gone tomorrow

Architecture Week - The Fab Lab House

2010-08-23T22:23:00.001+01:00

It's Architecture Week here at 'gone tomorrow' and over the next few days we intend to showcase some of the best, the cleverest, the most fantastic and the just darn sexiest architecture in the world today!

First up - The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) designed the Fab Lab house as their entry into the 2010 Solar Decathlon Europe. The goal of all the houses in the competition is to disseminate among the general public the benefits of using renewable energies, especially solar energy, at home.

Chocolate with Whisky

2010-08-19T00:38:00.000+01:00

Here at gone tomorrow we loved these baby print ads by Dentsu advertising agency for CHOCOLATE WITH WHISKY - L’UNIVERS DE CHOCOLAT company in Brazil. Funny.

Attila Szamosi

2010-08-17T22:42:00.000+01:00

Attila Szamosi is a Berlin based German illustrator and member of Peachbeach.

Peachbeach is a design collective with an eye on illustrative design. Szamosi says "Peachbeach are three crazy nervous guys. Falk Hoger, Lars Wunderlich and me met in 2007 on a creative camp in the nice countryside of Brandenburg. We didn’t know each other very well, but painted a canvas together. It worked quite well and we realised that our minds fitted together, so we decided to do something together. That was the starting point of Peachbeach. Everybody is free to do what he wants, and sometimes we do stuff together. It depends on what we want to do."

Enue, Tatiana Suarez, Askew and Jaes mural collaboration.

2010-08-16T20:23:00.001+01:00

In June 2010, Jaes invited a handful of his friends to paint a school yard in New York. Amongst those were Enue and Askew, both of the Ironlak Team and also Miami born/Brooklyn based artist Tatiana Suarez who he met out at Primary Flight last year. This is video was shot by Askew.

Germs

2010-08-16T11:58:00.003+01:00

Germs’ latest mixed media print, Purgatory Mary, (see above top) is a fine art giclee foundation with 4 silkscreen colors laid on top including a high gloss coating and 3 hand painted separations.

He is a genuinely positive and gifted artist who seems to be channeling the great spirits of surrealist predecessors, while simultaneously slapping our eyeballs in the face with his infamous allusions to the LA/Chicano culture. He is known for his Luchador masks brought to life by their protruding tentacles and floating amoebas that playfully flirt with their viewers’ imaginations. Each painting is admirable and a true labor of love.

Germs was born and raised in South Central LA amidst the violence and chaos of gang culture that left an indelible mark on him creatively. In his own words "I am Jaime Zacarias, the youngest of three. My two siblings have moved out of our house and left my father and me to live together in Los Angeles. My mother passed away a few years back and it has been a challenge to live without her because she was my guidance and the number one fan of my artwork. I was born and raised in south central Los Angeles' gang infested neighborhoods. I have seen lots of violence and drug abuse along with ignorance and many individuals who drop out of school. Los Angeles has presented me with good and bad experiences that have shaped my life and views. I continue to live in Los Angeles, with a supportive friend and my father."

"My artwork is truly spontaneous and unplanned. I trust my instincts and when I want to create something, the image appears. Because most of my work is unplanned, it is difficult to say when it is finished, so I go by feelings and instinct to guide me to a finished product. Since elements of my work include spontaneity and randomness, my finished product may be simple or insanely complicated. It is as if I do not think about what I am doing until I do it. My thought process and hand-to-paper process flow simultaneously. I use narrative imagery, graffiti art and found surfaces. I work in an audience-friendly style that allows the viewer to experience the piece."

Roid and Horfe in London

2010-08-16T10:57:00.000+01:00

Roid & Horfe from Topsafe London on Vimeo.

Painted in June this year.

Eine

2010-08-09T23:46:00.000+01:00

'So it's been a weird day today," says a recent posting on Ben Eine's website. "David Cameron has given one of my paintings to President Obama." Weird indeed. You wake up one morning as a street artist known to few outside the aficionados of Britain's urban art scene, and go to bed as the man whose work the new prime minister, for his first official visit to Washington, chose to present to the president of the United States." (see TWENTYFIRSTCENTURYCITY above).

Eine (real name Ben Flynn) 39, is best known in and around Shoreditch in the East End of London, where he has worked for several years with his close friend, the elusive Banksy. "They're the best of mates, old friends," says Lindsay Alkin, manager of the Artrepublic gallery in Brighton, which also sells the artist's work. "Banksy would do one side of the street and Ben the other, and Ben did all Banksy's screenprints. He's one of the founders of the whole street-art movement. But this is really going to broaden his audience: we've had a great deal of interest this morning. And we've sold one of his originals."

Eine last came to the media's attention when he persuaded the shopkeepers of Middlesex Street in Spitalfields to allow him to paint the entire alphabet, in his trademark vibrant, cheerful colours, on their closed security shutters. Elsewhere in London, his letters spell out whole words – "Exciting" or "Scary" or "Vandalism" – on walls and buildings, or just stand on their own: a solitary "e" or "a" adorning a shopfront or telecomm box. There's a Googlemap of his London work, but similar typographical totems can also be seen in Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles and Paris, as well as Newcastle and Hastings, where he now lives.

"For me, it's mostly about having stuff on the street," Eine says. "You're walking down the street, you do it every day, and suddenly there's something that wasn't there yesterday: something bright and cheerful and different. It might stay there for a year; maybe it will disappear. But you know, I have a family, I have a mortgage, I have to make a living. So I do the screenprints too."

Cornbread - Legend

2010-07-20T19:19:00.000+01:00

The tale of Cornbread is the tale of a troubled middle
child from a God-fearing Brewerytown family who got the attention he
craved on the streets.

McCray accomplished it by spraying his tag – CORNBREAD, with a
swoosh at the end and a crown over the B – along every bus, trolley and
subway route in the city and, in one of his most daring feats, on the
flank of an elephant at the zoo

As a kid, Darryl McCray started writing "Cornbread loves Cynthia" all over his Philadelphia school to get the attention of a girl he liked.

Cornbread helped define the role of the modern day Graffiti writer; a major part of that role was fame. For Cornbread what began with a few tags, soon turned into a full time mission, getting up to so much that he gave himself the crown.

Cornbread's exploits were chronicled by the black press. At times journalists would mention an idea that would strike Cornbread. An idea, for example, that it would be amazing if somebody tagged the Jackson Five jet as it landed in Philly. As a result, Cornbread would do it, and the press would publish it. By the late 60's a sub-culture had started in Philadelphia, it had its own distinct style: long letters with platforms on the bottom.

Cornbread stopped writing in 1972.

