Akira Yoshizawa

Elephant!

Monkey!

Origami has it's own natural beauty, a beauty which is may not be so clearly defined possibly due to our Western eyes, our appreciation of art having a somewhat different nature, however no one can say what the master origamist Akira Yoshizawa achieved in his career is nothing but beautiful. He was and still is considered as one of the greatest orgamists ever and, well, I'm not one to argue.

Art often baffles me in so many different ways. Most often it's with the profound mechanical skill of an artist with pen or paint, sometimes it's the mind-blowing concept behind a piece abstract work, but this time round  it's one of those 'HOW DO YOU DO THAT?' kind of feelings. It's the incredible lifelikeness of his folds. The fact that the medium and material is paper and is essential blank in any context or colour or connotations and then for his pieces to come across with so much personality imbued in to what are just seemingly folds.... I'm just insatiable with this mystery. Witchcraft is what it is.

And it appears Google too was quite in love with him too as they celebrated Mr. Yoshizawa's birthday with a doodle not so long ago, he would have 101! Head over HERE to check it out.

To read up on an interesting article about an exhibition in years-gone-by and to see more of his origami follow this link HERE for a good time.

Oh, and what the heck, here's a biography too HERE!

It is a truly special art from on which I could and should get in to. Check it out yourself!

Don't forget to enquire about our Zine dedicated to Writing, Illustration & Photography!  

Malleus - Roadburn 2009 Posters

I don't think I can emphasize enough about how much I love the work of Italian screen printers extraordinaire Malleus. I narrowed down their portfolio just to focus on the posters they produced for the Roadburn festival back in 2009 and it is these works which first gained my attention of the art collective. 

In my eyes I can see Alphonse Mucha's overt influence in all aspects, the consistent feature of semi-naked women, the explosive colours and the poster medium Mucha too favoured. It's also in the grace and beauty of the women and the subtle combination of the colours, though Mucha preferred earthier tones Malleus go psychedelic and burst with powerful, flourishing colour which is marvellous. 

I totally recommend you to go check out more of their work at their cool website HERE

On top of their awesome art, some members of the Malleus collective are also in the drone/doom band Ufomammut, see a cool photo I took of them live here, they are psychedelic and heavy and worth your time. 

Check out Ufomammut HERE and below...

Kozyndan

Octopus!

Courting

 It has been an utter nightmare trying to decide which images to put up to accompany this post for Kozyndan. Every place I looked there was just more and more astounding work, at one point I genuinely had six images uploaded, but obviously that's a bit much so, here we are, the two images I like the most as of this minute. By the time I finsh writing I'll probably want three other images.

Kozyndan are a husband and wife dynamic duo, where Kouze would sketch the outline then Dan would follow up with their patented colour. It is this colour use that is quintessentially Japanese: big and flat. This kind of colouration that makes me think of a diving pool full of paint of one colour, it has that richness and deep strong hue that looks like you could swim in it and drink it.

Ach and the detail too! I can almost feel the water spraying my face when I look at the bottom image!

I sincerely love everything Kozyndan have done, I even have had their work as my background on my laptop for months on end.

Check out their great and comprehensive website, it has EVERYTHING, AND IT'S GREAT: HERE

Hey, buy prints HERE

Mike Wohlberg

So, from igneous giant that is Anish Kapoor to the rocky boulder that is Mike Wohlberg (I really don't mean to sound condescending, honestly). Wohlberg is actually a very new to me by name, I discovered his being through this exciting announcement by metal news website Metal Sucks about their South by South West showcase for this year, and it appears Wohlberg did the poster for them. And boy it looks swell, swell enough for me to check him out and indeed good enough to write this blithering post about him.

I like his dirty graffiti design style and after some digging around it seems he's been designing merch and posters for some hefty hitters in the metal scene for a while, I spy Today Is The Day, Burnt By The Sun and Pelican among others.

I enjoy speculating about the imagery that is ingrained within music scenes, and it's importance in our new digital instantaneous living. Is the art accompanying the music as important as it once was? There are many arguments to say record art is losing its place, especially considering growing digital downloads and the tiny image file attached of the artwork. However, that is to exclude the other avenues within the music industry for artwork, the artwork that actually receives notice like the posters and merchandise, merchandise actually being the biggest emergent as integral for a musicians revenue.

