Julien Berthier

French artist Julien Berthier’s public installation art rearranges and subverts reality by forcing paradoxes and illusions in our environment — a balcony attached to a crane that can be placed against any building, an apparently sinking boat that’s actually a sculpture that’s safely anchored, or a tree stump that looks like it’s chopping itself down with a limb that’s been turned into an ax.

But our favourite has to be his piece called 'Les Spécialistes'. One Saturday morning at 7am back in 2006 a blank wall in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris was give a face lift. A facade was created using local architectural codes and occupying only 10 cm of public space, is mounted and glued onto the blank wall taking less than 30 minutes. Almost four years later the Address still exists. Regularly graffittied, it is cleaned by the city services like any other entrance way in the city.

http://www.julienberthier.org/

ruedione

For years ruedione,  born in heidelberg, germany in 1975, was an active graffiti writer and the documentation of his own works led him to photography. He says that passion, obsession and even addiction connects him to the medium these days but now he exclusively uses the camera for his works. For almost a decade, he has been documenting the writers` scene and has thus remained a part of it as its visual chronicler. It makes the viewer feel what graffiti is about on the emotional side. The images show all the tension, the adrenalin and the kicks that graffiti writers experience.

He takes us on a visual expedition into a world that usually is restricted to the members of a very small scene. His photos show the active graffiti scene worldwide, wether  it be New York city, Sao Paulo or Hamburg.
"In 2002 i started a project ... later called BACKFLASHES. The intention was to visualize the "bombing feeling" that many writers worldwide experience every day...or better night.

To achieve this goal I was traveling worldwide to meet writers and join them on their nightly adventures.

Many years ago, this feeling/this thrill kept as well myself going out at night and when I look back, I can say that this movement was probably one of the strongest influences in my life.


"http://www.ruedione.com/

Bomboland

Bombo! (AKA Maurizio Santucci) was born in Barga, outside of Lucca, Italy, where he still lives and works. He attended ISIA design school in Florence, Italy from 2000 to 2004.

After two years working in advertising agencies, he became a freelance illustrator. He also writes and illustrates short comic books.

http://www.bomboland.com/

Gif Art

Back in the early days of the internet, animated GIFs were the bane of just about everyone. Their annoying, jarring graphics and often painfully bright colours were enough to drive anyone crazy.

Particularly irritating was when they were used as avatars in chat rooms or forums, and we’d have to watch their stupid dancing polar bear dancing or sneezing kitten a thousand times before finally just leaving the page in frustration.

Some people still use the unfortunately annoying animated GIFs, but there’s a whole new crop of artists who are using this long-maligned vehicle to express their creativity.

Ray Caesar

Ray Caesar creates fantastic, grimly hopeful and gravely whimsical images of wizened children who radiate an enigmatic serenity. Sprouting bio-mechanical limbs and appendages, the figures are otherworldly, a melding of sci fi fantasy, lush landscapes, and Victorian sensibilities.

Working for 17 years in the Art and Photography Department of The Hospital For Sick Children in Toronto, Ray documented things such as child abuse, surgical reconstruction, psychology and animal research. The artist explains, “I often awake in the middle of the night and realize I have been wondering the hallways and corridors of the giant hospital. It is clear to me that this is the birthplace of all my imagery.” These experiences continually haunt and present themselves in his dreamy images, which draw inspiration from the works of Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dali, and Paul Cadmus.

Ray's work is most astonishing in the fact it is all digitally created; most people assume they are looking at paintings due to the seamless blending and "painterly quality" of the work as well as its unique emotional impact. Creating models in a 3D modeling software called Maya, he then wraps them in painted and manipulated texture maps. Each model is set up with an invisible skeleton that allows him to pose each figure in its 3D enviroment. Digital lights and cameras are added with shadows and reflections simulating that of a mysterious and strange “real” world.

Ray Ceaser has new work due for exhibition at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery as part of the 'Art from the New World' show that runs from May 14th until August 22nd.

http://www.raycaesar.com/