Invasion of San Diego

2010-07-12T23:21:00.001+01:00

For the upcoming group show "Viva la Revolución : A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape" which will open on July 17th at MCASD in San Diego, French artist,Invader has just done an invasion of San Diego.

He has also produced The Space Invader Walk, a huge and virtual piece which will be presented in the museum as a movie. Watch the trailer above.

Thomas Hoeffgen and the Dutch bloggers

2010-07-10T20:03:00.003+01:00

Sorry to everyone that has missed us over the last few weeks but I'm afraid we caught World Cup Fever here at 'gone tomorrow'.

We'll be supporting Holland in tomorrows final as Dutch footie blog 'Football Culture' (Sokker Kultuur)featured our blog on Thomas Hoeffgen and his African Arenas photographs. As a result 'gone tomorrow' has become very popular in Holland with literally hundreds of Dutch visitors. Check out 'Football Culture' here and revisit our Thomas Hoeffgen blog here.

Anyway normal blogging will now resume.

Refait

2010-06-15T17:31:00.002+01:00

Refait from Pied La Biche on Vimeo.

“Refait” is a remake of the football WorldCup match between France and Germany (Seville, Spain, 1982). Shot by Pied La Biche in Villeurbanne (France), every aspect of the fifteen last minutes of the match was carefully reconstructed : players, positions, gestures, intensity, drama etc. It consists in shifting the traditional game area into the urban environment. Each sequence takes place in one or several locations and then the city temporarily becomes the lab for unsual experiments.

The soundtrack is made up of the original commentaries mixed with interviews of the audience recorded during the shooting.

Logan Hicks

2010-06-13T23:37:00.000+01:00

Logan Hicks is a New York-based stencil artist whose work explores the dynamics of the urban environment. Originally a screenprinter, Logan's work has gained notoriety due to his ability to capture the sometimes mundane cycle of city life in a haunting, yet refined way with his hand-sprayed stencils.

Stenciling started as a substitution for screenprinting, but quickly morphed into Logan's medium of choice. "A perfect union was conceived by spraypainting stencils - the subjects: the dirty and gritty nature of the spraypaint thoroughly depicted the decay of the city while the muted shine of metallic paint mirrored the faint glimmer of hope and life within it. It is this symbiotic relationship with the city that fuels the work."

Paul Alexander Thornton

2010-06-10T23:07:00.001+01:00

Paul Alexander Thornton is an artist and pattern designer based in London. Everything he does starts out as hand drawn work. He has a love affair with ballpoint pens and has an eclectic style that ranges from intricate photo-realistic pen drawings to psychadelic drawings that make your eyes hurt. Above he shows us how its done.

Tatton Park Biennial - Framing Identity

2010-06-07T10:23:00.001+01:00

Jimmy Durham

Annika Eriksson

Ryan Gander

Jem Finer

Helen Marten

Helen Maurer

Kate MccGwire

David Burrows & Simon O'Sullivan

From May to September 2010, Tatton Park stages its second Biennial of contemporary art, a laboratory for creative experiment and exchange, with new works commissioned for the Deer Park, Mansion and Formal Gardens.

Twenty-one artists are contributing to the life of the Biennial, with commissions considering ideas about what links people to place, notions of history and place-making and collective visions for the future.

Tatton Park is a listed site, owned by the National Trust and managed by Cheshire East Council.

Thomas Hoeffgen

2010-06-05T11:07:00.003+01:00

The above said it all really. Thomas Hoeffgen is a Brooklyn based German photographer whose clients include Maybelline, Escada, Laurel, Adidas, Microsoft, BMW, Swatch, Audi, Red Bull and Camel.

http://www.thomashoeffgen.com/?do=full

Todd Lamb - Notes from Chris

2010-06-03T00:24:00.000+01:00

Todd Lamb is a New York City-based writer and director. In 2008, he began sticking humorous signs around NYC, signed only by a man named Chris. This “Notes From Chris” project gained media attention and became popular both online and around the city. Imitators of the signs began to spring up overseas, as far off as Australia.

Tom Hull

2010-06-02T11:26:00.001+01:00

These images are from a series by London born photographer Tom Hull called 'Sprung'. With this study of emerging nature in the urban environment Hull became a merit winner in the Projects category in the AOP Assistants Awards.

http://tomhull.co.uk/welcome-tomhullcouk

Graham Miller - Suburban Splendour

2010-05-31T19:23:00.001+01:00

Graham Miller, born in Hong Kong 1966, is a photographic artist and co-founder of FotoFreo a biennial international festival of photography based in Fremantle, Western Australia. His work has been exhibited internationally and throughout Australia.

Miller says " 'Suburban Splendour' materialised from encounters observed while driving through the United States, from the direct observation of daily life, from eavesdropping and casual conversation, but more often than not the photographs were inspired by literature and cinema. Films by Paul Thomas Anderson and Ray Lawrence contributed, as did writing by Richard Ford and the painting of Edward Hopper. But the background soundtrack that remained constant was the voice of the American short story writer Raymond Carver. Carver's vision depicts ordinary blue collar people living lives of quiet desperation, people who are feeling their way in the dark with the hope that maybe next week things will get better."

"Like Carver’s stories and Hopper’s paintings, these images depict everyday struggle and ordinary tragedy. They touch upon areas of experience simmering just below the surface, and explore the notion that the lives of others, no matter how close we are to them, will always remain fundamentally unknowable to us. That, in essence, we all exist as unitary individuals. These characters are troubled, but not irretrievably lost; they carry a dignified endurance and a sense of bruised optimism. These people are survivors. They have a desire, as we all do, to be transported from darkness into light."

Jérome Lagarrigue

2010-05-29T22:53:00.001+01:00

Jérome Lagarrigue was born on August 18, 1973, in Paris, France. Son of a French father and African-American mother, he is known for his paintings and illustrations. The main topics of his work include portraits, urban landscapes and fight sports.

It was while visiting his grandmother in Harlem every summer that Paris-born Jérome Lagarrigue increasingly became interested in depicting New York City urban atmospheres. The people, the architecture, the sounds that one can only witness in New York have become his areas of exploration. Lagarrigue has always decided to explore themes and subject matters close to him.

Lagarrigue is the recipient of many awards and honors, including the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award for Best New Talent, the Marion Vanett Ridgway Award for Best Illustrator, and the Villa Medicis grant and residency in Rome.

Gez Fry

2010-05-28T17:20:00.000+01:00

Gez Fry is an illustrator based in Tokyo, Japan. He has developed a distinctive manga style, utilizing computer-generated and hand-drawn techniques, and influenced by both traditional Japanese woodblock prints and contemporary anime imagery. His unique combination of eastern and western techniques reflects his dual British and Japanese nationality.