And so the merchandise has to look good with good artwork otherwise it won't sell, and this is where artists like Mike Wohlberg come in. #tangentover

Anyway, every time I've typed Mike Wohlberg I've battled with myself to not type Mark Wahlberg.

Really all over the place today.

But really, Mike Wohlberg is super great and you should check out his website: HERE

Anish Kapoor

Orbit

Cloud Gate

Leviathan

I will confess now and say I still get a little bit giddy when I think of Anish Kapoor... and his art! (He is dreamy, though, right??)

His work, in some cases especially, is astronomical, it explores possibly not outer space but atmospheric space, it enhances the space, it shows that it's not a vacancy of air but a thing of itself. This is most apparent with his Leviathan piece which astounds me in its scope and sheer size.

The Turner Prize-winning artist isn't, actually shouldn't, really new to anyone, he's been one of the most prolific and enchanting artists in our modern era, but sometimes it is nice to take a step back and really appreciate what he's achieved. For me, Cloud Gate is stunning. It's like a piece of heaven molded in to this smooth, conclave, edible shape.

Here in Britain we're in the process of the building of our Olympic Tower, known as Orbit to Kapoor, and I for one am entirely in love with its architecture, it swoons, it dives and it surges high with skeletal refinement. I can not wait to see it finished and gleaming in the backdrop of panoramas the BBC will most certainly utilise during the Olympic coverage this summer.

To remind yourself of more of Kapoor's work hit up HERE

Truly impressive.

Stacey Rozich and Earth pt. II

Yep, I've already spoken about Stacey Rozich before and her fascinating line drawings of her mythical creatures with oriental flair, and I love it, obviously. Yet, I'm here again just to post about the new artwork she's done for Earth's second Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light records, and I think it's pretty cool.

As you could before, check out her work HERE

And here's some new Earth, enjoy...

                                                 

Josh Graham

Josh Graham is the visual artist for the band Neurosis which is how I found out about him, but he also does artwork for records and whatnot for bands like A Storm of light and Red Sparrows all of whom are very cool.

The landscapes Graham digitally produces are phenomenal, huge expanses of rich detail and awesome colour, colour that you can dive into on the physical format. His work explores ecological themes and man-made product's interaction with nature when they're disposed of, and animals inhabiting places of the most strange nature.

His work is eery, unrestrained and textured. I haven't seen Neurosis live but I imagine it's a whole encompassing audio and visual experience that drowns you in senses.

Check out more of Josh Graham HERE

And I would recommend to check out Neurosis too if you haven't HERE

Thomas Moran

From yesterday's John Martin I've taken stock of what I know of landscape artists and realised Thomas Moran must receive some deserved attention.

His blazing colours and expressive form breathes movement into the earth and freezes the sea, perfectly capturing the elements. Like Martin, he also does seem to enjoy a good craggy cliff-top, and I think we all love a good craggy cliff-top every now and then, and this hits the spot.

I found out about Thomas Moran a while ago through asking some friends of who their favourite artists are, and it's sometime easy to forget in this internet age that your friends can provide some answers the Internet can not.

Then again, the Internet is pretty great too. I now capitalise the Internet because it's my friend too.

Check out this rather inventive website for more stuff HERE

And this site is another good'un too HERE

John Martin

Over the Christmas period I went to see the fantastic John Martin exhibition over at the Tate Britain titled Apocalypse, and some of his paintings truly incurred the feeling of the end. Huge canvases of lush seething colour depicting caverns and cliff-tops and hell and biblical damnations.

Even though the critics derided his work, I think Martin is pretty damn cool. It's high drama. Imagine living in that period and viewing a work like the ever popular Apocalypse (top image); it's horrifying and thrilling at the same time!

Sometimes art doesn't have to subtle or intellectualised or pretentious, it can melodramatic, bombastic, even explosive and that's what John Martin delivers in spades.

