Shannon Freshwater

Dido Fontana

Sometimes composed, sometimes candid, Dido Fontana’s flash-heavy photographs seem on the surface to be a pastiche of the quasi-naturalistic style many photographers seem to be working in these days, but the humorous, gritty, and surreal way in which she portrays her subtly deviant subjects has more in common with John Waters’ celebration of trash than Dash Snow’s and Terry Richardson’s smarmy, self-congratulatory hipsterdom. Read more

Danny Roberts

Amazing! That’s about the only word that could be used to describe the work of young Californian artist, Danny Roberts. He studied Photography at Cal Poly SLO, and then Fashion Design at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Of his work, he says: ‘When I was five, I convinced myself that pouring mud onto cardboard was how to make concrete. I began drawing as a young child, but it wasn’t until a few years ago, when I decided to practice everyday, that I started getting better’. Read more

Armed America portraits by Kyle Cassidy

The Armed America website compiles portraits of the owners of weapons in America. Photographer and writer Kyle Cassidy traveled more than 12,000 miles for more than two years taking pictures of armed Americans in their houses, all the while looking for the answer to the complex question: ‘Why do you own a gun?’ Cassidy’s work has become an item of incalculable value, not only because of its conceptual strength, but also because of the description of the way of living, feeling and thinking of many inhabitants of America. Read more

Bill Fick’s linocuts, silkscreens, and tempera painting

Chapel Hill-based printmaker Bill Fick makes awesomely grotesque faces and creatures with linocuts, silkscreens, and tempera paint. They have a vintage feel to them, as if the rotted remains ’50s advertising images have risen from the dead. Read more

Sarah Applebaum

Sarah Appleboum makes a neon felt and yarn explosion in your face and everywhere, the epicenter of which is in San Francisco. While you’re unconscious from the impact, you will dream of rainbow yetis, shamans, and soft revolvers.

Sick Weapons

Anointed Best New Band of 2009 by Baltimore’s City Paper, Sick Weapons embody basically what’s so great about this town — trash, and good times. They spit out sloppy, warbling, ear-piercing punk that’s more giddy than it is snarling, with frontwoman Ellie Beziat channeling Poly Styrene without being overly conscious of it. With songs like If You Love Me Take Me to the Hospital, The Prettiest Racist in Town, and Orgy on the China Train, it’s apparent these guys have their heads in a lot of unseemly places, but not up their own butts.

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