His clients include Industrial Light and Magic, New Riders, Plastic Animal Studios, AP Comics, Future Publishing and Carbon Industries.

Stinkfish

2010-05-19T10:05:00.000+01:00

Stinkfish is a street artist based in Bogota, Colombia. He has collaborated in several collectives and currently he's working with Bastardilla with a collective called Hogar. These pictures come from Bogota and recent work in Oaxaca southern Mexico.

Scraper Bikes

2010-05-17T09:48:00.002+01:00

Scraper Bikes are a phenomenon that came out of East Oakland California on the back of the Scraper craze amongst young men in the area. Scrapers are 80's and 90's luxury cars that are tricked out with candy paint jobs and flash rims so that often the value of the accessories are more than that of the vehicle.

"Let's set the record str8 once again. A scraper is an old or new school, primarily Buick or Oldsmobile. That is a scraper by itself. Now since riding scrapers like they are a luxury cay originated in The Town, Oakland, CA USA, we stunt our scrapers with 22's dvd's candy paint, etc. And for the record, we don't ride whistle tips no more...so stop saying that ancient stuff. We ride suction tips that make a totally different sound. Str8 up!"

"Straight Outta East Oakland where it all started.......
A scraper is any G.M. car from tha 80's and 90's century,park ave,regal,le saber jus to name a few..Yo shit aint a Scraper till u put that G-thang on some 4's(24 inch rims if u lame)wit hella clap in yo trunk and like 4 coats of paint that make that thang look like a sucked on Jolly Rancher... "

The Scraper Bike thing is based on the same principals of customising your ride and has become a way for the youth of East Oakland to feel like they belong to something, show off and just have fun whilst keeping out of gangs and staying out of trouble.

Danny Lyon - DOCUMERICA

2010-05-16T00:07:00.001+01:00

Danny Lyon, born March 16, 1942 is a self-taught American photographer and filmmaker. He is also credited as an accomplished writer to accompany his photographs. He studied history at the University of Chicago, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1963.

Lyon’s early documentary career was established and defined by his gritty photographer-as-participant approach. His first book, The Movement (1964), evolved from his experiences as a staff photographer for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee during the Civil Rights Movement. In the Bikeriders series(1968) Lyon rode and lived with the bikers he photographed. Lyon’s work belies the standard detachment of documentary humanism and objectivism in favor of a more complicated subjective involvement.

Danny Lyon’s photojournalistic style is marked by its staunch pursuit of the unembellished moment. “You put a camera in my hand, I want to get close to people,” he said. “Not just physically close, emotionally close, all of it. It’s part of the process."

DOCUMERICA was a program sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency to photographically document subjects of environmental concern in America from about 1972 to 1977. Lyon photographed America's inner city, it's ghettos and it's slums showing the lives and humanity of the young people who resided there.

After years of continued critical success, books and exhibitions Lyon now takes things easier. Although he's still working, he fishes quite a bit these days, in the Chama Valley in New Mexico and in Maine, where he has a cabin.

Favela Painting - Special Feature

2010-05-14T16:50:00.001+01:00

I have really loved these totally inspiring images from Rio's Santa Marta favela so much that I wanted to share them with you in this Special Feature. Rather than do the usual 6 - 10 picture feature I wanted to share as many of these pictures as possible - so 'scuse the indulgence and I hope you enjoy - these are the dogs nads....

before (above)

Over the last month, Praça Cantão, the square at the entrance of the community of Santa Marta has been the scene of a spectacular art intervention and was turned into a vibrant artwork of monumental scale. 34 houses on the giant hillside favela, located in the center of Rio de Janeiro, have been painted in a design of colorful rays, radiating into the city. This 7000 square meter artwork is part of the 'Favela Painting' project by Haas&Hahn (Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn), a project that aims to transform communities into landmarks and inspirational monuments as a part of Rio’s image, next to the statue of Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf mountain.
“This work of art can make a colorful difference in the lives of local individuals, the community and the city of Rio. It has the potential of working as a catalyst in the processes of social renewal and change” said Dre Urhahn, one of the Favela Painting artists. Realization of the artwork is largely driven by the inhabitants of Santa Marta. 25 local youth have been trained as painters, providing for their own income and being responsible for turning their own neighborhood into a colorful monument. This grassroots method of working has proven to be successful in earlier projects, and gives the local community empowerment, pride and color. The local team is complemented by three painters from another favela, Vila Cruzeiro, where two of the previous projects by Haas & Hahn took place.

The project was paused during the catastrophic rains, that hit Rio de Janeiro so hard, killed hundreds and left thousands homeless. The team of painters was sent to the affected areas to help clear the rubble. The vulnerability of these communities and the situation the inhabitants sometimes live in, make it clear that they need all attention they can get. They see the art project not only as a way to beatify, but mostly to attract attention to them and their neighbourhood in a positive way.

The project has thus far been financed through grants and donations, but a co-operation with the dutch paint company AkzoNobel might open new doors. A meeting with their inspiring Managing Director Tex Gunning, showed they had a shared vision. “They wanted to give color to the community”, Dre recalls, “and we wanted to give art to the community. I see no reason why we cannot recreate this idea across 300 houses, 3000 houses, whether its in Rio, Johannesburg, Mumbai or anywhere in the world.” But first plans are to return to Rio to realize the dream that started the whole project and of which Praça Cantão can be seen as a start: painting an entire favela!

Berlin Fence

2010-05-13T11:35:00.001+01:00

I liked these pictures so much I pinched them from here. I don't know anything about it (apart from it's somewhere in Berlin) - I just think it's pretty cool.

SABER - Pepper's World

2010-05-12T11:24:00.000+01:00

Los Angeles based graffiti legend SABER has made a film about a homeless street artist called Pepper. The two then went on to collaborate on a print(above)called 'Pepper's World'.

SABER was already a fixture in the Los Angeles graffiti scene, but in 1997 when he completed the largest graffiti piece ever created he was catapulted to global legend. His piece (see top image above) on the sloping cement bank of the Los Angeles River is nearly the size of a professional football field, and can be read clear as day from a satellite photo. It took 97 gallons of paint and 35 nights to complete.

SABER had this to say about his work with Pepper. “Pepper is a true street artist in the purist sense. Hes known to some by his altar ego; the Mayor of Skid Row, and hes proud to proclaim that hes the last homeless person on the forefront of downtown LAs gentrification. He lives on Santa Fe Ave. where years ago a large tent city used to be, the last holdout.