You can check out the highly antiquated John Martin website HERE

Alice Duke

Alice Duke has been one of those where I knew her work before I knew her. Her illustration work is fascinating, it deals in folklore and nature and human curiosity using engrossing detail and warm earthy colour. I enjoy her work, I love the mythical creatures and the transformation of the known to the unknown, especially with Exploding Shed at the bottom there, yet overall I can't help but find her work terrifying.

It truly is scary. How many heads does that scaly, hairy, feathered, winged, tangle of serpents need? And how much is the print because I want one!

You can go and check out her coooool website HERE

And you can hit the jump to check out her work with the great unsigned band Cormorant.

Roger Dean

I couldn't believe it going through our, admittedly rather brief, archive and finding that I have yet to mention the, frankly, brilliant Roger Dean. He's mostly known for his intergalactic and astoundingly beautiful and surreal landscapes, floating islands, dense jungles, monolithic rock formations, hive-like constructions and the odd pyramid or two.

However, above I've put two images of my favourite works by Mr Dean and they mainly focus on his creatures, that dragon up top is incredible in it's majesty and colour, and breathes a whole new way of thinking of what a dragon could be. And the octopus is there because I think the octopus is the boss. Obsessed with octopi(?) at the moment. Way cool.

His works are well-known for being used as record covers for bands like Yes and Rush and other prog rock royalty, and on his influencing many in the younger generations, the one that comes to mind the most is Arik Roper who is also a genius.

Check out his well made website HERE

Francis Picabia

I feel I don't appreciate Francis Picabia in the right way. I suppose not in the critical frame of mind where Picabia is seen as a major figure of the DaDaism movement in France and the US in the early 20th century.

For me Picabia has always been the name next to Otaiti , that image at the top, in the Tate Modern Gallery. I've seen the painting many times with each of my visits ad with every time I am struck by its despair and tragic darkness of the image. It's probably most affecting as it's a begging and pleading naked woman on her knees with a huge disembodied hand preying nearby. The autumnal leaves and the dank muddy colours evokes the sense of transition from peak to decline.

The multi-layered imagery is superb and at times can feel like the image is moving and shifting between one scene to the next.

This the Francis Picabia I enjoy, the one with startling imagery and with stories to tell. His DaDaist works may have been influential but for me I think I prefer his images with an element of coherency.

I've found there to be a lacking of decent websites to link to unfortunately so here's a bundle to make up for it: HERE, HERE and HERE.

Horseback, Denis Forkas Kostromitin and My Bandcamp Experiment

Not gonna lie, this is just an experiment to see whether I can embed Bandcamp players. And it turns out it does work. Good times. And so I thought what better an opportunity than now to introduce you to the fantastic Drone band Horseback.

Horseback's type of drone is not the churning hatred spewed forth by Sunn o))) but it's misty and shimmers and dances. In some cases it's pretty. But a lot of the time it's huge and grinding like huge ice bergs breaking off the shelf.

Colossal. Check 'em out.

Actually, that's some pretty sweet record artwork with a rather interesting back story.

Keith Haring

So, looking through images to try and find a nice background for the spiffy new About page and I remembered I had taken this picture in Pisa last summer of this gem of a Keith Haring work, titled 'Tuttomondo'. It was tucked away in an alley beside a cafe and easily missable, thankfully my Pa hunted it down and it was worth the trek.

My favourite guy is that wolf-looking one in the middle-ish area. He's cool.

I'll probably lie and say I'll do a future post on Keith Haring, even though I should cause he's great, but all I'm going to do is point you in the right direction.

Check out the Keith Haring site: HERE

AND THERE'S A KIDS WEBSITE THAT IS AWESOME, JUST FOUND IT, IT IS COOL!: HEREHEREHERE

HUSH

I find Blogger so restricting at times, it's frustrating that the images are so small because you lose so much lush detail in HUSH's work.

Anyway, HUSH's work is a real show of fine art technicality blended with a whirlpool of graffiti that makes for fascinating street art. The bold, ravelling colours that flourish beneath the cold greys of the detailed portraitures set a perfect balance that juxtaposes but is still great to look at.

