Olivier Blanc
Talented illustrator, Olivier Blanc, who recently made the move from France to the UK, describes his style as being ‘a sexy, detailed, organised mess’. So where did the initial motivation come from? ‘Drawing came naturally. The work of my dad was a great inspiration. It’s a big part of me and I think I could not live without it’. What process does each piece go through? ‘Each piece is started by hand with sketches. It helps me to organise my thoughts towards a concept. Once I know exactly what I want and I am satisfied with it, I translate my work onto Illustrator and Photoshop. I use these to finalise my compositions’. Any exciting projects in the pipeline? ‘At the moment, my work is being exhibited in Middlesbrough in England. One of my images has also been short listed by the Wanted project, to be exhibited in Barcelona in July’. Who or what inspires you? ‘A lot of different things. What influences me the most is music – from Air to Doc Gyneco. I need it to think and work. It puts me in the right mood, as it provides the inspiration for both the colours and the graphics’.
Also by NATALIE LIECHTI
Current UK beat-boxing champ, Beardyman, recently kept impatient crowds entertained between sets at London’s Lovebox Weekender. We spoke to the Brighton resident about his offbeat style: ‘I’ve been doing it since I was a baby, but I never knew it was called beat-boxing. I thought it was just a habit, like biting your nails, and people were always telling me to stop. Being a good beat-boxer is a mixture between being a good DJ, a cheesy street magician and a vocal athlete’.
Sydney-based artist, James Jirat Patradoon on his career defining moment: ‘If I could trace my artistic inspiration back to one event, it would have to be the Neo Tokyo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2001. I had never seen art like that before; I didn’t know you could be so playful with it. I vividly remember the Yoshitomo Nara sculptures made out of bandages, and Kenji Yanobe’s atom suit and Godzilla/Astro Boy sculptures that blew bubbles. It was just so fun. I think because a lot of Japanese art contains references to pop culture, it’s more accessible for audiences. They aren’t so intimidated by it because it can be quite light-hearted but still have a serious undertone to it’.
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Scott G. Brooks’ usage of naturalistic light juxtaposed with his exaggerated and distorted features make his straight portraits as surreal as his more elaborately composed fantastical pieces. Read more
I am currently working on a photographic series that I call Finding Peace. It’s about the importance of integrity, and about finding your own place in this world where you can feel safe. To illustrate this, I use a bubble in all of the pictures. Read more
This interview with James Lavelle gives a fascinating window into the making of the latest UNKLE opus, End Titles, Stories for Film.
The controversial and multifaceted International contemporary art exhibition Trailblazers hits Sydney this month. Boutwell Draper Gallery will grace multimedia works by pioneering Australian, American and European artists from November 19 onwards. I’m thrilled to see groundbreaking pieces by Ben Frost, Kill Pixie, Copyright and Cleon Patterson [above], to name a few. The vast array of paintings, photography, sculpture, installation, video and digital arts is on display until December 13. C’mon, you know you want to culture your soul.
These psychadelic, almost epileptic pixel gifs are so ingeniously simple, and yet I find myself in a trance I can’t escape whenever I check out the latest art on Lulinternet. Read more
Stylistically The Asteroids Galaxy Tour is hard to pin down, except to say that they throw one hell of a party – which may be why those music-loving folks at Apple chose them to help sell what’s being touted as ‘the funnest iPod ever’. Sun-drenched pop melodies collide with Technicolor dreams, anchored by the band’s shared love of the classic soul stylings of Marvin, Stevie and Sly that can be heard in the horns snaking through Around The Bend, as well as the slinky The Sun Ain’t Shining No More [below], the Thomas Gold remix of which we have available for free download in the Music Download section of Lost At E Minor [psst, it's in the third column], along with a stack of other cool tunes. Get those iPods ‘a thumpin’!
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I recently bought a 1960 Oyster Perpetual Datejust and I love it. Read more
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Here are a couple awesome pieces by Matt Leines that were recently on display in the Doubting Thomases exhibit at Nudashank gallery in Baltimore. Gives me ideas for Halloween. Read more
It’s refreshing to see artists like Joe Kievitt who are contented to explore the beauty in simple forms and asymmetrical patterns. Read more
Cookie Boy’s creative cookie designs
I don’t eat cookies, so good thing Cookie Boy’s cookies are little pieces of art too pretty and cute to eat. Read more
Nerd-attack! Man, this TARDIS zipper robe is so much cooler than any Star Wars crap people are hawking this days. This is for the true gangsta nerd.
Baltimore Mural by Josh Van Horne
My friend Josh Van Horne, a local Baltimore artist, did this amazing mural in our neighborhood that depicts the history of this warehouse-laden area.
Set up in 2011, Rebel Unlit is a printing collaboration between London based Artists Neil Butler and Shanney Mulcahy. They make short run screen-printed t-shirts and limited edition prints from their studio in East London. All the t shirts are fair traded and printed by hand and, as a result, each one is unique. Read more
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patrick said | 13 July, 2007
nauseatingly bad! boring boring boring!