When I was younger and creeping around downtown, I would notice these colorful, bold, and scrappy art instillations. Pepper has a habit of decorating his immediate surroundings, wherever that might be, with multi-colored paint splats, piled on discarded toys, and other purposefully arranged found objects. You can frequently catch him running around the city with his red shopping cart full of freshly discarded trinkets.

The print Peppers World, and the mural I painted on 7th and Mateo that it inspired, is in homage to his existence. I have enormous respect for those who can survive in such extreme conditions yet still be able to express themselves creatively.”

Frank Frazetta R.I.P

2010-05-11T15:19:00.000+01:00

Frank Frazetta the iconic fantasy artist has died, the following is from a tribute written in the New York Times by Bruce Weber.

"Frank Frazetta, an illustrator of comic books, movie posters and paperback book covers whose visions of musclebound men fighting with swords and axes to defend scantily dressed women helped define fantasy heroes like Conan, Tarzan and John Carter of Mars, died on Monday in Fort Myers, Florida. He was 82.

The cause was complications from a stroke, said Rob Pistella and Stephen Ferzoco, Mr. Frazetta’s business managers.

Mr. Frazetta was a versatile and prolific comic book artist who, in the 1940s and ’50s, drew for comic strips like Al Capp’s “Lil’ Abner” and comic books like “Famous Funnies,” for which he contributed a series of covers depicting the futuristic adventurer Buck Rogers.

His most prominent work, however, was on the cover of book jackets, where his signature images were of strikingly fierce, hard-bodied heroes and bosomy damsels in distress. In 1966, his cover of “Conan the Adventurer,” a collection of four fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp, (top image above) depicted a brawny long-haired warrior standing in repose on top of a pile of skeletons, his sword thrust downward into the mound, an apparently naked young woman lying at his feet, hugging his ankle.

The cover created a new look for fantasy adventure novels and established Mr. Frazetta as an artist who could sell books. He illustrated many more Conan books (including “Conan the Conqueror,” “Conan the Usurper” and “Conan the Avenger”) and works by Edgar Rice Burroughs (including “John Carter and the Savage Apes of Mars” and “Tarzan and the Antmen”).

"Paperback publishers have been known to buy one of his paintings for use as a cover, then commission a writer to turn out a novel to go with it,” The New York Times reported in 1977, the same year that a collection of his drawings, “The Fantastic Art of Frank Frazetta,” sold more than 300,000 copies."

Mike Laughead

2010-05-09T22:57:00.000+01:00

Mike Laughead is an Illustrator and Comic Book maker from Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Currently, he illustrates for teen and children's magazines, young adult novels and children's picture books and also designs tee shirts and posters and writes and draws comics.

He says his hobbies are "Reading, movie watching and cleaning up after my 2 daughters."

http://www.mikelaughead.com/

Nuno Oliveira - Pool Party

2010-05-04T17:46:00.001+01:00

Whilst the folks here at 'gone tomorrow' don't know an awful lot about BMX riding we know a nice set of pictures when we see them.

These pictures were taken by Nuno Oliveira this last weekend at the Pink Motel in Sun Valley California.This was the scene of Dean Dickenson's latest pool party.

Dean Dickinson is pretty much known in the BMX world as the pool rider. He’s had photos and videos riding pools in magazines and on the Internet. He’s also made a documentary film on pool riding, and recently he rode his 100th pool.

Of this weekends event photographer Oliveira said " The setup was pretty wild as the Pink Motel is a functioning Motel with a throwback vibe, that also has an un-operational Diner on the property. The Diner is mainly used for movie/commercial and photo shoots, but serves no actual food. The owner actually opened it up and let me in too. There’s a junkyard on the property and the abandoned pool is in the back lot. It’s a wild scene, but pretty interesting."

Nice pictures.

Loutsider

2010-05-03T17:04:00.029+01:00

Loutsider is a French graffiti artist who's work has a real graphic design element .

Here are pictures from various series he has produced including 'Military' and 'Flags'.

His website features graphic work he likes with a 'Design of the Day' page and also pictures from his holidays....

http://www.loutsider.com/

Lise Sarfati

2010-05-01T13:08:00.001+01:00

"When we are 15, we all feel as if we are beginning to become somebody else." Lise Sarfati.

Lise Sarfati is a French photographer with a huge international reputation. Though undeniably photodocumentary in nature, Sarfati’s work is defined by an opposition to the editorial urge to fix narratives to her subjects.

"Her images create a loose, layered and intensely rich visual project that allows us, the viewers, to consider the complexities of any place or time, triggering emotions and thoughts that move well beyond the ostensible subjects of her photographs." - Clare Grafik, Photographers Gallery, London.

The American Series,in which she records young people in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Oregon and California, on the cusp of adult responsibility, represents one of those rare experiences for photographers that is impossible to simulate or confidently repeat, where the photographs almost –just – happened.

http://www.lisesarfati.com/index.shtml

Julien Berthier

2010-04-30T00:04:00.002+01:00

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

2010-04-29T23:05:00.001+01:00

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

2010-04-28T18:28:00.001+01:00

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

2010-04-28T16:56:00.001+01:00

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

2010-04-27T23:33:00.000+01:00

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/

Dmitry Maximov

2010-04-26T11:30:00.000+01:00

Some really interesting artwork by Russian artist Dmitry Maximov. Most of his stuff is a mix of photography and illustration, which he blends together seamlessly.

This specific set is called 'Invaded by Little Aliens'. Maximov likes “to create micro worlds, centered of solitude, where strange creatures seem to explore the world”.

Dmitry's work includes many more photos containing these strange beings as well as some simple photography and other artistic styles of illustration.
http://tebe-interesno.livejournal.com/

Harry Beck and Subway maps

2010-04-24T16:00:00.000+01:00

Beijing Metro

Washington DC Metro

Dehli Metro

Moscow Metro

Paris Metro

Chicago Metro

Milan Metro

Harry Beck's 1933 London Underground Map

Emptying my jacket pocket the other day I found a London Tube map and this set me thinking.

Firstly it made me think what a fantastic piece of design it is, one of the ultimate examples of form following function and secondly it made me think of how it has set the frorm for metro maps worldwide.

The London Tube map that is recognized across the world was the brainchild of Underground electrical draftsman, Harry Beck, who produced this imaginative and amazingly simple design back in 1933.

Beck based the map on the circuit diagrams he drew for his day job, stripping the huge Tube network down to basic forms.

The result was an instantly clear and comprehensible chart that would become an essential guide to London – and a template for transport maps all over the world.