Honestly, HUSH is doing something really exciting with this work, and I'm sure to keep a close eye on what he gets up to project-wise.

For more information, check out his website: HERE

Joan Miro

As you probably guessed it, I went to the Miro exhibition at the Tate Modern today and I went not really expecting much as my father had been before and he didn't get along with it, but I should have guessed he wouldn't go along with a surrealist because that's probably the area of art he is most confused by, but I went in sceptical, but I left a lover. Catalonia's Joan Miro is the man.

I loved how complexly simple his Constellations were, and the vastness of his triptychs, Miro admittedly inspired by the American Abstract Expressionism, my boy Rothko! and bros., the minutely detailed his early works were with form and placing thrown to the wind. Fantastic.

There's only twelve days left of the exhibition, so if you're on the neighbourhood it is definitely worth it.

MORE MIRO

Kate Boxer

So whilst wondering around Shaftesbury with Cherub the Great I encountered a chair on a corner of a street with a pile of the magazine [Evolver], who also have a penchant for parentheses and whirly-gigs, and as I am a fan I snatched one up immediately, because I'm a curious creature and free stuff is normally better and more satisfying than anything that needs exchangement of paper with queens heads printed on them.

I discovered Kate Boxer's work whilst browsing and became immediately intrigued, her animal pictures in print and paint were striking and used big block colours which I do love so, and a bleak, melancholic atmosphere, especially with that serene green background in that top picture up there.

So yeah colour me a fan of Kate boxer, great work. My favourite though, contradicting my love of colour is that snake image, it's strong and bold, composed and writhing, I don't know exactly why, it hits me just right and would love it on my wall.

If you're interested to see more, check out her website, lots of good quality images there

And, uh, more information than just me rambling, is available here

Seldon Hunt

Seldon Hunt has a healthy obsession of skulls. An obsession I share. Hunt's work is vibrant, hectic, packed with colour and well, quite skully. The bottom image is of Master Musicians of Bukkake's record Totem One and it's one of my favourite record artworks.


Hit up Seldon's website for more cool prints and illustrations: here.

The Adventures of Tintin

I fucking LOVED Tintin when I was younger, I had all of the books and read them constantly when on holiday. I loved the fantastic yet rooted in reality storylines, Snowy the little fox terrier dog who had thoughts of his own, the vibrant colourscapes like that huge blue sky above.

Georges Prosper Remi, probably more known by his pen name Hergé, is most likely the best known Belgian having written and illustrated the most excellent adventures of Tintin. It is quite fascinating to read up on Tintin's author, who lived through the occupation of Belgium by the Nazis, and at one point of being falsely accused of being a Nazi sympathiser, that the man has an asteroid named after him is pretty neat and is now one of my life's goals. What's more there apparently is an unfinished Tintin comic floating around somewhere entitled 'Tintin and Alph-Art' which would be interesting to see the light of day.

Anyway, I'd thought it'd be cool to honour Hergé by means of a dedicated post, he was a dearly talented illustrator and a genuine auteur. You can engross yourself with Hergé: here.

Hit up the official Tintin website and you can find out about a tour through Brussels where you can follow Tintin, I am excite!: here. It also fun facts too.

Did you guys read Tintin?

(Or Asterix actually, but I mean to have a future post on his greatness too...)

Louise Bourgeois

I feel bad for being so negligent towards (((Hyperpower))) over the past week so I've decided to come up with a good'un for this here post.

Louise Bourgeois has been acclaimed as a key contributor to contemporary art, and nothing is more revealing of her contribution than her awesome 'Maman' (1999) sculpture, which to me is horrifying to say the least. Spiders are goddamn horrible.

The sculpture, resembles a spider, duh, is over 30ft high, with a sac containing marble eggs. The title is French for Mother. Which is interesting considering it's a huge spider taking on the unexpected motherly role.

It is with sadness to report that it is nearly a year since Louise Bourgeois' death at 98, I hope you guys find something interesting about her astounding body of work.

Find some surprisingly good info: here.

And as there isn't a good online archive of her works, Google is your friend: here.