint can is often placed on a base that is passionately thrown together by Hera, and as the piece comes together, the two styles mesh to create some very imaginative work.
California artist Jeff Sotois well known for creating bright bold characters that often incorporate elements such as robotic figures combined with organic textures and shapes. His work has undeniable influences from skateboarding and graffiti as well as iconographic imagery from childhood toys and figures. This style as well as the social undertones that are so accessible and stimulating in his work is what keeps his audience growing. In addition to his work on canvas, Soto has done some amazing thing on the streets.
Spanish artist Juan Francisco Casas produces incredibly detailed works based on photographs taken of he and his friends. The resulting pieces are bursting with life and are typically at a scale that is larger than life as his canvases can measure as large as ten feet in length. In addition to the initial shock value of both the subject matter and the artistic realism in which he portrays his subjects, Casas does so by using only ball point pens – often only a blue bic! Be sure to check out his website to get a true sense of the raw talent he possesses, but beware if you’re at work, as many of his pieces contain graphic content.
Oregon native Adam Haynes pulls from the deeply rooted influences of the natural surroundings he was raised in to create wildly detailed illustrations and paintings. From his illustrative career to his personal work with the brush, Haynes’ art is full of dimension and creativity.
French artist Dan23 creates explosively colorful works depicting human encounters with musical, cultural and artistic icons that appear to be splattered on his canvases with raw emotion. Aside from his traditional oil and acrylic pieces, Dan23 also puts his work up in the streets, does illustrative work for musicians and publications, and much more.
New York based artist and painting instructor Alyssa Monks has an incredible talent in which she creates photo realistic portraits in intimate settings. Not only does Monks work show a precise understanding of how to paint the human form, but she often portrays her subjects in a setting combined with water, accentuating her skills as a painter.
Italian sculptor Willy Verginer creates works out of solid wood that are incredibly life like. His pieces have a playfulness to them that brings a comic lightness to the heavy material in which he sculpts.
Washington native Josh Keyes creates drawings and paintings that portray animals with an empathy unlike any other contemporary artist. Keyes’ work depicts animals whose environments are being overrun by man-made objects, leaving them displaced in the modern world.
The works of artist Tristram Lansdowne portray a variety of decaying urban elements that have often been overtaken both by mother nature and years of graffiti writers. The Toronto based artist diplays forgotten elements that exist in all urban environments, and he emphasizes this with his use of subtle colors which he recreates with watercolor.
Artist Zach Johnsen combines his precision linework done with charcoal and ink with a loose slathering of water-based medias to create his explosive works that define his style. Zach’s career as an illustrator/designer often bisects his personal work.
Danish paper artist Peter Callesen creates incredibly detailed works that are sculpted from single sheets of A4 paper. His technique of showing a negative two dimensional space that is cut from the paper which then is used to form a contrasting three dimensional sculpture shows both an attention to detail and a delicate touch that are difficult to imagine coming from a human hand.
Korean born artist, Stella Im Hultberg, is a trained product designer turned artist now working out of Brooklyn, New York. Stella utilizes various medium to create beautiful portraits which portray deep and subtle emotions in her subjects.
As a long time player in the street art movement that stemmed out of New York City in the late 70′s/early 80′s, Dan Witz has spent the last three decades leaving his intricately detailed paintings both on walls and in galleries. Dan’s gallery works contain a very tangible theme that is undeniably New York, whether it be his eerily isolated night scenes or his claustrophobic mosh pits. Arguably more exciting than his gallery work is his street art, which spans from his first series of detailed hummingbirds spread throughout Manhattan in 1979 to his latest series which display his disgust for the “Ugly New Buildings” being built throughout the city.
Artist Kendra Binney creates scene’s that were influenced by her childhood spent in a small mountain town. Her dripping landscapes mixed with vulnerable characters and scenes of nature create works that are both gentle and cruel.
Canadian artist Ben Tour has been rapidly spreading across the art scene with his explosively emotional portraits through his use of mixed media and incorporation of typography into his pieces.
Brooklyn based artist Kevin Cyr paints dilapidated vans and commercial vehicles that have helped to define the American urban landscape that surrounds us. Whether covered in graffiti, rust or fading paint, his depiction of these subjects pays tribute that landscape.
Since California based artist, Roland Tamayo’s, work combines realism, sci-fi and fantasy all into one, it is easy to see how he ended up working in the video game industry as an Environment/Concept Artist. Both his acrylic pieces and his small colored pencil and ink pieces explode with imagination and allow your mind to think of subjects you’ve always known in a new light.
New York artist Justin Bua has become famous for his ability to depict urban culture in his paintings. Whether it’s hip hop, break dancing, sports or jazz and blues, Bua’s work pays homage to the cool, classic originators of them all with his distinct stylings.
Although Antwerp based artist, Steve Locatelli’s, most impressive work is undoubtedly displayed on the sides of buildings scattered across the globe, his canvas work remains energetic and expressive.
Artist and illustrator Richard Wilkinson has started creating process GIFs, which essentially follow his illustrative process through photoshop. Mesmerizing.
Portuguese street artist Vhils has created a name for himself by chiseling his works into decrepit walls. His work can be found all over the globe and recently have been seen paired up with the photographs of JR.