Beck’s revolutionary design, with certain modifications and additions, survives to the present day and is set to serve London Underground and its millions of customers for many years to come as well as being one of the iconic pieces of graphic design of the 20th century.

Philipp Lohöfener

2010-04-23T15:06:00.000+01:00

Philipp Lohöfener has just won the Professional Architecture Award at the Sony World Photography Awards 2010 with his pictures of former investigation-prison of the GDR State Security (Stasi), Hohenschönhausen/Berlin Secretariat, prison-hospital.

Lohöfener says, “Hohenschönhausen is the former prison used to house detainees of the East German State Security, better known as the ‘Stasi’. From 1951 until 1989, the Stasi detained thousands of political prisoners at Hohenschönhausen prison, including many notable figures that opposed the GDR government and its policies. During this time the prison was never noted on East German maps. The area was simply left blank.
The goal of Hohenschönhausen prison staff was to destabilize prisoners in order to generate a feeling of total powerlessness. Prisoners were never informed as to where they were being held and were essentially sealed off from the outside world. To incapacitate them further, they were also kept in strict isolation from their fellow prisoners. The effect of such conditions was to break down the prisoners so that they felt totally at the mercy of an almighty state authority.
Interrogations were particularly cruel at the prison. Detainees were often subjected to months of interrogation in which highly trained interrogators employed extreme methods to extract incriminating information. This often included torture.
In the autumn of 1989 the Berlin Wall came down and with it came the dismantling of the Stasi and its prisons. On 3 October, 1990, when the German Democratic Republic was incorporated into the Federal Republic of Germany, the Hohenschönhausen prison was finally closed.”

Above are images from the award winning work as well as other work including abandoned hospital buildings in Beelitz and the empty Broadcasting House, Nalepastraße in Berlin.

Up There

2010-04-22T00:21:00.004+01:00

UP THERE from Jon on Vimeo.

Please watch this film it's only 12 minutes long. It's a short documentary called "Up There". It documents the dying business of hand painted building ads. Vinyl ads have made their business nearly obsolete with the exception of major markets like New York and LA.

The cinematography and score are wonderful.

Gone are the days of such craftsmanship.

Julius Shulman

2010-04-21T23:29:00.005+01:00

Julius Shulman (October 10, 1910 – July 15, 2009) was an American architectural photographer best known for his photograph "Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960. Pierre Koenig, Architect."(Top picture above). The house is also known as The Stahl House.

Shulman's photography spread California modernism around the world. The clarity of his work demanded that architectural photography had to be considered as an independent art form.

Each Shulman image unites perception and understanding for the buildings and their place in the landscape. The precise compositions reveal not just the architectural ideas behind a building's surface, but also the visions and hopes of an entire age. A sense of humanity is always present in his work, even when the human figure is absent from the actual photographs.

Through his many books, exhibits and personal appearances his work ushered in a new appreciation for the movement beginning in the 1990s. His vast library of images currently reside at the Getty Center in Los Angeles.

Matt Pattinson

2010-04-20T22:33:00.002+01:00

Edinburgh based Designer/Illustrator Matt Pattinson produces top Mecha illustration as well as a very nicely composed mix of Illustration and found Collage design with a definite feel of 70’s Sci-fi.

He also earns a living from editorial commissions and design solutions, ad campaigns, character design and animation. He is responsible for designing toys for Dotsan (see above).
http://culprittech.blogspot.com/

Volcanoes

2010-04-19T10:27:00.002+01:00

With all the fun taking place across Europe, with hundreds of thousands of people enjoying(?) extended holidays because of an Icelandic volcano, I thought it would be cool to feature some great volcano photographs.

These pictures have been taken around the world and show beautiful but scary volcanoes doing what they do best.

Nick Deakin

2010-04-18T23:54:00.001+01:00

Nick Deakin is an illustrator and artist working in Sheffield, England.

Nick produces illustration for Editorial, Advertising, Animation, Branding, Identity, Typography, and Apparel. His work has been used by clients internationally for a range of commercial work, and he has exhibited worldwide.

Clients include Coca-Cola, Shell, The Guardian, Orange, New York Times, Ricard and Nike. http://www.nickdeakin.com/index.php

Paint Club

2010-04-17T00:09:00.002+01:00

The conscious and determined competition with an opponent has urged people for ages. Who ever has fought or acquired a victory turns into hero, idol, audience favourite, pioneer or captain. This urge to win and to go down in history as a glorious victor has always spawned creative and surprising peak-performances. So many times the winners of tomorrow are the most auspicious talents of today. Exactly this is the stuff dreams are made of.

Even amongst illustrators, designers, comic artists and street artists, there are a plethora of undiscovered or even discovered talents, only waiting to prove and to compete their skills, their creativity and their virtuosity. Unfortunately there is no appropriate platform for the creative contest of the global urban art movement. The time has come for the PAINT CLUB.

128 artists forming 64 teams are going to join this year in eight European countries the creative, interactive competition having the aim to win the national champion title. The winner teams from each country compete then against each other in order to define the international champion. Coloured paint markers and white canvases are the general basics of every tournament. The decision over victory or defeat will be made by the audience together with the judges.

The fascination of the PAINT CLUB arises through the interaction with the audience, the battle between the different teams and through the cooperation and the strategy within the singular teams.

Manjari Sharma

2010-04-15T23:59:00.024+01:00

Following the success of her 'Shower' series, (where she asked people back to her apartment and then photgraphed them taking a shower) Manjari Sharma has recently presented a great set of street portraits shot in her native India.

Previously working with India’s premier publications The Times Of India and Better Photography, image making is what brought Manjari Sharma to the United States in 2001.

In 2004 she graduated from Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus Ohio, her first home in the US. In Columbus Manjari assisted many respected commercial shooters building her own portfolio along the way .

Manjari then moved to India to travel through her homeland for 6 months. Here she covered an extensive part of her country and "reconnected with her roots", before moving to New York City in late 2007.

Manjari currently freelances in New York City, her recent achievements include eight honorable mentions in the IPA Lucie Awards, she has worked for well known clients such as AOL, American baby, and Penguin Books.
http://www.manjarisharma.com/

I Love Dust

2010-04-14T11:32:00.001+01:00

Nike chase from ilovedust on Vimeo.

I Love Dust are a creative agency, with offices in London and Southsea, that specialise in illustration, animation and design. We saw the Nike Chase video online and decided to investigate further and found that the same company was responsible for lots of other things that had caught our eye recently.

They ply their trade in 2 contrasting studio spaces; one located in the heart of East London, the other on the tip of the south coast. Just a short stroll from the ocean and surrounded by the rolling Hampshire countryside, the south coast team enjoy a distinct vantage point working in a former butcher’s workshop. Conversely rooted in the heart of creative hub Shoreditch, the London studio thrive on the buzz and energy of the city in a converted tool-maker’s foundry.

So what can we say apart from we love I Love Dust.
http://www.ilovedust.com/ild

Philip-Lorca diCorcia - Hustlers

2010-04-13T23:30:00.002+01:00

‘Brent Booth, 21 years old, Des Moines, Iowa $30'

'Ike Cole, 38 years old, Los Angeles, CA, $25’

'Mike Miller, 24 years, Allentown, PA, $25'

'William Charles Everlove; 26 years old; Stockholm, Sweden, via Arizona; $40,'

“Ralph Smith; 21 years old; Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; $25.”

'It might be said that twilight is a muddled form of clarity. The warm glow that suffuses the ' golden hour' in Los Angeles acts to filter the grim realities, the outright lies, the self-deceptions, which allow Hollywood, and by extension, America to flourish. 'Twilight' provides the rose-coloured glasses that make it possible to see out but not see in.'
Philip-Lorca diCorcia

Philip-Lorca diCorcia (born 1951) is an American photographer. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Afterwards diCorcia attended Yale University where he received a Master of Fine Arts in Photography in 1979. He now lives and works in New York, and teaches at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

"Hustlers," his best-known series, contains shots of young men strutting their stuff along Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood. Made from 1990 to 1992 and funded with a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship (which led to a governmental complaint), diCorcia's breakout series features men posing for their portraits in motel rooms, parking lots and laundromats, outside fast-food restaurants, gas stations and boarded-up buildings, and simply sitting at bus stops or on street corners, usually at dusk.

The guys are fantastic for their individuality. Although many are clearly pretending to be someone they've seen in the movies, most can't be bothered with such silly fantasies and stand, matter-of-factly, for the camera. Not one elicits pity. Or begs for sympathy. Or for anything at all. A here-I-stand, this-is-it groundedness suffuses the strongest. It's an attractive quality.

diCorcia has labeled each portrait with the man's name and age, the city he came to L.A. from and the amount of money he would charge for his time an therefore was paid for the picture (from $20 to $50). The bare-bones info speaks volumes, but it's no match for the riveting intensity and haunting complexity of the pictures.

Patrick Jean - Pixels

2010-04-12T23:31:00.002+01:00

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
Uploaded by onemoreprod. - Discover more animation and arts videos.

New York invaded by 8-bit creatures! Retro Gamer's delight.

PIXELS is Patrick Jean' latest short film, shot on location in New York.

Roswell Angier

2010-04-11T17:08:00.000+01:00

Roswell Angier was born in 1940 and has taught photography for over 35 years; he currently heads the photography course at Tufts University.

‘A Kind of Life’ is a photo essay of strippers and strip clubs documented over a period of two and a half years in the early 1970’s in Boston’s Combat Zone.

Andrew Rae

2010-04-10T19:04:00.003+01:00

Andrew Rae is an illustrator and member of the Illustration collective Peepshow. He has worked for many worldwide clients in advertising, print, publishing and animation. London based Rae has worked as Art Director on the BBC 3 show Monkey Dust, directing the on-air identity for MTV Asia and illustrating the identity for The V Festival. His short film the Stunt was screened on Channel 4 in 2007 and his postcard book and flyers book are available through Concrete Hermit.

Further clients include: Cancer Research, DC Shoes, E4, Esquire, Faber & Faber, The Culture Show, Sony Playstation, The Guardian, The Mighty Boosh, Mojo Magazine, MTV, The New York Times, NHS, Orange, Penguin, Perrier, Puma, Talkback Thames (Monkey Dust), Random House and The V Festival. He has exhibited not only in the UK but also in Tokyo and New York amongst others.

Prints of Andrew Rae’s great personal work (including 'the Ghost in the Machine' above) are available from his blog.
http://listen-with-your-eyes.blogspot.com/
The Copyright for all the work above belongs to Andrew Rae.

Usugrow

2010-04-09T00:49:00.002+01:00

Usugrow started drawing in 1993 by creating punk rock flyers. Now, as well as still being hugely successful as a commercial designer for album covers, fashion brands & skate companies, the Japanese-born artist has been exhibiting his fine art in galleries all over the world and his black and white illustrations have become instantly recognizable. Heavily influenced by Los Angeles ‘Cholo’ style graffiti fused with the spiritual skills of Asian calligraphy.

In his work he very often beautifully portrays opposing elements such as delicate lines and unique lettering style, skulls and flowers, yin and yang and of course his palette of black ink on white paper. He believes that this is everyday life and living proof that these opposing elements can exist together.

http://www.usugrow.com/

Malcolm McLaren R.I.P.

2010-04-08T21:41:00.003+01:00

Malcolm McLaren, the former manager of the Sex Pistols and impresario, has died. He was 64.

The always controversial McLaren is most famous as the manager of the Sex Pistols. However the importance of his role in the band’s success is often debated – and usually entirely dismissed by the band’s leadsinger John Lydon.

What can't be denied is McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's influence on the look of the Pistols and therefore the whole of the British Punk scene. From a graphic design point of view the work with Jamie Reid (seen above) created some of the most iconic images of the 20th century.

McLaren also managed The New York Dolls, Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow, and released several solo hip-hop and electronic albums including the influential Duck Rock, featuring the singles Buffalo Gals and Double Dutch.

Joe Corre, his son, made the announcement of McLaren’s death telling the The Associated Press that “he was the original punk rocker and revolutionized the world. He’s somebody I’m incredibly proud of. He’s a real beacon of a man for people to look up to.”

Drew Millward

2010-04-06T11:51:00.002+01:00

I like the work of Drew Millward. I liked it even more when I found out Drew is an old school pencil wielding illustrator. None of your modern vector stuff for Drew - just good old pencil, pen and ink.

Drew was born in Coventry but now lives in Leeds. He produces illustration for the music industry as well as poster and t-shirt designs – with recent commissions by Flight of The Conchords, Gallows, Sonic Youth and Mogwai. These have allowed Drew to reach new audiences and attract a wave of new fans to his online galleries which is vital because so far his success has been mainly viral. No agents or P.R. companies here yet Drew’s prints sell out in minutes online. He has exhibited throughout the US, UK, Europe and beyond.
http://www.drewmillward.com/

Matt Logue - Empty L.A.

2010-04-05T12:14:00.000+01:00

Matt Logue is a Los Angeles based artist, photographer, his latest work ‘Empty L.A.’ is an eerily beautiful vision of a world without people.

“The inspiration for the series came, perhaps predictably, while on the freeway, driving to work. The thoughts that kept coming back was, “How did we get here? Why did we do it like this?” From there, I imagined an empty city, the sounds you would hear in the skyscraper canyons, the animals returning to make their homes in the shelters we’d built. After that, I simply had to see it, I couldn’t not do it, so after working out a technique to do it through trial and error, spend most of my free time for the past four years working on the images.” Says Logue interviewed by ‘the art life’.

Logue’s images are digital composites. “They’re mosaics of anywhere from thirty to well over one hundred images, all taken as close as possible to each other in time, and hand-blended in such a way as to remove the cars and people.” Knowing this it’s easy to understand that Logue has previously worked for over three years in New Zealand working on effects for the ‘Lord of the Rings’ films.

http://artlife.blogspot.com/2010/03/there-is-no-there-there.html

Craig 'KR' Costello - Krink

2010-04-04T11:38:00.000+01:00

After yesterdays Krink Ad I decided to go the whole hog and indulge myself by sharing lots of lovely Krink/ Craig Costello/ KR. It is Easter after all.

Krink is it.

2010-04-03T00:41:00.001+01:00

I know its an ad but I like it.

Bué the Warrior

2010-04-01T00:03:00.000+01:00

When it comes to graffiti, Belgium street artist, Bué the Warrior, is in a league of his own. He is singlehandedly turning the concrete jungles of Belgium into a colourful, happy, whimsical world that is inhabited by a whole race of friendly-faced creatures. But his magic doesn’t stop outside of Belgium. His work can also be spotted as far afield as Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, France, New York City and Los Angeles. His walls and art makes people stand still, think and smile. Bué also produces designs for clothes for Toykyo Kids, designer toys and Trainers for Nike amongst some of his other projects.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/buethewarrior/

Kelli Knack

2010-03-31T23:14:00.001+01:00

In her series of pictures "My Escape" Los Angeles photographer, Kelli Knack photographs the central and northern California coast at low tide. “Low tide is most revealing, a sort of nature’s Pandora’s Box. Every time the water retreats, new secrets are revealed, and like unearthed fingerprints, every low tide is unique.”

“The series was born out of a desire to reconnect with myself. It is easy for a landscape photographer to take pictures of pretty things, defining the world around us, instead of the world within us. Trapped within that realm and desperate for a change, I left for the coast, I escaped to the one place I could go where I could truly be myself.”

“I have fallen in love with the ocean. Something that will never know about my existence, something that will never love me back.”
http://www.kelliknack.com/

Cedric Delsaux - Star Wars

2010-03-30T10:48:00.002+01:00

Star Wars comes to Dubai. This is the final installment of Cedric Delsaux’s The Dark Lens trilogy – previous works have been shot in Paris and Lille, France – is shown in Dubai’s The Empty Quarter Fine Art Photography Gallery.

Elie Domit, Creative Director of the gallery, had contacted Delsaux after he had seen his previous artwork and proposed a series set in Dubai. The pair worked together for six months on the project, in collaboration with Paris-based acte2galerie.

"Aiming to show the mindset of science fiction as a popular culture psyche of the human race, the exhibition is certainly not a joke," says Domit. "This is not like putting a collage of images together," he adds.

"The photographer imagines that world where reality and fiction almost collide. Dubai happens to be a very particular city in the world."

"Dubai has moved so fast, to the point that some of the projects here, if they’re not science fiction, what would you call them?"

Delsaux visited the emirate in February last year and shot photos of DIFC, workshops, parking lots, and natural areas in the desert with Dubai’s skyline in the background, recognising that these places could serve as the ideal cinematic backdrop for the Star Wars characters.

The photographer borrowed Star Wars paraphernalia such as characters and models of ships from collectors all around the world. After lighting the objects to correspond with the light on the photos of the Dubai sceneries, Delsaux photographed them and blended the images together using Photoshop.

George Lucas agreed to Delsaux using the Star Wars models for his fine art project with Lucas even agreeing to write the introduction for Delsaux’s planned limited edition art book, which is currently being planned.

Lots of pictures today (from all three parts of Delsaux’s trilogy) - 'gone tomorrow' are geeky fanboys I'm afraid.

Mac Motorcycles

2010-03-29T09:58:00.003+01:00

Motorcycles? I hear you exclaim. No, beautiful first rate design.

Mac Motorcycles are based in Upton upon Severn in Worcestershire, a fairly unlikely place to start the rebirth of the British motorbike industry, but what do we know?

Designed by Xenophya Design whose client list includes Triumph, Ducati, Aprila and Yamaha. Their brief was as follows.
• Simple to maintain.
• Nothing surplus-to-requirements.
• Chopper and bobber references/details.
• The lines of a rigid frame but with suspension.
• Use a Buell 'Blast' motor and exploit its shape.
• Harley posture, flat-tracker manners, Ducati handling.
• Exploit the power-to-weight ratio of a 500cc single in a lightweight chassis.
• A return to the spirit of motorcycling - the journey is the experience / story.

I dont know a huge amount about bikes but if they've got the technical spec as right as they've got the design these will be great bikes and with names like 'the Spud', 'the Peashooter', 'the Ruby' and 'the Roarer' whats not to like?

http://www.mac-motorcycles.com/story.html

http://www.xenophya.com/index.html

Simpsons & Graffiti

2010-03-28T00:26:00.000Z

Gotta love the Simpsons....

Gotta love Graffiti....

Gotta love Simpsons Graffiti.....

Had to post. Thanks to http://hurtyoubad.com/?p=4404#more-4404

Hans Hemmert

2010-03-27T00:21:00.002Z

Hans Hemmert is a Berlin based German artist who... well what can you say... who likes balloons.

Not your average balloon sculpture though.

Above are his piece "German Panther" from the "the preparation of readiness ..." exhibition and his "Chapel" from his "Recovery position ..." exhibition.
http://ingesidee.de/page.php?pgid=14&lang=en

Os Gemeos - Vertigem

2010-03-26T23:24:00.001Z

Gustavo and Otávio, the Sao Paulo born artists and twins behind Os Gemeos, have built an installation for their work entitled ‘Vertigem’ at CCBB in Brasilia. The popular Brazilian artists’ latest exhibition features a vast array of paintings and installations with their signature yellow characters and bright array of hometown colours, we see them create a stunning exhibition with installations of cars, boxes and other visually interactive goodies for the lucky folks of Brazil. Vertigem will run until May 16.
http://www.lost.art.br/osgemeos_vertigem_bsb.htm

Jim McHugh

2010-03-25T19:54:00.001Z

Famous for these recent large format Polaroid prints of Los Angeles, Jim McHugh has been photographing common things in an uncommon manner for thirty years. These LA pictures have a noir-ness that portray the LA of Raymond Chandler by showing the architecture and fading glamour of the Hollywood of a different era.

McHugh attended the Masters Program the UCLA Film School. He has since been a contributing photographer to People Magazine, the official photographer for the Grammy Awards and is currently on the masthead of Architectural Digest.

Jim's photography has garnered many awards and is included in prominent collections such as The Museum of Modern Art, The Walker Art Center and The Polaroid Collection. Jim has exhibited widely; nationally and internationally, with large solo exhibitions at the Santa Monica Museum of Art and the James Corcoran Gallery in Los Angeles. A selection of these pictures was shown at Art Miami 2009 presented by Timothy Yarger Fine Art. An exhibition of new work will be shown at Timothy Yarger Fine Art in Beverly Hills opening March 27th through May 1, 2010.

Known equally for his portraiture, McHugh has published several books of artists portraits including "The Art of Light and Space" by Abbeyville Press and "California Artists: New Work" by Chronicle Press. His portrait of David Hockney is the cover of Hockney’s book "That’s the Way I See It." Jim Mchugh won the International Photography Awards’ First Prize for Fine Art Photography 2007 and The George Eastman House Best of Show for Architectural imagery of Los Angeles.
http://www.jimmchugh.com/

Lucy McLauchlan

2010-03-24T14:35:00.003Z

Beat13 / Lucy McLauchlan "Tacit" from Beat13 on Vimeo.

Beat13 / Lucy McLauchlan - Fame Festival 2009. from Beat13 on Vimeo.

At 'gone tomorrow' we are big fans of Birmingham born artist Lucy McLauchlan not only because she is a fellow Brummie but because her work represents to us the very best in 21st century versatile urban Art.

Lucy is represented by the same London gallery as Banksy, Jamie Hewlett, Stanely Donwood. Working mainly in monochrome McLauchlan is one of the rising stars of british art. Painting on canvas, ceramics, walls, cars, riot shields old paint tins Lucy combines art deco, psychedelic and childlike motifs to make pieces that are delicate and tender yet engaging and provocative.

As a kid, the Brummie-based McLauchlan was perpetually scribbling. “I always had a pen in my hand,” she says. She didn’t move too far to her first medium, the marker pen. She says: “I started using markers because they were cheap and dried quickly, and the fact they’re permanent adds a challenge. The mistakes often turn into my favourite details.”

These days, she uses paint brushes (“attempting large-scale work in markers gave me chronic RSI”) and describes her work as “improvised fluid mark-making”.

When it comes to getting the creative juices flowing, she swears by a dose of acerbic comic Bill Hicks. “Bill always inspires me,” she says. Sometimes she’ll work through the night and sleep in her studio but there are no set rules: “I’m lucky enough to live a lifestyle relatively free of normal restrictions… if it’s a sunny day, I’d rather go for a bike ride, do some gardening or paint outside.”

Lucy has exhibited all over the world, from London's Victoria and Albert Museum to the Eclectic Gallery in London and Tokyo. She has also been interviewed and featured in magazines worldwide including Hidden Tracks, Hand to Eye, Creative Review, Graphic International, Modart and Juxtapoz.

Sunny Buick

2010-03-23T23:27:00.006Z

Sunny Buick has been both a tattoo artist and a contemporary artist. Her paintings and prints are influenced by her interest in and experience with tattoos.

Sunny Buick was born in British Columbia, Canada in a small cabin in the woods. She was then raised in California by a single hippy mother, who always encouraged her creative spirit. Finally arriving in San Francisco at age fifteen, after years and years of constant displacement, she finally felt at home. The next year she decided to become a tattoo artist after meeting some "influential misfits". Many years later after finishing college she gained a tattoo apprenticeship with Henry Goldfield and it was in North Beach, not too far from where Lenny Bruce fell out of his hotel window that her career was started. Her work is heavily influenced by tattoo imagery which has become a symbol of her work.

Sunny started exhibiting her paintings around the same time as she started tattooing. She has appeared in several art books about the lowbrow scene. She’s written for Juxtapoz and several tattoo magazines and was photographed by the French artists Pierre et Gilles. She currently lives and works in Paris.

Chiho Aoshima

2010-03-22T22:59:00.000Z

In the past 10 years Chiho Aoshima has made quite a splash in the world of Japanese pop art. Her large scale fantasyscapes frequently depict surreal nature scenes incorporating images of young women and otherworldly beings. She has no formal art training, but is a master of her computerized techniques. Her technologically dependent style of image making falls directly in line with the Japanese pop art aesthetic, and her complex layering of color, culture, and cuteness combine to create truly enchanting and twisted views of the world.

Her work is printable on any surface; from canvas bags to giant wallpaper installations. “My work feels like strands of my thoughts that have flown around the universe before coming back to materialize,” Aoshima states.

Chiho Aoshima is a member of the Kaikai Kiki Collective of artists. http://english.kaikaikiki.co.jp/

Oliver Payne talks Graffiti.

2010-03-21T23:17:00.003Z

Oliver Payne on Graffiti from Rollo Jackson on Vimeo.

Artist and filmmaker Oliver Payne shares his views, likes and dislikes of the London graffiti scene. In particular he talks about veteran super tagger Tox who is a favourite of this blog - hence any excuse to show his work.

Sorry it appears this video has been removed from its original source and blocked on here?? I'll keep trying to get it back on. Sorry once again. gt

Shanghai World Expo

2010-03-20T23:41:00.000Z

Construction workers and organizers in Shanghai, China are busily completing tasks ahead of the planned opening of the 2010 World Expo on May 1st - planned to be the largest World Expo in history. The theme of the Expo is "Better City, Better Life", and is scheduled to run until October 31, 2010. In recent months, large construction and renovation projects have dominated much of Shanghai, in preparation for becoming the World's stage on May 1st. Up to 800,000 visitors are expected each day - a total of 70 million visitors in all visiting exhibitions from nearly 200 participants around the world.

Collected here are several recent photos from Shanghai as construction nears completion for the Expo 2010. The first four show The Seed Cathedral which will be the centerpiece of the UK Pavilion the construction consists of thousands of slender acrylic rods.Each rod contains a seed. The other pictures are of (from no.5) The Sunny Valley and Chinese Pavillion, construction worker, the Trumpet, the Dutch Pavillion, the Cultural Centre, The Polish Pavillion.